On the Failed Insurrection by Domestic Terrorists

Its been a little over a week since the United States Capitol –the most sacred building and most well-known symbol of American democracy– which was holding a joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 presidential election results, was attacked by an unholy alliance of far-right groups: white supremacist groups, QAnon conspiracy groups, and by extremist MAGA cult followers. The one thing neo-Nazis, Confederate sympathizers, and MAGA cultists all have in common, aside from their ignorance and bigotry, is Donald Trump.

They were brought to Capitol by Trump and his co-conspirators. Since losing the election, Trump has tried every legal avenue available to contest the election results.  Despite losing in the contested states, losing every court case, and having the election results certified by every state in the country, they spewed their dangerous propaganda: the election was rigged by widespread voter fraud. Remember, Trump said months before the election that if he didn’t win, the election was rigged. Trump never conceded the election, which all but ensured there would be no peaceful transition of power. 

Of course, there was never a shred of evidence to support any widespread voter fraud. It was all a lie. Trump’s lawyers didn’t make a single legal argument of voter fraud in any of the dozens of local, state, and federal courthouses they appealed to. And yet, the right-wing “news” media and the social media platforms pushed this lie without having any basis in reality. With every case lost in court, they didn’t and couldn’t accept the inevitable: Trump lost and it wasn’t even close, despite the record turnout. 

Trump and his sycophants lured a crowd to Washington on the date Congress was constitutionally bound to certify the election results. In the days leading up to the event, people like Ted Cruz compared Trump supporters to the “patriots at Bunker Hill” and “Valley Forge.” On the morning of January 6, Rudy Giuliani inflamed the crowd by saying the members of Congress who wouldn’t overturn the election would face “trial by combat.” Donald Trump, Jr. said they were stealing the election and taking away their country. Trump went on with the “stop the steal” theme and told his followers they had to be “strong” and that they were never going to take back their country with “weakness.” Trump continued his incitement, “And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore.”

They used this language like a Mafia crime family giving a kill order to incite the crowd. Instead of “I need to kill this person,” they say “I need you to take care of this person.” Michael Cohen, in his congressional testimony a few years ago, said this is how Trump gives an order with criminal intent. He implies what he wants done but never directly says it.

This wasn’t some spontaneous peaceful protest that organically got out of control. It was a planned and coordinated effort to threaten, take hostage, and likely kill members of Congress who weren’t willing to break their oath to the constitution and essentially anoint Donald Trump as America’s first dictator. Make no mistake: this is the exact opposite of a democratic process –it’s American fascism.

The rabid mob laid siege to the Capitol Building. They broke through the suspiciously-light security and eventually breached the Capitol perimeter. One of the Capitol police officers was murdered with an American flag. One group was on scaffolding trying to replace the American Flag with a MAGA flag. 

As chaos reigned outside, Vice President Pence was ushered off the Senate floor. The crowd was calling for Pence to be hanged. They even constructed a gallows just outside the building. The mob stormed passed the last lines of defense and made their way into the Capitol rotunda. By then, most members of Congress had been brought to an undisclosed location inside the building. As the mob was inside the building, Trump, who was reportedly “enthusiastically” watching the event unfold on TV from the White House, refused to activate the National Guard. It was Vice President Pence, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator McConnell who intervened to activate the National Guard. 

The mob had their way with the building. They destroyed property, ransacked Democratic members’ offices, took selfies and live-streamed the anarchy, and some hunted for members of Congress with zip-tie handcuffs in hand and with guns holstered to their hips. 

The full picture of what exactly happened is still being uncovered. How was the Capitol left so vulnerable? How did the mob know where to go when inside the notoriously difficult to navigate Capitol? Why did Trump make last minute changes to the Pentagon just a couple weeks before the attack? Why did some members of Congress report seeing what looked like “reconnaissance tours” being given by some Republican members of Congress the day before the attack? Why did some Democratic members of Congress have their panic buttons removed from their offices before the attack? We’ll understand how deep the plot against America truly was in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Congress reconvened later on in the night of January 6 to certify the election. Despite just having had an insurrection, some members of Congress still spoke of the importance of “free and fair” elections, implying this election was not free and fair. Their rhetoric was of course toned down to protect themselves. Hours and days earlier, it was a “rigged” and “fraudulent” election. Many Republicans, like Jim Jordan, still refuse to say the election wasn’t rigged or fraudulent. These are the same Republicans who threw fuel into the fire Trump started. They’re now being referred to as the “Sedition Caucus.” 

Just days after the January 6th insurrection, the House voted to impeach Trump a second time for inciting an insurrection. Trump’s not only the first president to be impeached twice, but he’s the first president to be impeached for inciting an insurrection. The Senate will hold a conviction trial after Biden is sworn into office. If Trump is convicted, he’ll never be able to hold public office again. If he’s not in prison in 2024, and isn’t convicted by the Senate, the 14th Amendment may still prevent him from ever holding office for being guilty of sedition. The same applies to any public officials who gave “…aid or comfort to the enemies…” 

There have been only a few events in American history that resulted in a sudden paradigm shift. The Empire of Japan attacking Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Al Qaeda flying commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. All of these attacks came from the hands of foreign enemies. They were paradigm-shifting events: the world was a very different place on September 12, 2001. 

The insurrection on January 6, 2021 is also a paradigm-shifting event. It came from within. There’s a reason the founders drafted the oath of office as supporting and defending “the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Anyway you look at it, this was a coup attempt –at best, a passive coup and at worst (and most likely) a coordinated coup from the top down. 

The mob who stormed the Capitol are traitors. America is a democracy, which has held for over 240 years. January 6, 2021 was the closest we’ve ever came to losing the democratic republic we’ve been fortunate enough to inherit. Just think of the millions of lives that have been lost defending our freedom and our democracy for generations. All the blood that has been shed, orphans created, and family’s shattered to protect and defend our democratic values and ideals. This wasn’t just an attack on the Capitol. This was an attack on all of us. It was the People’s House that was stormed. It was our elected officials who were terrorized and hunted down.

