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Current number of coronavirus cases in the United States as of July 20, 2020, as reported by the Center for Disease Control—3,761,362—63,201 of them new cases reported since yesterday.

Total number of deaths in the US reported by the CDC as of July 20—140,157—including 498 new deaths since yesterday.

The New York Times reports in this morning’s paper that the CDC says the number of people infected “far exceeds the number of reported cases” in different parts of the US—“anywhere from two to 13 times higher than the reported rates for those regions.”

In a lengthy interview with Chris Wallace on Fox this past Sunday, Mary Trump’s fact-short uncle disputed the statistics, claiming falsely that the United States has one of the lowest mortality rates in the world while repeating his absurd assertion that the increase in reported cases is the result of increased testing. “I heard we have one of the lowest, maybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world, claimed Mary’s uncle, adding the discrepancy shows “what fake news is all about.”

The president’s current approach to the pandemic seems to be, in addition to attempting to conceal the real statistics and downplaying the scope and breadth of the crisis facing us, to blame Joe Biden, blame China—“they should never have let it escape”—and distract us by sending Stasi-like forces to Portland to quell fictional uprisings.

Mary Trump’s superlative-rich uncle’s political sleight-of-hand in employing shock troops to distract us from his woeful failure to lead the country through what may well become the biggest health crisis in the nation’s history seems  so far to be backfiring. Due to his skillful mishandling, the concurrent economic crisis has been made worse by his failure to mount an adequate response to the raging epidemic. His ignorance of basic science in believing that increased testing produces more cases of coronavirus—something a third grader could easily comprehend—has been on full display in the daily news for days now.  And now, his insight-less  bungling has produced a third emergency—this time a crisis of confidence.

For a man, whose approach to governance resembles an affliction more than an administration, no one save the politically brain dead should find this surprising. Successful presidential leadership requires the ability to think beyond the next idea that enters one’s mind—to see around corners. The ability to envision possible outcomes before committing to a particular course of action is essential if one hopes to avoid the types of pitfalls this president routinely falls into.

When, as a private citizen, Mary Trump’s morally bereft uncle was merely plunging his businesses into serial bankruptcies, his ability to do harm was constrained by the natural forces of the business world. As president, his propensity to act impulsively has now had grave consequences not only here in the US but also abroad, where he has morally bankrupted our nation in the eyes of the world. Presidential leadership, once respected far and wide, has now become a joke and our country is now looked upon with pity.

Yet, here in the US, his sycophantic followers have now morphed into psycophants determined to hew to their leader come hell or high water. The cognitive dissonance of his followers is jarring.

Contradictory statements flow freely from those close to the seat of power. Peter Navarro, Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, writes a dishonestly misleading essay about Dr Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, while Mary’s disingenuous uncle soft-pedals, sort of, about Dr. Fauci, just as White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scovino, endorses a cartoon discrediting him. The White House Press Secretary, Bafflingly Boneheaded Barbie, continues to parrot her boss’s nonsensical utterances in the hope that no one will notice her vacuity, doing so with feigned assuredness that her reportage contains any useful information save to illustrate how divorced from reality it is.   

These and myriad other mixed messages coming from administration officials compound the confusion by transforming simple health precautions into potent and divisive political issues. Mary Trump’s increasingly unhinged uncle, whose own uncle “was a scientist,” declared that he doesn’t believe in mask-wearing; his refusal, until a couple of days ago, to tepidly and grudgingly allow that masks might help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, while also adding that he doesn’t plan to use one, have produced a deadly confusion among the public at large about the effectiveness, or even, depending on who you ask, the need to wear one, and this at a time when mask-wearing is our main line of defense against a contagion endangering the lives of untold numbers of people.  

So, is it any wonder then that certain thought-resistant Republican governors, like Oklahoma’s Kevin (Dumb) Stitt, continue to resist issuing orders mandating mask-wearing in their states, despite having himself tested positive for the coronavirus?

But the public seems to be, at last, awakening, and this is beginning to be reflected in the “numbers.” Fearful of electoral defeat, Republican senators whose re-elections are no longer assured are now beginning to defy their leader’s irrational refusal to fund more testing: Their situations should serve to remind them that, if you dance with the devil, there’s a price to pay.

And speaking of price tags, when the country has been (hopefully) freed from the grips of the meanderingly menacing mobster at the country’s helm, a hard reckoning must certainly be part of the nation’s recovery.

Tim Konrad

2020.07.21