Times Man of the Year

Trump wins hands down. It has been reported that North Korea now has the capability (nuclear) to wipe out parts of the West Coast of the United States and we have learned that the Trump White House has done a “spectacular” job of handling the Corona Virus and remember that he went from designating it as a “flu” to having it under control, to containing it and it now approaches not 0 deaths, not 15 deaths, but 100,000. With American Independence Day quickly approaching, Trump’s spectacular job surely is not fireworks that we can all enjoy under normal conditions. His effort resembles those fireworks that have backfired in the hands of Americans all over the country contributing to huge amounts of emergency room visits, deaths, and suffering.

Today we have learned that the White House is going to require face masks in the West Wing and I have noticed the face masks being worn in press conferences. Various members of the CDC and the White House have been infected. Could it be that Death by Trump may be taking place soon? This comes after two months of non-compliance. And Trump and his merry men have been tested everyday and we have not been tested?

Our nation went from MacArthurism right into McCarthyism and by crooked design. And today Trump is credited with 90 percent of the deaths and if the virus could have been contained it is probable that more people have lost their jobs during the last months because of his mistakes. In other words a “cheerleading” Trump with expert advice or intelligence in hand that told him to tell the people of the United States that the Corona Virus was no different from a flu caused much of our unemployment problem by not fighting the war effectively. Intelligence Matters!

Intelligence matters, but not to everyone in politics. About 70 years ago Time was controlled by Henry Luce and he was preparing to name the Trump of his age as Time’s Man of the Year in 1951 and that was Douglas MacArthur. China was on the minds of hawks and China First Lobby people felt that New York City back then was the epicenter of a virus of its Time.  Henry Luce expected a war between the Chinese Communists and the United States and his staff in New York City were worried about the Chinese dropping an atomic bomb on New York on Union Square which was considered the bomb’s “epicenter” and being only two miles away uptown was considered safe as that company sought shelter further uptown near Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Luce did not follow through on naming MacArthur The Time Man of the Year as he was talked out of it.

Seventy years later, we notice that there has never been an all-out war to evict the Communists from China and they still have strength today. They even have good relationships with some of our allies under Trump.

Now we can find out what MacArthur was doing after the disastrous battle that he commanded from Tokyo. Things pretty much started with the officer who knew that he was going to be scapegoated for the loss of the battle. Keiser was sent a message that he was ordered to report to a hospital because he was ill with pneumonia. Keiser presented himself to the Eighth Army chief of staff who was shocked to see Keiser because he believed that Keiser should be in the hospital recovering.  Keiser was informed at that point not to worry too much because he was going to be given a good assignment even as his reputation was being downgraded.  Almost the entire military leadership was discredited so that MacArthur could appear the victor.

MacArthur, who was invincible, was defeated by “peasants.” His victory was going to be a victory for Christ fearing people and that failed, but he was regrouping fast as he talked about widening the war, using the atomic bomb, or abandoning Korea altogether (Declare Victory and Leave long before Trump).

MacArthur now talked up a storm of being the victim, blaming Washington, D.C. He must have willed something to Trump.

The Tenth Corps which was fighting for its life was described by MacArthur as fighting and doing heroic things, which was considered “madness” by General Ridgeway.

People who knew MacArthur observed that important facts were being withheld by MacArthur.

MacArthur went from keeping low troop numbers for use in combat expecting a Christmas victory and gift to the United States to talking about how he would have to take his troops away from Japan unless he got huge reinforcements. He went from talk of a flu to a pandemic. The larger war would give him redemption for his failure.

Press conferences held by his own staff would not declare any defeat and maintained that their intelligence about China had been right all along. That staff knew, it said, that immense amounts of troops from China were out there, but there was no answer when the press asked why they went into battle when our men were outnumbered 3 to 1. They knew everything and they were never wrong. Madness.

Washington got blamed for not supporting MacArthur and news media “friendly” to MacArthur carried that burden. Truman was angry about all this.

At home the divisions sharpened, putting more pressure on Truman and the Democrats. There would be no MacArthur Time’s Man of the Year and perhaps there will be no Trump Time’s Man of the Year in 2020. This time it could be The Washington Times’ Man of the Year (referring to the title of this article and not to the prestigious magazine). I would prefer The Washington Post No Bail for Trump. And today New York is the epicenter of the Corona Virus and it is not getting enough help from Washington. And today Donald Trump finds himself in a war that nobody wanted (even though he and his hawks tout that there are people that want this pandemic to continue so that he will fail). Will he fail? He has already failed and his power should be split up right now and forever.

Matt Ridgway arrived in Korea on December 26, 1950 to take over command of the Eighth Army (a day after Christmas). He started to do things his way. MacArthur, the “Supreme” one was losing power. MacArthur had been dreaming of the continuation of his power leading to the greatest recognition that could ever be achieved but during a war that nobody really wanted except for some hawks.  MacArthur was fired in April 1951 and did not make Times’ Man of the Year. This was Truman speaking on April 11, 1951 “To make sure that the precious lives of our fighting men are not wasted; to see that the security of our country and the free world is not needlessly jeopardized; and to prevent a third world war.” 

The time has come to fire Donald Trump. Republicans have been in power for 35 years of the 67 years since Dwight Eisenhower took office. That is about half of the time and I have never seen the Chinese Communists launch a nuclear attack on American soil or anywhere else for that matter (I used to take the bus to 14th Street and Union Square to shop in S. Klein’s which was the epicenter of the epicenter mentioned earlier). It clearly was not a case of Republican strength or Democratic weakness or vice versa that prevented the attack that was anticipated by key Republicans in the 1950s. That moment was about powerful people who found a way to manipulate the system which seems to have lasted for an eternity and seems to be getting worse with the protests over the closing of state economies. Trumpism is dividing US more in the effort to save lives. My last article dealt with that.  America deserves much better than that. It deserved better in 1950 also.

