Guest Post by Pat Buchanan
The crucial decision Trump will make is to choose the exact moment to reopen the country and the economy, without igniting a new spike in the pandemic that induces despair and causes a panic.
Easter may not bring America the victory in the war against the coronavirus pandemic that President Donald Trump anticipated. But in this Holy Week, we may be reaching our Saratoga moment, our turning point.
While New York state reported a record number of deaths from the virus on Tuesday, over 1,800, new hospitalizations were down.
Referrals of patients to ICUs were down. Intubations were down. And the discharge rate for patients from hospitals was holding steady.
The thousands of ventilators Gov. Andrew Cuomo had been crying out for are, apparently, not immediately needed. The U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort moored on the Hudson with a capacity of 1,000 beds remains largely empty. So, too, are the thousands of beds in Manhattan’s Javits Center, which has been converted into an emergency hospital.
“We are flattening the curve,” exulted Cuomo on Wednesday, “Thank God. Thank God. Thank God.”
Predictions of 1 million to 2 million U.S. deaths are no longer heard.
Last week’s projection from the White House briefing room of 100,000 to 240,000 dead has been revised, sharply downward.
Tuesday, Dr. Deborah Birx said the model she is working with projects 81,000 deaths. By Wednesday, that had dropped 25% to an estimated 60,000 U.S. deaths.
A terrible toll, still more than all the Americans who died in the Vietnam war, but compared to earlier estimates, hopeful news.
Social distancing and sheltering in place are working.
California, Oregon and Washington have begun to ship medical equipment to states where infections are still surging.
Moreover, it appears that some deaths being attributed to COVID-19 were caused by underlying conditions patients had when they came to the hospital, such as cancer, heart disease, hypertension, pneumonia, diabetes, asthma.
Yes, this could be a false dawn. We are warned of the possibility that the coronavirus, after cutting its initial murderous swath by August, could revisit us in the fall with a new season of lethal attacks.
But by then, we may have developed vaccines or drugs to prevent, mitigate or even cure the disease.
What appears conclusive now is this: The American people and nation are aware, fully engaged in the fight, and, on several fronts, gaining the whip hand over the pandemic.
Hence, understandably, consideration is being given to resuscitating the U.S. economy before this nationwide shutdown plunges America into a full-blown depression that exacts its own toll of premature deaths.
Upon this question now, the Trump presidency appears to hang:
Will Trump’s actions flatten the curve and put the pandemic on an irreversible downward course in daily cases and deaths, as he produces a U-turn, if not a V-turn, dramatically driving the economy upward from depression and toward national prosperity?
Can he revive the economy without reviving the virus?
Or will the coronavirus so severely cripple the economy that the depression it produces will kill the Trump presidency?
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie framed the issue thus: “Politically, nothing else matters. … I have never seen a time when an opponent is more irrelevant. And that’s not an insult to Vice President Biden.
“But in the end, the American people are going to decide, has the president of the United States stood up to this crisis, and done right by them and protected their lives and their property, or hasn’t he?”
Trump’s true adversary in this election is not Joe Biden, the hermit candidate sheltering in place. Biden is but a name on the November ballot you mark if you want to remove and replace Donald Trump.
Trump’s real antagonists are the media who detest him and are determined, having failed to impeach and remove him, to drive him from office by portraying him as a foolish, failed president in the worst crisis to hit the country since Pearl Harbor.
The crucial decision Trump will make is to choose the exact moment to reopen the country and the economy, without igniting a new spike in the pandemic that induces despair and causes a panic.
The president’s aides in charge of the medical crisis want the longest delay possible. His economic and political advisers, fearing Trump could be forced to run as Herbert Hoover did, at the nadir of a new depression, want an earlier decision to start opening up the country.
Action cannot long be delayed if we are to survive the medical crisis only to endure a longer and more costly economic crisis.
Thursday morning, jobless claims revealed that another 6.6 million Americans had lost their jobs, bringing to 16.7 million the number who have filed for unemployment in just three weeks.
One in 10 Americans is now out of work.
Six weeks ago, Trump was boasting, and justifiably so, of having the greatest economy of any president in recent memory. Now, the possibility exists that he could go into the fall election with the worst economy since Hoover and the Great Depression of 1932.
Trump’s decision, which will determine the fate of his presidency, is likely close at hand.
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LMAO
Who you going with, Biden ?
He won’t even know his name by November.
Maybe not. But his running mate will.
Hoping for them mail in ballots are ya ?
I don’t vote. I’ll spin it around and say, “Hoping for a miracle jobs recovery, are ya?”
It’s the economy, stupid.
Sorry AofC. If you don’t vote your opinion doesn’t count. You have chosen to be another fence rider and A-dynamic which leads to death in any system. JMO
Actually, if I don’t vote, it’s only my and the non-voters’ opinions who count. The voters caused this disaster. Many non-voters like myself have for years had solutions that’d work. Voters weren’t interested in them, apparently.
