General Mark Milley letter to Donald Trump: You are causing significant damage to our country

This opinion editorial published by the San Antonio Express, Texas, editorial board describes one of the most dangerous moments in the failed Trumpzi administration:  

"Trump is nuts" political cartoon published in The Week

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General Mark Milley’s unsent letter* of resignation should haunt us all.

General Mark A. Milley is the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, and the principal military advisor to the President, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Council.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff penned the note in June 2020, following the disgraceful Lafayette Square episode — when the general, dressed in fatigues, escorted then-President Donald Trump after police violently cleared peaceful protesters from the area.

That day he’d failed what he later realized “was the biggest test of his career,” according to a blistering New Yorker article that included his full draft resignation. (August 15, 2022, by Susan B. Glasser and Peter Baker.) 

In 500 words of frank language anchored by the Constitution and references to the World War II generation, the country’s most senior military officer outlined how the former president’s behavior tarnished the nation’s most fundamental principles.

U.S. Army General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley

Milley wrote that he believed Trump “made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military” and was “using the military to create fear in the minds of the people.”

Those two allegations alone are damning, but the general continued.

“All men and women are created equal, no matter who you are,” he wrote. “It’s obvious to me that you don’t hold those values dear and the cause that I serve.”

That someone, especially the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, would have to articulate such points to the commander in chief is absurd and a sad wake-up call for the nation.

He wrote Trump was “ruining the international order, and causing significant damage to our country overseas.”

Milley concluded Trump didn’t understand what the U.S. was fighting in World War II: “In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against.”

His resignation — or the fact that if he was fired, all the Joint Chiefs would’ve resigned— could’ve created a Constitutional crisis. Just imagine a nation in even deeper turmoil.

*General Milley's unsent letter of resignation:

I regret to inform you that I intend to resign as your Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Thank you for the honor of appointing me as senior ranking officer. The events of the last couple weeks have caused me to do deep soul-searching, and I can no longer faithfully support and execute your orders as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military. I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.

Second, you are using the military to create fear in the minds of the people—and we are trying to protect the American people. I cannot stand idly by and participate in that attack, verbally or otherwise, on the American people. The American people trust their military and they trust us to protect them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and our military will do just that. We will not turn our back on the American people.

Third, I swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States and embodied within that Constitution is the idea that says that all men and women are created equal. All men and women are created equal, no matter who you are, whether you are white or Black, Asian, Indian, no matter the color of your skin, no matter if you’re gay, straight or something in between. It doesn’t matter if you’re Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, or choose not to believe. None of that matters. It doesn’t matter what country you came from, what your last name is—what matters is we’re Americans. We’re all Americans. That under these colors of red, white, and blue—the colors that my parents fought for in World War II—means something around the world. It’s obvious to me that you don’t think of those colors the same way I do. It’s obvious to me that you don’t hold those values dear and the cause that I serve.

And lastly it is my deeply held belief that you’re ruining the international order, and causing significant damage to our country overseas, that was fought for so hard by the Greatest Generation that they instituted in 1945. Between 1914 and 1945, 150 million people were slaughtered in the conduct of war. They were slaughtered because of tyrannies and dictatorships. That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism. It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against. And I cannot be a party to that. It is with deep regret that I hereby submit my letter of resignation.

Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to lead another Capitol insurrection

 Dangerous Marjorie Taylor Greene!

It's past time for Marjorie Taylor Greene to go!

Opasnost! Danger: Putin is guilty of horrific war crimes documented on a daily basis

Echo report, published in The Washington Post by Sudarsan Raghavan and reprinted in The Week.

"Today Russian oil smells like Ukrainian blood. Buying it means financing Russian war crimes... This is a choice that needs to be made now," - said Dmitry Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

MARKHALIVKA, Ukraine — Ihor Mozhayev walked unsteadily atop the rubble of his destroyed house, a dazed look on his bruised face. In his path were the remnants of what was left of his life.

A red Christmas decoration, a dust-covered leopard-print pillow, notebooks with neat handwriting, a school bookbag and pieces of toys were among dozens of shattered memories. Scattered in the debris were family photos of loved ones now forever lost.

Mozhayev, 54, his right cheek purplish and swollen, picked up a small plastic chair stained with blood. “That’s her chair,” he said in a low voice that faded into the hum of a bulldozer nearby. “During the day she was always sitting up in this chair.”

The chair belonged to his 12-year-old disabled daughter, Masha. She was killed with her mother, grandmother, and three other civilians in a suspected Russian airstrike on Friday, in this speck of a village roughly six miles southwest of the capital, Kyiv.

Two of Mozhayev’s grandchildren, ages 7 and 8, were pulled from the rubble, miraculously alive.

On Saturday, as Mozhayev surveyed the wreckage, a slim man dressed in camouflage green with a Ukrainian military identification card around his neck filmed his every move. He was gathering evidence for a potential case against Moscow before an international tribunal.

As Russian forces encircle Ukrainian cities and widen assaults to once calm areas, the six villagers killed entered the grim — and growing — registry of civilian deaths, compiled by the United Nations since the invasion began, 11 days ago. 

As of midnight Saturday, the U.N. had recorded 364 civilian deaths, including 25 children, and 707 wounded. Among the wounded were 36 children. Heavy artillery, multiple rocket launchers, missiles and airstrikes caused most of the deaths, the U.N. said over the weekend, adding that the toll is likely higher.

The rising number of civilian casualties has prompted accusations that Moscow has committed war crimes in its relentless bombardment of nonmilitary targets in cities, as well as its alleged use of weapons that heighten the risk of death and injury for noncombatants.

