thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-03-23--London’s IImperial College predicts millions to die from coronavirus pandemic in UK and US

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible .
Share with kin , friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise .
At this point we can only hope the author is dreadfully , wrong , but , given his sources , this is unlikely .
study published Monday by the Imperial College , a public research university in London , estimates that millions will die from the coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom and United States .
In their best-case scenario , in which transmission of the virus is massively mitigated , and “ even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ treated , ” the authors write , “ we predict there would still be in the order of 250,000 deaths in GB , and 1.1–1.2 million in the US.
” According to the authors , Covid-19 “ and the public health threat it represents is the most serious seen in a respiratory virus since the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic.
” There are now 198,000 cases worldwide and nearly 8,000 deaths .
The countries with the largest number of new cases include Italy , Iran , Spain , Germany , France and the United @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Neil Ferguson and included a team of people drawn from the Imperial College , as well as from the World Health Organization , MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis and the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics .
In addition to the mass casualty figures , they estimated that the pandemic in the UK and US will continue through August .
In other words , with the current policies in place by the Johnson and Trump administrations , millions of people , possibly tens of millions , are going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as hospitals , clinics and other medical facilities collapse in the face of the massive number of infected patients .
Above all else , the refusal of either government to implement mass testing for the coronavirus early on in the crisis , as consistently implored by WHO , has allowed the virus to spread to large swathes of the population , with no signs of being halted .
As WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned , “ You can ’ t fight a fire blindfolded , and we can ’ t stop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know who is infected.
” The imminent dangers can be most clearly seen in the collapse of the Italian health care system , which has already been overwhelmed by 31,506 cases to date , up from just three less than a month ago .
The death toll has reached at least 2,503 and is rising .
If the mortality rates in Italy hold true for Britain and the United States—and the lack of public health infrastructure in both countries indicates that they will—the two countries will likely see actual death tolls of at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Moreover , the casualty figures do not account for collateral deaths related to HIV , cancer , myocardial infarction , stroke and other emergent illnesses , due to health care facilities being overwhelmed .
Hospitals are already canceling clinics and surgical procedures in anticipation of a surge of respiratory illnesses due to the coronavirus .
The themes in the Imperial College paper were echoed Tuesday in comments to MSNBC ’ s Morning Joe by Dr. Ashish Jha , the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute .
Dr. Jha called for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He stated , “ Our hospitals and emergency rooms are not ready .
We have two choices .
Basically , we can either have a national quarantine now , [ for ] two weeks , [ and ] get a grip on where things are , then reassess .
“ Or we can not [ and ] wait another week and when things look really terrible , be forced into it and that ’ s going to last much longer , [ and ] many more people will die .
So those are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or wait until we ’ re even further behind.
” He added that “ it ’ s going to look like Italy ” for such a quarantine to succeed .
US President Donald Trump ’ s latest press conference , however , makes clear that the focus of the ruling elites of the major imperialist powers is not to save human lives but to protect the financial oligarchs in their own countries and internationally .
Trump is currently pushing for a $ 600 billion stimulus package to go directly to businesses .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in payroll taxes , which is aimed at disguising the windfall for hedgefund managers and corporate executives by giving workers a small increase in take-home pay—while at the same time undermining the funding of Social Security and Medicare .
There is also a further $ 250 billion supposedly directed toward the broader population , though Congress is still haggling over the exact amount and method of distribution .
Even if the proposal passes and workers receive $ 1,000 each , this is utterly inadequate to cover the needs of millions who are facing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic shuts down large portions of the economy .
At that same briefing , Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced yet another program that “ will enable the Fed to guarantee the purchase of… commercial paper going forward .
That is a $ 1 trillion dollar market.
” While the initial sum set aside for such purchases is only $ 10 billion , Mnuchin made clear , “ We have the ability to have the Fed purchase up to $ 1 trillion of commercial paper , if needed.
” In the past week @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supplied by the Trump administration to Wall Street , through corporate bailouts , direct infusion into the stock exchange and other methods , to $ 3.8 trillion .
Less than half of that amount could have been used to forgive all student loan debt .
The rest could have been used to pay off all credit card debt and auto debt for every worker in America .
It could have been used to manufacture and distribute hundreds of millions of masks for doctors and patients fighting the coronavirus , along with tens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of ventilators and ICU beds for critical patients .
Hundreds of new hospitals with 500 beds each could have been built in weeks to care for and isolate those infected .
Testing for the millions of people who might be infected could have been facilitated and the pandemic contained .
Markets responded to the latest round of cash handed to private coffers by rising five percent .
Workers , on the other hand , face destitution and disease .
As the National Committee of the Socialist Equality Party ( US ) wrote : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been lost , but the impact and extent of the pandemic depends on urgent responses that can be taken now .
This response must be centered on two absolutely critical priorities : first , to contain the spread of the virus as much as possible , and second , given that it has already acquired global dimensions , to provide emergency care for all who are ill and emergency assistance to all that are affected.
” The World Socialist Web Site calls on workers and young people to join the fight against this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rights through the building of an international socialist and revolutionary movement .
It is the central question of our time and a matter of life and death .

