Trump's War Against the Cities

That snappy line, "Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia-- and Alabama in between," of course now  applies to every state in the union.

Even as reptilian a brain as resides in the skull of Donald J. Trump can appreciate that if Civil War were to break out in the United States of the 21st century, the dividing sides would not be along the old Mason-Dixon line but between the cities, suburbs on the one hand and the rural areas on the other. 

Ft. Sumter, South Carolina

So Trump has engineered a sort of reverse Fort Sumter, by sending troops to various "federal properties" like federal court houses in "Democrat run cities," those dens of iniquity, and having the federal troops move out to attack the citizens of the cities which surround them. It's as if the feds moved out from the fort to attack the city.

Not Fallujah: Portland, USA

Fort Sumter, sitting in the Charleston harbor, was a cinder in the eye of the nascent Confederacy, which had in December of 1860 declared secession and in April got around to bombarding the federal fort in the harbor. 
Now, it's the feds who are bombarding the city around it.

Bringing Order: The White Supremacist Way

Of course, Mr. Trump must see now more than ever, his strategy of creating tumult is the only viable path to winning re election. Without perturbation, the murderous, inarticulate, seething core of his support would wither. Trump fans live for the violence. 

One might say the citizens of Portland and Seattle have taken the bait.

Richard Nixon used the burning cities of America to cruise to re election, appealing to those who saw the urban disorder as something which had to be ruthlessly suppressed--Nixon's silent majority had to feel personally threatened by the colored people who would burn down America, as he tacitly implied they would.

Trump is playing that same card.

Auxiliary Federal Police

Just this morning Mad Dog listened to a podcast, "The Daily" from the NY Times, in which one callow reporter interviewed another and they were both puzzled, struggling to understand what these camouflaged clad federal "police" from the Border patrol and Homeland Security were doing in downtown Portland.

Portland, Oregon, United States of America

They were not old enough to remember the 60's nor had they read enough history to have any hope of diagnosing the tactic.

Michael Mina: What if Covid Could be Arrested in 30 days?

Are you ready for a conspiracy theory?

What if there were an invention which could stop COVID 19 in its tracks in a month or two?

What would be the effect on our nation and the world?

Would this insure Donald Trump's re election, as the virus, "like a miracle" ceases to paralyze the nation, just as he promised, by, say, late October?

Listening to TWiV 640, Mad Dog was stunned. Here are the links, if you're interested, but you're not, because it takes an hour and you're too busy to take an hour right now. So the short and dirty summary follows.

https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-640/


Here, after all, was a trusted group of TWiV nerds who interview a Harvard infectious disease specialist at the School of Public Health who calmly, methodically lays out a solution to most of the problems of COVID 19 with a simple solution, relatively low cost, which clearly will work--a plan you do not need 4 years of medical school to understand.

It begins with Michael Mina, MD, PhD at the Harvard School of Public Health and his interview with the TWiV nerds. 

Dr. Michael Mina

It's very simple, but it requires a few leaps of faith:

1.1st LEAP:  There is a simple test for the RNA of SARS COV-2 which is a home test, like home pregnancy kits, which requires just a glob of saliva and a few minutes later you know whether or not you have the virus in sufficient quantity to be infectious to other people.

                      The test is imprinted on cardboard strips and can be manufactured in the millions at low cost at a variety of centers--universities, drug companies, all over the country and if logistical problems an be solved, every school child, every school, every university, every employee, waiter, air line,  could have these strips in hand and use them every day because they would cost only about $1 per strip.

2. 2nd LEAP: The government and business could organize and cooperate to the extent where these strips could be put into the hands of nearly every American.

3. 3rd LEAP: The profit motive could be abrogated to the extent that the government pays for the strips and nobody profits from them, apart for the general economy which could then safely send kids back to school, workers back to factories, airplane passengers back on airplanes, in short we could re open the economy, without masks and without fear of a new outbreak.

What could possibly go wrong with this rescue scenario?

1. Rigid government regulators at the FDA:  Such a system would have to be endorsed by the FDA, which would have to say these strips are reliable enough to trust and clinically useful. 
2. Companies (and Trump family members) who see a chance to profit handsomely from manufacturing these simple strips.

And here's the rub: The FDA has rules and current rules are meant to guide not public health, but clinical care of individual patients on wards and in doctor's offices. For these clinical settings you may want a test which does not miss viral disease particles--you want a "highly sensitive" test. 


But for the purposes of public health you do not need a highly sensitive test.
You can afford to miss people who have the virus--but not enough virus to transmit to others. Patients with low levels of virus are not a threat to the rest of us, to the public.
So if a patient has the virus at  low levels the saliva/stick test will miss it:  BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER! That kid can still go to school because he won't infect anyone.
But the next day, when his virus load stokes up the saliva/stick test catches that and turns positive, he stays home. 

So sensitivity for the purposes of public health is irrelevant. All we care about is transmission to the group, not the individual, not whether the individual is early or late in his disease. You need one sort of test to treat an individual patient but another sort for defense of public health.

Imagine if all the school kids, employees, airline workers and passengers could wake up every day, test their saliva and those who are infectious stay home.

Wouldn't that be wonderful? Wouldn't that stop the pandemic in its tracks?
Well, maybe not dead in its tracks. We have people who won't wear masks--what makes you think they'd do the tests at home and if + would not go to work anyway?
But you could do them on kids at school, at airplane gates, at factories. You use thermometers, which granted takes only 2 seconds, but you could stagger arrivals and do tests which take 5 minutes. 

Now consider this: We have this test. It's sitting on a desk at the Harvard School of Public Health, and other places, but nothing is happening to get it mobilized. 

We have the saliva test bomb but we do not have the leadership to organize its deployment.

Now, let's think politically, just for fun. 
Suppose Trump administration officials are smart enough to learn about this and implement it by late August and by late October disease rates are vanishing. 
Who do you think wins  the election?

Or, suppose, Joe Biden comes on every network, every social media outlet and says, "I have a way to end this pandemic" the way Nixon had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam?  Only, in this case, the plan is not secret. Joe gives it out and says Trump has been so inept he did not enact this simple solution.
Joe hammers Trump with this every day.
Videos explain it all with cartoons so everyone can get it. 
Who wins the election then?

But, as the virologists on TWiV lament: Nobody who counts is listening. They are all too busy on Facebook, Twitter and CNN.



Too bad, it could have worked. 

Tony Fauci on TWIV: Lighting a Candle in the Cursed Darkness

Today, TWiV interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci and Rich Condit and Vince Raccaniello asked all the right questions, to which Dr. Fauci responded as best he could.

https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-641/

Above is the link, which is well worth the 30 minutes, but for those with tight schedules, here are some highlights:

These are old friends to Dr. Fauci, and he clearly was happier talking to these folks than to most reporters, because among these colleagues he didn't have to shape his answers to his audience, but could simply talk freely with people who would understand the subtexts.

One of his off the cuff remarks was revealing, in answering a question he said, "That's one of those questions where you have to say you don't know, but they ask but what's your best guess? So you give your best guess and then they come back to you months later and say, 'You were so wrong!'"

We know what he's talking about here.

At 79, he clearly has not lost a step: In answering a 5 part question he said, "Usually with these multipart questions I cannot remember the questions after the first one, but with this one all 5 questions are related, so I can take a shot." And he worked methodically, flawlessly through each one. So there was that capacity to sound humble and then demonstrate sharpness. 
This is not "humble bragging," where someone complains about his sore hand from shaking the hands of the throngs who adore him. This is simply Fauci being confident that even if he cannot recall all the parts, he still has something to offer.
It's just the sort of intellectual confidence Trump and all his FOX News acolytes lack. They ramble and digress; he focuses. 

His TWiV interlocutors focused on basic themes, which the TWiV folks have dissected and elaborated upon previously, to get Fauci's take.

1/ What is the behavior of this disease?
Is it a virus which mostly sticks to mucosal surfaces (lining of the mouth, nose, throat and lungs) or is it significantly viremic (blood borne)?
This is important because a respiratory coronavirus  which sticks mostly to the mucosal surface typically provokes an immune response which is ordinarily transient, lasts only weeks or a few months. 
If SARS COV-2 is like its cousin coronaviruses, then any vaccine we make to it may be only able to protect for a few months, or even less.

Dr. Fauci said only autopsy studies will be able to answer this question and there are not enough data yet. "A data free zone" as he put it. 
What he did not say is autopsies are no longer routine in America--pathologists don't want to do them, especially when they may get infected in the process and typically only university hospitals do them, and not many at that. 

When a virus is blood borne like measles or small pox, then the immune system activates B cells and T cells and immunity can last for years. But, so far, this virus does not look like it has much blood borne time. And case reports suggest patients who were sick with COVID19 in March are getting sick again with + PCR in June. Recrudescence or re infection? Nobody knows. 

Questions about death rates, prevalence could not be answered with good data, but as Fauci pointed out (and as TWiV has elucidate previously) if the virus is really lethal, it tends to burn itself out (like MERS) because it cannot leap from a dead person who is not out there in the community the way it can if it has asymptomatic or pre symptomatic people spreading it as they go out among the community. When a virus is killing only 1% of its hosts, it can spread more widely--it can infect nearly the entire population, over time.  But if only 1% of 300 million people die, that is still 3 million people. 

2/ Vaccines:
Much discussion was given over to a discussion of vaccines and Raccaniello pressed Fauci on the topic Brianne Barker and others had examined: Are we putting all our eggs into one basket with vaccines aimed only at the spike protein (which attaches the virus to the ACE receptor on cells as it opens the door, yanking on that door knob)?   
Barker and others noted that vaccines which elicit immunity to other parts of the viral genome may be necessary to elicit robust protection. There are many steps in the invasion of the cell, in the process by which the virus takes over the wheels of the cell, but  going after only the spike protein is like having all the defenders on the front line, with nothing behind them if the wall is breached. 
And, as Barker noted, it's not even clear that B cell antibodies are what really confers protection--T cells may be more important and we have very few studies showing how well vaccines work on T cells.
Antibody levels may not tell you much about levels of protection: Antibody levels can rapidly stoke up with the second exposure, so low levels may not mean much. On the other hand, if antibodies are not protective, they may not tell you much.

Fauci, typically, responded that going after spike proteins has worked for other viruses and the idea is to go for what has worked for other viruses in the past. He wants to see "neutralizing antibodies."
When pressed, he did say other targets on the virus have been identified by some of the other companies working on vaccines.

3/ Masks: 
Do masks work and are we making a mistake opening schools even with them?
Fauci mentioned the NIH has a 6000 person, 2000 family study about how children get and transmit viruses to their families and others and once this is done, we'll know more about what we need to do about schools. He did say schools have got to open but the way this is done will have to vary by locale. In some counties, no masks no precautions may be necessary but in other places, all precautions will have to be tried. [Subsequent episodes of TWiV mention the report of 3 hairdressers, all SARS CO-2 positive but wearing masks worked on 139 customers and none of the customers turned positive, suggesting masks are effective in blocking transmission.]

4/ Asymptomatic illness and transmission: 
Fauci refers to the incident on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt where only 20 sailors were ill but 1000 sailors tested positive and said, "Hard to imagine those 20 sailors directly coughed on all 1000 other sailors."


Fauci has been attacked, predictably, because he is the messenger but there's more to it than this.  As Trump noted, early on, he's become a rock star and he eclipsed President Trump on the stage, stole his spotlight and Trump could not abide that.

Fauci is everything Trump is not:  Fauci is short, humble and understated. 
But he has the quality Trump strives for: the common touch. 
His language is scaled down to conversational.
He does not strut or try to impress.
He doesn't have to try to impress. His reputation, his back story precedes him.
He went to an Ivy League medical school, from there to the NIH where he became the youngest man to head an Institute and where he organized the campaign to bring AIDS under control, which turned out to be one of the most successful public health efforts "ever." Of course, he did not do this alone--he was an organizer, not a bench researcher and he did not make scientific breakthroughs. He was an Eisenhower, organizing talented generals to galvanize a victory.

He can afford to be humble, because respect precedes him into the room, and it must have, mortified Trump to see the members of the press listen with rolling eyes as he spewed out his daily fantasies and delusions about the virus melting away like magic, only to see these same people sit up and urgently raise their hands when Dr. Fauci took his turn at the podium. 
Trump saw what so many kings and politicians have seen before him: Political power is a construct, a social game we play, but when people are really worried and looking for leadership, it's the physicians they worship.

Click on this to get the real effect

But when the physician plays the role of the parent and tells people they cannot go out and play and do the pleasurable things they adore, they react as children do--with petulance. Or they take the warnings as insults to their own parenting and they accuse the government officials of acting like parents who smother their children and do not allow their children to risk and to learn.

Fauci is "the real deal" while Trump, even to his fans, must be the entertainer, the fantasy spinner.

Not to say we do not need fantasy spinners. 
Humankind cannot bear too much reality. (Eliot)

The United States of America: Born Illegitimate

Making the District of Columbia a state would be "an act of historical vandalism as grotesque as those committed by Jacobin mobs roaming our streets,”
--Senator Tom Cotton, R-OK

Born a bastard.
That was Mad Dog's original title for this post but he knew that would provoke a Twitter storm of distracting proportions, should the post ever see the light of day.

Cotton picking 

But if slavery is the original sin of this country, then our Unite States Senate is the original swindle. 

For Thomas Jefferson and the Southern gentry who formulated the plan for our national government the idea of land being something more than space, but something magical, a right, an inheritance, a source of wealth and power, a creature to be possessed and controlled, a giver of status--this idea of land was a given.

One thinks of that scene from "Gone With the Wind" where Scarlett O'Hara stands on a hill overlooking the cotton fields and pastures of Tara with her father who cries, "The land is the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for,  worth dying for because it's the only thing that lasts!"

Of course, this line came from a fierce advocate of the Ku Klux Klan, a vehement white supremacist, Margaret Mitchell. 

Vote by Population 2016

But the idea that our country is not simply the people who live here, who may possess unalienable rights--rights which are not transferable, not to be denied or taken away--but who do not necessarily possess land--the idea that our nation is not people but the land itself, its rivers, lakes, mountains, gold deposits, the oil beneath its firmament.

And so, when Jefferson and company struck a deal to allow for land to be represented in the US Senate, they were striking a deal for land owners to hold power that mere citizens did not.

It was this swindle which got written into the Constitution.

And this is how it played out:

"In 1889, Republicans knew they were in political trouble. Americans had turned against their conviction that the government must protect big business at all costs, and that any kind of regulation or protection for workers amounted to socialism. In 1884, for the first time since the Civil War, voters had elected a Democrat to the White House. Grover Cleveland promised to use the government to protect ordinary Americans, and to stop congressmen from catering to wealthy industrialists.

To regain control of the government, in 1888, Republicans pulled out all the stops. They developed a new system of campaign financing, hitting up rich businessmen for contributions, and got employers to warn workers that if they didn’t vote for the Republican candidate they would be fired. Nonetheless, Republican Benjamin Harrison lost the election by about 100,000 votes.

But he won in the Electoral College.

Republicans immediately set out to make sure no Democrat could ever win the White House again. They rushed South Dakota into the Union in 1889, along with North Dakota, Montana, and Washington—all Republican regions-- to pack the Senate and the Electoral College. The next year, they rushed in Wyoming and Idaho, too, boasting that they would dominate government for the foreseeable future."

--Heather Cox Richardson, historian

So South Dakota has the same number of United States Senators as California.

Power in these United States

California has has many citizens as the 18 least populous states combined and it has two US Senators.  So, from #31 Iowa to #50 Wyoming, all those states combined have fewer people than California. 

We could, of course, combine Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and New Mexico into one state. And we would be looking at a state which shares a lot in terms of geography, water rights and needs, economy.  We could divide California, Texas, Florida and New York into two states each and then we would have some political entities which share common problems.

But we never will, of course, because there are too many people who have needs right now, whose jobs and incomes depend on maintaining the current system. Sort of like Jefferson and slavery: He knew it was wrong, but he was dependent on it for his comfort and income. He wasn't going to allow something called "fairness" wreck a good thing.

Trump on Mt. Rushmore

In reporting about Donald Trump's speech at Mt. Rushmore, his detractors once again get sucked into his method and are left sputtering inanely, much as the taunted school yard boy loses control, throws a punch and becomes the offender, hauled off to the principal's office, while the inciter walks off laughing, having won the fight by provocation without having to actually win anything.



Trump's tactics are reliable:
1.  Tell them who the enemy is and vilify that enemy.
2.   Establish that you are not racist by embracing one or two very visible Black folk, in this case Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglass.
3.  Ignore evidence of your appeal to white supremacists by your past statements and never acknowledge or repeat those, until the next convenient time.
4. Create a "history" of mythological heroes who embody the values of strength, dominance and winning.

ESTABLISH YOUR NON RACIST CREDENTIALS:

"We embrace tolerance, not prejudice.

We are the country of Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass.  We are the land of Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill Cody.  (Applause.)  We are the nation that gave rise to the Wright Brothers, the Tuskegee Airmen — (applause) — Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, Jesse Owens, George Patton — General George Patton — the great Louie Armstrong, Alan Shepard, Elvis Presley, and Mohammad Ali.  (Applause.)  And only America could have produced them all.  (Applause.)  No other place."

[Notice how he mixes such dispirit historical figures as Andrew Jackson (slave owner, creator of the trial of tears) General George Patton (a segregationist), Buffalo Bill Cody (who made Indians into circus clowns) with Frederick Douglass, the Tuskegee Airmen, Harriet Tubman, Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali. The effect is disorienting but effective.]

"We must demand that our children are taught once again to see America as did Reverend Martin Luther King, when he said that the Founders had signed “a promissory note” to every future generation.  Dr. King saw that the mission of justice required us to fully embrace our founding ideals.  Those ideals are so important to us — the founding ideals.  He called on his fellow citizens not to rip down their heritage, but to live up to their heritage.  (Applause.)"

[The man who sees "very fine people" among the Nazis in Charlottesville now finds inspiration in Martin Luther King and claims King as an ally.]

"They would tear down the principles that propelled the abolition of slavery in America and, ultimately, around the world, ending an evil institution that had plagued humanity for thousands and thousands of years.  Our opponents would tear apart the very documents that Martin Luther King used to express his dream, and the ideas that were the foundation of the righteous movement for Civil Rights.  They would tear down the beliefs, culture, and identity that have made America the most vibrant and tolerant society in the history of the Earth"

"It was all made possible by the courage of 56 patriots who gathered in Philadelphia 244 years ago and signed the Declaration of Independence.  (Applause.)  They enshrined a divine truth that changed the world forever when they said: “…all men are created equal.”

"These immortal words set in motion the unstoppable march of freedom.  Our Founders boldly declared that we are all endowed with the same divine rights — given [to] us by our Creator in Heaven.  And that which God has given us, we will allow no one, ever, to take away — ever.  (Applause.)"

"Our people have a great memory.  They will never forget the destruction of statues and monuments to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, abolitionists, and many others."

"The first Republican President, he rose to high office from obscurity, based on a force and clarity of his anti-slavery convictions.  Very, very strong convictions.

He signed the law that built the Transcontinental Railroad; he signed the Homestead Act, given to some incredible scholars — as simply defined, ordinary citizens free land to settle anywhere in the American West; and he led the country through the darkest hours of American history, giving every ounce of strength that he had to ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people did not perish from this Earth.  (Applause.)"

"He served as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces during our bloodiest war, the struggle that saved our union and extinguished the evil of slavery.  Over 600,000 died in that war; more than 20,000 were killed or wounded in a single day at Antietam.  At Gettysburg, 157 years ago, the Union bravely withstood an assault of nearly 15,000 men and threw back Pickett’s charge."

"Lincoln won the Civil War; he issued the Emancipation Proclamation; he led the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery for all time — (applause) — and ultimately, his determination to preserve our nation and our union cost him his life.  For as long as we live, Americans will uphold and revere the immortal memory of President Abraham Lincoln.  (Applause.)"

"We believe in equal opportunity, equal justice, and equal treatment for citizens of every race, background, religion, and creed.  Every child, of every color — born and unborn — is made in the holy image of God.  (Applause.)"

CREATE THE MYTH:

THE PRESIDENT: "We gather tonight to herald the most important day in the history of nations: July 4th, 1776.  At those words, every American heart should swell with pride.  Every American family should cheer with delight.  And every American patriot should be filled with joy, because each of you lives in the most magnificent country in the history of the world, and it will soon be greater than ever before.  (Applause.)
Our Founders launched not only a revolution in government, but a revolution in the pursuit of justice, equality, liberty, and prosperity.  No nation has done more to advance the human condition than the United States of America.  And no people have done more to promote human progress than the citizens of our great nation.  (Applause.)"

[Of course when you think of Frederick Douglass's remarks on the Fourth of July, the idea that "no nation has done more to advance the human condition" becomes laughable, but Trump breezes right past this.]

"Seventeen seventy-six represented the culmination of thousands of years of western civilization and the triumph not only of spirit, but of wisdom, philosophy, and reason.

From head to toe, George Washington represented the strength, grace, and dignity of the American people.  From a small volunteer force of citizen farmers, he created the Continental Army out of nothing and rallied them to stand against the most powerful military on Earth.

Through eight long years, through the brutal winter at Valley Forge, through setback after setback on the field of battle, he led those patriots to ultimate triumph.  When the Army had dwindled to a few thousand men at Christmas of 1776, when defeat seemed absolutely certain, he took what remained of his forces on a daring nighttime crossing of the Delaware River.

They marched through nine miles of frigid darkness, many without boots on their feet, leaving a trail of blood in the snow.  In the morning, they seized victory at Trenton.  After forcing the surrender of the most powerful empire on the planet at Yorktown, General Washington did not claim power, but simply returned to Mount Vernon as a private citizen.

When called upon again, he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, and was unanimously elected our first President.  (Applause.)  When he stepped down after two terms, his former adversary King George called him “the greatest man of the age.”  He remains first in our hearts to this day.  For as long as Americans love this land, we will honor and cherish the father of our country, George Washington.  (Applause.)  He will never be removed, abolished, and most of all, he will never be forgotten.  (Applause.)

Thomas Jefferson — the great Thomas Jefferson — was 33 years old when he traveled north to Pennsylvania and brilliantly authored one of the greatest treasures of human history, the Declaration of Independence.  He also drafted Virginia’s constitution, and conceived and wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a model for our cherished First Amendment.

After serving as the first Secretary of State, and then Vice President, he was elected to the Presidency.  He ordered American warriors to crush the Barbary pirates, he doubled the size of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase, and he sent the famous explorers Lewis and Clark into the west on a daring expedition to the Pacific Ocean.

He was an architect, an inventor, a diplomat, a scholar, the founder of one of the world’s great universities, and an ardent defender of liberty.  Americans will forever admire the author of American freedom, Thomas Jefferson.  (Applause.)  And he, too, will never, ever be abandoned by us.  (Applause.)

Theodore Roosevelt exemplified the unbridled confidence of our national culture and identity.  He saw the towering grandeur of America’s mission in the world and he pursued it with overwhelming energy and zeal.

As a Lieutenant Colonel during the Spanish-American War, he led the famous Rough Riders to defeat the enemy at San Juan Hill.  He cleaned up corruption as Police Commissioner of New York City, then served as the Governor of New York, Vice President, and at 42 years old, became the youngest-ever President of the United States.  (Applause.)

He sent our great new naval fleet around the globe to announce America’s arrival as a world power.  He gave us many of our national parks, including the Grand Canyon; he oversaw the construction of the awe-inspiring Panama Canal; and he is the only person ever awarded both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Medal of Honor.  He was — (applause) — American freedom personified in full.  The American people will never relinquish the bold, beautiful, and untamed spirit of Theodore Roosevelt.  (Applause.)"

[Of course, Roosevelt was also the man who looked at immigration of colored people into the United States and warned the US was committing "racial suicide." Like many of his aristocratic class, he unabashedly considered whites as the master race. Of Jefferson, the slave owner who wrote of the evils of slavery while profiting from it to his death, a whole academic industry has been spawned. ]

"Abraham Lincoln, the savior of our union, was a self-taught country lawyer who grew up in a log cabin on the American frontier."

[Lincoln, the "great emancipator," who freed some of the slaves but left others in bondage, one can only say he was our greatest President, but no angel. Trump somehow knows that Lincoln is everything he cannot be. Lincoln, with all his complexities and his capacity for growth, and Trump the simpleton, with no capacity for growth. Trump fears growth; he fears the new. One of the most pathetic images of Trump was his staged interview before the statue of Lincoln at the Lincoln memorial. This great pretender in front of the image of true greatness.]

CREATE AND VILIFY THE ENEMY:

[Notice how much more time he spends on this part of the formula]

"And yet, as we meet here tonight, there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for, struggled, they bled to secure.

Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —"

THE PRESIDENT:  "Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our Founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.  Many of these people have no idea why they are doing this, but some know exactly what they are doing.  They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive.  But no, the American people are strong and proud, and they will not allow our country, and all of its values, history, and culture, to be taken from them.  (Applause.)"

"AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:   One of their political weapons is “Cancel Culture” — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees.  This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America.  (Applause.)  This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty, must be stopped, and it will be stopped very quickly.  We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children, end this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life.  (Applause.)"

"In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.  If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished.  It’s not going to happen to us.  (Applause.)"

"Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.  In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress.

To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Not on my watch!  (Applause.)"

"THE PRESIDENT:  True.  That’s very true, actually.  (Laughter.)  That is why I am deploying federal law enforcement to protect our monuments, arrest the rioters, and prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  I am pleased to report that yesterday, federal agents arrested the suspected ringleader of the attack on the statue of Andrew Jackson in Washington, D.C. — (applause) — and, in addition, hundreds more have been arrested.  (Applause.)

Under the executive order I signed last week — pertaining to the Veterans’ Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act and other laws — people who damage or deface federal statues or monuments will get a minimum of 10 years in prison.  (Applause.)  And obviously, that includes our beautiful Mount Rushmore.  (Applause.)

The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats, in every case, is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions."

"Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that were villains.  The radical view of American history is a web of lies — all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition.

This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore.  They defile the memory of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.  Today, we will set history and history’s record straight.  (Applause.)

Before these figures were immortalized in stone, they were American giants in full flesh and blood, gallant men whose intrepid deeds unleashed the greatest leap of human advancement the world has ever known.  Tonight, I will tell you and, most importantly, the youth of our nation, the true stories of these great, great men.

No movement that seeks to dismantle these treasured American legacies can possibly have a love of America at its heart.  Can’t have it.  No person who remains quiet at the destruction of this resplendent heritage can possibly lead us to a better future."

"The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of social justice.  But in truth, it would demolish both justice and society.  It would transform justice into an instrument of division and vengeance, and it would turn our free and inclusive society into a place of repression, domination, and exclusion.

They want to silence us, but we will not be silenced.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Thank you very much.

We will state the truth in full, without apology:  We declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on Earth.

We are proud of the fact — (applause) — that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and we understand — (applause) — that these values have dramatically advanced the cause of peace and justice throughout the world.

We know that the American family is the bedrock of American life.  (Applause.)

We recognize the solemn right and moral duty of every nation to secure its borders.  (Applause.)  And we are building the wall.  (Applause.)

We remember that governments exist to protect the safety and happiness of their own people.  A nation must care for its own citizens first.  We must take care of America first.  It’s time.  (Applause.)

We support the courageous men and women of law enforcement.  (Applause.)  We will never abolish our police or our great Second Amendment, which gives us the right to keep and bear arms.  (Applause.)

We believe that our children should be taught to love their country, honor our history, and respect our great American flag.  (Applause.)

We stand tall, we stand proud, and we only kneel to Almighty God.  (Applause.)

This is who we are.  This is what we believe.  And these are the values that will guide us as we strive to build an even better and greater future.

Those who seek to erase our heritage want Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity, so that we can no longer understand ourselves or America’s destiny.  In toppling the heroes of 1776, they seek to dissolve the bonds of love and loyalty that we feel for our country, and that we feel for each other.  Their goal is not a better America, their goal is the end of America.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  In its place, they want power for themselves.  But just as patriots did in centuries past, the American people will stand in their way — and we will win, and win quickly and with great dignity.  (Applause.)

We will never let them rip America’s heroes from our monuments, or from our hearts.  By tearing down Washington and Jefferson, these radicals would tear down the very heritage for which men gave their lives to win the Civil War; they would erase the memory that inspired those soldiers to go to their deaths, singing these words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic: “As He died to make men Holy, let us die to make men free, while God is marching on.”  (Applause.)

.My fellow Americans, it is time to speak up loudly and strongly and powerfully and defend the integrity of our country.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:  It is time for our politicians to summon the bravery and determination of our American ancestors.  It is time.  (Applause.)  It is time to plant our flag and protect the greatest of this nation, for citizens of every race, in every city, and every part of this glorious land.  For the sake of our honor, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our union, we must protect and preserve our history, our heritage, and our great heroes.  (Applause.)

Here tonight, before the eyes of our forefathers, Americans declare again, as we did 244 years ago: that we will not be tyrannized, we will not be demeaned, and we will not be intimidated by bad, evil people.  It will not happen.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:  We will proclaim the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, and we will never surrender the spirit and the courage and the cause of July 4th, 1776.

Above all, our children, from every community, must be taught that to be American is to inherit the spirit of the most adventurous and confident people ever to walk the face of the Earth.

Americans are the people who pursued our Manifest Destiny across the ocean, into the uncharted wilderness, over the tallest mountains, and then into the skies and even into the stars.

We are the culture that put up the Hoover Dam, laid down the highways, and sculpted the skyline of Manhattan.  We are the people who dreamed a spectacular dream — it was called: Las Vegas, in the Nevada desert; who built up Miami from the Florida marsh; and who carved our heroes into the face of Mount Rushmore.  (Applause.)

Americans harnessed electricity, split the atom, and gave the world the telephone and the Internet.  We settled the Wild West, won two World Wars, landed American astronauts on the Moon — and one day very soon, we will plant our flag on Mars.

We gave the world the poetry of Walt Whitman, the stories of Mark Twain, the songs of Irving Berlin, the voice of Ella Fitzgerald, the style of Frank Sinatra — (applause) — the comedy of Bob Hope, the power of the Saturn V rocket, the toughness of the Ford F-150 — (applause) — and the awesome might of the American aircraft carriers.

Americans must never lose sight of this miraculous story.  You should never lose sight of it, because nobody has ever done it like we have done it.  So today, under the authority vested in me as President of the United States — (applause) — I am announcing the creation of a new monument to the giants of our past.  I am signing an executive order to establish the National Garden of American Heroes, a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.  (Applause.)

From this night and from this magnificent place, let us go forward united in our purpose and re-dedicated in our resolve.  We will raise the next generation of American patriots.  We will write the next thrilling chapter of the American adventure.  And we will teach our children to know that they live in a land of legends, that nothing can stop them, and that no one can hold them down.  (Applause.)  They will know that in America, you can do anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve anything.  (Applause.)

Uplifted by the titans of Mount Rushmore, we will find unity that no one expected; we will make strides that no one thought possible.  This country will be everything that our citizens have hoped for, for so many years, and that our enemies fear — because we will never forget that American freedom exists for American greatness.  And that’s what we have:  American greatness.  (Applause.)

Centuries from now, our legacy will be the cities we built, the champions we forged, the good we did, and the monuments we created to inspire us all.

My fellow citizens: America’s destiny is in our sights.  America’s heroes are embedded in our hearts.  America’s future is in our hands.  And ladies and gentlemen: the best is yet to come.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:  This has been a great honor for the First Lady and myself to be with you.  I love your state.  I love this country.  I’d like to wish everybody a very happy Fourth of July.  To all, God bless you, God bless your families, God bless our great military, and God bless America.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)"

[And then he adds a new thing: He attacks the left for something which even some on the left agree with him about--the intolerance of the left:]

"We want free and open debate, not speech codes and cancel culture.

Upon this ground, we will stand firm and unwavering.  In the face of lies meant to divide us, demoralize us, and diminish us, we will show that the story of America unites us, inspires us, includes us all, and makes everyone free."

This is Donald Trump at his zenith, straight out of Mein Kampf. 

Unless we study him, we will not defeat him.  As Patton was depicted waving Erwin Rommel's book at the battle where Patton defeated Rommel:

"I read your book, you bastard! I read your book!"