How should America respond when its president commits negligent homicide?
By Thom Hartmann A...
Bob Woodward interviewed Donald Trump back in January and February and now tells us that, way back then, Trump realized that the coronavirus was not only quite deadly and would infect even children, but also was airborne and highly contagious.Right now it's fashionable to attack Bob Woodward for having sat on all that information, and debate whether he had a "duty to warn."
It's a reasonable discussion, but it misses the larger picture.
If Donald Trump knew how deadly Covid was, Bob Woodward could not have been the only person he told. Everybody in the Cabinet, the Vice President, the Health and Human Services Secretary, and pretty much everybody working around him in the White House had to have known.
He even put Mike Pence in charge of the coronavirus task force back then. They all knew.
So rather than asking why Woodward didn't tell us, shouldn't we be asking why our government officials, who are paid to keep America safe, also didn't tell us or do anything about it?
We talk a lot about the "Trump Crime Family" but his entire Cabinet knew how bad this was last winter, too. Not only are Trump and his kids grifters and liars, but he put together an entire cabinet of grifters and liars.
In fact, it went beyond that. Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and Richard Burr, both Republicans, dumped stock after getting briefed about this knowledge.
A physician and professor at George Washington University has suggested that Donald Trump is guilty, at the least, of negligent homicide. And certainly this is criminal political behavior.
Trump didn't just ignore what he knew about this virus, he actively lied about it to the American people. And he continues to lie about it to this day.
Holding giant rallies, as he did over the weekend, will lead to increased infection spreads and more deaths. There will be other Herman Cain's who will die in a few months because of what Trump is doing right now.
Other countries that took testing and contact tracing seriously are now able to return to something that resembles normalcy. We here in the United States are almost a year behind them, with our economy reduced to rubble, all because Donald Trump didn't want to "panic" the stock market.
The inaction and lies from Trump and those around him in the White House have lead to nearly a quarter-million dead Americans, more than in every war and conflict since 1945 combined.
Virtually all these deaths can be laid at the feet of those people in the White House and their leader, Donald Trump, who lied or remain silent.
How should America respond to leadership whose knowing, intentional lies and actions killed more Americans then "the enemy" in North Korea, North Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan over a 70 year period?
-Thom
Comments
#2
Need to say this... Pence is nothing more than a --ck suking sycophantic dirt box licking brown-nose
He and his missus have issues with being alive,,, they have serious problems with the power to believe... i.e., don't have any of your own
#3
I kept trying to figure out his rationale about not wanting to start a panic. Did he think so little of Americans that there would be mobs running around the streets with torches and axes? (Well he hates America and Americans but I doubt if he had that vision.) Then today I saw the text of his last phone conversation with Woodward in which he kept talking about the Dow doing well and equating that with the economy. Suddenly it made sense. He didn't want the stock market to go down. Traders are often short-term emotionally driven so he figured such an announcement would affect them, which is likely quite true. That was his only audience, no matter how many citizens died.
Criminal. If he ran around with an ax at least that would have been honest murder.
#4
Regarding Pence, this is the man who saw birds lying and took it as a sign from God to run for office. (Funny, I thought only the ancient Romans did that with Zeus.) See https://nevalalee.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/the-two-hawks/
It's hard to talk logic to somebody whose mind is in outer space.
#5
Of course they all knew. I strongly dislike the meme that lays all the blame on Trump, because Republicans enable everything that he does.. therefore the blame For tens of thousands of extra dead for tens of thousands of extra dead, should not evaporate when Trump leaves office.
#6
Right wingers rally around the 9/11 retaliation (which killed about 3000 people). Never forget slogan has taken off like wildfire. Why cannot the left match that enthusiasm with tens of thousands dead under Republican rules (republicans calling the shot and blocking pandemic procedures)? And I mean tens of thousands dead who would still be alive today (extra deaths that could've been prevented while we are waiting for the vaccine).
#7
People MUST demand his resignation! I want to see EVERYONE who opposses his re-elction to demand for him to resign immediately. Now! I've been calling for it for weeks, but it seems just myself, and someone at MSNBC has done so.
Failure to do so guarantees the deaths of 200,000-400,000 more Americans who have been Marked For Death from covid19 by the end of December 2020. The sooner he is gone, the more likely many can be saved.
I want all the members of the Lincoln Project to DEMAND HIS RESIGNATION. And do it before the next hard hitting "dump trump" video. I want all who have access to a microphone to the mass media, or a pen, typewriter, or computer for their editorializing to demand his resignation. All the "never trumpers" - time to stand up and keep demanding his resignation. The time is only now.
#8
So what would've happened if Woodward had actually said something then?
How would've things been any different today? Another impeachment?
He certainly wouldn't have been found criminally negligible and removed from office.
It's seems almost better to point this out now - so close to an election -
because most Americans have a hard time remembering all of the lawlessness
each day or week. Probably should've actually waited until October, but, oh well,
there's always another law to be brazenly broken with the Dems just meekly muttering about it.
#9
Just to be a sticler:
"...killed more Americans then "the enemy"..." should be corrected to:
"...killed more Americans THAN "the enemy"..."
Then is a word related to sequence in time. It is erroneously and increasingly being used in place where THAN is the right choice. THAN is a word that COMPARES two things. For example a jet plane is faster THAN a car, it would be incorrect to write that a jet plane is faster then a car.
#10
As a reply to Bobbler (#6):
I think we do. Left has very outlets and very cash strapped venues ao we do what we can. For example Thomm does a very good job of it. SO do many others. But our reach is minimal. The mainstream media is fully controlled at the very top by billionairs and does not allow our ideas to get through. Even NPR is no any different. Left has the enthusiasm but the influence and reach is pathetic. And this is not going to change in my life time as even unemployed workers keep voting for Republicans. Had we a Democratic president and control of the two houses, I doubt if the pandemic outcome would have been much different. DNC is simply RNC lite, more heavy than lite.
#11
In the least... his eyes should be poked out.
#12
My first thought about the book info was also that a whole host of folks KNEW. I had figured out the airborne nature by March, because of the European kissing custom. Iran was a puzzle till I looked it up (they cheek-kiss men to men/women to women).
This cult and it's leader worship rugged individualism. They are repulsed by success achieved by cooperation, although that's the only way we could have ever made what is good in the world. Thinking in black and white, they don't do nuance. They make fast cut and dry decisions, and have a disconnect between the fight or flight part of the brain and the prefrontal cortex. If you look-up what the PFC controls, you will see what is up with Trump and his ilk. It is how they are "wired".
The sociopath in the White House makes me, in all honesty, question what is human. If you don't have a conscience, what exactly are you? It is up to the rest of us to reclaim America's humanity. We can do this.
#13
Robot cult followers don't do nuance,
but they do have their own fantasies.
#14
Thom, I will ignore your Chinese virus, Woodward, Trump comments because you are one that loves to run around with your hair on fire and scream the world is ending and clearly you would have preferred your president get on the boob tube and tell everyone they were all going to die.
Let's move on to the fires . Not the fires that have been burning continually in your chosen city, not the ones that have been started by lightning, not the ones that could have been prevented if those put in charge of forest management were left to build their fire roads and create the firebreaks without the interference of those claiming an owl would have been displaced, not the ones that could have been prevented if the idiots on the left coast would follow the advice of the native Americans that solved the fire control problem hundreds of years ago, and certainly not the ones where chicken littles are claiming "climate change" which has become the term used when someone can't make up their minds if it is global warming or global cooling. settled science my ass.
I am referring to the idiots roaming the great continent of North America that decide to blow up shit in an effort to tell their friends it's a boy or girl which is ironic in this day and age where exposing one's true gender is deemed by the lefties as being an absolute no,no.
Or this tidbit that will never get a comment from you,
Ahh, we are now back in the fine city once named Portland, OR.
Oregon Man Arrested Twice in 12 Hours for Starting Fires Near Portland Freeway
There is good news though. While California is burning, Nancy Pelosi's nephew signed a bill into law,
Newsom Signs Bill Removing Automatic Penalty for 'Consensual' Sex Acts Involving Minors
On Friday, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law, passed by the Democrat-controlled state senate and Democrat-controlled state assembly, that reduces penalties for certain adults who engage in sex acts with children as young as 14 years of age. The law makes it more likely that parents won't know when a sex offender has access to their children.
#15
I think the proper term should be “Reckless Homicide” not “Negligent Homicide.” Trump knows that what he’s doing will kill people but he’s doing it anyway.
#16
Carl Bernsien agrees. They call them super spreaders for a reason.
#17
Again Whatabutt is posting right wing fake news. Check your sources. Sad that right wingers cannot see through their own BS.
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With respect... outrage will not fix this situation
We need to start communicating with those who support this wacko
Their immediate emotional fears are baseless... e.g., a human is no less so because of irrational fear of percieved difference