Posts Tagged ‘THIRD REICH’
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 18, 2021 at 12:13 am
Once states across the country began “reopening,” President Donald J. Trump scheduled his first 2020 re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
DEFYING SCIENCE
Then, to celebrate Independence Day, Trump scheduled yet another rally at Mount Rushmore, in Keystone, South Dakota, on July 3.
Although health experts expressed fears about large gatherings during the Coronavirus pandemic, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said people would “not be social distancing” during the celebration:
“In South Dakota, we’ve told people to focus on personal responsibility….Those who want to come and join us, we’ll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one. But we won’t be social distancing.”
“JUST LIVE WITH IT”
According to a July 3 story by NBC News: “Eager to move forward and reopen the economy amid a recession and a looming presidential election, the White House is now pushing acceptance. ‘The virus is with us, but we need to live with it,’ is how one official said the administration plans to message on the pandemic.”
Administration officials would promote a new study they said showed promising results on therapeutics. They would also emphasize high survival rates, particularly for Americans who were within certain age groups and didn’t have underlying conditions.
On June 30, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before the U.S. Senate: “We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.”
Fauci warned that the infection surge across the South and West “puts the entire country at risk.” Much of that increase was being fueled by young adults testing positive for COVID-19.
The United States had become the country worst-affected by Coronavirus—with more than 6.88 million Americans diagnosed cases and at least 200,000 deaths.
CHILD SACRIFICES
But Trump wanted children to return to school—and not through virtual classes at home.
And he wasn’t asking parents to send their children back to school after summer. He was ordering them to.
On July 8, 2020, he tweeted that he might withhold federal funding from schools that did not resume in-person classes this fall.
“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!”
Donald Trump
Most school funding in America comes from states and municipalities, not the federal government. Nonetheless, the White House was exploring ways to use the next Coronavirus relief bill to tie the slice of school funding that did come from Washington to the pace of different schools’ reopenings.
And moments after making that threat, Trump said the guidelines of his own Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) for safely reopening schools were too expensive and impractical:
“I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!”
Among those guidelines:
- Schools should have markings on sidewalks and walls, that mark off six feet, and signs reminding students of protective measures.
- Masks should be worn by students and faculty, “as feasible,” and especially when keeping a distance isn’t possible.
- Sharing equipment, games and supplies should be avoided. If that’s not possible, they should be cleaned after each use.
- Playgrounds, cafeterias and dining halls should be shut. Students eat in their classrooms.
- Rooms should be well-ventilated.
- Schools should allow sick staff members to “stay home when they are sick, have been exposed, or caring for someone who is sick,” without being punished for staying home.
Coronavirus
Many Americans asked: “How can President Trump demand that children return to school in the midst of a deadly plague? Especially when we don’t have adequate testing facilities—and, most importantly, a reliable vaccine?”
There was an answer—and it was brutally ugly.
On July 10, Paula Reid, White House correspondent for CBS News, provided the answer on the PBS program, Washington Week:
“Well, up until now the administration has really deferred to local leaders to determine when they want to reopen their communities based on the situation on the ground. But then you saw this week, when it comes to schools, the president issuing this broad mandate that all schools must open in the fall or else potentially he will cut funding, when in fact we know most schools are locally funded, and he’s also made other threats.
Paula Reid
“He’s made it clear that he is putting pressure on governors, and the question is: Why is he taking this approach to schools specifically when he’s deferred to states on so many other aspects of this pandemic?
“And just speaking with White House advisers, I’m told the president knows that in order to get parents back to work you need to get kids back to class, and for the president a lot of this is about hoping that that would give an economic boost to the U.S. ahead of his reelection in November.”
For which he could then claim credit.
2003 IRAQ WAR, 9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AL-QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW CUOMO, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BLOOMBERG, BOB WOODWARD, BRENDA FITZGERALD, BUZZFEED, CARL BERNSTEIN, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CHICAGO, CHINA, CLOROX BLEACH, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, COVID-19 TEST KITS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVID BROOKS, DEBORAH BIRX, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), DONALD RUMSFELD, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, EBOLA, FACEBOOK, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLORIDA, FORBES, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, FOX NEWS, FOX NEWS NETWORK, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GEORGE W. BUSH, GRETCHEN WHITMER, GROVER NORQUIST, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, JARED KUSHNER, JAY INSLEE, JOE BIDEN, JOHN BOLTON, JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE, KRISTI NOEM, KRISTIN URQUIZA, LARRY HOGAN, LOS ANGELES, LOUIS X1V, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MALARIA, MARK ANTHONY URQUIZA, MARK SHIELDS, MARYLAND, MASKS, MASSACHUSSETS, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHIGAN, MICK MULVANEY, MIKE PENCE, MODERNA VACCINE, MOLOCH, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, N95 MASKS, N95 RESPIRATORS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNSIL (NSC), NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK, NEW YORK CITY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, NURSES, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PAULA REID, PBS NEWSHOUR, PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE), PFIZER VACCINE, PHOENIX RALLY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, ROBERT RAY REDFIELD, ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, RUDOLPH GIULIANI, RUDY GIULIANI, SALON, SCHOOLS, SEAN HANNITY, SEAN HANNITY SHOW, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOUTH DAKOTA, STOCK MARKET, 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 NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, TIM ZIEMER, TIME, TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, TOM BOSSERT, TOM FRIEDMAN, TRISH REGAN, TRISH REGAN PRIMETIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TULSA OKLAHOMA RALLY, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, UV LIGHT, VENDORS, VENTILATORS, VIETNAM WAR, WALTER SHAUB, WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON D.C., WASHINGTON MONTHLY, WASHINGTON WEEK IN REVIEW, WATERGATE, WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, WONKETTE, WORLD TRADE CENTER
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 17, 2021 at 12:11 am
THE DANGERS OF TRUMP’S QUACKERY
On April 23, President Donald Trump offered his own suggestions for how COVID-19 might be prevented or cured. His proposed remedies: Ultraviolet light and disinfectant.
Medical experts found Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks no laughing matter. Several doctors warned the public against injecting disinfectant or using UV light.
“It is incomprehensible to me that a moron like this holds the highest office in the land and that there exist people stupid enough to think this is OK,” said Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics. “I can’t believe that in 2020 I have to caution anyone listening to the president that injecting disinfectant could kill you.”
Faced with public ridicule, Trump canceled a White House press briefing for the first time since Easter weekend.
Instead, on April 25, he issued this tweet: “What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has urged Americans to wear masks and keep at least six feet from their fellows. And most of the nation’s governors have issued stay-at-home orders that ban large gatherings—including visits to parks and beaches.
CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia
TRUMP’S DEFIANCE OF SCIENCE–AND LAW
Yet President Trump openly encouraged defiance of those orders.
On April 17, he issued a series of tweets to his supporters, encouraging them to defy the law:
“LIBERATE MINNESOTA!”
“LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”
“LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
All these states had Democratic governors. Their residents were being urged to stay indoors, wear masks when they ventured outside and keep a six-feet distance between themselves and others.
These states had been targeted for Right-wing protests—featuring large numbers of men and women standing close together, with most of them not wearing masks. They claim their “freedoms” are being infringed upon.
On April 17, Trump launched his latest effort to deal with Coronavirus:
He issued a series of tweets to his supporters, encouraging them to defy the stay-at-home laws of Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia.
Trump saw the stay-at-home orders as a two-fold threat to himself:
- He couldn’t return to his hate-filled rallies until these were lifted; and
- The stock market wouldn’t start soaring again so long as the country was “locked down.”
Without his Nuremberg-style rallies and a roaring stock market, Trump faced the danger of being a one-term President.
Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia all had Democratic governors. They had urged their residents to stay indoors, wear masks when they ventured outside, and keep a six-feet distance between themselves and others.
As a result, those governors—especially Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer—were being targeted for abuse and even death threats. And their states were facing disruptive protests by large numbers of Right-wingers standing close together, with few of them wearing masks. The protesters claimed their rights were being infringed upon.
Since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, the Right has demanded that even women who are pregnant due to rape or incest carry the fetus to term. Yet now that Right-wingers are being asked to wear masks in public—to protect themselves and others from a deadly plague—they’ve suddenly discovered the mantra: “It’s my body!”
Writer Steven Pressfield summed up the immorality of these protests: “Why are we asked to wear surgical or face masks in public, to practice social distancing and to observe self-quarantining? Because these practices are not for the individual alone but for the protection of the whole [community].”
Washington Governor Jay Inslee tweeted: “The president’s statements this morning encourage illegal and dangerous acts. He is putting millions of people in danger of contracting COVID-19.
“His unhinged rantings and calls for people to ‘liberate’ states could also lead to violence. We’ve seen it before.”
Once states across the country began “reopening,” Trump scheduled his first 2020 re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
It was held on June 20 at the BOK Center.
Scientists had learned that Coronavirus is more likely to be transmitted indoors than outdoors, when masses of people are packed together, and when people are loudly talking—or, worse, shouting. This is especially true when they’re not wearing masks.
Masks were available for those who wanted them, but Trump made it clear that his supporters shouldn’t wear masks, as a sign of support for him. Thus, his egomania literally put the lives of his most devoted followers at risk.
Photos of the rally show men and women densely packed together, with none of them wearing masks.
The Trump campaign boasted that 100,000 people would turn up. To its embarrassment, fewer than 6,200 did. Even worse: At least eight event staff members, including two who were at the rally, later tested positive for COVID-19.
A Trump rally
The Tulsa event was followed by another indoor rally in Phoenix on June 23. “Students for Trump” featured a packed crowd, with almost no one wearing masks.
Then, to celebrate Independence Day, Trump scheduled yet another rally at Mount Rushmore, in Keystone, South Dakota, on July 3.
2003 IRAQ WAR, 9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AL-QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW CUOMO, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BLOOMBERG, BOB WOODWARD, BRENDA FITZGERALD, BUZZFEED, CARL BERNSTEIN, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CHICAGO, CHINA, CLOROX BLEACH, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, COVID-19 TEST KITS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVID BROOKS, DEBORAH BIRX, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, EBOLA, FACEBOOK, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLORIDA, FORBES, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, FOX NEWS, FOX NEWS NETWORK, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GEORGE W. BUSH, GRETCHEN WHITMER, GROVER NORQUIST, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, JARED KUSHNER, JAY INSLEE, JOE BIDEN, JOHN BOLTON, JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE, KRISTI NOEM, KRISTIN URQUIZA, LARRY HOGAN, LOS ANGELES, LOUIS X1V, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MALARIA, MARK ANTHONY URQUIZA, MARK SHIELDS, MARYLAND, MASKS, MASSACHUSSETS, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHIGAN, MICK MULVANEY, MIKE PENCE, MODERNA VACCINE, MOLOCH, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, N95 MASKS, N95 RESPIRATORS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNSIL (NSC), NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK, NEW YORK CITY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, NURSES, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PAULA REID, PBS NEWSHOUR, PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE), PFIZER VACCINE, PHOENIX RALLY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, ROBERT RAY REDFIELD, ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, RUDOLPH GIULIANI, RUDY GIULIANI, SALON, SCHOOLS, SEAN HANNITY, SEAN HANNITY SHOW, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOUTH DAKOTA, STOCK MARKET, 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 NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, TIM ZIEMER, TIME, TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, TOM BOSSERT, TOM FRIEDMAN, TRISH REGAN, TRISH REGAN PRIMETIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TULSA OKLAHOMA RALLY, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, UV LIGHT, VENDORS, VENTILATORS, VIETNAM WAR, WALTER SHAUB, WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON D.C., WASHINGTON MONTHLY, WASHINGTON WEEK IN REVIEW, WATERGATE, WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, WONKETTE, WORLD TRADE CENTER
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 16, 2021 at 12:03 am
The Trump administration seized vitally-needed medical supplies in at least seven states. FEMA did not publicly report the thefts, despite the outlay of millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Nor did the administration explain how it decided which supplies to seize and where to reroute them.
SEIZING STATES’ MEDICAL SUPPLIES
The Federal Government did not inform states whose supplies it seized if they would receive the materials they ordered and paid for. That fueled concerns about whether the Trump administration was fairly distributing scarce medical supplies.
“We can’t get any answers,” said a California hospital official who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation from the White House.
President Donald Trump said it was the states’ responsibility to obtain critically-needed medical supplies. But when they weren’t outbid by the Federal Government, hospital systems and states found their shipments of medical supplies seized with no explanation.
Where did those supplies go?
To China?
To Trump’s private warehouses?
To Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, for sale on the black market?
No one as yet knows.
A March 2 Washington Monthly story concluded ominously: “What if the White House simply gives all the masks and ventilators to red states and counties, leaving blue ones to struggle? What mechanisms of accountability are left?
“U.S. democracy wasn’t set up to deal with a president openly behaving like a James Bond villain while being protected by a political party behaving more like a mafia than a civic institution.”
PROPAGANDA AS “NEWS”
After Easter weekend, Trump began holding daily press briefings at the White House.
Their official purpose: To update the country on the administration’s ongoing response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Their real purpose: To serve as a substitute for Trump’s hate-filled political rallies, which resembled those staged by Germany’s Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, at Nuremberg.
These had been temporarily cancelled due to demands for social distancing to stem the rising tide of the COVID-19 pandemic. That had been Trump’s primary reason for seeking to end social distancing.
The White House tried hard to stage-manage these appearances. For example, on April 14, 2020, Trump interrupted the question-and-answer session by cutting to a White House-produced video to try to shame the media for critical coverage of his response to the crisis.
