"With the death toll from Covid-19 about to top 100,000..."

"Trump has offered almost nothing in the way of tributes to the dead, sympathy for their families, or acknowledgement of our national mourning. By all accounts he is barely bothering to manage his administration’s response to the pandemic, preferring to focus on cheer leading for an economic recovery he says is on its way, even as he feeds conspiracy theories about the death toll being inflated. This [past] weekend, he went golfing..." (Washington Post).

U.S.A. Cases: 1,711,000+
U.S.A. Deaths: 99,950

(Coronavirus Update)

Trump Attacks Democratic Politicians, Perpetuates Conspiracy Theories, and Golfs During the Memorial Day Weekend

“As the US death toll from coronavirus [approaches 100,000 deaths], Donald Trump was spending his Memorial Day weekend doing what he'd typically do during any other time off during his presidency -- golfing and tweeting.

“From threatening to ‘override’ states if they didn't permit the reopening of houses of worship to pressuring states to reopen their businesses to restarting presidential travel -- Trump's weekend activities mark his latest attempt to return back to his presidential normal as the country continues to reckon with the toll of a global pandemic.

Weekend golfing:

“Trump was spotted at his golf course in Sterling, Virginia, on Saturday and Sunday. It was the first time the press has recorded a visit to a golf course since March 8. But unlike past holiday weekends, Secret Service members on the green with Trump on Saturday were wearing masks. Trump and his golfing partners, however, were not.

“Trump, who frequently chided former President Barack Obama's golf habit, defended his decision to head to the golf course over the weekend, after he said Joe Biden's presidential campaign launched an ad about it.

"‘They think I should stay in the White House at all times. What they didn't say is that it's the first time I've played golf in almost 3 months, that Biden was constantly (...) vacationing, relaxing & making shady deals with other countries, & that Barack was always playing golf,’ part of Trump's Sunday tweets said.

“Trump called into a program earlier this month and said he missed golfing. ‘I do miss it. I haven't played really since this problem that we have started. I haven't been able to play golf for a while, I've been very busy and I think it's just one of those things,’ Trump [the pathological narcissist] said on a PGA golf program on NBC.

“About an hour after Trump returned to the White House from his Virginia golf club on Sunday, the White House announced that Trump had issued travel restrictions against Brazil, which has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus.

Weekend tweeting:

“Trump appears to have also spent a considerable amount of time online over the weekend, tweeting or retweeting content from others nearly 100 times over the course of two days on his [twitter] account.

“The comments from Trump were wide-ranging and not necessarily focused on the pandemic. He attacked political opponents, promoted Fox News shows, and repeated his frequent criticisms of the Russia investigation while infrequently interspersing retweets of public health guidance from the federal government in between.

“Trump also focused several attacks on the appearance of female Democratic politicians. Some of the President's tweets also verged on misinformation and conspiracy. One tweet promoted ‘some very good studies’ about the use of hydroxychloroquine, which has been unproven as a treatment or prophylactic for coronavirus.

“Seriously ill Covid-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine were more likely to die or develop dangerous irregular heart rhythms, according to a large observational study published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet, coming just days after Trump said he was taking the medication.

Trump even took time to spar with a former ally, his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Trump tweeted that Sessions ‘should drop out’ of the Alabama Senate race, criticizing him again for recusing himself during the Russia investigation.

“Just one tweet over the weekend referenced the Memorial Day holiday, which honors American military personnel who died while serving. And like many of his other tweets over the weekend, it seemed to focus on attacking perceived ideological opposition.

"‘This Is Whom You Disrespect When You Dishonor Our Flag,’ the tweet said, paired with a video of a casket draped in an American flag being taken off an airplane…” (CNN).

Where are the calls for Trump’s resignation? by Ralph Nader

"Since his first months in the White House, Trump has been the most impeachable, most lawless, most self-enriching, most bungling President in U.S. history. He relies entirely on lying and scapegoating to avoid taking responsibility for his failures. Trump didn’t even win the popular vote – the Electoral College selected him. President Trump has fomented chaos and corruption in his administration without encountering insistent demands for his resignation.

"The supine Republican Senate shields Trump from any political accountability. Dominated by the evil 'Moscow Mitch' McConnell, the Senate prevented Trump from being convicted under the impeachment clause of the Constitution. But Trump makes the case against himself – 'I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.'

"Trump makes good on that statement every day, making decisions with reckless abandon and doubling down, falsely accusing people of crimes, turning our government over to big businesses, and firing inspectors general investigating crime and corruption in Trump’s regime of corporatism, favoritism, and nepotism.

