There's just so much muck oozing out of every pore of the White House these days that it's hard to determine whether that makes it SO easy to pick something to write about or SO difficult. The challenge with picking "one thing" for the day is that it almost implied that the other outrages aren't nearly as important -- I mean, if you were back in the time of Moses and wrote about boils, that didn't mean you felt that locusts, water to blood, or death to all first born males were any less important of the 12 Plagues. But you can't write about everything, because that would require the equivalent a brand new New Testament every day.
We've reached the point where it's become noticeable how many TV hosts and analysts have finally put aside any pretense of giving Trump the benefit of the doubt of him having decency somewhere under the surface, and treat him at face value -- and the loathing is pouring out. But then, in fairness, that's only because Trump at last has removed all restraint from not showing open disdain for anyone who doesn't fully, unthinkingly support him, including the dead. Even Rachel Maddow last night felt she should apologize to one of her guests for seeming so pissed off. Later, Brian Williams noted -- "It was an important question posed to Mr. Trump, but unfortunately it was asked by a non-male and got dismissed." I think the best thing to do on some days is not to pick The Best story or necessarily take a breather that day (though the latter is certainly required from time to time, to recharge and let others carry the ball to expand the "network"...), but find the story that perhaps most exemplifies them all. Which brings us to this tweet from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who for all his immediate problems actually, seriously, truly posted this on Monday. I was going to just quote it, but then I realized, no, you had to see to in order to know I wasn't making this up.
When I first saw it, I had to reread it several times to make sure I wasn't missing something. Because it is utterly bizarre that Pompeo tweeted this, since the level of tone-deafness is blown off the charts. Pompeo seems inexplicably unaware that, by contrast to the point he is making, 32% of all cases of COVID-19 infection and 28% of all deaths from COVID-19 throughout the world are in the United States, despite the U.S. having just 4.25% of population. And that the country with the second-worst number of cases right behind the United States is the authoritarian regime of Russia. Which makes his point totally damning of Trump. And for the record, as I write this late Tuesday night, there are currently 1,570,583 reported cases of coronavirus infection, and 93,533 known deaths from the disease. For those keeping score, Russia (which as noted is in second place in the world) has 299,541 reported cases from COVID-19. And 2,837 known deaths. And no, I didn't leave out any numbers by mistake. You read that right. And it's one thing to write such a weird statement that says your own administration is not doing the job that innovative Democracies do, but is actually worse than one of the most authoritarian regimes in the word -- but it's another to know that posting this, as if it was smart and a Good Thing, was the judgement of the man in charge of U.S. foreign policy. Perhaps with all the legal and political troubles swirling around him, Mr. Pompeo was so desperate to change the subject and gain the protection of his fascist boss that he wasn't thinking straight and just spewed out whatever it was that he thought would sound good to Trump. Or...honestly, I don't know. But, yeah, I think that tweet by Mike Pompeo does a pretty good job represents the Trump administration pretty darn well. On a lot of levels.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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