On April 26, The New York Times ran a story entitled: “Self-praise, hubris and self-pity: Examining 260,000 words about the Coronavirus from President Trump.” Summing up the image that Trump has tried to present of himself to the world, the Times concluded:
“The self-regard, the credit-taking, the audacious rewriting of recent history to cast himself as the hero of the pandemic rather than the president who was slow to respond: Such have been the defining features of Trump’s use of the bully pulpit during the coronavirus outbreak….
“By far the most recurring utterances from Trump in the [White House] briefings are self-congratulations, roughly 600 of them, which are often predicated on exaggerations and falsehoods….
“Trump’s attempts to display empathy or appeal to national unity (about 160 instances) amount to only a quarter of the number of times he complimented himself or a top member of his team.”
QUACKERY AS “MEDICINE”
On April 23, Trump ventured into the equivalent of a PR minefield—and stepped on a mine of his own making.
After musing on new government research into how the virus reacts to different temperatures, climates and surfaces, Trump said: “So I asked Bill [William N. Bryan, acting Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security] a question….
“So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous—whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light—and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too. It sounds interesting.
“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute! And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds interesting to me.”
Trump was clearly seeking agreement with his latest medical theory. But Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Task Force response coordinator, remained silent.
The Internet—and medical experts—did not.
On Twitter—the social media platform Trump routinely uses to attack everyone he hates—his suggestion that injecting disinfectants could treat Coronavirus drew scorn and ridicule.
One tweet showed Trump as a doctor hovering over a patient and saying: “Once I’ve pumped you full of disinfectant, I’ll zap you with this UV torch until you’re cured.”
Another meme featured Trump as Marie Antoinette saying: “Let them eat Clorox.”
Medical experts found Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks no laughing matter. Several doctors warned the public against injecting disinfectant or using UV light.
2003 IRAQ WAR, 9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AL-QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW CUOMO, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BLOOMBERG, BOB WOODWARD, BRENDA FITZGERALD, BUZZFEED, CARL BERNSTEIN, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CHICAGO, CHINA, CLOROX BLEACH, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, COVID-19 TEST KITS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVID BROOKS, DEBORAH BIRX, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, EBOLA, FACEBOOK, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLORIDA, FORBES, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, FOX NEWS, FOX NEWS NETWORK, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GEORGE W. BUSH, GRETCHEN WHITMER, GROVER NORQUIST, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, JARED KUSHNER, JAY INSLEE, JOE BIDEN, JOHN BOLTON, JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE, KRISTI NOEM, KRISTIN URQUIZA, LARRY HOGAN, LOS ANGELES, LOUIS X1V, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MALARIA, MARK ANTHONY URQUIZA, MARK SHIELDS, MARYLAND, MASKS, MASSACHUSSETS, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHIGAN, MICK MULVANEY, MIKE PENCE, MODERNA VACCINE, MOLOCH, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, N95 MASKS, N95 RESPIRATORS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNSIL (NSC), NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK, NEW YORK CITY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, NURSES, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PAULA REID, PBS NEWSHOUR, PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE), PFIZER VACCINE, PHOENIX RALLY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, ROBERT RAY REDFIELD, ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, RUDOLPH GIULIANI, RUDY GIULIANI, SALON, SCHOOLS, SEAN HANNITY, SEAN HANNITY SHOW, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOUTH DAKOTA, STOCK MARKET, 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 NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, TIM ZIEMER, TIME, TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, TOM BOSSERT, TOM FRIEDMAN, TRISH REGAN, TRISH REGAN PRIMETIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TULSA OKLAHOMA RALLY, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, UV LIGHT, VENDORS, VENTILATORS, VIETNAM WAR, WALTER SHAUB, WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON D.C., WASHINGTON MONTHLY, WASHINGTON WEEK IN REVIEW, WATERGATE, WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, WONKETTE, WORLD TRADE CENTER
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 15, 2021 at 12:07 am
“O happy posterity, who will look upon our testimony as a fable. Will posterity believe that there was a time when, with no deluge from heaven, no worldwide conflagration, no wars….but almost the whole earth was depopulated? Was such a disaster ever seen, even heard of?”
—Francesco Petrach, poet and witness to The Black Death
Like Nazi Germany’s Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, President Donald Trump liked to pit individuals and organizations against each other. Hitler, for example, would assign several agencies to tackle the same problem: “That way, the stronger one gets the job done,” he told his architect, Albert Speer.
Adolf Hitler
PITTING CITIES AND STATES AGAINST EACH OTHER
This created needless duplication of efforts and wasted resources. But it ensured that Trump—like Hitler—remained the final voice of authority, since so many others were competing for his favor and direction.
This did not, however, help the 50 states that comprise the United States of America.
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt intervened powerfully to ensure that all Americans received the help they needed.
Trump demanded that each state was responsible for securing its needed supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for its doctors and nurses aiding Coronavirus patients. This created a dog-eat-dog atmosphere of cutthroat competition and scarcity, with Americans fighting the virus and each other.
Donald Trump
USING A PLAGUE TO DESTROY AMERICANS
Even worse: Trump and Republicans turned a deadly plague into a weapon against those Americans they hated.
On March 26, 2020, during an interview on Fox News, Trump blamed the failures of his administration’s response to Coronavirus on Democratic state governors like Andrew Cuomo (NY), Jay Inslee (WA), and Gretchen Whitmer (MI).
On March 27, during his press briefing, Trump said he told Vice President Mike Pence—officially in charge of the White House’s response effort—to not call Inslee and Whitmer because they weren’t “appreciative” enough of his efforts.
Trump said this even as hospitals in each of their states were being overwhelmed with Coronavirus patients:
“I tell him—I mean I’m a different type of person—I say, ‘Mike, don’t call the governor in Washington, you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan. If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call.”
At his March 27 press briefing, Trump echoed French King Louis X1V’s infamous remark—“I am the State”: “When they’re [governors] not appreciative to me, they’re not appreciative to the Army Corps, they’re not appreciative to FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency]. It’s not right.”
On that same day, Trump attacked Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Right-wing Fox News’ “Sean Hannity Show”: “I don’t know if she knows what’s going on, but all she does is sit there and blame the Federal Government.”
On March 27, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer told a local radio station: “What I’ve gotten back is that vendors with whom we’ve procured contracts—they’re being told not to send stuff to Michigan. It’s really concerning. I reached out to the White House last night and asked for a phone call with the president, ironically at the time this stuff was going on.”
Gretchen Whitmer
A March 29 story in the Washington Monthly shed light on what lay behind Whitmer’s inability to secure desperately-needed ventilators from her longtime vendors. Its headline ran: “What If Trump Decides to Save Republicans But Not Democrats?”
A sub-headline read: “He’s providing vital resources to red states and ignoring blue states.”
Florida submitted a request to FEMA on March 11 for 430,000 surgical masks, 180,000 N95 respirators, 82,000 face shields and 238,000 gloves—and received a shipment with everything three days later.
