Donald Trump spent the weekend further pitting American against American over the issue of football players taking a knee during the national anthem as they used their First Amendment right to express concern about police brutality.
Is it possible that Trump used the NFL controversy in order to distract attention away from the massive hurricane damage in Puerto Rico?
Two reasons come to mind why Trump would do this - first, he does not want us to talk about the present effects of growing storms as oceans warm due to human impacts on the environment. Climate change is real and Trump, we know, does not want us to talk about it.
Secondly, the cost to help Puerto Rico and its 3.4 million citizens recover from this hurricane (Add to that the damage in the US territory of the Virgin Islands) will be massive - who knows how much? Where will those funds come from right after Trump and the Congress increased military spending by more than $70 billion? The nation is already in colossal debt - printing funny money just to stay afloat.
Trump is a master at using Twitter to shape debate - and when you focus attention on one particular issue then something else important does not get talked about.
The top of the fold in the Washington Post newspaper today on page one was the NFL story with a large photo of the hometown Redskins football players linked arm and arm during the anthem. A smaller story about hurricane damage was below the fold with the words 'Puerto Rico' in the sub-headline in even smaller print.
I'm not saying the NFL protests are not important - I'm saying Trump is manipulating them in order to shift our attention from programs and policies to loot the federal treasury on behalf of his corporate buddies and to avoid crucial subjects like global warming.
The medium is the message. Divide and conquer is the strategy. We should all wake up and smell the coffee.
Bruce
No comments:
Post a Comment