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Or anywhere in America, Dorothy.
Donald Trump has paralyzed our country so no
way are we "over the rainbow." But this little boy wants America to be like it was when he was a tiny tot. Unfortunately, I think we're in hell...and Donald Trump is the devil.If Americans are not careful, we're all going to die. This is not hyperbole and I'm not an alarmist. "Uncle Sam" will not be able to save us. Doctors won't be able to save us either. Only we, the people of the United States, will be able to save ourselves.
We, the people of the United States, are suffering through a viral pandemic that has already infected (as this column is published) nearly 6-million Americans and killed more than 183,000 - according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center in Baltimore, Maryland - with Trump, I believe, being a contributing factor in those deaths and illnesses. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation on Thursday, August 27th, 2020 predicted that more than 317,000 Americans will have died from the coronavirus by December 1st of this year. The Institute's model, used for projecting these numbers, is widely cited by public health officials and The White House. It's heart-wrenching to think, but logically, I would suggest there is a distinct possibility that hundreds-of-thousands more Americans will perish from COVID-19 if Donald Trump is elected for a second term.
We continue to struggle through an economic recession with people starving and unable to pay their mortgage or rent and other bills, and it's only going to get worse if voters allow Trump to remain in The White House. As more people get sick from COVID-19 - the coronavirus disease that first invaded China and countries elsewhere in the world in 2019 - our United States, which are not very united these days, will close down again, but this time completely, and our nation's economy is likely to sink in to a deep depression that could match or be worse than the 1930s.
We are protesting racial injustice and racial inequality while there's an impeached president in The White House who has proven time and time again that he is as racist as the Nazi white supremacists he once called "very fine people" after the August 2017 protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. In the year 2020, America should not be anguishing through a civil rights crisis.
We are in the midst of an election year while the Republican incumbent is being accused for allegedly committing treason as he continues to lie everyday and blame everyone but himself for the country's problems.
When the president of the United States betrays the trust and the confidence of the country he has taken an oath to protect and defend, that's treason. When the president of the United States violates his allegiance to the Constitution for which he has sworn to uphold, and he does so with treachery, that's treason. Trump and his administration, in early 2019, were reportedly provided with intelligence, which illustrated that Russians were bankrolling plots to murder American soldiers in Afghanistan. And Trump is someone who one-third or more of our country want serving us, protecting us, defending us and leading us? Seriously? Seriously?
Most Republicans refuse to condemn Donald Trump for being the criminal that he himself has proved to be practically every day. His own confessions dig him a bigger hole, and come November 3rd, 2020, Americans are going to bury him in his political grave.
Donald Trump is the poison that is murdering 244 years of American independence. Members of both chambers of the U.S. Congress - the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Senate - desperately need to return to Capitol Hill before Trump
illegally attempts to seize power in a coup that would be equal to the 1925 violent uprising in Italy, which became the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini.When a country is dictated by thuggery, the following is what happens.
Donald Trump is deliberately attacking the United States Postal Service with his abominable action of voter suppression. Trump has admitted - nay, confessed - that he won't fund the USPS so to prevent voters from casting their ballots by mail in the general election.
Our Founders in Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution empowered Congress "to establish Post Offices and Post Roads." It is the lawful duty and responsibility of Congress to create and maintain a postal system. The United States Postal Service was officially established on February 20th, 1792 by President George Washington when he signed in to law congressional legislation that protected the privacy of the mail. Section 17 of the Act originally included the death penalty for robbing a postal delivery official or for stealing mail from a postal facility. In 1872, Congress reduced the felonious punishment to five years in prison. Therefore, any action that would intentionally or unintentionally hinder the delivery of any piece of U.S. mail is illegal. In addition, U.S. Code Title 18, Chapter 83 states "whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this Title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both."
Donald Trump is so damn afraid that Americans will vote him out of office that he's doing everything he can think of - even when it's unlawful to do so - to hamper Americans from voting so he can hijack the election from former Vice President Biden.
We, the people of the United States, cannot allow Donald Trump to undermine democracy. We, as Americans, have the constitutional right to vote without having to put our lives on the line by having to wait in long lines during a pandemic. We, the people of the United States, should not stand in lines and risk our lives in order for us to defend democracy. But, if necessary - for the sake of our country and for the sake of our own futures - we should follow the guidance of Michelle Obama, who on Day One of the Democratic convention - Monday, August 17th, 2020 - the former First Lady did not hold back with the language of her warning. "We've got to be willing to stand in line all night if we have to. We have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it. If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can, and they will, if we don't make a change in this election."
