He will sacrifice the world instead

Sarah Kendzior studies authoritarian regimes and has been describing the nasty guy with amazing accuracy. I’ve quoted her frequently, including from her podcast Gaslit Nation, which she does with Andrea Chalupa.

Sarah frequently uses a phrase to describe the nasty guy: If asked to sacrifice himself he will sacrifice the world instead.

What kind of situation would prompt the nasty guy to do that? A war that goes nuclear comes to mind, especially since he’s thrown a wrecking ball through the Department of State (along with the rest of the government).

Before I went on vacation I began to see another situation where this saying might fit – the coronavirus and a possible epidemic or even pandemic. So I’ll explore how that might work.

I’ll start with Kendzior and Chalupa and last week’s episode of Gaslit Nation, titled Coronavirus Special. It is really the second half of the episode. The first half is about misogyny and its effect on Elizabeth Warren’s campaign. I haven’t read that part yet.

Kendzior begins by mentioning the subtopics of the episode:

The ongoing threats to worldwide public health in the global economy. The parallels to historic disasters like Chernobyl and more but first we have an important Gaslit Nation public service announcement. Wash your hands. Wash your hands like you just touched Roger Stone and you have to wipe him off. Wash your hands like they are drenched in Paul Manafort's blood money. Wash your hands like you’re Michael Bloomberg and you just met a member of the middle class.
…
So there are a few other things that you can do to keep yourself and those around you safe. If you are sick, pretend you are a Republican who got a subpoena and just stay home or make like Robert Mueller and disappear from public life altogether.

Chalupa tells us that white nationalist Steve Bannon has been trumpeting the conspiracy that the coronavirus is a product of a Chinese bioengineering lab as a weapon of war. It is a way to stir up hatred of China. But viruses don’t discriminate on who they attack and this one has done a great deal of damage in China. Remember that when listening to conspiracies. Besides, the Trump Crime Family is cozy with Chinese interests. So be suspicious of what the nasty guy and his cronies say about China.

The nasty guy has staked his reputation on the stock market. The market is going up! That’s proof of how wonderful I am! Except over the last couple weeks the market has dropped 20%. The nasty guy wants to reassure Wall Street by declaring the virus is contained. Though the virus is also good at suppressing the vote. One way is through poll workers not able to show up.

Kendzior suggests stocking up on enough food and water to last three weeks. I have been considering that.

One way that the nasty guy is making the epidemic worse is putting all the wrong people in charge. His inner circle has shrunk to those linked through nepotism (like Elaine Chow, wife of Moscow Mitch) or complicity in the transnational crime syndicate that has taken over our government. So people such as Steven Mnuchen, Secretary of the Treasury, is on the coronavirus response team. No, the various health agencies are not a part of the Treasury. The purpose of this response team is to sugarcoat the nasty guy’s image – not actually do anything about the virus. And the people who actually know what’s going on, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Health, are being silenced.

Kendzior says this virus is distinctive from other crises of the last three years. The nasty guy didn’t create it. It affects people nationwide (unlike natural disasters or mass shootings). We’re all seeing the same things. The nasty guy has a harder time spinning things we can all see. The virus doesn’t care who you voted for. This virus may break through the propaganda wall. This time we’re all in this together. Will we act like it?

The nasty guy’s response to the virus has an autocratic ring to it. The administration already has an open war on the press and is actively working to control the message. They demand people stay on message, protect its own propaganda, no matter how many lives are at risk. That includes withholding information that could keep us safe. So can we trust what they say?

Agencies such as FEMA and the CDC have been purged of people who want to do the work and have been replaced by people who are chosen only for their loyalty to the nasty guy and his message – including his malice towards anyone not in his family or crime syndicate.

We’ve already seen the nasty guy and his minions create migrant hordes just before elections. Will he start declaring certain ethnic groups as diseased, as virus carriers, making them a threat? Will he unleash the military on private citizens or on workers fighting the pandemic? That national emergency invoked during the government shutdown was never lifted. Will he use the virus to suppress the vote in November’s election? Or cancel the election?

Another worry: The war in Syria is heating up, causing another refugee crisis. There is a refugee crisis in Venezuela. The virus will hit these people hard. They already don’t have enough resources. Right Wing nationalists have welcomed the refugee crises because it helps their message of refugees being a threat. A panic-inducing event, such as refugees plus coronavirus, helps them get you to abandon your fundamental humanity. Do not let them. Their cruelty could be focused on any one of us.

