Associated Press – Page 7

Donald Trump’s MAGA campaign rally in Tulsa Oklahoma, his first since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, hasn’t even taken place yet, but one need only witness its planning and logistics to see that it sums up the Trump approach to presidency, in general.

First (though it’s hard to decide where to start), there’s Trump’s typical disregard for science—in this case, infectious disease and public health experts. The indoor event, expected to pack in thousands of “shoulder-to-shoulder” attendees, is taking place in spite of the pandemic of highly contagious COVID-19 that rages in the background.

Despite a nearly 30-percent increase in the number of cases in Tulsa over the past week, Donald Trump, who continues to flout experts’ advice, refuses to wear a mask, and because he has communicated the idea that real men don’t wear masks, we don’t expect him to be wearing one during his rally. Consequently, neither can we expect the other “real men” (or their “real women”) at his rally to be wearing masks, either.

Since Donald Trump knows his base so well, he knows that they will follow his lead when it comes to what they should think. He has told them many lies over these 3-1/2 years, including that COVID-19 is mostly hype (it doesn’t matter which conspiracy theory they believe, though, so long as they believe one).

On the other hand, fully aware that he’s downplayed and lied to them about COVID-19, the Trump campaign is requiring rally attendees to sign a waiver agreeing not to sue, should they become sick from breathing in the droplets of an infected person while the masses are chanting, cheering, singing…or booing Hillary. The waiver lets him slither out of culpability…not unlike his slithering out of other accountabilities…such as removal from office following impeachment.

It seems more likely, though, that, as with other aspects of what some would call the abusive relationship between Donald Trump and his base, Trump knows that if thousands do become infected as a result of the rally, they would likely make excuses for him and continue welcoming him back home as they find a way to blame a Democrat conspiracy, Chinese drones spraying chemicals overhead, or Hillary Clinton. The waiver is simply extra protection.

Tulsa’s health director, Bruce Dart, said, “I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today.”

Trump’s willingness to put his supporters at great risk in order to bask in their adoration could not be more characteristic of who Donald Trump is.

From his efforts to abolish the Affordable Care Act to his reversal of environmental protections to his promotion of unproven and potentially fatal COVID-19 treatments, Donald Trump’s M.O. has been to place others into jeopardy as he reaped the rewards and praise. Donald Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his disregard for whether Americans—even his base—live or die.

And speaking of disregard: Did Donald Trump or his campaign intentionally schedule the original date of the rally for Juneteenth…and in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

Originally, Trump’s MAGA rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was scheduled for Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, June 19. Juneteenth is celebrated in the U.S. to commemorate the announcement of the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of slaves on June 19, 1865.

The fact that Trump’s rally had been scheduled on this date, when he has almost completely ignored the reason for the current Black Lives Matter demonstrations while sending in violent police and military forces to break them up…Is the irony in picking this date founded in simple ignorance or oversight, or does it come from a conscious effort to mock African Americans?

As if choosing that particular date weren’t enough, Tulsa, Oklahoma, the rally’s venue, is the site of the Tulsa Massacre, one of the worst acts of racial violence we’ve seen in the U.S. Donald Trump is a president known for his racist comments, his defense of and association with white supremacists, and his complete refusal to acknowledge the problem of systemic racism in the U.S. Again, is the irony in this choice of locale born out of oversight, or cruelty?

It’s possible that Trump wasn’t aware of the significance of the date and locale. If that’s true, then surely, someone working on his campaign knew, and should have pointed it out earlier. If, indeed, no one was aware, it is just another indicator of how oblivious and out of touch this administration is with Americans who are not white.

If the rally date and location selection were not accidental, or, if the planners planned the rally despite knowing the significance of the date and location, then it was a conscious slap in the face of the African American community.

Oblivion, whether out of ignorance or cruel intention, is a hallmark of the Trump presidency. We’ve seen it play out in Trump’s approach to history, medicine, science, integrity, people of color, the law…

Trump was pressured by controversy to finally reschedule the MAGA rally to June 20. “Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday,” he tweeted on Friday.

We can expect that he and his supporters will lean on this one feeble action as “proof” that Donald Trump is not a racist.

We can be reasonably sure, without even attending one, what a Trump campaign rally will be like. We’ve seen enough clips to expect the self-aggrandizement, the exaggerated statistics and claims (and those without any basis in truth at all), and the vilification of anyone Trump perceives to be against him. And incidentally, from this rally, we can also expect a rise in COVID-19 cases a couple of weeks later.

We don’t need to attend one of his campaign rallies to understand Donald Trump or his presidency any better. We need only look at the planning of his first post-lockdown campaign rally. The Dunning Kruger phenomenon, the gaslighting, the endangerment of Americans to stoke his ego, the racism, the oblivion. It’s all right there.

