Political Heat

Averaging the total number of combat deaths by the total number of days the U.S. has been at war is almost the same as the average daily number of deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. since the start of the crisis. I wanted to avoid posting this until after Memorial Day. I didn't think it would be proper or respectful to write about U.S. combat deaths, and compare them to deaths from coronavirus, on the day that is meant to honor those who died in defense of this country's basic principles. Now that the holiday has passed, I think it's important to point out some very alarming statistics that I've recently run across. Across the number of wars that the United States has been involved in — the American Civil War, both World Wars, Vietnam, Korea, the Iraq War, the Phillippine-American War, the Spanish-American War, the War in Afghanistan, the War of 1812 and the American Revolution — millions of American soldiers have died. If you averaged out those total deaths a...

Participants diagnosed with COVID-19 were MORE LIKELY to die if they were treated with hydroxychloroquine than if they were not. Hydroxychloroquine. Maybe you've heard of it? If you've been paying any attention to the president during the past few weeks during this crisis, you definitely have. Donald Trump has been peddling the drug, which is typically used to treat malaria and sometimes lupus, as a possible treatment for coronavirus. He's said it's a "game-changer" and has asked, rhetorically, what do Americans have to lose by taking it? The implication from the president in asking that question in that way is that, even if it doesn't work, it's better to try the drug if you have coronavirus versus getting normal treatment. But that wasn't what medical professionals were saying — it was merely Trump's own advice, not based on any sound studies whatsoever. In fact, Trump was confronted recently about a small study observing VA pat...

It's inappropriate for Trump to fault an industry for reporting on his own decisions, which go against his administration's recommendations. President Donald Trump decided to thwart company policy at Ford, and refused to wear a mask when he toured the facility there on Thursday. He blamed the media for his decision not to wear a mask. "I had one on before. I wore one in this back area. But I didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it," Trump explained . Which is an answer that's both bogus and outrageous. It also reveals the president's vanity. For starters, the media is reporting on Trump's decision NOT to wear a mask. To report on him WEARING a mask would be a positive for the president, not a negative — indicative of him recognizing how much they do to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Choosing to spite the media isn't presidential, to say the least — it's behavior that's beneath what we expect from children,...

The 7- and 14-day averages of coronavirus cases in Wisconsin show the curve may be starting to "bend" in the wrong way. It's been one week since the Wisconsin State Supreme Court rendered its verdict on Gov. Tony Evers's "Safer-at-Home" order, effectively "opening up" the state and ending social distancing rules for businesses and other organizations, save for a few pockets of locations that issued more localized orders. Undoubtedly, because of the court's actions (and the inability of Republicans to consider any cautionary action proposed by the governor ), coronavirus will likely spread across the state more than it has in recent weeks. Safer-at-Home was working — and in the weeks to come, it may become painfully obvious just how good it was doing so. When the order was given, a number of businesses across the state ( notably, bars ) opened their doors right away. Images from these happenings detail just how well people are respectin...

The president's most devoted followers are insisting masks are an infringement of their rights — proving their ignorance on the subject, and that their allegiance to Trump isn't technically political. One thing that I have noticed in the "era of Trump" is that political arguments are seldom political anymore. Take, for instance, the recent insistence by some on the right that wearing masks is an infringement of their liberties. Places like Menards are insisting that customers, with few exceptions for health reasons, wear masks inside their premises. The argument goes that, businesses wishing to encourage social distancing standards, even in places that are "reopened," are somehow impeding on a person's personal rights . The right to get sick, I guess, or the right to infect others. The argument is a flawed and inconsistent one, of course, because political conservatives would ordinarily argue in favor of businesses having the right to enf...

Political Heat will report each Wednesday, starting this week, where coronavirus rates are changing across Wisconsin. On Wednesday last week, the state Supreme Court determined, by a slim majority, that stay-at-home orders issued by Gov. Tony Evers in order to address the coronavirus crisis were unconstitutional. The ruling from the majority was rife with problems, not the least of which was the fact that a six-day stay of their opinion — which even Republican plaintiffs had asked to happen — was not agreed upon by the four conservatives ruling in the matter, due to the chief justice of the court being ambiguous in her concurring opinion . So their ruling effectively "reopened" the state. And with Republicans in the legislature not willing to compromise on the matter, opened our state shall be, with the exception perhaps of Dane County, which issued its own stay-at-home orders (other counties had done so, too, but, worried over the legality of doing so, soon rescinded...

The last time a Democrat got above 43 percent of the vote in that district, a Democratic candidate for president won the state. President Donald Trump this week stated that Tom Tiffany's win in Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District's special election was a "big" victory. The numbers, of course, tell a different tale. Image via The White House/Flickr The 7th District, like most of the political boundaries in the state, were wildly gerrymandered by Republicans last decade. Indeed, prior to the last census, the district had been held by Democrat Dave Obey for decades. After his departure — and after a redraw of the district that changed its normal-looking shape change into one that dips into the middle of the state for no reason , splitting a number of counties in half — it has been held by Republicans exclusively. Let's not split hairs here: Tiffany won, and that's a loss for Democrats. The race itself shouldn't be looked at in any other way. ...

Chief Justice Roggensack's opinion doesn't explicitly state if there's a stay or not, leaving in limbo the question: is Wisconsin open right now?? The Wisconsin Supreme Court just issued its ruling on the constitutionality of Gov. Tony Evers's stay-at-home order that was issued to address the spread of coronavirus. If the weeklong delay in releasing its opinion was to make sure there would be no confusion in their order, the justices failed miserably. Image via  Royalbroil/Wikimedia The narrow 4-3 ruling  (PDF link) found that provisions of the stay-at-home order were carried out in an unconstitutional fashion. Rules set in place weren't followed by the Department of Health Services, which Evers declared to be the agency in charge of handling the emergency. In short, the declaration of a health emergency was sound, but the way the agency handled enforcing rules of the stay-at-home order were determined by four conservative justices to be grounds enough ...

