Employing some tact with our allies, even if we were a little frustrated with them, would have proved useful now that China is an even bigger threat

Matthew Continetti has a must-read piece at National Review today on the pressing need for the US to rally its allies in standing up to China. It's not going to be a walk in the park, given the feathers that Donald Trump has ruffled.

Part of the reason we find ourselves at this juncture was the overly sunny view previous administrations had of the Middle Kingdom in its modern Maoist iteration:

America’s attempt to integrate China into the global economy as a “responsible stakeholder” failed. China’s economy has become more statist, its political system more repressive, its foreign policy more bullying, its ambitions more outsized than they were 20 years ago. China did not challenge American leadership directly. It altered the character of international institutions from within.

And the US in those days still had the naive view that various international bodies it had helped create were living up to their charters. The reality was that the world's bad guys were using them to further their aims:

 The multilateral institutions that comprise the American-led liberal international order have been decaying for some time. Coronavirus has accelerated the deterioration. NATO, the United Nations, the European Union, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization — they are unresponsive, unaccountable, divided, demoralized, defunct. The world is a more dangerous place.

We are used to autocratic domination of the U.N. General Assembly and the secretariat’s various commissions. No one bats an eye when Russia or China vetoes a Security Council measure. Less publicized were the concessions made to China as part of the Paris Climate Accord. Or the fact that the World Trade Organization treats the world’s second-largest economy as a “developing” nation. But the way Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the WHO, caviled and covered for Beijing as the coronavirus spread throughout the world is impossible to ignore. Drift, confusion, and chaos result.

And then along came the Very Stable Genius with his bull-in-a-china-shop (excuse the pun) modus operandi:

Where others might try a kind word or some quiet diplomacy to inspire reform and collaboration, he turns against the very institutions America created to force them to live up to their commitments. He browbeats NATO members into spending more on defense. He cheers for Brexit and supports the EU’s internal critics. He cripples the WTO’s arbitration mechanism and threatens to withdraw entirely. He suspends funding for the WHO.

There may be some short-term wins to point to, but there are implications to those:

Allies may accede to your demands, but resentment builds. The foundations of the alliance weaken. Unpredictability inspires fear and caution. If sustained for too long, though, it conveys irresoluteness and fecklessness. Adversaries begin to probe. They buzz flights and collapse the oil price, resume shelling U.S. troops and harassing U.S. naval vessels, begin tailing container ships in the South China Sea.

There's also cyber-espionage, intellectual property theft, the use of American film studios and communications companies with considerable Chinese ownership stake to spread propaganda and sow a general feeling of chaos.

So what is to be done?

By all means, punish the World Health Organization for collaborating with China. But also be prepared to stand up another mechanism to do the good work its founders intended. Go ahead, demand allies live up to their commitments. But also recognize that partnerships of like-minded nations were critical to success in the First Cold War. This is the time to build new institutions that reflect the realities of a 21st century that pits liberal democracies against an authoritarian surveillance state. For every moment that passes without American leadership brings us closer to a world where the sun never sets on the five golden stars.

Building these new institutions is going to require vision, a commodity that appears to be at a premium at present.

How has the Very Stable Genius politically jeopardized the Republican Party? Let us count the ways

It's pretty clear to anyone outside the cult that Donald Trump did himself and the party which let him become its standard-bearer no favors this week. His original remarks the other day about disinfectant and light immediately left even close aides aghast. When he tried to spin them as sarcasm the next day, it was seen as beyond lame.  And now a queasiness is spreading throughout Republican ranks. 

Well, on the level on which things get done politically, the throne-sniffers are still in charge. There is no room for actual conservatives in the policy-making and strategizing ranks. A longtime party activist was kicked off a Georgia state committee Zoom call last night for daring to criticize Trump.

Ms. Moscato, the ostracized activist, now vows to actively support Biden. I've had social-media conversations with a number of actual conservatives who are going to go this route. Personally, it's a bridge too far. I'm closely monitoring Justin Amash's thought processes this week.

But the fact that a number of conservatives really see getting behind Biden as the most viable option in this grim moment speaks to how strongly conservatives feel about Trump's ruinous effect on what we hold dear and have defended as long as we've been culturally and politically engaged. The way it's mainly put when they are pressed to come up with a succinct defense of their position is that the most urgent order of business is the removal of Trump.

There has even been some punditry put forth specifically knocking the consideration of supporting Amash. I've respectfully considered it, but ultimately it boils down to the binary-choice argument that prevailed in 2016 (and which I resisted with my vote on the first Tuesday that November).

