Posts Tagged ‘THE PBS NEWSHOUR’
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In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on September 5, 2025 at 12:16 am
For all his ruthlessness and duplicity, it’s almost a certainty that Donald Trump has never read the works of Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science.
Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) is widely thought of as the personification of Satan.
In fact, Machiavelli was a passionate Republican, who spent most of his adult life in the service of his beloved city-state, Florence.
Florence, for all its wealth, lacked a strong army, and thus lay at the mercy of powerful enemies, such as Cesare Borgia. Machiavelli often had to use his wits to keep them at bay.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Contrary to popular belief, Machiavelli did not advocate evil for its own sake.
Rather, he recognized that sometimes there is no perfect solution to a problem. He realized that men—and nations—are not always masters of their fates. And he warned that there is no course of action that is guaranteed safe or successful.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a man of simplistic “solutions” for simplistic audiences.
By early April, 2020, he opposed the issuing of a national “stay-at-home” order to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. But, one by one, states began issuing shutdown orders of their own. So he railed against those orders and demanded that “we need to reopen the country.”
Donald Trump
There were two hidden agendas behind this:
First, throughout the first term of his Presidency, Trump claimed sole credit for a booming economy—even though this was largely the result of the administration of President Barack Obama.
Second, Trump wanted to return to his Nuremberg-style rallies, where he could slander anyone he wanted while basking in the worship of thousands of his fanatical followers.
His White House “Coronavirus briefings” had been his pale substitute for dispensing propaganda under the guise of sharing reliable medical information.
Thus he clearly missed this warning, offered in Machiavelli’s masterwork, The Discourses, about safely giving advice:
“For as men only judge of matters by the result, all the blame of failure is charged upon him who first advised it, while in case of success he receives commendations. But the reward never equals the punishment….
“Certainly those who counsel princes and republics are placed between two dangers. If they do not advise what seems to them for the good of the republic or the prince, regardless of the consequences to themselves, then they fail of their duty….
“I see no other course than to take things moderately, and not to undertake to advocate any enterprise with too much zeal, but to give one’s advice calmly and modestly.
“If either then the republic or the prince decides to follow it, they may do so, as it were, of their own will, and not as though they were drawn into it by your importunity.
“In adopting this course it is not reasonable to suppose that either the prince or republic will manifest any ill will towards you on account of a resolution not taken contrary to the wishes of the many.”
By May, 2020, more Americans were wary of “reopening the country” than they were rushing to do so.
On the May 15 edition of The PBS Newshour, New York Times columnist David Brooks noted:
“If you look at actual behavior, people locked themselves down before any politician took a move. And even in those states where the politicians are opening up, people are still locking down….
“You look at the movement based on cell phone tracking. Red and blue states have the same amount of movement. The same number of people basically in state after state are staying home. And red and blue states, there’s no correlation between whether it’s a red and blue state and whether people are doing better or worse.
“And so I think the key decisions right now are not being made in statehouses and certainly not the White House. They’re being made in living rooms, as people decide, is it safe? Can I go out?”
Coronavirus
By pushing his mantra—“America needs to reopen NOW!”—Trump risked the lives of millions of Americans. But he also risked the future of his Presidency.
Several states—such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—that re-opened saw swarms of people flooding into bars and restaurants. They weren’t wearing masks or practicing “social distancing.” Packed together like sardines, they offered themselves like a sacrifice to Coronavirus.
If COVID-19 continued to claim more victims after America “reopened,” Trump would be seen—as Machiavelli warned—as the primary instigator of that “reopening.” He would also be seen as the primary cause of that disaster.
That is, in fact, what happened.
Herbert Hoover did not create the Great Depression. But he presided over the first three years of it. And that was enough to elect Franklin D. Roosevelt for 12 years and give Harry S. Truman another eight.
For one year, Trump presided over the outbreak of COVID. He hoped to convince voters to ignore it and give him another four years.
Instead, voters turned him out and elected Joseph Biden, who promised to attack COVID head-on.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on January 22, 2024 at 12:10 am
Meteorologists warned of “life-threatening” conditions in Iowa as the state prepared to cast votes in the Republican caucuses.
Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner lusting for a second term as President, took that advice.
Scheduled for four in-person Iowa events on January 14, he canceled three of them the day before voting, due to the freezing cold and snow.
But that didn’t mean he shared the same concern for those he urged to vote for him.
With Windchill projected to be as low as -40 degrees in parts of the state on January 15, Trump had an urgent message for his legions of followers:
“If you want to save America from crooked Joe Biden, you must go caucus tomorrow. First step, very first step. We’re gonna do it. We’re gonna do it big. You got to get out.
