Thursday, June 25, 2020
Environmental Assaults
—Edmund Burke, 2d Speech on Conciliation with America (1775)[A} great empire and little minds go ill together.
Great minds think alike. And you probably thought the only thing those two great minds had in common was their love of hydroxychloroquine and their enthusiastic support for using it to combat the coronavirus. As the trump explained some weeks ago, during the period he was taking the drug, he’d received lots of letters “from people who support my use of the drug.” Letters from “people” is clearly of more importance to the trump than medical information from experts. And in that respect, we learned that President Jair Bolsonara of Brazil and the trump have a lot in common.
In mid-May Brazilian Health Minister, Nelson Teich, resigned from Mr. Bolsonaro’s cabinet. He was the second health minister to resign within a 30-day period. Among other reasons, each man resigned because of Mr. Bolsonaro’s insistence that the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus be expanded. What we have since learned is the trump and Mr. Bolsonara share a concern for the environment and the way in which it can have adverse effects on the economy.
In January the trump EPA promulgated a new rule called: “The Navigable Waters Protection Rule.” Under that rule many wetlands, streams and similar waterways formerly protected by the Clean Water Act will no longer be entitled to protection from pollution. According to the current EPA administrator the rule protects the environment and waterways “while respecting the states and private property owners.” Not everyone agrees that it protects the environment and waterways. The former director of the Office of Science and Technology in EPA’s office of Water called the new approach “scientifically indefensible and socially unjust.” The new rule went into effect on June 23, 2020. The new rule was not the only trumpian attack on the environment in 2020.
On April 30, 2020, the EPA enacted the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles rule that a spokesperson for the EPA said would, among other things, improve the U.S. fleet’s fuel economy.” In typical trump like fashion, it improves fuel economy by lowering the requirement for fuel efficiency in new vehicles for model years between 2021 and 2026. Under the fuel efficiency standards required by standards put in place by the Obama administration fuel efficiency in new vehicles had to be increased by nearly 5 percent. Under the trumpian rules that standard has been lowered to 1.5 per cent. As the trumpites explained, with the lower standards cars will be more affordable.
In mid-April the trumpsters weakened regulations on the release of mercury and other toxic metals from oil and coal fired power plants. In addition to that, and during the three years they have been empowered, the trumpsters have, among other things, loosened curbs on automobile tailpipe emissions, weakened rules to cut planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, and made it easier for coal companies to dump debris in streams.
On June 7, 2020 the trump issued an executive order weakening the National Environmental Policy Act. That Act is designed to protect the environment by requiring all branches of government to consider the effects on the environment of any major federal action such as building highways, pipelines, and other infrastructure projects. The order directs agencies “to ignore environmental laws to speed up federal approval for new mines, highways, pipelines, and other infrastructure projects.” All in all, and for good reason, those concerned about the environment are not among trump’s most enthusiastic supporters. And in dealing with environmental matters President Bolsonaro’s affinity for the trump approach manifests itself.
Since becoming president of Brazil in October 2018 President Bolsonara has not only followed in the trumpian footsteps by advocating for the use of hydroxychloroquine. He has also followed in the footsteps of the trump in assaulting the environment. Since becoming president he has presided over a rise in deforestation in the Amazon. He has relaxed rules designed to prevent illegal logging and illegal gold mining in the rain forest. Deforestation in 2019 hit its highest level since 2008. Between August 2018 and July 2019 deforestation rose by 34%. Between January and April of this year 464 square miles of amazon tree cover was removed. Reportedly fifty percent of that tree cover was on public lands. The amount of illegally logged timber seized by Brazil’s main environmental protection agency fell by nearly 64% from 2018 to 2019.
Inspired by the trump, President Bolsonaro has taken one further step to model himself after the trump. In early June 2020 he announced that he was considering withdrawing from the World Health Organization just as his trumpian role model had announced pm May 29, 2020 that the United States was going to do. As President Bolsonara explained: “I’m telling you right now, the United States left the WHO, and we’re studying that, in the future. Either the WHO works without ideological bias, or we leave, too.” As observed at the outset, great minds think alike.
