This is a running commentary on contemporary social, political and religious issues. From the Introduction of James Comey's book "A Higher Loyalty -- Truth, Lies and Leadership" "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary" Reinhold Niebuhr
The article entitled
above published in today's Sunday Globe by Yvonne Abraham is brilliant
(linked below). It is one of the best articles on this subject and on
our national tragedy I
think I have ever read. I am sending this to my political allies on
the humane empathetic part of the political spectrum and sending it to
some others who may not be.
I know great writing when I read it and this is great. She captured it all.
Michelle Obama says: "I’m Exhausted By A Heartbreak That Never Seems To Stop" I answer her and say me
too, Michelle, me too. I had so much hope for this nation. Barack
Obama gave me so much hope. Now, it is a never ending slaughter of the
truth and all that is good, just and kind in this nation. Trump, has
shattered this country, divided it to plunder its billions from a
taxpayer who supports him, knows nothing of what he does and worse does not care.
Over
400 years African Americans have endured the worst crushing of both
body and spirit but over centuries they just kept on going and did not
give up even when giving up seemed the only way out of the madness.
When
I throw up my hands and want to quit because I cannot take the massive
injustice anymore I stop myself and say the fight for justice, truth and
fair play must go on no matter how difficult no matter how hard and no
matter how many generations it spans. We must hope that one day the
forces of good and right will defeat the forces of hate and evil. We
must keep on going as the last great hope for democracyon earth must prevail!
Police
power does not mean taking a non violent man down, accusing him of a
non violent crime, handcuffing him, placing your heavy knee on his neck
until he suffocates to death. Police power should mean defusing the
matter taking into account that the man is accused of a non violent
crime and unarmed to boot. Police power means using the power that has
been entrusted to you to equitably dispense justice no matter the race
or the cultural reality of the alleged perpetrator. Police power means
arresting a person as non violently as possible and if probable cause
tried, found guilty and then sentenced by a jury of his/her piers.
The
Minneapolis police did none of of those things but became judge, jury
and executioner stepping and crushing a person's right to a fair trial
with zero empathy, compassion and because the officers simply did not
care enough to stop.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America stated "Yesterday, President Trump used Nazi terminology to praise Henry Ford, a known anti-Semite who was awarded the Nazi Party’s Grand Cross of the German Eagle in 1933. Speaking before a group of Ford employees, Trump started his remarks by praising Ford’s “good bloodlines. "This language was used by Hitler to target Jews in the Holocaust. Since then, the theory of “bloodlines” or eugenics, has been used by white nationalists to legitimize anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of bigotry and hatred. Given his ongoing emboldening of anti-Semitism and white nationalism, we are deeply concerned, but not surprised, that President Trump chose to invoke a Nazi theory to praise an anti-Semite. In response to his vile and dangerous words, we have some words of our own – enough."
A film of interest is an HBO production entitled "The Plot Against America" as described in the following synopsis: "Characters live in an alternative history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt was defeated in the U.S. presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh." It is a film of fiction but presents a narrative that easily could have happened in Depression era America of the 1930's. The name of Henry Ford, well known in antisemitic circles and by historians of that era and our present one, is included in this too-close-for-comfort work of fiction. It is also very much about the Jewish experience in America during that period. It should chill you as it did me for its eerie similarity to the right wing extremist Trump era of our time. It can happen here.
A "Study: White Supremacist Groups Are ‘Thriving’ On Facebook, Despite Extremist Ban""With many Americans vulnerable to fascist ideologies during the pandemic, the study warns, Facebook could be fertile ground for recruitment."
The following is a short -- yes, a short -- list of groups on the fanatical right wing fringe: American Nazis, Proud Boys, Aryan Nations, Atomwaffen Division, The Daily Stormer,National Socialist German Workers Party (Nebraska), White Aryan Resistance,Church of Jesus Christ Christian, American Confederate Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to name but a few. There are many many more.
"Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or related ideologies. Common aspects of modern-day neo-Nazism include hatred or fear of minorities such as blacks, Hispanics, lesbian, gay, and transgender people, non-white immigrants, and sometimes even Christians, but their main hatred is focused on the Jews." To be on the fringe of right wing extremist thought barely registered a historical look but since Trump these noxious hateful groups receive credibility from him.
Trump has also upended the balance of power our Founders Constitutionally expressed creating a division of power between three coequal branches of government -- the legislative (the Founders placed as the first branch), executive and judicial branches. The Founders' goal was to have power disbursed through these three coequal branches and not entrenched in an all powerful unitary executive or a king.
