The US has tried to get rid of covid the way I try to get abs – I try really hard for a couple months then I get annoyed that it’s taking so long and decide abs aren’t real.
— Taylor Tomlinson (@taylortomlinson) June 12, 2020
Per the NYTimes, as of 4am:
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 9,243,100 people, according to official counts. As of Wednesday morning, at least 477,200 people have died, and the virus has been detected in nearly every country…
Dr. Anthony Fauci is returning to Capitol Hill at a fraught moment in the nation’s coronavirus pandemic response. Cases are rising in about half the states, and political polarization is competing for attention with public health recommendations. https://t.co/OTIfojLfC5
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) June 23, 2020
The next few weeks are critical to tamping down a disturbing coronavirus surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress on Tuesday — issuing a plea for people to avoid crowds and wear masks just hours before mask-shunning President Donald Trump was set to address a crowd of his young supporters in one hot spot…
“We will be doing more testing,” Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, pledged to a House committee conducting oversight of the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic.
The leading public health officials spent more than five hours testifying before the committee at a fraught moment, with coronavirus cases rising in about half the states and political polarization competing for attention with public health recommendations.
Fauci told lawmakers he understands the pent-up desire to get back to normal as the U.S. begins emerging from months of stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns. But that has “to be a gradual step-by-step process and not throwing caution to the wind,” he said.
“Plan A, don’t go in a crowd. Plan B, if you do, make sure you wear a mask,” Fauci said…
Another worrisome trend: an increase in infections among young adults. Fauci said while COVID-19 tends to be less severe in younger people, some of them do get very sick and even die. And younger people also may be more likely to show no symptoms yet still spread the virus.
If people say, “’I’m young, I’m healthy, who cares’ — you should care, not only for yourself but for the impact you might have” on sickening someone more vulnerable, Fauci said.
“The time from infection to ICU admission is about 3 weeks.” Remember this when you look at graphs of new cases. https://t.co/b8E2DFTcqW
— Charles Gaba (@charles_gaba) June 23, 2020
Things NOT correlated with COVID-19 death rates, per new working paper:
— Obesity rates
— ICU beds per capita
— Poverty rateshttps://t.co/QsoNRdoAVe— Declan Garvey (@declanpgarvey) June 22, 2020
Black Americans hospitalized for COVID-19 at four times the rate of whites, Medicare data shows https://t.co/YjotuerwAN pic.twitter.com/zlAjqpWDvS
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 23, 2020
The death toll from #COVID19 began to rise steadily in early March then more sharply as the disease spread from state to state. https://t.co/NIeqeTbRTj pic.twitter.com/F69VNrUFNi
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 23, 2020
New research suggests one in three patients who recover from coronavirus could be harmed for life https://t.co/PPePNSnwLb
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 23, 2020
For some people diagnosed with #COVID19, symptoms can linger for weeks, even months https://t.co/kXJoleZAug via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 23, 2020
Australia reports first death from the coronavirus in more than a month https://t.co/qF0rdwnd15 pic.twitter.com/oJ8Rko6b2i
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 24, 2020
? NEW: Boris Johnson announces the UK lockdown is all-but over. From July 4, the 2m social distancing rule is replaced with “one meter plus” and much of the economy will reopen after three months of shutdown.
Here are the sectors that will be back: pic.twitter.com/wVhgt6LCCo
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) June 23, 2020
Beware of the second wave: Top medics have warned British political parties that local flare-ups of the novel coronavirus are likely and a second wave is a real risk https://t.co/XQMJG2UjqC pic.twitter.com/YoAWUL3KJ2
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 24, 2020
Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 587 to 191,449 – RKI https://t.co/uzZRwoIgvD pic.twitter.com/ATl15RYeXu
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 24, 2020
We’re on Red Square watching preparations for the Victory Parade. Postponed from May 9th due to Covid. Kremlin says the virus is now in retreat – but it’s not beaten yet. pic.twitter.com/Qp9362YKhR
— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) June 24, 2020
Mainland China capable of testing 3.78 million people for COVID-19 per day https://t.co/3fZrMuNDNO pic.twitter.com/2OPJcWdtF1
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 24, 2020
Countries such as South Korea that test thousands of people per day put the brakes on its #COVID19 outbreak without locking down. Other nations must adopt Seoul’s model before it’s too late https://t.co/4c7kD0MWR1
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 23, 2020
Japan has become a victim of its own success as slowing new COVID-19 cases has led to a shortage of patients to enroll in clinical trials https://t.co/FYyEbmQoOY by @swiftrocky pic.twitter.com/v8U4M2pwDc
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 24, 2020
Tokyo expects 'large number' of new virus cases Wednesday: governor https://t.co/PyE2HdmmAO pic.twitter.com/TPOeAXAFnQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 24, 2020
… Speaking before the latest figure was reported, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike had warned of a “large number” on Wednesday as more positive test results followed a cluster of seven infections previously found at the office.