“You can’t sit home. If you’re sick as a dog, you say, ‘Darling, I gotta make it,’” Trump said at an Indianola rally on January 14. “Even if you vote and then pass away, it’s worth it, remember.
“If you’re sick, if you’re just so sick, you can’t, darling, I don’t think I can. Get up. Get up. You get up, you’re gonna vote,” Trump said, imitating a woman urging her husband to vote. “Yes, darling, because ultimately, we know who calls the shots, right?”
Speaking to his supporters in a packed Simpson College auditorium, Trump showed no concern for the frostbite dangers they might face. They had stood in line for hours in cold that reached the mid-negative 40s:
“If this is any indication, the storm has had zero effect. You’re very hearty people, I’ve heard that.”
Trump won the Iowa caucuses on January 15 with 51% of the vote.
Such total unconcern for the lives of even his dedicated supporters isn’t new for Trump.
During 2020, Trump “attacked” the COVID-19 virus with Denial, Lies, Republican Subservience, Chaos, Extortion, Propaganda as News, Quackery as Medicine, “Re-open the Country!” and Ignoring the Danger.
When none of those proved effective, Trump settled on one more: Learn to Live With It.
By early April, 2020, he refused to issue a national “stay-at-home” order to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. When states began issuing shutdown orders of their own, he railed against those orders and demanded that “we need to reopen the country.”
Donald Trump
What lay behind this demand were two hidden agendas. He wanted to:
- Quickly revitalize—and take credit for—a once-booming economy, even though this was largely created by President Barack Obama.
- Return to his Nuremberg-style rallies, where he could slander anyone he wanted while basking in the worship of thousands of his fanatical followers.
But, by May, more Americans were wary about “reopening the country” than about rushing to do so.
On the May 15, 2020 edition of The PBS Newshour, New York Times columnist David Brooks noted:
“If you look at actual behavior, people locked themselves down before any politician took a move. And even in those states where the politicians are opening up, people are still locking down….”
Coronavirus
By pushing his mantra—“America needs to reopen NOW!”—Trump was risking the lives of millions of Americans. But he was also risking the future of his Presidency.
If “reopening” the country proved disastrous, he had no back-up plan to offer.
Several states—such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—that re-opened saw swarms of people flooding into bars and restaurants. They didn’t wear masks or practice “social distancing.” Packed together like sardines, they offered themselves like a Right-wing sacrifice to Coronavirus.
The results were inevitable.
A new wave of COVID-19 erupted after America “reopened.” More employees were laid off—or refused to come to work for fear of Coronavirus.
The economy continued to tank.
As summer neared its end and millions of students faced returning to school, Trump offered his next “solution” to the Coronavirus pandemic: Send them back to school—-and not through virtual classes at home.
Trump wanted children to return to possibly COVID-19-infected classrooms.
And he wasn’t asking parents to send their children back to school. He was ordering them to.
On July 8, he tweeted that he might withhold federal funding from schools that did not resume in-person classes that fall.
Trump knew that before parents could return to work, their kids needed to return to class, He hoped that would boost the economy—for which he could take credit.
And that would boost his chances for re-election in November.
Just as the ancient Canaanites sacrificed their children to the god Moloch, so Trump expected his followers—and opponents—to risk their children’s lives for him.
Ancient Canaanites offering their children as sacrifices to Moloch
And the sacrifices quickly started coming. On August 10, 2020, CBS News reported:
“Nearly 100,000 children tested positive for the Coronavirus in the last two weeks of July, a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics finds. Just over 97,000 children tested positive for the Coronavirus from July 16 to July 30, according to the association.”
By urging his followers at the Iowa caucuses to turn out in bitter cold to vote for him—even if it cost them their lives—he proved, once again, that the only life he cares about is his own.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on July 24, 2023 at 12:10 am
The father of modern political science, Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) is widely thought of as the personification of Satan.
Actually, Machiavelli was a passionate republican, who spent most of his life in the service of his beloved city-state, Florence.
Florence, despite its wealth, lacked a strong army—and lay at the mercy of powerful enemies, such as Cesare Borgia. Machiavelli often had to use his wits to keep them at bay.
Niccolo Machiavelli
In his masterwork, The Discourses, he warned that life is complex and no course of action is guaranteed safe or successful.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a man of simplistic “solutions” for simplistic audiences.
By early April, 2020, he refused to issue a national “stay-at-home” order to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. When states began issuing shutdown orders of their own, he railed against those orders and demanded that “we need to reopen the country.”
Donald Trump
What lay behind this demand were two hidden agendas. He wanted to:
- Quickly revitalize—and take credit for—a once-booming economy, even though this was largely created by President Barack Obama.
