coronavirus
Dr. Birx Is Concerned, Mildly Concerned
It's Your Sunday Show Rundown!
May 26, 2020 09:20 AM
It may have been Memorial Day weekend, but that didn't stop the Sunday shows from doing their usual stupid Sunday show thing. As the country is slowly "reoopening," let's take a look at what was said while we are in what seems the calm eye of the COVID-19 storm.
We'll mainly focus on White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator and Dolores Umbridge runner-up, Dr. Deborah Birx. Making dual appearances on "Fox News Sunday" and ABC's "This Week," Birx tried to paint a sunny outlook while ignoring the horrible coronavirus response from the White House she serves.
On Fox, Chris Wallace tried to reconcile the White House's underestimations of the COVID-19 death toll.
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Dr. Deborah Birx on the timeline for a COVID-19 vaccine, efforts to reopen America</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbBgNYZJWgY" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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<p><br></p><blockquote>
<strong>WALLACE</strong>: A month ago you and President Trump were both talking about a total of 16,000 COVID-19 deaths.[…] Early this coming week, we're going to reach 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus and those models that you were citing now talk about close to 150,000 deaths by August. What happened, Doctor?
<br> <br>
<strong>BIRX</strong>: I think a few things are together. So from the beginning, and I think when we had that first briefing we talked about 1.2 million to 2.4 million and 100,000 to 240,000 people succumbing to this incredibly aggressive virus. Those are the figures that we continue to stand by in this first wave and really understanding how to prevent future hospitalizations and future deaths is really what we're focused on every single day.
<br> <br>
<strong>WALLACE</strong>: But to press it a little bit, a month ago, you were saying we were going to come down below the low end of the model, which is 100,000 to 240,000 to 60,000.
</blockquote><p>
Essentially the White House did what no person should do when dealing with the public: Over-promise, then under-deliver. This inability to be honest with the people despite how it may upset the White House is what <em>some might say</em> is the problem with Birx when compared to her colleague Dr. Anthony Fauci.
</p><p>Wallace then asked Birx about people going out more in public during Memorial Day weekend while showing footage of a total lack of masks or social distancing.
</p><blockquote>
<strong>WALLACE</strong>: How concerned are you by some of what you're seeing around the country this Memorial Day weekend?
<br><br>
<strong>BIRX</strong>: Well, you know, last time we spoke I was concerned about people coming together without masks even during the protests and now I'm very concerned when people go out and don't maintain social distancing.[...] <br>
<br>
<strong>WALLACE</strong>: So, do you think some of this crowd of people at beaches this Memorial Day weekend, is that a super-spreader event? <br>
<br>
<strong>BIRX</strong>: Well, Friday when I discussed this during the press briefing I was really hoping to convey that very clear message to the American people. We want you to be outside. We know that there are ways that you can even play tennis with marked balls so you're not touching each other's balls. We know there is a way for you to go out and play golf and stay distanced.
</blockquote><p>
This advice seemed to be more tailored for a certain former reality show host's <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/trump-spends-weekend-golfing-getting-in-touch-with-his-inner-alex-jones-and-calling-women-fat-skanks" target="_blank">Memorial Day weekend activities,</a> to be honest.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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The mixed signals from the White House and conservatives turning coronavirus preventative measures into a new culture war have set the stage for a potential resurgence of this virus and undoing any progress we've made.</p><p>
On ABC, Martha Raddatz pointed out to Birx that North Carolina reported the highest one-day number of COVID-19 cases with 1,107, while Arkansas and Minnesota are also reporting a second wave of cases.</p>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">'If you can't social distance and you're outside, you must wear a mask': Birx | ABC News</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6o1YB4R6-g" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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<p><br></p><blockquote>
<strong>RADDATZ</strong>: Does this still make you confident that reopening beaches and parks was the right call?
<br> <br>
<strong>BIRX</strong>: […] We've learned a lot about this virus. But we now need to translate that learning into real changed behavior that stays with us so that we can continue to drive down the number of cases.
