Monster’s Ball
The last five years or so, we’ve become used to Trump’s hyperbolic insults leveled towards his opponents and critics. But when Trump was asked about Kamala Harris’ debate performance against Mike Pence, he reached a new low even for him. He called her a “monster” — a term usually reserved for the worst humans one can think of, like mass murderers or despots.
When I think of the things someone who deserves the term “monster” might do, Trump’s behavior actually fits the bill. Just look at how he has handled the coronavirus pandemic. As I pointed out in my recent article, “President Superspreader”, throughout the summer, Trump has held a series of campaign rallies with very little mask compliance and no social distancing, putting thousands of his supporters at risk.
He pushed for state governors to reopen businesses and end lockdowns. His administration blackmailed schools with the threat of funding cuts if they did not allow in-person classes again. He even tweeted out dog whistle commands to his white supremacist brownshirts to “liberate” certain states — an act that had potentially dire, deadly consequences in Michigan.
I live in a state that was able to control the virus more effectively than most because we had a proactive governor who listened to the scientists. Thank goodness the efforts of our Republican-controlled legislature to stop him failed. Some of them did, however, sue him in court to get the emergency lockdown order he issued thrown out, and a Trump-appointed judge went along with them, ruling that the order was unconstitutional. Never mind that Supreme Court precedent has allowed states to issue emergency orders and lockdowns to protect their citizens. It’s clear this judge was doing Trump’s bidding. The case was thankfully overturned on appeal.
Around the country, wherever Republicans have the power, they are forcing re-openings; eschewing lockdowns; disregarding mask mandates; and endangering their citizens’ lives, all to show their loyalty to Trump. States like Texas, Florida, and Wisconsin have been suffering because of it.
Many of us knew Trump’s recklessness in the face of a virus that we know, thanks to Bob Woodward, he recognized as deadly and spread through the air back in February would eventually come back to bite him. And sure enough, not long after hosting a giddy pandemic-denying White House ceremony to nominate Amy Coney Barrett, the latest Federalist Society SCOTUS pick, a slew of Trump admin officials and hangers on started testing positive for COVID-19, including the president himself.
It’s astounding realizing that 34 and possibly more people were likely infected at that gathering. Dr. Anthony Fauci called it a “superspreader event.” Every single one of those people who attended has loved ones. Family members. Friends. Neighbors. People in the community they could spread the virus to. Not to mention the consequences of a White House infection hot spot now in disarray and chaos, and the national security threat it poses. The president was airlifted to Walter Reed and given a cocktail of experimental drugs and monoclonal antibody treatment, then came back to the White House the next day, doing his gasping, wheezing Mussolini schtick on the balcony that has now become famous, or infamous, depending on your perspective.
Given the fact that he carried on after the nomination ceremony with a presidential debate and two campaign events, it’s understandable that the press and the American people would want to know 1) when did he last get a negative test? 2) did he suspect he was infected before attending the presidential debate and campaign events in Minnesota and New Jersey? 3) as he begins a new round of travel for campaign events in Florida, Pennsylvania and beyond, how do we know he’s telling the truth about testing negatively now?
His surrogates have been telling the press that we have no right to know the answers to any of these questions. One told an MSNBC journalist that “the president doesn’t check his HIPAA rights at the door.” This, despite constantly telling us when he’d tested negative all throughout the summer. Journalists aren’t even allowed to ask whether President complied with the Cleveland Clinic’s requirements for a negative test prior to the debate. Did Trump infect the 11 clinic staff members who tested positive after the event?
Is the White House refusing to answer when his last negative test was because Trump KNEW he was positive before the Tuesday debate? Did he know before he headed to New Jersey to meet with donors? If so, that is a criminal act. Don’t we lock up people who knowingly infect others with deadly viruses, like HIV?
We need to piece together when he was last negative and when he first started to display symptoms. If it weren’t for a Bloomberg reporter, the American people may not have even found out about his status.
People who express shock at the bombastic, self-aggrandizing behavior Trump has exhibited since he left Walter Reed seemed to have hoped he would face a mea culpa after struggling with his own illness. They seem to forget he’s a sociopath. He has no empathy.
Even now, Trump continues to minimize the virus. Despite the random leaks of truth that squirt out from his quack doctor Sean Conley’s obvious cover-up revealing he had a fever. Despite Mark Meadow’s revelations that White House staff worried about Trump’s vital signs the night he was sent to Walter Reed.
Trump is being as forthcoming about his health as he is about his taxes. And now that the NY Times has been leaking information about his taxes, we know they’re a mess. Make of that what you will about his health. For all we know, he could still be very ill. He’s clearly working hard to maintain this illusion of being in “perfect health“, which squares with what his black sheep of the family niece, Mary Trump, has said about his upbringing and how weakness was anathema to Trump’s dominating father. Sickness was verbotten in the Trump household. We’re watching his childhood demons playing out in real time, and the entire country is suffering because of it. We’ll probably never get the full truth about his health, so long as he’s alive.
