Last night, at about 10:30, reporter Dan Diamond posted another blockbuster story in Politico. Political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services have been altering the weekly scientific reports issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) following the course of the coronavirus pandemic. They believe the reports are undermining Trump’s cheery pronouncements about the disease, and claim there is a “deep state” at the CDC determined to hurt the president.
My heart is breaking for this country, for all of us, that science and facts have been and continue to be suppressed by Trump’s lackeys for the sole purpose of keeping him and themselves in power, regardless of how many Americans have died and will die from Covid-19 during his administration. Worse, if that is possible, is that the survivors and their families will have to live for what remains of their lives with the yet-to-be-known consequences of the infection, as we already know that so many organ systems are affected adversely. As a HCP I regularly read many science-based articles from reputable institutions. It is beyond belief that a formerly trusted CDC is being shaped by politics rather than science-based evidence.
Even if Biden wins the election, this country has been damaged and divided so terribly that I am now afraid it will never recover. I appreciate Heather so much and nightly read her report but I was too exhausted to read it last night, which turns out was better for me in order to sleep.
💜💜 Heather, I don't know if you actually have the time to read every single comment made but I hope you know how much we love and appreciate all your efforts to keep Americans informed about what is happening behind the curtain in this country. Take care of yourself, stay healthy, and make sure you get enough sleep. You are a national treasure. 💜💜
And the entire GOP is silent. How is this possible. It’s like our system of checks and balances has failed miserably. If he’s doing all this now I can only imagine with increasing dread what’s going to happen before November elections! My god we’re in such trouble.
That’s the part that makes me livid! Nothing can get these elected Republicans to remember their oath to the Constitution and protect the country and their constituents. I am not sure how many of you have bombarded your congressmen and senators , but if not, this is the time. Even if your senator is not up for election, contact them. My senator, Marco Rubio is now the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, so he has even more of a responsibility. If you are in Florida, PLEASE call, write, fax, whatever you can do to make his life miserable. Rick Scott, the other Florida senator is worthless and not worth your time.
I live in Oregon and our senators are great. I am active in an organization called Seing Left. We are doing massive letter writing campaigns to the swing states to get out the vote.
Marcy, if you ever lived in another state, contact those representatives also. And you can contact every other legislator for that matter. They all swore an oath to the Constitution to serve it as well as serving their own constituents. Every little bit helps.
Also write any Senators and Representatives that are “up and coming”. If the have a desire to move to higher office, they should understand national views as well.
I am lucky here in Oregon to have two very good senators. My rep is sometimes shaky and I have contacted him from time to time He is from Clackamus County which until late yesterday was all under some level of evacuation. Also a Clackamus county deputy was caught on tape blaming antifa for the fires. He even knew he was being taped. I think he is on leave, but i haven't checked yet this am. For the record, we have a friend who calls Clackamus County, Clackastan to give you some idea. It borders Portland.
My son and his beautiful family moved to OR a year ago and are now 20 minutes away from the wildfires in 'Clackastan' in eastern Multnomah county. I so want them to come home back east where it feels more safe, for now anyway. Worried sick. I hope you are safe from the fires and that you and yours make it through this unscathed.
I marched in DC in January 2017, the day after the Thug from Queens was inaugurated. Not a big deal. I was literally one in a million. What is a big deal was our collective, calming mantra: Surely trump would surround himself with wise, experienced, capable people whose expert advice would offset his buffoonery and total lack of POTUS skills and chutzpah.
Lesson learned: Be careful about launching incomplete forecasts into the cosmos, HCR friends. It didn't occur to us that day to add to our head-nodding self-assurance, "...wise, experienced, capable people, not to include anyone whose raison d'être is to cling to trump like a barnacle, foment division, ferret out ways to bypass Congress and the Constitution, break laws, and misinform with the goal of moving the United States from democracy to fascism."