<br> <br>
<strong>RADDATZ</strong>: But I guess that's my point, you're not seeing it across the country. You're not seeing it at those beaches.
<br> <br>
<strong>BIRX</strong>: And I think that's our job to continue to communicate.</blockquote><p>
This is horrible communication. When your boss ignores warnings or the press secretary insinuates that those trying to be safe are
<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/reporter-pushes-back-press-secretary-185903141.html" target="_blank">godless heathens</a>, we hope the best we can get from an expert is more than a <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/susan-collins-is-concerned-and-that-can-only-mean-one-thing" target="_blank">Susan Collins-style</a> mild concern or furrowed brow.
</p><p>
Hoping people do the right thing, sending mixed signals while also providing facts, is a recipe for disaster.
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</p><p>
Blind faith on people making right choices in face of massive disinformation will doom us all. </p><p>A perfect example of this disinformation is Florida GOP senator and Voldemort look-alike Rick Scott on CNN's "State of The Union" trying to paint helping the places hardest-hit (so far) by COVID-19, like New York, as a "bailout." Dana Bash disputed this in real time.</p><blockquote>
<strong>BASH</strong>: Senator you mentioned [...] New York. Let's look at the stats, because Florida gets more money from the federal government than it gives. But New York gives more to the federal government than it gets.
And I want you and our viewers to look at this study from the Rockefeller Institute. It found that Florida receives $25 billion more in programs than it pays in taxes. New York pays $22 billion more in taxes than it receives in programs.
So, why shouldn't Florida be willing to chip in to help New York?
<br> <br>
<strong>SCOTT</strong>: Well, first off, the -- the government of New York has never sent a dime while I have been up there in D.C. to the federal government. They don't do it.
What happens is, their citizens, while they're working in New York, pay into Social Security and Medicare. And they get sick and tired of all the taxes up there and move to Florida and receive those benefits.
That's not the government of New York sending a dime to the federal government. So, that's exactly what's happened. That is -- that has nothing to do reality.
<br> <br>
<strong>BASH</strong>: But all of this is taxpayer -- all of this money is taxpayer money that we're talking about.
<br> <br>
<strong>SCOTT</strong>: Well, that's exactly right.
</blockquote><p>
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</p><p>All righty, then. </p><p>Have a good short week!</p><p><strong>Wonkette is fully funded by readers like YOU. If you love Wonkette, SUPPORT WONKETTE FINANCIALLY.</strong></p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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fox news
‘New York Post’ Op-Ed Demands NY Reopen RIGHT NOW Before It’s As Dead As 30,000 NYers
‘Fox & Friends’ heartily agree from the safety of their underground bunkers.
May 21, 2020 01:19 PM
David Marcus, in a New York Post op-ed this week, demanded that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio reopen New York already, because this whole lockdown is a bummer. Everyone else enjoys staying home all the time, so Marcus is sharing a bold and unique perspective.
Meanwhile, the Big Apple is dying.
Yes, he contrasts the 28,540 literal deaths from COVID-19 with New York City's metaphorical death. New York has “died" several times in the past, but the Big Apple has always bounced back. You can't resurrect human beings with some Starbucks and a Shake Shack.
Its streets are empty. The bars and jazz clubs, restaurants and coffeehouses sit barren. Beloved haunts, storied rooms, perfect-slice joints are shuttered, many for good. The sweat equity of countless small-business owners is evaporating. Instead of getting people back to work providing for their families, our mayor talks about a fantasyland New Deal for the post-coronavirus era.
That all sucks! (Well, the New Deal thing sounds good, if someone other than de Blasio was involved. I don't trust him to tie his shoes let alone bust an FDR-style move.) The coronavirus struck New York and all of America like an asteroid. I get that people want “their lives back," but you can't just quit a pandemic. That's not how this works.
