Hate vs. Love
January 6 Federal Case, Gaza, Trump’s Lies, Love, and Taxes.
by Errington C. Thompson, MD –
Everyone reading this is most likely in the Asheville area.
You have been punched in the face by forces beyond your control. None of you asked for 12 to 24 inches of rain. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons that you moved to Asheville is its location. It is not on the coast. It is not atop a major earthquake fault. It was not Charlotte or Atlanta with their traffic. It is one of those Goldilock’s oases. It is not too big, and it is not too small. It was … was… just right.
Then, out of nowhere, the heavens opened up and dumped a biblical amount of rain on us. Now what? We need community, friends, and neighbors. We need, dare I say it, government. I need the National Guard and other troops to provide the manual labor assistance needed to open roads and clear trees. Roads and bridges need to be rebuilt. We need mobile Wi-Fi towers. We need mobile electrical substations that will provide much-needed power. We need clean water. We need the basics.
This is a time for professionals. We need people who understand how government works. We need people who can push the right buttons and get government to start moving. We do not need the director of FEMA to be a golfing buddy or a rich billionaire who made his money on Wall Street.
We need somebody who understands disasters and disaster relief. Deanne Criswell, the director of FEMA, was the director of Emergency Management in New York City from 2019 to 2021 during the pandemic. She has a long history of emergency management experience. She is precisely the type of person we need during this crisis.
Unfortunately, this recovery will not be speedy. Everything will not be back to normal next week or even next month. Western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee suffered widespread destruction. It will take years for these regions to fully recover.
I am a flatlander. I grew up in Dallas, Texas. I love Asheville and its people. I have learned to love the mountains. My heart aches for the good people of Asheville and its beautiful surroundings.
January 6 Federal Case
Jack Smith, the US Justice Department’s Special Counsel for the cases against Donald Trump, has followed a new, 165-page brief in federal court. This is because the judge had asked Jack Smith about the Supreme Court’s new ruling, which basically exempted the president from prosecution for any acts performed in his official role. If the court agrees with Smith’s new brief, then the case can proceed.
Smith laid out several very detailed actions that he described as Donald Trump acting not in his official role, but as a private citizen. He described several meetings and conversations in which Donald Trump and his advisors discussed how to proceed with the presidential election. According to Jack Smith, Donald Trump was acting as a private citizen in these meetings. He wasn’t carrying out official duties as President of the United States, but as a candidate for reelection.
Now, we wait. Donald Trump’s defense lawyers can dispute the evidence that Jack Smith presented. Then, the judge will have to decide whether the case can go forward or whether the case needs to be thrown out of court.
I wish I could tell you that I was dispassionate on the subject. I am not. I remember watching in horror as Donald Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol for hours. I was dumbfounded. I was flabbergasted. I was angry. I was upset. I kept wondering, “Where was the federal response?” I was looking for overwhelming force. It took hours to mobilize a federal response. The response was timid. It was measured. It was nothing like what we saw in Minneapolis when there was an overwhelming show of force against peaceful protesters (George Floyd).
Gaza – 1 Year Later
On October 7, one year ago, Israel was attacked by Hamas. Hundreds of Israelis were killed. Hundreds were kidnapped. Some have yet to be freed.
This attack was condemned in the strongest terms by nations around the globe. That’s because nearly all nations have agreed that no government or non-government terrorist group, or even de facto government, has the right to attack another nation.
Israel has a right to exist, and Israel has a right to defend itself. But it does not have the right to kill every man, woman, and child within Gaza’s borders, any more than Hamas has the right to kill innocent civilians.
We, the United States, friend and ally of Israel and supplier of $310 Billion in total aid since its founding, need to exert as much force as necessary to get the violence to end.
The Lies Keep On Coming
In my opinion, Donald Trump is not good for much. I don’t think he’s a good businessman. I don’t think he’s a good husband. I don’t even think he’s a good politician, but he is a good liar.
Donald Trump’s default position is to lie. It’s not that he has a tenuous relationship with the truth; he just isn’t bothered by the truth. As more and more polls show that he is losing ground in all swing states, he is becoming increasingly desperate. Look for his lies to become more outlandish and, if possible, more frequent.