The MAGA and Trump flags may have been a symbol of bigotry, ignorance, and cult of personality, but it’s now much more sinister than that. On January 6, 2021, it became a symbol of treason and will remain so until the end of time. It’s now officially synonymous with the Confederate flag: a seditious faction that betrayed and threatened American democracy. You may not have been part of the insurrection, but if you brandish that flag in a post-1/6 world, you’re supporting treason.

We’ve entered a new era of American history some time ago, which this event underscored. It’s not especially shocking to some that the insurrection happened. I’ve been writing for years now saying how much of a threat Trump is to our national security and American democracy. I’ve said many times Trump would not go quietly. For those who are students of history and those who are well-informed citizens, this was not as shocking of an event as it should have been. The writing has been on the walls for some time. However, I never thought it would have unfolded the way that it did. I never thought we’d stare down the abyss for hours, unsure of how it would all unfold.

The FBI has warned of threats in all 50 states and another planned attack in Washington D.C. I frankly won’t breathe even a small sigh of relief until President-elect Biden is safely sworn in, Biden can appoint trusted and competent officials to our government agencies, and we begin the process of figuring out where we go from here. These domestic terrorists have stained our democracy, but they haven’t broken it. That was proven when the Congress reconvened and voted to certify President-elect Joe Biden as our next president. They failed and democracy sustained. The next time we may not be so lucky, which is why we need to ensure through executive and legislative actions that this will never happen again.

John Adams, the second president and the first president to peacefully surrender the power of the presidency over to a member of an opposing political party, wrote the following on the fragility of democracies:

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”  

Biden has won but Trump is defiant and still in power

I believe we need to be concerned about the anti-democratic behavior of Trump in the past week. He’s behaving like a fascist tyrant. Trump and most Republicans have shown us they don’t respect the election results. In fact, many have claimed widespread voter fraud.

All of this is propaganda. There hasn’t been a single case of voter fraud reporter by any state in the 2020 election. They’re suing without cause to create the illusion of impropriety.

We are in uncharted territory. The coming months will be critical to the survival of the republic. We must be vigilant and ready to act.

The historian from Yale, Timothy Snyder, wrote the following warning to Americans. Heed his words:

1. This election will determine the future of our republic. Here are some principles for the preservation of freedom that I wrote nearly four years ago, when all of this was beginning. I share them again now in admiration of Americans who protest for justice and work for truth.
2. Democracy is precious and exceptional.
3. Democracy is undone from within rather than from without.
4. The occasion to undo democracy is often an election.
5. The mechanism to undo democracy is usually a fake emergency, a claim that internal enemies have done something outrageous.
6. A tyrant cares about his person, not the Republic.
7. A tyrant fears prosecution and poverty after leaving office.
8. Donald Trump faces criminal investigations and owes a billion dollars to creditors.
9. Donald Trump has said all along that he would ignore the vote count.
10. What Donald Trump is attempting to do has a name: coup d’état. Poorly organized though it might seem, it is not bound to fail. It must be made to fail.
11. Coups are defeated quickly or not at all. While they take place we are meant to look away, as many of us are doing. When they are complete we are powerless.
12. American exceptionalism prevents us from seeing basic truths.
13. Biden voters are wrong to see a Biden administration as inevitable. Take responsibility, Democrats.
14. In an authoritarian situation, the election is only round one. You don’t win by winning round one.
15. Peaceful demonstrations after elections are necessary for transitions away from authoritarianism, as in Poland in 1989, Serbia in 1999, or Belarus right now.
16. It is up to civil society, organized citizens, to defend the vote and to peacefully defend democracy.
17. Dance after the wedding, not before. Take responsibility, Americans.
18. Republicans endorsing the claim of fraud endanger the Republic.
19. Calling an opponent’s victory fraudulent risks assassination, as in Poland in 1922.
20. Creating a myth of a “stab in the back” by internal enemies, as Republicans are helping Trump to do, justifies violence against other citizens, as in interwar Germany.
21. Persuading your voters that the other side cheated starts a downward spiral. Your voters will expect you to cheat next time.
    —-Take responsibility, Republicans.

Remember: the election isn’t over until all the votes are counted.

Here we are. It’s the eve of the election and there’s great anxiety in the country over the words and actions of Trump and his sycophants. Trump has consistently refused to even say he’d accept the results of the election if Biden wins. In fact, Trump has been saying for months now that the only way Biden wins is if the election is rigged. Needless to say, this is dangerous rhetoric, which is becoming more concerning as we’re just hours away from Election Day.

Remember, things are going to be crazy tomorrow (and likely crazy for some time), but the election isn’t over until *all* the votes have been counted. There is no law stating that a winner must be decided on Election Day. In fact, the only winners on Election Day are merely projections by news organizations. They are not official; they are not certified. With so many people voting absentee due to the pandemic, it’s going to take some states at least a few day if not weeks to count all the votes. So do not be alarmed if a winner hasn’t been projected by tomorrow night.

Trump told insiders that he’s planning to declare victory if he’s ahead tomorrow night. We need to strongly and consistently push back against any illegitimate declarations of victory. With millions of ballots needing to be counted in several key states, he would be undermining the electoral process. Whether he loses by a low margin in some swing states or is absolutely demolished, he’s not going to concede.

This will be the first time in American history that a president hasn’t conceded an election, disregarding the a bedrock of our system: the peaceful transfer of power.We need to be vigilante and remind people in our circles about the facts.

