If the situation we find ourselves in today were instead merely a horror movie, this would be the part where the peasants would be massing with their pitchforks and torches and storming the king’s castle.
While some might say that already happened last week, those who believe so are overlooking the fact that the building they sacked was the wrong one.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting the violence, the lawbreaking, was okay. Of course it wasn’t. I’m merely pointing out the cognitive dissonance inherent in the acts of misdirected rage directed toward the wrong targets, for equally wrong reasons.
Had these folks been grounded in reality, their ire would have been directed toward the real source of their troubles, the White House, and the sinister figure who resides within, a man who’s succeeded in channeling their anger in directions that benefit only him at their great expense, while totally convincing them that he is the one and only answer to all their problems.
I suppose we should congratulate the president for his adeptness at pulling the wool over so many people for so long that, despite reality’s practically screaming the truth repeatedly in their faces, they continue to remain unmoved, seemingly immune to logic, unpersuadable. But I cannot go there. The man is a terrible human being, plain and simple, and deserving of nothing but scorn.
But perhaps the greatest of his many abominations, certainly in terms of lives lost and families forever prematurely diminished, has been his pitiful mishandling of the pandemic, that, awful as it’s been, is now capped by the following revelation from today’s Washington Post:
“A promising announcement earlier this week from Operation Warp Speed — that the government would release more vaccine doses that were being held in reserve — was dashed when the group admitted to states that the reserves never existed. Officials had hoped to expand access to millions of elderly people and those with high-risk medical conditions. One state health official called the revelation “extremely disturbing.’”
So much for “Operation Warped Feed!” The Post article continues:
“As Americans prepare for President Trump to leave the White House, they face a sickening reality: Nearly 400,000 people have died of covid-19 under his watch. His administration led a bungled response from the start, health experts have repeatedly said, for which the nation has paid a devastating price. American deaths make up 20 percent of the global toll — which just crossed 2 million — despite being just 4.25 percent of the world’s population.”
And from the BBC today:
Funding for a program in Thailand created to identify and study viral transmission in bats that is vital to the prevention of transmission to humans, the “10-year Predict programme, was allowed to expire by the Trump administration, although US President-elect Joe Biden has promised to restore it.”
These real-world implications, in which millions of lives have been lost and many more millions imperiled, underscore the importance of never again permitting the science-deniers among us to shape or otherwise affect the science-based policies, research initiatives and preventative efforts enacted and supported by our government or those of like-minded governments across the world.
Soon, tr*** will be gone, but the damage wrought by this man will persist for decades. For the nation to truly heal, a full accounting must be made, beginning with the complete and total denunciation of the myth of The Steal by every elected official who’s endorsed and perpetuated it. Those who refuse should be removed from office in disgrace.
In addition, efforts must be undertaken to somehow counter the propaganda being strewn across the airwaves and the internet by Right-leaning media outlets and their spokespeople, who’s poison has been spreading unimpeded and virus-like, for far too long.
And their leader must be held accountable—criminally, civilly and in the Court of Public Opinion. Only then will it be possible to begin the work of healing the nation.
Tim Konrad January 15, 2021
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BBC link:
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