Today another milestone for the US in the COVID-19 pandemic — our death toll now stands at 1,000, and apparently a tally ‘increasing at an alarming rate.’
And we’ve now topped China and Italy in confirmed cases, the most in the world, with 82,404 — China is at 81,782, Italy sitting third at 80,589.
Reportedly, 526,044 cases total worldwide.

We’re under a ‘shelter-in-place’ scenario here in California, only ‘essential‘ trips out in the world, though, I’m able to walk my daughter’s basset/greyhound mix, Leroy, in daily short excursions on a nifty bike/jogger/pedestrian path through a quiet, suburban section of Merced, supposedly called the Rascal Bike Path. In my company, there’s usually some joggers, bikers, dog-walkers and we all keep our distance in a nice courteous manner.
The little, short trips — Leroy is old like me and can’t bang around for too far or long — are a respite from the walls of an apartment. Joy in the gloom.

Speaking of the local COVID-19 scene, WeatherUndergroud has an interactive map of updated coronavirus summaries for California by counties, and for Merced County we’ve now two confirmed COVID-19 cases, a surprise for me as that’s up from zero just yesterday — no local deaths yet.
However, the way this shit is going, that number will ping upward.

Not helping is the T-Rump. In fact, most-likely he’s pure anti-help. In today’s bullshit presser he babbled about not allowing the COVID-19 pandemic to become racist, a very thing he’s harped about, calling it the ‘Chinese virus‘ just last week.
The latest idiocy via Raw Story:

At Thursday’s coronavirus press conference, President Donald Trump reiterated his commitment to fighting the rise of hate crimes against Asian-Americans spurred by the outbreak, but choked the instant a reporter asked him what he was specifically prepared to do about it.
“What are the concrete measures that you are taking to combat the hate crimes against Asians?” asked the reporter.

“Well, I don’t know,” said Trump.
“All I know is this: Asian-Americans in our country are doing fantastically well. I’m very close to them, as you know. And they’re doing fantastically well, and I think they appreciate the job we’re doing. But I did want to put that statement out, the social media statement, because, to me, Asian-Americans are a great part of our country.”

WTF?
He is the king of incoherent babble, though, in the past it was just politics and national security — now it’s lives, and it might be a shitload of lives. I noted yesterday finally a shift in news coverage of T-Rump’s coronavirus pressers, where a TV station in Washington state would no longer carry the shitty events live, and this morning I saw the networks will stop, too (h/t BJ):

An important step by broadcast news organizations tonight. MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS News, and NBC all cut away from the president’s #coronavirus press briefing tonight, realizing the misinformation could risk lives. https://t.co/fswSqoYUKn

— Dokhi Fassihian (@DokhiFassihian) March 26, 2020

And the move pisses-off, hurts the feelings of T-Rump people and they whine:

When Trump’s coronavirus events are not carried live, his allies have publicly complained.
On Monday, White House spokesman Judd Deere took to Twitter to call CNN’s and MSNBC’s decisions not to air the daily briefing in its entirety “pretty disgraceful.”
On Thursday, Trump’s son Eric also griped on Twitter about the media not always showing the full briefing: “This is truly sick in the time of national emergency,” he wrote.

But Trump’s turns behind the lectern and on television often result in the spread of misinformation, as well as suggestions — such as the president’s stated wish to reopen the country by Easter — that undermine his own top public health advisers’ positions.

Fuck ’em. They don’t give a shit about anybody but themselves — lying, asshole grifters.

And the best way to kick back at dangerous T-Rump antics is to use his own bullshit and throw it hard in his face. Once again, the T-Rump’s people get pissed and hurt and whine, and file legal shit (h/t Susie)

Every American should see this ad. pic.twitter.com/TEfkrkDsWP

— Matt Rogers ? (@Politidope) March 20, 2020

And this:

The trump campaign sent a cease and desist letter to Priorities USA for this ad. So I’m retweeting it. pic.twitter.com/0Q1QO9TeQT

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) March 26, 2020

Just verbatim quotes from a cruel moron, get used to it…

Onward tomorrow…

(Illustration: M.C Escher’s ‘Scholastica,’ found here).