TRUMP AND RACISISM

A Daily Beast article by Mike Barnicle says it all about the 4^th of July. It reads. “I…..Thought about a man standing in the shadow of Mt. Rushmore Friday night, seemingly intent on provoking a 21^st-century civil war. Division is his dream. 

Duplicity is his principle tool as he feasts on resentment while knowingly provoking bitterness within those who may feel left out or left behind in a land where a whole class of citizens is frightened and anxious thinking economic security, their very future, their children’s future, is being stolen by “the other,” by “them” an angry man in the shadow of four of our greatest presidents eager, willing, and very ready to exploit and aggravate.

….right now in this divided, exhausted, angry, self-doubting, and not so aptly named United States of America, we are in a moment that must not be missed. Now is our time to think and remember not so much who we are but who we really want to be.

 And in order to make our mark on this singularly unique moment, we must show up in November to make sure the man who stood at the foot of Mt. Rushmore and in front of the Lincoln Memorial is sent into the shadow of history, humiliated by defeat and the knowledge that Americans want something he cannot deliver, an end to the race war, the class divisions, the constant fear of a virus, a shattered economy, incompetence, corruption, and the premeditated cruelty of a fraud who stole our Forth of July and is trying to steel our country too.”

The Washington Post wrote “Trump’s push to amplify racism unnerves Republicans who have long enabled him.” Trump’s allies have said his words and actions are not racist but rather attentive to his core voters. “White House spokesperson Sara Matthews rejected the suggestion that the president has amplified racism”.  So he’s not racist only his followers are?

Is Donald a racist? No question. When he claimed Obama was born in Kenya that was a racist troupe. When he came down the elevator and claimed Mexicans were killers and rapists, that was racist. When he re-tweets racist messages, degrading a judge’s ethnic background because he ruled against you is racist. Trump saying, “There were good people on both sides” was elevating the KKK and the white supremacists behavior as normal for his followers is racist.  His support for or not taking a position on Confederate symbols and monuments is racist.

RACE TO THE BOTTOM

In a race to the bottom, this administration has said all foreign students must attend classes and cannot stay with a student visa with on line learning. Foreign students are some of the best and brightest from everywhere in the world. These individuals are multilingual and would score 10-15% higher than most typical American college students on IQ tests. They bring cultural and ethnic ideas that could better our society. They bring in diversity and new ideas and methods. Large numbers of the graduates do very well and are allowed to remain on visas and contribute in all STEM areas. 

In addition, the Trump administration is also being cruel by separating children from parents. Yes this practice is still going on. The policy was originally designed as a deterrent from the caravans of Central American migrants seeking asylum. The policy became secret after it being exposed by the media. Why would a policy that was built to be a deterrent become secret? The potential answer is cruelty and for profit incarceration. 

USC has already announced on-line classes for the fall semester due to the continued Covid infections. 25% of the students at USC are foreign. Foreign students contribute 40 billion dollars to our economy and pay the highest tuition rates. Over 1 million foreign students currently attend U.S. schools. Is Trump using this as a pressure tactic to open schools without regard to public health? There is no more normal when it comes to education. Harvard also has announced all virtual classrooms and the $50,000 tuition has not changed.

It’s election season and the caravans have yet to arrive from Central America. Would Trump encourage migrants so he can rail about another caravan?

COVID-19 UPDATE-TRUMP FAILURES

Is this lack of action a smoke screen for the lack of having a handle on the Covid-19 virus that is spiraling out of control? The spike in cases look like the result of the encouragement by Trump to open early in red states, and they are now suffering the consequences. 

According to Dr. Fauci, we are still in the first phase of the virus. Hospitalizations are surging and the virus is spreading rapidly in the south. It is now estimated that the death toll will be 208,000 by November 1^st. Donald Trump is pro-virus in his actions. Flaunting CDC guidelines in his rallies, not wearing a mask, encouraging opening where the guidelines have not been met.

 Trump is insisting that schools re-open in the fall. Schools in New York, where the city has managed to lower the curve and has testing and tracing in place is ok, however, cities and states where the virus is still on the rise, should make the decision for themselves. Trump’s attitude is “it’s here live with it”.  Trump said he would put pressure on governors and everyone else to open the schools. Testing, isolation, contact-tracing, masks, and spacing of students are all necessary to open safely. Where is testing? Cases on the rise in 37 states as of June 7, 2020.  Testing is so bad in some cases it’s 5-7 days for results all that time without symptoms someone could be spreading the virus all this time.

Due to large numbers of hospitalizations, PPE are now becoming critical again. Thanks again to Peter Navarro the guru of PPE for this administration. 

No one should be complacent because the rate of infection is rising higher than the mortality rate. This could be explained in three ways. The first is the potential of the younger party-goers to be less likely to have serious pre-conditions and fewer deaths. The second rationale is the lag of infection to hospitalizations to deaths. If my thoughts were cynical I would say his encouragement and total disregard for public health is a ploy to suppress the vote. The third is better care and understanding what works for recovery and treatment success.

There is hope in a drug being developed that will produce more antibodies than someone who has recovered from the virus. This, as well as a few other similar drugs are in trials and should be available by the end of the year, if trials go well and the drugs are approved.  The life cycle of the antibody will be critical. If the drug’s antibody production has a short effective life span, everyone should be inoculated at or near the same time to be effective, or a booster shot to insure wiping out the virus.

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Never lose sight of Trump’s treasonous behavior in that he is not either seeking answers or condemning Putin for putting bounties on our Troops. Why? Labeling it a hoax does not work. The intelligence was good enough to warn our coalition. You ignored your security advisors and did not read your daily brief, the exalted PDB. Treason, incompetence or ignorance… does it matter which one?