On Fox News, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, bluntly told governors: “Take the blame when you have to. When you play with your boss, sometimes it’s better when you don’t win the golf game. He’s the boss, he’s got all the resources.”
Translation: Suck up to the capo’s ego if you want to survive.
The Black Hand
SEIZING STATES’ MEDICAL SUPPLIES
Trump didn’t simply refuse to provide states with vitally-needed medical supplies—he illegally seized those supplies that states had ordered.
An April 20 Forbes story offered frightening insight into the tyrannical reach of the Trump administration. Entitled, “Maryland Gov. Hogan Takes Extraordinary Steps to Keep Feds From Confiscating COVID Tests,” the story unfolds like a spy thriller.
Governor Larry Hogan had heard reports that the federal government had confiscated crucial medical supplies from other states—like Massachusetts.
After obtaining 500,000 test kits from South Korea, Hogan ordered them flown into Baltimore–Washington International Airport rather than the larger Dulles International Airport in Virginia. From there they were escorted under guard to a secret location and constantly protected by the National Guard.
As they were sent out for distribution across the state, the tests remained under protection by the National Guard and state police.
The precautions were absolutely necessary. Hospitals in Florida and California reported that FEMA had seized their supplies without explanation.
Massachusetts ordered three million masks that were confiscated by the Federal Government at the Port of New York. This forced the state to ask New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft to use his team plane to fly in one million N95 masks from China.
N95 mask
2003 IRAQ WAR, 9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AL-QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW CUOMO, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BLOOMBERG, BOB WOODWARD, BRENDA FITZGERALD, BUZZFEED, CARL BERNSTEIN, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CHICAGO, CHINA, CLOROX BLEACH, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, COVID-19 TEST KITS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVID BROOKS, DEBORAH BIRX, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, EBOLA, FACEBOOK, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLORIDA, FORBES, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, FOX NEWS, FOX NEWS NETWORK, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GEORGE W. BUSH, GRETCHEN WHITMER, GROVER NORQUIST, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, JARED KUSHNER, JAY INSLEE, JOE BIDEN, JOHN BOLTON, JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE, KRISTI NOEM, KRISTIN URQUIZA, LARRY HOGAN, LOS ANGELES, LOUIS X1V, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MALARIA, MARK ANTHONY URQUIZA, MARK SHIELDS, MARYLAND, MASKS, MASSACHUSSETS, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHIGAN, MICK MULVANEY, MIKE PENCE, MODERNA VACCINE, MOLOCH, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, N95 MASKS, N95 RESPIRATORS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNSIL (NSC), NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK, NEW YORK CITY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, NURSES, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PAULA REID, PBS NEWSHOUR, PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE), PFIZER VACCINE, PHOENIX RALLY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, ROBERT RAY REDFIELD, ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, RUDOLPH GIULIANI, RUDY GIULIANI, SALON, SCHOOLS, SEAN HANNITY, SEAN HANNITY SHOW, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOUTH DAKOTA, STOCK MARKET, 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 NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, TIM ZIEMER, TIME, TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, TOM BOSSERT, TOM FRIEDMAN, TRISH REGAN, TRISH REGAN PRIMETIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TULSA OKLAHOMA RALLY, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, UV LIGHT, VENDORS, VENTILATORS, VIETNAM WAR, WALTER SHAUB, WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON D.C., WASHINGTON MONTHLY, WASHINGTON WEEK IN REVIEW, WATERGATE, WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, WONKETTE, WORLD TRADE CENTER
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on March 12, 2021 at 12:35 am
WHAT TRUMP SAID IN PUBLIC
From January to early March, 2020, President Donald Trump and his allies within the Republican party and Fox News Network repeatedly assured Americans they had nothing to fear.
Donald Trump
Barnstorming the country in a series of hate-filled political rallies, Trump told his supporters:
- January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”
- February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China. It’s going to be fine.”
- February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”
- February 25: “CDC & my administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
- February 25: “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away. They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
- February 26: “The 15 cases within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
- February 26: “We’re going very substantially down, not up.”
- February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
- February 28: “We’re ordering a lot of supplies. We’re ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn’t be ordering unless it was something like this. But we’re ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”
- February 28: “Now the Democrats are politicizing the Coronavirus….We did one of the great jobs….One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia’….They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax….It’s all turning, they lost….And this is their new hoax.”
- March 4: “If we have thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work—some of them go to work, but they get better.”
- March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country of keeping it down. A tremendous job of keeping it down.”
- March 6: “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. And the tests are beautiful.”
- March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for President.”
- March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on Coronavirus.”
- March 9: “The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant. Surgeon General, The risk is low to the average American.”
- March 10: “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
Acting as Trump’s propaganda arm was Fox News Network. 
As late as March 9, Trish Regan, host of Trish Regan Primetime on the Fox Business Network, attacked not the virus but those who did not share her fervent embrace of Donald Trump.
“We’ve reached a tipping point,” said Regan. “The hate is boiling. Many in the liberal media are using Coronavirus in an attempt to demonize and destroy the President, despite the virus originating halfway around the world.
“This is yet another attempt to impeach the President. And sadly, it seems the left cares little for any of the destruction they leave in their wake, including losses in the stock market. This, unfortunately, is all just part of the political casualties for them.
“This is impeachment all over again. And like with the Mueller investigation, like with Ukraine-gate, they don’t care who they hurt. Whether it be their need to create mass hysteria to encourage a market sell-off unlike anything we’ve seen recently, or whether it be to create mass hysteria to stop our economy dead in its tracks, don’t kid yourself. They told us how much they crave a recession as a way to get rid of Donald Trump.”
Trish Regan
To make certain no one in the television audience missed the point, an electronically generated caption read: “Coronavirus Impeachment Scam.”
Actually, with the virus spreading quickly throughout at least 33 states, the risk was not low to the average American. It was not the news that was fake, but the lies and ignorance Trump and Fox were spewing.
Then, on March 14, Fox Business Network announced that Regan’s program would be on “hiatus” until further notice. The reason: Her comments had “triggered” an avalanche of criticism—from Coronavirus victims, their families and people angered at being blatantly lied to.
During the vital months of January and February, Republicans refused to challenge Trump’s refusal to take the virus seriously—before it gained a foothold in the United States.
The reason: They had utterly tied themselves to him since the 2018 mid-term elections, where many moderate Republicans lost their seats.
According to Toluse Olorunnipa, White House reporter for The Washington Post: “They have realized that if they’re going to keep their seats, if they’re going to be able to have any future in the party, they have to be completely tied to President Trump and really wait for his call in terms of what exactly they’re going to do.”
