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Dan Lieberman. USA. Freedom to Kill. Freedom to be Killed [Primarily by Nuclear Weapons]

 

Freedom to Kill. Freedom to be Killed

By Dan Lieberman

 

United States governments have sent their children to kill and to be killed in many wars. Freely using mendacious stories, such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where Vietnam torpedo boats (motorboats) supposedly attacked U.S. warships close to the Vietnam shores, and the false allegation that Saddam Hussein was ready to manufacture nuclear weapons and wreak havoc o­n the United States, U.S. presidents have recklessly caused deaths to U.S. service personnel and to innocents from other nations. The COVID-19 epidemic is another example of the U.S. government exercising its freedom to kill, and the U.S. people exercising their freedom to be killed.

Except for World War II and the 1918 flu epidemic, no war has seen as many casualties in the United States as the war against the SARS CoV-2. The former claimed 416,800 Americans; the latter had deaths estimated to be about 675,000 occurring in the United States. As of July 9, the U.S. had 135,822 deaths from SARS CoV-2, as much as the major western European nations combined. With the entire world now infected by the Coronavirus, the United States, with less than five percent of the world’s population, has 25 percent of the world’s infected and 25 percent of the world’s deaths.

Statistics describe the magnitude of the U.S. military killing machine.
Vietnam War estimates of North Vietnam/Viet Cong military and civilian deaths range between 533,000 and 1,489,000. Most researchers agree o­n the figure of 65,000 civilians killed by American bombing. Guenter Lewy, an apologist for American intervention, America in Vietnam, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1978, cites a figure of 666,000 North Vietnamese military and Viet Cong deaths.

Investigations of casualties in the Iraq 2003 war and the o­ngoing Afghanistan War appear in Body Count Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the “War o­n Terror, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, First international edition - Washington DC, Berlin, Ottawa - March 2015, Population and Development Review, Volume 21, Issue 4 (Dec., 1995), 783-812

This investigation comes to the conclusion that the war has, directly or indirectly, killed around 1 million people in Iraq, 220,000 in Afghanistan and 80,000 in Pakistan, i.e. a total of around 1.3 million. Not included in this figure are further war zones such as Yemen. The figure is approximately 10 times greater than that of which the public, experts and decision makers are aware of and propagated by the media and major NGOs. And this is o­nly a conservative estimate. The total number of deaths in the three countries named above could also be in excess of 2 million, whereas a figure below 1 million is extremely unlikely.

Add the 1991 Gulf War, Kosovo War, Libyan War, and the Central American incursions — Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Dominican Public, Dominica, Cuba — and the number of foreign persons killed by U.S. forces is huge; not huge is the number of Americans who seem to care.

The useless wars and their body counts, foreign and American, are enough to label Americans and their leaders as insensitive violators of human life. The Coronavirus epidemic has accentuated that description, brought out the worst in America – lies, deceit, cowardice, sycophantism, sinecures, misguided loyalties, placing politics ahead of people, placing manufacturing product ahead of maintaining human life — freedom to kill and freedom to be killed.

 

Coronavirus Task Force

 

Briefings by the Coronavirus Task force, portrayed as an opportunity to inform the American public of the progress being made to defeat the virus, serve to hide the administration’s ineptness in the war against COVID-19. A public relations stunt and theater of the absurd, it acts as a first line of defense against those who might criticize the handling of the epidemic. The Task Force has not portrayed a well-coordinated national strategy and its members do not give the impression they communicate well with o­ne another. Results dictate its effectiveness, and the results are that the United States, which has 4-5 percent of the world’s population, has 25% of the world’s COVID-19 cases and 25% of the world’s deaths.

Donald J. Trump heads the cast of characters who, like all actors, have a mission to refocus the audience from the real world to what is being staged. Trump started the farce by forcibly remarking that everyone who wants a novel coronavirus test can have o­ne, and saying this o­ne day after Vice President Mike Pence, the Task Force leader, said, “We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward.”

Trying to present a good face, Trump stood next to arranged posters that characterized the United States as the leader in virus testing. “Way ahead of everyone,” proudly proclaimed Trump. When confronted with the fact that the U.S. is not ahead in testing/capita, Trump replied. “Lots of per capitas.” Then murmured, “We’re number o­ne in everything.” Lies and deceit.

Vice-president, Mike Pence, appointed o­n January 29 to chair the Task Force, stays in the background and uses public meetings to praise his boss. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and the efforts of the American people, we’ve saved lives, slowed the spread, and states are opening up again,” said Vice President Pence o­n May 15. Not so sure o­n June 30, when the VP cancelled trips to Arizona and Florida due to the virus upsurge. Accentuating the positive, Pence does not explain why two months after being appointed, the U.S. could o­nly perform 100,000 daily tests. He boasts that the falling death rate from 2700 in o­ne day to 260 in o­ne day is a sign of tremendous progress without considering that before everyone dies a falling death rate has to happen and that the high figure of 2700 deaths in o­ne day occurred to a lack of preparedness. Germany, with ¼ U.S. population had o­nly 300 deaths o­n its worst day or 1/9 that of the U.S. worst days. Deceit and placing politics above people.

US health secretary Alex Azar, in o­ne of his presentations, started with commending the Congo for halting a new Ebola contagion, a maneuver designed to slip into his discourse how the achievement was aided by the United States under the direction of President Trump — a slight massaging of the American psyche before massaging the bad news. Sycophancy.

Trump’s principal method of distracting from the incompetence in halting the epidemic is to state that the U.S. is number o­ne in testing and has rising cases because it has more testing. Having the third largest population in the world demands more testing and testing/per capita is the important figure. Several of the world's major nations — Russia, United kingdom, Spain — show more tests/capita. Italy and others had more tests/capita, but their testing has been slowed because of the decrease in their epidemics, while the U.S. tests/capita increases due to the increase in the contagions. Naturally, cases increase as testing increases, just as more innings pitched means more runs scored against the pitcher. Earned run average - runs earned divided by innings pitched and multiplied by nine, which makes it runs scored per game - determines a pitcher’s effectiveness. The ratio of new positive cases divided by a constant number of tests determines if the epidemic is continuing and spreading. The number of daily tests has been relatively constant the last few weeks, oscillating between 550 and 650 daily tests, while the percentage of positive tests has increased monotonically and dramatically, from a low of 4.4 percent o­n June 14 to 8.0 percent o­n July 8.

 

The following curve, from https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states, tells the story.

The early testing was not random and focused o­n probable positive cases. The daily cases (bottom and darker bars and left numbers) rose with the number of tests (upper bars and numbers o­n left). Because most tests were dedicated to probable positive cases, the percentage of positive cases rose rapidly (numbers o­n the right). After sufficient testing became available to achieve more random sampling, the percentage of positive cases began to fall.

When testing reached 500,000 daily, the data inclined to more random sampling but not entirely - many tests favored possibly infected persons. After three months of epidemic, the number of infected persons appeared to be declining - not dramatically but slowly. o­n about June 15, the pattern changed and the number of infections and their percentages rose swiftly. The elevated number of new cases was not due to any elevated testing - number of daily tests were relatively constant; the increasing number of daily cases was due to more widespread contagion, with the percentage of positive tests going from 4.4 percent to 8.0 percent. Trump either does not understand the data or interprets it in his own beneficial manner, both serious conditions. The fact that nobody in his Task Force corrects him and informs the American people with the accurate information tells the real story behind this punishing farce.

 

Daily cases in Germany and Italy compared to those in the United States tell more of the story.

 

In Italy and Germany (right graph), the daily number of cases rose sharply to a peak of 6,000 daily and then declined monotonically to about 500 for Germany and 200 for Italy within three months. Daily testing remained at about the same levels for the last three months, and the ratio of new cases to new tests was about .8 percent for Germany, o­nly 11 percent of the U.S. ratio, and .4 percent for Italy, o­nly 5.5 percent of the U.S. ratio.

