Wednesday, June 24, 2020

TRUMP SLOWING CORONAVIRUS TESTING IN AN ATTEMPT TO HIDE INCOMPETENCE

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY
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TRUMP SLOWING CORONAVIRUS TESTING IN AN ATTEMPT TO HIDE INCOMPETENCE


This is my opus to Donald Trump. It pretty much says it all about this man. It addresses his incompetent response to the pandemic, his failure to protect the lives of our troops from the Russians, his shady to outright criminal character, and how it negatively impacts the nation.  

We’ve never seen a President like this one before, and hopefully, we’ll never see one like him again. He’s selfish, incompetent, and completely willing to conspire with the Russians – or any other country - to promote his own interests. With Trump, America doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters for Trump, is Donald J. Trump himself.

I didn’t write this piece for any personal benefit or recognition; I wrote it to plant a seed, and in the hope that other writers will find something of value in it to build upon. So if you’re a writer, don’t worry about attribution, just take whatever you find of value and forge it into your own. There are some issues important enough to put our self-interests aside and work on as a group. I think this is one of them. So let’s make this a group effort, authored by us all. As writers, we have a responsibility to help the American people understand what we’re dealing with here. Let us do that, for the sake of the country, and for the sake of all those who died to preserve this great experiment. Let us spread the word, and educate the people.

I’ve always said that Donald Trump was a completely self-absorbed lunatic, and now he’s laid absolute proof of that fact at our feet. He recently said the following:
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"I think we put ourselves at a disadvantage. I told my people. I said we've gotten so good at testing - number one we have the best tests, number two we have the most tests - we catch much more than any other nation. So you hear about all these cases. So instead of doing 25 million cases, let's say we did 10 million tests we'd look like we're doing much better, cuz we'd have far fewer cases."
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Yeah, and it would also coverup the piss-poor and incompetent job you're doing in managing the crisis. Trump is known for avoiding responsibility. Now he's casually asking us to sacrifice our lives to help him cover up his own incompetence, and in spite of the fact that he's clearly stating - out in the open! - that optics is more important than American lives, a few idiots are showing up at his rallies to do just that.
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This is not just your garden variety ignorance we're talking about here - this is world-class stupidity. We're in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, and instead of being solely focused on saving lives, the President of the United States is focused on how finding out who has the disease, and how it's being spread, is making him  look bad. 
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With over 120,000 Americans dead, and the rate of deaths still climbing, no other politician would even think of slowing down the rate of testing, and even if they were so mindlessly self-absorbed that they did think about it, they certainly wouldn’t say it out loud on national television. But that’s one of Trump’s shortcomings, he can’t think without moving his lips. That’s why he can’t carryout a plan of any kind, because he can’t prevent himself from going on Twitter and telling the world about it. That's just his nature. He's so insecure, and so desperately in need of admiration that he wants the world to know that every thought that comes out of the administration comes from him. But unfortunately, most of them are stupid and have to be walked back immediately thereafter.
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In addition, every time he finds someone in his administration who is actually competent, he's so insecure that he fires them immediately, because he can't afford to have their excellence stand in contrast to his stupidity. Trump's gross insecurity causes him to see mere competence as an affront to him, because he sees it as an attempt to overshadow him. He considers simple competence in others as an attempt to mock him. Trump is a man who is in a constant struggle to hide his inadequacies. As a result, he has an administration full of idiots, and the only people who can possibly support such a man, or administration, are other idiots.
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Trump is also transparent. Whatever he accuses his opponent of doing, or whenever something is weighing heavily on his mind, you can bet your home on the fact that he's going to find away of spewing it all over Twitter. That allows us to always know exactly what he's thinking. That’s how we should have known that his health was deteriorating. When he accused Joe Biden of becoming old and feeble, that should have immediately told us that Trump was having some sort of health issue, long before it became clear that he couldn’t lift a glass of water or walk down a ramp.
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Any close observer of Trump knows that when Trump becomes fixated on an issue, he’s much too much of an idiot to prevent himself from telegraphing what’s weighing on his mind to the world. That's why when he started calling Hillary Clinton "Crooked Hillary", that should have alerted us that he was engaged in some kind of nefarious activity, and now that he's started accusing Barack Obama of treason, that tells us that he's worried about the revelations in John Bolton's book or something much more serious. So all we have to do is listen to Trump, and he'll tell us everything we need to know about he's up to.
Michael McFaul, a former ambassador to Russia and a professor of political science at Stanford University, said, “I hope the American people will be as outraged as I am over Trump’s complacency. After he knew about these Putin-ordered contracts to kill US soldiers, Trump invited Putin to the G7.”
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And John Weaver, a Republican political consultant who helped found the anti-Trump Lincoln Project group, also expressed outrage, tweeting, “Trump knew Russia was paying bounties on the lives of American servicemen in Afghanistan. He took no action against Putin. Instead, @realDonaldTrump REWARDED Putin by trying to insert Russia back into the G-7. And, [if that was] not enough, withdrawing 25,000 American troops from Germany.” 
In response to the accusation, Trump tweeted, "Nobody briefed or told me, @VP Pence, or Chief of Staff @MarkMeadows about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians, as reported through an 'anonymous source' by the Fake News @nytimes. Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us....."
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In response to Trump's tweet, the mere fact that he claims not to have been aware of something as threatening to our troops, and the nation, as that, is clear evidence of gross incompetence in itself. What else is going on in the world while he's playing golf that he doesn't know about?  On the other hand, if he did know about it and still cuddled up to Putin, it's treason, so either way, it's unacceptable. So there's no plausible way to lie his way out of this one.
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SO WHY WOULD TRUMP DO THESE THINGS?

