Louisiana Voice

“I don’t take responsibility at all.” 

–Donald Trump, response to a question on March 13 about a lack of widespread access to testing for the coronavirus.

“I’d rate it a 10. I think we’ve done a great job, and it started with the fact that we kept a very highly infected country, despite all of the, even the professionals saying it’s too early to do that,”

—Donald Trump, on March 16 in rating his administration’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic.

WHIPLASH

“Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart —you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it’s true!—but when you’re a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged—but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me—it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right—who would have thought?), but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners—now it used to be three, now it’s four—but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years—but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us.”

—Donald Trump, at campaign event in South Carolina, July 21, 2015 [for the Trump supporters who keep insisting that Joe Biden is losing it].

DR. DONALD

“What is the medical evidence?”

––Question by a CNN reporter to Dr. Anthony Fauci, about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating the coronavirus.

“Do you know how many times he’s answered that question? Maybe 15.”

—Dr. Donald Trump, interrupting before Dr. Fauci could answer.

“The question is for the doctor. … He’s your medical expert, correct?”

––CNN reporter.

“You don’t have to ask the question,”

—Dr. Donald. [Typical adversarial press conference held to provide “information” about the COVID-19 pandemic that is killing people worldwide. And we still haven’t heard the medical evidence of the drug’s effectiveness.]

“Fire him. He continues to contradict our president and hurting his re-election chances.”

—Sunday tweet in response to headline which said, “Fauci says we are struggling to get the coronavirus under control.” [ignore the message, just shoot the messenger]

“The mouths of their rancid features opened like caverns, and sounds like the wailings of damned souls issued there from.”

—Des Moines Leader Review of the singing Cherry Sisters in 1901, which prompted a libel lawsuit against the newspaper by the indignant sisters, from Dan Abrams’s book Theodore Roosevelt for the Defense.  After watching the sisters perform in his courtroom during the ensuing trial, the judge ruled in favor of the paper. [Apropos of nothing—I just thought we could use a good laugh.]

LouisianaVoice normally holds two fundraisers per year—one in April and the other in October.

We are now in April, but it’s an April none of us has experienced in our lifetime and hopefully, never will again.

Because of the sacrifices being made by all of you, we are forgoing our April request for contributions. We are all feeling the stress of the financial hardships being forced upon us by necessity and any request for funds would be, I believe, a display of greed and arrogance.

I would ask, however, if you do feel you do have expendable income, please help someone in dire need at this trying time. There are those out there who are truly hurting and those federal checks may be months in arriving for them. Donations of food, toiletries, running errands, even mowing an elderly person’s lawn, are all things we can do that would help.

Thank you for your years of loyalty and let’s pull together like never before.

Stay healthy.

Tom Aswell

“it’s supposed to be our stockpile — it’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use,”

—Jared Kushner, protesting the release of ventilators held by FEMA to states hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. [We’re not exactly sure what he meant by “our stockpile.” We apparently have been under the misconception that FEMA exists to help us during crises.]

The FEMA website on Friday morning described the Strategic National Stockpile as “the nation’s largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.” The website further said on Friday morning, “When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency.”

By noon Friday, the website’s wording had been mysteriously changed to say, “The Strategic National Stockpile’s role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available.”