I know you guys are right. I say the things because they are true and part of me wants to get them on the scorecard, so when people tally up the acts of Trump and his MAGA monster show if there are 20 million dead and counting in some corner of the world thanks to his executive order, well, he gets the credit he deserves for that. I know that on the news, they may rationalize what took place. Trump did not go to Africa and slaughter 20 million people with his bare hands, he just made a budget cut. Diverted money from one place to another and maybe he thought that was the right thing to do, just moving the money from one pocket to another. If people died, well, maybe they would have died anyway. 

But we know why they died if they do. He ended the program. If AIDS/HIV roars back, it can be traced to that moment where Trump scribbled on the order and held it up, showing the world what he had done. It was not done in secret, it was done proudly, right out in the open...in front of the cameras. I think of McDowell strutting about as Caligula with the ring on, holding it out in front of him, the ring that stamps his orders and makes them official. Trump has his sharpie. Strutting, holding out the order for all to see. He wants to show his power. The power to execute 20 million people with his scribbled signature, in barely a second. That's all the time it took to scribble his name and doom that many people and he likely barely considered what he was doing for much longer than it took to write his name on the order. 

Here is what makes Trump unique from other presidents we've known. DSlacker had brought up Nixon and how he was forced out, how we managed that as a country. Nixon though had a couple things that Trump does not have. Nixon had a conscience and felt shame. Trump is completely devoid of these things. Nixon resigned because he felt shame about what he had done, which was minor compared to the acts Trump commits on a regular basis. Nixon lived in a time when we still had a moral compass as a country. Now that compass has been trampled and lay broken in the mud. 

35 or 40 years ago it would be shocking to see an American president sign an order that is likely to lead to tens of millions of deaths, to sign it knowing he was doing that, and to hold it up for all to see. Strutting, proud. No reason for it to happen except to break a program that worked. Made people healthier and kept the world safer. Where is RFK Jr. on this? I can tell you he damn sure knows that was the wrong thing to do and will very well endanger American lives too. Just like exiting WHO, a cooperative organization to deal with pandemics and health crises that could impact multiple countries on the planet. Strength in unity, it is a simple concept but one the MAGA monster show has no belief in. They believe in creating chaos, fear, and division. It is in every move they make.

We do have the freedom of ignorance here in this country, and we exorcise it with abandon. Ignorance is bliss, not to know, not to understand what is happening does allow a person to whistle through their day. Some may say it is wrong to talk about these things because it traumatizes people to confront people with these truths. But what is better, to know what happened, understand the reasons, or to just turn on the TV one day and see millions are dying and wonder why? To not know how we got to that point?

You can't address the problem if you do not understand how it came to be. At some point some kind and gentle MAGA voter might ask "How did 20 million people start dying in Africa from AIDS in 2025? Was there a program that could have been put in place to prevent that? To prevent AIDS from roaring back?" 

Donald will lie if he is still around at that point and say, "Joe Biden caused that with his pals Obama and Hillary!" 

Scorecard, those deaths if/when they begin to occur, are on Donald's scorecard. It takes a special kind of man to do that knowingly, openly, with pride. This is what makes Donald so useful. He feels nothing. 

Let me end with another movie clip, from another really good film. This time The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, there are some great lines in this scene, lines that seem to apply to our present day. Like "I reserve the right to be ignorant. That's the Western way of life." 

True that.

Another good one is "Innocent people die every day, they may as well do so for a reason."

I don't know if the woman that shows up to the clinic and sees a sign that says closed or is turned away because the medication and treatments have been cut off will understand the reason she is being left to die. She'll probably just feel alone and helpless and will not ever see the clip of Donald signing the executive order that sentenced her to death. The reason, if she ever does understand it won't be comforting, the reason is just to put some extra cash in the pockets of some super wealthy men, and sure to some degree because Elon Musk hates you, even though he does not know you. It's mostly the cash though, the wealthy want the cash. But she can die knowing that many people cheered her death, celebrated it, because they believed the United States saved some money...even though none was saved, nor diverted to a good cause or to help someone else. Just to make a fat wallet even fatter. 

Reasons, like truths, can be painful to confront. Which always leads me to apologies, or like Burton says in this scene, if you have to break a neck, try to do so with a minimum of force.