Thread by @mhbx

From a #Systems POV Trump either did not understand the problem, or did, and chose to solve for a different problem. He solved for how to protect himself & his broken ego/self rather than for the health & well being of the nation.
As such all the resources were diverted to

https://twitter.com/TeaPainUSA/status/1359149608635670537

addressing that hopeless problem instead of recognizing the moment and taking up the challenge of leadership.

Trump is worse than a coward...He is, and has proven repeatedly, to be an active cancerous assault on the health & well being of the country. In no case more adroitly

exampled than in how he dealt with the COVID crisis.
From the fundamental denial of its existence - publically. We learned, much later, from Woodward, that he was well aware of the actual & potential danger... and did nothing...But lie about it. And in that gap of lies &

distraction, failed in his core duty, to "protect the nation".
Instead we saw what the fatuous fiction of "I am smarter than [the professionals in any given field]. I alone understand the system. I alone can fix it." meant in terms how an actual crisis would be managed. Poorly.

But not just poorly. But actively worse than that.

When the essential #systemic understanding of a problem is flawed there is nothing that can be done to properly & accurately address the actual problem.

In this case, the choice was made, by the leader, to save himself. First.

What happened for the ensuing 5-6 months is well known. All the idiotic pathways expressed as solutions, fatuous on the surface, yet he demanded they be taken seriously. And worse, the fundamental decision to treat this as a political problem, not a national emergency, led to

the very many horrible decisions that made it increasingly impossible to contain the spread of COVID. The fool fired everyone he could who would contradict him. The idiot at the center of command used the situation to try to exalt himself at the expense of not only thousands

dying, but the entire economy, and future of the country (in terms of the children, education, and infrastructure).

Trump solved for the wrong problem.
He solved for his broken, fragile, ego.
He was the Mad King.
He was the broken "Fischer King" whose failures threatened the

"kingdom", and turned it into a 'Wasteland'.

From that premise, which was adamantly opposed to any actual scientific fact or advice that exposed the underbelly of this fraud, everyone, and everything that tried to actually deal with the actual problem, so obvious in every other

way, was attacked, demoted, fired if possible, silenced.
The CDC was shredded. Our national response was fundamentally one of denial. And a abdication of responsibility to address the national problem at the national level.

You cannot solve a problem if you do not understand and

comprehend the level that that problem is functioning at.
COVID was not a political level problem. Though Jared and others advocated that because it appeared "blue states" were being affected, they could ignore doing anything thinking they were getting some political advantage.

It was not a State level problem...Thus the fundamental decisions to abdicate Federal level responses and remand responsibility to the states was a monumental failure of leadership in a time of crisis.
Tantamount to the commanding General fleeing the battle because he doesn’t

know how to handle the stress, leaving it to the various company commanders to deal with the battle.

Trump is the consummate coward.
He failed, utterly, and miserably, in his one moment of trial.

He was our very own Capt Queeq. Who then spent his & the nations energy chasing

down phantoms trying to find something/someone to blame. Anyone that would distract from the true, first cause, culpability.
So we ended up with a strategy of
. Denial
. anti factual responses
. childish thrashing and attacking anyone who dared identify anything real

. bombastic taking credit for successes that were hard won, not because of decisions made by the "President" & admin, but in spite of them.
. juvinile name calling, as if denominating COVID as "China Virus", in that sing-song ignorant voice, somehow would deflect the exposure

of the failure of leadership by blaming others.
"What about the strawberries? I will get to the bottom of this..."
Meanwhile people are dying, and the country is doing the best it can to deal with the lack of actual and effective leadership in the time of crisis.

It is clear that part of the desperate need of Trump, and his complicit, subjected, administration, to "win" the election, was not to lead or govern. The failure of leadership not only in the COVID crisis but so many other issues demonstrated clearly there was no interest in

being a public servant. There was a lust and longing for power, and the trappings of office. But also there was a desperate need to cover the evidence of abject failure to do the people's business. To fulfill the oath of office.

So we were inundated with outright lies, deflections, binders full of blank paper that were trotted out as evidence of plans... A direct and unrelenting attack on the basic science, facts, and reality of the situation -- so wearing masks became a political statement instead of a

basic action the country could do to help stop the spread of the virus.
It had to be this way. Because to admit such rudimentary steps were necessary as well as effective would be to admit that the entire premise of the Trump approach to the problem/crisis was in error.
And that

And that was not going to be allowed.
So we struggled with "strawberries" while the "ship" was left rudderless, without direction or effective command.