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.
Bryan Dyne
At this point we can only hope the author is dreadfully wrong, but, given his sources, this is unlikely.
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] study published Monday by the Imperial College, a public research university in London, estimates that millions will die from the coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom and United States. In their best-case scenario, in which transmission of the virus is massively mitigated, and “even if all patients were able to be treated,” the authors write, “we predict there would still be in the order of 250,000 deaths in GB, and 1.1–1.2 million in the US.”
According to the authors, Covid-19 “and the public health threat it represents is the most serious seen in a respiratory virus since the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic.” There are now 198,000 cases worldwide and nearly 8,000 deaths. The countries with the largest number of new cases include Italy, Iran, Spain, Germany, France and the United States.
The study was led by Neil Ferguson and included a team of people drawn from the Imperial College, as well as from the World Health Organization, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis and the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics. In addition to the mass casualty figures, they estimated that the pandemic in the UK and US will continue through August.
They emphasize that “mitigation is unlikely to be feasible without emergency surge capacity limits of the UK and US health care systems being exceeded many times over.” The report makes clear that even in a short outbreak of the disease, “the surge limits for both general ward and ICU [intensive care unit] beds would be exceeded by at least eightfold under the more optimistic scenario for critical care requirements that we examined.” Under such circumstances, the United States could expect to see 56,100 deaths per day at its peak.
In other words, with the current policies in place by the Johnson and Trump administrations, millions of people, possibly tens of millions, are going to contract this disease and die, as hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities collapse in the face of the massive number of infected patients. Above all else, the refusal of either government to implement mass testing for the coronavirus early on in the crisis, as consistently implored by WHO, has allowed the virus to spread to large swathes of the population, with no signs of being halted.
As WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned, “You can’t fight a fire blindfolded, and we can’t stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.”
The imminent dangers can be most clearly seen in the collapse of the Italian health care system, which has already been overwhelmed by 31,506 cases to date, up from just three less than a month ago. The death toll has reached at least 2,503 and is rising. If the mortality rates in Italy hold true for Britain and the United States—and the lack of public health infrastructure in both countries indicates that they will—the two countries will likely see actual death tolls of at least two million and 8.6 million respectively.
Moreover, the casualty figures do not account for collateral deaths related to HIV, cancer, myocardial infarction, stroke and other emergent illnesses, due to health care facilities being overwhelmed. Hospitals are already canceling clinics and surgical procedures in anticipation of a surge of respiratory illnesses due to the coronavirus.
The themes in the Imperial College paper were echoed Tuesday in comments to MSNBC’s Morning Joe by Dr. Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.
Dr. Jha called for a full quarantine across the United States. He stated, “Our hospitals and emergency rooms are not ready. We have two choices. Basically, we can either have a national quarantine now, [for] two weeks, [and] get a grip on where things are, then reassess.
“Or we cannot [and] wait another week and when things look really terrible, be forced into it and that’s going to last much longer, [and] many more people will die. So those are really our two choices—get ahead of it or wait until we’re even further behind.” He added that “it’s going to look like Italy” for such a quarantine to succeed.
US President Donald Trump’s latest press conference, however, makes clear that the focus of the ruling elites of the major imperialist powers is not to save human lives but to protect the financial oligarchs in their own countries and internationally. Trump is currently pushing for a $600 billion stimulus package to go directly to businesses. He has also been advocating for a cut in payroll taxes, which is aimed at disguising the windfall for hedgefund managers and corporate executives by giving workers a small increase in take-home pay—while at the same time undermining the funding of Social Security and Medicare.
There is also a further $250 billion supposedly directed toward the broader population, though Congress is still haggling over the exact amount and method of distribution. Even if the proposal passes and workers receive $1,000 each, this is utterly inadequate to cover the needs of millions who are facing weeks or months of no wages as the pandemic shuts down large portions of the economy.
At that same briefing, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced yet another program that “will enable the Fed to guarantee the purchase of… commercial paper going forward. That is a $1 trillion dollar market.” While the initial sum set aside for such purchases is only $10 billion, Mnuchin made clear, “We have the ability to have the Fed purchase up to $1 trillion of commercial paper, if needed.” In the past week, this brings the total wealth being supplied by the Trump administration to Wall Street, through corporate bailouts, direct infusion into the stock exchange and other methods, to $3.8 trillion.
Less than half of that amount could have been used to forgive all student loan debt. The rest could have been used to pay off all credit card debt and auto debt for every worker in America. It could have been used to manufacture and distribute hundreds of millions of masks for doctors and patients fighting the coronavirus, along with tens of millions of gowns and hundreds of thousands of ventilators and ICU beds for critical patients. Hundreds of new hospitals with 500 beds each could have been built in weeks to care for and isolate those infected. Testing for the millions of people who might be infected could have been facilitated and the pandemic contained.
Markets responded to the latest round of cash handed to private coffers by rising five percent. Workers, on the other hand, face destitution and disease.
As the National Committee of the Socialist Equality Party (US) wrote: “An enormous amount of time has been lost, but the impact and extent of the pandemic depends on urgent responses that can be taken now. This response must be centered on two absolutely critical priorities: first, to contain the spread of the virus as much as possible, and second, given that it has already acquired global dimensions, to provide emergency care for all who are ill and emergency assistance to all that are affected.”
The authors of this paper urge the building of an international socialist and revolutionary movement. It is the central question of our time and a matter of life and death.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR The authors are members of wsws.org, a publication belonging to the SEP, a Trotskyist formation.


thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-03-23--Fighting COVID 19 in Cuba, China and the United States

overnments , according to Thomas Jefferson , are supposed to guarantee people ’ s rights to “ life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
” COVID 19 has out people ’ s lives and health in the spotlight now .
What kind of tools do governments have at their disposal to protect lives and health ?
Cuba has the advantages of forward-looking leadership , well-orchestrated state planning , and longtime prioritization of health care .
Additionally , government leaders elevate scientific and technological training .
They ’ ve established research capabilities , used results to advance health care , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The Cuban people and leaders know about disaster planning , as demonstrated by preparations prior to hurricanes hitting the island .
Likewise planning and putting the public good first has enabled Cubans to cope with the disaster of a 60-year long economic blockade set up to make them suffer .
A survey of Cuban media reports suggests that Cuba ’ s government and people are prepared to handle COVID 19 ’ s visit to the island .
At this point only seven people there have been identified as infected with COVID 19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Here we highlight Cuba ’ s assistance to China , where the epidemic mushroomed first and most dangerously , so far .
Cuban President Fidel Castro in 1965 pushed for the development of the National Center for Scientific Research .
The Center attracted medical graduates aspiring to scientific careers and spawned a succession of other biomedical research institutes .
Castro in 1981learned about research in Texas on interferon , a new drug that showed promise in treating certain types of cancer and also viral infections .
Two Cuba researchers soon were studying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more had gone to Finland , where interferon had been developed .
They learned about production methods .
In a short time , the Cubans were manufacturing the drug , treating patients , and marketing interferon abroad .
The ChangHeber company , a Chinese-Cuban joint venture for which Cuba provides scientific support , has been producing Interferon and other drug products since 2007 .
As the COVID 19 epidemic progressed in China , Cuba ’ s government made special administrative arrangements and sent experts to China so that ChangHeber might be able to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the effectiveness of drug therapy , interferon included , in treating severely ill patients infected with COVID 19 , a new illness , has yet to be scientifically validated .
( See here and here . )
Even so , for Cuba to lend a hand to desperately ill people in China represents another in a series of heroic undertakings Cuba has carried out in the name of human solidarity .
And Cuba once more has displayed dedication to science as an essential human resource .
China has its own strengths as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the prestigious British medical journal Lancet .
One learns that in many countries “ health ministers are scrambling … By striking contrast , the WHO-China joint mission report calls China ’ s vigorous public health measures toward this new coronavirus probably the most “ ambitious , agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history … China ’ s success rests largely with a strong administrative system that it can mobilize in times of threat , combined with the ready agreement of the Chinese people to obey stringent public health procedures .
… [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ presidents and prime ministers can learn from China ’ s experience.
” The United States is not so lucky .
Planning ahead to serve human needs is not a strong point for the U.S. government .
Dealing with the present crisis , the government seems to regard science as an afterthought .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) , the face of public health in the United States and locus of epidemiologic overview , had lost government funding prior to the pandemic .
( The word “ epidemiology , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says “ ” study of what is upon the people ; ” the “ what ” signifies disease . )
Testifying on March 11 before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform , CDC director Robert Redfield MD betrayed a casual attitude toward science .
A scientist himself , the former U.S. Army officer had made “ several important early contributions to the scientific understanding of HIV.
” Congressman Harley Rouda asked him this : “ So , we could havepeople in the United States dying for what appears to be influenza , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus or COVID-19 ?
Redfield replied that , “ Some cases have been actually diagnosed that way in the United States to date.
” The revelation passed without further questioning .
The U.S. media paid no attention .
News services in China pounced on the statement .
Epidemiologists ought to have been interested in the timing of the epidemic ’ s onset in the United States .
Vagueness on the matter , as suggested by Redfield ’ s testimony , betrays a remarkable lack of scientific curiosity .
What the public knows is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ showed up on January 21 .
The first cases of possible community-acquired coronavirus appeared on February 26 .
On February 14 the CDC indicated persons with influenza-like symptoms would be tested for COVID 19 in various U.S. cities .
The results of any testing weren ’ t made public , although Redfield ’ s testimony may allude to them .
The possibility emerges that U.S. people were being infected in January , not long after Chinese authorities on December 31 , 2019 informed the World Health Organization of an outbreak of a new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in China that the epidemic may have manifested first in someplace other than China .
U.S. public health authorities seem to be similarly uncurious about other information possibly contributing to a scientific understanding of the disease origins .
They are silent , for example , on the presence of 280 U.S. athletes and assistants in Wuhan , China , in October 18-27 2019 .
That was six weeks or so before people in that city fell ill to COVID-19 infection .
Wuhan had hosted 9308 athletes from 100 countries who were participating in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public health epidemiologists have shown no sign of curiosity about the findings of a Taiwanese virologist who focused on the multiplicity of COVID 19 strains in the United States .
He noted that , by contrast , a single strain of the virus prevails in other countries .
Citing an example pointing to the significance of the discrepancy , the expert observed that the single strain of the virus active in Taiwan prevailed only in Australia and the United States .
Australians did not carry the infection to Taiwan .
Infection in Taiwan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States , he suggests .
The pandemic has provided , in effect , a laboratory-like demonstration of what is known : that people do better when states can plan ahead , apply national resources unequivocally to the public good , put science in the service of the people , and practice international solidarity .
These are characteristics of socialist societies .
People do less well , as in the United States , when their health and welfare are subjected to the greed of moneyed interests , and when science is sold to @ @ @ @