I believe the Founders would be horrified to see the dismantling of our democracy by Trump and his allies in Congress as well as his group of steadfast supporters he calls his base to which his extremist views are forwarded. He has done this through numerous executive orders, the firing of numbers of neutral Inspectors General formed after Watergate to supervise agencies against corruption, he has inordinately claimed executive privilege thereby denying Congress its subpoena power, refused to submit his taxes for congressional review through a 1924 law that gives the House Ways and Means Committee authority to demand returns. He put in power attorney general William Barr who has become the president's lackey and his own personal advocate in the genus of Roy McCarthy-era Cohn. He rules through bullying and intimidation of his perceived opposition firing many. He has even placed a chill on physicians and medical experts dumbing them down, silencing the once excellent Centers for Disease Control in the middle of a pandemic, intimidating virologist experts and denying the truth of science. Internationally he has insulted allies and threatened to undo a relationship with WHO (World Health Organization) whose valued expertise is so needed to confront the COVID-19 pandemic. He has advocated for a dangerous drug in which his family holds stock. He has threatened to withhold aid from states if they vote by mail which he constitutionally cannot do. There are, of course, many more instances of Trump's subversion of democracy.
Cruelty and stupidity rule the day in Trump world. Yesterday's extremist clap trap is today's viable occupant in the panoply of ideas. A lady once asked Benjamin Franklin what type of government the Founders created. He answered "A republic if you can keep it." Keep it we must. VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN THE TICKET TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY!
An interesting article I read (linked below) presented factors I was
not too aware of vis a vie the relationship between obesity and
COVID-19. In short it compares obesity from the consumption of
unhealthful foods in particular and an unhealthful diet in general which
leads to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other preexisting
conditions. Obesity and its related diseases are involved in the
preponderance of COVID-19 fatalities as the fatalities from it are
directly related to preexisting underlying pathologies. Deaths from the
virus are proportional to a diet saturated with processed
foods, high in fat and high in sugar content producing a high
inflammatory response. The virus itself, the article states, produces a crushing inflammatory
response of its own in the body which is what is so lethal. Add to it other inflammations and it is a recipe for death.
In
my own life I am a fanatically healthful eater some say to the extreme.
Since
1988 I hugely reformed my diet and added exercise to my life. I eat zero
sugar, no meat (both for health reasons and because I intensely love
animals,) consume only fish, whole grains, plant based protein (quinoa
and gardein pronounced gardeen,)
beans, legumes, vegetables and many varieties of nuts. It is now
ingrained in my cerebral cortex. I could not revert back to my former
unhealthful eating style life even if I wanted to which I don't! No I
am not perfect. Stress also contributes to inflammation producing
cortisol which, I am told, is as deleterious as saturated fat and these
Trumpian times creates lots of that.
The
average
American diet is utterly disgusting. Obesity is raging and fast foods
are consumed like water. In certain areas no surprise like the south
there
is an epidemic of obesity. Will the ones who brandish AK47's change?
Fat chance pardon the pun. I venture to say most are even proud of how
many Big Macs they eat. Of course one will find zero help from
Washington as our morbidly obese president consumes buckets of fried
junk. Washington under the obese Trump will never advocate for a
healthy
diet and Americans have not and probably generally will not do it
themselves. Ah for the days of Michele Obama. I am sure first on the
destruction bucket list of the the present administration was ripping
out the vegetable garden she planted at the White House. Their mantra:
hell no we won't grow. Sad. Vote blue in November and save the
nation's life as well as our own!
Dear President Obama: After listening to your HBCU Commencement Speech some tears fell on my
keyboard. President Obama, I know I speak for millions when I say we
miss you and Michelle ever so much. I can only hope and yes, pray, that
your vice president, Joe Biden, takes the mantle and torch from your
hands, bypassing this current ever so corrupt administration, and walks
into the oval office to sweep out the corruption, malicious and
mendacious stain that has been left on its once pristine oval office
carpet to bring us into a
clean, magnificent and just new era of good feeling never forgetting
those who have not, through no fault of their own, been lucky and who
have seemingly been forgotten these past four years. They are not
forgotten though as our muscle memory you talk about knows this nation can and
has been so much better.
We hope to see you on the campaign trail with
Joe helping him to convey those values you conveyed during your time at
bat! I love you, President Obama, and I know millions upon millions of
others both here and abroad love and miss you too!
"President Donald Trump is
removing State Department Inspector General Steve Linick from his
position in what Rep. Eliot Engel is calling a potential act of
“retaliation” for opening an investigation into Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo.The probe involved possible misuse of a political appointee’s
time by Pompeo and his wife for personal tasks.
