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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on November 29, 2021 at 12:20 am
First, there was COVID-19, which slammed into the United States in early January, 2000.
Then, in June, 2021, as COVID-19 seemed on the wane, the Delta variant struck.
Now, as of November 9, the world is facing Omicron—a new variant of COVID-19.
Discovered in South Africa, Omicron would be better-described as Trump 3.0.
As President of the United States, Donald Trump bequeathed to his country two deadly legacies:
- A treasonous lust to overthrow democratic government; and
- The deadliest virus seen in America since the 1919 Spanish flu epidemic.
Throughout his Presidency, Trump “joked” about how wonderful it would be for the United States to have a “President-for-Life”—such as Xi Jinping in China.
Trump proved that he was not joking on January 6, when he incited his followers to stop the counting of Electoral College votes in the United States Capitol Building.
Donald Trump
This amounted to an attempted coup. Had the violent mob achieved its aims, the vote count would have ended before Joseph Biden could be officially pronounced the next President of the United States. And Trump would have remained President.
For it is the Electoral College vote—not the popular one—that determines the outcome of Presidential elections.
Biden had received 81,268,924 votes to 74,2164 for Trump. But it was Biden’s winning of 306 votes to Trump’s 232 in the Electoral College that made him President.
A year later, Trump continues to spew lies that millions of Right-wing Americans eagerly believe: “Trump won the election; Biden is an illegitimate President.”
Even worse: Trump’s followers in Republican-controlled states are working to rig the upcoming 2024 Presidential election to guarantee a Republican win—even if voters decide otherwise.
So much for Trump’s legacy of treason and criminality.
Now for his legacy as Coronavirus-in-Chief.
From the outset of the pandemic, Trump lied about the dangers Americans were facing.
On February 7, 2020, he told Washington Post editor and reporter Bob Woodward: “It goes through the air, Bob. That’s always tougher than the touch. The touch, you don’t have to touch things, right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed….It’s also more deadly than your strenuous flues.”
COVID-19
But from January to early March, 2020, Trump and his allies within the Republican party and Fox News Network repeatedly assured Americans they had nothing to fear.
And early on, Trump made the virus a referendum on himself. If you supported him, you didn’t wear a mask when you ventured out in public. This despite the fact that, throughout 2020, there was no vaccine available and hospitals were rapidly overwhelmed by debilitated and dying casualties of the virus.
Even worse: Trump declared open warfare on those Democratic governors—such as Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer—who imposed quarantine “stay-at-home’ orders to halt the spread of the virus. And he repeatedly ridiculed the warnings of medical experts—such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious disease.
For Trump, assuring his own re-election in 2020 took precedence over everything. He knew that as long as Americans stayed home the economy would be depressed. And citizens in depressed economies don’t re-elect Presidents they blame for their suffering.
So for Trump, getting millions of parents back to work meant getting millions of children back to school—no matter the risk. Toward that end, Trump even threatened to cut off federal aid to schools that did not forcibly return children to classes.
Washington Post Columnist Jonathan Capehart echoed him: “I think, if we had had a president of the United States who took this seriously when this first came on the scene, if we had a Republican party that took this seriously enough to warn everyone, their constituents saying, wash your hands, then put on a mask, then go get the vaccine, we wouldn’t be where we are right now.”
Jonathan Capehart
But neither Trump nor the Republican party urged Americans to “wash your hands, put on a mask, then go get the vaccine.”
By March, 2021, three vaccines—by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson—became available. A total of 90.4 million doses of these vaccines had been given. And 30.7 million Americans had been fully vaccinated against the virus.
But after a triumphant beginning, the pace of vaccinations slowed, then halted. By late July, 2021, only 49.6% of Americans had been fully vaccinated.
Many of those who had gotten one shot of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines refused to get the necessary second one. These must be given almost a month apart.
(The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one shot.)
What had happened?
“The people I know personally who are not getting the vaccine, for them, it was like, ‘They rushed this thing,'” theorized New York Times columnist David Brooks. “‘Who knows what’s going to happen to all these people who get the shots in 10 years or 20 years?’ So, why should I take the risk?'”
And leading the way to this catastrophe of self-destruction were the states of the South and Midwest: Mississippi (47.1%,), Alabama (50.5%), Arkansas (53.2%), and Tennessee (52.9%) with the lowest rates of residents who have gotten at least one shot.
By late July, three states—Florida, Texas and Missouri—with lower vaccination rates accounted for 40% of all cases nationwide.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 29, 2021 at 12:07 am
TO: Merrick Brian Garland – United States Attorney General
I hold the highest regard for your personal integrity. Yet, with due regard for your years of dedicated service to the rule of law, I am forced to say: You are now presiding over the closing days of the American Republic.
On January 6, President Donald Trump incited a treasonous attack on the United States Capitol Building. There, the United States Senate, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding, would certify states’ Electoral College results of that election.
Since former Vice President Joseph Biden had gotten 306 votes compared to 232 for Trump, the outcome was already known. And Trump, who had often “joked” about becoming “President-for-Life,” wanted that verdict overturned.
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police, who made little effort to arrest or shoot them.
Among their outrages:
Stormtrumpers scaling Capitol Building walls
- Several rioters carried plastic handcuffs, possibly intending to take hostages.
- Others carried treasonous Confederate flags.
- Shouts of “Hang Pence!” often rang out.
- Improvised explosive devices were found in several locations in Washington, D.C.
- Many of the lawmakers’ office buildings were occupied and vandalized—including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a favorite Right-wing target.
More than three hours passed before police—using riot gear, shields and batons—retook control of the Capitol.
And Trump? After giving his inflammatory speech, he returned to the White House—to watch his handiwork on television. He initially rebuffed requests to mobilize the National Guard.
So what has happened during the eight months since that treasonous attack?
By September 24, 654 Stormtrumpers have been arrested and charged.
- At least 74 defendants have pleaded guilty.
- At least 22 have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.
- Six have pleaded guilty to felonies.