Speaker Pelosi - on Sunday, August 16th, 2020 - tweeted, "Alarmingly, postmaster general DeJoy has acted as an accomplice in the president's effort to cheat the election and manipulate the Postal Service to deny eligible voters access to the ballot in pursuit of his own re-election."
Officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia received letters in July 2020 from the general counsel for the USPS. The correspondence warned 46 states that voters' ballots will likely not reach election officials by November 3rd. Therefore, many votes - perhaps tens of thousands of votes, maybe hundreds of thousands or millions of votes - might not be counted. Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Rhode Island were labeled as safe, with Washington DC a question mark.
But testifying before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday, August 18th, 2020, Postal Service chief DeJoy testified under oath that all mail-in ballots will be delivered "within one to three days" of the election, which is the norm for past elections. DeJoy told the senators that "in some cases" ballots would be delivered "ahead of first class mail," and that "we have plenty of cash" to do the job for the election. He also committed to suspending the removal of any additional sorting machines and blue collection boxes. But the ones that were previously taken out of commission will not be returned to their original locations, nor will they be used at any other locations. DeJoy says, "They're not needed." Post Office managers and carriers nationwide disagree. DeJoy insists that no other Postal Service changes will be made until after the election, and that he never spoke with Trump campaign officials about any Postal Service changes. DeJoy is also adamant that it's a "false narrative" that those changes are designed to hurt mail-in voting.
But the former deputy postmaster general Ronald Stroman - in an interview on Friday, August 21st, 2020 with Nicolle Wallace on her MSNBC program, Deadline: White House - alleges that DeJoy is lying, and that "the mail is being delayed. There is absolutely no question about it." Stroman says there are "internal documents" that order carriers to "leave mail behind. That is a deliberate delay of the mail."
My answer to Stroman's allegations is, if the postmaster general lied under oath to Congress, DeJoy will go to "DeJail."
Jack Nicholson: "You're G-d damn right I did."
And in the House of Representatives...
Congressman Lynch: "Will you put the high-speed machines back?"
Postmaster General DeJoy: "No I will not."
DeJoy was also argumentative as he once again denied that the Postal Service slowdowns are an attempt to reduce voting by mail with this year's election. Yeah, sure Lou. And Joe Biden considered me to be his running mate.
Everyone in America should do as I will do. I plan to hand-deliver my mail-in ballot to my county board of elections long before November 3rd. Even though DeJoy pledged in sworn testimony that all election ballots will be properly delivered in the time frame needed to be counted, no American can trust a single person who is part of "TrumpWorld." And we know we can't trust Donald Trump. Not now. Not ever. The Washington Post says Trump has lied more than 20,000 times since January 20th, 2017.
Trump will continue to wreak havoc with mail-in ballots. He will lie, he will cheat, he will steal. He will do anything and everything in an effort to win the election. So don't let anyone convince you that Trump isn't planning some other method to slow down the mail or to somehow, some way interfere with our election.
Donald Trump is unhinged, reckless and a clear and present danger. Don't let him become a clear and future danger.
Anyone who voted for Donald 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 - metaphorically speaking - lights more and more matches and flicks them into the blazes that are burning down our homeland. Instead of throwing water on the inferno, Trump adds more fuel to the flames and causes catastrophic, ravaging wildfires from coast to coast and beyond. America is in dire need of a President who can calm and heal our nation with leadership, strength and empathy. We had it with Barack Obama. We now need Joe Biden. My metaphor is not only to embrace civil rights, and racial justice and equality - for yes, Black Lives Matter - but my message is also to instill some common sense in to others and to sway whomever I can in to voting for Mr. Biden to be President. For it will be a President Biden who will face head-on the COVID-19 pandemic, our slumping economy, and any other critical issues that haunt Americans today, but that Donald Trump ignores and turns against. Many of the same people who voted for Trump four years ago are today unemployed.
Also giving his speech on Day Two of the convention, and with the Statue of Liberty behind him, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, described the Republican
I have quoted the cinematic writing genius of Aaron Sorkin in other columns, and I already borrowed a couple of his lines earlier in this piece. The quote below I have used in the past, but it's appropriate for this editorial, at this time, during this election season. The line written by Sorkin was for his screenplay of the 1995 film, The American President, directed by Rob Reiner.
Voters didn't realize that fact in 2016 when they should have, but now it's become more and more
It was also on Day Four of the convention when Brayden Harrington tugged at my heartstrings. Brayden met Vice President Biden at a campaign event in New Hampshire. In his moving speech, Brayden was impressive. "Without Joe Biden, I
stuttering by opening up to Brayden about his own stuttering as a child. It's one more encouraging example of Joe Biden's character. Never in his life would we ever see Donald Trump be so compassionate for a child or any other human being. It validates that in America it's truly possible for someone with a disability to grow up and become a United States senator, Vice President of the United States, the Democratic nominee for President, and hopefully, the President of the United States. Who knows? Maybe someday, America will see the name Brayden Harrington on a presidential ballot.
On Friday, August 21st, 2020, on the MSNBC program, Andrea Mitchell Reports, historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author Jon Meacham was on the mark with his rhetorical question about Joe Biden and Brayden Harrington. "Do you want a president of the United States who makes fun of these people, or do you want a President who embraces them?" I think we all know the appropriate answer, as Meacham, of course, knew that we would.
The United States of America needs a President whose character we can admire, who we can respect, and who respects us. The United States of America needs Joe Biden. A President Biden would never lock babies in cages. A President Biden would never belittle or sully the name of the late Senator John McCain, accusing him of not being a hero when he served our country with valor and honor as a U.S. Navy officer and a Vietnam prisoner of war. A President Biden would never disparage a Gold Star mother and father, or a federal
A President Joe Biden will work with Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle. Oh there'll be times when he'll disagree with Republicans, and he'll fight for what he thinks in his heart and soul, at his core, will be best for the American people. But it will be a healthy fight. A President Biden will be against Republican policies, not people. Donald Trump's vengeance has divided our nation. Trump cradles hate towards anyone who isn't loyal to him. A President Joe Biden would never let Americans go hungry or become homeless because of COVID-19. He would make sure - with Congress - that economic relief and emergency funds would be provided to the poor and the middle-class. A President Biden would never do anything to stop the flow of mail or to cut the budget of our post offices and postal workers. And a President Biden would never do anything to harm - but instead to improve and make better - the Affordable Care Act, which Mr. Biden as Vice President was instrumental in helping President Obama so that 20-million Americans could get health insurance and people with pre-existing conditions could be insured. Donald Trump is trying to kill "Obamacare" during a global pandemic.
With 26 Republicans who possess a conscience, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, in a rare, special Saturday session on August 22nd, 2020, passed legislation that gives 25-billion dollars in emergency funds to the U.S. Postal Service. The bill reverses recent cost-cutting operational changes. It passed 257 to 150.
Peppered with a modicum of responsible Republicans whose bravery in going against their GOP colleagues is saluted, Democrats are trying - before the election - to pick up the pieces from Donald Trump's and Louis DeJoy's dismantling of the Postal Service. Representatives who voted in favor of the bill are concerned over the safety and security of voters going to the polls during a health crisis. Forcing anyone to decide whether they should risk exposure to the coronavirus by going to a polling location, or to give up their right to vote this year, is un-American. However, voters who do elect to use mail-in ballots want to be confident that their votes will be counted.
In his testimony before the Senate on Friday, August 21st, 2020, DeJoy refused to restore the cuts he made, nor would he explain how post office managers and carriers will handle the influx of mail-in ballots that need to be postmarked and delivered to election officials by November 3rd. DeJoy is one more odious limb that has sprouted off the merciless and ruthless tree in the Donald Trump forest of indecency and vulgarity.
For the Senate to accept the House bill would need the blessing of Senate
It's long overdue for the Republican caucus to go up against Senator McConnell. However, it's more likely that hell will freeze over before enough GOP senators would defy the authority of their leader. Meanwhile, Donald Trump wants to put the brakes on any emergency funding for the Postal Service, as that would force voters to cast their ballots in person at polling places, not by mail. And since a whole lot of people wouldn't venture out to vote during the pandemic, they might just not vote at all, which helps Trump. All of that being said, even before any such legislation reaches The Oval Office, the measure is not expected to move off McConnell's desk...except into his trash can. Knowing the above, the National Association of Letter Carriers warns that the "survival" of the U.S. Postal Service is at stake with Trump in The White House. The union that boasts about 300,000 active and retired postal workers - on Friday, August 14th, 2020 - endorsed Joe Biden for President.
Before he conspired with DeJoy in an alleged treasonous plot to cripple the Postal Service, Trump floated the notion that he could delay the election. On the morning of July 30th, Trump tweeted, "Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???" But as with everything in the mind of Donald Trump, he thinks he can do whatever he wants because he's Donald Trump. Despite that, if he really moved forward with it, his plan would have been an effort in futility as it is prohibited by federal law to change the date of Election Day. The Constitution cements America's presidential election - as well as the election for Members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives - as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November." If Trump and his Republican rabble-rousers want the law changed, they'd need to knock on Nancy Pelosi's door. And when the Speaker of the House gets off the floor from hysterical laughter, there'd be a better chance for the ghost of former Vice President Spiro Agnew coming back to life and being elected president, before the Democratic-controlled House would ever support to change the date of Election Day. Only an Act of Congress can alter that date.
Despite Trump's ludicrous suggestion to postpone Election Day until after the coronavirus pandemic is done and over with, the 20th Amendment puts a whammy in to his warped thinking. "The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January." Therefore, the terms of Trump and Mike Pence will expire at 12 o'clock noon on January 20th, 2021. If somehow Trump does defeat Vice President Biden on November 3rd, 2020, a Trump/Pence second term would commence at the same hour as their previous terms expired. However, if Joe Biden is elected our 46th
President, America will have handed Trump and Pence their walking papers and they will just have to wave goodbye. Trump can throw one of his temper tantrums, but it won't do a damn bit of good. If need be, the U.S. Marines would be directed by the new President and commander-in-chief to physically - and if necessary, forcibly - remove Trump from The White House.When push came to shove, Trump tossed out his thought (ridiculous as it was) to stick the election in a drawer until COVID-19 was cured. Instead, Trump had to dream up something else to help him cheat in the upcoming election, so he reiterates daily - sometimes hourly - an unsubstantiated fabrication that mail-in voting is blanketed with voter fraud. In the same July 30th tweet noted above, Trump continued to spread more lies, and does so with uppercase letters. "2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history."
The truth is - and anyone with an ounce of brains knows it - Trump is terrified because his poll numbers against Vice President Biden are going down, down, down; primarily because of his monumental failure with the coronavirus pandemic. Numerous voters who had - at one time - been riding on Trump's bandwagon, have jumped on board the Biden bus and are helping him to travel the road to success. Many of
Americans are a forgiving people. But only to a point. Trump's incompetence and his negligence with the COVID-19 pandemic, the cratering economy, and the racial injustice that has crushed our country since the
Excessive force by cops has been in the spotlight since the day of Floyd's inexcusable death - May 25th, 2020 - with nationwide and worldwide protests against White police officers being unjustifiably abusive toward Black suspects. Donald Trump's toxic tongue has given certain people the opportunity to act out their prejudices, whether it be with their fists or with firearms. That cop's knee pressed on George Floyd's neck has become - as The New York Times branded it - "a grim symbol of police brutality." But let's not blame everyone who carries a badge.
After one policeman was unsuccessful in taking down Blake with a stun gun, a second cop attempted to do the same. On the video - that has gone viral on social media - we can see Blake open the driver's side door of his vehicle and lean inside when he was shot. But why shoot him at all? And since he was not armed with a gun, why shoot Blake seven or eight times? And why in the back? Blake is not a very large man. A bullet in a less vital area of his body would have likely weakened him and, at least for the moment, immobilized him so police could restrain him.
No suspect should ever be shot unless there is an immediate and absolute threat to a police officer's life, or to wound the suspect if he is fleeing. From the video at the scene, there is no appearance whatsoever of imminent danger to any of the three cops. Our Constitution provides every individual the right that they are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But that goes both ways and, as such, our Constitution not only protects a suspect of an alleged crime, but the police officers who may have to engage in possible deadly force. Most law enforcement officers are fine, upstanding, considerate people who risk their lives everyday to serve and protect the residents and visitors of their communities. As with any other profession, there are those who do not deserve to be on the job. It is in that light that each city and town nationwide, no matter how large or small, needs to oversee its police department. A joint task force with law enforcement representatives, political figures and citizens of the public should be established. And it should be a multi-racial and multi-ethnic task force. It should look like America in every sense of the word. Similar task forces for county and state police plus sheriff's departments should also be organized.
Meanwhile, Jacob Blake Jr. remains hospitalized in intensive care. Among damage to various internal organs, Blake is paralyzed as the result of what's been described as "a traumatic spinal cord injury." Blake's attorney says his client will require multiple surgeries, but that his pain will be long term and the prognosis for him ever walking again is not promising as it will "take a miracle." The policeman who shot Blake, along with two other officers, have been placed on administrative leave.
People all across America are angry in the wake of another Black man being shot by a White cop. Protests in Kenosha and in cities throughout the United States have been ongoing since shortly after Blake was shot. Federal officials say the Department of Justice is conducting a civil rights investigation in to the shooting.
Donald Trump is pointing his finger of blame at Democrats for the violence that has broken out in several cities across America in the wake of racial injustice this year. Trump argues that the unrest is the fault of Joe Biden and his political party, which makes no sense whatsoever as the sometimes gruesome demonstrations are on Trump's watch. It is Trump who incites the violence by accusing peaceful protesters of being criminals. I remind you that Americans have the constitutional right to exercise peaceful assembly. Vice President Biden condemns violence of any kind and he does not advocate the carnage that has tarnished some of our nation's streets. But although it's a small percentage of cops throughout the United States who paint a ghastly and repulsive portrait of police officers, there is an urgent and legitimate cry for accountability when Black men are killed or severely injured by White cops, or - for that matter - there needs accountability when anyone is shot or harmed by a law enforcement representative. Trump falsely brags that he is the "law and order" president. But Donald Trump thrives on lawlessness and disorder. It's one more part of the Trump playbook that gives him a reason to maliciously target Democrats, which energizes his base.
Donald Trump is trying very hard to make it difficult for all Americans to get their ballots this fall, and he undoubtedly is in a state of panic over the African-American community. A poll by The Washington Post and Ipsos shows that 92 percent of Black registered voters are in Joe Biden's camp. Whether a person's skin color is Black, White, Brown, Yellow or Red, to disenfranchise the voters of our country goes
against every syllable of democracy that is embedded in the souls of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, and other "Founding Fathers" of our nation. I say the souls of these giants of American history because although slavery hadn't ended for nearly a century after the birth of our nation, I want to believe that today our Founders - wherever they and their souls may be - regret some of their own choices from the late 1700s. They would also be enraged and would not tolerate the killing, or even the wounding, of the U.S. 
Postal Service. And Americans today should follow that same thesis. We, the people of the United States, cannot allow Donald Trump to put a bullet through the heart of the U.S. mail system and strip us of our liberties, which are afforded to us as citizens of this great land. Thousands of people died before the signing of our Declaration of Independence so we could live today as Americans, under our own Constitution, and with our own red, white and blue flag waving "o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave." We, the people of the United States, cannot permit Trump to further his agenda, which would lead innocent, law-abiding individuals to become shackled in Trump's own private dungeon of racism, bigotry, and xenophobia.The level of corruption that is Donald Trump, his presidency, and his administration knows no boundaries, and knows no depths. Trump is kidnapping the constitutional rights of each and every American.
But no decent, patriotic American should give Donald Trump carte blanche to move in a direction that helps nobody but himself. That's not the United States of America. We cannot give Trump the freedom to hold our mail hostage. He will clandestinely meddle in our election to fraudulently find a way that could take him to victory. It will be up to the vast majority of Americans to make certain that he loses.
At a time when the unemployment rate is still swinging through the stratosphere, Senate Republican leadership decided that lawmakers should take a vacation. Senators are not scheduled to return to Washington until after Labor Day, which isn't until September 7th. Americans need money to survive during the pandemic but the Republicans won't go back to work to help. Disgraceful. The House is not in session either right now, but Democrats would return early to accommodate the people of our country.
More than 58-million Americans have filed for unemployment since the COVID-19 pandemic began in mid-March 2020. With more than 30-million Americans still out of a job, GOP senators don't seem to give a damn whether their constituents can pay their rent, put food on the table, or cover their other monthly expenses. How can congressional Republicans let people go hungry; especially children? Shame on them.
The World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11th, 2020. It was two days later on March 13th when a national emergency was declared in the United States. But why did it take so long for Donald Trump to alert Americans that a pandemic could be coming? If there was a way to legally charge Trump with a crime for his dereliction of duty, I would push for it. Under U.S. Code Title 10, Section 892, Article 92, a service member in any branch of the United States military can be charged with the offense of dereliction of duty. But the statute does not apply to the commander-in-chief. In spite of that, we must never forget that Trump ignored
Let's not forget that at a news conference on March 9th, 2020, Trump wrongly compared the coronavirus to the seasonal flu. Prior to that, the crackpot conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh - a big fan and longtime friend of Trump's - on February 24th, 2020, tried to convince his
audience that "the coronavirus is the common cold." Limbaugh wanted his "dittohead" listeners to believe that he was "dead right on this," and that to call COVID-19 anything more than a cold is merely "another element to bring down Donald Trump."We all know that lying is part of Trump's DNA. He has lied about COVID-19 since day one. The following lists some of Trump's deception from January 2020 until the pandemic became official.
January 22nd, 2020 - "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China." WRONG!
February 2nd, 2020 - "We pretty much shot it down, coming in from China." WRONG!
February 10th, 2020 - "You know in April, supposedly it dies with the hotter weather." WRONG!
February 14th, 2020 - "When it gets warm, historically that has been able to kill the virus." WRONG!
February 26th, 2020 - "We're going to be pretty soon at only five people. And we could be at just one or two people over the next short period of time. So we've had very good luck." WRONG! And later, at the same press briefing, "And again, when you have fifteen people, and the fifteen within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done." WRONG!
February 27th, 2020 - and this lie gets first prize for his pre-pandemic comments - "It's going to disappear. One day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear." WRONG!
February 28th, 2020 - At a campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump targeted Democrats and the news media for being the culprits of mass hysteria throughout the United States, and that the coronavirus was nothing more than a political "hoax." WRONG!
March 2nd, 2020 - "They're gonna have vaccines. I think relatively soon." WRONG!
March 3rd, 2020 - "Not only the vaccines but the therapies. Therapies is sort of another word for cure." WRONG!
March 4th, 2020 - "We're talking about very small numbers in the United States." WRONG!
March 6th, 2020 - "Our numbers are lower than just about anybody." WRONG!
March 12th, 2020 - "It's gonna go 'way." WRONG! (At least not anytime soon).
March 13th, 2020 - "No. I don't take responsibility at all." But you ARE responsible, Donald, so once again...WRONG!
March 17th, 2020 - On this day, the pandemic was already official worldwide for six days and Trump attempted to rewrite history - which he has tried to do numerous times throughout his presidency, for one reason or another. "I felt it was a pandemic, long before it was called a pandemic. I've always viewed it as very serious." WRONG! No, Donald, you didn't. That's a lie! Remember, you claimed it was a "hoax."
The wallets of the American consumers need to be fattened. But until the coronavirus pandemic is under control, there won't be much money to put in the piggy banks. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has a cavalier attitude about COVID-19. For Trump and some in his administration, it's almost as if the coronavirus was a thing of the past. Still - according to Wednesday, August 26th, 2020 statistics, provided by the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center - an average
Joe Biden is willing to take the advice of others. As President, Joe Biden will listen to science experts in the battle against the coronavirus and in an effort to save the planet Earth by discovering solutions for global warming and climate change.
Also from his momentous convention speech, Joe Biden assured all Americans that as President, "We'll put the politics aside and take the muzzle off our experts so the public gets the information they need and deserve. The honest, unvarnished truth."
Donald Trump thinks he's smarter than everybody. Trump believes he knows more about everything than anyone else in the world. This narcissistic egomaniac has actually told us that he's a "very stable genius." Clearly, there's enough evidence to prove that he's absolutely not.
Trump's flaws take him in to a scope that ranges from despicable to insane. No, I do not have a degree in psychiatry or psychology, and even if I did, I suppose I'd have to actually give Trump a complete and thorough mental examination. However, for years, it has been my theory that Trump is a sociopath or psychopath, and a 2017 study by Harvard University "shows psychopathic brains are wired in a way that can lead to dangerous and violent actions." If Trump doesn't medically fit that description, then the only other logical answer is that he's simply a terrible person who doesn't care who he hurts as long as the results are beneficial to him. Trump's mental state, in my opinion, does not equal the capacity of any other political figure - Democrat or Republican - and that when he spewed his venom about Mexicans
recommendation should be enough evidence that not only is Donald Trump UNstable, he is demented, and, therefore, unfit to serve as president of the United States. The following is the language used - Trump's exact word for word quote - as he proposed the possibility of cleaning agents being inoculated into humans to kill the coronavirus.