- Return to his Nuremberg-style rallies, where he could slander anyone he wanted while basking in the worship of thousands of his fanatical followers.
Which is why he clearly missed this warning Machiavelli offered in The Discourses:
“…I shall speak here only of those dangers to which those expose themselves who counsel a republic or a prince to undertake some grave and important enterprise in such a manner as to take upon themselves all the responsibility of the same.
“For as men only judge of matters by the result, all the blame of failure is charged upon him who first advised it, while in case of success he receives commendations. But the reward never equals the punishment….
“I see no other course than to take things moderately, and not to undertake to advocate any enterprise with too much zeal, but to give one’s advice calmly and modestly.
“If either then the republic or the prince decides to follow it, they may do so, as it were, of their own will, and not as though they were drawn into it by your importunity.
“In adopting this course it is not reasonable to suppose that either the prince or republic will manifest any ill will towards you on account of a resolution not taken contrary to the wishes of the many.”
But, by May, more Americans were wary about “reopening the country” than about rushing to do so.
On the May 15, 2020 edition of The PBS Newshour, New York Times columnist David Brooks noted:
“If you look at actual behavior, people locked themselves down before any politician took a move. And even in those states where the politicians are opening up, people are still locking down….
“And so I think the key decisions right now are not being made in statehouses and certainly not the White House. They’re being made in living rooms, as people decide, is it safe? Can I go out?”
Coronavirus
By pushing his mantra—“America needs to reopen NOW!”—Trump was risking the lives of millions of Americans. But he was also risking the future of his Presidency.
If “reopening” the country proved disastrous, he had no back-up plan to offer.
Several states—such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—that re-opened saw swarms of people flooding into bars and restaurants. They didn’t wear masks or practice “social distancing.” Packed together like sardines, they offered themselves like a Right-wing sacrifice to Coronavirus.
The results were inevitable.
A new wave of COVID-19 erupted after America “reopened.” More employees were laid off—or refused to come to work for fear of Coronavirus.
The economy continued to tank.
As summer neared its end and millions of students faced returning to school, Trump offered his next “solution” to the Coronavirus pandemic: Send them back to school—-and not through virtual classes at home.
Trump wanted children to return to possibly COVID-19-infected classrooms.
And he wasn’t asking parents to send their children back to school. He was ordering them to.
On July 8, he tweeted that he might withhold federal funding from schools that did not resume in-person classes this fall.
Why was he so insistent on this?
Trump knew that before parents could return to work, their kids needed to return to class, He hoped that would boost the economy—for which he could take credit.
And that would boost his chances for re-election in November.
Just as the ancient Canaanites sacrificed their children to the god Moloch, so Trump expected his followers—and opponents—to risk their children’s lives for him.
A child sacrifice to Moloch
Ancient Canaanites offering their children as sacrifices to Moloch
And the sacrifices quickly started coming. On August 10, 2020, CBS News reported:
“Nearly 100,000 children tested positive for the Coronavirus in the last two weeks of July, a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics finds. Just over 97,000 children tested positive for the Coronavirus from July 16 to July 30, according to the association.”
Those who still support Trump clearly value the lives of their children far less than putting a ruthless psychopath back into power.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on April 28, 2023 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, 2021 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, 2021, 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 SS camp captain returns to the Dachau concentration camp 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, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on January 18, 2022 at 12:08 am
President Joe Biden faces opposition not only from Republicans but Right-wing Democrats as well.
One of these is West Virginia United States Senator Joe Manchin.
On June 7, 2021, The PBS Newshour examined perhaps the foremost issue of our democracy: The For the People Act.
Since November 3, 2020, when former President Donald Trump lost the Presidential election, he has spread The Big Lie: That the election was “stolen” from him.
On the basis of that lie, Republicans in 47 states have introduced 361 bills to make it harder to vote.
As of June 21, 2021, 17 states enacted 28 new laws that restrict access to the vote.
Among those states affected: Georgia, Iowa, Arkansas and Utah.
Georgia:
- Bans giving food and water to voters in line;
- Severely restricts mail ballot drop boxes;
- Allows Right-wing groups to challenge the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters; and
- Gives the GOP-controlled legislature sweeping powers over election administration.
Arizona:
- Wants to add new requirements for casting a mail-in ballot and make it harder to receive one.
Florida:
- Intends to ban mail ballot drop boxes.
Michigan:
- Republicans introduced eight bills adding new voter ID requirements for mail voting and forbidding election officials to send out absentee ballot request forms to voters.