- Three defendants have been sentenced: One drew a sentence of eight months for a felony. Two were sentenced for misdemeanor charges.
- Another was sentenced to three years probation and no jail time.
- Another was sentenced to six months imprisonment, but was credited for the time he had already spent in jail awaiting trial.
Yet no major Trump supporter has been arrested, let alone indicted.
- NOT Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who cried to the demonstrators, “Let’s have trial by combat!”
- NOT Donald Trump, Jr., who, just hours before the Trump mob stormed Congress, threatened Republican lawmakers at a large rally outside the White House: “These guys better fight for Trump. Because if they’re not, guess what? I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months!”
- NOT Rep, Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) who incited the Trump crowd with: “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass!”
- And, above all, NOT Donald Trump. He not only incited his followers to attack the Capitol, he has spent the last six months spreading poisonous lies that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him through “massive” voter fraud. As a result, he continues to undermine the democratic process as he terrorizes the Republican party to stand behind him.
There is a historical precedent for this, and it does not bode well for our Republic.
On November 9, 1923, Nazi Party Fuhrer Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the government in Munich, Bavaria.
About 2,000 Nazis marched to the center of Munich, where they confronted heavily-armed police. A shootout erupted, killing 16 Nazis and four policemen.
Hitler was injured during the clash, but managed to escape. Two days later, he was arrested and charged with treason.
Put on trial, he found himself treated as a celebrity by a judge sympathetic to Right-wing groups. He was allowed to brutally cross-examine witnesses and even make inflammatory speeches.
At the end of the trial, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
Serving time in Landsberg Prison, in Bavaria. he wrote his infamous book, Mein Kampf-–“My Struggle.” Part autobiography, part political treatise, it laid out his future plans—including the extermination of the Jews and the conquest of the Soviet Union.
Adolf Hitler leaving Landsberg Prison, December, 20, 1924
Nine months later, he was released on parole—by authorities loyal to the authoritarian Right instead of the newly-created Weimar Republic.
Hitler immediately began rebuilding the shattered Nazi party—and deciding on a new strategy to gain power. Never again would he resort to armed force. He would win office by election—or intrigue.
On January 30, 1933, those intrigues made him Chancellor of Germany.
Writes historian Volker Ullrich, in his monumental 2016 biography, Hitler: Ascent 1889 – 1939: “Historians have perennially tried to answer the question of whether Hitler’s rise to power could have been halted….
“There were repeated opportunities to end Hitler’s run of triumphs. The most obvious one was after the failed Putsch of November 1923. Had the Munich rabble-rouser been forced to serve his full five-year term of imprisonment in Landsberg, it is extremely unlikely that he would have been able to restart his political career.”
Thus, it isn’t just what happens that can influence the course of history. Often, it’s what doesn’t happen that has at least as great a result.
The United States Justice Department now faces the same choice faced by the judges of the Weimar Republic: Enforce the law against a ruthless tyrant—or stand by while he mounts a comeback.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 28, 2021 at 12:10 am
TO: Merrick Brian Garland – United States Attorney General
I hold the highest regard for your personal integrity. After graduating from Harvard Law School, you served as a special assistant to Attorney General Benjamin Civviletti from 1979 to 1981.
As a federal prosecutor, you played a leading role in the investigation and prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombers.
You served as judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1997 – 2021) and then as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2013 – 2020).
In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated you to serve as an associate Justice of the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia. But Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to hold a hearing or vote on your nomination.
Merrick Garland
Yet, with due regard for your years of dedicated service to the rule of law, I am forced to say: You are now presiding over the closing days of the American Republic.
As the bestselling book, Peril, makes clear, there was a detailed plan by Republicans to illegally retain President Donald Trump in office. The votes of 81 million Americans who had voted for former Vice President Joseph Biden would have been scrapped in what was intended to be a Right-wing coup.
According to authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, attorney John Eastman first proposed the plan to Vice President Mike Pence on January 4 in the Oval Office with Trump in attendance. The memo called for throwing out the election results in seven states under the false claim that those states had used alternate electors.
Eastman’s memo was sent to Senator Mile Lee (R-Utah) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as one of Trump’s attorneys at the time. They tried to convince Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that there was rampant fraud in the 2020 election.
Both Graham and Lee reportedly argued that the fraud claims had no merit.
On January 6, the United States Senate, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding, would certify states’ Electoral College results of that election.
Since Biden had gotten 306 votes compared to 232 for Trump, the outcome was already known.
On that morning, Trump tried to convince Pence to reject the electoral votes that had been cast for Biden. This would mean flipping the results of the 2020 Presidential election to give him a win.
Pence replied that he lacked the power to overturn those results.
But as Pence went off to the Capitol Building housing the Senate and House of Representatives, Trump had one last card to play.
Mike Pence
For weeks Trump had ordered his legions of Right-wing Stormtrumpers to descend on Washington, D.C. by January 6.
On December 20, he had tweeted: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
In tweets, he promoted the rally again on December 27 and 30, and January 1.
On January 6, Trump appeared at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
A stage had been set up for him to address tens of thousands of his supporters, who eagerly awaited him.
Trump ordered them to march on the Capitol building to express their anger at the voting process and to intimidate their elected officials to reject the results.
“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by a bold and radical left Democrats which is what they are doing and stolen by the fake news media.
“Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal….
“Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back….And we’re going to have to fight much harder….
“And after this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave Senators and Congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.
“Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated.”
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police.
Stormtrumpers attacking the Capitol Building
Among their outrages:
- Members of the mob attacked police with chemical agents and lead pipes.
- A Capitol Hill police officer was knocked off his feet, dragged into the mob surging toward the building, and beaten with the pole of an American flag.
- One attacker was shot as protesters forced their way toward the House Chamber where members of Congress were sheltering in place.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 24, 2021 at 12:28 am
For historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson, Donald Trump possesses an unappreciated self-awareness and sense of what it means to be a tragic hero.
Trump was into the first year of his Presidency when Hanson penned his article, “Donald Trump, Tragic Hero,” published on April 12, 2018.
To make his case, Hanson cites a series of popular Western movies featuring lethal men who risk—and sometimes sacrifice—their lives on behalf of others too weak to vanquish evil on their own.
Victor Davis Hanson
Thus in the classic 1960 film, The Magnificent Seven, the Seven slaughter the outlaw Calvera and his banditos—and then ride into the sunset. As they do, Chris (Yul Brynner) tells Vin (Steve McQueen): “The old man was right. Only the farmers won. We lost. We always lose.”
Writes Hanson: “He knows that few appreciate that the tragic heroes in their midst are either tragic or heroic — until they are safely gone and what they have done in time can be attributed to someone else. Worse, he knows that the tragic hero’s existence is solitary and without the nourishing networks and affirmation of the peasant’s agrarian life.”
Chris may know this, but there is absolutely no evidence that Trump does. He has never shown even an awareness of sensitivity and self-knowledge, let alone the possession of either. Trump is at best semi-literate. The concept of tragedy—as expressed in the Greek tragedies to which Hanson refers throughout his article—means nothing to Trump.
Moreover, the Seven have risked their lives—and four of them have died doing so—on behalf of villagers who can pay them almost nothing.
It is inconceivable that Trump would risk anything—especially his life—for people he regarded as poor and thus unworthy of his concern.
Copyright © 1960 – United Artists Corporation.”, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In their first encounter with Calvera (Eli Wallach) the bandit chief offers to make the Seven partners in his ravaging of the village. Of his intended victims, Calvera sneers: “If God had not wanted them sheared, he would not have made them sheep.”
If Trump had heard Calvera’s offer, he would have instantly accepted it.
In June 2016, USA Today published an analysis of litigation involving Trump. Over the previous 30 years, Trump and his businesses had been involved in 3,500 legal cases in U.S. Federal and state courts.
Of the 3,500 suits, Trump or one of his companies were plaintiffs in 1,900; defendants in 1,450; and bankruptcy, third party, or other in 150. Trump was named in at least 169 suits in federal court.
Many of those cases centered around his refusal to pay contractors for their finished work on his properties. Most of the contractors didn’t have the financial resources—as Trump had—to spend years in court trying to obtain the monies they were owed. So they never received payment—or only a small portion of it.
When he ran for President in 2015-16, Trump repeatedly promised poor and middle-class Americans a far better plan for medical care than the Affordable Care Act.
He spent the next four years thuggishly trying to dismantle “Obanacare,” the signature achievement of Barack Obama, America’s first black President. But never did he offer even a general outline of his own alleged plan to “replace” it.
Hanson tries to draw a further parallel between Trump and the fictional Tom Doniphon, the unsung hero of John Ford’s 1962 movie, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Copyright © 1962 Paramount Pictures Corporation and John Ford Productions, Inc.”, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Hanson sums up the movie thus:
“Tom Doniphon (John Wayne)…unheroically kills the thuggish Liberty Valance [Lee Marvin], births the [political] career of Ranse Stoddard [James Stewart] and his marriage to Doniphon’s girlfriend [Vera Miles] and thereby ensures civilization is Shinbone’s frontier future. His service done, he burns down his house and degenerates from feared rancher to alcoholic outcast.”
It is inconceivable that Trump would take the risk of committing a crime on behalf of someone else—or being able to resist bragging about it if he did. It is equally inconceivable that he would give up a woman he wanted for the happiness of another man.
Most unbelievable of all is the suggestion that Trump would imitate Doniphon by quietly riding off into the sunset.
Trump has often “joked” about becoming “President-for-Life.” After losing the November 3 Presidential election to former Vice President Joe Biden, he filed 60 lawsuits to overturn the will of 80 million voters. Those failing, he tried some old-fashioned but unsuccessful arm-twisting of several state lawmakers to “find” non-existent votes for him.
Finally, on January 6, he incited a mob of his fanatical followers to attack the United States Capitol Building. Their mission: Stop the counting of Electoral College ballots certain to give Biden the victory.
Victor Davis Hanson is a brilliant scholar and colorful writer. But his effort on Trump’s behalf is embarrassing and appalling.
In a series of bestselling books, he has eloquently chronicled the heroism of the ancient Greeks in defending their budding democracy.
It is depressing—and frightening—to discover that this same man can blatantly ignore the criminalities and even treason of the greatest and most destructive tyrant to ever attain the Presidency.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 23, 2021 at 12:21 am
Victor Davis Hanson has long been a distinguished historian and classicist at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
On April 12, 2018, Hanson turned his attention from the ancient world to the modern one in an article published in the well-known conservative magazine, National Review.
Its title: “Donald Trump, Tragic Hero.”
“The very idea that Donald Trump could, even in a perverse way, be heroic may appall half the country,” begins his first paragraph.
“Nonetheless, one way of understanding both Trump’s personal excesses and his accomplishments is that his not being traditionally presidential may have been valuable in bringing long-overdue changes in foreign and domestic policy.”
Donald Trump
Having laid out his thesis, Hanson writes: “Tragic heroes, as they have been portrayed from Sophocles’ plays (e.g., Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Philoctetes) to the modern western film, are not intrinsically noble.”
On the contrary: A true tragic figure is a noble character with a fatal flaw, which ultimately destroys him.
To cite one from literature: Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamlet believes that his father, the king of Denmark, has been murdered. He believes the murderer may be his uncle, Claudius, who has seized the throne. Hamlet is brilliant, athletic, supremely eloquent and conscientious. But he’s not completely certain that Claudius is guilty, and in his hesitation to strike he lays the seeds for his own destruction.
To cite one from history: British General Charles George Gordon, sent by the British government in 1884 to evacuate the Sudanese city of Khartoum. But instead of evacuating its citizens, he chose to stay and fight the oncoming army of Mohammed Achmed, an Islamic religious fanatic who called himself The Madhi (“The Expected One”).
Although Gordon’s dynamic leadership enabled the city to hold out for almost a year, the British relief force arrived too late. The city was overwhelmed and Gordon himself killed.