It is not the time to become complacent after Election Day. In fact, we’ll need to double down on our commitment to see this through. If Biden wins the electoral college and Trump starts trying to cry unsubstantiated “voter fraud” or “irregularity” claims, he’s in effect attempting a coup to hold onto power despite the American people voting him out.

We cannot let this happen. We will not be the generation that let our democracy fall to fascism. This is our country: government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And we will not let it “perish from the earth,” as Abraham Lincoln said during his Gettysburg Address.

We will inform our friends and family of the facts and put pressure on public and private leaders to denounce it. The battle is not over until Biden is sworn in. American democracy is self governance: its power comes from the People. Therefore, we have the burden to not only vote, but to ensure the integrity of the election is maintained —especially when our leaders are unwilling to honor the oath they swore to protect and defend the constitution.

Don’t interfere with anything in the constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

—Abraham Lincoln

Last Call: Register to Vote

If you haven’t done so already, you need to register to vote ASAP. Voter registration deadlines are just days away. Once the window closes, that’s it —there’s no getting around it.

If you think you’re registered, double check your voter status anyway. You may have been registered, but tens of thousands of Americans have waited in line to vote —thinking they’re registered— only to find out at the polling place that something went wrong. It could be you were accidentally removed from the voting roll, technical issues, an incorrect address, etc. Russian interference in the 2016 election showed Russia probed the servers that contain voter registration data in every single US state.

They will most certainly be doing this again since the Republican-controlled Senate refused to even allow for the election security bills, which were passed by the House, to be voted on. They obviously believe a foreign interference in our electoral process will benefit them, otherwise they would have acted.

While you’re checking your status, also look up friend’s and family member’s registration status. If they’re not registered, let them know and then show them how to register.

The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum wrote a great article explaining in detail what to do now, during, and after Election Day: The Election is in Danger. Prepare Now. I highly recommend everyone read her article.

Remember, vote in person if you can. Voting early in person is even better. Obviously, make sure you take measures to protect yourself: wear a mask, stay at least 6 feet away from everyone, and use hand sanitizer liberally.

If you, a friend, or a family member cannot vote in person, make sure to follow your state’s guidelines for requesting an absentee ballot. Do it as soon as possible. Once you receive the ballot, read the instructions carefully and then fill it out ASAP. If you can, hand deliver your ballot to your local board of elections or to a designated drop-off location. If you can’t do that, try delivering the ballot to your local post office. And if that’s not possible, mail it out immediately.

Also, it’s imperative that you make sure your signature is consistent with the signature they have on file. We’ve seen this happen in many states where ballots are contested and not counted because a person’s signature changed.

The power is in the hands of the people. That’s what a democratic republic is. We have the power to control our own destiny. We have the power to choose our leaders. There’s truly never been a more important election than this one. Statistically, we have the numbers, but our own government knows it and they’re undermining the process to tip the scale in their favor. On top of that, Russia is doing everything in their power to take away your voice: your vote.

We need to show the world that we denounce this administration and everything they represent. We need to show the world we’re still dedicated to self governance and that we refuse to allow a fascist regime to overthrow the democracy we all inherited. It’s not hyperbolic to say, the fate of the country, and likely the world as we know it, is in our hands.

The time for action is now.

Voting: The Last Stand for Democracy

The United States is in a dangerous, unpredictable situation. Trump, as I’ve been writing about in this blog for sometime now, is a clear and present danger to American democracy. He’s systematically been chipping away at the institutions that are designed to protect us from tyranny. 

He’s proven time and time again to be incapable of leading the country, unwilling to represent the whole country, and more than willing to shatter norm after norm on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. He has no empathy for the more than 200,000 Americans who lost their lives in this pandemic –most of which were preventable had he acted based on the science and with the full force of the federal government. To this day, approaching 7 months into this pandemic, we still have no national strategy or plan. 

The checks and balances in the federal government haven’t worked. For Republicans, the concept of “country over party” is part of the old order. Trump is the Republican Party. His campaign literally has no platform other than getting him re-elected. 

The stakes for the 2020 election could not be overemphasized. The literal fate of our democracy is on the line. Think of the millions of Americans who died fighting to protect and defend this country. According to Trump, these Americans were “losers” and “suckers.” This is nothing new, just look at how he attacked the late John McCain and by extension, the entire POW/MIA organization: he’s likes soldiers “who don’t get captured,” not to mention his attacks on Gold Star families. When news broke that Russia was putting bounties on the heads of American soldiers, he ignored it. Months later, he still hasn’t said a thing about it. He hasn’t said a single bad thing about Putin, a man who views America as his mortal enemy.

Trump’s an agent of chaos, as we all see on a day-by-day basis. An entire coalition of mental health professionals have told us he’s a malignant narcissist, also known as a sociopath. His former officials and even his family members have spoke out, warning us of how dangerous he is. 

Unfortunately for us, his supporters don’t care what he says or does. They’re so brainwashed by their right-wing media sources, Facebook groups, and from Trump himself, they either dismiss any negative information as “fake news” or if it’s irrefutable, they twist and contort it to fit their worldview, completely detached from reality. So there’s no swaying them. They’ll vote for Trump no matter what. He could declare himself dictator tomorrow and it would be hard to find MAGA followers who would have a problem with it. 

Trump and his Republican thugs have been actively subverting the bedrock of democracy: free and fair elections. They’ve engaged in gerrymandering, closing polling stations in parts of the country likely to vote Democratic, by literally destroying the United States Postal Service’s infrastructure to slow down mail in voting, by casting unsupported claims of voter fraud, and by refusing to pass legislation in the Senate to protect our elections from foreign interference. 

The fate of American democracy is in our hands. We cannot depend on some group of federal officials to save us. The only way out of this is by voting. It’s our civic duty to get out and vote. In 2016, over 100 millions eligible voters didn’t turn out to vote. Trump got 60 million votes and Clinton got 60.5 million votes. We need to tap into that massive group of 100 million eligible voters. We all know people in our lives who belong to this group.