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Charlie Sheen Funny Scene (Two And A Half Men) - Can't Quit Poverty</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxH9JRYAKxE" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><blockquote>
It needs to end. Now.
</blockquote><p>
Oh, I guess he does think that's how this works.
</p><blockquote>
Open the city. All of it. Right now. Broadway shows, beaches, Yankees games, the schools, the top of the freakin' Empire State building. Everything. New Yorkers have already learned to socially distance. Businesses can adjust. <strong>The elderly and infirm can continue to be isolated.</strong>
</blockquote><p>
Marcus is neither elderly nor infirm, but he wants to party, damnit! Let's just lock up Grandma and Tiny Tim so New Yorkers who matter can swap coronavirus at Yankee Stadium. Marcus claims New Yorkers have “learned to socially distance," but he lists activities where proper physical distance isn't feasible. The New York life Marcus wants is impossible right now.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1263248890746241025" id="twitter-embed-1263248890746241025" type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1263248890746241025&created_ts=1590016980.0&screen_name=nypost&text=Tomorrow%E2%80%99s+cover+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FMYv27712nf+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FjM1ALiJZbU&id=1263248890746241025&name=New+York+Post" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="93352c0b568f4758f5d33cbeda8a2cc8"></iframe>
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Georgia is held up as an example of a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/17/coronavirus-reopening-shopping-mall-georgia/?arc404=true" target="_blank">state reopening</a> without any negative effects. However, as conservatives are wont to observe, Georgia isn't New York. It also looks like <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/red-states-cooking-their-coronavirus-data-the-f-ck-you-say" target="_blank">Georgia is fudging its numbers.</a> Marcus claims that New York hospitals were never overwhelmed, but the <em>Post</em> itself described hospitals as <a href="https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1263494256347410432?s=20" target="_blank">“overwhelmed" </a> on March 27.<br>
</p><p>
It's also not true, as Marcus argues, that New York leadership has no plan for ending its lockdown. Cuomo has stated that this is not a sustainable situation, but reopening must take a deliberate, phased approach. Otherwise, you risk undoing all the progress made and jeopardizing lives.
</p><blockquote>
If our elected leaders won't save the world's greatest city from <strong>a slow death by economic strangulation,</strong> then the people of New York must do it themselves.
</blockquote><p>
Seriously, New Yorkers have <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-brooklyn-dad-dies-at-home-coronavirus-20200408-vtowqslicjgsjbzntx4dtdjssu-story.html" target="_blank">died</a> <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/maryanngeorgantopoulos/coronavirus-victim-jesus-vega-queens-new-york-covid19" target="_blank">actual</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/03/us/wife-facetime-husband-coronavirus-death/index.html" target="_blank">slow, agonizing deaths.</a> Enough with the metaphors.
</p><blockquote>
Barbers, tailors, nail salons, sporting goods stores, movie theaters and others should open their doors — while maintaining social distancing, of course — <strong>and dare the state to shut them down.</strong>
</blockquote><p>
Marcus is demanding a consumerist revolt after just two months. He also doesn't seem to grasp how the economy works. Studios aren't releasing movies right now, so there's nothing for theaters to play other than maybe some old copies of<em> Battlefield Earth. </em>Who's going to a tailor when everyone's working from home and most formal events are cancelled. No one needs their sweat pants let out.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1263432799459119108" id="twitter-embed-1263432799459119108" type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1263432799459119108&created_ts=1590060827.0&screen_name=revrrlewis&text=Fox+%26amp%3B+Friends+hopes+that+businesses+all+over+New+York+City+will+defy+the+mayor+and+governor+and+re-open+this+weeken%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FNFem3Qib41&id=1263432799459119108&name=Bobby+Lewis" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="dbd4eae25ba6db92b9ebcb57b6cd528a"></iframe>
</p><p>The "Fox & Friends" crew championed Marcus's irresponsible and whiny op-ed Thursday morning from the safety of their homes. Guest Andrew Napolitano, a law professor and former judge, declared it was "time for all of us to come back to our normal society."<br></p><blockquote>
<strong>NAPOLITANO: </strong>We can live with social distancing and operate our businesses and go to restaurants and go to work and ride mass transit and liven up those streets again.