Various theories have been advanced for his decision: He was a religious fanatic; he had a death-wish; he was by nature insubordinate.
Charles George Gordon
But the fact remains that for almost an entire year he kept alive about 30,000 men, women and children. It was only the failure of the British to send a relief army in time that allowed the city—and Gordon—to perish.
Tragic heroes always have a cause that is bigger than life—something that makes giving up life worthwhile. They always recognize this, and they have the ability to put into perspective the ultimate sacrifice—giving up life—for the good of something bigger.
Which brings us back to Trump. Apart from being a five-times draft-dodger during the Vietnam war, he has never made an act of professional or personal sacrifice for anyone.
On the contrary: he has been forced to shut down both his Trump Foundation and unaccredited Trump University.
Trump was forced to pay more than $2 million in court-ordered damages to eight different charities for illegally misusing charitable funds at the Foundation for political purposes.
And his university scammed its students, promising to teach them “the secrets of success” in the real estate industry—then delivering nothing. In 2016, a federal court approved a $25 million settlement with many of those students.
This is hardly the stuff of which tragic heroes are made.
Hanson cites several examples from famous Western movies to make his case that Trump deserves the status of a tragic hero.
One of these is the classic 1953 “Shane,” starring Alan Ladd as the soft-spoken gunfighter who intervenes decisively in a range war.
Writes Hanson:
“He alone possesses the violent skills necessary to free the homesteaders from the insidious threats of hired guns and murderous cattle barons. Yet by the time of his final resort to lethal violence, Shane has sacrificed all prior chances of reform and claims on reentering the civilized world of the stable ‘sodbuster’ community.”
Comparing Trump to Shane is unbelievably ludicrous. Shane doesn’t boast about his past—in fact, this remains a mystery throughout the movie. Trump constantly brags—about the money he’s made, the buildings he’s put up, the women he’s bedded, the enemies he’s crushed (or plans to).
Moreover, Shane takes the side of poor homesteaders at the mercy of a rich cattle baron, Rufus Ryker. Ryker tries to bully the homesteaders into leaving. When that fails, he hires a ruthless gunman named Jack Wilson (Jack Palance).
In the film’s climax, Shane kills Wilson, and then Ryker, in a barroom showdown. Then he rides off—much to the sadness of Joey (Brandon de Wilde), the homesteaders’ son he has befriended.
“There’s no living with a killing,” says Shane. “There’s no going back from one. Right or wrong, it’s a brand. And a brand sticks.”
And so he rides on, knowing that his gunfighter’s skills make him an outcast among those very homesteaders whose lives he’s saved.
If Trump appeared in the movie, it would be as Ryker, not Shane.
Shane empathizes with the plight of others. Ryker–like Trump–hires others to do his dirty work.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 11, 2021 at 12:12 am
Republicans—including those who pursue a Fascistic agenda—are quick to accuse their opponents of being “Nazis.”
Yet similarities abound between the tactics—and often the goals—between yesterday’s Nazis and today’s Republicans.
One of these is the need for martyrs by both parties.
The Nazis found theirs in Horst Wessel.
As a teenager growing up in the Weimar Republic of Germany, he joined the Viking Liga (“Viking League”), a Right-wing paramilitary group. Its goal, wrote Wessel, was “the “establishment of a national dictatorship.”
He soon became a local leader, engaging in street battles with rival Leftist groups such as the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Communist Party (KPD). In 1926, he joined the paramilitary Sturmabteilung (“Storm Detachment” or SA) of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party).
Horst Wessel
Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1978-043-14 / Heinrich Hoffmann / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons
His unit had a reputation as “a band of thugs, a brutal squad.” One of his men described the way they fought against the Communists: “Horst made Adolf Hitler’s principle his own: Terror can be destroyed only by counterterror.”
In September 1929, Wessel met Erna Jänicke, a 23-year-old ex-prostitute, in a tavern. Some sources claim Wessel acted as Jänicke’s pimp. She soon moved into his room.
Wessel’s landlady, Elisabeth Salm, wanted Jänicke to leave. But Jänicke refused to do so.
Salm appealed to Communist friends of her late husband to evict Jänicke, They agreed to beat Wessel up and evict him from Salm’s flat. They recruited Albrecht Höhler, an armed pimp, perjurer and petty criminal, to handle the evicting.
On February 23, 1930, Höhler knocked at the front door of the room where Wessel and Jänicke lived. When Wessel opened the door, Höhler shot him at point-blank range.
He was 22 when he died.
Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels quickly turned Wessel into a Nazi martyr. Wessel had written the lyrics for a new Nazi fight song: “The Unknown SA-Man.” It later became known as “Raise the Flag” and finally the “Horst Wessel Lied.”
Its opening stanza.
Raise the flag! The ranks tightly closed!
The SA marches with calm, steady step.
Comrades shot by the Red Front and reactionaries
March in spirit within our ranks.
“The Horst Wessel Lied” became the official anthem of the Nazi Party from 1930 to 1945.
Fast forward to January 6, 2021—when the Republican Party got its own martyr: Ashli Babbitt.
A veteran of the United States Air Force, she served two tours in Afghanistan and Iraq before later deploying with the National Guard to Kuwait and Qatar.
Originally from San Diego, California, by 2020 she had recently remarried and was working at a pool service company.
On social media, she described herself as a libertarian and a patriot. She often expressed ardent support for President Donald Trump.
On November 3, 2020, Trump lost the Presidential election to former Vice President Joseph Biden.
Biden won the popular vote—81,268,924 to 74,216,154 for Trump—and, more importantly, in the Electoral College: 306 to 232.
But Babbitt accepted wholesale Trump’s lie that the election had been stolen from him by massive voter fraud.
On January 6, 2021, members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives would meet in the United States Capitol Building. They would count the Electoral College votes received by Trump and Biden—and pronounce Biden the President-elect.
Babbitt was determined to “Stop the Steal” by assaulting the Capitol Building on January 6.
Ashli Babbitt
On January 5, she posted on social media: “Nothing will stop us. They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours.”