In pursuit of evidence, Ukraine’s government has opened a new front in the conflict, dispatching visual teams to bombed sites to make a case against Russia at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

“The Ukrainians are mobilized as never before,” said Serhiy Lysenko, the military videographer who was filming in the rubble. “This is more about making a record of Russia’s crimes. We do believe in The Hague.”

“We’ve seen very credible reports of delivered attacks on civilians which would constitute a war crime,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday on CNN’s, “State of the Union.”

Human Rights Watch has accused Russia of using internationally banned (horror!) cluster munitions to bomb residential areas and kill civilians in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. Such weapons open in the air, dispersing hundreds of small submunitions over a large area can kill or maim indiscriminately and “might constitute a war crime,” the watchdog group said.

Evil Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who has delusions of becoming a czar, lied when he said in a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, that Russia’s forces were doing all they can “to preserve the lives of civilians” in Ukraine, according to a Kremlin readout on Thursday. (Cruel lies!)

Last week, the ICC (International Criminal Court) announced that it will “immediately proceed” to investigate possible war crimes unfolding in Ukraine. And on Friday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the decision, saying “we have seen the use of cluster bombs,” as well as reports of other types of weapons used that “are in violation of international law.”

A poster about the evil Russian invasion of Ukraine. Author: Zhenya Omelchenko https://www.behance.net/khomenko All the earnings from this NFT collection will be donated to support Ukraine.

In fact, the airstrike, and the family tragedy it bore, is one piece of possible evidence that many in this devastated village hope will help hold Russia accountable.

With 11 people living in Ihor Mozhayev’s house, it was unusually full when it was hit.

Among the occupants were a daughter and her family who had fled their apartment in Kyiv the day of the invasion. A niece and her boyfriend, as well as a family friend, were also staying there.

“We thought we would be safe from the war here,” said Dasha Kormilenko, Mozhayev’s daughter, standing in the debris of wood and bricks next to her father.

Earlier on Friday, her mother, grandmother, husband and the family friend drove out in their car to stock up on food and other supplies. About 3 p.m. they were pulling up in front of their spacious house on a quiet street lined with other houses. Mozhayev was resting on a couch in the living room.

That’s when the airstrike hit.

“There was a loud noise, and then an explosion,” he recalled. “I woke up buried under the rubble.”

He managed to reach his phone. Neighbors arrived and began to dig through the rubble, following his shouts for help. Five minutes later, they pulled him out, as well as his two grandchildren, Sasha and Losha, the children of Dasha.

Mozhayev, his chest squeezed between the toppled bricks, had difficulty breathing. “I was in a state of shock,” he said. “They took me to a hospital.”

Four hours later, his friends reluctantly gave him the tragic news.

His wife, Anna, and the others had died inside the car, which exploded into flames. Masha, who couldn’t walk because a drunk driver hit her eight years ago, was also dead. So was the boyfriend of Mozhayev’s niece.

Dasha and his niece were fortunate in not being there. They had both gone to Kyiv to collect some more possessions from Dasha’s apartment. Many of the neighbors, too, were fortunate. While the strike obliterated at least five houses and damaged several others, only one woman among the neighbors was hurt, a woman whose arm was fractured.

His other neighbors, said Mozhayev, had already fled. Many were by then in the western city of Lviv. “Some 30 percent of people in the village seems to have left,” he said.

On Saturday morning, Mykola Medynsky arrived at the site of the attack. The tall and burly Ukrainian military chaplain clutched a wooden cross and wore a long, camouflage-green cleric’s robe and a gold embroidered vestment. He was accompanied by Lysenko, the military videographer.

Since the invasion began, the pair have comforted hundreds of civilians trapped by war in the capital. “We go down to the basements where people are hiding,” said Medynsky. “If we feel that people have anxiety, we start to work with them gently, with prayers, psychological work, moral support.”

They visited five sites where Russian rockets or missiles have hit residential buildings or areas like Markhalivka where there are no government buildings, army bases or other military targets. They said this was the deadliest attack yet in and around the capital. “In Kyiv no one was killed, but here six people died, and the destruction was huge,” Medynsky said.

There was another reason he was here with a cameraman, he said.

“I came here to help people, but at the same time, I want our press service to show this footage to the world as yet another proof of Russia’s crimes, crimes against peaceful civilians.”

War crimes, under international law, include the targeting of civilians, as well as assaults that cause disproportionate civilian casualties given the military objective. This includes attacks on hospitals, clinics, schools, and other key civilian sites, as well as attacking or bombarding towns, villages or dwellings that are undefended and which are not military objectives.

Still, many horrific acts of violence that result in the deaths of noncombatants would not meet the criteria. And in most cases, proving that civilian killings constitutes a war crime is extremely difficult, requiring lawyers to show the attacker intentionally sought to harm civilians or strike forbidden targets.

No one here understands why the village was targeted. Ukrainian forces manning a checkpoint into the village said there was a small military unit nearby, Lysenko said. But there was also speculation, he added, that the Russian jet was hit by Ukraine’s air defenses and jettisoned its bombs to reach safety. 

But Lysenko rejects this argument.

“He fired at the residential area just out of spite,” he said, referring to the Russian pilot. “If he simply wanted to get rid of the munitions, he would have fired them into the woods or fields nearby.”

Minutes later, Medynsky stood atop a pile of debris and gathered Mozhayev, his family and neighbors together. Then, he delivered a melodic sermon that lasted three minutes.

“A true Ukrainian people is being born, a true Ukrainian nation, a people that no one will ever be able to divide,” he told the gathering. “And your family perished, having made a sacrifice, so that you and future generations would live. … Let us, all together, pray for those who perished for Ukraine.”

As he finished, tears were sliding down Dasha’s face.