"Trump exercises his pouting, unstable ego as the determinant of misgoverning on a deadly scale, as with his delaying, downplaying, over-riding science, and providing lethal advice regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. For which he boastfully gives himself a perfect ten.

"Trump keeps flailing, failing, and using foul-mouthed rhetoric because about 43 percent of voters stick with him, no matter what. Well – the parents of many Trump supporters did not stay with Richard Nixon in 1974. Public demands for 'Tricky Dick' to leave office ultimately included much of his 'base' including scores of Republicans in Congress, led by Mr. Conservative Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ).

"Why? Nixon had defied a Congressional subpoena and committed an obstruction of justice. Trump, on the other hand, has defied many Congressional subpoenas and engaged in over a dozen obstructions of justice, many of which are ongoing.

"Why no demands for resignation? Have too many Americans lost their proper sense of honest public service and accountability?

"From 1974 to now, the American Bar Association (ABA) – supposedly a first responder against the destruction of rule of law and constitutional observance – has done nothing to challenge above-the-law presidential abuses. (In 2005-2006 the ABA displayed some courage and charged the Bush/Cheney administration with three sets of unconstitutional behavior.)

"Many Trump voters seem to expect more of virtually every public figure who isn’t Trump! Ask Trump voters if they would support their local fire chief if he or she lied daily about the fire department’s readiness to fight fires? Would they support a fire chief who appoints firefighters with no experience? Would they support a police chief who accepts no responsibility for a street crime wave while disabling the force?

"Would they support a CEO of a major hospital who promotes, against the advice of his/her medical scientists, chemicals and drugs that can take the lives of patients? Would they support a super predator bank CEO who gives sweet-heart deals to the rich at the direct expense of customers of modest means? Would they support a CEO of a big construction company, spouting anti-immigrant hate, while hiring hundreds of poorly paid undocumented foreign laborers taking jobs away from American workers? The answer is pretty clear.

"These people in positions of power would have lost their jobs if they engaged in such reckless and unjust behavior. Corrupt Donald, on the other hand, has done all of these continually and remains an escapee from justice. In addition to these previously acknowledged failings, Trump has wrecked the federal health, safety, and economic protections including many life-saving controls on deadly pollution, dangerous business practices, and business theft of your earnings as consumers, workers, and savers.

"In addition, here is a top betrayal: Trump promised his voters a big infrastructure repair and upgrade program in all communities – with good-paying jobs. He betrayed them, giving instead about 2 trillion dollars in tax cuts to the rich and big corporations, like the drug and banking industries and even his own family!

"Trump voters need to ask themselves – what else does Trump have to do to our livelihood, health, safety, and dignity before you say – “no more!” If you want more details about Mr. Trump’s lying betrayals, read Fake President by Mark Green and me and judge Trump by his own contemptuous words and misdeeds.

"Most puzzling are the many columnists – both Democratic and Republican – who week after week show how disastrously unworthy and unfit Trump is, yet never conclude with a demand for his resignation or further impeachment. Many in the opinion class may believe it would never happen.  My response is that judging the odds is not the primary responsibility of a columnist. Making the demand is telling readers that your critique is serious enough to warrant a necessary remedy.

"Devastating critics like Dana Milbank, Republican Michael Gerson, Eugene Robinson, Margaret Sullivan, and conservative Max Boot of the Washington Post, or Charles Blow, Paul Krugman, David Brooks, Maureen Dowd and Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times have cogently taken Trump apart on very serious matters since 2017, yet they leave their readers without the obvious conclusion -Trump has to go.  A clear daily peril to innocent Americans 'I’m in total control,' why not try bleach, etc.   

"The country cannot wait until January 2021 – assuming dictatorial Donald and his determined GOP don’t criminally suppress enough votes to postpone Trump’s departure until January 2025" (Common Dreams).  

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His latest books include: To the Ramparts: How Bush and Obama Paved the Way for the Trump Presidency, and Why It Isn’t Too Late to Reverse Course, How the Rats Re-Formed the Congress, Breaking Through Power: It's easier than we think, and Animal Envy: A Fable

180 Reasons for Trump's Resignation: Click Here.

Trump's Lack of Leadership During the Pandemic: Click Here. 

"We left the backdoor wide open" for the coronavirus in the United States

“In the final days before the United States faced a full-blown epidemic, President Trump made a last-ditch attempt to prevent people infected with the coronavirus from reaching the country. ‘To keep new cases from entering our shores,’ Trump said in an Oval Office address on March 11, ‘we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days.’