[dropcap]G[/dropcap]overnments, according to Thomas Jefferson, are supposed to guarantee people’s rights to “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” COVID 19 has out people’s lives and health in the spotlight now. What kind of tools do governments have at their disposal to protect lives and health?
Cuba has the advantages of forward-looking leadership, well-orchestrated state planning, and longtime prioritization of health care. Additionally, government leaders elevate scientific and technological training. They’ve established research capabilities, used results to advance health care, and marketed bio-medical products on a worldwide basis. The Cuban people and leaders know about disaster planning, as demonstrated by preparations prior to hurricanes hitting the island. Likewise planning and putting the public good first has enabled Cubans to cope with the disaster of a 60-year long economic blockade set up to make them suffer.
A survey of Cuban media reports suggests that Cuba’s government and people are prepared to handle COVID 19’s visit to the island. At this point only seven people there have been identified as infected with COVID 19, all having recently arrived from abroad. Here we highlight Cuba’s assistance to China, where the epidemic mushroomed first and most dangerously, so far.
Cuban President Fidel Castro in 1965 pushed for the development of the National Center for Scientific Research. The Center attracted medical graduates aspiring to scientific careers and spawned a succession of other biomedical research institutes. Castro in 1981learned about research in Texas on interferon, a new drug that showed promise in treating certain types of cancer and also viral infections. Two Cuba researchers soon were studying interferon in Houston. Within months six more had gone to Finland, where interferon had been developed. They learned about production methods.
In a short time, the Cubans were manufacturing the drug, treating patients, and marketing interferon abroad. The ChangHeber company, a Chinese-Cuban joint venture for which Cuba provides scientific support, has been producing Interferon and other drug products since 2007. As the COVID 19 epidemic progressed in China, Cuba’s government made special administrative arrangements and sent experts to China so that ChangHeber might be able to serve China’s needs.
Unfortunately, the effectiveness of drug therapy, interferon included, in treating severely ill patients infected with COVID 19, a new illness, has yet to be scientifically validated. (See here and here.) Even so, for Cuba to lend a hand to desperately ill people in China represents another in a series of heroic undertakings Cuba has carried out in the name of human solidarity. And Cuba once more has displayed dedication to science as an essential human resource.
China has its own strengths as mentioned in laudatory editorial comment appearing in the prestigious British medical journal Lancet. One learns that in many countries “health ministers are scrambling … By striking contrast, the WHO-China joint mission report calls China’s vigorous public health measures toward this new coronavirus probably the most “ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history … China’s success rests largely with a strong administrative system that it can mobilize in times of threat, combined with the ready agreement of the Chinese people to obey stringent public health procedures. … [T]here are important lessons that presidents and prime ministers can learn from China’s experience.”
The United States is not so lucky. Planning ahead to serve human needs is not a strong point for the U.S. government. Dealing with the present crisis, the government seems to regard science as an afterthought. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the face of public health in the United States and locus of epidemiologic overview, had lost government funding prior to the pandemic. (The word “epidemiology,” taken from the Greek, literally says “”study of what is upon the people;” the “what” signifies disease.)
Testifying on March 11 before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, CDC director Robert Redfield MD betrayed a casual attitude toward science. A scientist himself, the former U.S. Army officer had made “several important early contributions to the scientific understanding of HIV.”
Congressman Harley Rouda asked him this: “So, we could havepeople in the United States dying for what appears to be influenza, when in fact it could be the coronavirus or COVID-19? Redfield replied that, “Some cases have been actually diagnosed that way in the United States to date.” The revelation passed without further questioning. The U.S. media paid no attention. News services in China pounced on the statement.
Epidemiologists ought to have been interested in the timing of the epidemic’s onset in the United States. Vagueness on the matter, as suggested by Redfield’s testimony, betrays a remarkable lack of scientific curiosity.
What the public knows is that the first case of imported Coronavirus showed up on January 21. The first cases of possible community-acquired coronavirus appeared on February 26. On February 14 the CDC indicated persons with influenza-like symptoms would be tested for COVID 19 in various U.S. cities. The results of any testing weren’t made public, although Redfield’s testimony may allude to them.
The possibility emerges that U.S. people were being infected in January, not long after Chinese authorities on December 31, 2019 informed the World Health Organization of an outbreak of a new form of coronavirus infection. Suspicion prevails in China that the epidemic may have manifested first in someplace other than China.
U.S. public health authorities seem to be similarly uncurious about other information possibly contributing to a scientific understanding of the disease origins. They are silent, for example, on the presence of 280 U.S. athletes and assistants in Wuhan, China, in October 18-27 2019. That was six weeks or so before people in that city fell ill to COVID-19 infection. Wuhan had hosted 9308 athletes from 100 countries who were participating in the Military World Games.
Additionally, public health epidemiologists have shown no sign of curiosity about the findings of a Taiwanese virologist who focused on the multiplicity of COVID 19 strains in the United States. He noted that, by contrast, a single strain of the virus prevails in other countries. Citing an example pointing to the significance of the discrepancy, the expert observed that the single strain of the virus active in Taiwan prevailed only in Australia and the United States. Australians did not carry the infection to Taiwan. Infection in Taiwan, therefore, traces back to the United States, he suggests.
The pandemic has provided, in effect, a laboratory-like demonstration of what is known: that people do better when states can plan ahead, apply national resources unequivocally to the public good, put science in the service of the people, and practice international solidarity. These are characteristics of socialist societies.
People do less well, as in the United States, when their health and welfare are subjected to the greed of moneyed interests, and when science is sold to the highest bidder.


thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-03-23--The Virus and Capitalism

The Virus and Capitalism

he U.S. is in the midst of a full-blown public health crisis made worse by systemic political dysfunction .
The benchmark Imperial College study suggesting that up to two million people in the U.S. could die from the coronavirus epidemic assumes that the U.S. has an adequate healthcare system— that no one dies from not getting treatment .
It doesn ’ t .
Without one , expected deaths are much higher .
Should the U.S. experience be similar to Italy or Wuhan to date , add another eleven million* dead to the worst case scenario .
The point here isn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but to illustrate the difference in outcomes that a robust government response can make .
In trying to corner the market for virus test kits , Donald Trump assured that few , if any , would be available .
In like fashion , House Democrats passed a paid-time-off bill so fraudulent that even Pravda-on-the-Hudson , the New York Times , called them on it .
The official plan to date is financial , to bail out Wall Street and the airlines , a payroll tax cut and token checks to the masses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out .
In lieu of providing an adequate level of healthcare to address the pandemic , which even hardened D.C. hacks know can ’ t be conjured out of thin air in a timely enough fashion , what is left is ‘ social distancing.
’ This is polite speak for quarantines variably undertaken .
China was able to reduce the mortality rate after Wuhan by 4/5ths through a combination of draconian quarantines and a rapid buildout of healthcare provision .
However , the infection rate reportedly began rising as soon as the quarantine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ flattening the curve , ’ of slowing the spread of the virus so that the healthcare system isn ’ t overwhelmed at any one time , could bring the mortality rate in the U.S. down by matching healthcare need to capacity .
But implied in the structure of the economic stimulus is a couple of weeks at home watching Netflix and then it ’ s back to the races .
This is a low probability outcome .
Eighteen months , the anticipated duration of the pandemic if effective action to mitigate it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ changed world will emerge from the other side .
The idea being floated by Wall Street that pandemics are ‘ black swans , ’ unanticipated and unanticipatable events that legitimate extraordinary responses like government bailouts of private enterprises , suggests that history be made a required subject in business schools .
Here is a partial list of epidemics and pandemics .
They are so common that a functioning society would have thousands of permanent staff that do nothing but plan for them .
And they are one of several thousand reasons why a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system .
To understand why Wall Street should be left to rot this go around , look back to January 1980 , when the current bull market can be estimated to have begun .
The S & P 500 has to fall by another 2/3rds , from 2,400 to 910 , to get to the normal valuation level ( CAPE P/E = 8.5 ) at which this epoch of finance capitalism began .
Understand , the S & P 500 at 910 wouldn ’ t represent a crisis , just a more reasonable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the extent there is one , is due to systemic leverage , the same problem that Wall Street faced in 2008 .
The pandemic is but the catalyst for current financial troubles , not the cause .
As was warned in 2009 , 2010 , 2011 , 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , etc.
, the Obama Administration ’ s bailouts were to make rich people rich again , not to ‘ save the economy.
’ So , here we are ten years later and the previously bailed out are once again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bail out corporations and the rich to ‘ save the economy.
’ ‘ The economy ’ is indeed in trouble , but it is in trouble because of the fragility created to benefit corporations and the rich , not because stock prices have fallen .
If ever there was a time for bold government action , this is it .
The problem is that four decades of neoliberalism have instantiated the ethos that the role of government is to make rich people richer .
Naomi Klein call this ‘ disaster capitalism.
’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The idea that bailouts for corporations benefit workers begs the question : if the goal is to help workers , why not give the money to workers ?
It is the CEOs and corporate boards that loaded up their companies with debt to raise the value of their stock options that made these corporations so economically fragile .
More broadly , through the self-serving mythology of rugged individualism , capitalism has been used to shape and reshape social relations .
This makes its dependence on serial bailouts both ridiculous and pathetic .
Conceived @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Aristocrats to a burgeoning business class , without a large and intrusive government to prevent consolidation and self-dealing , it quickly creates a new Aristocracy to close the door behind it .
What is left is the privileged , remote and self-dealing oligarchy that now stands before us .
During ‘ normal ’ times , when this oligarchy isn ’ t acting to destroy other nations and the world , malgovernance for its own benefit is made the ordinary working of government .
For instance , the U.S. military is wildly overfunded while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the people die at a politically acceptable pace .
During ‘ not normal ’ times , a hierarchy of privilege is set in motion .
First , save the wealth of the rich through bailouts .
Second , secure the rights of corporations to profit from catastrophe .
Last , let the people die at a politically acceptable pace .
A pandemic forces the afterthought— the pace at which the people are allowed to die , to the fore .
The U.S. is currently working through bailouts to secure the wealth of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from catastrophe .
Threatening to overturn the applecart is people dying at a politically unacceptable pace .
The edifice of unenlightened self-interest risks being exposed .
A few days without a paycheck and the rent doesn ’ t get paid .
Without the rent , the landlord can ’ t pay the mortgage .
Without the mortgage being paid , the bank goes under .
Suddenly the ‘ richest country in the history of the world ’ looks like some crappy third-world backwater .
The social brutality of working paycheck to paycheck is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bailouts for the rich expose how they got rich in the first place .
And corporate chieftains scrambling to extort profits from sick and dying people exposes the class dynamic by which the rich get rich— by making poor people poor .
The risk for the rich is that the logic of the guillotine begins to make sense .
The risk for the rest of us can be counted in the sick and dying .
The coronavirus pandemic was both predictable , in that pandemics have been regular occurrences throughout human history , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organization is conceived under capitalism .
Neoliberalism is a theory of governance without governing , of letting nature , in the form of markets , decide .
Letting nature decide in a pandemic means the passive acceptance of mass deaths , which ties to the neoliberal refusal to create a functioning healthcare system .
Political economy premised on individual desires is antithetical to the social nature of a pandemic .
As with environmental degradation , it produces the logic of collective suicide .
The official American response to the pandemic has been exceptional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failed so spectacularly .
The insipid , bi-partisan house ideology hasn ’ t worked because capitalism doesn ’ t solve social problems .
It isn ’ t intended to .
Donald Trump ’ s clumsy effort to corner the market in virus test kits for ‘ American ’ corporations has meant that we simply don ’ t have them .
Obamacare certainly hasn ’ t produced any .
The strategy that is unfolding of ad hoc quarantines and wishful thinking will either be converted into a robust response or the existing political order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will fix what the Republicans broke is running up against three decades of Democrats breaking things .
Joe Biden , who wholeheartedly supported George W. Bush ’ s $ 4 trillion war against Iraq , just last week claimed that the U.S. can ’ t afford a functioning healthcare system .
Mr. Biden ’ s actual history in elected office has been to the right of Ronald Reagan .
He spent decades trying to cut Social Security and Medicare .
He supported bankruptcy legislation that shifted the onus for unpayable loans from banks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worst person the Democrats could put forward in a pandemic if they care about governing .
The question of bailouts is fundamentally different from that of taking care of people .
An adequate response to the pandemic will require years of dedicated effort , not tossing a trillion dollars at ‘ the economy ’ and hoping for the best .
Social distancing and quarantines might require income and material support for tens of millions of people for as long as eighteen months .
Nancy Pelosi is reportedly already balking at spending government money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be a benefit to workers if she forced her corporate sponsors to provide paid time off for their employees , but she won ’ t do this .
The economic fragility behind the rapid descent into economic crisis isn ’ t a product of nature .
It was purposely created by the bi-partisan political establishment at the behest of oligarchs and academic economists .
NAFTA was meant to make workers economically insecure .
Welfare ‘ reform ’ was passed to make life outside of capitalist employment intolerably tenuous .
The minimum wage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for forty years .
And plans to cut Social Security and Medicare are meant to increase economic fragility .
Likewise , austerity is the enforcement mechanism to keep the rich in control of American political economy .
This combination of manufactured social fragility and neoliberal governance will sooner or later produce a political rupture .
The election of Donald Trump was the first act of one .
An extended economic crisis can produce social solidarity or a deeply ugly political response .
The Democrats ’ choice to stick with their neoliberal program means @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden and a second term for Donald Trump .
Add the widespread unemployment that is already baked into their reflexive austerity and a more perfect formula for fascist ascendance is difficult to imagine .
The question of who would be to blame for such an outcome depends who gets to decide the answer .
That makes it about power , not truth .
As this pandemic plays out , finger pointing will be the least of our worries .
* 330 million people X 80 % infection rate X 5 % mortality rate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 330 million is the U.S. population , 80 % is the expected infection rate from the Imperial College study and 5 % is the realized mortality rate in Italy and Wuhan .

