“...danger from another kind of slavery...that would result from aggregations of capital in the hands of a few individuals and corporations controlling, for their own profit and advantage exclusively, the entire business of the country, including the production and sale of the necessities of life.” John Marshall Harlan, written in 1911.
The death toll from Covid-19 in the United States is nearing 4,000.
The healthcare system in America, based on the profit motive, is a tragic and deadly joke. The all-powerful Free Market cannot, will not, ever, be capable of, or more to the point, willing, to provide healthcare to every American. Sooner or later, every human being will need healthcare, and when that day arrives, no human being should be denied care because he or she cannot afford care. Still think Medicare for All is a bad idea? Still think we cannot afford it as a society?
What the fuck is wrong with this country? When did our soul shrivel up? When did we lose all belief in the dignity of work? Perhaps we never had such a belief. I suppose I’m a product of my generation, a kid whose father was a union meat cutter in the quarter century after World War II, the era before the idea really took hold that the only responsibility corporations had was to make a profit. Before the major bloodletting of the working class, de-industrialization, the Rust Belt, NAFTA, endless automation and the rise of finance capitalism, before the language and logic of the Market invaded every crevice of our lives.
Are you feeling scattered, distracted, off-balance? I am. I also feel a sense of foreboding. My wife’s hours are being reduced, down to between ten and fifteen a week. This is understandable, and we will likely be able to survive it. Like most working Americans, we don’t have a cushion to fall back on in case the wheels totally fall off.
Things Donald Trump knows “better than anybody”:
Windmills
South Korea
Science (all branches)
Islamic State
Pharmacology
I’m afraid Americans will forget how Trump and his gang bungled the federal response to this pandemic, from the nonchalant dismissals in January and February, the lies about availability of testing, scapegoating China, blaming the Obama Administration (we inherited a broken system, Trump claims, citing no evidence), failing to swiftly nationalize the production of ventilators, masks, gloves, gowns, swabs, and other protective products to protect frontline healthcare workers, and relieve hospitals and state governments of competing with each other for these critical items. How absurd is it for the state of New York to be locked in a bidding war (benefiting only the company that produces the product) with Michigan for life-saving equipment? This isn’t the time for profiteering, but try telling that to Donald Trump, who clearly believes these products should go to the highest bidder, not where they are most needed to save lives.
Boast, bluster, brag (our tests are the best in the world, says Trump), bullshit, bully, bloviate.
We cannot allow our memories to fade. With plenty of help from FOX News, Trump is trying to bury the facts under an avalanche of falsehoods, and the corporate media is helping with live coverage of Trump’s daily propaganda show. We can’t play this George Orwell-style and allow Trump to escape down the memory hole and evade responsibility for his lethal failure to act. Trump is a fraud and a grifter, with blood on his hands. Until the markets tumbled, Covid-19 was nothing more than an annoyance for him, and it wasn’t until the bodies started piling up that he seemed to grasp that not only is this thing real, but if he screwed up it could cost him a second term. He’s running his con against a deadly pandemic. We are his marks.
I miss football. I was really looking forward to the reverse fixture between Manchester City and Real Madrid in the Champions League, and to see if Chelsea would finish in the Top 4 in the Premier League after an inconsistent first season under manager Frank Lampard. God, I miss football.
In 23 days I will turn 61.
This pandemic is why competence in government matters, and why the federal government can’t be treated like a stepchild, ignored, starved, ridiculed, and shoved under the stairs. Trump loaded his cabinet and key departments with toadies and sychophants, opportunists and petty thieves, dickheads who don’t know the first thing about public service. Coupled with Trump’s personal incompetence, is it any wonder the federal response to the pandemic has been disastrous? What we see happening today is why a second-rate reality TV personality can’t sit in the White House making life and death decisions. Every Republican who has turned a blind eye and deaf ear to Trump’s idiocy, racism, narcissism, and stupidity is a coward, a complicit coward. The GOP could have, should have, convicted and removed this dangerous fool from office in February, but with the exception of Mitt Romney, every last one fell in line to suck Trump’s flaccid penis. The first to fall to his knees and open his mouth was Mitch McConnell. Then came Lindsey Graham, who never rises from his knees or closes his mouth. Devin Nunes would hand over half his government salary for a chance to be sodomized by Donald Trump.
Yes, I’m wound up today, very pissed off.
If we have an election in November, our contestants will be Demented Donald Trump v. Decrepit Joseph Biden. A vote of what, for what? Obviously, at this point I’d vote for a mannequin if it meant chasing Donald Trump from the White House. But Joseph Biden, are you fucking kidding me? Not at a time like this. No, can’t be, say it ain’t so, say it ain’t Joe. When he comes on stage to accept the nomination for the Democrats, Biden will be dragging behind him a cloth sack full of stone tablets, each tablet inscribed with a statement, policy position, bill supported, and war agitated for during his long, banal public career. That sack might weigh a ton.
No comments:
Post a Comment