Brian Klass writes that the coronavirus is Donald Trump's Chernobyl:
On Saturday, April 26, 1986, the No. 4 reactor at Chernobyl power station exploded just outside the town of Pripyat in the Soviet Union. During the crucial early hours of the disaster, a cascading series of mistakes exacerbated the emergency. Subordinates who feared their superiors kept quiet. Superiors who feared contradicting the prevailing mythology of the state — and its leader — bent and broke reality. They made a series of smaller lies to protect the big lie: that the Soviet Union had everything under control.
For Trump, everything is about the Big Lie. And, while the Big Lie may work for a while, it crumbles in the face of disaster:
By putting dangerous myths above objective facts, Trump has turned the crucial early phases of government response into a disaster. Some public health experts in government have undoubtedly kept quiet, having seen repeatedly what happens to those who publicly contradict this president. And Trump himself, along with those who surround him, has tried to construct a reality that simply does not exist.
Two weeks ago, today, Trump tweeted that “The coronavirus is very much under control in the United States … Stock market is starting to look very good to me!” At that point, there were a small number of cases, but public health experts clearly stated that the number was likely to spike. Nonetheless, Trump accused his critics of perpetrating a “hoax” and said their concerns was overblown. He said that the number of cases — 15 at the time — would soon be “close to zero.”
The real facts have obliterated Trump's alternative facts:
Today, there are more than 500 cases. There will soon be thousands.
The stock market is crashing. Every indicator from bond markets predicts a serious recession. The death rate is climbing. And if the outbreak in Italy is any indication of what we should expect, everything is about to get much worse.
But, unlike Chernobyl, Trump won't be able to build a concrete bunker around this problem.
Image: Britannica
8 comments:
Trump's supporters won't be able to shoot their way out of this one.
Owen, do you think C-19 will force the end of Reagan's voodoo economics? Will the public finally see that tax cuts for the rich haven't made their lives better? We have to cooperate on a massive scale to beat this virus. Will Americans drop the cult of individualism?
Watch for the crumbling bunker of lies and blame to come into sight Owen!
Good questions, Toby. In 2008 we had a financial meltdown. In 2020 we're having healthcare meltdown. Reagan said that government is the problem. It should now be obvious is that government is the solution -- if we choose to make it so.
.. the 'status quo' went up last night
like the Halifax Explosion..
All sorts of terms & frames of reference flashed at me
& I have been asking the same question for weeks
What are the transmission criteria re Corvid-19 ??
I understand too, the data is resolving
Its simply undeniable, how Trump & his Administration crew ran amok
and as they staggered along a rocky shoreline without a navigator
and a helmsman fron Hell, who literally brought bad weather & calamity with him
Wasn't it 2018 that Trump decimated the Epidemic Response Team ?
They never replaced it.. just more fallout from purging anything Obama
It's about time it did, Rural.
Trump is infected with Obama Envy, sal. That's a virus he will live with until he dies.
Owen, there's one thing about the strategy to control C-19 that keeps nagging at me. What is it teaching the authoritarian minded when they see a city or country closed? What do they think about the power to keep people locked up? After Chernobyl Russia did not liberalize.
I understand your concern, Toby. China can take drastic measures more easily than a so-called liberal democracy can. However, there are times when Draconian measures are justified. As someone who lived through the October Crisis in Montreal, it seems to me that sometimes you have to use tools that are not ideal.
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