South Korea is warning about a second wave of the Corona Virus. Whether it’s a meat plant out west or the White House in our nation’s capital, we have to do much more. Trump has already talked out of both sides of his mouth since Friday. MacArthur, too, talked out of both sides of his mouth, drop the A-bomb or get the hell out of there (Korea). And Trump was talking about a tremendous package of financial relief for our people which leaders in the Republican Party do not want after printing more than $2 trillion of debt that will be paid by the people.

Kevin Hassett, the White House economic advisor, just admitted that it is “scary” working in the Trump White House now that two (or more) staff members have tested positive for the Corona Virus. It made me think of a political spin being a combination of April Fools Day (lies) and Halloween (scare tactics). With that said and with all the negativity written about MacArthur and Trump in my articles, Truman, who was a businessman and new to so much of being at the highest level of American and world government, was weak. The Republican spin was the Democrats lost China and pretty soon it was the Democrats lost Vietnam as Richard Nixon had no plan to win. Trump has won nothing but four years and he would probably declare war right now due to the attack on a rowboat by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, or the Palestinians. And his recent printing of the money is certainly going to be paid back by the people who were hardest hit by devastation of our economy.

Trump says those people who are getting the help were not to blame, but as early as 1917 leaders knew the real threat in their countries was communism fueled by terrible economic conditions. Now we have terrible economic conditions and our biggest threat is Trump and people around him. When the New Year entered in 2020 with no COVID-19 to speak about, no deaths reported in the United States, things appeared to be okay. There is now an economic and moral collapse that is the continuation of Trumpism which has been full of lies from the beginning of January 2017.

I started a Grope-A-Dope FACEBOOK page just a month before that, a catchy phrase that sounds like Rope-A-Dope reminding US of Muhammad Ali but featuring Smokin’ Joe Frazier and his son Marvis with me in their gym. Joe was looking out for me as I left the gym and Trump really has not looked out for the American people well as his own interests and the interests of his friends have been paramount. The American Dream never dies and it will not die even among those people who have lost loved ones due to Trump’s slow reactions during this pandemic. That dream will not die even though our nation quickly has become like much of Venezuela under Trump, something that Repugnicans were forecasting for America under a Democrat in 2021 and probably will continue to spin since there is no communist threat.

The Des Moines Register showed how fast and how devastating the American Dream has been slowed down by the sale of lottery tickets from March 2019 (the highest jackpot was $768 million) to March 2020 ($170 million). The American Dream will bounce back. It always does.  The dream is largely a myth that is fueled by its successes and by that constant reminder in print, in song (Only in America, Land of Opportunity), and in the media in general. America right now is in a Venezuela State of Mind (Americans seem to know it but are probably saying to themselves) as New York is suffering.

Joe Biden can weather the accusations of sexual harassment. Trump weathered Stormy Weather and much more and even as I publish this article Trump is in the courts of law fighting charges.

Matthew Ridgway took charge during the Korean War and that helped. He did much of it by the proper use of intelligence, including restoring the CIA which MacArthur threw in the garbage. Ridgway, to his credit, reshaped the military, knocking out racist attitudes against the Koreans and Chinese, focused on supplying the men better than MacArthur had done, making sure that the spreading out of our fighting forces would not take place again as it had under MacArthur and his Dai Ichi (the White House in Tokyo) leadership, and by removing lots of commanders that had long lost their value in battle.

A very interesting part of the history of the Korean War is the Chinese use of musical instruments such as bugles and flutes. The shrieking sounds did cause fear among our soldiers. In the summary of the changes made by Mathew Ridgway another sentence or so made this aspect of battle much clearer to me. Now you can read it and see just how feudal China was at a time when it fought against the richest nation in the world. “The bugles and flutes announcing their attacks could be terrifying in the middle of the night, but the truth was that, with only musical instruments, they could not react quickly to sudden changes on the battlefield. If they had a breakthrough, they often lacked the capacity to exploit it immediately.” The Chinese had no modern communication system that could compete with the United States so they used musical notes. Ridgway shifted the focus from conquering land in North Korea to contributing to great losses of life among the Chinese military.

Maybe we should all play bugles and flutes at night to scare off the evil that awaits US with four more years of false achievements and lies. The Corona Virus is a new virus and we cannot compare Trump’s record even to Woodrow Wilson’s record at the time of the Spanish Flu. The times have changed and there will be no Time’s Man of the Year Award for Trump nor El Hombre del Año en  El Tiempo Latino. Trump is MacArthur like as he has ignored the basics of his duty to our nation and he has to pay the price. From Main Street to the Oval Office, he has been responsible for the spread of the Corona Virus and his latest outburst against China yesterday was weak and infantile. He should have thought about using a flute or a bugle to ward off what is going to happen to him as he meets his destiny. Termination by the American people!

Looking at the latest support for opening the economy there is a shift taking place in favor of real patriotism and not economic patriotism. Trump’s supporters have kept up his rating in handling the Corona Virus (whatever that means), but now that 75 percent favor not opening up the states in order to save lives shows me that there is pride in numbers that could be significant in November and there are indicators of trouble in Trump territory right now as infections spike. That has to worry the Republican strategists, but the Repugnicans will not worry a bit. They just go along with the worst of Trump on just about every occasion. They have not shaken off the MacArthurism of 70 years.