Category: Uncategorized

 

Presidential performance and ultimate merit are often measured by the quality of a president’s management of crisis. The pandemic currently ravaging America—the part that responded to Trump’s reckless encouragement to ignore basic rules of public health—shows no sign of abating. New York at the commencement of this crisis was the single hardest hit of any place in the world because—contrary to President Trump’s assertion that the virus arrived from China—the virus arrived in this country in strength from Europe. But through the vigorous adoption and enforcement of the relevant public health rules, Governor Cuomo has led New York from a very high peak of infection and death to near zero. Likewise the European Union was also ravaged by the virus but its COVID-19 profile rises to a peak and then falls to its current very low level.

By contrast the profile for COVID-19 in the United States as a whole rises to a high peak and stays there—despite the heroics displayed and maintained in New York State. The New York disease level is not far from zero, in the European Union it is in the range of 4,000 new cases per day and in the United States as a whole it remains at 20-25,000 new infections every day and approximately 120,000 deaths with 200,000 predicted by the first of October. On May 21, Germany with 83 million people had 178,000 cases and 8,000 deaths; South Korea with 50 million had 11,000 cases and 264 deaths the United States with 330 million people had one and a half million cases and 93,000 deaths. By June 18 the case number in the U.S. was about two million, one hundred and sixty thousand and as said, a death count just short of 120,000.

Throughout Trump’s performance has been reckless and irresponsible in the extreme. He, at the beginning, with doctors and scientists clamoring for action, constantly belittled the approach of a world-wide health crisis in order to keep stock prices high. Traveling in India in February he was asked about the pandemic and claimed that the U.S. had this crisis “very much under control” and that “the situation will start working itself out.” He added shortly thereafter, “stock market starting to look very good to me.” And then finally when he allowed public health rules to be put in place in late March and the pandemic began to slow after sadly many lives needlessly had been lost, the economy and the stock market crashed. After a week or two Trump was agitating for a reopening.

When his call for reopening began—contrary to scientific advice—toward the end of April, the White House released a plan, developed by scientists and medical experts, how this could be done in the safest possible way. Immediately Trump was on Twitter undermining his “own” plan, electronically screaming: “LIBERATE MINNESOTA,” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN,” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA and save your great 2^nd Amendment, it is under siege” and encouraged armed mobs to threaten and terrorize these three Democrat governed states until, after holding out a long time and attempting to follow scientific advice finally began to open. It wasn’t long before the virus came roaring back in those states that followed Trump’s advice and reopened rapidly paying no heed to public health rules. Meanwhile for months, Trump was on television during the weekly briefing by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, touting a miracle cure for COVID-19. This so-called cure was an anti-malarial medicine which in a few weeks was declared by the Food and Drug too dangerous for COVID-19 patients to take and likely to lead to additional deaths. He topped this performance with a statement at a subsequent Task Force briefing that COVID-19 patients could eliminate the virus in their lungs by consuming bleach or disinfectants such as Lysol or Clorox. A public outcry followed this. The manufacturers of these chemicals urged the public not to consume their products internally. This turned out to be literally a showstopper as Trump terminated the Task Force because of this embarrassment. The next step for Trump was to schedule his first presidential election rally since March in Tulsa in late June in one of the new hotspots of the pandemic, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Local health officials pleaded with the Campaign for delay. The pleas were of course ignored. Nearly 40,000 people were expected, 19,000 tightly packed inside a large auditorium and an equal number outside. There would be no social distancing and the wearing of masks was optional. This would be virtually certain to add to the infection and death rates.  After all the hype, the President was disappointed by the turnout, the auditorium was only 2/3rds full and there were no supporters outside.  But the public health threat remained.

As Michael Gerson said in his column in the Washington Post on June 19^th entitled “A failure without peer”: “Trump has been permanently marked by failure…what other president would have played down the advance of a global health crisis to keep stock prices inflated?…What other president would have led populist resistance to public health measures as the coronavirus pandemic continued to spread?…and he chose—amazingly, alarmingly—to equate essential health measures with gun confiscation. I can think of no presidential precedent. It is unique in its recklessness.” Not only has this president been the least competent, the most destructive and reckless of any who have sat in the oval office, he is the worst president that one could possibly imagine in their wildest dreams.

The Founders would have made short work of this.

“The natural cure for an ill administration in a popular or representative constitution is a change of men.” —  Alexander Hamilton 1787

“If there be a principle that ought not to be questioned within the United States, it is that every man has a right to abolish an old government and establish a new one. This principle is not only recorded in every public archive, written in every American heart, and sealed with the blood of American martyrs, but is also the only lawful tenure by which the United States hold their existence as a nation.”  — James Madison 1793

John Jay

On May 29, 2020, Michael Gerson writing in The Washington Post commented on yet another shooting death of an unarmed African American citizen by a white male, in this case, a not infrequent situation, he is a policeman. There have been literally hundreds, even thousands of such incidents over the past several years and perhaps before. This type of racism is a modern form of slavery, so disrespecting a black citizen that in his own mind he or she becomes a second-class citizen with fewer rights, indeed without the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as guaranteed to all Americans by the Declaration of Independence. These rights were denied to slaves in the 18^th Century and largely are denied to black citizens—by the police and others in real or imagined authority today. This is an act contrary to God, to moral conscience, and to American principles.

Michael Gerson notes, in commenting on the racial attack by police in Minneapolis:

“Who is supposed to care deeply about racial justice and reconciliation in the Republican coalition? I should have hoped that religious people would make such moral commitments a priority. Yet (in general) they haven’t. It is the kind of failure that does grave injury to the Christian witness.