"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, or almost a cleaning? 'Cause you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs."
It's irrefutable that the coronavirus can be and has been lethal. Yet Trump publicly submits that, in essence, drinking a bottle of bleach could solve our COVID-19 problems. If you think Trump isn't crazy, then perhaps you're off-the-wall too.
Trump is as inept with his mathematical skills as he is unqualified with leading our country. On July 5th, 2020, Trump downplayed the severity of COVID-19 as he falsely claimed that "99 percent" of all coronavirus cases are "totally harmless." Well, to fact-check Trump, it's worth reminding everyone a second time in this column that there have been, to date, nearly 6-million cases of coronavirus in the United States, and a current death total of more than 183,000. That's more than 3 percent of all COVID-19 cases, which result in a fatal outcome. Only someone who is viciously wicked, or is sick in the head, would label 183,000 deaths as "totally harmless."
One month later on August 5th, 2020, as Trump pushed for children to go back to school as scheduled in late August or early September - he issued another lie that affects the lives of students and teachers. "If you look at children, children are almost - and I would almost say definitely - but almost immune from this disease. So few. Hard to believe. I don't know how you feel about it but they have much stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this. They don't have a problem. They just don't have a problem." However, data released in early August by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia documents children as victims in about 7.3 percent of all coronavirus cases, and that kids account for less than 1 percent of deaths. But on August 11th, 2020, a new analysis by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association reported that between July 9th and August 6th, there were 179,990 new COVID-19 cases among U.S. children, and that there's been at least 380,174 total cases of coronavirus reported in kids as of August 6th. Since the onset of the pandemic, the American Academy of Pediatrics says that as of August 24th, 442,785 children have been tested positive with the coronavirus, which represents 9.3 percent of all cases. So no, Donald, children are not "almost immune" from COVID-19.
The night before the start of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump - on Sunday, August 23rd, 2020 - for some strange reason held a press conference to tell Americans of a COVID-19 treatment that more than 70,000 patients have already received. The emergency authorization by the Trump administration for the use of convalescent plasma is not a wondrous medical discovery that needed immediate attention.
So what is convalescent plasma? It's the antibody-rich blood product that is drawn from patients who have been afflicted with the coronavirus, but have recovered from the disease. Infusing a sick person with convalescent plasma antibodies should theoretically boost the immune system to fight off COVID-19. Since convalescent plasma is already widely used, "the reality," Dr. Gupta says, "is that this is not going to change anything." Treatment using convalescent plasma has shown some benefit to certain coronavirus patients, but there is no conclusive evidence about its effectiveness and the proper dosage. Dr. Gupta says, "The database is still developing" because there have been no studies that compare patients who received convalescent plasma, to a control group of individuals who received a placebo.
For my money, Trump's Sunday night news conference was one of his con job games. He "played politics" with his announcement about convalescent plasma in order to give his base of supporters a shot in the arm (pun intended) prior to the Republican Convention that began the next night. Mixing politics with drug therapeutics is unethical. But that's Donald Trump.
Trump's actions beg to question if the Food and Drug Administration was pressured by The White House to make such an announcement because of Trump's claim - which lacks any evidence - that, "The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people, in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics." Trump has blamed the FDA of delaying approval of a coronavirus vaccine until after the November election. Most scientific and medical experts believe the earliest a vaccine could be available is sometime in 2021.
Trump's deceit, his deficiency, and his delusional demeanor has caused much doom, gloom and despair in America. So when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win on November 3rd, I will feel as if I've taken a laxative. I will be soooooooo relieved.
It is unthinkable to imagine Donald Trump in The White House for another four years. Trump is a killer shark who has polluted the waters of our country with his lack of leadership and his lies.
Donald Trump is a hatemonger. He is the trademark for hate. Trump provokes violence, and he inflames ignorant prejudices that have no place in 21st Century America.
At a Florida rally in May 2019, Trump's incendiary immigration rhetoric allegedly became the cause of a mass shooting in Texas less than three months later. About the Mexicans and other Latinos crossing the border in to the United States, Trump questioned his crowd of worshipers. "How do you stop these people?" A supporter shouted, "Shoot them!" A president with integrity would have politely scolded the individual. But Trump responded with a joke. "That's only in the (Florida) panhandle you can get away with this stuff." In August 2019, a deranged gunman followed the guidance of the man at the Trump rally who Trump wasn't critical of but basically agreed with by his laughter. A racist in the northern part of Texas drove 650 miles through "The Lone Star State" and killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso. The shooter, who was Caucasian, confessed to the murders and allegedly wrote in his manifesto that he murdered the people as a "response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas." The word "invasion" had been widely used by Trump throughout his campaign against Spanish-speaking immigrants coming to America. The El Paso shooting is considered by authorities as the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history. The shooter's manifesto promoted far-right, white supremacy.
