Trump continues to view the coronavirus pandemic through the lens of the stock market and his need to pump up his prospects for re-election. He briefly listened to scientists and medical experts but reverted to his usual stance of catering to his base, praising himself, and demonizing his critics. He now thinks he can talk his way out of a public health emergency.
Yale psychiatry Bandy Lee says that the COVID-19 epidemic brings out the worst in Trump. He can’t control it, but he can pretend to control it. That’s enough for his rabid base.
Asmany of America’s and the world’s leading mental health experts have repeatedly warned, Trump is mentally unwell to the extreme. He has publicly and repeatedly shown that he is a malignant narcissist, a pathological liar and a delusional fabulist. He is detached from reality and appears to live in his own fantasy world. His lack of empathy, care and concern for others can reasonably be described as sociopathic.
The coronavirus pandemic is one of the greatest threats to public health — and perhaps even modern human civilization — of the last century. Many millions of people may directly die from the virus in the United States and around the world. The global economy is collapsing into a state that may be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. To defeat the coronavirus will require patient and wise leadership based on facts, reason, and expertise. Because the coronavirus is a public health crisis it is a problem of science and empirical knowledge. It cannot be wished away or prayed away or eliminated through other forms of magical thinking.
For many reasons, including his mental health, overall temperament, values and intelligence, Donald Trump is existentially ill-equipped to handle this emergency and defeat the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Bandy Lee is perhaps the leading voice among those who have warned the American people and the world that Donald Trump’s presidency would result in disaster. She is a professor of psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and editor of the bestselling book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.”
In our most recent conversation, Lee contended that explains the pressures of the coronavirus pandemic are making Donald Trump’s various mental pathologies worse and more dangerous. She explained her view that Trump, aided by Fox News and other parts of the right-wing echo chamber, is creating a collective state of mental illness among his cult members that is making the coronavirus even more lethal.
As she has done before, Lee argued that Donald Trump is the most dangerous person on the planet and expressed her concern he may use the coronavirus pandemic to start or inflame mass violence in order to keep himself in power permanently.
Read the rest of the interview.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
No one wants to say this, but the people he hires lie constantly too. If they’re standing there allowing him to lie, smiling and nodding.\, they’re behaving as badly as the liar.
They’re cowards. They’ve completely abandoned any personal ethical standards they may have had coming in to his administration in order to remain in his good graces.
Trump couldn’t have done this alone- he needed lots and lots of ethically bankrupt helpers. They had to have been weak people prior to this- all Trump did was exploit their lack of character.
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“Secretary Betsy DeVos
My team and I are in contact daily w/ governors, state school chiefs, college presidents, superintendents, & local ed leaders. We are quickly responding to what they need so they can do the next right thing for their students.”
We can check the veracity of some of the Trump employee claims- we can ask our state and local leaders if Betsy DeVos has in fact offered assistance or if this is just another politically motivated lie.
They can’t be trusted, bottom line. They’re dishonest people. Trump exploits a lack of character- he doesn’t create it.
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This came from my Trump-loving friend. Quote: “Check out Dr. Deborah Birx’s video. She is reporting facts without inflated numbers.”
This is exactly why people in this country are going to die. Misinformation abounds. New York has I.C.U. beds available and has 1,000-2,000 ventilators that haven’t been used.
BIrx is being paid to support Trump. No wonder the far R is attacking Dr. Fauci. Unbelievable that this country has gone so far down the garbage disposal.
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Dr. Birx: Coronavirus Data Doesnt Match The Doomsday Media Predictions
Date March 26, 2020
White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx warned the public not to panic when they hear about models and projections of the pandemic’s spread.
“Models are models,” she said. “When people start talking about 20% of a population getting infected, it’s very scary, but we don’t have data that matches that based on our experience.”
She said the media should not “make the implication that when they need a hospital bed it’s not going to be there, or a ventilator, it’s not going to be there, we don’t have evidence of that.”…
Models are models. We are — there is enough data of the real experience with the coronavirus on the ground to really make these predictions much more sound. So when people start talking about 20% of a population getting infected, it’s very scary, but we don’t have data that matches that based on our experience.
And the situation about ventilators. We are reassured in meeting with our colleagues in New York that there are still I.C.U. Beds remaining and still significant — over 1,000 or 2,000 ventilators that have not been utilized…. but to say that to the American people and make the implication that when they need a hospital bed it’s not going to be there or a ventilator, it’s not going to be there, we don’t have evidence of that…
We are adapting to the reality on the ground and looking at the models of how they can inform but learning from South Korea and Italy and from Spain and I know you will look up my numbers…
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/03/26/dr_birx_coronavirus_data_doesnt_match_the_doomsday_media_predictions_or_analysis.html
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With Trump’s empathy free psychopathy, his briefings and updates are like pouring gasoline on an out of control blaze.
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From “hoax” to “just a cold” to “low risk” to “well, close the Mexican border (no cases then; only China)” to I have the vaccine to “well, the doctors are wrong” to “ok… but we have to save the corporations (who just got gazillions in tax breaks)” to “there will be testing for everyone immediately” and “ventilators for all” to punishing – PUNISHING states with strong Democrat Governors … this is one dangerous man.
Demand Senators and Reps Confront him – Plead with LOCAL papers to demand senators and reps to answer question.
I have commented here and will again – Is? Why isn’t every educator, parent, health care worker, public services… calling, emailing, writing real letters to their red Senators and Representatives about their saying nothing and letting this man lie to us –
and writing their local newspapers – LOCAL – not cnn – demanding that they exercise their free press to interview those senators and reps – and demand that they explain why they are saying nothing to shut this president up and mislead his or her constituency.
The Chinese broke the internet and the censors could not keep up with it when Dr. Li first whistleblower public tweets exposed the weeks of hiding this in Wunan. Is a Virtual march on Washington – march on silent spring Senators – possible? NPE? AFT? Some tech geniuses out there? It worked for Opt Outs.
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Three of the six members of the Congressional delegation for my state are not in Washington due to exposure to COVID-19. Utah’s one Democratic representative was just released from the hospital, after being there over a week with COVID-19 He’s only 45. https://www.ksl.com/article/46735713/coronavirus-updates-602-positive-cases-in-utah-rep-ben-mcadams-released-from-hospital
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If Trump’s brain was scanned 24/7 to discover how it works and his DNA was sequenced, the results would reveal that his orbital cortex, the moral decision-making area of his brain, is incapable of doing its job. He will also have the MAOA and DARPP-32 genes.
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“Donald Trump is the most dangerous person on the planet”. It is time his words were unreported to preserve to shallow lives of his fans. You are fast approaching a moment of chaos best wishes to you America.
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Longing for the days when the worst thing on the blog about the president was Arne Duncan.
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This is how far the Orange Moron/Buffoon/IDIOT/Agent Orange//Ignoramus has come. Remember when the numbers were at 15 and going down to 0? He is personally responsible for the illnesses and deaths because of the delays, denials, refusals to listen to medical experts and not using the preparatory instructions on how to react in a pandemic that he had been shown and, most assuredly, didn’t remember or care to use.
Now this total screwup of a person says that IF we can hold the deaths down to 100,000 “WE ALL TOGETHER HAVE DONE A VERY GOOD JOB”.
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Trump, who has largely avoided talk of potential death and infection rates, cited projection models that said potentially 2.2 million people or more could have died had the country not put social distancing measures in place. And he said the country would be doing well if it “can hold” the number of deaths “down to 100,000.”
“It’s a horrible number,” Trump said, but added: “We all together have done a very good job.”
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