Tom Rinaldo
Tom Rinaldo's JournalA Timely Question for Trump
Now that you have been stricken by a serious disease that leaves many of those who are fortunate enough to survive their infection with serious long lasting negative aftereffects, some quite severe in nature, do you still assert that the only way you can lose in November is if the election is rigged against you? You may feel confident that you will "recover" from Covid-19, even though your doctors concede that you are not yet "out of the woods, but there is no way for anyone to know at this point with certainty how long your full recovery might take, of whether in fact your recovery will indeed be full.
Though there may be no uncertainty in your own mind that you will benefit from a speedy and full recovery, not all voters will similarly leap to that assessment between now and election day. In fact many are already casting their votes during a period when your doctors admit that you are not yet out of the woods. Concerns over the health of a future president are a legitimate basis for a voter to refuse to support a candidate who raises such concerns. Your campaign has itself publicized health concerns regarding your opponents in both 2016 and 2020. With your own long term health now raising legitimate concerns, at least in the mind of many voters, will you now retract your statement that the ONLY way can lose in November is if the election is rigged?
I've run a concert series for twelve years. Our concerts never got cancelled due to the flu.
Now our entire concert year is cancelled. Non essential workers were never told to stay at home because of the flu. Schools never shifted to remote learning due to the flu. No stores even urged, let alone required, patrons to wear masks over flu concerns. No restaurants ever turned away diners, once they reached one fourth capacity, in order to control the flu.
Recently I renewed my driver's license in person (because I needed a new photo taken). I had to schedule an appointment one month in advance - in order to limit the number of people inside the Motor Vehicle Bureau at any one time. They never did that for the flu. Beaches never closed because of the flu, bars never shut down for the flu, people never held remote funerals on account of the flu.
All of that and more occurs in the United States now due to Covid-19. And still 210,000 Americans are dead because of it. And still Trump compares Covid-19 to the flu. In an average year the flu kills maybe 50,000 Americans. Covid-19 has more than quadrupled that already, and we are just now building toward it's second major wave. Think of what would have happened if Americans treated Covid-19 like the flu. If, as Trump had urged, all our churches opened wide on Easter and packed their pews with worshipers. Trump personally sponsored rallies with thousands in attendance. What would have happened had every concert venue in America gone ahead with their shows, and had all of our Professional and College sports teams sold tickets to each fan who wanted to attend every game they played?
Would we now be looking at 210,000 deaths had Americans gone on with their lives as if we were just dealing with the flu, or would a million or more of us already be dead? Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands (if not more) Americans are plagued by lingering symptoms of Covid-19, sometimes quite severe, months after they supposedly have recovered from Covid-19. Nothing on that scale has ever happened from the flu.
But Americans, despite Trump's reassurances, seem to fear Covid-19. So perhaps we'll be deprived of a chance to see how good life might be if we chose to "dominate" it instead.
Be afraid of a President who, in his delusions, tells people not to be afraid of Covid-19
He is so dangerously ignorant that he doesn't acknowledge that many of those infected with Covid-19 appear to be doing well before the second phase of the disease kicks in, and that it is too soon to know if that will happen to him. Even if Trump survives over a quarter million Americans will have died from it by Election Day. How many people will this madman end up killing?
Medical treatment? Sure. Sympathy? No god damn fucking way.
Too many thousands have died because of conscious choices Trump made to put his reelection over the public health needs of the nation. Doctors should treat him. Everyone else should shun him, and history will condemn him.
Balancing Mercy and what's best for America, here's my bottom line
Trump should get really sick, he can eventually recover, even recover in full, but he has to get really, really sick first. By that I mean at least end up in a hospital intensive care unit for minimally a week but preferably longer. I fully get it that some feel that any trace of mercy is uncalled for when it comes to Trump and Covid-19. I feel that way half the time myself. But if I take any call for karmic justice out of the equation, and even allow for the fact that a fully recovered Trump can potentially stir up trouble in future years, even out of office, the what some would call my residual "Christian" values and others would call my "better self" does not call for Trump to die.
But I am focused on what it best for our nation. Tens of thousands of lives will likely be saved if knee jerk supporters of Trump get the shit scared out of them by seeing Trump's life balanced on the edge of a knife for weeks, watching him get gravely ill and not knowing if he will survive. Anything short of that won't scare enough Trump supporters into routinely wearing masks and following public health expert guidance. So I am not being cruel and/or vindictive in hoping Trump takes a very sharp turn for the worse before potentially recovering on some date many weeks off. I am hoping thousands of lives will be saved through that occurrence, with many chastened Republicans becoming willing to follow President Biden's lead on a public heath matter that should never have been partisan to begin with. And if that should be far too optimistic, I would settle for ten lives or fewer being saved if only a few thousand Trumpsters get shocked and scared into wearing masks in public. One of those lives might be mine.
Sorry, but I feel like I'm reading a left wing "Daily World" conspiracy rag...
...scanning the list of threads here on DU. Can't we at least let this flesh out and play out for a day or two before generating a slew of counter theories to a 74 year old man, who is in close contact with dozens of people daily except for when he is contact with thousands of people daily, and who refuses to wear masks or practice social distancing both inside and out, contracting Covid-19?
The money Trump wanted was more important to him than the lives of those who gave it to him
His priorities yesterday pretty much summarize all you need to know about Donald Trump.
Americans will refuse to live in the next Lebanon.
Ultimately that is the bottom line, and that is why Trump's desperate attempts to hold onto power will fail, pulling down those with him who might try to prop him up. Americans do not want a race war, nor another civil war, no matter what the Proud Boys and their ilk might be dreaming. Americans do not want armed militia's gathering on our streets and storming State Capitals. They don't want mobs menacing Town Halls, Main Streets and Court Houses in small towns and cities all across the nation. They don't want their country's government convulsed in chaos like a fledgling banana republic. And they don't want to live and breathe breaking politics each day of the year.
Americans want peace, they want prosperity, but on top of all that they want the stability that they have become accustomed to for virtually all their lives. Trump not only can't provide that for Americans, he promises the exact opposite, and for that he will neither be tolerated nor forgiven should his bluster not prove empty. Instead he will be opposed, and deposed by lawful means, if ultimately that proves necessary.
This transcends ideology, it is deeper than partisan politics. It is a big part of what makes most Americans proud to be Americans. Extremists of whatever stripe may disagree, but that is what makes them extremists. Extremists are out there of course, but they will not prevail if they delude themselves into thinking that they can. They will be crushed, at what price may yet be uncertain, but it is certain that they will be. America will not allow itself to be torn apart to keep Joe Biden out of office, if it is obvious to most that he won a fair election.
The Supreme Court, even if Trump fills another seat on it, will not save Trump anymore than it did Nixon. On Trump's best day he might find three Justices willing to knowingly plunge America into the extreme and long lasting instability that any attempt to overthrow the clear will of the voters would unleash upon us all. That would not serve the interests of those who in America benefit by a status quo that rewards them daily with the wealth and privileges they now enjoy.
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