Democrats and their media are starting to panic.
The Wuhan virus may not be as politically damaging to President Trump as they had hoped.
8
This is a whole cadre of serial deniers. The facts point to out of touch, out of contact recorded messages which simply say what their handlers tell them to say. Nobody who could read and write could have called 2008 anything but a colossal systemic failure, but they did. Nor are practical issues part of the mix. The Tea Party was founded on the theory that bank collapses and being unable to access your own money were good government.
This lunacy seems to be based on never having your own opinion about anything. No independent thought is visible on any level in this Fortress of Solipsism.
All else has followed with a turgid certainty. The rollbacks of environmental laws against any form of sanity, for example, are part of the ALEC script. The corruption is obvious and rampant. Led by a ridiculous applause-addict with what any pediatrician would call a classic case of self-gratification, the truth is the last thing they need.
62
Ha, great title.
America, the world, cannot handle the truth: it's too real. The climatic catastrophe, including specie extinction, and the growing concentration of wealth, into a global plutocracy, is apocalyptic. Fearless is our only answer.
This virus shows us how selfish we all are; far away from the idea of some 'more perfect Union' or the 'greater good' or such nonsense. No, we're individuals, looking for our own largess. We're the capitalists that look at the 'market', not the homeless or the housing crisis. Karma is here.
Very appropriate that Trump and his henchmen and women get this karma: they are the worst examples of what we used to call 'citizens'. We used to believe in helping the society, 'the People', humanity. No so much now. And, here's our comeuppance. Real.
Greed loses to love: this is becoming clearer. Never forget. Don't deny. Karma comes for Trump his acolytes.
50
Interesting article by a woman who is a well educated reputable scientist. Hopefully as a nation we rise to the occasion and handle this but the author of this article gives some good math to address some capacity and logistical issues issues in our healthcare system.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/10/simple-math-alarming-answers-covid-19/
3
The health crisis and economic impact of trump 's leadership and policy failures will fall to the Democratic president elected in 2020 to clean up the Republican messed just as was done in 2008. Sadly the Republicans never learn. At least hopefully we will be rid of this wretched administration.
47
"The sky is falling -the sky is falling" Chicken Little. Emotional Overreaction does no good for anyone.
3
But, Trump can MANGLE the truth. He’s been consistently doing it his entire life. It took a lot of financial losers and unambiguous exposed facts to put Bernie Madoff behind bars. But unlike lemmings, the MAD HATTERS can reverse course.
15
Trump's ignorance and attitude are huge problems. I think that he is incapable of doing something that doesn't put his own perceived interests first. Yet somehow, it seems Trump&co. actually managed to get someone who--by all appearances--could be a saving force in the corona virus fight: Dr. Deborah Birx is the new coordinator for the effort, someone with stellar credentials. So, what happens if she's a person of true integrity and goes against Trump--i.e. steps on that fragile ego and Trump combusts? There is a reason why no one like that is left in the White House. This country--and the economy--are in trouble if the American people decide that the White House cannot be trusted with this crisis. And Trump&co. have no time to try things out--a little crooked here, a little straight there. There will be panic if the people come to think that Trump&co. are playing ego and politics with everyone's lives.
16
Once again, Trump becomes the victim and it's all a plot to destroy him by the Democrats and all around him need to praise him for simply showing up. Really? In the midst of a international public health crisis, Trump refuses to meet with Pelosi because she tore up his speech. Shame on you conservatives. You would not tolerate this behavior from your child, why on Earth do you tolerate it from this child?
59
An intelligent and thoughtful piece - which means that the Trump cultists and enablers a) won't read it, b) won't understand it, or c) will just ignore it.
51
From what I have read, Faux viewers and others who exclusively consume their information from right wing outlets or the even worse conspiracy groups like Q Anon will soon take the hardest hit from the virus as they have no idea how to take precautions or to protect themselves and their families. Will this teach them a lesson? I doubt it. They probably think the border wall will protect them. LOL! But will this cost them dearly? Probably, because science, facts, and reality actually do exist and their combined wall of ignorance is no defense against COVID-19.
34
Thank you for this trip down memory lane! Such a vile pack of hyenas -- that's the state of the republican leaders, rank and file. They strangled their conscience and threw away any sense of decency or humanity. And when any of them smile (fyi: Trump cannot manage to smile...ever), it screams of hatred, revenge, blood-lust. Oh my.
29
Paul Krugman delivers a compellingly convincing and forcefully descriptive Opinion of the inept, incompetent, and immoral actions of the Vietnam War draft dodger pretending to exercise moral authority during this pandemic crisis. Make no mistake about it. Jack Nicholson's poignant words echoing from "A Few Good Men" are just as appropriate in 1992 are the searing message they portend in 2020. "You can't handle the truth" is the mantra the informed, educated, and involved American electorate should, and must, accentuate daily through the November election, persistently reminding voters that the draft dodger is incapable, and ill equipped, to lead. Die hard MAWA supports, rabid GOP sycophants, and blind Fox News worshipers must be confronted with this irrefutable, incontrovertible, fact. Irregardless how the American right spin the corona virus pandemic, the hard cold grim reality is that their glorified leader is not cut out for the job as America's leader. The American right see in him the last defense to a falsely perceived onslaught, a warped imagined invasion of dark and brown complexioned persons posing a dire threat to their way of life, denying them of their jobs, displacing them, relegating them to second class citizenship (sound familiar?). The indefensible conduct displayed by the Vietnam War draft dodger who sheepishly wraps himself in the American flag at CPAC conferences is that he represents the pinnacle of Caucasian male privilege. Simple as that. Race maters.
17
Okay, what are we going to do about this?
5
I think it's not so much that the Republican party is against the truth, it's that they don't want anyone outside of their inner circle of power to have access to it, to understand its importance, or to have faith that what they're hearing/reading/seeing is the truth.
To that end, they've succeeded brilliantly, helped along by social media, which is a steaming cauldron of cleverly manipulative "information" merchants, who, for one example, are able to put forth convincing arguments proving that factual events, like the moon landings and the Holocaust, never happened.
The Republican party wants people to not know what to believe. The more fear and uncertainty, the more likely it is that people will vote for demagogues.
15
Trump is an extreme narcissist to whom the truth is meaningless. However, it is most disturbing to watch the two-party system fail while about 40% of the US voting population stands behind the incompetent, amoral liar, Donald Trump.
Even worse, as we awaken to the gut-wrenching news of each day, we understand that our democracy is under siege by the Republican Party that supports Trump, his crimes and misdemeanors and rejects the rule of law. The Republican Party leadership is actually America's worst nightmare and Trump is the glaring symbol of their traitorous hypocrisy. There will never be any way to change the votes of the Trump-worshippers. The only way to restore a stable and decent government is to work hard to get out the vote and go the polls in massive numbers...numbers great enough to overcome Republican voter suppression and Russian election interference.
We must cleanse our government of Trump, McConnell, Barr and all of their feckless Republican lackeys in Congress. The alternative is an endless descent into the bottomless depression of the Trumpian abyss.
28
trumps narcissistic mania will come to full force when he is trounced in the 2020 election, hopefully to the degree of embarrassment that he has embarrassed this nation. He will ramp and rage the halls of the WH claiming the election was rigged. It would be deviously satisfying to watch his removal by force. Apologies for my display of hatred and anger, never experienced this level in 60 years toward others who held the office.
28
With trump's misinformation, lies and blathering on about the virus going to "zero tomorrow" or in the spring, he's wasted the most valuable variable in helping America get ahead of the virus: TIME
He tries to control the CDC's directives daily and in doing so makes scientists and doctors jump through hoops in their guidance to Americans. Again, wasting TIME.
Time after time, America has shown it can handle the truth: Nazi's and WWII, 9/11 Attack, 2008 Crash.
What we can't tolerate are lies, cover ups, and smears. If trump can't step up and at least "fake" being a leader, than he needs to sit down, shut up and let others bring us truth.
Otherwise, he's just wasting our TIME.
12
Oh, they know the truth perfectly well.
And they know that since Reagan then Gingrich they are able to outmaneuver all others who (with decency) seek objective understanding of the reality.
And they know that all this is to help the further shift of the wealth to those who influence policies.
And all those who abet this surrealism of un-truth are either in on this or hateful of anything liberal (abortion) or just without reason. There are some whose redneckness is validated now and they feel it is their moment in history.
But history teaches (Nazi Germany) that eventually good prevails... but at what cost?
It is just sad to see otherwise talented people lending their voices and faces to this.
8
Trumps muddled and ignorant response to the Corona Virus is to be expected… the great “Businessman” is trying to figure out how he and his family of grifters can monetise this crisis for purely personal gain… His congressional cheerleaders are no doubt helping him set up companies as we speak to ensure Federal funds are directed to the right off shore bank accounts…
To rephrase Lincoln’s remark at Gettysburg for these Trumpian times:
This is a government of Grifters , by Grifters, for the Grifter and his family…
13
Given that America's right now = ignorance and especially the evangelical Christians and their idea that the bible is the only truth/science is a lie, of course. The whole right wing these days is spawned of fantasy, promising workers things that will never happen (jobs coming back to the US from China because of the Covid Virus? Well paying jobs with benefits flowing from Uncle Donny and the GOP? Making small town america prosper again?), not to mention the other fantasy, that tax cuts stimulate job growth, which Trump and the GOP are now promoting to try and bolster the stock markets (yes, middle America, the unemployment rate is low, but the funny part is, it didn't drop much after the huge tax cut, and more importantly, the jobs already created saw zero growth in wages, another promise). The whole myth that if we just returned to the good old days , where whites were king, men in charge, women in the kitchen, blacks living by the grace of the beneficial whites, and well, not going to talk about other minorities, manna is gonna flow from God.......and if anything contradicts this, it is 'fake news', 'fake economic reports', and the boobs who support the GOP non their head and say yep, and then wonder why they still have it hard.
9
The Trump cult must be tired of constantly trying, and failing, to defend this indefensible clown and his flunkies. They certainly sound tired.
12
What good is democracy if herd mentality, subject to Pavlovian mind manipulation, is the rule? We already are controlled by a "committed minority".
It does not take a government tested IQ over 140 to see that odds are good that the Economy will be in fall mode, and ACA may be killed by an SC vote... although only after November's Big Day.
Timid, safe, conventional won't cut it dealing with that future.
But the powers that be have controlled the message (and the field, had K & B stayed in, or W dropped out with them after NV, the picture would be flipped).
What is most galling is to hear about how Blacks will vote...they will show up for any breathing Dem. Cuz of Trump. But the whole ex CSA, excluding VA probably- because of DC blurb, will go south. In all the leftovers we get again from C's 2016 campaign (we'll lose the Senate, the House, Govs, etc...which happened not running S) the one that got excised this time was Hispanics, and any analysis of the SE Bernie brought them. Will the vice to the "deporter-in-chief"? & holding NM, CO,... NV not so much, is essential. Getting AZ?
That said, the race is really about few states- PN, OH, MI, WI...Just win back PN & MI and VA can be lost...
Is safe really safest there?
(OK, your boss at Times not even 1 million, but Times lives on those billionaire's corporations $$$...)
He dwells upon superlatives like "perfect". It’s an aural form of shorthand.
It's always "perfect". The phone call to President Zelinski of Ukraine was a “perfect phone call“. “I did nothing wrong ...”, a mantra repeated endlessly. Or, it was even a “perfect piece of chocolate cake.” Then comes the unmentioned hitch.
Or, it’s “incredible”. “What they found in Hawaii was incredible”, what he said about a team of private investigators whom he supposedly hired to investigate whether President Obama even had a real one, a fake controversy that he himself had helped generate; remember that one? Did he ever produce those private investigators?No. Not one. It was a form of "Swift-boating" President Obama’s legal right to even be president, to stain him as illegitimate— a citizen of the United States — by simply ignoring the inconvenient fact that many prominent Republicans, all considered American citizens, were born of American parents while overseas.
Or, it’s “fake”. You're the fake, Hillary". "Fake Joe Biden". Or "It's fake news" although it isn't. Any person who dares speak critically of him is “fake”.
A critical report about him personally, or of his often corrupt, incompetent Administration, or about what he’s doing, is "fake". All "fake". Everything and everybody is “fake” should they report about his frequent golf holidays, his rosy projections, his false claims. “Fake”. It's not, but it is.
It’s a con job, a salesman’s pitch. No reality in it.
I’m so tired of it.
13
This will be like when the REPUB incompetents Bush and Cheney did Katrina...lined their pockets while killing Americans...and all the time blaming everyone else.
Maybe Rudy Giuliani can put on a dress and save us!!!
6
If you haven't seen Steve Martin's movie "Leap of Faith" you can't understand just how stupid these people are.
8
Trump can’t handle anything, he’s nuts.
8
This sort of situation is exactly what all our public servants work for (well, and a lot of other things). The deep state is when we combine our resources to deal with major challenges. And the president has been doing his best to dismantle it and take us into anarchy.
11
Time to make the case for Bernie, Paul. The Coronavirus and the stock market plunge make it clear as day--we need public spending and socialized medicine pronto.
93
@Sebastian: At present, total public spending in the US comprises 38% of economic product. It is obviously badly misspent for so little to show for it.
14
Time to make the case for Bernie, Paul. A comprehensive public spending plan and Medicare for All would handily address this CoVID-19/stock market issue among many others that could arise.
2
@Sebastian: Sanders hasn't got a clue how to negotiate the triage essential to affordable public health plans.
3
I fear for Dr. Fauci. As the virus spreads Trump will fire him.
14
The ego of a narcissist does not bruise, bend or dent. It cracks and shatters. So Trump has to blame others for all disappointments, declare himself a genius, claim his actions are perfect, deny all errors and paint those who disagree with him as darkly and dangerously as possible.
Otherwise, Trump's ego, fragile as a glass figurine, would splinter, threatening to destroy his very being.
7
Trump has deliberately surrounded himself with fawning sycophants, who put their love of Trump, above their love of the United States and the Constitution of the United States.
In 2016 it was abundantly clear, that Trump was unqualified for any job in the US government, let alone the Presidency of the United States.
He simply either ignores or undermines the truth.
Republicans knew that Trump’s unfunded tax cuts, that were skewed to the mega rich like Trump, would blow up the budget deficit. They passed it anyway and the budget deficit is now heading way past $1000 billion, compared to $585 billion in 2016.
It does get tricky for Republicans when their dire predictions under Obama, are shown to be abundantly false, yet these same folks, who get it wrong so often, are still given a significant voice to sprout their fiction.
Trump never accepts responsibility for the outcomes of his decisions. What is disturbing is that 60 odd million Americans, still choose to follow Trump, despite all the factual evidence that shows Trump is untrustworthy, ignorant and dangerous, on an industrial scale.
12
It is obvious that this year is an election year and as you know very deep inside that the economy is main factor to play with. If economy is prosperous then really is not a case for the people who sits in the WH. Thats the main reason why the current administration is handling things in such a way - we all have under control and handle the virus with ease, because they dont want negative consequences on the economy and capital markets. But for that is now too late.
If Trump want another term, then he has do to all what is needed to put economy in a strong condition, and definitely before election time. We already read about additional tax cuts, so he is already worried about that.
I do believe that coronavirus is overstated and that is in someones interest.
Foreign observer.
Andre
For a tyrant the truth is either irrelevant or whatever he says it is.
Not acceptable in an educated and moral society. Not acceptable in a government ruled by fact, not fiction.
9
COVID-19 testing is discussed at length in the following article, freely available. Please read the article to be better informed.
"Controversies over diagnostic testing have dominated US headlines..."
"While the public may want extensive testing, the usefulness of testing is greater in some scenarios than others. It is important to balance 2 concepts: remedying testing gaps is imperative, yet more testing is not always better."
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762951
It is ALMOST funny that Trump can call he Coronavirus a hoax perpetrated by the Democrats. He is an American who is entitled to his own opinion. He is also the President and has an obligation to all of us to work diligently for ALL of us. The recent lies by his administration are unacceptable; Trump has no right to risk lives because it suits his temperament or poll numbers.
11
I'm loathe to say it, but it's probably a good thing that Trump became president. He is the perfect test case for how we handle our democracy, as well as for pointing out the deficiencies in the structure of our government.
Things are in desperate need of improvement...
88
@Susan
Susan, how we handle what "democracy"?
As Karl Rove said to Ron Suskind, "We're an Empire now"
The "Times" reported this on Oct. 17, 2004, and yet, few --- aside from, Rove, Norquist, Cheney, Bush, the Clintons, and Emperor Trump seem to take this to heart.
15
I'm sorry but the real problem is corruption. It isn't necessarily that these guys don't recognize the truth - they just have no interest in truth per se. And they certainly don't wish to acknowledge it or deal with it whenever it is somehow an embarrassment to them or doesn't fit the fictitious narrative they have been spinning for own purposes of self interest. What you are up against is pure 99 and 44/100 % corruption.
231
At the risk of evoking a disturbing visual mental image for those who know the story:
We are in the age of the Emperor's New Clothes.
4
"In 2020 we’re relearning the lessons of 2008 — namely, that America’s right-wingers can’t handle the truth."
And why do we have to keep 'relearning' that the Republican party is not up to governing? Because we keep treating, and talking about, Republicans like they are a legitimate 'political' party. They are not.
What are they? What words should we use to describe what was once (a long time ago) a political party? I don't know? 'cult', 'criminal gang' - would be closer to the truth.
14
@rls
I think "leaches" would be appropriate.
8
Well, this is kind of stating the obvious here. If we keep repeating the obvious to those who deny the truth, who cannot separate lies from fact, or who are willfully ignorant, does it really accomplish anything? Isn't it better to ignore them and forge relationships with ethical businesspeople, scientists, professors, attorneys, careworkers and others who can really make a difference? How about making voting mandatory, fining those who don't vote unless they can provide a darn good reason? A real and present danger is the apathy of roughly 100 million eligible Americans who did NOT exercise their right to vote in the last major election.
3
Epidemiology does not respect political parties, so why do pundits from both parties waste our time speculating on this topic. Perhaps they believe more "hot air" slow the spread of this virus!
2
It’s well known that people believe what they need to believe in order to justify their own behavior. Of course it should be the reverse, figure out what is true and behave accordingly. Even the left is guilty. Bernie believes he can convince most of the populace to embrace his plans. That justifies his divisiveness. In the end we will be one! Somehow “they” will end up with the power to change the country in four years, regardless of obstacles in Congress, even in their own party. Weren’t they watching when Congress blocked Obama’s plans? I like Bernie’s values, but objecting/whining is not the job of a president. Haven’t we learned that? So I don’t think Dems are necessarily a whole lot better at dealing with facts. Well, but, the experienced women are! Seriously. And our current candidates are too old and not in great shape, dah! Running mates were never so important. I think we should know who they are now. Don’t you? The Trump Republicans are in too deep to recover their honor.
1
The right and the left aren't truly represented by either party so I don't get the point of this argument. The true misconception is what is a republic operating under a free market? Both current political parties have destroyed the intent and goals of the Constitution the founding fathers intended. In the end, I wish the right and the left would go away. That states could truly be solvent self guided entities, and the Federal government was not intrusive. However, we are way past that and the choice is socialism or capitalism and neither is moral or not corrupt. Great choices.
@C The GOP has tried to destroy the US government MUCH more than the Dems. Just think of the refusal by McConnell to consider judge Merrit Garland for SCOTUS. Think of Trump trying to get the Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden by threatening to withhold US aid. Think of Flynn trying to trade favors with Putin. Think of Trump praising Putin, MBS, and other dictators. So "both parties do it" is NOT correct. Bigly
9
Paul Krugman's overall point that Republicans and right-wingers have a history of turning crises into conspiracy theories is well taken. He's not forthcoming, however, about Democratic shared responsibility for the 2008 financial crisis. Larry Summers and other Democratic advisors in the late 1990s decried efforts to regulate the commodities market, which contributed mightily to the financial crisis a decade later. Democrats are not blameless here, as Professor Krugman would have us believe.
4
Maybe it is true that the far distant part of the conservative spectrum is so immature that their fantasies are more real to them than the facts in their faces. Maybe this is how the GOP has become the party that has thrown fiscal responsibility overboard. Their tax bill is hugely increasing the national debt. It is the same as a child with a credit card, or a bankrupt real estate promoter who only lives by borrowing from foreign banks and oligarchs. And hey, if it's easy to be in denial about debt, they have no difficulty in being in denial about disease. It is only through the machinations of our home grown oligarchs that such a leadership plague has descended on our country.
5
There has always been a segment of our government that looks for ways to take advantage of the masses. It used to be a minority. I used to believe that there are more good people than bad ones. I'm not sure anymore.
8
@KOOLTOZE
A thoughtful comment. Thanks.
I continue to believe there are far more good people in our country than bad ones.
I think a large part of our problem can be solved if we send a clear message to our young citizens that the idea, “the personal accumulation of vast wealth is the true measure of success,” is erroneous, false and destructive. It leads to “wealth for the sake of wealth” and “getting rich by whatever means are necessary.”
Children and young adults should be encouraged to find status, satisfaction and self-esteem in service to others. To use their gifts and abilities in making a positive contribution to our country and our world.
Greed and waste should be viewed as a source of shame, not pride.
6
At the height of our devastating bushfires our Prime Minister took his family on a holiday to Hawaii. When shamed in the press, he returned early- and the 1st thing he did was release a glossy TV advertisement showcasing his government's "achievements" in combatting the fire. It was, and was seen to be, a paid, political ad.
But some people learn. Our Government has been leading the world in its response to this novel virus.
Why has politics so infected America's ability to govern?
7
It is unbelievable that the administration still can't tell us how many people have been tested for the virus. Of course they know. And of course Trump's been tested himself; as a germaphobe it would be unthinkable for him not to want to test. And Pence knew it at the press conference yesterday, he just lied about it. Is this administration hoping that people die without being tested because the numbers won't be as high? And where are the 1 million tests that were supposed to be available as of last Friday? Pence promised this at his presser last week.
How come every congressional Democrat is not saying it's time for the 25th amendment? If they all said this every single day for weeks on end the public perception would change. Just take a page out of the Republican playbook - if you say the same thing over and over again at some point people will believe it.
12
I find it odd that, despite test kit shortages, Mr. Gaetz and other GOP conservatives are getting their virus tests immediately. What about health care workers and others to whom the CDC has said,”No!” ? As usual this administration is mired in hypocrisy. Disgusted.
10
The rule of Trump has been characterized by a continuous stream of outrageous statements and attacks on the elites that have set his opponents continuously on the wrong foot.
Knowledge is not important, character is. Character being the capability of insulting your opponent, while you have (or claim to have) more money that he does.
He has mesmerized a major part of the public with this approach.
But when it concerns physicians at the time of an epidemic, this does not work. Attacking medical staff that is struggling at the front is impossible even for POTUS.
So Trump has now left the headlines, which is a relief. But of course, he is only in hiding.
Will the public ever appreciate gravitas again?
3
@What'sNew
Remember that a large percentage of Trump's supporters spend way too much time watching TV--there isn't much gravitas on Dancing with the Stars.
3
The key thing about science is that it is true even if you don't believe it. Trump and the GOP can spend all their energy denying the COVID-19 virus and blaming the Democrats and media, but the reality is that the virus will spread. When Italy, a G-7 economy, decides to take steps to essentially quarantine the entire country, how can that be blamed on the Democrats and US Media?
What we are witnessing is a major political party so anxious to hold onto power that it is contemptuous of the physical health and well-being of the populous. That alone should give us pause.
21
Speaking of truth, where are forecasts of the possible scale of the Covid-19, measured in infected people at 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. We can take a stab at this ourselves, since no one is bothering to tell us. We start with the number of known people infected (as of last night, 600 in NY Times database) and an estimate of how long it takes for people infected to double (rounded up from 7.4 to 8 days from early experience in Wuhan). We find this (guesstimated) forecast of infected Americans: about 10k in a month, about 153k in 2 months and about 1.2m in 3 months; beyond that, do the math, see for yourselves. Of course, unknowns may slow the spread of Covid-19, not to mention I am no epidemiologist and am probably missing important constraints (e.g., exponential disease growth probably slows at some point like infected population exceeds uninfected population). But when our government does not have positive regard for truth and facts, or sharing them, we are on our own. As the guesstimates indicate, being on our own can be a scary place to be.
9
@dt
As a wet-finger-in-the-air approach, you are probably doing a better job at communicating potential outcomes than those elected to take care of us... so sad
4
Denial of anthropogenic climate change falls into the same category.
There is a legitimate political, economic and even scientific debate on how to best respond to man made climate change (i.e. we don’t all have to automatically agree with or accept The Green Deal).
But denying fundamental science - while recognizing that experts in a field are never 100% in agreement, and that even consensus expert views can be wrong - with climate change, with evolution, with a pandemic is now a hallmark of the Republican Party and conservative pundits. As is belief that everything experts say is a hoax, fake news, or part of some bizarre conspiracy theory. As Prof K often points out, they hold on to zombie ideas long after there is overwhelming evidence that they are simply wrong.
Denying science, epidemiologists, public heath experts, medical experts, when dealing with a pandemic will literally kill many of us unnecessarily.
12
When you care more about "narrative" than "truth", you're already lost...
12
I just watched his CDC "address" on Colbert's monologue...wow, POTUS is out of his mind...absolutely no doubt.
"perfect tests" "Uncle at MIT" "enough tests for everyone"
Oh, Lord
14
“The group ‘Duty to Warn,’ founded by influential psychotherapist Dr. John Gartner, has gathered nearly 60,000 signatures on a petition calling for the removal of Donald Trump from office due to ‘serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States.’”
—Psychology Today
The president isn’t just “unable to handle the truth.”
He is unable to differentiate the truth from the endless torrent of lies he invents.
428
@Tom W
"The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" by Bandy Lee is a series of articles by more than 24 psychiatrists and psychologists setting out why they believe that the President is dangerously mentally ill and should be removed and makes great reading.
The US Constitution also has the 25th Amendment which allows the removal of a President in Trumps circumstances.
I suspect as in China, where the Government is very unpopular because of the Coronavirus, that the more people die in their thousands from the Coronavirus which is a distinct and very sad possibility, that the majority of the population will rebel against Trump and vote him out in 2020.
26
The number of readers supporting this comment is somehow reassuring. They are certainly not members of the donor driven GOP salivating at the revolving door of judicial appointments.
16
@Tom W
Trump comes up with a perfect plan,
To hide the corona as long as he can.
He’ll fool the public, don’t you see,
He says he knows more than the CDC.*
I’ve “maybe a natural ability,”
To manage everything to a tee.
People are dying in plain sight,
As he smugly assures US all will be right.
