Why is it a "racist dog whistle" to call the virus foreign? Didn't it start in China? Until a couple of weeks ago, all the networks referred to the 'Wuhan' virus or the 'Chinese' coronavirus. What's changed? Oh, right. The PC police took notice.
1
It's racist to state it started elsewhere? Today, this paper is running a story that the Chinese regime is now blaming Wuhan Virus on the United States. So ridiculous in trying to be polite to China with this scourge taking place.
1
The Republicans finally have the ideal leader to prove their contention that when they lead the government, it can't do anything right. This is especially true if there is any kind of national emergency, such as the country sinking into the great depression, proper response to the attacks of 9-11, the looming housing crisis of 2008, or now a proper response to the coronavirus.
The Rs have proven time and again, they're good for tax cuts and voter suppression, but really drop the ball when it comes to dealing with a crisis.
15
Trump has gotten as far as he has because too many people have been willing to prop him up. Taken on his own, he is a comic figure, best suited for cameos in “Home Alone” or as a punchline. But with his enablers, those hoping to profit from or off of him and those working for him feeling it was their duty to save the nation, his worst instincts have been empowered. Watching Trump’s appearances with a line of impressive people behind him, nodding at his misstatements and lies, these people have allowed Trump to feel his gut rather than experts’ brains are what this nation needs. And here we are.
10
Trump has gotten as far as he has because too many people have been willing to prop him up. Taken on his own, he is a comic figure, best suited for cameos in “Home Alone” or as a punchline. But with his enablers, those hoping to profit from or off of him and those working for him feeling it was their duty to save the nation, his worst instincts have been empowered. Watching Trump’s appearances with a line of impressive people behind him, nodding at his misstatements and lies, these people have allowed Trump to feel his gut rather than experts’ brains are what this nation needs. And here we are.
4
So far COVID-19 is only catastrophic for the elderly and those in poor health. Running around crying chicken, which is what the media is collectively doing, including this piece, does nothing but further fan the flames hatred and division.
3
While there is never any assurance how an untested leader - especially one without previous political experience - will handle a crisis, in most situations Presidents and Prime Ministers have stepped up to the plate and acquitted themselves satisfactorily. Canada and the US share a continent and we have always been the ‘younger sibling’ with a bit of an inferiority complex. But I am convinced that our country has handled this crisis far better, and it comes down to our fortuity in choosing an intelligent, empathetic, and capable leader as opposed to someone who cares only for the bottom line, his own reputation and wealth accrual – and not its denizens. I am so sorry that the US has saddled itself with this ‘Apprentice’. Compare this morning’s announcement by Justin Trudeau about Canada’s plan re: the Covid-19 crisis and Trump’s meandering statements of the last few days:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-covid-19-1.5496367
He has given Canadian citizens confidence that the government will do all it possibly can to safeguard us and I am so grateful to be living in the True North Strong and Free.
16
The analysis of Trump being crowd-dependent but practically inarticulate and catatonic when he is alone is truly insightful. It is the portrait of the false-ego individual, the classic narcissist totally invested in the shell and empty inside, like dried out cocoon.
He won't last long after he loses power.
19
It is time for him to resign. That is the real solution to our national leadership problem.
15
I trust Fox News more than the liberal main stream media for not only the truth but for the entire story. Sometimes I may watch a MSM news outlet and Fox and the MSM outlet leaves out details that Fox provides. On top of that, I listen to National Public Radio in the morning driving to work and in the afternoon driving home, so I get its take on the issues as well, and I find its presentation to be objective and balanced and far more informative than MSM. And besides, I support the President. I support Trump and look forward to his re-election. Having said that, everything the MSM says is not to inform the public but to slander Trump, which is the sole point of this op-ed. Thank you.
6
@Southern Boy
It's no surprise that anyone who so avidly supports this president gets their news from FOX, which is about as far from "objective" journalism as one can get.
42
Locally, we know that he is a bully, a liar, and a cheat. When he was at least just in charge of his own business, it was somewhat ok. Now that he is on our watch, it is anything but ok. The world is paying the price now, but he will go down in history as our worst leader, a stain on our democratic republic.
30
Listening to these fools over the last couple of weeks it only reinforces what their only concern seems to be and that's who pays for our response to this emergency.
Never seems to be a concern when Houston floods annually, corporate farmers are compensated for doing nothing, ranchers and miners getting free access to public lands, etc. etc.
In the meantime, we're all paying for their comprehensive incompetence. And will be for a while.
16
We are so far behind where we should be to stop unnecessary deaths. I am beyond angry, beyond hope that we will make it to November 3 and do what the cowardly, enabling, power-mad Republicans won't do: get rid of Trump. But, I fear, Trump will know he's toast and will 'postpone' the election.
What we need to be doing right this second, is institute election by mail in all fifty states. Right this second.
19
Can we use the public health code or executive order (I know) to shut down FOX NEWS as PUBLIC HEALTH RISK!
We can quarantine people but how about a non-essential and non-news related media outlet?
The Constitution is both rigid and flexible. 100,000 Americans were interned/quarantined in direct conflict with the Constitution. This is a much greater risk than isolating those American.
8
The last thing the republicans want is for the American people to be unified. That would destroy their false power base.
17
Good grief. The hatred here is unbelievable. I don't know which is more dangerous, that or the virus.
7
We need to let this sink in, by reading it again.
" . . . What we saw in Wednesday’s speech was that (Trump’s) completely incapable of rising to the occasion. We needed to see a leader; what we saw was an incompetent, delusional blowhard."
---- Paul Krugman, NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/opinion/trump-coronavirus-economy.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
17
The Democrats want to maximize the panic so that the curve is concentrated. Don Jr exaggerated, but not by much.
5
Telling the truth is not fear mongering. People need to hear,repeatedly, facts which will help save them and their loved ones.
100
This is so wrong it’s baffling. The virus is not political.
76
So Democrat’s want to cause panic to maximize the curve? What does this even mean? It’s this kind of garbled talk which makes speaking with Trump followers pretty much impossible.
122
Thank you Jennifer Senior! This is one of the most well thought out and written pieces I have read during this three year nightmare we have been forced to live through. Literally everything you brought up was presented thoughtfully while being objective item by item presented to us, the reader.
A simple way to provide what surely would be though will not be, is to have tRUMP tested especially since he has been around those that have been exposed and infected. He acts like a spoiled child, no surprise of course. Then, having little Jared the grifter-in-law“Research” the national response to the pandemic is absurd!
Do I hope he is infected, well, we will never know will we? Justin Trudeau is one leader who gets it and is an example of leadership.as much as the Brazilian president is an abhorrent mess, he too has been tested and is awaiting the results.
7
The “accident waiting to happen” has happened. Anyone who paid attention knew that Trump would be useless in a crisis. He is not smart; he doesn’t listen; he won’t/can’t read; he thinks he knows more than experts; he has no empathy; he surrounds himself with yes-men who tiptoe around him. Great combination.
We have to pay attention to other countries who were prepared. It seems difficult to believe, but of all the countries on the planet, the United States has been the worst in terms of crisis preparedness and response. Make America Great Again? What a tragic joke.
25
What we see in this response is typical republican. Nothing is a big deal. Cynicism and punditry instead of consideration and pragmatism. Quick capitalizing on a chance to flood cash to the big cats, because of course, economic impacts are the first concern, and only for the paper pushing paramours. Decisive and comprehensive government action ? Not going to happen. Excuse making and outward pointing of fingers ? Already begun, even before the major brunt of crisis sets in, after all, that last crisis, the great recession, that was the fault of the democrats ten years prior, if you wanna believe the republicans. No people who have such disregard for public institutions and their machinations can effectively use them for much good or productive end. No organization, such as the GOP, with so little regard for the lives of real people, perfectly illustrated by its magnificent leader, would care to do so anyway.
10
"Viruses need crowds. True leadership means telling those crowds to disperse".
Plus one for all Presidential candidates who cancelled rallies, trump included.
5
Phoney-Five and the Real Fake News.
Perfect together.
If you like disaster movies....
PS I am in Mexico, they say it's not here - it will be - we are staying away from people, both friends and strangers. Social distancing sucks but it's our only change to disrupt this thing.
4
It would be nice to see Fox News go off the air until we see the curve of this virus level out, we need only one channel of information.
9
I stopped at the store yesterday because I was desperate for toilet paper (thanks to all you hoarders!) and the store was absolutely packed. Apparently the message isn't getting through to very many. There were long lines at the checkouts and people crowded in every aisle. I could almost see everyone's respiration creating a fog of germs floating in the air. Then, I remembered that our weather forecast is calling for a wind storm tonight with predicted power outages. So, storm panic buying on top of virus panic buying. I expect at some point everyone will feel they've bought enough, or run out of space for all the stuff they buy and this ridiculous trend will stop. The other alternative is that many will become infected and have to be quarantined. Maybe even me. All because of toilet paper.
7
An excellent article. As a general rule we should learn that the less attention you pay to Fox or Trump the safer you are.
15
The Republican/Fox complex traffics in an awful lot of misinformation and misdirection. Most of the time it is pretty obvious what they are hoping to accomplish by things like lying about political opponents, spinning facts on issues that might be detrimental to their business interests, etc.
This one though - I have no idea what is going on. They are through the looking glass. It is definitely not in anybody's interest to let this virus start killing millions of people through mismanaged response. A bunch of these "no big deal" goofballs appear to have been infected at CPAC.
7
couldn't lead a cow back to the barn. Along with his usual self-congratulatory bombast and cringe-worthy blaming of foreigners, Trump's a complete lack of interest in truth, understanding, care, and content. What really struck me, however, was the president's demeanor was frightening. We must consider the possiblity that he is actually a zombie. He certainly looked and sounded like one. -- he must be taking some kind of drugs. Combine that with his utter resentment
Leaders in academia, sports, the arts, and states and municipalities have set an example we should all follow. as others have pointed out, the oval office address was a medley of Trump's greatest hits: self-congratulatory bombast, blaming others, putting profit over people, making up his own facts, ignoring the experts, all delivered with the affect of a zombie. This is what happens when your entire world consists of one, yourself. We, the non-zombies, are the leaders now and we must arise! Let's be rational, compassionate, informed, hopeful, helpful, and united. We the people are now in charge.
7
Let Trump have his rallies and let Fox News continue to call it a hoax. Then it will be a matter of survival of the fittest.
7
I hope any of our "leaders" who feel this issue is a hoax will forgo any testing when their time comes.
3
I think Trump supporters are right! I think Trump should show this Virus who's the boss! Trump supporters should gather in large crowds and get in each other's faces. On with the rallies! On with campaign events!
I think these right and correct Trump supports should do all this and then isolate themselves from immigrants, from liberals, and from truth.
7
This is one to the best assessments of the virus situation and the most clueless leader.
This is serious folks. What to do:
Get a mail in ballot as soon as they are available. You know what to do.
Carry a disinfectant towel in your hands when you go out - always.
Anyone who enters your home sticks their hands immediately into a openly displayed bowl of disinfectant solution. Keep paper towels handy.
Stay calm, help your neighbors understand, communicate and do not be shy in your showing of immediacy.
2
People know when they are sick and vulnerable. It a truth Trump will never be able to obscure or deny,
1
Fri, Mar 13 at 1:58 PM
China threatens to withhold the medicine they produce for the US market, for political reasons.
China is our enemy -- that is clear. They make almost all of our antibiotics and many of our other critical medicines.
How this came to pass -- well, another disgusting journey into the incompetence and greed of the Establishment.
The stupidity of those who let China become the ONLY source of CRITICAL products.
4
Our for-profit health-care system, in effect, is engineered NOT to effectively contain a pandemic. Big Pharma and Big Health, which are cohorting with Trump and Co. in maintaining the status quo, profit (very handsomely) from providing health care. In presence of an exponentially growing pandemic, either the federal government steps in and secures coverage for everybody or people are not going to get the testing and caring they and the country need to contain the contagion.
All of a sudden, what Sanders preaches about public health care makes a lot of sense.
I bet that, right now, Trump is reasoning that, once all those people who adore him lie a rock star will start getting sick and die, they will quickly discover the vacuity of everything he has said and done and a fraction of them will ump the fence onto democrat territory. So, he and his friends are likely just trying to buy time and trying to maximize the chances for his re-election by delaying the catastrophe until after November 4.
Maybe thinking on how to subsidize health care to Trump states only? Certainly, not the top 4 most hit states, Washington, California, New York and Massachusetts. Sorry for being so cynical but if large number of people from these states will be incapacitated from voting by the virus, statistically speaking this will help Trump in his bid to be re-elected. So, this provides little incentive to help them improve testing for the virus and treating people
For Trump states,
1
Oh Jennifer, you are so spot on. Perhaps though, there might be a small crack in this Trump - Fox Wall of Stupidity.
On the way home today I caught a piece of Bret Baier on Fox XM radio. Low and behold I thought, hell just froze over. Good old "fair and balanced" Bret actually found three major faults with Trump's speech last night. I couldn't believe my ears.
409
@Silence Dogood it is time for Fox to take Hannity off the air. He has done as much damage to this country as Trump.
48
@Silence Dogood
Trump will complain something is not quite right at FOX NOISE. He mas made that complaint in the past.
18
@Silence Dogood ;
Tucker Carlson actually seems to be seeing the light, the dim light of Trump's brain, a bit lately. Watched the opening to his show a couple of days ago (I check in on Fox every now and then to see what they are saying) and he seemed to grasp the situation and the inadequacies of the administration. but then he kept talking.
2
Knowing that my parents only watch Fox, I sent them a letter explaining the actual facts that we in the real world know about the virus, how it spreads, what kills it, and why there is national concern about it. Their response indicated that my letter was none too soon. Even in the highest risk group, at 80+ years old, they had no clue about even the basics of protecting themselves and others, the basics that we all now know by heart. All they heard was it was a political hit job on the orange fella, that barricading our borders was the real solution, that everyone gets sick and so no big deal, and that everybody is making a mountain out of a molehill, again for political reasons. After I put my jaw back in place, I realized that if Fox told them it was a jihad attack engineered by James Comey, they would have believed it.
I urge everyone to send the basics to their loved ones who are stuck in the Fox echo chamber. No need to be snarky, stick with the facts. Don't argue with them, just inform them and leave it be. Most importantly, do not assume they know anything at all.
1697
Just today I had this same discussion with my sister about our parents. My dad had pneumonia twice last year and is in frail health, but they plan to continue to carry on as usual because “it’s just the flu.” Dad also explained to me that the virus is a weapon from China being used against us.
Perhaps the only silver lining here is that the radical conservative media will finally lose credibility (and I use that term loosely). We have Murdoch, Hannity, the Sinclair Broadcasting cabal, and Limbaugh sending their own customers to premature death in the name of political fealty to trump. Can even that go unnoticed?
406
Thank you, E. Sage advice. I'm sitting down to write my 88-year-old aunt tonight. She listens to a conspiracy-enthralled radio host and consequently has no idea of what’s happening.
165
@E. Cripe This must be going on all over the country. Yesterday, I had a similar talk with my folks, who are definitely in the highest risk group. They were surprised by my vehemence. They aren't the type to spout nutty conspiracy theories or anything, but they did not really grasp the seriousness of the situation.
I stocked them up with groceries and we didn't watch Fox News all afternoon. When our governor shut down schools and state offices, I think it finally sunk in that they need to hunker down for a while. At least I hope it did.
192
As I have written, Times newspaper loses credibility as an objective news source when it runs articles so biased, so intended to denigrate our chief of state and us , his supporters. I seldom watch t.v.and prefer to read books, periodicals, but do watch FN occasionally as well as other channels.Such hatred for our chief of state expressed by Ms.Senior raises tensions, divides us further as a nation,and vitiates the newspaper's credibility as an objective, disinterested news source.1 wonders whether those on the left are not rooting for the coronavirus in hopes that it's spread will contribute to Trump's defeat in November.Who can gainsay that those are the "arrieres pensees"of the Trump haters? Did not Bill Mayre say that he hoped for a recession because a crash would bring down the presidency?When u r consumed by hatred for a political candidate and his 63 million supporters,for anyone really, it can come back to bite you. Laura Ingram is a great journalist, Dartmouth grad and a talented writer, "tant bien que mal,"Ms. Senior, and so are you,but go easy on the odium,contempt of Trump and us his 63 million followers."Il faut vivre et laisser vivre!"We want the best for the country and I am sure you do too."Nous sommes tous des Americans a part entiere!"
4
Jennifer, you wrote “ It’s what the tech geeks of Twitter and Google do. It’s what the writers and editors of The New York Times do. It’s what the rich kids in Ivy League schools do, as do their comfortably tenured professors.”
Why is it that every group in this list other than your own gets denigrated? Professors are “comfortably tenured,” engineers are “tech geeks,” and adult students (many on financial aid) are “rich kids.” Only “writers and editors” go unscathed.
What’s the point of this vitriol? Why is your profession so much more dignified? And why divide people at a time like this?
Seems awfully petty. Maybe the times should rethink its choice of columnists.
3
Can we PLEASE stop using the phrase "dog whistle"? The most overused phrase of 2020
3
And I’d be willing to bet, and bet BIG, that Trump and his family have ALL been testtd.
1
It should be at least curious just exactly what it is that Rupert Murdoch and all the other mutts on these r-wing media outlets hope to accomplish. After all, specific to ol' Rupee boy, he's not long for this mortal coil.
So even considering that Laclan and any of the rest of his brood, or those aforementioned r-wing compatriots, again even if they have inherited his ideologies what's the end game?..is it well i'll be able to monitor my lifes work from...or i'm leaving behind a better place..where's the payoff, what's the payoff..is there a payoff?
1
The man has been a fake president from day one. FOX News has been a joke for years. They have coasted for far too long on nonsense. It's time America stood up and said it's heard enough of and from these bombastic fools.
2
Thank you for your enlightened prose.
How different our lives would be in this pandemic crisis if the election had not been stolen from Hillary Clinton in 2016.
2
Don't panic,VOTE!
2
What is this column about? It's a meandering collection of anti-Fox, anti-Trump tropes with some coronavirus thrown in for good measure.
1
All Trump does is blame other people. Sean Hannity said the whole thing was a hoax. Trump said that first. Trump and his supporters are crazy fools. I wish he would just step aside and let someone who knows what they are doing be in charge. Isn’t his bungling of this mess and the fact that people’s lives are on the line enough to remove him from office. He is incompetent.
1
I am very happy to see Fox News getting called out for lies and deceit more in this paper lately.
3
Trump's refusal to get tested after coming in contact with someone who tested positive is pure stupidity. If he thinks this makes him look tough he is sadly mistaken. His ridiculous lack of concern for his own health is a dog whistle to his uninformed followers who may follow his example. They will not only put their own health at risk, but others as well. This is why Trump is not just a bad president, he is dangerous.
1
Fox News is the worst thing that has happened to journalism. Ever.
4
Hopefully Trump and all Fox viewers will listen to those noted health experts Hannity and Ingraham and end up infecting each other, thereby ridding us of them forever. I just want to be warned so I can practice extra social distancing from them, in case I leave the house in the next two weeks (unlikely). Maybe they can all wear those stupid red hats?
4
Apropos Ms. Senior's observation, "What last night’s address made clear is that Donald J. Trump is no one — and I mean no one, a naked-emperor nullity — without a crowd. Audiences are what energize him, give him his confidence, his king-size certainty..."
Albert Speer, in his postwar memoirs, noted:
“As I see it today, Hitler and Goebbels were in fact molded by the mob itself, guided by its yearnings and its daydreams. Of course, Goebbels and Hitler knew how to penetrate through to the instincts of their audiences; but in the deeper sense they derived their whole existence from these audiences.
“Certainly the masses roared to the beat set by Hitler's and Goebbels' baton; yet they were not the true conductors. The mob determined the theme. To compensate for misery, insecurity, unemployment, and hopelessness, this anonymous assemblage wallowed for hours at a time in obsessions, savagery and license.
“The personal unhappiness caused by the breakdown of the economy was replaced by a frenzy that demanded victims. By lashing out at their opponents and vilifying the Jews, they gave expression and direction to fierce primal passions.”
2
Thank you for saying what we all (minus Fox viewers). As a side note when will someone speak up about his slurring and snorting when he reads a Prompter or notes. Just an observation, it is exactly what someone on cocaine does.
2
As of this moment 39 Americans have died of Coronavirus. 39! Not 3900, or 39000, but thirty nine! This is an outbreak hysterically pushed into pandemia, completely unlike swine flu, MERS, SARS and others ( which had much more serious numbers). And no matter how minimal this ends up, the New York Times and the MSM will march to the DNC drum and blame Trump. Your message is so repetitive and predictable as to be tired. Like your great picks of Amy and Elizabeth for the Dems, you will never look back and admit how preposterous your words were, or analyze how you got it so wrong. And your endless rants about Fox News seem a little envious. Just saying.
2
Sooooo—you admire those teleprompter politicians? And your calling Trump phony?
1
Heard on the news that both trump and pence were exposed to a Brazillian Govt. official at mara largo last weekend. They were all over each other with handshakes, breathing on each and MBGR musical hats. That official is no diagnosed with Covid-19 and has symptoms.....trump and pence have been exposed. If they die Nancy Pelosi will be our President until Nov.........reality bites.
2
Bravo!
1
So, a mendacious con artist & former reality TV entertainer, multiply bankrupt & philandering narcissist is failing as POTUS .... who could have seen this coming?
4
The last few articles by this writer mirror exactly how my friends and I feel about what is taking place in our country today. The writer's sentence, "Put him alone in a room with a camera, and he can barely make it out of a sentence alive" describes Trump perfectly and is the single best line I've read since Trump took office. Please keep up the good work, Ms. Senior.
4
I was at the beach here in Florida a few days ago. I overheard a woman telling a man that she doesn't see what the big deal is. People choose not to get flu shots and they don't get sick, so, in all likelihood she believes, the same things will happen if people ignore warnings about the corona virus.
This anecdote and the others about beloved parents addicted to Fox News show why this is a big challenge. I blame Trump for a lot of this, but he had had willing collaborators in the news media.
I sort of get why Trump can't stand any information that makes him feel inadequate, but is it just reflexive for Fox to take these positions? Surely many of them know better.
1
Among the many changes of the next few days will be the cases of actual corona virus among famous people. The news media have a strong interest in having people addicted to the latest reports and the stories of the many people in the Trump administration who will get this virus will make for feverish reading. I am not wishing anyone ill, but it is important for Trumps base to begin to believe in the seriousness of this matter. Failure to flatten the curve will result in the demise of large numbers of mature voters, with particular risk among those in rural areas where many hospitals have shuttered recently.
1
This in unreal to me that in the US we cannot get it together to deal with this virus. I am not an America-is-the-best-at-everything type of gal, but I do believe that a nation of our stature and abilities has NO excuse for not managing to protect us, its citizens. While no one is responsible (probably) for it coming here, the government is responsible for doing what it can to help us, via testing and social distancing and everything else available. How can a nation like South Korea be able to do 10,000 tests a day and the US cannot come up with a decent fraction of that?
This is unconscionable.
4
Why has the Federal Communications Commissioner, Ajit Pai, not warned Fox News to stop the baseless and salacious spew of misinformation, flat out lies, and fiercely politicized broadcasts? I am aware that he is a Republican and a Trump appointment - but Robert Mueller is also a Republican and stood up to Trump as has Mitt Romney. I am a strong defender of the freedom of speech but as we enter into a total lock down in this country and a declaration of a national emergency, it would be helpful if the FCC would warn Fox News that they will be fined or they will be taken off the air if broadcasts going forward are not fact based journalism. Fox News is doing nothing more than fueling the equivalent of yelling "fire" in a theater but using broadcast airwaves to do so which is illegal and adds to panic and pandemonium.
