Photo from City of San Marcos website.
By Richard Riehl / October 28, 2020
Donald Trump says his use of social media, countering what he calls fake news, made him president. This morning, as I watched the DOW sink by more than 900 points (so much for his recovering economy), I came upon President Tweet’s latest rant:
Covid, Covid, Covid is the unified chant of the Fake News Lamestream Media. They will talk about nothing else until November 4th, when the election will be (hopefully!) over. Then the talk will be how low the death rate is, plenty of hospital rooms, and many tests of young people.
Today’s CDC Covid 19 report suggests talk after Election Day will be mostly about what a failure he has been in fighting the spread of the virus.
Here are the numbers for the last seven days [from Oct.28]:
- More than 70,000 new cases per day in the United States
- More than 4,000 new cases per day in California.
- More than 1,000 new deaths in one day in the U.S.
Yesterday, the San Diego Public Health Services reported the City of San Marcos had a total of 1,283 cases.
San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones has no Twitter account, but you can find her on Facebook, where her only mention of the virus is in her October 19 post, listing the rules for her Facebook visitors: “No politics, no Covid, no negativity.”
At the city’s website there’s a tab titled Coronavirus Disease Update, featuring a video message from the mayor, where she assures viewers:
- We are here, and we are prepared.
- You can rest assured that emergency services are fully operational.
- We are keeping as many City services available as possible.
- We also recognize the importance of supporting our residents AND our -businesses in order to keep our community strong.
- Our City is strong. Our country is strong. And we will prevail.
Click on a tab titled, What can I do to prevent getting Covid 19? and you will find this advice:
There is currently no vaccine to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to this virus. Please follow all the steps outlined by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to help protect yourself and others. You can view the latest guidelines and information here.
Mayor Jones, like President Tweet, doesn’t take leadership responsibility for urging her constituents to wear the face coverings that can stop the spread of the virus. Unlike the president, she provides a link to those who do.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Remember that former mayor of San Marcos, Supervisor Jim Desmond, said at one point that only a handful of people really died from Covid-19. All those other people who died only died because they were old, or had diabetes or some other condition. So why bother to do anything?
Is there something in the water in San Marcos?
Well, I can say, I ain’t drinking any San Marcos water ever.
Gee, what party do the two mayors belong to, I wonder?
This is the most irresponsible post about me personally that I’ve ever seen, I went to my Mayor Rebecca Jones Facebook page, where I do most of my social media and I have had 53 posts about Covid and encouraging people to social distance, frequent our businesses and giving them updates as to what we are doing in San Marcos. I do all of my social media, I do not have any staff. I expect a retraction of this dishonest story. I also posted, along with the city a message to san marcos residents about Covid as well as a state of your community that focused on all that we are doing for them during Covid. The hero program contains four steps people can take to help with COVID-19 in San Marcos- Help stop Covid by following health protocols, educate yourself with facts, remain calm, and opt in for all county and city alerts so you have updated information to keep yourself and your family healthy.
Wow. You’re a mayor of a city?
Mayor Jones apparently considers my criticism of her leadership to be a personal attack, mirroring President Tweet’s responses to his critics. As for her Facebook postings, she fails to quote just one that urges residents to wear masks, which was the primary point of my blog. Citing generalizations flowing from a sophomoric HERO acronym is hardly the mark of a civic leader. To paraphrase a quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “Methinks the mayor doth protest too much,” a phrase that today has come to mean doubting someone’s sincerity.
I am not saying that anything as a personal attack, what I’m saying is that you are misinformed and spreading misinformation, I happen to be a person that appreciates actual facts, I encourage anyone to look for themselves if you’re interested in truth. I checked my social media, my Mayor Rebecca Jones Facebook page, and what I found was on the following dates I specifically reminded people to wear facial converings-September 30, July 15 KUSI appearance (video posted), July 6 KUSI appearance (Video posted), July 6 along with a picture of me wearing a mask, June 8 and May 1. Facial coverings became mandatory on May 1st for reference.
KUSI, eh? Birds of a feather.
It’s just San Marcos. Not significant. North County politics are just as amateurish and corrupt as what y’all have there downtown.
Ever notice how when you move East in this County, no matter what the latitude it truly IS a voyage from left to right?
Take a moment to check out the opening page of the City of Vista’s website. Click on the Covid 19 Information. A button titled How to Protect Yourself leads you to information about when to wear a mask, do’s and don’ts of wearing masks, and how to clean a cloth mask. Compare that to Mayor Jones’s vague “call to action” video message, inviting us to be a HERO: Help prevent spread of the virus by following government guidelines, Educate yourself, Remain calm, Opt in for emergency alerts. There’s nothing more specific than that. Urging us to wear masks, washing our hands, and social distancing might have been helpful suggestions. Occasional reminders, referring questions to other websites and playing with an acronym fall short of what we should expect from an elected official. That close-up photo of her wearing a mask seems to be more of a fashion statement than proof of leadership
First of all, if I were mayor of a city, any city, I wouldn’t be trying to give my constituents official advice from a Facebook page. Now, if Mayor Jones in her capacity as a private citizen chooses to believe nonsense and is opposed to science, that is her prerogative. Maybe she should have a Facebook page clearly identified as being ONLY for her friends, family, and others who might have limited intellectual capacity as well as zero empathy for those of us who actually care about what happens to our fellow human beings. Thank God I do not live in San Marcos. Carlsbad is plagued by a poor excuse for a mayor as well but we will remedy that in 2022. In the meantime folks please be sure to help rid North county of this scourge know as the Republican “RED MENACE” by voting to remove them all from office. And for goodness’ sake don’t waste your time watching KUSI.
Any response to this?? It’s real news, NOT gossip, I’m fact based and anyone interested in truth can search my public FB Mayor Rebecca Jones to find truth.
California governor went to party, violated own virus rules
State guidelines limit gatherings, defined as “social situations that bring together people from different households at the same time in a single space or place,” to no more than three households…. The three-star Michelin restaurant has maintained its $350 per person tasting menu, served in an outdoor dining room during the pandemic. It also added a number of other options, including a $450 per person menu for parties of up to 12 people, that can be served indoors or outside, and another for $850. The restaurant requires all reservations to be paid in advance.
Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/article247176061.html?fbclid=IwAR1OizHx_UZQRix3B05hzanjheu8iRxJ8hAx-xRs5EbRC2ITkj-7QWDCoVY#storylink=cpy
You have not defended yourself here, Rebecca, just dug yourself deeper into the “COVID denier” camp. If the Oceanside mayor had acted out and glossed over critical responsibilities as you have we would have ridden him out of town on a surfboard.
This is not a personality contest, nor is it political (unless you MAKE it so); it is a public health crisis the likes of which only a few of us over 100 years old have seen before.
Act accordingly or you will continue to take shots across the bow.
Who’s been spreading gossip, and what’s your point about the Governor, who apologized, Madame Mayor? Still no mention of masks on your city’s website. Only a link to the CDC. Do you, personally, want San Marcos residents to wear masks in public? It’s a simple question that we look to our city leaders to answer.