Criminals come in all shapes and sizes, all ages, all races and ethnic backgrounds, and in all income brackets. People can commit crimes by wielding a gun, and people can commit crimes by employing money and power.
The Trump Campaign and some members of the Trump administration may find themselves in a cauldron of legal hot water. During the Republican National Convention - from Monday, August 24th through Thursday, August 27th, 2020 - they violated The Hatch Act, which restricts federal employees of the Executive Branch of government from participating in partisan political activities. To do so is illegal. Trump and his campaign broke the law by holding convention events and speeches at The White House and on other federal land. Both Donald Trump and Mike Pence are exempt from any Hatch Act regulations as a president and vice president are not covered by the terms of the law. I suppose lawmakers never thought that a president and vice president would take advantage in such a way. But then, they didn't know Donald Trump.
members like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speak, Trump and the Republican Party blatantly abused the power of the presidency. And clearly, they don't care. They don't care about breaking the law, throwing our (lowercase) democratic norms out the window, and abusing power as long as it increases their chances of keeping and increasing their political power. And they're hoping none of us notice or care either. Well, I care. You care. These laws matter, and they were written explicitly to prevent a corrupt president like this from abusing the presidency for personal gain."America has no king or queen, and The White House is not a royal palace. It's "The People's House" not Donald Trump's personal theme park. To see Trump give his 2020 acceptance speech on the South Lawn of The White House was nauseating. Trump's behavior on Thursday, August 27th to totally disregard every grain of decency and every fiber of decorum that past Presidents have recognized with reverence was disgusting. To take The White House grounds with its pristine landscape and convert it in to a dirty carnival mutation gut-punches the foundation of our country's rule of law.
Barry Goldwater of Arizona - took a walk down Pennsylvania Avenue from Capitol Hill to The White House and rang the alarm to President Nixon that his presidency was coming to an end. Goldwater basically informed the 37th President that there were not enough votes in Congress to save him and that he would be impeached by the House of
Donald Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on December 18th, 2019. But GOP senators - who control that chamber of Congress - were afraid of losing support by their constituents; most of whom were, at least at the time, part of Trump's devoted base. So Republicans (except for Mitt Romney, as noted earlier) cared about themselves, and they cared about Trump. They didn't care about our country. And look where we are today. On February 5th, 2020, the Senate acquitted Trump on charges of obstruction of justice and abuse of power.
As with his impeachment trial, Trump thinks he can get away with another crime. He wants to assassinate the United States Constitution so he can purloin the presidency from Joe Biden and, by swindling, illegally claim victory for a second term. On Monday, August 17th, 2020, at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, Trump told his crowd of loyal voters, "The only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged." No, Donald. The only way you're going to win this election is if YOU rig it...and then get away with another crime. Trump is attempting to rape each American voter of our freedoms as if he ripped off our pants and violated our bodies. No way, Donald. We're not going to let you do it.
Our Founding Fathers gave us the freedoms we cherish as Americans. Those freedoms are precious. Donald Trump wants to swipe our liberties away from us. He wants to shred The Bill of Rights. Trump is a fascist. He is an autocrat-wannabe. His sole mission in life is to have the absolute power of a tyrant; to rule the United
States and the people of it as he so desires. His ambition in life is to emulate and imitate Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong-un. Trump even told us so on June 15th, 2018. With a serious tone, Trump told Fox News more than two years ago that he yearns for Americans to treat him as North Koreans do Kim. "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. There was no blurred vision for anyone who was watching, as Trump was definitely not kidding around. The sight (and the sound) were 20/20. Trump and his nefarious subordinates want the United States to lose everything that our Founders fought so hard to create and to give us. Donald Trump wants to rule America with himself as its monarch, its king, its emperor. If you voted for Trump four years ago, don't do it this year. The polls show that many of you regret your decision to vote for
The evil cancer that is Donald Trump will metastasize if Americans don't make a surgical incision with our votes. Cut the Trump tumor out of our national body before it kills us all.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
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