7
We are about 2 1/2 months from when the virus was identified. Trump did put restrictions on travel from China and Iran. He was immediately claimed to be a racist. China is where the virus originated. Iran has been one of the hardest hit by the virus. Worst, it borders on Afghanistan that is ill prepared for any medical problem, Pakistan, Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Now Trump has restricted some travel with Europe and editorials are criticizing that. Italy has been hardest hit. One of our problems has been testing for the COVID-19 virus. First, the CDC used a flawed reagent to make the testing kits. Then, the red tape companies had to go through to get a test approved, prevented production in this country. In the meantime, other countries were testing tens of thousands of people. After the red tape was removed, we now have 29 companies making the test. Getting a vaccine is going to see the same barriers. We have four companies working on a vaccine. They will be testing by the end of April. But final approval could take an extended period. So, just like the text kits, we will probably see other countries giving a vaccine long before we have one. All the rules and red tape were put in palace long before Trump. We are taking significant steps and at least on this problem, Congress is workings with the president.
1
@Ron
Clinical trials for a vaccine always take time - usually years rather than months. They have to be tested for toxicity and safety, and then tested for effectiveness. Some of these rules have a purpose - to avoid creating an additional health problem.
Testing is another matter. As soon as the sequence of the virus was in hand, any number of teams could have designed a test. That the CDC screwed that up is nothing short of pathetic and incompetent.
3
@the more I love my dogs The time developing a vaccine has been majorly reduced. In this country, approval can be delayed by testing for a year. But in other countries, the time is much shorter. So we will most likely see other countries providing vaccines months before our is approved. The test kits were hampered by red tape. But then the government allowed the validation to be authorized from internal testing. That is why so many companies are now making the kits. Another barrier to vaccine production in this country is the danger of malpractice claims. Some companies that could make a vaccine, may not release one because of that reason. One time the government promised to cover the problem. It cost 100 million dollars so that help has gone away.
As an IT professional, I can work from home. In the past on weekends an at 2:00 in the morning. Working from home just means there are fewer of us on the streets or commuting. This is one of the few times I see it as a perk. Most of the time it means that my private life is interrupted. I lost count of the times I would be expected to work to 2 am and still be in the office at 8:30.
Minutes before and after Trump made his speech the cameras in the Oval Office were running. This is common practice before any speech in the Oval Office is made. Trevor Noah aired the footage last night on The Daily Show. Every one should watch what Trevor Noah's show aired. Draw your own conclusions from what you hear and see from Donald Trump.
7
Bravo for stating so well that the brave are isolating themselves despite the natural urge to mingle and interact with others.
"Trump and Fox Are Behind It"
.
Do you folks have any idea how much half the country laugh at you for your obsession with Fox? I never watched Fox until you at the Times bashed them so much I had to go see what all the hullabaloo was about.
.
Then I understood why you hate them. They make people laugh. Laugh at you. Nothing worse than being mocked, being the subject of someone's joke. Tucker Carlson and The Five are usually great at mocking your group-think. It's pretty good stuff. If you have any friends with a sense of humor, you should ask them to watch and translate for you sometime.
.
Sure, tools like Hannity are propagandists of the first order. But a lot of their people just tell it like it is. Chris Wallace and Dana Perino are two of the smartest, most ethical people on TV. I don't think they support Trump as much as they just loathe the self-righteous, self-appointed guardians of liberalism and progressivism you folks think you are. You're such mockable targets, which makes for a good laugh.
.
So, bash away, politicize a health crisis, that's helpful for us all. Trump's a sick guy, but it's probably not intentional. Your non-stop bashing of everthing he does *is* intentional, and it rips the country apart.
.
No public health crisis in that, is there.
2
The modern Republican version of a fireside chat.
1
I think the world at large is aghast at how bad things are becoming in the US due to your lack of leadership. The arrogance of Trump and many others in the WH and in senate especially will kill thousands of you and affect the rest of the planet.
You have monsters in charge...and one in particular.
4
President Trump is not perfect as we are all aware, but he is not the monster you people accuse him of being either! The sad truth is that even if he cured cancer, you'd find wrong in it! Speaking of cancer, shame on the mindset you people spread, creating division, violence, and hate, and then you have the gall to blame it on Trump!
1
@Linda Notes like yours help Jennifer make her point. Many will find it impossible to believe that Trumps effort is so bad, not actually having watched his recent performance. Then comes your note, not about the details she mentions but claims that liberals would not give Trump credit for curing cancer. Skip the facts and go on with Fox talking points. Incidentally, you could convince people that your post was worth reading if you commented on real things like flattening the curve. I am of the demographic that will likely wind up in intensive care. I hope people like you are not involved in the triage decisions.
4
Against my better judgement, I watched the speech Fake POTUS 45 on TV.
He looked and sounded like someone reading a hostage note.
God help us.
6
thanks jennifer hit it on the nail. the depravity of fox , hannity laura and tucker and their fab fives is a bit too much to take on easy times. Truth must hurt these sycophants like a bolt of thunder. let us not forget the morally depraved "so called " pillars of religion ( franklin graham and his tawdry pals who sees trump as the second coming of christ! )who are nothing but the white supremacists of an era long gone but remain still as their gatekeepers!
Ask all the sandwich shops, motels and fast food restaurants that have a blaring TV tuned to FOX to turn it off. Or just play the weather channel.
My sense is Fox must pay them all a fee. Having traveled cross country many times (by car) it never fails to amaze me how many have Fox on. At full volume.
Fox news is a cancer on this country and benefits Murdoch and a few presenters who make millions. Otherwise, it is just a font of stupidity and sexual harrasment.
6
The NYT has made an announcement that they will allow everybody to access their virus articles but the announcement says you must have an account. It's confusing. Can anybody access the articles or not? Is it free? Can I tell my friends that they can get the best information from the NYT and get it for free or not? Why not consider this as a marketing opportunity and allow complete access for everybody. The garbage from FOX is free.
1
So “Spanish flu” isn’t racist, but “foreign virus” is, only because Trump said it.
3
We haven't heard from Trump's lord and master yet (Mitch, not Putin - McConnell could actually do something other then develop another chin while waiting for Covid-19 to decimate the Democratic House). Come on, Mitch - confront your incompetent Executive Branch and tell them to get their rears in gear.
Donald Trump should be indicted or, if our failed nation holds to the idiotic "can't indict" memo, impeached for criminal negligence. His abject lying, misinformation and even personal irresponsibility in exposing himself and his associates to COVID-19 clearly meet the criminal standard, particularly when measured in the inevitable loss of life caused by his personal negligence.
If he were the head of a small school, for example, he would be criminally charged for neglect and sued for damages in civil court by everyone harmed.
We're crazy to just "opine" about him.
2
Again and again the media shows that its Trump hatred is so great that its better to destroy America than have Trump reelected. Sickening.
Did I just read a column in the NYT by someone who actually took it to Fox News - not only once, but several times? And did she really call out Laura Ingraham? What a risk taker! Way to go, Ms. Senior! It's high time that main-stream media outlets challenge the idiocy of what wafts out of Fox. And, it should be challenged again and again!
2
Jennifer. Really? Passing the ball to THEM with your moral clarity? As if you expect a reaction?
Limbaugh on his radio show yesterday, literally said he was "poo poohing," cancellations of major public sporting events, concerts and the like as an overreaction.
Of course Limbaugh had nothing other than his gut instinct to lead him to this conclusion. I love people like him, who never finished college, has no education or experience in any medical field, or anything else for that matter, tell his audience that he knows better, and that the "drive by media," is misleading them with their interviews of medical and scientific experts, which he never has on his show.
Do his listeners think he is telling his doctors how to treat his lung cancer, and telling them that they are overreacting to his symptoms, I think not.
It boggles the mind this man is listened to by 20 million people a week and he is paid 80 million a year.
7
Why all the (unwanted) advice on superior leadership? Trump doesn't want to hear it and his followers only want to hear how great they are.
No, better that Trump continue to shamble from failure to failure, all the while shrieking about how much he's "winning". His "winning", with Fox's amplification, will contribute to the sudden and widespread deaths of a large number of his followers. I don't think they are capable of making the connection, but they will be fewer in number and easier for us to deal with later.
Sometimes idiotic leadership is the best solution to idiotic leadership.
1
On the other side you have Democrats believing in God after their prayers of a stock market crash or national disaster to pin on Trump have arrived.
1
If you feel sick 😷 consult a doctor. Common sense. Do what the health experts say today. Now! Ignore that man with red hair behind the curtain.
Please stop, I haven't even read the article, but the finger pointing is stressing people out more than anything and you are contributing to it. Enough is enough.
1
Mary McCarthy has Trump’s measure: “Every word is a lie, including ‘and,’ and ‘the.’”
4
Thank God for the real Free-press.
America would not have a chance, if we had to 'trust' old Bone-Spur and/or fox 'news'.
Enough lies.
We want our Country back.
Mitch McConnell and his wife are corrupt and likely traitors.
3
“Old bone spur” this is a good one but needs clarification.
Our hero Joe Biden was a former high school football star and during summers a life guard no less.
However he received five deferments during the night of the Vietnam war due to asthma as a teenager.
LOL but he was a football star and no problem saving peoples lives.
If it comes to liberal politics lots of people are blind out of their left side.
1
President Nemo.
Donnie the germaphobe is terrified because he has been in contact with someone infected. If there is any justice he will contract a fatal dose.
2
I don't think it's a matter of remote work being seen as somehow something only the 'elite' can afford, nor is it a macho desire to 'tough it out' that makes the Trumpians at Fox say what they say. Instead, I think it's rooted in an anti-science and anti-fact mindset that, if repeated often enough to a population already prone to question science and facts, will make it far easier to control that population. Sow mistrust, sow doubt, and make yourself out to be the purveyor of the only truth - that is what Fox News is all about.
Here's a thought: What if Trump is not a 'useful idiot' for Putin but instead a 'useful idiot' for the Fox News empire?
2
If, through this cheer leading and denial of fact by Trump and the Fox entertainment walking dead, it encourages more MAGA or KAG rallies, I am all for it. After all you cannot prevent stupid.
I read this article about this Florida retirement home called the Dalles whose residents want to party and go on cruises. They don't "believe in the Coronovirus." BTW this is the resort of he wealthy retired, probably mostly Trump folk, who have the biggest outbreak of, ahem, diseases that arise out of random sex without protection.
I say, let them rally, go on cruises and enjoy. I apologize to the compassionate and sensitive folk, but you cannot control stupid. Its the culling of the herd, if there is no will to survive you have let them go.
The rest of us can flatten the curve by avoiding crowds,s stocking up on toilet paper (why? haven't you heard of bidets?) and washing hands regularly.
2
How could anyone watching this pitiful man in front of the telepromter believe in his message? He is a hollow specimen showing his true colors to the world.
2
What happened to the Russians? Oh, that was so yesterday.........
Yes, I'm sure Rupert Murdoch will act responsibly and place the interests of the rest of the world above his own.
Hahahahaha!
2
Trump is an unmitigated disaster.
3
an excellent column!
2
Thank you very much Jennifer.
Keep an eye on the Kremlin tethering when relevant.
How great would it be if Bloomberg and Steyer pooled their resources and bought Fox News?!?!?!?
“...he blew a racist dog whistle while discussing a global health emergency (a “foreign” virus); “
Hey it’s the Chinese virus unless you think it originated in the USA.
Rubella is also called German measles, is that racist. Let’s not conveniently dump everything on Trump.
1
What happens to the radical conservative media if this virus kills their viewers because they failed to inform them?
2
Trump always was clueless about matters great and small. His only contribution to this country has been endless fodder for late night comedy hosts. But Fox News and the Limbaughs of talk radio are more dangerous because they have a wide audience and their disinformation kills. That tide may turn. I have a sneaking suspicion that Graham, Gaetz and other Trump enablers now in "self-quarantine" because they may have been infected at CPAC or Mar-a-Lago are secretly relieved at not having to explain the president's oh-so-obvious inadquacies.
2
I'm glad you mentioned Rupert. I blame him for the mess the world is in today. If Donald and the GOP senators get their "news" from Fox, where the heck does this fake news come from? Rupert? Lachlan? How do you sleep at night?
2
Well, it's only people dying! money is far more important to the right wing crowd than actually saving lives. True to what he predicted early on he could and has shot someone on Fifth Avenue, our country, and his supporters don't blink. That trump still has election viability is not only astounding. It is terrifying.
6
Am I the only one cynical enough to think that perhaps the administration is consciously slowing the number of test kits available to 'keep the numbers down'?
1) Trump wanting to keep the Grand Princess cruise passengers on the ship so the 'numbers don't double'.
2) Trump 'not needing to be tested' after coming in contact with a few people confirmed positive.
3) Trump blatantly lying about the availability of the test kits.
7
If you peel off his back and find only coils and springs, that might explain why he has not tested or quarantined himself after being exposed. Machines don’t get sick.
It appears that the reason we don't have tests is to protect Trump's fragile ego. Seriously. He dismantled the pandemic response agency created by Obama and cut funding for the CDC. Though he initially classified info from the CDC sadly the information is still confused and misleading. He refused tests offered by the W.H.O. so American manufacturers could get the profits. Where are they? How is Fox presenting this crisis?
Praising Trump for being "brave".
This is what happens when you elect a reality TV personality. Buckle up.
6
Hear, hear!
Another telling picture...the man has no clue what he is doing, and his expression and ape-like posture shows it.
10
And just look at the speeches of Merkel, Johnson and Macron!
Macron's leitmotif? However much it costs, your health comes first.
7
Everyone at Fox News who are laughing about social distancing should be asked to hug each other on camera.
6
Can the CDC at this stage not declare Fox News a health risk to the American people and shut it down.
12
At this point trump, his fox fake news enablers, Laura Igram, Sean Hannity et al, are complicit is spreading lies about what is really going on with this virus. We have all known fox is not news and trump lies about everything but now they are doing it and it really does endanger peoples's lives.
10
I would hate to go to war with you critics of government and America. Complain, complain, complain.
@Bob Baskerville
True patriots support their government when it in the right, and try to correct it when in the wrong. Nationalists cry, "My country, right or wrong"!
6
The game is up. Mo more charades and grandstanding. The game is up.
1
A naked emperor nullity, indeed! Without an audience, and without a detectable ounce of humanity, a mere shell. What a clear-eyed appraisal of this disastrous president, Ms. Senior!
4
Uhh, never mind. Money is more important to these old, selfish, greedy men
1
Trump spoke without humanity because he is a sociopath, and he doesn't have normal human emotions. He just does. Not. Care. He is incapable of caring.
9
I love that Faux "news" is saying that the Coronavirus is a hoax, that there is nothing to worry about, that everything is fine.
I similarly commend Trump for not cancelling his rallies.
Talk about instant karma....
.
4
A real leader would have had immediate testing!
2
Fox "news" and the rest of the right wing media is responsible for lies about the virus over the last two months. And therefore they are responsible for some of the deaths.
1
The headline is confusing. I thought your second sentence meant that Trump and Fox were in support of flattening the curve (which surprised me), but as i read the article, i see that you meant to say they are "behind the curve" not "behind it" as in supporting the idea!
1
At the risk of coming across as flippant, I think you've done a disservice to shells.
Fox News has more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined. They are just as educated, smart , sophisticated and loyal Americans as you or the readers of the Times- maybe more so. Do you ever consider that?
Can you defeat an epidemic with lies? Let's find out.
1
This is yet another tutorial on how not to run a country, taught by republicans.
2
The best thing about Times' columnists is that you don't have to read them and you don't have to even read the headline. You know what they are going to say: We hate Trump, no matter the issue. With that mentality you will not learn anything and with that simpleness approach we will accomplish nothing on any issue. That's why Fox is so popular. People are tired of the Times' one sided propaganda.
@Oracle at Delphi Yet hear you are reading the New York Times?
1
@Oracle at Delphi Do not read it, then. In fact, the Times is slightly right of centre, and that is the view you are reading. Fox is far right, and is not about news, but about entertainment. This of course, is an opinion column, so feel free to critique it. Fox is not uniquely popular, it has a viewing audience of 2.5 million. CNN and MSNBC together, have the same number about 2.4 million per night.
1
I like your name. Senior. It inspires confidence. It’s WW I stuff. I never read the articles. The NYTimes is like the top brass. I follow them.
I absolutely agree to flatten the curve but what distressed me as an avid reader of the NY Times is how much some of its recent articles were so dismissive of the draconian efforts in China to deal with the out brake.
Taking the bull by the horns is good advice in matters like these where the ratio of uncertainty and ignorance to empirical evidence is so high
For those old enough, do you remember the ¨ All in the family ¨ episode where Archie Bunker couldn't tell the difference between Bilingual and Bisexual ???
1
trump and his minions are the embodiment of ignorance and apathy - they don't know and they don't care
It is amusing to me, that anyone can imagine that Trump 'cares'. My aunt in NYC, knows him as a self-promoting blowhard, a fake billionaire, always tooting his horn. On the dark side, he is well known for his sexual predatory, tax evasion, and money laundering.
His 'value' is his brand, which people without facts, perceive as real. The reality of the man, is that his Brand was failing, post-Apprentice, and running for President was a marketing tool. The day he won this prize, he looked haunted.
He is a narcissist (DSMIV), which is a personality disorder, where the individual must spend their lives feeding their ego. He has no choice in the matter, it is a disability.
Now to the caring. He is also a sociopath, which is demonstrated by his inability to feel any emotion. This man has never felt love, shame, empathy or anything that makes normal people human.
We are all pawns in his drive to give him the adoration, he must have to survive. Sometimes he 'acts' as if he is trying to look 'caring'. That is not possible. We are pawns in his game.
People with these disorders, become demagogues, and destroy societies. A leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power. This man is dangerous to the economic and bodily welfare of millions of people.
6
Pay me now, or pay me lot’s more later.
We’re expecting a lot from the GOP, the group that will shift costs to the environment, and the future and shift profit and wealth to themselves.
It seems like a big ask to expect them to do the right thing.
Besides there are only 15 cases and there will be none next week and it is no worse then the flu
I think we really have serious First Amendment conundrum. The logic of the Fist Amendment is that in a free marketplace of idea, better ideas will win out. That is obviously not correct. So how do we regulate Fox News, Hannity, Laura Ingraham an their ilk?
2
If only is was only Republicans who had to suffer through their bad decisions.
But making everyone else suffer is what makes them feel good, even if it destroys them as well.
Laura Ingraham is very rich, but even all of her money can only protect her to a point.
2
I have to go to work tomorrow in an ER. I have been going to work through the years and through various outbreaks in the ER. I have to kiss my family goodbye and hope that i don’t get sick every single time this kind of thing happens. My hospital system is trying desperately to do what our government cannot. But we are struggling. There are so few tests available that when we call to get someone tested we are told that we can’t. We need everyone to stay home unless you feel like your life is at risk. Then call 911. Its that simple.
We need leadership, we needed it a long time ago and i fear it may be too late. Be safe, wash your hands.
8
@Drew
Your comment broke my heart. All of you on the front line are our unsung heroes. I so wish I could somehow wave a wand and get tests to your country...
Please be as safe as you can.
4
Looking back, if we had enough tests (free to public) in mid-February we would have identified most of infected Americans by now and wouldn’t have to cancel all these national sport events.
5
Not only is Fox behind the curve, but by them and Rush Limbaugh preaching that the virus is no big deal, they are giving millions of people license to be as irresponsible as possible and that's unconscionable. There are plenty of issues of the day where liberals and conservatives can disagree. But COVID-19 should not be one of them.
6
If things improve or are not as bad because of others making the right call and not Trump or his enablers, he will take credit. Be sure of that.
4
I get angry sometimes about American people, living here in Zhengzhou China. For the past 2 months we have locked ourselves in our homes, submitted to rigorous temperature and QR checks, and self -isolated. I teach 600 university students, all online now remotely because we can't have physical school. My students miss going to school.
And almost all of them have been under house arrest for nearly 8 weeks.
When the outbreak was out in Wuhan on Jan. 25, we decided there was a war on the virus. So our lives changed, radically. Not a really big deal, but you just stay home. You don't go to the movies, talk to anyone without a mask, etc. You avoid, avoid, avoid.
And this has worked in Zhengzhou. My students still say: don't go out David. It's very dangerous. And they have been staying home, staring at their phones for 2 months now. The West doesn't have any idea what China has been through - not a big deal, but not a small one. But if you can lock yourself in your home for 2 months, you will have done what we have.
8
simply stated, Trump and his abetters are going to kill Americans. He, they, should be held accountable for their crime against humanity.
6
My rural community is absolutely certain Covid 19 is a “hoax,” a media-driven panic, that it’s an attempt to take down the president by the media and personally inconvenience them by the democrats and especially the governor. They have no idea. Where I live there are a lot of older people and a quarter of the locals smoke. There are co-morbidities like you wouldn’t believe and one incredibly strained rural hospital with intensive and critical care units. We have a huge homeless population that cycles through our few libraries (which are just now limiting services) and free meal places and many live in a tent encampment. I can count the number of grocery stores in my county on one hand; where do you think everyone goes to buy food and toilet paper? If these folks refuse to wash their hands often and do social distancing we will have a serious crisis on our hands and people will die who could have survived the virus if the pandemic curve had been flattened. And it’s because Trump told them so. We need real leadership in this country, and maybe you’re sour on the two B-boys, but they have it in spades over what we’re seeing.
11
@Farina When will these people wake up and accept reality. Will it be when one of their loved ones gets infected and infects others. Will it be when the Stock markets have crashed and they have no pensions. Will it be when their taxes are increased to help pay for the additional emergency costs that preventative measures would have reduced. Will it be when they find out that their medical care does not cover their costs.Will it be when Fox and Limbaugh and Hannity and Trump dismiss them as moaners, again
2
This is the Trump Republican Virus. This emergency that is resulting in many deaths is happening because the Republicans value their reelections more than protecting the public. Bad choice.
Guess what: selling themselves and the country out to Trump will all be for nothing, because the chances that Trump gets reelected now are going down every day.
Failure to protect the homeland: dereliction of duty. They all need to be thrown out.
6
So simple. The Republican Party is the Party of business. The Party of capitalism. The Party of materialism and greed. Strangely, they win elections. The people of no nation vote against their own best interests as Americans do. The Stockholm Syndrome.
1
This pandemic is a terrible thing. It threatens to kill thousands, if not millions worldwide. The "make America great again" United States, the richest and most powerful country on earth, is way behind most of the rest of the world in adressing the scourge of corona virus. It continues to spread across the country. This is so, even though we have had a good deal of time to get our act together since the first cases of corona virus became known in China. The key reason for this catastrophic failure to protect the public's health, not to mention the health of the American economy, can be summed up in two words, "Donald Trump." It is now clear that this would be emperor has no clothes (I know what a horrible image). Here's hoping that even some of his diehard supporters can come to this inescapable conclusion.
4
How profoundly sad it is that professional sports are shaping the response to the crisis. The NBA, MLB, NHL and NCAA, all enthusiastic products and producers of corporate capitalism, can see the forest for the trees but not Fox. Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall. And even Fox News couldn't put Trumpty together again.
6
As another article about two health care workers, one a Dr. that die, illustrates what happens when the healthcare workers are sick or dead?
2
Do the responsible things: Cancel travel plans if possible. Clean surfaces, your hands. Don’t touch your face. If you’re sick, stay home. If you have fever and chills, isolate. If you have a cough, stay home. Don’t go to areas with large amounts of people. Help an older person by getting their groceries. Be kind to each other, this is hard stuff. Good luck, everyone.
6
I don’t know why Trump should cancel his rallies. He says this virus is a hoax or at worst will disappear soon. I encourage all his fans to pack into his rallies. And at every applause line, give each other a big sloppy kiss on the lips.
10
FOX is licensed by the FCC and it's time to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. When the President or one of his enablers goes on TV, we must give equal time to health experts. This is the only way we can respond to the Republican party and their propaganda war on media. Social media needs to do the same thing under every post where false claims are made. We need the truth, not pandering to people who desperately want to believe these oracles of lies.
5
I'm reading one article and letter after another ....all saying the same thing......Trump is dangerously incompetent, Trump is endangering American lives, Trump can't possibly rise to the occasion, the only tactics Trump has ever understood are schoolyard bully tactics and these won't work in the face of this pandemic. I'm sick of reading this stuff, and then seeing nothing done to remedy the situation. When is the other shoe going to drop?
