There has been some back-and-forth discussion about the COVID crisis over the past half year. I’ve been sharing this COVID fact-nugget about the relative death toll from the Coronavirus pandemic for a couple months. The numbers are correct AFAIK as of the morning of July 18, 2020.

The US and South Korea both got their first native COVID cases on the same day–January 20, 2020. Both countries have advanced medical systems and similar access to high-tech information. South Korea responded to its infection by instituting universal masking and social distancing and quarantining the sick. The US did none of that—Trump and Fauci covered for the lack of PPE by falsely claiming that masking against the disease was not helpful. And many Trump-supporting states did not take action to arrest the infection rate. The results as of today: South Korea is largely back to normal and has experienced 295 deaths from Covid. The US has 142,926 COVID deaths per Johns Hopkins Institute, and we’re getting 70,000 new cases every day. And while this pandemic was growing and gaining steam in the US, Trump was telling us lies. First, that we’d never have more than 15 cases, then that the disease was a Democrat Hoax, then that the cases would all disappear after April when the weather got warmer (you can find the links via Google).

Therefore, as far as I’m concerned, Trump is responsible for every American death that exceeds 295 experienced by South Korea. The science and medical community knew how to slow down its progression because other countries did. And our COVID 19 caseload is exceeding anything seen, to the point where many countries are blocking entry from Americans. Americans can’t go to Canada, most of the EU, and much of Asia.  Coronavirus Update (Live): 14,511,266 Cases and 606,580 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic. And nobody expects it to go lower anytime soon. new COVID cases hit 77,000 last Thursday. Assuming we continue with a 4.5% death rate on cases, that’s over 5,000 bodies ultimately destined for the morgues and Potter’s fields of America.

Trump bears responsibility for those deaths and whatever we see going forward. Come September, many American families will have empty seats at the dinner table. Trump is responsible for that.

So–a Citizens’ Tribunal for Trump?

A ‘Tribunal’ is simply a form of judicial or military hearing. They’ve been around for a long time. But there’s been a Citizens Tribunal. A Citizen’s Tribunal is a creation of the Post WWII period. The setup of the United Nations was facilitated by the creation of the United Nations Security Council. The special privileges afforded to the countries of the Security Council mean that regardless of the will of the general members of the UN, the Security Council status of the US and other entities such as the PRC, United Kingdom and other nations enjoy the power of veto over their affairs. Prosecuting a Security council member for crimes against humanity is nigh impossible–ask the people of Nicaragua.

In the 1980’s, the US and USSR slid perilously toward nuclear war in the increasing peril of the Cold War. The two sides each had thousands of nuclear weapons. UN Countries could not use their powers to prevent nuclear holocaust as long as the Soviets and Americans could use their UN Veto powers to ignore any attempt to prevent the use of nuclear weapon. But the German Green Party drove another tactic. Green leader Petra Kelly and her allies announced in 1983 that (using the model of the post WWII Nuremberg Tribunal against the crimes of the Nazis), they would create a Citizens Tribunal against the Nuclear weapons powers. And so it went in 1983. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/23/world/the-a-bomb-is-convicted-in-nuremberg.html

Since then, other ‘Citizens Tribunals have come to pass. Most recently, climate activists have carried out a CITIZENS TRIBUNAL AGAINST EXXON. This protest was initiated in 2016 after documents leaked from the Exxon corporation indicated that their scientists knew as early 1977-78 that fossil fuel products were causing runaway global warming that would have major ramifications for all of humanity. The ‘Citizens Tribunal’ was initiated by Bill McKibben and others, and I wrote about it here:

And now–about Trump. As I pointed out above, Donald Trump and his administration have completely failed in efforts to control the pandemic of Coronavirus. Trump has failed in all aspects of controlling the outbreak of COVID 19, and his lassitude and incompetence have resulted in at least 142,000 American deaths from COVID. It is impossible to impeach Trump for the largest death toll since 1918 and the Spanish Flu– Republicans have defended Trump and they control the US Senate and the Presidency, along with their control of the US Supreme court. But a Tribunal prosecution of Trump by the American people as part of a CITIZENS TRIBUNAL that highlight the death toll should be undertaken.

Who’s with me on this?