Smoke and Mirrors! "Lies and Damn Lies"

 Smoke and Mirrors. “Lies and Damn Lies” [Franken].  HHS Secretary Azar challenges the Biden [and Obama] assessment that the PUTHOP Administration planning for distribution and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines has been woefully deficient.  Like PUTHOP, Azar publicly announces that his group’s effort has been laudable. But lets examine a few undisputable facts.

Despite public claims of planning, the Administration has not announced any coherent plan. Such information could hardly be deemed “classified” so as to conceal it from public scrutiny. More likely it is simply a lie to mask the fact that no coherent plan exists. The UK has a plan, announced it and has begun implementation, so effective planning IS possible if competent individuals are involved. Russia and China have begun mass vaccination programs, all before the US has even begun. We can question the efficacy of their vaccines and the manner of distribution, but the fact remains that they HAVE a substantive plan.

The US government has pledged $9.3 Billion in advance for purchase of the vaccine once approved, and touted that there would be 300 Million doses. However, the drug manufacturers have announced the capacity to deliver less than 10% of such doses, due to manufacturing capacity and availability of essential ingredients of sufficient quality. If there had been coordination with the government task force all along, as was claimed, would such issues not have been anticipated? We have all seen the joke in movie scripts when the character is in a tight spot with no idea what to do, and the others ask what comes next. The reply is: “I have a plan!” When called upon to disclose and deliver their “plan” the PUTHOP Administration is nearly empty handed, and far behind other countries with fewer resources. The ONLY thing reliable we have repeatedly seen from the PUTHOP Administration is LIES, dishonesty, and unreliability.

A Veterans' Day Reflection

 Veterans’ Day is an apt time to honor and reflect upon the service of those who gave of their time and, for some, their lives, to honor a commitment. That commitment was to defend the nation and all its people and to preserve our democracy. Focus upon that commitment is more important at this moment than at most other times in our history. The threat to the people and to the democracy is not some foreign nation or interloper terrorist, but a “domestic” threat of large proportions.

Those who have sworn to serve and those who gave their lives for that oath were NOT committed to follow the whims of a self-absorbed, infantile, mentally unstable would be autocrat. This is someone who has metaphorically spit on the graves of our fallen, calling them “suckers” and “losers.” Our veterans and military personnel have sworn to protect the nation FROM such dangers. All service personnel are sworn to protect the Office of President, not an occupant who has lost re-election and hints at use of the Military to stage a coup. This week, PUTHOP has filled high posts in the Military and National Security structure with sycophants and toadies who have previously been rejected by both Democrats and Republicans as unfit to hold such positions. Their only current qualification is that they are “loyal” to PUTHOP and will follow his directives without thought or question, and certainly without regard to honoring any Oath of Office. Such moves may appear desperation, but they also signal an attempt to seize control of the Military in a bid to overturn election results and retain power despite the democratic process. No other president in the history of the nation has ever tried to employ the government and its offices in support of a coup as PUTHOP is doing.

On this Veterans’ Day we honor and place our faith in our Military personnel to protect and defend the Nation, all its people, the Constitution, and our democracy. We hope that ALL veterans, whether they were deluded into voting for PUTHOP or for President-elect Biden, will remember that oath, the oath that so many have died to uphold. We hope and expect that all military personnel will support a peaceful transition to a new Administration which has been chosen by a very substantial majority of voters in accordance with the principles and processes of our representative democracy.

American Reconstruction 2.0

 Although the correlation can be attenuated when reasoning by analogy, such analysis can be helpful to illustrate key concepts and common issues. I have previously observed that the deliberate and strategic divisiveness orchestrated and exhorted by the White House occupant and his sycophants has brought the nation to a point of psychological and spiritual depression, what President Jimmy Carter would call a “malaise.” The division we see today, however, is not driven by concern for the future of the nation and its people, as was the case during the Carter Administration. Instead it is driven by incitement of deep fear, distrust and even hatred toward fellow Americans. That fear-mongering and hatred is directed primarily against people of color grounded in bigotry and racist policies. There are also calls to demonize anyone who speaks out in support of measures supporting social justice, community, and sustaining welfare of the public. These advocates for a representative democracy are being branded as “radicals” and “anarchists” even as they call for repair and fidelity to the rule of law and preservation of democratic institutions and values being undermined by the current Administration.