No, the fact is that Justin Amash embodies so much - north of 80 percent - of what I'm looking for in a Republican presidential candidate. He'd be someone worth considering even if the VSG were not a factor. And if we keep going down this binary-choice path, when neither of the choices has the slightest appeal to actual conservatives, the principles we stand for and the worldview we embrace recedes to the point of being a quaint footnote in our civilization's history. 

I am not here tossing my support behind Amash. There's a decent chance that I will go that way.

My main point, though, is that we have let, as Rick Perry put it in the last election cycle, a "cancer on conservatism" metastasize into the pathetic mess we're seeing at the nightly pandemic press briefings.  (And, no, you won't get me to digress into a back-and-forth on the fact that Perry took the Energy Secretary gig anyway. That's a conversation for another day.)

Donald Trump is unfit to be president. He has turned the Republican Party into something grotesque, not to mention useless. And, most importantly to me, he has tossed a cluster bomb into the conservative movement, and cleaning up the damage and carnage is a task we ought not to have to be occupying ourselves with in a moment of national crisis.

It didn't have to be this way.

A question for the Very Stable Genius: why are you bugged that Governor Hogan got testing kits from South Korea?

You've been after governors to ramp up their state-level efforts to do more testing, saying that the federal government isn't an "ordering clerk." You even got a little testy about it, pun intended.

Fair enough. Generally speaking, and certainly in regard to this matter, I'm big on keeping government activity as local as possible.

So Republican Maryland governor Larry Hogan, using some connections his South Korean wife Yumi had, obtained 500,000 kits:

The governor said they quietly combatted 13-hour time differences and regulatory red tape to get the shipment, as Mr. Trump says he’ll support state efforts but he expects governors to do the heavy lifting.

So what's up with this?

Donald Trump insulted the governor of Maryland for purchasing coronavirus testing kits from South Korea, claiming he "didn't understand too much about what was going on" while defending the administration's slow response to the pandemic.

The president insisted during a White House press briefing on Monday that Governor Larry Hogan (R—Md) didn’t actually need to purchase the reported 500,000 testing kits from South Korea. The country confirmed its first case of the novel virus on 20 January — the same day as the US — and quickly managed to ramp up its testing capabilities, in turn reducing the spread of transmissions.

“Some of the governors like, as an example, the governor from Maryland, didn't really understand the list, he didn't understand too much about what was going on”, Mr Trump said, citing a list of nearly 5,000 federally-operated labs accepting coronavirus tests nationwide. The White House reportedly distributed the list to state governments in recent days.

“I don’t think he needed to go to South Korea,” the president continued. “I think he needed to get a little knowledge — would have been helpful.”

Governor Hogan opted to be the bigger person and respond graciously:

Mr Hogan also tweeted on Monday night that he was “grateful to President Trump for sending us a list of federal labs”, as well as for “generously offering Maryland use of them” for Covid-19 testing.

He added: “Accessing these federal labs will be critical for utilising the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea.” 

Vice President Pence, as usual, had to play cleanup, a role he's surely tiring of, even though he publicly continues to gush over the VSG:

On Monday, the vice president said about Mr Hogan’s purchasing of testing kits from South Korea: “I wouldn't begrudge him or his health officials for ordering tests."

This was not a good look for a president whose political future hinges on the public sensing that testing is going to become much more widely available.

An ocean of Kool-Aid was guzzled on Laura Ingraham's show last night

Laura Ingraham was one of the very first hard-core Trumpists. In 2015, when several appealing and viable Republican candidates for president were still in the running, she started disingenuously framing the race as a dichotomy between the Very Stable Genius and Jeb Bush, who was polling near the bottom of the pack.

Since then, she's spent every microsecond of her professional life burnishing her bona fides as a throne-sniffer.

She outdid herself last night on her FNC program. She had the nation's premier expert on the coronavirus pandemic, followed by a psychologist better known as a television personality and book hustler than he is for the field in which he's trained.

She was set straight by Anthony Fauci when she tried the couldn't-it-just-go-away line on him:

“On the question of a vaccine, we don’t have a vaccine for SARS,” Ingraham said. “We don’t have a vaccine for HIV, and life did go on, right? So the idea that we’re definitely going to have a vaccine, we didn’t really approach much else in the same way as we’re pegging going back to normal with a vaccine, did we?”

Fauci responded by pointing out the stark differences between HIV, the virus that caused SARS and the novel coronavirus. He said HIV was “entirely different” because researchers developed effective treatments that allow people to live with HIV/AIDS. And SARS, he said, disappeared on its own, which ended efforts to develop a vaccine.

“I think it is a little bit misleading, maybe, to compare what we’re going through now with HIV or SARS,” Fauci told Ingraham. “They’re really different.”

“But, we don’t know,” Ingraham said in response. “This could disappear. I mean, SARS did pretty much disappear. This could as well, correct?”