On January 6, she was among hundreds of Right-wing men and women who breached the Capitol. She was also the mob’s only casualty.
As lawmakers were being evacuated by Capitol Police, Babbitt tried to climb through a shattered window in a barricaded door. She was warned to back off several times by a policeman standing on the other side.
Babbitt defied the orders—and was shot in the neck/shoulder. She died of the wound—at age 35,
The shooting was later ruled justified by the Justice Department.
Almost a century ago Nazis extolled Horst Wessel as a virtuous martyr. Today, members of Right-wing groups—and even Congressional Republicans—portray Ashli Babbitt as a fallen Joan of Arc.
During a hearing with former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen in April, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ.) claimed Babbitt was “executed.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has made the same charge.
And, not to be outdone, so has Donald Trump himself.
“Who was the person who shot an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman?” Trump asked Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on July 11. “I will tell you, they know who shot Ashley Babbitt. They’re protecting that person. I’ve heard also that it was the head of security for a certain high official—a Democrat.”
The Nazis found in Horst Wessel a hero to inspire their followers. So, too, have Republicans generally and Trump enthusiasts specifically found the same in Ashli Babbitt.
The only question remaining to be answered: Will an “Ashli Babbitt Lied” culminate in a similar tyranny for the United States?
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on August 5, 2021 at 12:10 am
As Republican Senators in Washington, D.C., prepared to block the creation of a bipartisan investigation into the January 6 insurrection, another event was taking place.
In Dalton, Georgia, Representative Matt Gaetz (R – FL) gave an impassioned speech to a crowd. His topic: The Second Amendment.
“It’s not about hunting. It’s not about recreation. It’s not about sports. The Second Amendment is about maintaining within the citizenry the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government, if that becomes necessary. I hope it never does.”
In short: It’s about treason.
On the May 28 edition of The PBS Newshour, correspondent Lisa Desjardins explained:
“There, you heard—it’s about maintaining an armed insurrection. He said he doesn’t hope that it comes to pass. But this is different than traditional conservative thought about protecting liberty, individuals’ homes.
“This is an obvious statement about making government itself the enemy. I should note, of course, that Representative Gaetz is under federal investigation, over accusations involving prostitution and corruption that he denies.
“But we wanted to highlight this clip, because we—the crowd’s reaction, and Representative Gaetz pointedly talking about government as the potential enemy.”
Matt Gaetz
Anyone who still doubts that the Right generally and the followers of Donald Trump in particular aren’t bent on establishing a dictatorship need only consider this.
On May 31, QAnon hosted a conference called the For God and Country Patriot Roundup in Dallas. The event was attended by conspiracy theorists and peddlers of Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 Presidential election was “stolen” from him by massive vote fraud.
One of Its keynote speakers was retired Army General Michael T. Flynn. Flynn had been Trump’s first national security advisor—until he was forced to resign for lying about his past meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
In December, 2016, Flynn had talked with Kislyak about removing the sanctions placed on Russia by the outgoing Obama administration. The sanctions had been placed in retaliation for Russia’s efforts to manipulate the 2016 Presidential election.
“I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here?” a member of the audience, who identified himself as a Marine, asked Flynn.
“No reason, I mean, it should happen here. No reason. That’s right,” Flynn responded.
From his remarks, it was clear that Flynn supported a similar overthrow of the government of the United States.
Later, when this was made clear to him, Flynn denied it.
In a message posted to a Parler account, Flynn claimed that his words had been twisted: “Let me be VERY CLEAR – There is NO reason whatsoever for any coup in America, and I do not and have not at any time called for any action of that sort.”
But Flynn’s behavior in the closing weeks of the Trump administration confirm that he has advocated the use of military force to install—or maintain—a dictatorship.
After losing the 2020 Presidential election to former Vice President Joseph Biden, Trump was desperate to remain in office. Flynn was present at an Oval Office meeting where he suggested that Trump could invoke martial law to overturn the results.
It wasn’t clear whether Trump endorsed the idea, but others in the room forcefully shot it down.
“Flynn’s remarks border on sedition,” said Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), a retired Navy commander who vice-chairs the House Armed Services Committee, about Flynn’s comments at the QAnon conference.
“There’s certainly conduct unbecoming an officer. Those are both things that can be tried under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and I think that as a retiree of the military, it should certainly be a path that we consider to have consequences for these types of words.”
Elaine Luria
At the same event in Dallas, Flynn also claimed—falsely: “Trump won. He won the popular vote, and he won the Electoral College vote.”
As a matter of fact, Trump won neither.
Biden won 81,268,924 popular votes to Trump’s 74,216,154. And in the Electoral College, Biden won 306 votes to Trump’s 232.
* * * * *
History teaches us that republics that tolerate treason soon become former republics.
For Republicans, gaining—and retaining—absolute power has become their foremost reason for existence.
It isn’t enough for them to create voter suppression laws to prevent their opponents from voting. They now insist on the right to violently overthrow any Democrat who somehow manages to win the Presidency against them.
Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone” episode, “Death’s Head Revisited,” reveals how Republicans react when confronted with overwhelming evidence of their evil.
In that episode, a former Nazi concentration camp captain returns to Dachau, to savor the torments he once inflicted on helpless men and women. To his horror, he’s greeted by the ghosts of those victims.
To one of them—Becker—he says: “That was such a long time ago. Let’s forget about all that—unpleasantness—and move on.”
Thus have Republicans reacted when confronted with overwhelming evidence that President Donald J. Trump, having lost the 2020 Presidential election, incited violence against the Government of the United States.
And just as most of the Original Nazis were forced to confront their past “unpleasantness”—and were punished for it—today’s Republicans must face punishment for their own.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 4, 2021 at 12:07 am
On January 6, 2021, members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives met to count the Electoral Votes cast for then-President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
Trump knew that Biden has received more Electoral College votes than he had—306 to 232.
And he wanted that vote-count stopped—thus allowing him to remain in office as “President-for-Life.”
For weeks Trump had ordered his legions of Right-wing Stormtrumpers to descend on Washington, D.C. on January 6.
On December 20, 2020, he had tweeted: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
In tweets, he promoted the rally again on December 27 and 30, and January 1.
Thus, through his lies, he had aroused the fury of his Right-wing supporters.
It would take only his command to send it hurtling at his perceived enemies: Those who would dare elect Joe Biden in his place.
Donald Trump addresses his Stormtrumpers
On January 6, Trump appeared at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
A stage had been set up for him to address tens of thousands of his supporters, who eagerly awaited him.
Trump ordered them to march on the Capitol building to express their anger at the voting process and to intimidate their elected officials to reject the results:
“And after this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave Senators and Congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.
“Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated.”
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly overwhelmed Capitol Police.
Tyler Merbler from USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
- Members of the mob attacked police with chemical agents or lead pipes.
- Many of the lawmakers’ office buildings were occupied and vandalized—including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a favorite Right-wing target.
- Shouts of “Hang Pence!” and “Hang Pelosi!” often rang out.
- According to CBS News, more than 150 officers were injured in the attack.
- Several rioters carried plastic handcuffs, possibly intending to take hostages.
- Others carried treasonous Confederate flags.
After more than three hours, police—using riot gear, shields and batons—retook control of the Capitol.
And Trump? After giving his inflammatory speech, he didn’t march with his followers to the Capitol.
Like the draft-dodger he had been during the Vietnam war, he kept himself out of harm’s way and returned to the White House.
There he watched his handiwork on television—and initially rebuffed requests to mobilize the National Guard.
Six months later—by July 30—599 Stormtrumpers had been arrested and charged.
- At least 27 defendants have pleaded guilty.
- At least 22 have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors.
- Six have pleaded guilty to felonies.
- Three defendants have been sentenced: One drew a sentence of eight months for a felony. Two were sentenced for misdemeanor charges.
- Another was sentenced to three years probation and no jail time.
- Another was sentenced to six months imprisonment, but was credited for the time he had already spent in jail awaiting trial.
Yet no major Trump supporter has been arrested, let alone indicted.
- NOT Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who cried to the demonstrators, “Let’s have trial by combat!”
- NOT Donald Trump, Jr., who, just hours before the Trump mob stormed Congress, threatened Republican lawmakers at a large rally outside the White House: “These guys better fight for Trump. Because if they’re not, guess what? I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months!”
- NOT Rep, Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) who incited the Trump crowd with: “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass!”
- And, above all, NOT Donald Trump. He not only incited his followers to attack the Capitol, he has spent the last six months spreading poisonous lies that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him through “massive” voter fraud. As a result, he continues to undermine the democratic process as he terrorizes the Republican party to stand behind him.
For attempting to overthrow the government of Bavaria in 1923, Adolf Hitler could have spent five years in prison. Instead, a sympathetic Right-leaning judge gave him only nine months.
Had he served out his full sentence, he might not have been able to revive his political career. But once he emerged from prison, he reorganized the Nazi party and began a series of campaigns for the presidency.
By January 30, 1933, he had become Chancellor of Germany. By August, 1934, he had become absolute dictator.
At the battle of the Alamo, 200 Texans killed 600 Mexican soldiers before being overwhelmed. During the Capitol battle, hundreds of police killed one Stormtrumper, thus sending the message: You can commit treason with impunity.
The Justice Department must soon indict, prosecute and—hopefully—convict Donald Trump—to both punish his treason and warn his potential imitators of treason’s penalties.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 3, 2021 at 12:13 am
On November 9, 1923, Nazi Party Fuhrer Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the government in Munich, Bavaria.
About 2,500-3,000 Nazis marched to the center of Munich, where they confronted heavily-armed police. A shootout erupted, killing 16 Nazis and four policemen.
Hitler was injured during the clash, but managed to escape. Two days later, he was arrested and charged with treason.
Put on trial, he found himself treated as a celebrity by a judge sympathetic to Right-wing groups. He was allowed to brutally cross-examine witnesses and even make inflammatory speeches. As a result, he emerged a national figure, popular in Right-wing circles.
At the end of the trial, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment—by a Right-wing judge hostile to the the newly-created Weimar Republic.
Serving time in Landsberg Prison, in Bavaria. he was given a huge cell, allowed to receive unlimited visitors and gifts, and treated with deference by guards and inmates.
Hitler used his time in prison to write his infamous book, Mein Kampf-–“My Struggle.” Part autobiography, part political treatise, it laid out his future plans—including the extermination of the Jews and the conquest of the Soviet Union.
Adolf Hitler leaving Landsberg Prison, December, 20, 1924
Nine months later, he was released on parole.
Hitler immediately began rebuilding the shattered Nazi party—and deciding on a new strategy to gain power. Never again would he resort to armed force. He would win office by election—or intrigue.
In less than 10 years—on January 30, 1933—he had done so. By August 2, 1934, he had become absolute dictator of Germany.
Writes historian Volker Ullrich, in his monumental 2016 biography, Hitler: Ascent 1889 – 1939: “Historians have perennially tried to answer the question of whether Hitler’s rise to power could have been halted….
“There were repeated opportunities to end Hitler’s run of triumphs. The most obvious one was after the failed Putsch of November 1923. Had the Munich rabble-rouser been forced to serve his full five-year term of imprisonment in Landsberg, it is extremely unlikely that he would have been able to restart his political career.”
Thus, it isn’t just what happens that can influence the course of history. Often, it’s what doesn’t happen that has at least as great a result.
Consider the case of America’s own would-be Fuhrer: Donald Trump.
On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives had approved two Articles of Impeachment against Trump for:
Article 1: Abuse of Power: For pressuring Ukraine to assist him in his re-election campaign by smearing a potential rival for the White House.
Article 2: Obstruction of Congress: For obstructing Congress by blocking testimony of subpoenaed witnesses and refusing to provide documents in response to House subpoenas in the impeachment inquiry.