In the United States, the number of cases rose sharply to 35,000 daily, dropped slowly to 20,000 cases daily, and then rose again sharply to unimagined levels of 50,000-60,000 daily. The uptick contrasts sharply with Italy and Germany's natural and steady decline in the number of cases. The difference in the curves is directly related to the difference in handling the situations. Italian and German authorities handled the situation well; U.S. authorities mishandled the situation.

 

The curve of the number of deaths in each of these nations completes the story.

    

 

Italy’s confirmed deaths (right graph) have levelled off at about 36,000. After four months of epidemic, its death rate has declined from about 900 deaths at its peak to about 20 deaths daily.

Germany’s confirmed deaths have levelled off at about 10,000. After almost four months of epidemic, its death rate has declined from about 300 deaths at its peak to about 10 deaths daily.

The U.S. confirmed deaths have surpassed 135,000 and are still rising; the second week of July has had days of almost 1000 deaths. After almost four months of epidemic, its death rate declined from about 2700 deaths at its peak to an average of about 600 deaths daily.

More important is that the German and Italian curves have become relatively flat, signifying that new deaths are scarcely occurring, while the U.S. curve is still o­n the upswing and has a ways to go before daily deaths are reduced to nil. Due to the careless actions of the American administrations, local, state and federal, and the inattention of the American public, Americans are dying daily and needlessly by the hundreds.

Careless actions leading to needless deaths are reflected by Trump constantly searching for a means to distract the American public from the ravages of the epidemic. He heralds, "The nation’s death rate from coronavirus is down despite the surge in new cases.” Well, it could not stay at previous high levels without everybody in the nation dying, and the shortages of testing services, hospital equipment and hospital beds, all of which contributed to a high death fate, could not remain as shortages forever. Why were there shortages and why was the daily death rate elevated in a nation that prides itself o­n its health care? Trump claims the medical supply cupboard was empty when he took office; if so, why did he not immediately correct the problem?

Trump’s latest weird departure from reality is that the U.S. has the lowest death rate. The U.S. has a lower number of deaths/million population than the five west European nations, except Germany, and magnitudes higher deaths/million population than more than 200 other nations. As previously shown, the U.S. death numbers remain high and are falling slower than that of the other major western nations. After falling to a low of 262 deaths o­n July 5, the number of deaths rose to 995 o­n July 8. The war has ended and we have 1000 killed in o­ne day. The important statistic is that the United States, with less than five percent of the world’s population, has 25 percent of the world’s infected and 25 percent of the world’s deaths.

 

The Economy

 

Just as U.S. presidents have fought wars for economic reasons, and permitted U.S, soldiers to kill and be killed to assure economic superiority, the epidemic’s effects o­n the economy guide Trump’s battle plan for CoVid-19. He never says we had a healthy populace and now it is being ravished by the coronavirus; he often states, “We had this marvelous economy, the best in the world, the best ever, and the virus came and….”

Strange that this falsehood is not adequately countered. Since the late 1800s, the United States, except for some recessions, has had the most productive world economy. During the roaring twenties, the US had half of world production, and has o­nly 1/8 of the same during the Trump administration. Almost every U.S. President has seen a substantial rise in the stock market during his administration. The Trump administration has o­nly added to existing trends — nothing unusual or extraordinary. Trump’s claim of achieving “the best economy that the world has ever had” is a meaningless and self-aggrandizing play o­n words. When a multitude of factors, rather than a few handpicked factors, is considered, during his term in office, U.S. economic progress has been meager.

Trump's boasts use the Gross Domestic product (GDP) and low employment figures to signify the ultimate greatness of the economy during his administration. These figures owe their stature to the service industry, which has become the more prominent aspect of the economy, the GDP, and employment. A great economy is a productive economy and not a service, or consumptive economy. Flipping hamburgers may decrease the unemployment; digesting hamburgers will increase the GDP. Trump's economy runs o­n hamburgers.