“You know, anything could, Laura,” Fauci said. “But I have to tell you, the degree of efficiency of transmissibility of this is really unprecedented in anything that I’ve seen. It’s an extraordinarily efficient virus in transmitting from one person to another. Those kind of viruses don’t just disappear.” 

Fauci spent the rest of his time on “The Ingraham Angle” explaining the need for a piecemeal approach to reopening the economy. He stressed that states should meet all of the criteria in each phase of the White House’s guidelines before moving on to the next and remaining vigilant, and willing to close down again, for renewed outbreaks.

Next up was Dr. Phil, who peddles the "reasoning" that other causes of death statistically dwarf COVID-19:

Dr. Phil, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology but is not licensed to practice medicine, spoke about the mental toll of isolation under the stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus. He suggested more people will suffer mental-health issues, like anxiety and depression, because of job losses and economic impacts of the pandemic than will catch the virus.

That’s when the TV psychologist compared coronavirus deaths to those caused by automobile accidents, smoking and drowning. Fauci has criticized the comparison to car accidents in the past, calling it a “false equivalency.” 

“We have people dying, 45,000 people a year die from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, 360,000 a year from swimming pools, but we don’t shut the country down for that,” Dr. Phil said.

Memo to Dr. Phil: none of those forms of checking out are contagious.

Ingraham's show is preceded by one hosted by another of the original slavish leg-humpers, Sean Hannity, who had as his guest Dr. Oz, another television personality and book hustler. He's better known as a pop health consultant that as a surgeon, which he also is.

Dr. Oz's remarks were so offensive he's since had to apologize:

Dr. Oz is backtracking on comments he made on Fox News amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The TV doc (real name: Mehmet Oz) faced backlash for saying on Hannity that schools should reopen to get the country going again — as that “may only cost us 2 to 3 percent in terms of total mortality.” He said those deaths “might be a trade-off some folks would consider.”

The Dr. Oz Show host has since apologized, saying he he “misspoke” when he minimized the risk and potential loss of life.

“I’ve realized my comments about risks around opening schools have confused and upset people, which was never my intention,” he said in a recorded video. “I misspoke. As a heart surgeon, I spent my career fighting to save lives in the operating room by minimizing risks.”

He continued, “At the same time, I’m being asked constantly: How will we be able to get people back to their normal lives. To do that, one of the important steps will be figuring out how do we get our children safely back to school. We know for many kids, school is a place of security, nutrition and learning that is missing right now. These are issues we are all wrestling with and I will continue looking for solutions to beat this virus.”

Earlier today, I posted an essay at Precipice, my Substack page,  on the essentiality of extending grace wherever possible at this precarious moment. I understand that the case could be made that there's little grace to be detected in what I'm writing here. About that I say this: seeking to be an agent of grace at every opportunity does not preclude pointing out the dissemination of poison. Trumpism, when heated to a boil, is a poisonous flavor of Kool-Aid and must be recognized as such. It leads people under its spell to abandon all sense of responsibility in order to advance the glorification of their cult leader.

It cannot go unremarked upon.

 

 

 

The truth that becomes more unavoidable with each passing day

What Jay says . . .

Jay Nordlinger

@jaynordlinger

Pity the Trump 'splainers for a moment. Every day, he gives them a lot of 'splaining to do.

Yeah, the past few days have not been kind to the notion that the Very Stable Genius is brimming with leadership skills. 

He sounded resolute as he put forth what he thought were going to be bold initiatives, but reality had other ideas:

President Donald Trump said Monday he had the “ultimate authority” to dictate to states how to reopen their economies, and that he’d craft his plans with advice from a council of top business, medical, and political leaders.

By Wednesday, both claims fell apart. He retreated from ordering governors to reopen, after constitutional scholars and even some conservative Republicans said it was beyond his power. And he backed away from an economic council, announcing he’d hold a marathon series of calls with business leaders instead.

For the president, it’s becoming a pattern.

Trump’s public statements on the coronavirus outbreak show him running into the limits of his power, as well as his ability to bend events, politicians and even the national narrative to his will. While he’s previously used his political standing and bluster to compel cabinet members and fellow Republicans to carry out his wishes, he’s found a virus that’s killed more than 27,000 Americans so far to be undeterred by his usual tactics.

Governors and business leaders, at the same time, are insisting on vastly expanded testing capacity and increased access to medical supplies before they consider relaxing social distancing practices that have crippled the economy and frustrated the president.

The result: Trump’s record on the virus is replete with rapid reversals and claims that had to be walked back when they later proved exaggerated or even false.

He claimed that the outbreak was under control when it was quietly spreading across the country. He pushed an Easter reopening only to be dissuaded by doctors who stuck to the facts. He said any American could obtain tests for the virus when the diagnostics were in scarce supply. He promoted a nationwide website that ended up serving only a few communities and a drug that hasn’t been proven effective against the disease.