On September 9, 2019, the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight and Reform committees began investigating his attempted extortion of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
On July 25, 2019, Trump had “asked” Zelensky to do him a “favor”: Find embarrassing “dirt” on former Vice President Joseph Biden and his son, Hunter.
Hunter had had business dealings in Ukraine. And Joseph Biden might be Trump’s Democratic opponent for the White House in 2020.
To underline the seriousness of his “request,” earlier in July Trump had told Mick Mulvaney, his White House chief of staff, to withhold $400 million in military aid that Congress had approved for Ukraine, which faced an increasingly aggressive Russia.
Joseph Biden
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)
But then a CIA whistleblower filed a complaint about the extortion attempt—and the media and Congress soon learned of it. And ever since, the evidence linking Trump to impeachable offenses had mushroomed.
On January 16, 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced that the Trump administration broke the law when it withheld security aid to Ukraine.
As trial proceedings unfolded in the 2020 impeachment of Trump, the majority Republican Senators consistently put their own partisan interests over those of their country.
Among their actions:
- Refusing to hear from eyewitnesses who could prove that Trump had committed impeachable offenses,
- Refusing to provide evidence on Trump’s behalf—but attacking witnesses who had testified against him in the House.
- Attacking Joseph and Hunter Biden as if they were on trial—instead of having been the targets of Trump’s smear-attempt.
As Lead Impeachment Manager, Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) held the role of a prosecutor.
Faced with the unwillingness of Trump’s Senatorial defenders to accept any evidence—no matter how damning—against him, Schiff warned: “Donald Trump must be convicted and removed from office. Because he will always choose his own personal interest over our national interest. Because in America, right matters. Truth matters. If not, no Constitution can protect us. If not, we are lost.”
Adam Schiff
On February 5, 2020, the Republican-dominated Senate—as expected—absolved him from trying to extort Ukraine into smearing a possible rival for the White House.
Only one Republican—Utah Senator Mitt Romney—had the moral courage to vote for conviction.
On January 6, 2021, Schiff’s prophecy came true.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on May 25, 2021 at 12:12 am
Republicans have made “cancel culture” an accusation hurled at Democrats.
Democrats, for example, who want to strip the names of Confederate traitor-generals from many of America’s most famous military bases. Among those bases:
- Fort Benning (Georgia) – Named after Confederate General Henry L. Benning, who fought against the Union armies at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam and Gettysburg.
- Fort Lee (Virginia) – Named after Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
- Fort Bragg (North Carolina) – Named for Confederate General Braxton Bragg.
Republicans have also used “cancel culture” to denounce the ban imposed on former President Donald Trump by Facebook and Twitter.
Donald Trump
Throughout his Presidency, Trump had used Facebook—and especially Twitter—to attack and slander literally hundreds of people.
Trump’s reign of Twitter insults ended abruptly after he instigated an attack on the United States Capitol Building on January 6.
Desperate to stay in office by any means, he roused his legions of Stormtrumper followers to halt the counting of Electoral College votes certain to give former Vice President Joe Biden victory in the 2020 Presidential election.
Stormtrumpers attacking the Capitol Building
This treasonous behavior finally led Twitter to impose a permanent ban on Trump’s future tweets. Facebook quickly followed with a temporary ban of unspecified length.
Republicans were outraged. For decades they had aggressively demanded that corporations be free of government regulation. Now they demanded that Internet-related companies be stripped of their independence.
Their outrage reflected their support for what would have been the greatest “cancel crime” in American history: Trump’s unprecedented attempt to cancel the votes of 80 million Americans for Joe Biden and remain in office for at least another four years.
And on May 20, Republicans proved their willingness to cancel legislation to protect Asian-Americans from a recent rise in attacks on them.
These attacks can be attributed directly to Donald Trump. Desperate to divert attention from his own indifference to the rising death toll from Coronavirus, throughout 2020 he repeatedly blamed China for “The China virus” and “The China plague.”
In October, Trump tested positive for COVID-19.
Republicans quickly blamed China.
The blame lay with Trump, who had refused to mask up or socially distance from others, as his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had recommended.
But this didn’t stop Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler from tweeting: “China gave this virus to our President,” adding “WE MUST HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.”
And Blair Brandt, a Trump campaign fundraiser, claimed that the “Chinese Communist Party has biologically attacked our President.”
Trump’s slanderous rhetoric—and the tensions it produced between the United States and China—has resulted in numerous attacks on Asian-Americans. In 2020, crimes targeting Asian Americans rose by 149% over those reported in 2019.
Introduced by Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act will:
- Expedite the review of hate crimes related to the pandemic;
- Expand the reporting of hate crimes to local and state agencies;
- Require the Justice Department to work with state and local agencies to address them.
In the United States Senate, Josh Hawley (R-MO) cast the only vote against the Act.
“It’s too broad,” he said. “As a former prosecutor, my view is it’s dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents.”
In the House of Representatives 62 Republicans tried to cancel the legislation.
Among these:
- Ohio’s Jim Jordan, who said falsely: “This violence, by and large, is happening in Democrat-controlled cities, many of which, interestingly enough, have defunded their police departments.”
- Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said: “We can’t legislate away hate”—which was the same excuse Southern Republicans made to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
On May 20, President Biden signed the Act into law.
The following Republican House members joined Roy and Jordan in voting no:
- Matt Gaetz (Florida)
- Lauren Boebert (Colorado)
- Mo Brooks (Alabama)
- Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia).
