Sunday, May 10, 2020

Death Of A Con Man


Maureen Dowd writes that Donald Trump has come up against something he can't con:

Now the monstrous virus has invaded the Oval Office. Both the president’s valet and a Pence staffer, Katie Miller, the wife of the racist Stephen Miller, who looks like he hasn’t seen daylight in decades, have succumbed. Yet just a few days ago Axios reported that the president and some top aides were questioning the high death toll.
Trump has always been fixated on numbers and perfectly willing to fake them — his billions, his inaugural crowd, even the number of stories in Trump Tower — and he knows the number of dead, now surpassing 77,500, could be the death knell of his campaign.
So he is despicably turning the dead into the undead, trying to figure out how to claim they weren’t lost.
His talent as an escape artist has run out because he’s up against an even more amoral, vicious enemy. Microbes don’t give a damn about Trump’s fake narrative and suppression of the facts.

Trump has gotten away with the con for so long, he refuses to see that his sales job won't succeed. Like a horror movie, the story keeps getting bleaker. And no one is buying his end to the movie:

When Mike Pompeo tried to push the 2020 re-election line demonizing China, saying there is “enormous evidence” that the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, even intelligence and senior officials pushed back. The man who is trusted to lead America beyond the plague, Anthony Fauci, dismissed it, reiterating with near certainty that the virus originated with a bat and jumped species.
Trump has sidelined the nonpareil Fauci and, no doubt consumed with jealousy and irritated by his honesty, would like to get rid of him. He barred the N.I.H. scientist from testifying before the House this month because the committee has “every Trump hater” who “want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death.”

The end could be the metaphorical death of a con man. If the virus comes looking for him, his metaphorical death may become literal.

Image: Amazon.ca


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The CoVid 19 pandemic must go down in history as the downfall of America's greatest con man; one for future (mostly on line) history books. As an unhealthy, obese and diseased mind consume this man, his demise is not far off and a new national holiday (one where everyone is forbidden to mention him) would be one of the ways this deeply damaged nation can possibly heal. It will be a difficult task until they finally get to the point where caring for its citizens becomes at least a top 5 priority. BC Waterboy

Owen Gray said...

It remains to be seen, waterboy, whether or not the United States can health itself. One thing is certain, though: It won't heal itself until Donald Trump has existed from the scene.

Marie Snyder said...

It's unkind to wish this fate on anyone, but Trump's not just anyone!!

Owen Gray said...

You're right, Marie. It's unkind to wish this fate on anyone. But Trump's a guy who looks up at solar eclipses without any protection. And, during this pandemic, he clearly feels he needs no protection.

Anonymous said...

Don't know if you keep up with the Alberta bloggers on Prog Blog, but kenney acts like a little Trump, right cheer on our home soil. His public persona is different because unfortunately, he has a brain and can fake not being a sociopath. His actions belie this show put on for the knuckle-dragging UCP faithful and the rest of the country who pay him scant attention. Pore li'l Alberta, still no PST but they're hurtin' real baaad. Send cubic acres of money, we export all the Cargill meat to the USA. True.

Just one more example out of a multitude of kenney sins: All environmental monitoring of the tarsands and conventional oil and gas production and exploration is SUSPENDED till year's end. Like the 26,000 who already lost their provincial civil service jobs, those inspectors are just too darn expensive for Jason's blood. And old pipelines can be resuscitated and used as well, with no oversight. Not a peep out of Trudeau, who seems intent on pouring literally billions of our money down the drain of tarsands diluted bitumen on behalf of us all. Same big petro Bay Street players pushing those two to the same conclusion. For my sanity, I have to believe Trudeau is doing it unwillingly, but to kenney it all makes personal sense. He needs a big job somewhere after Albertans wise up and consign him to the dustheap - his poll numbers are crap.

Meanwhile, I cannot understand the logic Legault in particular and Ford are using to relax virus rules so soon. Montreal and Toronto are THE hotspots for the plague in this country, duh. And the better off hop in their cars and drive off to cottage country, oblivious, the elite response. Long Island the Hamptons and Palm Beach FL are full of billionaires hiding out in luxury, partying and bugger the peons. The even richer are on private yachts.

If anyone thinks there's going to be a social revolution out of all this, I highly doubt it. Keeping the serfs separate and distanced from each other by necessity and with medical backing is perfect for the moneyed. No organized resistance afterwards, merely relief. And Cuomo who I thought had brains, is co-operating with Billy Gates to make all NY schools charter schools -- private in other words. Billy is also the WHO's biggest donor since the US quit. The WHO's management is run by ex-pharma execs, not doctors. Hmm. Who'da guessed? And the Chinese are making N95 masks out of compressed sawdust, not the BC lumber pulp from Vancouver island, which is the basis for the real masks 3M makes.

I really don't like the look of things for the future.

BM

Owen Gray said...

Your cynicism is well-founded, BM. I've long been cynical of Bill Gates's philanthropy. The richer are still getting richer.

e.a.f. said...

the thing about the figures on COVID 19 deaths, It doesn't no matter how he lies about them, the body bags are there for everyone to see. Those body bags contain the human remains of people who were cared about, loved, had friends, had jobs, lived in the community.

I remember the protests regarding the death of Americans in vietnam. It had Americans marching in the streets. That figure has now been far exceeded. When 911 came along, there were approx. 3k and change deaths and then the deaths of the first responders who worked to clear it. The U.S.A. changed their entire security operations. Really 3 1/2 thousand in the towers and now whats close to 80K dead. Ya no one is buying what donni is selling

Yes the hot spots in Ontario and Quebec. Legault is an idiot. he is playing with people's lives. On the other hand the voted for him, so they can learn to live with it or die because of it. I'm just waiting to see what Legault is going to do about the facial covering laws he implemented, now that it won't just be Muslim women covering their faces.

Owen Gray said...

It's strange, e.a.f, how somethings turn the world upside down.