“Across the Atlantic, Jack Siebert, an American college student spending a semester in Spain, was battling raging headaches, shortness of breath and fevers that touched 104 degrees. Concerned about his condition for travel but alarmed by the president’s announcement, his parents scrambled to book a flight home for their son — an impulse shared by thousands of Americans who rushed to get flights out of Europe.

“Siebert arrived at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago three days later as the new U.S. restrictions — including mandatory medical screenings — went into effect. He encountered crowds of people packed in tight corridors, stood in lines in which he snaked past other travelers for nearly five hours and tried to direct any cough or sneeze into his sleeve.

“When he finally reached the coronavirus checkpoint near baggage pickup, Siebert reported his prior symptoms and described his exposure in Spain. But the screeners waived him through with a cursory temperature check. He was given instructions to self-isolate that struck him as absurd given the conditions he had just encountered at the airport.

“‘I can guarantee you that people were infected’ in that trans-Atlantic gantlet, said Siebert, who tested positive for the virus two days later in Chicago. ‘It was people passing through a pinhole.’

“The sequence was repeated at airports across the country that weekend. Harrowing scenes of interminable lines and unmasked faces crammed in confined spaces spread across social media. The images showed how a policy intended to block the pathogen’s entry into the United States instead delivered one final viral infusion. As those exposed travelers fanned out into U.S. cities and suburbs, they became part of an influx from Europe that went unchecked for weeks and helped to seal the country’s coronavirus fate.

“Epidemiologists contend the U.S. outbreak was driven overwhelmingly by viral strains from Europe rather than China. More than 1.8 million travelers entered the United States from Europe in February alone as that continent became the center of the pandemic. Infections reached critical mass in New York and other cities well before the White House took action, according to studies mapping the virus’s spread. The crush of travelers triggered by Trump’s announcement only added to that viral load.

“‘We closed the front door with the China travel ban,’ New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said last month as officials began to grasp the magnitude of the failure. In waiting to cut off travel from Europe, he said, ‘we left the backdoor wide open.’

“Trump has repeatedly touted his decision in January to restrict travel from China as evidence that he acted decisively to contain the coronavirus, often claiming that doing so saved more than a million lives. But it was his administration’s response to the threat from Europe that proved more consequential to the majority of the more than 94,000 people who have died and the 1.6 million now infected in the United States…

“The lapses surrounding the spread from Europe stand alongside other breakdowns — in developing diagnostic tests, securing protective gear and imposing social distancing guidelines — as reasons the United States became so overwhelmed.

“The travel mayhem was triggered by many of the same problems that plagued the U.S. response to the pandemic from the outset: Early warnings were missed or ignored. Coordination was chaotic or nonexistent. Key agencies fumbled their assignments. Trump’s errant statements undermined his administration’s plans and endangered the public.

“‘We kept foreign nationals out of the country but not the virus,’ said Tom Bossert, who served as adviser of homeland security at the White House until last year. The move to restrict travel came when it was more urgent to arrest the spread of infections already in the United States, Bossert said. ‘That was a strategic miscalculation.

“This article tracing the administration’s response to the Europe threat is based on interviews with dozens of current and former U.S. officials, as well as public health experts, airline executives and passengers. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer candid assessments of events, decisions and internal administration debates…” (The Washington Post).

"The U.S. is not unifying in response to this crisis"

“Monday is Memorial Day – the traditional start of the American summer. Shutters are going up, doors are being unlocked, barriers removed. Every state is relaxing quarantine rules to some extent, betting that the country finally has Covid-19 under control.

“There are signs that for some Americans quarantine fatigue is overcoming fear of infection. With the economy reeling, others have dismissed the pandemic as a political plot – for them relaxing quarantine rules can’t come soon enough. But people on the front line are worried, and experts warn the outbreak has proved a ‘trust-destroying disaster’ that could have devastating consequences.

“On Friday, White House coronavirus task force member Dr Anthony Fauci said new localized outbreaks were ‘inevitable’ as mitigation measures are relaxed. He said a full-blown second wave could be avoided if the holy grail of containment measures – testing, quarantine and contact tracing – continued to be adhered to.

“Fauci said he was hopeful that the US would be ready, though a recent study by Harvard University found that only nine states were conducting, or near to conducting, the minimum recommended testing.