Linick,
a Justice Department veteran appointed in 2013, is the latest of a
number of watchdogs ejected recently as Trump seeks to purge anyone from
the government he believes has not been loyal to him. Ambassador Stephen
Akard, a State Department appointee who worked for Vice President Mike
Pence when he was governor of Indiana, has been tapped as Linick’s
interim replacement. Akard was Pence’s chief of staff for the Indiana
Economic Development Corp. A State Department representative told
Politico that Akard, a former foreign service officer, “will now lead
the Office of the Inspector General at the State Department” in an
“acting” role.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) called the
“Friday night attack” by Trump “shameful.” He added in a tweet: “At
this point, the President’s paralyzing fear of any oversight is
undeniable.” Shaub accused Trump of “tearing down the fabric of our
republic” with his vendetta against inspectors general. He pointed out
that the law requiring Trump to give Congress 30 days notice of Linick’s
removal gives lawmakers time to fight his decision.
Just weeks ago
Trump removed Christi Grimm as principal deputy inspector general for
the Department of Health and Human Services after her office criticized
his administration’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Last month,
Trump booted intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson,
who forwarded the whistleblower complaint that led to the president’s
impeachment.
Trump also forced out acting Pentagon Inspector General
Glenn Fine, who had been chosen as chairman of the federal panel
Congress created to oversee management of the government’s $2 trillion
COVID-19 stimulus package." SHAMEFUL -- OUR DEMOCRACY IS ON LIFE
SUPPORT. VOTE BLUE IN NOVEMBER TO GIVE IT A VENTILATOR AND SAVE ITS
LIFE!!
Tony
Schwartz who ghost wrote "The Art of the Deal" and knows Trump well says
the answer is Trump does not care about those he condemns to death, has
no conscience and cares only about winning. It is why Corona deaths
ticking upward around the country and will do more so as people are
prodded in a frenzy by Trump go back to work. Many will not adhere to
CDC guidelines by wearing a mask, keeping distance mandates, washing
hands and many other requirements for staying safe in a pandemic. Those
deaths in nursing homes and otherwise do not matter to him. The stock
market and the economy matter to Trump more even though if the deaths
from Corona increase the economy will sink. One is inversely
proportional to the other. If it comes to saving himself or saving
others there
is no doubt that he will save himself. What a sickening choice for a
president who lords over life and death matters and whose policies
dictate it. The entirety of Trump makes sense when you think of it like
that. The nation and all of us are doomed if we keep him in office.
This
explains to me why I loathe this unconscionable man so much. I am the
opposite of him. It explains my politics as well. I care about what
happens to people especially for those who were not born lucky. It is
one thing to want to survive as most people want that but it is quite
another thing if you are in a position of power and the decisions you
make spell life or death to others.
It
is why the humanitarian aspects of Christianity appeal to me. Matthew
25:40
"Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’" Too bad Trump who
calls himself a Christian does not know the first thing about it, never
asks for forgiveness and cannot answer any questions about the faith or
any other faith for that matter. He is ignorant. He knows only how to
use religion to solidify his power. Many in his base swallow it and
succumb to the con. If he needed to believe in the tooth fairy to gain
power he would. Nothing matters to Trump except Trump.
DR. RICHARD BRIGHT'S TESTIMONY TODAY WAS DEVASTATING TO THE INEPT ALMOST
CRIMINAL INACTION OF THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. I URGE EVERYONE TO
REVIEW HIS TESTIMONY IF YOU CAN. IT WAS, IN MY OPINION, A FATAL BLOW TO A
DASTARDLY SICKENING POLITICAL ENTERPRISE OF THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
AS THEY DISCOUNT SCIENCE AND RATIONAL THINKING IN FAVOR OF CRONY
CAPITALISM AND CONSPIRATORIAL MENDACIOUS FICTION MAKING SURE THEIR FRIENDS PROFIT FROM THE COVID-19 VIRUS
WHILE DENYING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE EFFECTIVE TREATMENT TO SAVE LIVES.
Coronavirus Testimony: Whistleblower Dr. Richard Bright Says Administration Has No Pandemic Strategy
Judge in Flynn case takes unusual step of allowing 3rd party briefs
Sullivan's
order signals his interest in hearing from parties outside the Justice
Department and Flynn’s attorneys before making a decision in the case.
It's long but revelatory and lives are at stake as putting people back to work too soon shows the disease increasing: Whistle-blower ties interagency hostility to pandemic response -
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Sharon LaFraniere, Michael D. Shear, and and Ben Protess, New York Times
WASHINGTON — The call in early February from the White House Situation
Room came as a surprise to Rick Bright: Peter Navarro, President Trump’s
trade adviser, wanted him to come present his ideas for fighting the
coronavirus, alone.
