As most of us know by now, DT was elected in 2016 with the help of a foreign power, the Russians. Even a bipartisan Congressional panel has recognized that. And despite Russian influence, he was not re-elected this year. Their interference in the 2016 election was in the headlines so often, and with so little apparent effect in holding DT accountable, many of us grew sick of hearing about it. And certainly since the election, despite denying it extensively, DT has acted to serve Russian interests, to serve Vladimir Putin.
For example, as spelled out in detail in the impeachment hearings, DT held up military aid to Ukraine, at a time when Ukraine was fighting Russian incursion. And he did that in order to force that nation to manufacture negative headlines on the Bidens. DT also decided to unilaterally withdraw U. S. troops from Germany as well as Syria, the latter of which left the area open for Russian troops and influence. And of course, he failed to do anything to hold Putin accountable for his placing bounties on U. S. troops in Afghanistan. The examples could go on and on.
Now, we have another blatant act of support for Russia. Last Sunday, DT illegally withdrew the U. S., from the Open Skies Treaty, passed in 1992 to promote stability through transparency. It allowed the 34 member states to have unarmed flights over the other nations to collect data on what the military forces of other nations were doing.
DT claimed he withdrew the U. S. from the treaty because Russia wasn’t adhering to it. He pretended he was being tough and withdrawing from the treaty was punishing Russia for its actions. But he was actually strengthening Russia and punishing our European allies⎼ who depended on the information from the flights for their national security and objected to DT’s unilateral withdrawal from the treaty.
Rachel Maddow pointed out that not only is DT ending the flights, he’s destroying the planes so the Biden Administration wouldn’t be able to immediately start those flights up again once they took power in January.
We still have satellites to observe the Russian troop deployments, but it is unclear if this would provide our European allies the same degree of information as the flights. Without the flights, the defense capability of our allies could be diminished. And after four years of Trump putting “America First,” and continuously disrespecting or openly attacking our European and democratic allies while praising dictators, they feel abandoned by us.
DT has withdrawn from other treaties and organizations that for many years have served the interests of both the U. S. and our allies. Organizations like the World Health Organization, and treaties like the Paris Accords, the nuclear arms control treaty with Russia called the Intermediate-Range Forces Treaty, and, of course, the Iran Nuclear Deal.
And just as frightening and despicable are his actions at home⎼ dividing the nation, inciting violence, racism and so many other forms of hatred, and lying about the 2020 election in order to undermine the election system. For the last 4 years, he has been turning Main Street America into a second class nation.
And in terms of the coronavirus, he has acted with a malignant disregard for the safety of the American people, exacerbating the illness, leading to so many deaths, so many sick, so many with their lives disrupted and their income lost.
I shudder when I remember his refusal to wear a mask, his continual lies about the virus being no worse than the flu, that “it’s fading away,” that “99% of COVID-19 cases are totally harmless.” He falsely claimed that children are “virtually immune;” and now more than one million children have been sick, over 1,163 have developed the multisystem inflammatory syndrome linked to COVID, and 113 have died. And over 300 teachers and school staff have died.
He spouted false and dangerous cures and interfered in the distribution of protective equipment. He lied about governors not needing all the protective equipment they asked for and hospitals inflating their needs for masks. He even falsely accused doctors of overreporting COVID deaths in order to get more money. A Cornell University study of news articles around the world found that DT is the single biggest driver of disinformation about the virus.
He and his administration have even called for violence against those who try to protect us from the virus, for example, Scott Atlas recently called for people to “rise up” against COVID restrictions. And let’s not forget DT’s almost unbelievable act of depravity, after his incitements to violence resulted in a plot to kidnap and murder Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan, at a rally a few days later he prompted and supported chants to “lock her up.”
DT not only pressured schools to open to in-person classes or businesses to open when conditions were unsafe, he is now golfing while the nation is burning and people are dying. He is not even trying to control the pandemic and has been incompetent in getting his party to pass a serious relief bill. How could anyone who keeps up with the news (from sources other than the right-wing disinformation machine) seriously support DT or doubt his behavior weakens our nation and makes us vulnerable to everything from foreign disinformation to civil war, all serving the interests of Putin?
Will Congress finally save its soul and call DT out as an agent of Putin?
Relief is coming, finally, with the Biden administration. In order to be ready to act when needed, we must not only be informed but able to take a vacation from the news, and pay attention to our relationships and our mental and physical health. Every time we see beauty in the world, and help others, we strengthen ourselves and decrease the negative effect DT has on ourselves and the nation.
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