The link above is as Krugman’s column appeared June 1 in The Seattle Times. Another brief comment from the column: “Trump and conservatives in general seem to believe that if they pretend that Covid-19 isn’t a continuing threat, it will somehow go away, or at least people will forget about it. Hence the war on face masks, which help limit the pandemic but remind people that the virus is still out there. One way to put it: Trump and his allies don’t want us to wear face masks but do want us to wear blinders . . .”

Amazing how many people seem to to read the comics yet skim past the editorial page of their daily newspaper—the editorials, the letters to the editors and various other op-ed contributions, national syndicated columnists . . . how few of the morning headline readers bother to pause at the word “opinion,” even at such headlines as “On the Economics of Not Dying”. . .

MEANWHILE, I had moved on into this coronavirus-related topic Tuesday, but ripped out from page two onward and turned to civil unrest prompted by the murder of a defenseless Black man George Floyd by white police. It was a distraction made to order in more ways than one for Donald Trump. First of all, it served one of Donald’s underlying prejudices, as the victim was black (although check the vast array of black, white and tan arms raised in anger in the photo by Dean Rutz on the front page of The Seattle Times Tuesday).

Secondly (and most importantly in many ways) it gave our racial and dictatorial president an opportunity to readily turn the armed military against the civilian population. Unrestrained power to the president! Of the various acts if protest, Trump said Monday: “These are acts of domestic terror. The destruction of innocent life and the spilling of innocent blood is an offense of humanity and a crime against God.”

Black man George Floyd had a police officer’s knee jammed into his neck until he died. In what appeared to be lingering petulance over a provision of the Constitution (Article X) that denied him power over state governors regarding coronavirus, Trump said in referring to Washington, D.C.: “I am dispatching thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property.”

During a period of the earlier and noisiest demonstrating Friday, Trump hid for a time in an underground bunker used to protect the president during emergencies. He also posed later with a Bible in front of a nearby church which had been violated.

Trump’s advocacy for tough treatment of protestors alarmed many of the state governors whom he accused of being weak. These, of course, included “swing state” governor Gretchen Whiter of Michigan with whom he periodically has taken exception. She condemned his leadership in repeatedly and viciously attacking governors “who are doing everything they can to keep the peace while fighting a once-in-a-generation pandemic . . . the President’s dangerous comments should be gravely concerning to all Americans because they send a clear signal that this administration is determined to sow the seeds of hatred and division, which i fear will only lead to more violence and destruction. We must reject this way of thinking.”

“I am your president of law and order,” Trump said.

However, the way Republican Governor Charles Parker of Massachusetts saw it: “As so many times these past several weeks, when the country needed compassion and leadership the most, it was simply nowhere to be found. Instead we got bitterness, combativeness and self-interest. that’s not what we need in Boston, it’s not what we need right now in Massachusetts and it’s definitely not what we need across this great country of ours either.”