Congressional Democrats have countered with the For the People Act. Among its provisions:
- Expand early voting and registration across the country in federal elections;
- Block states from purging their rolls of voters;
- End partisan gerrymandering;
- Force large donors to disclose themselves publicly.
“It is something that is obviously very critical right now,” said PBS Newshour Correspondent Lisa Desjardins. “We see rising in this country both sides talking about democracy and voting rights and what’s happening at this moment.
“[West Virginia United States Senator] Joe Manchin…would be the 50th vote that Democrats would have for this in the Senate. They have 49.
Joe Manchin
“And here’s what he said [on] why he opposed it: ‘I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy. And for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act.’
“Notable, he did not have any substantive problems with the bill that he raised. Instead, he said, the issue is there are no Republicans on board.”
Manchin thus ignores the reality that Republicans will never be on board.
“This Manchin decision is a body blow to this legislation. It is not dead yet, but it is in real trouble. It’s unclear if, when [New York Senator] Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader [in the Senate] will bring it back up,” said Desjardins.
Many Democrats and political correspondents have speculated about Manchin’s motives for opposing this legislation.
Some believe he’s a Right-winger in Democrats’ clothing. Others think he wants to increase his clout on behalf of his state, West Virginia.
Manchin’s motives, however, are not important. Eliminating his opposition is.
And the man who has the power to do this is President Joe Biden.
All that he needs to do is invite Manchin into the Oval Office for an off-the-record talk, which could open like this:
“Your state has two Coast Guard military bases. By this time next week, it will have only one—because I’m going to close down the other. You can also forget about those highway-repair projects you’re expecting to start. And I’ve been informed we have far too many post offices in West Virginia, considering its small population….”
Suddenly, Manchin would get the clear message: “Biden is the big dog on this block, not me.”
He would also grasp that his constituents would blame him, not Biden, for the resulting chaos and hardships they face from the upcoming closures.
This is precisely how President Lyndon B. Johnson dealt with Congressional members who dared oppose his prized legislation. And it worked.
Joe Biden has spent 44 years in Washington, D.C.—as a United States Senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009; and then as Vice President from 2009 to 2017.
But he seems to have never read Niccolo Machiavelli’s famous warning in The Prince:
Niccolo Machiavelli
For how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather learn to bring about his own ruin rather than his preservation. A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must inevitably come to grief among so many who are not good.
And therefore it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case.
Whatever his motives, Manchin is clearly willing to allow Republicans to suppress the voting rights of millions of non-Fascist Americans.
President Joe Biden now faces a moment of crisis: He can fight his enemies with the same ruthless tactics they routinely use–or face disaster.
Republicans are working to corrupt the democratic process to reinstall a proven criminal and traitor in the Oval Office.
This is no time to “fight” a party of Adolf Hitlers with the appeasement tactics of a Neville Chamberlain.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL RACE, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTI-VAXXERS, AP, ARIZONA, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BRIBERY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHUCK SHUMER, CIVIL WAR, CNN, COURIER, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLORIDA, FOR THE PEOPLE ACT, GEORGIA, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, JOE BIDEN, JOE MANCHIN, KEVIN MCCARTHY, LEN BLAVATNIK, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHIGAN, MITCH MCCONNELL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROY BLUNT, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE PBS NEWSHOUR, THE PRINCE, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THIS WEEK, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOTER SUPPRESSION, WEST VIRGINIA, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on January 17, 2022 at 12:12 am
Joseph Robinette Biden is fast approaching the one-year anniversary of his Inauguration as the 46th President of the United States.
At 79, he has spent virtually his entire adult life in politics: As a United States Senator from Delaware (1973 – 2009); as Vice President of the United States (2009 – 2017); and now as President.
Yet for all of his decades of political experience, he seems to have never read the works of the man who has been called “the father of modern politics”—Niccolo Machiavelli.
Or, if he has, he has clearly learned nothing from them.
Consider Machiavelli’s advice for well-intentioned people like Biden in his classic work: The Prince:
“A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must inevitably come to grief among so many who are not good. And therefore it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case.”
Niccolo Machiavelli
On November 3, 2020, Biden became President-elect of the United States by winning 81,283,495 votes, or 51.4% of the vote, compared to 74,223,755 votes, or 46.9% of the vote cast for President Donald Trump.
In the Electoral College—which actually determines the winner—the results were even more stunning: 306 votes for Biden, compared with 232 for Trump. It takes 270 votes to be declared the victor.
Yet, on December 8, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Missouri United States Senator Roy Blunt joined House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy in blocking a resolution asserting that Joe Biden was the President-elect of the United States.
Mitch McConnell
And for more than a year since the 2020 Presidential election, the vast majority of Republicans have continued to charge that Biden gained office by massive voter fraud—and thus is an illegitimate President.
Yet Biden continues to refer to his sworn enemies as “my Republican friends.”
As Achilles scornfully tells the soon-to-be-doomed Hector in the 2004 movie, “Troy”: “There can be no pacts between wolves and men.”
Joe Biden
Machiavelli’s advice:
From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved than feared, or feared more than loved. The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved.
For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours: they offer you their blood, their goods, their life and their children, when the necessity is remote, but when it approaches, they revolt.
And the prince who has relied solely on their words, without making other preparations, is ruined; for the friendship which is gained by purchase and not through grandeur and nobility of spirit is bought but not secured, and at a pinch is not to be expended in your service.
And men have less scruple in offending one who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared; for love is held by a chain of obligations which, men being selfish, is broken whenever it serves their purpose; but fear is maintained by a dread of punishment which never fails.
With that in mind, Biden should go directly after McConnell himself.
Option #1: A May 8, 2018 story in The Dallas Morning News spotlights “How Putin’s Oligarchs Funneled Millions into GOP Campaigns.” In 2016, Len Blavatnik gave $1 million to McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund.
In 2017, Blavatnik gave another $1 million to the fund, and then another $3.5 million to a Political Action Committee associated with McConnell.
A serious investigation by the Justice Department could lead to McConnell’s indictment—for bribery or other campaign finance violations.
Option #2: According to an April 15, 2020 story in Courier: “Here’s How Much McConnell Got From Big Pharma After Nixing a Bill to Lower Drug Prices”:
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced in September that he would block any consideration of a bill to lower prescription drug costs. By the end of December, he had raked in more than $50,000 in contributions from political action committees and individuals tied to the pharmaceutical industry.”
McConnell could be investigated—and possibly indicted—for bribery.
Even if McConnell escaped prison, such a prosecution would dramatically inform Republicans that a new era of accountability had arrived.
Option #3: As President, Biden could divert Federal projects from McConnell’s Kentucky—and other Republican states.
President Lyndon Johnson successfully employed this tactic to keep Republican—and Democratic—troublemakers in line. Once they saw projects for roads, post offices and other Federal amenities disappearing from their districts, they quickly got the message as to who was in charge.
Option 4: McConnell has blamed Biden for the slowing COVID-19 vaccination rate among Americans.
Biden could attack Republicans for promoting lies about the safety of COVID vaccines—and for opposing mask and vaccine mandates. He could blame the worsening Omicrom epidemic—and its resulting deaths—on anti-vaxxers, thus putting them and their Republican supporters on the defensive.
Above all, Biden should constantly remember: For Republicans, the mathematics of power come down to this: Who/Whom.
Or: Who can do What to Whom?
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 16, 2021 at 12:07 am
On June 7, The PBS Newshour examined perhaps the foremost issue of our democracy: The For the People Act.
Since November 3, 2020, when former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election, he has spread The Big Lie: That the election was “stolen” from him.
On the basis of that lie, Republicans in 47 states have introduced 361 bills to make it harder to vote.
As of June 21, 2021, 17 states enacted 28 new laws that restrict access to the vote.
Among those states affected: Georgia, Iowa, Arkansas and Utah.
Georgia:
- Bans giving food and water to voters in line;
- Severely restricts mail ballot drop boxes;
- Allows Right-wing groups to challenge the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters; and
- Gives the GOP-controlled legislature sweeping powers over election administration.
Arizona:
- Wants to add new requirements for casting a mail-in ballot and make it harder to receive one.
Florida:
- Intends to ban mail ballot drop boxes.
Michigan:
- Republicans introduced eight bills adding new voter ID requirements for mail voting and forbidding election officials to send out absentee ballot request forms to voters.
Congressional Democrats have countered with the For the People Act. Among its provisions:
- Expand early voting and registration across the country in federal elections;
- Block states from purging their rolls of voters;
- End partisan gerrymandering;
- Force large donors to disclose themselves publicly.
“It is something that is obviously very critical right now,” said PBS Newshour Correspondent Lisa Desjardins. “We see rising in this country both sides talking about democracy and voting rights and what’s happening at this moment.
“[West Virginia United States Senator] Joe Manchin…would be the 50th vote that Democrats would have for this in the Senate. They have 49.
Joe Manchin
“And here’s what he said [on] why he opposed it: ‘I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy. And for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act.’
“Notable, he did not have any substantive problems with the bill that he raised. Instead, he said, the issue is there are no Republicans on board. Democrats, of course, have a real problem with that. They say, we think Republicans are going to play games here and block this bill.