The assistance programs are off to a shaky start as well:

“Why don’t you say, ‘It’s gotten off to a tremendous start, but there are some little glitches’ -- which, by the way, have been worked out? It would be so much nicer if you’d do that.” – President Trump, April 6, White House Briefing Room, Washington, D.C.

The president has repeatedly denied any problems with the Paycheck Protection Program, a tentpole of the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus passed by Congress to blunt the fallout from the coronavirus shutdown, calling it a “very successful rollout.”

There’s been reason for cheerleading, with the program likely to have fully obligated its $349 billion initial allocation as soon as Wednesday. But it has also been plagued by glitches at the Small Business Administration’s website as well as bureaucratic and legal wrangling between government agencies and banks.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week asking him to waive a requirement in the law requiring banks to disburse the money within 10 days of approving a loan, saying “initial compliance challenges have tested the mettle of banks nationwide and limited their bandwith to disburse the required capital.”

And one website that has crowd-sourced information about the loans – covidloantracker.com – says that of more than 9,000 small businesses who applied for the government assistance and reported data to the site, just 5% had received money by Wednesday morning.

Businesses are also struggling to access assistance through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which provides small businesses with loans of as much as $2 million. Requests for the funds have far exceeded the $17 billion allocated by Congress, and the National Federation of Independent Business said in a letter sent to congressional leaders on Tuesday that its research found “none of the small business owners who applied for EIDLs have received a loan or an emergency grant.”

“Small businesses are relying on these loans and grants and are exhausting reserves and savings while they await delivery,” the trade group representing small businesses wrote.

Trump faces another potential political liability after the Treasury Department decided to redesign stimulus checks being sent to Americans to include the president’s name. Administration officials are worried the change could further delay processing and distribution of money to individuals who don’t receive tax rebates through direct deposit, the Washington Post reported.
“I do understand it’s not delaying anything and I’m satisfied with that. I don’t imagine it’s a big deal,” the president said Thursday.

His bluster yesterday about invoking the power to adjourn Congress to get recess appointments for an undersecretary of agriculture, two Federal Reserve seats, and a Director of National Intelligence strikes some as ill-advised:

Jonathan Turley, a constitutional lawyer who argued against Trump's impeachment last year, said the power has never been used before "and should not be used now." 

"Senators of both parties should vote to support the congressional control over adjournment. Absent a 'disagreement' there is no presidential power to adjourn under Article II. A pandemic should not be an invitation for pandemonium," he tweeted.

Barb McQuade, a former federal prosecutor and University of Michigan law professor, questioned whether Trump really has the power to dismiss Congress.

“No and no. Trump has no authority over a separate and co-equal branch of government. It is odd that he keeps boasting of authority he lacks, while rejecting responsibility he has," she said. 

One thing the pandemic has made clear that China is not just a rival. It is at least an adversary and maybe ought to be regarded as an enemy, our deep business ties to that nation notwithstanding:

We often ascribe a basic level of humanity to even the cruelest leaders, but People’s Republic of China leader Xi Jinping’s actions have forced us to rethink this assumption. Although the emergence of the novel coronavirus now known as SARS-CoV-2 was probably not due to China’s actions, the emphasis that its authoritarian system places on hiding bad news likely gave the disease a sizable head start infecting the world. But most ominously, China’s obsession with image and Machtpolitik raises serious questions about its lack of moral limits.

At some point the Chinese Communist Party learned of the epidemic and made a decision to hide its existence, hoping it went away. Exposés in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Postand the Chinese mainland’s Caixin show that the information that did flow out of China early in the crisis did so only because of the courage of individual Chinese people in the face of government repression. People in the Wuhan epicenter, however, began to get wise — and scared (here and here) — by the end of December 2019, forcing their government to say something. The authorities gave the impression of a nontransmissible disease already under containment. We know now this was entirely false, likely designed more to ease civil unrest than protect the people.

The mayor of Wuhan even suggested that the central government prevented him from revealing details about the epidemic until January 20. Considering the first public announcements came out of Wuhan on January 1, we can assume that Xi had a sense of the danger prior to that.

Clearly, downplaying the disease wasn’t working and it was time for the Party to get serious. But how serious? Would it provide full cooperation to the international community? Would being seen as the source of this virus hurt its international image? Beyond these, there was a darker dimension: the more Beijing cooperated, the less the disease stood to affect other countries. This includes countries China sees as a threat to its existence, like the United States. Why should China suffer the effects of a pandemic while others stayed safe — and increased their strength relative to China — based on China’s own costly experience?