Afterward, the family returned to the rubble.

With their hands, they dug. They were looking for deeds of apartments they owned in Kyiv, their children’s birth certificates, their passports, even a large bag of money they had placed in a bedroom, said Dasha, who is in her 20s.

Her father’s house was once the safest place to store their valuables. Now, these are the items they needed most to leave the village, perhaps even the country. Their neighbors have offered rooms in their homes, but the family understands they can’t stay there forever.

As he sifted through the debris, Mozhayev found a black and white tattered photo of his wife Anna as a girl in ponytails. “She was younger than me by eight years,” he said, eyes on the photo.

“She went to buy flour to bake bread,” said her husband, his voice fading. “She was in line for an hour and a half,” came home, and pulled up in the car just as the bomb fell.

Opasnost! Russian war crimes.

Volodymyr Petrov in Markhalivka and Claire Parker in Washington contributed to this report.

Coronavirus infections continue: #TrumpVirus

 Reported in The Week:  the U.S. hits a grim pandemic milestone.  

In fact, the U.S. surpassed 200,000 coronavirus related deaths this week, the last week in September 2020, just days after Donald Trump publicly challenged the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) scientific advice about wearing masks and its timeline for a Covid-19 vaccine. Moreover, Trump said the CDC director, Dr. Robert Redfield had been "confused",  when he told Congress (under oath) that that a vaccine likely will not be "fully available" until the summer or fall of 2021.  (Pinocchio!) 

Trump stupidity in his own words!

Nevertheless, Donald Trump insisted that a vaccine could be approved as soon as October, 2020, with 1000 million doses ready by the end of the year. Concern about the political pressure being exerted on the CDC grew after the agency published and then removed new guidelines warning that the virus can be transmitted via respiratory aerosols- tiny particles that can linger in the air- as well as by larger respiratory droplets that fall quickly to the ground.  Donald Trump gave his (botched!)response to the pandemic as being "A-plus" and, at a packed rally in Ohio, where few were waring masks, he falsely said the Covid-19 "affects virtually nobody" except the elderly people with heart problems.

Meanwhile, Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Utah set record highs for morbidity, with a seven day average of new confirmed cases and 21 other states saw increases in infections.  In fact, Olivia Troye, a former coronavirus task force adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, spoke out emphatically against Trump's handling of the pandemic, saying he showed a "flat-out disregard for human life" and cared only about his re-election. Troye, whom the White House called a "disgruntled ex-staffer", claimed that Trump once said, "Maybe this Covid thing is a good thing," because, "I don't have to shake hands with these disgusting people", meaning his supporters.

What the editorials said: #TrumpVirus

Mourning the 200,000 (++) dead, said The Washington Post, "and be angry- very angry".  The tragedy has been worsened by Donald Trump, who minimized the threat, refused to mobilize a large-scale government response, dismissed the importance of mask wearing and prodded the GOP run states to reopen before the viral spread was under control.  "Nothing more could have been done", Trump has said about coronavirus casualties. But, there is work to do.  "Wear a mask. Social distance. Wash your hands. And vote", wrote The Post. 

What the columnists said:

Tragically, the Trump administration is letting, "politics distort science", said Claudia Wallis in ScientificAmerican.com. Leaked emails have revealed how political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services have tried to slow the release of data that contradict Trump, including a negative report on the fake cure hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug that Trump touted as a Covid-19 therapy, and information about children spreading the virus. With scientific findings being run, through a political "distortion field", will the public be able to "trust federal assessments about the coronavirus treatments and the vaccines?," she wrote.

Here is the reality check:

The U.S. is trapped in a pandemic "death spiral", said Ed Yong in TheAtlantic.com.  Influenza season 2020-21, is approaching, which will make it harder to identify Covid-19 symptoms, and winter is not far away, which will pack people indoors. Our failure to build testing capacity and hire enough contact tracers means that many parts of the U.S. could see a repeat of the horror that New York City suffered in the spring 2020. Tragedy-numbered Americans might, "stop treating the pandemic as the emergency that it is," and, instead, accept thousands of daily deaths as "the unthinkable normal." #TrumpVirusGenocide, IMO.

Donald Trump provides no leadership to the courageous U.S. military

Donald Trump shows contempt for military.  

Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’
The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, multiple sources tell The Atlantic.

In fact, he has fired the generals who were working for him including like McMaster, Kelly and Mattis. 

General James Mattis denounced Donald Trump, and escribed him as a threat to the Constitution. In an extraordinary condemnation, the former defense secretary backed the protesters and said Trump is trying to turn Americans against one another.

In The Week, this commentary summarizes how Trump has shown contempt for the American military troops.  (Just look at how Trump treated US Navy Captain Brett Crozier, the former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt who was relieved of duty after raising the alarm about a Covid-19 outbreak on his ship in March. ... Crozier will not be eligible for future command, effectively ending his Navy career.)

The courage it takes to fight and die for your country is hard for many civilians to comprehend, said Max Boot, in The Washington Post.  Donald Trump marvels at it too, apparently - just "not in a complimentary way". 

"Trump's hypocrisy is sickening. His actions display consistent contempt for the armed forces and their ethos of “duty, honor, country.” All he cares about is using troops as political props. To see how little Trump truly respects our military, all you have to do is examine the differing treatment of three decorated veterans: Alexander Vindman, Eric Greitens, and Anthony J. Tata", wrote Boot.