That will change very soon. If people want to know why we are where we are, they need only look in the mirror.
Another case if Christian dishonesty. You vote for the lesser of two evils. I expect you won’t ‘waste’ your vote. Obviously enough, Christians don’t much vote third party. Libertarians and communists do. Yet you embrace losing in the name of Jesus on the way to ultimate, eternal victory. Total disconnect. You are herd calling us fence riders. The system should be scrapped not salvaged. There is no other way to build a house worth living in. Christians don’t have the will to have the political bowel movement so desperately needed. That is why I despise Christians and Christianity. Walk into a casino and expect to win after this track record, and you preach down to AoC. You are essentially a traitor. Fodder for evil is the lowest form of evil there is. You are too cowardly to start your herd from scratch. You want the safety of daddy government. You’re gonna get it good and hard. Just keep voting harder. Which reminds me, Vote Harder did the sane thing and left. Please everyone, excoriate me so I stop this poor use of my time. Please! Paging gutlessman.
Give it a rest shithead.
Thank you, flash in the pan. I would deny you rest for the rest of your life, as you did and do to me. Cuck on, you crazy diamond.
https://youtu.be/H0pnMvtgq-U
Can’t vote if there is nobody worth voting for. A vote for evil is just evil.
Dante’s 9th circle of Hell was reserved for the worst crime: treason. Trump won’t be getting our vote, even if that means the next president is a dementia patient who can’t even figure out what shoelaces do.
The manifesto of Brenton Tarrant used the word accelerationism. It is the smartest play, but it can’t happen. Too many stupid voters on the not Left. There is but one method that will do. I once saw a video.
My friend, a nurse in CA said hospitals are empty.
It’s all a scam- yet again.
We defeated terrorism- yay
Now Covid- yay
What’s the next BS boogeyman- yay, we’ll beat that too.
Next comes the adulations/congratulations of a most excellent job done by the brave doctors, nurses and various govt employees who we owe such a debt of gratitude to for their inspiring dedication-yay! OMG….
Hospitals are empty because they are not seeing normal patients. I think I broke my foot over a month ago but all my health care is doing is video visits. Pain is still there. Health care workers are being laid off and hours cut. Routine appointments are scheduled later in the year like colonoscopies and follow up post chemo appointments in our case. My auto insurance company is giving me back 49 bucks combined on two policies. health care insurance bills every month even when you can’t use it.
Can’t wait for the corona concert should be a hoot.
Although during the concert the GWOT returns spilling blood everywhere bringing back the GWOC.
Hope people get good at surfin because here comes the waves and the swell just rose like a mountain.
The virus is a false crisis. The numbers are fabricated. If it was not ginned up by the media for political purposes the deaths would be no worse than the AVERAGE FLU SEASON, PERIOD, END OF FREAKING STORY.
By the end of April we will know a lot more about November. If the lockdown is extended and many more millions have lost their jobs, he could be beaten by a hemorrhoid. He owns this collapse and the poor response from the very beginning. He *still* has Midget Fauci by his side…the little Napoleon who wants us to alter our very existences.
Put the bong down.
You’re just scared of the truth. You should be. Any man who stands next to that midget POS telling us our jobs don’t matter, our families’ livelihoods don’t matter, is no man in my book.
All Biden has to do is pull out Moochelle and it’s over if this lockdown is extended.
Big Mike 2020
I selfishly hope this lockdown is extended. Nothing short of a real ‘structural’ change in society will free me from the gaping abyss that waits below me. It other words, I need others to fail first in such numbers that they fight and I am no longer crazy. I want this. Let the masses have clarity by actuated instincts. They can’t see without a personal emergence, so let the life-and-death struggle fester in their faces with the undeniably dreadful wafts of hellacious halitosis. Eat it, fuckers!
Trump is smart. I think he plays the buffoon well enough to convince the rubes. It should be obvious by the flack you are getting here. You again overestimate the value of human life. Prepare to be disappointed again and again regardless of the 2020 election.
If government could no longer successfully run a scam against the best interests of the American people , would it still be government ? Let ’em eat cake, they said.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=238895
In point of fact I’ve pointed out since I started writing on this topic way back when the virus first hit the news that there was a very good chance that was the case — that the back-calculations I’ve done say that this bug was not new in late January or early February, that it was here at least through the flu season and maybe well before that.
That, of course, also makes all of the lockdowns a fraud and every day they continue from this day forward a crime greater than any ever committed by any government, save perhaps the genocides of Hitler, Pol Pot and similar.
BTW, the governments scams known as WWI, WWII, Vietnam and muh War on Terror were pretty horrendous too. And, the last one just keeps on giving.
The genocides of Hitler and Pol Pot? Chump change compared to FDR, Lennin/Stalin, and Mao.
indeed. This virus has been around since about the same time Fed repo started in September.
