On the evening of June 4, 1974, the Cleveland Indians played a game against the Texas Rangers. The hapless Indians hadn’t been drawing flies to their games, so a genius in the marketing department decided that the club could increase attendance for the game by offering 10 cent beer.
That night, instead of the average crowd of 3,000 fans, the stadium filled up with 25,000 thirsty spectators. The game was an afterthought to these guzzlers, who were “limited” to six beers per purchase, although there was no limit on the number of purchases. Sixty thousand 12-fluid ounce cups were served that evening…before things got totally out of control. Ladies flashed breasts, naked fans streaked across the ballfield, fans threw hot dogs onto the field, and a full-fledged riot broke out, in which thousands of inebriated patrons stormed the field and fought players on both teams. The bases were stolen, for God’s sake.
Who would’ve thought?
Actually…a large crowd of drunk people typically finds a way to create havoc, whether it be at a beach, a park, a concert, or in a stadium. It’s a Law of Nature, I’m sure. At the very least, it’s predictable. The Cleveland Indians didn’t think their promotion through and paid the price. Thankfully, no one was killed.
In 2016, American voters went the Ten Cent Beer route when they threw their lot in with a candidate for President who had no experience in government and was a well-known narcissistic, egomaniac TV celebrity.
Let’s dissect that: no governmental experience, but expected to effectively manage an enormous and complex public sector organization; a narcissist, which means he loves himself and prioritizes his personal goals above those of others; and, an egomaniac, who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else, including experts in their fields.
New job: Leader of the Greatest Nation on Earth.
What could go wrong?
Well, we’re now 3-1/2 years into the Donald J. Trump presidency and the answer is apparent: pretty much everything. As in a total cockup.
This 2020 Presidential campaign must be, from the Democratic Party perspective, the easiest one in history. That’s because the same qualities that got Donald Trump elected (i.e. outspokenness, lying, exaggerations, dismissal of expert opinions, promises that he couldn’t keep) are all “on the record” on tape, videotape, and Internet. Stupid and outrageous things that he’s said in front of a microphone or camera are there for the taking; just bundle them up and, ouila!, you’ve got President Trump making your case for his defeat.
There’s so much choice material to choose from that it must be difficult for the Biden campaign to choose from. On any subject, they can find a voice recording or video of Donald Trump making a fool out of himself.
The past couple of weeks have been interesting on the campaign trail.
Social unrest over police brutality and systemic racism continues in many major cities, with mass protests and, in some cases, violence. The Trump response has been threefold: (1) Ignore the issue that is sparking the public unrest; (2) Support heavy-handed suppression of left wing, but not right wing, violence where it has occurred; and (3) Attempt to portray, in campaign ads, the protest violence as “Biden’s World”, as in this is what things would look like if his opponent was elected.
The problem is that the “world” that Donald Trump is alluding to is occurring right now, during his Presidency. He egged on such social unrest, by denigrating people of color and blindly supporting the police, and now elects to do nothing except send in goons to throw tear gas cannisters and beat up people.
There’s no denying: this is Trump’s World.
A recent article in The Atlantic magazine revealed some distasteful Trump quotes from back in 2018 when the President was supposed to honor World War II dead in a French cemetery, but threw a fit because the poor weather might get his hair all wet. According to the article, our President didn’t feel much like participating in the ceremony to honor the “losers” and “suckers” that lost their lives in battle.
To anyone who has followed Donald Trump’s utterings for the past several years, these quotes aren’t shocking. He’s called his own appointed ex-Generals horrible names, he’s insulted Gold Star mothers, he’s claimed that he knows more about the military than our Chiefs of Staff, and found numerous ways to denigrate the heroic public life of Navy pilot/ex-prisoner of war/Senator /ex-Presidential candidate John McCain.
Of course, the Trump camp immediately denied the “losers” and “suckers” quotes. Unfortunately, however, several Administration eyewitnesses from back in 2018 substantiated the Atlantic account, and even the Fox News propaganda arm of the Trump for President campaign verified the sources.
It’s bad when that happens, because the Fox folks are on the payroll.
So, once again, Donald Trump is hoisted on his own petard, an unfortunate occurrence because he really needs the support of the military and veterans to help him win in November, not to mention the impact that such comments by a Commander in Chief might have on all-volunteer military recruitment.
Think about that.
A couple of days later, the President stepped in it again, by asserting that Defense Department leaders choose to continue to fight wars in an attempt to keep defense firms “happy”.
This campaign ploy is an obvious attempt to blame someone (else) for the President’s failure to “bring home the troops” that he promised in 2016.
In addition to being sophomoric, Trump’s comments are inane, as: (1) Everyone knows about the “military-industrial complex”; (2) His appointed guys (who he recruited from the defense industry) run the Defense Department; and, (3) As President of the United States, he could order any or all U.S. military forces home tomorrow if he so wished.
By denigrating his own appointees and the highest military officers, in an attempt to make himself look good, his comments (as Commander in Chief) demoralize his high command and rank-and-file fighters and make him look like the coward he is.
You would think that, after the President had tripped over his Johnson several times this week, the worst would be over.
Not hardly.
Does the name Bob Woodward ring a bell? He and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize some years back for breaking the Watergate story, which essentially brought down the Nixon presidency. There is probably not a more respected professional journalist in America than Bob Woodward.
If he’s reporting it, chances are about 100 percent that it happened.
The journalist has come out with a new book called “Rage”, in which some very interesting quotes from President Trump are included. Specifically, things Trump told Woodward in February 2020 about the unfolding coronavirus pandemic. Evidently, the President knew very early on that that the coronavirus was deadly and highly contagious, posing a grave public health threat to the Nation.