A recent bombshell story in The Atlantic , by Jeffrey Goldberg (September 3, 2020), repoted that Trump repeatedly startled aides by describing US. troops who have died for their country as "suckers" and "losers".  During the Armistice Day memorial in France, in 2018, the White House publicly blamed poor flying condidtions for his skiping a ceremony at a cemetery filled with American oldiers.  In private, multiple sources say, Trump was worried the wind and rain would leave his hair disheveled, in front of cameras, and asked why he sould visit a cemetery "filled with losers". Trump once accompanied then- Secretary of Homeland Security General John Kelly to Arlington National Cemetery, and at the grave of Kelly's son, who was killed inAfghanistan, he told Kelly directly, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?" White House insiders were understandably unwilling to go on record, said Jefrey Goldberg, in The Atlantic. But, several said the draat-dodging, money-obsessed Trump "simply does not underestad non-tranactional life choices", and nurses a deep "cynicism about heroism and sacrifice". 

Maybe Trump did say those things, said Jeff Groom, in TheAmericanConservative.com, but, Trump's "crassness and superficial callousness" are hardly news at this point. What matters more to our troops are his actions. Colonel Jeff McCausland in NBCNews.com said our troops and their families deserve a leader that understands military service and "truly cares about their welfare".  

Trump, doesn't care that Russia is paying the Taliban to kill Americans, he praises war criinals as heroes and uses generals like Kelly, Mattis nd McMaster as props, only to discard and denegrate them.  It's time for these generals to tell Aemricans on the record whether The Atlantic story is true.  "Their silence right now is truly deafening."

Donald Trump is now among the Justinians in pandemic history

Maine Writer opinion- Donald Trump's incompetent pandemic response will be documented in history as a pivotal point in time when America collapsed as a result of incompetent leaders. 

Pandemics have one thing in common - they change the trajectory of history, as summarized in an opinion echo published in The Week:

In the years leading up to A.D. 542, the Eastern Roman Empire- known by many today as the Byzantine Empire- was on a winning streak.

(Known as the "emporer who never slept!) The Byzantine Emporer Justinian (a reign marked by ambition!) had crushed the barbarians who occupied much of the western part of the old Roman Empire and had secured a peace deal with the Persians to the east. Then, the bubonic plague arrived in Constantinople. The historian Procopius wrote that four four months, the pestilence killed up to 10,000 people a day in the capital. Corposes were so plentiful they had to be tossed into pits or the sea, or crammed into towers that were then sealed off.  By the time the plague fizzled out, in A.D. 750, the adherents of a new religion, Islam, had seized a large share of Byzantium's eastern terrirtories and the Franks had conquered vast swaths of Western Europe.  Pandemics would violently change the course of history again and again in the coming centuries. Smallpox, brought to the New World by Spanish conquistadors in 1492, killled up to 20 million indigenous Americans and annihilated the Aztecs, allowing Europeans to colonize the ravaged areas. And, in the 19th century, merciless crackdowns by the czarist regime on Russians who rioted against the strict cholera quaranines would fuel resentments that later exploded into revolution.

Although it's too early to tell how COVID19, will alter the modern world, so far, the response by Donald Trump has been abjectly and, to the ultimate mazimum degree,  obvious incompetence.  

Nevertheless, the anger over Beijing's cover-up of the Wuhan outbreak might make countries and corporations pull back from China, slowing the superpower's rise.

Or, perhaps, China will fill the vacuum left by the U.S.'s retreat from the international bodies such as the humanitarian World Health Organization (WHO).

Populist movements in the West might collapse as citizens rally around experts and scientists who understand how to keep them safe.

Or, perhaps aspiring authoritarians will grow stronger, by exploiting our fears of germ-bearing outsiders and grabbing power during lockdowns. The only thing that's certain is that the world will look very different when this pandemic eventually passes.

By Theunis Bates, an Editor's letter published in The Week.

Donald Trump's serial denialism finally comes full circle with coronavirus and "the jig is up"

Finally, the pernicious "denialism" that's endemic in the fraudulent Republican party and the Trumpzi administration has come full circle when they have been forced to accept the  medical science called "virology". In other words, coronavirus is not a hoax.

An article published in The Week March 20, 2020

Caronavirus cases and deaths spike across the U.S.
What happened?
Donald Trump appeared to undermine federal efforts to contain the new coronavirus when the pandemic began, insisting that the virus will "go away", even as cases of the respiratory illness skyrocketed across the U.S., spooking markets and sparking fears of a recession.

Then, health officials had reported more than 1,000 cases of the coronavirus in 38 states and the District of Columbia and at least 30 deaths.

To stem the spread of the virus, known as Covid-19, universities across the country scrapped in person classes, major events such as the South by Southwest festival were canceled and companies began mandating that employees work from home. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the closure of schools and gathering places in New Rochelle, a New York City suburb, that has seen dozens of cases and he sent the National Guard to sanitize a 1 mile wide "containment zone".  The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 3,000 plus points in one day, the worst daily showing since the 2008 financial crisis. Globally, officials reported more than 125,000 cases and at least 4,500 deaths.

With multiple states declaring emergencies, the Trumpzi denier tweeted that 17,000 Americans die from the flu each year and "nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on".  Influenza* typically kills 0.1 percent of the people it infects every year, the World Health Organization estimates that the Covid-19 has a mortality rate of up to 3.4 percent.  Trump dismissed the WHO's fatality figures as "a false number", and during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he boasted about his "natural" scientific ability. He attributed this to his "super genious uncle" sho had one corked at MIT!  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 

Moreover, the Trumpzi administration's top public health officials were grilled in Congress over the sluggish rollout of Covid-19 testing kits. Only about 4,300 people had been tested since the start of the outbreak. However, the South Koreans had been conducting up to 10,000 tests a day.  "There's not enough equipment," CDC (Center for Disease Control) Director Robert Redfield said about public labs' capabilities.  "There's not enough people."  

Brian Monahan, Congress' in house doctor told Capitol Hill staffers in a closed door meeting that 70 million to 130 million Americans will likely contract the virus. 

What the editorials said
Trumpzi's Pollyannaish predictions and outright falsehoods "will cost lives," said The Washington Post.  To boost the stock market and his re-election chances, Donald Trump is contradicting the advice offered by his own health-care experts. They urged people to practice social distancing, but he has told them to live life as usual.  In China, a viral catastrophe ensued when the authoritarian Community Party emphasized its image at the expense of the nation's health.  Now, we're seeing the same here in the U.S. 

"So far, in this crisis, Trumpzi himself has obviously failed to rise to the challenge of leadership," said National Review. He delayed making the virus a priority for as long as possible- "refusing briefings, downplaying the problem and wasting precious time".  He failed to empower subordinates and rather than trust the information they handed him, recycled favorable figures he eard on cable T.V.  This behavior is familiar, it's how Trumpzi has handled scandals and fiascoes for three failed years. But, those were largely self created crises. The coronavirus "demands a new level of seriousness from the inept tRump".  

What the Columnists said
Trump views the coronavirus case totals as if it were an approval polls, said Dan Diamond, in Politico.com.  He left some 2,500 passengers aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship,"marooned off the coast of California, for days, even as "coronavirus infections rapidly multiplies". Why not evacuate and isolate the cruise goers?"  "I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault," the stupid Trumpzi explained to the media.  

Trumpzi- Stupid is as Stupid Does (#SIASD)

This disaster was fast turning into "Trump's Chernobyl," said Brian Klaas in The Washington Post.  Just like Soviet authorities in the wake of the 1986, nuclear plant explosion, the #SIASD Trumpzi was trying "to construct a reality that simply did not exist. Those lies will eventually kill people." 

MaineWriter- Unfortunately, 103 passengers on the cruise ship The Grand Princess tested positive for the coronavirus and at least two of them subsequently died from the infection (reported the The Mercury News).  

But, Michael Fumento reported in The New York Post that American had succumbed to "pure hysteria".  It's possible that the coronavirus will soon peak and start to die down, just as it has in China, where new cases have dropped from 4,000 a day to 200. And, the reported mortality rate of 3.4 percent is highly misleading, given that most infected people "have symptoms so mile, if any, that they don't seek medical attention and don't get counted in the caseload".  (Maine Writer - I wonder, where did Michael Fumento buy his zeroxed public health diploma?)

This kind of uninformed opining is "wanonly irresponsible", said Yascha Mounk, in The Atlantic.com.  We know this disease spreads like lightening. Italy had 6.2 identified cases on FEbruary 22, 888 cases by Feb. 29, and 4, 636, by March 6th.  The case rate here will soar in coming days and if even the mortality rate is only 1 percent, that will mean "the soronavirus is 10 times as deadly as the flu".

China finally arrested the virus", exponential spread by canceling all public gatherings, asking most citizens to self-quarantine, and sealing off the epicenter in Wuhan province. 

The U.S., must follow that example and "cancel everything".  It's the only way to stop this killer.  

Maine Writer note - Interesting to see that on March 28, 2020, since the number of coronavirus cases in the US are now exponentially accelerating, the trending hashtag on Twitter is #Trump_genocide.

Whats next?
American's health-care system could be in for "a reckoning", said Dan Goldberg and Rachel Roubein in Politico.com.  

In other words, "the jig is up".  

So far, there's no sign of hospitals "cracking under pressure," but, the industry has undergone "long term consolidation," and "years of cutbacks" as it emphasized short-patient stays in an effort to arrest runaway health-care spending. That's left the system vulnerable and means that administrators might have to ration equipment, like ventilators, acute care beds, protective equipment (PPE) and even oxygen as patients flood into emergency rooms. "There is still a chance that state and local efforts to contain the virus can succeed," said Ross Douthat, in The New York Times, but, if the current trajectory of infection rates holds, we will see "rising death rates and overwhelmed hospitals, shuttered schools and empty stadiums."

Combine the economic consequences of such a scenario, "with the optics of the Trumpzi's blundering response, and the coronavirus seems very likely to doom Trumpzi' re-election effort, no matter where he casts the blame.

*Maine Writer note- with Influenza, there is evidence of an acquired immunity to the virus because of many years of exposures and the help of preventive annual vaccines.  Moreover, Tamilfu is a drug now available to help treat influenza.  Yet, as of now, there is no proven coronavirus vaccine and no access to drugs to combat the virus.

Afghanistan is another Donald Trump failed foriegn policy

Opinion echo published in The Week, March 13, 2020, by Theunis Bates, the managing editor.

This particular echo opinion is personal in my family because my husband Richard is a Vietnam War Veteran. 

During the war, he was in Chu Lai, Vietnam with Mobile Construction Batallion 71, in 1967, as described by photojournalist and author David Lyman in his book "Seabee 71 in Chu Lai: Memoir of a Navy Journalist".

Afghanistan in 2020, is starting to look a lot like Vietnam in 1973.  

(Maine Writer- my family was living in Subic Bay, Philippines during the fall of Saigon. My husband was stationed at Subic at the time and we lived on the Navy Base with our family. We witnessed the waves of Vietnamese refugees who arrived by the thousands at the Cubi Naval Air Station and those who came in boats, called "the boat people". We participated in humanitarian efforts to count and process the refugees who flew into Subic.)

In 1973, with no input from South Vietnam's pro-U.S.  government, President Richard Nixon signed a deal with North Vietnam to speed America's exit from a deeply unpopular "forever war".

The Trump administration struck a similar accord with the Afghan Taliban this week, also with minimal buy-in from our local allies.  In return for vague Taliban promises to shun al-Qada and talk poer sharing with the government in Kabul, the U.S. will withdraw its 12,000 troops over the next 14 months.  History tells us what's likely to happen next.  Two years after Nixon inked his accord, the North Vietnamese overran Saigon and sent hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese to re-education camps. Should the U.S. quit Afghanistan, the Taliban may take Kabul not long after. If they do, bloody reprisals are certain and the women in the U.S. encouraged to leave their homes, attend schools and work will be forced back into the Middle Ages.

Many Afghans will rightly feel betrayed by our departure.  Yet, by most measures, America's nearly 20-year-old war there is a failure. We did annihilate the al Qaida terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks and toppled the Taliban government that sheltered them. But, the Taliban- which have a strong base of support among the country's ethnic Pashtuns- have surged back and now control 50 percent of the country.  Our efforts to create a thriving democracy have also amounted to nothing.  

In fact, the Kabul government is riddled with corruption and hugely unpopular, and much of the territory it supposedly controls is dominated by warlords, deeply involved in opium trafficking. 

Moreover, Afghanistan has already cost us $2 trillion and the lives of 2,300 American troops, so, obviously, more blood and treasure won't buy victory.  Nixon once promised that he would deliver "peace with honor" in Vietnam. We should know that no such thing is possible in Afghanistan.

Influenza- the vaccine and the prevention effectiveness

This article was published in "Briefing", The Week, November 1, 2019

Getting a flu shot is a seasonal rite. But why do you need one every year — and why doesn't it always work? Here's what people need to know:

How does the vaccine work?
The flu vaccine contains inactive or weakened versions of three or four different strains of the influenza virus. Most people receive the vaccine via injection, but there is also a nasal spray available. The weakened viruses can't cause serious illness, but they trigger and train the immune system to fight off the invading microorganisms. White blood cells generate an army of antibodies, which attack and destroy the vaccine viruses by attaching themselves to parts of the virus known as antigens. The vaccine antigens have the same shape as real flu antigens, so the immune system now has antibodies that match up with the real flu virus. That experience teaches the immune system to recognize future flu infections and quickly make antibodies to attack the invading viruses. It takes about two weeks after receiving the vaccine to develop immunity, which is why doctors recommend getting it early in the flu season, which begins in October and can last as late as May.

Do most people get vaccinated?
No. Although the U.S. has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, only 45 percent of adults and 63 percent of children get flu shots each year. Scientists estimate that if the vaccination rates were boosted to between 80 and 90 percent, it could effectively stop seasonal flu from spreading because of herd immunity. Influenza is one of the world's most contagious diseases, spreading easily through the air and by touch. It affects between 5 and 15 percent of the world's population every year. The disease kills 12,000 Americans during mild flu seasons and up to 56,000 in severe ones, with 90 percent of the victims over 65 years old. Many people don't get vaccinated, however, either because they fear getting the shot or believe it isn't effective.

How effective is it?

The vaccine's effectiveness varies dramatically depending on how well it matches the viruses circulating in a given season. In good years, the vaccine protects 50 to 70 percent of the people receiving it. But some strains are more difficult to create vaccines for, such as the H3N2 type, which raged during the severe 2017 flu season. That year's vaccine was found to be only 40 percent effective overall. Nevertheless, doctors recommend getting the shot anyway because even some immunity helps slow the spread of the disease. Vaccination also can make symptoms of any flu infection less severe, even if it doesn't completely prevent illness. "We do have something that works," says Peter Palese, a virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. "It's not perfect, but it's better than not having any vaccination."

What makes flu so tricky?
The flu virus is constantly mutating, rendering the body's antibodies against previous flu infections obsolete. Influenza is less stable than other viruses, such as chicken pox, because its main genetic material is RNA. The virus makes many small errors when it copies its genetic code during reproduction. Every generation of the flu virus has a slightly different genetic structure, which is harder for the immune system's existing antibodies to recognize. This process is known as "antigenic drift." Scientists have to guess which influenza strains will be more prevalent well before flu season starts, to give pharmaceutical companies time to manufacture enough of the vaccine.

How are vaccines made?
The process hasn't changed much since the first flu vaccines were given to American soldiers in 1945. Over 90 percent of flu vaccines are incubated in fertilized chicken eggs, because the virus grows extremely well in them. This technique is relatively cheap, but production is cumbersome and time-consuming, taking about six months. The World Health Organization issues predictions for the Northern Hemisphere flu season in February based on observational data and laboratory studies, with pharmaceutical companies beginning production almost immediately. The process requires about 900,000 chicken eggs per day. Given the six-month time lag, it's all but impossible to swiftly order up vast new batches of vaccine in case an unexpected strain emerges, which is what happened in the 2009-10 flu season with the H1N1 virus, better known as swine flu. The virus infected an estimated 61 million people in the U.S., killing 12,000.

Are improvements possible?
In theory, yes. Donald Trump issued an executive order in September, directing the Department of Health and Human Services to create a flu vaccine task force to modernize seasonal vaccine production. Nevertheless, the order does not provide any additional funding for vaccine development. Experts say it could take decades to develop the sophisticated new infrastructure needed to make vaccines in animal cells instead of eggs. "Egg production is a huge bottleneck," says Martin Friede, coordinator of the Initiative for Vaccine Research at the World Health Organization. "You can't just call your local egg farm and say tomorrow I need 10 million more eggs."