Three possible ways of describing the people in this administration: They’re incompetent. They’re burying their heads in the sand. They believe a depopulated earth is easier to control. Likely all three.

Here are some of the things related to the virus that have happened, mostly in the last week, though the first one is from before my vacation. I’ll just mention them and let you read the whole article for yourself.

Judd Legum, who writes about politics and power, tweeted:

With the coronavirus killing thousands and threatening to tank the global economy, I feel like more people should be talking about the fact that Trump fired the entire pandemic response team two years ago and then didn't replace them.

Trump also cut funding for the CDC, forcing the CDC to cancel its efforts to help countries prevent infectious-disease threats from becoming epidemics in 39 of 49 countries in 2018.

Among the countries abandoned? China.

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos has more on the firing of the pandemic response team.

On Saturday the nasty guy, surrounded by doctors, said he has a natural understanding of viruses. The doctors, afraid of losing their jobs, managed to not roll their eyes.

On Sunday the nasty guy raged against media reporting on the virus, saying it was all fake news.

On Tuesday Julie O’Donoghue tweeted a thread about trying to get a COVID19 test for her spouse. They didn’t qualify for a test and thought the reasons quite strange. They decided to quarantine themselves anyway. I’ve heard that the CDC needs to analyze tests and they are the ones who imposed the rules on who can be tested. Which means the nasty guy’s claim that anyone can get a test is a lie.

The number of cases in the US passed 1,000 on Wednesday. The nasty guy declared it will go away, just stay calm. He seems more interested in what happens to the stock market than actual people. Free hint dude: if you actually took care of people the stock market would be just fine.

The Washington Post reported that White House officials privately admitted that the nasty guy has made the problem worse through is false statements and callous comments. That prompted Hunter of Daily Kos to write:

See there? We may have lost our only chance to keep a new coronavirus from reaching epidemic levels throughout the nation, but White House staffers are willing to at least privately acknowledge that Trump may be screwing things up, even if they aren't willing to say so publicly. Feel better? No? Huh. Well, they tried.

Hunter lays blame with the GOP. They ignored the self-serving behavior of the nasty guy and acquitted him. They had their chance to take him out.

Hunter also said everything the nasty guy has been doing is completely based on how the situation affects him.

There is a coronavirus response team. Those meetings are now classified. The team discusses such things as the scope of the infections, quarantines, and travel restrictions. Hunter says the classification is being used to withhold information about the virus that the White House believes could be damaging to the nasty guy. Again, it’s about him.

Mark Sumner reported:

On Wednesday morning, medical experts, including National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, were testifying before the House Oversight Committee on what to expect from the coronavirus epidemic in the United States. According to Fauci, “The bottom line: It is going to get worse.” Again and again, the information provided in the hearing completely contradicted the rosy statements that have been coming from Donald Trump and other White House officials and warned of a dire situation ahead.

But before the House could learn too many details, the hearing ended in an abrupt and astounding manner, as the witnesses simply got up and left. At 11:30 ET, Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney was told that the witnesses had to depart. In an attempt to explain what was happening, Fauci said they were going to an “emergency meeting” at the White House. Then, to add extra confusion, the White House immediately claimed that the meeting was not an emergency … it was just something that Fauci and Redfield didn’t know about and that was so urgent that they had to leave in the middle of congressional testimony.

Only authoritarians do things like this.

Dr. Farzad Montashari, a former CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and a former national coordinator for health information technology, tweeted a thread about the country not having a clear strategy for coronavirus response. He used a chart from the CDC and The Economist that makes an important point. Without protective measures an epidemic can overwhelm the capacity of the healthcare system to handle the sick. With those measures the healthcare system is not overloaded – even if there are the same number of sick in both scenarios.

Montashari was also part of a team that implemented Syndromic Surveillance. This is a system in which emergency rooms register data of each admission to allow the wider health community to use big data to catch trends. Data from the virus is already showing up. That means we should urgently expand healthcare capacity.

One number associated with an epidemic is the infection rate – how many people does one person tend to infect. I’ve heard for the coronavirus the infection rate is above 2. My friend and debate partner, well versed in exponential growth, understands what that means. Greg Dworkin of the Daily Kos community includes a picture showing exponential growth using the rice and chessboard legend. In the legend a servant asks a ruler to be paid in rice – one grain on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, and doubling for each square thereafter. The number of grains on the first few squares look rather meager. But by the 10th square one has a decent size meal of 512 grains. And well before the chessboard’s 64th square the servant’s pay exceeds the world’s rice production and would bankrupt the kingdom.