</blockquote><p>
No, we can't. He's just saying things. Livening up New York streets at this point would mean deadening up New York hospitals.
</p><blockquote>
<strong>BRIAN KILMEADE: </strong> They are calling for people just to massively open up their businesses throughout the city. <strong>They can't stop everyone.</strong> Would you be against that?
<br><br>
<strong>NAPOLITANO:</strong><em> </em>I would be 100 percent in favor of it, and I think you're going to see it this weekend. Everybody fears that people from New York City are going to go to Long Island or New Jersey where the beaches will be open. I think they're going to go to the New York City beaches, and I think you're going to see businesses start to open, and I think you're going to see the <strong>police cheer them on when they do this.</strong></blockquote><p>That's one hell of a white wonderland where law enforcement cheers on mass law breaking. Black folks have never considered the possibility that “they can't stop" all of us. When we're involved, they will definitely try. Those motherfuckers roll up in <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/prosecutor-so-unfair-that-st-louis-county-cops-didnt-get-to-bust-more-heads-in-ferguson" target="_blank">our neighborhoods in tanks.</a> </p><p>New York cops probably will stand down if white folks storm the beaches like they're Normandy. But the people of color who actually work at restaurants, bars, and nail salons, should keep their asses at home. No one has the right to our labor, especially at the cost of our lives.</p><p><em>[</em><a href="https://nypost.com/2020/05/20/end-new-york-citys-lockdown-now/" target="_blank"><em>New York Post</em></a><em> /</em> <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/news/home-bound-locked-down-fox-friends-implores-new-yorkers-to-defy-stay-at-home-orders/" target="_blank">Mediaite</a>]</p><p>
<em>Follow Stephen Robinson on </em><em><a href="https://twitter.com/SER1897" target="_blank">Twitter.</a></em>
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White Nonsense
Fox News Idiot Says Barack Obama Not 'Articulate,' So That's Neat
Fox News hosts came this close to calling Obama's commencement speech 'shiftless.'
May 18, 2020 10:33 AM
Barack Obama delivered a virtual commencement address Saturday for the 2020 graduates trapped at home with their families. Most Americans loved the reminder of what it was like to have a president, but others -- let's call them “Republicans" -- hated the reminder of when a black guy was president.
On Sunday's "Fox & Friends," co-host Jedediah Bila expressed her disgust with Obama's words, which she believed were “inappropriate" for the moment.
<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="" height="360" scrolling="no" src="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3872586/embed/embed" width="480"></iframe></div><p><br></p><blockquote><strong>BILA:</strong> You know, the more I listen to it, the weirder it gets, truly, to listen.</blockquote><p>This wasn't one of Donald Trump's coronavirus press briefings. Obama's address was fairly straightforward. He used actual words and everything. Maybe all that human decency confused her. </p><p>Bila thought Obama was too “political" and that's not what the kids needed. Where was the inspiration, the call for bipartisan unity in the face of national crisis?</p><blockquote><strong>BILA:</strong> But then when you think about it, it's a commencement speech, it's supposed to be motivational, positive, it's supposed to be about the graduates. This was not the time for what he's doing. This was not the time to say, "Oh, this leadership isn't doing a great job" or, you know, "Adults don't always know what they do." It just seems so depressing, to be perfectly honest, and just so completely inappropriate for what a commencement speech is supposed to be. </blockquote><p>This is not a <em>normal </em>commencement speech. Everyone listening was in their sweatpants. We can't confirm that Obama himself wasn't wearing sweatpants. Obama played straight with the graduates and acknowledged that the world is fucked up, and it's not their fault. It's the the so-called adult leaders who dropped the ball. That's important for young people to hear because, within a few years, those same adults will complain that “kids today" aren't as driven as they were back when they attended college in “buildings." </p><p>Of course, Bila clearly hadn't listened to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/16/politics/obama-graduate-together-speech/index.html" target="_blank">Obama's speech</a> all that closely. It wasn't just an angry screed like the Fox News prime time lineup.