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Donald J(esus) Trump
— Amos Bronson Alcott, Orphic sayings From The DialThe true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. . . . He will have no disciple.
It was an highly symbolic act, the symbolism of which was missed by almost all the observers because it was unexpected and, certainly, atypical. It was the performance of the trump on June 5, 2020. It took place the day after there had been a small fire at St. John’s Episcopal Church, a church very close to the house where the trump lives. On that day, the trump and his disciples participated in a highly symbolic and deeply moving trip to St. John’s in order to reassure and calm a country riven by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis a few days earlier.
The formal part of the event began when Attorney General William Barr, quietly left the Rose Garden where the trump was trumpeting about assorted non-religious matters. Upon leaving the Rose Garden the barr assumed two roles to prepare the way for the coming of the trump: Thurifer and First Server.
The role of Thurifer is a role usually assigned to an adult who is responsible for lighting the thurible, an incense burner containing charcoal. The Thurifer swings the thurible as he or she walks down the aisle of the church spreading the aroma of the incense throughout the church and, incidentally, knocking out of the way anyone impeding the procession. Instead of swinging a thurible, which would have cleared the area through which the trump would soon be passing, barr invoked the aid of armed personnel who were present. They used flash-bang grenades and tear gas to prepare the area for the advent of the trump.
In conjunction with performing the role of Thurible, the barr also assumed the role of First Crucifer. The First Crucifer’s assigned task is to carry the processional cross at the entrance to the church and lead the participants to the altar where they assume their assigned places. Although not a prescribed function, the First Crucifer, by leading the processional, ensures that there is nothing in the aisle that will prevent those in the procession from arriving at their respective assigned places. The armed personnel made that unnecessary.
The June 5 event was, of course, somewhat different since it took place not within the church but at its entrance. Nonetheless, assuming both roles, the barr insured that the entire area was prepared for the coming of the trump by having onlookers removed. Following the barr’s actions the trump arrived, accompanied by his disciples, and a few hangers on.
One of the disciples accompanying the trump on his pilgrimage was his beloved Ivanka Trump. To her had been entrusted the sacred task of transporting the Holy Bible from the White House to the church for use by the trump as he offered reassurance to a nation torn by violence. Ivanka carried the bible in a pristine, yet fashionable, white purse. Upon arrival at the church, and when the trump indicated he was ready to receive the sacred book, she quietly opened her purse and solemnly handed the bible to the trump.
Not fully instructed in the task she was to perform, Ivanka handed the bible to the trump upside down. The trump, unconcerned with its contents or its posture, took the bible from her. Assuming his most solemn demeanor, he quietly turned, faced the plaza emptied of onlookers, except for his devoted followers and disciples, and, holding the Bible in his right hand, raised it for the world to see and for the photographers to photograph so that this solemn moment would be forever part of the history of his beloved country and of St. John’s church. (The solemnity of the moment was slightly disturbed by the fact that the bookmark that was sewn into the binding of this particular Bible was dangling from the bottom of the book indicating that the Bible was being held upside down by the trump. That slightly awkward, if humorous touch, simply proved that the trump, notwithstanding his exalted position is, like Christ and the rest of us, human. Since the trump had no intention of reading the bible at that or any other time, this awkwardness did nothing to detract from the solemnity of the occasion.)
To provide a bit of variety the trump assumed different postures in front of the church, contemplating before each photo how he could best appear to the onlookers. He concluded the photo op by inviting six of his disciples who had accompanied him on his solemn walk from the White House to the church to join him for the final photograph to be taken.
All in all, it was a moving occasion and one not soon to be forgotten by any who saw it. As the trump would have onlookers believe, his posing was a fitting tribute to the memory of George Floyd, a man who will be remembered not only for his life but for the effect his death has had on people throughout the world. Always focused on himself, the trump must have wondered, as the photos were being taken, whether his eventual death would evoke the same displays of affection for him and praise for all he accomplished during his life. He’ll simply have to wait to find out until that great day comes. He can rest assured that many of us await the answer to that question with as much eagerness as he.
