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.

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.