~SUMMARY~
The biggest story of the Trump presidency continues to be his responsibility for a conservatively estimated half — equaling 79,134 to date — of all U.S. coronavirus deaths. Note that the U.S. accounts for 4.3% of Earth’s population but 22% of the world’s total COVID-19 deaths. This is all you need to know to refute Donald’s lies about how well he’s handled the pandemic. Then there’s this week’s other presidential headlines, any one of which would implode another administration. In spite of thousands of needless deaths and consistent attacks on our Constitution, rule of law, institutions, and governmental norms, Mr. Trump’s Republican enablers in Congress — even the ones who secretly loathe him — remain unmoved. “Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head, And pretend that he just doesn’t see? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind. The answer is blowin’ in the wind.” (B. Dylan) (scroll down for full article)
~RECENT HEADLINES~
“PANDEMIC: Herman Cain (R-GA) Dead of COVID-19 After Attending Trump Tulsa Rally” (7/30/2020)
“Funeral of Civil Rights Icon John Lewis (D-GA); Obama, Clinton, Bush Speak; Trump Snubs” (7/30/2020)
“Trump Tweet-Floats Delaying Election, Continues to Sow Doubt in U.S. Democracy; WSJ, National Review, Almost all GOP Allies Immediately Shut Down Suggestion, Many Criticizing Pres.” (7/30/2020)
“Appeals Court Throws out Panel’s Michael Flynn Case Dismissal; Full Court Will Hear Case” (7/30/2020)
“PROTESTS: Calm Returns to Portland After Federal Troops Withdraw” (7/31/2020)
“PANDEMIC: Jared Kushner Aborted National Testing Plan Because Most States Initially Hit Hard Were Blue; WH Cared Less About Dem Lives, Thought They Could Blame Dem Govs. This Way” (7/31/2020)
“ECONOMY: GOP Senate Allows Unemployment Benefits, Eviction Moratorium to Lapse” (7/31/2020)
“Trump’s New USPS Head Slowing Mail System, Many Suspect to Void Mail-in Ballots” (7/31/2020)
“U.S. Amb. to Brazil Reported to Have Asked Brazil for Tariff ‘favor’ to Help Reelect Trump” (7/31/2020)
“PANDEMIC: Johns Hopkins University Declares, ‘It’s time to reset’ U.S. Response” (8/1/2020)
“PANDEMIC: Records for Cases and Deaths Continue to Be Set Across U.S.” (8/3/2020)
“Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance: Trump Probe Goes Far Beyond Hush Payments: ‘Possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Org. … possible bank and insurance fraud’” (8/3/2020)
“Trump Slams Mail-in Voting, Predicts Mail Delays, Implements USPS Policies to Delay” (8/3/2020)
“PANDEMIC: Task Force Dr. Birx Warns of Dangerous Spread; Trump Calls Her ‘pathetic’” (8/3/2020)
“Trump In-Depth Interview by Axios’ Jonathan Swan; Trump Was Totally Inept, Mendacious, Clueless and Unempathetic to Virus Deaths; Swan Masterful in Holding Interviewee Accountable” (8/3/2020)
“PANDEMIC: Cases Surge in Many Midwest States Thought to Have Gained Control” (8/4/2020)
“Beirut Port Explosion Kills 100+, Injures 1,000s; Trump Prematurely Calls It an ‘attack’” (8/4/2020)
“Trump Orders Census Count Stopped 1 Mo. Early After Initially Extending 1 Mo.” (8/4/2020)
“Trump Administration Sues Nevada to Stop Its Mail-in Voting Plan; Pres. Defends FL’s Plan” (8/4/2020)
“Trump Continues Lying About Delivering ‘tremendous’ Health Care Plan, Keeps Delaying” (8/5/2020)
“PANDEMIC: 6 States Form Testing Coalition in Response to Zero Trump Leadership” (8/5/2020)
“PANDEMIC: U.S.: 10th Straight Day of 1,000-Plus Deaths” (8/5/2020)
“PANDEMIC: Facebook Deletes Trump Videos Due to ‘harmful [lying] covid misinformation’” (8/5/2020)
“PANDEMIC: Trump Keeps Lying: ‘Children are almost immune’; Experts Keep Refuting” (8/5/2020)
“GOP Operatives Been Working to Get Kanye West on Ballot in Swing States to Help Trump” (8/5/2020)
“NY DA Says Deutsche Bank Has Turned Over Subpoenaed Trump Finances Last Year” (8/5/2020)
“Interim State Dept. IG Resigns After 3 Mos. Due to Trump/British Open Corruption Probe” (8/5/2020)
“ECONOMY: 1.2M Jobless Claims This Wk., 20th Straight of 1M+ New Claims” (8/6/2020)
“PANDEMIC: U.S. Has 4.3% of World Population, 22% World COVID-19 Deaths” (8/6/2020)
“PANDEMIC: U.S./World: 4.8M/18.8M Cases; 158.3K/708.3K Deaths; 7:58 a.m. ET” (8/6/2020)
“PANDEMIC: Conservatively Estimated Trump Malfeasance Deaths This Week: 3,776 (8/6/2020)
__________
COVID-19 Deaths
2/06/2020 — U.S.: 1 | World: 620
3/05/2020 — U.S.: 12 | World: 3,293
4/02/2020 — U.S.: 5,137 | World: 48,284
5/07/2020 — U.S.: 73,431 | World: 264,189
6/04/2020 — U.S.: 107,175 | World: 386,464
7/30/2020 — U.S.: 150,716 | World: 667,693
8/06/2020 — U.S.: 158,268 | World: 708,278
(COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University; approximately 8 a.m. each day)
8/06/2020 — Conservatively Estimated Trump Malfeasance Deaths: 79,134
(Ersin, Tom; “Pandemic Deaths Due to Trump Malfeasance: 68,709 – so Far”; GraniteWord.com; 7/16/2020; as conservatively extrapolated from COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University; 8/6/2020.)
