Day 1181 – We Used to be a World Leader

Day 1181 – We Used to be a World Leader

Monday April 13, 2020 

202 Days until the election on November 3^rd

282 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

In grief therapy they talk about the various stages of grief. I think there’s denial, anger, acceptance, and probably a few others.

I’m pissed. I’m angry. I’ve accepted.

We used to be a world leader.

What does that mean? To me?

It means we used to be comforted that someone, somewhere, knew.

Someone, somewhere knew what was going on, knew what to do.

We had knowledge. We had leaders.

Now?

Most of that is gone and we are reaping the result of that loss.

I’m pissed because it didn’t have to be this way.

We used to be on top of pandemics.

We used to have leaders that took action, that would have stopped this thing early.

Now?

Now we got a guy who measures his success by his ratings. 

We knew this. We knew this about Trump early. We were told. Over and over again we were told. If you say, “Gee, I didn’t know.” Or if you are sitting there saying to yourself, “That’s not true.” Then you need to change where you are getting your information.

There was the Steele Dossier. There were the people in New York who had worked for Trump, been stiffed by him, saw how he operated and told us. There were the shady dealings with his university, with the state prosecutor in Florida, with the contractors stiffed by him, there was the pussy grabbing tape. There was the stuff about him and Russia, the pissing on the bed, the probable money laundering, the shady characters close to him. 

There was Seth Myers recounting how Trump didn’t understand funny. How he would pull out a review of the numbers when he was on SNL. He’s still doing it. He thinks that being a war time president is about having good ratings. He’s told you that.

Now we are seeing reporting from Italy, from Great Britain, from the Bronx about the swamped and over run hospitals, about the shortages of equipment, and of staff. It didn’t have to be this way. 

I hear the reports of how Trump ignored the experts – for months. 

How he declared he wanted to be a wartime president and then did nothing but hold press conferences. What does he talk about? His numbers. His ratings. No one should be surprised. This is who he is. Maybe, you didn’t know it back then, back when Seth Meyers was telling you. But you know it now. 

Is it going to change? No. You know that too. He’s used the same playbook throughout his life. It isn’t going to change.

Several years ago there was a story about the Governor of North Carolina needing something from the Federal Government. He didn’t get it. Trump tweeted that he was going to do whatever it was because Tom Tillis, the Republican Senator from North Carolina, had asked him.

This behavior hasn’t changed. The Governor of Colorado ordered 500 ventilators. Why? Because the president has said – you’re on your own. Guess what? FEMA stepped in and took those ventilators. Then the president tweeted out that he was sending 100 ventilators to Colorado because Cory Gardener, the Republican Senator from that state, had asked Trump. 

Somehow, and this is no longer surprising to me, but when Trump got elected he missed the part that said you now represent all the people.

I heard Obama’s former United Nations ambassador speaking this past week. She was saying that Africa is just starting to get hit with this virus. South Sudan has four ventilators – in the whole country. What’s going to happen when the virus gets there? I quote our president, “a lot of death.” She also pointed out that in our country we have 26 doctors for every 10,000 people. In Africa? Three. Three people for ten thousand, and they don’t have the infra-structure we have. 

We used to go to Africa and help. Remember Ebola? Remember how Obama sent a huge army of people and supplies over there? Remember how the Republicans puffed out their chests and said we shouldn’t go over there? That we should lock our doors and not let those folks in? Well, now you can see the effects of that kind of policy with Trump. How’s it working our?

I am pissed. I am ashamed. I am worried, I am sad.

We used to be a world leader.

202 Days until the election on November 3^rd

282 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS The staircase at Ek Balam