2003 IRAQ WAR, 9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AL-QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW CUOMO, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BLOOMBERG, BOB WOODWARD, BRENDA FITZGERALD, BUZZFEED, CARL BERNSTEIN, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CHICAGO, CHINA, CLOROX BLEACH, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, COVID-19 TEST KITS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVID BROOKS, DEBORAH BIRX, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, EBOLA, FACEBOOK, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLORIDA, FORBES, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, FOX NEWS, FOX NEWS NETWORK, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GEORGE W. BUSH, GRETCHEN WHITMER, GROVER NORQUIST, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, JARED KUSHNER, JAY INSLEE, JOE BIDEN, JOHN BOLTON, JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE, KRISTI NOEM, KRISTIN URQUIZA, LARRY HOGAN, LOS ANGELES, LOUIS X1V, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MALARIA, MARK ANTHONY URQUIZA, MARK SHIELDS, MARYLAND, MASKS, MASSACHUSSETS, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHIGAN, MICK MULVANEY, MIKE PENCE, MODERNA VACCINE, MOLOCH, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, N95 MASKS, N95 RESPIRATORS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNSIL (NSC), NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK, NEW YORK CITY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, NURSES, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PAULA REID, PBS NEWSHOUR, PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE), PFIZER VACCINE, PHOENIX RALLY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, ROBERT RAY REDFIELD, ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, RUDOLPH GIULIANI, RUDY GIULIANI, SALON, SCHOOLS, SEAN HANNITY, SEAN HANNITY SHOW, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOUTH DAKOTA, STOCK MARKET, 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 NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, TIM ZIEMER, TIME, TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, TOM BOSSERT, TOM FRIEDMAN, TRISH REGAN, TRISH REGAN PRIMETIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TULSA OKLAHOMA RALLY, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, UV LIGHT, VENDORS, VENTILATORS, VIETNAM WAR, WALTER SHAUB, WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON D.C., WASHINGTON MONTHLY, WASHINGTON WEEK IN REVIEW, WATERGATE, WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, WONKETTE, WORLD TRADE CENTER
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 11, 2021 at 12:14 am
“I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!”
—Donald Trump, March 10, 2021
COVID-19 has so far infected 29.2 million Americans and killed 529,000 others.
With the pandemic appearing to reach its end—at least in the United States—Americans will soon revert to one of their favorite pastimes: Forgetting events that caused them unpleasantness.
But this should not be forgotten: The catastrophe that has overtaken the United States is the inevitable result of a confluence between natural disaster and an evil and incompetent administration.
In this case, COVID-19 served as the natural disaster. And President Donald Trump served as the head of an evil and incompetent administration.
The seeds of that catastrophe were planted early—by Trump himself.
First: Upon taking office in 2017, Trump gutted the permanent epidemic monitoring and command groups set up inside the White House: The National Security Council (NSC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In 2014, following the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, President Barack Obama had created the White House Pandemic Office, run by the White House’s National Security Council (NSC).
Heading it was Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer. Under President George W. Bush, he had successfully fought malaria overseas. His topflight team of infectious disease and public health experts was creating a national bio-defense strategy. Their goal: Coordinate agencies to make the United States more resilient to the threat of epidemics and biological warfare.
Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer, who headed the unit, was reassigned.
Neither the NSC nor the DHS epidemic team has been replaced.
The global health section of the CDC was decimated, and had to reduce the number of countries it was monitoring from 49 to 10.
So why did Trump do this?
Pathologically jealous of President Barack Obama, Trump—a lifelong racist—tried to destroy every vestige of Obama’s legacy as the first black President of the United States.
Chief among these actions: Making repeated efforts to undermine—and ultimately destroy—the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as “Obamacare.” Under this expanded, Federally-subsidized insurance program, 28 million Americans who previously could not afford medical care are now receiving it.
Barack Obama
Second: In 2017—the year Trump assumed office—nearly 700 positions remained vacant at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) because Trump imposed a hiring freeze.
This affected programs supporting local and state public health emergency readiness, infectious disease control and chronic disease prevention.
Making the situation worse: The CDC’s director, Tom Friedman, stepped down in January, 2017, and it wasn’t until July that the agency got another one: Brenda Fitzgerald. But she served only until January, 2018. She was succeeded—two months later—by Robert Ray Redfield, Jr. He has been the director since then.
The post of director of the CDC is considered one of the most crucial public health positions in the government. The CDC is charged with tracking and preventing infectious disease outbreaks in the United States and worldwide.
CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia
Third: In the spring of 2018, Trump pushed Congress to cut $15 billion from national health spending—and cutting the global disease-fighting budgets of the Centers for Disease Control, National Security Council, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services.
In April, 2018, then-National Security Adviser John Bolton forced Tom Bossert, director of the infectious disease unit at DHS, to resign—along with his entire team.
It’s popular to assume that Trump did all of this out of mere ignorance—and there’s plenty of proof of his ignorance in many areas (such as attributing windmills to causing cancer). But far more was at work here.
Fourth The vast majority of those who voted for Trump believe that the Federal Government is evil and its agencies that regulate business should be eliminated.
An example of this constituency is Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, which opposes all tax increases and has forced most Republicans to publicly pledge they will as well, under any circumstances.
His most famous quote: “I’m not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
Coronavirus
According to the March 21, 2020 edition of Rolling Stone magazine: “The United States intelligence community has been warning the president since January and February about the dire consequences that would occur when coronavirus reached America, but the president seemed determined to play down the threat, leaving the country largely unaware and unprepared.”
An anonymous Intelligence official cited by the Washington Post said: “Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were—they just couldn’t get him to do anything about it. The system was blinking red.”
Trump first learned of the virus on January 3, 2020. This did not prevent him from playing golf on January 4, 5, 18 and 19.
On January 19, the first Coronavirus case appeared in the United States.
On February 29, the first American died of Coronavirus.
2003 IRAQ WAR, 9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ADOLF HITLER, AL-QAEDA, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW CUOMO, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BLOOMBERG, BOB WOODWARD, BRENDA FITZGERALD, BUZZFEED, CARL BERNSTEIN, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CHICAGO, CHINA, CLOROX BLEACH, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, COVID-19 TEST KITS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVID BROOKS, DEBORAH BIRX, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, EBOLA, FACEBOOK, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA), FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FLORIDA, FORBES, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, FOX NEWS, FOX NEWS NETWORK, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, GEORGE W. BUSH, GRETCHEN WHITMER, GROVER NORQUIST, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, JARED KUSHNER, JAY INSLEE, JOE BIDEN, JOHN BOLTON, JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE, KRISTI NOEM, KRISTIN URQUIZA, LARRY HOGAN, LOS ANGELES, LOUIS X1V, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MALARIA, MARK ANTHONY URQUIZA, MARK SHIELDS, MARYLAND, MASKS, MASSACHUSSETS, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHIGAN, MICK MULVANEY, MIKE PENCE, MODERNA VACCINE, MOLOCH, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, N95 MASKS, N95 RESPIRATORS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNSIL (NSC), NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK, NEW YORK CITY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, NURSES, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PAULA REID, PBS NEWSHOUR, PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE), PFIZER VACCINE, PHOENIX RALLY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, ROBERT RAY REDFIELD, ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, RUDOLPH GIULIANI, RUDY GIULIANI, SALON, SCHOOLS, SEAN HANNITY, SEAN HANNITY SHOW, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOUTH DAKOTA, STOCK MARKET, 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 NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, TIM ZIEMER, TIME, TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, TOM BOSSERT, TOM FRIEDMAN, TRISH REGAN, TRISH REGAN PRIMETIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TULSA OKLAHOMA RALLY, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES, UPI, USA TODAY, UV LIGHT, VENDORS, VENTILATORS, VIETNAM WAR, WALTER SHAUB, WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON D.C., WASHINGTON MONTHLY, WASHINGTON WEEK IN REVIEW, WATERGATE, WHITE HOUSE PANDEMIC OFFICE, WONKETTE, WORLD TRADE CENTER
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on March 10, 2021 at 12:14 am
The end of the COVID-19 plague may finally be in sight.
