A TRILOGY OF VIRUSES: COVID-19, RACISM AND DONALD TRUMP

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     Historians will reflect on Donald Trump as a morally, mentally and criminally corrupt President of the United States who - in an autocratic action that was  

symbolic to moves made by Adolf Hitler - gassed innocent Americans while they exercised their First Amendment constitutional right of free speech to peacefully protest. No laws were broken by the participants when they demonstrated outside The White House on Monday, June 1st, 2020.  Nevertheless, Trump was prepared to order his equally corrupt cronies to use military force to attack law abiding U.S. citizens as they voiced their views about racism and racial injustice in our country following the brutally ruthless murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  

     Trump and his spineless deputies, including the Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, four-star General Mark Milley, (wearing his combat fatigue uniform as if he was going to war) - both, along with others in the Trump administration, who bizarrely bow down and worship Trump - then took that infamous walk to St. John's Episcopal Church, one block away from  
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, for the most repugnant photo op ever choreographed by an American President.  It was a vulgar visual, as Trump - with a bible in his hands - recklessly exhibited the holy scriptures, as if it was a theatrical prop, to lend an air of religious legitimacy to his base, especially the evangelicals who - for whatever their reasons - continue to revere him.  

     Trump claims his jaunt to the church was to crush press accounts - first reported by The New York Times, but later confirmed by other media outlets - that he was sheltered on Friday, May 29th in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (the PEOC), which is a security bunker beneath The White House.  Reliable sources say Trump was raving mad and fuming that anyone would think that he escaped the executive mansion and went hiding underground.   

     It, therefore, confounds and confuses the credible conscience how any American can defend Trump and justify his barbaric behavior.  Trump brings aches and anguish to our country as he infects our wounds instead of applying antiseptic.

     As for George Floyd, an independent autopsy was performed by a pathologist who is a former New York City chief medical examiner.  The results show that white Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, who on Monday, May 25th pressed his knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds on to the neck of Floyd, by doing so, cut off oxygen from going to Floyd's brain, which was a contributing cause of death of this unarmed black man. Floyd had been arrested by police for allegedly using counterfeit cash to buy a pack of cigarettes at a local market.  A store employee had contacted police earlier to report that a "fake twenty-dollar bill" was used to make a purchase.  Prior to dying, witnesses say that Floyd pleaded for his life by crying out, "I can't breathe" numerous times.  One witness reportedly told authorities that Floyd also begged, "Don't kill me."

     In broad daylight on a Minneapolis street, witnesses recorded videos and shot still photographs of the 46-year old Floyd being killed.  He was handcuffed and pinned to the ground.  The deadly chokehold asphyxiated Floyd, which also led to a lack of blood flowing to his brain.  The horrifying images were immediately shared on social media outlets, and the posts quickly went viral throughout America and around the world, which resulted in an inundation of infuriation.  

     So whatever happened to the alleged twenty-dollar bill that was supposedly counterfeit and that cost George Floyd his life?  Was it really "funny money?"  Where is that bill today?  Minnesota law states that if a person is convicted for knowingly using counterfeit cash that is less than $1,000, the highest penalty is up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $3,000.  One man is dead and four other lives are destroyed because of a lousy twenty-dollar bill that may or may not be fake. Minneapolis officials are remaining mum as to the location of the bill in question, as there are investigations underway and lawsuits that will undoubtedly be filed.  

     After being fired from his job by the Minneapolis Police Department, the now-former Officer Chauvin was initially charged on Friday, May 29th with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.  But that wasn't enough.  Protests, which began shortly after Floyd died, escalated throughout Minnesota and, over the course of more than a week, across America.  

     This was a moment when the people had spoken and prosecutors were able to find a way to use the full extent of the law to hold Chauvin accountable for Floyd's death.  Charges against Chauvin were elevated on Wednesday, June 3rd to the more serious offense of second-degree murder, and three other white Minneapolis Police officers were also arrested.  They were charged with aiding and abetting the murder.  J.A. Keung, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao allegedly stood by and did nothing to help Floyd as Chauvin proceeded with his abusive restraints that resulted in a fatal outcome.  Each of the defendants face a possible 40 years in prison.  The efforts of protesters have made a significant step and a powerful advance on the pathway to a righteous observance of the law, but more still needs to be accomplished before the endeavors prove to be triumphant. However, demonstrators have made their point and are continuing to get their point heard. 

     "We got all 4!" - a chant by protesters - is only a start.  Nothing will ever bring back George Floyd, but the four cops must be convicted for justice to be served.

     Racism must stop in America and Donald Trump needs to put the brakes on inciting violence.  In an after-midnight statement, late Thursday night, May 28th in to Friday morning, May 29th, with fires burning and protesters demonstrating in Minneapolis and in other cities across America, Trump provoked mayhem when he spewed venomous, incendiary words in a tweet.  "These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen.  Any difficulty and we will assume control, but when the looting starts, the shooting starts."  Such rash rhetoric, at this time, makes Trump the one who is acting like a "THUG." 

     As I tweeted on Friday, May 29th, "The U.S. is engulfed in flames, but instead of throwing water on the fires, Donald Trump is pouring gasoline.  America is desperately in need of a President who can calm and heal our nation with leadership strength and compassion.  We had it with Barack Obama.  We now need Joe Biden."  That tweet has been "liked" hundreds of times and has been retweeted dozens of times.

     As I also tweeted - this one on Sunday, May 31st - "What happened to social distancing? Has everyone forgotten we're still suffering a pandemic?  Protesters in Times Square and elsewhere could spread coronavirus?  I support peaceful protests.  I'm appalled and livid by the murder of George Floyd.  It's a shame we don't have a real President."  (A footnote and a reminder:  Wearing masks doesn't mean the coronavirus can't spread).

     Donald Trump was warned multiple times, including no fewer than three times (probably more) from at least two of his own advisers (and perhaps others that we're not even aware of) who told him that the coronavirus was coming and that it could possibly kill millions of Americans.  Now, there is a mountain of dead, our economy is in the toilet, and we are all paying the price.  It didn't have to be this way.  It didn't have to be so bad if Trump had only gotten off his high horse and listened to others. But Trump doesn't care what anyone else thinks.  He never does.  And he doesn't care about anyone else but himself.

     Anyone who voted for Trump in 2016 and continues to support him is totally out of touch with reality.  It is beyond baffling to think that anyone in his or her right mind could endorse a man like Trump who is tantamount to an arsonist.  Day after day, Trump lights more and more matches and flicks them into the blazes that are burning down our homeland with racial injustice and a dangerous virus.  Many of the same people who voted for Trump four years ago are today unemployed.

     Economists' crystal balls turned out to be somewhat cloudy with unemployment predictions for May as the financial fortune tellers had envisioned a 20 percent jobless rate.  But surprisingly, the sun came out; albeit just a peek.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday, June 5th, the rate, in reality, improved by 1.4 percent and, as a result, Donald Trump is wearing his White House cheerleader's uniform, complete with pom-poms, because 2.5-million Americans reportedly went back on the job last month.  However, there are still 21-million people in the United States who are not receiving a paycheck. Since mid-March - when the national emergency was declared because of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic - more than one-quarter of the U.S. work force (42.6-million people) had filed for unemployment benefits.  

     America's economy is not coming back like a "rocketship" as Trump wants people to believe.  Bankruptcies rose 48 percent in May.  Trump can take his victory lap and celebrate with his continued falsehoods that we had the "greatest economy in the world" before the pandemic, and with his lies that come October and November life will be "spectacular," but he's being ever so premature.  With the hundreds of thousands of people protesting for two weeks, and with a lack of social distancing and many not wearing masks, health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expect a major spike in coronavirus cases and deaths later in June and throughout the summer.  Who knows if protesters are even washing their hands or using hand sanitizers?  So Trump can vow all day long that he's not going to close the country again, but governors - especially those who are Democrats - will protect their residents by shutting down their states, and economic numbers will sink deeper and deeper.  All we see now are people temporarily returning to work.  It's not going to get better, but much worse, before it does get better in 2021.  And that's only if a vaccine is approved by the Federal Drug Administration and the coronavirus makes it exit.

     Meanwhile, the now 13.3 percent unemployment rate - an adjustment in the right direction from 14.7 percent in April - is still quite a bit higher than the worst days of The Great Recession.  And the jobs report numbers remain horrendous for African-Americans and Latinos.  Therefore, economic equality is still in the cellar.  The Labor Department says unemployment for black Americans is 16.8 percent, which is the highest rate for that demographic in a decade.  The jobless rate for Latino workers is at 17.6 percent.  These are disgraceful statistics and should not be the data in 2020 America.  Of course none of these numbers would bother a racist and white supremacist, which Donald Trump has proven that's what he is, time and time again.