A failure of leadership from our Prez,
Can anyone trust a word that he says?
*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
33
Not only can't they handle the truth, they invent insane reasons why willful dissociation is good.
"New book reveals that Mick Mulvaney thinks Trump is mentally ill and that it is a “good thing”
A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness by Nassir Ghaemi
“This book argues that in at least one vitally important circumstance insanity produces good results and sanity is a problem,” Ghaemi writes in his introduction. “In times of crisis, we are better off being led by mentally ill leaders than by mentally normal ones.”
This is the quality of the people you elect republicans. A normal person would feel shame and be unable to look fellow citizens in the eye.
https://occupydemocrats.com/2020/03/07/new-book-reveals-that-mick-mulvaney-thinks-trump-is-mentally-ill-and-that-it-is-a-good-thing/
4
Trump assigns VP Pence as Point Man for CV-19 Control.
I'm all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius. – Leo Szilard
13
He dwells upon baseless superlatives. Like "Perfect". It’s an aural form of shorthand.
It's always "perfect". The phone call to President Zelinski of Ukraine was a “perfect phone call ... “. “I did nothing wrong ...” the mantra repeated endlessly. Or, it was even a “perfect piece of chocolate cake.” Then comes the unmentioned hitch.
Or, it’s “incredible”. “What they found in Hawaii was incredible”, what he said about a team of private investigators whom he supposedly hired to investigate whether President Obama’s even had a real one, a controversy that he himself had helped generate; remember that one? Did he ever produce those private investigators? No. Not one. It was a form of "Swift-boating" President Obama’s legal right to even be president, to stain him as illegitimate— him being a citizen of the United States — by simply ignoring the inconvenient fact that many prominent Republicans, all considered to be Americans, are born of American parents while living overseas.
Or, it’s “fake”. You're the fake Hillary". "Fake Joe Biden". "Fake News".
Any person who dares speak critically of him is “fake”.
A report that’s critical of him personally, or critical of his often corrupt, incompetent Administration, or what he’s doing is "fake". It’s all "fake". Everything and everybody is “fake” should they with his frequent golf holidays, or his rosy projections, or his false claims. “Fake”.
It’s a con job, a salesman’s pitch. No reality in it.
I’m so tired of it.
19
Trump said he was against bringing patients from the cruise ship onto US soil because it would change the “numbers” and he wanted the “numbers” to stay where they were. The numbers are PEOPLE, you heartless jerk. Those are sick people on your watch.
It’s not all about you, Donald. It’s not about your poll numbers, your rally attendees, the stock market, your chances for re-election. It’s about a world-wide pandemic that is going to kill a great many innocent, vulnerable people. Some are going to die because you and your “best people” dropped the ball. Big time. There is no vaccine; there is no cure at this point. There are still not enough test kits. Your bad.
The last thing we need is your input. Keep your mouth shut and try to pay attention to the experts. If, as you bragged, you are as smart as the doctors then take the oath - Do No Harm!
21
It's the Republicans
all of them
16
Quarantine the whole country for a few weeks and let the thing die off.
2
@rebecca1048 - That is what Trump is leading up to . . . but he will have to declare Martial Law to do it. Then he and his Republican Enablers will sit back and say . . .
"GOTCHA !".
2
Any time, and this happens quite often, that Trump blithers the word "perfect", I cringe. That is Trump-speak for "I am blatantly LYING and have committed a serious crime by intent or omission, and YOU can't do anything about it; na, na, na!"
This will never stop until we get rid of Trump. I am sick and tired of thousands of lies, criminal backing by his cult sycophants and, oh, the crimes and obstructions. Those "pardons" - disgusting. The demeaning of the Presidential Medal - it will never be the same after he handed it out to his political supporters who are either criminals or who have literally bought it - people who are nothings. His ignorance is legion and his incompetence more so.
If this were a TV sitcom, Trump would be the feckless dolt that always screws up and gets caught committing endless crimes and lame schemes - but it isn't -- it's OUR COUNTRY and he is ruining it beyond comprehension. "Traitor" is too casual a word for Trump, but the penalty for such would be quite appropriate.
16
Donald Trump is undeniably the most absurdly under-qualified person in government. That man reads at a 5th grade level and delivers the speeches of 4th graders. Yet, people defend him. The average IQ is well below 100 these days. It's embarrassing. It's gross. It's unfortunately real life. We are all screwed.
17
I swear I had nothing to do with the title of your piece Mr Krugman, but I had a laugh to be sure when I read yours.
Read mine and you'll laugh too. No, I don't have premonitions, don't believe in them. https://johnraymondpeterson.wordpress.com/2020/03/03/trump-cant-handle-the-truth/
You're welcome
A fan of your for years
5
In 1980, Reagan took power proclaiming: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." From that moment onward the Republicans—helped along by centrist Democrats like Bill Clinton and, yes, Joe Biden—embarked on a crusade to shrink the size of the government, defund it, and reduce its administrative and regulatory powers.
At the same time, the Republicans embarked on a second, complementary crusade. Using their surrogates on talk radio and at Fox News, they began to call into question the expertise of elites and academics, denying facts and science and instead pushing simplistic slogans that were designed to stoke emotions and spread ignorance for political gain.
Behind it all, their one true interest was weakening the government, cutting taxes, and reducing regulations on business and the wealthy so their friends and donors could do whatever they wanted to accumulate more money and give as little as possible back.
Now, the Republicans have gifted us an incompetent buffoon to lead a government their decades-long policies have left in shambles.
The truth is a large, complex, modern nation like the United States requires a commensurately large, complex, and highly competent government. In this present crisis, government is the solution. The problem is that the Republicans have spent the last 40 years destroying the solution.
1743
@Armo
Well of course, the Republicans are never responsible for anything. The buck always stops somewhere else.
Here you go: The Republicans Party and Republican voters are responsible for Donald Trump. The Republican led Senate is why Donald Trump is still president. The common element here is the Republican Party. Own it.
545
@Armo Let's not rewrite history. Bill Clinton did not lie to Congress. He was accused of lying in a deposition related to a civil lawsuit. That was the basis for his impeachment, which ultimately was voted down in the Senate. Donald Trump did not get a chance to lie to Congress. He steadfastly refused to answer Congress requests, to provide information, to testify or to allow individuals to testify.
165
@617to416 Agreed. That Reagan slogan won over the right because it was an effective slogan, easy to say and repeat, sounds like you're owning the libs, etc.
Enlightened government IS worth having. That's a solution to literally the viability of humanity on this planet.
I look forward, as optimistically as I can muster, an
enlightened government that values science and fact, in our future.
78
Rather than the financial crisis of 2008, perhaps the better analogy is hurricane Katrina, where we saw how the Bush Administration's lack of appreciation for the critical role the federal government plays, in that instance, with respect to disaster preparation. Bush hired a crony with no prior experience in public agency work to head FEMA, with hideous consequences. Like conservatives generally, Trump shares the same disdain for government and that is the best explanation for its lack of planning and preparation in dealing with this virus.
8
It's not so much that the right wing can't handle the truth so much as it's the truth that reveals them to be so lacking, in morality, intelligence, and decency.
13
Trump is expert in two things. Crazy talk and bankruptcies. Oh, you don’t have to choose. He has a two for one deal.
7
I made a comment in a Home Depot parking lot a year or so ago about what a total disaster the Trump administration has been to our democracy. A gentleman heard and said it sure was helping his 401K no matter how bad I think it is. I'd like to see him now and ask him how his 401K is doing now? How selfish and shallow some so-called citizens are.....
14
There is a fundamental difference between an individual who is “unable to handle the truth” and someone who is detached from reality to the point that they can’t differentiate fact from fantasy. Truth from lies.
Mr. Trump is psychologically unbalanced. Tens of thousands of mental health professionals have signed a petition stating that the president is unfit for office for psychological reasons. Allowing him to continue as president is dangerous. The petition has been circulated and sent to congress. It’s repeatedly been recirculated and resubmitted with thousands of additional signatures.
Our dangerous, unbalanced president remains. He believes the nonsensical lies he invents.
What disasterous, insane actions must the president take in order to convince the nation that he must be removed from office?
10
It's baffling to me that these GOP right wingers cannot bring themselves to stand apart from the megalomaniac in the White House. He not only distorts the truth, he makes things up and only cares about the "numbers." He has zero empathy and has duped millions of lemmings to follow him off the cliff.
7
GOP is terrified of 45.
1
"...has there ever been a president so obviously not up to the job?"
Nope.
Not by a long shot.
9
God help us all with this administration in charge. I have no faith in Trump and the Republicans to help us get thru this crisis. Just keep washing your hands with soap and water while they wash theirs of responsibilities.
10
The demise of rightist anti-backers would prove the Theory of Natural Selection.
Post virus conspiracy theories are going to go through the roof, no matter the outcome.
Unfortunately for us Trump is one of those people who is so ignorant he does not know he is ignorant. Instead, due to his inability to know he is ignorant about everything he absolutely believes he knows more about everything that everybody.
His statements at the CDC about "..understanding everything..." were gag-inducing. His statement that "Everyone wanted to know how I know so much about it." was a total lie - believe me, no one there thinks he knows anything at all about it. Indeed, they know he knows nothing at all about it. His question about why the flu vaccine cannot be used for Corvid-19 was all we needed to hear to know he is absolutely ignorant about this subject (not to say that ignorance is unique or bad in itself, just that he does not know he is ignorant and instead pretends he knows something).
Having a "president" who pretends he knows more than the actual experts is very dangerous. He is already very impulsive and when his impulsiveness is combined with his total ignorance about almost everything, and then combined with his proven stupidity in making decisions, and then combined with his megalomania, narcissism and insecurity that does not allow him to admit he could make a mistake, makes for a person who is an imminent danger to us. Trump himself is an extensional national security threat to the US. He needs to be removed one way or another.
9
Trump has become a reverse bellwether...his incompetence is so widely known at this point, that one kind of knows to do the opposite of what he indicates.
5
"The truth" is whatever Trump says it is.
2
The only thing Kudlow is good for is to listen to his advice and do the exact opposite. Wrong Way Kudlow is absolutely incompetent, he has proven that over and over.
7
Trump in a nutshell. : “It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” — Joseph Heller, Catch-22
8
Same as it ever was.
3
Truth 5 microns at a breath.
This will all work out for Trump, one of the worlds luckiest people. By November, the virus will just be a distant memory. The market will have come roaring back. Trump, like no incumbent in history, will be perfectly positioned to get re-elected.
In addition to his incompancy, the nation in a sense has been attacked by an outside force. The natural inclination of the electorate is to rally around the existing leadership.
Right now, much to the consternation of the pundits, Trump is playing it optimistically, but fairly low key. He’s got Pence in position to take the fall if anything really bad happens. It’s all about, Trump.
@Prant
And Nikki Haley is lurking in the weeds, waiting to replace Pence on the ticket.
1
Great facts and insights.
However this article would have reached a wider audience if it focused only on how trumph downplaying and lack of testing helped spread the virus faster. And two that that his current economics advisors have a lousy record of what they said in 2008. The rest of article’s right wing bashing etc simply mean that those on the right will not read and not get educated by the insights of this article.
Most of Krugman’s articles have great insights but their underlying theme of right wing bashing is so overwhelming that he is missing out on getting the much wider audience that he deserves.
@sanjay,
That segment of the population doesn’t read the New York Times.
Editorials and Op Eds here are preaching to the choir for one readon: to get those on our side out to vote.
1
It will be interesting to see the growing numbers of Trumpers who will self-quarantine themselves once they've learned of their exposure to the Coronavirus. Their feverish heads will explode with the conflict of measuring the temperature of a "hoax."
3
We are in a quicksand territory with this administration denying the evidence of this spreading Coronavirus epidemic , to the point of trying to use censorship to keep valuable information from Americans.
Not to mention the huge delay in shipping test kits with working reagents , while the previously sent ones were worthless.
Let’s hope this almost inevitable catastrophe will have the only positive result of kicking out of office this administration and its sycophants.
5
Strongman Don doesn't like the truth because the truth doesn't like him. Falsehoods are easier to spread just what his scared base enjoys, it makes them feel protected unfortunately viruses don't care about feelings.
4
Paul, we (the Dems) all know that Trump is an ignoramus, intellectually and emotionally challenged, and that he has megalomania, suffers from insecurity and paranoia, and lies about everything all day long.
The problem Paul goes beyond Trump. The problem is the Republicans. Yes, everyone on the Trump team especially "when it comes to the economic response, it’s worth noting that basically everyone on the Trump economic team was totally wrong about the 2008 crisis."
That's because its the same incompetent and mentally challenged people that brought us 2008 are now bringing us 2020. How could we possibly expect anything less than disorganized and ineffective responses with the same small minded neanderthals in place.
For Trump, as written in the Times yesterday, it's all about the numbers. If passengers with Coronavirus disembark from a cruise ship it adds to the number of people in the United States that have the virus and makes the numbers look bad. In Trump world that makes him look bad because Coronavirus is fake news and a hoax. Never mind that these are U.S. citizens. They're just bodies on a ship.
So, thanks for the trip down memory lane, but, truthfully we've never left the roadway. The Republicans can't handle the truth at any level and don't want to. Stock market crashes, economic crises, global warming, unnecessary wars, soaring debt, jobs and industry leaving the country, unaffordable education, and all the other problems don't really exist.
9
It's not just the truth they can't handle, it's reality.
5
Trump urges everyone to stay calm. A little late after dropping the ball on having his administration and his Republican Congress repeatedly say it's a "hoax". These people must be held accountable. In their desperation to remain "Trumpers", and in their continuation of praising Trump, they have endangered American lives. They chose party over country.
Vote them out.
6
Much of how the right operates is based on machismo, which in itself is a type of denial of reality. The GOP today is basically a male club of strutting, posturing simians in fealty to silverback Trump. Their power structure is a rigid top-down hierarchy centered on the reverence for and accumulation of wealth. Anything that veers from this obsession is not only rejected, but ceases to exist in their consciences. Theirs is willful ignorance; a desperate attempt to expunge what is unknown, uncontrollable and therefore frightening.
Our society accepts and normalizes this errant mindset at its peril.
7
I enjoyed reading Milton Friedman even if you did not agree with him. He made compelling arguments. Krugman, by comparison, is a joke!
3
I felt bored with Trump this morning, which was strange; it wasn't my usual feelings of wanting to rant and rage. He continues to conduct himself the same over and over again, giving the same monologue over and over again: mocking people, blaming the Democrats for everything, and mocking and blaming the free press as being fake.
I wonder if at least some of Trump's supporters are also getting bored with Trump and desiring real leadership regarding the Coronavirus.
7
If the truth shall set us free, Trump, Fox, and the GOP have put us in chains. Sadly, too many Americans like it that way.
I pray enough of us vote in 2020 to throw out Trump, all Republican politicians aiding and excusing Trump and thereby throw off our chains.
7
Krugman, As usual, your assessment of the market reaction is way off base and shows how out of touch you are with market dynamics in our current environment. You should also be careful with your "trip down memory lane" lest we take a trip down your memory lane and trot out your absolutely abysmal record at predicting market reactions.
2
@John Wilson
Please oblige. And while you are at it, also please enlighten us with your insights into the 'market dynamics in our current environment.'
Has Krugman made incorrect market predictions in the past? Sure. But he has a record of owning up to them, and (gasp) learning from them.
Krugman's political leanings are no secret, but he has one important quality that people in the current administration completely lack: intellectual honesty.
8
@John Wilson
Macho monetary posturing. Just wait until your own portfolio blows up!
@John Wilson, I will believe the Nobel Prize winning economist, Dr. Krugman, over Trump or any of his apologists!
Over the past three years I have reviewed sections of the constitution on more occasions than I have in all of the years since taking a course in political science in 1969 and 2017. Despite these efforts, I am unable to find mention of any requirement that elected officials, governmental employees and respectful citizens listen in stunned silence while the president publicly makes one stupid, crazy, uninformed statement after another.
The president’s recent ramblings on March 6 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are a case in point. Surrounded by men of science, Mr. Trump, whose red hat should have read, “I’ve gone crazy,” proved, once again, that he’s completely detached from reality.
However, no one present dared to point out this fact.
Anyone can, from stress, from being overwhelmed by responsibilities beyond their abilities, from a broad variety of reasons suffer a nervous collapse. Should this awful event occur in your life or mine, we would hope that friends, family members, co-workers and neighbors would take action to steer us in the direction of meaningful help.
“Bob, you’re not thinking clearly. You’re not making sense. We’re very concerned that the things you’re saying and doing point to a need for professional medical assistance.”
Why did those scientists in Atlanta remain silent? Why do the members of Trump’s inner circle allow this madness to continue?
If I cracked up, I hope someone would help me. Trump is nuts. He needs help.
7
Reagan ran on states rights, welfare queens, supply side nonsense and the gov is the problem. Limbaugh gained prime time hegemony and doubled down on the gop propaganda. The gops biggest weakness is believing their propaganda. The gops only strength is their propaganda. Surely we can exploit this.
10
States rights are so yesterday, who needs them when you have a stable genius strongman president. Welfare queens are still bad, but welfare king farmers are the greatest. Government should never chooose winners and losers unless your wealthy donors are the losers, then do everything to prop them up.
1
@greenleaf360
I just loved it the way Reagan, the head of all government, never grasped the irony of his belief that government is the problem...
2
If you want to get an idea of Trump's administration and where we may be at this time, watch Kubrik's Dr. Strangelove or ... a dark cold war comedy showing the potential devastation of humanity by having wrong person in the White House. And yes GOP have a perfect record of being on the wrong side of reality for decades, from Reagan's trickle down voodoo economics to predictions of ACA bankrupting the U.S. economy.
Is the GOP stupid? Of course not, they're political agenda while crystal clear would send supporters into doubt if made part of their publicized agenda. Their agenda, ravage public supports and allow markets and economy to operate with 0 federal restrictions. Indeed, they have been very successful to the end to some extent, corporations have benefited mightily from GOP policies however, the cost has been paid my the middle classes, public support while capped in many areas is still somewhat unscathed.
Trump should have buttons with his image and the old Alfred E. Neuman expression, "What me worry?" emblazoned upon them, because Trump truly sees the world only as it pertains to his person and how it impacts him personally. Not to know this, again to invoke Kubrik, would be to have "Eyes wide shut."
4
Speaking of rightwingers who can’t handle the truth I must add Ben Stein and re-nominate Larry Kudlow.
When the housing debacle began Stein on Fox with Peter Schiff and the show’s Fox host (Cavuto). Date was 18 August 2007. Mr. Schiff is a respected intellect in the investment business and he correctly predicted the debacle about to happen.
Nonetheless, Stein ridiculed him for raising the alarm. Stein repeatedly stated that sub-prime loans were a tiny problem (0:50 in the video) and at 5:10 in the linked video Stein states “sub-prime is just a tiny tiny blip.” I expect Stein to end up in Trump’s cabinet someday … if Trump lasts long enough.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZyvnWFbR84
Kudlow was front and center in the G. W. Bush administration, touting the usual discredited supply-side, trickle down snake oil that tax cuts pay for themselves. He pushed for Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. When the economy was crashing down around us in 2008 there was Kudlow pleading that we just needed to give tax cuts more time to work their magic. Kudlow is now in Trump’s administration with the same nonsense and here we are again with housing and stock market bubbles ready to pop.
Note: Tax cuts for upper brackets preceded the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Great What's Coming Next.
9
It’s not about if the right can handle the truth anymore. Anyone with half a brain and not bound by political correctness realizes that right wing/conservative ideologies are what’s wrong with our world. So what are we going to do about it? Don’t say vote them out, because it obviously doesn’t work.
5
Why is Larry Kudlow given any attention?
He's considered an expert on MSNBC, CNN and FOX. Yet he's a total fraud.
I do not understand why the news networks give any airtime to Kudlow, Barr, KellyAnne Conway or any other administration mouthpiece who just defends Trump and lies.
It's sickening to watch Mike Pence praise Trump in every sentence out of his mouth.
It is sad that so many have to die to get the people to see the Emperor has no clothes.
And since America has no national health care, Coronavirus testing cannot be coordinated nationwide, with mass testing at drive in test stations as Germany is doing.
And now the Democratic establishment is pushing the feeble Joe 'Nothing will change' Biden as a solution? He just said if he were presented with a M4A bill passed by both houses of Congress, he would veto the bill.
Sorry, I may have to hold my nose and vote for Sleepy Joe but so many progressives after being denied in two presidential elections may just decide to throw up their hands and say "Let It Burn".
3
If Biden has any brains, he will run with a progressive veep.
2
Absolutely! My thinking was that "The Buck Never Stops Here" was an apt characterization of the Trump presidency, but your refresher on 2008 clearly makes the case that the phrase is right wing tribal dogma.
1
I want rid of Trump in the worst way. That said, this corona virus thing seems extremely overblown when compared to normal health issues like the flu. Perplexing to see the panic and market tumble.
3
@Cliff, the Markets tumbles when there is chaos and lack of facts! That’s what brings on volatility. Plus, the Saudis and Putin see warring over the price of oil. It’s much more than Covid-19.
2
for more than three years we've had a recklessly incompetent president -- to me it's remarkable that nothing truly catastrophic has happened. (eg, speaking as someone who does not live in puerto rico.) it's also amazing that the financial markets have boomed, although i suppose one should never estimate the value of welfare for the rich.
and so trump's botched response to covid-19 has finally spooked the market. my guess is that the virus itself is responsible for only a few percentage points off the highs; the real crash reflects wall street's better-late-than-never realization that a great nation cannot be led by a tantrum-throwing megalomaniac.
9
Right wingers also like to blame the financial crisis 100% on people taking on mortgages they couldn't handle and programs that made it easier for them to get loans, and 0% on bankers who found ways to make money writing high risk loans.
8
@DL
Or traders that magnified the problem by bundling them into mortgage-backed securities.
1
Per Richard Feynman (look him up):
"Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
The Republicans are unlikely to win their argument with COVID-19.
236
@Eternal Sunshine
Feynman, what a guy!
4
Who hasn’t heard of Dick Feynman ?
1
Trump and truth have nothing in n common. Evidence based truth is anathema to Trump's desire to decide what facts suit his purposes.
4
There is no way to change hearts and minds at this point-- regardless of the facts on the ground. One could not possibly wish for Trump supporters to fall ill with the coronavirus-- however, were they to do so as a result of administrative negligence-- they would undoubtedly cast their vote for him from the ICU...
5
Things can always be worse.
DT and minions could have dredged up that old Miasma theory canard - that 'bad wind' was responsible for cholera, black death and now covid -19.
4
@Warren - . . . as explained to them by a Burning Bush.
real leaders support the people who know the most about a situation.
blowhards pretend to understand what they've been told so they can be seen as "smart"
the smartest thing mad king donald can do is step aside and allow trusted people like Dr. Fauci speak, tell the truth, and trust the American people can handle the truth
7
The GOP has claimed for years that payroll taxes aren't "really taxes". (Thus the claim that 47% of Americans don't "pay taxes".)
So exactly how is this a "tax cut", Republicans? Does the definition simply change from one week to the next?
6
@J Anders - The payroll "tax" is not a tax.
It is an insurance premium paid by workers to fund their own retirement health care (called Medicare) and partial pension (called Social Security).
- Paul Hogan NYTimes Comment in this same article 3/9/20.
2
You've got it right. The right is blinded by wealth and religion, which make them slow movers when it comes to actual threats. How will they evolve? If history is any indication, slowly, all too slowly. And the evolution of the rest of us will be held back by how slow they are to change and respond to new information. It's like the teacher who has to punish the whole class because a few are misbehaving. It slows all of us down from learning new material. But of course, this has much more serious import when it is a matter of life and death.
8
I have to wonder if the paucity of testing is a way to keep anyone from knowing just how many people end up getting corona virus, and how many die of it. It could end up being a sort of diagnosis by exclusion (exclude all other causes, flu and etc., and then possibly the person had corona, but since there wasn’t testing it cannot be determined definitively). It would not surprise me if this were part of the plan for “dealing” with this disaster.
9
fits in with miscounting inauguration crowds. if there is no science then the propaganda must be true.
2
I either had forgotten, or never realized, how wrong the right wing propaganda machine was in 2008. The scary thing is not how wrong they are now, but that they continue to have a large following that believes the fantasies they espouse.
26
Before blaming conspiracies, "intelligent design," the Chinese, the Russians, or "some 400 pound guy," for anything one thinks the federal government has screwed up, start by looking at incompetence. "Stupid is as stupid does."
The Trump administration functions with a "Confederacy of Dunces." The tragedy is that Trump and the Trumpists are not nearly as amusing as the novel of that same name.
20
They told him--over and over again--"Your country is about to be attacked. Overwhelmed. Hammered by--perhaps--the strongest military in the world."
He had spies all over the place. They all told him the same thing.
Foreign leaders also sent their communications flashing along the wire--same thing.
"No no!" he raged. "Lies! All lies!" He longed to get his hands on these spies, these "provocateurs", these mischief-makers. "They're playing me for a sucker," he screamed.
His name was Josef Stalin. It was a poor idea to confront the Vozhd--the "boss" with stuff he didn't want to hear.
The attack came in June, 1941. Hitler threw everything he had at the old Soviet Union.
It has been estimated: as many as thirty million Russians (!) may have died over the next four years. Unbelievable.
You should have listened, Comrade Stalin. You really should have.
Same old--same old.
This President (judging from all the signs) is virtually ineducable.
His right-wing cohorts are not far behind.
Quicquid delirant regess plectunutr Achivi. (Horace)
We pay for the blunders of our leaders.
Big time.
15
Excellent article.
Please do not tell Trump that a social security tax holiday is an Obama-era fix for financial woes. (Look it up if you don't remember.)
Trump's unprecedented travel ban on visitors from China back in late January did indeed slow the virus' geographic spread to the USA, but the gain (a week or two) was entirely squandered by not testing more aggressively and widely. The exponential growth of un-monitored and un-traced community spread now far exceeds the potential reduction in rate of importation from China (Read preprints of to-be-peer-reviewed papers on modeling viral spread).
The USA is first class in research and medicine, but bungled implementation of the tools at hand has seriously hurt our prospects on this pandemic. Let's hope mid-level leaders with relevant expertise manage the situation better from now on.
4
Joe McCarthy to Don Trump, my life span. The truth always seems to undermine the Republican position. Trump would be gone if only the Senate would have removed him for just cause, they ignored that truth and now we may pay a heavy price.