- Robert Aderholt (Alabama)
- Rick Allen (Georgia)
- Jodey Arrington (Texas)
- Brian Babin (Texas)
- Jim Banks (Indiana)
- Andy Biggs (Arizona)
- Dan Bishop (North Carolina
- Ted Budd (North Carolina)
- Tim Burchett (Tennessee)
- Kat Cammack (Florida)
- Jerry Carl (Alabama)
- Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina)
- Michael Cloud (Texas)
- Andrew Clyde (Georgia
- Tom Cole (Oklahoma)
- Warren Davidson (Ohio)
- Byron Donalds (Florida)
- Jeff Duncan (South Carolina)
- Virginia Foxx (North Carolina)
- Louie Gohmert (Texas)
- Bob Good (Virginia)
- Lance Gooden (Texas)
- Paul Gosar (Arizona)
- Mark Green (Tennessee)
- Michael Guest (Mississippi)
- Andy Harris (Maryland)
- Diana Harshbarger (Tennessee)
- Kevin Hern (Oklahoma)
- Yvette Herrell (New Mexico)
- Jody Hice (Georgia)
- Clay Higgins (Louisiana)
- Ronny Jackson (Texas)
- Mike Johnson (Louisiana)
- Trent Kelly (Mississippi)
- Doug LaMalfa (California)
- Barry Loudermilk (Georgia)
- Nancy Mace (South Carolina)
- Tracey Mann (Kansas)
- Thomas Massie (Kentucky)
- Tom McClintock (California)
- Mary Miller (Illinois)
- Alexander Mooney (West Virginia)
- Barry Moore (Alabama)
- Ralph Norman (South Carolina)
- Steven Palazzo (Mississippi)
- Gary Palmer (Alabama)
- Scott Perry (Pennsylvania)
- August Pfluger (Texas)
- Tom Rice (South Carolina)
- John Rose (Tennessee)
- Matthew Rosendale (Montana)
- David Rouzer (North Carolina)
- John Rutherford (Florida)
- W. Gregory Steube (Florida)
- Thomas Tiffany (Wisconsin)
- Randy Weber (Texas)
Nearly one-third of the House Republican caucus voted against the measure, which was supported by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise and newly appointed GOP leader Elise Stefanik.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
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HERE COMES TRUMP 3.0: PART ONE (OF TWO)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on November 29, 2021 at 12:20 amFirst, there was COVID-19, which slammed into the United States in early January, 2000.
Then, in June, 2021, as COVID-19 seemed on the wane, the Delta variant struck.
Now, as of November 9, the world is facing Omicron—a new variant of COVID-19.
Discovered in South Africa, Omicron would be better-described as Trump 3.0.
As President of the United States, Donald Trump bequeathed to his country two deadly legacies:
Throughout his Presidency, Trump “joked” about how wonderful it would be for the United States to have a “President-for-Life”—such as Xi Jinping in China.
Trump proved that he was not joking on January 6, when he incited his followers to stop the counting of Electoral College votes in the United States Capitol Building.
Donald Trump
This amounted to an attempted coup. Had the violent mob achieved its aims, the vote count would have ended before Joseph Biden could be officially pronounced the next President of the United States. And Trump would have remained President.
For it is the Electoral College vote—not the popular one—that determines the outcome of Presidential elections.
Biden had received 81,268,924 votes to 74,2164 for Trump. But it was Biden’s winning of 306 votes to Trump’s 232 in the Electoral College that made him President.
A year later, Trump continues to spew lies that millions of Right-wing Americans eagerly believe: “Trump won the election; Biden is an illegitimate President.”
Even worse: Trump’s followers in Republican-controlled states are working to rig the upcoming 2024 Presidential election to guarantee a Republican win—even if voters decide otherwise.
So much for Trump’s legacy of treason and criminality.
Now for his legacy as Coronavirus-in-Chief.
From the outset of the pandemic, Trump lied about the dangers Americans were facing.
On February 7, 2020, he told Washington Post editor and reporter Bob Woodward: “It goes through the air, Bob. That’s always tougher than the touch. The touch, you don’t have to touch things, right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed….It’s also more deadly than your strenuous flues.”
COVID-19
But from January to early March, 2020, Trump and his allies within the Republican party and Fox News Network repeatedly assured Americans they had nothing to fear.
And early on, Trump made the virus a referendum on himself. If you supported him, you didn’t wear a mask when you ventured out in public. This despite the fact that, throughout 2020, there was no vaccine available and hospitals were rapidly overwhelmed by debilitated and dying casualties of the virus.
Even worse: Trump declared open warfare on those Democratic governors—such as Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer—who imposed quarantine “stay-at-home’ orders to halt the spread of the virus. And he repeatedly ridiculed the warnings of medical experts—such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious disease.
For Trump, assuring his own re-election in 2020 took precedence over everything. He knew that as long as Americans stayed home the economy would be depressed. And citizens in depressed economies don’t re-elect Presidents they blame for their suffering.
So for Trump, getting millions of parents back to work meant getting millions of children back to school—no matter the risk. Toward that end, Trump even threatened to cut off federal aid to schools that did not forcibly return children to classes.
Washington Post Columnist Jonathan Capehart echoed him: “I think, if we had had a president of the United States who took this seriously when this first came on the scene, if we had a Republican party that took this seriously enough to warn everyone, their constituents saying, wash your hands, then put on a mask, then go get the vaccine, we wouldn’t be where we are right now.”
Jonathan Capehart
But neither Trump nor the Republican party urged Americans to “wash your hands, put on a mask, then go get the vaccine.”
By March, 2021, three vaccines—by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson—became available. A total of 90.4 million doses of these vaccines had been given. And 30.7 million Americans had been fully vaccinated against the virus.
But after a triumphant beginning, the pace of vaccinations slowed, then halted. By late July, 2021, only 49.6% of Americans had been fully vaccinated.
Many of those who had gotten one shot of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines refused to get the necessary second one. These must be given almost a month apart.
(The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one shot.)
What had happened?
“The people I know personally who are not getting the vaccine, for them, it was like, ‘They rushed this thing,'” theorized New York Times columnist David Brooks. “‘Who knows what’s going to happen to all these people who get the shots in 10 years or 20 years?’ So, why should I take the risk?'”
And leading the way to this catastrophe of self-destruction were the states of the South and Midwest: Mississippi (47.1%,), Alabama (50.5%), Arkansas (53.2%), and Tennessee (52.9%) with the lowest rates of residents who have gotten at least one shot.
By late July, three states—Florida, Texas and Missouri—with lower vaccination rates accounted for 40% of all cases nationwide.
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