Truman had a sign on his desk: "The Buck Stops Here." Trump has one on his desk: "The Buck Passes Here."

I know, Trump fanatics and others sucked into the far-right black hole, Chuck Todd said something very disturbing to your tender sensitivities: that because of his gross mishandling of the coronavirus problem, Donald Trump has “blood on his hands.” It is too much to ask for you people to actually think about what he said, and why he would even say such a thing; but then again, for you people Trump can do no wrong, because doing what is wrong on a moral and ethical level is always “acceptable” and “justifiable” if only it is directly opposed to simple human logic or decency. And naturally your favorite forum for alternate “facts,” Fox News, is back to its old tricks of defending Trump and treating the pandemic like it is something the “liberals” cooked-up to annoy him personally and hurt his reelection chances—and this after Trish Regan was kind-of-officially “fired” from her job, but finding her not too unhappy about it, apparently because she probably received another golden parachute divorce settlement like she most likely received from the other networks that gave her the boot. 

The Guardian, meanwhile, notes that during the “lost six weeks” when the Trump administration dithered, South Korea—which had its first confirmed case of the virus at around the same time it appeared in the U.S.—saw its government step-in immediately to thwart a wholesale spread of the virus, and has for the most part been successful in that endeavor. On the other hand, with the willing and eager aid of the sycophantic Fox News, Trump for six weeks did almost nothing save shut down travel from China and Europe, and then claim all was going to be just “great” and “no big deal.” Repeatedly he referred to his own gross underestimation of the problem, several times claiming that within days the virus would be completely eradicated in the U.S. In fact the opposite has occurred: last week, the U.S. moved ahead of China and Italy for the most cases of the virus; as of today, the number of cases has gone up fifty percent from that number, with no ceiling in sight, and more than 2,000 have died and counting. 

It was further revealed that in 2016 the NSC had produced a “playbook” on how to systematically deal with a pandemic that Trump officials ignored; when an inquiry was made in regard to this subject, it was claimed that it was “out-of-date.” Well, it seems that the alleged “up-to-date” guidance Trump officials claim to be using isn’t working very well, is it? But such is the fact that the Trump administration has systematically chased off experienced people with the requisite know-how, either not replaced, or replaced with political sycophants or people who otherwise don’t have clue one of what they are doing, such as Mike Pence and Jared Kushner.

Meanwhile, what is going on out in the country? From what I can tell, not everyone is treating the coronavirus situation the same way. Individually, most people know that they will not catch the virus during that millisecond that they pass each other on the sidewalk, but there are always those for whom there is a thin-line between “safe” and stupid. Some people would prefer to walk in the middle of the street if they see someone else passing them on the sidewalk. I saw a woman trying to turn the handle of a restroom door with her wrists, and not too successfully. I saw a man with toilet paper stuffed-up his nostrils; he could have just as easily stuffed the chunks of hotdog bun falling out his mouth for the same purpose.

In Seattle—or at least in downtown Seattle, they have taken the governor’s lockdown order seriously enough; at least the office building I work in is now locked-down 24/7.  Down “south” in Kent, maybe things are not quite as serious. Sure, the city parks (or at least that is what they are called) have been “shutdown,” although that seems to be just a move to chase away the principle users of the parks, homeless people—which of course brings-up the issue that hasn’t received much attention in the national media, how homeless people are handling the situation, particularly if they have to share crowded and largely unsanitary conditions, even in shelters.

Anyways, the major fast food chains in Kent’s are now closed for even take-outs, only allowing drive-through orders. But one does wonder about where all those cars came from that fill the industrial and office parks along 68^th Ave on weekdays, and some on Saturday; it seems to me that for most businesses (or at least small business) in Kent it remains “business as usual”—until someone tells them otherwise. Is this the reason why the city council is so fearful of the Econolodge being converted by the county into a coronavirus quarantine location?

In the meantime, if things get any worse (and there is no indication that things are getting “better”), someone is going to have to “own” the situation. President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk: “The Buck Stops Here.” Trump should have a sign on his desk saying “The Buck Passes Here.” It passed for six critical weeks when the coronavirus problem could have been corralled. Trump has been passing blame on Barack Obama, but the 2009 H1N1 epidemic did not result in the serious economic impacts that the coronavirus is having. We saw a record 3.3 million people apply for unemployment insurance last week—four times the previous high, which occurred during the Reagan administration. That is largely the fault of Trump’s failure to act. I was working at SeaTac Airport in 2009; I don’t remember the airport shutting down like it is now. Why? Because the Obama administration acted in coordination with the WHO, not with Fox News. 

The history books will record the failures and inactions of the Trump administration; there is no escaping the truth.