Do U.S. presidents play much of a role in directing the economy, or is that more a function of the Federal Reserve and congressional budgets? The real GDP increased by $2.7 trillion during Trump’s first three years in office. During the time, the Federal Reserve reversed its decline in balance sheet to reach close to pre-Trump levels and the government deficit increased by $3.2 trillion. Free money buys a lot of GDP.

His program for returning the U.S. economic machine to normal indicates his lack of economic knowledge and business acumen. Opening service industries, such as restaurants and sports events employs low wage people who cannot afford the spending. Service customers are middle class wage earners who must first get back to work for a few weeks before having sufficient surplus funds to spend o­n leisure activities.

Trump’s discouraging attitude to wearing masks has economic damage.

National Mask Mandate Could Save up to 5 Percent of GDP
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/30/goldman-sachs-says-a-national-mask-mandate-could-slash-infections-and-save-economy-from-a-5percent-hit.html

According to an analysis by Goldman Sachs, a national mask mandate could save 5 percent of the United States’ GDP amid surging coronavirus cases (WaPo). The analysis states, “A face mask mandate could potentially substitute for lockdowns that would otherwise subtract nearly 5% from GDP.

 

Conclusion

 

Covid-19 has exposed faults in the American system. Operating well o­n the offense, the U.S, government has not adequately defended its citizens from the epidemic. Self-serving agendas and political expediency have been the administration’s guides to resolving the epidemic. Missing from U.S. response to SARS CoV-2 are an effective assimilation and interpretation of data, national coordination of activities, bipartisanship, and responding in a rapid and consistent manner.

Lack of knowledge and incoherent use of information comes from President Trump’s lips, “Cut the testing in half, and the number of cases will be halved.” By Trump's logic, cut testing to zero and the problem is solved. An exact opposite to Trump's thinking has occurred. While number of tests/day have remained relatively constant at about 600,000/day the number of cases have doubled from 25,000 to 50,000/day.

Trump’s niece, Mary L. Trump, who has a PhD from the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, reveals in her recently released memoir, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,”

His egregious and arguably intentional mishandling of the current catastrophe has led to a level of pushback and scrutiny that he’s never experienced before, increasing his belligerence and need for petty revenge as he withholds vital funding, personal protective equipment, and ventilators that your tax dollars have paid for from states whose governors don’t kiss his ass sufficiently.

If Trump was manager of a baseball team that lost a game by 23 to zero and committed 15 errors, he would say, “The fans say we are terrific, that I m a terrific manager. Our players are incredible. Incredible. Great guys. Amazing, amazing people.”

Rolling Stone at https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/covid-19-test-trump-admin-failed-disaster-995930/, long before the greater disaster unfolded, realized the disaster back in May.

Academic research from Imperial College in London, modeling the U.S. response, estimates that up to 90 percent of COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented had the U.S. moved to shut down by March 2nd. Instead, administration leaders dragged their feet for another two weeks, as the virus continued a silent, exponential assault. By early May, more than 75,000 Americans were dead.

By mid-July, almost 136,000 Americans were dead.

 

The coronavirus epidemic has made it obvious that the American government cannot care for its own citizens. Free enterprise comes ahead of enterprising solutions to an epidemic. Spurious and misinterpreted individual freedom comes ahead of duty to all. Political survival comes ahead of citizen survival. No attention to the observation that the dead cannot be revived, but economies can be reborn. Freedom to kill. Freedom to be killed.

 

Dan Lieberman, editor of Alternative Insight, has a BS in Mathematics, an MS in Electrical Engineering, and other graduate studies in Business Administration. From being involved in anti-war causes and alternative politics, he developed perspectives o­n world problems. While serving o­n the Executive Committee of a Third Party, he gained extensive knowledge of political situations. Dan has written two non-fiction books, A THIRD PARTY CAN SUCCEED IN AMERICA, and The Artistry Of A Dog, and o­ne novel, The Victory. He has also written several full length plays.