If you know what’s at stake and understand the consequences, you have an obligation to do everything in your power to get as many of your family and friends registered to vote. We need to be more assertive than simply giving a friendly reminder. We need to show them how to register, follow up with their registration process, and help them follow through with actually casting their vote. 

The best option is voting in person, obviously making sure to take precautions such as wearing a mask. If you think you’ll have trouble voting on Election Day, consider voting early. If you have to vote by mail, it’s critical you submit your ballot as early as possible.

We need to communicate all of this to our family and friends who may be politically apathetic. Some people are under the illusion that a fascist state can’t happen in America –thinking that’s just something that happens in other countries or not understanding how civics works. If you’re reading this, you’re not one of the apathetic. We just need to convince the people around us that we’re on the verge on losing our country.

Trump has already expressed he’s not going to accept the results of the election if he loses. He just told a reporter earlier in the week that he’ll “have to see what happens.” This is absolutely unprecedented, yet in Trump’s America it was just another Monday. 

We cannot depend on Congress or the Supreme Court to work this out. We need to have an overwhelming voter turnout to cast this sociopath out of power. There’s no top-level working group who’s going to miraculously save us. We have to save ourselves by doing our civic duty and voting. We cannot be the generation of Americans who stood by and did nothing. This is truly the last stand for democracy. Once we lose it, it’s gone.

If you’ve ever read a history book or watched a movie about some existential conflict and thought to yourself, “If I was in that situation, I would do x, y,  or z.” Well, this is your real-life chance to be a part of saving the country. This isn’t hyperbole, it’s the reality we’re living in. Remember what Abraham Lincoln said during at Gettysburg, addressing a country in a state of existential crisis. Those same people who died preserving the Union and the hundreds of thousands who died defending our constitution –our way of life– “shall not have died in vain.”

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address. November 19, 1863

My Final Facebook Post

This is my last Facebook post. I barely go on here as it is, but I’ve kept it around because —well, it’s Facebook: it’s like a public utility, everyone has it. However, I can no longer be part of a platform that sells my personal data to the highest bidder, regardless of their intentions. Anytime a product is free it means you’re the product, selling your data —your digital life— to who knows what companies and organizations. And I can no longer be a part of a platform that doesn’t acknowledge my personal values.

This place is rampant with misinformation and it’s leading to a population that’s becoming more and more misinformed. People who don’t have the capacity to fact check will see something on Facebook and accept it as the truth. Information is the foundation for a healthy and functional society, especially a democracy. If you don’t have reliable and credible information, you can’t make decisions that are in your own best interest.

Facebook has done nothing to deal with this problem that’s rotting our society. What may seem to be inaction is actually a calculated decision. They want controversy and conflict. Their research shows that it increases engagement —clicks, likes, shares, and comments— which means you’re more likely to spend more time on the platform. And the more time you spend, the more money they make. The platform, by design, is riddled with echo chambers. Regardless of your political affiliation, you’re more likely to only get information that reinforces your own worldview, whether it’s based in reality or not. This prevents people from having access to new ideas and different points of views.

And with everything going on in this country right now, whether it be the pandemic or racial injustice, misinformation is more dangerous than ever.

With civil unrest raging across the country, people in power are inciting division and threatening violence rather than listening to legitimate grievances and encouraging unity.

Civil Right leaders met with Mark Zuckerberg yesterday hoping to have some of the inflammatory posts removed or flagged since they were inciting violence against demonstrators. He refused to take any action, and worse, he didn’t even give credence to their complaints.

The civil rights leaders he spoke with were dismayed, saying “We are disappointed and stunned by Mark’s incomprehensible explanations for allowing the Trump posts to remain up. He did not demonstrate understanding of historic or modern-day voter suppression and he refuses to acknowledge how Facebook is facilitating Trump’s call for violence against protesters. Mark is setting a very dangerous precedent for other voices who would say similar harmful things on Facebook.”

Twitter has at least acknowledged the problem and they’ve put measures in place to fact check misinformation coming from the top. Their opponents call it “censorship,” which is misinformation in and of itself: Twitter isn’t censoring anyone, they’re simply adding a link for users to get the facts on tweets that are misleading or blatant lies. Even when he sent out a Tweet threatening violence against demonstrators, they simply placed a warning label, stating that the content violates their policy against glorifying violence. They still allowed users to view the tweet with a simple click. Yet, Facebook has done nothing. They value their shareholders more than helping their users sort fact from fiction.

With Facebook being a morally bankrupt organization, I can no longer be associated with this platform. If you want to maintain a connection with me, you probably have my phone number. If not, you can email me at laststandfortruth@gmail.com.

I bare no judgement on anyone who wants to be a Facebook user. This was something I’ve been intending to do after Facebook got caught selling our data to the highest bidder without any ethical checks on what they were using that data for. However, this past week has been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

So, I’ll be deleting my Facebook account and won’t regret doing so. This isn’t about politics: we’re all affected by these practices in one way or another. It’s about a grossly irresponsible corporation that’s helping to destroy this country from the inside out.

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.”

James Madison

Misinformation is Destroying America

The country hasn’t been this divided since the Civil War. This division stems from Americans living in two separate realities. One lives in a reality informed by facts, reason, and science. The other lives in an alternative reality based on “alternative facts” (i.e. lies and fabrications) and conspiracy theories. This distortion of reality has an effect on every aspect of society. Conspiracy theories are usually subscribed to by fringe groups, such as people who literally believe the earth is flat. However, with a perfect storm of Trump, the internet, and Fox News and company, conspiracy theories have seeped into the mainstream.