A universal flu vaccine
The holy grail of flu research is a universal vaccine that would provide lasting protection against all forms of the virus, but it remains elusive. There have been clinical trials in the past, with the National Institutes of Health beginning a new round of tests on humans this year. The hope is to train the immune system by targeting the stem of a protein on the virus, which varies little from strain to strain. However, our bodies don't generate many antibodies to target this part of the virus, instead focusing on the frequently changing head. Because of a process called "imprinting" — in which the immune system learns how to fight viruses based on the first encounter — it's difficult to teach the body new habits. "I don't think we're that close at all," says Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. "I think the kind of work that's gone on has been critical and important, but it's only the first 5 feet of what would need to be a 100-foot rope."

Donald Trump and his "Mexican will pay for wall" fiasco

This summary echo, published in the September 20, 2019 edition of The Week, highlights the disastrous and false promise, made by Donald Trump, during his rhetorical, "Who will pay for the wall?", campaign speeches.  This article is published in Best Columns: The U.S....

Now, we see the "collateral damage" of Donald Trump's obsession with building a border wall, said The Washington Post in an editorial.

Trump is seizing $3.6 billion in congressionally approved military construction funds to build 450 miles of wall in defiance of Congress, using the dubious national emergency he declared at the sotuehrn border as legal justification. That includes hundreds of millions of dollars alloted to build and renovate schools for children on American military bases.  "Sorry, kids, Mr. Trump wants his wall- the one it turns out Mexico is not paying for." 

"I will build a great wall -- and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me --and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Donald Trump "dumb quotes".

Planned improvements at the U.S. Military Academy's engineering center have also been scrapped. All told, 127 projects have been effectively defunded in nearly half the sates. America's overseas territories and bases have been hit the hardest. Puerto Rico will lose $400 million ear marked for five hurricane repair projects.  "More than $700 million was snateched from sites in Europe, mainly for projects designed to protect the continent from Russian aggression."

So far, most Republican lawmakers have sheepishley accepted Trump's blatant power grab.  This sets a terrible precedent. Someday, A Democratic president will seize defense funds or farm subsidies for his or her own pet projects.

NBCNews report by Courtney Kube - Trump's plan to pay for border wall with Air Force funds risks national security, report says.

The report, compiled by the U.S. Air Force and obtained by NBC News, details the importance of each of the 51 military projects chosen by the Trump administration to lose their funding.

Plan to pay for border wall with Air Force funds risks national security, report says.

Maine Writer post script- In other words, American tax payers are paying for Donald Trump's stupid border wall.

France - history comes around to leadership of the democratic free world

During the 18th century age of enlightenment, when Europe was awakening from the dark Middle Ages, it was France that was among the countries that led the inspiration for democracy. 

Perhaps Emmanuel Macron, today's president of France, is giving new meaning to the proverb about "what goes around comes around".  Reported in The Week, it is Macron who now sets the world's agenda, during the political "dark ages of Trump".

Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron has been President of France since May 2017.

Published in the September 6/ September 13, 2019 The Week.

BIARRITZ, France- Emmanuel Macron is the only world leader who is ready to face our exestential challenges, said Edward Luce, in the Financial Times (U.K.).  The french president played host to the Group of Seven major democracies this year, rolling out the red carpet at the glitzy Basque seaside resort of Biarritz.  But, Macron's role was more than symbolic.  The leader of the world's democracies has traditionally been the U.S., but in Donald Trump, the U.S. has a leader with an "allergy to all things to do with alliances, democracies, cooperation and so forth."

Germany's Angela Merkel is now "fading gracefully into retirement." Canada's Justin Trudeau is facing an election. Boris Johnson just "wants to complain about Ireland," and Italy really has no leader at all.  "Alone among world leaders, Macron is trying to spark a serious conversation about life-and-death issues that affect us all."

Macron is ready to take his big turn on the world stage, if only  he can "manage" Trump, said Francois-Savier Bourmaud, in Le Figaro (France).  He wants to work out the world's problems from Syria to the Amazon. Except, the U.S. president Trump keeps worsening them, or creating more.  Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015, Iran nuclear deal, to which European countries are also a party.  Trump started a trade war with China that is reverberating in other countries.  And, he rejects climate science. Macron knows Trump pretty well by now, and he recognizes that the only way to get him to change courst is to "offer him a better deal."  So, on Iran, Macron tried to do just that, by inviting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to Biarritz and repeatedly raising the subject of a new, better Iran deal. He actually got Trump to agree to eventual talks with Iran, mediated by France.

With his perfect English and relentless glad-handing, Macron "showed himself to be the mater of diplomacy," said Barbara Wesel for Deutsche Welle (Germany).  To tackles the Amazon rain forest fires, he used "both carrots and sticks." First, he threatened Brazilian President Jair Bolsonato with the abrogation of the Mercosur trade deal between the European Union (EU) and Brazil if Bolsonaro did not do more to fight the fires, and, presto!, the Brazilian army turned out to do just that.  Then, Macron coaxed the G-7 members into creating a $22 million rain forest emergency fund.

But, that achievement is in doubt after Brazil demanded an apology for being left out of the talks, said Stefan Brandle, in Der Standard (Austria). Meanwhile, Macron's proposed tax on digital giants like Google and Amazon went nowhere, and there was no progress on combating terrorism in West Africa, one of his pet projects. Still, this G-7 saw no Trump-induced diplomatic catastrophe, and in today's world, that counts as a win.  "Nobody could expect anything more." 

White Supremacist terrorism on the rise - Trumpzism growing

First, "we have to admit that the American president Donald Trump is an enormous obstacle to confronting white nationalism', said Christopher Dickey in TheDailyBeast.com

An echo opinion covering multiple sources, published in The Week, summarizes a big picture world view about the alarming rise in white supremacy and how Donald Trump is feeding this cult.

