Trump's Rallies Are Scientifically Proven Murder and Mayhem

By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News

04 November 20

 

onald Trump’s “superspreader” rallies – including his unmasked, tightly packed “victory celebration” this morning in the White House – have killed at least 700 people, infecting as many as 30,000 Americans while hospitalizing thousands.

That’s the conclusion of a major nonpartisan scientific study conducted at Stanford University.

And that’s not all. His gatherings, like his presidency, are everywhere defined by mishap and mayhem.

Most spectacular was a September “boat parade” staged by hard-core supporters on Lake Travis, near Austin, Texas. It was, said organizer Steve Salinas, 42, “one way that Trump supporters can get out and express themselves without causing too much trouble or congestion in streets.”

The enthusiastic Trumpists bedecked their cruisers, yachts, speedboats and dinghies with banners, flags, posters, and horns beeping.

But they failed to account for the cacophonous wake patterns created by the tightly grouped armada. Kristen Dark of the Travis County Sheriff’s Office explained: “We had an exceptional number of boats on the lake today. When they all started moving at the same time, it generated significant waves.”

While his avid supporters yelled and cheered, five boats were swamped. No one was reported hurt. But an unknown number of Trumpites had to be rescued from the water. Three of the sunken ships were eventually brought back to the surface.

Waves from a Trump boat parade in Oregon also sank an “innocent bystander” vessel.

At an October 27 rally, hundreds of supporters were shuttled into Omaha’s Eppley Airfield to wait in freezing temperatures for a Trump rant. But after he flew out at 9 pm, the buses did not return. The stranded crowd – many of them elderly – was stuck for nearly three hours.

Some walked miles back to their cars. Others did not make it out until near midnight. Numerous elders required emergency medical attention; at least two were hospitalized.

A high-speed Trump caravan of trucks and vans has just surrounded a Biden campaign bus on a crowded Texas highway, trying to slow it down and force it off the road. The freeway terrorists caused at least one minor moving collision. To Trump’s apparent approval, the caravan forced the Biden campaign to cancel multiple events.

In September, a Trump rally blocked the entrance to a Fairfax, Virginia voting center. Most wore no masks, “weaponizing” the virus by forcibly violating social distancing with those coming to vote.

Armed Trump-supporting militia also plotted to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. Trump has refused to condemn such activity, merely asking the violent white supremacist Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”

As millions of Americans vote early and by mail, the expected assault by such self-proclaimed Nazis on long lines of citizens waiting to vote has been scattered. In some cases, it has been avoided by the use of sports arenas as voting centers, allowing large numbers of voters to come inside, protected from guns and physical intimidation.

But on November 3rd, as tens of millions of Americans swarm together for the last day of voting, Trump’s gun-toting supporters may rally in threatening force. Trump long ago pledged $20 million to hire 50,000 supporters. Many of them are expected to come armed to precincts where his opponents are most likely to vote.

To avoid such problems, more than 127,000 Texans have already deposited their ballots from their cars, in election-board approved “drive-by voting.”

But Texas Republicans are in federal court trying to have those ballots thrown out, effectively disenfranchising enough voters to turn the state and the nation.

The challenge is in the heavily Democratic Harris County (Houston). The drive-through procedures were approved by the Texas secretary of state. Previous challenges were turned down by the all-Republican state supreme court. But if Trump can get the case to his conservative US Supreme Court, it could throw out enough votes to give him another murderous term.

Meanwhile, without that and other safe, social-distanced options, this election could turn on whether democracy activists can guard voters from Trump militias armed with both guns and the maskless exhalations of this virus.

Fittingly, Trump’s own White House rallies and receptions – including one for his recent Supreme Court nominee, Amy Barrett – have helped spread deadly mayhem. Trump, his immediate family, much of his staff, and many Congressional colleagues have all been stricken. Longtime right-wing associate Herman Cain has died.

Numerous members of VP Mike Pence’s staff are now infected, but Pence has refused to cancel his rallies. He is still widely photographed maskless.

The Stanford study has now shown such arrogant irresponsibility can be lethal on a mass scale. The researchers linked 18 of Trump’s packed, massless rallies to some 30,000 avoidable COVID-19 cases. At least 700 deaths and numerous hospitalizations resulted.

