We're rapidly reaching a cultural tipping point - and the iceberg that sinks Trump will be Trump himself.
Over 101,000 Americans have died, 40 million Americans have become unemployed, but instead of offering words to heal and help Trump did what he always does in a crisis, throw petrol on the culture war's flames.
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Even Taylor Swift has had enough of him. Yesterday, she decided she could take no more. Responding to his threat to have the military shoot American citizens in Minnesota, she Tweeted: “You have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?”
In the same tweet, Swift accused Trump of “stoking the white supremacy and racism” for his entire presidency.
After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November. @realdonaldtrump
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) May 29, 2020
Clearly, if Taylor is speaking out we're reaching a tipping point. When you have lost the nation's sweetheart, you've lost America. I'm only being half facetious. It's undeniable that the wheels have come off the entire Trump presidency at the same time as they're coming off the nation.
Taylor Swift has had enough of Donald Trump
There is an inevitability to it. Elect a cruel and callow president and - as night follows day - you will usher in a cruel and callow age.
The coronavirus has been busy pulling the mask off every systemic inequality and ever festering social sore in the nation as it flares up and continues to transmit from coast to coast.
Over 101,000 Americans have died, 40 million Americans have become unemployed, but instead of offering heartfelt words to heal and help this anxious nation, Trump prefers to fan the flames.
Reflect that right now coronavirus is raging especially hard through the most deprived zip codes in the nation, most all of them communities of color, and the people who live there are dying at double and triple the rates of everyone else.
Nearly 23 percent of reported Covid-19 deaths in the United States are African Americans, even though black people make up roughly just 13 percent of the population. These are the people he is now threatening with violence.
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Reflect that if you're a young black male in America in 2020, you can’t go for a jog, you can’t wear a mask to the grocery store, you can’t wear a hoodie in public, you can’t even go birding in the Central Park Rambles without the constant threat of racial profiling, arrest, choking or being shot. It’s systemic state terror. It simply has to stop.
This week we watched Trump threaten the Minneapolis rioters, some of whom were white and filmed looting under highly questionable circumstances, but where was his outrage when a far more significant public heist occurred right under his nose?
....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
American billionaires have gotten at least $434 billion richer during this pandemic. Where is his discomfort over that?
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Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg reportedly saw the biggest gains, with Bezos adding $34.6 billion to his wealth and Zuckerberg adding $25 billion. With consumers trapped at home for over two and a half months, online retail orders inevitably exploded (along with the trading markets) to the point where Amazon has said it’s now hiring 75,000 more workers.
So as ordinary Americans cower at home and hope a biblical plague will pass their doorstep, billionaires here were being rewarded with even more unimaginable riches at the same time 40 million Americans lost their jobs.
The imbalance between these two worlds has become extraordinary and dangerous. The 400 richest Americans now have as much combined wealth as the poorest 64 percent of American households. Add to that that the poorest 64 percent pay more in taxes than Bezos.
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As lines for food handouts stretch for block after block and the predominantly undocumented workers who ran the cities bars and restaurants before the lockdown are thrown to the wolves, the nations five richest billionaires - Bezos, Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison - all saw combined wealth gains of $76 billion.
There's been a lot of handwringing articles about the looting in Minneapolis. I have barely seen any about this ongoing heist. How long can this go on before tumbrels roll?
This must be the looting everyone is talking about https://t.co/9jTnw7tMtM
— Natalie Shure (@nataliesurely) May 28, 2020
More Americans have died in the last two and a half months than US soldiers died in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and all the US wars since 9/11 – combined. We could use national leadership now to navigate the challenges facing us, but it is MIA.
The United States is only 4 percent of the world's population but it has 29 percent of all Covid-19 deaths. That, by any metric, is a catastrophic public disaster. It is a total failure of leadership.
Who could have predicted that a famously insane compulsive liar game show host would bring the nation to brink of violent disintegration?
— JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) May 30, 2020
That's why I predict Trump will fire up his Twitter muck spreader to try to distract us all between now and election day, throwing anything and anyone – today it's the WHO, tomorrow it could be you – overboard from his rapidly sinking ship.
But the iceberg that sinks him was always going to be himself.
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