“Historically, the most effective attack on the role of Christianity in society has been that it is an epiphenomenon—that Christians employ mystical language to justify their tribalistic interests. In this view, religion is more of a mechanism to rationalize a preexisting political and social worldview rather than transforming it. (This is precisely what Southern slaveholders did when they provided religious justifications for slavery.)…

“People of faith should apply a moral yardstick to any political coalition they join…In Christian terms, the Kingdom of God is not some future blessed state. It becomes present when believers live by a different set of values in the here and now. The nature of those duties can be debated. But they do not include providing an alibi for racism.”

The type of behavior exhibited in Minnesota that gratuitously killed George Floyd, an unarmed black man, is also what Southern slaveholders and their employees and agents employed. As President Obama said recently, “…that for millions of Americans, being treated differently because of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal.’” This is indeed the 2020 version of slavery.

What were our Founders’ view on slavery, this systematic depravation of African Americans of all their rights and their debasement from humanity so as to be treated as property? Black citizens today are no longer chattels but beyond this the rights they do have are set in reality almost unrecognizably far below the Declaration standard. These are rights that the Declaration states that all men (and women) are endowed with by their Creator and their denial is an affront to the Kingdom of God on Earth.

“That men should pray and fight for their own freedom, and yet keep others in slavery, is certainly acting a very inconsistent as well as unjust and perhaps insidious part…”  — John Jay 1785

“Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils.” —   Benjamin Franklin 1789

“This abomination must have an end, and there is a superior bench reserved in heaven for those who hasten it.” — Thomas Jefferson 1787

“Slavery in this country I have seen hanging over it like a black cloud for half a century.” — John Adams 1821

“Ignoble slavery my soul disdain, my only country is where freedom reigns.”  —  John Quincy Adams 1786

“Were not the disadvantages of slavery too obvious to stand in need of it, I might enumerate and describe the tedious train of calamities inseparable from it. I might show that it is fatal to religion and morality, that it tends to debase the mind and corrupt its noblest springs of action. I might show that it relaxes the sinews of industry, clips the wings of commerce, and introduces misery and indulgence in every shape. — Alexander Hamilton 1774

“I wish most sincerely there was not a slave in this province. It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me—fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.” — Abigail Adams 1774

John Jay

 

President Trump, to say the least, has badly mishandled the coronavirus pandemic and the American economy at the same. After a general weakening, by self-serving actions like the unfunded tax cut for the top one percent, of the strong recovery from the Great Recession bequeathed to him, our economy was vulnerable. Then when the pandemic, predicted by the World Health Organization and warned by the American Intelligence Community arrived on our shores in early January, 2020 and perhaps before undetected, for over two months, Trump ignored it and told the American people it was like the flu and would go away. Then when it was undeniable, Trump was forced to recognize it and agree to the emergency protective measures developed by the scientific and medical communities. These measures initially saved thousands of lives but also caused the economy to crash. The death toll is nearing 100,000 only two months later. Models now show that if these measures had been adopted just one week earlier 36,000 lives would have been saved.

Trump was fearful that the severely depressed economy must be restarted promptly or his reelection prospects could be severely damaged. He therefore began pushing for a prompt termination of the medical protective measures and reopening of the economy as early as mid-April regardless of the human cost. But what he doesn’t seem to understand, that a sound economic policy and a sound healthcare policy are not opposite to one another, they are not the two ends of a spectrum, other countries have dealt with the pandemic and brought it under reasonable control without significant economic damage.

Trump and his allies forced a reopening with none of the major health goals achieved: significant downturn in new COVID-19 cases, widespread effective testing and a broad contacts program. But here the United States is with five percent of the world population and nearly 30 percent of the worldwide COVID-19 cases coupled with an economy rivaled only by the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. This is all because of a complete misunderstanding of the relationship of the pandemic and the economy; enormous incompetence, almost unrivaled in the history of the American presidency, and a total lack of empathy for the American people and a focus entirely upon himself. The brilliant Harvard economist, Jeffrey Sachs, said it well in his commentary of May 18, 2020:

“The fantasist promotes magical thinking, and perhaps even believes it himself. Trump said that the virus wasn’t a threat. He said that it would go away by April. He said that it was fully under control. He said in March that we have all of the testing we need.

“The epidemic is controllable when government is serious. Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Taiwan, among others, all have kept deaths below 10 per million population, compared with 271 per million in the United States. Those other countries implemented public health policies at national scale; the US did not.

“With US reported COVID-19 deaths nearing 90,000–and almost certainly higher based on a comparison of deaths this year and last year–Trump now tries to discredit the death count. In Trump’s fantasy world, there are no deaths if they are not reported.

“Trump’s maneuverings also won’t save the economy, which is in a free fall. States can open now and thereby spread more disease and death. But again, economic fantasy won’t replace reality. Consumers will not suddenly start buying. Builders will not suddenly build buildings when so many stand to be empty or underutilized. Some of Trump’s followers may head to crowded places–and if so, many will contract the virus — but most Americans will not.

“Of the record 20.5 million jobs lost in April, most will not come back any time soon, whether or not states declare their economies open. The continued spread of the virus itself will block any meaningful rapid recovery. So too will deep structural changes that will cause a significant, albeit unknowable, proportion of today’s job losses to be permanent.”

What to do about this? Here again, Jeffrey Sachs:

“For all this we need a new administration and Congress and a new approach for our nation. Trump’s fantasy world is our nightmare. Hang tight. A new dawn is coming.”

Our Founders would not have a different view:

“If there be a principle which ought not to be questioned within the United States, it is that every man has the right to abolish an old government and establish a new one. This principle is not only recorded in every public archive, written in every American heart, and sealed with the blood of American martyrs, but it is the only lawful tenure by which the United States hold their existence as a nation.”  –James Madison 1793

“The natural cure for an ill administration in a popular or representative constitution is a change of men.”  –Alexander Hamilton 1787

“If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced Patriots to prevent its ruin.”  –Samuel Adams 1780

John Jay

The Internal Research Agency (IRA) is an organization based in St. Petersburg, which heads up much of the electronic warfare carried out by the Kremlin against the United States pursuant to President Putin’s direct orders. It is focused on elections although it has other assignments. It is the heir to a proud Russian/Soviet tradition. In early Soviet times, it was believed by the Moscow leadership that world revolution, later Soviet world dominance, could be effectively pursued through psychological warfare and deception. The task of carrying out this plan was given to the Soviet secret intelligence and espionage organization, successor to the one that existed under the Czars, which after several name changes became known to the West as the KGB. This new assignment was known within the KGB as Active Measures. It forged letters, threatened violence and fomented conspiracies as part of its worldwide disinformation campaign, which took its place alongside KGB programs of intelligence collection and violence. The IRA brought the program of Active Measures to the digital age for Russia.

In 2016, Russia, working largely through the IRA did a trial run in the American elections. Russians thought that by exploiting social media along with other measures, they could try to discredit what they expected to be Hillary Clinton’s victory. But it turned out their favored candidate, Donald Trump was the winner.  In the June 2020 issue of the Atlantic magazine, Franklin Foer writes that the IRA has had a long-term hashtag for this exercise in America which they planned to promote again in 2020 and, unlike 2016, perhaps try to push it to the limit.  The hashtag is called ominously, Democracy RIP. Foer notes that “Vladimir Putin dreams of discrediting the American democratic system, and he will never have a more reliable ally than Donald Trump. A democracy can’t defend itself if it can’t honestly describe the attacks against it. But the president hasn’t just undermined his own country’s defenses—he has actively abetted the adversary’s efforts.” And his partner in all this, is Senator Mitch McConnell, the Majority Republican Leader of the Senate. In his opposition to legislation providing money to the states to upgrade their defenses for voting infrastructure around the country he earned himself in the Senate the nickname “Moscow Mitch”. Further, the Republican majority in the Supreme Court made all of this much easier, opening the door to Russia to effectively pursue #Democracy RIP, by its Citizens United case. This decision largely removed any enforceable limitations on foreigners subsidizing American politicians by means of anonymous shell companies.

This Russian operation combined with a degree of incompetence and lassitude has led to a situation where American voting systems are not significantly more secure today than they were in 2016. Some states now have formidable defenses, but many have defenses that a talented teenager could penetrate.  And Russia in 2020 will be far more effective and capable than they were in 2016, having four years to develop and prepare.

In fact Russia need not do all that much to create a situation of chaos which could be exploited by a well-armed far right. It was not clear who won the election; into that breach could step the professional conspiracy theorists and their well-armed radical supporters. Those latter would be more or less, the same individuals who have provided armed opposition to approved medical measures, such as masks, to inhibit individuals from infecting others during the pandemic based on the bogus argument that, somehow, they are a restraint on liberty.

It was not initially understood how widespread the Russian attack in 2016 was. In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security said that 21 states had been attacked; in 2019, a Senate Report stated it had been all 50. Having pushed so widely in 2016 and being far more capable now, the IRA could launch a devastating assault on our electoral system and not leave a trace. U.S. defense systems remain sufficiently weak in many places which could permit the creation of chaos everywhere, Russia would only need to do a few things, they could meddle with voter registration databases, which in a number of places are not protected well at all. For example,  they could change addresses or switch pictures between individual voters to create broad confusion at the polls. In 2018 Russia switched the addresses of a number of potential Illinois voters from Illinois to Moscow. Or they may go all out and try to make #Democracy RIP a reality. They could purge voters from the rolls and change votes in large numbers. Fake statements could be placed on the internet early in the day on November 3 which could generate violence. And while Russia prefers a Trump victory so he can continue to apply his wrecking ball to American society, likely what they might aim towards would be a very narrow loss by Trump. This could be violently contested by Trump followers if he, as he probably would do, refused to accept defeat. His lawyer, Michael Cohen warned in 2019 in addressing a Congressional Committee before he left for prison: “If Mr. Trump loses the election, knowing him as I do, there will not be a peaceful transfer of power.” This is the outcome that Moscow would most prefer, widespread violence and collapse of orderly society.

A similar theme was focused upon by Roger Cohen in the New York Times on May 15, 2020. He notes how the foolish conflict originating in the extreme right over safety measures to control the pandemic is even further tearing our society apart. No middle ground between the two sides exists as usual, the virus is either all destructive of everything before it or it is a myth. “Nobody foresaw what a pathogen one-thousandth the width of any eyelash could trigger in a society where truth itself has been obliterated by President Trump, day after lying day.” And he points out that when Time Magazine asked Jared Kushner if he would be willing to commit to the holding of the November 3 election, he replied, “I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other, but right now that’s the plan.”

One can imagine how the pandemic could be used as an excuse for indefinitely delaying the election; this would be not only a violation of law—the election date—but the Constitution itself specifies that the new Congress must be sworn in by January 3, 2021 (unless the Congress by law provides an alternative date) and the President for the new term by January 20, 2021. “But after all the people’s health must come first.” it might be argued. Or if Trump is defeated, as said, he might simply refuse to accept defeat and his supporters armed with guns in hand, could flock to defend him.

Cohen in his article cites a comment by a friend that he refers to as a “liberal”: “No wonder Republicans are laughing at us. The billionaire politicians have complete control (besides the military at this point), no oversight, and most of their constituents are armed, some heavily, and ready to defend them. Roll over and die? What the hell? Time to even things up. To save this country. Hopefully, guns will always be a deterrent, but they may be our last hope to save this country. Time to gun up, liberals!” A huge majority of the country opposes President Trump and wants him to depart the White House; how far most of them might go in defending their electoral decision is uncertain.

