It is frightening to grasp what is happening to the restaurant, hotel and entertainment industries. The cooks, servers, dishwashers -- their jobs wiped out all over the nation in one or two days. Same for the thousands of workers responsible for late night TV, reality tv and rock concerts -- truckers, stagehands, electricians, lighting, sound people, personal assistants, producers and make up artists, all out of work. And retail workers at the thousands of businesses closed.
There are societal casualties as well. The criminal justice system is at a standstill. All courts, state and federal here, have ceased holding hearings with a few public safety exceptions and all jury trials. Lawyers can't get into jails and prisons to see clients. Even the Federal Defender's office is closed, with all of them working remotely from home.
When courts resume, they will be overloaded and overwhelmed. Personally, I think the U.S. Attorneys office and local District Attorneys should start dismissing all non-violent crimes (like drug crimes).
And yes, I blame Donald Trump for treating the virus as a "Democrat's Hoax", failing to ensure we had enough testing kits, and eliminating the office that Obama had set up to deal with emergencies like this. He didn't know about it, he says. That's because he isn't really in charge, he delegates everything to his cronies who he puts in charge of important government agencies.
A very sad part about this whole mess is that Americans have nowhere to turn to feel safe -- to feel assured because an experienced grownup is in charge who wants the best for America --to feel like we have someone we can trust when he tells us we'll be okay. Trump has been wrong so many times, often doing 180's the next day, it's given us whiplash. While we yawn and say "yeah right" or stare at the TV in astonishment when he makes his self-aggrandizing false claims, it's depressing to realize he isn't just the opening act but the main event. That there isn't a real leader behind the curtain who comes on stage when Trump is done giving his schtick, is just frightening.
But this may or may not be the end of Donald Trump. If Americans would wake up and open their eyes, they would see that Trump was asleep at the switch and when he woke up, he had no clue what to do and gave us incorrect and false information about the coronavirus. Now whether he screams "fire" or as he is wont to do, tries to placate us, no one believes him -- he's like the little boy who cried wolf. If he only had a brain that functioned above the sixth grade level.
On a related note, it seems his reelection campaign is going to have to start over, scrapping all the messaging it had planned with it assumed he would run against Bernie.
I have no predictions yet for the election. I appears it will be Trump and Biden, neither one of whom in my view should be on any ballot. Trump belongs in a room in Trump Tower where he can fondle all his gold objets d'art, and Biden belongs in a place for seniors where he can tell and embellish stories about his 40 years in Congress.
