Kevin Roche and I were law school classmates. I didn’t see him much in class because he was working his way through school. Since then he has become a friend. As the former general counsel to UnitedHealth and chief executive officer of its Ingenix division, he brings a useful expertise to the subject of my Coronavirus in one state series, and I have frequently turned to him for guidance.
In part 109 I yielded the floor to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and his guests at Wednesday’s press conference. I included a video of the event in the post. Kevin has now responded to the event in “When Will the I.B. Do a Roundtable for Lockdown and Terrorization ‘Victims’?” Having retired the moniker “dictator” in his references to Walz, Kevin now refers to him as “Incompetent Blowhard.” That’s what the “I.B.” stands for.
Kevin writes:
The Incompetent Blowhard pre-empted the usual briefing on Wednesday for a “roundtable” of people affected by CV-19, “victims,” “survivors” and “long-haulers.” All undoubtedly stalwart members of the I.B.’s party. This is a disgraceful and shameless attempt to influence policy by emotional appeals, liberally salted with misinformation and outright lies. No level is too low for the Blowhard to stoop. The participants in this charade should be ashamed of themselves and hopefully someday they will be, when they consider that they are aiding in perpetuating policies which have wreaked tremendous damage on Minnesotans.
He displayed his usual tactics of fear-mongering. He blamed the “virus” for his actions–no, these were your decisions that you made and not everyone everywhere made the same decisions. He said Wisconsin had “8000 cases today” because they didn’t do what he has done. Wisconsin hasn’t come close to that many new cases on any day. His typical misinformation gambit. He said we need stimulus money to help the state and people, but we only need that because he has precluded normal economic activity.
Where is the roundtable for the real victims of this epidemic–the people who have been devastated by the I.B.’s irrational and unbalanced actions and his campaign of terror. Where is the roundtable for the hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans who lost jobs? For the thousands of small business owners whose dreams have been destroyed? For the health care system which has seen a significant diminishment of capacity and resources?
For the children who have been made fearful, anxious and depressed; and who have been deprived of a normal social and education life, which will have life-long effects for them? For the minorities and low-income people who are disproportionately impacted by these actions, and who get only lip service about their plight, but spewing words are the only thing the Blowhard is good at? For the increased victims of child and domestic abuse? For the increased victims of alcohol and drug abuse and accompanying deaths? For the isolation and loneliness imposed on our elderly citizens near the end of their lives? Most importantly, for the over 1500 deaths above average which have occurred among Minnesotans, not due to the virus, but due to the Blowhard’s actions?
No, there will be no acknowledgement of these victims, much less a roundtable. Because in the Incompetent Blowhard’s world, all that matters is people who may have CV-19. No one else counts. Actions speak louder than even the tsunami of words emanating from the Blowhard, and those actions tell us one thing and one thing only–he doesn’t care. He only manipulates and messages. He is desperate to justify his actions, and these maudlin events are apparently the best he can come up with. I am sickened.
We will return to our regularly scheduled programming of this series over the weekend.