No fewer than three vaccines—by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson—are now available. A total of 90.4 million doses of these vaccines have been given. And 30.7 million Americans have now been fully vaccinated against the virus.
States such as Texas, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana have thrown caution—and masks—to the winds. Bars and restaurants are reopening. Social distancing is the new taboo.
In Boise, Idaho, anti-mask protesters organized a public mask-burning. Children cheered, “Destroy them!” as masks were burned in an oil barrel.
With the pandemic appearing to reach its end—at least in the United States—Americans will soon revert to one of their favorite pastimes: Forgetting events that caused them unpleasantness.
A typical example: The Vietnam war, which raged from 1965 to 1975, costing the lives of 58,000 Americans and $843.63 billion in money and resources. The conflict divided Americans more than any other since the Civil War (1861-1865).
The Vietnam war was brought on by the lies of Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson—that North Vietnamese forces has fired on innocent U.S. Navy ships peacefully patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin.
The Vietnam War
Having forgotten—or ignored—the truth that they had been lied into a needless, bloody, budget-busting war in Southeast Asia, Americans allowed themselves to be lied into another such war in Iraq, lasting from 2003 to 2011.But no sooner was the war over than Americans acted as if it had never happened.
The Iraq war grew out of the lies of the Republican George W. Bush administration—that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had plotted 9/11 and was preparing to strike the United States with nuclear and/or biological weapons.
No doubt as soon as the “all-clear” sounds on COVID-19, Americans will forget that it ever happened—and thus learn nothing from it.
Yet history remains an unforgiving teacher. And while Americans usually ignore its lessons, history always exacts a punishment for doing so.
At the center of its lessons on COVID-19 is the catastrophe that inevitably occurs when there is a confluence between natural disaster and an evil and incompetent administration.
And in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the figure who stands most responsible for the deaths of more than a half-million Americans is Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States.
Under his tyrannical rule, the United States suffered not simply from a lethal virus but a combination of denial, lies, Republican subservience, chaos, extortion, propaganda as news, quackery as medicine, demands to “re-open the country,” Ignoring the danger and—finally—resignation (“Learn to live with the virus”).
DONALD TRUMP AS SUPREME EGOTIST
Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks attacked President Donald Trump in terms usually reserved for serial killers. On the March 13, 2020 edition of The PBS Newshour, he said:
“This is what happens when you elect a sociopath as president, who doesn’t care, who has treated this whole thing for the past month as if it’s about him. ‘How do people like me?’ Minimizing the risks. ‘Does the stock market reflect well on me?’ And he hasn’t done the things a normal human being would do, which was to, let’s take precautions….
“And he’s incapable of that. And he’s even created an information distortion field around him.”
David Brooks
INTRODUCING CORONAVIRUS
Coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December, 2019. Its first reported victim became ill on December 1.
By December 31, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of Coronavirus.
Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that affect birds and mammals. In humans, Coronaviruses can cause pneumonia and may cause bronchitis.
Trump first learned of the virus on January 3, 2020. Then he went golfing on January 4, 5, 18 and 19.
On January 19, the first Coronavirus case appeared in the United States.
On January 27, then-acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney tried to get Trump to act.
But, according to officials who spoke with the Washington Post, Trump was “dismissive” of early briefings “because he did not believe that the virus had spread widely throughout the United States.”
Trump fired Mulvaney one month later.
Then Trump returned to the golf course—on February 1, 2 and 15.
TRUMP CONFESSES TO BOB WOODWARD
On February 7, he decided to share some of his Coronavirus Intelligence with legendary Washington Post editor and reporter Bob Woodward.
Woodward and Carl Bernstein had achieved imperishable fame in 1972-74 as the Washington Post reporters whose Watergate-related stories led to the fall of President Richard M. Nixon.
Bob Woodward
Bob Woodward: And so, what was [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping] saying yesterday?
Donald Trump: Oh, we were talking mostly about the virus, and I think he’s going to have it in good shape. But it’s a very tricky situation.
Woodward: Indeed, it is.
Trump: It goes through 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. And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flues. People don’t realize, we lose 25,000, 30,000 people a year here. Who would ever think that, right?
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on December 30, 2020 at 12:08 am
During his 12-year reign, Adolf Hitler was the target of at least 42 assassination plots. The most famous of these was the one of July 20, 1944.
- So far as is known, Donald Trump has not been the target of even one.
In Hitler’s case, the plotters were officers of the German general staff—who believed the Fuhrer was leading Germany into a war it could not hope to win.
After the war’s outbreak (on September 1, 1939) most of the plotters were motivated by a desire to end the war before Allied—and especially Russian—soldiers reached Germany. But many plotters were motivated by sheer horror at the wholesale slaughters taking place in Poland and Russia.
Adolf Hitler
- In Trump’s case, a non-violent method for removal existed in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This allows the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to recommend the removal of the President when he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” The Vice President then becomes President.
- No Cabinet members had the courage to invoke this.
- Within the Senate and House of Representatives, Republicans acted as a rubber stamp for his every infamy. When he praised North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-On or attacked Vietnam POW John McCain, they stayed silent. When he falsely charged massive voter fraud, Republicans stayed silent or loudly parroted his lies.
- Their most notorious example of ambition-fueled cowardice occurred on February 5, 2020. That was when the Republican-dominated Senate—ignoring the overwhelming evidence against him—acquitted Trump on both impeachment articles: Obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.
- At the Pentagon, American generals stood mute as Trump repeatedly sided with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—and even gave classified CIA Intelligence to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
- And just as high-ranking field marshals in Hitler’s Wehrmacht held their tongues when he insulted them, so, too, did American generals when Trump belittled their intelligence and even patriotism.
- When Trump arbitrarily decided to remove American forces from Syria and Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned in protest in 2018. But then he was simply replaced by Mark Esper.
- Despite the fact that many of these men regularly came into contact with Trump, not one of them apparently plotted his removal.
