By David M. Greenwald
On Facebook yesterday, I saw that a certain elected member of a regional city’s city council posted a meme: “Donald Trump locked in a room with Melania for 14 Days… Trump wins again.”
Some of you know whom I am talking about, but it doesn’t matter that much. I found the meme pretty telling—not just because they deemed being locked in a room with Melania as some great outcome, but also because it is emblematic of the problem.
It’s all a big joke—COVID, that is. The post got lots of likes and a dozen shares. But as the day wore on, the sense of foreboding seemed to overwhelm the frivolity.
They are trying to play down the severity of the situation here. They have described Trump as having a “low-grade fever,” cough and some fatigue.
Some experts have opined that the critical days ahead, from days 5 to 10, are when the severe symptoms normally show.
Lets be honest—I’m not sure you put the president of the United States into the hospital on experimental medications for a situation that is not severe. After all, you can bring medical staff into the White House and give him around-the-clock care.
If this sounds conspiratorial, it is really just healthy skepticism. When Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, the nation was not informed and did not learn until much later just how grave the condition of 
the president was. (See: A closer call than we knew).
But the severity of the illness and the level of concern aside… as a morality tale, this would be rather fascinating. As one person put it, this isn’t a morality tale—this is science.
Indeed, but the lesson here is that when you brazenly ignore the best scientific advice and the advice of public health officials, you are playing with fire.
So far five people have tested positive including the President and his wife, Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway and Thom Tillis.
Nate Silver in a tweet last night made the interesting observation: “RGB dies 6 weeks before the election and the ceremony at the White House to name her replacement turns into a COVID-19 superspreading event is, on the one hand, a remarkably strange sequence of events, but on the other hand chock-full of foreseeable risks that went unprevented.”
And that’s really the bottom line of this whole thing—foreseeable risk. Maybe worse.
The culture in the White House has been that masks are a sign of weakness. You listen on social media about people refusing to wear masks because they view it as a sign of fear—and they don’t want to live in fear. Even embedded into that notion is the false belief that you wear the mask to protect yourself rather than others.
The problem here is they flaunted this virus from the start. We have the slew of comments that it is going to disappear or that they have it under control or that it is just like the flu—even as Trump told Bob Woodward, he knew darn well in February it was far worse than the flu.
They were reckless—they continued to host events and, contrary to claims at the debate, many of these were inside. The events took a toll, as Tulsa did leading to the death of Herman Cain, for one example.
The photos from the Rose Garden Ceremony show the White House staff sitting together, no social distancing and the word around was that masks were not only not worn, but openly ridiculed.
In a pointed editorial, the LA Times writes: “No matter how you feel about Trump’s performance as president — and we feel pretty strongly that it has been a disaster — this is another crisis for a nation reeling from a year that almost seems apocalyptic: Trump’s impeachment, COVID-19, a popular outcry over racial injustice, the deaths of John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, catastrophic wildfires.
“And now this: A reckless president whose irresponsibility has endangered not only himself and his family but the stability of the country by throwing the executive branch into chaos. Another crisis, this one fully of Trump’s own making.”
Keep in mind as well, Trump is in the high-risk category. He’s 74 and he is considered obese.
One of Trump’s closest aides, Hope Hicks, experienced symptoms and tested positive for the coronavirus Wednesday. In fact, she was said to be very ill.
Despite knowing this early in the day, the Times reports, “Astonishingly, Trump went ahead with an indoor fundraiser at his New Jersey golf club.”
This was not a good week for the President. The revelations about his taxes were dwarfed by his performance at the debate, and now this threatens to prevent him from taking to the campaign trail at a time when he has just a month left until the election—and serves as a reminder of his lackadaisical response to the pandemic that has been seen as the chief reason why his support and prospects for re-election have declined over the last six months.
It seems that this was probably inevitable—the timing however, probably couldn’t be worse.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
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Risk like this? The Speaker of the House getting her hair done without a mask when all beauty salons were shut down in SF?
https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2020/09/640/320/nancypelosi-NEWSLETTER-xx.jpg?ve=1&tl=1
As usual, attempting to turn the channel… But there is a difference between doing something stupid once and creating a culture of stupidity that permeates the WH.
The president of the United States, who you have affirmed you plan to vote for, put hundreds of people at risk. He exposed his own son, the family of the Supreme Court nominee, high-level administration officials and legislators, the White House press pool, the staff at the White House — all exposed to COVID-19. He was fully aware of how dangerous it is and what simple measures could be taken to prevent the spread. He mocked those practices and flagrantly violated them in public, over and over.