18
@sdt
I too span roughly McCarthy to Trump. One big difference is that in the 1950s there were still plenty of honest Republicans; not all supported the hard right lies. Beginning with Reagan the Republicans have actively driven out the moderates. I twice, in two different states, watched as the Republican right attacked a moderate Repub I had voted for. Both were driven from office (and both offices ultimately wound up Democratic). I cannot fathom the total sell-out dishonesty of the modern Republican Party. Nor can I fathom otherwise honest people who still vote for them. Of course the right has worked very hard to provide an alternate reality that many people fall for. Lies upon lies. There are, of course, also a few lies that come from the hard left but they seem to mostly disappear in the background. Let us hope that we can somehow restore honesty and civil discourse to America.
6
@NoBadTimes ...
Do you guys remember Ike's top tax rate was around 90%? The wealthy didn't go broke, the country and middle-class flourished. There has always been a segment of our society that looks for ways to take advantage of the masses. It used to be a minority. I used to believe that there are more good people than bad ones. I'm not sure anymore.
4
Politics aside, it is the responsibility of each of us regardless of disagreements to put others first and their safety. There would be no internet battles if we gave others grace and did our best not to contaminate or be contaminated. More 20 second hand washing and less conflict will go a long way. We all fear the worst at times. Let's do our best to give deference to our better angels in this no vaccine or clearly effective, antiviral phase of the illness.
1
Trump's strategy seems clear: test as few people as possible in order to limit the number of confirmed cases, then claim the problem is contained. It might work ... for a week or two.
It's like the episode of "The Wire," where the chief of police tells his officers not to arrest people for violent crimes so that he can announce that crime is down.
And Trump isn't even hiding it. Did you see the press conference where he insisted that people on cruise ships need to stay at sea, because otherwise "his" numbers will go up? No concern whatsoever about those 3,000-some Americans, no concern about the actual extent of the problem, nothing but his typical narcissistic concern about "how does this affect me?"
But reality has a way of asserting itself in the end. Trump, and Fox News, will have a much harder time selling their conspiracy theories when they have a few thousand dead to explain.
8
“The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance,” ― Carl Sagan, 1995, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time,” wrote in The Demon-Haunted World, “when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
12
Dr. Krugman is right on point, as usual, viz. ‘America’s right-wingers can’t handle the truth’ – and their leader ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ is doing his level best to discombobulate them. Here is part of a transcription from the Declaration of Independence (substitute Donald Trump for the King of Great Britain):
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.
This is the truth in 2020 and it is out there for all to see.
12
From the perspective of Wall Street and the bankers, 2008 was a self-inflicted set of wounds. From deregulation of banks to derivatives and placing high risk loans that were bundled and thus hidden. Even Alan Greenspan could not believe the risks they took.
This Trump virus is only self-inflicted in the sense that he is spreading the virus without having ever contracted it himself so far. He is not a carrier, but rather an enabler of the virus spread. He vastly misrepresented his qualifications for high office, and now is proving that incompetence among high officials can lead to many deaths and other profoundly bed outcomes. A bull artist in a china shop may not intend to break anything, but clumsily bashing into whatever is close is bound to cause enormous damage.
Lord Acton said power corrupts, but in this case incompetent power infects.
9
"Trump Can’t Handle the Truth
And neither can the rest of America’s right."
Funny, I thought the identical banner apropos for an article appearing in the NYT in which Warren supporters refused to acknowledge that Warren could not grow her base to include black and Latino voters and win in her home state or in the state in which she was raised, and instead blamed "misogyny and sexism."
I guess Trump and Warren both cannot "handle the truth."
2
The difference is Trump ignoring the truth will get people killed.
4
And that’s coming from the former Enron advisor.
4
From the article...
Question: Does anyone have a count of how many times he’s done this, comparable to the running tallies fact checkers are keeping of his lies?
???
Come off it... the question actually is... does anyone... ANYONE at all... with a functional IQ, still believe one single verb uttered by that tormented individual?
That's the question.
8
Republican leaders are truth wranglers, handling the truth to knowingly create “alternative facts.” The truths they don’t want to handle always involve a gamble to fatten their wallets.
They are cons and liars who also know that the truth doesn’t sell to the base.
The grassroots folks have religious leaders, bosses, and politicians pulling the wool over their eyes, and an education system that has, at the policy level, failed purposely to create voters who are able to think critically.
There’s a reason why Trump loves the “poorly educated.” They can’t handle the truth.
8
I salute all the people who, despite the absence of guidance and moral leadership from our politicians, are self-quarantining, washing their hands religiously, and looking for ways to help others. We’re going to need to be smart and selfless if we’re to minimize the damage from this virus.
344
@Netwit
With the GOP in charge we're in a YOYO world, where YOYO means: You're On Your Own.
Each of us must look out for ourselves and our families.
Cuts to Federal and state budgets decimated abilities to react to health crises.
Hospital chains cut staff and facilities to the bone to reduce costs and improve profits.
We are poorly armed to defend ourselves.
The GOP has seduced and abandoned us; it's YOYO time.
37
It is quite extraordinary to see, possibly, a whole part of the GOP not able to handle the truth.
That this president may act as a con man is one thing. That grown-ups follow him blindly is sort of astonishing.
2732
@flo
This is news to you? No insult meant, but it is hard for people to believe that a major part of the U.S. political establishment (yes, the right-wing extremists have made themselves a new part of the establishment) doesn't accept truth.
234
@flo • There is an implicit 'understanding' among the Republicans that they can only hold on to power through lies, intimidation, voter suppression, etc. - that the demographics of the country will slide inevitably toward Democratic control.
Look at California as an example of what is in store. That state, seedbed of arch-Republicans Hoover, Nixon, and Reagan has flipped completely Democratic because of shifts in population demographics. And as Califorina, so goes the nation, eventually. The Republicans are desperate and holding on to power by whatever means possible, legal or not. This is the reason for the 'blindness'.
134
@Walter
The way California achieved this was by open primaries with the top two vote getter in the final election. This is what every state need, now.
With this system, it was not long before all gop were voted out, for progress.
28
Since Trump already tied his re-election prospects to the stock market, he is undoubtedly panicking that global financial markets are being afflicted by the coronavirus. And his PR spin is not persuading those numbers to rally.
Stocks alone should not really be the decisive factor in giving someone a second term. But Trump’s pathological lying, gross irresponsibility, deep ignorance and utter disregard for people other than himself, should sink his prospects for more time in office.
261
Actually, the qualities you list should have ensured that he was never elected in the first place. Unfortunately, a large segment of our electorate seems to reject reality.
41
@NM Unfortunately the election will be in November. Plenty of time to forget...
8
@Vegalta#9
The market will not likely be booming by then and the virus outbreak will likely start impacting red states as well...
14
"By not instituting widespread testing from the start, the U.S. has ensured that there are now cases all over the country — we have no idea how many — and that the virus will spread rapidly."
The Director of the CDC was appointed by Trump. I just read that the United States isn’t reporting how many people have been tested; the C.D.C. pulled the number from its website.
CDC Director Redfield, a Trump appointed lackey, gave praise to Trump during his tour of CDC headquarters."First I want to thank you, for your decisive leadership ... I also want to thank you for coming here today ... I think that's the most important thing I want to say"
At a Friday news conference at the C.D.C., Trump told reporters that tests for the coronavirus were now available to anyone who needed one. This is untrue. States are in dire need of more tests.
The news outlets that do the president’s bidding are playing down the potential scope and severity of the problem. Trump, focusing on his re-election, is silencing those who would be bearers of bad news. This is what dictators do and it is endangering our lives.
12
@Carol Ring
The numbers will always remain low when there is little-to-no more testing being done, and Trump likes that just fine!
2
I am sure the Republicans knew a very large stimulus was required in 2008. They just wanted Obama to fail more than they wanted America to succeed.
15
The second half of Dr. Krugman's piece is the most disturbing part: the people making financial/economic decisions for our country are the same 2008 Financial Crisis deniers that refused to see the magnitude of the problem. Covid-19 is putting a spotlight on the weaknesses/faults in our systems (healthcare, manufacturing, federal government, information). Has it ever occurred to the deniers that doing the work of governing isn't about political parties, economic ideologies, or self promotion. It's about putting finite resources to work to produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
10
Do the right wingers ever get tired of being wrong? We are still waiting on those jobs from George W.'s tax cuts. The only thing worse than being wrong is being loud wrong.
12
With every incompetent step trump takes, I am more and more dubious about the authenticity of the election in 2016. Somebody recognized that a fool could be manipulated and took advantage of the situation. Now I have to worry about prospects for the election this year. We are, after all, in the midst of the High Tech Revolution, and anybody anywhere can manipulate the outcome. Democracy is a high-minded ideal, and we have been its beneficiaries - so we need to recognize and protect our great source of liberty as Americans.
11
The problem is not solely that the right wing and Trump cannot handle the truth. The problem is also that they actively work to conceal the truth and to deceive people. They disseminate "conspiracy theories" which are nothing other than paranoid lies that are designed to manipulate and enrage their gullible followers. A related problem is that so many Americans believe their lies without the slightest bit of skepticism and without any desire to do the work necessary to discover the truth.
14
@Matthew The really sad part is that a lot of people are doing the work to spread the truth, and so many Americans still believe the lies. I don't know why. Maybe it's too hard to admit they've been had, or it takes too much effort to let go of beliefs they've treasured. Or maybe a lot of them just don't have much brain power left after all the washing Fox and the GOP have done to them. It would take so little effort for people to discover the truth, but a lot of them just won't do it.
8
We will go down arguing with no one paying attention to the problems of the moment, but vilifying the other side with full attention to anger, distrust and spite. Two dogs fighting in the highway oblivious to the traffic bearing down on them. Attention away from what may save their lives. although the Democrats have a far better handle on reality. Pay attention to the things that make the difference and deny truth,reality,facts and science.They are the real problem. They are ingrained in history, and imprinted on some from childhood.
4
There are lots of words for people who can't handle the truth. Sometimes it is arrogance, or narcissism, or laziness, or racism. But sometimes it is also just stupid, lying, or both. Maybe we should just roll these words into one new word: FoxNews.
23
Incompetent, delusional, corrupt, deceptive, incapable of managing. What else do we need to know the throw this guy out of government?
13
There is nothing wrong, if you're desperate to change a situation which you find untenable, with trying something utterly different. You grasp at straws. You hire idiots to key positions just out of the hope that he/she will shake things up and truly make a break from the past behavior of the system. It's okay to experiment. You want change. I get it.
It's not okay, though, to then go on to recognize that what you did was wrong, not working, and regardless of the proof of your eyes not altering course and cleaving to a different way. All the while giving thanks for recognizing the error.
This is where I get off the bus with those more on the right side of the aisle. This willful refusal to acknowledge an error is just plain 'ol stupid. And if I have a bias in life, and I'm sure I have a few, I have a low tolerance for stupidity. Come November we'll get a chance to see if the majority of American's feel the same as me. It's time to spank stupid.
John~
American Net'Zen
15
Dealing with the virus, of course, is of primary concern. However, reports of how the administration plans to deal with the slowdown in the economy by reducing the withholding tax will also not do much good for laid-off workers or even for those employed who will be more inclined to save then to spend. What is needed are programs that replicate the New Deal; infrastructure repair funded by the government, for example.
6
Sounds like stimulus. Remember how that was received by the right during the last recession? Tax cuts are literally the only thing they know how to do, even if they produce the same results, over and over again; a greater proportion of the nation’s wealth redistributed to the rich, and rising deficits.
8
But ... But... But... Her emails ...
15
Article 25, please.
Our president is a sick, dangerous man who keeps outdoing himself in cruelty.
16
Republicans inherently hate government/public service. Hence, they sabotage it.
One way they sabotage it is by electing dolts who are obviously under-qualified. The very presence of these dolts signals contempt and mockery.
It began with Dan Quayle. Next was George W. Bush. Now it's Donald Trump.
15
The inconvienient truth is that we have a Trump presidency, the real reasons behind which the media has kept hidden. One more truth which will never be told is if this virus does turn pandemic Americans will be affected more than other industrial countries because we have no universal health care. We have never been told the real reason for this either, but what we are already hearing is that it's Trumps fault, a truth they feel we can handle.
5
Mr. Krugman’s column is almost a “perfect” column. What is missing? Ex-Republicans & independents are now depending on a Democratic Party to guide the nation without any bipartisan help. The “Left”, including the Sanders Left, must moderate its own ambitions and lead all of us through this crisis.
5
My brother in law still thinks the virus is a hoax, and refuses to listen to the "hype." But then, he's been watching Faux News for two decades, and not a single book in his house. He still believes Trump, which is inconceivable. I've said it for years: Every Trumper has a serious date with reality.
22
The problem is not limited to the Far Right. You need look no farther than Sanders's economic advisor, Stephanie Melton, for the example of what the Far Left would do if given the chance. Trump is a divisive and repellant figure, just like Sanders, so that's another similarity.
No, Mr. Krugman, what you think you are seeing is the result of *any* extreme political ideology and influence on economic policy.
6
@Charles Becker False equivalence. FALSE!
Left will give you healthcare
Right will let you die
Left will give you education
Right will sell it to the highest bidder through student loans
Left will give you employment at a decent wage
Right believes in the working poor
Left will give you some sense of freedom and dignity
Right likes its serfs and slaves
So really, give me an extreme LEFT anytime, instead of this Plutocratic Oligarchy
3
@GBB,
You are talking about policy, and policy promises written in smoke don't matter. They don't matter. They are there to fool gullible voters.
What matters is demeanor and character. On those counts, Sanders = Trump and only zealots for one or the other will dispute that.
Both already know everything. Neither can tolerate dissent. Not tell and wave their arms wildly to bolster their case. Neither is interested in persuading
Both are interested in punishing opponents. Both deny responsibility for the heinous behavior of their most extreme allies.
Policy debate is for those who want nothing more than to be deceived.
1
Finally, a photo of Trump I can bear to look at. That's the only view of him I want to see - the man walking away.
16
"...has there ever been a president so obviously not up to the job? "
That's what we've been asking since the election of 2016 and the awful result: Donald Trump.
Think of it.
12
Deadly consequences? The implosion in 2008 resulted in unknown numbers of deaths. The opioid crisis, across the board and substantial increases in suicides, alcoholism, homelessness. Millions losing decent salaried jobs with benefits, forced to work minimum wage jobs in our "service" or "gig" economy, struggling to make ends meet. Some of this was excellently detailed in graphic form (literally) in a recent NYT article.
As for Kudlow and the rest of the right-wing blowhards, were their misguided reassurances intentional? Who snatched up all the real estate assets when prices hit rock bottom? Which companies bought foreclosed homes for bargain prices? Those with disposable income who were deemed credit-worthy by the same banks that helped cause the crash in the first place. It certainly wasn't the folks juggling two or three dead-end jobs sans benefits just to make ends meet.
Even before Covid-19 caused a long overdue "correction" to the stock market, don't be fooled by the rhetoric about the booming economy. Almost half the country couldn't come up with half a grand for an unexpected emergency. (Imagine how many folks defer purchasing new tires or getting needed brake jobs!) Commercial real estate vacancies all over Los Angeles, just not where the 1% congregate.
Same as it ever was, crash the economy, snatch up distressed assets at rock bottom prices, wait for the recovery, sell at the peak, rinse lather and repeat.
14
If you are a believer then you can makeup anything you want to believe. If you are a fact person you are restricted.
Conservatives, in general, have higher fear mechanism in their brains and are easier able to fear things. This is a fact shown in MRI studies,
You take something that may trigger the fear response and then some explanation for it and belief and faith kick in, Logic and facts are not used.
In this case Trumps is terrified of not being reelected and this virus exposes all of his weaknesses including his so-called economic advantage.He does not fear the virus he fears losing the election.
7
That's the thing about a political ideology - it requires adherence to a set of beliefs in spite of reality and science. After all, it's about loyalty and a cult of personality. The other thing about ideologies is that they care little for human life or suffering. The right-wing ideology that has taken over the GOP has a long history of fear mongering, conspiracy theories, and lying. Now, it's taken over our government with all of the predictable consequences. By the way, let's call this ideology what it is: fascism.
11
It is long past time that not only Trump's narcissism, meanness, inveterate lying and self-delusion (that his lies are truthful) but also his psychopathic/sociopathic disregard of the safety and well-being of the public and our democracy be addressed for what they clearly involve--a serious mental disorder.
This "man" could care less about the public, their safety and well-being but instead has a sole focus on benefiting those who support him whatever the costs (the wealthy, corporate polluters, etc.); on the stock market as an indicator of his re-electability; and on his delusional exceptionalism that masks deep insecurities that put the American people and our democracy at great peril.
5
Trump is Trump - and we have all had to deal with that. But there needs to be a reckoning for his enablers - those who make it easy for Trump to evade the truth; those who make it easy for his followers to believe the lies. Cable news is destroying our Democracy, particularly those programs that manipulate facts for their own purposes. And what is that purpose exactly? To pander to false beliefs for economic gain. There should be legal penalties for that kind of profit.
4
Nobody who sees things exclusively from their point of view can handle the truth...correct Professor
1
Why the smears? Isn't it the perfect virus, exactly like the perfect telephone conversation?
3
Not only can the right not handle the truth, it is obvious that the entire gop is deeply corrupt. Reading the article in the NY Times yesterday "How the trump Campaign Took Over the GOP" by Hakim and Thrush I wonder if our country will survive. The corruption of no rules for campaign contributions is a rot that will be hard to fix. On top of that the Christian right's grabbing hands for public funds in order to control who gets service and the rules of that service is even scarier. And how are the spineless public officials in the congress handling it, glee for the eternal power they believe they are entitled to since they are not socialist democrats. Our country has been hoodwinked by a generation of propagandizing by right wingers and their wealthy donors.
The only hope is for voters to rebel against the entire republican establishment.
8
Why are we surprised? He became President and a nation gets the government it deserves.
2
With all due respect, how could anyone expect a delusional person to handle the truth when his entire world is filled with nothing but fantasy and make believe?
No wonder he thinks he's the smartest guy in the room. He is living his own fantasy - that a guy like him with no background, credentials, prior work experience, education or knowledge of the position could in fact actually get elected to do the most important and demanding job in the country.
Not only is he at fault but so are those millions of people who voted for him. Good grief, when one truly thinks about it, over 40% of the country can't seem to handle the truth.
10
I’ll tell you who else is at fault here. How about the millions of Americans who still do not vote. They didn’t vote in the 2016 presidential election despite the fact that a sociopath was on the ticket. Day after day we have all had to stand by watching the damage being done to our democracy after Trump and the grifter thugs he surrounds himself with moved in to the White House. The midterm elections arrived and yet again, millions of eligible voters still couldn’t make the effort to vote. Here we are now at the primaries. From everything I have read so far, voter turnout is still not good enough, especially among young voters. I am 51 years old. My husband and I are struggling middle class public servants with one young child. Without a doubt, this is the most important election in my lifetime so far. If we don’t figure out a way to kick these sick, selfish, morally bankrupt con artists out of office I feel that my young daughter’s chance to grow up in a democracy is officially over. It’s really hard to find the words to express how much that breaks my heart.
1
The only question is this: what's the tipping point? When will the Always Trumpers begin to realize that the man who they believe in over the "fake news" may in fact be the purveyor of fake news? And in fact is too dangerous to remain in the White House?
4
"America’s right-wingers can’t handle the truth".
I have consulted with several influential Allergists who have concluded that Trump and his right-wingers are allergic to truth, facts, and science.
They avoid it like the plague. Hence, their inability to recognize the coronavirus plague when it's right in front of their nose, ala Ted Cruiz Kevin McCarthy, Mick Mulvaney, and several other "truth-tellers."
4
Note to Americans, when picking a president and administration competency and reality matter more than reality television or who you'd rather have a beer with.
I mention the last, who you'd rather have a beer with, because the one disagreement I have with Mr. Krugman's column is the failure to mention 911 and George W Bush. In October 2000 Jeb Bush gave a speech blaming the 1st WTC attack on Clinton that occurred about a month into Clinton's 1st term saying if Al Gore was elected that something like that would happen again but that "I can personally vouch for the fact that my big brother will keep us safe." But thinking it was patriotism instead of stupid politics Democrats allowed Bush to blame Clinton for 911 occurring 9 months or 20% into Bush's term as president.
The point being the last two Republican presidents have one important thing in common, both were unfit to be president due to what should be most important for picking a president, competency and their grasp of reality.
4
Re: "...Over the weekend Donald Trump once again declared that the coronavirus is perfectly under control, that any impressions to the contrary are due to the “Fake News Media” out to get him..."
One is reminded of that scene in 'Eric, The Viking', (Tim Robbins travels to Valhalla ask Odin a question), where Atlantis is lost to the ocean: as Robbins leaves Atlantis to continue his quest...blood is spilled, causing the island to sink, which motivates the king of Atlantis, (played by the late Pythoner, Terry Jones), to repeatedly, announce, "this ISN'T happening!!" as the city is swallowed by the waves!
1
"The 2008 financial crisis was brought on by the collapse of an immense housing bubble. "
No, the crash of 2008 came from collapse of a derivatives game backed by fake unregulated insurance, and only some of those derivatives were housing based. (We still don't know the fraction nearly 12 years later, since the derivatives market still trades in secret.) Not the first time that Krugman has posted this "error". But like many reporters and columnists at the NY Times he insists the US economy is good, when it clearly isn't for 80% of workers.
If you attack Trump by posting erroneous claims and outright lies, it weakens any perfectly valid points about Trump to continually make such "errors".
One of the grievous failures of Obama was that, outside of slightly higher capital requirements for banks, he took no steps to regulate the derivatives market--which is being abused today in 2020.
5
It is a stark reality that the Trump Administration is totally committed to their alternative fact, even in the face of actual reality. They can make up whatever excuse they want and place blame where it is not warranted but the sad reality is that Trump cannot handle the truth even when it is staring him in the face.
1
The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2020
4
I am still waiting for donnie to throw masks and bottles of hand sanitiser at those coming off the cruise ship with the Coronavirus that just docked in Calif.
Public relations photo op!!!...or SNL skit, hard to tell.
9
Republicans: Capitalize the gains BUT socialize the LOSSES ! Somehow it will turn out that the negligent deaths of Americans caused by the narcissist -germophobe - science denier in chief will be solved by tax cuts for the rich !
8
Remember that the symptoms of COVID-19 in an infected person do not appear for at least a few days. Therefore it is highly likely that the disease has already spread far and wide "under the radar". In other words, a strong program of early testing will not, and would not have prevented the spread of COVID-19 because we are only testing people who show signs of the disease.
3
@Penchant
I agree with your statements except the part "a strong program of testing ... would not have prevented the spread of COVID-19 because we are [testing only] people who show signs of the disease."
An aggressive program of testing would have tested a LOT of people very early. Testing everyone (yes, everyone in the USA) would not be impractical if we put our resources to it (years ago). Testing everyone that had been in close contact with anyone tested positive was within our practical capabilities starting in January 2020 if we had taken action immediately. Trump's travel ban (of travelers from China starting in late January) was a good tactic, however, not testing more widely for the past 6 weeks has made Trump's travel ban impotent in terms of control of the virus' spread in the USA.
The travel ban reminds me of the big beautiful wall on the southern border. Actually, wait, that should keep the virus out, won't it? (not serious).
We are also re-learning the biggest lesson of recent decades: the stock market is of primary importance to government policymakers. If the market had been steady or rising over these past 3 weeks, would the federal government be mobilizing to give monetary and fiscal stimulus? Of course not. If the DJIA were at a record high, the government would be telling us to wash our hands more and that would be the extent of it.
5
If Trump was slow to respond, can you point to any of the 50 governors who acted faster to protect their sovereign states? It may be less Trump than central planning and authority are weak replacements for liberty and equal protection.
1
@David
It would have been unethical for medical professionals in any US state to administer a test for the virus while the CDC rules were being followed (basically CDC would perform tests according to eligibility criteria set by CDC). I will offer that the centralized CDC (or FDA) authority is a corollary of your statement. But you cannot blame the governors - they could not have ordered testing under their own authority. Again, you may say, that makes your case and I wouldn't disagree on that specific topic. Eventually the Federal govt released the CDC&FDA rules limiting testing and now testing is ramping up in all states. That release should have happened weeks ago, and that mismanagement is squarely on the current administration and its leader Trump.
Bravo!...to Paul Krugman for having the resolve to call out Trump and his Republican supporters for who they are. Right wing. For they are not political conservatives of custom. Yet, conservative is the identifier the reporting media has consistently, by large and inaccurately been using. Those who currently hold power in this country are a retrograde force of right wing extremists. It’s vital for Americans to recognize this reality in order to come up with the ways and means necessary to delegitimize its dominance.
12
And I often wonder when I see people around my small town that voted for the Gutter Rat what they are thinking about the past 3+ years. I would never have an in-depth conversation with them over their choice, but there are two individuals, a female and a male who I would like to have that conversation and it really is down to one, the Female I have removed all vestiges from my life so it will never happen, the other I had the opportunity over the XMAS holidays and my wife told him when he picked her up at the airport, I was road-tripping south with the dog, that I was only spending a few days rather than the week with him because we were in counseling putting the onus on us - as if I could only spend a few days with my wife when it is all his fault.
The bottom line is that we have little leadership at the top of the government, whether in the financial area or in the healthcare area. The easiest stimulus for the economy in the wake of the coronavirus, various closures and decreased travel may be the easing of tariffs, but Trump and co. have not mentioned that possibility. Meanwhile, Trump acts as though lives are not at stake by pushing false information and, as usual, blaming the media and anyone else he can find for the failures of his administration. Sadly, it's business as usual in the age of Trump.
8
Were trump to order a lockdown like Italy, it would delight his need to control, if he can fudge the economics while blaming the left. Next would be cancelling the conventions, then the election, and there we have it. Permanent external and internal lockdown and dictatorship. What would Putin do?
Alternatively, trump’s and sander’s rallies will accelerate the spread of covid-19, killing off enough of their bases that Biden will take the election washed hands down. improved health care will prevail.
2
We will not be on our own.
We may wish we had a comforting, articulate and informed leader, but we don't.
What we do have is our intelligence, our hearts, our souls and our basic decency, along with a well-functioning system of state and local health departments staffed by people whose dedication defies description.
I am one of thousands of those people, a member of a large town's board of health and a former professor in an area related to public health.My colleagues are nurses, infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists, and community members.
We know how to communicate during a pandemic, and -- in fact -- virtually all of us studied something called health communication while earning our advanced degrees.
We were ready and are busy telling people what we do and -- even more importantly -- what we don't know. There's a lot we are still learning, but we can tell you how to minimize the spread of the virus. The evidence is that an overwhelming percentage of the population are taking these precautions.