“Clusters in the workplace have become a big problem lately” as people have emerged from the capital’s ‘Stay Home’ initiative, she told reporters earlier.
“Businesses like eateries are taking steps to create partitions and such, but it’s difficult to see what kind of precautions are being taken at offices,” Koike said…
Koike said that in addition to the latest results from the office, more than 10 cases emerged from group testing in Shinjuku – an area known for its nightlife – on Wednesday.
Still, Tokyo – like the rest of Japan – has been spared the kind of explosive outbreak seen elsewhere, with some 5,800 coronavirus cases and 323 deaths so far.
In all of Japan, about 18,000 have tested positive and 965 have died so far from the COVID-19 illness. Globally, more than 9.26 million people have tested positive and some 475,880 have died.
Seven more Pakistan cricketers have tested positive for the coronavirus, raising the total to 10 on the squad planning to play in England.
by @joji_39 and @sdouglas80
https://t.co/QvpObojSXl— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) June 23, 2020
More than 100,000 people have now died in Latin American and the Caribbean as coronavirus pandemic accelerateshttps://t.co/FQQwCvUjVB pic.twitter.com/FlkpBP0nFH
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 24, 2020
Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro ordered to wear mask in public https://t.co/XD82IZWAIX
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 23, 2020
… The requirement to wear masks in the federal district came into force on 30 April.
The rule was brought in by the governor of the federal district, Ibaneis Rocha, and requires people to cover their nose and mouth in all public spaces, including public transport, shops and commercial and industrial premises.
On 11 May, the rule was further tightened with those flaunting it facing fines of 2,000 reais ($387; £310) per day.
Federal Judge Renato Borelli’s ruling means Mr Bolsonaro is not exempt and that the president and any other public officials who do not comply with the requirement will also incur the 2,000-reais fine.
President Bolsonaro has argued from the start of the pandemic that measures taken to curb the spread of the virus could be more damaging than the pandemic itself.
On Monday, he renewed his call for the easing of lockdown measures and the reopening of shops and businesses…
Gasping for life: Pandemic shows how oxygen access divides world’s rich and poor. By @lhinnant @carleypetesch @pulitzercenter. https://t.co/8egCPjZZvT
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 24, 2020
Small humblebrag-by-proxy:
Massachusetts now has the lowest COVID-19 transmission rate of any state in the country, according to a website that has been compiling state data and tracking transmission trends.
https://t.co/skSHG0GZ26— WBUR (@WBUR) June 22, 2020
People are flocking to South Carolina's beaches for vacation after being cooped up by COVID-19 for months. But the coronavirus is taking no vacation. The state now has the fourth-highest new infection rate in the nation when adjusted for population. https://t.co/4zxpm8NsJY
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 23, 2020
The three states that are worsening in terms of #COVID19 and driving the overall upsurge in U.S. cases are: Florida, Texas and Arizona https://t.co/pRLkCLZQ7E
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 23, 2020
Scoop: The Trump admin is ending support for 7 testing sites in Texas at the end of this month, as it shuts down support for community-based testing nationwide: https://t.co/iwfNLabBcb
— Josh Kovensky (@JoshKovensky) June 23, 2020
Millions of Americans think #Trump is correct in asserting that there are more #COVID19 cases being detected now because there's "too much testing."