<br></p><blockquote><strong>OBAMA: </strong>[COVID-19] pulled the curtain back on another hard truth, something that we all have to eventually accept once our childhood comes to an end. And all those adults that you used to think were in charge and knew what they were doing? Turns out that they don't have all the answers. A lot of them aren't even asking the right questions. So, if the world's going to get better, it going to be up to you.<br><br>That realization may be kind of intimidating. But, I hope it's also inspiring. With all the challenges this country faces right now, nobody can tell you "no, you're too young to understand" or "this is how it's always been done." Because with so much uncertainty, with everything suddenly up for grabs, this is your generation's world to shape.<br><br>Since I'm one of the old guys, I won't tell you what to do with this power that rests in your hands. But I'll leave you with three quick pieces of advice.</blockquote><p>Obama's advice to the COVID-19 generation was “Don't be afraid; Do what's right; Build a community." Sure, it wasn't as on the nose as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHo88cj3eAc" target="_blank">“Lord loves a working man" and “Don't trust whitey"</a> but it was hardly “depressing" and “inappropriate," as Bila claimed. </p><p>Co-host Griff Jenkins lamented “no-drama" Obama's "lost opportunity." Conservatives are constantly surprised that after more than a <em>decade</em> of vile personal attacks, Obama is not that interested in playing nice with assholes. Jenkins even mentioned the latest baseless character assassination directed at the former president.</p><blockquote><strong>JENKINS: </strong>We haven't heard much from him and the entire time and, look, President Trump has taken lots of shots at President Obama. We hear <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/obamagate-fireman-russia-hoax-garbage-truck-happy-mothers-day" target="_blank">Obamagate</a> all this past week. So this was the opportunity for Barack Obama to step into the void, get that soaring rhetoric that we remember and inspire these young graduates like my niece Marilyn, [who] graduated from Villanova this weekend.</blockquote><p>Yeah, congratulations to your niece and all that, but fuck you. Donald Trump accused Obama of multiple crimes he <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/president-pull-ups-big-temper-tantrum-so-angry-stomp-stomp-stomp" target="_blank">can't even be bothered to make up,</a> but you expect Obama to remain “above the fray"? When Obama “steps into the void" Trump's piss-poor leadership has created, it's not just his prerogative but his moral duty to read Trump for the filth he is. That's quite the “soaring rhetoric" for most of us enduring Trump's plague.</p><p>Jenkins can't believe anyone would attack leadership at a time when we need them most, but leadership also includes Democrats. Fox News hosts frequently attack Democratic governors and <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/princess-cookies-n-cream-vanderbilt-pelosi" target="_blank">the speaker of the House,</a> even during a pandemic. </p><p>Pete Hegseth claimed Obama was talking “like a typical leftist" when he denounced “the people in charge." This is so silly. When conservatives rail against Democrats in power, they are “populists" who'll “drain the swamp," but when liberals criticize Republicans, they are commies who don't respect democracy and the rule of law. </p><p>Then Hegseth exchanged his dog whistle for a bullhorn. </p><blockquote><strong>HEGSETH: </strong>And by the way, <strong>Barack Obama's not all that articulate.</strong> When he reads the off a teleprompter, he can be inspiring, or off of a speech, but when he's impromptu the "uhms" and the "ahs" it's like -- it's impossible to listen to.</blockquote><p>These ass clowns will continue insisting “Obama's a dummy" even though their glorious leader is Donald Trump.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a1b60d6f40610da0b74a346a54dbc373"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/luu_nzzQr7g?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Donald Trump does his best Dr. Evil impression: Super Duper Missile</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luu_nzzQr7g" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
</small>