We can't minimize the what it means to have an incompetent and ignorant leader. The absence of a voice telling us not to fear our fear leaves a massive void in the social fabric.
But Donald Trump is in the White House while FDR rests peacefully at Hyde Park.
Just know that thousands of us know what we are doing and, when we don't have answers, will admit that.
20
Well, last night's footage in which POTUS showed more concern about the effect of rising confirmed COVID-19 cases on HIS numbers rather than pulling passengers from the cruise ship in order to properly care for them, that just underlined his problem all along. He - and his entire pandering pack - are SELFISH. They believe in the theology of scarcity, and are only concerned that they have the biggest slice of the pie - or better yet, the whole pie.
Now he wants to save us from a global health crisis by cutting payroll taxes? Great. Seriously short-sighted. The Social Security fund doesn't further eviscerating.
And no more trips to the NIH or CDC for POTUS. The staff at both need to focus on the problem at hand. Not waste their time schooling a "stable genius" who is anything but.
18
Perhaps the truth is even more clear if we climb to a higher tree. Chennai India, 8 million people, had a water crisis last summer, partially man induced, and South Africa had a similar crisis a year before. Today we face a possible Pandemic. We had the Black Death and the Spanish Flu in the past and recovered. The difference is that we have stopped savoring the safety that our modern world provides, instead concentrating on our GDP and the strategic importance of having the biggest one, so we can pursue our war on "little Enders" overseas. Are we really being wise to fight wars of ideology on each other while we grow in population, unchecked by ecology as other species are, because we are so clever. We are continuing to cut down trees in rain forests to plant profit crops so the world can have Provasic, sorry wrong movie, so the world can have iPhones and Facebook, twitter and TicTok. I just don't see "GDP Growth" as the answer to our long range risks. Relish that glass of water, and get a Flu vaccine.
4
Fear gets Fox viewers to the polls.
When the Religious Right heard the recorded voice of Donald Trump describing what he was able to do to women because he was a star, they heard the truth and turned from it in the same way that they turn away from science and facts that do not align with their need to believe easily provable lies. That is what cults do and that is what Trump exploits. But when the cult's fears become aligned with a real threat to their existence, Trump's spell over them will be broken.
11
Teachers of the humanities are going to have to rethink how they teach their courses in lieu of Facebook, a president who constantly lies with his tweets, Fox News, and the general use of propaganda techniques in a democracy. We used to think that the use of propaganda could only happen in the old Soviet Union or a place like Nazi Germany. Students have to be taught how propaganda techniques are so often used to manipulate our thinking.
18
Just got word a well-respected man in our town fell over backwards on a set of steps and broke his neck. According to all accounts, I’m guessing his wife, who will face mountain of medical bills might be wishing for Medicare for All, if she wasn’t already supporting it. Paul, you need to get behind Bernie and bring this thing home!
3
Sorry, but blindly worshipping "St. Bernie" isn't going to bring anything home. Healthcare reform will take more than just aspirational thinking and a "revolutionary" attitude.
1
From what Krugman says, Trump will lose for sure in 2020. So that's why there isn't anymore Trump Derangement Syndrome. Oh wait!
5
Well, I think we have the answer to the Fermi Paradox.
When I was young, I thought by 2020 we'd all have jet packs, not two doddering fools with absolutely no understanding of the world around them running for control of the world's most powerful nuclear weapons cache.
3
@Trevor Bajus
They're certainly old, they may dodder occasionally but only one of the choices for president is a fool with no understanding of the world around him--and that is Trump.
Trump is completely driven by ego and impulse, using the latter enforcing the former.
3
Paul, yes Trump cannot handle the truth. It is a very real issue that the division his leadership has spawned is the biggest threat to sanity and sound governance. The right, both far and moderate take as gospel every utterance from the Trump administration as gospel. On the moderate and far left, nothing is good enough, everything is a threat to our existence. Frankly the inability of either side to grasp the reality of life poses the gravest danger. On the right, slash open an aorta, well it will heal. On the left, a cut on your pinkie is life threatening. People write excellent pieces playing to both right and left, few if any point out that in today's world just about everyone has been poisoned by a failure of reason, accepting that the other guy may be right.
My cure, stop all forms of media for a month and let people judge events they see in their very small piece of the universe for themselves. Impractical, yes but somehow we need to stop feeding people's brains and let the brain perform it's most important function, receive first hand stimuli and decide the proper response.
3
It’s a serious problem when an expert underling like the surgeon general can’t speak the truth out of fear of the president.
2
The good doctor gives Trump the benefit of the doubt writing that he can't handle the truth. I respectfully disagree.
Trump as the stalwart roll model for the new Republican Party just handle the truth in a manner which seems perverse to Krugman and about half of Americans but the other half applaud his actions with glee.
Trump has demonstrated in spades that he fully understands the truth quite well. Like Americans at risk of death from Covid 19 on the recent infected cruse ship off the Ca. coast but whom he would abandon to their fate on the ship rather than see a negative impact on Covid 19 case numbers and his poll numbers by rescuing them to a safe on shore environment. Trading deaths for poll numbers is the Republican way of handling truth.
Recall this president is the same one who admits the truth of grabbing women by the genitals or dealing in love letters with craven communist dictators and proudly admits to the world what just about 50% of Americans would judge to be an altered mental status.
Paul's world view is a throwback to a time when America's vast majority thought women should be respected and we didn't pall around with communist mass murderers who threatened to attack America with nuclear weapons.
But, like Paul, I can't get over it, and would prefer to think Trump and Republicans can't handle the truth but am beginning to think otherwise.
4
Let us take another trip down memory lane. In spring of 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) originated in Mexico and quickly spread to the U.S. Nearly 13,000 Americans died and 60,000,000 were infected before the pandemic came under control in 2010. Who was president? Correct, Obama. Could you please republish your article excoriating him for poor leadership.
4
True. And when people started getting sick Pres Obama immediately declared a national state of emergency. There was no delay. There was no accusations that the far right was making this up. His Administration brought everything it could to fight the disease and stop it from spreading. And the stock markets reaction to his handling of that crisis wasn’t noticed. That’s because investors knew the situation, though serious was being handled. And why are the markets in free fall now—because America hasn’t demonstrated the leadership the world has come to expect in a world-wide crisis.
6
Don’t recall Obama saying don’t worry about it, the GOP made all up to make him look bad.
4
@clarity007 Accepting your numbers as true, you might try doing the long division to arrive at a 0.02% mortality rate. I.e., about 200x less lethal than the current coronavirus.
That was roughly as lethal as any other form of flu. That was just another flu season with a nasty strain of the flu. Current flu season, the score reads an estimated 20,000 deaths, estimated 34M cases, for a mortality rate of 0.06%. There were a lot of cases that year, but it was not a particularly unusual flu.
The reason nobody remembers it is because it was unmemorable.
3
The American Right has Fox News, talk radio, and the rest of the right-wing noise machine to unquestionably peddle their falsities and wishful thinking, so why do they need truth?
3
Trump was criticized for going golfing over the weekend, but really the best thing he could do for the country is put in about 54 holes a day until this crisis passes.
5
A bit of good news: There's an election coming up later this year. What's the old adage? "Fool me once...."
4
@John Whitmer frankly, much of the world is looking at the USA in a similar way. Is Trump a one off phenomenon or are his views representative of a nihilistic, majority opinion? If it’s the latter, new alliances will begin the emerge.
2
@John Whitmer
My father used to say:
- You can fool all of the people some of the times.
- You can fool some of the people all the time,
- But you can't fool all of the people all the time.
I devoutly wish Dad is right.
Conservatism is BASED on denial of the truth. To paraphrase E.O. Wilson, conservatives "would rather believe than know”
7
trump handles this as he has handled everything in his life, the virus is another opportunity for him to spread more hate, more conspiracy theories, more lies, tweet more vile despicable personal attacks, blame others for his failures all to generate more foaming at the mouth enthusiasm among his
devotees.
As trump has shown his strategy works better than the failed traditional approach of having informed fact based positions and policies. The trump single policy of do not make trump feel bad works just fine and his fans are very supportive of it.
5
It’s not that Trump can’t handle the truth, it’s because he’’s oblivious to facts, and/or he really doesn’t care. The thing about pathological liars is that truthfulness isn’t a part of their make-up. When liars can’t distinguish between facts and alternative facts they make stuff up. Delusional is who Trump is and it feeds his megalomaniac personality, Trump is a mental mess, pleading insanity is his best his defense because his delusions aret bedrocks of his entire being.
3
If Trump is re-elected despite his gross incompetence over everything, including the coronavirus, then there is a sickness in this country more incurable than any pathogen.
7
That sickness is already present. It's what got him elected in the first place.
So witch doctor Navarro has charmed Trump into stealing from the Social Security funds to pay for his re-election! No way. If the GOP wants to use a stupid tax break that doesn't solve the problem for many of the people who need the help (those who don't earn income while sick), while handing out $$ to workers like they did with the stupid tariff farm relief programs, then the Dems need to require a pay-for, to keep Social Security and Medicare trust funds whole for this scam. Therefore, a Millionaire surtax of 5 or 10% on 2020 adjusted gross income over $500K. That's a payfor, and is fiscally responsible. Let the rich pay for his election -year handouts, not future retirees.
5
Trump’s incessant muttering about Fake News is pathetic and irresponsible, bordering on criminal. Hopefully a few of his ardent supporters will have the common sense to wash their hands and pay attention to the legitimate experts. Buying into this president’s madness could be life threatening.
3
Krugman - making sense. Must drive Trump nuts when he reads your stuff. You, like, understand things. Trump? Not so much.
1
@Pogo1951
Do you really think Trump reads Krugman !?
Denying or obscuring the truth is the only way to cement the GOPs control of all three branches of government and state legislatures as well. Krugman is right - this started before Trump emerged as their “supreme leader.” But I believe this is actually a “coup” by the GOP articulated by Karl Rove and implemented by Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch and right-wing media starting over thirty years ago: establishing a permanent Republican Majority. They have accomplished their goal. What they didn’t count on was that their “poster boy” Trump, who could whip their base into a frenzy of support, is also so fragile emotionally and bereft intellectually that quite possibly he is now a liability for their stranglehold on total control. And they will stop at nothing to maintain the GOP autocracy; by as they said, “deconstructing” our democracy. That’s a steep price to pay for some very narrow (and actually unpopular) policy objectives. Ironic: the Coronavirus might be the thing to finally wake us up from turning a blind eye to the equally dangerous crisis of climate change; proving, “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” Seriously: this is a chance to reset our approach to global crises and create thoughtful alliances around the world and once again demonstrate our humanity and true leadership as a force for good. Our striving for “doing better” is what made us great - and it can again with the right leadership; one that embraces “these truths to be self-evident...........”
1
Thank goodness for these ignoramuses who are denying the seriousness of the coronavirus epidemic. They are the ones who are buying stock as it falls. Without them, the market would crash through the floor!
1
You can actually trace conservative denialism (or rationalizing) as the source to many of our public policy problems.
From believing that debt funded tax cuts don't increase the deficit, to the belief that global warming is not man-made, to the supposed belief that corporations will self regulate, making environmental regulations unnecessary, to the belief that subverting democracy is worth the pursuit of a conservative agenda, much of what ails America these days can be actually viewed as a widespread psycho-pathology problem.
8
The first thing they come up with is a payroll tax cut. Which will put a few more dollars per week in those STILL WORKING AND GETTING A CHECK. All the people whose incomes will be slashed or eliminated (like waiters and waitresses, people who need to stay home from work to watch their kids if schools are closed, for example) will get what benefit if they don't get paid? Or anyone who is exposed and/or sick from this (or anything else but can't get tested) will have to stay home for at least 2 weeks. If they have sick time , great. But they will use up most, if not all their time off for the year (remember most sick and vacation time is combined). If they don't have time off benefits, then they go without a check. And if you work next to someone who gets exposed or sick, then you will also have to be kept home. All this because Trump wanted to make the numbers look like this was not a problem by not testing people. And if Trump, now potentially exposed himself, tests positive, he will have exposed how many people exactly by shaking all those hands after he was exposed? Mr. Germphobe has no problem spreading the germs. And to think, if he is positive, he caught it from a Republican.
4
@Walking Man
And don't forget, the people out of work are "able body" and will not qualify for SNAP benefits (food stamps) on top of everything else.
It's not that they can't handle the truth. The point is they don't want the public to know the truth. And if the truth gets out, then they blame their "enemies".
12
The maddening question is, how does the far right get away with its agitprop? I know Fox and Sinclair have huge captive audiences. So how do you inoculate these millions from Breitbart baloney, assuming they even want to stop hating demon Democrats? Hate sells. And someone telling you you’re wrong is get another reason to hate them.
5
"has there ever been a president so obviously not up to the job?"
Sure:
1. George Walker Bush
2. Ronald Wilson Reagan
3. Gerald Rudolph Ford
4. Richard Milhous Nixon
5. Herbert Clark Hoover
6. Calvin Coolidge
7. Warren Gamaliel Harding
8. Thomas Woodrow Wilson
9. William Howard Taft
10. William McKinley
And those are just from the 20th-century!
We've always got a nation full of political incompetents, primed and ready to serve; maybe, though, to be to be fair, it's the job: Who can herd cats? Or square the circle? Or be all things to all people?
Our next gift to posterity will be a narcissistic crook and pathological liar, a demented loser who should be in a convalescent home, or a stubborn socialist recovering from a heart attack apparently so serious that he won't reveal his health records.
Who or what will rescue the Divided States of America?
A different person, a political savior? No, it will take all of us; therefore, if you are very worried, then you're seeing what I'm seeing, thinking what I'm thinking, concluding what I'm concluding, and predicting what I'm predicting.
If only the first man and woman hadn't indulged in that healthy snack ...
4
Trump supporters are either extremely gullible and cannot recognize a conman when they see one, or they simply don't care that they elected a conman as their leader.
4
One can only imagine the sweet Coronavirus lullaby Barack Obama would have sung to us to reassure us and put us to sleep as he gently tucked us into bed. That's the biggest difference between he and Trump. Obama understands the minds and insecurities of little children better.
3
@John Doe What we don't have to imagine is how he would have actually handled an epidemic since he did lead the government in a successful fight against it.
6
I finally blew up at a Trumper friend of mine today when he said, “You Democrats have been after him from day one.” I think I yelled for 5 minutes. I told him we knew what he was from day one—an American Mussolini—and that he has proven himself such. I reminded him at that Pelosi wanted to avoid impeachment until Trump made it unavoidable. I scolded him about hating the Clintons while ignoring Trump’s endless, pathological lies and grotesque behavior. I began to feel bad about it until he said, “Wow. You’re like the 4th person today who’s yelled at me about him.” The tide might be turning...
25
"In 2020 we’re relearning the lessons of 2008 — namely, that America’s right-wingers can’t handle the truth."
So, Paul, just to be clear, you are suggesting that almost 1/2 of America "can't handle the truth"? And, just who's "version" of the truth is that?
I am not a Republican. In fact I despise Trump. Yet, you alienate me and many independents with you constant biased rhetoric.
WOW!
3
How, exactly, does the truth constitute "biased rhetoric?"
2
@bsb There's only one version of the truth. The truth. Or, to put it another way, the exact opposite of everything of a factual nature that Trump has ever asserted, most recently his untenable nonsense about Coronavirus being a hoax by Democrats. To the extent that half the country supports Trump, then yes, of course half the country can't handle the truth. If someone pointing that out alienates you, that's a you problem, not a Krugman problem.
1
Apparently it's easy for over forty million Americans to live in the fantasy world of El Presidente Grande and his better than anyone else's everything, when they are provided with lies, half truths, and distraction all day, every day, by the likes of Fox News, Rush, Hannity, etc.
7
We may have to pretend that the Coronavirus originated in Ukraine in order to get the GOP to focus.
7
We've focused on Trump's narcissism for a while now and find ourselves in a situation in which the right has accepted and is abiding, for the most part, that Trump's need to erase that which he thinks will make him look bad. That necessarily means that whatever Trump does is always the best possible decision and outcome - regardless of whether or not it was sound or prudent and regardless of whose benefit it was done for.
As we are being fleeced, poisoned, and now at risk of being killed thanks to the oligarchy's long-time greed, we are hearing Trump and his VP congratulate themselves for the availability of 4 million test kits and the coming online of commercial tests by the nation's largest labs. 4 million tests a week coming online, in a pandemic, and in a nation of 320 million is ridiculously inadequate. But to listen to the sycophants, you would think America has the corona virus all handled.
Had this happened 2 years ago, Trump wouldn't have gone live to announce payroll tax cuts and some deal to compensate workers who have to stay home. Don't get me wrong, I agree it is needed. But this is only being done due to the coming election.
We need universal healthcare.
We need an NIH, CDC, and military with the capacity, technical and monetary, to handle the pandemics to come. A month into this nightmare, Trump is way over his head and still only thinking of himself and how he looks.
Stay safe everyone!
——
3rd submission 3/9/2029 7:36 pm EST
5
Virus denial and climate denial both burn up valuable time.
4
Trump and his band of MAGA-maggots are only worried about saving themselves with this blame game while folks are dying. The President of the United States is recklessly broadcasting dangerous misinformation that actually helps the virus spread.
2
If we can get to November fast enough a Biden Klobucha administration (I hope)can operate in reality and attempt to get the country in order
2
@AVIEL
We must also have the House and Senate to get anywhere. We must be upfront, clear, Truthful in the extreme, and lay out the step by step plan in every matter for all to see and understand.
We must make it clear that ideas / plans may have to change and update as we go along when gaps surface or our understandings get stronger.
When the straight truth is deemed by the general public (led by the nose by Very Serious People and extremist shriekers on cable television) to be simply too partisan for discussion in polite company, things like 2008 and COVID-19 are the inevitable results.
The real virus is the Republican Party. It has raged long enough, and should be quarantined by voters this fall to the natural reservoirs of this infectious agent, the white supremacist jungles of this country. It is probably too much to hope that we can extirpate this plague completely.
"Each of us has the plague within him; no one, no one on earth is free from it. And I know too that we must keep endless watch on ourselves lest in a careless moment we breathe in someone’s face and fasten the infection on him. What’s natural is the microbe. All the rest—health, integrity, purity (if you like)—is a product of the human will, of a vigilance that must never falter. The good man, the man who infects hardly anyone, is the man who has the fewest lapses of attention. And it requires tremendous will power, a never-ending tension of the mind, to avoid such lapses."
- Albert Camus, The Plague
5
Mr. Krugman, let me finally get this off my chest:
Contrary to popular belief, parties do die. The Federalists did. The Whigs did. And the Democrats have every confidence they can do it, too. And they should. A more sleazy, cynical betrayal of a mass voting body has perhaps not been seen since the Reichstag Fire.
When the nation demanded a party dedicated to the health, prosperity and welfare of a yearning citizenry, what it got was vile betrayal and cowardly abandonment by Democrats, who sold every iota of concern for Americans for the money of a grasping, visionless, suicidal capitalist oligarchy.
The fact of Bernie brings the reality of the Democratic Party today into plain view and exposes, as an open casket does, the grisly horror within it. The last fifty years have seen the appalling descent of the Party from one which could--when forced--take halting steps to benefit our People, to the money-hustling brothel it is now.
America finally got a belly full of it, and the inevitable reckoning came: enter Trump and his coven of inverts, sociopaths, and kooky Christer warlocks.
If the combine of reactionary nonentities who bombed, with Mike Millions, and vindictive team mole Warren, deny Bernie his majority, then the Party will nominate its flaccid, fatuous Nowhere Man who will be joyfully flogged by Trump, beaten like the vacuous drum he is. In that event, the Party dies of permanent 1% donor withdrawal and mass youth abandonment.
2
@Michael Sorensen No one can "deny Bernie his majority" if a majority of voters vote for him. If not then he never had a majority.
No amount of over the top rhetoric can change this.
5
Republicans were shocked when Obama wore a tan suit at a White House press conference. But they've got no problem with Trump wearing a MAGA cap at a corona virus event.
5
Every darn single time that Republicans take office they break the bank, they break everything. They're destroyers and monsters.
5
Do you think Trump caused the spread of virus in Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran?
Do you think he is responsible for the world wide collapse of the stock market?
I think you know he is not. You just can’t help yourself writing negative articles about him...
3
@Marian I just told my elderly parents not to fly to see their only grandchild next week. Last weekend Trump was playing golf in Florida. Unlike the rest of the world, where health officials are boarding planes to test people, there is clear information about where to get tested and who should get tested, and funding for all this, all Trump can do is yell at the CDC for releasing accurate information about the crisis. Geez bring back Brownie. At least he actually flew to LA to look at the damage from Katrina.
@Marian Various specific criticisms have been made about things Trump did & things he didn't do.
Mistakes which have made the job of fighting the virus harder.
Are these criticisms accurate? Well, you make no attempt to refute them, instead offering us absurd straw men.
Your failure to engage with the actual criticisms leveled speaks volumes.
@Marian Giving full credit to the first two paragraphs of your post does not excuse Trump. Two negatives still do not make even one positive.The question he has to answer for is what is he doing about the problems wherever they originate Precious little is the answer. He is late and trying to protect himself politically.
Isn’t it a bit hard to claim the “Fake News Media” has blown this virus out of proportion when the entire country of Italy is on lockdown?
5
Donald Trump is not capable of leading our nation out of this crisis.
Trump is clueless, increases uncertainty with every statement and gesture, and provides no degree of moral leadership. He distrusts anything he does not know...and he isn't knowledgeable on basically everything. And his animosity towards science and any expert creates confusion and chaos across all critical sectors of our society.
We are in a crisis, folks. You must rely on your own understanding of how to address this problem.
Use the CDC website at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/summary.html
But also read the opinions of all available experts, including all statements from Director Fauci, who is doing everything in his power and ability to be straight with the American people and provide us with daily updates including the best possible direction and information - which is exactly what we need right now.
Remember, the following every day actions can help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses:
• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Stay home when you are sick.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
Good luck, all.
3
President Trump is not capable of leading our nation out of this crisis.
Donald Trump is clueless, increases uncertainty with every statement and gesture, and provides no degree of moral leadership. He distrusts anything he does not know...and he isn't knowledgeable on basically everything. His animosity towards science and any expert creates confusion and chaos across all critical sectors of our society.
We are in a crisis, and must rely on our own understanding of how to address this problem.
Use CDC's website at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/summary.html
Read the opinions of all available experts, including all statements from Director Fauci, who is doing everything in his power and ability to be straight with the American people and provide us with daily updates including the best possible direction and information - which is exactly what we need right now.
The following every day actions can help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses:
• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid close contact with sick people.
• Stay home if you are sick.
• Cover your cough and sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces and objects.
Good luck all.
Professor Krugman, your "style" and "tone" are perfect for higher education and most of the readers of the NY Times, but it is imperative that you change it going forward. There is a crucial election to be won, there's no need to deplore the far-right gratuitously, as you do. And, oh, Maureen Dowd and Gail Collins do that brilliantly already.
FDR said he welcomed the hatred of his enemies, and he also got the nation on-board for world war with stories like “if your neighbor had a fire, you’d loan him your garden hose.” Put your principles into words that win votes! Thanks.
2
Paul you wrote at the end of your op-ed, "America’s right-wingers can’t handle the truth." That's certainly part of it. The larger issue, and you cite a number of examples, is that America's right-wingers can't handle major crises in ways that are proactive, responsible, and honest.
2
@Ted if you admit you need government sometimes, then you also need to pay for that with taxes, and that's where the right will do ANYTHING do bring disgrace to government. When that doesn't work, just ignore huge problems like this one. Understand their thinking now?
1
Part and parcel of Grover Norquist's drown the federal government in a bathtub efforts.
This president has already bowed out. I don't think he is going to run again, as I have predicted since Nov 13, '18, at least. He might take the money and run, get pardoned, and run the risk beyond that, I think.
Our biases look for support even if the truth hasn't set us free. Mine are not always fixed realizing that each opinion columnist will influence my opinion. It's frustrating to me if my point of view may be shaded by personal bias.
1
Many of the people who voted for Trump won't care about any of this. They may see an opportunity to refinance their mortgage and lower their credit card debt. If you live paycheck to paycheck and don't have a big 401(k) the stock market doesn't matter to you. Lowered payroll taxes: that will matter.
I think a distinction needs to be made between denying the truth (about the urgency of an epidemic) and not caring about those who are (or will be) impacted because one believes themself (and their family) to be insulated from negative consequences - either due to wealth or delusion and/or both.
2
I just saw that the president has been messing with taxes again. He decided to reduce "payroll taxes". I understand that payroll taxes, including Federal Income taxes, also include employee and employer taxes paid that go to fund Medicare and Social Security. It is interesting to me that the maximum contribution for the Social Security maximum income taxed was also increased on January 1, 2020 and that had the effect of higher income earners paying more of those taxes. So now there will be less funding for those programs and possible provide impetus for a way to hide future reductions in Social Security and Medicare benefits.
One other point I'd like to bring up regarding the huge drop in the markets. I heard that the "circuit breaker" activated during the dropping market value. I understand that it has something to do with preventing shareholders' value from dropping too fast. I wonder if there is a "circuit breaker" that also will pause trading if the market rises too fast?
6
"In 2020 we’re relearning the lessons of 2008 — namely, that America’s right-wingers can’t handle the truth."
******
I have rabid Trump voters in my family. It isn't that they cannot handle the truth, it is because they do not believe the truth. They believe that what Trump spouts has more merit and shows the depth of how 'liberals' (Democrats) are out to get him with massive numbers of lies.
Trump has built his wall wide and strong. The wall between those of us who see what is happening and those who deny what is happening cannot be torn down yet.
12
45 is an incompetent, temperamentally unfit man for the presidency, plus a pathological liar. He and his children care only for amassing wealth, and the citizens of the US, be damned.
10
"The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars"
We elected a con artist, TV reality celebrity to lead the greatest nation on earth. Six failed businesses, three failed marriages, (don't kid yourself on the third, its the prenups).
From steaks to airlines to universities he has proven to be an equal opportunity swindler.
The hardest idea to grasp is the class of people he swindled is the class of people who will never cross the gates of Mara Lago, Doral, or West Minister but they make up his base of devoted followers.
They would place him on Mt Rushmore tomorrow if they could
13
Isn't it possible that these denials of the truth are not delusions, but deliberate and desperate lies? The GOP may not be guilty of incompetence, but criminal grifting.
