We have lies, dammed lies, then going to the next level up on that scale and pushing it to the limit, we have Trump.
NPR took a look at his letter of rebuke to the WHO. The content of that earns him the crown of “Wingnut of the week”. You can scroll to the bottom for details. To be honest, when it comes to Wingnuttery, he is a pro and makes many other contenders look like amateurs. In the middle of a pandemic he decided that it was a good idea to attack and defund the World Health Organization, the one international body striving to tackle the threat like no other.
Let’s take a look at what else has been happening this past week amongst the wingnut community..
Wingnut proclamations from the last 7 days
It is all very much everything you might expect and a lot more. Here are some of the highlights …
Wingnut Coronavirus Claims – Utterly clueless and proud of that
- Josh Bernstein thinks that people shouldn’t wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19 because by wearing one, … “you’re keeping the germs inside of your own body, and you’re not letting the fresh air come in.”
- Brenden Dilley declares that he will never wear a mask to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 because it’s “better to be dead than a fucking dork.”
Wingnut Coronavirus Claims – Conspiracy Claims
- DeAnna Lorraine Plans to Go ‘Undercover’ as a Contract Tracer to Expose the COVID-19 ‘Plandemic’ … “DeAnna Lorraine, a failed Republican congressional candidate and right-wing conspiracy theorist, says she is planning to go “undercover” to expose the supposedly nefarious world of COVID-19 “contact tracing.”
- She also tells her viewers and followers not to get tested for COVID-19 because she doesn’t want to be contacted by contact tracers if they test positive.
- Given that DeAnna Lorraine is thinking about going “undercover” as a COVID-19 contract tracer, selling a shirt seemingly advocating the shooting of contract tracers is a rather odd thing for her to do.
Way beyond just Bizarre
- Rick Wiles Will Be Heading ‘Underground’ Any Day Now …”End Times broadcaster Rick Wiles announced that he, his family, and his ministry would all go “underground” by the end of the year in order to avoid “the wave of bloodshed” he predicted was coming in America, during which he said Christians would be murdered during a massive nationwide purge.“
- White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany says that she is “a Christian woman, someone who believes in equality, in truth, in loyalty and honesty” because “I know who I’m ultimately working for and it’s the Big Guy upstairs.”
- and yet at every press conference she happily lies for the idiot-in-chief
- News One dug up some of McEnany’s old tweets, which happen to be full of racist dog whistles, birtherism, and general hypocrisy. (One example of the latter is McEnany scoffing at Barack Obama for going golfing when there was governing to be done — a charge she will no doubt fail to lob at her current jefe, who spends way more time on the greens than his predecessor.
- Eric Metaxas claims that anyone who opposes racism or slavery does so because they got those values from the Bible: “That’s a fact. You don’t need to like it. You don’t need to be a Christian. But that’s a historical fact.”
- His “fact” is fiction. The bible is actually a pro-slavery text from cover to cover.
Oops
Anti-choice activists are lashing out at a forthcoming documentary in which Norma McCorvey (aka “Jane Roe”) reportedly confesses that her transformation into a born-against Christian and anti-abortion activist was “all an act.”
- There is solid independent verification that they paid her, and that her change of heart was an act (It was half a million per year). Robert Schenck, an evangelical pastor who worked with McCorvey, supported what was in the documentary. He acknowledged that his group had paid McCorvey to speak against abortion.
- You should watch “AKA Jane Roe.” when available
The Clinton Fan Club
- Rodney Howard-Browne says that Hillary Clinton “is a practicing witch.”
- Rodney Howard-Browne is a practising nutter
The Obama Fan Club
- Mark Taylor Remains Confident That Barack Obama Will Be Executed for Treason
- Everybody else remains confident that everything Mark Taylor predicts is wrong
- Bill Mitchell says that Attorney General William Barr’s statement that he doesn’t expect former President Barack Obama or former Vice President Joe Biden to be charged as part of the investigation into the origins of the Russian collusion investigation is just a feint designed to prevent Democrats from using the issue to mobilize voters in November.
- Glenn Beck predicts that former first lady Michelle Obama will run for president in order to protect her husband from being prosecuted for “Obamagate.”
- The only factual thing regarding “Obamagate” is that he has a house that does indeed have a gate. The rest is nonsense.
- Chris McDonald declares that “our Founding Fathers would have hung” former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
- Nope, they would not have done that.
What else came out of the Wingnut fantasy land?
Lots of other stuff.
As always, it is an endless stream. Some of it is good, some sad, some is rather grim, and some is quite frankly hilarious. Here are a few more samples …
- 63 Percent of American Believers Think COVID Is God’s Way of Trying to Change Us
- Conservatives Are Mad the Pope Prayed with Muslims and Jews To End COVID-19
- One conservative outlet said the interfaith prayer was “nothing less than blasphemy.”.
- Federal Judge Lets NC Churches Reopen, Blocking Governor’s Move-It-Outside Rule
- More people will suffer because pastors are rejecting warnings from scientists.