Enter Stephen Miller, the first and arguably worst of a long string of malignant weasels sucked into trump's magnetic field, which four years later resembles a cult more than an administration. I'm part-way into Michael Cohen's book, and his portrayal of himself as one of those suckers is instructive. The user-in-chief's primary mad skill is his mastery of deception. He uses his Huge Phony Persona to attract people to him, making them feel indispensable and beloved. Some of you may know/remember when Stephen Miller attached himself to trump. I don't. But it's no small deal that Miller has remained trump's shadowy wingman. He is trump's Martin Bormann. The sucked-into-trump's-magnetic field might be backwards, relative to Miller. I have come to suspect that Miller is the sucker and trump the suckee.
I read here this morning about some of the the calculated, corrupt-but-brilliant tactics used by trumpco to seize and maintain control of trump's base, trump's lackeys, and U.S. agencies/departments. All roads lead back to Stephen Miller. For a better sense of who he is and the depth/breadth of his influence, here's a link to an NPR article that, at the very least, paints some broad brushstrokes re Miller. Know the enemy.
I read Heather's post first thing every morning, usually while waiting for the coffee to perk. Today I'm sitting in a house that while safe from fires, is shrouded in a dense cloud of smoke and now fog. When I got to the paragraph about NOAA, my heart sank even further than the already low spot it sat in. They're no longer trying to hide what they're doing to this country - taking sledge hammers to every highly-regarded agency full of career scientists who work hard to inform and protect people living in America. I dread to know what they've done to other agencies that we don't know about yet.
Thank you for your work Heather to help us stay informed. It's nice to visit here and see the comments of so many rational, concerned individuals who feel the same as I do.
If Trump said that the moon is made of green cheese these people would be forcing NASA to say the Buzz Aldrin brought some back with him last time and it tasted great. They would even bring out the old "conspiracy" videos doctored to prove it!
In a society governed by the people for the people, as in any other, absolute truth is of course an illusive concept. In our democracy we tend to seek out the facts and the true causes, effects and potential solutions to problems. We try, as much as possible to move toward the "objective" and away from the "subjective" on the polarity that links and seperates them. We try to the best we can for everybody.
Trump and his autocratic heroes, cronies and willing accomplices work on the opposite assumption. Facts are the enemy...they are highly inconvenient. They are imposing the best solution to fit only their personal needs. To do that they impose their own subjectivity at all points and degrade as far as possible any notion of objectivity either in establishing "facts" , analysing cause and effect relationships or in taking decisions on solutions. Subjectivity becomes their personal weapon which they use to grind any objective opposition into submission by deprivation of data, uncertainty of sources and constant repetition of mindless drivel.
The weapon to fight this is clearly illustrated by the little boy who declared that the emporer was naked...his subjectively defined clothes didn't exist in the light of day. Constantly exposing the lies of the other and the proclaiming of the nearest we can get to fact and truth with loud and clear voices will drain out poison from the system, expose it for the pitiful rubbish it is. Together the voices of the people will be heard.
In the meantime...hope for the best, prepare for the worst and ACT to make sure it can never happen neither in November, January or ever again.
Tonight we received the long-awaited news that Michael Bloomberg was going to put serious money into Biden's campaign in Florida. The aim is to get out the vote.
It's time that all of you HCR followers get out and make sure that you and all your friends vote early.
Get your ballot and send it back so that the USPS (now known as the Phony Express) can't claim you missed the deadline.
The country cannot afford another four years of this manipulation and mendacity; if Biden wins, it will probably take him at least 2 years just to undo the damage...and that assumes a Democratic Senate.
One way that Bloomberg’s money can help in Florida is if he would assist in paying off the fines, fees and restitution that is now a part of allowing former felons to vote. In case you haven’t been following this story, Floridians overwhelming approved an amendment which would restore voting rights to former felons except those convicted of murder, rape or other violent crimes. Florida governor DeSantis and the Republican legislature blocked this by saying that this also now included these obscure financial fees. It went to the Florida court which ruled in Republicans favor. In some cases, these fees cannot be identified in full so these people can’t even determine how much is owed, let alone pay it. We are talking about approximately 800,000 people. If Bloomberg could assist in getting this paid off for most, that would go a long way.
