[Mining for quotes by and about Donald Trump
is like hunting wild game in a zoo.]
“We have 20 percent of the cases [in the world] because of the fact that we do much more testing. If we wouldn’t do testing, you wouldn’t have cases. You would have very few cases.”
—Trump, repeating his absurd assertion that is equivalent to saying if you never take a pregnancy test, you won’t get pregnant. [And if you don’t ever slap on that Yella Fella, we won’t be laughing at that ridiculous fake tan.]
“If Joe Biden ever got in, I think you’d have a depression the likes of which we have never seen in this country. If you look at his policies, where he wants to raise everybody’s taxes.”
—Trump, in another false claim during his town hall meeting. {Biden does not propose raising taxes on anyone making less than $400,000. [Trump also claimed the greatest economy under his administration. The economy was better under both Bill Clinton and Eisenhower – and the tax rate for the richest Americans under Eisenhower was 90 percent.]
“I will say this: They said at the Democrat convention they’re going to do a national mandate. They never did it, because they’ve checked out and they didn’t do it. And a good question is, you ask like Joe Biden — they said we’re going to do a national mandate on masks.”
—Trump, at Tuesday’s town hall. [Uh…Mr. Trump, no one can initiate such a mandate except the president – and right now, that’s still you. Joe Biden has never been president and won’t be until next Jan. 20. So, what the hell do you even mean by that? Plus, Biden said that would be something governors would have to do, albeit at his urging.]
“Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear … Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power.”
—Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the complicity of churches with Hitler’s Germany.
“There is no more powerful force than a parent’s love for their children — and patriotic moms and dads are going to demand that their children are no longer fed hateful lies about this country.”
—Donald Trump, on Thursday, during ceremony commemorating the 233rd anniversary of the signing of the Constitution. [If only we could believe that. Instead, Trump says he will establish a commission he calls the 1776 Commission to promote patriotic education by “encouraging” educators to “teach” students “about the miracle of American history.” Excuse my cynicism, but that sounds a little too similar to indoctrination camps for my taste – and just who will write the history?]
Louisiana Voice 
On the last item: When I was in school we had to take a one-credit course called Americanism vs. Communism to graduate from both high school and college. When I posted this information on Facebook some people were astounded. How soon our past is forgotten. The courses were intended to engender and reinforce patriotism and warn us of the dangers of communism. I have to believe what the POTUS is proposing includes this content and rewrites history to support his authoritarian regime.
BTW, I failed the course in college the first time I took it. We only had one paper and a final exam and we received no grade but the final grade. The papers were not graded, simply reviewed by the instructor who wrote on mine that it was well-written, but was not on the assigned subject. I could not bring myself to write on the subject assigned so I took the reverse of its theme because I firmly believed there were points that cried out to be made in opposition and balance. When final grades were posted I was somewhat surprised (or maybe mildly shocked) to see I was the only one in my class (and perhaps any class since it was such a crip course) with an F. The next time I took the class I followed orders explicitly and got an A. True story.
I am a child of the 1950s….we were introduced to “propaganda” in about the 6th grade and we had a section on “what is propaganda, how is it used and how to recognize it?” in every grade in various subjects thru 12th grade. Of course, this was the time that Russia and Communism were accepted by ALL Americans as the enemy personified. I am thinking that more of this should be in our school curriculum, especially since we have so much media comin at us all of the time. Propaganda is real, it is not the truth and anyone can use it….not just the news. We should be careful what goes into our ears and enters our brains….
A big question: Why is civics not taught in school anymore? How can we expect people to make intelligent decisions about government if they know nothing about it? There should be at least one government course in high school and a required course in personal finance would also be a great idea. I guess teaching these subjects makes too much common sense.
for some reason, this again shows Bettye as the author of the post. Although she probably agrees, it is not her comment.
As a journalist, it has always been a pet peeve of mine that journalism schools (at least the one I attended at Louisiana Tech) did not include at least introductory classes in law and accounting as part of the journalism/mass communications curriculum requirements. If those students do go on to become reporters, they will have to deal with both subjects many times in writing about courts, budgets and audits many over the course of their careers.