Why can't he be quickly removed? Are we incapable of assembling a bi-partisan group of folks to go to the White House and get him out of there quickly? Pence could be put in place with the understanding that he take the advice of our best experts, both medical and economic, that he have daily press conferences with these experts in the front line doing the talking, that we face the situation with honesty and transparency. With this kind of approach I have no doubt that Americans could overcome this adversity and get things headed in the right direction, and probably quite quickly.
1
Two very profound statements made in this article:
(1) Without the press corp to troll or an adoring crowd to feed off, this man (namely Trump) is a shell.
(2) Viruses need crowds.
Well said in a nutshell.
4
Every time Trump opens his mouth he undermines the public's confidence in the administration's response to the corona virus by lying and mis stating the facts. He undermines our markets and the foundations of our economy by announcing poorly thought out policies that exacerbate the damage and crash the markets, further undermining our future. He is like a whirling dervish of destruction. His words are amplified by the state network, Fox News, misinforming large numbers of people about the real threats of this virus. He needs to be removed from public sight and his responsibilities as president need to be taken from him for the safety of this country. Never has there been a president so incapable of leading this country.
3
Sad – but definitely not surprised – to see that Trump's base and Fox News is using the pandemic to show just how much they hate thinking, well-educated, socially responsible, compassionate people. (See: "Afraid of Coronavirus? That Might Say Something About Your Politics" in today's Times).
In a cult in which the social pecking order is determined by how Trumpian one is, deriding the pandemic as a leftist hoax, a media plot or a deep-state (deep-world in this case) conspiracy earns cult members big brownie points.
In the Land of Trump, you can add spreading COVID-19 to owning an assault rife, sporting Confederate flag tattoos and smoking cigarettes to the list of anti-social behaviors in which cultists so destructively revel.
4
Trump's poor handling of this crisis, and FOX's conspiracy theories and lies has undoubtedly led us into a worse scenario that we could have otherwise been.
It is interesting that FOX can all get on message when they want to - Like trying to blame foreigners for the virus outbreak in the US, which was their talking point the last few days. Too bad they didn't promote good personal hygiene and social distancing instead of conspiracy theories and lies.
More people will suffer and die because of Trump's incompetence, and FOX's irresponsible coverage of this virus. That is unacceptable.
1
Jennifer Senior presents a vividly descriptive, compellingly convincing dissection of the anonymously dysfunctional environment inhabited by the Vietnam War draft dodger that lacks competency, credibility, integrity, and truthfulness. The Opinion glaringly portrays an inept individual persistently pushing a patently absurd story to mollify Americans that the corona virus will suddenly disappear and that the liberal media, in league with the Democratic Party, have grossly exaggerated the dangers of this "alleged" pandemic. Far from inspiring confidence and reassuring skeptical Americans, the draft dodger and Fox resort to their trusted standby go to themes: sow divisiveness, resort to racial fear mongering, and engender paranoiac xenophobia. The "foreign virus" indictment shouted from the White House Wednesday night was both a virulent dog whistle and a PA system directed at the blindly loyal MAWA supplicants, relaying, again, that America is being invaded by dark complexioned persons bringing the virus with them to infect the nation. The statement promoting xenophobic fear is consistent with the escalator ride not too long ago to incite anti immigrant apprehension ("they're bringing drugs, crime, ..."). Weaponizing the pandemic to advance national security issues by declaring a travel ban further exemplifies the hatred towards those seeking asylum here. More obvious is the image of Caucasian male privilege as authoritarian that he knows better. Far from it. Race matters.
"We don't have a leader, we have Trump." Says it all.
4
So Trump's "daddy needs love rallies" have been shut down. Now maybe the Trump cult members will take advice from William Shatner who appeared in a SNL sketch about a Star Trek convention. Shatner told the Trekkies at said convention - "Get a life, people."
1
Could it be that the “right people” aren’t getting sick?
Why do the American people have a penchant to elect leaders that do them harm? Bush managed to have thousands of Americans killed or maimed in his wars of choice. Now Trump is headed for an even worse result. When leader ego supersedes leader brainpower the American people suffer.
3
On December 31st, Hong Kong’s medical community learned a new virus was emerging in Wuhan. Within days of the outbreak, Hong Kong knew the coronavirus spread rapidly and easily. With hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong citizens travelling to and from and the Mainland every day the government acted quickly. On January 4th, the government declared an emergency. As a result, Hong Kong has had less than 100 cases.
According to Hong Kong’s infectious disease experts, coronavirus is more severe than SARS. SARS lasted 6 months, infected 8,000 people and caused 700 deaths. Within 3 months Coronavirus has moved into 28 other countries, infected 100,000 people and caused 3,000 deaths.
CLEARLY, Americans have a right to know why our country is so far behind. The answers appear to be rather simple. 1. Hong Kong and Chinese medical experts maintain relationships with each other – across borders. 2. Hong Kong’s government and people hold science in high regard.
The American people trust their nightly news hosts. Instead of public health, Americans are busy arguing. Did the Democrats or the Republicans cause the virus?
1
The current White House and recent Fox executives seem much more attentive to female curves than scientific curves.
4
Fox is nothing more than propaganda TV perpetrated on America by Robert Murdoch. Why do we allow it? In this instance many lives will be lost, vulnerable humans, because of political rhetoric written to glorify an incompetent president.
The overwhelming of our medical and hospital resources is reason enough for extreme caution. Thank you, Jennifer, for pointing out objective, understandable facts - the first ones I have recognized since the epidemic began!
2
Coronavirus is a health problem that has been taken over and made political, like every other problem that has come up since January 20, 2017.
Coronavirus was not 'made worse' by the President's actions and recommendations to Americans. The virus is running its course, but its progress in the U.S. have been markedly muted by the initial actions taken by the President.
And will the actions now taken to cancel all sporting events and meetings make a huge difference. Possibly. But the added fear and panic caused by this sudden lurch to enforced social distancing may be an exaggerated response to a virus that could have been mitigated with a far less explosive effort.
President Trump's speech was not horrifying to those who listened and understood his effort and meaning. For those who wanted it to be horrifying, there was - unsurprisingly - something to write about and to scare America further about.
And we can read that scarifying in our New York Times.
Aside: Listening to Don Lemon on CNN try to excoriate John Kasich for saying he thought the President's speech was just fine was instructive to me. Kasich is not a Trump apologist. He is a reasonable man who understands far more about the public than the progressive media.
@rcrigazio
You're living in a bubble of unreality.
Reacting to a pandemic has to be swift and based on science.
Trump has done neither of these.
12
Went to the grocery store this morning to pick up a couple of things and it was the most crowded I've ever seen, shopping carts full of bottled water, soft drinks, multiple packs of toilet paper and paper towels, supplies. It was clearly a panic, to the detriment of everyone else. People are running on fear.
2
@JEB Why do people stock up on toilet paper?
And what does Trump do? He tweets out a criticism of Obama for a poor response during the H1N1 spread. Somehow Obama's actions crippled Trumps ability to deal with this.
So if I get elected President and start office in January 2017, and I am a stable genius, would I have gutted NIH and CDC funding knowing a pandemic is just around the corner? Would I have taken steps early on in my admin to correct any department deficiencies? Might I have called each department head in and asked about the priorities of their department, and the risks of taking away their resources? Nope, budget time for Trump is a shotgun approach of tearing down and defunding everything (except Defense). Recall that he appointed department heads to do just that, And somewhere still in the background is Steve Bannon whispering to Trump about the deconstruction of the administrative state.
9
Jennifer, I couldn't agree with you more about the coils and springs. Even the Blue Fairy could not turn this automaton into a real boy.
Even leaders I despised, like Giuliani and George W. Bush, were able to speak in a human-to-human way during the gravest crises. After 9/11, the obvious empathy and depth of feeling from Giuliani helped the city -- and the country at large -- to heal. W. also evinced a real depth of feeling. You listened and knew that they were speaking human-to-human, that they felt the same grief as everyone else.
The animatronic presidents at Disney World show more emotion than Trump did during the coronavirus speech. I wonder how long he would stick with his "we don't need to isolate ourselves stance" if any of his staff or family came down with it. I suspect that he would have Secret Service agents bodily remove them from the White House.
I actually think it's a shame that his rallies are being cancelled. He and his idolaters might learn something if they gathered by the thousands in a confined space.
10
Trump and Fox survive because we live in a largely fact-free world. What "facts" we do collect come from the inside of the silos in which we live. As in Facebook news, which is carefully tailored to fit in each of our mirrored rooms.
I'm wrong, but I'd really like to think that our population would respond to experts when it is clear that we could end up with so many sick people that the hospitals can't handle them. A lot of people are listening; I see customers at fast food restaurants avoiding touching anything and then leaving promptly.
Trump and Fox don't live in that world. Someone really close to home has to die, I expect, before Trump will begin to get it. But he will have attempted to steer the wagon over the cliff before that happens.
Praise goes to the state and local medical teams whose efforts and whose message is for the country's good rather than Trump's reelection. Yet Washington's governor Inslee is a "snake" for disagreeing with Trump.
7
I reposted the Atlantic article. I've been eating in my local restaurants, going to nail and hair salons and even yoga - trying to support local business and keep life normal in what I thought of as a 'narrowing window'. It seemed cowardly to isolate too early. What about all the working class people manning the shops, delivery trucks and takeout orders? The closing of public schools in NYC was to be my cue to leave by car for isolation in the country. Now we have a leave date anyway and my husband and I are doing what we need to clear the decks and be ready to go. We are prepped in both locations with food and the car is gassed up. Also trying to long distance ensure elderly parents are safe and have food supplies in areas with virus present. It's like a disaster movie and we've been in the slowly progressing 'unconcerned' opening scenes. Now I get he message 'cancel everything'.
Trump and Fox both have the same take on Coronavirus: it's a political crisis, not a health crisis. (At least until one of them actually gets exposed or infected.) They are heavily engaging in projection when they accuse anyone raising the real concerns about the pandemic of 'politicizing' the issue.
1) Everything they do is political. It's how they view everything in their world - and why they are so quick to accuse others of it. They can't imagine anyone else not thinking that way.
2) "Political" and "politicizing" have become tools to control speech. Frame something as "political" and we've been conditioned to treat it as automatically biased, something that delegitimizes any concerns about it. It's a form of censorship.
3) It's part of the paranoid style in American politics - which are becoming increasingly authoritarian. Authoritarian followers look for a 'strong' leader who can protect them from everything they've been told to hate and fear. Trump knows the moment he stops looking strong is the moment they will start to doubt him, and then it's game over for him.
Trump has been giving them targets for their hate and fear all along. The problem for him (and them) is that coronavirus IS an actual threat - they can't deal with it and neither can their 'strong' leader protect them from it. It is why they are so heavily into denial (just as they are about Climate Change).
That's what frightens them more than a potentially fatal illness.
12
Ms. Senior briefly slid by the issue of education, noting that "the rich kids in Ivy League schools" will be able to learn online. Her elision of a wide swath of students is problematic.
I teach at a Title I school; roughly 98% of our students are on free and reduced lunch; without breakfast and lunch at school, they don't eat. It's not that a large number of our students don't have the internet, it's that they don't have homes. School is more than a place to go to get an education, it's a life-line. It is a place where, for some, they can find supporting and caring adults, they can get a couple of meals, and they can grow and learn.
Our district is now closed until 27 March, others in our city are closed through 6 April. Our district and several others will continue to have skeletal staff on hand during breakfast hours and lunch hours in order to provide food for those children that need it - assuming they can get to school. But emotional support? Education? Not happening.
3
Our nation will not be defeated from without... it can only happen from within.
The First Amendment, guaranteeing freedom of speech, has long been subject to reasonable abridgement. The public airwaves and mass media are likewise subject to rules and regulations promulgated for societal betterment.
While freedom of political speech is rightfully vouchsafed in our Constitution, we have arrived at a time when outright lies and distortions of truth "disguised as political speech," endanger the nation, and endanger democracy itself. The phrase "I know it when I see it" aptly discerns the difference between the two.
With a sitting President whose mendacity defines him, abetted by an allied and politically mendacious media arm, the American public faces a medical crisis of existential proportion receiving untruthful information.
Have Fox News and far-right media no shame? Are they actually willing to see millions needlessly die for political and monetary gain? It seems that they are.
14
Trump missed a huge opportunity. If he had closed his address with the announcement that he was cancelling all his planned rallies, effective immediately, and indefinitely, until we as a country had together succeeded in bringing the epidemic under control, even people like me might have been able to get behind him for this common purpose.
2
At first I thought hyperconservatives who buy into the "coronavirus worries are a hoax, or at least overblown" rhetoric would only hurt themselves. It seemed strangely satisfying to hear about Republican public figures who were trash-talking coronavirus concerns being forced to self-quarantine.
But then it occurred to me that most of the right-wing celebrity-spokesmodels pushing this line will have no trouble getting good care in the event they are infected. It's the rabble they are so contemptuous of who are uninsured or underinsured, who won't be paid if they can't work, and who will likely suffer significantly higher fatality rate than the pundits. They will also be the ones to suffer most from overwhelmed ERs and hospitals. In other words, these pundits aren't saying everyone will be fine if we ignore sensible pandemic precautions — just that they and those they care about will be fine. It's pretty cold.
13
There is an old rural expression that fits perfectly. Trump is so dumb he could screw up a one car funeral.
11
Trump seemed to tire out toward the latter part of his 11-minute sphincter-mouth exercises. He started sucking air through his nose and stumbling over words as time went on. Someone better get him a covid-19 test kit. I think he caught the virus.
7
As a former journalist, I know that reputable news organizations are loath to criticize other news outlets. But calling out Fox as the shrill propaganda bullhorn it has become is long overdue. It's one thing to have a political tilt. It's quite another to be an accomplice in coverups on behalf of a public official, as Fox was in the Mueller investigation and Trump's impeachment. Now, it is fueling the novel coronavirus pandemic by endorsing misinformation from a demonstrable liar who has spent his life lurching from one failure to the next.
22
@Blueboat I actually saw Hannity talking to Riviera and Bongino, and because Riviera was criticising something about Trump, the other two started shouting, like a gang of Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest.
Fox is not actually News, and is I heard, an entertainment outlet, with a couple of Journalists.
The 'News' title should and must be taken away from them.
1
to check your evaluation would you consider MSNBC to be the equal and opposite of fox
Social distancing is not going to work here. Most people can’t do their jobs remotely, can’t afford to take any time off, and many do not have health insurance. There is no safety net to catch them. The virus lays bare the interrelated crises of American capitalism in 2020.
8
This article is spot on, but the media is giving Murdoch a pass. He controls Fox. He could tell his anchors that they need to pass on scientifically grounded information. Sure he may take a financial hit. We all are at this point. But he remains hidden. The press should make repeated inquiries asking him to comment on his worldwide coverage of the coronavirus.
19
Murdoch and his Fox affiliated networks have wrecked Australia during the fires with their misleading and false news reporting. They have led the malicious gossip fueled media storms in England that has undermined their society. Murdoch is a one man pandemic. He has to brought down or under control.
1
At some point someone will realize, with compassion, Mr. Trump’s deficient response is a product of right wing Republican need for winning above all odds. Senate republicans (not you, Mr. Romney) bet that their retaining power and favor with the president — which took precedence over their better judgment — would eventually be forgotten. They lost that bet. And so have we. Let’s roll up our sleeves!
6
I live outside of Houston, Texas...Trump country as much as anyplace else in the nation. Yesterday afternoon at a grocery store in the neighborhood people were stocking up on food and staples as if a hurricane were approaching. In spite of Trump, Fox News and conservative media and talk radio blustering and minimizing the pandemic, reality appears to be getting through to people around here. Could there be some good coming from all this?
7
@PaulTD :
My take on Conservatives has always been "Do as I say, not as I do".
All the schools, events, activities, senior centers, and libraries in my community are closing. It is incredibly inconvenient but we accept this option. All these changes are happening because the administrators are taking precautionary measures. But Trump and the WH are telling us the exact opposite message. The result: panic is setting in — not abating. Who do we believe? Who do we trust?
Why such a difference? We all read what’s happening in the global world. Why does Trump make this a partisan issue? To make this work, everyone must participate, Democrats AND Republicans.
5
@Jack
Trump is worried about getting reelected.
That's it. Nothing else.
The health of American citizens? Who cares.
The stock market? OMG. That's what matters.
Sad.
1
@Jack
Fox News suggests we agree to disagree.
Accountability.
The United States has a long history of biased accountability.
When a poor person, a person of color, a person who doesn't matter on the national stage commits some offense against us, we bring the full weight and fury of the system down on them.
When our financial institutions commit fraud, we bail them out and move on, to stabilize the markets. When a past administration lies about weapons of mass destruction and authorizes torture, we let it go, build them a library, and move along, to hasten healing.
Enough of that.
The current gang inhabiting the White House and the Senate majority are committing crimes against the American people. Knowingly stalling legislation, knowingly underplaying risks, knowingly stirring up xenophobia...these can't be excused as political or personal views. Their enablers at Fox spread irresponsible half-truths and full lies, propaganda wrapped up and presented as news, a label that is a lie itself.
There is no other way to describe these actions as anything as criminal with intent.
When this has passed, when Trump and his ilk have been thrown out of office, it is my hope that we will demand legal action. That we prosecute them, to the full extent of the law, and send a message to the powerful and the rich, to those who would lie to us, put us at risk, rob our treasury, that there is truly such a thing as accountability.
17
@hfulghum :
Disagree. The GOP electorate has, for decades, elected their representatives to do nothing and never compromise.
That is what they are doing, fulfilling their promises to their voters. They are keeping their promises, unlike Dems.
Liberals do not understand this. Conservatives and Liberals think differently.
@gratis You are wrong at almost every level, but let's just use the national debt as a single example.
GOP has for years claimed to be the party of fiscal responsibility, yet has grown the budget - remind me, how many trillions? - entirely on its own with the idiot tax bill proposed by the GOP, passed by GOP majority House and Senate, signed by the GOP president.
The word altruistic is like water on a witch to Trump and his supporters, if they even understand the concept.
6
Over at Fox News,
Willful Ignorance + Fear + Racism = Patriotism.
Add in a religious fever - God made Trump President to
Save America.
Mistrust anything or anyone that does not support Trump, including facts, science and the majority of the media - if it's not Fox, it must be a lie.
This is a 24 hr 7 day a week drumbeat that never stops.
And there is no reasoning with a Fox News viewer.
Trump's base will follow Trump over the cliff and as they are falling they'll be crying out "This is a Democratic hoax!"
11
@D. DeMarco
As long as they go over the cliff who cares what they shout before the hit bottom?
3
@D. DeMarco :
You mock Fox, and that is the problem.
For the Electoral Majority of American, it is The Truth.
@gratis
No dear. You can't bear to acknowledge that Hillary got how many more votes? Was it 3 million?
Your boy Trump is going to lose big time in November.
The stock market lost a TRILLION+ dollars thanks to Trump's bungling of the response to the Covid 19 virus.
Americans ALL see this.
And the beauty part is that he and Ivanka and Barr have all been exposed. Let's see how they handle the infection.
My guess is they'll disappear from view for a few weeks.
Flu season is over.
2
Someone needs to start a chant: time to resign.
Biden ought to demand it. Announce he plans to run against Pence.
5
"Without a press corps to troll or an adoring crowd to feed off, the man is a shell." Revision: The man is a shell.
I received an email yesterday from a very long-time friend who I know is a Fox watcher. Here's her take on the virus:
"Coronavirus I think is a bit overdone. If we would all only be a little more hygenically responsible, there should be no problem."
2
@doe74 I always get irritated with 'opinions' but have my own. Sitting here at home, deciding to stay isolated, going out shopping quickly, and passing the time amusing myself with NYT and WaPo. Watching my shares crater.
I am not rushing out to buy toilet paper? I am not rushing out to stock up on anything. This too will pass, but in the meantime, it is sensible to stay away from other people, and wash hands and surfaces.
Fox in my opinion, is brainwashing, and even glimpsing it makes me withdraw.
I have one opinion. Wathcing Fox, gives people something to dramatise their otherwise dull lives. It is not reality, just hype and nonsense, with poor acting, shreaking, and non-stop conspiracy nonsense. I read one survey that said, if people only watch Fox, they are actually defunct in factual information.
@doe74
Here's some words of wisdom (not) from a friend after I canceled a lunch with her yesterday:
"I am not Wrapped up so much in this whole Virus! sad but that is how I feel, a lot of folks at work feel the same way. ...More people have died from the flu and Cancer and heart attacks and strokes and Diabetics so, This will pass, God is with us. "
My friend in in her 70's and in poor health. Her job can't be done from home.
Thank you for this piece.
I think that you should look into the connection between those who work in this administration and the Christian right.
We know that when Pence was the governor of Indiana, he was advised to use a needle exchange program to prevent an outbreak of HIV. He responded that would pray on it. Because of this delay, more people were infected than would have been if he had approved the program immediately.
Another with close ties to Evangelicals is Robert Redfield, CDC director. According to info that I’ve read there are others at the CDC and HHS that allow their Evangelical believes to “guide” their professional decisions.
Don’t we need to know if those making decisions on our behalf are using science or religion to determine their course of action? Congress needs to look into this and pass laws mandating that those working in gov’t remember that we have separation of church and state in this country. And that those working in gov’t need to uphold that constitutional right for all of us and make their decisions based on facts not religious beliefs.
SEE:
salon.com/2020/03/09/is-the-christian-right-now-in-charge-of-public-health-inside-the-trump-administration/
motherjones.com/politics/2020/03/trumps-cdc-director-has-a-history-of-controversial-opinions-on-controlling-viruses/
politico.com/story/2018/01/22/trump-religious-activists-hhs-351735
4
If Trump wants to stop the market free fall, he could do us all a favor and resign. His speech was thoroughly inadequate, his plan fallible, his misstatements confusing, and his delivery down right scary. The man is a complete mess.
The airports in Europe are bedlam, sick people at home cannot get tested, and no one should be surprised that the market is tanking.
He needs to step down and give us someone who can calmly, consistently and compassionately LEAD.
4
“. . . he spoke without humanity, when humanity is precisely what this first-order crisis requires”. His followers didn’t elect him to show humanity. They elected him to “own the libs”. I do not believe that he is capable speaking or acting with compassion or humanity. For the modern Republican Party being ruthless is what it’s all about.
6
Why is Fox News still on the air? Many of their announcers are endangering the viewers by minimizing the risks of COVID 19 . It’s against the law to yell fire in a theatre if there is no fire. There is a limit to Freedom of Speech when the speech endangers others. Fox News is endangering their viewers.
7
@Joy Bouey
That is your view.
How about Democrats are trying to take Trump down with fake news ... again. The only reason there is "smoke" is because of liberal media. Prove that there is a problem to anyone whose single response will always be, "Fake News".
Limit Freedom of Speech? Just what Putin wants.
(one could make media accountable for accuracy, which is something different, but America would not vote for that, either)
I am continually amazed that people are still shocked by trump's complete incompetence and shallowness. He's obviously the antitheses of what leadership in this era is about. The guy is clueless and anyone with a modicum of critical thinking skills has known this for a long time. The Repubs in Congress must be getting extremely nervous these days. The bet they placed on trump is going down in flames, as they are also. This is trump, naked to his core. Move along now, nothing to see here.
If you still don't understand what FOX and their lies and liars are about, this would be a good time to awaken from your sleep.
6
Maybe getting large assemblies of Trump supporters together asap to scream at one another is just what the doctor ordered to cure what ails the nation. Carry on.
1
Trump is the biggest danger to us all and needs to be removed from office TODAY via the 25th amendment!
2
I guess we’re seeing what happens when intellectually challenged people elect an intellectually challenged president. “Democracy is messy”
3
Fox is an arm of the Republcan Party. There are TV programs on other stations that are more even handed than Fox Stations.
Fox Business, very good.
Unhappy? Vote on November 3rd.
Don't complain on November 4th.
2
@lftash
Disagree.
The Republican Party is an arm of Fox.