But this trend chart @StevenTDennis tweeted isn't "cases" — it's Arizona hospitalizations. This is illness, skyrocketing. pic.twitter.com/XTCPz8q8tn— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 23, 2020
Rebekah Jones is the ‘insubordinate scientist’ who says she was fired for refusing to manipulate data:
https://t.co/wl7xQhQl61 pic.twitter.com/zYMnSOOPUB
— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) June 23, 2020
BREAKING 3 OF 3 I've independently verified they've deleted at least 1200 cases in the last week.They're only reporting all these cases now so they can restrict reporting next week to make everyone think it's over. I've had two DOH employees in different offices confirm
— Rebekah Jones aka #Insubordinate #scientist (@GeoRebekah) June 23, 2020
Caesar's Las Vegas offering customers $20 in free slot play if they're wearing a face mask – https://t.co/Ka4b1n8ach
— Reid Wilson (@PoliticsReid) June 23, 2020
Is it safe to form a COVID-19 “support bubble” with friends? Yes, if done correctly. Find out more in @AP's “Viral Questions” series. Email your questions to [email protected]. https://t.co/TstB18qjV0
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 23, 2020
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily numbers. Just six new cases: four from local infection, all Malaysians; two from imported infection, one Malaysian and one permanent resident. Cumulative total is 8,596 cases.
45 more patients recovered and were discharged, total 8,231 recovered or 95.8% of all cases. 244 active and contagious cases remain in hospital. Of these, two patients are in ICU; neither is on a ventilator. We’re up to 10 days without new deaths. Total stands at 121 deaths. Infection fatality rate is 1.41%, case fatality rate is 1.45%.
Earlier today, Senior Minister (Security) Ismail Sabry Yaakob announced that social gatherings — weddings, birthday parties, prayer gatherings, etc., are now permitted, subject to standard operating procedures including social distancing within the venue, sign-in sheets for guests, and/or use of MySejahtera, the government’s Covid-19 risk assessment app. Ixnay on self-service buffet tables, though, Ismail Sabry said. Table service is best.
Baud
Beaches wouldn’t be so bad if people kept their distance and wore masks, but they won’t.
OzarkHillbilly
Because it just won’t travel as far as it did on July 3rd.
Amir Khalid
Forgot to mention social gatherings will be permitted from 1 July.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
I’m not looking forward to not having a ready excuse to decline party invitations. Maybe I should support Trump to keep this virus going for four more years.
Amir Khalid
@OzarkHillbilly:
Because the airlines and the restaurant trade said the 2-metre rule would put them out of business.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Virus is getting old and slowing down. You don’t want to be behind one on the freeway.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Do you get invited to a lot of parties in Malaysia?
OzarkHillbilly
1st world problem. We should be so lucky.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Have you been throwing a lot of parties and not inviting me?
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
If I were having a party, of course I’d invite you. But I haven’t had any in a long while, honest.
OzarkHillbilly
Where as Misery has the ninth highest at 1.24, just ahead of Arizona. Ain’t Republican governance grand?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: @Amir Khalid: I would never go to a party that would invite me.
Bruce K
@Baud: So help me, Baud, if we get four more years of Twitler because you need an excuse to duck out of party invitations…
…put it this way, have you ever heard of the Malaysian Chest Implosion Torture?
Amir Khalid
@Bruce K:
No. Enlighten me.
Chyron HR
I knew Japan had draconian trash pickup schedules, but virus schedules??
OzarkHillbilly
@Chyron HR: Their viruses are far more polite than ours. They wait for their turn.
Anne Laurie
Much as I hate to admit it, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie ‘Chickenshit’ Baker is a Republican! But this being Massachusetts, his powers are extremely limited, and also he knows his continued tenure relies on sane Democrats, not rabid Repubs.
TS (the original)
These people have no shame
The Governor of Texas telling people they should stay home and Morning Joe reporting this without comment – but on May 14
Bruce K
@Amir Khalid: It doesn’t exist. Yet. (It’s a reference to an episode of M*A*S*H, “The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan”.)
sukabi
John S.
@sukabi: Out of the gate, Ron DeSantis made some sensible moves on the environment that enraged a lot of state Republicans, and had the press claiming he was an independent thinker willing to do what is right.