“This Manchin decision is a body blow to this legislation. It is not dead yet, but it is in real trouble. It’s unclear if, when [New York Senator] Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader [in the Senate] will bring it back up.”
There has been a great deal of speculation—by Democrats and political correspondents—on Manchin’s motives for opposing this legislation.
Some believe he’s a Right-winger in Democrats’ clothing. Others think he wants to increase his clout on behalf of his state, West Virginia.
Manchin’s motives, however, are not important. Eliminating his opposition is.
And the man who has the power to do this is President Joe Biden.
Joe Biden
All that he needs to do is invite Manchin into the Oval Office for an off-the-record talk, which could open like this:
“Your state has two Coast Guard military bases. By this time next week, it will have only one—because I’m going to close down the other. You can also forget about those highway-repair projects you’re expecting to start. And I’ve been informed we have far too many post offices in West Virginia, considering its small population….”
Suddenly, Manchin will get the clear message: “Biden is the big dog on this block, not me.”
He will also grasp that his constituents will blame him, not Biden, for the resulting chaos and hardships they face from the upcoming closures.
This is precisely how President Lyndon B. Johnson dealt with Congressional members who dared oppose his prized legislation. And it worked.
Joe Biden has spent 44 years in Washington, D.C.—as a United States Senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009; and then as Vice President from 2009 to 2017.
But he seems to have never read Niccolo Machiavelli’s famous warning in The Prince:
Niccolo Machiavelli
For how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather learn to bring about his own ruin rather than his preservation. A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must inevitably come to grief among so many who are not good.
And therefore it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case.
Whatever his motives, Manchin is clearly willing to allow Republicans to suppress the voting rights of millions of non-Fascist Americans.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, saying it was better to temporarily suspend some liberties than to lose the Union to a treasonous Confederate victory.
President Joe Biden now faces a similar moment of crisis.
Republicans are working to corrupt the democratic process to reinstall a proven criminal and traitor in the Oval Office. This is no time to “fight” a party of Adolf Hitlers with the appeasement tactics of a Neville Chamberlain.
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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, Social commentary on June 10, 2021 at 12:15 am
On June 7, The PBS Newshour examined perhaps the foremost issue of our democracy: The For the People Act.
Since November 3, when former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election, he has spread The Big Lie: That the election was “stolen” from him.
On the basis of that lie, in the first three months of this year Republicans in 47 states have introduced 361 bills to make it harder to vote.
Five restrictive bills have already been signed into law—in Georgia, Iowa, Arkansas, and Utah.
The Georgia law:
- Bans giving food and water to voters in line;
- Severely restricts mail ballot drop boxes;
- Allows Right-wing groups to challenge the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters; and
- Gives the GOP-controlled legislature sweeping powers over election administration.
Other states include:
- Arizona wants to add new requirements for casting a mail-in ballot and make it harder to receive one.
- Florida intends to ban mail ballot drop boxes.
- Michigan Republicans introduced eight bills adding new voter ID requirements for mail voting and forbidding election officials to send out absentee ballot request forms to voters.
Congressional Democrats have countered with the For the People Act. Among its provisions:
- Expand early voting and registration across the country in federal elections;
- Block states from purging their rolls of voters;
- End partisan gerrymandering;
- Force large donors to disclose themselves publicly.
“It is something that is obviously very critical right now,” said PBS Newshour Correspondent Lisa Lisa Desjardins. “We see rising in this country both sides talking about democracy and voting rights and what’s happening at this moment.
“[West Virginia United States Senator] Joe Manchin…would be the 50th vote that Democrats would have for this in the Senate. They have 49.
Joe Manchin
“And here’s what he said [on] why he opposed it: ‘I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy. And for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act.’
“Notable, he did not have any substantive problems with the bill that he raised. Instead, he said, the issue is there are no Republicans on board. Democrats, of course, have a real problem with that. They say, we think Republicans are going to play games here and block this bill.
“This Manchin decision is a body blow to this legislation. It is not dead yet, but it is in real trouble. It’s unclear if, when [New York Senator] Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader [in the Senate] will bring it back up.”
There has been a great deal of speculation—by Democrats and political correspondents—on Manchin’s motives for opposing this legislation.
Some believe he’s a Right-winger in Democrats’ clothing. Others think he wants to increase his clout on behalf of his state, West Virginia.
Manchin’s motives, however, are not important. Eliminating his opposition is.
And the man who has the power to do this is President Joe Biden.
Joe Biden
All that he needs to do is invite Manchin into the Oval Office for an off-the-record talk, which could open like this:
“Your state has two Coast Guard military bases. By this time next week, it will have only one—because I’m going to close down the other. You can also forget about those highway-repair projects you’re expecting to start. And I’ve been informed we have far too many post offices in West Virginia, considering its small population….”