"Trump still won’t name ‘White Supremacist Terrorism’ and his cult base loves the juice", wrote Dean Obeidallah in TheDaily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-still-wont-name-white-supremacist-terrorism-and-his-base-loves-it


New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, called the incident a terrorist attack in a Friday press conference, saying the suspects held "extremist views" that have no place in New Zealand or the world.

The rise of White supremacist terrorism- What happened?

Donald Trump dismissed the idea that white nationalism is growing international threat in the aftermath of an anti-Muslim massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand that left at lest 50 people dead and 30 wounded, some gravely.  The shooter, a 28-year old named Brenton Tarrant of Australia, opened fire on march 15, at two mosques during midday prayers.  Shortly before the killings, the shooter published a 74 page manifesto replete with white nationalist talking points and memes, especially the eida of "white genocide" or the idea that whites are being replaced through immigration and intermarriage.  In a bizarre assault, the shooter railed against Muslims and immigrants, describing them as "invaders in our lands".  Trump expressed "warmest sympathy and best wishes" to the people of New Zealand without explicity mentioning the Muslim victims.  When asked if he considers white nationalism to be a growing threat, the Trumpzi replied, "I don't really think so.  I thin it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems."

In the U.S., far-right terrorists have been responsible for 71 percent of extremist killings since September 11, 2001.  Last year, 2018, was the deadliest for white supremacist violence since the 1995, Oklahoma City bombing.

The New Zealand shooter claimed to be inspired by Dylann Roof, the American white supremacist who killed eight black people at a church in Charleston South Carolina, in 2015, as well as Andre Breivik, the right wing Norwegian terrorist who massacred 77 people in 2001. To inspire fellow radicals, the New Zealand shooter live-streamed the carnage to his Facebook page.  The social network has since removed 1.5 million copies of the 17 minute video, which at least 200 people watched live. 

Moreover, the shooter also expressed admiration for Trump "as a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose," but derided his skills as a political leader.  Donald Trump railed against the idea that he had anything to do with encouraging white supremacists.  "The Fake News Media is working overtime to blame me for the horrible attack in New Zealand, " he tweeted.  "They will have to work very hard to prove that one. So Ridiculous!"

What the editors said

Donald Trump must acknowledge white supremacism,"as the world wide killer that it is," said The Washington Post.  Much like radical Islamism, white supremacy has become a movement that transcends global borders as it spreads its violent ideology online. 

White supremacy must be fought by coordinating local, state and federal government law-enforcement efforts and sharing information globally with our allies. Yet, our government still calls right-wing radicalism "domestic terrorism, if it is called terrorism at all."

Incredibly, Trump even shut down an inter-agency task force on violent right wing groups.

New Zealand's response to this tragedy "put us to shame," said The Philadelphia Enquirer.  Instead of offering meaningless platitudes and "thoughts and prayers," Prime Minister Jacinda Arden promised swift action to crack down on semi-automatic assault-style rifles, which remain legal in New Zealand. Arden's "quick response is inspiring," and utterly sensible. After a 1996 mass shooting that left 35 people dead, Australia passed though new gun laws including a ban on semi-automatics.There were zero mass shooting for the next 22 years and gun homicides fell by 50 percent.  "It is the lack of response from American leaders that is the outlier."

What the Columnists said
The war on terror should include all forms of terrorism, said Daniel Byman in Slate.com.  Western governments should deploy the same tactics against white supremacists that they've "honed"to a find edge" against the Islamic State and other jihadist groups. Yes, "there are noteworthy similarities" between radical Islamists and white supremacists, said Noah Rothman, in Commentary Magazine.com.  But, the Islamists actually took territory and built their own pseudo country in the form of the Islamic State, which is only now being dismantled. Only the government and the military can smash a sophisticated well trained terrorist network like ISIS. Stopping white supremacist loners, "is more a societal challenge." 

First, "we have to admit that the American president Donald Trump is an enormous obstacle "to confronting white nationalism', said Christopher Dickey in TheDailyBeast.com

Right wing extremists have seen the Trump administration as allys ever since Trump promised "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S.", and praised white supremacists at a neo-Nazi rally as "very fine people".  Then, just minutes after dismissing the New Zealand massacre as an isolated incident, Trump echoed the shooter's own rhetoric by calling migrants at the U.S. southern border, "invaders". 

Obviously, (or maybe not so much) Trump can't be blamed (???) for any specific attack, said David Leonhardt, in The New York Times, but he's hardly blameless. Trump warned that his supporters in the police, the military, and biker gangs might get "tough" if Democrats try to force him from power, adding that what followed "would be very bad, very bad." So, we have a Trumpzi president who shrugs at white nationalism and encourages violence. Meanwhile, white nationalist violence is on the rise. Perhaps, "that's just a big coincidence."  

What's next?

The Christchurch massacre was not an isolated event, said Peter Neumann, in The Washington Post.  German intelligence says there are now abotu 13,000 "potentially violent right-wing extremists" in Germany - a number that has been steadily increasing.  The British government also sees right-wing extremism as a growing threat.  In 2016, the pro-Nazi group National Action became the first far-right organization banned under the U.K.'s counter-terrorism laws.  "White nationalism has been internationalized," said Jane Coaston in Vox.com.  White nationalists around the world have adopted common slogans, cultural references and hero figures.  

Chillingly, the manifesto left behind by the New Zealand evil shooter is disturbingly similar to the online writings of a white nationalist Coast Guard lieutenant in Maryland who was charged in February with plotting attacks on left-wing politicians and media figures. Both men, for example, cite Breivik's Norway massacre as their inspiration.  The Christchurch shooter no doubt "hoped to do the same for someone else".  (MaineWriter: A frighteningly real probability.)