Bright, whose tiny federal research agency
was pursuing a coronavirus vaccine, had long been at odds with his boss
at the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Kadlec. His White
House visits, twice in a single weekend, only exacerbated those
tensions. “Weekend at Peter’s,’’ Kadlec quipped in the subject line of
an e-mail that expressed his displeasure.
The hostility
between
these two key officials in the government’s response to a pandemic that
has claimed more than 80,000 American lives and counting burst into
public view when Bright — who was abruptly dismissed last month as head
of
the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority — filed a
formal whistleblower complaint.
The document accuses Kadlec and
other top administration officials of corruption, “cronyism,’’ and
putting politics ahead of science. Whether the charges are ultimately
proven, the 89-page complaint along with other documents and interviews
expose troubling infighting at the Health and Human Services Department,
the sprawling agency that includes BARDA, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug
Administration, and other arms of government, as officials there
struggled to combat the worst public health crisis in a century.
“BARDA is the front edge of the global response, in terms of organizing
the financing, laying down the bets on what’s coming forward as the
options on vaccines and therapies,’’ said J. Stephen Morrison, a global
health expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
adding that the infighting had consequences. “They need to move with
incredible skill and judgment and speed.’’ The infighting
extends beyond Bright and Kadlec. Fierce battles have erupted between
Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, and Seema Verma, the
Medicare and Medicaid administrator.
Azar has also clashed with
a senior White House policymaker, Joe Grogan. But the consequences of
such clashes were brought to life by Bright’s complaint.
E-mail
messages show that, as early as January, when Trump was saying the
outbreak was “totally under control,’’ Bright was pressing for the
government to stock up on masks and drugs and to commence a “Manhattan
Project’’ effort to develop a vaccine.
But Bright was largely
sidelined by personal disputes with Kadlec and his aides, some of which
long predated the coronavirus, the documents suggest. By the time the
pandemic arrived in force, the relationship between them had become
toxic, with Bright increasingly left out of key decisions. His ideas
about battling the threat “were met with skepticism,’’ the complaint
says, “and were clearly not welcome.’’
On Friday, lawyers for
Bright said the federal watchdog agency handling his complaint, the
Office of Special Counsel, had notified them that it had found
“reasonable grounds’’ to believe he was retaliated against and was
seeking his reinstatement while it investigated.
Azar must now
decide whether to reinstate Bright. An HHS spokeswoman, Caitlin Oakley,
declined to comment on a “personnel matter.’’ But, she said, the agency
“strongly disagrees with the allegations and characterizations in the
complaint from Bright.’’
With a $1.6 billion annual budget,
BARDA was created in the aftermath of the Sept, 11, 2001, attacks to
partner with industry to develop drugs, vaccines, and other “medical
countermeasures’’ that could be stockpiled to combat a bioterror attack
or pandemic threat. Bright had been in charge for less than a year when
Kadlec was confirmed by the Senate as assistant secretary for
preparedness and response in 2017.
The two men came from
different worlds. Kadlec spent 20 years in the Air Force and helped
write the legislation that created BARDA. He advised President George W.
Bush on biodefense. Bright, who grew up poor in small-town Kansas,
began his career at the CDC. An influenza expert, he considered a
pandemic to be the nation’s biggest threat.
Bright’s allies say
he was viewed with suspicion in the Trump administration as an “Obama
holdover.’’ One of his earliest clashes with Kadlec centered on a
long-running contract BARDA had with a small biotechnology company that
Bright believed was tied to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior
adviser.
The company, Aeolus Pharmaceuticals, was
developing a drug to treat the effects of radiation from a potential
nuclear attack when BARDA
employees decided not to extend the contract in early 2017. John
McManus, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview that the
decision was based on a deeply flawed process, and appealed it directly
to Bright.
In August 2017, Bright’s complaint says, John
Clerici, a consultant and Aeolus board member who is close to Kadlec,
pleaded the company’s case to Bright over coffee and emphasized that
McManus was “friends with Jared’’ and “has Hollywood connections.’’
McManus said he does not know Kushner or anyone in his family, and he
disputed nearly all of Bright’s claims about Aeolus. Clerici said the
“conversation never happened.’’
