The Pencedemic

You probably already know that the NY Times reported that Trump said he picked Pence to head up the government's coronavirus response because he didn't "have anything else to do." Yesterday the New York Times reported that "Federal health employees interacted with Americans quarantined for possible exposure to the coronavirus without proper medical training or protective gear, then scattered into the general population, according to a government whistle-blower. Without proper training or equipment, some of the exposed staff members moved freely around and off the bases, with at least one person staying in a nearby hotel and leaving California on a commercial flight. Many were unaware of the need to test their temperature three times a day."

CNN has a couple of interesting coronavirus reports, one of which is on the whistleblower who is seeking federal protection because she was improperly reassigned after raising concerns about the safety of these workers to HHS officials, including those within the office of HHS Secretary Alex Azar."

The other CNN story is political-- and ugly. Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham and other Fox News Trump propagandists-- who are pushing the Trumpist position that it's just a common cold-- are now claiming that mainstream media and Democrats "are weaponizing fear in a bid to hurt the President's re-election efforts."

While it's not unusual for high-profile members of the pro-Trump media to go to extensive lengths to align themselves with Trump or paint him in a positive light, the comments on the coronavirus are alarming given the public health risk. The virus has killed at least 2,800 people and infected 82,000 worldwide. The remarks from the hosts also raise concern given how much influence figures like Hannity and Limbaugh wield over Trump.

On Thursday's Fox & Friends, one of Trump's favorite cable news programs, the hosts suggested top Democrats and news organizations were hyping fear over the coronavirus to score points against Trump.

"They shouldn't make it political," co-host Ainsley Earhardt said.

"They have been-- these are all Democrats," added co-host Pete Hegseth. "They've been resisting the President from the very beginning of the administration."

Hegseth then mocked a story in The New York Times that said Trump had been warned for years about "squandering the credibility he could need in a moment of national emergency."

Co-host Steve Doocy chimed in to read an editorial from the conservative tabloid New York Post that said "the sad truth" is that "global health bureaucrats use these outbreaks to push for greater funding, with utter disregard for the truth."

The prime time programming on Fox News hasn't been any better.

Hannity, who hosts the top-rated television program on cable news, told his millions of viewers on Wednesday night that Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was using the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak in the United States as a way to "bludgeon" Trump.

As an on-screen graphic showed pictures of Pelosi and Schumer overlaid with text that said in all caps "BLAME TRUMP GAME," Hannity accused Schumer of being engaged in the "shameless politicizing of health and the well-being of Americans."

Hannity then attacked the "mob in the media" and echoed the White House's messaging, telling viewers that the Trump administration has "been aggressively responding to the corona outbreak for quite a while."

In the following hour, Ingraham ratcheted up that messaging at the top of her show, referring to the Democratic Party as the "PANDEMIC PARTY," with the D-E-M in "pandemic" highlighted in blue, while the chyron text in the lower portion of the screen said "LEFT WEAPONIZING CORONAVIRUS FEARS."

Using similar language as her Fox cohorts, Ingraham told her viewers that top Democrats and "their media cronies" have "decided to weaponize fear and also weaponize suffering to improve their chances against Trump in November."

"It's time for calm, measured pragmatism, not panic and political opportunism by a party that's been buffeted by its own missteps and failed strategies," Ingraham said. "If they appear to be rooting for Americans suffering in pain during an election year, I promise you that the voters will put them in a political quarantine come November."

Over on conservative talk radio, Limbaugh has been attacking Democrats and news organizations all week while incorrectly telling his listeners that the coronavirus is "the common cold."

"It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump," Limbaugh said.

Later in the week, Limbaugh said members of the media "would love for the coronavirus to be this deadly strain that wipes everybody out so they could blame Trump for it."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this week that an outbreak of the coronavirus inside the United States is inevitable. The federal agency said it is not a matter of if anymore, but when, it will happen.

Yesterday, Rev. John Pavlovitz reminded his readers that Trump can't gaslight a pandemic, even if he's trying to. Nor can he bully it into compliance or lie to it and hope it won't run a fact check. His followers kids and parents and neighbors and spouses and co-workers are going to get sick. Some will die. Some may figure out the difference between how he handled it and competent, less self-centered leaders, like Germany's, handled it.

You can’t pay for its silence or promise immunity.

You can’t threaten its reelection bid if it breaks ranks.

You can’t fire it when it dissents from your ramblings.

You can’t impugn its character with baseless attacks.

You can’t fool it with talk about God.

You can’t bury it with FoxNews fluff pieces.

You can’t drown it in nationalism.

You can’t dismiss it with cries of fake news.

You can’t pardon it after it completes its assaults.

You can’t give it a demeaning nickname and hope to deflate it.

You can’t rage-Tweet it into exhaustion.

You can’t avoid it by appointing corrupt judges to do your bidding.

You can’t give it free tickets in order to fill vain arena celebrations of your ego.

You can’t frighten it with fairy tales about migrant boogeymen and transgender monsters.

You can’t hope it will blow over while you golf once again.

You can’t mischaracterize it with racial stereotypes.

You can’t pretend you can pray it away.

You can’t blame it on Barack Obama or windmills or the Gay Agenda or Hillary’s emails.

You can’t bullshit a pandemic-- so nothing you know how to do will help you here.

A pandemic is not an election or a Supreme Court seat or Franklin Graham or Lindsey Graham or the Republican Party-- so it cannot be bought.

A pandemic is not an uneducated voting block so it will not be swept up in the emotional fervor of dog and pony patriotism, or duped by ceremonial religiosity.

A pandemic is a reckless, brutal, unruly, violent thing, and none of your sideshow huckster repartee or your cheap parlor tricks or your legal gymnastics will save you or anyone else.

Only intelligent, qualified, reasonable, compassionate people who trust science and want to protect human beings can help at times like these-- which is why you are completely useless.

Worse than that, it’s why you will make things much worse.

Pandemics thrive on fear, and fear is your only commodity. It is the one weapon at your disposal-- and it only helps the sickness.

In the raking light of an actual emergency, you are being revealed as a fraudulent, callous, completely unprepared and outmatched imposter.

History is recording how ill-equipped you are for the serious, grievous, and terrible things real leaders are required to engage and confront.

You’re being exposed in these days for what you are: a public health crisis endangering millions of people; a reckless, brutal, unruly, violent thing that is spreading sickness.

The only hope we have for a cure comes in November.

You look scared, Donald.

We are too.