Now it has become quite clear that he’s just another boot licking Gooper who will follow Trump over a cliff.
OzarkHillbilly
@Anne Laurie: Where as here in Misery Republican governance is enshrined in state wide gerrymandering, guaranteeing majorities in the state house and senate, and they are bound and determined to ensure that Miserians have no say in the matter.
The Pale Scot
Boris is stumbling over his words defending the Tories response, Starmer doing like a King’s Prosecutor does.
ButBAbababa.aha.hah.abubu..????
Trump is sharing his Adderall with him, on Cspan2 now
Matt McIrvin
I would like to understand the situation in California better. It looks like, in their case, some of the increase really is from greater testing of a population where COVID levels were higher than previously indicated, since testing volume has been increasing pretty much linearly and the positivity rate has stayed around 5%. But it also looks like they’re having a real, very recent spike, maybe as spillover from the states where this is raging completely out of control.
Matt McIrvin
@Anne Laurie: Massachusetts, like the rest of the urban Northeast, was sluggish with the early response and a lot of people here died because of it. Maybe we weren’t any later than was politically possible, I don’t know. But at least we took COVID seriously once the deaths started piling up.
I’m not sure the redder states are really so different; it may be that they, too, need to see a big spike in deaths happening locally before they believe this is real. They’ve gone from crowing that they reopened without a spike in new cases, to crowing that they’re not seeing a spike in new deaths, but there was a couple weeks delay between these things over here and most likely they just haven’t seen it yet.
It may be that the initial spike is less bad for them because the people who are getting infected are younger, but I’m not convinced they won’t infect older people in turn.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Because it’s the only way they win. Which is getting clearer and clearer.
Robert Sneddon
@The Pale Scot: Once the Speaker calls the House to order and Prime Minister’s Questions are over for another week PM Johnson still has a majority of 80 in Parliament, almost all of them shiny-brained True Believers elected on a “Make Brexit Happen” platform and ready to follow him unblinkingly come Hell or high water.
PMQ is wonderful theatre, uplifting and rousing but it means bupkis in terms of realpolitik.
Jinchi
This is the point that always concerns me. Our public debate focuses on the mortality rate and implicitly assumes that everyone else recovers completely.
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, Beijing reported 9 domestic confirmed, 5 suspect and 1 asymptomatic cases. Unlike other cities with previous outbreaks, Beijing is slow in releasing the case reports, and even then only high level summaries. I do not believe the contact tracers and the government bureaucrats are less capable in the capital (in fact, the opposite). Maybe the volume of contact tracing is much higher due to the larger and more rapidly growing outbreak, the massive and mobile population in Beijing, the initial epicenter being a gargantuan market. Maybe the authorities is releasing less information due to the outbreak happening at the seat of the CCP regime’s power, and thus much more sensitive. Maybe the Beijing authorities is releasing less information to protect the privacy of the patients. Whatever the reason, it is more difficult for me to assess the state of the outbreak. The sparse case summaries would indicate whether the case has direct or indirect connections to the Xinfadi exchange, and whether the case is a close contact of an existing case or walked into a fever clinic, but not much more. There is little information how many of the cases are reclassified as confirmed from suspect or asymptomatic, how many tested positive while already under self-quarantine or centralized quarantine. One can make educated guesses, close contact is likely to be traced and placed under centralized quarantine, someone deemed at risk of exposure is ordered to self-quarantine. The transmission chain is not always clear from the case summaries. My best guess is that the authorities are staying just about even with the outbreak, with the targeted restrictions and lock downs slowing the spread (Rt may be slightly below 1), and cases are being identified just before or just after turning symptomatic.
Hebei Province reported 2 new confirmed cases yesterday, husband and wife who worked at Xinfadi.
Fortunately, the Xinfadi outbreak does not appear to have seeded outbreaks in other jurisdictions in China. Other than Hebei Province, which surrounds Beijing on three sides and supplies the capital with most of its food, only a handful of cases exported to other provinces and no secondary infections (3 confirmed cases in Liaoning Province, 1 in Tianjin Municipality, 1 in Sichuan Province, and 1 asymptomatic case in Henan Province). Even in Hebei, it has been only a handful of small clusters involving immediate family members.
