Reality.

At its absolute most brutal. Forget the sunshine bullshit that you’ve heard from the podium uttered straight out of pretend-land, where everything is going to be perfect, and it will be the most perfect pandemic ever, the United States will recover quickly.

No, not according to the real assessment, done by real professionals, who are charged with anticipating reality. Right now, the reality is breathtaking in its scope, and the period ahead of us will be literally like no other in American history, according to the report obtained by the New York Times:

A federal government plan to combat the coronavirus warned policymakers last week that a pandemic “will last 18 months or longer” and could include “multiple waves,” resulting in widespread shortages that would strain consumers and the nation’s health care system.

Or longer.

We ridiculed the Trump for calling NFL owners and begging them to not cancel next season. We did it mostly because the NFL should have been the last thing on his mind at the time, and perhaps a little overdone in its worry. Now, the experts believe that the cancellation is near a foregone conclusion.

The 100-page plan, dated Friday, the same day President Trump declared a national emergency, laid out a grim prognosis for the spread of the virus and outlined a response that would activate agencies across the government and potentially employ special presidential powers to mobilize the private sector.

Some of those presidential actions will surely be needed. And yet this is a president who has always seems to angle some sort of benefit to himself. I could foresee tremendous abuse of those presidential powers.

Could he attempt to postpone the election? I would put it at 50-50 right now that he tries, especially since he’s likely going to go into fall looking like the world’s biggest loser, whereas if he waits until he believes he’s “defeated it” and the economy responds, he’ll play the role of hero.

I doubt he’d get away with it, yet one should never, ever underestimate Republicans. I think the election is in jeopardy.

This report was never intended to hit the public, which is why Trump has been able to keep up his faux-optimism that everyone sees through. If this is what we’re looking at – as reality – we best get going on reality, fast.

Trump’s statement that it could “disappear” almost all at once looks foolish when behind the scenes documents made clear that it is not going to happen:

The plan, which was unclassified but marked “For Official Use Only // Not For Public Distribution or Release,” was shared with The New York Times as Mr. Trump escalated his efforts to curb the spread of the virus. After weeks of playing down the seriousness of the pandemic, saying it would miraculously disappear, Mr. Trump began shifting to a more sober tone during a news conference on Friday announcing the national emergency.

There is a chance that people will relatively quickly develop immunity to the disease on their own, and the virus will have limited impact. But no one in the government is counting upon it (except Trump), and I suspect we shouldn’t, either.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter