The Isolation Diaries No. 31

“Don’t ask me, ask China!” Donald J. Trump

It was only a matter of time until the Trump gang employed a typical tactic in the face of rising American deaths from Covid-19: change the metrics, change the way Covid-19 deaths are reported so that the number appears lower.

Don’t like the hard facts? Create alternate facts, even if they fly in the face of science, logic, and direct evidence. 

Film director Eugene Jarecki has a different idea. Jarecki is the mind behind the Trump Death Clock in Times Square in NYC, a running tally of all the Covid-19 deaths that can be attributed to Trump’s failed response to the pandemic. As of this writing, that number stands at 51,134. The website is worth a look. Here’s a link: https://trumpdeathclock.com.

In striking down the governor’s stay-at-home orders, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has surely laid the groundwork for more infections and deaths. Nice work, ideologues. The bloodstains on your hands will not wash away. Wisconsinites now have the freedom to put themselves and others in mortal danger. Freedom! Haircuts! Bars are open!

Trump was made for TV, not reality. He gambled with the lives of Americans and lost more than 50,000 times. 

As I write this, the Dow Jones is down 383 points, after dropping more than 500 points yesterday. I’m sure this bothers Trump far more than the mounting deaths from the pandemic; human casualties are one thing, but when the Almighty Stock Market declines it’s a crisis for the wealthy and in America we cannot subject our wealthy citizens to any hardship. Back to work serfs! Put your shoulders to the wheel, to the oars, to the mines, open the factory gates and make those furnaces hotter than hell. 

Trump was made for TV, not reality. He gambled with the lives of Americans and lost more than 50,000 times. The script isn’t to his liking, he doesn’t like the arc of the story, so he’s simply going to ignore any fact that makes him look bad. Between now and election day Trump and his gang will deploy every trick and sleight of hand they know to erase history. Pandemic? What pandemic? Oh, you mean the one we triumphed over like no one the world has ever seen? 

Will America survive Trump’s manifest stupidity and incompetence? The country has faced great upheaval before, during the Civil War and the Great Depression. The Reconstruction period helped the nation recover from the Civil War; the New Deal got us through the Depression and World War II, created a deep, wide middle class and a quarter century of economic prosperity. Those were bold, imperfect, controversial responses to existential crises, opposed by many, even to this day. 

What will we do? Which way will we go?