The answer as to why Trump would be so forgiving of Russian aggression is quite simple –
after going into bankruptcy 6 times, the Russians came to Trump's rescue when American banks wouldn't touch him, and chances are, even now he's only keeping his head above water because Russian oligarchs are using his name and businesses to launder stolen money. That explains why he's so desperate to keep his finances hidden.
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Foreign Policy Magazine (fp.com) reported, “Rep. Adam Schiff indicated that ‘We’re going to be looking at the issue of possible money laundering by the Trump Organization, and Deutsche Bank is one obvious place to start,’ he said. A 2017 report by Reuters, citing public documents, interviews and corporate records, also found that at least 63 Russians or people with Russian addresses bought nearly $100 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded Florida luxury buildings.”

In addition, Trump repeatedly lied to the American people all through the 2016 election campaign. He repeatedly claimed that, "I have no business dealings in Russia." But we now know that all while he was making that claim to the American people, he was in deep negotiations with the Russians to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. He even offered Vladimir Putin a $50 million penthouse apartment in the tower. But there was a problem - the Russian bank, VTB, that was lined up to finance the deal was under U.S. sanctions, which blocked them from taking part in the deal. Could that be why Trump has gone out of his way to remove Russian sanctions? 
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It is now clear that everything Trump does or says is designed to promote his own private interests and provide comfort to Vladimir Putin and the Russians, and Rudy Giuliani, his own attorney, knows it. That’s why when Trump’s own staff and American foreign service professionals started spilling the beans in the Congressional Impeachment Hearings, Giuliani said, “If I disappear I have an insurance policy. All of the documents on the Bidens are going to be released”. That seems to indicate that Giuliani is not only in fear of legal exposure, but for his very life, and he has good reason to be concerned.

TRUMP KNEW PUTIN PLACED BOUNTY ON THE  HEADS OF UNITED STATES TROOPS AND INVITED PUTIN TO G7

Michael McFaul, a former ambassador to Russia and a professor of political science at Stanford University, said: “I hope the American people will be as outraged as I am over Trump’s complacency. After he knew about these Putin-ordered contracts to kill US soldiers, Trump invited Putin to the G7.” 