Suddenly, Manchin will get the clear message: “I’m the big dog on this block, not you.”
He will also grasp that his constituents will blame him, not Biden, for the resulting chaos and hardships they face from the upcoming closures.
This is precisely how President Lyndon B. Johnson dealt with Congressional members who dared oppose his prized legislation. And it worked.
Joe Biden has spent 44 years in Washington, D.C.—as a United States Senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009; and then as Vice President from 2009 to 2017.
But he seems to have never read Niccolo Machiavelli’s famous warning in The Prince:
Niccolo Machiavelli
For how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather learn to bring about his own ruin rather than his preservation. A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must inevitably come to grief among so many who are not good.
And therefore it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case.
Whatever his motives, Manchin is clearly willing to allow Republicans to suppress the voting rights of millions of non-Fascist Americans.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, saying it was better to temporarily suspend some liberties than to lose the Union to a treasonous Confederate victory.
President Joe Biden now faces a similar moment of crisis.
Republicans are working to corrupt the democratic process to reinstall a proven criminal and traitor in the Oval Office. This is no time to “fight” a party of Adolf Hitlers with the appeasement tactics of a Neville Chamberlain.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on September 29, 2020 at 12:31 am
The father of modern political science, Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) is widely thought of as the personification of Satan.
Actually, Machiavelli was a passionate republican, who spent most of his life in the service of his beloved city-state, Florence.
Florence, despite its wealth, lacked a strong army—and lay at the mercy of powerful enemies, such as Cesare Borgia. Machiavelli often had to use his wits to keep them at bay.
Niccolo Machiavelli
In his masterwork, The Discourses, he warned that life is complex and no course of action is guaranteed safe or successful.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a man of simplistic “solutions” for simplistic audiences.
By early April, he refused to issue a national “stay-at-home” order to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. When states began issuing shutdown orders of their own, he railed against those orders and demanded that “we need to reopen the country.”
Donald Trump
What lay behind this demand were two hidden agendas. He wanted to:
- Quickly revitalize—and take credit for—a once-booming economy—even though this was largely created by President Barack Obama.
- Return to his Nuremberg-style rallies, where he could slander anyone he wanted while basking in the worship of thousands of his fanatical followers.
Which is why he clearly missed this warning Machiavelli offered in The Discourses:
“…I shall speak here only of those dangers to which those expose themselves who counsel a republic or a prince to undertake some grave and important enterprise in such a manner as to take upon themselves all the responsibility of the same.
“For as men only judge of matters by the result, all the blame of failure is charged upon him who first advised it, while in case of success he receives commendations. But the reward never equals the punishment….
“I see no other course than to take things moderately, and not to undertake to advocate any enterprise with too much zeal, but to give one’s advice calmly and modestly.
“If either then the republic or the prince decides to follow it, they may do so, as it were, of their own will, and not as though they were drawn into it by your importunity.
“In adopting this course it is not reasonable to suppose that either the prince or republic will manifest any ill will towards you on account of a resolution not taken contrary to the wishes of the many.”
But, by May, more Americans were wary about “reopening the country” than about rushing to do so.
On the May 15 edition of The PBS Newshour, New York Times columnist David Brooks noted:
“If you look at actual behavior, people locked themselves down before any politician took a move. And even in those states where the politicians are opening up, people are still locking down….
“And so I think the key decisions right now are not being made in statehouses and certainly not the White House. They’re being made in living rooms, as people decide, is it safe? Can I go out?”
Coronavirus
By pushing his mantra—“America needs to reopen NOW!”—Trump was risking the lives of millions of Americans. But he was also risking the future of his Presidency.
If “reopening” the country proved disastrous, he had no back-up plan to offer.
Several states—such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—that re-opened saw swarms of people flooding into bars and restaurants. They didn’t wear masks or practice “social distancing.” Packed together like sardines, they offered themselves like a Right-wing sacrifice to Coronavirus.
The results were inevitable.
A new wave of COVID-19 erupted after America “reopened.” More employees were laid off—or refused to come to work for fear of Coronavirus.
The economy continued to tank.
As summer neared its end and millions of students faced returning to school, Trump offered his next “solution” to the Coronavirus pandemic: Send them back to school—-and not through virtual classes at home.
Trump wants children to return to possibly COVID-19-infected classrooms.
And he’s not asking parents to send their children back to school. He’s ordering them to.
On July 8, he tweeted that he might withhold federal funding from schools that do not resume in-person classes this fall.
Why is he so insistent on this?