“Our analysis strongly supports the warnings and recommendations of public health officials concerning the risk of COVID-19 transmission at large group gatherings, particularly when the degree of compliance with guidelines concerning the use of masks and social distancing is low,” the researchers wrote. “The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death.”

At least two of the rallies were indoors, and at least two occurred in swing-state Wisconsin, already hammered with virus deaths. Numerous COVID cases have also been tracked to long primary voter lines there this past April.

No doubt as Trump crowed early this morning over his alleged “victory,” he endangered his closest family and supporters at least as intensely as his rallies and gatherings have hammered his MAGA followers.

For the nation as a whole, as well as for thousands of unfortunate individuals who cross his path, the end of Trump’s ghastly Keystone Cops campaign – and presidency – can clearly mean the difference between life and death.

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Harvey Wasserman co-convenes the Grassroots Emergency Election Protection Coalition, whose Monday zoom calls will continue after November 3rd (www.grassrootsep.org). His People’s Spiral of US History awaits Trump’s departure at www.solartopia.org.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

Reverend William Barber, Sarah Smarsh, Cori Bush, Sara Amora and Nikayla Jefferson | No Matter Who Wins the US Election, Here Are Reasons to Be Hopeful

By Reverend William Barber, Sarah Smarsh, Cori Bush, Sara Amora and Nikayla Jefferson, Guardian UK

04 November 20

Ahead of the election result writers highlight the political positives at a crucial juncture in US history

illiam J Barber II: ‘We must remember our power’

As the world watches US election results come in, many people are anxious that national polls which have shown Joe Biden with a sizable lead for months will once again be shattered by a last-minute comeback from Donald Trump..

But this is not 2016. Donald Trump is not a reality TV star barnstorming the country with fresh promises to revive local economies and vanquish every imagined enemy. He is an impeached president whose record is a failed response to a global pandemic that has left America grieving unnecessary deaths and struggling to survive in an economy where the richest have seen their wealth increase while everyday Americans face eviction, hunger and loss of healthcare. However strong Trump may look to himself and his adoring crowds, he is politically weak.

Yes, Republicans have engaged in extreme efforts to suppress votes and will fight in court for days to come to have legitimately cast ballots thrown out. We who know that a dying mule always kicks the hardest must be vigilant. But we cannot forget our power.

Nearly 100 million Americans had already voted before polls opened this morning, promising a historic turnout. Of those who already voted in 2020, a quarter did not cast a ballot in 2016. Despite long lines and barriers that were designed to deter them, Americans are marching to the voting booth in 2020 as a broader and more diverse electorate than this nation has ever seen. With this demonstration of power, we have the capacity to not only elect new leadership, but also to demand that Democrats and Republicans address the needs of everyday Americans.

The Rev Dr William Barber is the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and author of We Are Called to Be a Movement

Sarah Smarsh: ‘White working-class women are waking up’

I have an aunt who has turned over a bright new leaf in her 60s: where previously she waved off the election process as a rigged waste of time, she now is heavily invested in our political moment. A Democrat in a Republican-majority state, she had long felt that the electoral college meant her vote didn’t count in national elections. In recent years, though, she follows the news, eagerly discusses politics and votes with gusto.

In her home state of Kansas, which today has a Democratic governor and a neck-and-neck race for US Senate, an October poll showed Trump’s lead had shrunk to single digits from 20 points in 2016. Trump will likely win the state again, but local elections are in play for Democrats as “red” states across the country show signs of transformation.

Perhaps sensing that she is part of that shift, my aunt recently told me that her one regret in life was not having paid attention to politics sooner.

To my mind, it was not apathy but the unrelenting trials of her life – born into poverty and abuse, a single mother by age 15, decades in the underpaid food-preparation industry – that kept her sidelined in our democracy. Regardless, she takes responsibility for her actions, or lack thereof.

When my aunt told me about this one regret, it occurred to me that she, a real pistol with strong convictions who could argue you into the ground with a Bud Light in one hand and a smoke in the other, would have made a fine government official had she been born into better opportunities. Instead, her voice and so many like it were drowned out by the deafening grind of capitalism’s gears.

Today my aunt lives in a three-generation, biracial household and takes care of her grandson while her fortysomething daughter works at Target. She is pro-choice, anti-The Man. What woke her up to her own power, in large part? Witnessing Donald Trump’s ascent and despising everything he represents.

Polls have shown erosion of support for Trump among white working-class women. However, millions of white, working-class, eligible voters never voted at all – and should not be presumed conservative.

They are voting now. From my vantage, an inordinate number of liberally minded white working-class women, specifically, have decided against all messages to the contrary that their voices should be heard and that their votes might count. There is too much at stake to think otherwise.

Cori Bush: ‘We are ready’

In the face of so much fear, hate and anger, many ask me where I find my strength. The answer is simple: I know that we are ready for this moment. Trump’s corrupt and incompetent presidency has only created division, while progressives are united together for change. Under the rallying cries of “political revolution” and “not me, us”, Senator Bernie Sanders inspired millions. In 2018, record numbers of women of color ran for office, including four trailblazers who shook the nation: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.

This year, Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones and I campaigned with an unapologetically progressive agenda – Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, free higher education, canceling student debt, and protecting unions – all within the larger fight for Black lives. Our primary victories are proof that vocal, intersectional leadership mobilizes voters. It is time for us to rebuild our nation with equity and justice for all – what Jamaal and Mondaire call our generation’s Reconstruction.

Like Harriet Tubman, we’re going to reach back into our communities and bring everyone with us. Because the disabled community has a place in our movement. Immigrants have a place in our movement. The unhoused population has a place in our movement. Farmers and teachers, veterans and union workers, anyone who is committed to equity and justice, all have a place in our movement.

History shows that sustained mobilization is the only way to create social change. I get my strength from the millions of my sisters and brothers, voting today, organizing tomorrow. We’re not just fighting for ourselves, and we’re not fighting alone. We’re fighting for our friends, our neighbors, our loved ones – and for everyone we don’t know. And our movement is bringing their voices to Congress. Regardless of what the result is this week.

This is our moment. We are ready.

Cori Bush is a nurse, single mother, ordained pastor and community activist running for US Congress in Missouri’s 1st district

Sara Amora: ‘Fear cannot hold us back’

In the middle of what feels like the most dooming scenario, I want to be intentional in saying: we can change the world.

As an immigrant undocumented young activist, hearing that 6.8 million people ages 18 to 29 have voted early or by mail in the national election, more than double their vote at this point four years ago, I am reminded that fear and chaos cannot hold back people who fight for their community by all means. We are the generation with most access to information in history and yet somehow we have not lost hope.

In Texas, the youth vote is already up by over 600%, showing that despite fear tactics, direct attacks on human rights and a global pandemic, we will not be put down. In six states, young people have cast more votes than the 2016 margin of victory.

Young people have real power. Though we cannot change everything through voting, it is one thing we can do. Our actions at a local level are meaningful. Working-class youth and elders all across the country fight for the community because it is not an option – often we grow up fighting for our families without even realizing that what we are doing is activism. It’s a necessity of our upbringing to fight for the lives of those we love.

Since the beginning of 2020, being in quarantine, we saw how local communities showed up for each other. We saw people organizing local fundraisers for neighbors, crowdfunding for their favorite restaurants and and bringing custom to local small businesses affected by the pandemic. Today young people are showing up in staggering numbers, yesterday our elders fought many fights that paved the way. Regardless of results, we must continue to make the necessary radical changes for future generations and our current existence.

Sara Amora is a youth immigrant rights activist and president of Women’s March youth branch

Nikayla Jefferson, the Sunrise movement: ‘We are here because someone carried a dream by torchlight’

Today is election day. Only time will reveal the world to come, but before it does, I want you to know: we are here because someone carried a dream by torchlight.

Through the darkness, they kept their feet firmly fixed on the horizon. With righteous courage, they marched steady towards a vision of a United States truer to its founding promise: justice. We are here because they grew tired, stretched their arm to pass on the light, and we took up this torch and continued on.

Right now I am scared, too. Caught between Covid and our climate crisis, the darkness is deep and disorienting. I am afraid I will be the one to let the flame die out.

All I have to do is take a second and look to the line of little flames that march beside me, stretched into the curve of the Earth. I am not alone. Darkness grows, but so does our fire. The path more perilous, but we stay faithful to our vision. And this moment is just an obstacle. We will find a way through because the consequences of stopping are not an option. We know you, and all the generations to come, depend on us to continue on.

I want you to know, that today, tomorrow, and forever, I will carry this torch for you. We must be close, the sun about to crack and spill over the horizon, because it is always darkest before the light.