Category: Uncategorized
HE’S YOUR PRESIDENT AMERICA (ODT)
via This Humiliating Failure Is Actually Our President During a National Crisis | The Smirking Chimp
Trump’s doing nothing but scapegoating 1) the Chinese, 2) Impeachment,3) the States (ODT)
WIthout federal intervention, states and hospitals may only become more vulnerable to the demands of brokers and speculators outside the normal supply chain, said Chaun Powell, vice president for strategic supplier engagement at the national health care consultant Premier Inc., which helps negotiate contracts for hospitals and health systems.
State data shows that New York is paying enormous markups for vital supplies, including almost $250,000 for an X-ray machine. Laws against price gouging usually don’t apply.
QUID PRO QUO Opportunity (ODT)
That may be true, but the loans that Trump has with Deutsche Bank are personally guaranteed—meaning that if the president is unable to repay them, Deutsche Bank would be able to come after the personal assets of the president of the United States to settle the debt. We’re looking at the possibility of a face-off between the most powerful politician on Earth and a German bank that has struggled financially in recent years and run into trouble with U.S. law enforcement and bank regulators—all in the shadow of a global crisis. This is pretty much the worst-case scenario posited by ethics experts when Trump took office and refused to sell off his assets. .
via Trump Asks Deutsche Bank and Palm Beach County to Give His Businesses a Break – Mother Jones
Trump wilfully ignored the briefings given him in February (ODT
“The Intelligence Community has warned about the threat from highly pathogenic influenza viruses for two decades at least. They have warned about coronaviruses for at least five years,” adding:
“There have been recent pronouncements that the coronavirus pandemic represents an intelligence failure…It’s letting people who ignored intelligence warnings off the hook.”
The Pentagon predicted large-scale outbreaks and shortages of critical personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical staff and the public.
The Pentagon report states the following:
“Competition for, and scarcity of resources will include…non-pharmaceutical MCM (Medical Countermeasures) (e.g., ventilators, devices, personal protective equipment such as face masks and gloves), medical equipment, and logistical support. This will have a significant impact on the availability of the global workforce.”
via US Knew of Novel Coronavirus Threat, Failed to Prepare – Stephen Lendman
So for the Brussels bureaucracy, the Health Silk Road is not about saving lives; it’s about “destabilizing” the EU and improving Xi Jinping’s domestic image after China lied, lied and lied again about the extent and severity of coronavirus. That happens to be the exact same narrative of the Trump administration, US corporate media and US intelligence.
Does it matter? Not for those 89 nations that are receiving much-needed help and equipment. The dogs of demonization bark while the Health Silk Road caravan passes.
via China rolls out the Health Silk Road, by Pepe Escobar – The Unz Review
Remember when the Surplus was Everything (ODT)
Both of these facts around this part of the government’s response expose the brazen hypocrisy at the core of Neoliberalism. The takeaway is this: these governments have the money for increased social safety net programmes and infrastructure, but they choose to not invest in these things. To put it crudely, the issue is not ‘we can’t afford these programmes’, you fuckers are just unwilling to pay for them! A blank cheque and the keys to the treasury for the political donor class with crumbs and scraps for the serfs! As the Irish poet W.B. Yeats said ‘the centre cannot hold’.
the U.S. dithered, maintaining business as normal and allowing large shipments of American-made respirators and ventilators to be sold to foreign buyers.
via Key Medical Supplies Exported From U.S. to Foreign Buyers
Only when COVID-19 testers get to test more widely do we stand a chance of avoiding the worst this virus can dish out. That is what the overseas evidence is telling us. The governments in Australia seem to realise this. Western Australia Health Minister, Roger Cook, unveiled expanded testing will start on Thursday. The other states are thought to be doing the same.
via Doing a Wuhan – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Virgin using the Coronavirus to sell the business for more than it’s worth (ODT)
via Virgin Australia: buy the business, don’t bail out the shareholders – Michael West
Wow, so Mitch McConnell just admitted, whether it’s true or not, that the slow response by the federal government to the COVID-19 was due to Trump’s own criminality. Remember, he was IMPEACHED. Apparently Trump’s federal government can’t chew gum and walk at the same time.
via Mitch McConnell Shamelessly Blames Trump’s Crimes For Delayed Pandemic Response | Crooks and Liars
In any event, it’s extremely unlikely that Putin will agree to reduce oil production in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. That’s not what he wants at all. What Putin wants from Washington is far more comprehensive. He wants the US to rejoin the community of nations so they can deal collaboratively on critical issues like war, pandemic, nuclear proliferation and global security. He wants a reliable partner that will play by the rules, comply with international law, stop the bloody regime change wars, respect the sovereignty of other nations, and lend a hand with global crises.
That’s what he wants. He wants an ally that will respect the interests of others, cooperate on issues of mutual importance, and work to create a more equitable and prosperous global economy.
If Trump shows he is willing to change, then Putin will undoubtedly make every effort to help out. But if Trump continues with America’s go-it-alone approach, there’s not going to be a deal
via Trump asks Putin for help in Oil War, by Mike Whitney – The Unz Review
The White House coronavirus task force still won’t call for a national stay-at-home order, despite calls from medical professionals and researchers to do so to curb the spread of the virus in places.
As Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx explained during Tuesday night’s task force update that the total number of deaths in the U.S. could rise to 100,000 to 240,000, President Donald Trump avoided explaining why the administration hasn’t imposed a stay-at-home order yet.
Instead, Trump talked about how the death toll would have reached up to 2 million people if he had done nothing at all.
via Trump’s Task Force Still Won’t Call For A National Stay-At-Home Order | HuffPost Australia
The warning calls, while not shrill, are in evidence. An epidemiological battle is taking shape, though it remains one dominated by parrying disagreements of expertise. Britain’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance has much praise for the approach, having made similar suggestions to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the “herd immunity” phase of discussions. In contrast, a petition featuring over 2,000 doctors, scientists and academics, which boast among its numbers the chairman of the Nobel Foundation, Prof Carl-Henrik Heldin, has called for more aggressive measures. “It is risky to leave it to people to decide what to do without any restrictions,” opines a paternalistic Joacim Rocklöv, an epidemiologist based at Umeå University. “As can be seen from other countries this is a serious disease, and Sweden is no different than other countries.”
Virologist Cecilia Söderberg-Nauclér, based at the Karolinska Institute, has not held back in her views, claiming with some punchiness that the government has committed all the big no-nos in responding to a pandemic. “We’re not testing enough, we’re not tracking, we’re not isolating enough – we have let the virus loose.” In so doing, Sweden had been placed on the path to catastrophe. To avoid a lockdown, a mass-testing approach as adopted by South Korea would have to be adopted. Time will tell which one stacks up.
via The Swedish Alternative: Coronavirus as a Grand Gamble – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Not laughing now (ODT)
Under the Coalition’s “responsible budget management”, net debt has increased from $161,253 million at 31 August 2013, a week before the election, to $424,164 million at the end of February this year.
Still stuck in slogan land, Coalition language is changing.
We have gone from a “targeted, modest and scalable” response to “targeted, measured and scalable” and now Frydenberg is calling for “quick, strong and co-ordinated action” from the G20 countries.
The self-satisfied smirks, the ridiculing of the idea of well-being, and the draconian persecution of the unemployed have disappeared.
After more than a decade of their bullshit, all of a sudden, “we are all in this together”.
Stable Genius tells it as it is for once and GOP take a deep breath. HE’S YOUR PRESIDENT AMERICA!!! (ODT
HE’S YOUR PRESIDENT AMERICA!!!
TRUMP: I think New York should be fine based on the numbers that we see, they should have more than enough. I’m hearing stories that they’re not used or not used them right. We find anywhere from 2 to 4,000 that have been sent and aren’t used. We’ve done a job. Now, we’re still getting more ventilators. After this is over they’ll be selling ventilators for a dollar a piece, we’ll have a lot of them.
via Stable Genius Says New York Is Fine, Won’t Need Extra Ventilators | Crooks and Liars
Under a decaying and decadent political system, there is often a dangerous tendency to select public officials based upon ideological factionalism or the blandishments of self-interested lobbies. During normal times, this may lead to the sort of inefficiency and corruption that saps the strength of a society, but during a severe crisis, survival itself may be at risk. Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never even heard of Dr. Sarah Cody, but I am greatly relieved that my local officials are still appointed based upon the highest standards of meritocratic competence. The contrast with America’s national government could not be greater.
via The Government Employee Who May Have Saved a Million American Lives, by Ron Unz – The Unz Review
Trump suggested disposable eqipment be re sanitsed and reused(ODT)
Nurses at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics in California could be fired immediately for wearing their own face masks, according to unions representing nurses at the facilities. The news comes after nurses were ordered to reuse disposable protective gear to save supplies in the face of shortages brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
via Kaiser Threatened to Fire Nurses for Wearing Their Own Masks
The Hungarian parliament handed the country’s populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban the power to govern unchallenged for as long as he sees fit, a move rights groups said effectively suspends democracy in the European Union member state in the name of fighting the coronavirus.
via Coronavirus outbreak prompts Hungary’s Viktor Orban to reach for unchecked power
Hope in the time of corona lies in rebuilding the role of government, supporting the institutions that support people and dispensing with the proven lunacy that insists fattening corporations and “the market” delivers “healthier, wealthier, more motivated and productive workers”.
Because it doesn’t. As the times reveal; it never did.
via Hope in the time of coronavirus lies in rebuilding the state | Van Badham | Opinion | The Guardian
Check Centrelink, with its uncontrolled queues of impoverished supplicants lining up cheek-by-jowl, incubating and spreading as they beg for a handout.
Wanted: A prime minister able to deal with a crisis
and
JobKeeper Payment a gun to the heads of over one million temporary entrants
FAKE NEWS
NEWS CORP, SKY, MURDOCH, COMMENTATOR SPREADING THE PANDEMIC RECOMMENDING “IT’S TIME TO GO BACK TO WORK” & HERD IMMUNITY IN AN UNDERPREPARED AUSTRALIA. HE’S ALWAYS BEEN ISOLATED AND PRACTICED SOCIAL_ DISTANCING. (ODT)
PREPARE NOW FOR THE BANS TO END
March 22, our exit strategy was clear (to me): “Ring-fence the sick and old, but let everyone else get back to work… That could include… certificates of immunity — which we should start issuing soon.” Today: “German researchers plan to introduce coronavirus ‘immunity certificates’ to facilitate a proper transition into post-lockdown life.” (Andrew Bolt)
Andrew Bolt is promoting advice against the experts and the Government. He’s promoting Herd Immunity denied the world over. Is he breaking the LAW?? SHUT HIM DOWN & RING- FENCE HIM!! (ODT)
Personally, I’m not too worried about Chinese soft power. If Westerners look bad in comparison, that is only because of their own incompetence rather than the nefariousness of the Chinese. The Chinese State wants to make deals. The globalists want something much dearer: they want to bribe you into losing your national soul, your traditional values, your fighting spirit.
This crisis may come to be seen as the moment in which a declining and incoherent liberal-globalist West was geopolitically overtaken by an confident and organized national-authoritarian China. If so, we can also expect other countries may be tempted to change their political models.
via We Are All Totalitarians Now, by Guillaume Durocher – The Unz Review
Ten years after Citizens United, our elections are awash with money from mega-donors and corporations. They drown out the voices of everyday people and warp public policy, with serious consequences for racial justice and the economy.
An antidote is sitting idle on Senator Mitch McConnell’s desk: H.R. 1, the For the People Act, passed by the House a year ago this month.
In 2016, campaign spending on the presidential election totaled $2.4 billion. The average Senate winner in 2018 spent $15.7 million, with challengers needing on average $23.8 million to topple incumbents. Even local election costs can be forbidding. Spending in the recent Los Angeles County school board primary topped $6 million.
Although occasionally a candidate like Bernie Sanders can raise the money to compete from small donors, that’s the exception. The vast majority rely on a small class of large donors.
via A Civil Rights Issue: Less than 1% of Americans Provide most Money for Political Campaigns
History of America’s failed control of Latin American States has been told over and over again only to make fools of somany American leaders and can anyone make Trump look a bigger fool than he already is? (ODT)
The brazenness of the indictments in attempting to cast Venezuela as a narco-state, the lack of foresight regarding possible repercussions, the attempted sabotage of dialogue and the mixed messaging are all signals that the Trump administration is desperate to ensure its regime change policy shows results. The victims of this policy are the Venezuelan people, who would be much better off with a policy of de-escalation, dialogue and a removal of the deadly sanctions.
via Trump’s Narcoterrorism Indictment of Maduro Already Backfires | The Smirking Chimp
America isn’t Taiwan it’s indecisive leadership thinks it is and wants business as usual (ODT
According to news reports New Yorkers are leaving the city transporting with them the virus to other states, principally Florida. President Trump announced that he was considering locking New Yorkers in place but said he hoped not to do that.
Meanwhile, the Florida governor copying Trump’s indecision allows Florida with its large elderly population to fill up with likely virus carriers from New York.
via Escape From New York, by Paul Craig Roberts – The Unz Review
All Andrew Bolt does is spin the Fox Head Office line and he calls that work. He tried to convince us he works a 60 hour week plus, plus. Nothing he says rings of truth. (ODT)
via Could Fox ‘News’ Be Liable For Downplaying Coronavirus Risks? | Crooks and Liars
Keeping people at work seems counterintuitive if there is no work to keep them there for. Give the money to the workers not the businesses alone. The record of wage theft has been clear and evident. (ODT)
We are currently 13th out of 196 nations on the current virus rate count. Murdoch media’s Andrew Bolt claims we are winners and should go back to work. He’s allowed to spread dangerous fake news at will it seems without any consequences.(ODT)
via Most coronavirus statistics are depressing – but not all