“Hours after Fauci spoke, Donald Trump ignored health guidance and ordered houses of worship to open for in-person services at the weekend. These disparate responses to the pandemic are not just happening in the White House, but across America…

“Social scientists at Northwestern University have surveyed 200 people per day since mid-March, and have found that unlike in other disasters, the US is not unifying in response to this crisis. ‘It has been a solidarity- and trust-destroying disaster,’ said Beth Redbird, the primary researcher. ‘We usually see disasters as unifying. They bring us together, they unite us, they increase support for our neighbors, to help each other out. But while we see anecdotal stories of that in the press, we haven’t actually seen a lot of data supporting that that’s what’s going on.’

“The majority of Americans still seem to oppose Trump’s attempts to downplay the crisis. Northwestern’s surveys last week showed 64% of people are still in support of stay-at-home orders, and they are mostly avoiding seeing friends and eating out at restaurants. But while Northwestern’s survey found 86% said they trusted scientists to tell them what to eat for a healthy diet, those who said they trust a scientist to tell them how Covid-19 works was only at 55%.

Like adding kindling to embers

“We have been here before. The threats of a second wave were borne out in the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which a third of the world’s population were infected with the virus. The spread was successfully curtailed in San Francisco thanks to the prompt implementation of mitigation measures including a city-wide shutdown and requirement to wear masks in public.

“As the infection rate dwindled, city leaders relaxed the lockdown measures in November 1918; bars, restaurants and sports arenas reopened, and people poured out onto the streets in celebration, tossing their masks in the process. A month later, the second wave hit San Francisco, but this time much of the public – including the Anti-Mask League – resisted public health mandates. The city ended up with nearly 45,000 cases and over 3,200 reported deaths. San Francisco ended up being one of the country’s worst-hit major cities.

“Stephen Morse, director of the infectious disease epidemiology program at Columbia University medical center, said as long as the virus is circulating in humans, there will be flare-ups as soon as it’s introduced to a street, town or county with enough susceptible people. ‘It’s like adding kindling to embers,’ said Morse.

“Whether these inevitable localized outbreaks are contained or will multiply depends on the golden trio of testing, quarantine and contact tracing. If enough places implement these measures comprehensively, the chain of transmission could be broken, and the flare-ups snuffed out. ‘We don’t know what’s going to happen next, we have to proceed with caution and we could get lucky,’ Morse said. ‘The big fear is that with the virus still in circulation, if we allow it to have unfettered access to people, then we certainly have the makings of a second pandemic of even larger proportions.’

“It’s not all about timing. The country’s patchwork response to the outbreak has also played an important role – and will likely continue to do so. ‘For the first time in my lifetime, there’s been an almost total lack of global coordination and US federal leadership, whose confusing and contradictory messages have been counterproductive and very destructive,’ Morse said.

To think the virus has changed is a fantasy

“It’s unclear whether the US has even fully emerged from the first wave, but the virus remains as infectious and lethal as it was when it emerged. And the conditions that have left low-income groups, communities of colour and Native Americans the hardest-hit remain, with infections and complications including death. ‘To think the virus must have changed just because we’re tired of being at home is almost a fantasy,’ said Chandra Ford, founding director of the center for the study of racism, social justice and health at UCLA’s Jonathan and Karin Fielding school of public health.

“Ford warned subsequent outbreaks are likely to disproportionately affect these same communities. ‘The US response to the pandemic at the federal level has lacked a meaningful public health response,’ said Ford. ‘So it’s not surprising that the push to reopen isn’t driven by public health indicators. In fact, it appears to be driven against public health indicators, in the interest of political or economic gains.’

“From the beginning, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most basic guidelines to stem the spread of Covid-19 ran up against some fundamental injustices in the US system. Workers are not guaranteed paid sick leave and healthcare is not universal.

“Prisons, meatpacking plants and nursing homes have seen a disproportionate amount of cases. In New York City, the impact has overwhelmingly been felt in poorer communities where mostly immigrants and people of color live. ‘Historical and current experiences of discrimination and medical racism provide fodder for people to be willing to accept explanations that are not true,’ Ford said. ‘Trust matters tremendously. Mistrust of healthcare providers and public health messages will fuel the pandemic itself and disparities in the pandemic…’” (The Guardian).

“I call upon governors to allow our churches and places of worship to open right now” -Trump

“Donald Trump said he will designate churches and other houses of worship as essential services in a Friday announcement at the White House.

“Trump added that he would ‘override’ governors who don't open up their houses of worship for in-person services, although he likely does not have the authority to do so because of the 10th amendment to the Constitution, which delegates all powers not explicitly designated to the federal government in the Constitution to the states. 

“‘I call upon governors to allow our churches and places of worship to open right now. If there's any question, they're going to have to call me, but they're not going to be successful in that call,’ Trump said. ‘These are places that hold our society together and keep our people united, the people are demanding to go to church and synagogues, go to their Mosque.’ 

“Trump argued that businesses like liquor stores, medical services and abortion clinics shouldn't have been reopened before religious institutions. ‘Ministers, pastors, rabbis, and imams and other faith leaders will make sure their congregations are safe as they gather and pray.... They love their congregations, they love their people, they don't want anything bad to happen to them or to anyone else,’ Trump said. ‘The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now.’

“He added, ‘If they don't do it, I will override the governors.’ White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany dismissed reporters' questions about the legality of forcing governors to reopen places of worship as a ‘hypothetical.’ 

“‘You're assuming that governors are going to keep churches shut down, keep mosques shut down, keep synagogues shut down, that is a hypothetical question and we'll leave it to faith communities to re-open,’ McEnany said following Trump's announcement in the White House briefing room. ‘We can all hope that this Sunday, people are allowed to pray to their gods across this country.’ McEnany went on to say that it is ‘safe’ to reopen house of worship, as long as they follow the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

“This comes after the White House rejected the CDC's original guidelines for reopening places of worship, which some officials reportedly believed were too restrictive. Others, including in Vice President Mike Pence's office and in the Office of Management and Budget and the Domestic Policy Council, didn't want to issue any reopening guidance for religious institutions. 

“The rejected draft CDC guidance recommended that houses of worship temporarily stop sharing worship materials, including prayer books and hymnals, halting the use of collection trays for donations, and potentially stop musical groups from performing” (Business Insider).

If Trump "had mustered the same kind of political and public will against the virus on March 1, the researchers found, 54,000 fewer Americans would have died of the illness”

“On March 8, it was mostly business as usual in the United States… With 500 coronavirus infections reported nationwide at the time, the outbreak seemed like a distant threat to many Americans. But by the following Sunday, the nation had entered a different universe: 2,000 confirmed cases, dozens of deaths, and shutdown orders in Illinois, Ohio and New York City, among other parts of the country.

“What if those sweeping measures imposed by March 15 — a federal warning against large gatherings, health screenings at airports, states of emergency declared by governors and mayors — had been announced a week earlier?

“New research from Columbia University epidemiologists offered one possible answer on Wednesday. If the same kind of social distancing had been in place seven days earlier, their study found, the United States could have prevented 36,000 deaths through early May — about 40 percent of fatalities reported to date.

“‘If you don’t take steps to fight the growth rate aggressively, you get much worse consequences,’ Jeffrey Shaman, an environmental health sciences professor who led the study, told The Washington Post. His team’s analysis used infectious-disease modeling to examine the spread of the virus from March 15, when many people nationwide began staying home, until May 3.

“The researchers examined transmissions within each county, movement between counties and deaths to chart how the virus spread — and killed — over seven weeks. Then, Shaman and other researchers modeled another scenario: What if government officials had closed everything down one week earlier?

“Unlike some of the forecasts that have made headlines in recent weeks, their model does not attempt to predict how certain policies — say, another month of shutdowns, or partial reopening measures — might affect the virus’s spread. It simply shifts the timeline for the country’s response.

“Move it back even further, and the results are more dramatic. If the United States had mustered the same kind of political and public will against the virus on March 1, the researchers found, 54,000 fewer Americans would have died of the illness. By Friday, the nationwide death toll had surpassed 93,000.

“The Trump administration blasted the study’s findings following a New York Times report late Wednesday… Shaman said the effectiveness of the country’s virus response relies on decisions made at all levels, from the Oval Office down to individual households. In Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago, he said, orders from state and local officials as well as compliance from residents seem to have pushed the rate of infection into a decline. ‘You could sit there and point the finger at whoever you wanted to,” Shaman said. “In truth, each of us is going to draw his or her own conclusions about where blame may be assigned.’

“It is more productive, he said, to take the study’s lessons and apply them to the future, particularly as large swaths of the country move to partially reopen ahead of Memorial Day weekend. With businesses up and running and Americans leaving their houses more regularly, the country must remain vigilant and swing into action quickly when new outbreaks flare up, Shaman added, pointing to the aggressive steps taken by nations such as South Korea and New Zealand. That requires strong calls to action, too. ‘What we have before us is a very, very challenging problem,’ he said. ‘It requires political leadership and public compliance and a will on the part of everybody in society to make it happen’” (Washington Post).