A review of corporate,
political, and nonprofit records shows only a distant and indirect
connection between Aeolus and the Kushner family. Some of Kushner’s
relatives have donated to National Jewish Health, a hospital that
co-owned several patents licensed by Aeolus, and Kushner’s father and
sister sit on the hospital’s council of national trustees. Bright,
though, said “the political pressure’’ from Kadlec and his underlings
“became undeniable,’’ and “had no place in a system designed to award
funding based on scientific merit.’’ In the end, he stood by BARDA’s
decision to not extend the contact with Aeolus. The company folded
within months. McManus lost his job.
In the fall of 2019, with
Aeolus bankrupt, McManus landed at Partner Therapeutics, a
Massachusetts-based company represented by Clerici that also appears in
Bright’s complaint. Bright said that in September 2019, before
McManus arrived, Kadlec handed out a $55 million, no-bid contract to the
company (Partner Therapeutics) to prevent it from going out of business. Partner Therapeutics,
with 200 employees, produces and sells one drug, Leukine, that can be
used to treat excessive exposure to radiation.
In 2018, the
federal government decided to buy more anti-radiation drugs for the
Strategic National Stockpile. Bright’s division, following the
recommendation of a panel of experts, had chosen California
pharmaceutical giant Amgen, which produces two similar drugs.
Bright was so alarmed about what he claimed were “inappropriate and
possibly illegal communications’’ between Clerici, Kadlec, and other HHS
officials, the complaint says, that he called for an inspector general
to “inspect their phone records.’’ After that, he says, he was cut out
of meetings about the contract.
There is no evidence that an
inspector general investigation was ever conducted and allies of Kadlec
say he did some things Bright wanted, including putting the contracting
team under BARDA’s jurisdiction. But the request for the investigation
added to the bitterness between them.
Eventually, Kadlec
overruled him, Bright says, and awarded the sole-source contract to
Partner Therapeutics, “on the basis of industrial mobilization’’ — the
interest of the federal government to keep more than one supplier of an
important type of drug in business.
The consequences of a pandemic response of opening up too soon: Meanwhile these
countries either defied it or opened up too soon, causing outbreaks, and
that's what could happen here. Belarus, which has not locked down
despite increasing case numbers, saw tens of thousands of people turn
out to mark Victory Day, the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat
in 1945. That was in contrast to Russia, which skipped the usual grand
military parade in Red Square. Worldwide, 4 million people have been
confirmed infected by the virus, and more than 275,000 have died,
including over 78,000 in the United States, according to a tally
kept by Johns Hopkins University. ...Seoul shut down nightclubs, hostess
bars, and discos after dozens of infections were linked to people who
went out last weekend as the country relaxed its social-distancing
guidelines. Many of the infections were connected to a 29-year-old man
who visited three nightclubs before testing positive. Mayor Park
Won-soon said health workers were trying to contact some 1,940 people
who had been at the three clubs and other places nearby. The mayor
said gains made against the virus are now threatened “because of a few
careless people.’’ Health officials in Germany faced outbreaks at three
slaughterhouses in what was seen as a test of the government’s strategy
for dealing with any resurgence of the virus during the easing of
the restrictions. At one slaughterhouse, in Coesfeld, 180 workers tested
positive.
It is Dickensian that the so
called Attorney General is in the "Justice" Department where under Barr
it will do everything it can to subvert justice. There is no justice
in the Justice Department but there is crony corruption using the
people's office to do Trump's personal bidding as Barr became Trump's
own personal attorney. This is a subversion of justice.
Attorney General Barr's Motion to Dismiss the case against Michael Flynn, Trump's former advisor, is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our 20th and 21st centuries showing there is one rule of law for the very well connected and another rule of law for the rest of us.
Freeing
this lawbreaker, Flynn, who admitted twice lying to the FBI and who has, it
was said by the judge, committed an act of treason giving security, aid
and comfort to an adversarial power, Russia.
Let us hope our third branch of government in Judge Sullivan's court will refuse to submit to this corruption of the rule of law.
Tara Read, the accuser of
sexual assault by Biden, is dubious. The biggest question I have is why
does she articulate a love and appreciation of Putin. Is it a
connection to Trump, Republicans, Putin, and/or Russia perhaps? A true
liberal would never love or even appreciate a man like Putin -- a
dictator, an authoritarian, a killer and a sexist to boot. This does not
compute.
Of all the skepticism I have about the
veracity of her statement it is the love of Putin that gives me total
pause! Oh yes, and why did she choose to be interviewed by Megyn Kelly former Fox
News commentator?
I think she is a liar in good company with Republicans and Trump
and just maybe in a league of her own with them.