     I have to imagine that Trump has been irate since Friday, June 5th by the words BLACK LIVES MATTER that were painted in giant, yellow letters on the local thoroughfare to The White House.  Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the artwork, along with "The section of 16th Street in front of The White House is now officially 'Black Lives Matter Plaza,'" Bowser tweeted.  Bowser, a Democrat, and Trump have butted heads of late.  The DC mayor's altercation with Trump is over The Oval Office occupant's response to the protests in the nation's capital and other cities throughout the United States.  The large letters span the width of the two-lane avenue and stretch across 16th Street Northwest for two blocks between H and K Streets.  The roadway mural ends just before St. John's Episcopal Church, and the lamppost in front of the church is adorned with a green street sign, which ceremoniously identifies the area as Black Lives Matter Plaza.  

     DC protesters, on Saturday, June 6th, added to the artistic workmanship on the pavement by spray-painting the phrase "DEFUND THE POLICE" in enormous, yellow letters next to the BLACK LIVES MATTER message.  Protesters nationwide are demanding sweeping police reform.  A plan to "defund the police," would mean taking money from the budget of a city's police 

department and diverted those funds in to the piggy banks of social services, which would include programs that benefit the people for community safety and justice. With George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky - both being killed recently by police when there was no cause or justification to do so, plus after two cops in Buffalo, New York were caught on video shoving a 75-year old man to the ground, protesters are "mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore;" (to borrow and paraphrase a line performed by star Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Paddy Chayefsky's classic motion picture, Network).

   

     The elderly Buffalo protester, Martin Gugino, fell backwards on to the cement sidewalk and began to bleed.  He's in serious but stable condition at a local hospital.  The two police officers have been suspended and are charged with second-degree assault.  They each face up to 7 years in prison.  

     It was shortly after midnight on March 13th when three Louisville Metro Police officers broke down the door of Breonna Taylor's apartment and shot her eight times.  The cops had a "no-knock" warrant, which allowed them to enter the home without identifying themselves as law enforcement officers.  A confrontation ensued and the unarmed Taylor - an African-American woman who was a Louisville EMT - was killed.  Police officials say their officers only fired their weapons after Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot and wounded one of the cops in the leg.  The officer is expected to fully recover from his injury.  Although Walker is licensed to carry a gun, he was arrested.  But the charge of attempted murder of a police officer was later dismissed. The 27-year old Walker told authorities that he feared for his life and only pulled the trigger in self-defense, as he thought a criminal element was breaking into the apartment, and he had no 

idea the intruders were cops.  Police were investigating two men on suspicion of selling drugs out of a house near the 26-year old Taylor's home.  They also suspected that one of the men used Taylor's apartment to receive packages. However, there were no drugs found in the Taylor/Walker dwelling.  Taylor's mother has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, which states police "proceeded to spray gunfire into the residence with a total disregard for the value of human life."  There is no video available of the raid as police were apparently not using body cameras.  No charges against the police have been filed in connection with the death of Breonna Taylor.  The FBI is now investigating the shooting, and Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has temporarily suspended all "no-knock" warrants.  

     Hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered in crowds all across the United States on Saturday, June 6th - including over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California - as they marched to denounce racism and police brutality while shouting "Black Lives Matter."  Nationwide, protests that had escalated, at times, to riots in the two weeks since the murder of George Floyd, have now become peaceful demonstrations - for the most part - as people of all races, religions and ethnic heritages are chanting in solidarity that racism and violent abuse by cops have to stop.  Americans throughout the country are declaring that "Black Lives Matter."

     Meanwhile, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced sweeping police reform legislation on Monday, June 8th, which would focus on holding law enforcement officers accountable for any misconduct.  The bill would provide a blueprint for widespread transparency.  The measure is led by the Congressional Black Caucus, and includes reforms to make it easier for police officers to be prosecuted in civil court for misconduct.  The legislation already has more than 200 co-sponsors in both the House and the U.S. Senate.

     In Washington, DC and the surrounding area, people marched for miles in support of legislation to condemn the lack of equality for African-Americans. Black protesters often chanted "Hands up, don't shoot."  No American - no matter the color of their skin - should ever be afraid that they will be shot by a police officer.  But white folks don't generally have such a thought on their minds. However, many white protesters - such as the ones in the photo to the right in Seattle, Washington - raised their hands as a sign of brotherhood and sisterhood for their black companions.  Meanwhile, a new poll by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal shows that 80 percent of Americans feel that things are out of control in the United States.  And a CNN/SSRS poll indicates Donald Trump's approval rating may soon crash as it has tumbled to a pathetic 38 percent.

