Back on March 24, when Americans were just beginning to start dying from Covid in substantial numbers, I asked the question, "Why?"

Why did Trump initially procrastinate for two months?

Was he trying to squeeze a few months extra revenue out of his hotels?

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans' price for supporting unemployment checks and other benefits for average working people has been several trillion dollars shoveled directly into corporate coffers, both through tax breaks, grants, and the Fed buying trillions worth of corporate stocks and bonds.

Now Republicans are saying they want to cut people's unemployment benefits, and they'll only go along with giving unemployed people a measly $200 a week if they can also give immunity to corporate CEOs and managers when their stupid decisions cause people to die.

Republicans in Congress right now are fighting each other over how severely they should cut back on unemployment benefits to people out of work because of this administration's incompetence in handling the coronavirus.

Ever since the 1920s, when big business took over the GOP leading directly to the Republican great depression, Republicans have fought to give taxpayer dollars to billionaires and giant corporations while they actively try to screw working people and the poor.

The Republican Trump administration has gone full authoritarian. Portland is a test, but only a test.

Donald Trump signaled his election strategy a few days ago when he talked about ending legislation passed back in the 1960s to support fair housing that he said had sent "people" out into "the suburbs."

We have now reached peak Libertarianism, and this bizarre experiment that has been promoted by the billionaire class for over 40 years is literally killing us.

Axios is reporting that Donald Trump was inspired to create his secret police force, which he has now deployed to Portland, Oregon, because George W. Bush issued an executive order authorizing the military and CIA to illegally torture and kill innocent people and got away with it.

First, Georgia's governor Brian Kemp, as Secretary of State, did everything he could to keep hundreds of thousands of Black and Hispanic voters in Georgia from having their votes counted or even being able to vote at all.

We have now reached peak Libertarianism, and this bizarre experiment that has been promoted by the billionaire class for over 40 years is literally killing us.

Back in the years before Reagan, a real estate lobbying group came up with the idea of creating a political party to justify deregulating the real estate and finance industries so they could make more money. The party would give them ideological and political cover, and they developed an elaborate theology around it.

They revel in their efforts to end Obamacare and cut millions of Americans off healthcare.

They celebrate last night's resumption of federal executions.

They enthusiastically authorize the use of formerly banned pesticides that cause cancer and neurological damage to children.

With one simple understanding, everything about Trump's life and presidency comes into focus.

Why would it be that Trump refuses to do his job, including reading intelligence reports? Why would Trump revel in lies and outrageous statements? Why would he retweet a game show hosts conspiracy theories about the coronavirus while trashing his own scientists? Why is Trump, every day, waking up and asking how he can capture the news cycle regardless of its impact on public health or democracy?

Trump's first major policy change on his first full day as president was to gut implementation of the "Waters of America" Act.

His change allowed coal mines and factories to increase their profits by dumping massive amounts of poison in our rivers and waterways.

Jim Jones, who only killed 900+ people, was a piker, perhaps because he just wasn't rich enough to be truly effective. Billionaire Donald Trump has beat him more than 130 times over, with far more to come.

Canada, a country run by competent leaders and actual civil servants at the provincial and federal level, largely has the coronavirus under control and have largely closed their border to Americans.

The Guardian is reporting how Mexican border towns are asking Americans not to come, for fear of further spread of the virus there.

About 75 percent of Americans trusted the federal government to "do what is right" when polled during most of the last years of the Eisenhower administration and early years of Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency.

In 2019, when the Pew Research Center released its most recent poll of public trust in the government, only 17 percent of Americans trusted their government. It's so bad that armed protesters have shown up nationwide to protest the "tyranny" of having to wear masks during a pandemic… and have been cheered on by the president of the United States and Fox News.

England is debating a wealth tax. America, as tax revenues crash and the need for government services explodes, needs to consider one, too.

If you own a home, every year you must pay a wealth tax.

The majority of the wealth held by middle and working class Americans is in their homes. And every year, every homeowner must pay a tax on their wealth in the form of a state and local property tax.