- Similarly, Trump repeatedly attacked the integrity of the men and women of the FBI—even firing its director, James Comey, for daring to investigate Russia’s subversion of the 2016 election. If its agents—steeped in Federal criminal law—built a case for Trump’s indictment and prosecution, it has never come to light.
- Neither did any of his Secret Service agents register the slightest protest, despite his arrogant behavior toward them. He forced them to work without pay during his 35-day government shutdown in 2018. And he forced them to accompany him to COVID-infected states—both during the Presidential campaign and afterward. Many of them became stricken with this often fatal disease as a result.
Donald Trump
On November 3, 2020, 81,255,933 Democratic voters elected former Vice President Joseph Biden the 46th President of the United States. Trump, running for a second term, got 74,196,153 votes.
Yet almost two months after the election, Trump refuses to concede, insisting that he won—and repeatedly claiming falsely that he is the victim of massive vote fraud.
This toxic lie has been feverishly embraced by millions of Right-wingers, and threatens to rob the incoming Biden administration of its deserved legitimacy.
This refusal to acknowledge the outcome initially denied Biden access to the money, information-sharing and machinery traditionally accorded the President-elect. Trump himself was the beneficiary of such assistance in 2016, after his win over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Only on November 23 was Biden acknowledged as the winner by the General Services Administration, as the Trump administration finally began the formal transition process.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the country. More than 336,000 Americans have died, hospitals are filled to capacity, and millions are on the brink of starvation and/or eviction. Yet Trump remains obsessed with his loss, and has done nothing to coordinate the Federal response to the pandemic.
Trump’s refusal to accept reality poses an unprecedented danger to democracy: No presidential candidate has ever refused to concede defeat once all the votes were counted and legal challenges resolved.
By refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, Trump has taken on the classic mantle of of a dictator.
Right-wing Virginia State Senator Amanda Chase has urged Trump to declare martial law and allow the military to “oversee” another election. So has disgraced ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, whom Trump pardoned for lying to the FBI about private talks he had with a Russian official.
Reports have surfaced that Trump has considered doing so. Given his record as a lifelong criminal, there is no reason to doubt he is capable of this.
History has recorded an active German resistance movement against Adolf Hitler—and has honored its members, many of whom died heroically for standing firm against a brutal tyrant.
To its eternal shame, the same cannot be said of America during the reign of Donald Trump.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on December 29, 2020 at 12:15 am
On July 20, 1944, Colonel Claus Schenk von Stuaffenberg tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
He had served with the Wehrmacht in Poland (1939), France (1940) and the Soviet Union (1941).
While serving in Tunisa, he was seriously wounded on April 7, 1943, when Allied fighters strafed his vehicle. He lost his left eye, right hand and two fingers of his left hand after surgery.
Colonel Claus Schenk von Stuaffenberg
Nevertheless, he now acted as the prime mover for the conspiracy among a growing number of German high command officers to arrest or assassinate Germany’s Fuehrer.
For most of these officers, the motive was craven: The “happy time” of German victories was over. Germany was losing the war it had unleashed on the world in 1939—and now they feared the worst.
This was especially true now that the numerically superior forces of the Soviet Union had gone onto the offensive.
For Stauffenberg, there was another reason: His disgust at the horrors he had seen committed by his fellow Wehrmacht soldiers upon defenseless POW’s and civilians in Russia.
Thus, Stauffenberg—more than many Germans–knew firsthand the vengeance his country could expect if the “Thousand-Year Reich” fell.
Something must be done, he believed, to prove to the world that not all Germans—even members of the Wehrmacht—were criminals.
Most of the conspirators wanted to arrest Hitler and surrender to British and American forces—well before the much-feared Russians gained a toehold in Germany.
Stauffenberg didn’t want to arrest Hitler; he wanted to kill him. A live Hitler might eventually be rescued by his Nazi colleagues.
But Hitler was a closely-guarded target. He was surrounded by fanatical bodyguards who were expert marksmen. He often wore a bulletproof vest and a cap lined with three pounds of laminated steel.
Adolf Hitler
Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1990-048-29A / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 de (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)%5D
But his single greatest protection—he claimed—was an instinct for danger. He would suddenly change his schedule—to drop in where he was least expected. Or suddenly depart an event where he was expected to stay a long time.
That instinct had repeatedly saved his life.
A series of assassination attempts had been made against Hitler. All of them involved time-bombs. And all of the would-be assassins were members of the German General Staff.
In one case, a bomb secretly stashed aboard Hitler’s plane failed to explode. In another, an officer who had a bomb strapped to himself unexpectedly found his scheduled meeting with Hitler called off. He had to rush into a bathroom to defuse the bomb before it exploded.
Stauffenberg intended to carry his bomb—hidden in a briefcase—into a “Hitler conference” room packed with military officers. Rigged with a time-fuse, it would be left there while he found an excuse to leave.
After the explosion, he would phone one of his fellow conspirators with the news.
Stauffenberg intended to direct the new government that would replace that of the Nazis—and open peace talks with the British and Americans.
With Hitler dead, the coup—“Operation Valkyrie”—would be on.
Anti-Nazi conspirators would seize control of key posts of the government. The British and Americans would then be informed of Germany’s willingness to surrender. Provided, of course, that the vengeance-seeking Russians did not have a say in its postwar future.
The Wehrmacht and Schutzstaffel (SS) had killed millions of Russians. Many had died in combat. Others had been murdered as captives. Still more had been allowed to die by starvation and exposure to the notorious Russian winter.
So the Germans—both Nazi and anti-Nazi—knew what they could expect if soldiers of the Soviet Union reached German soil.
On July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg appeared at Hitler’s well-guarded military headquarters in East Prussia. Like all his other outposts, Hitler had named it—appropriately enough—“Wolf’s Lair.”
“Wolf’s Lair”
Stauffenberg entered the large, concrete building while the conference was in session. He placed his yellow briefcase next to Hitler—who was standing with his generals at a heavy oaken table. Then he excused himself to take an “urgent” phone call.
After Stauffenberg left the room, Colonel Heinz Brandt, standing next to Hitler, found the briefcase blocking his legs. So he moved it—to the other side of the heavy oaken support, partially shielding Hitler from the blast..
At 12:42 p.m. on July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg’s briefcase bomb erupted.
Brandt died, as did two other officers and a stenographer.
Hitler not only survived, but the plotters failed to seize the key broadcast facilities of the Reich.
This allowed Hitler to make a late-night speech to the nation, revealing the failed plot and assuring Germans that he was still alive. And he swore to flush out the “traitorous swine” who had tried to kill him.
Mass arrests quickly followed.
Among the first victims discovered and executed was the conspiracy’s leader, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. Standing before a makeshift firing squad at midnight, he cried: “Long live our sacred Germany!”
At least 7,000 persons were arrested by the Gestapo. Of these, 4,980 were executed.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on December 28, 2020 at 12:25 am
“When Fascism comes to America, it will be called anti-Fascism.”