There are now tens of millions of Americans who believe Bill Gates is working on a coronavirus vaccine so he can put a microchip into the population. There’s a movement of people who believe wearing masks is unnecessary –some even believe it’s dangerous to wear masks. Tens of millions of people have watched a documentary that claims the virus was not an act of nature but is instead a grand conspiracy by pharmaceutical companies to make money off a vaccine. There are people who believe 5G cellular technology is the culprit. Some people believe China genetically engineered the virus to hurt America (and oddly themselves too). There’s a lot of people who believe the virus is no different than the flu –it’s simply the mainstream media hyping it up. And then there are others who believe there’s no virus at all.

Ordinarily, conspiracy theories are harmless: believing that we never landed on the moon isn’t going to hurt anyone. Yet, when it comes to public health, credible information is critical. The coronavirus spreads from person to person. You can spread the virus before symptoms emerge. You can be infected with the coronavirus and have no symptoms (i.e. asymptomatic) and still spread it. This is why it’s important that people take it seriously. There’s no vaccine and no reliable treatment for the virus. The only way to slow the spread of the virus is by social distancing and wearing face masks. If people don’t think there’s a threat, they’ll continue to live life as usual and potentially infect their family, friends, and neighbors.

It’s not surprising so many Americans are so poorly informed. Trump is the single greatest promoter of misinformation in the country and he’s the president. Most Americans know he’s a compulsive liar, but there’s a sizeable portion of the country (45%, give or take) who still support him, most of whom believe everything and anything that comes out of his mouth or Twitter account. He has Fox News –an entire “news” organization– that echoes, amplifies, and reinforces his lies. If he says something that’s too hard to twist and spin, they simply don’t talk about it.

If people don’t know the facts, they can’t make informed decisions. In order to have a functioning democracy, people need access to credible information. Trump creates and promotes misinformation to maintain power over his followers. He depends on them to maintain his own power. If the press reports on something that’s unfavorable to him, he simply calls it “fake news.” If he says something crazy that was recorded on video, which he can’t take back, he’ll lie to cover up a lie. For example, when he talked about injecting “disinfectant” as a treatment for the coronavirus, he simply said he was being sarcastic. It was obvious he wasn’t being sarcastic, yet even if he was, what kind of leader uses sarcasm during a public briefing for a public health crisis? It’s beyond irresponsible, it’s dangerous. And sure enough, poison control centers across the country received an uptick in calls following his remarks.

Twitter, which is his primary way of dispensing his misinformation, made an unprecedented decision to fact check his tweets containing misinformation. Trump is against mail-in voting. When people have more options to vote, they’re more likely to vote. Since Trump only has the support of a minority of the country, he views mail-in voting as a political threat. We’re in the middle of a pandemic and people need to socially distance, so governors in some states have made mail-in voting more accessible. He spread misinformation through his Twitter account and Twitter added a link for people to get the facts about mail-in voting. Trump was furious. He said Twitter was censoring him and therefore violating his First Amendment right to free speech. The irony is, his response, in and of itself, is misinformation. He wasn’t being censored. Twitter didn’t remove his tweet –they simply added a link to it so people could get the facts on mail-in voting. Trump responded by issuing an executive order that would seek to enforce oversight over social media companies.

Twitter hasn’t backed down, despite Trump issuing the executive order. They intend on continuing to post links to his tweets if they contain misinformation or if they egregiously violate their terms of service. This week a riot broke out in Minneapolis in response to the murder of George Floyd. Trump responded by threatening violence against American citizens who were part of the riot. He called the rioters “THUGS” and threatened to activate the military. He even used a quote that has been associated with the infamous white supremacist governor, George Wallace: “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter decided they had a moral obligation to obscure the tweet since it was promoting violence. The tweet was still available to view with a simple click. Again, Twitter didn’t remove the tweet. They basically put a warning label over it, as they should have.

While Twitter has taken action, other social media platforms such as Facebook have decided inaction is the best policy: let people see the content and make their own judgements. This would make moral sense if the content were based on facts. After all, that’s how news should be consumed: give people the facts and let them form their own opinions. However, when people are being lied to and don’t have the capacity to fact check on their own, they have no way of knowing they’ve been conned into believing something that’s false.

Trump can only maintain control over his followers if they continue to believe whatever he says. The irony is his most die-hard followers are just pawns to him. He doesn’t care about them; he just wants them to believe he cares. He’s a terrible leader but a master manipulator. If there’s something he can’t con his way out of, he just changes the conversation by saying something controversial or outlandish. He knows it will force the media to move on to the next crazy topic. And while everyone is paying attention to the crazy puppet, the puppet master controls the strings for his own personal benefit. The internet is like the wild west. If people aren’t doing their due diligence to ensure the information their getting is accurate, they will continue to act and vote against their own best interest.

“The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”

Garry Kasparov

Coronavirus in the US: An Unmitigated Disaster

The coronavirus has devastated the United States, as well most of the world. The first confirmed coronavirus case in the US just passed its 3-month mark. And it’s been about 7 weeks since we surpassed 100 cases. Since then, we’ve been experiencing an exponential growth of confirmed cases. Since our testing is still so inadequate, we’re likely only seeing a fraction of how bad the coronavirus has hit the country.

While we’re enduring this ongoing nightmare with the rest of the world, that’s about as far as our common, global experience goes. The era of American exceptionalism is over, and it’s never been more apparent. Since Trump took office, our standing on the world stage has fallen. All it took was one grossly incompetent president and a political party willing to not only look the other way but serve to actively enable and empower him.