That is, of course, not what the President of the United States told the American people.
At time, the President assured the public that it was just the flu and it would go away quickly.
Privately, he told Woodruff, “This is deadly stuff.”
Publicly, in late February 2020, President Trump called Covid-19 “the Democrats’ new hoax”, again implying that the potential pandemic was not a serious matter.
In March 2020, Trump told Woodruff that, publicly, he “always wanted to play down” the severity of the virus..
In April, as he began to urge the country to re-open, the President told the journalist, “It is so easily transmissible, you wouldn’t even believe it.”
Woodruff’s book excerpts sound like a political hack job, a treasure trove of shit that the Democrats will surely use to great benefit. Are the quotes accurate, you ask?
Bob Woodward has a dozen hours of taped interviews with the President; and, yes, Mr. Trump admitted his innermost thoughts to the journalist.
Why?
Probably because Donald Trump is a narcissistic egomaniac who thought he could steer Bob Woodward into writing a puff piece about him.
He was wrong.
Of course, a day after the story broke, Trump had a positive spin on his earlier dishonesty with the American public: he was trying to “prevent panic” by downplaying the coronavirus.
Which, of course, he has continued to do for the past six months. Accordingly, many Americans believe the pandemic is overblown and not a serious health matter but, rather, a political battle of wills.
So, the Nation failed to unite against Covid-19, over 190,000 people are dead, and flu season approaches.
The very sad thing about all of this, as our country breached the 190,000 dead level this week, is that President Trump’s posture regarding Covid-19 (denial, softpeddling, blame, ignoring experts, pretending to be an expert, promoting false cures, not wearing a mask in public, and placing undue hope on a rapidly-developed vaccine) actually torpedoed his vaunted economy.
If Donald Trump was going to be easily re-elected, “his” economy was going to be the centerpiece of the campaign. If the President had taken the virus seriously, engaged the public to go to battle against the plague, and shown daily leadership, Covid-19 would have come and gone, and the economy would have rebounded quickly.
Instead, our President got his priorities screwed up and did what he’s always done for a living: sell snake oil.
Speaking of snafus, Donald Trump has another serious problem to deal with… that he created: the “miracle” Covid-19 vaccine that he’s been promising by Election Day.
Numerous labs throughout the world are working 24/7 to develop an effective and safe vaccine. Normally, the development of a vaccine takes years. In the case of Covid-19, lots of red tape has been eliminated and a massive amount of funding has been made available. The best scientific guesstimate seems to be that a successful candidate Covid-19 vaccine will emerge from Stage 3 trials around the end of the year.
That would be seven weeks after Election Day.
President Trump continues to tell the public that a vaccine will be available before that date, with the political implication of…”mission accomplished” and “problem solved”. Another Trumpian success story…ho hum. We came, we saw, we conquered. Etc.
The problem with the vaccine issue is that President Trump has spent 3-1/2 years denigrating scientists of all stripes, ridiculing their findings, accusing them of making statements to embarrass him, and finding ways to undermine their expertise, always with a public smirk, like not wearing a facemask in public despite the recommendation of his own Coronavirus Task Force. The implication of his actions and statements is “Don’t trust them”, “Listen to me”.
President Trump may or may not be re-elected, but whomever is occupying the White House when the vaccine is finally available is going to have a hard time signing up folks for inoculations. Recent polls indicate that as many as 80 percent of Americans will not volunteer for the miracle cure.
Why is that?
First, the vaccine development process appears to be politically, rather than scientifically, driven. It is being rushed, per the President’s own words. “Operation Warp Speed” is the term the Administration uses. Instead of being ready when it is effective and safe, it will be available by Election Day, according to the President.
Second, the Administration has spent several years downplaying and ridiculing scientific endeavors and expertise. The President, himself, on national TV, has disagreed vociferously with our Nation’s top epidemiologists; “they’re wrong”, he’s said. Why should the American public now believe that our scientists actually know what they’re doing with this vaccine? Why should we trust them?
Third, there was a significant anti-vaxxer element in society prior to the pandemic. These alarmist nutjobs already mistrusted scientists, and now they will have the added issue of safety being compromised due to “haste”, whether that happens or not.
One of the big pharma companies developing a vaccine, Astra Zeneca, stopped Stage 3 trials this week due to a significant medical issue encountered by one of the test subjects. That is what mass trials are for. Anyone watching pharma ads on TV for any miracle pill can attest that the supposed benefits of the medicine are usually dwarfed by legal disclaimers regarding all of the significant side effects that can occur.
You don’t want any side effects in a vaccine. None, or no one will get a shot or allow their children to do so. Period.
Covid-19 is not political, it’s biological. It is not going anywhere, and will be a problem to society until there is a herd immunity. This can be accomplished by a vaccine, but only if most people take it. If they are reluctant to do so, this pandemic could linger for several years, further cratering the economy.
Nice job, Trump.
And, so, as we chug along the campaign trail, with about seven weeks left, the President is flailing about, lying about his accomplishments, trying mightily to blame others for his own Administration’s failures, and conjuring up a future world of Hell if his opponent is elected.
Meanwhile, his lips continue to move with his brain out-of-gear.
Amazingly, it is probably a toss-up right now as to who will be our next President, Trump or Biden.
As Donald Trump said in 2016, he could “shoot somebody in Times Square” and his people would vote for him anyway.
He has actually done something like that, mismanaging the Covid-19 response and causing 190,000 deaths, and yet the most recent poll numbers show that he’s only trailing Joe Biden by a few percentage points.
It’s time to come up with another gimmick to drive more rednecks to the polls.
He could simply issue another Executive Order, declaring victory.
If that doesn’t work, he could try Ten Cent Beer.