The worst among us

"Only a once-in-a-century leader has the guts to say out loud what the worst among us are really thinking:  everyone other than me is expendable."  (Richard Wolffe, The Guardian)

I could quote and quote from Mr. Wolffe's article, but the last paragraph says it all:  "The coronavirus has no sense of morality:  it just spreads its selfish genes, along with its misery and chaos, as fast as it can.  At long last, this president has finally met his soulmate."

This is not the way Nancy Pelosi planned to spend her eightieth birthday.  Children, grandchildren, presents, cake, and that song which has become the national anthem of washing your hands were probably on her mind a few weeks ago.  Reality intervened.  As a responsible adult with more power than most, she went to work.  Instead of a party, she got the news that America's coronavirus deaths have passed one thousand.  Then she held a press conference to outline what's wrong with the Senate "relief" bill.

You like quotes?  Here's a honey:  "Women, all my friends are saying, you know, this is not a priority, people are dying and I realize that, but they can't get their nails done," Ainsley Earhardt pouted this morning on Fox & Friends.  (See first paragraph.)  Yes, Ainsley, people are dying.  At Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, a borough I'm sure you never visit except to get to the airport, thirteen of them died yesterday from COVID-19.  Their bodies had to be stored in a refrigerated truck because the morgue is full.  Their families were not with them, only exhausted doctors and nurses.  But believe me, I am truly sorry about the state of your cuticles.

Here's another:  "There's no reason to believe that we won't be the next Italy."  That was Governor John Bel Edwards ordering everyone in Louisiana to stay home.  The state has the third highest number of cases in the country and the highest initial growth rate anywhere in the world.  People who survived Hurricane Katrina can't believe this is happening, but the storm only affected the Gulf Coast.

And yet another:  "Food, water, shelter and adequate medical care are paramount for survival, but so too is the ability for an individual to defend his or herself, their family, as well as their home, business and property."  That's Lawrence Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun-industry lobbyist who has seen a lot of zombie movies.  Some governors don't consider the neighborhood Blood Bath & Beyond store to be an essential business, and the NSSF wants to change their minds.

A record-breaking 3.28 million people filed unemployment claims this week.  According to the Secretary of the Treasury that's "not relevant," because the Senate bill will provide them with a wholly inadequate check sometime next month.  You can read about what Denmark is doing, but you can't move there in the foreseeable future.  Sorry.  On behalf of his cult audience, Sean Hannity objected that lazy working-class people will up and quit so they can live off all that sweet, sweet unemployment.  If only he could be one of them.  Lachlan?

Jerome Powell was Trump's choice to head the Federal Reserve, but his days there are probably numbered.  This morning he said, "I think the first order of business will be to get the spread of the virus under control and then resume economic activity."  He also said, "We may well be in a recession."  He did not mention Easter.  Deep State operative!

In the end, it all comes back to the professionals.  Crocs is donating shoes to emergency rooms, tattoo artists are giving their protective gear.  And Bill and Hillary Clinton have sent pizza.  What has Trump sent?  Nothing yet, but he wants to send troops to the Canadian border so the "Chinese virus" won't sneak in.  Canada says it's not a good idea, but what do they know?  Trudeau is not a wartime prime minister.

At least we know that nobody could have anticipated this -- except the National Security Council, which produced a 69-page Playbook For Early Response To High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents in 2016.  Despite that catchy title, and despite briefing the incoming administration the following year,  it gathered dust because everything Obama was deemed doubleplus ungood.

And here we are.