Corona Hoax merely provides cover for the inevitable crash any cognitive thinker knew was coming.
The show trial impeachment was distraction along the way like Russsiarussiarussia among others.
Cower in place will likewise be used to maximum effect permanently shuttering most of Main Street.
(the governments scams known as……9/11)
Yes that would be all good but I can’t even by cake mix. I can’t even by flour.
This is conditioning for total war. A trial run. They want a war with the ChiComs to deflect. I agree that China needs to pay a steep price, but first we need to clean up the dog shit in our own living room.
What do you have against the chinese people? Provable.
The Party or the People? Unfortunately, total war doesn’t discriminate.
Ok, the party.
Plenty.
Let that herd instinct go, Articles. We are to be upset about cold and flu bugs they face themselves? We are to be upset that they enslave their people to provide disposable goods at even more disposable prices? Nay. You might as well argument against nationalism and national sovereignty. The trade imbalance would be corrective if it weren’t for Wall Street and US imperialism and the US printing press. Who can buy Chinese goods without income? The gravy train makes the purchase of Chinese goods possible. If you blame China, you have no faith in national sovereignty. You would then be part of the problem. The Empire sells fear of others as its raison detre. The powerful Chinese could hurt you, oh no! If we ourselves are not terrifying, it is because we are no good. You should rather have contempt for the forces of emasculation. I laugh at the men here who think we should ‘never hit a woman’. Why not simply state we should always do what women say? That is not very far from saying we should do what daddy government says. Here endeth the epistle.
We don’t let dogs in the house, no dog poo here.
Government is in charge by control and submission not by trickery. You flatter yourself and the worth of others. We are not being tricked. As it was in the Soviet Union, “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.”
R D
Exactly. You can’t rape the willing.
I wish I had some of whatever he’s smoking. Sounds like Schlichter.
It’s genetic. You’ll never get there.
However, what’s interesting about the default history of the Spanish Crown is that they declared bankruptcy roughly every 20 years. I’m seeing a pattern. Wouldn’t surprise me if this thing recycles again except that we are expecting a Fourth Turning that can be expected to terminate that periodicity.
“Philip II failed to honorhis debts four times, in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596.” https://eml.berkeley.edu/~webfac/cromer/e211_f07/voth.pdf
Also bankruptcy in 1607. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/spanish-bankruptcy
“His [Charles/Carlos I of Spain] reign is marked by wars and internal strife, including massive spending and the near constant bankruptcy of his Empire. The Castilian nobles resented the influx of Flemish outsiders and rebelled only to be defeated in battle in 1521 at Villalar. At the same time he had overcome another threat in Valencia from a leader who claimed to be the illegitimate grandson of King Fernando. During his long reign he only spent some sixteen year in Spain due to constant wars or friction in his various possessions. He made more enemies when he decided to sack Rome in 1527 and England ended their mutual non-aggression pact the same year. In the north of Europe he suffered the spreading influence of Martin Luther and Protestantism whilst to the east and south he was constantly defending against warring Ottoman Turks.” https://www.spain-madrid.com/general/history/h-house-of-habsburg.htm
My point is this shit could go on and on. We will get what we deserve. The ‘we’ must be chosen carefully, or you have failed before starting.
In the 90’s I never would have believed Pat would be writing such Puke inducing propaganda for the NWO. It reads like a 60’s Stars & Stripes editorial.
Amen. I think Pat simply wants to enjoy the time he has left.
Yes, Pat has definitely gone downhill over the last 20 years. Maybe senility is setting in with him too, just like Biden.
Come-on, Trump can’t win either way. He either is ragged on for opening things up too soon and any deaths that happen or he waits too long and he is blamed for every bad thing happening in the universe.
This whole thing was politics from jump street. It was designed as a catch 22. The sad part of the whole thing is how quickly the children of all ages & education levels have lined up to follow the piper. This, from a strategy stand point, was a great success. Big question is will it continue to work??
He had 3.5 years to DICTATE. Wilson did it after the 4 minute stump speeches failed. FDR did it with the Japs. Lincoln did it with Johnny Reb.
He made his bed hard and now he has to sleep in it hard.
You don’t think he is protected? I suspect Trump redefined himself and became fundamentally part of a new social circle when he extricated himself from bankruptcy (with some (((help)))). It’s a hypothesis not a proven theory based on what I know.
He was joined at the hip with Roy Cohn from an early age.
If you had said ‘from the git-go’ that would be fine. Using cool 80’s slang is grody to the max.
Can’t win? Since when is the assessment of our enemy the measure of all things? You ‘people’ are infuriating. Thank you for that.
“Can he revive the economy without reviving the virus?”
can he revive the economy after so much determined gleeful effort to cripple it?
“I have never seen a time when an opponent is more irrelevant. And that’s not an insult to Vice President Biden.”
(laugh)
Sounds like Mr Pat swallowed hook line and sinker…