The U.S. has one of the worst per capita ratings in the world in terms of dealing with coronavirus. Trump just said it was one of the best. President Donald Trump made a very strong claim about his response to coronavirus, suggesting that the number of deaths seen so far in the country as a result of the disease wasn't as bad as it seemed, if you looked at per capita rankings. Here's what Trump had to say, from The Washington Post : I think one of the things we’re most proud of is, this just came out — deaths per 100,000 people, death. So deaths per 100,000 people — Germany and the United States are at the lowest rung of that ladder. Meaning low is a positive, not a negative. Germany, the United States are the two best in deaths per 100,000 people, which frankly, to me, that’s perhaps the most important number there is. Image of Trump via Gage Skidmore/Flickr How one can view a high number of deaths like we've seen — over 81,000 as of Monday — as something to b...

Vos's opponent in the Assembly elections later this year dropped out of the race, due to harassment from the right. Someone sent Speaker of the Assembly Robin Vos a package in the mail with a piece of dog excrement inside of it. There isn't a punchline there. This is a dumb and stupid move for someone to make for many reasons: It is rude; It doesn't produce a net good (this won't convince Vos to change his mind on issues, nor will it convince moderates to side with the progressive point of view); And it can cause actual harm to people (Vos or the mail delivery person who dropped it off at his home). WisPolitics/Wikimedia Vos rightly condemned the action on his Facebook page , and made a call for civility. That I don't have a problem with. But the content of his call to action, well... seems quite a bit one-sided . Here's the text of what Vos wrote on his personal Facebook page. I've bolded and made red the part that I want to discuss in ...

Waukesha Co. residents keep defying the order...and wouldn't you know it? The gap between Dane County's rate of COVID cases and their cases is widening. "Safer at home" in Wisconsin seems to be working...for now. In spite of protests at the capitol (and many others in Waukesha County...more on that in a second), and the forced in-person election that Republicans in the state legislature made happen, the trendline for coronavirus cases in Wisconsin, as of right now, is going down, since the announcement of Gov. Tony Evers's "Badger Bounceback" was made. We're not out of the woods yet, but we're seemingly going in the right direction. The past four days have seen testing percentages of coronavirus in the state below 10 percent. The four days prior to that had all seen testing percentages that were above 10 percent, so it's great news that we're away from THAT trend. Check out the red line in the graph below. That's the direct...

Polling shows conservatives are more likely to believe there's an overreporting of COVID-19 deaths — a falsehood that's frequently peddled on the conservative "news" network. Two-thirds of Americans have doubts about the official death toll count for coronavirus in the United States, but for different reasons, with more believing there is an undercount than an overcount of mortalities being reported. According to an Axios/Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month , 44 percent of Americans believe that more have died from COVID-19 than has been reported, while 23 percent believe the official counts are overreporting the number of deaths that have happened. Thirty-two percent say the official death count is probably accurate. The White House/Flickr Political ideology seems to play a role, however, in how people perceive things to be. When the same question is posed to Republicans only, the number believing there to be an overcount of deaths jumps up to 40 percen...

Trump, without proof, said Democrats hope he fails on preventing "death" from coronavirus. A president, such as Donald Trump, who has difficulty reining in his emotions, is not a good president to have. Gage Skidmore/Flickr It's evident after nearly three-and-a-half years of Trump in office, that his anger has gotten the best of him. But during a crisis, such as the coronavirus pandemic, even this statement from him is a new low. Trump was asked by reporters why he would allow Dr. Anthony Fauci, a well-respected member of his coronavirus task force, to speak before a committee within the Republican-controlled Senate, but wouldn't allow him to speak before a committee in the Democratic-controlled House. The president's answer speaks volumes: Because the House is a setup. The House is a bunch of Trump haters. They, frankly, want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death, which means death, and our situation is going to be very successful. Tr...

Walker says he "cleaned up" Wisconsin after a stimulus...which glosses over history in a big way. Ousted former Gov. Scott Walker is trying to become relevant again by tweeting nonsense that tries to put him and his time in office in a better light than it really was. So let's make him irrelevant by correcting the record. Walker (no relation to myself, it bears repeating) tweeted on Tuesday against the concept of a stimulus bill, in general, to help states that are overwhelmed by the coronavirus crisis. Yes, for real, he did: “Stimulus” funding from federal government to bail out state and local governments more than a decade ago just created a bigger hole when it was gone and those of us elected in 2010 had to clean up mess. Don’t do it again. — Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) May 5, 2020 "'Stimulus' funding from federal government to bail out state and local governments more than a decade ago just created a bigger hole when it was gone and thos...

The president can't be blamed for coronavirus itself — but how he's reacted to the disease has resulted in numerous deaths already.  As far as leadership goes, it's apparent that President Donald Trump is sorely lacking in the quality. We knew this long ago, of course, but the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the many ways in which he has failed to his duties as president. In fact, he has done much to hurt the country during this crisis. Gage Skidmore/Flickr But does Trump really deserve blame for the number of deaths that will come about the result of coronavirus? In some ways, we should temper any arguments that suggest as much. The president does not, for instance, bear responsibility for the pandemic's presence in the country. However, while we should hold back outright blame toward Trump for this virus's death toll, how he has responded to and acted to it has had a detrimental effect on our lives — so much so that it's not an unfair assessme...