He cares about the numbers “reported,” not the numbers of sick. We saw that yesterday. Trump told reporters he didn’t want to allow the cruise ship in San Francisco emptied for quarantine because “it will make the numbers double because of one ship.” Remember that statement, THAT statement will go down in history as the perfect summation of the Trump presidency, of the “MAGA” movement, remember it well.

Donald Trump’s refusal to quickly test and plot the disease will lead to his downfall, and – most unfortunately, make him a party to the deaths of thousands. That is no longer hyperbole, Trump is sealing his and our fate. For anyone wanting a hard core dose of reality, as to where this country will stand in mid-May, I suggest you read this thread, and start contemplating having your father – or you – needing hospitalization at the same time that hundreds of others in your community need hospitalization, where the hospitals are full, and healthcare workers are too sick to come in, and even if they did, there aren’t enough ventilators.

But Trump “doesn’t want the numbers to go up,” so just like with Puerto Rico, where he didn’t want to count fatalities, we’re in a situation where we otherwise could be slowing the disease down by quarantining people in specific places and allowing resources to catch up down the road so millions don’t hit the nation’s ERs all at once, but we’re not. Because he “doesn’t want the numbers to go up.”

It was just reported on TV that we’re one month behind every other industrialized nation in preparation.

Trump will not survive this. I am increasingly convinced that not only is this his “Katrina” moment, but his “Covid-19 moment” will be infinitely worse, and be studied throughout history. The Katrina response was far too slow – I was right in the middle of it. But in this situation, Trump had chance after chance, and still has chances to slow this down. Yet he’s not. He simply isn’t listening because he’s too stupid to listen to others. We have to do it on our own.

He will not survive this crises when doctors are on TV in late April describing how it is that every ventilator in the country is already put to use because we didn’t test for it and slow the disease spread when we had the chance. Each day we could have slowed it down, is a day to spread out the impact over a much longer period of time, easing the pressures on the healthcare infrastructure and the economy. As summarized in Vanity Fair and related by way of Rawstory, people will remember how Trump reacted, all this video will still be available.

“Trump’s relentlessly sunny characterization of the crisis, despite expert assessments and the reality of the situation, suggests the president is still not taking this seriously enough to sufficiently combat the spread of the virus,” wrote Eric Lutz at Vanity Fair. “Trump can insist all he wants that he and his staff have the matter under control. But it won’t be long before it becomes clear if he’s telling the truth or not.”

Of course, we’re not even talking about the economic impact in a country that doesn’t have paid sick leave or universal healthcare. The economic impacts will be devastating. Austin Texas just canceled South By Southwest, which brought in $350 million to the Austin economy last year. That money is no longer coming to the waiters, restaurants, the hotels, etc. Now multiply that impact by thousands of events, millions, people not doing things because they’re too sick, or because it is canceled in order to quarantine. The economy could crater over two months.

It will all be because Trump didn’t want the numbers to go up in the early days. He saw the markets go down on the original rumors and decided he would stamp out what he believes makes the markets go down, not the number of people sick, but the reported “numbers.” He couldn’t possibly be more wrong, or more stupid.

Soon enough he won’t be able to control any numbers, nor suppress and lie himself out of it, like he did with the hearings on impeachment or Russia. He’s trying to use the same tool. He can’t do it now. The virus doesn’t read his tweets, watch Fox, and cannot be stopped by Mitch McConnell.

“Recall that this refusal to test fits a pattern: This the same president who railed against attempts to count the dead in Puerto Rico post-Maria and canceled a NASA program using satellite and aircraft instruments to monitor carbon emissions,” Klein added. “Ignorance is a lethal political tool.”

Yes, Trump’s ignorance will be lethal. It will lead to the deaths of hundreds to thousands that might have otherwise been prevented if the disease had been slowed to minimize the impact. It will lead to economic instability, maybe a recession – we’ve been due for one. And it will lead to Trump’s political death, and perhaps his own death.

Sound like hyperbole? I am not sure he can live with the ignominy that is coming, a situation where rather than be adored, he is excoriated, and soon infamous. I doubt that he can live in a world where he can’t fool anyone anymore, and that world is coming fast, much faster than had he simply told the truth and followed the advice given.

His ignorance will kill, and it will kill him.

****

Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom