Preface
For any new readers here, I'm not a Republican or a Democrat. I, however, have been a keen observer of American politics since 1956. I'm a strong believer in Capitalism, but not the Crony-Casino-Derivative Capitalism we have today... which is nothing but a racket, and promulgated by the public and private Plutocrats who run this country.
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For the past two+ months, the Administration's lies (or at best, completely ignorant statements) about covid-19 continued on, and on. Finally, Trump and Crew were forced by reality to do a 180 degree turn on their view of the subject. No one any longer believed what they had been saying.
Examples of previous statements---
1. The virus is "tightly contained" in the U.S.
2. It will be "gone by April".
3. One day soon, it will "just disappear".
4. Unemployment will be "nowhere near 20%".
5. "We're doing very good [in handling the crisis], very, very good.". ~ DJT I assume he meant, "very well". No, Mr. President, you're not doing well in handling much of anything... not even presently.
Now, Trump has jumped onto the bandwagon... with too little, too late.
Here's the current situation for the USA---
1. COVID-19 confirmed cases: over 239,000. Total number of cases: unknown.
2. Deaths: over 5,800 (which far surpasses those of the 9-11 attacks).
[Numbers above were updated at 8:30 PM, Mountain Time.]
3. Testing still lagging behind.
4. PPE for med facilities and First Responders still inadequate.
5. Unemployment projected/predicted to be about 30% in June. [It was 25% in the 1930's Great Depression.]
6. The probability is high that, if we're not already in one, by this summer we'll be in a full-blown economic Depression. The metrics are all there.
Trump called covid-19 the "Chinese virus". I guess that makes H1N1 (swine flu) the "American virus". It, too, was a pandemic; it lasted a bit over a year & a half. By Trump's reasoning, arguably we could refer to the current situation with covid-19 in the USA as Trump's Epidemic. His treatment of most of the crisis thus far has been dismissive, inadequate, and ignorant. Had he taken things seriously in the past 2 - 3 months, we would be in much better shape at the present time. Until just recently, his main concern has been for Wall Street, not Main Street.
March 7th the U.S. had 401 confirmed cases and 19 deaths. Compare that to the numbers above. Because of a slow initial response by the Fed Gov't, this is only going to get worse... much worse.
We can't blame only Trump & Crew, though, for this public health disaster. For decades, public health funding has been cut again and again and again. Neoliberal policies promulgated by the Oligarchs and Plutocrats (both public & private) have been the reason. The cuts started out years ago in the mental health field, but quickly moved to include physical health as well. Why? I only can speculate, but consider the following.
1. The Super Rich live in a different universe than do the rest of us. I doubt many of them care much about people who have to use public health facilities. They probably consider such people leeches of some sort. As long as the Rich can get private health care for themselves, they don't care about public health care. I mean, in general.
2. Plus, the Plutocrats most likely don't see any benefit to themselves in having public money spent on such facilities. They would rather have it spent on something that allows them to get a piece of the pie... such as war machines, highways, or subsidies for the fossil fuel industry... just to name a few items.
3. In general, Plutocrats/Oligarchs are Neoliberals, and Neoliberalism greatly favors privatization. The goal is to privatize the whole world, and that goal is well on its way to being met.
Then we have the non-resilient, weak, and generally poor condition of our economy... headed for a Depression. That can't all be blamed on Trump & Crew, either. For decades, both public and private Oligarchs have been (in general) converting our economy to one of just-in-time production--- in whatever factories that haven't moved South or overseas--- and to one of suppressed wages & salaries (which means people cannot save for a rainy day), and financialization, and part-time jobs, and reduced benefits, and deregulation (especially regarding Banking), and job insecurity. As a result, we simply cannot weather much of any type of economic and/or financial storm. The condition of our economy is almost always extremely precarious, and that's been true for years. All it takes is one Black Swan to bring it down.
So, what are the general solutions to all of the above? Specific solutions would have to be proposed by people with specific expertise in several fields. In general, though, it seems to me the following would be helpful. First (and I've said it many times here), we must stop drinking the Edward Bernays style Propaganda Kool Aid coming from Oligarchs (public & private) in both major political Parties. Second, we must get rid of Neoliberalism; it benefits only the Rich and Powerful. The rest of us get austerity. Incidentally, in practical terms, there's very little difference between NeoCons and NeoLibs. Third, we must recognize that our economy has been almost always a Mixed Economy, meaning a mixture of both capitalism and democratic socialism. [See *** footnote below.] In that system, unlike Crony-Casino-Derivative Capitalism or Totalitarian Socialism, we can have--- among other benefits--- both a strong economy and a well-prepared and strong public health complex. It's all possible, but not without ignoring plutocratic propaganda.
*** For any who disagree with the contention that we have some socialism in our system, I offer this--- what do think public roads, public water systems, the VA Health Care System, Social Security, etc. are? They are socialism in action. I would not prefer to have all roads/highways as private toll roads, maintained by a gazillion different private companies with a gazillion different prices/fees for use. Would you? Some utilities must be publicly maintained and operated or else the public, sooner or later, will wind up getting shafted. Plus, for some things it's virtually impossible to have "competition" play any role at all. For example, interstate highways--- do you believe that we could have a dozen or more roads--- side by side--- with different fees competing for your dollar, roads running from, say, L.A. to Chicago? I don't think so. That's why we have public roads, and that's democratic socialism. Please get over any distaste for the word, "socialism". It has been in our system for decades and decades. Even in the 1800's, we had socialism for the Rich. Railroads were given vast tracts of lands (on both sides of the tracks, extending way beyond what they needed just for construction) by the Fed Gov't because the politicians wanted to encourage such construction... they knew the value of the railroad system to the country. Hence, a massive "Handout". That's socialism.
Not only my opinion. Be Well