Viruses spread by exponential growth.

Elad Nehorai tweeted:

People who obsess over Trump’s incompetence don’t realize that he’s basically a born authoritarian.

They see all his mistakes and don’t realize that many of them are perfect for demonizing immigrants, cutting back freedoms, etc.

He’s competent enough to use his incompetence to his advantage, and blame it on others. This is what he’s done for his entire career.

Kasey Klimes adds that this will go from “a hoax” to justification for martial law at lightning speed.

Dartagnan of the Daily Kos community reviews what the GOP Senate is proposing – nothing – to help the country through the epidemic. He also mentions what the nasty guy is proposing – tax cuts that either will have no benefit or will benefit his cronies. And what the Democrats are proposing (not that there is any chance of getting it through the Senate) – paid sick leave, enhanced unemployment insurance, food security (many kids get their meals at schools, and if they close?), protections for frontline workers, widespread and free virus testing, affordable treatment, protections from price gouging of essentials, and increased medical capacity.

Dartagnan concludes:

Republicans are ideologically unprepared—if not utterly incapable—of managing any crisis of this magnitude. Since their entire ideology assumes that the government is “bad,” they can’t adapt to any situation where government action is clearly the only solution, whether it's an economic crisis brought on by their own fiscal malfeasance, or here, a public health crisis of unprecedented proportions. They simply don’t have those tools in their kits. They are so wedded to their ideology that they can’t even begin to comprehend just how complicated a crisis like this will be, or the measures necessary to protect Americans from disaster.

The painful lesson here for Americans is that Republicans must be voted out if this country is going to survive. Hopefully Americans will come to understand this … before it’s too late.

The GOP in the Senate are commenting on the House coronavirus bill. One objection is that reimbursement of costs of testing for the virus sets a precedent for spending on healthcare without explicitly excluding abortion. So a bill to protect us from the coronavirus has turned into a fight over abortion. Of course, the GOP rejects all the other sensible measures that Dems proposed.

A couple days ago two cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Michigan, one in Detroit and one in Oakland County, the northwest suburbs. Both are people who recently traveled. Last night, Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued an emergency declaration.

All of the state universities have shifted to online learning. A few school districts have now closed. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra canceled this weekend’s concerts – which is a big deal because they were to play the widely popular Carmina Burana and would have likely gotten close to selling out all four performances. And nationally all of the major sports leagues have suspended their seasons or will play to empty arenas. Basketball suspended games because a player has COVID-19 and likely infected a few teams before being tested.

All that action in Michigan from just two cases? Yeah, it is smart to act before the situation becomes dire. Still, two cases? Mark Sumner shows a tweet from Tyler Buchanan which says that Amy Acton, Director of the Health Department in Ohio says there is evidence that 1% of Ohioans (117,000 people) currently carry the coronavirus. The number of Ohioans who have actually been tested and are positive: five. We don’t know how bad it is because people aren’t being tested. We don’t know how bad it is because the nasty guy doesn’t want us to know how bad it is.

I did shopping Monday, last night, and today. I have close to enough food now in stock to last two weeks. I don’t yet have enough frozen vegetables or olive oil, so I’ll probably venture out Saturday. And then every few days if I think it is safe. The question to consider: will it be safe in a couple days to allow me to preserve my supplies. Or will it be worse in a couple weeks when I’ve run out of food?

Back to the phrase at the top of this post: If asked to sacrifice himself he will sacrifice the world instead.

The nasty guy thinks he is wonderful, that everything he does is wonderful, and through his actions the world (or at least the nation) is wonderful.

Then comes a virus that isn’t wonderful. Confronting the virus means admitting part of his world isn’t wonderful, that he has to sacrifice at least a bit of himself to deal with something that isn’t wonderful and that he can’t make be wonderful.

So he sacrifices us instead. He maintains his illusion of wonderful by avoiding protecting all of us.

Though it is likely worse than that. Kendzior in a tweet from yesterday:

Folks need to understand that Trump wants people to die. He wants the economy to collapse. He's said this repeatedly. … A depopulated country is easier to control and chaos gives him a pretext for more brutal autocracy.

A lot of media people, even progressive media, watch the nasty guy and say he is incompetent. Yes, he is. This “incompetence” could also be deliberate. Here’s a chance for an authoritarian to kill off lots of people while pretending to keep his hands clean. The chaos of the plague and the desire of the people for someone to Do Something! is a fine time to consolidate power.