Daily Dose of Propaganda

April 2020

BY TIM MUNKEBY

I just have to say something about the White House’s daily propaganda briefings regarding the pandemic, as they become increasingly less informative and far more confusing, irritating, and misleading.

Every day, we hear rhetoric from Trump about how happy we should be that he’s our president, despite his role in tens of thousands of deaths in our country.

He disseminates muddled misinformation while mixing in a few blatant lies for good measure. For example, he just claimed, again, that more people are dying from the flu than COVID-19. Not true. As of April 19, this Coronavirus is now the second leading cause of death in America, right behind heart disease.

Trump?s reason is obvious. He wants to downplay the extent and danger of the virus to his base of supporters, who will apparently believe anything he says, no matter how far-fetched or potentially lethal it might be.

Trump has one agenda, to keep the economy going and keep the markets up no matter the cost. He knows that as the backup quarterback in this economic game, he’ll be sacked if he doesn’t. Fired. For Trump, re-election is the only thing that matters, no matter how much blood is on his hands. As Former Secretary of State Colin Powell stated back in October 2018, Trump is incapable of being a moral leader. It is all about ?me the president,? Powell said, instead of ?we the people.?

I hope to Hades enough voters come to realize that a delusional narcissist bending to despotism and demanding fealty from his vassals, firing qualified people to hire unqualified Trumpets (Trump puppets), should not be a leader of any country much less one once considered the greatest in the world. One that used to be respected by other countries and world leaders.

In less than three and a half years this is no longer so.

It should be obvious that character is important in a leader. Nobody likes or respects a braggart, one who takes credit when it’s undue and blames others for his mistakes. A braggart has no friends, and now, neither does the United States. Trump has repeatedly and consistently alienated our neighbors and our allies, India being the most recent when he threatened retaliation against the country if it didn’t step up exports of an unproven drug for COVID-19 treatment.

Millions of people in hundreds of countries throughout the world consider Trump to be a joke and, like myself, cannot imagine how he was elected. We need, especially in times like these, friends. Solving this pandemic is a global concern and requires global cooperation. But who wants to cooperate with a self-serving, vindictive, dictator wannabe? He’s friendly with the totalitarian monarchy in Saudi Arabia, and has ?fallen in love? with Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un in North Korea. And you must have asked yourself why our archenemy, Putin in Russia?who wants nothing more than to bring harm to us?wants Trump as president.

Yes, it was unconscionable that China waited too long to acknowledge the virus, but Trump minimized the threat for weeks. His administration received its first formal notifications of the outbreak in China January 3^rd.? He was aware of the growing epidemic, now pandemic, but it took 70 days for him to acknowledge it as a threat, and critical time was lost because of his denials and inaction.

All while people started dying.

He failed to act immediately to protect his citizens?us. He tried to convince the populace that there really wasn’t a problem. Ignore it and it will go away, miraculously! As if we wouldn’t know that people were dying. As if we wouldn’t personally know people who?d become infected. As if this pandemic was never going to touch our own health, our own loved ones, our own lives. Face it, he doesn’t care about you. He only cares about himself. Never shows remorse or empathy, because he doesn’t feel any.

And Trumpets, tell me that the Trump administration’s cuts to critical global health staffing and funding didn’t hamper its response to this crisis. Tell me that the 2018 disbanding of the National Security Council?s Global Health Security and Biodefense Unit, created in 2015 under the Obama administration to focus on pandemic preparedness, didn’t leave a leadership vacuum in global health security at the White House.

That’s totally on Trump, and his Republican enablers. There is no excuse for doctors, nurses, and medical personnel having inadequate supplies and protection to keep themselves safe, and their patients alive. Totally unconscionable and unsupportable. Really, how can you argue?

The man in the White House is extremely dangerous. He’s going to push to do anything to save himself.

After finally being forced into action by the public health community, Trump now postures himself as our savior. First came his ?plan? to ?open up? the economy by Easter?because Easter is so special to him (can you really say you believe that?). And how beautiful it would be to see the churches full on Easter! Sure, would have been, but rational, qualified minds prevailed.

A week later and we’re hearing unproven claims from those press briefings that the virus is dissipating, falsehoods that we?ve got this vaccine coming, inaccuracies about more testing on the way, and lies that we’re doing such a great job, that things are getting better.

Don’t you dare believe this bullshit.

Yes, I know some will. Trumpets are already saying idiotic and despicable things like, ?Oh, it’s only the old people on their last legs dying.? And there’s a demented strategy in the works of discrediting our public health officials, thus the spread of the #FireFauci hashtag. And now, Trump has invoked violence by Tweeting the word ?Liberate? before various states, including mine.

I realize that for many of you, I’m preaching to the choir. But those of you who are questioning your fealty to the would-be king, consider what your king is doing to America. And I ask you, what if it was your child, your spouse, your parents dying?

I’ve never felt more strongly that Trump should not be president. He’s the most dangerous person in America. Agreed, this pandemic is like living in The Twilight Zone. It’s emotionally, mentally, physically and yes?financially?difficult for almost everyone.

But your 401(k) will bounce back. Your paychecks will resume. The economy will recover.

If you’re dead, however, YOU WOn’t.

Tim Munkeby is a speaker and author. His last novel, Will, is a good read before the election. Munkeby is also a member of The Reporters Inc.?s Advisory Committee. He can be reached via?timmunkeby.com or at? .

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