 

Alternative insight

July 11, 2020

http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Freedom_to_Kill.html

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Leo Semashko comment.

The excellent article “Freedom to kill. Freedom to be killed” meaning requires an existential, objectively true expansion. The freedom to kill and the freedom to be killed, finds its peak and apogee not in the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States, but in the nuclear weapons launched 75 years ago in Hiroshima/Nagasaki, where 250 thousand civilians were burned alive: women, children and the elderly. Now, 75 years later, through the US efforts, the freedom to kill and be killed by nuclear weapons, when Hiroshima is produced for every inhabitant, has become the highest genocidal freedom of Western civilization, coinciding in its both deadly senses. Therefore this freedom has become insane/suicidal and self-denying along with its democracy that gives priority to financing the further improvement of nuclear weapons. This democracy does not know, does not offer, does not finance and does not put global problems o­n the agenda of another way out, a different, positive alternative and freedom. This is its historical finale and death self-sentence. It is a democracy that freely prepares the nuclear assassination of its own and other peoples. No o­ne is able to stop and end this deadly freedom in this militaristic/violent model of democracy. An alternative of the third way for democracy/freedom with a priority ban o­n nuclear weapons is offered o­nly by the ICAN/GHA "Anti-Nuclear Manifesto" (https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=908) for civil discussion, primarily at the UN.

We suggest to "Alternative Insight", which positions itself "to be evolutionary and revolutionary", to publish our revolutionary nonviolent Manifesto in whole or in any part in your edition.

 

Льва Семашко комментарий.

          Смысл замечательной статьи «Свобода убивать. Свобода быть убитым» требует экзистенциального, объективно истинного расширения. Свобода убивать, и свобода быть убитым находит свою вершину и апогей не в эпидемии COVID-19 в США, а в ядерном оружии, запущенном 75 лет назад в Хиросиме/Нагасаки, где были заживо сожжены 250 тысяч мирных жителей: женщин, детей и стариков. Теперь, через 75 лет, стараниями США, свобода убивать и быть убитым ядерным оружием, когда на каждого жителя произведено по Хиросиме, стала высшей геноцидной свободой западной цивилизации, совпадающей в своих обоих смертоносных смыслах, а потому безумной/суицидной и само отрицающей вместе с ее демократией, приоритетно финансирующей дальнейшее совершенствование ядерного оружия. Другого выхода, иной, позитивной альтернативы и свободы эта демократия не знает, не предлагает, не финансирует и не ставит в повестку глобальных проблем. Это ее исторический финал и смертный само-приговор. Это демократия, которая свободно готовит ядерное убийство своего и других народов. Никто не способен остановить и положить конец этой смертоносной свободе в этой, милитаристской/насильственной модели демократии. Альтернативу третьего пути для демократии/свободы с первоочередным запретом ядерного оружия предлагает только «Антиядерный Манифест» ИКАН/ГСГ (https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ru_c&key=819) для гражданского обсуждения, прежде всего в ООН.

          Мы предлагаем «Alternative Insight», который позиционирует себя «быть эволюционным и революционным», опубликовать наш революционно ненасильственный Манифест полностью или частично в любой вашей редакции.

20-08-20

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Democrats are Failing Again

Trump Will Sacrifice the Nation to Remain its President

By Dan Lieberman

 

Mix together, Joe McCarthy, Bernie Madoff, Judas Iscariot, George C. Wallace, and Pinocchio, and Donald Trump will emerge. Not o­ne of the mentioned characters could obtain more than a miniscule number of votes in the next present election - the combination even less. Yet, a Fox News poll data released Thursday, August 13, has 49 percent of registered voters casting ballots for Biden and 42 percent for Trump. Joe Biden is running o­nly seven percentage points ahead , which means o­nly 3.5 percentage points to a tie if a Biden 3.5 percentage loss becomes a Trump 3.5 percentage gain. Less than a 30 point margin in favor of Joe Biden means something is wrong. How can this be?

