The Clampdown
“‘This is serious.’ Garcetti scolds L.A. for not staying home as coronavirus spreads”
My inbox is littered with Republicans telling me I’ve got the facts wrong and it’s not that bad and we just need to save the economy…meanwhile, while I’m at it, can I stop beating up on Trump, we’re all in this together and he’s doing a great job and is gonna slaughter the Democrats in November.
I awoke to the story of Trump’s inane midnight tweets:
“Trump flirts with a less-aggressive coronavirus response, echoing Fox News”
This must be read in concert with Ben Smith’s article:
This is the legacy of the Trump presidency, facts are not facts, science is not to be trusted and everything is the fault of the elites. If we could just put the uneducated in charge, going by their gut, what feels right, everything would be okay.
Let’s start with the term “Fake News.” Trump has flipped its meaning! Once again, the right defines the debate and the left plays defense, doesn’t stand up for itself. Finally, the left starting calling McConnell “Moscow Mitch,” but they couldn’t even stick with that as Trump has a nickname for each and every opposition player.
But it’s not only the right. When it comes to junk science, the left is leading. It’s the left pushing the insane anti-vaccination story. And the elite left is also anti-doctor. Tell them you’ve got a health problem and they’ll say you should never see a doctor, they’re clueless, you’ve got to take SUPPLEMENTS! There’s an over the counter cure for EVERYTHING! Come on, you know these people, the same ones telling you to now load up on Vitamin C, which has been proven to be ineffective, to take all this fakokta stuff to boost your immune system. No, if you’re in contact with someone who is infected, you’re gonna get it. You might not have symptoms, but you’re gonna get it.
And then there’s the canard that it’s just the flu. The truth is the coronavirus is more infectious, meaning that one person infects many more people, and then there are people who are asymptomatic who infect so many:
“Coronavirus Cases Without Symptoms Spur Call for Wider Tests”
But it gets worse, for every concerned citizen sending articles to their friends there is a concomitant number of people sending articles saying that it’s all hogwash, that the economy is being killed and the virus is overhyped. You may not be getting these e-mails, but I am. This is how the “New York Times” and the rest of big media missed the Trump phenomenon, they don’t intersect with these people on the other side. It’s not just that they pooh-pooh and then ignore them, they have no idea of the information they’re spreading and how they feel.
And then there are the people who say to trust God, I kid you not:
“Dear Bob,
Some of (us) believe in prayer. Relying on the media and politicians is not going to help. God never fails.
Be well.
Steve Digilio”
We are in a crisis of leadership.
If you watch the NBA, and of course now you cannot, you know that when the going gets tough, when the clock is winding down, the superstars, those just a bit better than the rank and file, and the rank and file are quite good in the NBA, say…GIVE ME THE BALL!
Trump doesn’t want the ball. He wants to pass it off, or make like the game is not that important. Whereas…
Andrew Cuomo has grabbed the ball and has run with it.
And now Eric Garcetti too. Garcetti is willing to do and say the unpopular…you can’t go to the beach, you can’t play ball on the public courts, you can’t go hiking in popular places… All weekend people were sending me pics of people on golf courses (now closed) at the beach and at retail stores. No one wants to stay home indefinitely, but that’s what you’ve got to do!
There’s that new video of Italians speaking from the future
It appears video works better than words, so if we could just get everybody’s attention, but we can’t, because we cannot even agree on the facts!
Everybody’s at home watching the flat screen. If we could just get all channels to broadcast a half hour of facts that would help dramatically. Tom Hanks would have been the perfect person, but of course he’s infected! Some other trusted celebrity. And instead of hyping movies on its homepage, Netflix should automatically screen a PSA on coronavirus facts.
And this is a time to unclutter the homepage, Google should have facts right on the search page.
Ditto with Amazon.
We could leverage the power of our institutions, YouTube, even TikTok, where is the challenge for the best coronavirus video?
But we’ve got no leadership.
If you ask New Yorkers, and many others paying attention, Cuomo should be the candidate, not Biden. And maybe if there is a contested nomination process, this could happen. Cuomo has led, he’s the most visible leader, he stands up to Trump and then makes nice, plays him like a fiddle.
And Newsom is doing so much for his Presidential candidacy in the future.
But if we start spreading the truth, we’re gonna get blowback that it’s all propaganda, based on false facts, with an agenda, which is anti-Trump.
That’s where we are today.
With hindsight everybody will say they did not know, they weren’t aware it could be so bad. And then the bad actors will fade in the rearview mirror in an era where what’s news this morning is not tonight.
As for the lack of a bill in Congress, the Democrats are trying to stand up for the people as opposed to the corporations, but…aren’t corporations people too?
Now is not the time for false equivalencies, speak the truth.
And leadership abhors a vacuum. This is what Trump doesn’t understand, just because he is President, that does not mean he’s the leader.
Time to usurp his power and run with the truth.