Experience was ignored; we got Donald instead

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A meaningful single sentence from this article above of several years ago says, “Across the world, there are growing fears the U.S. no longer will be a reliable ally in tackling major global health challenges, including combatting HIV/AIDS, malaria and future pandemics such as Ebola.”

And today, several years later: “I’ve been right a lot . . . let’s see what happens,” Donald Trump concluded during his televised press briefing Friday. He praised an untested anti-malarial drug while giving a generally-rosy outlook for Americans huddled in their homes, blamed the efforts of states and defended a previous lackadaisical preparation of the federal government—and got in the usual “fake news” when presented with a simple general question which he would have difficulty answering.

He has not been right at all in contributing to the death of thousands of Americans with his self-serving concealment of the truth about the coronavirus over the past two or three months. Overdue testing has belatedly shown the true fragility of our society, and we now will die in unnecessary droves as he demands human sacrifice to his precious Stock Market.

Comments of Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzger to Trump: “Where were the tests when we needed them? . . . You wasted precious precious months when you could’ve taken action to protect Americans . . . You should be leading a national response instead of throwing tantrums from the back seat . . . Get off Twitter and do your job . . . All I can say is get to work or get out of the way.”

I agree with those who were paying attention as a Trump-led federal government began cutting all manner of medical offices and agencies as soon as he took office (Jan. 20, 2017)—both local and internationally. We’re not all caught up in the condition of the Stock Market or the specific well-being of party-goers at Mar-a-Lago. And we’re wise to the fact that whenever something doesn’t come out quite right in the public eye, the blame can’t be vaguely and hastily tossed at the preceding administration of Barack Obama. Sunday, f0r the third straight briefing, Trump blamed the slow response of his administration to the coronavirus situation on Obama.

“We inherited a broken, obsolete system,” said Trump, who has been in office for three years and two months and who since taking office has proposed dramatic cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has historically spearheaded U.S. efforts to improve women’s and children’s health. And . . . In the spring of 2018 the Trump administration, with John Bolton newly at the helm of the White House Security Council, began dismantling the team in charge of pandemic response, firing its leadership and disbanding the team,

Big News, Donald, more and more of the public has begun to realize that we’ve long passed the point where it’s all about you. “That’s the Game, to lose as few lives as possible” you also concluded Saturday in another public address. But it’s not a “game” in which you and Mitch can sell a bunch of corporate give-aways—while everyday Americans lie around and die at your convenience.

To stop the explosive spread of the virus, considerable municipal activities have been curtailed, many are working from home or not at all, and those on the streets have been heavily encouraged to keep their distance from others. But many Americans must stay on the job, some dying, while doing their jobs—among others, doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, police officers, fire fighters, electrical grid technicians, those who prepare our food and medicines. And the more people who die in overburdened hospitals (without respirators, beds, masks, personnel) the longer it will take for the economy to recover. But try telling that to Dona)d (and Mitch), who just can’t see a large amount of money spent without creating some sort of slush fund for rather industrial-size businesses .

Let’s clear up the life-and-death problem before worrying about the image of Donald Trump and the economy (which remain an existential problem). We also can turn our attention later to where the virus developed.

Obama didn’t do it, and this is not “fake news,”