But why have we had such good leaders over our more than two century history? Is it because we invented democracy? No, because this governmental form has been around since those hunter-gatherer days before cities formed, although some say Greece.
Yet, amazingly enough, our Constitution is considered to be oldest working document of its type. Sure, there was the 1215 Magna Carta, which brought an end to English sovereigns, but that was about all it did. So maybe there is something about how our country is governed that cultivates beneficent presidents.
Mind you, he had some accomplishments. Here is a list drawn up by the White House. Very, very impressive. Even after COVID-19, our stock market is near an all-time high, which was reached this month. Relative to the rest of the world, we are doing well.
But returning to the focus of this posting, the national Capitol invasion resulted in five deaths. But you can't really directly blame him for that. You can, however, nail him for choosing the economy over the pandemic and effectively killing a lot more Americans. The death toll passed 400,000 in the U.S. The Trump Death Clock erected at Times Square shows that he is responsible for 234,961 deaths for his inaction. Click on that to see how this number continues to increase.
Compared to other presidents, not so many Americans have been killed by wars on Trump's watch. Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example, can be said to have caused the deaths of 418,500 Americans, those who died in World War II. Note that this number is almost identical to our total deaths from COVID-19. However, Roosevelt preserved Freedom and Liberty. Russia lost 24 million, and a relatively small country then, Yugoslavia, had a million deaths.
- #10 Yukubu Gowon (right), 1.1 million deaths. He ruled Nigeria from 1966 to 1975 when 3 million died during their civil war. He is blamed for a third of them.
- #9 Mengistu Haile Mariam, up to 1.5 million deaths. Presided over Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991 by replacing Haile Selassie. His Red Terror was horrid.
- #8 Kim Il Sung, 1.6 million deaths. Grandfather of Kim Jong-un, the current leader of North Korea, Il Sung began the current family reign, and was noted for his purges.
- #7 Pol Pot (1.7 million). Or maybe it was 2.5 million deaths, or 20% of his country people, as his cleansing of Cambodia has been the subject of a couple of films.
#6 Ismail Enver Pasha (2.5 million). Led the Ottoman Empire from 1913 into World War I. Very large on genocide.- #5 Hideki Tojo (5 million). Was Prime Minister of Japan and started World War II in the Pacific. He was convicted and hanged after the Tokyo Trials in 1948.
- #4 Leopold of Belgium (up to 15 million). Was King of the Belgians, claimed the Congo, which was 14 times the size of his country, and got 14 countries, including the U.S, to agree to this colonization, bringing misery, poverty and death.
#3 Adolf Hitler (17 million). You know enough about him.- #2 Jozef Stalin (23 million). He did everything possible to screw up his country, and his Great Purge, otherwise known as the Great Terror, killed off anyone who opposed him.
- #1 Mao Zedong (up to 78 million). The book I'm now reading on my iPhone is Heaven Cracks, Earth Shakes: The Death of Mao.
You also can't forget the Mongol conquests from 1211 to 1337. Genghis Khan himself was responsible for 40 million deaths. Considering the size of the world population then, which was around 0.4 billion (today, 7.7 billion), pro-rated to today, that would be 770 million, which is around ten time times worse than Mao.
Everything in life is relative. As abhorred as he is by Democrats, as of a poll this week, the impeachment and conviction of Donald Trump is only supported by 8% of those who voted for him.
Now, any sympathies for Donald Trump? Well, consider that his "final" official visiting dignitary was the Pillow Guy, Mike Lindell, who was once addicted to crack cocaine. Trump loves conspiracy theorists, especially those supporting election fraud as to why he lost. But what a way to go.
Yet, wait, he has more than two days left. Maybe we have neglected to imagine his final Hail Mary. Certainly, he could attempt to pre-pardon anyone who is ever convicted for the January 6 invasion of Congress. He could pardon himself, his family and all his friends for future crimes into eternity. Or can he? Maybe he'll show up at Biden's inauguration and spit on The Bible. Nah, that he won't do, for he has cultivated a critical mass of American's he can't afford to alienate. He has many years of terror left in him with them.
This was sent to me today:
Have a great weekend. Four NFL games and the SONY Open in Hawaii. Lot's of good TV-watching.
-
Comments
Post a Comment