 

Well, it is, and the obvious explanation is that Biden is running an ineffective campaign. Donald Trump will do anything — lie, deceive, fabricate, slander, provoke, recite meaningless statistics — in an effort to convince the American people that America leads in all categories, and he is responsible for the leadership. For someone who is a total failure, this is an effective strategy that gains votes from the gullible; with the discerning, it is counterproductive; for the electorate that resides between gullible and discerning, the message is confusing. More has to be done by the Democrats to translate that confusion into discernment. Prevarications are easily exposed, and exposure should have buried Trump’s election chances; yet, Trump is still hanging o­n when a candidate of his low mentality should receive fewer votes than Kanye West. The Democrats are failing again, failing to expose Trump’s disgusting nature and alert the electorate that Trump will sacrifice the nation to remain its President. Go further; Trump is not being exposed as being guilty of criminal negligence and, possibly, of involuntary manslaughter.

 

Trump has a four-prong deceptive strategy to win the election:

 

Provoke China into an aggressive position so he can claim a successful subduing of an aggressive China.

Convince the electorate that the administration response to the pandemic has been proficient and successful.

Obtain an improved economy so he can claim he rescued the economy from the debilitation due to CoVid-19.

Pretend that demonstrations by a Radical Left are bringing the country to chaos and o­nly his authoritarian manner can contain the rebellion.

 

In each of the endeavors, Trump has placed the health, wealth, and welfare of the American people at jeopardy; and he does not care.

 

Provoke China

The Democratic Party lacks clear responses to Trump’s manufactured reasons for a confrontation with China, which is leading to a Tonkin Gulf style incident, to belligerent action, to military skirmishes with China. These are his reasons, which many commentators believe and repeat,

 

China’s pattern of misconduct is well known. For decades, they have ripped off the United States like no o­ne has ever done before. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year were lost dealing with China, especially over the years during the prior administration. China raided our factories, offshored our jobs, gutted our industries, stole our intellectual property, and violated their commitments under the World Trade Organization. To make matters worse, they are considered a developing nation getting all sorts of benefits that others, including the United States, are not entitled to.

 

Check the words carefully and few of them are credible. As o­ne example, take U.S. steel Imports, a significant manufacturing sector, which has had a great decline from peak operations, and is o­ne indicator in Trump’s version of “China gutting our industries.” From the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration:

 

The top 10 source countries for U.S. steel imports represented 78 percent of the total steel import volume in 2019 at 20.4 million metrics tons (mmt). Canada accounted for the largest share of U.S. imports at 19 percent (5.0 mmt), followed by Brazil at 18 percent (4.8 mmt), Mexico at 13 percent (3.3 million metric tons), South Korea at 9 percent (2.3 million metric tons), Japan at 4 percent (1.1 mmt), Russia at 4 percent (1.0 mmt) and Germany at 4 percent (965 thousand mt).

 

China is not even represented in the top ten of steel exports to the United States.

 

Trump’s policy toward China is provocation, try to make Xi Jinping react aggressively and then have the savior of the nation check the aggression and subdue the aggressive yellow peril.

 

China’s policy is summarized in o­ne word - fear - a willingness to harm its economy and appease the U.S. in order to prevent a U.S. attack. An intended attack might be exaggerated, but Xi Jinping would rather take caution; after all, the U.S has engaged in about 26 military conflicts with other nations since the end of World War II. Trump has lived by making others fearful. He will use his menacing attitude to full advantage, which means heightening the confrontation until voting day.

 

The Dems walk a tight rope in answering; contradicting Trump signals appeasement to an American audience that is tough o­n China; allowing Trump his deceptive maneuver gives him an advantage. This lose-lose situation calls for a unique and clever strategy. Biden has not presented that strategy.

 

Neglect the CoVid-19 Pandemic

The Dems published ads revealing the Trump administration’s catastrophic response to the pandemic and highlighted his failures in the opening of the Democratic Party convention. Evidently, the Dems have not been sufficiently convincing in their approach. Trump continues with the outrageous lies that would ordinarily bury anyone under the s—t. It’s not just Trump; an assembly line of manufacturing, feeding, and marketing of spurious statistics serve to deceive the public. Trump says,

 

CoVid-19 daily infections are up 100-200 percent in Western European nations, while contagions in the United States have fallen 15 percent.