And you come up with this? Sometimes your comments are so vapid and laughable that I think you’re being satirical. But evidently you’re not.
“Sometimes your comments are so vapid and laughable that I think you’re being satirical.”
I laughed so hard I almost spilled my Virgin Mary.
You don’t see the irony of the Speaker of the House excoriating Trump and telling everyone else to wear masks and being partially responsible for the shut down of businesses but then herself using those same businesses while not wearing a mask?
That’s not irony. That’s an inane and inapt comparison. A nonpublic patronizing of a hair salon not otherwise open for business is not at all comparable to the President and top government officials publicly downplaying the dangers of the CORONA virus, ridiculing mask use, flaunting adherence to safety measures, rejecting input from health experts, and holding large events without requiring social distancing or masks—all of which has resulted in untold thousands of additional and unnecessary hospitalizations and deaths.
KO, even though no one else understands your point, I understand your point. You are not crazy, they just want you to think you are
it does create a culture of hypocrisy, if not stupidity
Press conference taking place right now. I’m sure you will all be happy to hear his doctors say he’s feeling great.
Thanks to the best healthcare government can provide?
I thought photographs were verboten. Does Olsen get a special dispensation?
I am glad to hear that Trump is recovering. I want him healthy for his trial and execution.
For what? Treason? Ain’t going to happen. He’d run to Putin and be roomies with Snowden like when Lyndon La Rouche and Jim Bakker shared a cell in the Federal Pen back in 1990.
I loved Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye like so many love Trump. Watching the grift made you feel like you were in on the joke. I remember my neighbor up in Humboldt, Thom Graham, whose mother Barbara was the last woman executed in San Quentin, marveling at Jim and Tammy Faye’s grifting abilities when watching them exploit a kid with disabilities and offering matching donations if you called in right away. The punch line was at the end when it was revealed that the matching donation was shares in a worthless Canadian silver mine.
The problem with Trump and Covid was he started believing his own nonsense. As Tony Montana said in Scarface “Never get high on your own supply.” The problem with those feeling like they are in on the joke is that while Trump got a $70 million tax refund all they got was a stupid hat or maybe worse.
I was recently taken to task for not running a no on D campaign and instead whining incessantly on the Vanguard or at the CC (recently by phone). My response was that we are in a pandemic. I did ask the CC to only put a two year renewal of Measure J/R on the ballot so that we could have a real campaign once we are past Covid-19. I wanted to run a serious campaign against renewal but that is out of the question under current circumstances.
The CC ignored my request with one member even saying if opponents want to get rid of J/R they should get out there and run a campaign. When I pointed out the foolishness of such a campaign during the pandemic the member did apologize.
Another member asked me if I want a Yes on B lawn sign? I don’t. This same member was pretty unequivocal in support of renewal of J/R for ten years. I hope measure B passes but if Measure B fails they will have nobody to blame but themselves.
What some may call “whining” sure beats silence! (which, I’m told, is violence :-|)
Alan Miller October 2, 2020 at 3:13 pm
What is odder than no press conference is no Vanguard article on the subject of the day; thus we on a 1/2 year old thread.
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David Greenwald October 2, 2020 at 3:28 pmIt’s not that odd. It’s not really what we cover.
No, the problem is far left progressives have killed humor and comedy. These are how the human species survives dark times and gets past uncomfortable situations, but it is PC dead, dead, dead.
No the problem is left wing crazies that create a backlash of right wing crazies.
I remember once when I was somewhat younger having a serious email exchange with a local elected who is no longer serving.
They told me they were happy to talk to someone who wasn’t crazy. Today I understand better than ever what that person was saying.
I wonder if “the elephant in the room” evokes the same image for Walter Reed nurses that it does for me. (There’s your left wing PC humor, Alan)
That was actually pretty good 😉
I was unable to post my comment to this article, so I resorted to entering it as a separate article today. I recommend those interested in this subject check out the timeline offered in today’s new article.
Don’t be so sure about that. A nationwide poll released Saturday indicated that support for President Donald Trump has increased following his debate performance and his hospitalization for COVID 19.
https://johnzogbystrategies.com/biden-leads-trump-49-47-new-john-zogby-strategies-emi-research-solutions-poll-taken-after-president-checks-into-walter-reed/
His average went from 7.3 to 7.4 this week.