Post #44. Trump's Holocaust.
It was a few weeks ago (see post# 25) that I realized I had cracked the code known as "Trump-speak." Basically, what it comes down to is this: whenever Trump says he likes either a particular person or, more likely a group, he is actually screwing them, i.e. "I love the people of New York," or "I love first responders." As soon as he says something like that, you know it's the kiss of death.
I wasn't surprised the other day when the first concerns were raised about the disproportionate number of illness and death in minority communities and all Trump could say was "I don't like it.” Still, given the way Trump-speak works, it was extremely troubling.
Why? Because it also coincides with him and his pet commentators and lawmakers lobbying to reopen the country again and soon. (There's also the canard they are pushing that death and disease totals are inflated, when in fact anyone who knows anything knows that they are seriously under-reported.)
So what's the connection?
I think it's this: Trump has made it clear that his sole focus is not on healing or leading the country but on his re-election. His friends in corporate America talk to him every day about "reopening" their businesses, and he has now set up a new task force with his corporate friends to do do just that. But he has been warned that if he does that, it is going to cause a tremendous spike in the number of deaths across the country — and as we see now, the minority communities will bear the brunt of that.
Does Trump give a shit? Of course not. When he tells reporters that he is keeping “his number”s down, he is telling the red-hat-wearing white community, "I've got your back, don't worry, it’s not you who are dying, it’s the others,” the ones that Trump doesn’t count in his electoral tally. (Some people count sheep when they put themselves to sleep, Trump counts electoral votes).
When he won in 2016, he did it by writing off minority communities. He not only has a long history of antipathy personal antipathy toward them, but he turns it around and uses it as a political tool. Of course, he rarely says it directly. Instead, he speaks in code words. For example, when he makes a reference to middle America being relatively safe, he's really talking about white people, his people. To him, they’re the real Americans, with their “great” governors unlike the wretched working poor who are taking up so many ICU beds in states where the governors are “complainers” who don’t appreciate him. He is speaking directly to his people when he says “the cure is worse than the disease,” because in his mind they are suffering unneccessarily. Why should it matter to them that all those brown people are dying?
Trump doesn’t say anything about the virus without checking the political map first. He knows the only way to survive this in November is by a strategy of divide and conquer (also gerrymandering and voter suppression if the political strategy fails).
So he makes his calculation. “Reopen the country” and get some money into the hands of his friends while telling his supporters he’s doing it for them, or telling his supporters they need to continue to make the personal sacrifices that so many of us are. For him, it’s an easy choice. The problem is the doctors. They keep telling him that if he does this, the virus will spread through the small towns and cities of middle America too. But that kind of thinking is too complicated for Trump who is like a chess player who can only think one move ahead.
He can’t stop thinking with his wallet, and he never will. As a result, we’re seeing a virtual genocide among minorities, the poor and working classes. After the last Holocaust, there was a trial in Nuremberg, and those responsible got what was coming to them.
When this is over, there better be a Nuremberg II.
I wasn't surprised the other day when the first concerns were raised about the disproportionate number of illness and death in minority communities and all Trump could say was "I don't like it.” Still, given the way Trump-speak works, it was extremely troubling.
Why? Because it also coincides with him and his pet commentators and lawmakers lobbying to reopen the country again and soon. (There's also the canard they are pushing that death and disease totals are inflated, when in fact anyone who knows anything knows that they are seriously under-reported.)
So what's the connection?
I think it's this: Trump has made it clear that his sole focus is not on healing or leading the country but on his re-election. His friends in corporate America talk to him every day about "reopening" their businesses, and he has now set up a new task force with his corporate friends to do do just that. But he has been warned that if he does that, it is going to cause a tremendous spike in the number of deaths across the country — and as we see now, the minority communities will bear the brunt of that.
Does Trump give a shit? Of course not. When he tells reporters that he is keeping “his number”s down, he is telling the red-hat-wearing white community, "I've got your back, don't worry, it’s not you who are dying, it’s the others,” the ones that Trump doesn’t count in his electoral tally. (Some people count sheep when they put themselves to sleep, Trump counts electoral votes).
When he won in 2016, he did it by writing off minority communities. He not only has a long history of antipathy personal antipathy toward them, but he turns it around and uses it as a political tool. Of course, he rarely says it directly. Instead, he speaks in code words. For example, when he makes a reference to middle America being relatively safe, he's really talking about white people, his people. To him, they’re the real Americans, with their “great” governors unlike the wretched working poor who are taking up so many ICU beds in states where the governors are “complainers” who don’t appreciate him. He is speaking directly to his people when he says “the cure is worse than the disease,” because in his mind they are suffering unneccessarily. Why should it matter to them that all those brown people are dying?
Trump doesn’t say anything about the virus without checking the political map first. He knows the only way to survive this in November is by a strategy of divide and conquer (also gerrymandering and voter suppression if the political strategy fails).
So he makes his calculation. “Reopen the country” and get some money into the hands of his friends while telling his supporters he’s doing it for them, or telling his supporters they need to continue to make the personal sacrifices that so many of us are. For him, it’s an easy choice. The problem is the doctors. They keep telling him that if he does this, the virus will spread through the small towns and cities of middle America too. But that kind of thinking is too complicated for Trump who is like a chess player who can only think one move ahead.
He can’t stop thinking with his wallet, and he never will. As a result, we’re seeing a virtual genocide among minorities, the poor and working classes. After the last Holocaust, there was a trial in Nuremberg, and those responsible got what was coming to them.
When this is over, there better be a Nuremberg II.
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