During the week of August 7, cases in Germany had a o­ne-day low of 385 and a o­ne-day high of 1505, a 300 percent difference. Cases in France had a o­ne-day low of 785 and a o­ne-day high of 2669, a 230 percent difference. Cases in the U.S. had a o­ne-day low of 47, 971 and a o­ne-day high of 56,114, a 20 percent difference.

 

Framing the statistics as an increase or decrease and comparing 50,000 plus cases to 1000 plus cases by this basis are ridiculous deceptions. Numbers go up and down o­n a daily basis, certainly, 50,000 plus cases is magnitudes more dreadful than 1,000, no matter how the statistics are framed.

 

United States has least deaths per capita.

 

When Trump uttered this statement, U.S. deaths/capita was lower than o­nly six nations and higher than the other 206 nations that have been attacked by CoVid-19. Since making that statement, U.S. deaths have continued at a high rate, whereas, in other nations, the death rate has becom nil. As of August 15, the U.S. has a death rate lower than o­nly four nations in the world and higher than 208 nations.

 

United States has less deaths per coronavirus cases

 

White House press secretary, initiated this assertion at a July 6, press conference.

 

I think the world is looking at us as a leader in COVID-19, because the chart I showed you, where you have mortality rate — and Italy and UK up here and across Europe, and you have the United States at a low case mortality rate — it’s because of the extraordinary work that we’ve done o­n therapeutics and getting PPE and leading o­n ventilators and having excess ventilators that we were able to deploy around the world and help other countries.So that’s what I would have to say o­n COVID.

 

During the week of June 30 to July 6, the UK had 350-750 daily cases, which gradually increased to 1000 in August 13; and 50-100 deaths, which gradually decreased to the teens o­n August 13.

 

Italy had 142-235 cases, which gradually increased to 627 o­n August 13; and 8 to 21 deaths, which gradually decreased to four o­n August 13.

 

The U.S. had 50,000 to 60,000 cases and 300-500 daily deaths, which quickly increased to 1000. Daily deaths have remained mostly in the 1000 range for the entire month of July and beginning of August. The U.S., in the first week of July, had 70-300 times the cases and 6-25 times the deaths of McEnanay’s specially selected nations.

 

Take two nations that have the same population. Nation A has 10 cases and 1 death, or a ten percent ratio. Nation B has 50,000 cases and 2000 deaths, or a four percent ratio. According to Trump, nation B is the leader; which nation would you prefer?

 

The bottom line is that the United States, with 4.5 percent of the world’s population has 25 percent of the world’s coronavirus cases and 25 percent of the world’s coronavirus deaths.

 

Trump has traded increased coronavirus deaths for an improved economy, which will then improve his election chances. Deceitful presentations to the public mask the actual seriousness of the pandemic and are criminal negligence, a crime by Federal statutes.

 

Criminal negligence refers to conduct in which a person ignores a known or obvious risk, or disregards the life and safety of others. Federal and state courts describe this behavior as a form of recklessness, where the person acts significantly different than an ordinary person under similar circumstances.

 

This criminal negligence should be highlighted.

 

Bankrupt country to inflate economy

Trump constantly exaggerates his contribution to the economy. What has Trump done to make him responsible for the low unemployment numbers and average growth of GDP? He has endorsed tax cuts o­n personal income and corporate profits, which is a Congress duty, promoted deregulation and trade pact renegotiations. What are the results?

 

Tax cuts o­n personal income o­nly transfer purchasing power from the government to the public; they do not increase purchasing power or the money supply. Their effect o­n GDP is dubious, and they have increased the national debt.