Eventually the problem being solved became the problem solving for hiding the blatent incompetence of Trump & his admin

response to the crisis.

In addition to the other broken issues that make up who Trump is [ref @MaryLTrump among many others] they needed to hide the fact of this failure & incompetence. Thus they refused to recognize the election results. And refused to engage in the normal

transitions of power by meeting with the incoming administration, briefing them on the state of things, and how they were being handled.
As was widely reported, there was no system in place to handle the COVID crisis.

Precious time was lost in ineffective dithering.

Back to the opening statement of this thread:
"Imaging how many lives would/could have been saved had Biden been president..."

If we had responded to this crisis at the appropriate systemic level at the outset of this crisis; applied our energies towards solving the

Actual problem presented, instead of solving for a failed, wanna be, authoritarian cracked ego needs, we would not be dealing with the out of control problems that are demanding over the top responses & solutions.

Trump, quite literally, has cost the nation Trillions of dollars

Trump, by abdicating his responsibility to lead...By failing in the one crisis he could not control, but demanded every bit of wisdom and concentration of effort & sacrifice, failed. Utterly.

Had he risen to the challenge, and actually been a leader, instead of fatuously

telling us repeatedly how great he was, how he was "the greatest president ever, maybe beside Lincoln, but no, really including Lincoln...."
Had he actually responded, not even as a great man would have, but even a moderately competent person, devoted to the solution, not himself

we would have avoided not only the hundreds of thousands of needless deaths...but the shuttering of the economy, requiring massive infusions of trillions of dollars, with all the attendant opportunities for fraud & thieving, just to keep the "ship" from sinking.

It is clear, just by the stark contrast of how Biden has come into this office, and how he quickly changed the direction and purpose of the Federal Gov to actually handling the problem, figuring out what needs to be done, adapting solutions in real time... Like a real leader does

It is clear that this could have been done months ago. Could have been done anytime from Feb 2020 on... And yet was not.

So we are at this point where there is just enough time to mourn the dead, while we address the ongoing , real time threat that has escalated to its present

state.
What we see is that just a basic, intentional, focus on the science and responding to reality is beginning to stop the decline, and begin the long trek back to national health.

Not over by a long ways. There is hope that at least there is a leader who understands the

problem and is able and willing to take the steps to solve it.

Meanwhile, the other fronts in #TrumpsWarOnAmerica continue. One culminating in the failed insurrection and attempted coup. There are many other battle fronts and broken systems Trump has left us with. We’ll see if

we have the national will to address these issues at the #systemic level that they demand.
To do so will require a Congress who will abide by their oath and serve the country.
We are treated with a GOP Senate who will abdicate that responsibility as well. Solving for their own

political survival. It is one of the foundational tenants of "Trumpism": Your oath and effort is in the first place to support and protect the party. Party first.

Just like Trump, if we cannot, or will not understand the actual problem we will not be able to effectively

address it.

Solving for Trump-ism, is a different problem than COVID. It involves many more aspects and layers, including our long history of punting fundamental problems.

Trump has surfaced these problems in a way that they cannot be punted any longer.

They will be acknowledged, or not, as a precursor to any effective long term solutions.
The forces arrayed against taking the necessary steps are immense. It is the larger crisis of America, and indeed, the world.

This is what is meant by a #systemic crisis.
We have to deal with the problems/crisis/issues at the right level.
COVID is a textbook case on what happens when that does not happen.
What we are up against now is harder than COVID to solve.
The systemic thinking & approaches are

structurally similar... but the depth of the issues are out of reach of our current level of willingness, probably even our ability, to address.

So we have to keep chunking the problem into "projects" that we can grapple with... until we can find enough common understanding to

deal with the entire "puzzle".
The analogy of a 5000 piece puzzle of a picture of a sky is apt.
Just as difficult to find the pieces that go together, we have to start by finding the borders of the puzzle, and working out the rest...

Trump & Trumpism are utterly inadequate to the task and the moment.

Today the impeachment trial begins.
If we manage to get this one right it will help put some of those pieces in order... and we can get the renewed energy to take on the rest.

Analogies abound.

And etc....

Seems about right.