The dismantling of the US.

Michael Kempster

I'm increasingly pessimistic. I went through the Post, the Guardian and the Times, as is my habit, and didn't find anything that says anything new,. So I'll say it myself, and apologize for going on at length. I've said all this before, and so have many of you:

1. The federal intervention in Portland, against the wishes of the people, the mayor and the governor, employing entirely extrajudicial, unconstitutional and illegal methods, is equivalent, quite literally, to the Brown Shirts of 1930s Germany, a clear and present danger to what passes for democracy in this country. I cannot imagine better grounds for impeachment. We have Barr's word that such interventions will expand. There's nothing to stop them from interfering with exercise of the franchise. Wait for it.

2. Trump et al.'s handling of the covid-19 epidemic is political, scientific and medical malpractice of the worst sort. Trump is in fact decreasing the amount of data available at a time when it is crucially necessary, and undermining scientific and medical expertise at every turn. He and his acolytes--every Republican who fails to object--will kill people by perhaps hundreds of thousands, further destroy the economy, and further divide a country desperately needing to be reunited before a common enemy.

3. Trump is dividing the country at a time when guns are everywhere, conspiracy theories abound and are gaining traction, where racism is being defended and challenged. It is only a matter of time before lives are lost, worsening the division, at a time when unity of purpose is crucial.

4. Trump has systematically undermined American alliances and relations with its allies abroad, at precisely the time when defense against a common enemy, covid-19, should provoke a unified response, He has courted one repressive regime after another, undermining the cause of human rights.

5. Trump et al. have systematically been looting the government, rearranging the government and the economy to serve the fantastically rich at the expense of the lower and middle classes, at a time when the covid-19 epidemic requires, again, a unified program for relief of those most impacted,.

6. Trump et al. have been putting children in cages., They have caused untold anxiety and worse in even legal, much less undocumented, immigrants, many of whom are crucial to American economic health from farm workers to computer scientists, and have done their best to shut the USA to immigration.

7. Trump et al. have denied and actively worsen perhaps the single greatest problem faced by the human race, climate change.

8. Trump et al. will do everything possible to disenfranchise those opposing them in the November elections. Everything possible. They are capable of anything.

I could go on. Racism, anti-intellectualism, differential treatment of red and blue states, anti-environmental actions, court packing, more. It's only going to get worse. Trump must be defeated in November,. Millions of lives are at stake.