Dear President Trump,

Last night starting shortly after dusk we had a lovely view of the waxing crescent moon and the bright, especially close-looking, Venus out our front window. At bedtime I let the dogs out for their last tinkle hurrah and found that the atmosphere had shifted such that the moon was an incredible dusky orange. I called up to tell Laura to look out the front window upstairs and after her “wow!” she told me to be sure to look out from up there too. Well, it was pretty spectacular – the orange crescent moon was reflected perfectly on the still water of the reservoir across the street. It didn’t last long, but I think that twinned-orange moon image is one that I’ll remember for quite some time.

Ok, on to another, much less pleasant topic…. You’ve gotten yourself into quite a pickle with the coronavirus situation, haven’t you? The only thing you remotely have going for you is that you’re already well-trained not to touch your face since it would be so unseemly to have everything else you touch look like it’s coated with cheeto-powder. So on this count, you’re fortunate – that bit of discipline will help reduce your personal chances of infection.

Everything else is going to hell in a hand-basket, though, isn’t it? You must be utterly freaking out that your precious bulwark of a stock market is tanking; it must feel like a betrayal of the worst sort. The desperation-on-steroids is clear from your ridiculous attempts to blame the Democrats and the media; you’ve clearly reached the bottom of your bag of tricks and are coming up empty handed on this one.

And really, aside from your Foxy Friend mouthpieces, no one trusts anything coming out of the White House about the virus. On a typical day I think you can generally count on about a third of the country believing and trusting you and your administration, but not this past week. Did Pompeo take it upon himself to refuse to say to Congress this morning that the coronavirus is not a hoax or did you or some other sadistic nut-job like Stephen Miller tell him this is the party line? Do you all really think that Pence’s public health crisis playbook is worth dusting off for this one? He didn’t exactly have a good go with truth-telling in his home state when there was an HIV breakout so you may want to rethink the “dissemble at will” path you all have embarked upon.

Then there’s the basic incompetence and wanton greed. The news is full of evidence that you all have not clue-1 about how to handle this situation and that your shortsighted, mean-spirited looting of the parts of the government charged with protecting the public will be gravely consequential. The whistle blower’s accounts of HHS workers engaging with American evacuees from Wuhan without any training and inadequate (or even any?) protective gear and then getting on commercial flights home to their communities is beyond horrifying. Adding to the shit show is Azar’s statement yesterday that no, he couldn’t/wouldn’t guarantee that any vaccine developed against the virus would be low cost enough to be accessible to everyone because of course private industry has to be involved and they have to be allowed to make their big-bucks money (has he released his tax returns? Sure seems like he must still be in thick with Big Pharma).

So if this situation really does burgeon into a pandemic, guess who’s going to be affected most brutally by it? All the people you and yours despise but haven’t been able to shove off the island. Yes, there will be other lamentable casualties, but poor, disenfranchised people here and across the globe will be hardest hit by far.

One wonders if there’s not a method (and an end-goal) to your madness….

May we be safe from government officials who are acting in bad faith.
May we be willing to hold them to account.
May we have a healthy regard for science, preparedness, and beautiful moons.
May you not start a war to juice the economy.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson