Would Trump Get Away With Letting 2 Million Americans Die?
By Thom Hartmann A...
A joke floating around on the Internet says, "How do you know if you have coronavirus? Just cough in a rich person's face and wait for the results to come back." The joke highlights the fact that rich and powerful people all across the country are easily and quickly getting themselves tested, but people who may have been exposed - and in most of the country who may even have symptoms but not severe symptoms - can't get tested.The United States and South Korea diagnosed their first cases on the same day back toward the end of January. South Korea activated their pandemic response teams, had a test approved and deployed within a week, and have now tested over 300,000. They have this thing under control, and their hospitals are not melting down.
Trump, instead, chose not to put back into place the pandemic response teams that he had fired back two years ago, and gave responsibility for the coronavirus to Jared and Pence. Jared had his brother-in-law ask for advice on Facebook, producing a computer print out page of suggestions for people that Trump passed out last week. Mike Pence chose to basically do nothing. And so the world is watching as American hospitals are begging people to sew masks and protective clothing in their homes and donate them to the hospitals.
Over at the Senate, Mitch McConnell is trying to come up with a $500 billion slush fund that "Foreclosure King†Steve Mnuchin can give to anyone he wants with absolutely no oversight, no accountability, and no ability for the public to ever know how the money was used.
And now the media is reporting the Trump is getting "tired of social distancing." He's refused to even model it in his press conferences, demanding that his people cluster close to him, while Axios is reporting that Trump wants to encourage Americans to forget about the quarantine and go back to work so the market will go back up and he'll get reelected. And he wants his hotels bailed out as soon as possible.
Epidemiologists tell us the worst case scenario is 2 million dead Americans if we don't engage in massive social distancing right now. Trump is willing to let Americans die and to let this virus rage out of control, as long as there's a bail out for his own businesses and the Fed can get the stock market back up.
-Thom
Comments
#2
Basically what was said tonight is Trump is ignoring the success in other countries and is willing to let this Covfefe-19 virus win. He is also willing to ignore the highly trained epidemiologits advice. We will be banned from the rest of the industrial world while a good part of our senior citizens die off. Not to mention some under 60. It will start next Monday. Watch the charts for a few weeks after. Percentage compared to population we are all ready well past China. We had weeks of warning they had none.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Volunteers?
Floating the plan to get poll numbers. https://www.yahoo.com/news/pence-says-u-coronavirus-guidance-200046551.html
#3
The bill that is currently being negotiated is in the Senate, not the House. Pelosi is in the House. Once again a Trumpster cannot reference a source. I wonder why?
Trust me: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-whose-hotel-business-losing-041919009.html
#4
Can't get in on the phone today. You're asking "Why?" is Trump not doing what's necessary, what's his agenda?
We are at the endgame of the Libertarian ideology. Since their ideology is predicated on "Government is the problem; government can't do anything right", or, in Norquist's vernacular, "government should be small enough to drown it in a bathtub", then ANYTHING that the government does that is effective, that shows that ONLY the government can solve a problem -- especially a crisis like this pandemic -- completely undermines if not shreds that ideology.
They can't make the government to work effectively partly because, in Trump's case, he's spent all of his time in office wrecking the ability of our government to function effectively. But, it's really been a 40+ year project of the wealthy class. If government fails at this great test -- and he's doing everything he can to make it fail -- then they will proclaim that only Business can solve problems like this.
This is why he's left it to the States to handle without Federal help. Anything to wreck the Federal government's ability to show that it is the only resource that we have to handle a crisis like this. Which put him between a rock and a hard place, because he's being upstaged by the effective governors, especially Cuomo.
Unfortunately, it does look like he's willing to let millions die to confirm their destructive ideology. I suspect he's getting a lot of pressure from the likes of the Kochs and Mercers to let it fail, too.
#5
trump's call to return to 'business as usual' matches his m.o. He creates a condition that allows him to proclaim responsibility doesn't lie with him. The likelihood we will go back to business as usual is next to none, and the likelihood that things will continue to get worse is high. When things are very bad they won't be his fault; he wanted to do something different. Just like complaining about voter fraud before the election: If he lost it will be the voter fraud he forecast. If he wins he just controls the message and those details are lost to the noise over just a few days or weeks. Just like he wanted to release his tax returns 'but they are under audit' - fooled enough people for long enough and his noise machine covers it up long enough to be largely forgotten. And so forth. In his world he creates his own reality and therefore is incapable of dealing with (or understanding) real problems. Anyway, that is my hypothesis.