“Maybe I’m immune,” Trump happily shrugged as he fanned his hands out in that accordian style that usually means he’s lying, in a part-infomercial, part campaign video he filmed in front of a green screen edited to make it look like he was on the White House lawn. He described the virus as a “blessing from god.” “I haven’t felt this great in twenty years!” he beamed, possibly imitating Roy Cohn when the New York society rags speculated about his HIV status back in the 1980s.
When people who’ve lost loved ones to the pandemic point out how dismissive his comments are to their loss, they need to realize —THIS IS WHO HE IS. He’ll never change. Anyone who thought that being struck down with the covid “hoax” would enlighten Trump or make him come to some deep realization is fooling themselves. Malignant narcissists just keep rolling along. They never look back at their mistakes or transgressions. They never apologize. Expecting Trump to do any of that is like expecting a pig not to roll around in the mud.
Trump’s followers are more than willing to swallow his superman/strongman act, but they live in an alternate reality bubble where there is no such thing as irony, hypocrisy, or contradiction from their dear leader. This alternate reality is enabled by pro-Trump propaganda outlets like Fox News and Brietbart, and pundits like Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh. What to do about the talking heads who are endangering people’s lives is a topic for another day, when Trump is finally booted out of the White House. Many people will have to account for their dangerous words and behavior, especially the stochastic terrorism that inspired groups like the one caught plotting to kidnap Governor Whitmer,.
There’s another reason Trump minimizes COVID-19. As David Axelrod, former advisor to President Obama has pointed out, “To admit he had Covid-19 would undermine Trump’s downplaying of the virus, dismissal of masks and expose as irresponsible his insistence on holding large in-person events.”
Speaking of large, in-person events, Trump is apparently so addicted to the ego boost his rallies provide, he simply couldn’t wait to host another one the day after arriving back at the White House.
If you’re wondering why there were so many brown and black attendees at the “law and order” Hatch Act violation Trump held on the White House lawn, it’s thanks to sell-out (I won’t repeat what my POC friends call her) Candace Owens, who paid people to attend and risk getting covid. Given how hard POCs have been hit by this virus, this is egregiously appalling.
But hey, covid is no big deal, right? As dear leader states, “When you catch it, you get better.” Sure, if you’re such a VIP that you can take an experimental therapy that hardly anyone else in the world has been given. Never mind that over 200,000 Americans didn’t get better.
While Trump continues holding superspreader events, the White House turned down the CDC’s offer to do contact tracing for the Amy Coney Barrett fete. No details about the 34 cases that we know about were reported to FEMA.
Recent polls show 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus. Which begs the question: who on earth are the idiots who actually approve of how he’s handled this? I often question how he even has a steady 40% approval rating for ANYTHING he does, much less his handling of the pandemic.The biggest threat to public health right now is the president, thanks to the power he wields and the bully pulpit he commands. He refuses to use it for good. He’s not even capable of it.
What he fails to realize is coronavirus is reported in polls as the most important issue in this election now. Had his outcome from his own infection been to see the light and realize Americans need to comply with guidelines from public health experts..had he expressed a determination to shepherd us through what is likely to be a brutal fall of twin epidemics (flu and coronavirus), perhaps he’d have had a better shot at winning.
Instead, he continues to be the biggest superspreader of misinformation about COVID-19.
Yesterday, he got flagged by Twitter for claiming he’s cured. Even with the best specialists on his own task force, he is still spewing dangerous lies. So long as he has this power and this platform, his followers will continue to believe his bullshit. They’ll continue to look at masks as “tyranny.” They’ll continue to argue with the rest of us that “covid is no worse than the flu.” I’m actually on a thirty-day Facebook ban for arguing with one of them about this.
Just like Trump, his supporters will continue to deny the science behind masks and other ways to protect themselves until they are sick and need its benefits. Unlike Trump, they won’t be entitled to an experimental treatment that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.This is what happens when you have a TV star who pretended to be a successful businessman as president, constructing his own super-fake “reality” show in the White House.
In fact, pretty soon, thanks to Trump, his supporters might end up losing even their most BASIC healthcare altogether. On November 10th, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments for a case that several GOP governors and the Trump administration are pushing to repeal the ACA. This case is being fought by several Democratic governors. If it succeeds, it is likely to strip health care away from 20 million or more Americans. Over 100 million Americans have pre-existing conditions and could lose protection. They could be denied insurance, or have their insurance rates rise to an unaffordable level.
Senate confirmation hearings for the Justice likely to help snatch away our health insurance began today. Several of the GOP Senators exposed to COVID-19 in the nomination superspreader event refused to wear masks or even get a coronavirus test in advance, carelessly disregarding the health of their colleagues. At least the allegedly “pro life” nominee wore a mask. She sat politely in her demure, beet-colored dress while Democrats displayed photos of average Americans who would lose their health insurance if the ACA is repealed.
One of these Democratic Senators was Kamala Harris, participating via Zoom call to protect herself from her reckless colleagues. Like many of her fellow Democrats, she pointed out that the American people are suffering and financially struggling. But instead of voting on a relief bill the House passed back in May, the GOP is ramming through an illegitimate nomination made by an illegitimate president.
Watching the death cult horror show the GOP and Trump have created, I just have to ask — who are the real monsters here?
Copyright 2020 S. Wade
