USA Today reported that the news that the creepy Orange Menace will hold a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, this Saturday "has raised concerns among some local medical experts about what his visit will do to the relatively low COVID-19 numbers in the area. Compared to other states, like Florida and Texas, the Northeast seems to be managing the pandemic fairly well. Some fear a large, crowded rally will reverse that positive trend. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu urged residents to wear masks and practice social distancing at the outdoor rally. 'It is imperative that folks attending the rally wear masks,' he said." Sununu also told the media that though he's "going to go and greet the President as the governor, I will not be in the crowd of thousands of people, I'm not going to put myself in the middle of a crowd of thousands of people, if that's your question specifically. I try to-- unfortunately, you know, I have to be extra cautious as the governor, I try to be extra cautious for myself, my family." Sununu may well lose his reelection bid because of his strange refusal to mandate masks.The progressive Democrat challenging Sununu this cycle, Andru Volinsky, was terse and to the point regarding the rally he obviously isn't attending. "I am calling on Gov. Sununu to publicly state that Donald Trump is not welcome in New Hampshire. The public health risks are far too great to use New Hampshire for a photo op."In his NY Times column published around the same time Sununu was making an ass out of himself, David Leonhardt noted that "There is no country in the world where confirmed coronavirus cases are growing as rapidly as they are in Arizona, Florida or South Carolina. The Sun Belt has become the global virus capital. The only countries with outbreaks as severe as those across the Sunbelt are Bahrain, Oman and Qatar-- three Middle Eastern countries with large numbers of low-wage migrant workers who are not citizens. These workers often live in cramped quarters, with subpar social services, and many have contracted the virus."These are Tuesday's and Wednesday's numbers conparing Sun Belt states' two one day increases of confirmed cases with the the 10 European countries experiencing the most severe spikes right now.
• Texas +9,414 ---> 10,199• California +8,631 ---> 8,561• Florida +7,347 ---> 9,989• Arizona +3,653 ---> 3,520• Georgia +3,406 ---> 3,420• Louisiana +1,936 ---> 1,888• North Carolina +1,748 ---> 1,028• Tennessee +1,359 ---> 2,472• Missouri +1,135 ---> 755• South Carolina +972 ---> 1,557• Mississippi +957 ---> 674• Alabama +907 ---> 1,177• Nevada +876 ---> 516• Oklahoma +858 ---> 673• U.K. +581 ---> 630• Ukraine +564 ---> 807• France +475 ---> 663• Romania +397 ---> 555• Spain +341 ---> 383• Serbia +299 ---> 357• Germany +298 ---> 410• Portugal +287 ---> 443• Poland +257 ---> 277• Moldova +235 ---> 330
Trump lied (again) on Twitter, claiming, absurdly, that coronavirus deaths are "down tenfold." Someone in the White House forced the ignorant pig to delete the tweet. Trump also went on the attack against Dr. Fauci, belittling him and his assessment of the battle against the pandemic. Señor Trumpanzee to Greta Van Susteren: "Well, I think we are in a good place. I disagree with him. Dr. Fauci said don't wear masks and now he says wear them. And he said numerous things. Don't close off China. Don't ban China. I did it anyway. I didn't listen to my experts and I banned China. We would have been in much worse shape. We've done a good job. I think we are going to be in two, three, four weeks, by the time we next speak, I think we're going to be in very good shape."
Fauci on Monday had specifically pointed to "a series of circumstances associated with various states and cities trying to open up" too early as a key factor in the virus's surge and emphasized the US "should use the public health effort as a vehicle and a pathway to get to safe reopening.""So we've got to make sure that we don't create this binary type thing of 'it's us against them,' " he said of public health efforts and the US economy."It's not. We're all in it together."Trump conceded Tuesday that there are spikes in the virus in "some areas that looked like we were going to escape, that they were going to escape, and all of a sudden it became hot.""But I think you're going to see with all of the things that we're doing, and with all of the therapeutics that are coming out, and then ultimately the vaccine, we're going to be in very good shape very soon," he claimed.Fauci's assessment built on the stark warning he had issued to lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week, telling them he wouldn't be surprised if the US sees new cases of coronavirus rising to a level of 100,000 a day."We are now having 40-plus-thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around, and so I am very concerned," Fauci told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.He specifically expressed dismay over people congregating in crowds and not wearing masks and inadequate attention being paid to guidelines on reopening."We're going to continue to be in a lot of trouble," he said. "And there's going to be a lot of hurt if that does not stop."