     America is being pummeled by three wicked diseases; a trilogy of viruses. COVID-19 is new, thus the CDC, the World Health Organization and other health officials had initially tagged it "the novel coronavirus."  To date, it has infected 2,011,503 Americans who have been sick, along with 112,576 who have died from the coronavirus since mid-February, less than four months ago, according to data compiled by Worldometer.  Global totals have topped more than 7.1-million cases with over 407,000 deaths.  But the virus of racism and racial injustice has infected our society since before the Pilgrims made their historic voyage on The Mayflower in 1620.  Finally, there's Donald Trump; a virus that has festered with sores of racism, incompetence, corruption, deceit, negligence, narcissism and authoritarianism for a very long time.

     In 2008 - during then Illinois Senator Barack Obama's campaign for President, Trump grabbed hold of a conspiracy theory and ran with it.  Trump and the so-called "birther movement" accused Mr. Obama of not being a natural-born U.S. citizen and, therefore, was not eligible to be our country's President.  With no evidence whatsoever, Trump and the birther movement continued the false assertions throughout President Obama's two terms in office, including theories that our 44th President's birth certificate was a forgery and that Mr. Obama was not born in Hawaii but in the African nation of Kenya.  But prior to the 2008 election, the Hawaii Department of Health confirmed - based on original documents - that Barack Hussein Obama was, in fact, born in our 50th state, and the "Aloha" government certified his birth certificate as being true and official.  But Trump wouldn't stop his malicious racist assaults, as he tried to smear President Obama with accusations that his birth certificate was phony.  Such vicious lies helped to promote Trump politically, which led to his own 2016 campaign for President.  Incredibly, there were enough Republicans nationwide who additionally believed that Mr. Obama was foreign born.  Trump's popularity also stemmed from his celebrity as the host of a nationally broadcast, primetime reality game show.  Full disclosure, I was a fan of NBC's The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice and never missed an episode. I'm on-the-record in 2015 for calling Trump "a superstar" and that "because of his stardom he could win the Republican nomination."  However, I never thought he could win the presidency, especially not against the 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.  

     Before President Obama was elected for his second term in 2012, Trump - in an April 7th, 2011 NBC News interview - went on and on with his bogus claim that Mr. Obama "may not have been born in this country."  Trump told the then co-anchor of the Today show, Meredith Vieira, that "Right now I have some real doubts."  Trump echoed his thoughts even harder that America is not President Obama's birthplace by insisting that "it's a real possibility."  It wasn't until September 16th, 2016 - as the Republican nominee for President - when Trump finally conceded that "President Barack Obama was born in the United States.  Period."  But that was a political statement.  Why should I - or anyone else - believe Trump?  After all, he lies about everything, and so he likely still feels that the U.S.A. is not where Mr. Obama was born.  After he's out of office, don't be shocked if Trump writes a book and resumes his claim in public speeches and on television that President Obama's true birthplace was not the United States.

     Trump's racism and bigotry goes beyond his attacks on President Obama.  It was shocking to me that "Trump the entertainer" could turn in to such a nefarious and heinous monster who, in 2018, would arrest migrant families that were begging for a safe haven in the United States.  They were escaping the peril and poverty of their homelands of Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras.  So to watch mothers and fathers being imprisoned, and separated from their babies and other children who were also locked up in cages, made me nauseous.

     The following is just a sampling of some other examples of Trump's racism over the years.

     When announcing his candidacy on June 16th, 2015, Trump harshly criticized our neighbors to the south.  "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best, they're not sending their best.  They're bringing drugs.  They're bringing crime. They're rapists."

     Trump, at a 2016 campaign rally, called a member of Black Lives Matter "obnoxious" because he was protesting Trump.  But Trump also encouraged violence against the protester when he told the crowd, "Maybe he should have been roughed up."

     A former Miss Universe beauty queen was the recipient of Trump's vile verbiage when he nicknamed Alicia Machado with the derogatory title, "Miss Piggy" after she gained a few pounds.  Trump also branded the 1996 pageant winner, "Miss Housekeeping" because of her Venezuelan ethnicity. Trump's bigotry implied that all Latina women are maids.  Trump, at the time, was the owner of the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants.

     In a CNN interview, Trump accused U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel of treating him "very unfairly" with "horrible rulings" because - as Trump told anchor Jake Tapper in June 2016 - "This judge is of Mexican heritage."  Trump repeatedly degraded Curiel because of his family's ethnic background. "I'm building a wall, okay?  I'm building a wall.  We're building a wall between here

and Mexico."  Trump tried to belittle and discredit the federal judge for the Southern District of California by claiming he could not be impartial in a class-action lawsuit against the now-defunct Trump University.  Trump was adamant that Curiel is "a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He's a hater."  Trump told Tapper that Curiel is "a member of a society, where, you know, very pro-Mexico," and because "he's a Mexican."  No!  False!  Untrue!  Judge Curiel is not a Mexican.  He's an American.  He was born in Indiana, and he grew up and went to school, college and law school in "The Hoosier State."  (Another footnote:  as we all know, Donald Trump has never built - what I have always referred to as - his "wall of hate."  And he never will).

     During a January 2018 meeting with U.S. senators that included Republicans and Democrats, Trump targeted the Caribbean country of Haiti and nations in Africa as "all those shithole countries," and that we shouldn't want immigrants from there. Trump noted a desire to welcome people from "Norway" where skin color isn't black, but as white as the driven snow.

     ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas recently shared a story - which I watched live - while he appeared on the Sunday, May 31st broadcast of This Week with George Stephanopoulous.  It makes my blood boil when a person is treated in a racist manner.  As a Jew myself, I have felt anti-Semitism firsthand; emotionally and physically.  There is never a reason for anyone to assume that because a person is black that they are only able to get a minimum wage job at a grocery store.  It's comparable to someone calling a Jew "cheap" and that he "Jewed 'em down."  Below is Pierre Thomas' unpleasant anecdote.  As a black man, I'm sure he's unfortunately experienced other disgusting and despicable forms of racism; some even worse than the example he describes.

     "Just recently, I happened to be in a supermarket, shopping, had a mask on, people really couldn't see who I was.  I was cleaning off my shopping cart and a woman saw me cleaning; cleaning off the shopping cart, and motioned to me as if I was cleaning the cart for her.  And I simply said to her, in a rather indignant voice, 'I'm cleaning this cart for me.'  It was a white female.  Now the point here is that we suffer these indignities everyday, all the time, and I think we're at a point where people are saying they're sick and tired of being sick and tired."

     America is being tortured and is throbbing in heart-wrenching agony, which wounds the very soul of our nation.  The bloodbath of racial injustice has violated the lives of men and women of color long before our country was created and our Founding Fathers attained freedom from England's King George III.  More than 400 years ago in 1619, slaves were first brought to the soil we now call the United States.  White Europeans - seeking to colonize in "The New World" - abducted black Africans from the continent's western coast and forcibly transported them to the shores that later would become a land where supposedly "all men are created equal." But distressfully, everyone wasn't treated equally then, and everyone isn't treated equally today.

     With the U.S. Civil War in to its second year of blood-soaked battles, and with tens of thousands of dead soldiers, President Abraham Lincoln, on January 1st, 1863, issued the Emancipation Proclamation.  The proclamation declared that "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever free."  (One more footnote: The Civil War began on April 12th, 1861 and ended on May 13th, 1865.  When all was said and done, more than 850,000 Americans - from the North and from the South - had been killed).

     Nearly one-hundred years had gone by after the final battle of The Civil War when The Civil Rights Act of 1964 put a stop to segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.  The measure was formally proposed to Congress on June 19th, 1963 by President John F. Kennedy.  But there were stumbling blocks.  The legislation wasn't agreed to by both Houses of Congress until after President Kennedy's death.  President Lyndon B. Johnson was able to push the bill forward, and seven-and-a-half months after JFK's November 22nd, 1963 assassination, The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed in to law by LBJ on July 2nd, 1964.  Later, Congress passed additional civil rights legislation that President Johnson also signed in to law, which included the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

     It's been just about 56 years since The Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law and more than 147 years - nearly a century-and-a-half - since the Emancipation Proclamation.  Yet racism and racial injustice in the United States remains, and does so in a manner that is repulsive, atrocious and nightmarish.  We can no longer deprive anyone - whether their skin color is black, brown, yellow, red or white - of equal liberties and freedoms that the U.S. Constitution provides for all people who make America their home.  We can never return to a time of racial segregation and lynch mobs.

     As the words explain in the graphic on the photo to the right, Labrador Retrievers come in a variety of colors.  They are loved and treated equally no matter what they look like.  Labs don't fight each other because of the differences in their color. Can't we all learn to live like Labrador Retrievers and be colorblind?  Can't we all get along with each other and not care about the color of a person's skin?  Everyone needs to remember that we all bleed the same color.  We all cry the same tears.  Skin color should never matter.  We are all part of the human race.  Let's act like it before there are more senseless killings in America. We can be better.  We need to be better. We must be better to survive.  After all, each of us is supposed to be "equal" to the other.  If dogs have the smarts to figure that out, shouldn't we? 