What advice would our Founders have for this situation?

“Nothing was more to be desired than that every practical obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue and corruption. These more deadly adversaries of Republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant  in our own councils. How would they better gratify this than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistray of the Union?”–Alexander Hamilton 1788

“A government of laws, and not by men.”–John Adams 1780

“If it were to be asked, what is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, an inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws—the first growing out of the last…a sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.”–Alexander Hamilton 1794

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards, and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks… Let us remember that if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom! It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers in the event.”–Samuel Adams 1771

Let us hope it never comes to this. Peace and the rule of law are always preferable to violence as long as liberty is secure.

John Jay

 

 

According to reporting by the New York Times, last November, former President Biden said that he was concerned that as President Trump’s political situation worsens he may become increasingly erratic and prone to do anything to hold onto the office. After all, it appears that the only thing that protects him from criminal indictment in New York because of his many crimes is holding the office of the presidency.

In January, Mr. Biden commented, “He still has another nine or ten months, God knows what can happen.” And just a few days ago, Biden upped the stakes a bit and said that Trump might try to postpone or disrupt the election. “Mark my words, I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held.”

The polls have turned sharply against Trump in recent weeks indicating that Biden could be likely to win in November and win decisively. This is in the wake of President Trump’s almost unbelievably bad mismanagement of the huge crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic downturn. The month of April, 2020 has been one of the worst in American history with a death total approaching that of the Vietnam War. Trump has now confirmed beyond a doubt that he lacks the ability to lead the United States in a crisis much less hold the office of the presidency. It is now clear that it is dangerous to have him sitting in the Oval Office, especially at this time, but really at any time.

But he has no power to delay the election. It is by law held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. It has been held on this date since 1845, to change the date would require an Act of Congress, legislation that would be highly unlikely to be approved by the House of Representatives, and probably not the Senate either. And the Constitution requires the new Congress to be seated on January 3, 2021 and the new President sworn in by January 20.

But the President can try to disrupt the election, make it as difficult to vote as possible and thereby increase his chances. These efforts have been underway for some time. They include adoption by Republican legislatures of voter ID laws, of greater and greater difficulty to meet. More recently Trump has been attempting to undermine voting by mail, which has been in use in this country for nearly 30 years. Trump has denounced it as encouraging fraud which has, of course, no basis in fact. It is the best way to vote during an epidemic. Democrats in the Congress are seeking legislation by the Congress protecting those states that wish to use it. As a result of this and other efforts in the states to oppose voter suppression, this tactic appears at the time to be unlikely to benefit Trump very much. The national opposition to him is now much too strong. Americans have a long history of non-partisan action when the survival or essential well being of the country is recognized to be at stake, as it is now.

So, perhaps Biden is likely to win, what comes next from Trump? In thinking about this, we should turn to the testimony before Congress of Trump’s former lawyer and close advisor, Michael Cohen.

In testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in February of 2019, Cohen stated at the end of his day long testimony a sort of a coda:

“Indeed, given my experience working for him, Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there never will be a peaceful transition of power, and that is why I agreed to appear before you today.”

We should all heed Mr. Cohen’s words. He probably knows him better than anyone. He was Trump’s personal attorney and so-called “fixer” for ten years. This was the first time that anyone who worked closely with Trump has publicly cast doubt on whether Trump having lost an election, would carry out probably the most fundamental act of this democracy, or any democracy and peacefully transfer the power of the presidency to his opponent.

It has been reported that nationwide, right-wing conservative groups and individuals have been buying guns at a high rate. The possibility of some kind of violence to stop the transfer of power from President Trump to Vice-President Biden cannot be completely ruled out. There are seven weeks between election day and Inauguration Day. Governors and their staffs and the leaders of various state National Guards should be alert, prepared and in touch during this period and perhaps before. American democracy could be at stake.

Our Founders understood this problem well. Here are a few comments.

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.”  Samuel Adams, 1771

“If there be a principle that ought not to be questioned in the United States, it is, that every man has a right to abolish an old government and establish a new one. This principle is not only recorded in every public archive…written in every American heart, and sealed with the blood of American martyrs, but is the only lawful tenure by which the United States hold their existence as a nation.  James Madison, 1793

John Jay

The President presses for an early end to the quarantine against the coronavirus and prompt reopening of the economy of the United States against all scientific medical advice. First, he was for an Easter opening and then settles in on May 1. The medical community and its scientists urge the end of May or perhaps even the middle of June. The quarantine and social distancing are the best weapons currently available against the virus. The President wants to do this, he says, to save the economy but that isn’t really the reason as many attest. It is to advance his own political situation and enhance his prospect of electoral success in November. Finally, his science advisors agree to a strict set of procedures which if followed by a state would not be likely to trigger a second wave of the pandemic should a state begin to reopen its economy on or about May 1.

As soon as this happens, the President takes to Twitter to undermine his own criteria so a state will throw caution to the winds. He tweets, “Liberate Minnesota,” “Liberate Michigan,” “Liberate Virginia.” The tweet targets Democratic states, but the real targets are states where Trump-leaning politicians are in the Governor’s office. Gradually, this misguided approach is adopted by some state legislators. The Tea Party and other right-wing allies of the President are led to equate medical protective measures such as social distancing and quarantines with tyranny— utter and complete dangerous childish foolishness. And as the President’s tweets urge, some states begin to open, contrary to scientific advice.

So, what we have is, as Michael Gerson wrote recently in his column entitled “To reform the GOP vote Biden” published in the Washington Post, “A failed presidency defended by a cowed party. As President Trump’s malignant narcissism and incompetence have been fully revealed—and can be objectively measured by the level of needless death from Covid-19—his approval among Republicans has remained strong. Across a continent filled with elected Republicans, only a few have taken a stand for sanity and effective governance.”

And for weeks President Trump touts the use of the anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as a “game changer,” in his words, for promptly curing COVID-19. This was under consideration in some laboratories until the Food and Drug Administration in late April published the results of a study which indicated that the use of these drugs with COVID-19 patients could promote dangerous irregular heart rhythms and possible death. Cases of serious poisoning and death from using these drugs had been reported.

What is said by the President on his bully pulpit in the White House is always taken seriously by a sizeable portion of the American people no matter how confused and irrational and self-serving any particular statement might be. In promoting the use of the two anti-malarial drugs to treat COVID-19, President Trump said, “I think that it could be something incredible,” the two drugs had shown “very, very encouraging results.” There had been little study of these drugs being used for this purpose, but even so, first time prescriptions poured into retail pharmacies around the country at 46 times the usual rate per average weekday, according to an analysis by the New York Times. These drugs were tested and showed no effect on reducing the impact of COVID-19 on patients. But they do create very serious risks for a COVID-19 patient that takes them, even after the FDA report these drugs were being prescribed and purchased at pharmacies more than six times the normal rate. With leadership like this, is there any doubt why the United States’ efforts against the coronavirus have had among the world’s worst results? The U.S. has four percent of the world’s population and 32 percent of the cases.

Finally, perhaps the ultimate dangerous idea put forward by President Trump during these recent weeks of dealing with the coronavirus took place the evening of April 24. The President promoted the use of disinfectants internally in the human body to cure the virus-caused disease. Disinfectants like Lysol, Clorox or isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) injected like a tonic into the human body, and maybe this just might do the trick.

From a report in the New York Times, the President said, and then “I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute.” (on a tabletop like surface) “One minute.  And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”

Immediately there was an outcry in the medical, business and some parts of the political community along the lines of what every ten year-old child knows, that injecting such products as Lysol, Clorox and isopropyl alcohol into the human body would create an immediate severe reaction and often death. An FDA Commissioner said, “I certainly wouldn’t recommend the internal ingestion of a disinfectant.” The Environmental Protection Agency advised people never to “ingest disinfectant products.” The companies that make such disinfectant products publicly pleaded with Americans to never ingest or inject their products, they are not ever to be used internally in the human body.

Again, from the New York Times report, “In Maryland, so many callers flooded a health hotline with questions that the state’s Emergency Management Agency had to issue a warning that ‘under no circumstances’ should any disinfectant be taken to treat the coronavirus. The alarm was sounded by officials everywhere across the country. “Injecting bleach or highly concentrated rubbing alcohol ‘causes massive organ damage and the blood cells in the body to basically burst’…the medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System said in an interview. ‘It can definitely be a fatal event.’”

If it wasn’t clear to everyone before, this incident should convince everyone in the country it’s not only just unwise to keep this man in office, but positively dangerous in a time of crisis. It is akin to national suicide for him to remain in the office of President for much longer. Whatever is going on, it is certainly not natural and effective leadership. The President’s involvement in this crisis has only seemed to make it very much worse.

Originally the evening White House briefing on the pandemic was established by the President’s Task Force on the virus as a means to communicate facts about the virus to the American people. The speakers were world renowned scientists like Dr. Anthony Fauci. But when he saw how popular these briefings were with the public, the President rudely pushed the scientists aside and did the briefings himself. He converted what had been a scientific briefing so the public could know more about the virus into a Trump political rally disguised as a briefing. In this way, the President could promote his foolish, dangerous and counterproductive ideas as advice to the American people as to what they should do to protect themselves during the pandemic. Doubtless thousands of deaths have taken place that wouldn’t have if the White House leadership had been in sound and practical hands.

Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times reported in her column on April 25, among other things:

“Over the last three and a half years, Americans have had to accustom themselves to a relentless, numbing barrage of lies from the federal government. In one sector after another, we’ve seen experts systematically purged and replaced with toadying apparatchiks. The few professionals who’ve kept their jobs have often had to engage in degrading acts of public obeisance more common to autocracies. Public policy has zigzagged to presidential whim. Empirical reality has been subsumed to Trump’s cult of personality.”

“…America was once the technological envy of the world. Now doctors have to warn the public that, contrary to the President’s musings in the briefing room, it is neither safe nor effective to inject disinfectant.”

This Administration is truly sick. Our Founders knew how to cure a sick government. Alexander Hamilton expressed it most succinctly.

“The National cure for an ill administration in a popular representative constitution is a change of men.”   Alexander Hamilton 1788

And we must never forget:

“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”  (Benjamin Franklin proposed as the motto on the Great Seal of the United Sates).

John Jay

It became clear that the Corona virus could be a threat in late December, 2019. Already in November, the U.S. Intelligence Community had notified the president that it was possible that the outbreak beginning in China could be dangerous. The Trump Administration received formal notification of the epidemic the first week of January 2020. The first confirmed case in the U.S. was diagnosed in mid-January and the first fatality from COVID-19 took place on February 29. The financial market had already begun to crash. The 100^th victim of pandemic in the U.S. died on March 17 and by March 20 there were 5,600 confirmed cases. Only on March 21 did the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services place its first large order for N-95 masks.

The President was briefed on the dangers of a pandemic around the time he entered the office of the presidency. The subsequent three years and most importantly the period between January 3, 2020 and March 21 were entirely wasted in preparing the United States in any way for a pandemic threat. The travel ban placed on China in late January was of very little significance; it applied only to non-citizens and not to citizens or residents and 40,000 people traveled from China to the United States in the next two months.

That the pandemic occurred is not President Trump’s fault of course. But, as made clear by David Frum in his article in the Atlantic Magazine of April, the “utter unpreparedness of the United States for a pandemic is Trump’s fault.” For example, the loss of stockpiled respirators because maintenance contracts were allowed to lapse by the federal government in 2018 was his fault. The failure to store sufficient protective gear was his fault.

Amidst many other similar failures by President Trump and his allies during the critical period from January 3 to March 21 and beyond what was President Trump saying to the America people to warn them during these all-important weeks?

When the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was diagnosed in mid-January, the President, as reported by David Leonhardt in the New York Times, was asked in an interview on CNBC whether there were worries about a pandemic. He replied, “No, not at all. We have it totally under control.” But the seriousness of the epidemic was becoming clearer, there were many warnings of the danger of the virus by prominent experts in January. But he ignored these and other warnings. On January 24, he tweeted, “It will all work out well.” On January 30, he said in a speech in Michigan, “We have it well under control. We have very little problem in this country—five and they are recuperating successfully.” That same day the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus as a “public health emergency of international concern.”

In early February, the President was asked by Sean Hannity on Fox News about the virus. He replied, “Well, we pretty much shot it down coming from China (referring to the ban on travel from China to the U.S. by non-citizens, which accomplished nothing). We have a tremendous relationship with China which is a very positive thing.” By this time there were nearly 15,000 cases worldwide, a doubling over the previous three days.

On February 5, the CDC began shipping test kits to laboratories, but they had a technical flaw. However the Trump Administration after this did little—creating a new virus test is not easy—even while other countries were working hard developing test equipment that worked. The administration was offered test equipment that was functional by the World Health Organization but turned it down. As a result, the United States fell behind South Korea, Singapore and China in fighting the epidemic. Said a Harvard epidemiologist, “We just twiddled our thumbs and the virus waltzed in.”

The President kept telling the American people that the virus was going away—warm weather would stop the virus. “Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away,” he told a campaign rally on February 10. On February 19, he told a Phoenix television station, “I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along.” A few days later he said the virus was “very much under control…we had 12 at one point. And now they’ve gotten very much better. Many of them are fully recovered.” The message for the President to the American people was clear. The coronavirus is a small problem getting better.  The truth was the U.S. didn’t know how bad the problem was as we had done very little testing. But many scientists available indications suggested it was getting worse rapidly. On February 23, the World Health Organization announced the virus was in 30 countries with 78,811 confirmed cases, a twofold increase in three weeks.

The President seemed uninterested in the pandemic, but then the stock market began to crash and he did care about that. He began blaming others, he criticized the media, CNN and MSNBC, for “panicking markets.” He said at on of his rallies, falsely, that “the Democrat policy of open borders” had brought the virus into the country. It turned out in the end to have come not from China and not from Mexico, but from Europe.

He lashed out at “do nothing Democrat comrades.” He tweeted about “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” mocking him for arguing that he should be more aggressive fighting the virus. At a rally on February 28 in South Carolina, the President denounced the Democrats by politicizing the coronavirus pandemic calling it “their new hoax.”

On multiple occasions, the President claimed that the coronavirus was less serious than the flu. “We’re talking about a much smaller range” of deaths than the flu. He said on March 2, “It’s very mild.” He said to Fox News on March 4, on March 7, “I’m not concerned at all” and on March 10, “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” At this time, in the first half of March, the public began to understand. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar told ABC, “There is no testing kit shortage, nor has there ever been.” While touring the CDC, the President said on TV news channels, “Anybody that wants a test can get a test.” On the same newscast he brought up completely extraneous issues such as his impeachment and also suggested that he knew as much as any scientist. On March 16, the President finally called for social distancing orders to be issued by the States.

The United States and South Korea were in more or less the same place at the very beginning of the coronavirus impact on their soil. But after squandering nearly two months spent in belittling the significance of the crisis and failing to put the government to work in assembling personal protective equipment for hospital workers, rolling out a mass testing program—something that only the federal government is capable of doing—and manufacturing ventilators, the United States was in a much worse place than South Korea. The President took his first real action in calling for social distancing guidelines on March 16 and the first equipment purchase on March 21. By contrast, former Vice President Joe Biden on January 29 in an op-ed article had sounded the alarm about a coming dangerous coronavirus pandemic and called for strong responsive measures.

The United States was now far behind and by early April, the death rate from COVID-19 was 50 per capita in the United States and only four per capita in South Korea. After the many administrative failures and the President essentially ignoring the pandemic and focusing on his own personal political interests, by April 12, there were 22,000 deaths from COVID-19, far more than need have been had the Administration responded in a timely way. A few days later, there were 30,000 fatalities.

In September, 2019 there was a report by the World Health Organization Global Preparedness Monitoring Board warning of the lack of preparedness worldwide should there be a lethal respiratory virus pandemic as follows:

“A rapidly spreading pandemic due to a lethal respiratory pathogen (which naturally emerges or is accidentally or deliberately released) poses additional preparedness requirements. Donors and multilateral institutions must ensure adequate investment in developing innovative vaccines and therapeutics, surge manufacturing capacity, broad spectrum antivirals and appropriate non-pharmaceutical interventions.”

The United States received formal notification of the coronavirus epidemic on January 3, and the President took his first real action on March 16. At a White House press briefing on March 13 the President said with respect to the chaos that had descended on the United States as a result of his ignoring the threat of the coronavirus and whether he took responsibility for any of this, “I don’t take responsibility at all.”

This was after often-misleading Americans about the severity of the virus and therefor the public was confused about what it should do. On the one hand, all the experts in the field who addressed the subject publicly called for immediate strong actions to respond to a huge threat as did many Democratic Party political leaders. On the other hand, the President was dismissing everything saying the epidemic would “disappear like magic.” The reality which was abundantly clear weeks before the President did anything was that the United States was extremely seriously threatened by a deadly pathogen which would, if not properly checked, destroy the health, economy and lives of Americans. What would our Founders think of this inexcusable behavior amounting to the equivalent of criminal negligence if it was a legal case? I have returned from some time away from this blog, but could not in good conscience avoid saying something about this situation.

“If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honor of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth—if men possessed of these and other excellent qualities are chosen to fill seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation.” –Samuel Adams 1780

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know—but besides this they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefensible, divine right to that most dreaded, and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, the characters and conduct of their rulers. Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents and trustees for the people, and if the cause, the intent and the trust is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed and to constitute abler and better agents, attorneys and trustees.”–John Adams 1765

“That people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain than to an honest, upright man in poverty, almost deserve to be enslaved, they plainly show that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue…Surely you never will tamely suffer this country to be a den of thieves.”–John Hancock 1779

“It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.”–Samuel Adams 1748

“Nothing is so mistaken as the supposition that a person is to extricate himself from a difficulty by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimulation, by trimming, by an untruth or by an injustice…There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible as he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do so a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual, he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all it’s good dispositions.–Thomas Jefferson 1785

“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools who don’t have brains enough to be honest.”–Benjamin Franklin 1740

“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”–Thomas Jefferson 1774

“A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road for the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that those men who have overturned the liberties of the republics, the greatest number have began their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.”–Alexander Hamilton 1788

“An elective despotism was not the government we fought for…but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, so that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by others.”–James Madison 1788

“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”–Benjamin Franklin – proposed as the motto on the Great Seal of the United States

“I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”–Thomas Jefferson 1800

“A government of laws, not of men.”–John Adams 1780

“If he be asked, what is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of security in a Republic? the answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws—the first growing out of the last—a sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.”–Alexander Hamilton 1794

“If ever the time should come when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”–Samuel Adams 1780

“The natural cure for an ill administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.”–Alexander Hamilton 1788

“If there be a principle that ought not to be questioned within the United States, it is that every man has the right to abolish an old government and establish a new one. This principle is not only recorded in every public archive, written in every American heart, and sealed with the blood of American martyrs, but it is the only lawful tenure by which the United States hold their existence as a nation.”–James Madison 1793

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks… Let us remember that if we suffer lamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom! It’s a very serious consideration which should deeply impress our minds that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers in the event.”–Samuel Adams 1771

“The unity of government which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so rightly prize. But it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness that you should cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which link together the various parts.”–George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

John Jay

The United States has entered a truly extraordinary era of income inequality among its people. Comparable to the former Gilded Age of the late 19^th Century, which was finally terminated to the great benefit of this country by the progressive reformer, President Theodore Roosevelt.

In a speech in 1907 upon the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone of the Pilgrim Memorial Monument, with respect to certain individuals whom he referred to as “malefactors of great wealth” President Roosevelt commented as follows:

“In the last six years we have shown that there is no individual and no corporation so powerful that he or it stands above the possibility of punishment under the law…. Moreover, when we thus take action against the wealth which works iniquity, we are acting in the interest of every man of property who acts decently and fairly by his fellows…. I regard this contest as one to determine who shall rule this free country—the people through their governmental agents, or a few ruthless and domineering men whose wealth makes them peculiarly formidable because they hide behind the breastworks of corporate organization.”

And the great Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis added that America could have either “democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few” but not both.

But we have forgotten that the federal income tax was originally conceived to prevent the undue concentration of wealth. It began as a tax only on the top 0.1 percent and was never intended to target the poor. And we have forgotten when we discussed taxes that the top bracket of the federal income tax as recently as 1980 was 70 percent. As a result of these and other errors a new Gilded Age, similar to what was faced by President Theodore Roosevelt, has returned.

In 2012 this fact became obvious to all. It was the first time since the introduction of modern campaign finance law when outside spending groups, flush with unlimited contributions from the country’s richest donors after the Supreme Court decided the Citizens United case spent more than $1 billion to influence federal elections. As Jane Mayer points out in “Dark Money,” in 2012 the top 0.04 percent of donors contributed about the same amount as the bottom 68 percent. For no previous year was there more spending by fewer people. And at no time before did a candidate feel compelled to say in trying to persuade rich donors to support him that “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for this President (Obama) no matter what,” and that these are people who are “dependent on government, who believe they are victims, who believe government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled to health care, food, to housing, you name it” and they are “people who pay no income tax.” In other words, not real contributing citizens.  If Teddy Roosevelt had been in the 2012 campaign I wonder what he would have said to that.  And in spite of this assault on the voting public by the new Oligarchy, President Obama was reelected.

The mid-term election in 2014 on the other hand was a huge victory for the ultra-rich conservative donors and for the Republican Party. On their own the top 100 known donors gave $323 million and this was only the disclosed money. Once all the undisclosed money was factored in, it was beyond doubt that a very small enormously wealthy group had dominated everyone else. It was an oligarchy that the Citizens United era had brought. And in 2016 just the so-called Koch group of donors pledged to spend $889 million on the Presidential election cycle that year. This was very close to the $1 billion it was anticipated that each of established parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, would spend. With this the situation, it is becoming difficult to continue to call the United States of America a Republic. A third party, which perhaps might be called the Money Party or the Oligarch Party, appears to be establishing itself in its attempt to dominate the country.

And what would be our Founder’s view of this?

“As riches increase and accumulate in few hands…the tendency of things will be to depart from the Republican standard.”

Alexander Hamilton – 1788

“Property monopolized or in the possession of a few is a Curse to Mankind.”

John Adams – 1765

That people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain than to an honest, upright man in poverty, almost deserve to be enslaved; they plainly show that wealth, however it may be acquired, is in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue…. Surely you never will tamely suffer this country to be a den of thieves.”

John Hancock – 1774

John Jay

Having lost all statewide offices to the Democrats in the 2018 election, the Republicans were unwilling to leave after eight years of highly divisive and incompetent rule in Wisconsin. They decided to directly overturn the people’s decision by actions in back room offices during a lame duck session by passing and enacting a law which drastically reduces the power and influence of the principal state offices, for example, the governor and the attorney general.  The Republican participants in the lame duck session were themselves gerrymandered into office.  As evidence, the Republicans have the current majority and in the fall 2018 election Democrats received 54 % of the votes but received only 37% of the seats. Needless to say the outgoing Republican governor Scott Walker promptly signed the bill. This basically keeps most of the political power in Republican Party hands even though the people of Wisconsin voted to take it away.

Not a single Republican legislative or party official protested this act by the legislature. What are these people doing? This is fascist-type behavior! These are the sort of tricks that Victor Orban of Hungary utilized to push the democratic state of Hungary into a Mussolini style fascist authoritarian country. This seems to be what the Republicans in Washington are aiming at in Wisconsin, sort of an Orban style authoritarian state by the Great Lakes. And likewise neither similar behavior in Michigan nor the outright electoral fraud committed in North Carolina has been criticized by Republican Party leadership. It appears that the Republican Party just isn’t interested in democracy anymore. It seems to have become a made-in-Europe neo-fascist Party. This means that every election threatens America’s liberties with one of the two major parties having evolved into an authoritarian party opposed to democracy.

Authoritarian rule seems to be spreading around the world as in the 1930’s. In those years it was Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin. Today it is Orban, Erdogan, Putin, Xi, Ayatollah Kameini, Duterti of the Philippines and many others. In earlier times American principles and its people were protected by FDR and Ronald Reagan against the strongmen. But who will stand up for America now?

Our Founders had a lot to say about this:

“A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of the Republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.”

Alexander Hamilton, 1788

“Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.”

Alexander Hamilton, 1787

“But if the laws are to be trampled upon—with impunity—and a minority (a small one too) is to dictate to the majority there is an end put, at one stroke, to Republican government; and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected thereafter…”

George Washington, 1794

“A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever.”

John Adams, 1775

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude rather than the animating contest of freedom—go from us in peace. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!”

Samuel Adams, 1776

“No person that has enjoyed the sweets of liberty can be insensible of its infinite value, or can reflect on its reverse without horror and detestation.”

Alexander Hamilton, 1774

“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied upon to set them to rights.

Thomas Jefferson, 1789

“It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.”

Samuel Adams, 1748

“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

Thomas Jefferson, 1800

“I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of examples of justice and liberality.”

George Washington, 1790

 

John Jay

For some months now Marathon Oil Company has been leading a secret campaign aligned with powerful oil industry groups and a conservative Policy group financed by Charles G. Koch to roll back automobile emissions standards, going far beyond what the Trump administration had initially proposed. Marathon’s standards have been now adopted by the Trump Administration. The argument is that, with the US now awash in oil, there is no reason to limit the use of oil. “With oil scarcity no longer a concern” Americans should have the kind of cars they want says a Marathon letter circulating in Congress.

A Koch Industry spokesman said that the Company had “a long, consistent track record of opposing all forms of corporate welfare, including all subsidies, mandates and handouts that rig the system.”  This statement should be translated from the conservative code language in which it is written to say what it means: Koch Industry opposes all government and other attempts to limit its profits and corruption. The Trump plan if adopted would increase US carbon emissions by more than the amount many mid-size countries put out in a year. Meanwhile, as this deeply un-American, unpatriotic, and threatening effort goes forward in the US, the US delegation at the current climate negotiations in Poland actively has been trying to subvert the climate discussions to be sure that they lead to nothing.  Two days before the end of the COP24 Conference the US appeared to be near achieving that goal with the Conference scheduled to end on December 14, 2018 and the representatives of around 200 countries would then go home with nothing.  When the Conference did close on December 14, this objective seemed to have been largely achieved, given the limited results.

The US delegation even made a presentation at the Conference on the benefits of fossil fuel, the direct and identified cause of global warming. The UN Secretary General had this to say as reported by the Washington Post on December 12, 2018, page 4:  “I understand that none of this is easy. I understand that some of you will need to make tough political decisions. …To waste this opportunity … would compromise our last best chance to stop runaway climate change. It would not only be immoral, it would be suicidal.” In other words the point of no return is in sight. Many world leaders and their followers these days-particularly in the US -seem interested only in their own profits and care little for civilization or the people they serve.

By the point of no return is meant that time when because of the buildup of carbon in the atmosphere no matter what we do the world will continue to warm to catastrophic and extinction levels and beyond.  Dr. Stephen Hawking, the great astrophysicist, said a year before he died, in 100 years the Earth will no longer be able to support human life.  “It is collective madness.”

Our Founders had doubts whether our Republic would survive but it never occurred to them that we would ever become sufficiently technologically advanced and at the same time sufficiently greedy and foolish so as to destroy ourselves. What might they have said about this miserable state of affairs?

“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”

Samuel Adams—1749

“Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

John Adams—1798

“Let me add, that only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”

Benjamin Franklin—1787

“A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the highest duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation.”

Thomas Jefferson—1810

“Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God.”

Benjamin Franklin—proposed as the motto on the Great Seal of the United States.

“Some boast of being friends to government; I am friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny.”

John Hancock—1774

John Jay