 

A report at https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-investment/1-5-trillion-u-s-tax-cut-has-no-major-impact-on-business-capex-plans-survey-idUSKCN1PM0B0 indicates that tax cuts o­n corporate profits did not generate a major increase in capital spending, and the spending that did occur, happened for a short period of time. Trump showed his ignorance of elementary economic news and his devious manner of using his failures to accentuate his self-approving wisdom when he stated, “If I knew corporations would use the tax cuts for stock buybacks, I would never have approved the tax cuts.” As for the personal income tax cut, lowering the corporate tax rate has increased the national debt.

 

Deregulation trades attention to environmental, unfair competition and ecological problems for some business benefits. Are the tradeoffs worthwhile or meaningful? Where is the data to quantify the results? Does Trump have any information?

 

Active operations from renegotiations of the trade pacts did not occur until late 2019. Because the data o­n the worth of the renegotiated agreement will not be available until mid-2020, Trump cannot use the renegotiations in descriptions of his economy. As a sideline to his thinking, Trump has made the outrageous assertion that the tariffs o­n Chinese imports, which are paid by the U.S. importers and usually raises the price of the goods, were paid by the Chinese government and the Chinese lowered U.S. deficit by adding to U.S. revenues. How can a president of any nation utter such nonsense?

 

Do U.S. presidents play much of a role in directing the economy, or is that more a function of the Federal Reserve and congressional budgets? The real GDP increased by $2.7 trillion during Trump’s first three years in office. During that time, the Federal Reserve reversed its decline in its balance sheet to reach close to pre-Trump levels and the government deficit increased by $3.2 trillion. Free money buys a lot of GDP. Free money raises the stock market.

 

Trump’s claim of achieving “the best economy that the world has ever had” is a meaningless and self-aggrandizing play o­n words. When a multitude of factors, rather than a few handpicked factors, is considered, during his term in office, U.S. economic progress has been meager — average of 2.6% annual GDP growth, reduction of unemployment from 4.5 to 3.5 percent, manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) down from 55, when Trump entered office to 52.5 before the pandemic. The economy was in decent shape before his Trump’s inauguration. The economic advance, since then, has been ordinary.

 

The principal reason given by those voting for Trump is his handling of the economy. Evidently, the electorate has not been presented with the facts.

 

Exaggerate danger to country

Cities have erupted during all presidencies. Trump’s attitude to the rebellions is similar to that attributed to Werner Von Braun, the German WW II V2- rocket developer - responsible for shooting the rocket up; not responsible for destruction caused when it comes down. Trump does not take responsibility for any problem; he accuses others of causing the problem and promotes himself as the universal resolver.Using scare words such as Radical left, socialists, anarchists, which have an effect, he intends to portray the United States as a lawless society and o­nly he, the law and order sheriff can contain the mayhem. "The possession of power includes a disproportionately great ability to stir up fear, and stirred-up fear creates more power."

 

Well, if the United States, of which he is the president, is a lawless society, the buck stops with him.

 

Conclusion

 

Rather than using authenticated facts, logic, and specifics to combat Trump’s outrageous statements and directives, Democrat spokespersons, represented by Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, and House majority leader, Nancy Pelosi, use scorn, attacks, opinions, and vagueness, which indicates they have no grasp of facts, and alienates the American electorate.

 

“He’s our president, and I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists,” Pelosi said o­n CNN, “especially in his age group, and in his, shall we say, weight group: ‘Morbidly obese,’ they say.”

 

"What President Trump has done in his spreading of racist – the way he deals with people based o­n the color of their skin, their national origin, where they’re from – is absolutely sickening," Biden said in a virtual chat with union members.

 

How is it possible that a person of as low a caliber as Donald Trump can be elected president, be running again, and have a chance to win? Does this demonstrate the failures of the education, media, and communications systems. Does this indicate that national awareness is manipulated and democratic institutions are controlled?

 

When a political Party uses lies and deceit to advance an agenda, you know the Party has failed. When another political Party cannot sink the deceitful into oblivion, that Party has failed.

 

Alternative insight

August 18, 2020

 http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Democrats_are_Failing_Again.html

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