Who tells Trump what to think?
1
Trump, his followers and Fox News cannot understand anything they don’t see. A virus, a cyber attack and any threat involving science or technology is unseen. They think building a wall to keep out some Mexicans is the cure for their problems. The biggest danger to their lives and livelihoods are the invisible threats — the threats that the uneducated don’t understand.
2
Trump is the worst president in any of our lifetimes. That is worth remembering. We have had some bad presidents but Trump is terrible. I know there are some people out there saying, what about W? The wars? Imagine if Trump had been president on 9-11 and what he might have used our military to do.
1
Covid-19 will eventually pass, perhaps after killing hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions worldwide. But I see no indication that the stupidity, much of which is encouraged by religiously and politically inspired intentional blindness, will pass. There will be future crises, that we are not prepared to address because ignorance reigns at the highest levels of government, a government with the paramount duty to protect us.
3
Judgement in the crisis is the sign of good leadership. Trump and Fox do not have it. And we are about to see how awfully that lack of good judgement will impose hardship and trauma upon our nation’s people.
Wash your hands. Wash your hands every 20 minutes if necessary. Keep your distance and work with others to protect everyone from transmission. That is the message from a leader with the best judgement time and again: Madam Speaker Pelosi. She is the person we must look to for leadership, not the buffoon president and his minions.
2
Being that Trump always lays the blame on someone else for his failures how I'm just waiting for the hammer to fall on the smirking, phony evangelical in charge of the crisis. Welcome Mike Pence!
2
“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson
2
Trump himself, and Rupert Murdoch, are deadly anticivic viruses that should have been isolated years ago. Now we have 60+M citizens who have literally lost their minds to Ayn Randism.
3
“As we saw Wednesday night, if you put him in a room with only a teleprompter and a camera, he can barely make it out of a sentence alive.”
Would an apropos descriptor be, “belligerently vapid?”
4
Trump appeared unwell during his Coronavirus Oval Office address: Slightly out of breath, no energy, and even more orange makeup than usual. It was like he had been dragged in, belted in the chair to hold him upright, slathered in hairspray and makeup and told to read the words on the teleprompter (which he couldn’t do and which were largely just more of his xenophobic babble and nonsensical to the crisis at hand anyway). No wonder that afterward the markets tanked further, and no wonder that afterward we’re all that much more disgusted with the ineptitude of this administration (which, after all these months, cannot manage even the basics of ensuring adequate testing to properly track this virus). Let’s face it: To protect HIMSELF and to further HIS personal interest, Trump has tried to kill the Constitutionally-mandated separation of powers, he’s tried to kill the rule of law, and now, it seems, he’s sunk so low that, by his stubborn failure to adequately and timely address this crisis, he’s put at risk the health of all US citizens. This is what we get, with the ”help” of Fox and Russia, when we elect a b-rate game show host President. The U.S. is so, so much better than this.
8
Fox is a mental virus to which a frightening percentage of the U.S. electorate has voluntarily exposed itself for over two decades. I firmly believe that the normalization of the pretend news network enabled the possibility of a president Trump in the first place. I would further offer that America will now suffer real-world, physical harm from a biological virus because of it.
5
There becomes a point when a company actually works against the public good and Fox Network is a culprit in responsibility for Corona deaths. If corporations are people they should be in jail.
5
In these troubled times, I do turn on Fox occasionally just to get a good laugh. Last night they had on a behavioral medicine specialist who explained that you need to stay calm because if you get anxious it robs your brain of oxygen. Maybe that explains all those Fox hosts.
4
Kushner and Miller wrote the speech. That’s all you need to know; two completely incompetent, inexperienced fools preparing arguably the most important speech of Trump’s presidency. Miller is malevolent personified and Kushner is the absolute worst example of how the American republic that valued excellence is now an oligarchy that allows silver spooned heirs to dictate policy. #sad
9
Wait 'til Vegas shuts down. Then no one will be sidestepping.
1
I love the sentence “As we saw Wednesday night, if you put him in a room with only a teleprompter and a camera, he can barely make it out of a sentence alive.”
Can we make sure and put him in a room with two teleprompter’s and two cameras?
2
Great column.
For a clear, informed and calming speech on Covid 19, I recommend everyone check out the Prime Minister of Singapore’s talk on Wednesday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mYs1Uyx3c8
This is how it should be done.
1
Trump, FOX news network and Rush Limbaugh are together CULT Corporation. . It is their business. Lying , calling names, insulting and making up stories are their agenda. It is money making business. Murdoch is a greedy guy and he will do anything to make money. They are strange creation of God.
4
Fox News is full of falsehoods. They are the fake and conspiracy news. They are not reporting the issues on the virus and they should be shut down for doing this. It is better to take precautions than do nothing. I see in the future a member of Trump's family getting the virus. Then they will be believers.
Given the intransigence of FOX, it is time for loving family and friends to talk to those who get their news only from FOX. After his brother said that this is all “hype” and it’s just “flu,” my husband sent him the CDC graph of coronavirus spread with and without containment/mitigation measures, as well as the data on our supply of ICU beds and ventilators. His brothere called to thank him.
1
The end of Trump "rallies" is inevitable, what a silver lining. Twitter will never replace a live mob.
Fascinating... I never knew Trump and Fox News had this much control over global human health. If only Biden and PBS had this much power....
They should all be in jail for aiding and abetting the pandemic by lying, spreading fake news and giving known killer advice.
Guantanamo would be the proper jail.
1
A columnist in the NY Times delivers a better more important message than the President with all of his advisers. This piece unfortunately couldn't be more correct.
To understand the concept of flattening the curve, one has to have at “know as much as a 5th grader.”
If the epidemic slows down because of the recommended social distancing, The Trump administration and Fox News are going to say, “see we told you so, wasn’t a big deal, all fake news by the press and the Democrats”
25th Amendment.
Who will watch Fox news when Trump loses in nov. who wants to hear about a LOSER under criminal investigation facing dozens of civil lawsuits. Ivanka and Jared will need to leave Wah DC and NYC society does not want them only tRUMP mOSCOW tOWER is needed now. No extradition from Russia is a big plus as a dem AG and coopertating congress could prove a disaster for the Trumps and Kushners.
1
Rupert Murdoch and the Murdoch family should be ashamed of themselves. Picture Murdoch on his yacht while Fox News spews misinformation about COVID-19 to its gullible viewers. There is a special place for these folks, and it ain't heaven.
1
Let Trump hold his rallies! One of two things will occur.
The Trumpista will pack it in, cheel by jowl, and get sick or,
nobody will show up, fearful of being in a crowd. The latter would crush Trump's ego.
I'm not serious; spreading any desease helps no one. But the Trumpista saddled the world with a bloviating, barely literate, incompetent US president and there should be a way they can be made to suffer for it without getting the rest of us sick.
3
The Darwin Awards coming to a theater near us will soon settle the existential battle between truth and falsehood. Too bad we had to learn this obvious lesson the hard way.
1
I knew this country was in crisis mode this morning when Mike Pence was on CNN. Would that his boss be so "brave."
1
Trump is the largest tiny tiny litle man I've ever seen.
1
The Trump would have been long gone from the White House, had Mitch McConnell not worked so diligently to ensure that the Senate would acquit him.
Who knows? President Pence might actually have listened to medical professionals, and taken their advice, rather than spouting ignorant nonsense.
Thanks, Mitch!
2
"But we don’t have a real leader. We have Trump". In a democracy, you always have the leader you deserve. Donøt blame trump, blame the society that created 100+ million people who think he is great. trump is not the problem, he is the symptom
1
Does anyone but me not have a problem with this? Those who blindly follow trump and listen to nothing but Fox and Breitbart will finally see where the ride they got on takes them. If it thins the herd, so be it. It is a Darwinian approach, but the virus is apolitical and will dispassionately scythe apart those who follow a cult of personality and those who follow science and believe in a greater good, and society will be stronger for it. Perhaps it will be COVID19 to MAGA.
1
Surely Trump and Fox understand that voting and listening minimally require a live body. By encouraging their fans to ignore the evidence of how the novel Coronavirus spread they may very well end up with a smaller audience. Time will tell whether or not their followers will hold them accountable for misinforming them.
really surprised NYC hasnt closed schools like so many other cities. i know the issues but still...
1
My husband is 74, has bronchial asthma, mild Copd, type 2 diabetes, and is taking an immunosuppressive to help with his arthritis. I fear for his life. We are staying home, and I go out for supplies, shopping in off hours to get fresh food. If I get sick I will go to a local motel across the street. I no longer go to the gym. I do exercises at home and take walks.
Trump is killing us and our loved ones. He is worse than incompetent. He is evil. Years ago I asked my husband, then a Republican, no longer, why Republicans were so mean. They seem to want to punish people for being sick, needy or poor. Now we are reaping the whirlwind of unchecked one party stranglehold dominance by a bunch of mean-spirited, rich, mostly white guys. See how well they have done for us.
722
@Still Healthy at 76
I support all that you say and my thoughts go out to your husband. I, too, have asthma that leads to upper respiratory infections biannually, infections like bronchitis and pneumonia. I am guaranteed at least one round of antibiotics a year. I'm 66 and in good health outside of my asthma and reactive airway. I currently am on my first round of respiratory infection for 2020 and I am not going to work. Not to protect others because I know what I have is not COVID 19, but to protect myself. Thank God I have the resources and job that allows me to do this.
Our current one-party system has got to go. The "stranglehold dominance by a bunch of mean-spirited, rich, mostly white guys" will be the end of America's strength - we are already seeing its beginning. I would note that I don't really believe that they are mean-spirited, I believe that they are "in it to win it" for their side, and their side only. Win at any cost, no matter who gets hurt.
66
@Still Healthy:
“I asked my husband, then a Republican, no longer, why Republicans were so mean.”
I know you’re asking this rhetorically, but I have a theory: they’re cowards. Fear, when allowed to overcome a person’s psyche, makes one isolate themselves psychologically from their fellow humans as the fight-or-flight response overcomes their rational and empathetic faculties. This psychological distancing allows cowards to look upon the afflicted as deserving of their fate, as an assurance that the affliction will never happen to them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis).
Brave folks (i.e., those who feel fear but do not let it overwhelm their minds) are able to hold on to the idea that we’re all better off cooperating than we are scrambling over each other like rats on a sinking ship. They realize that bad things happen to good people, and feel a rush of compassion for the afflicted.
You (and your husband) sound like very brave people. As someone who’s younger and less afraid of dying (though still plenty worried about his elderly mother), my heart hurts for you.
We all deserve so much more.
65
@Butterfly I don't know the answer to any of your questions, but I assure you that many people will be relieved not to have Trump rallies for whatever period of time.
32
Why the swipe at college professors?
Adjuncts and tenured faculty both are accessible online 24/7. Some set boundaries, but many respond to questions on weekends, at night and before and after class times.
1
If the Republicans want to keep business as usual going for as long as possible with as little disruption, then they absolutely MUST expand testing -- dramatically. And quickly.
Only with accurate and pervasive testing can we isolate the right people and get a handle on transmission, true fatality rate, etc.
We need those drive-thru tests in every city throughout the U.S.
4
It's interesting to me that still, even leaders in California and Washington, some of the most progressive in the nation are still allowing major tourist spots/gathering places to remain open. A prime example are ski areas, where every weekend, people from across counties heavily impacted by the virus--King, Santa Clara, etc--drive hours to overcrowd in lodges, trams, gondolas, and parking lots. Why not at least close lodges and enclosed lifts? Money, that's why.
Italy has closed theirs. Austria moved yesterday to close theirs. France and Switzerland are not far behind. And we know from spread in Europe that ski areas are a source of spread.
Moreover, mountain towns are often home to a disproportionately aging, retiree population. And yet, we must not hamper the economy!
As long as fear, misinformation and lies are filling pockets with cash, it will continue- this is all about the money...
so hold the fox advertisers accountable as well
they choose to fund the operation they turn their eyes and sign the checks...
2
To contrast, for example, with the address of President Macron of France to the Nation yesterday evening. Interesting and scary contrast in leadership style. And substance.
2
All through the Russian interference (which continues) Fox News' content and commentary bordered on Lord Haw-Haw and Tokyo Rose. That has continued unabated, even into this public health crisis.
How do we hold Fox News and the Trump shills that work there accountable -- not just for unscrupulous opinions, but for the actual damage they're doing?
4
The disinformation on Fox will impact its disproportionately old viewership. But Fox doesn’t care. It sees its viewers as marks in a big con job by itself and the Republican Party, not as people to be helped with information.
7
@Yeah
The base are conned by Fox, The Kremlin and Sharpie on a daily basis. Some will snap out of it, but many dead-enders will follow El Presidente right over the cliff. In a sense, they already have have.
Ingraham, and Fox, et al should be held criminally responsible for spreading lies and encouraging behavior that compromises public health for all. Look at what is happening around the world, reality should have an effect on America's response to the virus.
isn't it better to hope the response may be overly drastic as we do flatten the curve, rather than to keep whistling past the graveyard, pretend nothing is happening only to find the curve is ever steepening and climbing?
Fox and those that are promoting social irresponsibility and making a health issue a political pundit's football are beneath contempt. Contempt of humanity.
6
It will be interesting to see if THIS is what finally breaks the spell that Trumpism has over some 60M Americans. One can argue about whether impeachment was a "witch hunt", but one can't argue about whether people are dying or not when they are. Will the Trumpists finally see that their man brings them nothing but lies and now destruction? Or will they, like a millenialist cult, only cling more tenaciously to their desperate faith in the man who does everything "perfect".
4
So well said- and leaves us with a sense of dread at how this is being (mis)handled by our government with Trump telling lies, Pence in charge, and a surgeon general liking Trumps anatomy. We have not even the worst of things yet- but without any meaningful leadership things will be worse than they might have been.
3
The only bright spot pertaining to the pandemic is that more people are realizing how ill suited he is to be president. I'm sensing a landslide victory for Joe Biden and all I can say is thank god.
7
Nassim Taleb, he mathematician author of "The Black Swan," and who I believe coined that phrase, wrote an article on a financial website praising the benefits of "panic." It was in response to Elon Musk's claim that "Panic is dumb."
I believe his nearly exact, mathematically exaggerated quote was "Humans have existed for trillions of years thanks to panic."
Reasons are obvious..if we all "panic" and stay away from movie theaters, gyms, schools, planes etc, it will obviously spread more slowly, resulting in perhaps 5 million infected in US before vaccine or effective antiviral widely available...instead of 150 Million infected. Will save perhaps 1-2 million lives.
1
I applaud Fox News and trump to go about their daily lives as usual. trump, go ahead and hold your rallies. MAGA supporters, I hope you believe trump and Fox News; get together and attend those rallies. Sometimes the only way people learn is to be smacked by a two by four.
9
Senate Republicans let Trump off the hook with their no convict votes, Fortunately, something we can't see may have hammered the last nail in Trump's coffin. Yet we won't know for sure until November.
3
The doctor they have on Fox and Friends (Friday 3/13) talking about infectious disease is a radiologist. Then they spring a series of factually incorrect graphics on her-- she tries to squirm out of them. The object of this whole exercise is to talk about how many people have recovered. So wrong.
4
You didn’t mention the suspension of US travel for 30 days for foreign nationals who have been in the Schengen Area for 15 days .. I’m pretty sure it isn’t a racist move but a good move to prevent further spread of the virus. The same ban was applied to China on February 2, and it is proven we are better off had this not been done. This article was a bunch of hot air. The social distancing message is clear. That along with these travel suspensions will greatly curb the spread of the virus so our system can handle it.
1
If Trump supporters want to get together and hug each other I am all for it. The more the merrier from my perspective.
:-)
7
I wonder if anybody is tracking and collecting stats for COVID19 deaths in the FOX/trump demographic? Is it even possible?
There is likely going to be thousands of needless COVID19 death in this misinformed and totally unaware demographic due solely to FOX/trump propaganda (lies).
After this pandemic finally blows over, a post-mortem analysis of the negative impact of right-wing propaganda had on the mishandling of this pandemic needs to be conducted.
2
I agree, but I suspect their demographics are in the Midwest and southern region if this country. They are older, for sure, but much more isolated overall.
You didn’t mention the suspension of US travel for 30 days for foreign nationals who have been in the Schengen Area for 15 days .. I’m pretty sure it isn’t a racist move but a good move to prevent further spread of the virus. The same ban was applied to China on February 2, and it is proven we are better off had this not been done. This article was a bunch of hot air. The social distancing message is clear. That along with these travel suspensions will greatly curb the spread of the virus so our system can handle it.
1
The big questions that bedevil us, have no facts to appeal & help flatten the curve. – How should we live? – What is the right economic system to institute? – What sort of relationships should we have? – What choices should we make? – Who are we & what do we want and need? In the face of such dilemmas, we may well long for facts – by which we really mean, answers we can be assured will be indisputably correct. But we invariably face ambiguity &, whatever answers we formulate, a degree of loss, & the risk of blindness & error. It is these elements which the haters of bias are, deep down, especially intolerant towards & upset about. Their hatred of bias reflects a longing for a world without a need for hard choices & the sacrifice these necessarily entail. We may well long to ‘stick to facts,’ but we eventually have to try to lead our lives according to values, which are inherently much more contentious & complicated structures. Nobel sentiments can’t compete with what’s reported in the news by the complicity of the media with advertisers. Today, even at the local level, the government, corporations & big institutions know how to play the media game. They know how to influence the news narrative. They feed media scoops, official accounts, interviews with the ‘experts’. They make themselves crucial to the process of journalism. So, those in power & those who report on them are in bed with each other & only pay lip service to individuals like me who seek “the truth”.
Trump's refusal to get tested himself after possible exposure puts it in a nutshell. (He is, after all, the one American who actually could schedule a quick test.)
In Trump-think it's manly to wave off the test. And why get tested anyway? If he gets sick, he gets sick. What good will the test do him?
It would never occur to him that testing isn't to protect yourself. It's to protect people around you. It contributes to the larger medical effort, safeguards others, and sets up another small barrier to the outbreak's spread..
And that's exactly the sort of social logic Trump-think simply can't fathom.
3
If you insist on blaming Trump and Fox News, you give a pass to the real culprit in the Corona Virus pandemic. That is China and its despicable leaders who prevaricated and
covered up what was going on with the virus in Wuhan.
Let's get real: to expect government in this country to know what to do and have the resources on hand to quickly dispense test kits is a fantasy. This is something governments do not do well: that is, to be prepared for future problems. Trump is acting as he always does and it should come as no surprise. But Trump did not cause this. I would expect the Legislative Branch especially Republicans to step up and deflect Trump's politicizing and get on with the business of encouraging social distancing and rapidly increasing the size of test kits. Further the CDC needs to get out of the way and encourage hospitals, non-profits and companies to come up with effective test kits.
All the media have been talking since 2016 mostly about events that do not directly affect the general population - Russian election interference, Ukrainegate, Trump's personal scandals, the conflict with Iran. Viewers of Trump's speeches and Fox News could believe what they were told without any immediate effect on their own lives. The proposed kill-off of Obamacare would have had an effect on many and this was probably reflected in the 2018 election. As the economy contracts and people's relatives and friends contract the coronavirus the danger of Trump's incompetence should be more evident.
2
Jennifer, every word in your opinion column is true! I live in Switzerland and we have a healthcare system that is very well organized and one of the best in the world. The tests started right at the beginning. At the beginning of March, events with more than 1,000 people were not allowed any more. We keep social distance and wash our hands dozens of times a day.
Despite all these efforts, the virus is spreading rapidly. And although our healthcare system is fantastic, it is not prepared for what will probably start to happen next week. We literally live in a war zone and I'm talking here about Switzerland!
It is simply incredible how Trump is handling this crisis. So much precious time has been lost because of his unbelievable ignorance!
His behaviour is unforgivable!
3
NYC is still keeping its school and after school centers open. It is very understandable why. But it is is a really dangerous thing to do. My friend works part time in after school center for young kids. They are into touching everything. The staff is increasingly nervous. The job is growing more stressful by the day. No real safety protocols in place. Pay is lousy. So workers who would qualify for unemployment but otherwise are up against it are pretty much forced to work. This is a situation where the virus can spread at a catastrophic rate. Again I understand the reasons why the wish to keep the schools open and the hardships that could result if they are closed. But also again it is an extremely dangerous and foolish and exploitative thing to do.
3
When Trump is finally forced to cancel his rallies due to COVID-19, he will really start to melt down. This is a man who live for the adulation of a crowd, and without that narcissistic support he has to face an intolerable gnawing hole of self-doubt and shame. His reliance on external validation is like an addiction, and when he can't get his fixes his flailing will become even more desperate. Watch out for even more extreme irrationality and impulsivity.
Actually I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't cancel his rallies, allowing his base to endanger themselves by crowding together, while he appears on a huge projection screen, safe in his Fox studio and surrounded by disinfectants the rest of us can no longer buy.
3
Let's face it. We won't have enough tests. Red tape, beaurocracy, who pays for what, legal liability issues, budgets, approval wrangling, copay issues, State vs federal budgeting disputes, incompetence,etc. Let's swallow our pride and ego and humbly ask China, S.Korea, Taiwan and Singapore to donate as many tests as they can spare to the people of the USA. For humanity's sake. We are not capable enough on our own. Our "world power" is all smoke and mirrors. We are no greater than the rest of them.
2
Trump is the symptom, Fox News and conservative talk radio are the disease. Fox News and its talk radio brethren have stupefied, in some cases, otherwise intelligent people. Today at work my cube mate was going on about how awful these measures to combat Coronavirus are on the poor little cruise ship industry. The cruise ship industry??? There's little doubt his heart bleeds for the multi-million dollar cruise ship industry because Fox News and conservative talk radio are railing for hours about how this "over reaction" is harming the hospitality sector. I imagine the impetus of their grief is due to the fact that Trump has a stake in the hospitality sector. I don't know what it is about Fox and its ilk, but they emit some sort of subliminal messaging that some folks are susceptible to which disengages their brains in favor of a hive mind mentality based on Fox News talking points. Fox News and conservative talk radio should be eviscerate for being a threat to responsible governance. Before it's too late, we need more regulation in that industry to end the threat they pose once and for all.
4
For people that don't like Trump, it's easy to criticize. What's he supposed to do? I don't think Sanders or Biden would have done any better. Before there's a vaccine, most Americans will be exposed, most will contract the disease with varying degrees of severity, most will recover, some will die. That's all she wrote...
We have 330 million people in the United States, so it's not unreasonable that we need to be producing and distributing at least 1 million Covid-19 tests each and every day.
Even at that rate of production it would take a year or more to test every American, including every immigrant, legal or "illegal". Every single person.
How else will we know who has it, who is a carrier and whom they've been in contact with, and thereby determine the hotspots that will require isolation of segments of the population.
China gave us time which Trump squandered. China gave the scientists of the world the genetic make-up of this novel form of coronavirus, which we in America have apparently done almost nothing with. The World Health Organization (WHO) gave the world a test that works, but Trump and his incompetent clowns ignored it (WHO is part of the UN, you know, and the GOP doesn't like the UN).
Literally months have gone by with no national leadership while the rest of the world is working like crazy to contain this deadly virus. Do we all have to go to Australia to be tested?
Mr. Trump, it's time to leave the White House for good and let competent people, of whom we have many, provide the leadership we desperately need for the safety of every American.
2
I hope all the Jill Stein voters from 2016 are enjoying the fruits of their selfishness and immaturity. The same goes for the large number of 2016 Sanders supporters who, in a juvenile fit of rage, voted for Trump instead of Clinton.
Voting for the most experienced, intelligent person does matter.
4
As if they care. You seem to think that far right people are normal actualized humans. The truth is far from that. These far right people are the bane of humanity. As long as humanity allows far right people to become leaders, humanity deserves to suffer.
3
Did no one see him for what he is: A barely literate, empty suit with the intellectual emotionality of a twelve year-old child? Why has it taken a potentially horrific pandemic to illustrate this, in very stark terms?
4
I'm surprised that Trump has not insisted that China pay for the masks and hospital beds we lack in the same way he claimed Mexico would pay for his 'wall'.
