The president, whose malice knows no bound, has been exploiting the focus on the pandemic to pursue his service to his prime constituency, great wealth and corporate power.

One method is eliminating regulations that protect the public but harm profits. In the midst of an unprecedented respiratory pandemic, Trump has moved to increase air pollution, which makes COVID-19 far more deadly, so much so that tens of thousands of Americans may die as a result, the business press reports. As usual, deaths are not randomly distributed: “Hardest hit are low-income communities and people of color,” who are forced to live in the most dangerous areas.

For two crucial months, U.S. intelligence and health officials tried to capture the attention of the White House, in vain. Finally, Trump noticed — possibly when the stock market crashed, it has been reported. Since then it has been chaos.

Trump’s decisions accord with the judgment of his favorite pundit, Rush Limbaugh, to whom he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He instructs us that science is one of the “four corners of deceit”, along with academia, media and government, all of which “exist by virtue of deceit”.

Trump and associates are already pushing that scam energetically, not for the first time.

The guiding maxim of the administration was articulated more eloquently by Franco’s leading general in 1936: “Down with intelligence! Viva death!”

Republicans overwhelmingly have faith in the president, no matter how much his actions harm them. His god-like image is amplified by those who surround him, thanks to his successful campaign to get rid of everyone but fawning sycophants, like the second-in-command, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who muses that God may have sent Trump to earth to “save” Israel from Iran. Pompeo’s fellow evangelicals, the largest base of Trump supporters, likely agree. And they hear much the same generally from the Republican Party, which has virtually abandoned any shred of integrity and abjectly worship him whatever he does. Much the same is true of his media echo chamber. The 2nd Amendment has not the slightest relevance, but Trump knows what buttons to push. Let’s kill more Americans, not just Yemenis and Africans, if it will improve my electoral prospects. “Down with intelligence! Viva death!”

He’s quite competent in pursuing his primary goals: enriching the very wealthy, enhancing corporate power and profit, keeping his base in line while he stabs them in the back, and concentrating power in his hands by dismantling the executive branch, and so intimidating congressional Republicans that they timidly accept almost anything.

It is an impressive achievement.

Not surprisingly, Trump and his minions have been thrashing around desperately to find some scapegoat to blame for his crimes against Americans, oblivious to how many more people he slaughters.

Another four years of the Trump malignancy will sharply increase the difficulties of dealing with this impending catastrophe — even if we escape the threat of terminal nuclear war that Trump is escalating by dismantling the arms control regime that offered some protection and racing to develop new and more dangerous means of destruction that undermine our diminishing security. It’s not out of the question that in Trump’s hands, the impending crisis may come about very soon.

Trump has one overriding concern, his own welfare: How can I use this tragedy to enhance my electoral prospects by firing up the most racist and violent components of my voting base? His natural instincts call for violence: “the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.” And send in the military to teach the “scum” a lesson they’ll never forget.

All further signs that the country is in deep trouble — and in the light of U.S. power, the world with it.

 

~via Truthout

 

Ascension Avatar Note: Again, I don’t resonate with everything from the full article, but one thing is for certain… there’s a lot of deceit going on…