Robert Mackey, The Intercept_:
Donald Trump’s latest campaign rally disguised as a coronavirus task force briefing took a remarkable turn on Wednesday when he was stunned by a tough question from, of all people, John Roberts of Fox News.
Trump was sailing along, singing his own praises (“Did you know I was number one on Facebook?“) and denying any responsibility for the catastrophe when Roberts asked the president about the massive blunder, in 2018, of disbanding the White House pandemic preparedness team set up by his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.
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Watching the daily briefing on Tuesday, the musician and actor Stevie Van Zandt erupted on Twitter when Fauci refused to criticize Trump for failing to urge governors of states that have not issued stay at home orders to do so.
Mackey begins his article with citing the president of the United States commenting on his Facebook popularity at a press conference regarding an ongoing pandemic in which 100,000 to 240,000 Americans will die. Mackey ends with citing a „musician and actor“ on an American immunologist. There is no mention here of cabinet-level efforts to remove a deranged president. There is no explanation of why a musician and actor is seen as having anything worthwhile to say about an immunologist’s remarks. The story seems to be an allusion to an allusion to an allusion. Americans cough their way to rasping death saturated with the expectation of irony, experiencing their lives lived „as if“ they were real.
