Americans have died needlessly as a result of a malicious narcissist’s lust for power, and if this country’s Legislative and Judicial Branch were not controlled by corrupt Republicans, deadly Don Trump would be in serious legal jeopardy.
If Trump was a regular citizen responsible for the death of even one American through disregard for human life, he would be charged, convicted, and sent to prison for criminally negligent homicide.
However, since Republicans have deemed that Trump is above the law, they will never consider holding him responsible for one American death, much less over 160,000 American citizens who “died for the Dow.” Trump did say he could shoot someone in the face in Times Square and not lose support from one of his supporters – apparently he was talking about Republican politicians and not just his pathetic acolytes.
Conservatives just can’t stop defending Trump; because he is a white Republican and the criminally-culpable GOP standard bearer. A couple of months ago a celebrity lawyer insisted that Trump is not responsible for any of the American deaths resulting from his refusal to act prior to, and during, a global pandemic. In fact, Jonathan Turley contends that nothing Trump does, or has done, can be regarded as criminal; or worth even mentioning. That includes Trump inciting his loyal armed supporters’seditious action towards Democratic governors. But this is about Trump’s guilt in the mass death of at least 160,000 innocent American citizens, not a two-bit celebrity lawyer or gun-toting fascists.
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According to Jonathan Turley, Trump cannot be possibly be responsible for any of the tens-of-thousands of American deaths due to COVID-19. In Turley’s mind, Trump simply “mishandled a crisis.” Trump is guilty of much more than mishandling a crisis – particularly because he is guilty of deliberately exacerbating the effects of a deadly virus for political and personal gain.
If Trump was guilty of simply “mishandling a crisis,” then Turley’s lame argument might be acceptable. However, Trump did not “mishandle a crisis.” He purposely failed to act on several, months-long warnings from his own administration claiming thousands of Americans would die and the economy would face devastation without swift action to mitigate COVID-19’s spread.
There is little doubt in many Americans’ minds that Trump does indeed have “tens-of-thousands American citizens’ blood on his hands.” And according to fairly recent history, America under Republican rule launches wars and attacks sovereign nations’ leaders for killing their own citizens. That brings up a prescient question Republicans will never answer. Why are Senate and House Republicans not demanding immediate, drastic action to hold Donald J. Trump accountable for the lives of 160,000 (and still counting) innocent American men, women and children?
Although Trump did not personally kill over 160,000 Americans, or create COVID-19, he was certainly aware of just how economically dangerous inaction would be as well as the deadly consequences of doing nothing. Trump’s refusal to act was not “mishandling a crisis” or bad policy; Trump’s lack of action fits the general requirements to charge and convict any American citizen in every state of the Union with “criminally negligent (mass) homicide.”
Unlike a capital murder charge, criminally negligent homicide does not focus on the “intentional conduct to kill a human being,” or over 160,000 (and counting) innocent human beings in Trump’s case. Instead, it “addresses situations where a defendant is aware of a situation, knows it’s dangerous, but ignores a risk that results in a death of another.” Trump’s attempt to conceal the coronavirus’ danger to American lives and the nation’s economy, despite knowing how deadly doing nothing would be, resulted in mass deaths of American citizens as well as creating an economic catastrophe.
Although there are no criminal statutes for decimating a thriving economy Trump inherited from President Barack Obama, Trump was and still is criminally negligent for the deaths of tens-of-thousands of innocent Americans’ lives. Republicans, including Trump, believe that any foreign leader guilty of killing his own citizens warrants being deposed or at least attacked militarily.
Saddam Hussein was deposed for killing Iraqi Kurds that lead to an American invasion and occupation as well as creating the Islamic State. Likewise, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was the recipient of Trump’s missile attack for allegedly killing innocent men, women, and children during a civil war exacerbated by Bush’s invasion of Iraq.
The level of Trump’s “criminal negligence” is well-documented at this point and every day brings new disclosures describing exactly how criminally-negligent Trump was, and still is, by pretending the pandemic was a “Democratic and media hoax.”
Despite the daily revelations regarding what Trump knew and when, including warnings beginning in November of 2019, there is the damning report that he did not want to do anything to protect American lives. His initial reaction to the virulent plague was sitting idly by, or going golfing, and just allowing the extremely virulent plague to “wash over the country;” that remark prompted Dr. Anthony Fauci to inform Trump that allowing the virus to spread unimpeded would result in millions of dead Americans. In a sign that Republicans are co-conspirators in Trump’s mass killing-spree, there is a sickening sentiment among Trump’s Republican allies to end all efforts to contain the deadly contagion and accept thousands of more dead Americans; in their diseased minds, mass loss of life is a cheap price to pay to help Trump’s reelection.
It is noteworthy that even prior to the emergence of the novel coronavirus, Trump maliciously ignored, and vehemently opposed, warnings from health and security experts in his own corrupt administration warning him of the folly of cutting funding to federal agencies tasked with fighting a global pandemic. Remember, despite Moscow Mitch McConnell’s initial assertion otherwise, President Barack Obama’s Administration handed Trump a well-thought out strategic process for addressing a global pandemic; a scenario that Trump’s people reiterated after his poorly-attended inauguration.
In a commentary explaining how America’s coronavirus crisis was a “man-made disaster,” author Dan Benbow lays out, in fine detail, exactly why Trump is guilty of criminally negligent homicide; not only by refusing to act immediately on learning of the threat to Americans, but also by eliminating agencies and processes created specifically to address a global pandemic to save thousands of American lives. Mr. Benbow did not address Trump’s “alleged” plan to withhold federal assistance to Democratic states because they weren’t nice to Trump.
It is worth noting that Trump understands his own guilt because he recently pronounced China as guilty of “mass worldwide killing” due to its “incompetence” in handling the Covid-19 outbreak in China. If that is Trump’s mindset, then he is unilaterally guilty of criminally negligent mass homicide of American citizens. Because unlike China’s early exposure to the “novel” coronavirus, Trump was duly warned over and over again two months prior to revelations that there was an impending pandemic. It is noteworthy, as well, that Trump was warned by his own people that immediate action was necessary to prevent precisely what his security and health experts warned would happen without prompt action – innocent Americans would perish en masse and the nation’s economy would crashand burn.
Trump is not guilty of “mishandling a crisis” and his monumental incompetence had nothing whatsoever to do with him allowing COVID-19 to rage across America. Incompetent or not, Trump was surrounded by highly competent health and national security experts who warned him well in advance of the coronavirus’ arrival in America. But instead of acting to protect American lives, he purposely chose to do nothing so as not to spook the stock market that he concluded would impedehis reelection efforts.
Any first year prosecutor would have an easy task earning a conviction against a criminal like Trump. Based on the mountain of evidence, much of it from Trump’s own mouth, that he was aware of a situation, he knew it was dangerous, and yet he ignored that risk resulting in the death of tens-of-thousands of American citizens. If that was Trump’s only crime, he needs to be prosecuted according to the law for committing criminally negligent (mass) homicide. However, Trump, with Jarod Kushner’s valuable assistance, deliberately did nothing in hopes of blaming Democratic Governors for Trump’s crime that has led to mass American deaths and the worse economic disaster since The Great Depression.
A deliberate action for personal, or political, gain that results in even one death is a substantially more heinous crime than “criminally negligent homicide. However, with Trump’s criminal fascist cohort running the Department of Justice and the United States Senate, he will almost certainly continue to be hailed as a heroic god-like figure.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