7
And let's not forget Hurricane Katrina, the last natural disaster that washed the clay feet out from under another Republican false messiah. Remember the plaintive wails from the White House about people who insisted on playing the "blame game" just because Bush's FEMA was miserably unprepared, and led by an unqualified Presidential crony? Remember Fox News pundits lecturing the victims of the disaster that it was their own fault for not getting good educations and jobs and making something of themselves so that they wouldn't have to depend on the government to rescue them?
Since so many of them were poor and black, they made an easy right wing target. It will be a little harder to do that this time around, as the likes of Matt Gaetz and Ted Cruz self-quarantine themselves. (Lucky for them they don't have to worry about losing pay while they stay home). And the most vulnerable population of all happens to be Trump's core base, and Fox's core demographic: older people who are getting misinformation about the danger.
8
Yes. Incredibly, our narcissist-in-chief actually referred to the coronavirus as a "hoax" at one juncture (his go-to word for those subjects he dislikes) recklessly attempting to blame the Democrats or Obama or Biden. His hair-trigger finger-pointing tactics are the stuff of a low C student unable to parse facts. Clearly, the coronavirus is real. Krugman is right. Resorting to conspiracy theories or happy-go-lucky nonchalance is no way to deal with the complex realities we face. Mr. Trump cannot spin this away.
8
Trump is living of lies, by lies, and for lies.
2
How the heck did the Republican party become the home of lunatics?? I am totally astounded at the ridiculous story lines coming out of conservative media, and that Trump's political base seems to swallow those stories hook, line, and sinker regardless how unbelievable they are. We're in real trouble in this country if facts no longer matter. Trump has got to go!!
10
The new Rep party is all about full-on delusion, post-truth, post-facts, post-evidence. “Make America great again” is a cultural war rally cry for a society that not only no longer exists, but cannot.
That said, with the most powerful and influential political propaganda machine since Goebbels, Faux “news,” they are able to craft whatever narrative they want and it is believed as vetted news. Sex sells and on every Faux “news” home page there are very pretty women splayed all over it. Lurid stories and plausibly-deniable racist stories pepper the page.
They have hooked entire sections of America to vote against their economic interests, their healthcare interests, their infrastructure interests, etc., etc.
The trifecta of lies and liars, Trump, the Reps and Faux are powerful enemies of America as the Founders and Constitution created, seeking to turn the country into a real Handmaid’s Tale.
.
4
The official Republican "Leadership in Government" checklist!
W: Crash of 2008, Hurricane Katrina, two wars (still ongoing).
T: Crash of 2020, COVID-19, Impeached.
Missions Accomplished.
3
Could there be a more certain buy signal than predictions of a permanent recession under this byline? See how easy it is to pretend to be the American Nostradamus.
3
@Fru And yet, you aren't buying. It's easy to pretend to be smarter than the Nobel Prize winner, but when it comes to putting money down.....
Let’s pull on the thread of Trumps theory that Democrats and the news media have concocted yet another conspiracy to bring him down.
Here’s how I suspect Trump thinks the plot unfolds... Nancy tore up the Presidents State of the Union speech. Nancy them swept up all the pieces of the speech and had Adam Schiff dispatch the torn document to China and various cruise ships in international waters where carriers of the Coronavirus were then asked to cough or sneeze on the mutilated speech.
Schiff, in a hazmat suit (designed to look like leisurewear,) collected the contaminated speech and brought it back to the United States and inclosed contaminated pieces in over-performing 401k statements to elderly residents in nursing homes and various conservatives attending the CPAC convention. 14 days later MSMBC and CNN picked up on the fact that people were having difficulty breathing, and then feigned concerns about their compromised health. The stock market got wind of the situation and stock prices fell precipitously. Anxiety set in and even more people got sicker as the markets started to spiral down. Then MSNBC reporters maliciously wedgied DR Larry Kudlow MD so he panicked and said that Trump had the virus “semi” contained when what he really meant to say was that a vaccine was available to anyone who thought the earth was flat.
And that’s my idea of how Trump thinks the Democrats “corona hoax” got started.
Next: Chuck paid Putin to start a price war on oil.
2
"What?! We're not going to cancel the 4th of July based on one shark attack!"
Fitting.
3
I don't hate Trump. In a President, I hate hate lying, I hate incompetence, I hate racism, I hate misogyny, I hate those perverting truth for their personal interests.
Hmm, what's left...
Ok.
4
Why not say it bluntly?
The only reason Trump was elected in the first place (or at least had enough electoral college votes) was that there is a large WASP segment of America who will take anybody from the right who assures them that all the riffraff (blacks, latinos, "foreigners" -- why not call them deplorables while we are at it) will either be sent away, locked-up, or segregated in red zones and out of sight.
Along with that, of course, a strong police, military, and judicial system to keep all of this under control.
When you are that callous, selfish, and fearful at the core, America does not stand a chance.
The 1% are watching the country eat itself out but, for some reason, think that they will come out unscathed.
The potency of the corona virus is nothing compared to the heart of the people who, in the comfort of their home, are foaming at the mouth and "praying" for the 1950's to resurface.
6
Krugman is happy that the markets finally have tanked. It makes his 2016 prediction look less foolish.
2
@Joe
I read it differently: Dr. Krugman is unhappy because we are facing a public health crisis and a potential fiscal crisis with a serious deficit of leadership in this country. A lot of us who are grown-ups agree.
3
I appreciate so much the fact that Paul Krugman you can get in the ring to fight, but you fight nice, not nasty. These are factual matters as to how, when, and why not the Trump and GOP organizations cannot and do not fight fair. They fight dirty and even when has reached the top of many mountains from wealth, even if inherited and ill-gained, to politics, same even ifs, it is never enough to begin to tell the truth, to seek truth from many sources, not just allies and the usual folks, and think about your role in the global and national arena, a much larger place than simply Trump Org.
2
Trump doesn't seem to realize that the best thing he can to bring about some calm and reason here is to actually have a sensible plan to implement, and to announce it in a coherent manner, which seems to be totally beyond him to do.
4
The 'truth' is a relative thing in the GOP universe. Fine if its convenient but when it isn't then they create 'alternate' facts. The party has regressed into an amoral, unethical machine interested only in winning elections. Governance is never an issue. Cut taxes and starve the government and let Darwinian economics take over. The poor and disadvantaged are forgotten but the middle class is also the victim in all of this non governance. It doesn't end well when this happens.. it never does.
4
I hate to say this, I really do, and I mean no one harm: but the only way that Trump will come clean on this unfolding catastrophe and stop lying to us is when either he or any one in his family gets the virus. The same for anyone in the right wing twitter verse. Nothing concentrates the mind more than when truth gets personal.
5
This has never worked for healthcare issues with Republicans. Trump and family will never be in the position of not having a respirator available.
1
@Rick Morris
You are sadly mistaken. He will never admit to being wrong.
2
The Republican party serves their elite donor class but needs to attract voters who are not. So, they use fear, hatred, and lies to fool those voters into voting against their own self-interest. And because they use techniques of hatred and rejection of their fellow citizens, they have a demographic problem, with young, minority, and other voters deserting their troglodytic party in droves. So, they add cheating in the forms of gerrymandering and voter suppression to their frantic effort to hold power. The cycle of playing for short term victories at the cost of long term failure repeats in their support for the most incompetent, dishonest, corrupt, and un-presidential leader in modern history.
10
The left has it elite donor class. Don’t be fooled. And the Democrats bow down before them just as the republicans do.
2
"Trump Can’t Handle the Truth"
Nothing more needs to be said. This says it all.
5
@Robert Stewart
Search this term; "Mulvaney thinks Trump is crazy, and that it is a good thing"
1
With Trump dominating the GOP and the GOP pols acquiescing to him, it is not a matter of being partisan, but of recognizing that our president is incompetent and due to severe mental issues (too many to name), he is running the country into the ground via his various policies or lack of them. We have alienated the country's long time friends, divided the country into warring factions, and most importantly will not listen to his competent advisors before they were fired or left the admin. That is not a matter of partisanship, but incompetence and mental instability.
3
Please vote for women. They are less likely to be full of ego.because they do not have the ego driving testosterone to blind their insight.They would balance the discussion. The animal world is wiser, their leaders are usually older females. We need that balance.
Trump is a damaged man and he cannot think with wise depth. This is a huge problem for the country. His advisors are always scrambling to fix his mistakes or else they are bowing to his insistance that they fall in line. .Meanwhile the virus proceeds regardless. His supporters,which follow like sheep,insist that this is all a democratic hoax while the virus runs rampant. Some people still believe the world is flat.
This situation is a partially a result of all the bad decisions made early on when Trump insisted on denial. Now they are rushing to catch up but they are closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. With a virus you have to be ahead of the curve or else.
All the fantasies and the escapist theories are going to be tested this time. A reality check is here.
Hopefully we emerge sadder but wiser. But this may be a vain hope if we don't elect a different president with a better grasp on reality, truth, facts and science. These are the building blocks of good decisions.
5
Trump is better than Bernie Sanders. And Biden is better than both of them. Biden has a long history of integrity and standing up for economic equality. Biden has years of experience working with both sides of the aisle. Biden can recreate the joining of the South and North as exemplified by the Dixiecrats. Biden Harris is the dream ticket for the nation. If there is one word to describe Biden it is integrity.
7
@SF trump is “better” than nobody ( and actually, nobody might be better than Trump), and certainly not BErnie in terms of vision, wisdom, compassion, sensitivity, sense of humor and justice - all terms that are never applied to Trump. Biden’s word is “compromise.” He ma be what we need, though, and yes I think Kamala Harris would help his ticket, though I’d prefer her for AG.
6
where was that integrity when we really needed it when it came to his vote on the Iraq war resolution? where was it when he voted for the crime bill that put a disproportionate number of men of color into prison? where was it when he voted to strengthen the hand of credit card companies against consumers?
2
@SF
Your history is a bit off. The Dixiecrats were a rabidly racist group set up to oppose tilt toward civil rights in the Democratic Party of the late forties. Nothing to Pine for there.
3
I don't think this has anything to do with being right-wing or left-wing. There are tons of leftists running around not believing this virus is a serious threat so to point a finger at the right wing folks is nonsensical. So very tired of everything being seen as political and everything being viewed through a partisan lens. Note: this virus doesn't care who you voted for!
2
@Greenie The tons of leftists running around not believing this virus are not the ones running the country.
But even with that, I see no evidence of 'tons of leftists'. I have no doubt there are such fact-impervious people, and they are scattered across the political spectrum but 'tons of leftists'?
Sorry, your false equivalence is a little too false to work on anyone but the most credulous.
7
@Greenie
Your comment is pure speculation. It is also purely political.
I got the following information from President Trump via his Twitter feed:
“So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”
I thought about it and he has a good point. The markets are overreacting as are his critics.
3
@Mark The difference is that vaccines and immunity from previous exposure exist for the common seasonal flu. Herd immunity limits the spread and at risk groups receive the vaccines proactively. For this novel corona virus, we are unprotected.
76
@Mark • Trump's figures - 546 cases and 22 deaths means a death rate of 4%. Ordinary flu has a death rate of less than 0.01% (34 million cases this year so far, with 20,000 deaths). That means coronavirus is 400 times more lethal than the flu. Using Trump's figures, if there were 34 mllion cases of coronavirus the numbers of dead would be 1,360,000. Think about that...
105
@Mark
Actually Mark. Trump is not forthcoming with real details and even assigned his political protege' V.P. Pence to filter vital scientific medical education that would help the public prepare. The mortality rate is calculated for those over 65 years of age to be approximately 16% and overall deaths will range higher than 400,000 overall from this virus, if estimates hold true. That means you have to protect your parents or grandparents instead of paying attention to Trump who is driven by his own image. I am glad you are here to learn vastly more than Trump tweets so you too can be prepared. There is much information here you can rely on and use.
72
since 2016 and trump's election it has been discussed 'what will trump do when a crisis occurs?' well, we now know the answer. he is incompetent and his staff , who he choose, are unable to respond. all predictable.
8
@Pgathome And while we’re at it denying the truth about the coronavirus, no one, including Krugman, has mentioned the price war between Russia and the Saudis over oil. That too has been figuring into the drop in the stock market. Any reporters ask Trump or his finance guys about THAT?!
3
@B. Rothman
reporters tried to ask questions when trump proclaimed ' he was going to have a stimulus program' to combat the economic issues. he immediately left and did not answer questions. for people , such as yourself, to complain about reporters 'not asking questions' when the President refuses to answer tells me there are many in this world that are unable to pay attention. no surprise here.
Republicans and the "Right Wing" can't handle the truth. Has Paul Krugman actually studied the history of the Democratic Party. Krugman may be right, but history will tell of Politicians, all Politicians, believe in their own truth. Trump, Biden, Sanders, Clinton; it makes no difference who or what country.
"Trump Can’t Handle the Truth" - Fact! Can he at least distinguish the truth from the figments of his imagination? I am not sure about that. Like many long-time despots, he has probably lost a basic sense of reality. Absolute power has corrupted him absolutely. And it is certainly not the sycophants that surround him or his FoxNews cheerleaders who are going to tell the Emperor that he is naked.
5
When your president is a con man, expect only lies. When Republicans turn a blind eye, it's because they loathe to be mocked in a president's tweet. And when you don't really have the time or inclination to learn about what's going on in the world, accepting the word of a president, well, seems agreeable.
Putin, Zuckerberg/Sandberg are responsible for this nightmare.
5
The republicans for years have crafted a house of cards using lies, conspiracies and hate. They cannot acknowledge anything(true or otherwise) that might expose them for the frauds and liars they actually are. They just hope they can muddy the water and point enough fingers to confuse their already confused and ignorant base. It may be good for them, but the country...not so much.
4
You lie in your first phrase. How doesn't it count? Trump never said the virus was "perfectly under control". The you proceed. Fruit of the tree says the rest is dubious.
1
This certainly is not your father's or grandfather's GOP, rather it is a Cult of Personality, Trumpism. A party of White Nationalism installed by an 18th Century anachronism the Electoral College. Aided in part by a hostile power Russia. A Party whose beliefs, values, and agenda are at its core antithetical to America.
5
Ironic that several members of the Republic cult in Congress are now "self quarantined". In this "facts don't matter" club, their chances of getting the virus may be much higher than the rest of us.
5
They can't handle the truth. They can't handle the existence of more than half the U.S. population, or the overwhelming majority of people on the planet. They can't handle plain red Starbucks cups in December.
And they have the gall to call US whiners!
2
This is so obvious. Has anyone actually ever met an old man with a ridiculous 3-way combover who could handle the truth?
5
And yet it is always the liars who complain of lies. Trump and Fox News going on about fake news, it’s enough to lose faith in humanity some days.
2
Phil Gramm was sort of right. The Republicans have become a party of whiners. With a whiner in chief in the White House.
Trumped warned us during the election of 2016 they we would become sick of the whining.
4
You leave out denial in the center which has told us for a decade about the wonders of the Obama recovery and the glorious new economy/ You leave out denial of the steadily decline in life expectancy in the US as many our regions collapse into decay that rivals that of the old Soviet Union. Please stop being so smug, look at the centrists who you apologize for and the leaders you support.
SNL’s skit about the Fox News Corona coverage is basically true. Today was the first day I saw a headline. Maybe they were finally shamed if that’s possible
1
Alas for the rest of us, Trump and his supporters' smug assurances that "It's like the flu" (and the implied corollary, "Shut up and die"), guarantees that this reactionary movement will be the prime vector for the spread of the virus. As has already happened with CPAC and AIPAC. That is why, so far, only radical right politicians have experienced exposure and self-quarantine. Resist the temptation to laugh at their expense: They are literally endangering us all.
Alas for political and social novel writing when you live in the age of You Can't Make this Stuff Up.
2
The Repubs have been all about long term massive redistribution of wealth from the middle class to wealthy elite.
Lowered their own taxes, reduced public services, defunded our common good and are destroying life and the natural world in the service to those who hold the gold and rule. Climate crisis? What climate crisis?
These are sick people, trump is just among the most ignorant of all. Lying is natural to these folks.Again, trump is clearly pathological. The only thing more pathological and spineless are the congressional Repubs and those who send trump money and vote for him after all this. This is Repub lying at its most toxic and dangerous. They must be crushed alongside trump in November.
1
Trump Can’t Handle the Truth
Thank you Jack Nicholson for that Truth!
1
Mr. Krugman is spot on. In 2016 the GOP along with the Trump campaign accused the Clintons of being greedy, backstabbing, power hungry, patently dishonest and habitual liars. Pot meet kettle.
2
You hit the nail right on the head!
1
Some things never change. In Berlin, 1933, a charismatic leader told his people that there was one group that needed to be gotten rid of & everything would be fine. In 2016, America, a charismatic leader tells his people the same message. Who knows what will be the result?
Chinese doctors author a detailed medical analysis of data from hospitalized patients in 2 hospitals. Lancet online today, from Wuhan. 191 patients, age 18-87. They found a 28% death rate for those hospitalized with coronavirus in this study. For 2020 flu in USA, 8200 deaths with 140,000 hospitalizations, or 6% death rate those hospitalized for flu. This is one of the first detailed case studies of this deadly virus.
https://www.thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/pdfs/S014067362305663.pdf
2
Nero fiddled, Trump tweets...
2
How could anyone with an IQ above 50 or considered legally sane, believe that Trump could handle the economy, with 7 bankruptcies to his name or that he could care about anyone beyond the length of his nose, when he's responsible for a policy of kidnapping children from their parents and tossing them into cages? Face it, Cultists, Trump just isn't that into you. You are just collateral damages as a result his non-response to the Coronavirus.
3
If you go to the website
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html?fbclid=IwAR0xbavrdL1wI2FaIRpNSPuz1NuO1JF5krj2ps1D6l5MlI8oAQgQ-4oFuQQ#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
you will find that the US is number 8 in the list of countries with the virus. It has fewer cases than France or Germany despite having a much larger population.
Do facts matter to you Paul? I do hope so. No doubt some criticism of Trump is justified, but the amount of venom he endures from the New York Times every day is maybe not fair.
2
@Ludwig
The coronavirus hit those countries earlier than it did the USA, so it isn't a surprise that they have more cases -- now. Just wait a few weeks.
All your wishful thinking will come to naught.
1
The whole US in quarantine is a mind blowing hypothesis.
1
We have the same phenomenon on this side of the pond, in our case, Brexit, and another, even more truth-averse blond marvel fronting it. I’ve sadly come to the conclusion that this is to a large extent about causing discomfort to those considered “other.” The Trumpsters/Brexiteers may well have given up hope on a better future for themselves, but, heck, what fun to spoil others’ prospects. Twenty-First Century Schadenfreude. As Trump would no doubt say, “Sad.”
3
Trump - Truth is an oxymoron!
A pronounced and involuntary swell of revulsion at the mention of Phil Gramm.
2
Fewer than 4,400 Americans had been tested as of yesterday, according to The Atlantic. In South Korea, by comparison, the government has tested almost 200,000 people: “Authorities in the city of Goyang even set up drive-thru testing booths,” CNN reported.
Thanks to donnie defunding the Obama version of the CDC preparation to handle Ebola like pandemics we are where we are.
Truth, what truth?
3
Mr. Krugman could fill his entire article just listing the names of the right wing white nationalists who denied the onset of the last financial crisis and of course the disgraced coke head Kudlow was among the most prominent of the legions who did so. Now they are in cult like support of a madman who thinks of no one except himself. Does anyone doubt that he would sacrifice everyone around him for his own salvation, even the defenseless elderly, infirm, or infants included. Remove this maniac and defeat his supporters before we are all dragged into the immoral morass that this self worshipping pagan creates wherever he roams.
1
I have an acquaintance just over 60 with two mixed race daughters who has a serious vascular disease due to years of smoking. He's also a member of a union that has kept him being fired due to the multiple surgeries he has had to keep the blood flowing in his body. He thinks the corona virus is hype stoked by democrats to make Trump look bad. He's taking no precautions, thinking this is no worse than the flu.
His attitude reminds me of what the great NYT commenter gemli once wrote: “The lemmings won’t get it. They’ll just blame the ground for rushing toward them.”
2
Sorry, but this is pretty puerile. Does this mean America's left wingers "can handle the truth"?
@Ben
In a word, yes. How many Democratic politicians do you see out there publicly claiming that the virus is under control, or no worse than the seasonal flu? Can you name even one?
1
@Ben Uh, yeah, actually, we can. And we're the grown-ups in the room right now.
2
It's very interesting to read all the comments that support Mr. Krugman's assertions. It appears that he has almost 100% affirmation by those who have submitted comments. I don't think a 1972 Pravda opinion piece would have received such virtual unanimous support. However, one must remember, this is The Times. Actually the genesis and spread of this virus has given Mr. Krugman a certain amount of regained credibility regarding his previous error filled economic predictions regarding the Trump presidency.
1
One comment here says that the “linchpin for all right wing” [_______]—fill in the blank: [thinking] [punditry] [speechifying] [policy-making] [monkey business]—is “their hatred of government.”
I beg to differ.
Their hatred isn’t real, it certainly isn’t sincere.
Fundamentally, they’re driven by an “I win, you lose,” all-or-nothing, do-or-die mindset that, sadly, conditions their every perception—and will surely drive this country over a cliff or into a ditch as long as we let them have the wheel.
At stake is the future of the planet, but they just don’t see it. So incredibly macho, solipsistic, stubborn, and reckless!
We who value something besides winning short-term solely for the sake of our own stupid pride must take control. Immediately!
1
There is one critical difference with Trump I would like to point out.
We have certainly had prior presidents who were not the sharpest tool in the shed, such as Bush 2. But at least Dubya realised his own limitations and hired smart people to run things and guide him. Trump is too narcissistic and dumb to fathom how out of his depth that he truly is.
1
Substitute the word Krugman for Trump in the title of this article.
1
because truth does not matter a whit to either Trump or his MAGA followers. If it did, they would not vote for a proven liar.
2
It isn't that R pols like Trump can't handle the truth. It's that "alternative facts" are often more politically rewarding for them. It's a choice, not an inability. For a long time now, heavily biased, not-so-clever voters have been deliberately targeted and concentrated into the R base by that party's Southern strategy (for use by it's donor class). Such people tend to be easy marks.
2
Sad. A formerly reputable economist is now just a political player.
3
The 2008 financial crisis was made worse by the Republican Party as well. They touted their responsibility of not running a budget deficient. This starved monies that would have been used to ease the crisis on Americans, that was their policy until they were in power. Then poof, suddenly, these same Republicans no longer care about a budget deficit.
This Republican Party and it's current leaders are truly evil, malicious people.
Paul, any thinking person knows the right lives in its own bubble, with its propaganda echo chamber drilling their lies into the heads of the masses they control. And don't forget that in times like the Great Recession, the politician's right-wing Paymasters do better than ever. They get property on the cheap, government welfare and plenty of goodies while propping themselves up as saviors and masters of the universe--profiting off of human misery.
Trump is just their current tool for control--although by far the most dangerous.
And so it goes....
1
Jack Welch was one of the right wing voices who also perpetuated these myths. If you think about all the people he put out of work as well, his legacy is awful.
1
@Joe
you forgot to mention GE may go bankrupt because of Welch.
1
If only Mike Bloomberg would purchase Fox News and fire the megaphone misinformation masters the world would undoubtedly be better off. That’s until Trump leaves office and starts his new Trump TV. I predict that too will fail.
1
Bravo, Paul Krugman. The country is being run by truth-avoiding, economically illiterate amateurs. Make America Great Again, indeed.
2
Paule here thinks he's on the left but in fact he straddles the line between and it moved so far to the right that his left foot is light years from FDR. That is a truth Paul can't handle
If a pandemic and a lousy economy are needed to rid us of Trump and McConnell as senate majority leader, as painful as it may be, it's probably worth it. Of course the Republicans will blame Democrats or the media or the "Deep State", but nothing good will happen in this country until the Republican's illegitimate grip on power is broken.
1
Isn't there something vile about constantly hoping the US economy will tank, with the attendant pain to many people?
And yet, ever since his embarrassing election-night 2016 meltdown, in which he predicted an "endless" recession and a stock market collapse from which the markets would "never" recover, that's pretty much what we've gotten from Paul Krugman.
I find it sad. Embarrassing and sad.
1
Abraham Lincoln was right after all - You really can't fool all of the people all of the time. Bravo, Professor Krugman, for continuing to hold those accountable who refuse to own their problems and, in doing so, they let their problems own them. Unfortunately at the expense of more than a few innocents.
While Trump gazes into the mirror, he's being pathetically outplayed on the international markets.
Electing presidents with psychological disorders is scary. There's the tale of Nixon staffers hiding the nuclear codes from him. Why? He had Paranoid Personality Disorder. Trump is a poster child for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, equally as frightening as Nixon's disorder.
A person with Trump's disorder will always go to serve himself before anyone else, and in this case anyone else is the entire country. His disorder puts the American pubic at peril. Sadly, his apologists, Graham, McConnell, everyone else, also don't care about the American public and are free to let Trump run wild. Nixon's advisers, as bad as they were, still had the smarts to keep him away from key decisions in the last months of his presidency.
If I may, how about the cause of the 2000+ loss in the Dow yesterday? That was abetted by the coronavirus, but the icing on the cake was Russia and Saudi Arabia dropping oil prices. The Saudis let trump do the sword dance and put hands on the orb, so we'll be assisting them. We will have to help Putin, too, because, you know, BFF and all. The Trump administration proposed help for affected businesses. That help will trickle down, of course. The service employees who make up much of our economy are baited with a payroll tax reduction. If you're laid off, however, no paycheck...no tax reduction. Giving those people who lost their jobs direct assistance will be touted as socialism. We can't lose this punk administration and Republican Senate soon enough.
1
When the Religious Right heard the recorded voice of Donald Trump describing what he was able did to do to women because he was a star, they heard the truth and turned from it in the same way that they turn away from science and facts that do not align with their need to believe. That is what cults do and that is what Trump exploits.
2
The Republican Party is a Failed Party. I has very little to offer except dogma and reality denial.
As a party that can only exist by dishonest rhetoric and clever lies, Republicans will have a hard time blaming Trump's egregiously incompetent response to the COVID-19 epidemic on Democrats -- but they'll try.
1
The real tragedy of the Trump administration that is going to play out throughout this epidemic, is our hopelessly inefficient and underinsured medical system that will deprive many patients from obtaining tests, care, time off when ill, and eventually vaccination, once it’s available. Universal health care would make us better able to deal with the disease, and economically more secure. But with an ant-vaxer in the White House, what can you expect.
1
the top gop legislators are guilty of abdication of their duties by allowing trump to distort medical facts about this virus that will negatively impact our collective health. none of them have an ounce of courage or decency. pretending the emperor is fully clothed is their sycophantic default mechanism.
