“He’s the most corrupt lying con artist that has needlessly divided our Country. This is not about socialism, but removing a tyrant wannabe dictator.” Taken from a verbatim quote of a “Facebook friend.” ORANGE MORON ALERT!! Another intellectual Trump hater. Another reason I have heard, “I don’t care for all that Socialist baggage Biden carries with him, but the Cancer needs to be cut out!” That is the first time I have heard Trump compared to cancer. He is so corrupt he won’t even take his salary, but donates it all to the U.S. Treasury, unlike his predecessor, who came to the White House with modest assets and just bought a $12,000,000 house on Martha’s Vineyard. What about Hunter Biden who worked for Ukraine at $50,000 a month for his “no-show” job with no qualifications except the name Biden. But he did nothing wrong, according to his father. Does that sound just a bit fishy, especially now with the New York Post revelations? And I could go on all day, but I won’t.
I wonder when Trump divided the Country? Was it when Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union speech, or was it when he halted travel from China on January 27th,proving Biden’s accusations of racism and hysterical xenophobia? Or was it perhaps the fact that efforts to impeach him started as soon as he got into office? Or was it when BLM and Antifa took over Seattle? I do want to point out one issue that Trump solved in just a few pen strokes, by executive order 13769, to stop the wanton destruction of our Country’s history with no media mention, much less any credit. It gives you a clue as to how effectively he runs the Country and how much the media despises him.
History is unchangeable; what happened happened. Some good, some bad, but it all happened. If we don’t remember it, we are doomed to repeat it, so an old saying goes. Tearing down statues does not change anything but destroy property that belongs to all of us. It was a despicable display of uncivilized humans, our system’s failure, and comes right out of the Communist playbook. England does not tear down the Tower of London, where unspeakable crimes took place for centuries. Austria and France do not destroy the palaces of Schönbrunn or Versailles that were temples of aristocratic excess and privilege at the expense of the starving masses. Spain did take down some of Francisco Franco’s monuments, but those that had religious meaning and artistic value, such as the Valley of the Fallen, a memorial to Franco’s defeat of the Communists, and even heroic equestrian statues of Franco himself in many town squares all over Spain still stand. Franco, incidentally, was a Fascist and ally of Adolph Hitler. Spain did not go ballistic as we did.
As our memorials to heroic Americans were being torn down such as Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Scott Key, etc., the Democratic mayors and even the democratic Speaker of the House did nothing to discourage this anarchy, in fact they encouraged it, calling it mostly peaceful demonstrations by brave Americans protected by the Constitution. Even Nancy didn’t worry about masks for the demonstrations. She was more concerned about the theater of being seen kneeling wearing her Kente shawl.
Executive Order 13769 stopped the anarchy the next day altogether. How did he do it? Decisive action without hesitation – guaranteed long jail terms for offenders! Who would clean up our Country better, Biden or Trump?
Has Trump really done a poor job of managing the pandemic? There has not been a National plan; but every State has been managed by the Governor of that State, some very well and some not so well. That has been the traditional way the U.S. handles problems that are State oriented. I cannot see an issue that is more State oriented than the health of your people in each State. The solutions of which are different in each municipality, and related to the management of businesses, schools, transportation, law enforcement, churches, and other local concerns. The choices available to manage the pandemic are to follow the only means we have at this time to cause fewer people to become infected. Stay home, go out for only essential purposes, wash hands frequently, don’t touch your face, wear a mask when out in public (even between bites at a restaurant on the order of Gavin Newsom, Governor of California), stay 6 feet apart from other people, do not go to events with large crowds, and that is about all you can do. Putting Covid patients into large nursing homes would be a mistake, as governor Cuomo discovered 6000 deaths later. Presidential control of National Management is a bit overrated, if not presumptuous. I just don’t see the National Guard enforcing hand washing or face touching very useful and in a meaningful way. Do we even want the President to tell us when to open our schools? What would a National Plan look like? More complete shutdowns with more small business bankruptcy, more depression, and suicides? I see little room to do anything different. Regardless, since the Governors are running the show, would it not be the Governors who get the credit or blame? Whoever gets the honors, our numbers show the U.S. with mortality rates are in the top one third, considerably better than Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, and Sweden. Germany and Switzerland are close, but we still beat them in mortality per 100,000 by a fraction. It is true that we have a higher number of cases. That is a function of public health measures of each municipality, not under the President’s control. Italy charged violators of local ordinances up to up to € 3,000, Germany put them in jail. In contradistinction, our brilliant methods defund police, ordered police to stand down for arson and looting. How in heaven’s name are we going to enforce mask-wearing or gatherings of more than 10 people? To blame the President for our pandemic response and results fails to place the responsibility appropriately, given our options. Even comparisons to other advanced industrialized nations we are not all that different. Europe has reached 237,778 deaths to date surpassing us, and it’s not over until it is over, as said by the philosopher Yogi Berra. Managing to blame Trump suggests that someone has done some clever bait and switch work.
