Dakota Beacon

Is anyone else sick of hearing what a bang-up job our president has been doing with the coronavirus?  I have had just about enough of his self-congratulation and smug stupidity. Instead of being on top of things this man ordered a few travel restrictions from China and then trillied off on a happy tour of sunny India, there to schmooze with their leadership.

Instead, he should have absolutely sealed the borders as soon as we heard of this flu.  Instead, while he jollied off on Air Force One, someone in his chain of command made an independent decision to bring in over a thousand sick Americans from China and Japan, despite his “order”.  Meanwhile, people flood in every day from Italy, from the Middle East, throughout Europe and Asia, as well as Canada, which has a highly mobile and diverse population, and of course, nothing has been done to stop people coming in from the Mexican border.  If we don't have enough supplies or personnel to test everyone coming it, they should not be coming in.  They should be quarantined elsewhere.  This would be reasonable.  China, we know, is lying in their teeth. Whatever we hear from them we know will be another lie.  

The result is that containment is now over.  There is no containment. As this is written, the headlines inform us that travelers coming into the U.S. are not being screened - even coming in from Italy, which is being hit very hard by the virus.  A case has just been confirmed in Ramsey County, MN. This concerns me - as I am sure it will concern others in our area - because I have family there.  The woman whose case was verified just got back from a cruise. Why was she not screened?  How many others are wandering about the country who were on that cruise and were also not checked?  This is not "containment".

What could we have done?  Well, for starters, stop ALL travel coming in.  We could have quarantined these wealthy, sick Americans somewhere offshore - maybe there in Japan, or else maybe in the Aleutian Islands - for the entire time it takes for the virus to develop.  Just keep them there. Maybe provide whatever medical help we could get to them, while we had our best experts working on treatment, cures, vaccines. That’s just one option. Maybe by next fall, or sooner, some way to combat it would be found.  England is famous for quarantining pets.  If you want to take your pet into England it will spend several weeks in quarantine.  England has never, it is said, had a case of rabies.  This is why.  So if it can be done to protect animals in England, why can't it be done to protect humans here?

But no.  Our president, instead of staying home and putting his phone down and turning off the hilarious Democrat debates that fuel his best lines on Twitter, has been a full-time comedian.  I am also getting a bit fed up with the empty-headed laughers in the right-wing media, Trump giving them material to keep their foolish listeners chuckling. And all the while history, that shadowy subject no one learns anymore, could have told us.  

As our stock market keeps tanking, as local businesses shutter their doors, as events are canceled and people begin to get sick, I hope that we won’t be hearing anymore of Trump’s congratulatory messages to the bullies he admires in the Chinese Communist Party - like Xi Jinping.  I hope we can say that era is now over, as this rogue nation which quite possibly developed this virus as an intended weapon, continues to bring misery to everyone it touches - its own people most of all.

And while members of our elected leadership - people with military experience - are asking serious questions about the origins of this virus, they are being slammed for “promoting” “fake conspiracy theories”. It is time we stop allowing fear of political incorrectness to interfere with the best interests of our country.  The effort to get to the truth of this event is hampered by misguided people screaming "xenophobia!  racism!".  There is every reason to look into these possibilities. After all, the bio lab for weapons development is less than a block from the Wuhan “wet market” where it is said this was first documented.  Oh, and these great leaders of China ordered the scrubbing and demolition of the market, I suppose at the same time the army was going around welding people into their homes. Instead of labeling these questions irresponsible promotion of “conspiracy theories”, we should consider them seriously.  After all, since when have we heard a word of truth from China? It is reasonable to ask the questions and seek the truth. One thing we do know is that this virus has had the effect of tipping the balance of a lot of international and world economic events. Even the conflict which has reached the boiling point on the Greek border was furthered by the distraction of the pandemic, sending hundreds of thousands of “refugees” to the conflict by an opportunistic Erdogan (another of Trump’s dictator idols). 

The coronavirus has been mishandled.  It’s not just evil Democrats saying so.  And it’s not that people would have complained “no matter what”, as Trump whines.  If he had indeed done everything he could to minimize the effects then we would have no reason to blame him.  But his feckless handling of this, combined with his long-term neglect of “draining the swamp”, a draining process which left Dr. William Walters in charge of one of the most important decisions of the year and perhaps the Trump presidency, has left him wide open.  If the economic decline persists and people who have been encouraged to attend Trump rallies begin falling ill, his re-election could be forfeit - even to a senile incompetent like Joe Biden. These are serious times, not a music hall performance starring a stand-up comic.  

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