Now, a longstanding bedrock principle of commonly understood conservatism is that a leader of a Western nation - and in particular a US president - does not appease nations with aims inimical to its own. That went out the window with Trump's stance toward China. But then, nearly everyone, even most Trumpists, understand that he is no conservative.

His track record incudes statements like this:

"China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus," Trump tweeted on January 24, "The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!"

Speaking on Fox News on January 30, Trump said China was "working very hard" to stop the coronavirus outbreak.

"And we are in great shape," he said. "China is not in great shape right now, unfortunately. But they're working very hard. We'll see what happens. But we're working very closely with China and other countries."

And this:

In a series of tweets on February 7, Trump again praised the Chinese President's handling of the crisis.

"Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is easy, but he will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone. Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!"

That same day in a press conference, Trump said he spoke to Xi, who said the country was handling it "really well." 

"I just spoke to President Xi last night, and, you know, we're working on the -- the problem, the virus. It's a -- it's a very tough situation. But I think he's going to handle it. I think he's handled it really well. We're helping wherever we can."
Three days later, on February 10, Trump again praised China on Fox Business saying they had the outbreak under control. 

"I think China is very, you know, professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control," Trump said. "I really believe they are going to have it under control fairly soon. You know in April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather. And that's a beautiful date to look forward to. But China I can tell you is working very hard." 

And this:

Speaking to reporters on February 23 on the White House South Lawn, Trump was asked if Xi should be doing anything differently in his handling of the crisis.

"No, I think President Xi is working very, very hard. I spoke to him. He's working very hard. I think he's doing a very good job. It's a big problem. But President Xi loves his country. He's working very hard to solve the problem and he will solve the problem. OK?"

In news conferences on February 25 and 26,Trump again praised China for "working very hard" to fight coronavirus. On February 29, he praised measures put in place by China and said similar measures could be put in place in the US to prevent spread.

"We've been in very close contact with China, including myself with President Xi. He very much wanted this to happen," said Trump. "He wanted this to get out and finished and be done. He worked -- he's been working very, very hard, I can tell you that. And they're making a lot of progress in China." 

And speaking of appeasing enemies, this is what North Korea, whose Dear Leader writes beautiful letters, has been up to lately:

North Korea on Sunday fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea, South Korea and Japan said, continuing a streak of weapons launches that suggests leader Kim Jong Un is trying to strengthen domestic support amid worries about a possible coronavirus outbreak in the country. 

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the projectiles flying from the North Korean eastern coastal city of Wonsan into the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Sunday morning. The projectiles flew about 230 kilometers (143 miles) at a maximum altitude of 30 kilometers (19 miles), the statement said.

The sum total of these developments is not reassuring.

Some folks really need to consider that they're playing with fire

It was too much to ask, wasn't it?

However noble the impulse, it turns out to have been a fool's errand to hope that post-America could rise to the level of unity that the United States of America could muster in such instances as responding to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Then again, maybe that was the outlier. Really, when else has the nation so rallied? The Civil War was the antithesis of coming together. There was a brief - very brief - moment of unity after the September 2001 attacks. We started politicizing hurricane responses a few short years later. After identity politics thoroughly polluted our institutions ranging from universities to corporations to the realm of arts and entertainment to religion, it had probably become impossible to assume a common purpose for anything predicated on our basic roles as Americans.

And then, in terms of our choices for president, we swung between a standard-bearer for the view that America had been inherently unfair throughout its history, was in need of fundamental transformation and had much to atone for on the world stage, to a huckster peddling a return to some kind of tawdry and vaguely conceived "greatness" that cobbled together a mishmash of elements from irreconcilable worldviews.

It was enough to make a continent-sized nation state dizzy indeed.

And then came this, a crisis with no precedent that could provide any set of guidelines. It was ripe for a cacophony of hot takes, accusations and reciprocations.

No one is permitted to have an assessment along the lines of, "Given the sociocultural circumstances going into this, we did about as well as could be expected." This crisis either has to be treated with the kind of urgency that leaves questions of permanent damage to individual sovereignty sidelined indefinitely, or minimized so that we can have a V-shaped economic recovery and put this episode behind us like a bad dream.

Let's here address what could be seen as refutations to my point. Both Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo have praised President Trump's cooperation and quickness to provide material resources they've requested. That's encouraging indeed.

But we'd be remiss to overlook the fact that Newsom has said that the current crisis presents an "opportunity for reimagining a [more] progressive era as it relates to capitalism" and that "we see this as an opportunity to reshape the way we do business and how we govern." Cuomo's track record shows that he is no less an inhabitant of that end of the ideological spectrum, having announced legislation in January of this year to permanently ban fracking, and and a year earlier signing a bill legalizing abortion up to the moment of birth.

