Prickly City by Scott Stantis for March 13, 2020

What a difference a couple of weeks can make. Granted that Bernie appears to have won California, and so will hang on. And on. And on.

But things don’t look that good for the future.

I have been impressed at how competent and presidential Pence has appeared at the coronavirus press conferences. I wonder what will happen when Trump realizes that Pence is making him look bad.

“We have a very heavily tested, if an American’s coming back, or anybody is coming back, we’re testing, we have a tremendous testing set up where people coming have to be tested and if they are positive and if they are able to get through, because if they’re, frankly, if they’re not, we’re not putting them on planes, if they’re, if it shows positive, but if they are, if they do come here they have to, we’re quarantine, it’s going to be a pretty strong enforcement of quarantine, look, the key is you have to have separation…” — not Bernie, not Joe, not Hillary

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Yet, The Disciples still believe.

Opposing loudmouth renegades— Come on, I had to vote “None of the above” last time!

What are the odds that one or both presidential candidates will get and die from covid-19? They are both in the high risk age range where the death rate is extremely high. (In Italy so far all or almost all the deaths have been people over 60, with an even higher mortality rate for those over 80)

I couldn’t believe that the pundits were ready to declare Bernie the winner after Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Because that’s pretty much what happened last time, and he actually did LESS well than four years ago. But, as usual, our news media tells the story they WANT to tell instead of providing a neutral appraisal of the facts.

The RW reviews are in:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trumps-coronavirus-address-failed-in-our-biggest-time-of-need

President Trump’s speech on the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst Oval Office addresses, terrible on both style and specifics. He is completely out of his element in trying to lead during a crisis.

Trump has failed to understand what we face with this coronavirus pandemic, much less communicate it accurately. Just two weeks ago, he was saying that the number of cases in the United States “within a couple of days is going to be down close to zero.” As of this evening, there are more than 1,200 cases in the U.S. and 37 deaths.

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Meanwhile, Trump’s speech delivery was horrible. He spoke too quickly, in a monotone with almost no intonation, looking edgy rather than calm. He provided no inspiration whatsoever, not even of the “hard truth” variety exemplified by Winston Churchill’s “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” speech.

Trump, in both rhetoric and action, looks frightened and confused.

President Trump is way out of his depth. It is a tragedy that he is our supposed leader in such a time of serious challenge.

Even with as far left as the Democratic Party has become Bernie is stil so far left that they would prefer a someone approaching senility. But then again we all know they are just setting the stage for the wicked witch of New York to save the day.

And another one.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/trump-coronavirus-speech-reaction/

Watching him, I realized the cost of a president having pissed away his authority these past three years, with his daily juvenile tweets and schoolyard rhetoric.

The country needs a president now who can inspire, galvanize, and lead. Tonight I saw a president who looked tired, afraid, and completely unconvincing.

He ended by calling for an end to partisanship, and the nation coming together to fight this threat. That’s what any president should do in his position, in a moment of great national crisis. It is difficult to imagine a president with less credibility to make that ask

Real leadership in this crisis is going to have to come from governors, from public health officials, and from institutional leaders.

We saw tonight that even when Trump is trying to be on his best behavior, he just doesn’t have much of a clue about the nature of the crisis, or how it can best be fought.

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The President of the United States, on live television, reading prepared remarks, told the world that the US was cutting off all trade with Europe for thirty days. But it wasn’t true.

Completely freaking incompetent. No excuse at all. We are in such trouble…

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To, to recap—in the most important speech of his presidency, one running just 12 minutes, Trump misled the public twice:

—trade goods flowing between the US & Europe are not subject to the ban

—insurers are not waiving copayments for coronavirus treatments. Just testing. https://twitter.com/owermohle/status/1237922717699014658 …

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So Americans can travel to and from Europe, but not Europeans? We can still go on vacation there? What sense does that make? Who thought this policy up?

It would have been an interesting experiment in Political Science, except for the whole fate of the free world thing…

Um

Well, I guess we can figure the time lag on this strip.

Not sure what to say.

The Go Comics infamous two week delay is on full display. It is possible that Scott (Eric) was correct when this cartoon was first drawn.

My concern: The way this went down, it sure looks like Biden won only one primary, and then, with a heavy “thumb on the scale.”

That was what I call “Super Saturday,” 29-Feb. By the so-called “Super Super Tuesday,” most of Joe’s opponents had “thrown in the towel,” making my vote – and many other people’s votes – irrelevant.

And that doesn’t even cover the remaining primaries where, once again, Joe was running essentially unopposed. (Yes, Bernie is still around, but the point of many commentators today is, Bernie isn’t going anywhere anymore)

Yes, I will vote for whomever runs against Trump.

But the failure of Democrats this year is the same as 2016:

We have what we want to vote against.

What we don’t have is something to vote for.

When was this written?

“Bernie for the Democrats”? Your lips to Gawd’s ears, but how much of a lead do you have on this strip? Or, is there something “below the fold” that COVID-19 is drowning out?

Paul and Steve: Gocomics has a two week minimum lag in daily funnies.

Or, as I speculated the other day, is Scott endorsing Bernie as a way to help boost Trump – without mentioning his name? (Scott has claimed to be a “never Trumper”)