</p><p>“Articulate" is a “compliment" racists give black people who are objectively superior to them in every way. Conservatives revoked Obama's honorary “good one" status early into his presidency and regularly claimed Obama was a moron who just read pretty words off a teleprompter. This would still make him articulate, as he'd have to read the words and imbue them with feeling. Laurence Olivier was pretty damn articulate. Donald Trump is barely literate.</p><p>Republicans have made public health a wedge issue. We need Obama out there, inspiring young people of all ages, so we can all vote out the thing squatting in the White House. It's the only way we'll ever safely leave our own houses. </p><p>Check out a real president articulating his black ass off.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7e26d460fecc0dbbb2cee34743d5c484"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ta5anRPf8rQ?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Obama's Virtual Commencement Speech To Class Of 2020: 'This Is Your Generation's World To Shape'</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta5anRPf8rQ" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
</small>
</p><p>[<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends/fox-friends-freaks-out-over-obama-commencement-speech-barack-obamas-not-all-articulate" target="_blank">Media Matters</a> / <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/16/politics/obama-graduate-together-speech/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>]<br></p><p><em>Follow Stephen Robinson on </em><em><a href="https://twitter.com/SER1897" target="_blank">Twitter.</a></em></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p><strong>Yr Wonkette is supported entirely by reader donations. Please click the clickie, if you are able!</strong></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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'Fox & Friends' Applauds American Patriots Boldly Spreading COVID-19
You can’t keep Americans cooped up forever ... or just two months.
May 18, 2020 09:50 AM
The fine folks at Fox News believe a “movement is coming," and it's a movement where Americans defy the law and endanger the lives of others. When desperate immigrants sought asylum at our borders, conservative pundits wanted to lock 'em up and build WALL. That was a national crisis. Now, Fox hosts valiantly defend the inalienable rights of white people to do whatever the hell they want, no matter the cost.
On the weekend edition of “Fox & Friends," Pete Hegseth, whose hands you should never touch, declared that people were “done" with the shutdowns, and it was their impatience that had let to some governors relaxing restrictions -- not any namby-pamby science.
<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="" height="360" scrolling="no" src="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3872576/embed/embed" width="480"></iframe></div><p><br></p><blockquote>
<strong>HEGSETH:</strong> People are going to start to open up. They're done. They're done. They said, "I don't have a business if I can't open my doors. You've told me what experts told me to do, flatten the curve. Got it. I'm not waiting for the vaccine which you're telling me is the new standard.
</blockquote><p>
Conservatives claim Democrats and medical experts are moving the goalposts, but a complete return to normal was never possible without a vaccine. Most Americans <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/general/news/poll-sports-fans-want-coronavirus-vaccine-before-attending-live-games-again/" target="_blank">aren't going to risk large gatherings</a> with thousands of strangers. We'd have also flattened the curve for nothing if we resume normal activities without a <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/16/1001787/why-contact-tracing-may-be-a-mess-in-america/" target="_blank">national testing and tracing program,</a> which doesn't currently exist. Hegseth pointed to news articles about people violating social distancing guidelines as evidence people are fed up with COVID-19 lockdowns and that elected officials should govern according to the public's temper tantrums.</p><blockquote style="margin-left: 20px;">
<strong>HEGSETH: </strong>This is going to happen. This is part of the reason why governors opened up. They knew people were going out either way. They don't want to look like fools, and this is the people leading the way.
</blockquote><p>
It's not governors like Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom who are going to “look like fools" when this is over. It's the governors who buckled under to political pressure from a vocal minority of COVID-19 skeptics.