     Donald Trump continues to divide instead of unify our country.  On Saturday, May 30th, Trump took a tour through "Twitterland" as he applauded Secret Service agents and threatened protesters who had been demonstrating outside the presidential mansion the night before.  "Great job last night at The White House by the U.S. Secret Service.  They were not only totally professional, but very cool." But Trump continued with a more sinister tweet about the protesters.  "(N)obody came close to breaching the fence.  If they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.  That's when people would have been really badly hurt, at least."  It's unconscionable behavior for Trump to order tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to be used by U.S. Park Police.  

     Trump - on Monday, June 1st - wanted to go to war against protesters.  But even the notion of a command, to send the Army and the Marines (or any other branch of the Armed Forces) in to U.S. cities to control the protests, caused much constitutional and congressional controversy; not only by Democrats, but by state governors and others, and by many of Trump's own advisers who opposed such a directive.  Trump in his own words: "If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them."

     One of Trump's ace advisers publicly spoke out against his boss on Wednesday, June 3rd. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says he's categorically not in favor of Trump using the 1807 Insurrection Act to permit active-duty troops to be ordered on to U.S. city streets when the mayors of those municipalities and the governors of their states oppose such an assignment.  Talking to reporters on his own turf, the Pentagon chief did not mince words.  "I say this not only as Secretary of Defense, but also as a former soldier, and a former member of the National Guard, the option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.  We are not in one of those situations now.  I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act."  It would be, however, Trump's decision should he, in the future, desire to implement the Insurrection Act. 

     Trump thinks he employs military personnel and federal law enforcement officers as if they were pieces on a game board.  But he can't, by law, move those individuals around - as he pleases - for political purposes.  To self-identify himself as "your President of law and order" - which he did prior to his walk across Lafayette Square to St. John's Episcopal Church - is contradictory to the havoc that he creates by his fascist actions.

     Trump has admittedly confessed a desire to be dictator of the United States. Allow me to refresh your memories.  On June 15th, 2018, Trump - with a serious tone - told Steve Doocy of Fox News that he wants Americans to treat him as North Koreans do Kim Jong-un.  "He's the head of a country, and I mean, he's the strong head.  Don't let anyone think different.  He 

speaks and his people sit up at attention.  I want my people to do the same." Republicans wanted to spin it that Trump was joking. It is not at all funny for the President of the United States to jest that he wants to be dictator. Thomas Jefferson - before becoming President, but when writing the U.S. Declaration of Independence - labeled King George "a tyrant."  Although Donald Trump thinks he is a king, or a monarch, he is not.  But Trump IS a tyrant.

     The President of the United States should be the glue that brings our nation together, but Trump glorifies inflammatory scenes.  He delights in divisiveness and savors it.  It's perversely orgasmic for him.

     Building a wall is Trump's signature objective for his presidency.  Well, he finally did it. But this is not an obstacle to prevent Mexicans, other Latinos, and any other foreigners who Trump doesn't welcome to cross our southern border.  Trump has erected a very tall, very high, steel fence and concrete barrier around The White House. Symbolically, such a fortress around "The People's House" signifies Trump's narcissism; that he is better than everyone else, and that nobody but him has the right to have a voice in our country.  Therefore, Trump is blocking Americans - U.S. citizens - from their constitutional right of free speech.

     In an online message on Thursday, June 4th, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote, "What we are seeing across the country right now is the power of solidarity.  Against a backdrop of a pandemic that has disproportionately ravaged communities of color, we are being painfully reminded right now that we are long overdue for honest reckoning and meaningful action to dismantle systemic racism.  Many of us will never know the pain of having to sit our son or daughter down and have 'the talk' about how carefully they need to act around police, because the slightest wrong move could get them hurt or even killed.  But we can recognize our privilege, practice humility, and speak out against white supremacy in all its forms."

     A statement was issued on Sunday, May 31st by former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 presumptive Democratic nominee for President.  It included the following. "These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice.  Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country, from the daily indignities to the extreme violence, like the horrific killing of George Floyd.  Protesting such brutality is right and necessary.  It's an utterly American response.  But burning down communities and needless destruction is not.  Violence that endangers lives is not.  Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not. The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest. It should not drive people away from the just cause that protest is meant to advance.  We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us.  We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us."

