Part One:
We chat with Bob Hennelly, investigative reporter at salon.com, njinsider.com, and The Chief/Leader (covering public unions and the civil service in NYC since 1897); and on Twitter @stucknation.
We discuss the Trump administration’s promotion of “herd immunity” to try to confront the coronavirus. Trump doesn’t seem to care that herd immunity might not succeed in protecting us from COVID, nor that hundreds of thousands of Americans *would have to die* in the process – nor the toll it would take on all of our *first responders* who are already working around the clock, exhausting themselves, and bearing all the stress of trying to keep our public health system afloat. Not to mention the “long-haulers” whom Trump would describe as “cured” from COVID but whose symptoms would be recognized by health insurance companies as relating to their previous coronavirus infections (i.e., pre-existing conditions). Even people who NEVER had “flu-like” symptoms of COVID have, months later, experienced serious health problems including heart and lung disease.
Nor does Trump’s herd immunity “solution” consider the effects on our economy (not enough workers in essential jobs) and on our health care system as a whole (because many health providers will have caught the virus or stopped working in order to protect their own families, and because many sick people will be ineligible for health insurance based on their COVID-related pre-existing conditions).
Part Two:
We speak with Jennifer Spindel, assistant professor of political science at the Univ. of New Hampshire, about her article (with Matt Motta and Robert Ralston) in The Conversation: “Americans Aren’t Worried About White Nationalism in the Military – Because They Don’t Know It’s There.”
Shockingly, we learn that, for years now, white nationalists have been embedding themselves in the various branches of the United States military. They learn the most up-to-date information and techniques relating to weaponry and its use to subdue an enemy or achieve other purposes. They do not disclose their extremist identities while serving in the military, and when they leave, they are free to use their new skills toward their own disruptive purposes.
After their service, when these white nationalist ex-servicemembers join a vigilante group such as the Boogaloo Boys or the Michigan Wolverines, we see violent confrontations, intimidation and sometimes death in cities from Portland to Kenosha to Lansing.
What are the implications of this turn of events by itself? What about when we see, in addition to militiamen in the military, Trump using federal military troops (without identifying themselves as such) to drag protesters off the streets in Portland? What about ICE’s efforts to establish “Citizens’ Councils” to recruit “interested” citizens (like the private militiamen) to join with official federal ICE enforcement agents, and to train these vigilantes in the use of weapons and in “how ICE enforces immigration laws”? Where is our country headed?