It is not just Trump and his personal minions that cannot handle the truth. Millions of Americans who voted for this man despite his seedy and checkered past, need to be included the list of denial of reality.
Lets face it. Democracy is on the ropes
1
The way Mr. Krugman puts it, there are two sides to what we, as a nation face: the right wing side where "it's a conspiracy" and the "other" side, where truth lives.
Here's the very scary part, as Mr. Krugman points out. The 2008 "right wingers" were wrong then, but cooler heads on the "left" prevailed, and we worked our way out of a destructive financial crisis. This time, the "right wingers" are in charge, and there really are no cooler heads around to prevent a crisis of catastrophic proportions. The difference to this toxic mix is a health crisis that will kill Americans that the "right" doesn't believe in.
It's all a "right wing" Witches brew of stupidity, ignorance, and a danger to the very existence to our Nation.
Add to this toxic mix Russia amplifying our political and racial divisions in this Nation and above it all a president who is incapable of leading our Nation and we have what I would call...the perfect storm, for a weaken democracy.
Mr. Krugman has pointed out over and over again that truth is a virus to this administration. It it doesn't make trump look good, than it's a Democratic plot!
As this column points out, we a looking down the barrel of a very serious crisis, and the real truth is nowhere in sight. We, as a Nation, hopefully, will survive, but with a damaged and bleeding government that will take decades to repair...as long as trump is NOT elected to a second term.
If he is...
At first, the GOP's accusations that various Democrats are at fault seems ridiculous. But when you realize it's the only tool they have in the bag...
1
When have the Right never been in a state of "mental recession" on practically anything?
As for the Coronavirus, I wonder how many of them will still think of it as "fake news" and a "plot by liberals to bring down Trump, because they just don't like him..." should they or a family member come down with it? Oh...wait a minute...silly me! They'll pribably dismiss it as just a cold or a touch if the flu.
Through his incompetent handling of Covid-19, Donald J. Trump again demonstrates that he represents a clear and present danger to the health and well-being of America. Via the 25th Amendment, indictment or a second impeachment, it is time to remove this toxic miscreant from office.
2
The truth may not always set you free, but lies are shackles that will entrap you every time.
1
Questions. If many Americans held their nose with Trump as long as their 401K's continued to rise what does the future now portend? Will the falling market and related coronavirus crisis now be Trump's Jimmy-Carter-Iranian-hostage-crisis downfall? Will the incompetence of the GOP finally outweigh the incompetence of the Dems and irreversibly buoy the Dems' November prospects?
If Trump has now spent three-years owning and taking credit for an economy that he inherited from his predecessor, Barack Hussein Obama, how can he now disown its catastrophic denouement?
From the transparent, ill-advised blockheadedness of the last few weeks, it's clear that mental agility and deftness will play no role in the coming months. Past is prologue. This barking dog has now begun to swallow its own tail and the bobbleheads he's surrounded himself with will offer no barrier to the mounting foolishness. Stable? No. Genius? Definitely not.
2
Krugman, please tell us something we DO NOT KNOW about this lier. You are rattling old tune. We are now fully immunized to his DAILY lies. Americans can relate to him because there lives are very similar, so not much different if you look around; wall street, bankers, Lawyers, Pharma and Congress.
My husband is a physician and this morning he was notified that all meetings and conferences in his hospital have been cancelled, some through April 24th, as well a a huge international meeting scheduled for San Francisco this month.
I believe that these people on the front lines know more about contagious disease than Charlatan Number 1. Ironically, he is in the category of those more susceptible (being 74) and he has been in contact with people who either came down with the virus or had close contact with those who did.
1
It's hard for authoritarian figures to face the truth, let alone the blind-faith followers. When something occurs that the authoritarian can't control, denial and deflection from the truth occur. The occurrence is the Coron virus, not Wall Street.
To help the people for this president goes against the very truth he believes in, himself. All I can say is, time to wake up from your delusions Mr. president, and face reality; it's We the People that comes first, not Wall Street.
248
@Dennis
Trump thinks he comes first but nothing comes next. It's all him.
His days are numbered anyway.
He will not be re-elected.
17
@Dennis What examples of "we the people" coming first? Equal protection is non-existent, and voter are demanding ever more bribes of other people's money for their needs, along with corporate welfare and donor class special interest "winnings."
1
@Butterfly: The typical authoritarian screams people into submission. A Trump-Sanders debate would be a brawl.
4
I apologize that I haven't time right now to look up references but you can.
Last year of a Republican presidency and the effects of unwise tax cuts, cheap money, lax oversight and general incompetence have resulted in an economy on the brink of collapse. Next we elect a Democratic government which gradually regains control under constant right wing criticism only to be replaced by a Republican government which rides the rising economy to the next disaster. "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
2
@Lawrence Tomlin More generally, kind of like Bush Jr invading Iraq & overseeing the Great Recession, followed by Obama's doing his best against intense GOP resistance.
And here we go again.
The quest for absolute power has clouded the vision of Republicans, it is long past time we gave them all a reality check. Vote blue no matter who in November.
3
With four members of Congress now under quarantine, the result of having been in contact with a person infected with the virus at the recent CPAC event, will the rest of the GOP have the light come on and face the reality of the day? When the virus finally hits the folks at Fox news, will it change their views on the subject? What if Trump becomes a victim of the virus?
Lots of questions remain unanswered, but one thing we do know with certainty. Coronavirus is here and quickly spreading. The response has been slow at best, but appears to be getting better, no thanks to the Administration.
2
@allen roberts . The Corona virus is now nearly everywhere. Is another Air Force One golf / political rally trip scheduled for the near future? It will be interesting to observe if anyone on board takes any precautions. None the last time. Xi Jinping and Shenzo Abe are wearing masks in public. I will take Trump and his entourage a little more seriously when they will follow suit. Trump, a man well into his seventies, is so vain that he is not wearing glasses to compensate for his presbyopia. Hence his gigantic signature and his reluctance (in fact incapacity) to read.
Listening to Monday night’s press conference lead by Mr. Trump, you’d think his primary concern was the impact on his real estate holdings. He went on about travel to some places, not others. Some hotels would be fine, not others, etc. It makes you wonder how much of the proposed stimulus is geared towards propping up his personal stake in all this.
Next up was Pence at least using an adults vocabulary, but then I wondered how much of the stimulus was geared towards big pharma profits, rather than helping us.
After Pence, it sounded like a bad SNL skit talking about simplified instructions to stay healthy.
Was I supposed to feel better listening to this episode of the Pandemic Apprentice?
4
From our FWIW department: More knowledgeable people than I have bewailed the course of the economy and the stock market bubble, most particularly since the passage of the tax bill. The stock market has been overpriced for at least a couple years - the Dec. 2018 correction briefly drove it back into sane territory. It has been looking for a reason for further correction, and has found that reason in the COVID-19 epidemic.
Which does nothing to offset the inadequacies of the administration. "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence." There need be no debate over root causes: the Trump administration has a surfeit of both.
3
Another spot on analysis by Dr. Krugman and living in an area that heavily supported Trump in 2016 I hear it every day from the people who still support him. Too bad it will be them that pay the ultimate price over those of us with critical thinking skills.
4
I have an even better index than the bond market. Here in Iowa this weekend the big box retailers were completely sold out of TP and nearly sold out of cleaners and sanitizers. I went home and told my wife, "Fox is losing if Iowans are stocking up."
6
It is not that right-wingers can't handle the truth. It's that they have a vested interest in convincing people that the truth isn't true. And when it comes to their vested interest vs. anything else in the universe, their choice is based upon their zero discount rate vested interest. Sad. But true.
8
The right wing is not composed of the pundits you mentioned. It is composed of people that have been dealt such a horrific blow by so called "progressives" that they are striking back.
People in the right wing are being destroyed by:
A minimum wage that is impossible to live on and has gotten worse and worse in terms of buying power.
An increase if 8 in prison populations with many inmates never having hurt anyone.
A sick country with childhood cancer, obesity and diabetes becoming huge.
Thousands killed by Opioids
More by the Flint water poisoning.
All these things have been forgotten as we enter the next chapter Coronavirus. We are a suffering country.
@Allan
Interesting!
Your list is a confirmation that the right is willfully ignorant, and as another commenter pointed out [see NYT picks] "unable to see the truth" because the leaders of the right have propagandized them for 40 years:
The Federal minimum wage has not risen because of Republican opposition and Democrats in Red states who are too timorous to buck their voters beliefs.
The crime bills are due to the paternalistic approach of Republicans wanting to dictate behavior instead of understanding it and creating conditions and incentives to diminish it.
The lack of effective measures to reduce poverty and the location of polluting industries in poorer neighborhoods leads to malnourishment and effectively PTSD for the children being raised there, leading to poorer achievements in school to later in life.
The Opioid epidemic is the result of improper regulation of pharmaceutical companies and which party is against regulation?
The Flint water poisoning was the immediate result of Republican attitudes of the Michigan governor directing cities with economic problems far beyond their capabilities to fix to just pull up their bootstraps and fix themselves, and appointing unqualified managers to make them do it.
Who has even tried to lift themselves off the ground by pulling on their bootstraps? Many cities, unfortunately exemplified by Detroit and cities like Flint were hit by "White Flight" and found themselves with reduced income and huge needs and no help.
@Allan
?? None of the problems you mentioned are caused by progressive policies.
Progressives support:
increased min wage
prison reform
Health care reform
Infrastructure improvements.
Its the right that call it big gov and opposes it.
1
@Allan You just can't get yourself to put the blame on where it properly lies. Progressives have tried to fix all those things that you put on their doorstep. We tried to expand health insurance via ACA, tighten up environmental controls, raise the minimum wage. And every step of the way, the right-wingers you defend including Republicans in Congress fought us tooth and nail, thwarted almost every piece of legislation aimed at fixing the problems you enumerated.
2
In terms of memory lane, recall the republicans not wanting to pass a serious stimulus package in 2008/09 because of deficit fears? They pretty much said they would rather see the economy struggle and Americans suffer than do anything that would help President Obama's prospects for re-election. Mr. Krugman was a strong supporter of a more meaningful influx of public money into the economy and infrastructure spending. Now, the democratic controlled house will need to decide whether to help ordinary Americans and indirectly Mr. Trump's reelection. I suspect the democrats will do the right thing and help those people impacted but boy is that a tough thing to stomach if it helps Mr. Trump.
7
We used to read The Emperor's New Clothes and The Boy Who Cried Wolf to children as simplistic lessons in how the world works and how to be trustworthy. We did this because we, of course, had learned those simple long ago as children ourselves.
It might be wise to go back and re-read these simple fables to the adults, because we seem to have forgotten what we learned. Perhaps a re-issue of Aesop's Fables... even better, maybe a 6 part mini-series on Netflix.
10
95% of the US's political class could be termed "the right" when contrasted policy-wise with those favoured by the preponderance of the American people. We simply lack the money to be taken seriously by our elected nominal representatives.
4
Your trip through history left out the fact that while Obama was wrestling with the economic crisis, Russ Limbaugh proclaimed "I hope he fails"..
This year Trump gave Limbaugh a prestigious medal for his defense of "freedom".
27
While it's obvious that the Trump Administration is shaping the news to suit Donald's re-election campaign, and that the combined effect is less than ideal for people, for business, for commerce and for the public welfare, I don't believe the fickle stock market is the best indicator of reality, either.
Recall that stocks dumped trillions of dollars of value when Greece defaulted on a billion-dollar loan.
Still, now that my IRA has taken a cold shower and people are cowering in their three-foot bubbles, I can't help but to feel exquisitely happy about the disasters dragging on the Trump Administration.
Could it be divine intervention?
3
Believe it or not, I see parallels with my managers from my software development years.
They would make pronouncements that were obvious fantasy and wishful thinking all the time about costs, due dates, etc.
I used to laugh at them and tell them that the "bits" (as in memory bits) don't care about your politics.
Obviously, that little dern virus doesn't care about Trump's political needs either!
5
@kenzo I am not surprised. Aren't software developers the ones who claimed that Facebook and Google are going to be a great benefit for human civilization and dismissed the objections from those of us who said "Wait a minute, are you sure this unfettered access to the information highway (i.e. unregulated mass media) and to people's private information (i.e. the loss of privacy) is a good thing?"
There are no mistakes. There are only lessons, that will be repeated until they are learned, only to be later forgotten and the mistake will repeat so the lesson can be re-learned.
7
I wonder if there is a way to test people who had comparable symptoms but weren't able to get tests for antibodies. It would be great to have a pool of immune people to help with triage if things get really bad.
I developed the exact symptoms of a mild case exactly one week after traveling through three international airports (and again three on the return). Dry persistent cough, extreme fatigue and possibly low fever. Tried to get a test last week to no avail. After two weeks I'm finally feeling back to normal, and hope I haven't infected a bunch of people during my latency period. Would love to volunteer if it turns out I have had the virus already.
8
Amen, Paul! It seems to me that the right can't handle the truth about the 2nd largest economy in the world essentially shutting down it's economy for the month of January; Italy quarantining its entire country; and our Stock Market fluctuating to the negative like a cardiac monitor for the past 3 weeks. Yesterday, Terry Duffy, Chair of CMG Group, said on CNBC that the low US numbers of testing and confirmation of the coronavirus compared to other countries, just doesn't make sense... and that means uncertainty that the markets hate. We know that the US has botched it roll out of testing kits, and the President has made statements that contradict his own experts such as Dr. Fauci. Yes, the right can't handle the truth, even when the markets are telling them they don't believe them. Heaven help us that they eventually do.
6
Dear Mr. Krugman, you know that the only reason Right Wing leaders have had the success they have had in putting their guys in positions of power is because they have a substantial and loyal base of voters. I have been exposed to Right Wing, extreme Christian voters since I was a child (b. 1956). I have been baptized or otherwise accepted into Catholicism, Reform Judaism, and Sufi Islam. I know something about the Abrahamic religions. They are not blunt instruments sent by God to destroy. They are mechanisms for compassion, justice, and helping people live together in spite of our imperfect natures. By some means, those guidelines have been transformed by Right Wing Christian zealots to support slavery, the subordination of women, and the elevation of their monied classes to the right hand of God. These folks have been driving the message that anyone who disagrees with Right Wing leaders are in league with Satan and cannot be trusted for decades. I used to listen to their radio programs when I was in grade school as my family and I traveled across country (for the Air Force). Rush Limbaugh sounds just like those guys. Further, their depiction of God demands everyone's submission to Right Wing political and religious leaders. They want us all to live under their definitions or suffer the consequences. What are the odds we can reach the minds of ~40% of voters now, when we never could before. We've tried. Right-Wing leaders are betting on this.
12
@TDHawkes your comments about religion are so true that it makes one wonder of the level in education reached by these people!
1
If a large part of the problem is media related, then what can we DO about it?
The Supreme Court struck down regulation of media outlets unless they have a monopoly.
5
The root cause of the 08 housing bubble was the lowering of mortgage qualifications. Many folks got second mortgages cashing out rapid equity gains for vacations,new cars and toys also. This trend started in the Clinton years with well intentioned anti red lining rules,ending with 0 down payment and very low teaser adjustable interest rates at its peak.
The goal of increasing home ownership forced banks to make dubious loans backed by Fannie and Freddie programs.
Democrats had a major role in this.
1
@Lane
Redlining was vile. Many of the new home owners didn't understand what their mortgages were.
The banks bought the bogus derivatives CDOs. and that's what tanked the economy. The repeal of the Glass Steagall act was a disaster along with the the repeal of other methods put in place by the FDR administration to prevent another financial collapse.
6
@Lane: Bond rating agencies evidently took bribes to over-rate mortgage backed securities. Nobody went to jail for it.
2
@wanderer: Glass Steagall was based on expectation of monetary policy to maintain stable yield curves. This went out the window with the "Dual Mandate" Congress assigned to the Federal Reserve Bank to manipulate interest rates to affect employment rates.
Congressional abrogation of fiscal policy is another bad mistake.
As Shakespeare once wrote, the truth will out.
In the coronavirus we finally have a situation that Trump can't lie or brag his way out of. Viruses don't care about political spin.
11
Mr. Krugman knows or should know that the reason for the lack of testing has two parts. First the CDC had a test but was supplied one agent that was flawed. That has been corrected an we have sent out over 1.2 million test kits and each kit can test up yo four people. The second reason the kit are not in greater supply is the red tape companies have to wade through to get a kit approved. The lack of test kits has not been a problem in other countries in large part because they don't have that red tape. We will be behind other countries when the vaccines are available because of the same red tape and testing needed to get approval. Also the threat of liability is so great in this country, companies my not even want to take the risks. In China, Xi is in Wuhan signifying that they are stopping the spread of the virus. But could we get away with guaranteeing the State of Washington. The virus is dangerous here but so far only 500 cases out of 375 million people in the U.S. In the 2018-2019 flu season 34,200 died here of flue related illnesses and we can test and have a vaccine. As far as the economy goes, Mr Krugman probably didn't see the futures this morning up 700-800 points and in part because of the program Trump talked about which included reduction of the pay roll tax. Also the oil prices are up. I know Mr. Krugman wants try and bash Trump. But the real results in this country will come in a few months not just 2 1/2 months after the vaccine ha been identified.
2
@Ron - According to the Atlantic, after a survey of state officials, only 2,000 kits have been sent out, not the 1.2 million “we” have sent out. Who is “we”? Trump, Pence and the right-wing cheering squad? It is obvious that the slow response from the US government is partially because Trump had cut back funding and pandemic agencies put in place by the Obama administration using lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak which was handled properly.
The other reason for the disastrously slow response is that the lack of testing means low numbers of detected cases - which appeared to back up Trump’s reporting of low number of confirmed cases. At the same time, labs determined that COVID-19 had already been in the US undetected for six weeks.
The problem is not red tape. It is Donald Trump trying to deny the reality and enormity of what his ineptitude and Obama spite has unleashed on the population.
5
Trump blocked the CDC from telling seniors not to travel by air. But Trumps political interference in the science of preventing and treating Covid 19 doesn’t interest you. No it’s the stock market you’re focused on. Money over peoples lives.
2
If you are counting on a vaccine in 2.5 months, you are as delusional as Trump. As for playing to the stock market with more tax cuts and deeper deficits, that’s just to try to get re-elected, not to help the vast majority of Americans.
2
The declilne in interest rates on retirement CDs should trouble some of Trump's clueless supporters. However, since Trump has so much personal debt in his business enterprises, doesn't the current financial situation actually benefit him?
4
That is correct, Jackson. We have literally ZERO idea about DT's personal OR business debt....as he has refused to release a single tax form for his entire life and career. This is unlike virtually every candidate and office holder in the nation for decades, including presidents. And given that significant debt can induce any person to sometimes take many desperate actions and consort with untoward actors, can you not see possibility of corruption with that deliberate lack of transparency?? If the shoe were on the other foot, I'm pretty sure you can imagine how it could. Yes, Jackson - it's an "issue".
4
@Jackson
That's rich, considering Trump's penchant for name-calling. Talk about a bad example.
3
Acknowledging reality isn't "name calling." Supporters of this President are, at best, wilfully ignorant.
Tell me how a decrease in withholding will save the day? I am presuming that gem was announced after you wrote this. No mention of child/dependent care assistance which would allow people to stay home, or to stay home when ill. No mention of people who were not working but maybe still had to eat, No plan for handling the sick. No master plan for handling the need for the stats in real time.I do not know what is wrong with these guys.
10
When Krugman talks about the rightwing "refusing to face uncomfortable facts," and not being able to "handle the truth," he is starting to get to a useful recalibrating of how we assess strength and weakness. Trump thrives on propaganda that portrays him as strong because he goes against the grain, goes with his gut, uses offense as the best defense, commands allegiance, and never admits he's wrong. The more he is recast as weak and a slacker, who runs from tough issues, refuses to study up, is too insecure to question his own views, etc, the more likely we'll be to reach a time when true strength is rewarded in the political sphere.
3
@Jackson On an intellectual and moral level, in comparison with Trump? YES
1
I have had a recurring fear over the last few years, perhaps its irrational. The divide between the "haves" and "have nots" has been growing for many years. I fear that in my lifetime (I'm 62) we may have civil unrest on a massive scale because of this ever widening gap. For me it is hard to comprehend how so many citizens can continue to live paycheck to paycheck without any relief in sight (i.e. affordable access to education and/or training for better paying jobs for one). I hope I am wrong because I have adult married children who will have families soon and I would like to them grow up in a peaceful world. I believe the current myopic philosophy of the republican party is driving the country to this disastrous possibility. Hope with all my heart I'm wrong.
I believe there have been periods in this country's history of this divide becoming too large and civil unrest ensuing.
12
A street-side permanent sign along the main street entering Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho tells passersby to "always speak the truth." That is very strong wisdom and guidance; and it is something that is missing in action in the Trump circus.
9
All true. Now Mr. Krugman, once you identify a situation and describe it, identify those who lead the situation and make the entire problem worse it is time for you to offer an idea or two for dealing with the situation effectively. Otherwise you are part of the problem. Since I'm writing about this here is one idea I think would help: Make it a federal crime to violate oath of office. Require cabinet and agency heads to take an oath of office that includes following all laws and adhering to the mission of the agency or area of responsibility. That's long term of course. Short term: Agency heads and cabinet officials stepping up and doing their jobs, assuming and acting like they did already take an oath of office. You can set up a means of enforcement--and certainly NYT has the resources to do this: public data base with named person, area of responsibility, standards and then the actions they take. Expand the gun and abortion litmus test thinking and make the disclosures current and ongoing. If those with responsibility knew the world would be keeping track, keeping score if you will, real time and that ability does exist, the country and the world just might be a much better place.
2
You are right. If the situation does not improve very quickly, the travel, hospitality, sports, entertainment and restaurant sectors of the economy will be hurt very badly. This will trigger huge job losses and all kinds of knock-on effects around the world.
At the same time. it's important to put the crisis in perspective. As more data comes in about the effects of the virus, it may prove to be correct that its morbidity is on par with the annual flu. But it will probably take two or three months before public health officials will be in a position to make a proper assessment. In the meantime, we're in for a very rough ride.
3
It’s doubtful that the morbidity of corona will prove much less than it is now.
The morbidity rate of a disease is the percentage of deaths in the confirmed cases.
So far both the number of cases and deaths are rising, keeping that percentage more or less constant.
2
@Jerry Engelbach: There is no count of people who had a mild case of covid 19 they took to be flu. I doubt there is a test for antibodies to it in development to measure that.
1
"Oh, and when it comes to the economic response, it’s worth noting that basically everyone on the Trump economic team was totally wrong about the 2008 crisis. It seems to be a job requirement."
FIRE THE BEST -KEEP THE REST.
11
The far right, especially their top propagandists, handle the truth very well: They twist, turn, and reverse it, and then smother it with focus-group-tested lies.
With unlimited money behind them, far-right propagandists employ the top ad agencies and keenest social research groups to fine-tune their daily message.
By now, they probably know the tenderest prejudices of every individual on every block in the nation. In hours they can disseminate their superbly honed responses by zip code, neighborhood and down to phone numbers.
The medium is no longer the message.
The far-right message is the reason a huge portion of the media exists.
6
Although you might say that the area where I live is Trump country, apparently his lies have gone too far when it comes to the coronavirus--people are not believing his assurances. Those whose faces grow stony when their god is criticized, whose desperate loyalty to the Republican Party defies all explanation except for the propaganda stations they saturate themselves in, nevertheless are raiding the groceries and cheaper stores as though nuclear war threatens. Even the street I live on, usually rather busy with traffic, sees nary a car or truck all day.
6
The best news that come out of this virus is that donnie won’t be holding his rallies.
He LIES that he will still have them, thus far NONE to be heard of or planned.
This is great news because it is TERRIBLE for him.
HE NEEDS a his rallies, his FRAGILE ego NEEDS these rallies.
Democrat candidates don’t NEED the rally concept as much as donnie does.
Maybe Bernie will cutback, I think Biden already has.
4
Caution yes hysteria and economic panic NO! the number of people infected with C-Virus grows exponentially across the Globe, it is likely that millions are already C-virus carriers. Professor Lipsitch a Harvard epidemiologist says that within a year, 40-70 % of people in the world will be infected with the virus, and emerging consensus among epidemiologists is that the most likely outcome of this outbreak is a new seasonal disease. Data indicate, children <9 are asymptomatic to C-Virus and the incidence of Covid-19 in young people < 50 is very low ~0.1%. So maybe there is no escape, but efforts should be concentrated on protecting the most vulnerable individuals-,ages 70 & up with compromising health issues. Also, analyzing why children & young adults are protected should dramatically accelerate availability of antidots.
4
@lieberma I don't think your math makes sense. If people under 50 essentially have no risk of contracting this virus, then how does anyone get to 40-70% of the global population getting the virus. Even if everyone over 50 gets it within a year I don't think that will get you even to 40% and I suspect the odds of everyone in a given age group getting coronavirus is likely. Now, over the course of a couple of seasons, you might hit that number, as is likely with the flu. But within a year?
Yes to all you suggested.
Have a leader, a so-president who doesn’t defund the CDC after his nemesis built it up to fight worldwide pandemics, lie about the numbers, and support the republicans no affordable healthcare for all Americans plan is another idea.
4
Quick note...or shall we call it a "fact": There is a pretty big difference between "contracting" the virus. and dying from the virus. ANYone at ANY age has just as equal a chance at contracting the virus. But the chances of having serious or fatal results changes drastically as you age up over 40 or 50.
And seeing as how anyone can actually contract the virus, THIS is how we can get (mathematically, epidemiologically, and logically) to those horrifyingly high percentages ....without profoundly thoughtful and proactive preventive planning.
Does that help you?
2
Right wingers can't handle the truth because the truth goes against their ideology. It's demonstrated history that right-wing Republican economic policies produce recessions, collapsing bubbles, crashes, and depressions. It has happened over and over and over again. And every time a Democratic administration had to mop up the mess. But to recognize this reality would force them to recognize that their low-tax utopian thinking is fantasy. They'd rather deny reality.
15
I would just like to add that the financial crisis was also not without medical casualties. Perhaps 10,000 suicides resulted from that disaster, some of which might have been averted by an appropriate response from the federal government. Not to mention stress, anxiety and depression. Anything that affects the our general health and well being of people is worthy of serious attention from from the people who are in a position to take action.
7
The people who want to see Trump fail are everywhere -- the media, the civil service, and on and on. It just isn't fair.
4
No, the people simply witnessing Trump fail, in real time, in factual reality, are everywhere. It’s not a want or an illusion.
