By Anselm Staack
COVID-19 under President Trump is projected to kill 410,000 Americans by Dec. 31, 2020; in one year.
Compare that with the following Americans killed in the following:
— Vietnam War: 58,220; 12 years.
— Iraq and Afghanistan: 4,431 / 2,372; over 15 years.
— COVID-19’s 936 death per day average (about every three days a 9/11).
The COVID-19 pandemic, which President Donald Trump admits he knew about and that he admits he intentionally did not inform the public of its danger, has caused more Americans deaths in one year than in all American conflicts since the U.S. Civil War death toll of 618,222.
Not fake news, real well-vetted publicly available facts.
Trump says he purposely “played it down” (February), now “I up-played it” (September). Yet, he freaks out over a simple sneeze. For months he told us it will just go away, eventually; now it has “turned the corner.”
Why “make over 20,000 false and misleading claims in 3 ½ years” as president? Because it works. Trump knows that telling the truth is unacceptable to most voters — even independents and Democrats. They always shoot the messenger first.
Just look at Alaska’s budget crisis and Dunleavy’s demand for full back PFD that is pure fiscal irresponsibility and will force massive day-to-day operating cuts and deeply tap into the Permanent Fund.
Trump’s Senior HHS Communications Official Michael Caputo (who was employed by the Russians in 2016) claimed that CDC scientists were in a plot against Trump. Caputo directly altered CDC pandemic information releases and urged Trump supporters to buy ammunition for the coming insurrection if Trump doesn’t win.
Causing panic and lying is the gold standard stock in trade of the Trump administration, his campaign and the GOP — ask anyone who has received a letter from his campaign or any child in a DHS / Trump detention camp.
When the Republican Party is confronted with these horrendous revelations they simply swear to whatever the Donald says.
His base wants to believe him.
It’s the anti-immigrant and anti-minority hate agenda, white supremacy promotion and the pious hypocritical evangelicalism that are the real factors behind their support anyway.
That includes most big corporate owners. Reference Boeing and the FAA on the killer 737 Max and now defective 787 airplanes. But the CEO got his massive severance package anyway.
Big business thrives under any type of system — democratic, authoritarian, dictatorial, Fascist, Nazi, socialist, communist. Republican or Democrat. If not supplying goods to the masses and delivering marginal benefits and minimally paying for public structures and services they benefit from, they build the weaponry and death machines of war.
In Western countries they call them business tycoons and capitalists, in Russia they are the Oligarchs and Party Leaders, and in Xi’s China they are CEO’s controlled by Party Members and the Red Army. The only difference is the ethnicity of the required butt that is kissed.
How does one explain such an ever-more maniacal process that ignores the actions of a president who in one year oversaw more Americans’ deaths from an attributable, and somewhat preventable cause than any wars or conflicts in 155 years?
If you choose the ‘Princess Bride” description of “inconceivable” you may have some excuse. But like Hurricane Katrina, when you put narcissistic and sociopathic politicians in charge, people will most certainly die unnecessarily.
Now Mitch McConnell, The Donald and the GOP are adamant to destroy the Supreme Court’s already tenuous remaining integrity by filling Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat before a new president is decided upon by the public.
Trump says he’s also counting on (his) federal courts to ignore legally cast votes received after Nov. 3, which are already allowed by state laws.
Lying, fear, huge deficits, free money to the wealthy, increasing panic and ignoring the voting majority have become the new normalized standard of conduct under Trump and the GOP.
• Anselm Staack, is registered non-affiliated, is a CPA and an Attorney who has been an Alaska resident for over 45 years. He was the Treasury Comptroller for Alaska under Gov. Jay Hammond and worked directly on the creation of the Alaska Permanent Fund and Corporation. He resides in Juneau. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.