I recently had the experience of viewing the photos at the link below taken in the 1930's of German American Bund
supporters of Adolph Hitler. Never think this could not happen again as
it did happen in Charlottesville, North Carolina when 100 to 200
American Nazi supporters on August 11 and 12, 2017 carrying Tiki Torches
marched and yelled "Jews will not replace us." They then proceeded on
to kill a counter non-violent demonstrator Heather Heyer and two others
who got caught up in the mayhem of that day.
Our not so
fine president said there were "fine people on both sides" there.
Sorry, Mr. Trump, try as you might to give the extremist right an air of
respectability there are zero fine people among American Nazis and none
in the so called Alt Right movement either. These are people who think
they died and went to heaven since Trump became president and called
himself a Nationalist or in their parlance a White Nationalist. Finally,
the extremist right can come out of hiding, lift up their heads high
and with outstretch arms in Nazi salute yell "Heil Trump" as the
president reaches into his bag of tricks trying desperately not to
offend these violent extremist supporters of him.
The
right is mean, it is cruel, it is uber violent, would think nothing of
mowing down those who oppose Trump and most all for which he
advocates.Trump has cast a spell upon those who comprise the right and
his base by his hateful anti-immigrant, anti black, anti Hispanic, anti
gay, anti women and antiscience rhetoric and policy. He will if we let
him erase all the equality and progress minorities have fought so long
and so hard to achieve since the nation was born. If elected in 2020 he will swing the Supreme
Court to reactionary right for a generation and maybe more. I do not
want an America to look like that.
My motto as a Jewish American is "ALWAYS VIGILANT!"
Necropolitics
or power that is wielded and leads to the purposeful murder of many
sacrificed on the alter of those the politicos deem "unfit" and by
those who wield political control over them. Trump owns, in my opinion,
the dubious historical distinction of being a Nazi-like leader who is
singling out for death, especially, in this pandemic but not exclusively
so, those whom he and others in his noxious administration think are
among the undesirables and therefore selectively "unfit" to live. This
includes, of course, the purposeful killing of those who include mostly
people who are black, brown, Hispanic, the nursing home aged, the sick,
the disabled and selected others who oppose his polices and any whom he
deems are lined up in opposition to him working for his electoral
demise.
The
politics that support his ruinous reign are many. They include locking
up in cages Hispanics and their children separated from their parents
whose only crime was to seek a better life in this once welcoming
nation. In this COVID-19 pandemic he has used the Defense Authorization
Act not to mandate companies make life saving devices such as PPE
equipment. Rather he is using the DAA for policies that will inure to
businesses of CEO's such as meat packing companies, he deems necessary
to keep the food chain from dwindling. Workers in meat packing
companies work in some of the most unsanitary most egregious conditions
found in this country and without any mandate for life saving implements
to protect workers they die in large numbers. They are also in large
part black, brown, and Hispanic people. Trump said the CEO's cheered
for his executive order commanding workers report for work irrespective
of sanitary conditions or risk loosing unemployment benefits if they
decide to protect their own lives and stay home. I am sure workers did
not cheer because they would be cheering for their own impending deaths.
Moreover, the CDC or Center for Disease Control, a leading United
States federal agency dedicated to protecting public health, issued
their instructions for these companies to remain open by selectively
watering down the language usually used giving certain owners
flexibility as to how they can remain open. Clearly Trump's mind was
not for protecting the lives of those workers he deems less valuable but
protecting the powerful business interests who either contribute to
Trump's campaign and/or who care only for their bottom line.
It has been said that Trump kept a copy of Mein Kampf on
his night table. I do not know if this is true but because of his
right wing extremist inability to empathize with the plight of those not
born lucky like he, I suspect, perhaps, it is. Clearly his politics
have killed many and in this era of the pandemic have killed thousands
and counting. He keeps mendaciously telling us what a fine job he is
doing. The numbers prove otherwise.
1,092,815
US cases and
64,283
US deaths largely but not exclusively persons of color and Hispanics.
If
Hitler was regarded by him as a "fine person" exemplar of how to
govern, the historical veracity tells the true story about the
destruction of World War II. On Hitler's march to power 50 million
human beings were slaughtered, millions of disabled, the sick, the
mentally ill and innocent including 6 million Jews and millions more
others -- those who did not fit into his white supremacist Aryan
agenda. They were slated for death in concentration camps and elsewhere
the brutality of which beggars the imagination of those we deem
civilized. The master race was Hitler's doctrine and murder was his
enforcer. Trump calls American Nazis marching to the tune of "Jews will
not replace us" "very fine people." American Nazis and the KKK who
just came out in support of Trump for his reelection will never be very
fine people. Those on the right are brutal, tyrannical, violent,
racist, machine gun toting threats to democracy and all for which this
nation has fought, bled and died.
