It is interesting to make note of a memo issued on April 17^th by a top Republican strategist advising GOP candidates on how to address the coronavirus crisis, or rather how to work around Trump’s inept bungling of the entire scenario since January.  The memo includes advice to Republican candidates in the 2020 election on everything from how to tie Democratic candidates to the Chinese government to how to deal with accusations of racism. It stresses three main lines of assault: That China caused the virus “by covering it up,” that Democrats are “soft on China,” and that Republicans will “push for sanctions on China for its role in spreading this pandemic.”

The short version, a primer for GOP candidates, reads …

• China caused this pandemic by covering it up, lying, and hoarding the world’s supply of medical equipment.

• • China is an adversary that has stolen millions of American jobs, sent fentanyl to the United States, and they send religious minorities to concentration camps.

• My opponent is soft on China, fails to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party, and can’t betrusted to take them on.

• I will stand up to China, bring our manufacturing jobs back home, and push for sanctions on China for its role in spreading this pandemic.

It’s a script, basically, for candidates who might be asked about the coronavirus, or Trump’s unconscionable response, for how they can divert attention and obfuscate, finding a way to blame … who else? … Democrats for everything.  Funny, isn’t it, how the strategists can spin almost anything?  But it is in the long version that the most interesting part, a single sentence, occurs:

“Don’t defend Trump, other than the China Travel Ban — attack China.” 

So, while the memo … all 57 pages of it … basically contains a roadmap for navigating around Trump’s faux pas, just one sentence caused the you-know-what to hit the fan!

On Monday, Trump political adviser Justin Clark told NRSC executive director Kevin McLaughlin that any Republican candidate who followed the memo’s advice shouldn’t expect the active support of the reelection campaign and risked losing the support of Republican voters.  Hmmmm … seems to me that the GOP is a bit dictatorial.  Perhaps this explains why, when Republican senators had the chance to convict the madman in the Oval Office of the high crimes and misdemeanors of which he had already been proven guilty, and remove him from office, they reneged on their duty to the people of this nation.  Perhaps they had been threatened.

Clark issued the following statement:

“Candidates will listen to the bad advice in this memo at their own peril. President Trump enjoys unprecedented support among Republican voters and everyone on the ballot in November will want to tap into that enthusiasm. The president’s campaign, the RNC, and the NRSC are firmly on the same page here.”

Fast forward to yesterday, when Trump’s approval rating had dropped from 45.8% in late March to 42.6% and still likely to drop further.  Not to mention that Trump is now trailing Biden, who has had 110% less media coverage than Trump, in many states.  So, “da ‘man’” went off his rocker, as he is wont to do when the consequences of his own actions come home to roost.  Usually, he takes it out on the staff nearest at hand, or the media, or democrats, or Obama.  This time, though, he took it out on his ignoble campaign manager Brad Parscale.

Now, mind you I have no love of Mr. Parscale, for he both looks and acts like a Nazi.  However, fair is fair and he did not deserve the reaming he got from his boss yesterday.  There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Trump’s declining approval rating and drop in the polls is a direct result of his own actions and ineptitude.  It is a cumulative effect of him saying there would be only 15 cases of coronavirus in the U.S., “nothing to worry about, folks”, up to and including his suggestion that he knew more than all the experts and he thought that injecting humans with disinfectant would cure the virus.  It is the fact that he has shown himself incompetent and uncaring that has driven his numbers down, not anything Mr. Parscale did or did not do.

Reportedly, he told Parscale that he “would not” lose to Biden, insisted the data was wrong and blamed Parscale for the fact that he is down in the polls.  But, the utter idiocy doesn’t stop there.  He also made a threat to sue Mr. Parscale for the salary he has earned working for Trump!  Oh, wouldn’t you just love to see him try that?  It is no different than the owner of any business telling an employee, after three years, that he is now displeased with her service and wants her salary back for the past three years!  Fat chance, Bucko!

Parscale, it is said, replied, “I love you, too”, and the call ended.

We can laugh all we want, but there is a bigger point here … a couple of them, but I’ll stick with one for the purpose of brevity.  Donald Trump is not sane.  He is not fit for office, never was.  In the middle of the worst crisis this nation has seen since World War II, he is not concerned for the lives of the people of this nation but is only concerned about his election campaign.  He does not think logically but lashes out at anyone in the line of fire when angered.  He expects fealty from all who surround him, though he has done absolutely nothing to deserve loyalty.  His own ego matters more than your life or mine.

There are sixteen people in this country who, collectively, could save this nation from the evil that resides in the White House.  They are:

Vice President Mike Pence

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue

Attorney General William Barr

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Gina Haspel

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross, Jr.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper

Secretary of Education Elisabeth Prince DeVos

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Andrew Wheeler

Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Benjamin S. Carson, Sr.

Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt

Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia

Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought

Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell

Administrator of the Small Business Administration Jovita Carranza

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao

Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows

These are the people who comprise Trump’s hand-picked cabinet.  Most are highly un-qualified for their position, and I’ve always believed this was done with purpose, perhaps to follow Steve Bannon’s desire to “dismantle the administrative state”.  However, these people are in the unique position of seeing on a day-to-day basis the utter lunacy of the ‘man’ in charge of the nation’s well-being, and having the ability to remove him, to render him unfit to serve.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution states that if, for whatever reason, the vice president and a majority of sitting Cabinet secretaries decide that the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” they can simply put that down in writing and send it to two people — the speaker of the House and the Senate’s president pro tempore. Then the vice president would immediately become “acting president,” and take over all the president’s powers.

If Pence and eight of the fifteen cabinet members saw their loyalty as being to the nation and its people instead of the madman named Trump, this nation could be Trump-free within a matter of hours.  Will they?  No, they will not.  Why?  Because their fortunes and futures are so closely linked with Trump’s, and because the GOP has resolved to threaten, browbeat and bully any who speak against Trump, that they are cowards … they are scared to death to speak against him, scared to death to do the right thing for the people of this country.  I plan to write to each and every one of the people on that list, including Mike Pence, and let them know that their responsibility is to We the People, not a hateful, corrupt, sorry excuse for a president.  Will it do any good?  Doubtful, but … there are times when a person simply has to speak up.  This is one of those times.