17
Fair? People of the United States want a real leader to inform and instruct us on best practices for health and safety. What is not fair is the random, destructive course of Covid-19, a real virus that cannot be denied into non-existence.
6
Considering what he has done throughout his life, people wanting him to fail is not just fair it is right. Getting rid of him and muting him will prevent him from doing further damage which would be good for the entire world. You don’t treat someone fairly who doesn’t treat others fairly.
3
We are now witnessing the final act of the Tea Party revolution. People who disdain government are now in charge of it, ignorant of and unwilling to learn about, science, economics, public health, education, the environment. They're a group of people lacking compassion for others and unable to grasp the concept of the common good. Despite the pain it's causing, this all can possibly result in an eventual improved circumstance, but it's important to elect rational people in the very near future.
28
Can the President please explain how a tax cut is going to persuade me to get on a plane or take my kids to a concert or a ball game?
(Also, it would be a nice touch if he would express any form of sympathy at all for the sick, the dying, and the dead—no matter how insincere—rather than just raging about how he has been cheated from having the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 30,000 under his watch.)
19
I would argue that Republicans are masters at handling the truth: while outwardly denying it, whether it is climate change, corona virus impacts, impact of tax cuts for the wealthy, et al, they simply continue to grab what they can for as long as they can remain in political power. Bush, Jr's administration drove the economy into the financial crisis, and it was left to the Obama administration to clean it up and now Trump takes credit for that, while he himself thinks only short-term for his own ego, dismantling the regulatory safe-guards Obama put in place.. When things get bad enough, the Dems will be voted back into office with yet another economic and regulatory mess to clean up. They are America's political janitors.
10
Our problem has just metastasized since the Reagan years. In a country with only two parties because (winner takes all here) you can’t afford to have one party that’s stark raving mad; where all the delusional people belong to one of those parties, where that party cares a whole lot more about grasping and keeping power than the public good.
11
Another column assuming medical facts not in evidence. First, when one understands the “denominator” problem in the current morbidity/mortality stats (you know what that is right Doc?) all those rates will fall, so the administration is correct in noting the vast majority are not at risk (that said, understanding who the vulnerable populations are). Second, when one wants to see politics at its best, just follow CNN excoriating Trump last night for not being tested. In fact, medically he is a “contact of a contact” and so testing not required nor offered to anyone. Bravo to Trump for receiving the care the rest of us do (unlike say, Sanders, getting an immediate emergency stent in a private hospital). Third, the CDC is not a political organization and well-funded, so why not ask why they muffed the tests this year - with billions of funding only “politics” shifts the blame to POTUS when in fact, CDC simply didn’t prioritize properly. Fourth, it is media like the Times who opined against travel restrictions and quarantines. While it is no doubt comforting to blame Trump for everything, sometimes data matter.
4
@LTJ,
Hooboy, dud you get the facts wrong.
Trump dismantled the CDC’s health crisis team. His politicizing of the CDC forced out competent staffers. The CDC itself is not to blame for lack of preparation or prioritizing.
He denied the existence of corona, calling it a conspiracy by Democrats and the media. He continues to downplay it, claiming it is under control, even after Congress had to triple the inadequate funding he requested to deal with it.
And where does Trump get off claiming that the majority are not at risk? No medical experts are making that claim.
The truth does not change to accommodate those who lie about it.
1
@LTJ Spot on. The left hopes for a disaster that could harm all of us (at least economically if we follow the left's desire to ruin the economy) if it brings Trump down. Who cares how many deaths, jobs lost, etc. if Trump can be blamed and that will lose him the election. I'm sure we'd rather have Biden or Bernie handling this... Right?
@LTJ
"Fourth, it is media like the Times who opined against travel restrictions and quarantines."
I have never done this before but, sources please. This is baloney.
I often wonder when the cries of “fake news” and “its the Democrats fault” will stop working. As I see it this presidency is hollow in every way. There is not one moment I can think of that I felt that this president struck the right tone or took responsibility to work to help people. This guy is totally tone deaf to over half the country. But, democrats are still losing and there have been many mistakes that have brought us to this place. Now real people are going to die but, I cant be sure that this president will ever be held accountable for the damage he has unleashed on this country. How are we supposed to develop a good response to a disease when the main goal of this administration is to divide people and sow mistrust in institutions and science?
7
I am still waiting for donnie to throw masks hand sanitiser at those coming off the cruise ship with the Coronavirus that just docked in Calif.
Photo op!!!
1
@Robert Allen Fake news and the Democrats' fault will wear out at about the same time "the tax cuts will pay for themselves" does....
Coronavirus isn't so dissimilar from the financial crash. The testing failure resulted from an apparent lack of foresight that began years ago. The testing failure began in 2018 when Trump began defunding health agencies who specialize in disease control. You don't just magically run out of test kits. The Trump administration intentionally depleted our stockpile.
The story gets worse. The primary risk to our health institutions is a lack of respirators. These are little gas mask looking devices that use high quality carbon filters. They insure of medical workers don't get sick treating sick patients. The CDC said we would need 300 million respirators to effectively treat the outbreak.
Survey says? The national stockpile has 12 million and we don't how many are expired. They have a shelf-life. Seeing the products are manufactured in China, your odds of ordering more right now are slim.
But wait, the story get's worse. Regardless of the mortality rate which is unknown, epidemiologists consistently predict one in five patients will require hospitalization. The risk obviously skews to certain demographics but that's a disturbingly high number. A pandemic which requires 20 percent of the population hospitalized. Think about it.
Imagine wiping California's entire economy off the map. No amount of economic stimulus is going to fix that problem.
2
I'd like to read an article about whether Trump dialed back the safety measures on the banks to ensure that 2008 will not happen again.
Many of the very wealthy consider the ultimate power to be the ability to create 'reality' in a way that serves their own purposes.
We live in sad times where people are unable or unwilling to search for the deep truths that transcend both political and media-driven distractions. Without those determinations, we are silly putty in the hands of the corrupt.
In other words, as a nation we are rapidly loosing our souls.
3
What Trump is doing today by politically interfering with the public health science needed to combat Covid-19 echos the tragedy of Lysenkoism in Stalin’s Soviet Union of the 1930s. Trofim Lysenko was an agronomist who totally tossed off Mendel’s validated theories of genetic inheritance as being in contradiction of the Communist dialectic. He had his own crackpot theories (consistent with Communist dogma and promoted by Stalin) about how best to grow more resilient and productive wheat crops. All research into scientifically validated breeding to achieve better strains of wheat was prohibited. By dictat, Lysenko’s theories were put into widespread practice. The result was disastrous wheat harvests leading to the starvation (to death) of millions of Soviet citizens. China repeated the same practices in the 1950s with similar catastrophic results.
The story of Lysenko has long been an object lesson about the need to separate politics from science. Fortunately, there are no Lysenkos in the scientific (as opposed to political) leadership managing the Covid-19 outbreak. Trump doesn’t need a Lysenko, though. Being a “very stable genius” he is his own Lysenko.
2
Exactly so. Between 2001 and 2008 the Republicans ran the US economy into the ground and spent most of 2007/8 and beyond in denial. I clearly remember Kudlow in mid 2008 spouting happy talk when it was obvious a crash was imminent. He is still talking nonsense. How anyone with an ounce of economic savvy (and I'm a minor capitalist) can support these Republican buffoons is beyond me.
5
You’re absolutely correct that President Trump is incompetently and irresponsibly dealing with the novel coronavirus. BUT ...
“By not instituting widespread testing from the start, the U.S. has ensured that there are now cases all over the country — we have no idea how many — and that the virus will spread rapidly.” Wrong. There would be cases all over the country regardless — but testing would let us have a better handle on where and how many, and give us better insight on how to respond.
1
@B,
I fail to follow your argument.
Early testing would result in early quarantine and reduce the number of people exposed.
There was nothing inevitable about the virus’s spread.
It's amazing how quickly a ton of money and policies magically materialize when rich people's interests are at stake, but the day to day misery and loss of dignity of so many doesn't warrant the slightest pause from the machine and its administrative class.
The fake dignity and lies sold to the working class to fight the rich man's wars is truly heartless.
7
Lies. It's all about the lies. He lies and he knows he is lying (at least I think he does). We know that he's lying, and ironically, he knows that we know he's lying. But he lies anyway.
It could be he's hoping that just enough Americans will believe his lies long enough to reelect him. That is all he wants. Once reelected, he may resign and just play golf. Or he may play golf and never get around to resigning. He can't serve out a second term though, because he needs a full pardon before he leaves office.
Long ago the modern Conservative movement seized upon mans' weakness to feel superior to their fellow man and ran with it. The works of Ayn Rand provide the sketchy intellectual foundation of something that in reality is quite sinister and perverse. As superior beings they needn't live by the rules that govern us all in any regard. These rules have come to include even truth and facts. As long as you are part of their club you are above consequence. The modern Conservative movement is a faith-based cult whose preachers spread their word and ideology to the needy masses searching for a sense of individual power. The supplicant's inadequacies and failings are washed away and it is only the evil liberals who stand in their way of being the masters of the universe they know they are. Trump is their messiah as facts, figures, consequence, and even shame die at his feet proving to all their beliefs are the actual truth.
It is hard to see how this will end though every time in recorded history where faith overcomes empirical truth it doesn't end well. Too many people have too much invested to see reality get in their way and as shown by Trump - you never concede anything. That way lies ruin. Even if coronavirus turns out to be as deadly and awful as it may be, would the end result be any different for them? Since they are masters of their singular truth they can always tell their faithful what happened but it only works if you still have the faithful.
3
Let's just quote Upton Sinclair.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Same old, same old.
5
Kudlow is no economist. He just plays one on TV.
Just like our President.
All shows eventually get cancelled. This one long past its due date.
I can't escape the feeling that this is what the fall of Ancient Rome probably looked like: extreme corruption and incompetence at the top, and willful ignorance pervasive at the bottom.
11
I'm not sure if it's that right-wingers can't handle the truth so much as they can't tell truth from lies.
A nonstop 24-hour news cycle of lies, propaganda, and self-promotion from FOXNews, AM Radio, Breitbart, Drudge, and even once respectable outlets like ABC that have drifted further to the right has a large segment of US citizens ignorant, confused, and packed with misinformation.
Talking with older Americans, I am struck by their confidence in being well-informed and then dismayed when I realized that they can make no distinction between information based on fact and misinformation that they have been fed for well over two decades of Foxnews, AM Radio, and clearly biased news sites online.
3
Now Krugman is an epidemiologist? The truth is, at this point we don't know how bad Coronavirus really is. How bad it will be globally and how bad here in the US. Whatever the answer turns out to be, there is little that a US president could do about a global pandemic that started in China and spread to other countries very quickly. The truth is -- right now given the size of the US population we haven't had nearly the issues that countries like South Korea or Italy have had and that others will likely have.
Even for the US, there's little more a US president could have done than Trump has done. Would Krugman have Trump act like the end of the world is coming, that we can't handle this epidemic? Would you like him to agree with the incorrect 3.4% fatality rate stated by the WHO?
Krugman and the left would prefer a pandemic vs a healthy population and economy so they can get rid of Trump. Russia didn't work, obstruction didn't work, Ukraine didn't work so let's call on pestilence. The left is essentially cheering on Corona and trying to link Trump to every issue it causes.
I'd gladly invite you to outline what steps Saint Obama would have taken that would have saved us. This thing has happened so quickly...but wait. What's really happened here in the US? Very little from a health perspective. Is Corona now the leading cause of death in the US? No. Right now it's the MSM fear mongering from one side of it's mouth and blaming Trump from the other.
2
@Ralphie You just don't get it. The point is that Trump is downplaying and minimizing this. He even said that it's OK to go to work. Do you think that it's OK to go to work if you have symptoms? Obama would have suggested not to. Ignoring facts does not make those facts go away. According to you, we should jut get rid of the CDC since there is not anything that could be done anyway.
Con man and company can't con coronavirus. Unfortunately, many undereducated followers will learn the hard way, that it pays to trust the experts, the scientist. This corrupt administration forced thousands of scientific experts out of government service. We the people, will pay the heavy price for this con man's folly of our public health policy.
6
Unwittingly, Trump's attempt to put lipstick on this pig tends to be a strong warning for the 63% of us who are not part of The Cult.
Trump has manged to turn every day into opposite day.
If Trump says yes, we all hear no - if Trump says sunshine, we all see darkness.
He has become the canary in the coal mine.
1
Here's a title for the movie someday to be made about Trump, his administration, and all his media and congressional enablers: Secrets & Lies.
The question that now should be asked is “should vaccinations now be mandatory for all children “?
Trump did not create the corona virus, but did weaken the CDC and has relentlessly ridiculed science both of which we depend upon right now. But as fate or the gods would have it the corona virus and the housing bubble economic collapse exactly mirror each other in their timing and impact. Lives are destroyed if not by death as now, but as then in the loss of homes and the small savings of working people. Denial is the escape mechanism of scoundrels.
1
This crisis (as so much of the Trump era has been) is like the bad student deliberately answering questions without bothering to study and then defiantly standing at the front of the class.
Professor Krugman --- You've probably never had a student like this guy at Princeton.
1
Sadly I don't put much faith not just in Trump, but the American people. At 74 and a Vietnam vet I remember the bandwagon about we will get you in and be home by Christmas. Visit the Vietnam Memorial sometime and look at the names of the 59,000. In economics the wonderful Ronnie Reagan brought in deregulation of the banking what followed was the Savings and Loan crash. You know could anyone not believe how rich they were going to be banks paid more to you when you put it in then they loaned it out. How could you miss that. Followed ten years later by the Dot com crash you know stocks flying like NORTEL and crashing. Followed by 08 and 2020. Terrible times ahead, but dont worry in ten years another con man hucksters will come along and Americans will be on that bandwagon they love con men and hucksters, by the way the PONZI scam was an American invention as well. What does the worlds greatest genius say about the oil crash, does he call his good friend the Prince why everyone loves the Donald. No, there will be cheap gas. Gee, should be great in looking for a new job since many will be out of work. Kudlow is nothing more than a tv con man already shouting great time to buy stocks yes get in there. Why maybe Trump will avoid the virus by more weekends golfing or maybe he will hang around DC since he now has a tennis court. Capt Bonespurs sure does alright now. Or he bought the magic potion that Jim Baker is selling at tax payer expense of course for $125. Jim Trautman
4
You're an "innocent" Jack Nicholson in Sorkin's "A Few Good Men!" Speaking Truth to Power, your prophetic response, Professor, is a " Tincture in Gilead" to Trump and his ilk, but a "Balm in Gilead" to Americans who hunger and thirst after a semblance of righteousness in Our Government. Bless You, Brother Paul :-)
1
How many emergency low income worker paychecks would a single presidential golf trip cover? Quite a few, I’d wager.
9
Not to worry; while the White House crew is full of incompetent staff on the government dole, there are outside individuals who can advise the president for free: Sean Hannity, Trish Reagan, Tucker Carlson, Jesse Watters, Gregg Gutfeld, Laura Ingraham, and Rush Limbaugh, to name a few.
2
I agree with your assessment of Trump. Comparing him is any way to Bush is misguided. Try Buchanan.
2
I'm using this as one more example of why it's important to know who the people are behind & around any candidate. Who will be in their Cabinet?
1
Some times people lie without knowing it. They believe their being honest. The facts they choose to see reinforce their beliefs. They don't allow facts that don't fit their theory in. If one is anti war and signs off on paid maternity leave can they be right wing?
Who do I believe Krugman, Kudlaw or Krammer? Do they they ride the shoulders of eagles or do they hang onto the wings?
Are you sure you want to identify yourself and others as a Wingster. Take Greta Thunberg for example she's leftwing and for clean air. Or Naomi "the rights answer to Greta" Seibt who's for cheap energy. Wouldn't it be better if we followed a teenage girl who is for cheap clean energy? Someone who can take the best ides right and left?
Republicans exist in a closed media bubble that recirculates their own talking points, mostly devoid of facts. Millions of Fox viewers will soon be very, very surprised to find out they're in the middle of a deadly pandemic.
1
Right-wingers indeed handle the truth: They torture it, strangle it, choke it. If that's not manhandling the truth, I don't know what it.
1
If the GOP is in denial-and certainly their excuses for not voting Trump out of office show they are---then they will never admit there is a problem re: COVID 19 or the economy and certainly never invoke the 25th Amendment which should have happened the first week the Liar/Denier in Chief occupied the WH.
When someone in their families get sick, will it matter?
1
The picture reminded me trump cannot handle the truth about his hair, his skin tone or his obesity. Why would he handle the truth about a pandemic?
1
If anything proves that the team that Trump put together to handle the coronavirus is working its Mr. Krugman's diatribe.
As the left senses that the leg up they felt they got from the virus is slipping away, they confine their criticism to the President.
The same way the Reublican's did in fighting Obamacare by concentrating on " if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor."
You know ,"Why do these Presidents make things harder?" t
1
This is becoming like a delusional leader ranting and raving in a hidden bunker urging armies that no longer exist to counter-attack, while the generals around him stand in silence watching this raving general-turned-lunatic delude himself, and see no way to end the madness.
1
This time the consequences will be lives lost.
But there is an upside: the likelihood of his re election goes down each time he opens his mouth
Aside from the laughable outreach by the most notoriously racist American leader in modern times to African American voters,the other outreach group is educated suburban voters
For while the conspiracy nut jobs ( his ‘base’) will buy his misinformation, this latter group will not.
The GOP is laying the groundwork for a massive electoral rout of themselves
Trump modus operandus #1: Take a bad situation, make it worse, the point bloated, diamond-encrusted fingers at the other side. Happens every time. It's deplorable that the loudmouth "patriots" who choose red don't recognize the pattern; even celebrate it.
1
Trump isn't a smart businessman, he isn't really good at anything except praising himself. However, if the US took the path Democrats want, the country would have locked down earlier stopping the global economy in its tracks. "Will large numbers of Americans be infected?" is the wrong questions. We should really ask what amount is large when compared to influenza in the US. 100,000 is two orders of magnitude smaller than 60 million and that's not including the worldwide flu victims. This is proof enough our math education is a failure.
Facts are our friends. They help us problem solve. I want a president and congress that understand that.
11
This is one of the more partisan pieces Krugman has written
. . . and as a Republican, I can't help but agree.
Trump seems to be betting on blind luck to bail him out--if so, then the lack of harsh containment measures will be seen as reasonable in retrospect.
If not, well, his chances of reelection are doomed regardless. Thank God Biden is now in the driver's seat rather than Sanders because Fidel Castro would be able to beat Trump at this rate.
6
Blind luck - and a tax cut. The only GOP response.
The more aware I become of what young Obama had to deal with back in 2008 the more impressed I am with his Presidency. His lessons in pragmatism under conditions of right-wing extremism will hopefully keep historians busy in the near future.
19
OK Donald if everything is under control, just go out there and show us by mingling with your like-minded supporters. Shake hands, hug, and kiss cheeks. It's all OK.
In fact it may turn out to be healthy for the country.
11
Isn't it INTERESTING that Trump & Comp come out with this payroll tax cut for low wage earners, just when the stock market tanks?
Trump cares more about stock dividends than about Americans. It's the economy, stupid.
4
Obama had promises of “ Hope and Change”.....
He was young and inexperienced as a first time senator with a background in social advocacy.
His presidency had promise until the institutionalists of both major parties “ bent his ear” with their directives to assure their cooperation with his goals for America.
He believed and cooperated with Wall St. Instead of following his heart and common sense for the wage earners of America that gave him his votes ..., he took the bait and the rest is history. Obama gave us trump because he wasn’t paying attention to Fox and friends.
Biden will give us trump again. And so will Bernie.
Hillary !!! After watching your movie on Hulu over the past weekend I can now admit ..., voting third party was a big error for a lot of “ never trumpers”....,,
Our economy deserves to tank after 20 years of wage degradation and taxation without representation. And trumps incompetence will kill a lot of voters.
I am writing in candidate Warren. Full stop. Let’s start a movement. Let’s march on Washington as soon as the plague known as Covid 19 dissipates. Or is this virus akin to AIDS?!
I know I wasn’t the only activist voter that felt dread when trump was “escalating” to the White House !!!!
I blame men and their female enablers for the trump travesty.
Why would women not write in Warren!!!????
Men deserve to be challenged !!!!!!!
3
@nurseJacki
So you can admit now that a vote for a third party candidate last time was a mistake. So this time...you want to write in a third candidate. Please don’t do this. The last election was very close in a few swing states. Unless you really believe Trump is an okay President and we are safe with him in the White House, please vote for the democratic nominee. Don’t throw away a vote on a write in candidate. If Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus crisis does not illustrate the danger of having him as president I don’t know what would. I don’t think I will ever forget that press conference where the health officials tried to deliver the facts to the American public while praising and cow towing to the administration. Get rid of Trump. And then work to take the Democratic Party in the directions you’d like to see.
1
Last evening’s press conference at the White House was Pence’s homage to trump. He gave trump credit for every medical decision made by those qualified. Nauseating.
trump put Pence on a small pedestal. The fall will be disproportionate.
I sometimes think of trump and the maniacal Ahab and the last line from Melville’s Moby Dick.
“... then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled 5000 years ago.”
4
To all of you that voted for him: I can understand and accept that.
To all of you that continue to support and excuse his idiotic incompetent nonsense: No, just no. You can't continue to deny reality. You might as well have the virus as long as I'm concerned because you're dead to me.
11
After unsuccessfully dabbling in the stock market long ago, breaking even when lucky, I came to the conclusion that the so called market was rigged, with the exception of indexed funds. After the bail out of 2008, we saw the proof of the rigging. Blow up the bubble, sell shares of the bubble, then when it inevitably burst, big guy bubble blowers get bailed out, and then they gave themselves an enormous bonus with the bailout money, in reward for destroying the economy! The little guy,s, let them eat cake.
And the final proof of the rigging, no one went to jail. Obama saved our rigged system from failure, but perpetuated the rigged system in letting the perps off the hook. He didn't set it up, that was before his time, with the combining of banking and insurance gambling, and because it was 'banking' the gambling part had to be backed up by the Fed. What a racket, but it could have been worse. The whole shebang could have gone broke, total collapse, and that seemed to be what the extreme right and left were rooting for.
Yes Paul, I remember 2008, how my business started to sink, I watched families lose homes, jobs, and Glen Beck and other nutjobs push gold collecting. I'm out of the game now, but I see bubbles, and not just housing. And no doubt Trump will blame everyone but himself, but maybe finally, no one will care what he tweets any more.
2
JD,
The left was not rooting for the economy to fail.
We were clamoring for more government oversight to rein in the predatory bankers.
We were demanding government stimulus to restart the economy.
We were asking why those responsible for the collapse were not being prosecuted.
Your judgment of the left is seriously inaccurate.
6
@Jerry Engelbach I didn't 'judge' the left, I simply have a good memory of how the system perpetuated by both the right and the left, in the end let the perps walk free with a big bag of reward dough. Asking why those responsible did it, and actually prosecuting those responsible are not equivalent. The neo banking system was, as I pointed out, not Obama's doing, it was in fact set in motion by Phil and Wendy Gram under Reagan, but Obama could have at least gotten a few scalps, and helped the little guys as much as the pseudo bankers.
1
We are prisoners to hotel occupancy count. His primary focus is keeping his hotels busy and therefore, no virus. Just imagine what the reaction would have been had any Democratic President (or Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi) had held a big birthday bash at their hotel over this past weekend of crisis. We don't have to imagine because they would not celebrate their careless abandon of duty.
5
Maine has a history of having a solid sector of Conservative people. and a general stance that the less government the better.
We are barely testing in Maine, and those tests we have done are reported negative. Not surprising we have no cases yet by still ascribing to the CDC guidelines about symptoms needing to be present.
Surely no one really believes that the virus just stops at the border between Maine an NH! Infected, asymptomatic people are just still walking around.
So, being in the segment most likely to have a bad time with this virus, I am living not knowing if an infected "someone" with no symptoms could be putting me at risk.
The answer to this seems for me to wash my hands repeatedly, avoid close social settings, spend time in the fresh air away from people when possible, and wait.
Governments are necessary, having small government, means having small help in an epidemic.
Wake up conservatives. The world is an intricately interconnected place and much smaller than when the early settlers encountered the native peoples, who brought their diseases with them, decimating their populations.
Wake up Conservatives! The virus doesn't give a dang about your politics!
4
I predict this crisis will blow over by election time, not that many Americans will remember any significant hardships, Trump will declare the response perfect, and he will get re-elected.
Everything Krugman says is true, but it won’t make a difference. This event is merely a precursor to a much larger crisis waiting in the wings, but not enough Americans will realize, or want to think about how unprepared we are.
4
It is not only that they cannot handle the truth, they cannot recognize it. They have been lying for so long that for the republicans there is no difference between the truth and a lie as long as whatever is said promotes them and dismisses the Democrats.
They need to be put out to pasture where they belong. Vote a humane end to their ignorant destruction of our democracy.
8
Trump can't handle the truth?
Truth is an empty category for the Republican party. And has been since Manafort, Stone, and Atwater (with Newt Gingrich) rebranded the party as all dirty tricks and all wedge issues all the time. All you had to do is listen to the Senate impeachment trial.
Reagan lied - about Iran Contra, about liberating Auschwitz, about ketchup - and he was a charming fabulist. Bill Barr lied for Bush 1 and got the Iran Contra crooks, including Ollie North, off the hook. Bush2 Cheney and Rumsfeld lied to start a war - and, mission accomplished. If Trump is expelling words, he's lying.
Meanwhile, half of the GOP base believes the virus is a Democratic conspiracy While the other half believes it's the end of days they've been praying for.
13
This is a totally different crisis, so far as I can see. The housing bubble of '08 was financially driven due to stupid and greedy monetary practices, such as giving loans to anyone who merely drew breath, this crisis is emotionally based, and having a dire economic effect. Apples and oranges. But it's certainly going to test Trump's presidency.
@Kurt Gross,
The stock market’s response to the virus may be emotional, but the crisis itself is all too real.
Corona is highly contagious and alarmingly dangerous, with a high fatality rate and no prevention vaccine or cure.
Cases and deaths continue to rise, even as Trump and his palace guards lie through yheir teeth that everything is under control.
Meanwhile, the consumer economy weakens and jobs and livelihoods are threatened. People have a right to be emotional.
The Republicans' definition of Truth is different from that which the rest of us hold. It can be found in "The Devil's Dictionary," by Ambrose Bierce:
Truth ... n. An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance.
