The Grinch that Stole Christmas – Trump & The GOP

by with No Comment FeaturedPolitics

2020… over 300,000 deaths and over 19 million cases of COVID-19. A year has been taken away from millions of Americans because of poor leadership. Trump and the GOP’s bad leadership is not the cause of COVID-19, but there is no doubt that bad leadership (and the lack of good leadership) has been the cause of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Businesses have shut down, hotels, tourism, and restaurants have lost revenue. A stimulus relief bill was passed by the Democratic House of Representatives… in May 2020, but GOP refused to help American families. Late spring, Congress passed a one-time $1,200 stimulus and never released another stimulus. I’m honestly not sure if the GOP cares about people’s long-term finances, and their mental and physical health as well. Americans (who needed it) quickly went through that $1200. There is no way $1200 would have survived the remaining of the year. You do not need an Economic Class to know that the longer the debt, the bigger the debt, and Americans are hurting.

GOP math seems to believe that if you give people a one-time $1200 or $600 stimulus, despite most American’s living check to check, it’ll be enough to make ends meet. The President ironically put a halt on the relief bill, claiming all of sudden he is for a $2000 stimulus relief payment instead of $600. Meanwhile, millions are unemployed and that number increases by nearly 1 million jobless Americans a month. Americans are still being told to stay indoors and socially distance if or when they leave the house, avoid non-immediate family, and be safe. Some are nervous about becoming homeless, losing their cars, and how they’ll eat every day. But on Christmas Day, South Carolina’s Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was golfing with President Trump. Meanwhile, by the end of the day on Saturday, December 26, 2020, millions were faced with losing their unemployment benefits, and on Dec 31, millions will lose eviction protection and the Government shuts down if not funded. 

Over 26 friends of President Trump were pardoned by the President. Many who have pleaded guilty and even murders were pardoned and the GOP is silent. Russia hacked in the government departments and GOP is silent. Trump used Georgia’s Run-Off election for personal financial gain with zero amount going to Georgia Republican candidates… and GOP is silent. In December 2020, the GOP voted to defund the state Police Departments after they campaign just the opposite. We’re constantly seeing that the GOP never has the interest of the everyday American at heart, instead, their personal benefits, which includes the wealthy. GOP has failed the American people in almost every area… healthcare, wages, infrastructure, funding for schools, hospitals, small businesses, homes, immigration, Civil Rights, and more, and as a result, this Holiday Season has probably been more stressful and tense for Americans than ever before. A time of the year usually meant for peace, celebration and cheer, has been literally stolen by the GOP. The Grinch that stole Christmas… that’s the GOP.

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COVID-19 And Trump, A Modern Day Nero?

by with No Comment CultureFeaturedPolitics

An email was sent to my employer’s special-interest lists the other day: “Does anyone know where I can find some N95 masks? All of the local stores are sold out.” I was stunned. My company is staffed by some of the most logical, reasonable, critically-thinking people I’ve ever known. People at my own company were panicking about the novel Coronavirus, also called COVID-19. Why?

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has been a reliable source of unbiased, evidence-based public health information for decades. But, they have been oddly inconsistent in their messaging concerning the coronavirus outbreak – which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday (3/11/20), and President Trump is largely responsible.

When the virus first entered the country, the White House squabbled over whether to even share what it knew, and what plans, if any, were being made to keep Americans safe. Meanwhile, experts at the CDC were prevented from communicating with state agencies and providing information to the public. So, state and local governments, airlines, and other companies worked to devise their own plans. Conferences were canceled, airlines put new sanitation policies into play, companies began plans for allowing employees to work from home and to provide financial support to hourly workers. We were standing by until February 25th, as President Trump was preparing to return from New Delhi when he was forced into the reality of the situation. Only then did he signal any intent to address the issue.

Americans look to the president to lead them through crises with a calm demeanor, determination, and decisiveness. Trump did not deliver. Instead, he chose to turn every opportunity to provide assurances into a platform for vilifying the media, blaming the democrats, and aggrandizing himself. What vague reassurances he offered were not intended to calm the public as much as to avoid ruffling the stock market’s feathers. It didn’t work. Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the threat until late in the game may have actually caused the panic on Wall Street. The business-as-usual attitude may have intended to calm fears, but when the rest of the world is rushing to contain and mitigate the spread of the virus, some might see it as sticking one’s head in the sand, waiting for the threat to pass. Not exactly a model of decisive action.

Not surprisingly, Trump’s view of what we’re facing is out of sync with reality. While Democrats worked toward pushing through an emergency economic package to help those forced to stay away from their paying jobs, Trump pushed for a payroll tax break. Not at all useful, because you have to be paid – which means you have to work – in order to get the benefit. He explained his rationale to Republican senators, “… so taxes don’t go back up before voters decide whether to return him to office.” said, President Trump. The stimulus package that the White House is putting together is reportedly going to cost around $700 billion – on par with the Wall Street bailout of 2008 and the Recovery Act of 2009. This package is aimed at corporations, including the hotel industry, which considering that he still profits from his hotels, creates more evidence of his conflict of interest.

The Trump Administration’s anti-science stance is also reflected in its response to the COVID-19 threat. Over the last 3 years, Trump Republicans have gone out of their way to discredit evidence-based science. Budgets for research and public education were slashed, seriously hobbling the CDC in its efforts to create accurate tests and effective solutions. His willful ignorance of how science works was laid out for all to see at his visit to the CDC on Friday. He failed to grasp the simple concept that drugs cannot be created overnight. Getting medicine from the lab to the drug cabinet takes painstaking research, experimentation with consistent results, and clinical trials. All of which require money… money that Trump took away back in 2017.

Exemplified by ​his own tweet​, Trump is fiddling, while all around him the flames get higher.

Similar Read: The Coronavirus Pandemic Should Be the Jumpstart to a Revolution?