As the weekend rolled on, and as the president*’s deranged performance at the Centers for Disease Control became an iconic moment in executive incompetence, I remembered reading something in The New York Times during the Obama Administration about a guy who went all over the world, and deep into the boondocks, to help various countries fight malaria. So, in a desperate attempt to escape into the past, I looked it up again.

After a knee-to-knee chat with this hamlet’s chief in the local malaria clinic as rain hammered the tin roof, Rear Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer reached into his pocket for his usual thank-you gift. The clinic was well run, and there was a big turnout of mothers grateful for the free mosquito nets. Accepting the thick gold-colored coin with President Obama’s face on it, the chief looked as thrilled as if he had won the Presidential Medal of Freedom...

Although he does nothing to court publicity in status-obsessed Washington, many malaria fighters call him one of the most quietly effective leaders in public health. “All the organizations fighting malaria work more closely than they did eight years ago,” said Ray Chambers, the private equity investor and co-founder of Malaria No More who is now the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Malaria. “I think that’s due in no small part to Tim and his personality. He’s not seeking individual credit and he works for the team — but his trains run on time.”

Gee, I wondered, whatever happened to that guy, and why isn’t he working on our current pandemic? From the Washington Post:

The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton. The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack.

Wow. What were the odds?

Ziemer can sit at home, watch the evening news, and realize that a tribal chieftain in the jungles of Myanmar understands the stakes of epidemic disease better than does the President* of the United States, not to mention the gaggle of sycophantic idiots he has gathered around him. I don’t know if Ziemer feels vindicated by this, but he should.

The president keeps his eyes on the prize while visiting the CDC. JIM WATSON Getty Images

Is this enough? Truly, is this enough for the country that looked at itself after eight years of a competent presidency and decided to hand things over to a vulgar talking yam? Are the vacant airports and deserted subways enough? Will the empty arenas and ballparks be enough? Is the plunging stock market enough? When the ambulances start hauling away the old folks down the block, will that be enough? How in god’s name can anyone vote for four more years of this, four more years of a choleric fatburg of a man who calls a press conference about a global health emergency and asks a reporter for Fox News how the ratings were for his last town hall? How does that man carry a precinct, let alone a state, let alone the country? Christ, even Ted Cruz is doing the right thing here.

Instead, we have scientists standing around him at the CDC, nodding in unison at the president*’s idiocies. We have the surgeon general on television, telling an astonished George Stephanopoulos that the president* is in better shape than he is, despite the obvious fact that the president* is entering Mr. Creosote territory. There are rising calls now for the declaration of a national emergency. Which raises a terrifying question: do you want this president* and this executive branch declaring a national emergency, with all the special powers that entails? Hand sanitizer and fist-bumps seem a lot safer.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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