There is no getting away from Trump’s insistent use of “The Big Lie” (große Lüge) propaganda technique weaponized and popularized courtesy of Josef Goebbels in the 1930’s. Lie outrageously, early and often, with no shame. Never explain, never apologize. Trump has the whole routine down pat; it is an essential component of his political style and method.
The latest update from Trump.45 (Monday’s press briefing) about the State of Corona is the laughable notion that the US and Germany are the Numbers 1 and 2 best countries in the world at controlling COVID-19 fatalities.
From The Washington Post:
“I think one of the things we’re most proud of is, this just came out — deaths per 100,000 people, death,” Trump said. “So deaths per 100,000 people — Germany and the United States are at the lowest rung of that ladder. Meaning low is a positive, not a negative. Germany, the United States are the two best in deaths per 100,000 people, which frankly, to me, that’s perhaps the most important number there is.”
Many of us have become somewhat inured to the daily onslaught of falsities spewed from Trump.45 and his communications enablers, but this one still manages to break new ground.
Here is today’s chart from the respected factual data source Worldometer listing the 25 most affected countries in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic (each with at least 25,000 cases). Several items are immediately apparent. In the column labelled “Deaths per 1 Million Population” simple inspection shows that neither Germany of the US is anywhere near #1 or #2 lowest. In fact, Germany is #13. The US, on the other hand, is a solid #17.
So, Trump is talking utter scientific rubbish. And he takes time to dress it up with a green ribbon of pseudo-technical sophistication by letting us in on the inside baseball ‘rate per population unit’ measure, as if it is a newly minted technical term, that only the best people are likely to know about.
Not even in Kellyanne’s World of Alternate Facts can numbers #13 and #17 in a numerical list become equal to numbers #1 and #2. In Real World number rates among the 25 most affected countries, the US is the 8th Worst, and Germany is the 12th Worst in per capita death rates: per million, per 100,000, per 10,000, per 1,000, etc.
Portugal, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru are all better off than braggart Trump.45. Hell, even Turkey and Iran have better numbers than we do here, on a per capita death basis.
Trump.45 can stand on his head, bring out the Marine Corps Marching Band to Play Hail to the Chief, put up colorful Charts and Graphs, take to Twitter, and call into Fox & Friends. And every time he says it, he’s just lying again without scientific or factual basis.
Meanwhile, there are a few other pertinent details from the Worldometer COVID-19 daily summary from the most affected countries. The US is NUMBER #1 By a Country Mile in COVID-19 Total Cases, Total Deaths, New Daily Cases, New Daily Deaths, Most Active Cases, and Most Critically Ill Cases.
Here there is real separation from Germany. The German population is 83 million versus 330 million in the US. In other words, our country has roughly four times as many people as Germany.
However, since February we have 8 times as many COVID-19 cases and 11 times as many deaths; over the last 24 hours the US has diagnosed 23 times as many new cases and 14 times as many new deaths as Germany in the same time.
In other words, Germany is far ahead of us (in much better shape controlling the pandemic), and we are losing further ground every day, the longer Trump.45 is in charge and fumbling his way through a real Health Crisis. He can pretend, but he can’t hide. The Big Lie won’t survive the Bright Lights of Fact Checking.
One more juicy little item that is a Trump.45 Big Lie Appetizer favorite. Among the 25 most affected countries the testing rate (per capita) as Trump.45 now wants us to focus on, the US is mired squarely in ninth place. What a pitiful slot for the most powerful, richest, smartest, most technically advanced country in the World. We should all be ashamed for ourselves and on behalf of our President Trump.45, since he is incapable of facing hard facts on his own.
That isn’t leadership; it is Failure with a Scent of Desperation.
Worse, instead of pulling our nation’s collective socks up and having a plan to FIX IT NOW, Trump.45 is running around trying to pretend the problem doesn’t exist, or isn’t important. What an utter fool!
Meanwhile, everyday tens of thousands more Americans get sick, and thousands more die. An appreciable fraction of these tragedies are directly tied to Trump.45’s continuing ignorant and incompetent management of the most significant acute Public Health Crisis to hit America in 100 years.