#6
Tinhip:
My, my, aren't you the busy little troll today. What, have you quarantined with nothing better to do than to slouch on the couch, eating snacks with Fux News programming your brain at high decibels, filling up on the big-lies-and-half-truths du jour? And now you come here to enlighten us with the pregnant contents of a fading memory bursting to get out before it's lost forever in all the confusion? Your time would be spent more wisely on that dust-laden elliptical hidden in the basement. Cardiovascular exercise does wonders for the old brain.
Legend nailed you: "Once again a Trumpster cannot reference a source. I wonder why?" Do you even understand why someone would naturally ask that?
That's the problem with purveying Republican lies; the usual sources are just more wingnuttery and lies. Here, let me help you remember where such strange and just plain weird thoughts came from that you have dutifully regurgitated onto this blog:
The usual robotic mouthpieces on Fux News, Winger Radio, and the Swamp Net happily mischaracterized Biden's overall point, which was a correct assessment rooted in truth. And members of the cult who flaunt a nutjob who has seriously lied to them almost 17,000 times since inauguration (15 a day) and who can't string two thoughts together without contradicting himself and his staff on a regular basis, should be more self-aware of their wretched yet nonetheless laughable hypocrisy of criticizing the way Biden happens to speak.
I read a lot and had no problem understanding exactly what he said and meant. Are you having trouble digesting the give and take of long conversation? You know that's a worrying sign, don't you? If your reading comprehension is still somewhat intact, here's the record:
As for post #4, it is of course filled with inaccuracies, but consider your source (Tom Cotton, one of the biggest liars in the Senate):
Note: The Post Office debt was largely incurred because Republicans hate guvmunt-run anything and also passionately desire to destroy one of the biggest employee unions left standing in the bloodbath of anti-unionism (anti-workerism), and so they mandated that the PO must fund their pension out 75 years, which no other company anywhere is required to do ...because it's so stupid:
https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/
The United States Post Office -- one of the longest, most reliable and venerable public institutions for the common good in the history of civilization -- will also be mandated to prioritize medical supplies, as the cheapest, most efficient distributor of all carriers, public or private. Does that even need to be referenced?!
Also, note that the airlines would have to, hopefully, cut their emissions by 2050, not "2025" and not merely "offset" them, as you so carelessly posted. Sadly, for one of the biggest polluting industries in the world, this does not go far enough to reign in these climate-destroying bastards, especially after they squandered their big taxpayer-funded tax-cut giveaways to buy back their own stock to enrich the already fabulous rich and lucky few born with silver spoons in their hog lips. Rapacious executives never even consider a rainy-day fund, because they know from long experience that the guvmunt will bail them out. Ain't corporate socialism just f*cking great! Lots and lots of free sh*t!
Here's a pithy outline of the Democratic proposal. Although much superior to the Republican slush-fund funny book for billionaires and their fat cash cows (also referenced below), it sure ain't perfect by a long shot but is still a fairer compromise with the moneyed class on the other side of our hopeless political divide -- political goons infused with so much fat-cat donor cash stuffed in big pockets that their half of the body can no longer function as an independent democratic institution. They're tethered neither to reality nor the spirit of the Constitution (Hello, Moscow Mitch!):
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/23/house-democrats-stimulus-senate-coronavirus-145388
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/03/23/trump-coronavirus-senate-economic-stimulus/
What the hell; that's just politics. Please let the damn process work out before packing it full of troll lies and bile on Thom's Blog. To their credit, DC politicians are actually working hard and fast -- this time around anyway -- to hammer out an all-important stimulus package to get urgent help to the businesses and people who are affected so disastrously by the pandemic. All of the people!
As your fellow troll-buddy doorknobs said, "We'll get this through this together." It certainly does not help to lie and spread disinformation. Such miscreant behavior is either plain stupid or criminally insane. It's no doubt a good chunk of both. So why is King Trump the Orange Liar doing that when so many people are suffering and dying and looking for real leadership?
The answer is in the question.
#7
We can all learn from deepspace. Thank you.
#8
Back at ya. You've been haunting these alleyways much longer, keeping it real.
KR: Your hypothesis is well presented and sounds pretty damn convincing. There, it is now officially peer-reviewed and can advance to the experimental and observational stages of the scientific method. Onward to theory! };--))
scottmk: ditto
Hephaestus: Poetic and thoughtful as always.
#9
Double post.
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Seems a guvment 'bean counter' decision like some >+100.000 human dead is cool just as long as billionaires keep getting covid tested and making dosh whilst living in their bunkers... isn't Emurica just great for all us christians?
In US human life is worth less than fiat paper money
Shameful!