This Week
The biggest story of the Trump presidency continues to be his responsibility for a conservatively estimated half — equaling 79,134 to date — of all U.S. coronavirus deaths. Note that the U.S. accounts for 4.3% of Earth’s population but 22% of the world’s total COVID-19 deaths. This is all you need to know to refute Donald’s lies about how well he’s handled the pandemic and how under control he has it.
The deaths come on top of the other presidential headlines this past week alone, any one of which would implode another administration.
In spite of tens of thousands of needless deaths and consistent attacks on our Constitution, rule of law, institutions, and governmental norms, Mr. Trump’s Republican enablers in Congress — even the ones who secretly loathe him and most of what he stands for — remain unmoved.
“Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?
“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind”
(Dylan, Bob; “Blowin’ in the Wind”; The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan [LP vinyl album]; 1963.)
My good friend and American philosopher Bob O. reminded me of the significance of this verse, in the iconic 1963 Dylan song, to the willful ignorance of GOP legislators today. He pointed out that in the Old Testament, Book of Ezekiel, there is mention of having ears but not hearing, eyes but not seeing. And the lesson still is being learned 2,600 years hence.
This Week’s Headlines — Any One Would Implode Another Presidency
Last Thursday, President Trump tweet-floated the idea of delaying the November 3 election until sometime after, when people felt safe voting in person — because absentee voting is a hoax, or a scam, or a fraud, or something. This idea was shot down immediately by prominent conservative media outlets and lawmakers. But it accomplished two things important to the president: 1) the resulting national discussion and outrage contributed to his un-American doubt-sowing in the U.S. electoral system; and 2) it took the focus off 150,000-plus COVID-19 deaths, for which Mr. Trump still has no plan to address.
Last Friday it was reported that the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was appointed to oversee the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. in its early days of manifestation. He had commissioned a national testing plan, then aborted it after observing that only Democratic states were being affected. Mr. Kushner decided it would be better politically to leave the testing response solely to the states (a plan his father-in-law enthusiastically approved), to allow the administration to blame blue-state (Democratic) governors for the pandemic later on.
Last Friday it was reported that President Trump’s U.S. ambassador to Brazil asked that government for a “favor” to help reelect our president. Ambassador Todd Chapman informed Brazilian officials that a favorable ethanol tariff decision would help reelect Trump by strengthening his support in Iowa, a crucial swing state.
On Monday, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in court filings that his office’s current probe of Mr. Trump’s finances goes far beyond hush money payments to two of Donald’s paramours. The filing stated Trump’s offenses involve “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization … possible bank and insurance fraud.”
It’s been determined that President Trump’s recently installed head of the U.S. Postal Service has made significant policy changes to slow down drastically mail delivery across the country. What’s notable is the president has been denouncing absentee voting consistently, predicting ballot delays (and non-existent fraud), and now has implemented policies through his appointee that will ensure the mail-ballot delays he’s predicted. The Trump administration also is suing Nevada for implementing mail-in voting.
President Trump has ordered the ongoing census count to be halted one month early. He originally extended the cut-off date by one month due to office closures and a greatly impeded process caused by the pandemic. Mr. Trump, however, since has determined an earlier count stop will benefit him politically because the harder-to-find-and-count population likely would not be MAGA supporters.
“Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head, And pretend that he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind, The answer is blowin’ in the wind” ■
Trump Corruption Chronicles — We Must Never Forget
Leave a Reply