The President of the United States is up past midnight, not doing any useful work for the nation, but retweeting third-hard accusations that the author of the classic histories of the Soviet Gulag and the Ukrainian famine is soft on communism. 
Nobody calls the 1919-20 pandemic the Spanish flu anymore, and not because we are soft on the Inquisition. It's just not a useful way to name a disease.
That this president who lavishly praised Kim Jong Un and turned his back on Hong Kong's democracy protesters now positions himself as foe of communism is too ludicrous even to be dishonest. But ...
The reason sensible people resist Trump's urging to call coronavirus "China infection" or "Yellow Peril" or whatever name he's test-marketing tonight is that it's just TOO BLINKING OBVIOUS that his purpose is to redirect attention from his failure to do his job competently.
It was not the Chinese Communist Party that crammed thousands of American air travelers into high-exposure holding pens because their son-in-law didn't have the brains to wonder, "Hey what happens after the planes land?"
It was not the Chinese Communist Party that invited virus-contaminated guests to a party at Trump's cash-for-ambassadorships private club on March 7, well after any responsible leader would have begun demonstrating safe behavior to the country
It was not the Chinese Communist Party that organized press conferences that jammed together a dozen people who all handled the same single microphone - or who irresponsibly urged savers to risk their savings in futile efforts to prop up the stock market to preserve Trump's image
It's not because the Chinese Communist Party did a *good* job that observers blame Trump. It's because after witnessing the shambles in China - and with weeks and weeks to think things over - Trump repeated here the same methods of official lying that did so much harm there.
Modern scientists describe viruses by what they do, not by the people who happen first to suffer from them. They do that to focus attention on indicators useful to caregivers and researchers.
That's not "political correctness."
That's "not living in the Middle Ages any more."
That's not "political correctness."
That's "not living in the Middle Ages any more."
Last thing. Trump today conducted a - for him - lucid and responsible press conference.
He collected kudos for it too.
Perhaps in this grave crisis he might at last behave himself something like a president worthy of respect?
He couldn't last till bedtime.
He collected kudos for it too.
Perhaps in this grave crisis he might at last behave himself something like a president worthy of respect?
He couldn't last till bedtime.
Reposting in light of morning: of course the great flu started in 1918, not 1919. Derp, sorry for my dumb mistake.
