Ignore Him. He's Useless.

What good does our president do us?

Please tell me, because I'm having a hard time figuring that out. I really can't see it.

Does he lead? Well, you could say he leads the people who cling to his every word, regardless of accuracy.

But his words mean nothing, except to him. They are vague, rambling, and meant to distract or insult, depending upon his mood. That's about it. His staff has tried to cover for him, but even they have given up. When's the last time you heard them try to do that without being corrected or challenged?

He has the pulpit. Due to a backdoor exception that's happened a few times (first one in 1876, by the way), we've given it to him. He uses it to diminish his enemies, the number of which has grown significantly the last three years.

He gets to say things about the rule of law because of his position. But he doesn't live by his lofty words. If he did, he'd be removed from office by now. In fact, he wouldn't have run to gain power for its own sake.

He plays both victim and bully. But neither does us any good. Neither is the kind of person we want to lead us. Neither can provide anything akin to true leadership.

Does he provide us with useful information? No, he doesn't. He makes promises he can't keep. The latest is to say that we'll have a vaccine "very soon." He likes to say that things will happen "very soon" because he's lying. In fact, he knows very well that a vaccine isn't in the offing for at least a year at the very soonest.

Living one day at a time for another year is going to be an enormous challenge for people who are truly paying attention, because they're feeling pretty left out by those who aren't. The latter won't all get sick, but enough of them will. They just don't get sick right away.

On Lawrence O'Donnell's show "The Last Word" on MSNBC, he had on a communicative disease expert (I forget her name). She said that a useable, distributive vaccine is three years away.

That means that masks must be worn for three years. It means that you have to watch yourself for three years. It means that someone near you could have the virus for three years.

But a vaccine will be coming "very soon." We know he can't level with us. We know that as soon as he says anything, it'll be fact-checked into irrelevance.

So he can't be relied on to tell us any factual thing, either. Can he introduce legislation that will guide us out of here?

No, he can't. Or, at least he won't. He hasn't to this point. He's waiting for Congress to act, but Mitch McConnell has already slowed down any additional help to a public that's suffering with the greatest unemployment since the Great Depression.

It hasn't caught up with us yet. But it will. Meat-packing workers are getting sick by the thousands. That will start to slow down any day now. People will get it, and start to hoard meat. That will be the start.

People will run out of money. At least, more people than already have. They will fill the streets. They will start panhandling. I haven't seen any of it yet. But it will get here.

He could stop it tomorrow. He could lock the country back down. He could demand that Congress passes legislation to grant more people some money to get by. People who aren't listening would listen. But he won't.

Instead, he'll divert, or try to divert, attention to the country's growing problems by condemning Twitter for putting a fact-check on him. It has every right to do so. He claims he can shut down social media; I have news for him. His freedom of speech is not curtailed; it is a right we all have. He just doesn't like it when one of his major conduits interrupts him to remind him that he doesn't have carte blanche, like nobody else has, either, to write whatever he wants without being fact-checked.

Again, he's useless. He won't write what's accurate. He only wants to suit himself.

He will blame certain governors, whether they've done a good job or not. Death and illness are now widespread so that he can simply point at one of them and say he or she hasn't done well. How would he know? He hasn't done anything.

He closed flights from China, but waited a whole month to take any more action. Then it was too late. This needs to be repeated as time goes on.

What good is he? Has he made us feel better with any words? No. Will he? He didn't before the virus. Why would he now?

Let me repeat the question: What good is he? He's useless.

Nobody else has used that word to describe him so far. Let me be the first: He's useless.

And deserves to be ignored. Nothing else, just ignored. He spreads useless rumors of murders because he wants people to steer away from critics. He's only done it to one person because he doesn't have anything on anyone else right now. But it's all a lie. The press has to report it. But you don't need to pay any attention to it. It's useless.

Do the thing he can't stand: To be ignored. To be dismissed. He's a crackpot and liar. Why would you pay any attention to that in your regular, daily life? You wouldn't. So ignore him.

Pay attention to your governor; he or she has the ability (or not, as in Wisconsin) to guide you through this awful time. As the numbers of the ill start climbing again--as they already have in Arkansas and North Carolina--it will be an additional alarm to buckle down and stand down.

But pay no attention to 45. He's useless. Keep that word in the front of your mind: Useless. Make me stand corrected, and you'll see it here. But not until then.

Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.


Mister Mark