Democrats in Congress have twice now, since this virus has brought our economy to its knees, held up aid packages that would get cash money directly into the hands of businesses and individuals in order to load those packages up with wish-list nods to environmentalism and identity politics.

And left-of-center elected officials quite plainly have accomplices in the news-reporting industry - "the mainstream media." Two things about that: A.) It's undeniable and on display daily across an array of print, broadcast and online outlets, and B.) There are solid, responsible fact-gatherers and analysts at most of those same outlets. It's childish to paint them with such a broad brush that point B doesn't get acknowledged.

That the preponderance of the journalistic realm has leaned left has been a fact for decades. It went after Reagan and both Bushes with an aggressiveness that stood in glaring contrast to its treatment of the Clinton and Obama administrations. If there is a heightened intensity to its attack-mode way of operating in the Trump era, it's due to the fact that, in addition to the normal seething resentment that a Republican won the most recent election, Trump, as everyone who is not a diehard Trumpist can see, is uniquely obnoxious, narcissistic, petty, and impulsive among U.S. presidents, at least in the last 150 years.

And now, having set the table thusly, I say this: It is that factor - Trump's unfitness - that is the more significant influence on our difficulty with being effective in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. There is, of course, what he does and doesn't do that directly affects day-to-day attempts to meet the challenge, but, at least as importantly, how the blind fealty to him among his cult worshippers clouds their ability to take in the full array of considerations before us.

Let's start with the man himself, though. Only a Trumpist unwilling to take his full measure - a columnist willing to title a piece "The Very Remarkable Donald Trump," for instance - can overlook ominous expressions of authoritarianism such as this:

For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect....

....It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!

or petty, unseemly and distracting preoccupations such as this:

Just watched Mike Wallace wannabe, Chris Wallace, on

@FoxNews

. I am now convinced that he is even worse than Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Meet the Press(please!), or the people over at Deface the Nation. What the hell is happening to

@FoxNews

. It’s a whole new ballgame over there!

Now, on to what slavish devotion is bringing out in his slavish devotees. It's made Wayne Allen Root call for replacing Doctors Birx and Fauci with Larry Kudlow at the daily briefings. It's made Laura Ingraham call for Trump to announce to said doctors a firm May 1 date for "opening the country back up" and demanding that they deal with formulating a protocol to accommodate that.

It's led the likes of engineer-entrepreneur-Senate candidate Shiva Ayyadurai to float conspiracy theories about Dr. Fauci being a puppet of "Big Pharma." It's made it necessary for Dr. Fauci to need a security detail.

What do these people, from the Very Stable Genius on down, envision after this "opening the country back up" has been accomplished? I'm not even just talking about the very real public-health risks involved. I'm not even just talking about the reconsiderations American business will need to undertake regarding its heavily China-dependent supply chains. Do they not see that very real transformation has taken place regarding who we are culturally and spiritually? You do not sequester the entire populace in its homes for two months or more and expect it to re-emerge as if the whole episode were a mere hiccup in our history.

We're at a point at which people had better consider that their utterances have consequences. Yes, economic resuscitation is an integral factor among those that need to be balanced. Yes, this is taking a toll on the psyche of a people known for action-taking. But when we are at the point of ginning up raw, inflamed animosity toward an objective public-health expert, when the U.S. president shows himself to be utterly ignorant of long-established understandings of the purviews of the federal-level executive and legislative branches, as well as of the relative purviews of the federal government and state governments, and when a public intellectual who had at one time rightly earned respect as a champion of our civilization's bedrock principles has so completely swallowed the Kool-Aid as to deny that we're in a pandemic, we're at an alarming juncture indeed.

It's often said by perpetual optimists these days that "we'll get through this." Of course we will. The kind of shape we'll be in when we do, though, depends on whether ostensible adults can get a grip on themselves and choose to assume little responsibility.

 

Dr. Fauci just keeps speaking the plain truth, and still, the Trump cult worshippers seek to villlainize him

He was just speaking with his customary candor:

Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that "no one is going to deny" that more lives could have been saved during the coronavirus crisis if the Trump administration had implemented social distancing guidelines prior to March.

Why it matters: The New York Times reported Saturday that the administration’s top public health experts, including Fauci, concluded on Feb. 21 that the U.S. would need to move toward aggressive social distancing even if it would disrupt the economy and millions of American lives.

• The National Security Council office that tracks pandemics received intelligence reports in early January that predicted the virus would spread to the United States, per the Times.
• It began raising options like keeping Americans home from work and shutting down cities the size of Chicago to stop the spread of the virus. The White House ultimately did not announce social distancing guidelines until March 16.

What they're saying: "As I've said many times, we look at it from a pure health standpoint," Fauci said. "We make a recommendation. Often the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it's not. But it is what it is. We are where we are right now."

