Does anyone remember the scene in the original film Jaws in 1975 when Captain Quint gets devoured by the shark? Well, the COVID-19 situation in the US makes me imagine Donald Trump being devoured by a gigantic coronavirus. Or perhaps, the shark’s role could be played by western mainstream media? Either way, there is some Trump munching going on. Whatever Hollywood special effect you apply, the Trump presidency is over. Hey, by the way, did Joe Biden engineer the SARS-CoV-2?
Remembering then-Vice President Joe Biden from the days of the Ukraine coup d’é·ta, most truthtellers would not put it past old 1-percent Joe. But no matter how COVID-19 came about, Trump is just not going to be able to “Tweet” himself out of his most recent screwups. It’s a funny thing about Americans, they can be as gullible as they come, but once they catch on… And boy are they about to catch on. I almost feel sorry for the bad boy they once called The King of Debt, but Donald Trump had it coming. Now, an article on Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post by columnist Eugene Robinson, does not seem so mean and cruel in portraying Trump’s support base as the stupidest, most gullible people on earth..
Robinson, who’s not exactly my favorite expert, aptly pointed out The Donald promised his supporters he’d build a 2,000 mile-long wall on the US – Mexico border, and then bill Mexico for it. But “not a single mile of Trump’s wall has been built,” according to Robinson. However, in fairness to the president, a half a mile of the wall has been built by a private organization called We Build the Wall on private property near El Paso, Texas, with Trump’s encouragement. Check it yourself, if you doubt me here.
I don’t want to drag the reader into this mess. Some good people have donated a lot of time and money to help create this Tower of Babel. Trump’s other lies are more damnable, anyway. Take Robinson’s assertions about Trump’s promises on America’s imbalance of trade. “The Chosen One” (another Trump nickname) told his supporters he’d reverse trade policies that helped other nations and hurt Americans. Robinson wrote:
“The Commerce Department announced Wednesday that the overall US trade deficit in goods last year soared to an all-time high of $891 billion. The deficit with China, Trump’s principal target — the amount by which the value of imported goods exceeded the value of exported goods — reached a record $419 billion.”
Then there’s “Draining the Swamp”, affordable care, and a laundry list of other Trump promises that have gone unfulfilled. But none of Donald Trump’s follies would have even been remembered has he not screwed the pooch on COVID-19. In this one, the emotional escapism Americans get to relish in because of what was Trump’s New York bravado in a booming economy is about to hit everybody’s next-door neighbor. The Wall Street bubble is about to become a vacuum. The world pandemic is going to suck the life out of the American people when the US Treasury is forced to print more borrowed money just to keep the world afloat. And make no mistake, that’s the economic future if we are to escape Mad Max and Thunderdome replacing next year’s Super Bowl.
As horrible as total bankruptcy sounds, the human cost of America’s unpreparedness for the coronavirus is already unbelievable. How many reading this remember the time when the world looked to the United States for vaccines, healing-aid, and outreach to stem the miseries of other nations? And in America, Trump swore he had “shut down” the coronavirus back in early February 2020. I did run across a Trump Tweet early on in the fight to stop COVID-19.
“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Throughout the crisis up until he was caught lying about the availability of coronavirus tests a few days ago. Before he announced flight bans on Europe, Trump has bragged and spewed like his comment; “The CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus…” The American president is unveiled as a man who does not even care to study the issues and facts surrounding him. Now New York City officials say New Yorkers should consider themselves to have been exposed to the coronavirus. How’s that for under control?
I almost feel bad saying that President Trump is the worst kind of incompetent, but even his most stalwart fan base is beginning to see through the bullshit. And as he continues to babble like an idiot about his “good job, good job, good job” Trump manages to use a deadly disease to plug his failed border wall fiasco:
“Going up fast. We need the Wall more than ever!” – President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump
Meanwhile, the 2018 promises by Trump to fund Italy’s debt seem to be paying off, interestingly, as the entire country will probably be up for sale shortly. Italy leaders are already planning a moratorium to get more investment to float the country’s burgeoning debt made worse by the coronavirus. And, it’s no surprise that (hey, isn’t she a crook) Christine Lagarde (Bernard Tapie’s loan guarantor), who’s now the President of the European Central Bank, told the Italians they were “pretty much on their own” the other day. Bond yields went through the roof because the ECB is not going to help Italy. This means mortgage rates on Italian homes etc, are going to be unpayable for many Italians. And when they lose their properties, guess who will move in to snap them up? Say “billionaires” softly. Allianz Global Investors is already snapping up Italian bonds like they are mint chocolates on a Waldorf pillow.
Around the world, the Norwegians are closing all airports and seaports. The Saudis have grounded all air carriers. Global tourism accounts for 320 million jobs and more than $9 trillion dollars of the global economy. Here in Europe, Multinational travel and tourism company TUI Group is on target to follow rival tours company, Thomas Cook down the tubes. The COVID-19 pandemic has already caused the German company to postpone pre-payments hoteliers depend on to stay afloat and to cancel outright contracts. TUI stocks suck for the last five years anyhow and the company now has limited options to cover dividends and its burgeoning debt. TUI shares have fallen by 42% year-to-date. Investors who were once sedated with juicy dividends are worried now that travel demand hit by coronavirus will crash the company. Underneath, the hotels, restaurants, retailers, wholesalers fear utter devastation. And at the White House, the news is good – President Donald Trump tested negative for the coronavirus!
The whole mess stinks of a genetically engineered, secret germ warfare 007 placed super-virus designed to let those with money take over what’s left of the world. Opps! I did not mean to insert that here. It just slipped out in the middle of all this Trump over truth. Aha! And maybe I got it! Maybe the reshaping of the world is the crescendo of Donald Trump’s purpose in the first place? It is probably time for him to leave. Now wouldn’t that make all of us feel gullible and stupid? A name is sticking in my head. Allianz, Allianz, where was it I was reading about Allianz Global and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg? Well, that’s for another time. A good cop – bad cop ending here would just be too much. The current “good cop” seems dressed and ready to make his exit.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”