- Mark Taylor: Republicans, Who Got Crushed in the 2018 Midterms, Still Won Them!
- It must be exhausting to do all these mental gymnastics.
- Calif. Christian With COVID-19 Exposed 180 People During Illicit Church Service
- How many people have to suffer because of Christian negligence?
- GOP Lawmaker: Wearing a Health-Screening Sticker Is Like What Nazis Did to Jews
- For some reason, Alaska State Rep. Ben Carpenter added that Hitler was not a white supremacist.
- Multiple Priests Come Down With Corona in Houston Church That Reopened Recently
- Literally everyone saw this coming.
- Pastor Who Claimed to Cure COVID By Laying On of Hands Dies of COVID
- Some of Frankline Ndifor’s followers insist he’s on a “spiritual retreat.”
- After Reopening in April, Georgia Church Closes Again Following Virus Outbreak
- This is shocking, said nobody who listens to scientists.
- Creationist Ken Ham: When Ark Encounter Opens Up, You Won’t Have to Wear Masks!
- Ken Ham doesn’t care about the safety of his employees or other visitors. He just wants their money.
- Multiple U.S. States Are Suspected of Falsifying COVID Data to Force Reopenings
- Many leaders are pretending the worst is over. They’re either lying to the public or lying to themselves.
- One Rural Arkansas Church Was a COVID Hotspot, With 61 Infections and 4 Deaths
- How many deaths will it take before these Christians take some responsibility?
- Trump Praises “Good Bloodlines” of Anti-Semite and Nazi Collaborator Henry Ford
- We shouldn’t have to hope that Trump is just too stupid to know what he’s talking about.
- Trump Wants Churches Opened Up This Weekend (Even If Christians Get Sick or Die)
- He falsely claimed he has the power to make this happen
- Teacher at GA Baptist Academy Lied About Robbery to Hide Same-Sex Solicitation
- This story about an alleged robbery has all kinds of twists and turns.
There are also good people out there …
- In Apparent Rebuke to Other Churches, Episcopal Bishops Champion COVID Prudence
- They believe in “Jesus” but they also believe in “Science, and Staying Home.”
- YouTube Takes Down Audiobook Claiming God Is Using Coronavirus to Punish Gay Sex
- Preacher John Piper never misses an opportunity to spread Christian hate.
Wingnut of the week – Trump
What gets him the title this week is his absurd letter of rebuke to the WHO (World Health Organization).
NPR takes it apart line by line and fact-checks it.
So this is the letter …
What did independent subject matter experts think?
“I found the letter full of unsubstantiated interpretations of certain events,” said Kelley Lee, a global health professor at Simon Fraser University. A U.S. withdrawal from WHO would seriously compromise efforts to unite and provide proper funding for a global response in a “profoundly important moment,” Lee said.
NPR also tapped into subject matter experts and proceeded to pull it all apart.
China
blaming WHO for China’s reporting delays and sample hoarding is misdirected. Of these charges by Trump, he said: “They’re valid critiques of China but not the World Health Organization.
WHO Ignored reports of the Virus spreading
The Lancet, a respected medical journal, said: “This statement is factually incorrect.”
“By [Dec. 31], Taiwanese authorities had communicated information to the World Health Organization indicating human-to-human transmission of a new virus. Yet the World Health Organization chose not to share any of this critical information with the rest of the world, probably for political reasons.”
WHO has repeatedly said this assertion is false. Taiwan’s health authorities also saidthey did not officially report to WHO that human-to-human transmission was happening by Dec. 31.
“On January 28, 2020, after meeting with President Xi [Jinping] in Beijing, [Tedros] praised the Chinese government for its ‘transparency’ with respect to the coronavirus, announcing that China had set a ‘new standard for outbreak control’ and ‘bought the world time.’ You did not mention that China had, by then, silenced or punished several doctors for speaking out about the virus and restricted Chinese institutions from publishing information about it.”
The World Health Organization did praise China at that point. “The United States was equally praising China at the time,” Georgetown Law’s Gostin pointed out.
On Jan. 24, Trump tweeted: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
“The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China. My Administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the organization. But action is needed quickly.”
This demand comes with no specifics, global health observers said. “What exactly does the Trump administration want WHO to do?” Simon Fraser’s Lee asked. It’s not clear what “action” the U.S. is asking for, or how WHO could demonstrate “independence from China,” because no solutions are outlined in the letter.
As for the threat of U.S. withdrawal, Gostin said he thinks the U.S. is unlikely to follow through with leaving WHO, because he does not believe Congress would approve such a move.
The Key criticism of Trumps letter is the complete and utter insanity of attacking and defunding the WHO in the middle of a global pandemic, and using many many false claims for doing so …
“For the United States to blame the World Health Organization for its own months and months and months of inaction seems factually untrue and designed to divide the world at a moment when global solidarity is needed most,” Meier said. “It undercuts the World Health Organization’s efforts to provide a collective response to this common threat [of the COVID-19 pandemic].”
The rather obvious is that this is simply a move to distract from his own complete and utter incompetence and inaction.