The Republican Party is essentially the MAGA Party. This mutation started way before Trump. It began with right-wing talk radio and later with the rise of Fox News. To call it a news organization is like calling the WWE a professional sports organization. It’s politically-driven entertainment, produced and served by hosts who are not there to inform but to misinform. To be fair, Fox does have real journalists –they’re just sequestered to daytime slots. The primetime slots go to the opinion hosts –not journalists— who spend their time promoting and defending Trump, while attacking anyone they deem as a threat to Trump. When historians look back and analyze how the era of American exceptionalism ended, Fox News will be considered one of the driving factors.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Trump and his allies at Fox had a relatively easy time creating an alternative reality for their viewers. Whether it be children locked up in cages at the border or Trump asking Ukraine for a quid pro quo, they could always manage to still raise doubt amongst their viewers by omitting facts and spinning the facts they couldn’t omit in their favor. Trump is infamous for his habitual lying. Most Trump supporters only get their information from Fox, other right-wing media sources, or from directly from Trump’s mouth. This cycle of misinformation is the foundation of Trump’s rise to power.

For the average American, their daily lives weren’t directly impacted by Trump and the right-wing propaganda machine. That all changed, however, with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, which first broke out in Wuhan, China. So, for the first time in his presidency, Trump was faced with a once-in-a-century public health crisis that he couldn’t talk his way out of. However, that hasn’t stopped him from trying.

As we’ve now learned, he was repeatedly warned about a public health crisis that could only be compared to the 1918 Influenza Pandemic with socioeconomic consequences only comparable to the Great Depression. He was warned not only by US intelligence agencies and public health officials, but by his own trusted advisors and his own Health and Human Services secretary. The only partially preventative action he took was banning Chinese nationals from entering the US in late January, but the order wasn’t executed until February 2, 2020. The first confirmed case in the US was recorded on January 22, 2020. The coronavirus was already in the country, being spread person to person with no federally sanctioned containment efforts.

Trump spent the month of February actively misinforming the American people. He downplayed the virus: calling it nothing more than the flu, saying the 15 cases we had in late January would miraculously drop to 0, and even called the virus a “hoax” created by alarmist Democrats and a “fake news” media. While the country continued moving toward disaster, Trump not only did nothing to prepare us but acted only to hurt any potential preparations by lying and downplaying, as if he truly believed his own delusional rhetoric.

Other than his inability to grasp the big picture, which effects long-term planning, Trump pushed his misinformation to not spook the stock market, as if they weren’t going to find out about it. It’s part nefarious, part delusional. He was “furious” with the CDC when they gave updates on the virus because the warnings “spooked” the markets. With Ukraine, he put his personal political interest ahead of our national security. With the coronavirus pandemic, he put the economy ahead of an unprecedented public health threat for his own personal political interest. And his priority has been on the economy ever since.

While the majority of Americans were growing alarmed by the facts from the actual news, Fox News and other right-wing media sources were echoing Trump’s misinformation. They were not only irresponsible in playing games with a serious novel virus, they were putting their viewers at risk.

In March, the coronavirus was simply becoming too big to deny, so he pivoted and said it was completely under control. He spent the month of March doing a lot of talking and making a lot of promises, but there was no real action taken. The White House taskforce, led by Mike Pence, continuously made weekly promises on coronavirus testing  –a critical tool for identifying cases, clusters, and gauging the overall size of the outbreak– but never got it done.

Yet still, the right-wing propaganda machine minimized the threat every single morning on Fox and Friends and every night during primetime. They had morally compromised celebrity doctors, such as Dr. Drew comparing the coronavirus to the flu. “The entire problem we’re having is due to panic, not the [corona]virus,” Drew claimed on the Laura Ingraham show. He continued to a grinning Ingraham, “The flu virus in this country is vastly more consequential and nobody is talking about it. Again, once the coronavirus became too big to deny, Drew walked back his comments.  

By this point, most states realized there was no one steering the ship that was headed straight toward an iceberg. Just like the Titanic disaster, the Titanic’s captain was forewarned about the icebergs in the Atlantic Ocean but chose to discard the warning. Since there was no action by Trump, governors took control of the situation as best they could. They essentially lowered their respective life rafts and did what they could to mitigate the spread of the virus and prepare for the worst. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom (D) made a bold and unprecedented decision to put his entire state on a stay-at-home order. While this was a new move in the US, it’s what other countries were already doing: quarantining the public to slow the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus.

The coronavirus has no cure, no vaccine, and the public has no natural immunity since it’s a novel virus. Since the possibility of containing the virus came and went in the first two months of the year, the only option left was mitigation: reducing social contact to reduce the contagion and therefore give state health systems the ability to handle the surge of hospitalizations.

New York City, the most densely populated city in the US, rapidly became the epicenter of the coronavirus not just for the US, but for the world. New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo (D), quickly began issuing executive orders to steadily ramp down the workforce, systematically reducing the non-essential workforce until March 22, 2020, when the entire state was put on a stay-at-home order. Cuomo, like Trump, held daily press briefings, but didn’t mince words or downplay the seriousness of the virus. He clearly communicated his plan, briefed the public on the reality of the situation based on current projections, and displayed compassion. For most of the country desperate for strong leadership, Cuomo quickly became a household name.  

On the radio waves, the misinformation campaign was led by Rush Limbaugh, who just a few months earlier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump during the State of the Union. He told his millions of listeners “this virus is the common cold” and “all this panic is unwarranted.” He attacked Cuomo for his initial quarantine of the city of New Rochelle, NY, where the first major outbreak occurred in the state: “Do you think Andrew Cuomo knows what’s best for you? He put this little quarantine around New Rochelle. I mean, it’s just, this is just — too much of this, to me, appears to be made-to-order for objectives that have long been held by the American left, the Democrat Party, the media, what have you.”

By March 30, 2020, there were 30 states that issued stay at home orders. On April 1, 2020, statistical modelers working with the White House taskforce, estimated that 100,000 to 240,000 Americans would likely die from the coronavirus, even with mitigation efforts (e.g. social distancing). Today, April 25, 2020, there are 42 states with stay at home orders. With most of the country essentially shut down, the White House taskforce altered their death projection to approximately 60,000 Americans –a number we’re rapidly approaching.