We have not seen a society so riven since the apocryphal Civil War. At that time, the nation was hopelessly divided based upon a racist ideology that people of color were “inferior,” and that exploitation and inhumane treatment was excusable, if not “justified.” The nation was pushed to the point of war in an attempt by the slave holding populace to retain that prerogative of owning persons of color, controlling their lives, and exploiting their labor. We should be mindful of the long and tortuous road the nation had to travel to recover a sense, even if tenuous at times, of a “union” and a “common good.”

Currently, the nation is faced with a level of division advocated by the president and his administration as forcefully and as consistently as leaders of the Confederacy sought to divide the nation in the 19^th century. Some groups are attacked directly because of their ethnicity or gender, while others are attacked via equally identifiable “dog whistle” vernacular used to avoid explicit naming. The purpose seems to be to solidify irrational and almost cultist loyalty of adherents who can be persuaded to ignore their own self interest when given a target to hate and vent their frustration toward. That the “leadership” they support is actually causing them more harm that the targets of their hatred speaks to the irrationality of such bigotry. And so, as in the Civil War, the “common enemy” is not some foreign power or some economic crisis, it is a divided segment of our supposed union. “We the people” has transmogrified into “I the people.” The goal for many has changed from what makes “us” stronger, to what gives an individual power to exercise individual rights and privileges without regard to the harm such exercise may do to others. No where is this ethic embodied more clearly than in the character of the White House occupant.

To effectuate this self-centered and inhumane ethical persuasion, policies and practices have been employed that ignore the rule of law and domestic legal prohibitions, and frequently violate international norms of human rights. Immigrant and refugee families are being targets by race and ethnicity, with family members separated and abused while children have been put in cages, which for some has resulted in death. Legacy manifestations of the Civil War and Reconstruction “Slave Patrols” in the form of emboldened and unrestrained police forces have unleashed mayhem and abuse on citizens of color, with a death toll any civil society would consider unthinkable – but for the issue of race. And even the very core fundament of a democratic government, the right to vote, is being assailed and undermined through suppression of certain groups. The effect is not dissimilar to the concept of the 3/5 person strategy employed surrounding slavery to deliberately diminish human value. If people of color can be systematically denied or discouraged from voting through racist policies of redistricting and closing polling stations during elections, then only a fraction of their numbers will have access to the right to vote and disenfranchisement succeeds.

The core question is what will it take to recover from the depth of this division and distrust, even after the primary public figure acting as catalyst is removed form office? President Lincoln gave a stirring and inspirational Gettysburg Address to advance the healing process. Will we have an inspirational leader step forward who can promote a rapprochement and at least respectful dialogue that can lead to unity of purpose and interests? Right now, it seems that “Trumpists” do not believe in science and objective facts or reason; and they are driven to distrust anyone who disagrees with them no matter how much opposing arguments may seem in their own best interests. In addition, “liberals” do not believe in the intellectual capacity of most “Trumpists” to grasp concepts firmly grounded in factual evidence, scientific research, and logical reasoning; and they do not trust that the motivation of “Trumpists” to be supportive of any common good or principle of social justice. The existence of a global COVID-19 Pandemic which demands a cohesive and strategic response designed to protect the people and promote “public welfare,” antagonizes and exposes the demoralized and weakened state we are in because of the division, deliberately wrought.

This assessment analogizes our current divided nation and peoples to the rift of the Civil War, with destruction brought by militarization of “peace officers” and “public safety” representatives and through gross distortion of journalistic media, vicious deployment of social media and use of disinformation instead of rifles and cannon. To begin the process of healing the division, there must first be a cessation of the public “leadership” that fosters and incites division. The First Amendment would not support silencing such voices, but the political process [if allowed to work] can remove the mantle of authority and take away the megaphone being used to promote such hatred with amplified volume and effect. The past four years have demonstrated how quickly and easily the nation can slip back into that primordial cesspool, yet we can also look back to examples in the past 130 years when the nation has sought to rise above such base instincts and reveal a higher and better version of itself and the values to which we aspire, even when unable to fully attain them. But I would contend that an important first step on that journey of recovery must be a recognition and appreciation of how truly far we have been led astray and how far we have fallen from those values of humanity, social justice, and decency. We cannot fix a problem we refuse to acknowledge.

Essential Qualities of a USA President

I recognize that some may regard my critique and negativism toward the current Oval Office occupant as personal and categorical animosity. I reject that characterization for a number of reasons and base my critique upon objective measures of performance in relation to the high office involved. In my estimation, the American public does not demand a great deal from its presidents. Contrary to popular mythology, we do not really expect superheroes and average persons can rise to the level of very good, if not great, presidents. But placing individuals in such high office gives us the right to objectively judge them and hold them accountable for their performance. What is expected in such a leader are four essential qualities: honesty, integrity, principled decision making and human compassion.

Honesty is the quality for truthfulness in communications and actions. It does not require omniscience or superior intellect. It does require the ability and willingness to speak and act consistently with what one knows or reasonably should know to be factual; and to avoid misrepresentation and deceit by making statements or taking actions one knows are untrue. In PUTHOP’s case, the fully documented volume of untruthful statements and actions is so large that it is unfortunately reasonable to expect that his statements are lies rather than assume they are honest. He has been described as a “pathological liar,” one who may be incapable of honesty and truthfulness. Not only does PUTHOP fail to tell the truth, he suppresses those who are willing and able to tell truth to the public. Witness the number of whistleblowers fired by PUTHOP, and the tenuous post of Dr. Fauci whose expertise and evidence based disclosures are regularly contradicted by PUTHOP.

Integrity is the quality of accepting responsibility for one’s own actions and for tasks undertaken or assigned. No one is required to take on the role of president, but doing so involves accepting a great number of responsibilities. No reasonable person should accept the job who is unable or unwilling to perform the necessary tasks as well as possible and accept responsibility for failures as well as successes. When there are shortcomings, one acts with integrity by owning the deficiencies and vowing to do better. Integrity is not about “looking good,” but rather about “doing well.” Here PUTHOP’s actions show lack of integrity. When faced with major challenges, he has ignored fundamental tenets of the problem and acted based upon egoism. This is true with regard to trade and foreign policy. It is starkly apparent in his choice to place persons who are inexperienced, corrupt, or clearly incompetent in positions of high official capacity in nearly every federal government agency. [EPA, Commerce, Justice, Treasury, SCOTUS, Education, Housing, etc.] And it is currently evident in his clearly incompetent response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, in which he ignored the impending threat to the American people and economy and refuses to follow advice from experts who DO understand the problem and have proposed reasoned solutions.

Principled decision making is the quality of grounding decisions and actions upon evidence and logic in a manner that is consistent with some moral and ethical construct geared to accomplish responsibilities of the job of president. The job entails representing the public good and best interests of ALL Americans, not just those who one likes or who agree with the president. It also involves fidelity to established fundamental principles such as the rule of law and not abusing the power of high office for personal gain for self or family. Here too PUTHOP has repeatedly acted erratically and in an unprincipled manner. His abuse of office to promote his political campaign led to impeachment, and his position was protected only by similarly unprincipled action by a GOP controlled Senate. His response in marshaling testing resources for all Americans in response to the Pandemic has been tainted by his statement that states are “on their own” and that those who showed “appreciation” to him would get aid while others who did not grovel and supplicate would not be favored. Now he has reversed himself by throwing away criteria for relaxing social distancing restrictions grounded in research and evidence in favor of a push to “reopen the economy” which he apparently thinks will improve his personal chances of re-election. And he has rejected the rule of law in directing the DOJ to drop felony charges against Gen Michael Flynn, a move that has confounded legal experts of all political parties. More examples are easy to find.

Human compassion is the quality of empathy and the acknowledgement of pain and suffering of fellow human beings, even when powerless to prevent or alleviate their suffering. It also involves a personal commitment to prevent such suffering to the extent one can. There are numerous reports and studies that document the failure, and perhaps inability, of PUTHOP to express empathy and compassion for anyone other than perhaps his family. He has repeatedly used racist dog whistle claims and sought to demonize immigrants of color. His choice to adopt policies that will inevitably lead to more suffering and deaths from COVID-19 in order to promote potential profits for the “economy” is another example of lack of compassion. Keep in mind that the “economy” being privileged in his action involves wealth disparity at historic levels, so those being “rescued” are the wealthy 2% at the expense of disposable lives of the other 98% of Americans.

This extended explanation involves only a small sample of the large volume of evidence supporting the arguments and analysis of PUTHOP’s deficiencies in those essential qualities needed in a true leader. His supporters are prone to disregard those same qualities and “make up” facts in attempts to defend PUTHOP. They also try to deflect scrutiny by pointing fingers at others, but no one else sits in the Oval Office so such dissembling is ineffectual. Their arguments must be subjected to the same standards and analysis: honesty, integrity, principled decision making and compassion. Otherwise they simply reinforce arguments indicating PUTHOP’s deficiencies. Those arguments and evidence supporting them are not “personal,” and they are based upon performance relating to the high office involved.  And I am fully open to hearing honest and evidence-based arguments that may contradict my analysis.