I have a feeling this is his intention; thus far only around $10-15,000 has been raised. I have no idea what the total amount required might be, but probably $100 million might just do it. (The Florida court ruled 6-4 on the fees and guess who appointed the 6..)
Just thinking....if Michael Bloomberg had donated $3 million to Trump instead of $100 million to the Florida Dems, he could have been appointed Postmaster General instead of Pepe LePieu and the problem would have been solved....and he would still have $97 million to pay off the felons debts.
“Blockbuster stories” used to be a once a year event. It’s very scary when we are started to get numb to them. Heather, thanks for dove-tailing this all together so that it’s easier to see the pattern. Your insight helps relieve the numbness.
I am of the age where my doctor wants me to check my blood pressure in the morning. I made the mistake of reading this before I took my BP this morning. It was up😡. However, it went down when I checked it again. This crap makes me so angry.
Yes, yesterday I rode around aimlessly with moments when I literally was crying, all alone in my car. That anyone can follow a blatant criminal has put me in panic mode that I rarely come out of day to day. And to see so many people follow blindly, it feels like an alternate reality.
The Trump party is counting on make us feel hopeless, so hopeless we will think our votes don't matter. They do! And we must all vote this year to rid ourselves of as many of the Trump party as possible.
Your feelings sound very familiar to me. On top of the pandemic, the deaths, the isolation, the jobs lost, we have an administration dedicated to hiding the truth and scaring everyone. What they are actually doing or not doing is much scarier than the lies they are constantly telling. Here's the thing: we have to get through this together. It's hard, it's scary, it's depressing, our country is literally burning - not in the cities as the liars claim, but widely in the western forests - and we cannot let it destroy us. We have to comfort our scared weary selves as best we can, know that we are not alone, and do our best to fight back. Take a deep breath. Remember that the world has gotten through worse times than these. Despite all the harm they have done, despite 45's ability to dominate the news cycle and to bluster and to bully, he is not a powerful demon, he is a mortal, and they have not won. If they had this election sewn up, they would not be scrambling so badly. Spread the truth, if only by reposting these letters. Vote. If you can, campaign to get out the vote.
After checking out my email each morning, including "Letter from an American," my systolic blood pressure (which my doctor also has asked me to monitor daily) is about 20 mm higher than it is when I measure it later after about an hour of relative inactivity.
So, when does this rise to the level where action can be taken under the rules and laws of the land? High crimes and misdemeanors! This is such a slippery slope 😱 Thank you for the light you are shining on this shape shifting puzzle, where pawns turn into bishops overnight and scuttle about in the shadows. To what end? They are all exposing themselves as aligned with the man who would be king and who will soon be summarily dethroned. Hoping they will all be circling the drain when the plug gets pulled... Could get really messy when they prepare to be escorted out...
One can argue that we hit the “level where action can be taken under the rules and laws of the land“ months ago. Responsibility for that action rest in Congress. The 116th Congress has shown that their only true bipartisan skill set is complete dysfunction.
One thing I DON’T want to see is “mercy” and “healing” for these goons — the whole lot of them. It obviously brought no reformation to have Mercy on the Nixon fiasco.
Good point! I just recently remarked to someone that we are sorely lacking in critical thinking in this country, most likely because it is not widely taught in schools. I feel fortunate that my medical eductation included courses in critical thinking, otherwise I, too, would be without this important skill.
You say, "Knowledge truly is power." Incontestably true. But so, too, is a cunning genius for gaming a system, and your report today reveals the Trumpians' consummate skill at bending or evading the rules to exercise power. They play this like three-dimensional chess. Just imagine...just imagine, if you can...if Trump had applied this truly-brilliant capability in the service of doing the right thing! His early pronouncements dismissing the threat of COVID-19 might actually have proven accurate.
Thank you Heather for today's clear roadmap of this insane Administration. On a daily basis, I ask myself how can this possibly happening here, in this Country I grew up in. In all honesty, did you ever think we would be living this nightmare?
No, knowledge is not power. If it was, Trump would be appointing actual scientists and intelligence professionals instead of propagandists, and he wouldn’t be doctoring CDC and DNI reports. If knowledge was power, Barr wouldn’t have appointed Durham to rewrite the story of Trump’s Russian collusion. Ron Johnson wouldn’t be collaborating with Russian spies to smear Biden in Ukraine. Knowledge is dangerous. Control of information is power. Ignorance is power. Trump and his lackeys are determined to hide knowledge, and ride to re-election on the wave of ignorance they are spreading.
I’ve felt for some time that the idea that Republicans wanted to roll back the New Deal wasn’t imaginative enough. Just how reactionary they are depends, of course; Michelle Bachmann identified the Renaissance as the time “it all went to hell.”
You referencing the Enlightenment brings up my own thinking on this, back during the prior, less aggressive round of the republican war on science under Dubya.
This seems more than ever to be Trump’s target: the leverage that empiricism and the scientific method gave us, to have greater confidence in what we claim to know about the world around us.
They don't even have to blackmail, it's all money.. Trump's investments in Russian, oil money etc. They all just want their wealth and they will partner with anyone to keep it. Now Trumps problem is he has done so much illegal stuff before and during his presidency, that if he does leave office he can be prosecuted, that's part of the reason he is hold on so hard.
My friend said today, “With all this stuff coming to light, imagine what we DON’T know.” My lord, how deep is the dark?
Cue music. Rod Serling enters, stage right, "You're in the Twilight Zone..."
Well said.
My heart is breaking for this country, for all of us, that science and facts have been and continue to be suppressed by Trump’s lackeys for the sole purpose of keeping him and themselves in power, regardless of how many Americans have died and will die from Covid-19 during his administration. Worse, if that is possible, is that the survivors and their families will have to live for what remains of their lives with the yet-to-be-known consequences of the infection, as we already know that so many organ systems are affected adversely. As a HCP I regularly read many science-based articles from reputable institutions. It is beyond belief that a formerly trusted CDC is being shaped by politics rather than science-based evidence.
Even if Biden wins the election, this country has been damaged and divided so terribly that I am now afraid it will never recover. I appreciate Heather so much and nightly read her report but I was too exhausted to read it last night, which turns out was better for me in order to sleep.
💜💜 Heather, I don't know if you actually have the time to read every single comment made but I hope you know how much we love and appreciate all your efforts to keep Americans informed about what is happening behind the curtain in this country. Take care of yourself, stay healthy, and make sure you get enough sleep. You are a national treasure. 💜💜
And the entire GOP is silent. How is this possible. It’s like our system of checks and balances has failed miserably. If he’s doing all this now I can only imagine with increasing dread what’s going to happen before November elections! My god we’re in such trouble.
That’s the part that makes me livid! Nothing can get these elected Republicans to remember their oath to the Constitution and protect the country and their constituents. I am not sure how many of you have bombarded your congressmen and senators , but if not, this is the time. Even if your senator is not up for election, contact them. My senator, Marco Rubio is now the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, so he has even more of a responsibility. If you are in Florida, PLEASE call, write, fax, whatever you can do to make his life miserable. Rick Scott, the other Florida senator is worthless and not worth your time.
I live in Oregon and our senators are great. I am active in an organization called Seing Left. We are doing massive letter writing campaigns to the swing states to get out the vote.
Pointless. I’ve tried.Lamar Alexander is retiring and the other is Marsha Blackburn. The whole nation knows of her by now. She’s useless.
Marcy, if you ever lived in another state, contact those representatives also. And you can contact every other legislator for that matter. They all swore an oath to the Constitution to serve it as well as serving their own constituents. Every little bit helps.
Also write any Senators and Representatives that are “up and coming”. If the have a desire to move to higher office, they should understand national views as well.
I am lucky here in Oregon to have two very good senators. My rep is sometimes shaky and I have contacted him from time to time He is from Clackamus County which until late yesterday was all under some level of evacuation. Also a Clackamus county deputy was caught on tape blaming antifa for the fires. He even knew he was being taped. I think he is on leave, but i haven't checked yet this am. For the record, we have a friend who calls Clackamus County, Clackastan to give you some idea. It borders Portland.
My son and his beautiful family moved to OR a year ago and are now 20 minutes away from the wildfires in 'Clackastan' in eastern Multnomah county. I so want them to come home back east where it feels more safe, for now anyway. Worried sick. I hope you are safe from the fires and that you and yours make it through this unscathed.
I marched in DC in January 2017, the day after the Thug from Queens was inaugurated. Not a big deal. I was literally one in a million. What is a big deal was our collective, calming mantra: Surely trump would surround himself with wise, experienced, capable people whose expert advice would offset his buffoonery and total lack of POTUS skills and chutzpah.
Lesson learned: Be careful about launching incomplete forecasts into the cosmos, HCR friends. It didn't occur to us that day to add to our head-nodding self-assurance, "...wise, experienced, capable people, not to include anyone whose raison d'être is to cling to trump like a barnacle, foment division, ferret out ways to bypass Congress and the Constitution, break laws, and misinform with the goal of moving the United States from democracy to fascism."
Enter Stephen Miller, the first and arguably worst of a long string of malignant weasels sucked into trump's magnetic field, which four years later resembles a cult more than an administration. I'm part-way into Michael Cohen's book, and his portrayal of himself as one of those suckers is instructive. The user-in-chief's primary mad skill is his mastery of deception. He uses his Huge Phony Persona to attract people to him, making them feel indispensable and beloved. Some of you may know/remember when Stephen Miller attached himself to trump. I don't. But it's no small deal that Miller has remained trump's shadowy wingman. He is trump's Martin Bormann. The sucked-into-trump's-magnetic field might be backwards, relative to Miller. I have come to suspect that Miller is the sucker and trump the suckee.
I read here this morning about some of the the calculated, corrupt-but-brilliant tactics used by trumpco to seize and maintain control of trump's base, trump's lackeys, and U.S. agencies/departments. All roads lead back to Stephen Miller. For a better sense of who he is and the depth/breadth of his influence, here's a link to an NPR article that, at the very least, paints some broad brushstrokes re Miller. Know the enemy.
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/16/902822086/hatemonger-tracks-how-right-wing-media-shaped-trump-policy-architect-stephen-mil
Appreciate the deliberate lower case of the ‘t’
It’s the little things sometimes 😉
'Tis. References to him as "Mr Trump," e.g. NYTimes, and on bad days even "President Trump" mess with my serenity.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing the link.
I read Heather's post first thing every morning, usually while waiting for the coffee to perk. Today I'm sitting in a house that while safe from fires, is shrouded in a dense cloud of smoke and now fog. When I got to the paragraph about NOAA, my heart sank even further than the already low spot it sat in. They're no longer trying to hide what they're doing to this country - taking sledge hammers to every highly-regarded agency full of career scientists who work hard to inform and protect people living in America. I dread to know what they've done to other agencies that we don't know about yet.
Thank you for your work Heather to help us stay informed. It's nice to visit here and see the comments of so many rational, concerned individuals who feel the same as I do.
If Trump said that the moon is made of green cheese these people would be forcing NASA to say the Buzz Aldrin brought some back with him last time and it tasted great. They would even bring out the old "conspiracy" videos doctored to prove it!
In a society governed by the people for the people, as in any other, absolute truth is of course an illusive concept. In our democracy we tend to seek out the facts and the true causes, effects and potential solutions to problems. We try, as much as possible to move toward the "objective" and away from the "subjective" on the polarity that links and seperates them. We try to the best we can for everybody.
Trump and his autocratic heroes, cronies and willing accomplices work on the opposite assumption. Facts are the enemy...they are highly inconvenient. They are imposing the best solution to fit only their personal needs. To do that they impose their own subjectivity at all points and degrade as far as possible any notion of objectivity either in establishing "facts" , analysing cause and effect relationships or in taking decisions on solutions. Subjectivity becomes their personal weapon which they use to grind any objective opposition into submission by deprivation of data, uncertainty of sources and constant repetition of mindless drivel.
The weapon to fight this is clearly illustrated by the little boy who declared that the emporer was naked...his subjectively defined clothes didn't exist in the light of day. Constantly exposing the lies of the other and the proclaiming of the nearest we can get to fact and truth with loud and clear voices will drain out poison from the system, expose it for the pitiful rubbish it is. Together the voices of the people will be heard.
In the meantime...hope for the best, prepare for the worst and ACT to make sure it can never happen neither in November, January or ever again.
Tonight we received the long-awaited news that Michael Bloomberg was going to put serious money into Biden's campaign in Florida. The aim is to get out the vote.
It's time that all of you HCR followers get out and make sure that you and all your friends vote early.
Get your ballot and send it back so that the USPS (now known as the Phony Express) can't claim you missed the deadline.
The country cannot afford another four years of this manipulation and mendacity; if Biden wins, it will probably take him at least 2 years just to undo the damage...and that assumes a Democratic Senate.
One way that Bloomberg’s money can help in Florida is if he would assist in paying off the fines, fees and restitution that is now a part of allowing former felons to vote. In case you haven’t been following this story, Floridians overwhelming approved an amendment which would restore voting rights to former felons except those convicted of murder, rape or other violent crimes. Florida governor DeSantis and the Republican legislature blocked this by saying that this also now included these obscure financial fees. It went to the Florida court which ruled in Republicans favor. In some cases, these fees cannot be identified in full so these people can’t even determine how much is owed, let alone pay it. We are talking about approximately 800,000 people. If Bloomberg could assist in getting this paid off for most, that would go a long way.
I have a feeling this is his intention; thus far only around $10-15,000 has been raised. I have no idea what the total amount required might be, but probably $100 million might just do it. (The Florida court ruled 6-4 on the fees and guess who appointed the 6..)
Just thinking....if Michael Bloomberg had donated $3 million to Trump instead of $100 million to the Florida Dems, he could have been appointed Postmaster General instead of Pepe LePieu and the problem would have been solved....and he would still have $97 million to pay off the felons debts.
“Blockbuster stories” used to be a once a year event. It’s very scary when we are started to get numb to them. Heather, thanks for dove-tailing this all together so that it’s easier to see the pattern. Your insight helps relieve the numbness.
I am of the age where my doctor wants me to check my blood pressure in the morning. I made the mistake of reading this before I took my BP this morning. It was up😡. However, it went down when I checked it again. This crap makes me so angry.
Yes, yesterday I rode around aimlessly with moments when I literally was crying, all alone in my car. That anyone can follow a blatant criminal has put me in panic mode that I rarely come out of day to day. And to see so many people follow blindly, it feels like an alternate reality.
The Trump party is counting on make us feel hopeless, so hopeless we will think our votes don't matter. They do! And we must all vote this year to rid ourselves of as many of the Trump party as possible.
^making
Your feelings sound very familiar to me. On top of the pandemic, the deaths, the isolation, the jobs lost, we have an administration dedicated to hiding the truth and scaring everyone. What they are actually doing or not doing is much scarier than the lies they are constantly telling. Here's the thing: we have to get through this together. It's hard, it's scary, it's depressing, our country is literally burning - not in the cities as the liars claim, but widely in the western forests - and we cannot let it destroy us. We have to comfort our scared weary selves as best we can, know that we are not alone, and do our best to fight back. Take a deep breath. Remember that the world has gotten through worse times than these. Despite all the harm they have done, despite 45's ability to dominate the news cycle and to bluster and to bully, he is not a powerful demon, he is a mortal, and they have not won. If they had this election sewn up, they would not be scrambling so badly. Spread the truth, if only by reposting these letters. Vote. If you can, campaign to get out the vote.
Elaine Hewitt, I can totally relate! What has helped me is the support from liked minded friends
Yesterday was a particularly hard day for me too. Depression, shock, why bother? Kind of day. Hard to shake.
Marcy Meldahl, We have to shake it off. I know it is hard! However, we can't let Trump beat us! Hugs sent!
After checking out my email each morning, including "Letter from an American," my systolic blood pressure (which my doctor also has asked me to monitor daily) is about 20 mm higher than it is when I measure it later after about an hour of relative inactivity.
So, when does this rise to the level where action can be taken under the rules and laws of the land? High crimes and misdemeanors! This is such a slippery slope 😱 Thank you for the light you are shining on this shape shifting puzzle, where pawns turn into bishops overnight and scuttle about in the shadows. To what end? They are all exposing themselves as aligned with the man who would be king and who will soon be summarily dethroned. Hoping they will all be circling the drain when the plug gets pulled... Could get really messy when they prepare to be escorted out...
One can argue that we hit the “level where action can be taken under the rules and laws of the land“ months ago. Responsibility for that action rest in Congress. The 116th Congress has shown that their only true bipartisan skill set is complete dysfunction.
One thing I DON’T want to see is “mercy” and “healing” for these goons — the whole lot of them. It obviously brought no reformation to have Mercy on the Nixon fiasco.
We are going to need something akin to the Nuremburg trials to bring all these people to account.
If!!!
I disagree: Knowledge is not power. Critical thinking is.
Ample data abound, but people having the capacity or temerity to process is what is lacking.
One change we definitely need in this country, is to teach critical thinking in every school, at every level.
Good point! I just recently remarked to someone that we are sorely lacking in critical thinking in this country, most likely because it is not widely taught in schools. I feel fortunate that my medical eductation included courses in critical thinking, otherwise I, too, would be without this important skill.
You say, "Knowledge truly is power." Incontestably true. But so, too, is a cunning genius for gaming a system, and your report today reveals the Trumpians' consummate skill at bending or evading the rules to exercise power. They play this like three-dimensional chess. Just imagine...just imagine, if you can...if Trump had applied this truly-brilliant capability in the service of doing the right thing! His early pronouncements dismissing the threat of COVID-19 might actually have proven accurate.
As far as the Trumpians are concerned...they ARE doing the right thing! That is the problem.
Therein lies the monumental tragedy we are living through. 🤥
How many times, how many ways to say: There is no bottom! This man and his enablers must go!
Thank you Heather for today's clear roadmap of this insane Administration. On a daily basis, I ask myself how can this possibly happening here, in this Country I grew up in. In all honesty, did you ever think we would be living this nightmare?
No, knowledge is not power. If it was, Trump would be appointing actual scientists and intelligence professionals instead of propagandists, and he wouldn’t be doctoring CDC and DNI reports. If knowledge was power, Barr wouldn’t have appointed Durham to rewrite the story of Trump’s Russian collusion. Ron Johnson wouldn’t be collaborating with Russian spies to smear Biden in Ukraine. Knowledge is dangerous. Control of information is power. Ignorance is power. Trump and his lackeys are determined to hide knowledge, and ride to re-election on the wave of ignorance they are spreading.
I’ve felt for some time that the idea that Republicans wanted to roll back the New Deal wasn’t imaginative enough. Just how reactionary they are depends, of course; Michelle Bachmann identified the Renaissance as the time “it all went to hell.”
You referencing the Enlightenment brings up my own thinking on this, back during the prior, less aggressive round of the republican war on science under Dubya.
This seems more than ever to be Trump’s target: the leverage that empiricism and the scientific method gave us, to have greater confidence in what we claim to know about the world around us.
They don't even have to blackmail, it's all money.. Trump's investments in Russian, oil money etc. They all just want their wealth and they will partner with anyone to keep it. Now Trumps problem is he has done so much illegal stuff before and during his presidency, that if he does leave office he can be prosecuted, that's part of the reason he is hold on so hard.