Trump delays Tulsa rally after criticism over Juneteenth date | CBS This Morning [2020-06-13]

News Wrap: Trump defends Juneteenth rally in Tulsa as ‘a celebration’ |
PBS NewsHour [2020-06-12]

When a world leader like Donald Trump postures as an expert on a topic he knows nothing about, it can be problematic. When he or she does so around medical information in the midst of a pandemic, it is deadly. Many Americans have died as a result of Donald Trump’s presumption to know more than the experts about infectious disease and the COVID-19 pandemic.

With his “musings” about questionable treatments during press briefings, his many unsupported predictions and recommendations about the spread, and his deliberate contradictions of scientific evidence, Donald Trump has put not just the United States, but the world, in deadly danger.

Donald Trump, the anti-science president, never went to medical school a day in his life, and apparently thinks he didn’t need to. He has often claimed to know more about science and medicine than the medical and scientific experts who are working day and night to help stop the rapid spread of COVID-19.

In Mid-March, Trump said this about his “knowledge” of infectious disease and epidemiology while visiting the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”

A well-known ancient proverb says, “He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool; shun him.”

A modern variation of this might be, “He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, suffers from the Dunning-Kruger effect. Elect him not for president.”

In psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is “a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. It is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability,” according to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

And sometimes, it is, as Salon’s Chauncey DeVega less kindly puts it, “a psychological phenomenon in which stupid people do not know that they are in fact stupid.”

Though Trump’s affliction with Dunning-Kruger started long before we had even heard of COVID-19, his latest flare-up began when reports of the deadly virus reached the U.S.

As COVID-19 ravaged China and was beginning to spread to other countries, there was his early prediction on February 10 that the virus would “go away in April. We’re in great shape.” At that time, there were 11 known cases in the U.S.

On February 26, with 57 documented cases in the U.S., Trump, ignoring the predictions and advice of experts, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said, “Within a couple of days, we’ll be close to zero.”

Trump’s base believed him. They continued to believe him when, like the public health expert he thinks himself to be, he downplayed the coronavirus by comparing it the the seasonal flu: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”

Think about that, indeed. Since the time of Trump’s baseless prediction that the virus would just disappear, there were now more than 50 times the number of confirmed cases.

Two days later, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of Trump’s coronavirus task force and head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health said that the coronavirus was far more deadly than the flu.

“This is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu,” said Fauci, when he was asked for data by a House of Representatives committee regarding how we should gauge the danger.

“He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a student; Teach him,” continues the ancient proverb.

Trump knows not, but seems to think he doesn’t need experts like Fauci to teach him anything.

Whether Trump’s mischaracterization of COVID-19’s deadliness influenced the way pundits like Rush Limbaugh were also playing it down is not certain, but as a result of these cavalier attitudes, Trump supporters, too, did not take it seriously. Trump, his base, and his loyal pundits stepped up their games of presenting faulty “statistics” and false equivalencies (such as comparing the number of COVID-19 deaths to the number of annual auto accident-related deaths). They “lived their lives,” helping to spread the virus, and more people got sick and died.

When Trump finally began to realize that “the numbers” were increasing—that is, the number of confirmed cases and COVID-19 deaths was growing exponentially in the U.S., he began touting the antimalarial drug, hydroxychloroquine for treatment of the virus, based on a small study in France that was later found to be faulty.

“What do you have to lose?” Trump said, encouraging the use of the unproven drug. “It’s been out there for a long time. What do you have to lose? I hope they use it.”

Despite the fact that Anthony Fauci and numerous other medical experts cautioned that hydroxychloroquine had not been proven as a treatment, and that it may in fact be dangerous to some patients, Trump continued to promote it as a “possible game changer.”

“What do I know? I’m not a doctor, but I have common sense,” said Trump. “The FDA feels good about it, as you know, they approved it.”

Trump loyalists quickly began imitating their leader, waxing poetic about the miracle drug hydroxychlorquine, a drug they knew almost nothing about, as if they were experts themselves. (Hydroxychloroquine was approved years ago, but only to treat malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis…not COVID-19.) Hydroxychloroquine has been found to cause cardiac issues in some patients, and researchers have now cautioned against its use for treating COVID-19).

Trump continues to disagree with scientific evidence, contradicting experts such as Dr. Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx (White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator), researchers and specialists from the CDC, and others. His supporters unfailingly choose to listen to him, dismissing scientific evidence, and disputing data and facts as if they were merely a matter of opinion or political persuasion.

Today, May 1, 2020, the United States has over one million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and has seen over 62,000 deaths. Trump continues to act as if he were the public health expert in the room, contradicting the physicians and scientists, downplaying the seriousness of the situation, and doling out irresponsible recommendations. Red states, having taken their cues from what Trump had “expertly” told them early on, are disregarding the recommendations of public health experts about social distancing and taking precautions, and are now “opening up” their states—as they no doubt are opening up to more deadly disease in the near future.

They who know not, and know not that they know not, are fools—and even if we shun them, as the ancient proverb recommends, they will likely kill many of the rest of us.

Trump contradicts Fauci, slams reporter over drug |
Associated Press [2020-03-20]

Experts Awkwardly Correct Trump On Coronavirus | HuffPost
[2020-03-03]

Category: Associated Press

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