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I told Laurie Garrett that she might as well change her name to Cassandra. Everyone is calling her that anyway.
She and I were Zooming — that’s a verb now, right? — and she pulled out a 2017 book, “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes.” It notes that Garrett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, was prescient not only about the impact of H.I.V. but also about the emergence and global spread of more contagious pathogens.
“I’m a double Cassandra,” Garrett said.
She’s also prominently mentioned in a recent Vanity Fair article by David Ewing Duncan about “the Coronavirus Cassandras.” “Prepare, Prepare, Prepare”: Why Didn’t the World Listen to the Coronavirus Cassandras?
Cassandra, of course, was the Greek prophetess doomed to issue unheeded warnings. What Garrett has been warning most direly about — in her 1994 best seller, “The Coming Plague,” and in subsequent books and speeches, including TED Talks — is a pandemic like the current one.
She saw it coming. So a big part of what I wanted to ask her about was what she sees coming next. Steady yourself. Her crystal ball is dark.
…
She said she wasn’t surprised that a coronavirus wrought this devastation, that China minimized what was going on or that the response in many places was sloppy and sluggish. She’s Cassandra, after all.
But there is one part of the story she couldn’t have predicted: that the paragon of sloppiness and sluggishness would be the United States.
“I never imagined that,” she said. “Ever.”
The highlights — or, rather, lowlights — include President Trump’s initial acceptance of the assurances by President Xi Jinping of China that all would be well, his scandalous complacency from late January through early March, his cheerleading for unproven treatments, his musings about cockamamie ones, his abdication of muscular federal guidance for the states and his failure, even now, to sketch out a detailed long-range strategy for containing the coronavirus.
Having long followed Garrett’s work, I can attest that it’s not driven by partisanship. She praised George W. Bush for fighting H.I.V. in Africa.
But she called Trump “the most incompetent, foolhardy buffoon imaginable.”
And she’s shocked that America isn’t in a position to lead the global response to this crisis, in part because science and scientists have been so degraded under Trump.
Trump supporters are sure colorful
The famed scientist John G. Trump once explained his theory of how to treat one malady by the “direct injection of electrons” into patients’ skin. To treat another disease, he cited tests that showed it was possible to use electrons to “destroy or inactivate hepatitis virus in blood plasma.”
But, President Trump’s uncle said, “We unfortunately were not able to persuade anybody to try this,” because there had been “some casualties among volunteers.”
The president has long said that he and his uncle, who taught physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and died in 1985, represent a rare breed of “super genius,” benefiting from the same genes.
It is not known whether the president, in his widely condemned recent suggestion that disinfectant be injected into the body to kill the novel coronavirus, was somehow vaguely channeling his uncle’s theories. What is clear is that Trump has sought repeatedly to present himself as a man of scientific knowledge largely because his uncle was so renowned — and that his efforts in recent weeks have only highlighted the vast gulf between them.
...
Trump’s claim that he shares his uncle’s intellect has been not been substantiated in terms of academic records or awards. Trump has said that his admission to what was then called the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania is evidence of “super genius stuff” because, he said, it was the “hardest school to get into, the best school in the world.”
In fact, as The Post reported last year, the undergraduate school attended by Trump accepted more than 40 percent of applicants, and Trump was interviewed by an admissions officer who was his older brother’s close friend. That admissions officer, James Nolan, said it was “not very difficult” to get into the school at the time, and he did not believe that Trump was a “genius.”
THE BOYFRIEND’S BACK
The Boyfriend’s Back
Am I the only one to see the appropriateness in Kim Jong Un’s first appearance, after much speculation of his whereabouts, being at a fertilizer factory?
No stranger to bullshit himself, Donald Trump tweeted his enthusiasm for Kim’s well being. The human fertilizer factory tweeted, “I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!” How sweet. Doesn’t that just warm the cockles of your heart?
Kim was missing for about six weeks and even missed a celebration honoring his grandfather’s birthday, which is a huge holiday in North Korea. That would be like Donald Trump not making an appearance at his birthday party where there was going to be a military flyover in his honor, an unveiling of a portrait of him bought with charity funds, a bust of his head, his entire cabinet, and Congress Republicans present to say, “Thank you for your leadership,” and cake.
Where was Kim? There were rumors he was suffering after surgery, was in a coma, and even dead…or maybe all three. But, suddenly, Kim showed up at the fertilizer factory cutting a ribbon for its grand opening. Nice to see something’s doing business. If you’re a dictator or a wannabe dictator, your business is spreading shit…and business is good.
Yesterday, Donald Trump held a town hall on Fox News, and the network reported that “all the participants broke into thunderous cheers of ‘hurrah!’ extending the greatest glory to the Supreme Leader.” Oops. Wrong shitshow. That was a report from the state media outlet Korean Central News Agency on Kim’s appearance at the factory.
But why is there a big deal over not being seen for six weeks? I haven’t been seen in six weeks. And unless you’re a Michigan Nazi storming the state capitol protesting Donald Trump’s stay-at-home guidelines in the name of Donald Trump, you haven’t been seen in six weeks either. Oh yeah, we’re not murderous dictators.
Donald Trump is real big on dictators. He loves them. He loves him some Putin. He praises Xi when he’s not using him as a scapegoat. He praises Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine leader who’s an admitted murderer. And he loves Kim Jong Un, who is also a murderer. He was very enthusiastic about Kim’s return.