The thing that I find most egregious is the fact that Trump does not even go out of his way to sugarcoat his lies with some sprinkle of honesty. They are simply flat-out lies—lies that can easily be disproved. His lies surrounding Hurricane Helene have been big fat whoppers.
First, he said President Biden didn’t answer calls from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. The governor himself corrected Trump’s lie. In a social media post, Trump suggested that North Carolina wasn’t getting the federal response that they deserved because they were a Republican state.
Of course, this is not true: the very next day the Republican Congressman representing all the WNC counties that were hit by Hurricane Helene, Chuck Edwards, said that the federal government was on the spot and working hard to repair the damage. Trump then boldly stated that Biden/Harris were getting terrible reviews on how they were handling this hurricane disaster. The Republican South Carolina governor praised the Biden administration for its response.
One would think these denials by Republican leaders would deter Donald Trump. But as we’ve seen before, nothing deters his lies. One of Trump’s “best” lies has been the one where he stated that Vice President Harris spent all the FEMA money housing illegal migrants, because—according to Trump—Harris is trying to get these immigrants to vote illegally. The premise is absurd. FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.
This is simply ridiculous. It is much like his lie about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats. Instead of the media stating that this is an old racist lie, they sent reporters to Ohio to interview residents of this poor little town to see whether immigrants were really eating dogs and cats. I’m happy to report these racist lies were found to be precisely what they were: lies.
Love
This election is about love vs. hate. It is about Judeo-Christian (Muslim) values vs. Christian Nationalism.
Please understand that Christian Nationalism and Christianity are not the same thing. Believing in Christ means you follow the teachings of Christ. It means you don’t lie. You help your neighbor and feed the hungry. On the other hand, Christian Nationalists believe that a woman’s place is in the kitchen and the bedroom. That lying is okay to further your goals. That there isn’t much room in a Christian Nation for black or brown people. (Well, they can clean and cook for white people, but other than that…)
In a Christian nation—that is, in a secular, democratic nation that honestly embraces what are generally thought of as Judeo-Christian values—we use the government to help Americans devastated by hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, and tornadoes. We decrease our dependence on fossil fuels so that we can begin to cool an overheating planet. We work to ensure that all of us have equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities. We love one another.
Taxes Pay for the Benefits We Enjoy
In the 1960s, the top tax bracket was over 90%. This means that Elon Musk and other billionaires would pay the government 90% of the highest part of their income. That’s the “marginal rate,” or the rate at the highest margin of your income. Look at this article, “How the Marginal Tax Rate Works,” to see how it works.
Think about that for just a second as you drive over that pothole that hasn’t been repaired for months. Instead of Elon Musk buying Twitter for $44 billion, which was a colossal waste of money, he would have had to pay a large portion of that money in taxes.
With that kind of money, we could increase Medicare and Medicaid benefits. All prescription drugs could be no more than $25 copay at most if we asked billionaires to pay more. We could tackle the problem of homelessness. We could feed the hungry. We could pay for mental health services.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are offering us a different way forward. It is a slice of Obama’s hope. It is optimism. The vision is that we are Americans. We can and should invest in ourselves. If we help ourselves, then we all profit.
Or we can go down the path that Trump is painting. Trump is about profit, but the profit is for himself. If anyone else profits, that is a byproduct of Trump helping himself.
This election is about freedom—the freedom to grow up in an environment not polluted with petrochemicals. The freedom to breathe clean air and swim in a clean pond. This election is about being able to go to your own doctor. It is about you and your doctor being able to make decisions that are best for you. It is about going to the library and reading whatever book your heart desires.
This election is not about style. It is not about whether you love big government or small government. It is about whether you believe in the promise of Democracy or not. If you want a different form of government, something that more resembles a monarchy, then Donald Trump is your man. But if you believe in the rule of law and you believe that Democracy is better than any other form of government, even if it’s not perfect, then Kamala Harris is your woman.
I know that Helene has hit us hard. Voting will be hard. Right now, life in western North Carolina is really hard. Which candidate will help make life a little easier? Which candidate will use the government to help you get back on your feet as quickly as possible? The choice couldn’t be simpler.
Kamala Harris is about love and the promise of America. I will do everything possible to help elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here, as well as assertions of facts, are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.