• "I mean, obviously you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those kinds of decisions is complicated."

But the throne sniffers are out in force on Twitter, portraying him as being motivated by a desire to subvert the Very Stable Genius. 

The past six weeks have done nothing to diminish their worship of the man-child in the Oval Office.

It's true that most of the media - save for the Trumpist outlets and networks - leans left. They have for decades. They had it in for Reagan and both Bushes. They have it in for Trump for two reasons: the fact that he won the last election and the Democrat didn't, which always fuels their aggressive bias. and the fact that anybody - left, right, or in between - whose eyeballs are not floating in Kool-Aid can see how obnoxious and off-putting he is.

But that's at most half the story. Trumpists are every bit as unhelpful in this crisis.

Barney & Clyde - season two, episode seven

It's here.

Social distancing doesn't prevent your favorite conservative and libertarian from delivering their unique brand of analysis fortnightly and forthrightly. So pour yourself something bracing and join us for a discussion of

1. Bad Ideas that will not die: Price controls and government price fixing... is price gouging a good thing?

2. Maybe Someday we'll try a free market: What does it mean when Trump says "open the country back up?"

3. Silver Linings: Positive outcomes of the COVID-19 Pandemic

4. The fine line between caring and grandstanding: Bernie once again lets down his entire movement and they are no longer having it. 

A word of caution: in the Bernie Sanders segment, we play a clip from lefty comedian Jimmy Dore, who gets pretty potty-mouthed. You might want to keep the kids distracted.

Easter greetings

This is obviously the strangest Easter any of us have experienced. I am seeing encouraging glimmers of community among Christians. Online services abound. Social media is full of greetings rooted in real faith.  People are offering musical performances.

We all know what the backdrop is, though. A rampant virus, the resultant lockdown, and the politicization and polarization that had characterized the cultural landscape for some time and that persist in a moment when unity is the elusive nectar of which parched souls dream.

Still, there's something that burns in our hearts even though despondency lands in our guts. It's a pure flame that illuminates everything, when given our full focus. It renders our travails as of no lasting consequence.

If you really take in that Christ's rising was a literal event, that it was as visceral as it was spiritual, there's a hope that becomes the overriding factor in how you proceed into this day and into the rest of your earthly life.

The human species has seen a lot of amazing things throughout its time on this planet - astounding human achievements, as well as the horrific consequences of our worst natures. Human lives, if they last any appreciable length of time, are filled with everything from the most delightful mirth and rewarding relationships to the most rotten and teeth-grinding despair.

But one Sunday morning a couple of millennia ago, the meaning of it all came together in a man who joined two others as they walked to Emmaus. The other two at first didn't see anything remarkable about him. He was about their height and complexion. But once they recognized him, they understood the difference between that which passes away and that which is an immutable bedrock.

There's something besides the parade of confusing and transitory occurrences that comprise this world. That parade is not the last word about reality.

There's something absolutely pure, completely impervious to defilement.

It's Him. Beckon Him to sit at your table and make plain your real nature.

The virus is impervious to arbitrary dates for "opening back up"

That's the title of my latest piece over at Precipice.

Tuesday roundup

Stephanie Grisham's out as White House press secretary - on her way back to being Melania Trump's right-hand woman - and is being replaced by an up-to-her-eyeballs cult worshipper, Kayleigh McEnany. 

Well, well. Apropos my post from earlier today, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has offered his resignation. 

In two memos, one from late January and one from late February, VSG economic advisor Peter Navarro warned his White House colleagues that coronavirus was going to impose a grim set of circumstances on the nation. 

An excellent Bulwark piece entitled "Why Trump Fired An Inspector General - And Why It Matters" by law professor Kim Wehle.

The District of Columbia Federation of Musicians has reached a deal with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that will allow members of the resident orchestra to take a pay cut while furloughed and a wage freeze for the remainder of the year.

This entire episode does not speak well for this guy's dispositional stability

First of all, he did this. Pretty much the opposite of a morale booster, especially in light of the way, per that now-famous video, Corzier's crew cheered him as he disembarked the ship alone:

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly made an unhinged speech to the crew members of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, in which he lashed out at former Capt. Brett E. Crozier and told sailors to stop complaining and do their jobs.

Modly fired Crozier on April 2, two days after the San Francisco Chronicle published a leaked copy of a memo written by Crozier, in which he warned his superiors that sailors aboard the aircraft carrier would die of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) unless about 90% of the crew were moved into individual quarantine. Crozier has since tested positive for the coronavirus.

“If he didn't think, in my opinion, that this information wasn't going to get out into the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naive, or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this,” Modly told the Theodore Roosevelt’s crew on April 5. “The alternative is that he did this on purpose. And that's a serious violation of the UCMJ which you are all familiar with.”

