A STABLE GENIUS

Donald Trump is a self-described stable genius.  I agree, his horse sense comes straight from the stable.  His pathetic use of politics as a tool during a pandemic makes him an accomplice in the response or lack thereof.  He does not want the responsibility for the botched initial response, so if there is a failure he is not responsible.   That’s why he gave the responsibility to the individual states and put Pence in charge.  Risking the reflection I must state that the Donald’s propensity toward projection is very telling.  As I can attest to the fact his arrogance has always overshadowed his incompetence.

 I have 40 years experience navigating the Defense and NASA procurement systems.  His initial instinct not to sign the Defense Production Act was confusing to me.  Once the WHO declared it a Pandemic and he declared to be on war footing his immediate response should have been to issue an order to implement the Defense Production Act.  This Act should have immediately assigned Special Masters for each of the articles of Personal Protective Equipment

(PPE) with the authority to do whatever it takes to acquire the necessary equipment. 

The Special Masters have the authority to issue immediate no bid cost type contracts without the need for the Sectary of Defense to approve the action.  These contracts would have the highest priority designation, which requires the contractor to divert assets and use any other actions necessary including 24-hour production. The Master can also go all the way down the supply chain and has access to release any national stockpile assets for any necessary part within the supply chain.  The Master can go anywhere in the world to acquire the necessary PPE. 

At the same time the Defense Logistics Agency should be the oversight for the distribution of the PPE.  The initial response from Mr. Trump was to pressure the automakers to make venerators. This lack of leadership caused confusion and by letting manufacturer on their own they drifted in different directions and had problems in the supply chain, due to each governor ordering for themselves and competing with each other and the USG resupply of the national stockpile to order PPE.  This caused the confusion and a run on each of the needed PPE items utilized by first responders and created a 2-week delay in production.

The genius does not believe in science and he thinks he is knows more than the experts and will never admit what he does not know.  He requires his ego to be stroked in order to obtain any attention.  It’s quid pro quo on steroids with life or death on the line.  If you are a governor with a problem good luck if you have ever had a problem with “the genius”.  His initial response was to sweep it under the rug and blame it on a conspiracy theory blaming the democrats or a hoax created a 2-month delay.  His daily briefings are an attempt to rewrite history and the briefings are used as a cudgel for his enemies.

As I stated before, he is a stable genius and is in some instances he is smarter than the pigs and chickens.  Mr. Ed would be proud of the Donald if he would quit speaking to the back end of his horse. Right Wilbur?