Trump knows that before parents can return to work, their kids need to return to class, He hopes that will boost the economy—for which he can take credit.
And that will boost his chances for re-election in November.
Just as the ancient Canaanites sacrificed their children to the god Moloch, so does Trump expect his followers—and opponents—to risk their children’s lives for him.
And the sacrifices are already coming. On August 10, CBS News reported:
“Nearly 100,000 children tested positive for the Coronavirus in the last two weeks of July, a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics finds. Just over 97,000 children tested positive for the Coronavirus from July 16 to July 30, according to the association.”
As a result, Trump is seen—as Machiavelli warned—as the primary instigator of that “reopening”—and the primary cause of 205,000 American deaths.
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TRUMP: IGNORING MACHIAVELLI AT HIS PERIL
In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on September 5, 2025 at 12:16 amFor all his ruthlessness and duplicity, it’s almost a certainty that Donald Trump has never read the works of Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science.
Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) is widely thought of as the personification of Satan.
In fact, Machiavelli was a passionate Republican, who spent most of his adult life in the service of his beloved city-state, Florence.
Florence, for all its wealth, lacked a strong army, and thus lay at the mercy of powerful enemies, such as Cesare Borgia. Machiavelli often had to use his wits to keep them at bay.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Contrary to popular belief, Machiavelli did not advocate evil for its own sake.
Rather, he recognized that sometimes there is no perfect solution to a problem. He realized that men—and nations—are not always masters of their fates. And he warned that there is no course of action that is guaranteed safe or successful.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a man of simplistic “solutions” for simplistic audiences.
By early April, 2020, he opposed the issuing of a national “stay-at-home” order to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. But, one by one, states began issuing shutdown orders of their own. So he railed against those orders and demanded that “we need to reopen the country.”
Donald Trump
There were two hidden agendas behind this:
First, throughout the first term of his Presidency, Trump claimed sole credit for a booming economy—even though this was largely the result of the administration of President Barack Obama.
Second, Trump wanted to return to his Nuremberg-style rallies, where he could slander anyone he wanted while basking in the worship of thousands of his fanatical followers.
His White House “Coronavirus briefings” had been his pale substitute for dispensing propaganda under the guise of sharing reliable medical information.
Thus he clearly missed this warning, offered in Machiavelli’s masterwork, The Discourses, about safely giving advice:
“For as men only judge of matters by the result, all the blame of failure is charged upon him who first advised it, while in case of success he receives commendations. But the reward never equals the punishment….
“Certainly those who counsel princes and republics are placed between two dangers. If they do not advise what seems to them for the good of the republic or the prince, regardless of the consequences to themselves, then they fail of their duty….
“I see no other course than to take things moderately, and not to undertake to advocate any enterprise with too much zeal, but to give one’s advice calmly and modestly.
“If either then the republic or the prince decides to follow it, they may do so, as it were, of their own will, and not as though they were drawn into it by your importunity.
“In adopting this course it is not reasonable to suppose that either the prince or republic will manifest any ill will towards you on account of a resolution not taken contrary to the wishes of the many.”
By May, 2020, more Americans were wary of “reopening the country” than they were rushing to do so.
On the May 15 edition of The PBS Newshour, New York Times columnist David Brooks noted:
“If you look at actual behavior, people locked themselves down before any politician took a move. And even in those states where the politicians are opening up, people are still locking down….
“You look at the movement based on cell phone tracking. Red and blue states have the same amount of movement. The same number of people basically in state after state are staying home. And red and blue states, there’s no correlation between whether it’s a red and blue state and whether people are doing better or worse.
“And so I think the key decisions right now are not being made in statehouses and certainly not the White House. They’re being made in living rooms, as people decide, is it safe? Can I go out?”
Coronavirus
By pushing his mantra—“America needs to reopen NOW!”—Trump risked the lives of millions of Americans. But he also risked the future of his Presidency.
Several states—such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—that re-opened saw swarms of people flooding into bars and restaurants. They weren’t wearing masks or practicing “social distancing.” Packed together like sardines, they offered themselves like a sacrifice to Coronavirus.
If COVID-19 continued to claim more victims after America “reopened,” Trump would be seen—as Machiavelli warned—as the primary instigator of that “reopening.” He would also be seen as the primary cause of that disaster.
That is, in fact, what happened.
Herbert Hoover did not create the Great Depression. But he presided over the first three years of it. And that was enough to elect Franklin D. Roosevelt for 12 years and give Harry S. Truman another eight.
For one year, Trump presided over the outbreak of COVID. He hoped to convince voters to ignore it and give him another four years.
Instead, voters turned him out and elected Joseph Biden, who promised to attack COVID head-on.
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