Happy Days

Someone must have gotten to him. President Trump essentially declared himself King Trump yesterday at the Coroanapalooza, stating the authority of the President was total, and that’s the way it has to be. This is probably the first time in history that the person that has all the authority over a situation has absolutely no responsibility for it. I’m still trying to reconcile those two statements from POTUS.

But today he pulled back, saying that the governors of the states would determine when their respective states would open back up for business, that they were in control and doing a great job. Also, testing was not his problem, it was theirs. There would be no centralized response to any of this, so if the governors were going to open up safely they would need to step up on the testing. If he couldn’t be king, he couldn’t be bothered.

Since he couldn’t be the regent, he would have to use his modest powers as President of the United States to search and destroy in other ways. The WHO seemed like a good place to start. Trump had determined they were evil because they took the word of China at the beginning of the crisis, assuming they were as interested in stopping this as the rest of the world soon would be. Trump described the WHO as “China-centric” and he was ticked off that we sent so much more money to them than other countries, including China.

So he knew how to fix ’em! He would suspend U.S. funding for the WHO in the midst of a global pandemic. Now, I really don’t care which side of the ideological fence you’re on, if you defend this move you are turning in your human card. Even if you think the errors made by the WHO are egregious (they really aren’t) to defund the world’s largest and most far reaching health organization at this moment in time is gruesome. Ghoulish. Indefensible. He had been talking about it for a couple of days, but I really didn’t think he would do it. Not even him. How could he? People across the world are dependent on the expertise of this central depository of information to fight the greatest threat of our lifetimes. He was just blustering for the base, acting the tough guy as is his fashion, but cut off their funding? He wouldn’t do that.

He did that.

Soon after, the stress of not playing king became too much and he told the crowd that if the governors tried to open too soon, or too late, by his estimation then he would step in and close them down or open them up. Never mind that Article 10 of the COTUS seperates him from these decisions. Nothing in that document has had any relevance for him at any time. This was no different. The frustration was building in him and it soon found a target.

But the irony was the final meltdown came off of a question from a Fox News reporter Brian Karem. He started by mentioning the difficulty around the country of folks being able to get testing when warranted, and said that people weren’t social distancing, following the President’s example. The President latched on to the first part of that about testing and said it was the governors problem. When Karem said that wasn’t his question, the President first repeatedly told him to be quiet, then threatened to walk out of his own presser if the reporter wouldn’t behave. He then personally attacked Karem who’s microphone was shut down and Trump furiously moved on to the next journalist.

We are watching someone descend into insanity on a national stage on a daily basis. Though less than nothing is accomplished at these press gatherings, real substantial information about coronavirus being a tiny proportion of the presentations, I still can’t take my eyes off them. My creativity is limited, I’m not a novelist, so each day I tune in, certain that he can’t go any further than he already has, and every day is a lesson in humility. He can! It gets worse and worse and worse. The overarching fever to “open” the country back up to business as usual is the thinly veiled and full-throated support of the oligarchs, serving up the working class heros as front line gun fodder in the experiment. This is a titanic struggle between the Federal and the State governments. If Trump wins, the greatest single craps roll is about to be thrown.

That decision was made once before, though not with the foreknowledge of the risks involved. In the flu pandemic of 1918 the first reports came out in March, and with soldiers being deployed and coming home from the war, the spread was certain and swift. The responses varied from city to city. Chicago and San Francisco were agressive, closing down and staying home. Philadelphia was not as concerned and was hit very hard, cold storage facilities serving as temporary morgues. When the lull came, many thought the danger passed. They came out, they went back to work, they gathered in celebration of having beaten the scourge.

The inevitable second wave was far worse. The majority of deaths happened during this resurgence, as the virus re-emerged in September through November, both wider now and more deadly, having gone through a cruel mutation in Europe. This wave was the killer. The one where the world decided it was time to celebrate the victory. The third wave the following summer wasn’t as bad. It was actually just as deadly as the second but was not encouraged by troop movements the way the first two had been. Millions died in the third wave too. Well, they had an excuse. They didn’t have the scientific advantage that we have. We are a century ahead in knowledge and technology.

There is no useful difference between not having a guitar and not playing one you have. Neither produce music.

In the early 20th century they didn’t have a guitar. We had Taylors, Martins, Custom Shop Strats. We sold an almost new Les Paul when the Pandemic Response Team was disbanded in 2018. Hell, we just threw it away. We had tools, strategies, a chance. But you gotta pick up the axe, man.

So the orgasmic longings of an opened up USA could be a trap if the President is not careful. It could be the nail in the coffin, a second wave of his making. He will have achieved one goal of every narcissist.

He will never be forgotten.

Remember James Carville’s sage words, “It’s the economy, stupid”? Today it’s the science. That’s the only thing that matters. That’s where the best answers are, the most considered of the models, the best shot you got. Pick up the axe! Use the best tools in the box, and if the best result is bad, well, it could have been worse. At least you didn’t make it worse.

The sobering truth is that at some point we have to emerge, and the decision of when, and perhaps more important, how we are re-awakened to this new world will be vitally important and requires the best people to think it through. Trump is fantasizing about this explosive rebound of pent up need and desire. That categorically is not going to happen. Remember opening up for Easter. When the science revealed that clearly was homicidal he backed off and called it merely “aspirational”. Wouldn’t it be cool if…? Well your economic explosion is a pipe dream too. The science will be your best guide, Mr. President, if only you will listen.

But you won’t.

If the economy rebounds, November is a walk, so the economy is the only thing that matters. It must come back. Remember writing off all the drinks you bought the client on that expense account you used to have? That will bring the restaurants roaring back! That’s the ticket! Just like the old days, it’s gonna be like 1982!

It really won’t. You didn’t have 30% unemployment to crawl out from under back then. An expense account is not going to save the economy. He keeps talking about this one policy point, like it will be more than the most miniscule influence on the disaster that looms as our economic future. Such bigger fish to fry. How does this merit more than a passing mention?

The plan is…open! Never happened. Move on. Business as usual. That is the Trump wet dream. Life as he knew it in the 80s, a young media darling taking over Manhattan on borrowed money he would never pay back. The good old days of graft and greed and gluttony.

His signature contribution to the recovery of our country will be your ability to buy cocktails and write them off on your taxes.

The truly amazing survival and reconstruction of our economy under Obama after our last global economic disaster brought the stock market roaring back and created an employment boom that brought the unemployment rate down to 4.7% when Trump took the reigns in 2017. The economy continued on much the same path, though under Trump the unemployment rate went down a bit more, but the stock market took off like a rocket, large companies knowing full well this was the time to get away with murder. The decriminalization of any white collar abuse was here, all the adults had left the room. Regulation of their activities was disappearing at a rate they could only have imagined. They had always dreamed of a Trump in the White House, but never imagined such a thing was possible.

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Happy Days.