Meanwhile, cities across China (including Wuhan) are sending contact tracers and swab sample collectors to Beijing, to support the massive test and trace operation there.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Matt McIrvin: My nephew girlfriend works with one of the doctors doing the testing for Alameda county; this doctor told her they started testing in the poor cities like Richmond because that’s were it was assumed to be the worst because the poor mostly have service jobs and the results are showing it. Puts an interesting spin on Trump’s attempts to stop testing.
Going by the county by county reports the worst spots in California are southern California, Which I put down to conservatives thinking they are to white to get sick.
terben
From the Australian Dept of Health:
‘As at 3:00pm on 24 June 2020, a total of 7,521 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Australia, including 103 deaths and 6,924 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19.
Sadly, 1 new death today. A net increase of 29 new cases (+30/-1). 11 cases among quarantined travellers who have returned to Australia.
WereBear
Yet another way this isn’t like flu.
Brachiator
@Jinchi:
I think it’s that we just don’t know much about the virus. Some people prefer to fill that space of uncertainty with a positive outcome.
The Moar You Know
and when some GOP staffer reads that data point this morning, that will be the end of any hope of the Trump administration or the GOP trying to do one single thing to stop it, letting the virus rage unchecked for the next seven months. Normally, you could just release data like that and under any other administration, they’d take it into account as another data point in dealing with the problem. But this administration is different, and I wish the number crunchers releasing these stats would take that into consideration. They see a data point. The Trump admin sees an opportunity to rid America of black people, finally and for good. Maybe just leave that info at the office?
We need full testing and contact tracing and contact tracing, given how much Americans travel, needs to be done by the federal government. We could do it here, in CA, to an extent – but all the unmasked Zonies swapping COVID down in the death zone that used to be our beach strip vanish when they cross the border back into their hellpit of a state.
The Moar You Know
@The Pale Scot: Boris got himself some brain (and other organs) damage from the COVID, sadly obvious at this point. I wonder who’s driving the bus over there? It’s not him.
Fair Economist
@Matt McIrvin: Outside of LA county, real numbers are going up, sometimes rather quickly. The Bay Area had it pretty much controlled a month ago and now is getting hundreds of cases per day, setting new highs. Many rural areas are getting outbreaks after having dodged the first wave. Riverside and San Bernadino have had big increases and their rates have caught up to LA. All this is far too much to be ecplained by testing.
LA, which had been more than half our cases, has been stable for about a month. Still bad. Just the past few days there’s been a frightening jump.
Reopening was excessive and premature. The state also seems not to be using its tracing capacities properly. Testing does little good for control if we don’t treat positive cases differently! It does help with treatment, of course.
Andrew
@OzarkHillbilly: In Florida a lot of us thought DeSantis was posing on the environmental issues and that when the rubber meets the road, he would cave to the developers and Big Sugar, just as R’s in this state always do. He has done just that.
Mohagan
@Matt McIrvin: I would too! CA is a big state, and the impact in various counties varies wildly. Mendocino county where I live has had 62 cases and no deaths so far. Of course we are rural and have had mask wearing required since May 1.
Mohagan
Mohagan
LongHairedWeirdo
You know, I’m wondering if the Republican morons know anything about exponential growth, other than in investments.
I’ve been watching the hot spots daily cases, and the big ones are showing one obvious problem to anyone with a bit of mathematical intuition. Arizona, Oklahoma, the Carolinas, Texas – they all tend to show exponential growth – 5-10% of the current active cases are showing as new cases.
Florida doesn’t show the same numbers, but we know they’re cooking the books – which is like taking the labels off of the greased jars of nitroglycerin, prior to asking a juggler to show off some tricks.