What are Trump’s accomplishments and failures? Before Covid, he made the economy as good as it has been, with the lowest unemployment it has ever had. With Covid, he has brought it almost back from the brink, setting a new record in the S&P 500 and NASDAQ. Our unemployment numbers are 7.9%, certainly not as good as they were at 3.5% before the pandemic, but still better than during than Obama’s unemployment numbers during his entire first term (look it up). When you compare our mortality numbers with the rest of the world (and you should, I recommend the website of Johns Hopkins), the Covid virus has been managed better than two-thirds of the rest of the world! He has lowered the taxes for the population and the business world, bringing back companies that have previously gone to Europe and Asia, along with their jobs. He has decreased unmanageable bureaucracy in agriculture, industry, and energy by also removing burdensome, unnecessary, and expensive regulations. He has made us energy independent. He is not going to destroy us economically, catering to fanatic environmentalism, which by the way, has a new branch of environmentalism, humanistic environmentalism, that is much more common sense and pragmatic (read National Best Seller, Apocalypse Never by Michael Shellenberger). It is something that we could live with, unlike the Green New Deal or the Biden Plan that belongs in the radical environmentalist playbook that would tank the economy more than Covid-19 has.
Trump works within the Constitution and its first ten articles, the Bill of Rights. Where are all the divisive things he has done? Ah yes, all those scathing books that condemned his actions, people that worked in his administration, people whom he hired and then fired. The devil is in the details. John Bolton had a long list of complaints: Trump has lapses in geographic knowledge, wanted to quit NATO, wanted to invade Venezuela, didn’t know which countries had “the Bomb,” wanted China to buy soybeans from our farmers, which would help him win the election in some mysterious way, etc. Those evil deeds have not had much of an impact on anything. People that get fired usually don’t have good things to say about their boss. It couldn’t be their failures? I have a certain degree of skepticism of their assessment. I don’t have the knowledge or interest to figure it all out. But the person who is responsible for this Country must call the shots. If some people were unjustly treated, they are entitled to write their books, which will make them rich. I wish them no ill and good luck in getting a good book deal.
Besides not being able to pronounce Yosemite, Trump has made little headway with China. At this point, they are waiting to deal with Biden, who they think is going to be much softer on them regarding all the industrial spying, the financial trickery of currency manipulation, and all the trade unfairness that China has utilized to gain massive advantages over us. Xi Jinping is likely to outwit Biden and Harris, especially with Hunter Biden at his side.
For me, it is mostly about Socialism and the Green New Deal. We are going to take a sharp left turn economically and in the Bill of Rights 1st and 2nd Amendment ( Freedom of Speech and the Right to Bear Arms), elimination of fossil fuels without sufficient energy substitution i.e., a life with less of everything, smaller cars with shorter range, no more Prime Rib – too much Methane from the cows – get used to vegan, substitute high-speed rail for air travel, we don’t need airplanes (the high-speed rail from LA to Fresno – Yes Fresno – will cost at least $20.4 billion!), more rolling blackouts, smaller harvests (no gasoline-powered farm equipment), less energy available for work, play, travel, entertainment, etc. An advanced industrialized civilization needs energy to do the things we have been accustomed to doing. How long do you think Las Vegas would last with its electricity cut to 25% or less because of substitution with renewable energy that produces not even 10% of our energy nationwide? Germany has been trying to convert to renewable energy for the last 12 years at the cost of € 1 trillion ($1.2 trillion) and € 32 billion ($38 billion) a year to produce barely half their electric needs, and they still have to buy wood from us. It costs Germans three times more for electricity than it costs us. Renewables just do not pencil out! Look at Africa; they cannot sustain their wildlife, their food supply, and their economy at the present levels of available energy. All of which have contributed to genocide and near extinction of many already endangered species such as the mountain gorillas.
Trump is brash, at times crude, not diplomatic, says what he thinks unfiltered, doesn’t wear the mask as much as he should, is not liked by the suburban woman, changes out advisers like underwear, but he is not going to change the Constitution or the Supreme Court as we know it. To my Facebook friend who thinks Trump is a wannabe dictator – you ain’t seen nothing yet when Socialists will run the Country. You haven’t seen what real dictators do! We have been promised a restructuring of our government by the “squad”: AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley under the guidance of Bernie Sanders, a self-declared Socialist. With the predicted Democratic sweep, get ready for changes! My parents had to run away from their country of birth because of the Socialists and their utopian changes that promised a worker’s paradise – that never came. Unfortunately, we have no place to run. By the way, speaking of running, do you have a bicycle? You will need one. And in case they turn us all into vegans, eat all the steak while you can.