Modeling is dependent on data. The more data a modeler has, the more accurate the prediction. It’s like when a hurricane emerges in the tropics and there are dozens of different models predicting its path. The more time that passes, the more data that’s accumulated, and the more accurate the models become. However, a significant difference between a hurricane and contagion is we have the ability to mitigate the impact of an outbreak with social distancing (e.g. stay at home orders). It’s a simple concept: a virus that’s spread person to person will spread less when people are separated and therefore less people will become infected.

We should have been better prepared to deal with this pandemic. Some of the reasons we weren’t can be traced directly back to Trump. When every warning alarm was sounded, it fell to deaf ears. The Obama Administration, having dealt with their own pandemics, created a “pandemic playbook,” which created a step-by-step guide on how the federal government should proactively respond to an emerging pandemic. The playbook was never opened by the Trump administration. Trump ignored the warnings like a tooth ache –what could have been resolved by a filling soon required a root canal, and what could have been resolved by a root canal resulted in the loss of the tooth.

We’re now at a dangerous crossroads when it comes to the coronavirus. Since a majority of the country has been shut down, the projections improved. And since the projections improved, some people, aided by misinformation, make the false assumption that the coronavirus really isn’t as bad as we thought. The transmission of the coronavirus didn’t just magically dissipate. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of why the projections improved: they improved because most of the states decided to shut down.

However, having states shut down has consequently led to unemployment rates not seen since the Great Depression. There are millions of Americans out of work, which has led to Congress passing the CARES Act, which among other things, added an additional $600 a week in income to people on unemployment (on top of whatever they collect from state unemployment benefits). The problem is many Americans have been unable to collect their unemployment benefits due to systems that were designed to deal with a fraction of the claims.

There’s also been a vocal minority of Trump supporters protesting against stay at home orders in states across the country. The protests can partly be traced back to Fox News and right-wing media rhetoric about the decision to shut down states in the first place. Back in late March, as coronavirus cases were rapidly climbing, Fox News host Brit Hume literally told his viewers that it was “entirely reasonable” that the elderly –those most at risk of dying from the coronavirus—would be willing to die to save the economy. This kind of inhumane rhetoric has bounced around right-wing media circles since then.

The protests truly started to rev up once Trump began sending out tweets in rapid succession on April 17, 2020: “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!”, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”, “LIBERATE VIRIGINIA, and save your great 2^nd Amendment. It is under siege!” The President of the United States told American citizens to “liberate” their states. Just let that sink in for a moment. All of these tweets were directed at states with Democratic governors. This brought out all kinds of different fringe groups, most of them Trump supporters, who can easily be identified with the MAGA hats, MAGA and Trump flags, and even some Confederate and Nazi flags.

These are the self-declared “patriots” who claim they’re being ruled by tyrant state governors. In the middle of a pandemic, Trump incited mass protests when people are supposed to be social distancing. This will more than likely cause infections to rise in those states in the coming week. Most people were not wearing masks and most people weren’t socially distancing. It was a collection of every right-wing fringe group in America, from anti-vaxxers to neo-Nazis to your average brainwashed Fox News viewer. They held signs saying things like “Give me liberty or give me death” and “Don’t tread on me” –phrases from the Revolutionary War, and most recently the Tea Party movement, which has folded into the MAGA Party.

You would think these states shut down for no reason. And if they’re unable to think rationally, why wouldn’t they think that? They have blind loyalty to Trump and will believe whatever he says, no matter how crazy or absurd he gets. Then Trump’s rhetoric is echoed by a right-wing propaganda machine that misinforms them. Some of them still believe the coronavirus is a hoax, as if the entire medical community is part of a grand conspiracy to take away their rights.

Who’s really living under a repressive system: the Trump supporter who act against their own best interest? These are the same people who call non-Trump supporters “sheep,” yet when their dear leader told them to liberate, they left the safety of their home and put themselves at risk in support of an idiotic protest. Trump thinks a strong economy will get him re-elected, which is why he’s instigating protests to reopen. He doesn’t care about the public health; he only cares about himself. He put his own supporters in danger to put pressure on governors to reopen their states for his own self interest. They are the sheep, being led by their false shepherd to the slaughterhouse.

These aren’t patriots, they’re ignorant and selfish idiots. They walk around with their assault rifles and their tactical gear, as if they’re going into battle. The people going into battle and confronting death are the healthcare workers, not these selfish cowards.

Most Americans are in support of a careful and measured response to the coronavirus. You don’t see counter protests because the rational Americans understand the coronavirus is serious and they’re staying at home. That’s what it means to be a responsible American. The rational majority knows that not listening to scientists and experts will make the situation worse. They understand that they may not die from the coronavirus, but they can pass it onto other Americans who can get sick and die. They respect and appreciate the frontline healthcare workers who are risking their lives to save their fellow Americans, regardless of their politics. There were a few counter protestors: nurses in scrubs and their masks, standing their ground against the Trump supporters because they know better than anyone how serious the coronavirus is. They know as long as this pandemic is a threat to our society, they’re the ones who will have to put themselves at risk because of irrational behavior.

The protests have continued popping up across the country. Trump has done nothing to stop them. He’s the one who incited the civil unrest. When asked about it during his daily briefings, he said the protestors “seem very responsible to me,” as we can all see the video evidence of mass congregations of ignorant, brainwashed Americans who are not social distancing and the majority are not wearing masks.

The great irony of the Trump supporters protesting is Trump, as the head of the federal government, is responsible for how bad this pandemic hit the US. Trump never listened to the warnings, never followed the advice of the experts, and when it was too late to contain it, he never took a leadership role in mitigating the disaster. He pawned off all responsibility onto the governors because, like all of his failed businesses, he’s incapable of managing anything. He also pawned off the responsibility for governors to decide to shut their states down because he thinks he doesn’t have to take any blame for the pandemic. If things go well, he’ll take credit. If things go bad, he’ll blame the governors as he’s already done.

