Sound military strategy requires dispersal of leadership and redundant levels of command. The goal during the Cold War was to prevent a decapitation strike against command and control centers from wiping out the country’s ability to retaliate and maintain a functioning government. Dr. Strangelove‘s mad general made use of that feature to launch an attack on the Soviet Union and trigger nuclear Armageddon.
The U.S. government finds itself in a national crisis and decapitated without a shot fired. The “mad general” at the center of this deadly satire sits in the Oval Office. Having centralized most command and control in himself, the country is fighting a war against a viral pandemic with no national coordination and command in disarray. All major decisions go through the president. And the president is a sociopath.*
Negotiating tactic No. 5 from Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal” is “Use your leverage.” Over a thousand Americans are dead from COVID-19. Tens of thousands are sick. Many more will be, not just in major cities but in the countryside as under-supplied hospitals reach capacity. States and municipalities across the country are desperate for federal assistance. That’s a lot of leverage. Trump has them right where he wants them.
The Defense Production Act (DPA) exists to enable the government “to expedite and expand the supply of resources from the U.S. industrial base to support military, energy, space, and homeland security programs.” Among other authorities, the law enables the president to “ensure timely procurement of resources to save lives and property under emergency conditions.”
Our acting president refuses to use it with thousands sick and dying on his watch. He is leaving it to private industry to voluntarily produce what medical supplies they think are needed to fight the plague and then let states bid against each other for them. No national command and control. No coordination. Trump wants them to work it out on their own. It’s pandemic Thunderdome.
Always thinking himself the smartest guy in the room, Trump isn’t even sure states really need what they are begging for:
If state leaders want his help, they’ll need to kiss his ring, Bess Levin writes at Vanity Fair:
On the off chance it was previously unclear or existed in a gray area for some people, the coronavirus crisis has confirmed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Donald Trump is a complete and total sociopath. Last week, in response to a softball question about what he would say to the millions of Americans who are scared of the deadly virus sweeping the nation, Trump told a reporter, “I say that you’re a terrible reporter.” On Sunday, after taking the pandemic semi-seriously for about a week, he started pushing to “open” the country by Easter, arguing that the economy is more important that actual lives. And during a virtual town hall with Fox News on Tuesday, he appeared to suggest he’s willing to let thousands of New Yorkers die because Governor Andrew Cuomo hasn’t sufficiently sucked up to him.
Expensive surplus
The New York Times on Thursday revealed that the White House was considering a $1 billion joint venture between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems to produce 80,000 ventilators for the nation’s hospitals but had second thoughts.
Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior White House aide are tasked with addressing the country’s ventilator gap:
At the center of the discussion about how to ramp up the production of ventilators is Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior White House aide, who has told people that he was called in two weeks ago by Vice President Mike Pence to produce more coronavirus test kits and who has now turned his attention to ventilators.
He has been directing officials at FEMA in the effort. Two officials said the suggestion to wait on the General Motors offer came from Col. Patrick Work, who is working at FEMA. Some government officials expressed concern about the possibility of ordering too many ventilators, leaving them with an expensive surplus.
The Senate just passed a $2.2 trillion emergency aid package. Now emergency production of medical supplies in short supply is being held up over worries of an equipment surplus. The country spent at least half a trillion bailing out Wall Street after the financial crisis. The U.S. abandoned over $1 billion in military equipment in Vietnam, $7 billion in equipment in Afghanistan, lost track of over a billion dollars‘ worth of weapons in Iraq in addition to losing nearly $9 billion in $100 bills shipped in on pallets by the ton. Jared is holding up delivery of life-saving equipment over worries about leftovers.
Gilding the funeral lily
With no command and control at the top, Americans across the country are scrounging medical supplies in nail salons, factories, warehouses, and church basements. The Washington Post reports a trove of 1.5 million expired N95 masks belonging to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection were just located in a government warehouse in Indiana. The Department of Homeland Security will offer them to the Transportation Security Administration rather than to hospitals or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The head stone mason at Washington’s National Cathedral remembered there were some masks stored down in the church’s crypts. He located 5,000 N95 respirator masks.
Asleep at the switch? Headless chicken? Decapitation is certainly a suitable metaphor for the acting president’s pathetic response to this crisis. The con man who has bullshitted his way through his life is doing the same amidst a national tragedy. Americans are dying.
*I am not a psychiatrist. Nor have I personally examined the President (borrowed from Al Franken).
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For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide election mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.
Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way by June, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.