It’s a little late for unity and strength

“The Media should view this as a time of unity and strength. We have a common enemy, actually, an enemy of the World, the CoronaVirus. We must beat it as quickly and safely as possible. There is nothing more important to me than the life & safety of the United States!” – Trump tweet 3-11-20

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) or as the xenophobes over at Fox News and within the GOP refer to it, the Wuhan or Chinese Coronavirus, didn’t just sneak-up on us one Saturday afternoon while Trump was golfing at Mar-a-Lago, no the warning signs were pretty clear. I learned about the devastating impact the virus was having in Asia through a friend with a son in Japan. A teacher, he learned after leaving the United States after Christmas that his school had been shut down to avert the spread of the disease. That was the first week of January.

If you had been paying attention to the national news earlier in the year, you would have seen videos of vacant streets in major Chinese cities. No cars, no trucks, no people. You would seen pictures of Chinese schools, stores and factories closed. You would have seen emergency hospitals being built in China, crude structures to serve thousands. Again, that was the first week of January.

Watching these scenes and talking to my friend who was trying to ship several boxes of N95 Respirator Mask to her son the message was clear to me, whatever this was it was bad and spreading quickly. But that was not the message that Trump, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Rush Limbaugh were spreading to their lemmings. On February 24^th Trump tweeted: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” The truth, we have since discovered, is Trump wasn’t in contact with any of the relevant countries except possibly China, or the CDC or the World Health Organization. In fact, Trump wasn’t in contact with anyone inside his administration because all the relevant departments one; had no leadership and two; their budgets were gutted to build the wall Mexico was supposed to pay for.

So instead of a proactive approach Trump fell back on what he knows best, blaming everyone else and as usual MAGA bought it. We heard that the Coronavirus was a hoax, fake news, the Democrats fault, the media’s fault, hell even Obama’s fault. He dismissed it, downplayed it, labeled it no worse than the common flu. He portrayed himself as a scientist, a doctor, someone who completely understood everything there was to know about COVID-19 because he is so smart and gifted. And then my favorite, he depicted himself as some kind of mythical John Wayne figure with the power and ability to keep the Coronavirus out of the United States through his shear force and will.

And then last night, in only his second address to the nation from the Oval Office, a speech that was supposed to calm the fears of the citizens and most importantly to Trump, cool the financial markets Sir Fuck-up proved, once again, what a stable genius he is by screwing-up what was written for him to read. It was right there in front him he just couldn’t read it or comprehend it for that matter. As an aside, the orange dude does not look good, puffy, twitchy, sniffy, snorting. His breathing is labored and what in the hell is going on with his right eye? Basically, he read through all the punctuation last night like the entire speech was one long run-on sentence.

Anyway, after his useless speech the world came crashing down on top of The Donald. Apparently, his best words had the opposite effect he was hoping for. Within minutes after his incoherent garble, shit started cancelling, major shit like pro and college basketball, hockey, concerts and worst of all for Trump and the way he ultimately gauges his success, the overnight futures tanked immediately after his speech which extended to the stock market having its worst day today since the 1987 crash. And then to add insult to injury, America’s beloved Tom Hanks told the world last night that he and his wife Rita Wilson had tested positive for the Coronavirus. I don’t care where Forrest Gump caught it, I blame Trump for him getting it!

So here is what I think, the Evangelical world likes to tout Trump as their savior, as the man that put them (God?) back in power. Here is what I believe, the Coronavirus is God’s response to their idol worship. Remember MAGA: “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”