Bolsonaro struggling against Trump in Pandemic Death Race 2020

U.S. President Donald Trump loves winning; hates to lose. That’s why he’s pulled out all stops to win Pandemic Death Race 2020 against his protégé, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Trump left Bolsonaro in the dust early on, as virus from Asia and Europe poured in with U.S. and foreign travelers while largely isolated Brazil remained way down the list of the world’s 195 countries. Trump delayed, denied, denigrated there was even a problem, claiming it was 15 cases going down to one, when it was skyrocketing to several million with over a hundred thousand dead. His signature tactic was claiming the facemask as a Democratic meme to defeat his November 3 re-election. ‘Don’t wear it’ he hinted to his red state base…and they didn’t, resulting in a second rosy tinted infection wave while the first wave was still smoldering. Economic Closedown 2.0 is now under way.

Not to be outdone, Bolsonaro governed Brazil in a reckless fashion that might shock even The Donald. He joked about pandemic, partied hardy, even greeting constituents without a mask saying, “That’s life…we all die”. Bosonaro’s reward: a Covid STD (Stupidly Transmitted Disease). Brazil vaulted from also ran to also deadly, grabbing second place in a race to the death. Now, 214,000 Americans and Brazilians lay dead from over 5,482,000 infections. That represents 41% or the worlds’ infections and 37% of the dead, from two grotesquely governed lands that represent just 7% of the earth’s souls.

Even adjusting for population Bolsonaro can’t compete against Trump. U.S. infection rate is 10,715 per million to Brazil’s 9,095. Death rate is 420 per million in the U.S., 350 in Brazil. The Trump of the Tropics (Trump’s moniker for Bolsonaro) will never catch the original and best. America’s Trump wins Pandemic Death Race 2020.

Trump whacks three to further re-election bid

The President has come up with a new campaign meme with 100 days to go till the election. It’s MAKA, Make America Kill Again. While only half of Americans support capital punishment, Trump’s conservative base is mostly up for state sponsored murder. When Trump learned the Fed was still in the killing business he gave the go ahead to restart federal executions which were almost as extinct as dinosaurs. None since 2003 and only 3 in the previous 54 years prior to his Inauguration. ‘Crank up the life snuffing drugs’ he directed the Darth Vader of Attorneys General Bill Barr. But humane federal appeals courts kept obstructing Trump’s effort to throw blood red meat, the live human variety, at his base to keep them in line. With the clock running out, Barr pulled out all stops, maneuvering the Trump friendly Supreme Court which, in 5 to 4 decisions, declared ‘Let the fun begin’. Barr wasted no time, ignoring concerns over pandemic, and use of a single lethal drug, rather than three, which causes agonizing suffocation before life is snuffed out. Last Tuesday, Daniel Lee, 47, murdered by the State. Last Thursday, Wesley Purkey, 68, murdered by the State. Last Friday, Dustin Honken, 52, murdered by the State.

Trump checks 3 more boxes on his re-election bid. And Humanity checks 3 more boxes on the depravity of Man.

Time for Trib to step up…and demand Trump’s resignation

The Trib Editorial Board is certainly within its purview to demand Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan step down for likely, but not proven complicity in the Com Ed political corruption scandal. ‘Time to step down Mr. Speaker’, July 17. But the Trib’s righteous indignation rings hollow when compared to its refusal to confront the existential threat facing America from a president who has broken virtually every standard of decent leadership, degrading life, if not taking life, on a level unprecedented in U.S. history.

When Trump promoted the repeal of Obamacare without a replacement for the tens of millions it would harm, where was the Trib’s call for resignation?

When Trump separated children from their parents at the border, throwing them into deplorable conditions, where was the Trib’s call for resignation?

When Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement and assassinated an Iranian general on Iraqi soil along with five other Iranians and four Iraqi nationals, where was the Trib’s call for resignation?

When Trump called the racists who rioted in Charlottesville, VA ‘good people’, where was the Trib’s call for resignation?

When Trump squandered six months pretending there was no pandemic to goose his re-election chances, adding untold thousands to the death toll, where was the Trib’s call for resignation?

Time for the Trib Editorial Board to step up and call for Trump’s resignation, indeed.

An OP (Obama Plan), not TT (Trump’s Troops) needed to quell Chicago violence

For years I’ve been plugging federal help in dealing with national urban gun violence. With many thousands of guns in the hands of many thousands of jobless, hopeless young people, our country has created a public health catastrophe that has no local or state solution. Neither Chicago nor Illinois can stem the flow of guns used by the dispossessed shooters, nor rebuild devastated communities with miniscule job opportunities. With pandemic the slaughter ticks upward from its usual 40 shot, 10 killed each Chicago week.

It greatly dismays that the upcoming federal response will worsen rather than alleviate epidemic gunfire. Trump’s proposal to send 150 ununiformed troopers to Chicago’s streets to bring peace may be the most cynical political ploy to salvage re-election ever. Rolled out in Portland to rave reviews from conservatives fearing electoral defeat November 3, Trumps Troopers conger up the most anti-democratic impulses in our near unraveling society.

Four years ago my vision was not TT but OP, an Obama Plan, modeled on the Marshall Plan, named for Gen. George Marshall, that rebuilt Europe after WWII. Europe then, like Chicago today, was incapable of extricating itself from its dilemma, war ravaged collapse. The Marshall Plan invested $12 billion ($120 billion in today’s dough) to rebuild 18 European countries. The dividends a U.S. led renaissance achieved were incalculable, echoing down to today.

A new federal effort, named in honor of the man who gave us hope for enlightening change 12 years ago, would be an appropriate way to honor his vision as we struggle to vanquish a federal, not a local or state problem. It’s not troops on the street that is needed. It is federal will to stem the flow of guns and rebuild America’s devastated inner cities. As I said back in 2016, “That is not reparations, not welfare, not free stuff, not paternalism. It is, in the best tradition of the Marshall Plan, American self interest rightly understood.”

144,958 dead prompts Trump: “We’re developing a strategy that will be very, very powerful”.

How many of those 144,958 dead were the result of Trump’s delusional delay, denial, distraction about the severity of the crisis for 6 months to promote his re-election we’ll never know. But there is an ocean of pandemic blood on Trump’s soul.

Mother Earth sucker punched seventy-five years ago today.

Mother Earth has been around a long time…over 4 billion years. But she never was dealt as heinous a blow as she got from some scientists and military men 75 years ago today, the first atomic blast detonated at Trinity Site, New Mexico, July 16, 1945. Tho miles from civilization, the radioactive dust and sand kicked up by the blast traveled afar, contaminating every person and animal in its path. How many died excruciating deaths from the cancer caused we’ll never know. The U.S. government said everything was fine and no records were kept to say differently. In the ensuing 75 years, man, who has only roamed Mother Earth for 6 million of her 4 billion years, set off an additional 2,055 atomic blasts, on land, in the air and underground.

Couple years back I got to stand on the exact spot of that first blast. All that was left was a small, flat piece of melted steel, that remains of the 300 foot tower that the ‘Gadget’ was hoisted up for its big bam. It was a creepy feeling as I pondered that my life spanned the nuclear age, being just 128 days old when Nuke No. 1 went skyward. It’s astonishing to me we haven’t self-destructed in the ensuing 75 years. We’re not very good….but we’ve been very, very lucky.

Trump alters clarion call to America

Now it's "Are you tired of dying yet?"

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn