Are we F’n insane??
By “we”, of course, I mean those who are still willing to support and follow President Trump in this pandemic crisis, and dragging us all down with them.
The models are now telling us that the death count for the virus is “only” going to be about 60,000 by the end of summer…IF we maintain the current social distancing efforts that we are currently doing through the month of May.
Of course, President Trump is taking this as great news…it, according to him, shows that he and his team have done a terrific job. After all, these models said that if we did nothing, we could have lost millions. Then, last week they told us it would be between 100,000 – 240,000 if we keep doing what we’re doing. Even with those numbers, Trump was ready to claim victory and believes he should be praised as a hero. But then, they revised the estimate down to around 60,000 and Trump sees that as a sign that “it’s ending” and it’s time to “open the country”. He’s looking at doing this by May 1. Never mind the caveat to that 60,000 estimate was IF we maintain current social distancing until the end of May.
On Friday’s edition of the Trump’s Very Good Brain Extravaganza Hour (2 hours, 3 hours, Do you want to keep going? We’re giving them quite a show!), he was asked about what metrics he was using to determine when and what part of the country to open up. Here was his “answer”:
Did you see that? He pointed to his head. He’s going to use his very good brain to make the decision for all of us. Unilaterally, himself. I guess we should count our blessings that he didn’t point to his gut, since he tells us that is how he decides most things…with his gut.
So let’s give this a little perspective, shall we?
Trump has been getting briefings about how deadly serious this virus is and the huge potential of spreading like wildfire (maybe we need to get some rakes?) through the United States since early January (some reports say even earlier that that, but apparently that’s “FAKE NEWS”). Throughout January, many of those in the know were attempting to coerce him into taking it seriously and taking actions to prepare. For January, February, and the first half of March, Trump’s very good brain (and maybe his guts chimed in as well, who knows?) told him that there was nothing to worry about, the virus would not be a problem in the United States, we (meaning he) stopped it cold by shutting down travel from China (which really didn’t happen).
Over and over he told us not to worry, it’s under control. During all of that time, he decided there was no need to ramp up the stockpiles of PPE or ventilators, and other needs. There was no urgency to begin a wide-ranging testing program in order to monitor and track the virus. Nope, no worries…we’re all good.
In the meantime, reports were coming in with new cases, Italy was exploding, and the reality of the situation simply did not track with what Trump’s very good brain was telling us.
On February 26, nearly 2 months after Trump’s intelligence agencies were briefing him on the severity of this, he told us not to worry, there are only 15 cases in the entire nation and that number was going down, soon to be zero. How could he possibly know this? Did the testing tell him that? Nope. Did his experts tell him that? No way. His very good brain told him that (with a little help from the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, and most of the FoxNews clowns, who his very good brain listened to more than the experts).
Well into March, while the numbers increased and the experts were sending out dire warnings, Trump continued with business as usual…rallies, fundraisers, big parties at Mar-a-Lago, lot’s of hand-shaking and big crowds. You see, Trump’s very good brain told him all of these things were fine, even when reality was screaming otherwise. He continued these things all the way up until March 13, when he finally declared an emergency. But even as he did that, during his first briefings where they were telling us to use social distancing, he still did not understand, as he was up on that stage shaking everyone’s hand and crowding everyone in, while those of us watching from home were screaming “Quit shaking everyone’s hands!”
Very good brain.
Dr. Fauci finally had convinced Trump to take it seriously and implement the recommended 2 weeks of social distancing to help stop the spread. Most Governors wisely took measures way beyond what Trump was recommending. But within just a week, Trump’s very good brain told him that we’ve had enough of this and we need to get the country back open, and we were going to do it by Easter! Thankfully, once again, Fauci was able to convince his very good brain that arbitrarily relaxing our efforts by Easter was a very bad idea that would have very bad consequences. He extended the federal guidelines until the end of April.
His very good brain lasted about a week before he started talking about another arbitrary date to reopen the country.
No matter how many deaths we end up with in this whole ordeal, it’s clear that Trump’s very good brain has made it more than it would have been.
For 2.5 months, while Trump’s very good brain was being fully briefed on the dangers of this virus, his very good brain decided to do nothing about it. Don’t even start with the “That’s FAKE NEWS, he shut down travel from China!” nonsense. First, he didn’t shut it down, he only prevented a very limited number of a very limited population in China and we have still had 10s of thousands of people coming in directly from China since his “shutdown”. Second, to any extent that “shutting down” travel from China could have bought us some time, Trump’s very good brain thwarted it by doing nothing else.
So that brings us back to the present where Trump is now spending the Easter weekend making the biggest decision of his life, not using specific scientific metrics, but rather, using his very good brain. He believes that he, and he alone decides whether the country will be “opened” or not. In reality, he has no control over anything. He can make recommendations, but it’s the Governors who will decide whether social distancing measures are relaxed or not in their own states. Fortunately, we have Governors with much more sense than Trump. Unfortunately, we have a few that don’t.
The bottom line is that Trump’s very good brain has been wrong on this every step of the way since we first learned about it in early January. If we had followed Trump’s very good brain, we very well may have been in the upper 100s of thousands of death, and perhaps into the millions.
As it is, his very good brain has control over things such that it prevented us from using the full power of the federal government to properly prepare for this pandemic. And his very good brain consistently downplayed and lied to the American people about it, causing half the country to believe it was all a bunch of hooey. This caused the situation we are in now…the market panicked because the reality of things did not match what he was saying, the states had no choice but to take the most extreme measures of mitigation and essentially shut everything down because we were totally blind to the extent of it. Millions lost their jobs, at least temporarily. Trillions of dollars of even more deficit spending had to be done in order to attempt to hold things together. And worst of all, the virus spread wildly, uncontrollably, while Trump’s very good brain told everyone that it was all under control.
Trump’s very good brain told us 30ish days ago that all was great, the numbers were going down and it would soon be zero. Today, the numbers are currently 503,594 confirmed cases in the U.S. and 18,860 deaths. Let’s be clear, that is 503,594 cases and 18,860 deaths more than Trump’s very good brain said we would have. And we’re nowhere near the end. And Trump is now telling us that some parts of the country are doing great, they have no problem. Presumably he’s referring to parts like my own county, where we only have 21 cases. No problem. Remember just 6 weeks ago when his very good brain claimed 15 cases in the entire nation was no problem? Now I am supposed to believe his very good brain when he says 21 cases in my own county is no problem?
Either Trump’s very good brain is really not that good, or he lied to us for 2.5 months. In any case, it is the height of insanity that people are still willing to support him and follow his lead on this.
Are we F’n insane??
