Doug's Darkworld

Well, here I am again. Front row seat as one of the great events of my time unfolds. Thursday, April 16, 2020. Lots has happened in just the past few days. Front row seats for two reasons: (There’s always multiple reasons for things.) One, here I am in the USA, the developed country worst hit by Covid-19, with no end in sight. Two, because I’ve been a student of history and how it relates to current events all my life, so I’ve got a lot of background research done. I guess a third level, Covid-19 and the ongoing pandemic have gotten the lion’s share of my thinking at least the past month.

So today’s thinking, it’s August 1914 or September 1939. December 1941 for the Yanks. In both cases the world people knew came to an end, and years of hardship followed before a new normal was established. For the uninitiated, in August 1914 the First World War started, few grasped what horrs it would inflict, many thought it would be gloriously brief. In September 1939 Hitler’s Germany invaded Poland, unleashing nearly a decade of horror. Yeah, a pandemic isn’t a war, yet, but it’s gonna get war level ugly. The third world especially is not equipped to deal with Covid-19, it’s going to be a bloodbath. Literally, there will be millions of dead people in the streets this summer. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

This is the best overview to date I’ve seen, even if one reads no other links on this page, check this one out. Our Pandemic Summer. That aside, what’s new? Trump blamed the WHO for fumbling its initial response to Covid-19, claiming if they had done their job properly instead of relying on what China was telling them, the outbreak might have been nipped in the bud, or at least the world would have had more time to prepare. And guess what, Trump’s right, both China and the WHO downplayed the severity of the epidemic initially. The head of the WHO should apologize and resign.

However, and it’s an Olympic size however, so what? That literally changes nothing about the current situation. And even more importantly, their mistakes cost the world days, Trump spent ten weeks after numerous parties were raising the alarm essentially doing nothing. Then there’s the part about accepting that Trump, a dyed-in-the-wool science denier and hater of all things foreign, would have even listened if the WHO had called the shots right. He’s blame shifting again, Covid-19 is skyrocketing still in the USA, and Trump still hasn’t stepped up to the plate …

See the image above, I find this a compelling image. In at least three cases US governors have made agreements to coordinate their struggle against Covid-19. (Apparently there’s one more compact.) Wait, shouldn’t the Federal government be coordinating the fight against Covid-19? Yes, yes they should. Trump has pretty much declared it’s up to the governors of US states to fight Covid-19, leading to the map above. And internationally, he has called for an end to US funding for the WHO, which would gut the agency at a time when it’s coordinating the global fight against Covid-19. He doesn’t actually have the power to do so, so who knows how it will play out. Still, when Lincoln was unhappy with the Union Army’s performance, he didn’t freaking fire the whole army.

So yes, the other reason I say I have front row seats. We are seeing in the US possibly the greatest failure of national and international leadership in my lifetime. Aside from a few hours of weird TV performances daily, Trump is letting the states and the world fend for themselves in the fight against Covid-19. And he has plenty of supporters, libertarian “government is bad” types who think (yes, I’ve talked to them) that Trump is right to leave it up to the states, and each nation should deal with Covid-19 on their own. Ideology trumps reason I guess. I am almost at a loss for words, how can one not understand that teamwork and cooperation is the best way to fight a common enemy?

So who knows where this is going. “It’s not going to end well” is about the safest thing to say. Trump is still promising miracles and claiming the country will start to reopen immediately. He’s not living in the real world, but in his defense, he has surrounded himself with people who only tell him good news. He likely actually thinks Covid-19 has peaked in the US. He’s wrong. And internationally, his failure to step up to the plate will further isolate the US and empower our designated enemies. The SCO, the Russia/China/India alliance has invited the WHO to their upcoming summit. The SCO has nearly half the world’s population, Trump’s missteps could literally lead us to a world where Europe and America no longer dominate the world order. If it means an end to our endless overseas wars, it could be a good thing.

Fun times. Have a safe and sane weekend everyone. Comments, shares appreciated. #StaytheFHome

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image credit: Created by Patrick Michael O’Shea, updated, reprinted with permission.)