Kim Jong Un has murdered and starved his own people. If an aide looks at him funny, he has the guy ripped to shred by dogs or killed with an anti-aircraft gun. He had his own half-brother murdered in Singapore. And, he is responsible for the death of American college student, Otto Warmbier.
Otto went to North Korea as part of a tour group, was arrested at the airport while awaiting departure, was convicted for stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel, and was sentenced for 15 years of hard labor.
Shortly after being sentenced, Otto fell into a coma after receiving an unexplained neurological injury and was sent back to the U.S. six days before he died. Otto was only 22. In 2018, a U.S. court found North Korea liable for Warmbier’s torture and death. Donald Trump has not.
Donald Trump gave Kim Jong Un legitimacy by being the first American president (sic) to meet with him. He’s met Kim three times. Trump said he asked Kim about Warmbier’s death, that Kim felt “really bad” about it, and he believed Kim when he said he wasn’t responsible for Otto’s death.
Donald Trump has expressed less outrage over Kim murdering Otto than he’s expressed at Canadian cheese.
Donald Trump has sided with a murderous dictator over an American citizen. It wasn’t the first time. He even took Putin’s side over the United States when it was pointed out that Putin was a murderer, Trump responded, “you think we’re so nice?” Well, not all of us. Have you seen those Michigan guys?
In the past, Trump has said Kim sent him “beautiful love letters” and that they “fell in love.”
Trump wants what Kim has which is mandatory praise, every citizen required to hang his photo in their homes, and a state-run media that only reports his version of news.
I bet North Koreans would be in love with Kim not being around anymore. For that matter, I’m in love with the idea of Donald Trump being kicked out of the White House this November.
And I’d be in love with not seeing Donald Trump for six weeks.
The Boyfriend’s Back
Am I the only one to see the appropriateness in Kim Jong Un’s first appearance, after much speculation of his whereabouts, being at a fertilizer factory?
No stranger to bullshit himself, Donald Trump tweeted his enthusiasm for Kim’s well being. The human fertilizer factory tweeted, “I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!” How sweet. Doesn’t that just warm the cockles of your heart?
Kim was missing for about six weeks and even missed a celebration honoring his grandfather’s birthday, which is a huge holiday in North Korea. That would be like Donald Trump not making an appearance at his birthday party where there was going to be a military flyover in his honor, an unveiling of a portrait of him bought with charity funds, a bust of his head, his entire cabinet, and Congress Republicans present to say, “Thank you for your leadership,” and cake.
Where was Kim? There were rumors he was suffering after surgery, was in a coma, and even dead…or maybe all three. But, suddenly, Kim showed up at the fertilizer factory cutting a ribbon for its grand opening. Nice to see something’s doing business. If you’re a dictator or a wannabe dictator, your business is spreading shit…and business is good.
Yesterday, Donald Trump held a town hall on Fox News, and the network reported that “all the participants broke into thunderous cheers of ‘hurrah!’ extending the greatest glory to the Supreme Leader.” Oops. Wrong shitshow. That was a report from the state media outlet Korean Central News Agency on Kim’s appearance at the factory.
But why is there a big deal over not being seen for six weeks? I haven’t been seen in six weeks. And unless you’re a Michigan Nazi storming the state capitol protesting Donald Trump’s stay-at-home guidelines in the name of Donald Trump, you haven’t been seen in six weeks either. Oh yeah, we’re not murderous dictators.
Donald Trump is real big on dictators. He loves them. He loves him some Putin. He praises Xi when he’s not using him as a scapegoat. He praises Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine leader who’s an admitted murderer. And he loves Kim Jong Un, who is also a murderer. He was very enthusiastic about Kim’s return.
Kim Jong Un has murdered and starved his own people. If an aide looks at him funny, he has the guy ripped to shred by dogs or killed with an anti-aircraft gun. He had his own half-brother murdered in Singapore. And, he is responsible for the death of American college student, Otto Warmbier.
Otto went to North Korea as part of a tour group, was arrested at the airport while awaiting departure, was convicted for stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel, and was sentenced for 15 years of hard labor.
Shortly after being sentenced, Otto fell into a coma after receiving an unexplained neurological injury and was sent back to the U.S. six days before he died. Otto was only 22. In 2018, a U.S. court found North Korea liable for Warmbier’s torture and death. Donald Trump has not.
Donald Trump gave Kim Jong Un legitimacy by being the first American president (sic) to meet with him. He’s met Kim three times. Trump said he asked Kim about Warmbier’s death, that Kim felt “really bad” about it, and he believed Kim when he said he wasn’t responsible for Otto’s death.
Donald Trump has expressed less outrage over Kim murdering Otto than he’s expressed at Canadian cheese.
Donald Trump has sided with a murderous dictator over an American citizen. It wasn’t the first time. He even took Putin’s side over the United States when it was pointed out that Putin was a murderer, Trump responded, “you think we’re so nice?” Well, not all of us. Have you seen those Michigan guys?
In the past, Trump has said Kim sent him “beautiful love letters” and that they “fell in love.”
Trump wants what Kim has which is mandatory praise, every citizen required to hang his photo in their homes, and a state-run media that only reports his version of news.
I bet North Koreans would be in love with Kim not being around anymore. For that matter, I’m in love with the idea of Donald Trump being kicked out of the White House this November.
And I’d be in love with not seeing Donald Trump for six weeks.
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