–Huey Long, Louisiana Governor/Senator
In the Twilight Zone episode, “No Time Like the Past,” Paul Driscoll (Dana Andrews), a scientist in early 1960s America, uses a time machine to visit Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II.
He’s rented a motel room overlooking the balcony from where the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler will soon make a speech. And he’s eager to watch that speech—through the lens of a telescopic-sighted rifle.
Just as he’s about to pull the trigger, there’s a knock at his door–by the maid. Driscoll hustles her out as soon as possible, then once again picks up his rifle. He—and viewers—can once again see Hitler through the cross-hairs of his weapon.
Paul Driscoll prepares to shoot Adolf Hitler
But instead of the anticipated shot, there’s another knock at his door—his time by the black-uniformed secret police, the SS. Driscoll knows the game is up, and disappears into the present just as the thugs break down his door.
And the audience is left to ponder how different the world would have been if Driscoll—or someone in Nazi Germany—had succeeded in assassinating the man whose wars would wipe out the lives of 50 million men, women and children around the globe.
One 2016 Republican candidate for President dared to invoke the menace of Nazi Germany in warning of the dangers of a Donald Trump Presidency. And to argue that Americans could prevent that past from returning.
In November, 2015, John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, was peddling a message of creating jobs, balancing the Federal budget and disdain for Washington, D.C.
John Kasich
But he remained far behind in the polls, dropping 50% in support in just one month—from September to October. Meanwhile, Trump, the New York billionaire developer, was being backed by 25% of Republican primary voters.
So, with nothing to lose, Kasich decided to take off the gloves. He invoked the “N” word for Republicans: Nazi.
He authorized the creation of a TV ad that opened with ominous music—and the face of a snarling Donald Trump.
“I would like anyone who is listening to consider some thoughts that I’ve paraphrased from the words of German pastor Martin Niemoeller.”
The voice belonged to Tom Moe, a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force—and a former Vietnam prisoner-of-war.
“You might not care if Donald Trump says Muslims must register with the government, because you’re not one,” continued Moe.
“And you might not care if Donald Trump says he’s going to round up all the Hispanic immigrants, because you’re not one.
Donald Trump
“And you might not care if Donald Trump says it’s OK to rough up black protesters, because you’re not one.
“And you might not care if Donald Trump wants to suppress journalists, because you’re not one.
“But think about this:
“If he keeps going, and he actually becomes President, he might just get around to you. And you’d better hope that there’s someone left to help you.”
Martin Niemoeller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who had commanded a U-boat during World War 1. He became a bitter public foe of Adolf Hitler.
A staunch anti-Communist, he had initially supported the Nazis as Germany’s only hope of salvation against the Soviet Union.
But when the Nazis made the church subordinate to State authority, Niemoeller created the Pastors’ Emergency League to defend religious freedom.
For his opposition to the Third Reich, Niemoeller spent seven years in concentration camps.
With the collapse of the Reich in 1945, he was freed—and elected President of the Protestant church in Hesse and Nassau in 1947. During the 1960s, he was a president of the World Council of Churches.
He is best remembered for his powerful condemnation of the failure of Germans to protest the increasing oppression of the Nazis:
First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Socialists, but I was not a Socialist, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out.
And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.
Neither “Adolf Hitler” nor “Nazi Party” was mentioned during the one-minute Kassich video. But a furious Trump threatened to sue Kasich if he could find anything “not truthful” within the ad.
Apparently he couldn’t find anything “not truthful,” because he never sued.
So threatened the man who had called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and accused President Barack Obama of being a Muslim and an illegal alien.
The Kasich ad was the darkest attack made against Trump by any candidate—Republican or Democrat. And it raised a disturbing question:
If Donald Trump proved to be America’s Adolf Hitler, would there be an American Claus von Stauffenberg?
Colonel Claus Schenk von Stuaffenberg was the German army officer who, on July 20, 1944, tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
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TWO VIRUSES, ONE CATASTROPHE: PART SEVEN (OF EIGHT)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 18, 2021 at 12:13 amOnce states across the country began “reopening,” President Donald J. Trump scheduled his first 2020 re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
DEFYING SCIENCE
Then, to celebrate Independence Day, Trump scheduled yet another rally at Mount Rushmore, in Keystone, South Dakota, on July 3.
Although health experts expressed fears about large gatherings during the Coronavirus pandemic, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said people would “not be social distancing” during the celebration:
“In South Dakota, we’ve told people to focus on personal responsibility….Those who want to come and join us, we’ll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one. But we won’t be social distancing.”
“JUST LIVE WITH IT”
According to a July 3 story by NBC News: “Eager to move forward and reopen the economy amid a recession and a looming presidential election, the White House is now pushing acceptance. ‘The virus is with us, but we need to live with it,’ is how one official said the administration plans to message on the pandemic.”
Administration officials would promote a new study they said showed promising results on therapeutics. They would also emphasize high survival rates, particularly for Americans who were within certain age groups and didn’t have underlying conditions.
On June 30, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before the U.S. Senate: “We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.”
Fauci warned that the infection surge across the South and West “puts the entire country at risk.” Much of that increase was being fueled by young adults testing positive for COVID-19.
The United States had become the country worst-affected by Coronavirus—with more than 6.88 million Americans diagnosed cases and at least 200,000 deaths.
CHILD SACRIFICES
But Trump wanted children to return to school—and not through virtual classes at home.
And he wasn’t asking parents to send their children back to school after summer. He was ordering them to.
On July 8, 2020, he tweeted that he might withhold federal funding from schools that did not resume in-person classes this fall.
“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!”
Donald Trump
Most school funding in America comes from states and municipalities, not the federal government. Nonetheless, the White House was exploring ways to use the next Coronavirus relief bill to tie the slice of school funding that did come from Washington to the pace of different schools’ reopenings.
And moments after making that threat, Trump said the guidelines of his own Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) for safely reopening schools were too expensive and impractical:
“I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!”
Among those guidelines:
Coronavirus
Many Americans asked: “How can President Trump demand that children return to school in the midst of a deadly plague? Especially when we don’t have adequate testing facilities—and, most importantly, a reliable vaccine?”
There was an answer—and it was brutally ugly.
On July 10, Paula Reid, White House correspondent for CBS News, provided the answer on the PBS program, Washington Week:
“Well, up until now the administration has really deferred to local leaders to determine when they want to reopen their communities based on the situation on the ground. But then you saw this week, when it comes to schools, the president issuing this broad mandate that all schools must open in the fall or else potentially he will cut funding, when in fact we know most schools are locally funded, and he’s also made other threats.
Paula Reid
“He’s made it clear that he is putting pressure on governors, and the question is: Why is he taking this approach to schools specifically when he’s deferred to states on so many other aspects of this pandemic?
“And just speaking with White House advisers, I’m told the president knows that in order to get parents back to work you need to get kids back to class, and for the president a lot of this is about hoping that that would give an economic boost to the U.S. ahead of his reelection in November.”
For which he could then claim credit.
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