Trump can blame whoever he wants. At the end of the day, the majority of Americans have witnessed enough to understand we’ve gone through, and are still going through, a crisis without a leader. They know this is the United States of America. That’s why he have a federal government: to unite the states for the people’s collective interests.

To put it into context, the US makes up about 4% of the world population. However, the US has approximately 33% of the world’s confirmed coronavirus cases: the US (902,072) currently has over four times as many cases as the second hardest-hit country, Spain (219,764). And the US has 24% of the world’s coronavirus deaths: the US (46,243) currently has more than twice the number of deaths than the second-hardest hit country in coronavirus deaths, Italy (25,969).

This is what losing looks like. This is what happens when an unqualified, narcissistic idiot becomes the president. The presidency is not a reality TV show, it’s reality. This is what happens when you don’t listen to experts and scientists because they make your fragile ego feel inferior. This is what happens when you don’t value the facts and the truth.

Source: Vox analysis of Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University data, through April 22; Financial Times

The irony of the slogans “Make America Great Again” and “Keep America Great” is lost on the loud-mouth minority of this country who are still Trump supporters, but it’s not lost on the rational majority.

Any American who still supports Trump after his complete abdication of constitutional duties is no patriot. You’re either ignorant, a fascist, or likely both. You can wave your American flags all you want, it doesn’t make you a patriot. During his last press briefing he talked about injecting disinfectant inside the body and lungs to kill the virus. A child knows Lysol doesn’t go inside your body. If you support an idiot, you are an idiot. You can be forgiven for making the mistake of voting for him, but there’s no forgiveness for continuing to support him.

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Activate the Defense Production Act NOW

The novel coronavirus has put the country in the throes of a crisis, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since World War II. This crisis doesn’t require bombs and bullets; it requires personal protective equipment (PPE), tests, and ventilators.

During World War II, the federal government was producing up to one bomber plane an hour in plants that were previously used to produce cars. It’s been nearly a week since Trump enacted the Defense Production Act, but the powers have yet to be wielded.

The Defense Production Act gives the president the power to demand factories to produce the PPE, tests, and ventilators the country desperately needs. The need has been here for weeks. Trump has said, “let’s wait and see.” Wait and see? The projections have come to fruition and future projections are imminent and much worse. Trump says if we should “wait and see,” as if he could snap his fingers and all the needed supplies would instantly appear.

It takes time to get plants setup to begin manufacturing new equipment. It takes time to manufacture the equipment. It takes time to distribute the equipment. Time is something we don’t have.

“Wait and see” is reactionary. It’s not the strategic approach that’s needed during times of war or crisis. We can’t afford to be reactionary —we must be proactive. We know the surge is coming. FEMA has already declared New York a major disaster zone. The time for decisive action to arm our frontline soldiers in this war —our healthcare providers— is now. The time to produce ventilators to keep our citizens alive is now.

Trump needs to use his authority, under the Defense Production Act, to produce these critical supplies NOW.

On the Brink

Here we are: continuing to live through this never-ending national nightmare. After being acquitted by the Republican-controller Senate, Trump has been become more emboldened than ever before. He’s an existential threat to American democracy.

Trump thumps his chest and sneers at his enemies. He publicly shames any person or organization that opposes him. Most of the targets of his aggression are Democratic members of Congress. These members were duly elected by the people to represent their interests. Therefore, he’s usurping the will of the people by refusing to respect and work with the majority of Congress. This isn’t the democratic republic that has stood since the late 18th century.

During the impeachment trial, those opposed to removal reasoned that an election was near and therefore the people should be the ones to vote Trump out of office. This argument was always weak since election interference was the very basis for impeachment.

The Russians are targeting our electoral process again by engaging in cyber warfare, which Trump continues to deny. He knows the Russians are working to his advantage, and since he’s a man without a code, it’s in his interest to let them continue. This is also why Mitch McConnell has refused to even bring the election security bills passed by the House to the Senate floor for a vote. McConnell knows Russian interference will help Republicans and hurt Democrats. And therefore he turns a blind eye to the hostile actions of a foreign adversary in order to hold onto power.

Trump represents his own interests and provides his supporters with the pretense of supporting theirs. A president who doesn’t protect and defend the interests of all Americans is no president at all. He’s president in name only. He’s a rogue, authoritative figure who has hijacked our very way of life —the democratic system that gave birth to this society. 

The founders fought a long and bloody war to break free of the monarchical shackles of the British Empire. Since then, we’ve sent men into wars with hostile powers that threatened our democratic way of life. Millions of lives have been sacrificed to protect and defend our democratic way of life. The widows and orphans of the fallen found some solace in the notion that their loved ones did not die in vain. All of that sacrifice is now on the line as Trump and his minions continue to break down the institutions that hold our democracy together. 

With Trump’s acquittal, his hostile takeover of the Republican Party is now complete. Their political fate is now bound together. If a political party is unwilling to put the country’s interests over their party’s interests, there can be no liberty and justice for all. The Republican Party is now the MAGA Party and the MAGA Party is Trump. 

The Republicans, with the exception of Mitt Romney, have lost all moral authority. The only chance to save this democracy is for an overwhelming number of Americans to cast their votes for Democrats in all 2020 electoral races. If the 2020 presidential election is close, Trump is more than likely to claim the election was rigged, as he did in 2016 when he was unsure of the outcome. Can any reasonable person who follows current events possibly think there will be a peaceful transfer of power? The fact this question even needs to be raised is an indication that our democracy is on the brink of collapse. Let us see that government of the people, by the people, and for the people will not perish from the earth.