The
Trumpian sewer in which this nation has become trapped is a threat to
those humanitarian values carefully etched over centuries in this nation
to make us sometimes the envy and sometimes savior of the world. How
have we fallen so far from our political ideals of fairness and justice
for all? I suspect historians will be studying that for decades and
studying how Trump became an indelible stain on our national soul. If
he is accorded an unthinkable second term, it will, I fear, be the end
of this nation as we know it. Quoting the Irish poet
Fintan O’Toole the "World has loved, hated and envied the United
States. Now, for the first time, we pity it." Now for the first time
so do I!
This
link below made me cry sometimes and sometimes filled me with just
plain awe. I urge you to watch its beauty and listen to its truth.
Truth, often, is better than any fiction one could create. While we
have time to ponder the great creation that is life both large and small
I highly recommend viewing the film below entitled "Love Thy Nature."
Is there something we can learn from the ravages of COVID-19? Perhaps,
it is this: As great as man's big brain is nature in all its creation
is bigger than all of us. It presents challenges that give man pause to
reflect on his own diminutive being and ask why the smallest/simplest
of microscopic things unseen by the naked eye yet worldwide are bringing
man to his knees. Why does this exist in nature only to pose an
existential threat to man; a good topic for research.
I
too was felled by a virus and asked many times over my life what on
earth could a five year old have done that would exact its pound of
flesh from a young body asking me to pay its extortion over a lifetime?
The answer, I think is, there is no answer but to say it teaches us
humility that this microscopic piece of RNA will have the last word
until man's big brain can figure out a way within nature's laws and
working in tandem with nature to halt its destruction of our species.
Another answer, of course, is that man is not the center of the universe
and that other things large and small can threaten and even destroy us.
Humans
must heed the warnings of science to isolate, use masks, wash our hands
for a minimum of 20 seconds and do what the best scientists implore us
to do because science is the best way man has of telling environmental
truth no matter how difficult that truth is to hear. Until science with
man's big brain as its engine, ultimately finds a way out of this mind
altering darkness go and walk humbly with nature seeing the integral
part it plays in our survival. Man works hand in hand with nature and
nature, in all its glory, will be the final arbiter of all things as it
presents another ever present Everest for man to climb. Man will climb
it though and should do its bidding without destroying the nature that
supports us all as it teaches us to find the road out.
Someone on Quora asked “Why do
some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate
and witty writer from England wrote the following response:
A few things spring
to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally
esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no
credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety,
no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace –
all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was
generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw
Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may
be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even
faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean
it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly
disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humor is almost
inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t
even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass
comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he
is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And
scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually
thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty
prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony,
complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might
see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no
inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with
David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood,
Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an
underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled
rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the
Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable
of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among
bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a sniveling sidekick
instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry
rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards –
which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims
is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or
voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So
the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans
look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he
seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little
distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is
what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other
people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s
impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two,
without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art
form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults
are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God
knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of
nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness
so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In
fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from
human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would
clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what…
have… I… created? If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the
boxed set.
What
if this immoral piece of
sludge congressman gets the virus, suffers immeasurably and then dies
leaving a family to
fend for itself or his kids or wife gets too close to someone whom they
do not
know is COVID-19 positive and one or both of them contract it? He
does not care? I am sure he cares about himself or his wife and
children alright but rather it is the nursing home population, the
elderly, the sick, the homeless and the poor whom he wants to be the
sacrificial lambs since they are the ones most at risk. However, in
reality, no one is immune from this most deadly infectious virus spread
by close human to human contact. He is willing to let more Americans
die as
long as it is the at risk population so the economy can get going. He is
an intrinsically ugly, immoral, and unethical human being -- the mirror
of Trump. He seems
to be suggesting we do like the Nazis did and kill off those who are
sick, the elderly in nursing homes, the homeless and the poor, that is
all those who cannot work to boost the economy. Is this the same guy
that wants fetuses not to be aborted
because he is so pro life. He is a hypocrite.
The
Corona virus required action when it first reared its ugly head and was
botched by Trump back in January when he said only 15 have it and it
will disappear miraculously. He was being prodded then to do something
but what did he do? He threw out those many in the CDC who were Obama
leftovers and were pandemic experts because Trump did not think they
mattered, did not care or know anything about the issue, and after all,
it was Obama's policy, of course. He could have saved thousands if he
acted sooner when he was first told by epidemiological experts this
virus could be bad. Thousands of people did not have to die while Trump
played golf in Fantasy Land.
Now
he will botch it again by advocating for people to go back to work too
soon when we know
physical distancing and other sanitary behaviors like wearing masks and
washing hands frequently definitely bend the infection curve in the
right direction. Businesses can open up but only after careful scrutiny
that the cases in intensive care units around the nation are lowering.
However, money trumps (pardon the pun) all in Trumpland human life be
damned. Trump, after all has an election to win. As usual Trump thinks
only of himself. It has been said from the very
beginning of the botched surge of the virus testing, testing, testing is
the first important order of business.
We cannot know how many have the virus and/or have antibodies to it
until we test for it.
Trump
lies and lies all the time. We do NOT have the world's best testing,
have NOT tested millions and everyone who wants a test canNOT get a test.
If governors order a state's population free to go back to work too
early many more will die, Trump will blame someone else and we will be
brought back to ground zero. I hope the governors of our 50 states make
prescient choices because the allegedly all powerful wizard of Oz Trump cannot
handle this pandemic, cannot lead and is in way over his head. No
matter what happens vote blue, tell everyone else you know to do so and save lives.
This was a wonderful,
precise and thorough analysis of Trump's failure to act in a timely
fashion to rope and hog tie a killer virus saving thousands an untimely
death. I am sending this article to my political allies and hope they
will read it (linked below) ferociously getting every nugget of truth Mr. Frum serves
up. I believe it is unnecessary to expound on the veracity of this
article but I will do so anyway. The opinion is true, 100% true every
morsel of it and I thank Mr. Frum for writing it.
I
hope this pandemic scourge will finally crush the Trump presidency as
it has been a weighted albatross around the necks of those who loath
Trump's lies but enjoy rational well thought out truth. Trump's lies
are legion and I believe are seen by the nation who will be more than
happy to give him a kick
with a steel tipped boot
out of the oval office. I only regret that his presidency has cost so
many lives but has made Trump millions at the public trough. Loosing an
election would be too easy for Trump. Jail, however, may be a more
appropriate and just accommodation for the many illegalities he has
committed.
Trump
said he could kill someone in the middle of Times Square and get away
with it. Perhaps that was so but inflicting great injury and death upon
thousands of innocent souls from a pandemic by his failure to act may
not provide him the same comfort.
The Facebook post below written by a friend is one of
the best opinions I have seen yet of Trump's contribution to the Corona
pandemic this nation is suffering today. I believe the blogger is 100%
correct. I
am going to cut and paste his post below for my friends
and allies to read. I do not know if any have seen on HBO "The Plot
Against America"
a work of fiction based on the Phillip Roth novel and created by David
Simon and Ed Burns. It is eerie in its similarity to what Trump is. In
the film the fictional winner of the 1941 election was Charles Nazi
lover Lindbergh, a true extreme right winger so called "hero" of that
period who thank God in reality wanted to be president but did not run.
My
anger at what this misfit Trump has done to our nation knows no bounds
as I sit screaming at the TV when the bastard is bloviating at his so
called "press conference" or what should be called his campaign and lies
rallies. Often I turn
him off as I simply cannot stand the harangue and mendacity.
I am sickened by what
has gone down in this nation as this unfit-for office (to say the least)
president is dismantling it piece by piece. The thing, though, I am
most angry and horrified at are his Nuremberg-like supporters who are
blinded by the darkness he has created so they cannot see the light and
the man behind the curtain who is destroying a one time powerful
vibrant democracy. The Carona death wielding virus is a metaphor for the war inside our country
Trump has waged tearing us apart threatening to kill us. I am in mourning
for the nation I know the United States of America once was and I weep every day for it.
I
have prayers this Passover that the scourge of Trump passes
over our nation like the Angel of Death did in the Biblical Exodus story
sparing us further destruction. I pray Trump loses resoundingly in
November, then faces jail time for the abundance of the crimes
he has committed and our country returns to the free humane democracy it
once was. Send this to anyone you choose and in November (if there is
an election) vote blue up and down the ticket sparing this nation the rank incompetence and death wielding policies of Trump!
The Facebook post: "
trump [sic] knew of the
potential pandemic in January. He disbanded our CDC Emergency Control
Center two years ago leaving us completely unprepared for this pandemic.
He has refused to require manufacturers to begin to make respirators
when it was in his power to do so. This
has cost hundreds, if not thousands of lives going forward.
Manufacturers have volunteered their services but only a handful and
delayed. Trump has expressed no remorse for the deaths
he had caused by his inaction during his daily political rallies
disguised as press conferences. He is promoting a
malaria drug he is financially vested as a cure, when in fact it has
been proven, in many cases, ineffective and fatal. His ineptitude is epic."
