When I was wee, we were always told that in America, anyone could be president.
It is now blindingly obvious that is true, but not in a good way. Not good at all.
The man occupying the White House has clearly lost the plot, presuming he ever had one in the first place.
As I write this, the mixed messages about Donald Trump contracting Covid-19 make it nigh on impossible to get a clear picture of how ill he is or otherwise.
Not, it would appear, so unwell that it could stop him getting in a car to drive up and down the street past all the flag-waving and chanting rednecks holding a MAGA rally outside the hospital.
Shame for the poor security detail that was forced to share a hermetically-sealed car with a coronavirus superspreader.
But then, reckless disregard for the lives of others in the midst of a global pandemic seems to be Trump’s stock-in-trade – “Play it down. It will just disappear. Don’t wear masks. Mass rallies and meetings are just fine.”
I did wonder when he was taken to hospital whether any Domestos would be involved in his treatment, or if lightbulbs would be put where the sun doesn’t shine.
However, it would appear Trump’s treatment was state-of-the-art. Something the ordinary Americans he has misgoverned can’t count on.
Certainly, it seems to have worked well enough for him to pull off that “wave to the patriots” stunt that even Kim Jong-un would have dismissed as taking it too far.
Now, you might wonder why we should care about what Trump is doing or not doing.
After all, that’s up to the Americans to sort out. But the US is a global superpower, the bulwark of Western democracy and a beacon of justice for the rest of the world.
People look to the leader of America as an exemplar of reasoned behaviour. Trump’s nonsense and ravings do indeed give support and succour to many. Unfortunately, it’s the fools who think coronavirus is a hoax, or that it’s part of a global conspiracy to ruin the economy, or Bill Gates is warming up a vaccine containing nanobots so we can all be monitored 24/7.
(I love the irony of the latter being pushed by nutters who tweet their nonsense all day long along with where they are and what they had for breakfast.)
Trump has now had a first-hand encounter with the virus – unless you buy into the conspiracy theory that it’s all been made up to boost his standing in the polls, bolstering his “strong man” image. “See, not even deadly Covid-19 can take our brave Donald down.”
We can only hope when Trump says he now “understands” coronavirus, that he “gets it”, he has also had his eyes opened to what he needs to do.
Lead by example, wear a mask, stop holding rallies, stop stoking the nonsense that coronavirus is anything other than what it is – a deadly global pandemic that everyone on the planet needs to take seriously. Him included.
Ferrier has to quit after flouting all Covid rules
What is it that gives some politicians that stunning sense of entitlement?
Take Margaret Ferrier, for example, the SNP MP who showed such spectacular disregard for others when she trundled around the country knowing she had the symptoms of Covid-19.
From visiting a gym and a beauty salon to taking a train to London, it was almost like she was on a mission to be a one-woman cluster.
There is nothing about any of that which can be justified or defended.
And there is absolutely no question her position as an MP is now untenable. You can’t be a lawmaker while breaking all the rules.
Not to mention how severely it undermines all the messaging about fighting the pandemic.
Yet despite being told she must step down by her own party leader, she is still clinging to her seat.
Why? To what ends? Surely she must realise she’s a busted flush. Does she really think her constituents are going to say “there, there, never mind”?
But, then again, we are talking about someone who thinks traipsing around while waiting to find out if you have coronavirus is just swell.
And let’s not forget, she was one of the first to, rightly, demand Dominic Cummings go after his Barnard Castle eye test debacle.
Cummings and the Tories didn’t do the right thing. Ferrier must.
Home-working issues hammered out
Working from home has been a challenge for many and I faced my biggest one at the weekend.
I built a desk. Well, more like assembled, but trust me, you needed a degree in engineering to figure out the instructions on this thing. Identifying which bit is which by the number and pattern of pre-drilled holes is not my forte.
Still, I got it all to fit (couple of goes on one bit, mind) and now we have a wee study. One of the benefits of more room as empty nesters. All of which means I’m no longer sitting on the end of my dining table being distracted by cups needing washed and noisy washing machines.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.