</p><p>
<a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-md-covid-reopening-first-day-20200516-grvwu6gekza6haewyn6ex6m7te-story.html" target="_blank">Maryland </a>kicked off its first stage of economic reopening on Saturday, after Republican Governor Larry Hogan permitted nonessential retailers, barber shops, and salons to open at limited capacity. Maryland has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/maryland-coronavirus-cases.html" target="_blank">roughly 10 times </a>as many confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths as Oregon, but its population is not 10 times larger. A salon owner in Marion County, Oregon, was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/15/us/oregon-salon-reopens-against-state-orders-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">heavily fined </a>for violating Democratic Governor Kate Brown's stay-at-home order. Brown doesn't believe it's safe for businesses in the county to reopen. This isn't like our dumb gun laws, where a Republican might argue there's some longstanding cultural tradition of spreading the coronavirus. The science is the same everywhere, and without a national standard, we're going to see this become more of a partisan issue.
</p><p>
Co-host <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJB-IeTGVvE" target="_blank">Griff Jenkins</a> mentioned speaking with a surf shop owner in Ocean City, Maryland, whose business usually makes "a year's funding in three months of the summer," so it's just “time for him" to reopen. Jenkins seems to think the tourism trade will function normally this year. Broadway theaters were only closed for a few days after 9/11 but <a href="https://www.americantheatre.org/2018/11/19/how-the-shows-went-on-after-9-11-with-an-assist-from-ovid/" target="_blank">decreased tourism</a> to New York after the terrorist attacks shuttered many shows.
</p><p>Co-host Jedediah Bila claimed New Yorkers are starting to go “stir crazy" in their tiny apartments. The lockdowns are affecting their “mental health." Conservatives love pretending to care about mental health whenever it is convenient for them. You know, like how gun control is never the answer. We need to address “mental health"! Of course, conservatives never actually <em>address mental health</em>. </p><p>Now we need to let everyone out of their houses before they go full <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lQ_MjU4QHw" target="_blank">Jack Torrance,</a> even if it means people would die.
</p><blockquote>
<strong>BILA: </strong>So I said this a long time, the second the weather gets warmer, you're going to have people who will just flood outside, because ...
<br><br>
<strong>HEGSETH: </strong>And they should. And they should.
</blockquote><p>
They should not. This isn't responsible rhetoric from your friendly neighborhood state media outlet.
</p><blockquote>
<strong>BILA</strong>: They can't help it. They know that they need the Vitamin D. They know that they need -- their sanity is suffering.</blockquote><p>Vitamin D is available as a nutritional supplement. Look, we all know this sucks, but people were cooped up for weeks after <a href="https://www.weather.gov/iwx/1978_blizzard" target="_blank">blizzards.</a> They couldn't leave the house, and sometimes didn't even have electricity. There was no high-speed Internet access or Zoom happy hours. </p><p>Bila said it just isn't possible to keep people locked inside “forever," which is significantly longer than the most conservative estimate for a vaccine. Who's moving goalposts now?</p><blockquote><strong>BILA: </strong>It's not possible. It's not feasible. So at some point you're going to have to open up and you're going to have to <strong>let the chips fall where they may,</strong> as terrible that sounds. I mean, listen, I'm very empathetic to this.</blockquote><p>Yes, that does sound terrible. Only megalomaniacs<a href="https://twitter.com/JedediahBila/status/427983959490711552?s=20" target="_blank"> (or libertarians)</a> ever say <a href="https://youtu.be/Ueo8LU9AZTc?t=123" target="_blank">“let the chips fall where they may."</a> Bila and her husband have recovered from the coronavirus, so she's hardly “very empathetic" to people who are at risk of dying from the virus if we hastily reopen the country. She just doesn't see any reason to remain personally inconvenienced. She's survived COVID-19. Screw everyone else.</p><p>[<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-friends-host-country-will-need-open-and-let-chips-fall-where-they-may" target="_blank">Media Matters</a>]<br></p><p>
<em>Follow Stephen Robinson on </em><em><a href="https://twitter.com/SER1897" target="_blank">Twitter.</a></em>
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<a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.
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