Trump tops Bolsonaro for covid 19 mendacity prize

The two worst right wing populist presidents have been duking it out for the championship of worst response to pandemic. Trump's USA continues its commanding lead with 2,297,000 infections, 121, 407 of which have expired. Bolsonaro's Brazil is trying its best but trails badly with 1,039,000 infections, 49,090 of which are pushing up daisies. The others 192 countries have dropped off the leaderboard.

Percentage wise Trump is world champ, with 26.1% of infections and 26.2% of deaths with but 4.2% of the world's souls. Brazil, just 2.7% of world population, trails with 11.6% and 10.6% of infections and deaths respectively.

Despite his commanding lead, Trump is pulling out all stops today, cramming 19,000 believers into a confined Tulsa space with masks optional. But hint, hint, Trump's cruelest and most deadly meme is that for his supporters, wearing masks is a sign of disrespect to their Leader.

Next stop after the rally? The ICU.

Opps! Nothing found here

That’s what pops up on Jeanne Ives IL Sixth District congressional candidate website if you plug in ‘LGBTQ rights’ on the search bar. That’s not surprising. Ives has arguably the worst record on LGBTQ rights of any Illinois politician in memory. Her opposition to gay marriage, adoption by gays, transgender rights, even minimal recognition of transgender existence is a disgrace to 21st century governance. Ives has yet to fully acknowledge, much less renounce her long anti LGBTQ record. Examples? On same sex marriages: They “are completely disordered. They’re trying to weasel their way into acceptability so they can push their agenda down into the schools”. On transgender rights she likened school administrators seeking to accommodate transgenders to dirty old men lurking in the shadows; even calling transgender rights “junk science”.

But even Ives’ conservative base in Wheaton has turned the page on her callous views on inclusiveness. Last month Wheaton gay activist business owner Jacob Kneip launched #WheatonProud, encouraging local businesses to display rainbow colors of LGBTQ solidarity in their store windows. Kneip hoped to get 10 businesses on board but has quadrupled that number in just a month. As Ives traverses her downtown streets, what goes thru her mind? Might just be: “Darn...they sure did weasel their way into acceptability”.

Bonkers Bolton no hero in exposing Trump mendacity

John Bolton is making millions with his cleverly titled tell-all take down of President Trump, ‘The Room Where It Happened’. It turns out Bolton offers little insight into Trump’s mendacity we didn’t already know. We learn his leaving Trump’s service after 17 months was mutual; he got tired of failing to get Trump to attack Iran, and Trump got tired of Bolton’s endless war mongering. Last June, Bolton was ecstatic Trump was on the verge of bombing Iran after they shot down a US drone. His glee turned to gloom when Trump backed down at the eleventh hour. Several months earlier Bolton helped sabotage Trump’s ballyhooed North Korea peace initiative by demanding North Korea give up its entire nuclear program and "everything associated with it" before any sanctions could be removed. Bolton even warned about adding more sanctions. North Korea's response was “You're nuts” and walked away, leaving Trump’s imagined diplomatic triumph in tatters.

  

That's how John 'Bonkers' Bolton got his nickname, going off the rails to upend peace agreements and negotiations going on three decades. In 1998, he signed the ‘Project For A New American Century’, urging President Clinton to oust Iraq President Saddam Hussein. In 2001, Bolton led the effort to encourage President George W Bush to withdraw from the 1971 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. A year later he urged the President to withdraw from the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea, paving the way for their building their first nuclear weapons, which now number sixty. After 911, Bolton became a vociferous proponent of immoral, illegal and criminal war in Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands. He deserved being shunned by Obama as the moral monster he is. Alas, a clueless Trump installed him as National Security Adviser where he worked to ditch the 5 + 1 Nuclear Agreement with Iran, setting the stage for eventual regime change, possibly even war. Then Trump gave him top billing at the North Korea summit in Hanoi where he ensured a summit failure.

John Bolton is America’s version of Allstate’s pitch man ‘Mr. Mayhem’. Unlike the funny Mr. Mayhem who messes hilariously with folks’ insurance woes, Bolton’s Mr. Mayhem is a scourge threatening the world’s fragile peace. He should have titled his memoir, ‘The Room Where I Couldn’t Launch Another War’.

Drop in bucket troop withdrawal deserves support

Military obsessed Republicans are apoplectic President Trump ordered a 9,500 troop reduction in Germany. It would drop current troop strength there from 34,500 to 25,000. Twenty-two hardliners sent a letter critical of the reduction to Trump that recalls Cold War hysteria from the 1950’s. “In Europe, the threats posed by Russia have not lessened, and we believe that signs of a weakened U.S. commitment to NATO will encourage further Russian aggression and opportunism" was one of several scare tactics used by the pro troop caucus, led by Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX). Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has become a second-tier power with a GDP lagging behind France, UK, Spain; even struggling Italy, not to mention gargantuan power Germany where those 34,500 soldiers prepare for a fantasy Russian invasion. It’s the US, not Russia, that sows fear and loathing in Russia’s neighborhood with endless NATO mission creep right up to Russia’s borders.

Squandering our treasure supporting over 200,000 military personnel spread around 150 nations, it’s no wonder the US is unable to commit economic resources to American infrastructure, American health, confronting climate change, reducing outrageous income inequality, dismantling structural racism.

A drop in a bucket troop withdrawal is a start. We need to turn it into a flood.