The US is heading for having the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world next week. Admittedly the US is a big country and it still won’t have the highest number of cases per capita. But it won’t even be in the running for the country with the fewest per capita. The United States was once the most advanced country in the world. America put a man on the moon. To have Germany and South Korea outflank us in dealing with the disaster is an enormous disgrace.
Author: peterimrich
![US President Donald Trump reacts during the coronavirus response daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC on April 10, 2020 [Reuters/Yuri Gripas]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2020/4/11/b4667d8bab064e3dbfbe5d10b3e38b3a_18.jpg "The coronavirus crisis: How Trump is failing successfully")
From the outset, Trump misled the nation about the imminent danger of a coronavirus outbreak. In February, a month into the epidemic, he was reassuring the public that there was nothing to worry about, that all was under control.
And although he now denies it, Trump is on the record repeatedly underestimating the virus’s contagion, deadliness and disruption.
The question is, why? Why did he insist that the pandemic was under “tremendous control” and that the number of those infected would be brought down to zero?
via The coronavirus crisis: How Trump is failing successfully | USA | Al Jazeera
Professor Ih-Jen Su began annual rehearsals of a possible pandemic from China almost two decades ago after SARS killed more than 20 per cent of people it infected in Taiwan.
via Coronavirus: Taiwan has population the same as Australia’s but a fraction of the cases
Western Culture looks less Western these days.
Whose Muslim? Whose Christian? Complexion protectors or Hijabs. Middle East was always hot; Now we all keep our distance and out of the sun.
Fighting Fake News with REAL,12/4/20; The Hidden Face of Western Culture; Perth Hottest April ever; News Corp promotes the vilification of Chinese Australians;
A Final Comment
COVID-19 is a global issue, falsely called the “Wuhan virus” by Trump and other regime officials. Most likely it originated in the US, not China.
On April 7, UK-based Nature magazine apologized for associating COVID-19 with China, saying:
“That we did so was an error on our part, for which we take responsibility and apologize,” adding:
“(W)hen (a viral) outbreak happens, everyone is at risk, regardless of who they are or where they are from.”
“(A)ssociat(ing) a virus and the disease it causes with a specific place is irresponsible and needs to stop.”
Since early COVID-19 outbreaks, “people of Asian descent around the world have been subjected to racist attacks, with untold human costs” — Chinese nationals mostly affected.
“(W)e must all do everything we can to avoid and reduce stigma; not associate COVID-19 with particular groups of people or places; and emphasize that viruses do not discriminate — we are all at risk.”
“Coronavirus stigma must stop — now.”
via Trump Escalates War on China by Other Means – Stephen Lendman
Be prepared for WAR (ODT)
via A General once Warned against Military-Industrial Complex: Today’s West Point Mafia is It
Key points:
The ATO’s corporate tax transparency data again shows that hundreds of companies have been able to reduce their tax bills to zero
ATO deputy commissioner Rebecca Saint said the agency was still seeing some companies avoid tax by shifting profits offshore
Company financial accounts do not always give the full picture of tax positions and the ATO wants companies to be more transparent
There have been unsubstantiated rumours floating around that alleged the parents of Hawke’s wife Amelia were onboard the Ruby Princess along with some friends from the Hillsong Church.
Regardless, the growing influence of the Pentacostals in our government is of grave concern, as is their growing influence amongst our young people.
Why was the Colour Conference allowed to continue? Have any cases of coronavirus been linked to it? Who made phone calls to allow the Ruby Princess to dock after initially being refused permission? What charitable works does Hillsong undertake to avoid paying tax? And why are people like Alex Hawke and Stuart Robert Ministers?
Britain is ready to do America’s job and kill Assange in prison (ODT)
Trump announced a website under development by “1700 engineers at Google” which would would quiz Americans on their symptoms and pair them with the appropriate test facility.
The website didn’t exist. And by April 1 the grand total of drive-through testing facilities on the parking lots of these companies came in at five. And those five offered testing only to first responders and healthcare workers, not the general public. But it doesn’t matter now, because Trump is pulling the funding for those sites—and for every other drive-through testing site.
via WTF? Federal Funding For Coronavirus Testing Being Pulled | Crooks and Liars
The US needs enemies to pursue its imperial agenda. None exist so they’re invented.
Most often they’re sovereign independent nations the US doesn’t control, making them a prime targets for regime change — notably if they’re oil rich like Iran and Venezuela or powerful enough to challenge US hegemonic aims like Russia and China.
Time and again, US regimes falsely blame other nations for their own wrongdoing.
Russia is a prime target, blamed repeatedly by US hardliners for things it had nothing to do with.
The Russians did it Big Lie has a life of its own, notably because US establishment media operate as press agents for the imperial state and other privileged interests — at the expense of truth and full disclosure.
China is a prime target because of its growing prominence on the world stage politically, economically and militarily.
Major Sino/US differences have nothing to do with trade, everything to do with Washington wanting China marginalized, weakened, contained and isolated industrially, technologically, and militarily.
Will Trump’s actions flatten the curve and put the pandemic on an irreversible downward course in daily cases and deaths, as he produces a U-turn, if not a V-turn, dramatically driving the economy upward from depression and toward national prosperity?
Can he revive the economy without reviving the virus?
Or will the coronavirus so severely cripple the economy that the depression it produces will kill the Trump presidency?
via Trump’s Presidency Hangs on One Decision, by Pat Buchanan – The Unz Review
I’m sorry you will not be president, but I understand and appreciate your decision to end your quest at this point
It’s what China understands and turns to offer global assistance and what the US and Australian ultra conservatives ignore with their early calls of back to work while they social distance (ODT)
While the politicians offer reassurance, the scientists urge vigilance. And it is worth heeding the science. The medical experts who advise the government expect this threat to continue in waves for years.
Even if we eradicate the disease in Australia, says James McCaw of the Doherty Institute and the University of Melbourne, the virus will spread around the world and easily return.
“That epidemic in some places may also go locally extinct after a small or a large wave,” he says. “But it’s almost implausible to imagine this virus going extinct globally, which means that it will be here to stay. It will become a part of our everyday life and the transition to it not being a huge driver of complete societal change is a very difficult thing to work through.”
via Coronavirus Australia: This virus could change the way we live for years, not months
key points:
Medical experts said influenza spikes, which occurred this year in NSW, would strain hospitals
Both the flu and COVID-19 shared identical symptoms and would frustrate data-collection for both
Evidence from China and Italy showed lockdowns needed to be enforced for several monthsNews Corp says otherwise demanding we go back to work( ODT)
We’ve seen an impressive level of federal-state co-operation where the two tiers of government have each contributed, led and even persuaded each other. The federal government led on shutting borders, for example, while the states pushed the feds to accelerate shutdowns of restaurants, cafes and especially schools. We’ve seen a federal government that has consistently described fiscal stimulus for a flagging economy as reckless, embrace it at unprecedented levels; a government that flatly refused to increase the Newstart allowance suddenly double it; a Liberal-led government introduce a wage subsidy.
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via Coronavirus Australia: For a moment, at least, our politicians are behaving like grown-ups
As millions of believers in the religions of The Book prepare to celebrate a sanctified time, many among their ranks ignore the pandemic’s potency.
Despite a ban on driving beyond one’s home, a certain prince of the Catholic Church George Pell embarks on a road trip which crosses the New South Wales border from Victoria, to take up residence in palatial accommodation on Sydney’s outskirts.
And as Ultra-Orthodox Jews fail to observe social distancing rules in Israel, Muslims around the world come to terms with the need to cremate their mounting dead.
In the United States of America hundreds of thousands of devout Christians switch on televangelists in a vain attempt to ward off the ravages of their nation’s catastrophic response to the worst outbreak of illness since the incubation of the Spanish Flu in Kansas.
And as the Arts mourn the loss of many from its ranks, the actions of a buffoonish NSW Minister for the Arts diminishes the efficacy of art in a time of crisis.
And so the last words of my Easter story come with an apology to my favourite artist and poet, T.S. Eliot:
“This is the way the world ends, not with bang but a” virus.
via A not so Good Friday – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Intercept’s Mehdi Hasan speaks with Senior Correspondent Naomi Klein about coronavirus capitalism and the selective use of emergency measures to offload risks onto workers and families, while the people who are relatively more secure get no-strings-attached bailouts.
via Live: Mehdi Hasan and Naomi Klein on Coronavirus Capitalism
Even after two decades of nearly unmitigated strategic failure in the Middle East coupled with the disastrous self-harm of unchecked defense spending, it seems that significant portions of the U.S. elite have still not awoken from their intoxication with foreign wars of choice. Amid a global pandemic that could kill millions and cripple the American economy for years to come, there are strong signs that the U.S. military might be ordered to embark on yet another war in Iraq
If this war does take place, we can place it into a larger context: a once-powerful country depleting its strength through costly military adventures in distant lands, but institutionally incapable of providing the basics of life for its people at home.
via Coronavirus Exposes How Foreign Wars Bled America’s Resources Dry
Casualisation of the workforce disproportionally affects younger generations. From Amazon’s big MEL1 sweatshop to even the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), the gig economic proliferates. Millennial lawyer Geordie Wilson reports that even the Australian Government is casualising its workforce at an astounding rate. In this, the first of our series Millennials vs Boomers, Wilson says illegal workplace practices appear to be rife even in the public service. It is something the Baby Boomers generation would hardly have even contemplated as, back in the day, they sought secure government jobs and the protection of the law.
via Boomers vs Millennials: the gig economy breaks & enters the Australian Public Service – Michael West
His motives.
If hydroxychloroquine becomes an accepted treatment, several pharmaceutical companies stand to profit, including shareholders and senior executives with connections to the president. Mr. Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.
Who would have guessed? Well, just about anyone not deeply deluded by Trump’s claims to put America first.
via Surprise! Donald Trump Has A Financial Stake In Hydroxychloroquine | Crooks and Liars
And Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University history professor who has long warned of Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, said his advocacy of hydroxychloroquine is more proof of his willingness to help his friends and donors who manufacture the drug while building himself up as the people’s only savior.
“It is hard to accept that we have a president who truly does not care if we live or die, especially at such a tragic moment in our history, but the sooner we recognize this the better off we will be,” she said. “The rationales of saving lives or acting for the public good don’t enter into his thinking.”
News Corp has certainly been fuelling Sinophobia as it did Islamophobia and anti African sentiments yet we have Racial vilification laws and the goverenment simply stands by and watches. (ODT)
Here are some recent examples of racism outbreaks:
people who appear to be Asian in origin being abused at supermarkets;
a Malaysian student being denied rental accommodation;
the Chinese being blamed for the virus;
Chinese restaurants seeing a marked drop off in patronage;
students at some schools being mocked as “Coronas” in the playground (my son has witnessed this personally);
my niece – of Indian ancestry – and another young girl being abused on a train in Melbourne — the abuse was about them “being the problem” that led the abuser to have to take his children out of school;
snide remarks being made to people of general “Asian” appearance; and
talkback hosts allowing these comments to go to air without regard for community outcomes.
Minutes after Pell’s conviction was quashed by the high court, the News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt posted a blog saying the cardinal was innocent and pointing the finger at the ABC for allegedly conducting a witch-hunt to have him convicted.
One doesn’t need to be a genius to note News Corp and the IPA have had a self interested agenda to rid the nation of the ABC. Bolt couldn’t have a more nepotistic up-close and personal relationship with the IPA. His son James works for them Bolt did podcasts with Roxham a regular on his Bolt Report and now father and son interchange on each others shows. It seems grooming is a term better used to describe what’s occurring here rather than any notion of market place merit.
Their agenda has been pure and simple to rid Australia of the ABC the most trusted news service in the country and to set up a quid pro quo relationship as exists in the USA where Murdoch Media’s Fox Corp is the quasi voice of the WhiteHouse press. Their agenda to take control of the political/economic narrative of the nation in the interests of Citizens United and other donor associated think tanks that represent 1% of the country. The IPA has grown in immense influence in Australia while our unions have been reduced. They have develpoped pathways to LNP politics for their staff and like no other association this century their 75 pt political agenda has been taken up as the policies since the Howard and accelerated under the Abbott government.
No Cut’s to the ABC have become 1000 cuts under Abbott/Turnbull/ Morrison’s LNP despite the outcry of Australians. So much so the ABC budget has been flatlined back to 1984. Death by a 1000 cuts is better understood as the News Corp/IPA/ LNP-2020 virus an intended and terminal condition. (ODT)
Of course, the top priority now is to put public health and safety first. To that end, employees across the country are now thinking about refusing to obey orders to work in unsafe job conditions. U.S. capitalism has thus placed a general strike on today’s social agenda. A close second priority is to learn from capitalism’s failure in the face of the pandemic. We must not suffer such a dangerous and unnecessary social breakdown again. Thus system change is now also moving onto today’s social agenda.
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via COVID-19 and the Failures of Capitalism | The Smirking Chimp
In other words, actions offering greater protection to the majority of the population would restart the economy in a truly sustainable fashion, while bringing back both jobs and confidence. But that, in turn, would involve a bold and courageous political response providing genuine and proportionate stimulus for people. Unfortunately, given Washington’s 1% tilt and Donald Trump’s CEO empathy, that is at present inconceivable.
via Wall Street Wins — Again: Bailouts in the Time of Coronavirus | The Smirking Chimp
Trump is a self-renewing mind fuck, soul fuck, spirit fuck, hope fuck, sanity fuck. Struggling to put him from our minds is a mark of sanity, but it is nearly impossible to achieve. We know this oaf and his idiosyncracies, his stunningly inappropriate responses to people and things, his crassness, and quirks, his gestures, the way he walks, the rhythms of his disjointed sentences, his very essence. We know the small details of his personality as well or better than we do the people who are closest to us. We can finish his sentences for him.
Because the toxicity of Trump has become so ubiquitous, so engrained, so embedded–rather like a virus–we can barely begin to imagine what it is to live in a world unsullied by the poison. But if you saw or heard Queen Elizabeth’s address to the people of Great Britain yesterday, then you might have been reminded of what is missing here in the United States as we struggle to deal–collectively or personally–with this unfolding viral disaster. Trump sours us, divides us, makes us forget any sense of this country that could give us pride in ourselves, that could buck us up. So we endure the virus while also enduring him.
olddogthoughts 
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