3
Since I think Jared Kushner wrote Trump’s speech to America, I’m inclined to acknowledge his somewhat mumbling, breathily ability to read.
Once again, however, Fox News has politicized, polarized America with lies and deceptive commentary.
Apparently Fox News America will try to wash their hands of responsibility.
1
So very true. I hope that when everything is behind us after many people have died for a lack of adequate and delayed care a few savy litigation laywers will hold Fox News and Trump accountable for knowingly downplaying the risks associated with the rapidly spreading virus.
1
FOX deserves to lose it's FCC license. In no way is it serving the public interest. The company's actions will result in some viewers being unprepared and possibly result in deaths. Their actions are egregious.
4
I have read about the talking heads on Fox News (and elsewhere) downplaying this deadly virus. And now your piece, Ms. Senior.
And all I could think was:
FOOLS DIE.
Coupled with:
FOLLY KILLS.
'Cause I was thinking too of a woman down in North Carolina that pooh-poohed the coronavirus as "a Democratic plot" and added, "I don't believe ANYTHING the Democrats say." Did the virus just kill two people in Washington (this was several days ago). "No," this redoubtable woman responded. "I don't believe ANYTHING the Democrats say."
It may cost you your life, Miss. I am so serious. The virus is strictly non-political. It may go after the pundits on Fox News--"Sorry, guys, but that's how we viruses work." It may go after obdurate Republicans in "red states"--or should I say "blood red states." "Sorry, guys--don't say you weren't warned."
People are getting the message. I am thinking of Governor Wolf's actions in my home state of Pennsylvania. The school I work at has closed. Other schools are closing.
Imagine if Fox News ceased broadcasting for two weeks!
But no--such dreams are TOO roseate, TOO unreal.
Well, I can dream, can't I.
1
Maybe the key is self isolation for Trump permanently.
3
They are not misstatements they are LIES.
3
Watching Trump's address will convice a careful observer of one thing--the guy can barely read.
6
The only thing Trump wants to cancel is the election, because he knows he’s going to lose in a landslide. In Georgia, the racist governor has already cancelled one election, giving himself the power to appoint a Supreme Court justice. I fully expect Trump to float this idea to keep from facing the humiliation of defeat. And it will be up to his handlers to keep him from going off the deep end with this idea because canceling an election will cause worse rebellion and violence than Gotham City ‘81.
4
Trying times demand innovative ideas. Complete the Census, return it to a mobile testing location, and collect your emergency stimulus package check. Get counted, get tested, get paid.
2
Jennifer, you are still too generous with Trump. He shouldn’t just have encouraged social distancing. He should have announced a massive roll-out of testing kits and allow private testing. Ask around you. Does anybody know where and how to get tested?
1
Trump's disqualifying incompetence is plain for all to see. A leader with no honour, character, conscience, empathy, or moral compass would be a menace at the best of times. The country that invented fast food needs to invent fast impeach - and make it stick this time.
3
I am a senior citizen. I am absolutely exhausted by this lunatic of a president, his crazed tweets, not to mention his selection of Supreme Court justices that will define the quality of life for my grandchildren. I don't see a future for a nation that won't focus on education, health care and quality of life for a majority of our citizens. What happened to us???
4
Trump and his awful advisors are taking a gamble: The only one available to them and Fox news:
That the virus will be less devastating than the medical scientists project. This would allow him to further excoriate the educated and academic class to bolster the intuitions and paranoia of his know-nothing party of the New Republican's.
2
The problem with this administrations severely inept response and total lack of a national comprehensive plan to slow the spread of Covid19, is that the results of this remarkable mismanagement will result in the deaths of Americans who might have otherwise either avoided contamination or received proper medical care to recover. Death is final. It can’t be spun as ‘fake news’. There is no, hind-sight is 20/20, for someone who dies. Political manipulation of the facts will not reduce the infection rates or the daily increasing death toll.
1
Trump has been wrecking the federal government for more than three years now, including the CDC and the FDA—the two groups so slow to get behind the need to do anything at all to address the virus heading to our shores. It should come as no surprise to anyone that Trump—and Fox—prioritized Trump’s re-election over addressing a potential pandemic. Trump continues today to try to minimize the number of cases of virus in the US solely because he thinks it makes him look bad. In that, he is absolutely right. He does look bad, but it's because his bad decisions have come to light and because in trying to turn the federal government into an organization serving only his personal needs Trump has created a government that has is now incapable of serving the people’s needs. Trump is clearly unfit to lead, and he should be forced to resign now before he finishes destroying what is left of the federal government. Senate Republicans should be hanging their heads in shame for not removing him from office when it has been clear for quite some time that we have a president who works only for himself.
2
clearly, it has become dangerous to be near conservative Trump cult members who watch Fox news. they are far more likely to not use safety approaches, so they are more likely to spread contagion
4
We've always known Trump is utterly incapable of handling any crisis. The problem is that most every crisis is political in some form or another, and therefore there's always a human for Trump to scapegoat. Now we are faced with a crisis of another sort all together. Viruses do not have constituencies, cannot be cowed by a Tweet storm, and he can't accuse them of hating him. They aren't even alive. Trump's superpowers dissolve against such an enemy; his playbook crumbles and his naked ineptitude and selfishness is more visible than ever. His Fox fans are happy to ignore the moral sickness he's unleashed on this country, but they won't be able to ignore the physical sickness they will start feeling one by one as their conspiratorial ignorance of science catches up with them.
I wonder if the GOP senators who didn't vote to remove tRump are having second thoughts now that he's in charge of a real emergency with real lives on the line?
His incompetence is breath taking.
2
Trump can phone into Fox & Friends every morning a day Hannity every night, add Judge Jeanine on the weekend and he keeps 60 million voters. His defeat is all about an opposition candidate people will turn out for. Is Biden that person? I know Bernie isn’t.
2
Two things I wish the news media would do:
1. Stop quoting Fox News. What Fox News says is irrelevant. Don’t allow their misinformation/obfuscation into the national conversation.
2. Stop quoting Trump. Report what he does, not what he says. He’s a liar, and he should lose his speaking privileges, regardless of his position. The less we hear from him, the better.
2
Foxnews viewer and followers of Trump and the Republican congressional members need to remember that those people won't feel the effect of this virus on their lives. They won't lose wages. They won't miss corona testing. They won't have to sit in an emergency room waiting for care. If they are hospitalized, they'll get the ventilator, as will their relatives and close friends. How about you?
2
Liked article. Shared to Facebook.
1
Immediately after 45's address Wednesday night I switched over to Fox News to see Sean Hannity fully praising the president and his just-revealed plans (for what they were). It was strikingly obvious to me that Hannity had been given a heads up about the speech as he had graphic and full editorial waiting, whereas it was revealed the following day that European heads of state were caught without notice, dumbfounded, and befuddled. Way to go 45, continue to preach to your base and make yourself the fool so many of us think you are.
2
“Garden-variety flu” my eye. Influenza is a dangerous disease and is not to be fooled around with. To say that it is, basically, innocuous is to spread the same sort of cavalier indifference that the article disparages in the Trump-Fox response to Covid-19.
My guess is the reasoning behind Fox minimalizing this is much more simple.
If the left is for it, they are against it.
2
Best sentence ever about Trump: "If you put him in a room with only a teleprompter and a camera, he can barely make it out of a sentence alive."
4
In Ireland schools, crèches and universities are closing till the end of the month
No gatherings above a hundred people indoors and five hundred outdoors is allowed.
We are asked to abide by our health authorities directives and the whole operation is essentially directed by the medical experts with the government and police supporting each and any measure.
We are now in the delay stage whereby we hope to flatten the curve so as not to overwhelm our health system.
We are the same as everyone else and there is no dissent among any group.
We cannot afford that luxury.
It’s time to support each other and especially the health workers who are in the front line.
Politicising the crises is a recipe for disaster.
4
"barely make it out of a sentence alive" is the best thing I've read in a long time. Thank you.
9
Perhaps the main reason Trump is downplaying the virus is that social distancing is likely to have a bad effect on the economy, which he sees as his economy. The booming economy was the best argument he had for continuing to put up with him for a second term. Never mind whether the economy was doing well in spite of him, rather than because of him. People vote with their pocketbooks.
It's always about him. Truly a horrible trait in a leader during a crisis.
6
A number of important and annual bicycling events have been cancelled including:
League of American Bicyclist's, "National Bicycling Summit" in Washington DC. Important, yes. Bicycling is one of the ways individuals can improve their basic health (of course not if the individual has contracted coronavirus).
Bike New York's "TD Five Boro Bike Tour" & "Bike Expo NY" have not been cancelled as of today, March 13, but I suspect as more coronavirus cases occur in NYC both events (40,000 participants each event) will be either cancelled for this year or rescheduled for the Fall.
These and many club rides throughout the USA & overseas will be cancelled for a group of basically healthy individuals who participate in a healthy outdoor activity which results in fewer incidents of heart & lung diseases; chronic diseases such as diabetes. Of course since there will be fewer automobiles on the roadways, the injury & fatality rate for bicycle-motor vehicle crashes might be reduced.
2
We get through this together sharing resources or we get through this in derisive tribes competing for the same resources. And among these resources includes money with which to trade for food, shelter, clothing, and medical care. With wages cut off and salaries disrupted the biggest unspoken nut in this entire conundrum is how do we keep going with the engine turned off. It’s great to have everyone stay home but how do we pay the bills, keep the lights on, feed the kids and pets, replace the old car? I would challenge our thought leaders to take this problem under urgent consideration. Some naive thoughts are that we declare a monetary moratorium on basic food items like chicken, eggs, milk, flour, rice, produce, bread, whatever the experts say every household requires for sustenance. The local grocery stores can distribute these larder items with the stores being paid by the combined fed and state governments. Declare a moratorium on mortgage and rental payments with the mortgage and rental holders given cascading relief from their debt holders. And on and on so that for this period of extreme pandemic threats and consequences we as a nation of willing states construct a means of community survival in ways never seriously entertained. There is no way we as a nation of people can survive unscathed from this pandemic but we can appropriately and intelligently apply unique, bold policies to diffuse and mitigate the breadth and depth of damage beyond health and life.
2
Yes, Trump just a shell without "adoring crowds" to cheer him on, no matter what he says. I suspect if he even began speaking in Swahili, the crowds would cheer.
But FOX also loses if everyone adopts the suggestions of doctors. Where Trump can't thrive without a crowd, FOX can't thrive if a majority of Americans acknowledge truth. The network business model is to attack the "liberal elite," meaning anyone with an advanced degree.
Someone whould correct Laura Ingraham, when she claims American businesses can't survive by following medical advice on social distancing. Were that I, I'd ask her: Laura don't you think American businesses can't surive without customers?
Remember Covid-19 is attacking real people. Soon somebody you know--or even someone Laura Ingraham knows.
9
So little was expected of Trump: Tell the truth;Demonstrate you have a plan; Inspire confidence.
That’s the problem with a president who always thinks he’s the smartest person in the room.
22
The guy knows perfectly well how to flatten his revenues to avoid taxes. That is serious thing. Avoiding paralyzing the health system is of no importance to him.
12
When ants go to war, the older ants go out first to the front lines. No general sends them. No government sends them. They just go. These are not conscious decisions. They go so the species survive. I'm seventy two.
8
@Constance
On the other hand, why die of covid-19 if you don't have to?
Sadly, it might take the fact that Coronavirus is more likely to impact Trump voters (older white Americans) than the general population to get Hannity, Ingraham, Carlson et al on board with social distancing measures. In my town, the community Facebook page erupted with angry Trump voters commenting that CV was no worse that the flu. One gentleman in his late 70s was particularly combative on the issue.
9
The effects of climate change denial are broader and farther away. The effects of corona denial are on our doorstep. I consider failure to ramp up testing in late January to be combination of treason at the leadership level and confusion at the (gutted) bureaucracy level.
Covid 19 cannot be spun.
22
Under no circumstances will I watch FOX News and I go out my way to avoid seeing Donald Trump, so first and foremost I must thank Ms. Senior for synthesizing his recent meltdown over the Coronavirus.
I missed nothing.
There's no reason to doubt that this president hasn't the slightest idea of what he's saying (or doing) and that's also nothing new.
The fact that he planned to cut billions in funding to the CDC, summarily fired the US Pandemic Response Team in a pique because they were leftover from the previous administration, and is a classic science-denier says just about all you need to know.
Americans would be better off doing their own research or listening to medical and local officials when it comes to preparing for and combating this dread disease since the federal government is clearly out of its depths.
And one look at how the rest of the world is dealing with this outbreak tells you that.
But if you ever find yourself in quarantine and in need of some comic relief, it's always good to know that Trump will be there.
22
How many times can I hit the Recommend button ?
Ironically, the least self-censored local news here has been the Fox affiliate. Go figure. The other local channels lean towards a sceptical tone about all cancellations, an attitude that aligns with our conservative state and city political leaders. The Mayor actually included the head of the chamber of commerce in his recent news conference on the public health response. That tells you all you need to know about the integrity of the information being given to the public here. So far only about 30 tests have been done in the state so no one really knows what the situation is. In the meanwhile the attitude is "the show must go on" instead of "better safe than sorry".
7
The Trump virus which has been rampaging through the country since it infected the Oval Office has managed to inflict as yet to be determined massive damage to the country. Fortunately, unlike COVID-19 there is a cure.
In November, by going to the polls in a tsunami of citizen expression, the virus can be expelled from the Oval Office. That can, and must, happen.
31
The work will be intensive, but the path seems clear to everyone who is not Republican:
Testing.
Social distancing, with economic aid to those who for whom remote work is not an option, e.g., extended unemployment benefits and paid sick leave.
Testing.
More testing.
17
It's come down to this. Trump and his cohorts have dismantled government so it can be dismantled and vilified. The only safety net left is to listen to non political experts with outbreak experience.
It is hard to characterize the President's motives and his followers. It is clear, however, they do not believe in a just functioning country.
14
Trump’s pals at FOX will only be exposed if a million Americans die. Of course, we don’t want that to happen. And if we are lucky enough to flatten the wave, FOX will use the result as proof that the measures it took to contain it were unnecessary. And let’s face it, the odds probably better than even that a million Americans won’t die. Trump and his FOX pals are willing to play odds that sane people wouldn’t, because Trump ran casinos and knows that when you play with other peoples’ money (or lives - OPM/OPM) you’ve got nothing to lose.
Consider the entire universe of possibilities and odds:
Trump agrees virus is serious, acts decisively, and people die. Result: he loses election anyway.
Trump disagrees it’s serious and does nothing more than he’s doing and people die. Result: he loses election.
Trump disagrees it’s serious, and does little, and people don’t die. Result: he and FOX claim he was right. He wins.
Trump agrees it serious and acts decisively and people don’t die. Result: he wins election.
If play with OPL, and you see that the most likely option is the one where you do the least work but have the most to gain, your choices are clear. That’s a good bet.
4
I'm not a fan of Donald Trump, but I strongly disagree with these binary labeled views. Not all Americans are like the President who adhere to labeled views, packaged for people to easily choose external commonalities in order to avoid the continuous work of being in the moment and self reflection. Meanwhile, old media (newspapers, TV, radio) have proved more resilient than many observers expected. Despite this, their business models continue to be severely undermined. Aware of this, Donald Trump senses the media’s vulnerability and will not let up. Trump’s tweets & messaging bets most Americans are reactive and will continue to think success in the future is just the natural next part of the story without having to do any real work. These citizens comfort themselves with a false sense of security—not realizing all future political successes are rooted in work, creativity, persistence, and luck.
3
It’s clear, the federal health calvary is not coming. We’re on our own.
So let’s do it. We can and will get ourselves, our families, friends, and neighbors through this.
We need everyone to get themselves informed and act to protect themselves and each other. Our place in history will be written by our response.
Regretfully, at this point my only request for people in the WH is to read the 25th Amendment.
15
When Trump declared a “National Emergency” so he could move (steal) funds from the military to build his wall his Party said nothing. Now we have a national/world emergency and his response is unbelievable, confusing and weak. His Party says nothing.
I’m convinced Trump and Trump supporters deserve each other. If we re-elect this man, we deserve what we get. I trust we are better than that.
42
I would wager that the Trump maga crowd either does not watch Trump give a speech (if that's what is called) from the oval office and if they see anything of the speech, it is snippets that can be spun in a positive fashion. On the other hand, his rallies are probably considered red meat for outlets like Fox. I am just guessing, because I do not rely upon Fox news for anything.
11
I was a Medical Technologist 40 years ago. For over 30 years hospitals have pushed testing onto robotic platforms or into "easy test kits" that allegedly do not required a highly trained scientist, all to save money and increase profits. Medical Technology training programs shut down and the average age is now over 60. Fast forward to today and we don't have the testing capacity. Why are we surprised. Short term gains always have long term consequences.
22
"But these changes are not happening because of Trump. They’re happening in spite of him."
Yes, and they are happening because the US government refused the WHO tests for two months so now we have to take greater steps. States and major associations must make their own rules because the federal government is a disaster. Of course, that has been the goal of the GOP for many years.
14
Every action taken by the Trump and Republican Red state Administrations appears to damage his base. From weakening environmental, water and air quality systems to refusing Medicaid expansion targets rural and poor voters by exposing them to the dangers of modern life and the diminishing of healthcare services. Unfortunately they appear to be slowly killing off their base.
14
Suddenly, Laura Ingraham is worried about the working class and working poor? That is rich.
The working class are invoked and put out in front whenever it serves Fox News and Trump Republicans. If they really wanted to help them, they'd find a way.
I do know many Trump Republicans who think this is all no big deal. And the worst part? We will flatten the curve despite these self-serving horrible people and they will then say, "See? It was no big deal."
43
@Kelly: What an astute observation! I believe you hit the nail square on the head.
2
@Kelly, what an astute observation! And so true.
1
Trump is not just about audiences. He’s about businesses. His businesses. Which are certainly not about social distance, isolation, or lockdown. The Coronavirus isn’t just a threat to Trump’s presidency. It threatens his every economic interest.
What’s a guy in the “hospitality” industry who has not surrendered control of his enterprises to do? The obvious answer is to take steps that have the least impact on his personal wealth. He couldn’t even ban European fights without leaving open a channel to his British golf courses. In the past Trump has made egregious errors leading to bankruptcy. Here he goes again. Only this time lives are at stake.
22
The New York Times needs a modern day Hebert L. Matthews reporting from the field instead of glorified bloggers to help flatten the curve too. A presumption among many thoughtful NY Times readers today is that the great enemy of a good life and a decent world is something called ‘bias’. By bias, people have come to understand a twisting of the facts towards dark and entirely nefarious ends. According to this interpretation, bias is invariably and necessarily bad. In some quarters, the word has simply grown synonymous with evil. Loathing of bias is the flip side of faith in facts. Facts evidently exist in many areas of life. Science and many of the human sciences are beautifully based on evidence-based, fact-yielding work. The problem is that in many of the most important aspects of existence, there simply are no ‘facts’ available. There is no merely fact-based road to a good and contented life. The passion against bias often comes to a head in our thinking about news organizations. In certain circles, there is a particular loathing for what is termed biased news – and a belief in the option of decent news organizations which are going to always and inherently be unbiased. Unfortunately, there is simply no way of providing factual, ‘unbiased’ answers to the really big issues facing societies. The word ‘bias’ ultimately simply alludes to the business of having a ‘take’ on existence. One may have a better or worse take, but one needs a take.
2
Our local Episcopal Church forwarded an excellent, scholarly essay on flattening the curve, explaining the need to stop that quick overwhelm of care systems. As an at risk elder with compromised health, I found it lifegiving. We can’t expect unanimity from a highly partisan politics, but old core cultural intelligence can still emerge, and we can still support each other by sharing information and doing the right thing, keeping expectation and stress levels low and compassion high, one day at a time.
11
Who'd have thought that after the kids point out that the Emperor has no clothes that a large segment would continue to insist that he does.
12
Trump has cancelled his rallies, after declaring initially that he wasn't worried about them at all. I wonder how many of his supporters would have shown up. If they believed the chuckleheads at Fox News, which they apparently do, probably most of them.
10
Spot on. To be successful at propping up the economy, we must first address the unchecked spread of the coronavirus. By focusing on markets while denying or downplaying the devastating impact on human health, Trump is failing on both the medical and economic fronts. The reason the market takes additional large drops every time Trump rolls out yet another measure to prop up the economy is that the collective wisdom of investors as expressed through market decisions is that no amount of business stimulus will slow the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, Trump's words and actions show that he is still more focused on controlling the spin than controlling the virus.
11
First NY Times Editorial in a long time that demonstrates the sanity and strength of the American people doing the right think while leadership is absent. Thank you for restoring our faith in business and entertainment leaders taking control of a pandemic. This is not about our president or past presidents it’s about American ingenuity as we as a people come together to tackle a pandemic while our government, both congress and the executive branch is oblivious to reality
18
Excellent discussion of how the Entertainer in Chief has the wind taken out of himself when the crowds are not in front of him. The markets reflected the failure of confidence he provided on Wednesday and the follow ups by his administration minions. This will not go down as a profile in courage.
The courage to help flatten the curve is in the locals, businesses even the sports and entertainment administrators. Thank You.
27
He spoke without humanity because Coronavirus is a deal for The Donald. Humanity doesn’t figure into deals.
14
While stocking up at the grocery store, I ran into a former colleague from our rural high school. He said our school was pretty well prepared for a shut-down because they had. a few years back, bought every single student a Chrome-book. This is no elite school (although it is very good). These students do not come from pampered, wealthy families. A shut down would help this community, however, because many students have a grandparent living with them, or a grandparent taking care of them.
22
Does it really matter who is behind what? the people who will die and their families don't care. The fact is the "efficient: management of the hospital by MBAs cut down the capacity of the hospitals to make them profit-centric instead of service-centric. The number of beds and satff was cut back so the "owner" made profit. And trump did not do it. It was done by the MBA programs of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Chicago University, etc. They did not teach the service aspect, just the BOTTOM Line. And now we are paying for it. Yes, I do have a Ph. in Management Science with base in engineering, not accounting. MAny of them are just Accounting based MBAs. And they are fox and fFriends and also Democrats like Bezos.
11
FLATTENING CURVES, The apparent goals of Trump and Fox News, are patently illegal, murderous tactics to use the mass media to deceive the public. Their flattening of curves give clear evidence of their flatlining any commitment to ethics, morality or even just plan decency. Now what would happen if Trump and the GOP had been successful in overturning Obamacare. It would mean that even more than the 30 million uninsured persons in the US would be a far greater number. The pressure on medical providers to follow state laws by being required to offer emergency services free of charge to those unable to pay. Meaning that millions more would race to cancel their health insurance rather than getting socked with high medical bills that they're unable to pay off. Lots more would go back on welfare. And frankly, I wouldn't blame them a bit. If it's a matter of survival, people have a right to try to access it as best they can. What it shows with excruciating clarity is the war of the 1% on the 99%. Nothing more need be said on the matter.
8
I’ve thought that we- theUS- should turn to the UN and Red Cross in the absence of Federal resources and competence . The GOP policies have gutted our infrastructure which is inevitably tested in a crisis of any sort.
14
All of the panic buying in March will make the hollowed-out 2nd quarter growth numbers all the more shocking. The Dow will continue to look like an EEG readout for a while. And we wont have a preventative shot this coming winter, it will still be in testing. Biden wins 30 states. The country exhales, and gets to work.
15
It's time to stop waiting for leadership from the top; we have known since 2017 that this president is incapable of providing clear, mature and reasoned guidance. Woe to us for expecting anything different from what we are getting! It is clearly time for state governments to take control of the epidemic and to coordinate within geographic regions to contain the virus, test suspected cases and care for the ill.
32
What stood out for me was at the end when he gave his blessings to "American citizens." Not Americans, not all of us, but just the citizens. Clearly a Stephen Miller speech.
102
I actually disagree. Trumps biggest crime was not addressing the testing problem. The kind of testing like in South Korea is needed so public health experts can get a picture of the epidemic and respond in the proper fashion. They said Trump was Mussolini, and they were right. So instead we are copying Italy.