CNN reporters Barbara Starr, Ryan Browne, and Evan Perez confirmed with Navy officials on Monday that Modly’s comments were accurate. The story was first reported by the Daily Caller.

Modly's spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Task & Purpose on Monday.

Modly also chastised the Theodore Roosevelt’s crew for cheering Crozier when he left the ship, claiming the former commanding officer’s memo caused concern among residents of Guam, where the ship is currently docked.

“So think about that when you cheer the man of the ship who exposed you to that,” Moldy said. “I understand you love the guy. It's good that you love him. But you're not required to love him.”

"Crew of the Teddy Roosevelt, you are under no obligation to love your leadership, only respect it," he continued. "You are under no obligation to like your job, only to do it. You are under no obligation, you are under no obligation to expect anything from your leaders other than they will treat you fairly and put the mission of the ship first."
The acting navy secretary took aim at the Theodore Roosevelt’s crew, telling them their only concern right now should be how they can help each other during the crisis.

“That's your duty,” Modly said. “Not to complain. Everyone is scared about this thing. And let me tell ya something, if this ship was in combat and there were hypersonic missiles coming in at it, you'd be pretty fucking scared too. But you do your jobs. And that's what I expect you to. And that's what I expect every officer on this ship to do, is to do your jobs.”

Modly said he was incensed that Crozier wrote in his memo that the United States is not at war. In fact, China is to blame for the current coronavirus pandemic because it hid the scope of the problem, said Modly, who also accused the Chinese of not being as transparent as the Navy.

On April 2, Modly told reporters that he had no information that Crozier provided his memo to the San Francisco Chronicle. But in his speech to the Theodore Roosevelt’s crew, Modly accused Crozier of believing the media was part of his chain of command.

He went on to attempt to make Crozier the bad guy:

The acting Navy secretary also blamed Crozier for creating a “big controversy in Washington, D.C.” that has had Modly’s life difficult by creating the narrative of “a martyr CO, who wasn't getting the help he needed.”

“If I could offer you a glimpse of the level of hatred and pure evil that has been thrown my way, my family's way over this decision, I would,” Modly said. “But it doesn't matter. It's not about me. The former Vice President of the United States Joe Biden suggested just yesterday that my decision was criminal. I assure you that it was not. Because I understand the facts and those facts show that what your captain did was very, very wrong in a moment when we expected him to be the calming force on a turbulent sea.” 

Now he's attempting to walk his outburst back:

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly apologized to crew members of the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its former commander Monday evening over remarks he made earlier in the day calling Capt. Brett Crozier "naive" or "stupid."

"Let me be clear: I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive or stupid," Modly said in a statement obtained by several media outlets. "I think, and always believed him to be the opposite."

"I believe, precisely because he is not naive or stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it to the public domain in an attempt to draw public attention to the situation on his ship," Modly added.

Modley added, "I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused. I also want to apologize to directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused."

I find his original remarks disgusting, but this albeit lame attempt at a walkback indicates the lack of resolve of which he was accusing the Roosevelt's crew.

Look, I know we can all get a little jumpy in this current climate. But I think it's still possible to ask oneself, "Is it prudent to spew what I'm about to spew? Are there ramifications that will outweigh any good I think I'm doing?"

It's time for Modley to be relieved of his duties.

 

 

Now, what's up with this?

Dr. Fauci is now getting threats and has had to have his security beefed up.

He's also getting "unwelcome communications from fervent admirers."

For crying out loud, people, the guy is a scientist, an epidemiologist. He is arguably the most objective voice not only on the task force but in the nation.

Look, I know we are all getting nervous about the public policy aspect of this crisis, but if there's anyone we ought to not make into a lightning rod at this time, it's him. Let's not make him into yet another celebrity about whom we must have some kind of strong emotional reaction.

I hope that's still possible in an age in which we've taken cult worship of the person occupying the presidency to ridiculous levels and used it to insist that anyone else involved in public policy formulation take their cue from said occupant:

Fauci has become a public target for some right-wing commentators and bloggers, who exercise influence over parts of the president's base. As they press for the president to ease restrictions to reinvigorate economic activity, some of these figures have assailed Fauci and questioned his expertise.

Last month, an article depicting him as an agent of the "deep state" gained nearly 25,000 interactions on Facebook - meaning likes, comments and shares - as it was posted to large pro-Trump groups with titles such as "Trump Strong" and "Tampa Bay Trump Club."

It would be embarrassing at a less dire moment, but is truly alarming now that there are elements out there trafficking in this kind of infantile garbage.

Anthony Fauci is the smart guy in the room. He clearly has no agenda beyond arresting the spread of this virus. Let's listen to him, so we don't have a more grim spring than we are already set to have.