Exponential growth can start small – you have 3000 active cases, well, you only got 300 today, and 330 tomorrow, which doesn’t seem like a huge deal, right? And if your testing capacity is increasing the way it should have been a couple-three months ago, you might even see your positivity rate stay the same, or drop a bit. But the next day, when you get 360 more, then the day after, when you get 400 more, that shows that you’ve got uncontrolled spread. There are ever larger numbers of people spreading, because they haven’t been found and quarantined yet, you see? The 360 you’re about to find have been infecting people for a few days already,
One of the nightmares of Covid-19 is the one we’ve all known about: you have about two weeks of spread baked in, because it takes two weeks (on the average) for the illness to run its course, from becoming infectious, to showing symptoms (if significant symptoms occur), to the disease’s conclusion. The people you find today have been out and about infecting people yesterday, for the most part.
So the bozo who ignored 10% growth from 3000 to 4000 could find that there are 16,000 more cases baked in. If you’re not panicking at 300 from 3000, 330 from 3300, by the time you realize you’re in trouble, because hospitals are filling up, it’s way too late to prevent a disaster.
Another way of looking at this is, if the governor isn’t taking decisive action when the hospitals are half full, there’s nearly no chance of keeping the hospitals from overflowing… even though the absolute numbers aren’t as bad as they could be, and even though there’s still plenty (50%!) of capacity. Because Covid-19 can easily double once, or twice, before a total lockdown starts decreasing the active case total.
Or, so says the math geek who admits he’s not an epidemiologist. Of course, remember, masks help. They seem to prevent about 60% of cases if you’re uninfected, and wearing one; they seem to prevent about 80% of cases if the infected person is wearing them. That doesn’t sound huge, and, let’s be honest: it really isn’t. You wouldn’t play Russian Roulette with a 10 round revolver, with two, or four, rounds chambered. But from a public health perspective, it’s *huge*. It changes an R value from 3 to .6 for infected people, and to 1.2 if the infected person isn’t wearing a mask, but everyone they interact with does.
R=3 means 1 person infects three, who infect 9, who infect 27, who infect 81, who infect 243.
R=1.2 means 1 person infects 1.2, who infect 1.44, who infect 1.728…. and, obviously, that’s a lot easier to find, and isolate, right?
And that’s the difference between public health measures, and absolute health measures. In fact, that’s the whole point of “flatten the curve”. NB: I’ve seen this *misstated*: flattening the curve is a way of spreading out *infections* (and hence, not reducing the total number of, again *INFECTIONS*), to reduce the strains on medical providers, and hence, prevent deaths from “no hospital bed (…with a ventilator) available”. It should drastically reduce the number of *deaths*, while not reducing the absolute number of *cases*.
Of course, if you flatten the curve, you also make sure some cases happen 6, 7, 8 months later, when we’ve learned what does, and doesn’t, work; and if you learn what prevents Covid-19; you might *also* reduce the number of cases… but even if you never find any preventative, or treatment, you might end up with the same case count, but fewer deaths, and generally better outcomes.
Anyway: I just wanted to point out that a great many Republicans are innumerate, as well as stupid, callous, and mean-spirited. As always, remember, it’s not so much the actual Republican innumeracy/stupidity/callousness/mean-spiritedness; it’s the right wing media that makes those people seem normal, and even reasonable. Trump is a disaster. I’d like to say “he would be, even if the right wing cared about America more than political power” but if the Republicans cared for America more than political power, they’d have swallowed their pride, and said “we wish it was Biden, or, hell, even Obama, if his first term started in 2012; but folks, you can’t vote for Trump. You really can’t. He’s an idiot, who doesn’t understand how government works; he’s got criminal instincts, which might work in business, but never when he’s in charge of law enforcement; he’s a bigot; and, you can’t trust anything he says, because he’ll lie even when there’s no reason to.”
Where was I? Right! Trump is a disaster, and he would be even if the Republicans still engaged in good faith argument and discussion; but he’s far, far, worse when people are willing to lie like… well, like Trump to cover up his deficiencies and crimes.
(NB: when I say “Trump lies like a cheap rug” I’m not using slang to pretend he’s wearing a toupee (aka “a rug”); no, even his *hair* is his fault (he had scalp reduction surgery), and all natural (now, at least). However, in this case, the simile is bad – cheap rugs have been known to say “Hey! Dude! NO WAY!” – and, they have a point. Cheap rugs are *supposed* to lie, even if badly, but they’ve truly got nothing on Trump.)