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Trump trumps Xi
Now is the month of Maying
When merry lads are playing,
Fa la la la la.
— Thomas Morley 1557-1602 , A Madrigal
It had to be more than a coincidence. It all happened in the merry month of May and it showed that President Xi Jinping of China and the trump of the U.S. had more in common than some might have thought. The trump has repeatedly praised Xi.
In an interview with CNBC in January 2020 the trump alluded to his “great relationship with President Xi and said: “I think the relationship is very, very good.” On February 7, 2020 he tweeted that Xi would be successful in containing the coronavirus outbreak and said that Xi is “strong, sharp, and powerfully focused.”
That the trump and President Xi think alike became apparent in May. On May 20th the trump visited the Ford factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He appeared with masked officials from the company. The trump was the only person in the group not wearing a mask. His failure to wear a mask had nothing to do with safety measures that he was told were in effect at the plant. Making up the truth, as is his habit, and commenting on not wearing a mask, he explained “They said they’re not necessary here. ” He further explained his mask’s absence saying: “I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.”
The next day there was a widely published picture of President Xi standing in front of a gathering of an advisory body to the central government in Beijing. All of the attendees in the picture were facing the front of the hall where President Xi was standing. They were all masked. President Xi, following the trumpian lead, was not masked.
Disdain for publicly appearing masked was not all they shared during that month. For each man the month of May presented him with the opportunity to begin to abrogate long standing obligations to which each country was believed bound. The trump did it twice, President Xi did it once.
On May 22 the tweeter in chief posted a four-page letter that was a follow up on his earlier action of withholding payments to the World Health Organization. In his letter he said that if the organization “did not commit to major substantive improvements” within the following 30 days, he would consider permanently withholding funding and “reconsider” the membership of the United States in that organization. He did not address the fact that the United States was already in arrears with payments to WHO since it had defaulted on its January payment.
Caught up in the excitement of abrogating long stand agreements, the day after he tweeted the letter to WHO, he let it be known that he was pulling the United States out of the Open Skies Treaty that had been negotiated almost 30 years earlier by President George W. Bush and his secretary of state, James Baker. The purpose of the treaty is to permit signatories to fly over each other’s territory to make sure there is no evidence that military action is being planned. Although it is less valuable than when it was first signed because of the availability of satellite photography and other advancements in surveillance techniques, it is considered by European nations to be important to maintain continuing engagement with Russia.
President Xi was impressed with the trump’s ability to abrogate long standing agreements and taking his cue from the trump, the same day the trump announced his intention to pull out of the Open Skies Treaty, President Xi announced that he was proposing new laws that would, among other things, eliminate anti-government protests in Hong Kong and override Hong Kong’s system of self-government. It undermines the civil liberties guaranteed to Hong Kong at the time of the handover of the territory to China from the U.K. in 1997. By taking the steps he took, President Xi bypasses Hong Kong’s legislature and takes advantage of a provision in the Basic Law governing Hong Kong that permits new laws to be imposed on Hong Kong by the National People’s Congress in China.
As disturbing as the trumpian actions during May were, there was one bit of comforting news delivered to the United States citizens. In an interview with Time magazine jared kushner, the official, immaculately groomed, trump lap dog, gave citizens a modicum of hope that notwithstanding the trumpian willingness to abrogate international agreements, there is a chance that laws of the United States will be honored by the trumpsters. When asked whether the November election might be postponed by the trump because of the pandemic, the kushner coyly replied: “I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other, but right now that’s the plan.” Presumably the “plan” is to honor the law and permit the election to be held on November 3 as required by statute. If one is a United States citizen one has to be grateful for small blessings. Residents of Hong Kong who may soon be prevented, by President Xi, from protesting, never mind voting, may well wish they had the same prospects.