Guns, hunger, plague: we’re ’Great Again’?

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My blog of April 8 announced 12,021 coronavirus deaths in the U.S. to that point. The total yesterday (May 12) was 81,099.

The final year of Donald Trump’s first term as president is rolling right along and some people insist on wearing those silly little red caps that say “Make America Great Again.” I doubt that any such idiocy will be found in the lengthy food bank lines of various types (including drive-throughs) seen operating daily around the country. https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/04/these-photos-show-the-staggering-food-bank-lines-across-america/

Shorter lines, but lines none the less, also have been photographed at local gun stores. Guns, to many, seem to be the answer to all things, as our president is a stand-up supporter of the NRA (but not of Food Stamps). Numerous guns were in evidence during weekend protests against social distancing, business closures, masks and other efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. And the president tweeted his support of the Second Amendment. (See blog, April 28.)

Meanwhile, the following is from an article of a week or two ago but is applicable any old time.

“The President cannot be above oversight, no matter how he denies, attacks, and fights against it,” Washington State Senator Patty Murray said Sunday. “We all know the President hasn’t told people the truth about this virus or his administration’s response, and late last night, he moved to silence an independent government official who did.”

“They’re good people” said Donald in general of the unmasked gun-toters and others gathered over the recent weekend to protest various official social restrictions aimed at slowing expansion of the coronavirus. (In other words, “Remember me at election time.”) It’s all rather similar to Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017—swastikas and Confederate flags, various weapons and anti-Jewish chants, the murder of a young woman peace advocate and near-fatal beating of a black man. “There were good people on both sides” said President Donald,

So now we’ll continue to weigh our ever-increasing dead against the petulance of Donald Trump. Thwarted Constitutionally in his efforts to make the virus a political plaything, he now continues to make the virus a divisive rather than a unifying enemy of the people . . . waiting for some minor opening whereby he can blame the entire situation on a handful of Democratic governors who are smarter than he and have real concern for the American people.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court is discussing whether Donald has to release his financial information, as he promised to do about four years ago. But I’m not too hopeful about that, knowing how Mrs. Clarence Thomas feels about it all.