So I'm thinking about this thread...
And about this moment, when the King in Orange says he's not going to let a cruise ship disembark because it would increase the number of known cases.
The people are already sick, but not on US soil, you see. If they touch land, they're US cases.
The people are already sick, but not on US soil, you see. If they touch land, they're US cases.
And he is explaining this, out loud, where we can hear him, on national TV.
His concern is not that they are contagious and it's dangerous because they'll infect others. It's not a public health concern, it's a public relations concern. He says so: he doesn't want the numbers.
His concern is not that they are contagious and it's dangerous because they'll infect others. It's not a public health concern, it's a public relations concern. He says so: he doesn't want the numbers.
And last I heard there were, like, 21 cases on the ship. A couple of dozen. The numbers that Trump is willing to admit to are small enough that a few dozen cases all at once gives him heart palpitations.
But real testing is only beginning.
But real testing is only beginning.
And as the back-of-the-envelope epidemiology in that thread indicates, we are heading into a world where 21 cases is nothing. 3,500 cases (the ship's complement) would be nothing.
Trump's only concern is to keep the numbers low. Not the incidences. The reported numbers.
Trump's only concern is to keep the numbers low. Not the incidences. The reported numbers.
He's not doing anything to reduce transmission because all of those steps would involve finding out how big the problem is, and he doesn't want to know. His head is buried in the sand.
What's he going to do when the sick are lying in hospital corridors?
What's he going to do when the sick are lying in hospital corridors?
Among the many arguments against putting this guy into office was the simple fact that he wasn't qualified. He wasn't ready to be president. And nothing in his three years in office has done anything to prepare him. Not for the basic day to day nuts and bolts. Not for this.
I was talking to @dynamicsymmetry about this the other day, as is my wont, and one of the things I mentioned is that criminal as he is, greedy as he is, incompetent as he is.... and with all the stuff he did to destroy our pandemic readiness... he could still do better now.
He could make aggressive testing the top priority. He could get Mike Pence and The Miller's Wife out of the chain of command and let the qualified career public servants of the CDC handle the messaging and the mission.
Just him stepping back from the process would save lives.
Just him stepping back from the process would save lives.
If Donald Trump could stop "running the United States like a business" (meaning, caring nothing about made-up numbers and hype) for five minutes, we'd be in better shape. He wouldn't have to do much. Seriously. It would take very little of him personally.
And the thing is, as much as he and his boosters in Congress and his fans think that we're clamoring for him to fail, that we want him to fail so that we can take him down... no. No.
We're watching him fail, and it horrifies us. We want him to stop failing.
We're watching him fail, and it horrifies us. We want him to stop failing.
We are watching a trainwreck in slow motion, and we're on the train. If Donald Trump could succeed in handling this... I mean, there's no putting the demon back in the bottle here. People are sick and dying and more people will get sick and die.
But there's still time to improve the odds. There's still time to mitigate the harm. And if Hair Furor stopped worrying about making sure his fingerprints are on everything and carrying about the appearance of containment over actual preventative measures, he could help a lot.
And if he were to do this... if he were to stop his propaganda-driven approach to handling the virus as a PR crisis... he would look good. In an election year. If Donald Trump *actually* handled this crisis instead of playing at doing so for the cameras? It would help him.
If there were one of those magic meme buttons in front of me in real life that said "Coronavirus is wiped out worldwide with cheap and easy cure but Trump administration gets the credit." - I'd slam it so fast. Not even a second thought. Save possibly millions?
All this talk from Republicans about "You want Trump to fail, you're rooting for people to die so you can score points"... it is, and I feel very bleak saying this, more of their projection. They're telling us what they would be doing if the positions were reversed.
When Congressional Democrats first tried to hand the Trump administration more funding than he asked for, almost three times as much, that was the response: "Oh, you want people to die." No. They didn't. That was what the money was for. Trying to avoid that.
I also keep thinking... and I can't believe I'm saying this with Mike "Pestilence" Pence next in line, but. Given that Trump *won't* do the right thing, the Senate GOP could have prevented this by removing Trump for the crimes that a lot of him agreed he was guilty of.
Whatever Mike Pence might be doing if he were in the Oval Office and not officially coordinating the response but with a chief duty of assuaging Donald's ego, it would be better than this.
And yes, I know what he did in Indiana. I do.
And yes, I know what he did in Indiana. I do.
Like, Mike Pence would be worse than any given Democratic president just because of a reluctance to believe government should be the solution and a willingness to believe that if the right apocalypse should come along it could be pretty chill.
But I think for the most part he would step back and let the CDC docs call the shots.
There were serious questions about Donald Trump's qualifications in 2016. Those questions had been answered in the negative by 2020. The Senate GOP had the chance to pull him out of office for things many of them admitted he had done and agreed were wrong.
They own this.
They own this.
They went to the mats to protect him. They formed a prayer circle for him. They staked their careers on keeping him in office. They gambled everything.
The Senate GOP owns this.
If I were a Democrat contesting a Senate seat... I'd be cutting some ads.
The Senate GOP owns this.
If I were a Democrat contesting a Senate seat... I'd be cutting some ads.