27
Why should an audience raised on denigrating science and the government stop now? If they have gotten to define their own reality for a couple decades, what has happened for them to want to change that? "Real" reality? No, I do not think so. For them, there is no reason to abandon their world. There is no proof they are wrong? Literally nothing could ever prove to them that they are wrong. God is on their side.
23
You have diagnosed the problem, but need to place the risks in proper perspective for your readers. As a behavioral scientist who studied economics in college and was long ago a business school professor, I am struck by reluctance of people in Washington and in news organizations to tell the people the truth about the risk of economic calamity. Given how poorly we are led in this country and in the world at large, we are staring at a 1929 like event. The inevitability of a recession and possibility of a depression are real and important to convey to people along with public health risks.
23
I, too, was horrified by President Trump’s national address. At a time when the country needs calm, competent and decisive leadership, we have a president who traffics in lies and partisan pettiness. Yes, the number of cases reported in this country is small when compared to our overall population, but that is clearly a consequence of a lack of testing. Just once, I would like to see President Trump and the GOP leadership step up and act like adults. Our inaction in the face of this pandemic will have tragic consequences. We know that viruses have the capacity to multiply faster than other organisms and mutate as they make a copy of their genetic material. Thus we really do not know how deadly this virus can become. Blaming Democrats, the news media and foreigners is not an appropriate response to the crisis. We need containment and mitigation. Earth 1 to Earth 2 come in please.
30
Thank you Jennifer for clarifying the rationale for social distancing.Slow down the spread of the virus to prevent the health care system from breaking down under the burden of too many sick people to treat. Creating impossible life death decisions for health care professionals. Delay also moves most of the country closer to summer when better weather might ameliorate the spread of the virus. Trump simply does not get it and therefore cannot explain it. In his mind the virus is less deadly than the flu so therefor what is the big deal?
13
Both of the universities from which I have degrees, University of Rochester and Stanford, have basically shut down their campuses for the semester, told students to go home where possible, and shifted their courses to online. Professional basketball has cancelled the season, NHL has cancelled, baseball has postponed opening day. Everybody gets it except Donald Trump. He's not Nero, as some have suggested. Nero merely fiddled while Rome burned. Trump is, by his silence on this issue, throwing gasoline on the fire.
29
Can the Trump Deep State please tell us:
1. How many corona virus test kits have been provided to each state?
2. The number of tests performed in each state and how many positives have been identified?
3. How many test kits are shipping each day?
Why all the secrets?
86
The truth is plain and simple: not enough test kits available as the government didn’t act in time in most places.
26
Slats G - they’re not consciously keeping it a secret. It’s much worse than that - they don’t know!!
2
@Slats G 💋 XOXO 💋
The answer to all 3 of your questions is not a number, but "Dunno." Given their uninterrupted record of incompetence and nonchalance, I'd be astounded if they had any clue.
2
The word we all hate- discipline- it wins wars- many ( including myself lack it)- if we can keep our distance while doing our jobs it will be the best thing for all of us. There are houses to be built in large and small towns, construction projects for utilities to keep our infrastructure safe, and many more unsung heroes who need to be disciplined in their jobs to keep our country running. Their jobs can't be done virtually- police- fire- electric companies- THANK YOU!
14
I am no fan of President Macron of France. But after watching him speak to his country today, I am reminded of what a real leader looks like and how he tries to act in a crisis.
He explained the problem coherently and honestly, outlined his immediate actions, gave reasons for those actions, and was frank in his assessment of their limitations.
Seems pretty basic, but not something the US president is capable of doing.
121
@Randy (in Paris) Boris Johnson did the same.
1
I agree that we have a terrible, venal leader.
I agree that science, fact and transparency are antithetical to his agenda.
I agree that compassion for and wellbeing of his constituency are afterthoughts if thoughts at all.
But beyond those prejudices, Ingram, Trump and all the other poison pills running the country live to be contrary to Democrats. They say down if Democrats say up. white if Democrats say black. So if Democrats say be socially distant, they say, for no reason other than to oppose Democrats, that it's unnecessary, wrong and actually harmful.
It's a formula not just for disaster, but for mutual disaster.
72
Intervention. When a family member slips into a deep slide the family intervenes. Trump despite his intolerable acts is a member of our worldwide family. We have to intervene to save ourselves, Trump must be isolated, he can't be trusted to be out in public.
43
I'm 69 years old. I've watched a lot of Presidential Oval Office speeches. Last nights was the most horrific one I've ever seen. GWBush wasn't especially bright but he seemed human and mostly sincere. Obama was always superb. Clinton could connect even when he seemed a bit angry. It was as if someone dragged their senile grandfather out of the Nursing Home and forced him to read a teleprompter of a speech he'd never seen before and didn't know what it meant. He couldn't grasp what the content was and misspoke on the main subject. America, we can do better.
295
Apparently Republicans cannot do better. Trump is the apex of the conservative intellectual tradition on display.
8
@Jane i keep thinking of the movie (the name escapes me) of the ship captain rolling ball bearings in his hands. there are protocols in place to remove a non-functioning leader- but pence would have to run it by the stable genius first
3
Well said!
1
Senior is right about Trump. He is potentially the person most informed about the coronavirus, but he ignores the briefings and chooses to tough it out. Very Macho. Well after China and Italy imposed quarantines to isolate the virus spread, Trump held rallies. Feb. 28 in North Charleston, March 2 in Charlottesville. He addressed CPAC on March 3. He held a fundraiser at Mar-a-lago on March 6. We know now that the US had already had infections undergoing community transmission by those dates. So those events were risks to all attendees. Surprise! At CPAC an infected person came in contact with a bunch of people including some political VIPs who choose to self-isolate when they learned. And a few days ago came another surprise. Trump and others had direct contact with an infected Brazilian at Mar-a-lago. Result: more politicians are self-isolating. I hope that all now self-isolating come through this without a problem. All attendees to these events are paying the price of believing Trump that risks are low, when the evidence is contrary. Trump must do more to stop the contagion. Expand testing immediately. Encourage reduced personal contacts, especially crowds. Holding large events sets the wrong example. Suggestion: following the lead of the NBA, Broadway, and March Madness, close Mar-a-lago to visitors for the next 30 days. This act or an equivalent would help erase the stain he has left on his office.
19
I watched Trump trying to play the President speaking soberly to His People on a national emergency last night. For the first time since his first year I began to feel the rage well up inside myself toward those people who felt so little responsibility as voters, who were so enamored of being stroked as beleaguered "real" Americans as to put a game show host in the Presidency instead of using the minimum amount of critical thinking to see him for what he was.
But I could not help wonder if those who have taken part in this voluntary mass imbecility could, even now, stomach him as he emphasized how innocent America (and by extension, he) were for this "foreign virus" and how, without his "bold actions" in banning travel from China was the only reason we were not in a septic morass like the EU. Couldn't they see at long last, how microscopically small and petty a man he was?
89
I broke a promise to myself and turned on Fox News to see how they were covering the day's events. Brett Baeir opened his show with the astounding statistic that there were 500some odd people who have survived the Coronavirus. No other statistics that might seem relevant like How many people have been tested, what's the mortality rate, no just the good news about the Coronavirus brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Prava dealer. Why are promises so hard to keep?
12
"As we saw Wednesday night, if you put him in a room with only a teleprompter and a camera, he can barely make it out of a sentence alive."
This is the first laugh I've had in a while. I'm self-quarantined, so all I do is read how bad this is and as I tune into news from around the room. So far, the worst response is the US and it is all anyone is talking about, because we have no date, because there are no tests, because Trump is trying to spin this. Even here in Canada, they are looking at the porous border to the US as a security threat. The Prime Minister's wife has just tested positive, so even the Prime Minister is on lock down. Incidentally, she had just returned from London, which was just left of of Trump's travel ban because he has golf clubs there.
61
In an open society with concerned and civic-minded and educated citizens, Fox 'News', such as it is, would have found its demise about, oh, I don't know, maybe 4-5 days after its initial broadcast, but not in the good-ole-U.S. of A. We have been bred, almost since conception, to give credence to lies, half-truths, deceits through the perverse machinations of public relations, advertisements, and government 'spokesmen' and spinners, who don't know or seem to care how to separate truth from falsehoods. And certainly don't want us to develop the skills to do so. We are our own worst enemy. Change always and I mean always begins from the ground up. The question is: are we willing to stand with 2 feet on the ground and DEMAND that the government and the financial/corporate institutions obey us and our needs?
19
"He should ... find someone in his administration to explain why it was, in fact, an act of kindness and solidarity, a sign of strength."
Wishful thinking. He doesn't care about kindness and solidarity; in fact he has no idea what they are. His only idea of "strength" is winning a competition or being cheered by a crowd. As you point out, without a crowd, he is an empty shell; and there is no way he can "win" against a virus by bluster, bragging, threatening, name-calling, or simply lying.
I'm still betting that when it becomes obvious how desperate the situation is, he will pull a 180 and say that he has said so all along -- very very strongly, more strongly than anybody else! -- but that nobody listened. But your observation that without a crowd he is nothing has sown a bit of doubt.
22
When I hear our American numbers for COVID-19, I, unfortunately, find myself thinking exactly what I thought when I heard Chinese numbers in January, which is to say that I assumed the real numbers were higher than we were being told.
So glad we have joined the club of those countries who will lie to their own population and the world just to look good.
We need more tests, and we need the truth if we are to save lives.
55
Less consumer spending will shrink cash flows for thousands of businesses. That in turn will result in delayed payments to creditors. Efforts to stem further losses will result in layoffs. Business investment will dry up. Consumers will spend less as they lose their jobs or are afraid of losing it resulting in further decreases in spending, resulting in more of the same.
But who comes out ahead in all of this. Of course, the banks, payday lenders, foreclosure attorneys, bankruptcy attorneys, and debt collecters.
And all along the way, Trump will say he handled it all perfectly.
26
Political virus can steepen the curve. That's clearly the case in the US.
9
The most immediate problem here is: Trump IS the emergency, and in the way of getting everything reasonable done about the pandemic situation we now face.
34
Bravo.
Yeah, finally "truth" in terms of number of deaths is what is forcing the Republicans and Trump to get back to evidence, and they still have to be dragged to it.
Right now the damage is still small for the country and even the world as a whole. And if we go overboard on prevention, we may stop it at least than 10K deaths total (I hope so). Then the Republicans will come back and say it was all an overreaction not realising (like with the Ozone Hole, Y2K, etc.) that preventive actions are what made it safe enough.
So an alternative-facts-based cult has to finally face reality one way or the other.
9
@RamS
Yes, one would think. Yet social and historical studies have shown an amazing resilience of 'true believers' of falsehoods against the truth even when it is as plain as the end of the world not happening.
There's always an excuse, seldom if ever any enlightenment, but one can always hope.
16
We may actually be seeing Darwinism at play here: those that believe trump and Fox are more likely to ignore the advice from doctors, more like to be exposed to Corvid 19 and therefore more likely to die. When you look at the age and health of those attending a trump rally, the odds are really stacked against them.
98
@sjs: I agree but want to add one more point to yours. Those people you refer to in your comment who are exposed to the virus may also SPREAD IT if they don’t practice social distancing. Another consequence of taking this epidemic lightly.
8
@sjs Two problems with this mindset:
-It's horribly callous to dismiss a fellow citizen's death by Covid-19 as "oh well, it's Darwinism, they had it coming to them," no matter if the victim did vote for Agent Orange.
-A map of known Covid-19 cases in the U.S. shows that almost all infections are in predominantly Blue areas - big, dynamic, cosmopolitan cities, such as San Francisco and NYC. A Trump supporter in a trailer park in rural Idaho is well protected from Covid-19 by his/her isolation, at least for now.
2
@sjs Except the people most likely to die are past reproductive age. Trumpism seems to follow the rules of the Darwinism of ideas. Elders might die, but the social structures, and the common, very human cognitive errors that sustained their views will remain.
3
Needless to say, Trump and Fox News feed on each other like two cannibals that eat everybody else. It is ugly rhetoric that is pandered by paranoia and is a self feeding frenzy.
In the end, they will simply eat each other up. Need I say that it is an outcome that i am looking forward to ?
22
About Trump in this pandemic:
Never have so many owed so little to one man.
The worst man possible defending us against an implacable, invisible killer.
The wrong man at the wrong time handling the problem in the wrong way to the wrong degree.
The brain-dead leading the nearly dead.
54
Viruses and Trumpism need crowds.
Just saying...
54
The media should be bringing information to the people in a time of crisis. To that end, the NYT is providing coronavirus information free of charge. On the other end of the spectrum, Fox is giving Trump a publicity venue free of scrutiny.
26
To quote Lester Freamon, from The Wire: "The Man is a Virus".
31
I'm tired of living in the corrupt, uglier America that Fox Nation, and the Trump states voted for. Maybe America will be better off after this pandemic if there are less Fox News watchers, and less people living in the Trump states, (especially for the 2020 reapportionment). I'm only half kidding, which says something awful about me, and America.
34
@R.L.
Don't worry; many of us feel exactly the same way (but only admit it half-way too).
1
@R.L. Understandable even as it's similar to Conservative thought that the poor and needy must be fundamentally flawed since they are unable to find their way out of it. We tend to blame people for circumstances outside their control. Trumpism is a difficult circumstance to escape for many people who grew up with certain social views and media.
2
What is the White House but America’s biggest work from home site? As my mother used to say, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
4
Like a lot of people my wife and I are invested in the market. If the result of this crisis is that a Democrat wins the election come November than our loss was worth every penny.
149
@Dan, that’s how I feel, too. And I must state, I am far from wealthy. My 401K, like everyone else’s, has taken quite a hit and very likely will continue to do so, and I’m definitely not happy about it. But if November brings the ousting of this deplorable man whose humanity is nonexistent, I’ll be estatic, nonetheless.
17
@Dan
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Americans with some wealth must see that our country is much more than an economic opportunity.
5
Maybe all the deluded elderly Fox viewers will die because they followed Fox's advice. Gosh, what would Fox do then, without an audience? Hmm, conflicted about that. Fox should be telling their viewers to take every precaution possible.
14
By all means, we should continue to allow all of Trumps supporters to collect in large crowds. You reap what you sow
37
@Marston Gould: Not only should they collect in large crowds, but I think future Trump rallies should be held INSIDE hospitals, maybe right by the ER.
2
Listened to Rush Limbaugh today to hear what he had to say. Predictably, the entire thing is a democratic hoax designed to take Trump down. No need to worry, folks. It’s just the flu.
This is from a guy with late stage lung cancer. An infection would kill him. I’ll be interested to see if he changes his tune if [er, when] it comes his way.
71
@Douglas Evans,
I'm glad you reported what he said, since I can't bring myself to actually listen to him. (I am forever ashamed and disgusted that a bust of him sits in a place of honor in the Missouri capitol in Jefferson City.) Honestly, do you think he has deluded himself into actually believing what he says? If he hasn't and says it anyway, he's truly a psychopath, not to be confused with the run-of-the-mill sociopaths in Trump's administration.
3
One thing this virus did was show us who our president is, for once and for all: no class, no style, no guts, no mind. He demonstrates his leadership, which is to say, his utter incapacity for leadership. We all knew that Donald Trump was a fraud, a phony and a con man. After all, how could anyone actually fail at real estate, airlines, casinos, fake universities, a fraudulent foundation, marriages; and ultimately, basic human relations: the social stuff that keeps us all tenuously stuck together as civilization, and yet, somehow, become president? It was not through redemption. The answer to that question, ultimately, will be sorted out by the people who write the history. But, history will not look kindly upon Poor Donald. Not just yesterday, but, now, every day, we see more deeply into this man's sad, sick, malignant and dead mind. Maybe it really is, now, 25th Amendment time. Maybe, if there are still adults around up there, they could do the right thing. One wishes.
73
Now. Right now! We need president!
6
"Some of Trump’s boosters on talk radio and Fox News may slowly be conceding that the coronavirus is a greater public health threat than the garden-variety flu."
Ironically, Fox News recently told its employees:
"In addition to allowing any staff members able to telecommute to do so starting on Monday, Fox was encouraging its shows to book guest appearances via Skype or remote locations. Staff members were told to avoid large gatherings and, whenever possible, conduct business by phone or video conferencing. Fox banned all non-essential travel, according to a memo sent by Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and Jay Wallace, president and executive editor of Fox News Media."
Wait, I'm confused. Didn't Sean Hannity (on Fox's most-watched show) state just yesterday: "It “may be true” that the “deep state” is using coronavirus to manipulate markets, suppress dissent and push mandated medicines."
Didn't Fox Business host Trish Regan tell her viewers: “[the] chorus of hate being leveled at the president is nearing a crescendo as Democrats blame him for a virus that originated halfway around the world. This is yet another attempt to impeach the president.”
If it really is a "hoax" as so many Fox hosts claim, then why is Fox telling its employees to stay away from the studio?
C'mon Mr. Hannity and Ms. Regan, I dare ya: Prove to us that it's just a hoax. Go to New Rochelle, and give everyone a hug; then go back to work and hug your colleagues. Please do it, for everyone's sake.
217
I am uplifted by the responsible action I have seen from some of our largest institutions. Cancel the NCAA basketball playoffs? Game on. America is in this fight.
I am encouraged that there is more to this country than anything Trump's philosophy can embrace or control.
We will be great again because Trump doesn't own anything. He just puts his name on it. I hereby take away the Trump name from all that makes America great. He can have his lies and ugly catch phrases. He can have a reality TV show then preach about what's fake, but he can't have the real country and he can't claim the future.
822
Oh yes yes yes. Thank you. Thank you for articulating this.
28
@larkspur And he will be voted out as America does a great course correction in the 2020 Election....
28
@ larkspur
Your comment breathes life and hope into my soul. Thank you!
33
Given the condition of the country, I think we need a Blue Make America Great Again cap.
26
In a sense, we are fortunate to have witnessed this test of Trump’s mettle before even worse circumstances befall our nation. For the past three years, Trump’s disaffected base and congressional Republican enablers tolerated—even celebrated—his pathological dishonesty and incompetence because he stoked their own mutual hatred and advanced their personal agendas.
With a general election looming, his unfitness for office is no longer in question but a proven fact. Trump and his congressional minions must be removed from office with measures instituted to undo the damage already inflicted upon our society.
25
Ms. Senior criticizes the President for failure to elaborate to her satisfaction: “what should have been his core message: Keep your distance.”
I reviewed the President’s speech and noted the following statements: “The highest risk is for elderly population with underlying health conditions. The elderly population must be very, very careful. In particular, we're strongly advising that nursing homes for the elderly suspend all medically unnecessary visits.”
Additionally he said: “In general older Americans should also avoid non-essential travel in crowded areas.” And to the rest of the population: “we have issued guidance on school closures, social distancing and reducing large gatherings.”
He went on to say: “Smart action today will prevent the spread of the virus tomorrow. For all Americans it is essential that everyone take extra precautions and practice good hygiene. Each of us has a role to play in defeating this virus. Wash your hands, clean often-used surfaces, cover your face and mouth if you sneeze or cough, and most of all if you are sick or not feeling well, stay home.”
I genuinely don’t see any truth in the colomnist’s criticism.
4
You raise a totally fair point. But if you experience the voice and video you see those words come from decidedly pursed lips, and then followed by decibels-higher disdain and self-congratulation. The net effect is to neutralize the words which were indeed most important.
27
@Arthur Taylor These words were given to a person to say who was obviously not himself. The words were delivered in a monotone without any inflection or emotion. This was the third time I have ever seen the President speak and I was shocked. And frightened. The person who wrote that speech put it in the clenched hands of a not well person who is obviously unfit to lead. The falsehoods and prejudice rang through though.
2
Except he did not write any of those words, just read them like a zombie who hated every minute of it.
2
Some people said that China would overtake U.S. as a global superpower. Trump is making it so easy for China to step up to the plate in the international field now that Trump has created a vacuum.
12
A GOP Federal “Justice” in Texas struck down ALL of Obamacare last year. Trump’s Justice Department backs this ruling. The GOP Supreme Court will hear the case, but safely rule after November. Biden, Sanders, Pelosi, Bloomberg, any decent person with a soap box, should be shouting about this cruelty. Why are they not?
11
Why do we need a test? If you are coughing, have a fever or have breathing issues, presume you have the virus. Stay away from other people and if very sick, call ahead to warn your doctor you probably have the virus. Are our 911 first responders ready to handle contagious patients?
8
Fair, but you still need tests, as it is far deadlier than the flu for the elderly, and because you need to know which is which. Look at Kirea, millions of test kits and they are getting on top of it. We need thise kits.
The only thing Trump and his band of pals know how to do involve two things: Ignoring irrefutable evidences and insisting that they know best, or claim that the “left” are trying to attack them by fabricating something.
What a comedy this is.
11
When all is said and done, hundreds or thousands will have died preventable deaths, due to the misinformation being spread by Trump and his right wing propaganda machine.
Whereas a certain amount of transmission may have been all but inevitable early on, Trump’s perpetual failure to act and Hannity’s derisive rants, calling this a hoax to undermine the president (how original!) have led to millions of unnecessary hand shakes, meetings, air travel, etc that facilitate the transmission of a virus that may kill more Americans than the 9-11 terrorists.
And in a month or two, with blood on their hands - guilty of crimes against humanity for perpetuating lies with such grave consequences - they will sit in front of a camera, and with sound and furry, will howl to their faithful audience that survived about how this is the fault of the “Do Nothing Dems”.
22
he was probably short the market before his speech. This is all about him anyway
7
The ironic thing is that the group that will see the most fatalities, those 60+, also make up FOX News' viewer base and the GOP's/Trumps's voter base.
20
Republicans and Fox News viewers have spent 25 years mastering the art of endangering everyone else through science denial surrounding climate. By now it comes naturally. Muscle memory, like riding a bike or shooting free throws.
17
First they dismantle the agencies
Then they fire the workers with lifetimes of knowledge
Then they cut the budgets
Then a crisis erupts and they ignore it
Putin couldn’t have planned it any better as a week before the world melts down he makes his move to be president for life.
If I wrote this script it would be rejected as too fantastical to be believed. But it’s all true due to the complicity of republicans who are still fighting their partisan battles to get more breaks for corporate America.
Voting republican really can kill you.
113
The effects of Fox’s pandemic-denying “spewership” on its cognitively captured viewership might offer modern science the largest realtime study in natural selection ever, providing they don’t kill us all in the process.
12
Fox may be changing its narrative. I just watched Tucker Carlson tell viewers that the virus is from China, which is why strong borders are critical. And China is trying to kill Americans by withholding antibiotics. And Americans should stock up on guns and ammo; those gun-control people are making you less safe. You're going to have to protect your family just like we have to protect our country, and if if there's ever a choice between your own children and your neighbor's children, the choice is clear. Oh, and the liberals like Biden are doing China's work by condemning racism against Asians.
There was no logic to it at all -- e.g. the virus's movement has nothing to do with illegal border crossing, for example, or the fact that antibiotics are useless against viruses. But that didn't matter. It was a war message - there is an enemy, it's China, it's trying to kill you and your family, and the liberals are trying to help them succeed.
It was truly bizarre.
32
I love this:
"As we saw Wednesday night, if you put him in a room with only a teleprompter and a camera, he can barely make it out of a sentence alive."
77
The NRA has cancelled its annual convention. So much for hanging tough.
Now will Trump and Fox get the message?
544
@Jay S --Stock market was a 19,800 when Mr Trump became president; it is just above 21,200 now; we are only up 1400 points; lets put this behind us;you win some, you lose some.
1
@Jay S
Even without the coronavirus, think of how many lives are saved by the cancelation of an NRA convention. Every cloud has a silver lining.
27
@Jay S Kind of bad that the leadership of the NRA shows more situational awareness, decisiveness and leadership than the President of the United States.
23
We should cut to the chase with Covid-19
The US should institute a national health emergency holiday for 14 to 30 days to short circuit the potential epidemic.
