Tiring of limiting his racist tropes to black people and Latinos, the Trump administration sees covid-19 as the perfect opportunity to try out some racism against Asian people. You know, for flavor.
President Trump has started calling covid-19 the “Chinese Virus.” During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, he was asked whether the term was racist, especially in light of acts of violence against Asian-Americans. His response: No, not at all. Why? “It comes from China,” he said.
That pasts the smell test in the Trump administration.
Some are characterizing the “Chinese Virus” move as a trap—bait for liberals to get riled up about racism, riling up the right about the dreaded PC police, an endless cycle of riling that will tumble into November. Okay, sure. That doesn’t negate the real-world impact of further stigmatizing this virus as an Asian disease. The hate crimes are real, the president remains unbothered.
He’s also unbothered with the term “Kung-Flu” which is so lazy that even Stephen Miller probably bristled at the term floating around the administration. He’d probably go for something a lot more high brow and racist than that.
But it’s no big deal! Really! Trump administration ghoul Kellyanne Conway knows this because she is married to an Asian man.
Again, I ask, when is that asteroid supposed to hit?
Bernie Sanders has a lot on his plate right now. He got creamed by Joe Biden in the latest primary elections in Arizona, Florida, and Illinois on Tuesday, and after enjoying frontrunner status back in February, the delegate math just isn’t working out in his favor. His campaign is sorting out his next move, he’s being pressured to drop out, and on top of all of that he’s still a senator who is proposing ways to help Americans out of this COVID-19 clusterfuck. For example, he proposed a plan to give every American household $2,000 a month until the pandemic is over, and has proposed that the government covers all payroll expenses for small and mid-size businesses in lieu of them laying off employees.
He’s preoccupied, which is probably why he was a little testy when CNN’s Manu Raju asked when he would make a final decision about suspending his presidential campaign.
“I’m dealing with a fucking global crisis,” Sanders said. “Right now, I’m trying to do my best to make sure that we don’t have an economic meltdown and that people don’t die. Is that enough for you to keep me busy for today?”
Uh, LOL, okay!
- In very different Bernie Sanders news, here’s a video of him walking down some stairs and pretending to be a monster, courtesy of his grandson’s TikTok:
- The Senate finally passed a covid-19 relief bill, which includes free testing. But when are we getting a rent freeze? [NBC News]
- You know that in-person primary election that Illinois insisted on having during a pandemic on Tuesday? Yeah, well, aside from it being an absolute shitshow prompting historily low voter turnout, the state used 50 low-income senior facilities as makeshift voting sites that day. What could possibly go wrong? [The Intercept]
- And in other awful news… white nationalism is still on the rise. [NBC News]
- Meanwhile, as the world collapses around them, the talking heads over at Fox News are pretending they’ve always been on board with universal basic income. [Fox News]