World agog as Trump flails over pandemic despite claims US leads way

[Soph0571]

“Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger,” the columnist Fintan O’Toole wrote in the Irish Times. “But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.”

The US has emerged as a global hotspot for the pandemic, a giant petri dish for the Sars-CoV-2 virus. As the death toll rises, Trump’s claims to global leadership have became more far-fetched.
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In countries known for chronic problems of governance, there has been a sense of wonder that the US appears to have joined their ranks.
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After Trump’s disinfectant comments, Beppe Severgnini, a columnist for Italy’s Corriere della Sera, said in a TV interview: “Trying to get into Donald Trump’s head is more difficult than finding a vaccine for coronavirus. First he decided on a lockdown and then he encouraged protests against the lockdown that he promoted. It’s like a Mel Brooks film.”

[link:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/15/donald-trump-coronavirus-response-world-leaders|]
Emphasis mine

In one recent poll only Boris Johnson and Xi inspired less confidence...Heh. And seriously the world I know just keeps asking the question... are they stupid? Which is very unfair on the vast majority of Americans who have hunkered down and are taking this seriously even as this administration is wholly incompetent and his fascist rabble make the headlines around the world - and yes they are stupid, and that is being kind...

[secondwind]

1. Wow..... just wow

[Cosmocat]

2. Yes, we are this stupid

nm

[BlueMTexpat]

3. A failed Mel Brooks film, methinks!

It is not at all funny.

[Fyrefox]

4. The stupidity, it burns!

How much more of Trump’s “making America great again” can we stand?

[mwb970]

5. The whole world is laughing.

They pity us for being ruled by a total moron. BUT WE DID THIS TO OURSELVES! What a screwed-up country we live in.

[Chemisse]

7. AND we had a chance to save ourselves and threw it away!

Senate Republicans have plenty of blood on their hands now. I wonder how many now regret following the leader.

[luv2fly]

9. It's not like they can't change course

They're choosing not to, out of some blind loyalty to this perverted orange moron. Flying spaghetti monster please help us all.

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. M.A.N.I.A.C. MAKE AMERICA NOT INSANE AGAIN CAMPAIGN.

VOTE BIDEN.

[Takket]

8. I wonder why Xi scored less

Despite China not posting exact numbers, they clearly have done FAR more than the US to tackle the virus with strict lockdowns, and far more testing.

[Yavin4]

10. The money quote

Dacian Cioloș, a former prime minister of Romania who now leads the Renew Europe group in the European parliament, captured a general European view this week as the latest statistics on deaths in the US were reported.

“Post-truth communication techniques used by rightwing populism movements simply do not work to beat Covid-19,” he told the Guardian. “And we see that populism cost lives.”

[The Blue Flower]

11. An understatement if ever there was one:

Sorry, I posted the same quote just as I saw the previous one. But it bears repeating: “Post-truth communication techniques used by rightwing populism movements simply do not work to beat Covid-19,” he told the Guardian. “And we see that populism cost lives.”