All non- essential activities are shut down and people stay home, work from home, study from home. Essential activity is: Healthcare, Medicine, food, maintaining infrastructure(Water/gas/electricity).
The Federal government will issue $1000 to each individual. ($2000 per family) during the national shutdown. This helps the less affluent pay for necessities (Rent, Sanitation, food, etc). It is also an economic stimulus after the crisis. This is modeled on the Wang dividend.
The government pays all the Covid-19 medical expenses for everybody.
The government pays $500 a week to those hospitalized to keep families from collapsing financially.
The federal government temporarily should immediately add 1% to 5% to each tax bracket and issue “Corona War Bonds” to pay for all pandemic costs and for economic stimulus after the storm subsides.
We can do something like this now or be forced to do it later.
38
Just so no one thinks I'm partisan, I listened to Mike DeWine, Republican Governor of Ohio, today. He is a former attorney and he gets it. Trump doesn't get it, doesn't care, and never will.
How hard is this to explain? The U.S. has a finite, fixed number of a hospital beds (doctors, nurses, etc.) that serve critical COVID-19 patients, heart attacks and other severe medical problems. If the number of critical COVID-19 patients exceed the number of available beds, people die.
So, even if someone thinks, "It's just the flu," they help spread COVID-19 to the most vulnerable citizens and push hospitals beyond capacity. It's no accident that most deaths in Washington state are in care facilities with compromised elderly patients. We simply cannot spread this disease -- for our own sake and our neighbor's sake.
End of story.
Oh, by the way, before anyone chants "America #1", we lag in beds per 1,000 people, trailing Central Europe and many other regions.
912
Yesterday I heard that the U.S. has about 100,000 ICU beds and about 70,000 respirator machines. Dr. Sanjay Gupta and one other MD said this. This is why we have to flatten the COVID-19 pneumonia curve.
57
@PJD
An article elsewhere in the Times specifically cites Italy as having more hospital beds etc per capita than the US - and look how it's hitting them!! Frightening.
33
@PJD I also listened to the Ohio Governor. The first 2 questions were--How many test kits do you have?? He acted as a lawyer--never mentioned test kits in his responses. Typical Republican!
31
All your points of caution, including avoiding crowds, are of course common-sensical and even altruistic...by knowing the economic distress they cause...but absolutely necessary to slow down this highly contageous viral pandemic, so we may absorb it's impact with calm efficiency, and with no further panic. But you cannot expect a narcissist who feeds in self-congratulation...while unable to 'feel' others' suffering, to do what's right, to serve the public as he once swore to do. Trump is beyond repair, and so are his Fox Noise sycophants, trying to sow confusion for self-gain, a most shameful stance. Appropriate measures are being taken at a grass root level, our communities, a good thing; essential, given the lack of leadership.
10
Please write this same, blistering analogy about Mitch McConnell, and each, powerful Republican in the Senate, every single day. We need more words to describe their levels of intentional incompetence and neglect. It's been behind the curtain far too long.
47
If President Trump is truly concerned about the markets and economy he will STAY OFF THE AIR!! Every time he opens his mouth and try to calm the country , he has the opposite effect. His ignorance, willingness to blatantly lie and need to pat himself on the back at every turn is the exact opposite of what the country needs; strong leadership, a sense of confidence in who is in charge and a willingness to accept responsibility. You can already see Governors and mayors stepping up (Democrats and Republicans both) to lead in the vacuum of Federal leadership. We are in uncharted water here, the only certainty is that Trump will look blame others ( a "foreign virus", Democrats and "fake news") for his utter failures and take credit for gutsy policies enacted by others (Cuomo, DeWine and the NBA and NCAA leap to mind). Can we all finally agree that this emperor has no clothes? Can we elect a competent President with respect for Science and expertise? PLEASE???
727
@Kevin
He’ll likely be off the air soon, having been exposed to the virus through his contact with the Brazillians at Mar a Lago. I wonder how well-honed his sense of irony is?...
60
@Kevin Yet the GOP Senate and House remain cowed by Trump.
At a time for leadership, there is none, and this uncertainty is reflected by the markets dropping.
We need answers for how we are learning how to improve detection, reduce spread, and effectively treat infections.
We need clear instructions of what actions we can and should take at this time to reduce spread. We need to be able to understand the rationale for taking these actions, most of which are at least inconvenient, and why high levels of participation are needed.
This is a time when leadership should inspire unity and cooperation towards a common good.
But that requires believable leadership, and credibility doesn't happen overnight. This Administration has been satisfied with promoting the interests of only those they in line with their own. Why should those forgotten or targeted by Trump's policies so far start believing anything he says now?
31
@Kevin
Govs. Jay Inslee and Gavin Newsom leap to my mind.
10
You cannot spin or dupe science or our frailty. This faux bravado is akin to incompetent officers sending infantry "over the top", out of the trenches of WWI and into the aptly-named "No Man's Land" where flesh and courage too often met bullets and artillery.
Genuine courage is dealing in the truth.
408
If you haven’t heard it before, look up Pete Seeger’s epic song, “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” performed by Richard Shindell (you can find it on YouTube among other places).
We were listening to it just last night and all I could think about was Dear Leader charging over the top with his Fox News acolytes in hot pursuit.
1
@David Walker
Fear not, David, Trump will never charge over the top of the trenches with Fox News behind him. He will hide in the trenches shouting "I am behind you all the way"
7
@Alan "Paths of Glory."
The next shoe to drop? Does anyone really think the health insurers have the capital resources to cover the medical expense of 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 million patients? Especially now that the stock market, has tanked the capital resources of the insurers and their underwriters.
357
@DWS
They were certainly able to collect premiums.
68
@DWS
Sure, they have tons of surplus capital tied up in their CEOs' pay and stock options. My insurer's CEO made over $100 million last year, while my premiums and copays went up and coverage diminished.
94
@DWS you're right, they actually dont. They have nowhere near the cash reserves, regardless of what people choose to believe. It's proof that our insurance based system is just disastrously broken. Insurance is predicated on the expectation that most people *never* need it. It is exactly the *wrong* model for healthcare where *everyone* will *definitely* need it.
Because most working people with a decent job have good enough insurance that they can get an annual check up during normal times, people have allowed themselves into thinking that everything is awesome and that the only threat is "brown free loaders"
All of that collapses in a crisis and, unfortunately, we're now there.
86
We need tests and leadership; we have neither. Perhaps we could get test kits from South Korea or Australia as we don’t seem to have the ability to make them readily available.
Trump dismantled the pandemic response team put in place by Obama and Biden. His reason? He didn’t want to have people drawing a paycheck when there was no imminent threat. He doesn’t seem to understand that threats become imminent quickly. Now, we have no response team, and insufficient resources (N95 masks, etc.) to meet this threat.
1058
@BlueMountainMan you write "Trump dismantled the pandemic response team put in place by Obama and Biden."
In essence, this was the dismantling of the United States' health insurance at the governmental level.
You don't ramp up protection after while an emergency is occurring; you invest in it so it will be available during time of need.
The pandemic response team and the CDC are institutions which ensure the health of the nation ,and we US citizens are rightfully outraged that this president has seen fit to attack the policies and organizations that underwrite our public health.
65
@BlueMountainMan "His reason? He didn't want to have people drawing a paycheck when there was no imminent threat."
Here's another reason Trump dismantled the pandemic response team: Trump's reflexive hatred of anything put in place by Obama. If Obama did it, it must be bad, the national interest be damned.
Vote blue in November!
44
@BlueMountainMan
Pure stable genius stuff!
11
Since the American economy now relies deeply on service employees, the most effective way to help small (and large) business is to ensure workers still draw incomes when they can't come to work. A plan that Republicans staunchly oppose, by the way - better to juice the banks and brokers with free loans, and give the wealthy another tax break. (A tax reduction won't help pay rent next month, especially if there's no paycheck.)
At what point does the President's and Fox corporations' misleading and dishonest behavior become criminal negligence?
826
@Neander The criminal nature of this gang of bumblers is well known, we can't charge a sitting president.
The republican party is infected by more than just greed, now they may be really infected.
Time will tell
60
@Neander
Interesting to me that you used the term "criminal negligence" because I was thinking of it myself today in regard to Trump and his administration. It applies to them much more accurately than "incompetence." A criminally negligent president and administration gets people killed, and that's what's happening here and will continue to happen.
22
@Neander Fox? About 30 years ago. But they control everything thanks to white fragility, gerrymandering and the electoral college, so expect no changes soon.
16
These folks have been pushing an alternative universe for so long they have lost touch with the one they actually live in. They seem to think that all one needs to do is believe really hard and the belief comes true.
For Trump, this strategy has worked beyond any of our wildest nightmares when he first decided to run for president.
Perhaps this crisis will work like a hypnotist snapping his finger and the large segment of Americans under the FOX-Trump hypnotic spell will come out of their induced hallucinations and start working with the rest of us to try to deal logically with this unfolding health emergency.
Trump will never come out of his trance.
1229
So happy to know that at least the NBA Is connecting with with Trump’s base, with some REAL reality tv coming up!
There may be more out-foxing Fox to come.
22
@alan haigh This virus is a tough one for Trump. It can't be conned or bullied.
76
@Neander The emperor is in a one (person) beauty
contest with himself, modeling his (perfect) birthday suit (visibly empty to all) as it
unravels thread by thread, stitch by stitch on the
(presidential) runway.
13
Donald Trump did in fact make some "Bold" early decisions and Americans need to all come together and give him "credit" for them. In 2018, Trump fired the U.S. pandemic response team. More brilliantly Donald Trump's fiscal year 2021 budget proposal included a 16 percent reduction in CDC funding from the 2020 spending levels. Americans and the press need to keep bringing this up since this is Trump's legacy. More importantly Americans need to demand that this crisis be addressed with the best medical and scientific minds. Unfortunately, having an uncle who was a "great professor, scientist or engineer" is not a qualification for knowledge in these fields.
863
@Son Of Liberty
If this doesn't become a major issue in the 2020 elections that sends him off into the sunset on a golfcart, there is nothing standing in the way of Trump and his small (read: nonexistent) government dismantling what's left of the Union. And states that are anti-Trump will be the first to feel the pain of his political payback.
43
@Son Of Liberty
Has anyone fact checked his claim of having an uncle who was a "great professor, scientist or engineer or whatever". I will wager this is a lie.
32
@Johnny Canuck
You lose (but I understand why you would think trump was just lying again).
trump's uncle was the real deal; he was a electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist. "John Trump was noted for developing rotational radiation therapy. Together with Robert J. Van de Graaff, he developed one of the first million-volt X-ray generators"
4
The virus annihilates the America first/MAGA , patriotism concepts . We're all connected ! Destroys the argument vs universal health care . Promulgates globalism .Seems to make sense for a stronger social net . Shows that the military is useless in certain scenarios . A lot should change after this wake up call BUT IT WON’T .
8
I just keep coming back to this amazing commentary
True virtue never needs to advertise itself. That is why today’s aggressive marketing of personality is so sad. It speaks of loneliness, the profound, endemic loneliness of a world without relationships of fidelity and trust. It testifies ultimately to a loss of faith – a loss of that knowledge, so precious to previous generations, that beyond the visible surfaces of this world is a Presence who knows us, loves us, and takes notice of our deeds. What else, secure in that knowledge, could we need?
http://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-5768-behaalotcha-humility/
The people who support him do not even understand the slightest about how bamboozled they are but his vapidity.
You nailed it Ms. Senior: he is nothing.
17
Deny the fact
Lie about it
Say it's a hoax
Blame the other
Act the victim
Claim false recognition when things get better.
How many times have we been through this before?
39
Jennifer;
I just read the Atlantic piece you provided a link for. Whew, now that I am not weeping and my heart rate is normal I must confess that as a nurse for 35 years (ICU and ED) this strikes so close to home.
How will we allocate resources? If you work in the medical profession you already understand that hospitals are built, staffed and run on the economy of scale, like it or not.
If we have 300,000 ICU beds nation wide, even when there is no pandemic, 280,000 of them are probably being utilized at any given time. There is not 300,000 beds available for new intakes. There are maybe 20,000 at any given time.
How will we be fair in the available resources left?
There was a time when pneumonia (or respiratory failure) was considered "the friend of the old man", do we embrace that old adage? Or do we try to save everyone? Is the vital 60 year old who gets sick or has a MI less important than the 85 year old who lives independently, but has multiple health issues?
Perhaps none of this will come to pass, because we "flatten the curve". This would be the ideal solution to a deep and troubling philosophical, ethical and moral dilemma.
86
@Snow Wahine, having been in public health for many years, your comment just breaks my heart. I hope we come out of this with the strength and perseverance of the America I grew up in. And may the current leadership, who helped increase this crisis be ousted.
24
@Lori B Another reason for national health care is so that these decisions will be made on a moral basis, not a financial one. As an older adult in good health, I accept the idea of prioritizing severed ill younger people over me. As a retiree paying more than $1,000 per month for health insurance for my spouse and myself (not including Medicare for myself), I do so with the expectation that my husband and I will receive all medically appropriate treatment. I expect that Fox will incite their viewers on this very point. If you thought those Tea Party rallies were bad, wait until they are demanding health care at gunpoint. I hope plans are in place for hospital security.
19
@Lawyermom: As an older adult in good health myself, I do NOT accept the idea of prioritizing younger people's care over my care, if needed.
All those young who are vaping away, you have chosen to compromised your lifespan already.
And all those young people jumping on newly-cheap airline flights, who don't care if THEY get infected and who ALSO don't care about possibly infecting others when they get back, THEY can go to the back of the line as far as I'm concerned.
I'm here, I'm productive, and my life matters as much as anyone else's does.
8
Republicans fought against the ACA for ten years. 14 states including Texas and Florida have not expanded Medicaid. Their voters don’t want anyone to tell them what they need to do.
How do you like them now?
122
Is it obvious, yet, that Trump is only capable of negativity and bluster when the chips are down?
It will be before long. Painfully (very painfully, for everyone) obvious.
30
Mr. Trump knows that he and his administration have failed miserably to protect the US public against the Coronavirus and soon things will get worse. So, he is desperate to find something or someone else to blame. His speech was an attempt to blame Europe for the spread of the virus. He avoided blaming China, the source of the virus, since it started there two months ago and he did nothing in the meanwhile
35
I try to make a practice of only listening to Trump if its through the filter of one of the late night comedy shows, but I did try to listen to his speech. What an effort it was. Paying attention would have been far easier if Siri or Alexa had read it. His bizarre monotone and lack of inflection called attention to themselves rather than the meaning of the words he was speaking. My brain continually wandered away from the semantics and back to the performative aspects of his speech. All the effort that could have been going into delivering a compassionate inflectional address went instead into restraining himself from launching into one of his vile insult comic riffs with which he entertains his angry base.
152
@Tim Nelson
Tim: Let's expand our questioning --- just a bit --- and ask "why is Trump's base having so much FUN at his rallies?" The're not ANGRY. There having too much fun at the clown shows.
There always exists a need to examine the complexity of this horrible phenomena in the context of what "the hoax virus" is now "masking?"
Let's begin with a simple question and work our way up the line to the more complex?
Start with: "Why is Mulvaney being shuffled off to work out his personal schemes with the Irish?
WE all caught a quick glimpse of Mulvaney sitting in at yesterday's photo-film-op with the Irish leader.
What is Matt Gaetz up to?
Paul Ryan? Reince Priebus?
What does Mitt Romney really have going on inside his mind?
Lindsey Graham?
Mitch McConnell?
All the pieces fit.
Pompeo.
Putin.
Bin Salman.
Kim Jung Un.
Erdogan.
Tillerson.
What's his name? Oh yes.
John Bolton. . . . etc etc . . .
3
@Tim Nelson I noticed that if you strip out all of the “I” s and the adjectives (best, most, horrible, unprecedented) what’s left is nothing of substance. But I can’t blame Trump- he neither wrote it nor understood what the message supposed to be. He hardly more than a malevolent robot.
7
I would, absolutely, be fine with shutting down the United States for two weeks. It would be the fastest way to test the population for the virus and hopefully would slow down the spread. President Trump's reactions always focus on commerce rather than human life.
38
We can’t test when we still don’t have anywhere near the test kits needed.
14
Trump and his friends think they are being unfairly criticized for their virus response.
I might agree, if it wasn't for the weeks and weeks of ignoring the science and the basics of exponential math, pretending this is just a liberal tactic to hurt Trump. Our daily case growth trajectory looks worse than Italy's right now.
When Democrats take back the White House and Senate, November, I hope there are investigations.
125
My mom was trying to blame the media for overreaction. I tried to explain that you can’t take the number of cases here as an accurate count- we aren’t finding more cases because we aren’t testing for them, & how virus spread & exponential math works. Not sure whether I made an impression or not.
15
The stupidity of a payroll tax cut is breathtaking. Not only does it deprive Social Security of necessary funds, but also its goal seems to be to encourage consumers to go out and spend money and thus to shore up the economy. But being out and about for frivolous reasons is the last thing we should be doing. Instead, those of us who are able should stay home, thus decreasing our chances of contracting the virus ourselves and infecting others if we are asymptomatic.
72
@ Drusilla Hawke But their plan has always been to dismantle Social Security.
31
It won’t help anybody whose paycheck has already stopped. And the tiny amount the low income get won’t be enough to pay the rent and keep the lights on. We need replacement income-and it needs to go to everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you are an hourly worker, a part timer, a gig worker or a prostitute. If we expect people to stay home, they need income to pay their rent or we will see massive evictions a few months from now. People still have to eat and pay their bills. If we don’t help them out, they will have no choice but to go to work. And they will spread the virus.
11
@Mossy They say that the Chinese characters for the word "crisis" are a combination of those for "disaster" and "opportunity".
The GOP will see their opportunity and try their best to take it.
5
Perhaps every die-hard Republican Trump believer should immediately buy a week’s cruise to prove that the media is overreacting.
Frankly, I expect at least 1.5-2 years of this to spread into all nooks and corners everywhere. It strikes me we aren’t that much more capable of understanding the tremendous suffering ahead of us, any more than villagers in medieval Italy understood the spread of the plague. We can stay behind the castle walls but we won’t be any safer if just plain breathing the air is the enemy.
14
There is no doubt Trump and his enablers have done next to nothing to respond to this pandemic, and will continue to do as little as possible. However, I'm unsure whether it's due to their overweening incompetence, or they see an opportunity to declare martial law and suspend the election after things really become chaotic.
31
I dont know, I'm not so sure about this macho argument about soldiering on. If anything it's machismo, or machisma, to have already stocked up and own a gun. Trump doesnt want to lose face with his base. Then, he's just a mere mortal.
7
Given the credulity of their audiences, Trump and Fox can't lose. If the virus diminishes because states, sports organizations, schools and regional authorities institute social separation, Trump and Fox will say, "I told you it wasn't serious." And if cases accelerate, Trump will blame foreigners and the Obama administration. Things like the lack of test kits will never be foregrounded in the Trump/Fox news bubble, and scapegoating will reign. Trump's supporter/fans believe he can do no wrong and he's got plenty of help from people who know better to keep them deluded.
44
Maybe eventually the hard truth will hit them in their lives, they will feel it though they never will admit they were wrong. The rest of the country will be going onward while they always will say that Donald Trump was right about everything but it was the Liberals who got him. This is about who wins and who loses, the Hughy Long fans in the Louisiana 1930's never accepted they were wrong about Hughy. The Populists hang on to their tribal affinities and they never will die. Let's face it, there are Populists among the Bernie's too...I've heard a few say they will not vote if he doesn't get the nomination. My hope is for the Centrists to become cool again.
14
I listened to Bernie Sander press conference yesterday.
The man is a saint. I trust Bernie with my health and the health of my family. Not Trump and definitely not the pony faced dog soldier,
12
@gene We don't need a saint. We need a leader who get something done, express empathy and build coalitions.
3
Then I guess it’s too bad that that isn’t what we are going to get.
2
Career bullies either have not done the diligence or do not understand the magnitude of forces that invariably summon to stop their tracks of compound backlash. Jennifer Senior’s writing is one of those forces.
6
If you want to understand how Trump and friends really think and operate, watch Netflix's new series "Dirty Money".
I speak from first hand experience, first flooded and then infested by rats by a Kushner Company.
These are the people running the corona virus response.
For all we know, what they are saying among themselves is that they hope to get as many democrats and people of color and poor people as possible infected while watching their own.
It's not even much of a stretch to conclude such an appaling thing.
16
It is not racist or otherwise discriminatory to say that something came from a certain place. That's just a fact.
If someone wants to say its xenophobic, i.e., to say that it is de facto xenophobic because this came from China and their wet markets, or whatever, again, this is stating a fact. To say that it is xenophobic in such a case is more like a sophistic argument that really isn't directive of the point itself, and thus attempts to denigrate and invalidate the fact by an appeal to what society considers to be a negative expression - and IMO, that's a dangerous proscription of an otherwise important truth.
In other words, its sophistry. Its gaming the truth. It should be called out, like I am doing here.
Facts may be uncomfortable and may be centered on a certain race or ethnicity, but just because they are does not make them either racist or constitute expressions of xenophobia.
They simply ARE. We should resist the urge to make this deceptive and ultimately erroneous conflation.
2
@Jake
The origin of the "Spanish Flu" has been hypothetically linked to a farm in Kansas. No one knows yet where this "foreign flu' originated. Perhaps in Mar a lago?
14
Fox News became viable nearly 25 years ago when they took on the role of the Devil's Advocate. They focused so much on the everything devil they got rich on it. It was successful. The devil's work got done. Anti-social personalities thrived at Fox.
Hannity et al are very wealthy and preach to poor and gullible people who deserve better. I try occasionally, but can only listen to the Fox demon hosts yelling and lies for half a minute. Cheney was the man behind the curtain during the Bush W administration. Fox rules Trump now, much more than Putin does.
26
Fox, and Big Oil, etc.
You want to know what true panic is? Deer in the headlamps. And in Mr. Trump, we have exactly that.
16
Honestly, I'm at the point with the denial and outright cheering on that aids and abets this evil clown of a President that he and his supporters DO ignore the advice about social distancing to "test their theory".
Is it too much to hope that God sent this plague as he did to Pharoah to "set His people free" from the scourge of Trump?
If He delivers, I'll have to re-think my stance on religion.
27
Isn't it ironic that the Republicans who have been crying wolf for so many years about rationing health care, will ultimately be responsible for it through their support of and complicity with a corrupt and profoundly incompetent president.
We will almost certainly run out of ICU beds and ventilators and healthcare providers will be forced to decide who to save and who to sacrifice.
This crisis could not possibly have been more severely mismanaged. From day one of this "administration", government agencies designed to protect the USA from this type of event have been gutted and scientific research rejected as a "hoax". It is shameful to see an ignorant, barely literate president with zero credibility stand up and repeatedly lie in the face of a global crisis to protect his political interests at the expense of our national interest.
55
@D. Ben Moshe: You are too kind in describing Trump as "barely literate" - he is, IMO, sub-literate. By which I mean that I think he can't actually read, and I'm quite serious when I say that. Look at his signature, which is an illegible scribble that's the narcissistic equivalent of a making great big "X".
3
Wow. From Henry Olsen WP saying it was a neo- Churchillian speech to this. A thousand cuts in one article. Well written. Social distancing, got it.
8
Another major “misstatement” : Trump did not get the health insurers to waive copayments for coronavirus treatment, only for testing. Was this a mere mistake, or was the Artiste of the Deal, hopefully to be the Wizard of Was, bragging about the greatest healthcare deal ever that wasn’t.
13
Beautiful article, Jennifer! Can you imagine how Obama would be handling this crisis right now? Like an adult, like a compassionate, intelligent, strong leader. Sigh. The only upside is this is surely, finally, outing Trump—even to his base—of what a complete empty-headed fool he is.
33
I defy anyone to name one problem that Trump hasn't made worse.
62
@David Henry Lack of employment for late night comedians.
11
But I hear they are going to be off the ad or as well.
@David Henry, PR for Twitter.
