“WHILE ROME BURNS”

April 15, 2020

While trying to log on to the IRS website this evening, which is not working, I paused to read some of the articles floating on the various news services. One, in particular, caught my eye, from Politico, about our Democratic nominee for President, former Vice-President Joe Biden. This article, by Caitlin Opoyska, is entitled: Biden: People are Dying while Trump is ‘having temper tantrums.’ As the lion on the Wizard of Oz was prone to remark, “Ain’t it the truth! Ain’t it the truth.”

The strange times we are encountering in the medical community and in so many sectors of our American society from the outbreak of Covid-19 are made even more bizarre by the behavior of this President. I cannot recall when a president of any stripe would spend up to two (2) hours in a 6pm news conference touting his accomplishments as president fighting the coronavirus, while at the same time challenging any reporter who happens to quote facts taken from real life that counter his “made up dream version of “the reality of the daily situation.” The President in most of his news conferences, daily briefings, and task force statements is the source of more false news than actual news. From 9 pm to midnight following on the same day, various news organizations as MSNBC, CNN and others spend the long evening fact checking and parsing out Trump’s presidential statements to see which if any are actually true and have some validity.

This is what I mean by ‘bizarre.’ It is truly bizarre when news conferences run by the White House must be fact checked by more reputable news organizations such as the New York Times reporters. This past weekend an article emerged in the New York Times, which showed Trump’s many failures over the prior two months to “get ahead” of the Covid-19 outbreak. The article reported he ignored many briefings by the CIA and others since November, 2019, warning him of the coming crisis from Covid-19. Confronted with this “real news,” this article caused a nearly complete meltdown of the President for around 45 minutes on national TV while the President aired his grievances and tried to find some ‘bogeyman’ to blame for his failures in leadership.

Trump’s tendency to shift blame for his personal failures in leadership and anything else to a ‘bogeyman’ such as China or the World Health Organization is his only way of coping with his failures to provide real leadership in this crisis. Today, in his bid to be incessantly busy, he is trying to convene a new “Task Force” of businessmen and others to help him plan how to re-open the country to business. This is in direct conflict with the medical experts who warn that opening the country for business too soon risks a second outbreak of the virus overwhelming the country again.   The real problem, as every one knows, is lack of testing capability and materials to do those tests. Lack of reagents and supplies is the real problem preventing the opening of this country for business. The WHO offered Covid-19 testing to the USA back in February, as they have to other countries and our country refused this offer, even though our initial CDC tests were flawed and did not work. Now, to cover this failure and others, Trump is threatening to pull US funding from the WHO. This is another tactic of diversion to find ‘a bogeyman,’ to blame. Trump is stirring up controversy to divert attention from himself.

This type of strategy seems to be that of a coward, who can never own up to his own mistakes and as the bully in the playground attacks others so no one will see the ‘scared little boy lurking inside.’ This is the only explanation that makes any sense. Trump is in fact overwhelmed by the health crisis spinning out of control on his watch and is deathly afraid someone while finally realize the king has no pants!

Surely, by now, most intelligent observers can figure this man out. HE HAS NO PLACE BEING PRESIDENT; NO ABILITY TO BE PRESIDENT!!! He now wants credit for the massive stimulus package gradually working its way through this economy, with his name placed on the stimulus checks being paid out by the taxpayers of the United States! This is not his money, but ours! We and our children will be paying for this stimulus package for the next 10 years or more. The credit for whatever good occurs is not with this President, but with the Democrats and some Republicans who made the people of the United States the priority, and not the cronies of the President.

The playbook of this narcissistic President, who spends half his news conferences whining about personal grievances and attacking his political opponents or any other perceived bogeyman he can find, should serve as an object lesson of what not to do in the office of the President. I have never seen in my fifty years of observing presidents of the United States any more incompetency and stupidity in ignoring senior advisors and medical experts than this President. It is appalling how his incompetence will sacrifice so many more lives to this virus than would have been necessary if we had been better prepared to face it.

This president is fond of calling himself ‘a war president,’ even though he personally dodged the Vietnam Draft by claiming ‘heel spurs,’ when in fact all he had was ‘a rich daddy’ who found a doctor to certify his son as unfit for duty! Truer words have never been spoken about any president. ‘UNFIT FOR DUTY!’ At last, we know THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT THIS MAN!  I signed up for the draft for Vietnam in 1972 with my grandfather Petty looking on, since my dad was already deceased. Both my grandfather and my father served honorably in the US military. I was never called to serve in the Vietnam war, but I would have gone had I been drafted.   All I have is big feet, size 14, but I bet the Army could have found a pair of soldier’s boots for me!

It is patently unfair for any man or woman to use their wealth and ‘daddy’s money’ to avoid military or civilian service to our country. When we have such a man as Donald Trump, a man of privilege and wealth but no military or civilian sacrificial service, we get what we now have: a debacle of leadership, incompetency of style, a moron who refuses to listen to anyone except his own gut impulses. The is NO CONFIDENCE in the leadership of this man! OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY LANGUISHES IN DESPAIR! PEOPLE ARE DYING ACROSS THE LAND AND WE HAVE A MAN WHO ONLY CARES ABOUT HIS OWN REPUTATION!

These are hard words, but these words need to be said! All of us need to say something! Otherwise, our silence will return to condemn us. What is happening now in this White House and with this President should not be allowed to occur, nor should be condoned, nor should it be forgiven. Any man or woman aspiring to this great office, if they cannot do the job, should have the courtesy and respect of the office to resign from this position, so that others more competent and more skilled than themselves can take the position from them and SAVE THE COUNTRY! THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL STATEMENT ONLY; IT IS A STATEMENT OF TRUTH! LET US ALL SPEAK THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS SITUATION, IN THE NAME OF GOD OUR SAVIOR, SO PERHAPS WE CAN EXTRICATE OURSELVES FROM THIS NIGHTMARE AND DEBACLE OF LEADERSHIP! IT HAS NEVER BEEN SO BAD AND IT IS GETTING WORSE. WHEN THE EVIDENCE TO IMPEACH WAS NOT PROVIDED TO THE SENATE, AND THE LEADERSHIP COVERED THIS MAN’S SINS, THEY LEFT US ALL TO SUFFER FOR THEIR LACK OF LEADERSHIP. TODAY, WE FIND OURSELVES IN THIS DEBACLE OF LEADERSHIP BECAUSE THE LEADERS WHO COULD HAVE STOPPED THIS MAN DID NOT DO THEIR JOB! NOW, PEOPLE ARE DYING. MORE PEOPLE WILL DIE BEFORE THIS IS OVER. THE BLOOD OF THESE AMERICAN CITIZENS WILL REST UPON THE GRAVES OF THOSE WHO COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING BUT DID NOTHING. IT IS OUR FAILURE! IT IS ALL OUR FAILURE!!!  WE ALL COULD HAVE DONE BETTER THAN THIS! MAY GOD HELP US! MAY OUR GOD HELP US ALL!

I have offered many prayers for this president. Now, I have none.

Bill Wilson, MD