John Weaver, a Republican political consultant who helped found the anti-Trump Lincoln Project group, also expressed outrage, tweeting, “Trump knew Russia was paying bounties on the lives of American servicemen in Afghanistan. He took no action against Putin. Instead, @realDonaldTrump REWARDED Putin by trying to insert Russia back into the G-7. And, not enough, withdrawing 25,000 American troops from Germany.” Donald Trump doesn't care anything about our troops. He's just using our troops as props just like he used the Bible in front of the church. If Trump cared anything about either our troops, or the military, he wouldn't have dodged the draft when he had a chance to serve. Dodging the military is a Trump family tradition. 
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/27/russia-offered-bounties-afghanistan-militants-killing-us-soldiers-report-outrage
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Donald's problem dates back to the way he was raised. As the son of a multi-millionaire he was always given everything, and he never had to struggle to maintain his place in line. As a result, it was never necessary for Donald to have to develop any character or intellect like most of us. In order for the average person to survive they have to cultivate their character which enables them to get along with others, and also develop their intellectual resources which allows them to survive in a competitive world. But not Trump. Since Donald was given everything, he never had to develop those resources, and as a result, he’s become a geriatric child with the inner resources of an 8-year-old.
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So the knowledge that most of us take for granted - or what most of us refer to as common sense - is completely foreign to Trump. That’s why we don’t understand him. Many of us  assume that he’s different due to some esoteric billionaire's knowledge that he possesses that the rest of us are not privy to. But that’s not it at all. He’s just stupid, and he's very easy to understand. All you have to do to understand Donald's behavior is to assess his actions like you would the behavior of an 8-year-old. If you do that, his motivations become crystal clear.
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Vox.com reported Yuval Levin, director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, as saying of Donald Trump that “Governing has been so little on the mind of this administration from the very beginning that it’s created a bizarre, extraordinary situation. The president thinks so much about what he’s doing in terms of the show he’s putting on that there’s been very little attention paid to how the government is functioning.”
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And Vox goes on to point out that "
Trump has spent the past three years and 158 days playing president on TV and social media. But he has not spent that time doing the job of the president. A strong economy that carried over from Barack Obama’s presidency hid Trump’s dereliction of duties. But then a crisis came, and presidential leadership was needed, and the American people saw there was no plan, and functionally no president."
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Take the comment Trump made concerning the Coronavirus testing, for example. Based on his thinking, if we stop testing for the virus we won’t have as many cases – thus, out of sight, out of mind. That’s the simplistic thinking of a child. He’s not considering the consequences of allowing the virus to roar through the population unchecked, all he’s thinking about is the solution that suits his purpose for the moment – and Trump only lives from moment to moment, so he never considers consequences. It is exactly ignorance, cluelessness, and his total irresponsibility that makes Trump the most dangerous man who has ever stepped into the White House.
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And further, Trump doesn’t give a damn about either America, democracy, or the American people, as he’s clearly demonstrating by placing his re-election above thousands of American lives. In fact, he’s placing his bet on the fact that his base is more bigoted than they are patriotic. The fact is, it's only their bigotry and hatred that makes them of value to him. That's why he's constantly stirring them up. But with the exception of their bigotry, trump doesn't share any of their political ideals. The fact is, he detests his undereducated base. He thinks of them as the great unwashed, as ignorant trailer trash - it's just that they're useful trailer trash.
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Trump’s only political philosophy is helping Trump. He cares more about Russia than he does his supporters, because Russia can do more for him. He’s just using his supporters to give himself a political power base, because that's what he does, use people. That's what allows him to turn on his former allies on a dime the minute they're no longer useful to him.
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 According to Wikipedia, “Trump registered as a Republican in Manhattan in 1987 and since that time has changed his party affiliation five times. In 1999, Trump changed his party affiliation to the Independence Party of New York. In August 2001, Trump changed his party affiliation to Democratic. In September 2009, Trump changed his party affiliation back to the Republican Party. In December 2011, Trump changed to "no party affiliation" (independent). In April 2012, Trump again returned to the Republican Party.” 
So the bottom line is, Trump is willing to align himself with anyone who's of use to him, and at this point that means ANYONE, including the Russians.
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Trump is losing over a million dollars a day in his personal businesses due to the national shutdown, and the shutdown is also having a negative impact on the overall economy, which he was depending on for re-election in November. And since being President is the only thing keeping him out of prison, Trump doesn't give not one bit of a damn about America. All he’s concerned about is opening the country back up, regardless of how many people have to die.

Trump is proving with his every act that he's only concerned about one thing - what he’s always been concerned about – Donald Trump. That’s why he’s so desperate that he’s trying to get America to ingest Lysol. That alone represents the desperation of an absolute lunatic. But Trump's willingness to do ANYTHING to improve his personal situation, including killing a few thousand American citizens, makes him a very dangerous man. And clear evidence that those are the facts was made clear when - even though he was a  draft dodger - he made the disgustingly self-serving decision to place the lives of West Point graduates in needless jeopardy just so he could give a speech and get a photo op with the military. 
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But just as horrifying as the acts themselves is the fact that he seems to have lost the simple judgment to even try to hide his blatant hypocrisy and lack of concern for the American people. That speaks directly to his mental stability. What might he do in desperation if he loses the November election? I just hope our military and intelligence services have a contingency plan in place to handle such an eventuality.

AMERICA'S CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS IS AT HAND

Trump is losing it. He’s threatening to unleash violence against peaceful demonstrators. He knows that he’s losing the country, so he’s resorting to his natural tendency to be nasty, petty, and vindictive. He’s angry because he thought America belonged to him. He’s finding out the hard way that it doesn’t, and it’s humiliating his fragile and immature ego.

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2018/11/americas-constitutional-crisis-is-at.html

And just in case some of you think this is exaggeration or an exercise in hyperbole, here’s what Trump had to say in a private conference call with the nation's governors:
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Trump told the nation’s governors during a recent teleconference that they should ‘seriously consider’ reopening their schools and CONFIRM his suggestion at the evening news conference, noting the virus doesn't impact young people as badly. . . “I think it would be a good thing. Because as you see coming in terms of what this vicious virus goes after, young people seem to do very well. Young people seem to do very well. So, I know that there are some governors that aren't necessarily ready to open up states, but they may be ready to open up school systems."
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IN OTHER WORDS, HE WANTS TO USE OUR CHILDREN AS GUINEA PIGS!!!
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The bottom line is, Donald Trump is one of the gravest threats this nation has ever faced, so we need to wake up and treat him as such. He’s not just eccentric, he’s dumb, greedy, and a raving lunatic.
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Eric L. Wattree
Ewattree@Gmail.com
BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
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Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.