1
The art of journalism has basically turned into the craft of finding new ways to express how unappetizing Trump salad is. Can we muster any more outrage and disgust, or is the well limited in depth.
Yes, he's pointless. No... reiterating it makes no difference. This kind of energy should be focused on getting out the vote and sweeping Tweethole and the Enablers into the oldies bin.
2
You are way overthinking this Ms. Senior. Trump wants everybody to ignore reality and believe that nothing really bad is going on so that members of his base do not defect, and orders his FOX lackeys to spread this message. Trump is too dense to even think of working remotely as an elitist/geeky kind of thing.
8
Trump should not talk or tweet for the next few months for the health and safety of Americans and the world.
8
What is required to survive the pandemic is everything the current government and Fox News are devoid of: science, logic, fortitude, strong leadership and sheer guts. It has always amazed me that we have survived as a nation as long as we have under this government. I fear that this will now change and the coronavirus will bring down our country and humble us. Mother Nature is not a force to fool with. She has been firing shots over humanity’s bow for years including more severe and frequent storms, droughts, fires, and on and on. Now she has started taking direct shots at humanity to accomplish two objectives: 1) stop the incessant pollution of her world and, 2) bend the curve of population growth down and reduce the human population. She will have her way, one way or another.
4
South Korea has tested over 200,000. people and even have drive through test centers. New cases of the coronavirus there have been dropping daily for the past week. The US has become a third world country especially as it relates to health care.
26
@Mike There needs to be much more outrage and coverage of the CDC failing -- along with the Administration -- to simply ask for help from Korea (as they should have, the very moment their ridiculous testing thingamabobs failed the first time).
It’s about time the loyalists recognized (viscerally) that the Emperor Has No Clothes!
If this epidemic doesn’t create pause among Trumpistas, they’ll be making excuses for the next 5yrs.
The Trump Kakistocracy has to go. Now!
What will Red States do when those citizens are begging for Medicaid relief? This is the consequence of willful neglect and incompetent governance.
Trump inscribed himself and his administration in the history books as the quintessential Kakistocracy! My grandkids will grimace and gfaw for the next 50 yrs every time the name Trump is uttered.
Amen
12
"swagger about carrying on business as usual "
Maybe it's endemic to Republicans who are totally divorced from reality. I still remember Bush 2 telling us all to "go shopping"...
4
I hate when the reality of life shows up.I like my bubble.
2
Jennifer: great article.
Trump’s followers will never see the reality you just described. If thousands or millions die, he will be credited with saving many more.
Economic damage is Obama’s fault and Nancy’s doing. Maybe Hillary as well.
You’re right about his staging and he knows it as well. That’s why we’ll never see him in the Oval Office again.
No doubt he and his minions are also using this smoke screen to cover other plots in progress.
Hang on!
9
Jennifer,
Excellently thought out article...unfortunately, your premise is that Trump, Murdoch, and Fox News can change. They can't beware all three are so ensconced in their own states of narcissism.
Money (campaign donations and advert dollars) being siphoned from the ads aimed at the very group (age 50+ = 60% of Trump supporters and 52% of FOX audience) who are most at risk to contract the corona-virus.
6
A little more help here.
"three misstatements that had to be clarified..."
.
Misstatements don't have to be clarified, they have to be corrected. So he didn't really make three "misstatements", did he? He made one. And said a couple of other things that had to be clarified.
.
When you're criticizing the guy, why do you always have to overdo it?
@West Coaster I guess to keep up with Trump and his explainers overdoing it?
Thank you Ms. Senior. You said all that needed to be said.
1
Trump continues to be backed by the entire GOP. This fall, we need a clean sweep out of office of these sycophants and self-dealing crooks. Our nation is dying before our eyes.
We need to sweep the Senate, the House, and the White House and elect Democrats. Do your part. Donate, and when conditions improve, doorbell.
30
Might be a good time to watch The Loudest Voice on Netflix; Russell Crowe plays Roger Ailes; about the founding of Fox.
3
As a conservative, I agree. This has become the Fox/Russia presidency. It was fun to have a WWF blabber mouth in the oval office for awhile, but now I see the ramifications. I apologize to my fellow Americans. My fellow Republicans will not.
46
@Mixilplix too late
1
@Mixilplix: It took you THIS LONG to see the jerk for what he is? And you thought it was FUN to have him in the Oval Office for "awhile"?
Well, guess what: He'll be in the Oval Office for at least another 10 months. You have plenty of time to ponder just how much MORE damage your FUN "joke" can do in that amount of time.
2
@Mixilplix, what, exactly, was fun about Trump destroying the country? “Owning the libs?” Proof, once again, that conservatives are sociopathic, period.
2
Absolutely awesome read!
3
Nothing new here. Anyone who expected this clown (Trump) to be able to lead in time of crisis , or anytime for that matter, is self delusional. The Republican propaganda machine must stay true to its self image as the anti establishment tough guy, so how can they really do other than what they are doing? As for the deplorable's that listen to the machine, well, they will probably find out the hard way.
7
So Trump needs crowds, and so do viruses.
10
"I am guessing that something about “remote work” strikes the Trump and Fox base — possibly correctly — as an option for the pampered. It’s what the tech geeks of Twitter and Google do. It’s what the writers and editors of The New York Times do. It’s what the rich kids in Ivy League schools do, as do their comfortably tenured professors."
Well, the average age of a Fox viewer is 65, so an awful lot of them aren't working at all.
This may sound cruel, but at that age, a natural experiment might play out - survival rates of seniors who follow sensible advice from medical experts, vs. survival rates of people who take bad advice from the far-right media.
5
About the best we can hope for regarding presidential leadership is that someone might put Trump in in an induced coma for the next six weeks or so since they can't keep him from running his mouth otherwise.
1
Trump Country is watching Hannity and Fox. They will sadly not be here in 2021.
2
"... Donald J. Trump is no one ... without a crowd."
"Without a press corps to troll or an adoring crowd to feed off, the man is a shell."
"Viruses need crowds."
Therefore, Trump is a virus.
Wonder if we should let him resign immediately in exchange for no criminal jail time, with the stipulation that he exit the public stage, keep his mouth shut, and live in seclusion for the rest of his life.
Bedminster would be a perfect place, not far from the Doris Duke estate.
3
Fox, e.g., Sean Hannity, and Donald Trump, when he isn't droning along with a teleprompter, are still calling this a Democratic hoax. The Republicans are even now extorting the Democrats. They won't sign on to the Democrats' pretty good virus legislation unless they cram a bunch of anti-abortion junk into it. This bad-faith immoral bunch is mad for power, driven by green, too clever by a country mile. No telling right now how many Americans will needlessly die because of these unmentionables. Hundreds of thousands? More?
20
Well put and a good summation of where Trump is incapable of taking this nation. Bravo to those such as the NBA, NHL, MLB......who know what should be done in spite of the total lack of leadership we see from Trump and even Pence. Please vote as if your life depends upon it.
6
"I am guessing that something about “remote work” strikes the Trump and Fox base — possibly correctly — as an option for the pampered... Motoring on through adversity seems, at this moment, like the macho thing to do."
And for Trump, motoring on through adversity is best done in a golf cart at one of his resorts (at taxpayer expense, of course) while neglecting to take care of the needs of the nation.
6
He needs dupes and he has none. He needs villains he can blame and he has none. He needs Democrats to blame and he has none. Everyone else has been the problem but not this time. This time it's a target he cannot see. It's a target he can't turn and point to at a rally. He has run out of scapegoats and he looks like the weak, ineffective, shell of a human being he really is.
19
There is one certainty that the modern political moment has revealed; many, if not most Republicans, lack the ability to appreciate or comprehend abstract, complex and subtle threats. Their denialism of climate change, a process observed over decades and agreed upon by the vast majority of the experts, crystalizes this view. Gun control? They fall to blind dogma (e.g. gun rights are sacred), rather than confronting the ramifications and intricacies the problem that violence and firearms present. The question of economies? Many believe in absolutes, "capitalism is great", rather than understand the nuances of the market.
COVID-19 is no different. Rather than see the writing on the wall, or just listen to the infectious disease experts, they stick to a frightening and ignorant narrative. Up is down and left is right. Many conservative laugh at those who take this seriously, and minimize the human suffering (e.g. 'it is only old people dying'). They believe a grand story that this is a Chinese and/ or Democratic hoax to crash the economy to stymy Trump's election bid. Their conspiracies only get wilder from there, but can't hold a flame to simple principles like Occam's Razor. Simply put, many Republicans are blind and deaf to long term problems which require complex answers. They would rather bury their heads in the sand to fit their narrative.
66
@Alex
Unfortunately this crisis has uncovered what is enduring and sad about Humans: they love to believe whatever it is that will benefit them and make them feel good. Like kids and a bag of candy: they'll eat it until they get sick.
"Countries without universal health coverage are more at risk because in a pandemic the health system is only as strong as the weakest link." A major Wall St investment bank wrote this to its clients.
"Why is US lagging? Because it does not have a health service. It has a health business." Paraphrasing a major British broadcasting firm.
Covid 19 will permanently change the discourse on public health care in the US. This will impact the election.
121
Social distancing, isolation and remote work make great sense. But they are realistic for only a subset of the country.
Yes, our daughters and son-in-law, who work in financials and tech, have already been directed by their companies to stay home and work remotely. They're coming "way north" to stay with us in an area with fewer than two persons per square mile. They will manage the risks to a minimal level.
But what about people who work in retail, in restaurants, hotels, emergency services, public utilities, medical, hair care, or the road crew? They can't stay home. They will be exposed.
Some jobs are so essential (emergency services, medical) that the risks must be assumed.
But retail and others? Where pay is low and options are few?
We are setting up a situation where large swathes of the population -- and the economy -- are being forced to take disproportionate risks.
Washington should go big. There should be a massive transfer program of, say, $5,000 cash per month for each and every US household.
Yes, some will get cash who don't need it. But they key is to immediately get support to those who do need it so they can use the same tools -- social distancing, isolation -- as the more wealthy.
64
@Stuck on a mountain
People who work in retail are going to see their hours cut back. I see no way around that.
2
@Stuck on a mountain
If we live to see a cash payment of more than one incidence I really want to get to watch the heads of all those old white men in the Senate explode! Can you imagine the gore?
Oh, I forgot! Their heads are empty.
With stock markets collapsing and no bottom in sight, and volume down dramatically at service-based businesses (e.g., hotels and restaurants) to the point that mass layoffs are imminent, self-perpetuating feedback loops could spiral out of control to the point of triggering global economic collapse. And that doesn't just mean that "evil billionaires" would lose their fortunes. It could mean that society ceases to function and we enter into an apocalyptic world of anarchy and chaos reminiscent of a sci-fi movie. And if that happens, coronavirus will be the least of our worries and will be replaced by threats to health and life far more severe.
The picture I painted above may be an extreme outcome, but it's one with a nonzero probability. In the mean time, rather than cocooning at home, trembling in fear behind 500 rolls of stockpiled toilet paper, I would like to suggest to those who are not in a high risk group, do not share a household with someone who is high risk, and do not regularly associate with those who are high risk: make it a point to patronize some local businesses this weekend. Have a couple of restaurant meals. Buy something at a favorite specialty store. If you're a little bit more brave, take a road trip including a hotel stay. At minimum, maybe at least consider ordering some takeout or delivery food, or use a drive-thru.
Yes, our personal health is important. But so is our country's and our planet's financial survival.
10
@Andrew Kennelly
This taking everything far too personally, but Trump the con, has made it fashionable.
The time for making money off healthcare is over. The health insurance "industry" is obscene. The US has had more than fifty years to come up with a successful national health alternative. Forty-nine other wealthy nations have done so. I hope every insurance company in America collapses in on itself. Sorry about the collateral damage, dear voters, but the time was right often before now.
37
@Andrew Kennelly Nice attempt to vaccinate after the horse has left the barn. Everyone will be impacted and traveling around town to shop is going to impact more than the business owners.
Stay home if you are able to and limit social spread. Talk to grandpa online and save the hugs.
14
@Andrew Kennelly, go shopping?!! You first...
1
There is a presumptive case of the virus in Maine. It is presumptive case because positive tests need to be retested by the CDC to be confirmed. I wonder if the real numbers will come out of the CDC or if they will be suppressed by the Administration.
34
@Maine Moderate
They will be suppressed on grounds of National Security! Wait and see. That way, Trump can boast how low the number of infected are-- since so few will be tested there will be no stats to show the real level of infection. We will never know the truth-- at least not immediately.
24
@Mr. Darcy's mother: I think we will never know the truth, EVER.
That's what Putin-esque "leaders" like Trump aim for: records are "lost" and numbers can never be verified, resulting in: "Oh, look, it wasn't nearly as bad as everyone imagined!"
2
How much longer are we going to settle for grossly incompetent government at the hands of a minority party with a minority of public support? How much longer are we going to put up with a man who appears to function at the emotional and intellectual level of a four-year-old child and has demonstrated none of the skills necessary to lead or manage our country (despite substantial opportunities to do so)? How much longer are we going to stand for Fox "News" personalities and right-wing radio pundits broadcasting lies and misinformation that now stretch beyond the merely political (kinda undermines the constant cry to clean up or regulate social media)?
278
@NickF As long as the rich can make money off of this..
8
@NickF
I agree but how do we stop it? Fox News is self-reinforcing. And we tried to save the country from trump but the Republicans in the Senate are all watching Fox News or are scared of trump precisely because he has control of the right wing propaganda machine. As another comment suggested, perhaps the only way is to aggressively go after the companies that advertise on Fox until it gets the message. Any other ideas?
3
@NickF Please do not denigrate four-year-olds this way.
5
Donald and Rupert’s global leadership attempts are essentially over. It’s only a matter of how they are removed. I would suggest other family members try to salvage their names by distancing themselves as well for a good long time.
22
Ms. Senior, since you are paid by the newspaper calling this beast the Trump Virus, some education and repudiation are in order for you.
This virus apparently arose in November 2018 in the Wuhan, China vicinity. The initial stages of this crisis WERE MISHANDLED by the Chinese authorities. This allowed the virus to spread without restriction. The courageous MD who sounded the alarm was castigated and he later succumbed to the disease.
The US moved as quickly as reasonably possible. As you know, many in the mainstream news media vigorously opposed POTUS Trump's effort to ban flights from the China to the USA. It is hard to conceive HOW MANY LIVES WERE SAVED by this action.
Yet, we've sequenced the DNA for this virus and many players (government and private industry) are focused on getting test kits out to those who need it (this hiccup was part of the bureaucracy, not a slip up by Mr. Trump) and a vaccine that will meet efficacy/safety criteria will soon be available.
NO OTHER COUNTRY ON THE EARTH has the capability of doing all of this. This army of pathogen fighters would have been deployed NO MATTER WHO WAS IN THE OVAL OFFICE.
I realize that it may very well be a condition of employment to be anti-Trump. The reality is that this virus will not discriminate between someone wearing a MAGA hat and those whose political beliefs swing in your direction.
At a time of national emergency, PLEASE GIVE THE RHETORIC A REST and pray that we can soon return to normalcy.
10
@dmanuta No. The virus first entered the human population in late 2019, not 2018. It is an RNA virus, not a DNA virus. The response has been much quicker in countries such as Singapore and Korea. (The Koreans test more people in a day than the US has tested in the entire two months since the outbreak was announced.) Had the the CDC's office for pandemic response not been de-funded by Trump in 2018, it is reasonable to believe the US response would have been prompter. Dr. Redfield,Trump's appointed head of the CDC with a checkered response to the AIDS epidemic in his past, can be held responsible for the red-tape that hampered so many local attempts to test for COVID-19. And Trump himself can certainly be held responsible for his contradictory and self-congratulatory advice to the public, and for his general inability to consult American and world experts who don't bow and scrape before his "very stable genius."
266
@dmanuta
praying won't make the virus go away. Look at how Australia has handled the situation ... there is a right and a wrong, and 45th and is team are clearly on the wrong side.
37
@xyz - Larry Kudlow is buying stocks. He is going to be a rich guy when this turns around.
12
If we don’t flatten that curve, a good number of people will be flatlining, most unnecessarily, all tragically.
56
It's absolutely outrageous that the administration still does not have a handle on the testing. It really makes me wonder whether Trump doesn't want testing because his "numbers" would be too high. One would think that if that was the case at some point that information would get out and somebody would blow the whistle, especially someone on the task force who have spent their lives in the healthcare field. Honestly, a leader could not do any worse in a crisis than what Trump is doing right now. And the lying about him not being tested because he's not concerned about it? That's laughable. As a germophobe, of course he's concerned about it given all the people he has been in close contact with the last few days who have tested positive. What is it going to take to invoke the 25th amendment? I mean, seriously!
100
@Lake "What is it going to take to invoke the 25th amendment?" When Trump is intubated in an ICU at Bethesda, Pence will be able to get enough of the toadies in the cabinet to declare him incapable of performing the duties of the office. We can only hope that Pence will then succumb too upon which we will have - wait for it - President Nancy Pelosi.
11
@sleepdoc
Unless, God forbid, she gets it.
She too is in the high-risk group ... as are Biden and Sanders and ... Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
If you're the praying sort, pray for Pelosi and Ginsberg to stay healthy.
8
@sleepdoc: From your lips to God's ear!
2
With the caveat that Trump did not inspire confidence or even a call to action, one important lesson here is that state actions are needed to constrain the virus, not the Federal government. Fortunately for us we’ve seen reasonable actions from CA and MA, not so much from WA where reluctance seems to predominate. That said, local academic and private labs could have mobilized testing sooner if FDA regulations hadn’t interfered. Finally, for those suggesting single-payor medicine would be a solution, anyone older than 60 should consider triage practice now in place in Italy - if you are over 65 one is basically sent home to hope for the best. Bottom line is that state and local response will be as or more important than Federal response to get us through this pandemic.
10
I'm thinking we're gonna be saved by The Wall, private insurance, tax breaks, corporate bailouts, and the GOP Senate. It's what we've been hearing from the GOP for years---and maybe they're finally right?
What do you think?
91
@Kraig Hillary voter here:I like the private insurance part and the tax break I got from the GOP.
Kraig:
In a word...
No.
Here's how I think this will play out:
Trump will continue to underestimate the spreading of the virus until it's everywhere in our cities and hospitals are being overrun.
Then he'll come in as the great savior with a huge aid package, he'll deploy Navy hospital ships in front of our cities, field hospitals, everything we got.
People will see him as a great leader in times of despair, his ratings go up to war levels and he'll be re-elected in November.
Please, let me be wrong.
42
@Liz, I think Washington State is a good example of how it's going to play out. First responders will get hit the worst, and the senior living facilities from the golf resorts all the way to skilled nursing, will suffer the worst of it in terms of mortality. They will stop shipping the senior residents to hospitals because there won't be any space or any nurses who will agree to work without proper protective equipment and training. When every other person in the country loses a grandparent they might jsut be righteously ticked off come voting time.
30
@Liz
Your scenario nicely fits with the story that the guy who met Trump at Mar-a-Lago was supposedly tested positive for the virus, was in fact quite healthy with no problem. Trump apparently wanted that rumor to be circulated so he could appear "the invincible hero" and, at the same time, downplay the impact of the virus.
9
@Liz
Even if he did that, it would be too late. Too many people will have died. Too many business large and small will have been ruined.
The damage will have been done. Those of us still can will limp to the polls in November and pull the lever for Biden.
Another scenario is that Trump contracts the virus himself and realizes too late all his mistakes. Pence runs in his stead and loses.
11
What if - just what if - there is no cure? The common cold, a corona virus, has no cure, no vaccine. What if this is another one? One effect seems to be that temperate regions - between 30 and 50 latitude - will be hard hit and tropical regions not so much. The northern hemisphere more than the southern. That has pretty interesting global implications.
Just what if. Stuff for a science fiction story.
23
@Stevenz . While many have worried about over population of the world, nature takes its own course and culls accordingly.
1
@Stephen
One would think it more humane to control population growth by family planning rather than have people face a horrific death.
Referring to this as culling is despicable!
3
@sharon . Nature does not care what you and I think.
I do think the word "culling" was not the right word, but try telling that to nature.
1
Here in California - those tests sent from the government are being severely limited - and are fewer than expected - AND - many of those sent are incomplete! Missing elements required to perform the test.
Same old - Republicans tell everyone gov't is useless - then cut the budgets and eliminate services and perform badly in order to make their claims true.
503
@Susan StoHelit You're correct; government is useless when the Republicans are in power. Democrats may not be perfect but those I know are certainly compassionate, caring people. Notice the Republicans are against a bill which would help people in jobs who need assistance if they get the virus.
111
While at the same time keeping the case number low. Move the embassy to Jerusalem , problem solved. No tests so we can’t know the extent of corona virus, problem solved. Hopes and prayers for the world
30
@Susan StoHelit As I'm reading this a health official in Canada is demonstrating a test on TV. The kit has two components here, a nose swab and a tube with a lid on it. The swab is stuck in your nose and then in the tube and the lid is replaced. How can it be missing components? Maybe the US should import the test kits from Canada, like they do their insulin and other drugs. The only reason there are not more test kits in the US is because Trump doesn't want to know how many cases there are. Some people are suggesting the US Canada border should be sealed. I'm a dual citizen, I chose to come back here, because I am all too familiar with the US health 'care' system, or lack thereof.
29
Why hasn’t anyone seriously questioned why we wasted at least a month, probably more, without any real attempt to stock up on tests. Even now, there were 8 tests as recently as Tuesday, 8, that the CDC verified. It took much work by media to even get that ridiculously low number released. Maybe it’s my justified cynical nature with all things trump has control over, but the greatest, most costliest health care system in the world, can’t get its people tested with two months advance notice. Where are the millions of tests that every civilized country in the world is doing to diagnose and protect their citizens? Where is the outrage from the media?
345
@ElleJ U.S. hospitals requested diagnostic tests in January, or the right to create their own tests. Trump Admin. ignored the requests until late Feb. and that is part of the reason the U.S. is behind. The media has so much to be outraged about with this Admin., it becomes a waste of print and air time to be outraged now. We must be able to diagnose all new cases a.s.a.p. and decide whether they require hospitalization or home quarantine. Media should keep reporting latest news and health directions.
158
@jdsrlf Someone in the admin also made the call not to use WHO tests as a bridge to the CDC developing its own tests. That's a scandal.
215
@ElleJ I wouldn't be surprised if it came out that Trump purposely slow-rolled the testing for the same reason he didn't want people trapped on the Grand Princess to come ashore. "I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship". I can hear him say "I don't need to have the numbers double or triple just because we start testing a bunch of people".
215
Expecting this President to hit the right notes, speak only in facts, identify the main issues and lay-out an expert guided strategy going forward is a little like relying on the family dog to complete your census form. It won't go well.
513
@Dennis W Yup - my money's on the hound.
8
Actually, I think my aussie would do a better job on the census than this administration is doing on the pandemic.
6
@Dennis W
Please don't compare loyal, loving, beings that are capable of learning, to our president.
Thank you.
7
It makes no sense for corporations to spend billions mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on their employees and customers only to spend millions advertising on programs led by the likes of Hannity and Limbaugh and others who did not hesitate to put lives at risk with purposeful lies about the pandemic all to support the Trump/Fox/Talk Radio/Conservative brand.
It makes no sense for shareholders to allow it and it makes no sense for Americans to support corporations that continue to support misinformation through their advertising dollars.
There are ways to reach an audience without putting their lives at risk.
364
@LT
A good point. I don't watch FOX, who are the corporations? With all the vitriol and fawning, I'm afraid my TV would explode if I were to select that channel.
Big donors to trump and the RNC I'd guess. A reckoning is coming!
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The right wing US government will certainly not pass up the opportunity to use this as yet another way to prop up American corporations. That is their sole purpose of being in office. They are so far gone they can’t even conceive of other purposes of governance.
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@LT Fox is a company that sells advertising. The advertisers on Fox are just as responsible as Trump, Fox and the republicans for spreading false information about the virus. These corporations are cruel and greedy and don't care about the lives of the people they target. But they will go right along with Trump and claim it is a hoax.
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