4
@Mercutio
thank you for the reference. -C
Let's just hope that those Republicans who haven't gone completely insane and are still 100% behind Trump take a clue from the Republican Mayor Michael Taylor of Sterling Heights, Michigan. He said this:
"I remember thinking this Trump thing is insane, but when it was down to him and Hillary, I kind of said, 'Well, you are a Republican, and yeah he's nuts, but maybe he'll get better and you know he's going to lower taxes. I slowly talked myself into it. 'He can't seriously be this deranged once he gets in there,' and he's even more deranged now than I thought then. So, I take the blame. I voted for him."
He says he will vote for Biden this time.
9
During the house and senate impeachment hearings it became clear who amongst the republicans were strongly distracting the hearings with process blah blah without actually uttering a single word in president Trump’s defense. All of those characters are now making coronavirus headlines. “ Mr Cruz, Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, Georgia Congressman Doug Collins and Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz are all self-quarantining for the recommended 14-days after they met the same infected person at CPAC, a conservative political conference, at the end of February.
Republican Representative Mark Meadows, President Donald Trump's newly appointed chief of staff, also met the person and is in self-quarantine.”
Another notable trump defender was Jim Jordan who is also in deep trouble because he covered up sexual abuse of the wrestler team in Ohio.
Paul Ryan...watch out..karma is heading your way too..
2
There is one public health measure that would be easy to implement. Everyone who supports Trump and believes he is doing a good job with the virus (and everything else) should wear their red MAGA hat every time they go out in public.
That way the rest of us will be able to tell who to avoid contact with.
9
@Larry,
Excellent idea.
Although many us have been avoiding contact with them anyway, since long before the virus.
I clearly recall Dr. Krugman's accurate opinion columns and warnings BEFORE the 2008 crises.
When I mentioned to one of my Wall St. trader friends that he read a few of Krugman's columns about the "years of deregulation and lax enforcement" weakening "the financial system," he dismissively said : --- "Krugman's a socialist!" . . . . . . . thus ended a potential intelligent conversation and shared community responsibility.
So ---
Competency and honesty generate trust.
The opposite destroys.
Trumps and his enablers never learn their lessons.
Thank you Senator Collins.
This Wednesday, Senator Romney has an important vote on whether to support investigating Hunter Biden. An old insignificant story.
Consider this worn out story:
When Krugman began writing about the 2007 housing bubble he was relentlessly accused of playing politics: “You only say there’s a bubble because you hate President Bush.”
Does anyone have a count of how many times Trump and his enablers have done this? Lie, distract, discard, demean, destroy and deny decency and accountability.
9
... unfortunately you’re never going to be the one to help them see it....
When Trump gets the coronavirus himself, then and only then will he know it’s not a hoax or fake news.
2
Yes all dictators hate the free press including wanna be dictator Trump who has proven himself incompetent in handling a crisis. Trump thinks Americans should get their news from his tweets loaded with misinformation and spelling errors or from FOX STATE TV who carry Trump's water per MUrdock the evil puppet master from down under publisher of trashy rags in UK.
Trump when he loses re-election faces dire consequences branded as a LOSER and a joke on cable tv. AG Barr could no longer defend Trump and a dem AG would not look the other way if crimes are exposed.
4
Is Bill O’Reilly still alive? I had totally forgotten about him...
2
The problem is, neither can his followers handle the truth. They will swear on their parents' or grandparents' infected graves that Coronavirus was a left-wing conspiracy. Anything but face themselves in the mirror.
6
What does Krugman really think of Trump?
You forgot to mention denial of climate change, of Russian election interference, and much more.
3
Well said. I have often thought the republicans should change their mascot to an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand.
2
They wanted to break everything. They got their wish.
2
Paul Krugman is certainly right that President Trump and the hard-right of the Republican Party frequently deny 'the truth.' But it is important to qualify Krugman's truth. First, they don't deny ALL truth, only the truths that (from their narrow perspective) disadvantage them. Second, the reason they deny the truths they do is because those truth validate the public realm -- a realm whose vigor is necessary for both politics and science. A strong public realm is not socialist; it is the glue that holds a civil society together together and connects it to the kind of shared reality upon which democracy depends.
2
My daughter is reading 1984, which prompted me to re-read it.
The book has never been more relevant that today. Not only do we have an administration willing to invoke the kind of lies and double-speak the book describes but now the technology exists that would allow an authoritarian to spy on everyone!
4
As I live in China, I think there are definitely people who have sacrificed in the Chinese "war" on the virus, which was essentially declared on Januray 27 or so (that was when Wuhan shut down).
Not me, thought I do live in a shut down city in Zhengzhou. I have been able to leave the apartment complex regularly. Yes, I have to have QR tracking code on my phone, I have wear a mask like everyone.
But I teach now university students - 600 remotely - for the past 3 plus weeks. Many of the students haven't left their homes for 7 weeks. They can't get a hair cut. They can't meet their friends. Their 18 and 19 year old people who should be having fun. And they've been essentially on house arrest. This was to stop the spread. So they did that.
1
Of course he can’t. His ego is much too fragile.
3
The Kings New Clothes were obtained for him by the Republican Party !
Vote early and often !
3
The response of Trump and his bootlickers to almost any problem is to (1) call it a hoax or (2) blame it on the media and Democrats or (3) both. So why would this be any different? I can't help but think that if the stock market had not collapsed Trump would have done absolutely nothing.
7
Completely agree! We could all be dying, if the stock market didn't react, he would probably literally just turn away.
Republican efforts to cut spending on safety net programs and health care are nothing new. It’s been going on for a long time.
What is new is the prevalence of completely baseless lunatic conspiracy theories, accepted as gospel, that are flying in the face of fact, science and empirical data and being used to justify such cuts.
The involvement of the President of the United States in elevating such nonsense to national, bully pulpit prominence is the height of irresponsibility.
There are two possible explanations for this, not mutually exclusive. One us that Trump is simply gullible and dumber than a post. The other is that he’s downright dangerous and undermining the very security of the nation he is sworn to protect.
Trump would label such a person a traitor and maybe, for once, he’d be right this time.
7
I get angry at Never-Trumpers because Trump is not the problem. The GOP has been rotten since Reagan. They hate the facts about where America is going and are thumbing their noses at the facts because for too many of them, an America not run by white old men is an America they would just as soon see burned to the ground.
Reagan and the Bush's were cutely using white hate and resentment to remain in power. Trump beat them by simply, openly and honestly addressing who they really are. People like Stephens and Wallace need to give up the ghost. The base has found an honest man and they will never go back to the cute racism of the good old days. The hate consuming the GOP is why they cling to the obvious lies.
4
It's not that right-wingers "can't handle the truth." From the pictures Joe McCarthy would display 70 years ago, cropped to eliminate context, right through this past weekend's "manipulated" video of Joe Biden, the right has never seen the truth as anything but an opportunity to twist something into another right-wing lie
6
Actually, they can "handle" the truth -- the way religious zealots handle apostasy. Fortunately physical torture and public execution are no longer in fashion, but the identity politics of today is based on the same "this is what we believe" mentality that drove the Spanish Inquisition.
3
Professor Harold Hill a truth and virtue industry compared to "chief economist" Larry Kudlow.
Trump's lying was eventually going to catch up with him. It was bound to happen sooner or later. It would have been great if it happened sooner. But he was able to hide behind a great economy that he was handed, not one that he created.
But this crisis is something that won't be tweeted away. Lying and denying won't solve the problem because people can see the effects first hand as the cases spread and more people die...especially those whose immune systems are weakened.
Trump supporters will find that Donald Trump and his party is eager to take their healthcare away if they depend on Obamacare which many of them do. They'll wake up and realize the COVID 19 is something they'll end up paying for out of their own pockets and leave them with 'pre-existing conditions' that make their future healthcare a remote possibility.
The wisest thing that Republicans might do is for all of them to 'self quarantine' like Ted Cruz and other Republicans. Trump should join them and surrender his twitter account for the duration. Maybe it will all blow over and then they can lie with impunity once again. Though, in truth, those days are over now.
1
If the coronavirus is perfectly under control, now is the perfect time to invite Vlad to Mar-a-Lago, Mr. President.
2
You know what’s the real issue here? It’s trump and his moronic twitter feed, the power that gives him to threaten elected officials who disagree with him. One tweet from him about a “disloyal” person, and boom!, they’re suddenly inundated with hate mail and trailing in reelection polls. He can take down anybody who publicly disagrees with him. Sixty million “followers” (though “follower” in this context means “devoted cult”). Imagine what’ll happen when he’s out of office and undermining the next president. Yeah, I love modern conveniences and all that, but this is simply wrong, particularly considering that everything he says is a lie, not to mention his inciting violence, hatred and distrust. The country will never be the same.
3
Oh boy, cue in Biden to the rescue!
Except he is not, as he is as lost as every one else.
We'll survive, and once more Paul will take to the street to say the End is Near, not because (insert complaint d'jour here)
The Trump personality disorder, based on the damage his father did as a racist entrepreneur, has made him a sociopath of insecurity more like Stalin than other totalitarians. At three a.m. he is visited by the ghosts of his failures and spends the day striking out at them part Macbeth and part Narcissus, both of whom went mad because they could not define reality. Trump has tried to impose his nightmare onto our country. The virus hasn’t been impressed.
3
How about another tax cut for the rich. He does one dumb thing after another. If you listen to his news briefings they are so sad=disinformation. Kudlow has totally lost it.
1
There is no truth for Donald Trump and his cult followers.
He and his followers seem oblivious to being called to account for his thousands of lies that he spews on an hourly basis.
He must be resoundingly defeated in November and hauled out of the While House, by force if necessary!
4
It took a complete economic meltdown in 2008 for American voters to finally vote a Democrat into office. George W. Bush was, at that time, the worst president ever to disgrace the Oval. A few snippets: the September 11 attacks happened on his watch (a huge intelligence failure, literally and figuratively); lying about weapons of mass destruction and getting us into two unnecessary and failed wars; and having virtually no clue on how to deal with the country's economic collapse (a collapse that was due to Republican anti-regulatory policies).
Well, it looks like things are going to be even worse this election cycle. We're going to have a flaming recession AND a world health crisis.
The one thing I'm optimistic about is that enough voters (including even some Trump supporters and Bernie Bros) are going to look around them and see (1) the economy in tatters and their jobs gone, and (2) be unable to get tested for the coronavirus -- and then they're going to vote for Biden. While Joe is hardly the perfect candidate, he'll clean house and put knowledgeable, intelligent people into essential government positions.
The one worry I have is whether the Republicans will slow-walk Joe's nominees for key posts (of course they'll reject any Supreme Court nominees), on the theory that they'd rather risk Americans' health and economic well-being than do the right thing. Let's hope voters remove that worry by giving the Democrats control of the Senate, the House, and the WH.
5
While the Jack Nicholson reference is amusing, a more apt reference is Murray Hamilton.
He played Mayor Larry Vaughn who kept trying to convince Amity Island vacationers to go swimming while a great white shark wreaked havoc in “Jaws”.
3
How much more are we in this country going to put up with from donald? His incompetence and apparent inability to understand the dangers of the coronavirus are just the last straw. People are walking around unable to get tested as donald is out shaking hands and living in his dream world that the virus is a political hoax to make him look bad.
People are going to continue dying from the virus, people who have been unable to get tested because donald didn't give the order to buy millions of test kits. So people are unknowingly walking the streets infecting others, and now look what has happened. Donald has put America in grave danger because of his total incompetence. He needs to be held accountable for this and removed from office immediately. Waiting until November is unacceptable - who knows how many other bad decisions he will make by then, due to his inability and incompetence to properly govern.
6
A philosophical digression :
There is a perpetual conflict between our “old” brain that evolved over hundreds of millions of years and our “New” brain or neocortex that is likely only a million years old and is the distinguishing feature of what being human is. May take another million year or more for the two brains to completely integrate. But until then we have to put up with the conflict between our intuitive old brain that Right wingers solely depend on, and rational thinking that is the hallmark of liberal intellectuals.
6
When the 2016 voters sowed the winds they certainly harvested a storm that seems to have voters not glowing but dwindling in the gales of a virus whose tail winds promise their idol's downfall .
1
I wonder if this will lead to a class action suit against the president by the families of COVID-19 victims. Criminal negligence, perhaps?
4
The ultimate solution is for Trump to have several rallies in every swing state. I think people will be dying to hear him.
12
Let’s all just stipulate that Trump and his enablers in Congress are incompetent and probably the worst people to do the job of getting our nation and the planet through the current crises. Instead, let’s talk about the best ideas for a step by step process for the next six months.
3
The problem is pretty clear by now. What's the solution?
3
@JK
Sadly the Dems are suggesting that Joe Biden is the answer
1
I'd like to know how it all ends? When did we stop thinking the Earth was flat? Does it take another civil war or do we come to our senses and outlaw Hannity and Rachael Madow, although I think Madow's show is grounded in facts and history and not just hysterical ramblings.
Yes, Mr. Krugman, and just how many of those U.S. bankers causing the meltdown went to jail back in 2008? Answer: NOBODY!
Well, certainly President Obama went after them, right? Answer: NOPE!
After the last Episode, SARS, all medical facilities were required to stockpile protective masks, food, water and other essential items, right? Doesn’t look like it, because so many were unprepared thus time.
Well, of course, China took massive action after SARS regarding the storing and handling of exotic wild animals, right? No—they didn’t. They even made it easier to sell the stuff under the same exact pitiful conditions that caused SARS in the first place!
But somehow all of this ineptitude stacked up over the years is now President Trump’s fault. Good one! You actually get paid to come up with this garbage!
One thing you’re correct in and that is President Trump is not presidential and even has a tendency to make government worse or at least look worse. I’ll give you that, but to say he is unfit now, is to ignore those who came before him and did nothing significant to prepare for the next one—which is now upon us!
If blame is to be handed out, then it also goes back years and not just days.
1
I love this writer. I don’t always agree with him but he make me think about my positions.
2
There is another truth Americans don't want to face. All indications are that China, where tens of thousands were infected, has shut down the epidemic. Italy is following its lead.
The American response shows total incompetence. Weeks to prepare and no test kits available? Unbelievable.
It used to be said life was cheap in Asia and communists don't care how many of their citizens die. Yet the CCP was prepared to wreck their economy in the short turn to save lives. America is not prepared to do the same.
Is life cheaper in America than in China now?
4
Follow the money.
The men who run the show and their eye candy wear political tags of right and left as a matter of style. None of those in control of any political party anywhere in the world are dumb, they all know the truth and handle it as best suits them.
Literal wealth doesn't disappear, rather, like its' namesake "stock", it has to be corralled, counted and culled by those who own the spread.
I have never liked gambling but have recently come to think a roll of unloaded dice may be one of the few things in our society which is actually untainted.
1
I suspect their denial in 2008 was a political calculation. Rush who led the way learned that vitriol gains followers and most importantly makes money. American capitalism is a breeding ground for shameless and ruthless opportunism.
4
"America’s right-wingers can’t handle the truth."
They don't appear to recognize the truth, so practiced they are in simply endorsing whatever comes from the Trump Vatican. Indeed it is Saint Stephanie Grisham's job to send out the official talking points, which all true believers must joyfully embrace. Truth-seeking is a sin. Don't get caught doing it.
Trump's commitment to ignoring sources of the truth was on full display as he stood in front of the doctors and scientists at the CDC and insisted, even as he contradicted their messages, that they had expressed admiration for his ability to understand what is going on. The underlying truth he will never face is that he is an ignoramus, a fool, and a loser, desperately in need of a smack upside his head.
2
Trump is meeting with his "top" economic advisors in two days. This is biggest joke of all. What can pumpkin head like Kudlow offer of intelligent counsel and Navarro will probably call for closing all chop suey restaurants.
5
On the one hand we have the essense of truth: "The sending of history and its reception by man as fate.", and on the other we have truth functions which are related to quantifiable commodities recorded by computers. Since right-wingers, or "Neo-cons" ("Cons" denoting short for conservatives, not convicts or confidence men) have connections to brain trusts, data banks and the like, it seems that they have a hand in producing truth, regardless of any direct connection to reality, except of course their version of things and their bank accounts. Lehman Brothers investment bank may have failed, but the people in control likely banked huge amounts elsewhere upon the closure, leaving in their wake, curious financial items such as "credit default swaps" and "collateralized debt obligations" which appeared, on paper or on screen at least, to be saleable financially "sound" "instruments". These so called "derivatives" still populate many investment banks and investment firms as toxic, unreal items. That these people are the people who are in control of the President yields the conclusion not only that he is something like an "air-head", but also that a dictatorial mien has supplanted whatever inclinations towards democracy ever adhered here. The "corona" is here, there, one cannot see it, except during eclipses, just as one cannot clearly see just where the corona virus came from. How drastic things are will not prevent further concentration of capital by these people. Deep State.
The Very Stable Genius has only done two things for the economy, lose a trade war with China he started and give billions in hand outs to billionaires. Now the very economy he wants us to worship him for is going to give him a big, long-overdue punch in the face. He wanted to eat Obama's lunch and now he is going to choke on it. The only people he will do anything for have last names that end in nine zeros. Goodbye November.
5
Trump and his administration are not proving very pro-life are they?
3
It isn't just that " America’s right-wingers can’t handle the truth."
They actively don't want the truth. Truth itself, science, even the concept of truth and facts is under attack. They talk about "alternate facts" and other nonsense. Trump thinks he can wish and pretend this away. The stock market is artificially jacked up by endless Fed rates cuts and the fatal Trump Tax Cuts.
As far back as my memory goes, the Republican party has been about lies, denial, "emotion is fact," delusion and fantasy used in place of reason. McCarthy and McCarthyism, Nixon, Reagan, W Bush, now Trump; liars, cheats, smear campaigns, all. The Republican party now has one goal: protect Trump from reality, deny, lie, deflect, delude, pretend. Then blame Obama, or Schumer or Pelosi, or anyone else. It is a cult of lies. Truth is not valued. Fox's own former employees label Fox as a Trump propaganda network (Lt Col Ralph Peters among others, look up his parting comments 2 years ago).
3
Why is so un-Trump this pandemic?
So far what we know , any life event has an angle or opportunity to Trump benefit personally ( Money, Political propaganda, or celebrity adulation etc) Trump is in the middle of the that event.
But Pandemic is not really kind of thing , Trump personality can reconcile with.
Even if you stop the pandemic , Like Obama helped to stop Ebola epidemic in west Africa, when you look back you will see hundred or thousands of deaths, there is not that much personal gain there which Trump is looking for.
Corona virus is just not Trump type of crisis ...
It is ultimate public , general type of crisis, no personal angle is exists.
America's right wingers can't handle the truth – and Donald Trump is only the most recent and indecent exemplar of the problem.
In fact, Republican campaigns have intentionally run away from the truth for decades, because Republican policy priorities have been unpopular since Nixon, and they are facing oblivion soon, due to demographic changes.
Consider these issues:
• Raising the minimum wage? Immensely popular
• Immigration reform with a path to citizenship? Very popular
• Universal healthcare? Very popular
• A wealth tax? Overwhelmingly popular
• Free Community College? Very popular
• Common-sense gun regulation? Incredibly popular
and on and on...
Refusing to move toward the center in terms of policies, Republicans have needed voters to cast ballots against their self-interests, so they a very disciplined program:
• Nationwide Gerrymandering – making Republican votes more powerful than Democratic votes.
• Suppressing the vote, by reducing poling stations, reducing voting days, “purging” voter registrations, creating a “poll tax” for millions of ex-felons…
• Foment fear and hatred: demonize immigrants and non-Christians
• Create robust propaganda infrastructure and stay on message, ergo Fox News and Talk Radio
• Shut down Congress when democrats are in charge – witness Mitch McConnell’s unprecedented obstructionism
The truth is Kryptonite to Republicanism.
5
As someone said (Steven Colbert?), “reality has a well known liberal bias.”
2
No matter how bad things get, about 42% of Americans think this president is just fine.
Trump is still spouting that it's all a Dem conspiracy to get him out of office.If I were trump I'd be more concerned about the Italians. Look what they're putting themselves thru just to get rid of him.
3
Dear Prof Krugman,
i don't want to turn philosophical but you brought up 'truth' ... and while i agree Trump can't handle it ...
i'm left to wonder if the truth Sen Sanders speaks is able to be handled/reconciled on 1) philosophical grounds & 2) economic grounds ...?
for integrity's sake, could you please clarify your position on this?
p.s. i've subscribed to the NYTimes for 10y and value your insights
1
The right-wingers use cheer-leaders instead of 'Leaders'.
Cheer-leaders that shout the propaganda 'talking-points', as if they are real.
Cheer-leaders that slander anyone that publicly question their 'cause' or their 'anti-government' slogans.
When your back-ground is evangelical indoctrination and home-schooling; your political maturity is that of a high-school pep rally; and there is a hint of lead-poisoning from handling too many lead bullets...no wonder all that comes out of their mouths is rationalized resentment and whining that 'its not fair'.
But this last weekend, as the Country was in crisis, trump played golf. Can you spell 'incompetence'?
We never wanted a Civil War. We do want our Country back.
2
Trump will do what he does best....declare bankruptcy.
5
The thriving of GOP reflects the failure of our mental health care system.
5
Kind of hilarious to see that when republicans own "the ball", it's "free markets, never heard of them". A more cynical lot cannot be found...
Voting will be postponed indefinitely because of quarantine. Our heavenly mandated President-protector will provide minimal sustenance. Now carry on and Obey!
It wouldn't be so bad if only truth-deniers bore the consequences of their folly. The problem is that they force their ignorance on reasonable people.
3
@Jeannie Amen. I truly wish that the consequences of their willful, deliberate, blinkered ignorance would be borne only by those who choose self-delusion.
Just about the entire right-wing agenda is wrong about everything, so, of course, they can't handle the truth. And why are they wrong? Why does Trump, for example, in almost every situation take the course of action that is worse for America? It's because he and the rest of the right-wing only care about what is best for themselves. To do right would be too costly for them. And believe me, they know what the truth is. I've talked to too many of them not to know that. They are extremely willful "know_nothings".
2
Truth liberates. Can you imagine a liberated Trump going about the business of governing the US?
Dr. Krugman, the real problem is that trumo has never been able to recognize truth even if he had his face rubbed into it. His life story is predicated on a string of lies and false accusations. He couldn't handle the truth.
3
Remember when we were confounded with and laughed at Baghdad Bob, who gave regular announcements on Saddam’s “victories?”
"Larry Kudlow, now Trump’s chief economist, ridiculed “bubbleheads” who suggested that housing prices were out of line.
And I can tell you from personal experience that when I began writing about the housing bubble I was relentlessly accused of playing politics: “You only say there’s a bubble because you hate President Bush.”"
The more things change the more they remain the same.
This train has left the station. Nothing to be done but ride it out, mitigate losses. Trump didn’t cause it, Krugman had no solution. Eventually the market will swing back. Things happen sometimes. Everyone commenting here hates Trump yet he is President. Doesn’t that strike any of you brainiacs as biased?
People hate Trump because he is President and his policies hurt our nation.
How is that biased?
1
And you expected the party leaders of elite privileged to care about the little people?
2
The Republicans will open the Fed doors to hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars in interest free loans for Wall Street banks and large corporations. They are allowed to keep the money in the Fed bank were the earn 2-3% Interest on it. We literally hand free money by the hundreds of billions of tax dollars to corporations . We can't have universal healthcare or free 13th-16th grade that's communism.
1
Regarding the line: ... what’s different now is that denial and the resulting delay are likely to have deadly consequences.
I don’t agree. With all the evictions and layoffs that resulted, I am certain that the denial and delay that proceeded the housing crash of 2008 also had deadly consequences for those without the economic means to survive losing their home or job. While the full effects of the Coronavirus are still unknown, let’s not minimize the effects of the 2008 housing crash or the culpability of those who caused it.
2
I live in an area with a first class healthcare system, but it operates at close to capacity most of the time. That is by design. There is not very much slack in the system to deal with an outbreak of sick people.
2
When are leaders are stumblebums, all they can do when things get critical is pretend it’s all overblown, or phony, and gamble with our lives and resources that things somehow against the odds turn out okay.
I thought that what is happening to the stock markets now is what would happen to them the days and weeks and months after Election Day in 2016.
1
It is sad that so many believe the novel coronavirus is a liberal plot to dethrone Trump, and that they are unlikely to revise this after a week or two of high fever, body ache and chills. Once again Jefferson's stipulation that "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people" comes to mind. Here is hoping in the days ahead education, not ideology, prevails.
7
The right wing has long been intoxicated with the notion that markets are efficient and that state intervention is inherently counterproductive. So, something like the housing bubble is inconsistent with an almost religious principle. It's not a question of fact, its a question of how the world ought to be. That their religious faith happens to mesh with the interests of the wealthy and powerful is hardly coincidental. Any market-based allocation system will privilege those with wealth over those without it.
2
When a vaccine is developed for this virus, it will be interesting to see the responses from the anti vaccine crowd to it.
5
It fits with the increasingly authoritarian bent of the right wing. Authoritarians of whatever stripe can't handle the truth. Another very strong reason to support the main alternative to Donald Trump in this fall's election, whoever that person turns out to be. That person is sure both to be much in touch with truth than Donald Trump is, and much more respectful of the democratic process and human rights. But what does it say about our electorate that Donald Trump is the current president running for re-election, and that Senator Warren, the candidate with the most intelligence and insight, has been forced out of the race for the Democratic nomination?
3
Finally the press is telling us the truth about this president.
For years they have been pretending he is just one side of equal points of view.
It's time for a full court press on reality so that Americans see he is not just another president with a few foibles, who entertains some by degrading others with his TV persona.
We need to hear the truth vs. what he speaks and how he "rules" his party and his staff, and the American people.
We need to learn how to vote in November without going to the polls (in case coronavirus and poor election planning makes normal voting difficult). We need the press to educate us, not promulgate his continually growing number of lies.
We all need to take personal responsibility to vote him and his supporters out of office in November.
5
Right wingers stock in trade is "messaging" not facts.
Prof Krugman calls them zombie ideas. Today we get more tax cuts floated as the cure.
I think the fascination with liquidity reveals how important banking is in the measurement of the economy. But we're dealing with self imposed quarantines for the higher order need to keep people alive than keep banks flush with cash.
Isn't consumer spending elastic? Won't it pick up again when the virus subsides? The news of the day is the quarantine in Wuhan worked to keep the billion Chinese outside Wuhan healthy. We'll see if the outbreak blooms across the nation as they get back to work and container ships sail.
Brazil is the bellwether for the flock in our hemisphere. It's hot in Brazil. If the virus fails to multiply there, that implies it will decrease here as our warmest year on record goes into early spring.
2