     Will Republicans in Congress, in the Cabinet, and others in Donald Trump's orbit ever step up and punish this lawless President?  Or are they going to continue to elevate Trump on - what I have called in numerous columns in the past - his "Pedestal of Profanity and Perversion?"  Republicans need to finally put country over Trump.  He has escalated the chaos in our country with much turbulence.  I pray that the United States can survive until November 3rd when voters need to elect Joe Biden.  I further pray that our nation can survive until January 20th, 2021 when I hope the now-former Vice President Biden will become our 46th President.  We need a President who knows how to be President.  Donald Trump - nearly four years in - still has no clue. November 3rd and January 20th can't come soon enough.  I believe we will make it, and our democracy will withstand any toxicity.  After all, we are the United States. We are Americans.  God help us all.

     "This is an awful man, waving a book he hasn't read, in front of a church he doesn't attend, invoking laws he doesn't understand, against fellow Americans he sees as enemies, wielding a military he dodged serving, to protect power he gained via accepting foreign interference, exploiting fear and anger he loves to stoke, after failing to address a pandemic he was warned about, and building it all on a bed of constant lies and childish inanity."  The above is a statement by The Reverend Robert Hendrickson, Rector at Saint Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church, Tucson, Arizona.  The preceding remarks couldn't be articulated any better.

     The image of George Floyd being mercilessly murdered in cold blood is ingrained in my mind.  The shockingly gruesome sight sickens me.  But as long as "ignorance prevails," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Frederick Douglass wrote for an 1886 speech, and "justice is denied" then nobody "will be safe." Justice Douglass argues that when "some members of a society are not protected, no one is truly protected."  Years earlier, during The Civil War, Douglass wrote, "We are fighting for unity of idea, unity of sentiment, unity of object, unity of institutions, in which there shall be no North, no South, no East, no West, no black, no white, but a solidarity of the nation, making every slave free, and every free man a voter."

     Fearfully and disturbingly, George Floyd will not be the last African-American to be unjustifiably slaughtered by a police officer.  There will be trials, but there should be convictions of all four of the now-former white cops who had a hand - or a knee - in the murder of Floyd.  With those hopeful convictions - perhaps even now - police officers across America will think twice before they use excessive, uncivilized, unreasonable and illegal force on any individual, of any race, of any religion, of any ethnicity, of any sexual orientation, or of any other difference than that of the officer.

     For the 2012 motion picture, End of Watch, producer, director and screenwriter David Ayer wrote for star and executive producer Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Officer Brian Taylor, "Behind my badge is a heart like yours.  I bleed.  I think.  I love.  And yes, I can be killed.  And although I'm but one man, I have thousands of brothers and sisters who are the same as me.  They will lay down their lives for me.  And I them.  We stand watch together."

     We all know that all police officers are not bad.  But as with everything in life, there is some bad with the good.  According to the latest data compiled by the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, there are more than 800,000 sworn law enforcement officers currently serving in the United States.  There are other unconfirmed studies that increase that figure to approximately one-million cops who protect and serve us everyday.  Each one pins on a badge - or a shield - holsters a gun, and knows that on any given day they might fire that weapon.  They also are quite aware that someone could shoot a bullet at them.  We will not be safe without the heroes of our police departments across America.  But we need to clean house. We, the people, in tandem with our politicians and the police themselves, need to come together in peace as a unified force so that we can all live in harmony. Participation across the board is essential by every city and town throughout our country.  Civilian citizens have the right to contribute and be a vital asset in policing our police.  From the top brass, down through the rank and file, the bad ones have got to go.  There can be no exceptions.  There can be no second chances; not when people's lives are at stake.  And the good?  They need to be thanked.  They need to be praised.  They need to be respected.

     With the compassion and leadership that he exhibited during his presidency, but that Donald Trump - as I noted earlier - totally lacks, former President Obama eloquently observed on Wednesday, June 3rd, "Part of what's made me so hopeful is the fact that so many young people have been galvanized, and activated, and motivated, and mobilized.  Because historically, so much of the progress that we've made in our society has been because of young people."  President Obama is "optimistic" that our "country's going to get better."  

     I want to believe in President Obama's optimism.  In another speech - one of his last as commander-in-chief - Mr. Obama, on December 6th, 2016, addressed troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa Florida.  For nearly four years I have carried a copy of President Obama's speech with me.  His words mean that much to me and they should to everyone, especially the following.  "We're a nation that believes freedom can never be taken for granted, and that each of us has a responsibility to sustain it.  The universal right to speak your mind and to protest against authority, to live in a society that's open and free, that can criticize a President without retribution, a country where you're judged by the content of your character rather than what you look like, or how you worship, or what your last name is, or where your family came from; that's what separates us from tyrants and terrorists."  President Obama and other honorable Americans who we admire can make speeches.  I - and other journalists - can write columns, and broadcast our views on television, on radio, and on podcasts.  The people of our nation can lawfully protest, we can peacefully march, we can post our thoughts on social media, and we can express ourselves in a myriad of other ways. But America's deep-rooted racism - whether in the form of police brutality or by means set about by any person - has got to end in the United States.  And it's got to end around the world.  We need to shine a bright spotlight on bigotry, and then focus a laser beam deep into the core of all prejudices to incinerate its evil and ugly head.  Otherwise, we are in for a future that will paint a portrait of despair and misery...for us all.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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Photo credits:

1 - Shawn Thew/EPA/Shutterstock (Donald Trump walking)

2 - Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press (Donald Trump)

3 - Wikimedia Commons (Adolf Hitler)

4 - Evan Vucci/The Associated Press (Washington, DC protesters tear-gassed)

5 - Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press (Donald Trump, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, four-star General Mark Milley)

6 - Bloomberg and Getty Images (Donald Trump holding a bible in his hands in front of St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, DC)

7 - Darnella Frazier/The Associated Press (Derek Chauvin with his knee on George Floyd)

8 - KARE-TV 11, NBC News affiliate for Minneapolis, Minnesota (Derek Chauvin, J.A. Keung, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao)

9 - Ben Crump Law (George Floyd)

10 - Mark Vancleave/TNS/Newscom (Minneapolis, Minnesota fire)

11 - Seth Wenig/The Associated Press (New York City, New York protesters in Times Square)

12 - Twisted Sifter (Black Lives Matter mural in Washington, DC)

13 - Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images (Black Lives Matter Plaza sign in Washington, DC) and Mark Wilson/Getty Images (Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser)

14 - Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images (Defund The Police mural in Washington, DC)

15 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Peter Finch in Network)

16 - United Artists (Paddy Chayefsky)

17 - WBFO via Reuters TV (Martin Gugino on the pavement in Buffalo, New York)

18 - Instagram (Breonna Taylor)

19 - Courier Journal, Louisville, Kentucky (Kenneth Walker)

20 - Marty Pearl/Courier Journal, Louisville, Kentucky (Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer)

21 - The Associated Press (San Francisco, California protesters on the Golden Gate Bridge)

22 - Drew Angerer/Getty Images (Washington, DC protesters with the U.S. Capitol)

23 - Alex Brandon/The Associated Press (Washington, DC protesters with the Washington Monument)

24 - Dean Rutz/The Associated Press (Seattle, Washington protesters)

25 - AFP and Getty Images (Birth Certificate of Former President Barack Obama)

26 - NBC News/Today Screenshot (Former Today Anchor Meredith Vieira) 

27 - NBC News/Today Screenshot (Donald Trump)

28 - United States Customs and Border Protection (Migrants in cage)

29 - United States Customs and Border Protection (Migrant children in cages)

30 - Benjamin Gibbs/Pageant News Bureau (Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado)

31 - CNN Screenshot (Donald Trump and CNN Anchor Jake Tapper)

32 - San Diego Superior Court (United States District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel)

33 - ABC News/This Week Screenshot (ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas)

34 - Wikipedia (Former President Abraham Lincoln)

35 - Getty Images (Former President John F. Kennedy)

36 - Warren K. Leffler/Library Of Congress (Former President Lyndon B. Johnson)

37 - Facebook (Labrador Retrievers)

38 - ABC News Screenshot (Secretary of Defense Mark Esper)

39 - Fox News Screenshot (Donald Trump and Fox News Channel Host)

40 - NBC News Screenshot (Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un)

41 - Wikipedia (Former President Thomas Jefferson, artist's rendition)

42 - Allan Ramsay (King George III of England, artist's rendition)

43 - Tom Brenner/Reuters (Steel fence and concrete barrier around The White House)

44 - Justin Sullivan/Getty Images (Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton)

45 - Alex Brandon/The Associated Press (Former Vice President Joe Biden)

46 - Facebook (Reverend Robert Hendrickson, Rector at Saint Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church in Tucson, Arizona)

47 - Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press (Donald Trump waving a bible in front of St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, DC)

48 - Library of Congress and Getty Images (Former United States Supreme Court Justice Frederick Douglass)

49 - PostSugar Entertainment and You Tube (David Ayer)

50 - Studio Canal/Exclusive Media/Crave Films/CECTV Films/Emmet-Furia Films (Jake Gyllenhaal in End Of Watch)

51 - Zoom (Former President Barack Obama)

52 - Bay News 9, Tampa, Florida (Former President Barack Obama at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida)

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