Scientists were dancing in the streets when they heard that Trump’s pandemic Svengali, Dr. Scott Atlas had resigned. It was a hiring that would have been unthinkable before Trump. President* Pennywise saw Atlas on Fox News, then hired him for the COVID task force. Atlas proceeded to put the farce into task force by implicitly endorsing the concept of Herd Immunity in public while arguing for it in private.
Now he’s gone after a flurry of unhinged interviews in which he pandered desperately to his boss. That’s how Atlas got the job in the first place: telling Trump what he wants to hear. Team Trump has perfected sucking up to the boss and refusing to tell him the truth. The truth can be painful. It certainly is when it comes to the pandemic, which is raging as I write this. We seem to set new records every day and they’re not the kind that end up in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Atlas had no qualifications for his post. He’s a radiologist, not an epidemiologist. He hasn’t even practiced for many years instead becoming a health care policy analyst at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute. The university finally distanced itself from Atlas’ extreme views, but only because he urged an uprising against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. According to its web site, the Hoover Institute remains dedicated to developing public policies to advance “principles of individual, economic, and political freedom.”
Freedom, man.
On the surface libertarianism sounds good. Who’s opposed to freedom, man? But as expounded by one of its prophets, Ayn Rand, it’s really a rationalization for “rugged individualism” which is a euphemism for selfishness. It’s fitting that Scott Atlas name evokes one of Rand’s book titles: Atlas Shrugged.
Freedom, man.
You know what they say about lame ducks. If it walks like a lame duck and quacks like a lame duck, it’s a lame duck. That applies to the quacks who serve the lame duck.
This scene between Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny sums up my feelings about both the Lame Duck and the Quack:
The nightmare is nearly over. Help is on the way.
I bet you saw this coming. The last word goes to the Kinks: