By Tom Burke
On Jan. 13, Hawaiians thought they were under attack. Nuclear attack. ICBM attack. Blinding-flash-of-light-then-vaporization attack. Oh-my-sweet-Jesus-please-don’t-let-my-children-burn-to-death-and-don’t-let-my-toddler-be-a-shadow-on-the-sidewalk attack.
Hawaiians weren’t under missile attack. It was a false alarm. Someone pushed the wrong button.
But for 38 minutes it was a real; and people believed it could happen, what with President Trump tweeting to Little Rocket Man, “My button is bigger than your yours.”
But here’s the sad truth: They were under attack. They are under attack. So am I. So are you. So are “Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
And it’s our president and his stooges who are attacking us.
He attacks us every day in every way.
“That’s baloney,” some say. “He’s a great man, a great leader, a great president,” some say. “You’re just a liberal snowflake; ‘fake news;’ you don’t know crap,” some say.
Oh yeah? Well, I say let’s look at the facts, not to Fox News or to Trump’s lies. Let’s just look at his behavior and decide.
Trump attacks our free press, says Sen. John McCain: “Trump continues his unrelenting attacks on the integrity of American journalists and news outlets … by bestowing ‘fake news awards’ upon reporters and news outlets whose coverage he disagrees with.”
So does Sen. Jeff Flake: “It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies.”
He attacks our financial security with tax breaks for the rich and intolerably high deficits that will cripple the economy.
He attacks our coastlines and beaches permitting new oil drilling off our coasts (except Florida, where Mar-a-Largo is); and attacks our national parks so badly nine of 12 National Park Service advisers resigned in protest.
He attacks our most basic resources by denying climate change.
He attacks 800,000 brought into the country as children by killing DACA.
He attacks freedom of information by killing net neutrality and putting Verizon and Comcast in charge of the internet.
He attacks basic health care by trying to kill Obamacare.
He attacks clean air and clean water by encouraging the Environmental Protection Agency to permit polluters to pollute more.
He attacks the idea “All men are created equal” by condoning racism and calling non-white countries “shitholes” or “shithouses;” take your pick.
He attacks the rule of law by threatening new, self-serving libel laws.
He attacks the rule of law (again) by directing the Justice Department to extract retribution on his political/election opponents.
He attacks the rule of law (and again) by encouraging his attorney general to gather political dirt to smear the FBI.
He attacks the rule of law (yet again) by firing James Comey.
He attacks our fundamental birthright — free elections — by denying Russian hacking and taking no action; despite the entire U.S. intelligence establishment’s warning it’s going to happen again in 2018.
And he attacks truth – spurning undeniable, provable, verifiable facts — with his tweets and remarks:
Claiming his black approval rating has doubled; when it was at 15% in January 2017 and is now either 6 percent or 3 percent depending on which poll you read.
Claiming Sen. Diane Feinstein said, “There is no collusion,” when what she said was, “It’s an open question.”
Claiming he’s signed more legislation than “anybody,” when a hard count puts him dead last.
Saying, “Black homeownership just hit the highest level ever in the history of our country,” when real estate stats show it’s gone down every year since 2004.
Saying his tax cut is the “biggest in history” when it ranks eighth.
Claiming wages haven’t gone up in a long time, when his own Bureau of Labor Statistics says they’ve gone up every year for the last three years.
Claiming there was “substantial evidence” of voter fraud in 2016, when there’s no evidence at all.
Donald Trump’s adoption of one of mass murderer Josef Stalin’s governing philosophies: that a free press is “the enemy of the people” is abhorrent.
In 1939, Stalin invaded Finland in the 1939 “Winter War.” The Finns fought back, losing 40,000 killed. The Russians lost 900,000 dead (900,000!) and won the war. Why did they win? Because Stalin didn’t care how many died or how much pain he inflicted on his people. He only cared about power, ego, and his own self-interest.
Donald Trump is motivated by the same urges as Stalin: power, ego, and self-interest. He cares not who or how many he hurts and he cares not about the 68 percent of the country that oppose him.
Trump doesn’t know much about history, but somehow adopted another Stalin governing philosophy: “To choose one’s victims, to prepare one’s plan minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance and then go to bed, there is nothing sweeter in the world.”
Unless, as in Trumpworld, it’s going to bed with all that, and a cheeseburger.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
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