Yesterday, just hours after I wrote about Trump converting the Corona Virus briefings into campaign events, he abandoned all pretense of providing relevant information about the Covid-19 response. Millions of Americans tuned in to the afternoon briefing to hear what’s happening, get some guidance, and maybe even find out when they can get an N-95 mask. Instead they got a press conference on new developments in The War On Drugs, an update on how fabulously effective Tweety’s “Wall” on our southern border is, and some self-congratulatory nonsense on the long-forgotten, imaginary “caravans” that have been assaulting our borders.
This went on for hours, while nervous citizens at home waited patiently for information about the pandemic. Secretary of Defense Mike Esper was front and center with all the great news about Trump’s successes, and, of course, thanking him profusely for his “leadership” as is now required as the opening lines to any speaking part in the Tweety Show.
I hadn’t really paid much attention to Esper until this week, when he appeared on some news interviews explaining that he would not comply with Capt. Brett Crozier’s desperate request to evacuate the 4000 sailors on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier now in Guam. In the necessarily close quarters of the ship, where “social distancing” is not possible, dozens of men are already sick with Corona Virus and hundreds have tested positive. No mention of how many of the 4000 were tested in all.
Crozier wrote a four-page letter to the Navy Department that said, in part, “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors.” Esper said he had “not had a chance to read that letter … in detail” and claimed the sailors were not seriously ill.
At the time I saw this, I thought, “Wow. Is this guy a moron or what?” Then I realized that he may be a perfectly sane and qualified person, who hoped to serve the country well in the vitally important role of Secretary of Defense. But when you work for Tweety, you need to give up all thoughts of patriotic service. As everyone knows by now, everything Tweety touches dies. Your moral compass is the first casualty, and it’s a long, steady slide downhill after that. Guys like Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, or Roger Stone didn’t really have that far to fall, since they had no moral compass to begin with, but even those who start out straight wind up in the same place anyway.
So I guess I wasn’t all that surprised to see Esper participate so enthusiastically in the alt-Covid briefing. There are fifteen “cabinet members” in the Tweety administration, but there might as well be none. Not a single one of them can say or do a single thing that Trump hasn’t personally authorized, and they must do everything that he commands.
Here’s a triva question for you: what do James Mattis, Rex Tillerson, and John Kelly have in common? The answer is the title of this essay: they were all once considered the adults in the room. They were well-qualified, experienced professionals who would not be yes-men to a man-baby and would intervene to thwart Trump’s most destructive impulses. We all tried to take a measure of comfort in the idea that they might be able to control events in some small way after a crazy-tweet, a lashing-out, or the implementation of an insane policy based on made up “facts”.
What happened to them has happened to every individual who has tried to do what they thought was right when it differed in any small way from what Trump wanted them to do.
So, for anyone still waiting for some useful information from Trump on Covid-19, just forget it. Even that hero of science and truth, Anthony Fauci, who has appeared to defy Trump’s nutty pronouncements on occasion, has had to pull in his horns time and again, and will do so even more as the death threats from Trump’s loyal brown-shirts increase.
But GOML does have a few nuggets for you. Here ya go. If you want an N-95 mask, you’ll have to make one yourself. There will probably be no ventilators for you if you are hospitalized, and even if you got on one, you are very unlikely to get off it alive. There will be no vaccine for, optimistically, another 18 months. There are no known meds that treat the virus effectively. Health care professionals, who are valiantly trying to help the afflicted, are most at risk, and their numbers will be greatly diminished by the time you will need them.
Hunker down and buckle up. It’s going to be a rough ride.
Get Off My Lawn 