by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Say what you will about the shortcomings of Donald John Trump, and they are plentiful, the man has one extraordinary ability that few can match. Trump is a master at controlling headlines. When the news cycles begin to hammer him, as they have the past few days over is inept responses to the current pandemic that has derailed the American - and world - economies, and his seeming reticence to do even basic testing to determine how far the coronavirus has spread, Trump simply ramps up his rage factor, grabs up his non-government telephone, and begins tweeting.
And the news storyline changes.
Donald Trump told America and the world early on that he took "no responsibility" whatsoever for the cascading medical crisis. To emphasize his innocence in the catastrophe he started flinging blame-crap in all directions. It was Obama's fault, Trump lied. His predecessor had done nothing to prepare for this crisis and had left him with just "junk" to handle the pandemic. (The truth, of course, was that Trump had dismissed the team that the Obama administration had set up to deal with just such a situation, the Trump administration had given or sold supplies that could have been used to fight the pandemic to other nations, and he had steadfastly ignored several reliable warnings about the impending crisis and wasted valuable response time.)
Next Trump tried to blame China - the crisis had started there. Trump and his parrots began referring to it as the "Chinese Virus" and overt efforts were made to fan the flames of anti-Asian bigotry.
Then it was the United Nation's World Health Organization (WHO) that was at fault. The WHO monitors disease outbreaks around the globe and offers recommendations and supplies to national governments, but it has no direct function in the hands-on handling of diseases. But Trump, being Trump, felt compelled to punish the WHO by withdrawing US funding for the organization. It made big headlines and took the focus off of our inept leader for a few more days. It also undoubtedly endeared him to backwoods armed "patriots" who despise and fear the United Nations almost as much as they do the federal government.
But there is an election coming up in less than two hundred days that is extremely important to Donald Trump. If he loses it, he will also lose all of the protections of the presidency and likely wind up in numerous courts defending himself against years of shady business practices and tax maneuverings. If Trump is going to win this critical election, he absolutely must keep his base fired up - and if he can do that while again deflecting blame for any aspect of the pandemic - well, that would just be gravy.
So last night Trump did whatever he does to ramp up his rage - and then he took to Twitter to announce that he would soon be signing an executive order to temporarily halt all immigration to the United States. He wouldn't just be banning Mexicans, or Central Americans, or Muslims - but every damned foreigner in the world. Donald Trump - a man with international business interests and a wife who was immigrant to these shores - and an ex-wife who was also an immigrant - would be totally banning immigration to the United States of America.
And he was doing it in response to the pandemic. The fact that it would make the Proud Boys prouder, the evangelicals more self-righteous, and give Stephen Miller more sexual gratification than a speaking role at a Klan rally - well, extra gravy couldn't hurt - especially in an election year!
Once again Trump had written the headline.
Citizen Journalist
Say what you will about the shortcomings of Donald John Trump, and they are plentiful, the man has one extraordinary ability that few can match. Trump is a master at controlling headlines. When the news cycles begin to hammer him, as they have the past few days over is inept responses to the current pandemic that has derailed the American - and world - economies, and his seeming reticence to do even basic testing to determine how far the coronavirus has spread, Trump simply ramps up his rage factor, grabs up his non-government telephone, and begins tweeting.
And the news storyline changes.
Donald Trump told America and the world early on that he took "no responsibility" whatsoever for the cascading medical crisis. To emphasize his innocence in the catastrophe he started flinging blame-crap in all directions. It was Obama's fault, Trump lied. His predecessor had done nothing to prepare for this crisis and had left him with just "junk" to handle the pandemic. (The truth, of course, was that Trump had dismissed the team that the Obama administration had set up to deal with just such a situation, the Trump administration had given or sold supplies that could have been used to fight the pandemic to other nations, and he had steadfastly ignored several reliable warnings about the impending crisis and wasted valuable response time.)
Next Trump tried to blame China - the crisis had started there. Trump and his parrots began referring to it as the "Chinese Virus" and overt efforts were made to fan the flames of anti-Asian bigotry.
Then it was the United Nation's World Health Organization (WHO) that was at fault. The WHO monitors disease outbreaks around the globe and offers recommendations and supplies to national governments, but it has no direct function in the hands-on handling of diseases. But Trump, being Trump, felt compelled to punish the WHO by withdrawing US funding for the organization. It made big headlines and took the focus off of our inept leader for a few more days. It also undoubtedly endeared him to backwoods armed "patriots" who despise and fear the United Nations almost as much as they do the federal government.
But there is an election coming up in less than two hundred days that is extremely important to Donald Trump. If he loses it, he will also lose all of the protections of the presidency and likely wind up in numerous courts defending himself against years of shady business practices and tax maneuverings. If Trump is going to win this critical election, he absolutely must keep his base fired up - and if he can do that while again deflecting blame for any aspect of the pandemic - well, that would just be gravy.
So last night Trump did whatever he does to ramp up his rage - and then he took to Twitter to announce that he would soon be signing an executive order to temporarily halt all immigration to the United States. He wouldn't just be banning Mexicans, or Central Americans, or Muslims - but every damned foreigner in the world. Donald Trump - a man with international business interests and a wife who was immigrant to these shores - and an ex-wife who was also an immigrant - would be totally banning immigration to the United States of America.
And he was doing it in response to the pandemic. The fact that it would make the Proud Boys prouder, the evangelicals more self-righteous, and give Stephen Miller more sexual gratification than a speaking role at a Klan rally - well, extra gravy couldn't hurt - especially in an election year!
Once again Trump had written the headline.
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