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he U.S. is in the midst of a full-blown public health crisis made worse by systemic political dysfunction. The benchmark Imperial College study suggesting that up to two million people in the U.S. could die from the coronavirus epidemic assumes that the U.S. has an adequate healthcare system— that no one dies from not getting treatment. It doesn’t. Without one, expected deaths are much higher. Should the U.S. experience be similar to Italy or Wuhan to date, add another eleven million* dead to the worst case scenario.
The point here isn’t to create fear or panic, but to illustrate the difference in outcomes that a robust government response can make. In trying to corner the market for virus test kits, Donald Trump assured that few, if any, would be available. In like fashion, House Democrats passed a paid-time-off bill so fraudulent that even Pravda-on-the-Hudson, the New York Times, called them on it. The official plan to date is financial, to bail out Wall Street and the airlines, a payroll tax cut and token checks to the masses, and hope that it all works out.
In lieu of providing an adequate level of healthcare to address the pandemic, which even hardened D.C. hacks know can’t be conjured out of thin air in a timely enough fashion, what is left is ‘social distancing.’ This is polite speak for quarantines variably undertaken. China was able to reduce the mortality rate after Wuhan by 4/5ths through a combination of draconian quarantines and a rapid buildout of healthcare provision. However, the infection rate reportedly began rising as soon as the quarantine measures were relaxed.
The strategy of ‘flattening the curve,’ of slowing the spread of the virus so that the healthcare system isn’t overwhelmed at any one time, could bring the mortality rate in the U.S. down by matching healthcare need to capacity. But implied in the structure of the economic stimulus is a couple of weeks at home watching Netflix and then it’s back to the races. This is a low probability outcome. Eighteen months, the anticipated duration of the pandemic if effective action to mitigate it is taken, means that a radically changed world will emerge from the other side.
The idea being floated by Wall Street that pandemics are ‘black swans,’ unanticipated and unanticipatable events that legitimate extraordinary responses like government bailouts of private enterprises, suggests that history be made a required subject in business schools. Here is a partial list of epidemics and pandemics. They are so common that a functioning society would have thousands of permanent staff that do nothing but plan for them. And they are one of several thousand reasons why a functioning society would have a functioning healthcare system.
To understand why Wall Street should be left to rot this go around, look back to January 1980, when the current bull market can be estimated to have begun. The S&P 500 has to fall by another 2/3rds, from 2,400 to 910, to get to the normal valuation level (CAPE P/E = 8.5) at which this epoch of finance capitalism began. Understand, the S&P 500 at 910 wouldn’t represent a crisis, just a more reasonable valuation level. The financial crisis, to the extent there is one, is due to systemic leverage, the same problem that Wall Street faced in 2008.
The pandemic is but the catalyst for current financial troubles, not the cause. As was warned in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, etc., the Obama Administration’s bailouts were to make rich people rich again, not to ‘save the economy.’ So, here we are ten years later and the previously bailed out are once again telling us that the Federal government has to bail out corporations and the rich to ‘save the economy.’ ‘The economy’ is indeed in trouble, but it is in trouble because of the fragility created to benefit corporations and the rich, not because stock prices have fallen.
If ever there was a time for bold government action, this is it. The problem is that four decades of neoliberalism have instantiated the ethos that the role of government is to make rich people richer. Naomi Klein call this ‘disaster capitalism.’ I defer to Marx and Lenin. The idea that bailouts for corporations benefit workers begs the question: if the goal is to help workers, why not give the money to workers? It is the CEOs and corporate boards that loaded up their companies with debt to raise the value of their stock options that made these corporations so economically fragile.
More broadly, through the self-serving mythology of rugged individualism, capitalism has been used to shape and reshape social relations. This makes its dependence on serial bailouts both ridiculous and pathetic. Conceived several centuries ago to shift power from Aristocrats to a burgeoning business class, without a large and intrusive government to prevent consolidation and self-dealing, it quickly creates a new Aristocracy to close the door behind it. What is left is the privileged, remote and self-dealing oligarchy that now stands before us.
During ‘normal’ times, when this oligarchy isn’t acting to destroy other nations and the world, malgovernance for its own benefit is made the ordinary working of government. For instance, the U.S. military is wildly overfunded while the healthcare system is structured to let the people die at a politically acceptable pace. During ‘not normal’ times, a hierarchy of privilege is set in motion. First, save the wealth of the rich through bailouts. Second, secure the rights of corporations to profit from catastrophe. Last, let the people die at a politically acceptable pace.
A pandemic forces the afterthought— the pace at which the people are allowed to die, to the fore. The U.S. is currently working through bailouts to secure the wealth of the oligarchs and corporate monopoly plays to profit from catastrophe. Threatening to overturn the applecart is people dying at a politically unacceptable pace. The edifice of unenlightened self-interest risks being exposed. A few days without a paycheck and the rent doesn’t get paid. Without the rent, the landlord can’t pay the mortgage. Without the mortgage being paid, the bank goes under.
Suddenly the ‘richest country in the history of the world’ looks like some crappy third-world backwater. The social brutality of working paycheck to paycheck is transformed from individual to systemic failure. Bailouts for the rich expose how they got rich in the first place. And corporate chieftains scrambling to extort profits from sick and dying people exposes the class dynamic by which the rich get rich— by making poor people poor. The risk for the rich is that the logic of the guillotine begins to make sense. The risk for the rest of us can be counted in the sick and dying.
The coronavirus pandemic was both predictable, in that pandemics have been regular occurrences throughout human history, and it is external to how social organization is conceived under capitalism. Neoliberalism is a theory of governance without governing, of letting nature, in the form of markets, decide. Letting nature decide in a pandemic means the passive acceptance of mass deaths, which ties to the neoliberal refusal to create a functioning healthcare system. Political economy premised on individual desires is antithetical to the social nature of a pandemic. As with environmental degradation, it produces the logic of collective suicide.
The official American response to the pandemic has been exceptional only in the sense that markets have failed so spectacularly. The insipid, bi-partisan house ideology hasn’t worked because capitalism doesn’t solve social problems. It isn’t intended to. Donald Trump’s clumsy effort to corner the market in virus test kits for ‘American’ corporations has meant that we simply don’t have them. Obamacare certainly hasn’t produced any. The strategy that is unfolding of ad hoc quarantines and wishful thinking will either be converted into a robust response or the existing political order will end.
The hope that Democrats will fix what the Republicans broke is running up against three decades of Democrats breaking things. Joe Biden, who wholeheartedly supported George W. Bush’s $4 trillion war against Iraq, just last week claimed that the U.S. can’t afford a functioning healthcare system. Mr. Biden’s actual history in elected office has been to the right of Ronald Reagan. He spent decades trying to cut Social Security and Medicare. He supported bankruptcy legislation that shifted the onus for unpayable loans from banks to poor people. He is the worst person the Democrats could put forward in a pandemic if they care about governing.
The question of bailouts is fundamentally different from that of taking care of people. An adequate response to the pandemic will require years of dedicated effort, not tossing a trillion dollars at ‘the economy’ and hoping for the best. Social distancing and quarantines might require income and material support for tens of millions of people for as long as eighteen months. Nancy Pelosi is reportedly already balking at spending government money to do what is necessary. It would be a benefit to workers if she forced her corporate sponsors to provide paid time off for their employees, but she won’t do this.
The economic fragility behind the rapid descent into economic crisis isn’t a product of nature. It was purposely created by the bi-partisan political establishment at the behest of oligarchs and academic economists. NAFTA was meant to make workers economically insecure. Welfare ‘reform’ was passed to make life outside of capitalist employment intolerably tenuous. The minimum wage hasn’t been a living wage for forty years. And plans to cut Social Security and Medicare are meant to increase economic fragility. Likewise, austerity is the enforcement mechanism to keep the rich in control of American political economy.
This combination of manufactured social fragility and neoliberal governance will sooner or later produce a political rupture. The election of Donald Trump was the first act of one. An extended economic crisis can produce social solidarity or a deeply ugly political response. The Democrats’ choice to stick with their neoliberal program means that they are indifferent between electing Joe Biden and a second term for Donald Trump. Add the widespread unemployment that is already baked into their reflexive austerity and a more perfect formula for fascist ascendance is difficult to imagine.
The question of who would be to blame for such an outcome depends who gets to decide the answer. That makes it about power, not truth. As this pandemic plays out, finger pointing will be the least of our worries.
Notes.
* 330 million people X 80% infection rate X 5% mortality rate = 13.2 million dead in U.S.; 330 million is the U.S. population, 80% is the expected infection rate from the Imperial College study and 5% is the realized mortality rate in Italy and Wuhan.


thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-03-23--Joe Biden: Survival of the Unfittest

Joe Biden: Survival of the Unfittest

ince becoming his party ’ s frontrunner and presumed nominee , Joe Biden has been hard at work , providing more fodder for future Trump campaign attack ads against himself .
No need for ‘ deep fakes ’ when your opponent willingly offers up his Blooper reels for the benefit of your own re-election campaign .
There was something more viral than COVID-19 going around last week – recent footage of the former VP losing his marbles on Livestream and then wandering offscreen to retrieve them – or was he sleepwalking into traffic after hearing about his own car crash @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s just say his latest attempt at self-immolation just added more fuel to the rumors that he ’ s firing blanks instead of neurons .
Some will consider this open acknowledgment of Biden ’ s obvious and worsening dementia as belittling to all aging sufferers of this disease , but they would be missing an important point : Ordinary people in his position relinquish their driver ’ s licenses , give power-of-attorney to responsible relatives or caregivers , and voluntarily cede their autonomy for their own well-being – and for the safety of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end-of-life rituals with dignity and above all , integrity .
By clinging to denial and ignoring medical advice , ( as Biden seems to be doing ) he risks being manipulated and exploited by those who will eventually exert absolute control over him , and by extension , us .
It ’ s not just dementia behind his decision to make another failed bid for the presidency , but the still active reptile part of his part that has always been its guiding force .
‘ Survival of the unfittest ’ is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the law of the Swamp .
Biden has always been a primordial , slime dweller with a keen cockroach-like ability to adapt to his surroundings .
He can do the bidding of a pro-segregation Senator , taking the opposite stance of his party on the issue of bussing , while using Black Panther talking points to make the case for institutional racism .
He can serve at the behest of the first black president as his official court jester without ever having taken an honest inventory of his past , except to fill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ atrocious Republican bills with fabricated stories of civil rights heroism .
Today , Biden sees his role as the DNC ’ s black vote magnet as a natural extension of his previous incarnation as a “ tough love ” foreman on Strom Thurmond ’ s cotton plantation .
There , he sharpened the implements Master Thurmond used to keep the slaves in line .
As Vice-President , he put a drunk handyman spin on the murderous policies for the two parties he serves , making drone programs and regime change seem as harmless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might even say that pretend pissing in a punchbowl has been Biden ’ s stock in trade for his entire political career .
Degenerative brain disease has eroded the buffoonery down to a husk , and made visible the incontinent serial killer behind Pogo the Senator .
The brightly colored cords that the infamous clown killer used to publicly entertain children with sleight of hand magic tricks was the same ligature used in private to incapacitate his victims .
On both occasions , his targets were willingly duped into entrusting their safety to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ DNC is asking voters to do the same .
Biden ’ s bland , the average guy next door appeal has always masked a homicidal predator , now reduced to a math-addled playground flasher .
Neither time nor cognitive decline has , however , has calmed his blood lust or a lifelong commitment to planetary collapse .
Violence has never been far from the surface of Biden ’ s carefully crafted persona of an affable , gaffe-prone uncle whose wandering hands always “ accidentally ” settle on a pre-pubescent girl .
Nor has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turn a plagiarized platitude into a bellicose non sequitur .
Gone is the deceptive veneer of unfiltered naivete , and in its place , open declarations of violent intent .
At this onset stage of his senility , he is only able to articulate the hate speech underlying every bill he helped write in the Senate , including the Patriot Act which he insists was pushed through by leprechauns who had stolen his identity .
Girls over the age of eleven are “ dog-faced pony soldiers ” , a pro-gun union leader at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rival to be taken outside and thrashed .
Black voters remain on the receiving end of badly told anecdotes involving of all Freudian things , “ thugs ” with switchblades – not to mention fabricated stories about being arrested in apartheid-era South Africa .
Was it there that he wrapped a bicycle chain around the skull of President Corn Pop after he was caught in the White-Only swimming pool ?
“ I ’ d better ask my sister/wife who has a birthday next year in 2018 while I was serving pizza in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back ” .
Biden seems to fare better when just telling bald-faced lies as he did recently during his debate with Bernie Sanders .
Not reviving Corn Pop or mangling the Declaration of Independence was evidence provided by the establishment media of their preferred candidate ’ s triumphant return to lucidity .
Perhaps his fellow swamp denizens see the opportunity the ascension of another unqualified halfwit to the presidency .
The opportunity , that is , to keep another Imbecile-in-Chief pre-occupied with crayons , just as they kept Bush Jr entertained with finger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Where most people see a Biden presidency as a climactic finish to a decades-long race to the bottom , the mostly unseen Beltway bottom feeders perhaps relish the prospect of coalescing around a compliant invertebrate that will do their bidding .
This can be easily achieved if the Democrats can convince those much-coveted and largely imaginary swing voters that Joe Biden is the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan .
“ America , we present to you another doddering , red-baiting crypto-fascist with word soup all over his bib ” .
Somewhere Donald @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wonder over his latest victory .

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ince becoming his party’s frontrunner and presumed nominee, Joe Biden has been hard at work, providing more fodder for future Trump campaign attack ads against himself. No need for ‘deep fakes’ when your opponent willingly offers up his Blooper reels for the benefit of your own re-election campaign. There was something more viral than COVID-19 going around last week – recent footage of the former VP losing his marbles on Livestream and then wandering offscreen to retrieve them – or was he sleepwalking into traffic after hearing about his own car crash performance as it happened? Let’s just say his latest attempt at self-immolation just added more fuel to the rumors that he’s firing blanks instead of neurons.
Some will consider this open acknowledgment of Biden’s obvious and worsening dementia as belittling to all aging sufferers of this disease, but they would be missing an important point: Ordinary people in his position relinquish their driver’s licenses, give power-of-attorney to responsible relatives or caregivers, and voluntarily cede their autonomy for their own well-being – and for the safety of others. They perform these grim, end-of-life rituals with dignity and above all, integrity. By clinging to denial and ignoring medical advice, (as Biden seems to be doing) he risks being manipulated and exploited by those who will eventually exert absolute control over him, and by extension, us.
It’s not just dementia behind his decision to make another failed bid for the presidency, but the still active reptile part of his part that has always been its guiding force. ‘Survival of the unfittest’ is the evolutionary principle of the political class and the law of the Swamp. Biden has always been a primordial, slime dweller with a keen cockroach-like ability to adapt to his surroundings. He can do the bidding of a pro-segregation Senator, taking the opposite stance of his party on the issue of bussing, while using Black Panther talking points to make the case for institutional racism. He can serve at the behest of the first black president as his official court jester without ever having taken an honest inventory of his past, except to fill in the blanks between writing and passing atrocious Republican bills with fabricated stories of civil rights heroism. Today, Biden sees his role as the DNC’s black vote magnet as a natural extension of his previous incarnation as a “tough love” foreman on Strom Thurmond’s cotton plantation. There, he sharpened the implements Master Thurmond used to keep the slaves in line.
As Vice-President, he put a drunk handyman spin on the murderous policies for the two parties he serves, making drone programs and regime change seem as harmless as pretend-pissing in a punchbowl. You might even say that pretend pissing in a punchbowl has been Biden’s stock in trade for his entire political career. Degenerative brain disease has eroded the buffoonery down to a husk, and made visible the incontinent serial killer behind Pogo the Senator. The brightly colored cords that the infamous clown killer used to publicly entertain children with sleight of hand magic tricks was the same ligature used in private to incapacitate his victims. On both occasions, his targets were willingly duped into entrusting their safety to a clown with handcuffs. Now the DNC is asking voters to do the same. Biden’s bland, the average guy next door appeal has always masked a homicidal predator, now reduced to a math-addled playground flasher.
Neither time nor cognitive decline has, however, has calmed his blood lust or a lifelong commitment to planetary collapse. Violence has never been far from the surface of Biden’s carefully crafted persona of an affable, gaffe-prone uncle whose wandering hands always “accidentally” settle on a pre-pubescent girl. Nor has his tongue ever resisted the urge to turn a plagiarized platitude into a bellicose non sequitur. Gone is the deceptive veneer of unfiltered naivete, and in its place, open declarations of violent intent. At this onset stage of his senility, he is only able to articulate the hate speech underlying every bill he helped write in the Senate, including the Patriot Act which he insists was pushed through by leprechauns who had stolen his identity.
Girls over the age of eleven are “dog-faced pony soldiers”, a pro-gun union leader at his campaign events, a street gang rival to be taken outside and thrashed. Black voters remain on the receiving end of badly told anecdotes involving of all Freudian things, “thugs” with switchblades – not to mention fabricated stories about being arrested in apartheid-era South Africa. Was it there that he wrapped a bicycle chain around the skull of President Corn Pop after he was caught in the White-Only swimming pool? “I’d better ask my sister/wife who has a birthday next year in 2018 while I was serving pizza in the Senate as its grease monkey on my back”. Biden seems to fare better when just telling bald-faced lies as he did recently during his debate with Bernie Sanders. Not reviving Corn Pop or mangling the Declaration of Independence was evidence provided by the establishment media of their preferred candidate’s triumphant return to lucidity.
Perhaps his fellow swamp denizens see the opportunity the ascension of another unqualified halfwit to the presidency. The opportunity, that is, to keep another Imbecile-in-Chief pre-occupied with crayons, just as they kept Bush Jr entertained with finger paints, and Trump pre-occupied with Twitter. Where most people see a Biden presidency as a climactic finish to a decades-long race to the bottom, the mostly unseen Beltway bottom feeders perhaps relish the prospect of coalescing around a compliant invertebrate that will do their bidding. This can be easily achieved if the Democrats can convince those much-coveted and largely imaginary swing voters that Joe Biden is the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan. “America, we present to you another doddering, red-baiting crypto-fascist with word soup all over his bib”. Somewhere Donald Trump is scratching his hair plugs in wonder over his latest victory.


thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-03-23--The Pathogenic Profits System: Beyond Begging, Praying, and Capital

But it isn ’ t a rational , decent , or democratic society .
It ’ s a capitalist society where concentrated wealth rules , where the ruling class fears real public education and knowledge , and where the nation ’ s unelected and interrelated dictatorships of money and empire privilege private profit and war preparedness over public health and disease preparedness and other social needs .
Are we really expected to suppress the common sense notion that we the people might just as well nationalize and collectivize giant parasitic businesses we end up re-capitalizing when their system melts down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own inherent and internal contradictions .
“ Too big to fail ” should be understood as “ too big to be privately owned.
” Are we really expected to suppress the common sense notion that we the people might just as well nationalize and collectivize giant parasitic businesses we end up re-capitalizing when their system melts down once again , in accord with its own inherent and internal contradictions .
“ Too big to fail ” should be understood as “ too big to be privately owned.
” Public health experts and epidemiologists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the likely emergence of a next great worldwide epidemic – a pandemic .
If it were a rational , decent , educated , and democratic society , the United States would be spending massive sums on epidemic/pandemic readiness instead of on a Pentagon System that transfers massive wealth to the owners of high-tech “ defense ” corporations while accounting for 40 percent of the world ’ s military expenditures and deploying weapons that can blow up the world many times over .
Nonsense .
The new coronavirus is not really a surprise to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of disease .
Epidemics , like financial crises , have been a recurrent occurrence in the record of human civilization .
Hundreds of epidemics have killed countless millions of people across a vast swath of human history .
Wikipedia lists at least 80 epidemics , including 13 pandemics ( a disease prevalent over a whole country or the world ) since the onset of the modern world system in the 16 th Century .
By Wikipedia ’ s account , the 21st Century alone has already seen more than thirty epidemics , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2009 , MERS 2012 , Zika virus 2016-16 , and Covid-19 2020 ) .
e live in an age of Orwellian untruth where falsehood is the norm .
One key falsehood worth unmasking is the claim that the current COVID-19 stock market decline , soon to usher in a full-on recession , is a “ black swan ” – an unpredictable ( and supposedly unpredicted ) “ surprise ” event with great and negative consequences outside the normal operations of capitalism .
Deadly viruses have a natural basis that predate and will survive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of both stirring them up and of spreading them beyond their origin sites and around the world in accord with what Marx and Engels rightly identified as its relentless tendency towards globalization .
Capital digs its extraction hooks and sales and investment tentacles into every nook and cranny of the planet it can in the unremitting , geographically unbound pursuit of profit .
Its system must expand in order to survive .
“ Healthy ” profit rates depend on enlargement and “ growth.
” Capitalism has a longstanding tendency towards boom and bust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and realization of profit through productive investment is blocked by limits of supply and/or demand and by excess investment , capital flows to financial investment that tends to inflate assets far beyond real economic value .
The “ moving paper fantasy ” ultimately collides with the harsh material value reality .
Speculative bubbles crash , leading to devaluation of capital , bankruptcies , unemployment , evictions , deepened poverty , heightened mortality , and other horrific outcomes .
Wikipedia lists 42 stock market crashes since 1837 .
When the crashes and the underlying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ big enough , they lead to recessions and even depressions , spreading misery and “ social disruption.
” Masses of ordinary people in the U.S. today are thrown out of work , off absurdly employment-based health insurance plans , out of homes they can no longer afford .
They see their retirement incomes collapse thanks to steep declines in the stock market , to which their “ defined contribution ” pension plans are hitched through no choice of their own .
Amidst all this distress , wealth becomes more concentrated as capitalists unable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out and bought up on the cheap .
This is how capitalism “ works.
” In the current age of hyper-concentrated “ too big to fail ” corporate and financial consolidation and corporate oligarchy/plutocracy , big capital demands and receives massive public bailouts to protect elite wealth and profits .
The working-class majority , by contrast , is inadequately protected .
It ’ s called “ socialism for the rich and capitalism for the rest.
” Did the coronavirus , itself partly symptomatic of inherently globalist capitalism , cause the current stock market @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a major recession ( perhaps even a bona fide depression ) ?
Yes and no .
Yes , in that the virus is the spark that set the heap ablaze .
No , in that the heap was already ripe kindling waiting for a match .
If COVID-19 hadn ’ t started the fire , then something else would have soon enough .
The system was overdue for a “ correction , ” thanks to tremendously inflated asset values , absurdly high P/E ratios , ridiculously debt-leveraged companies , extreme inequality , horribly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debt , and toxic financial and social deregulation .
I ’ m not a political economist , but I ’ ve seen and researched enough of these events for these classic indicators to have had me wondering which day the collapse would come and what the trigger might be for the last two years .
So here we are again , with the rich calling for their corporations and financial institutions to be given corporate socialist bailouts – oh and please taxpayers foot their executives ’ multi-million-dollar salaries .
Are we really expected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we the people might just as well nationalize and collectivize giant parasitic businesses we end up re-capitalizing when their system melts down once again , in accord with its own inherent and internal contradictions .
“ Too big to fail ” should be understood as “ too big to be privately owned.
” Here we are again begging the masters – maybe I should follow the late George Carlin and say “ our owners ” – for minimally adequate protections for the working-class people who are being stripped of jobs and viable pensions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ necessities – food , clothing , medicine , doctor visits , and shelter ( you know , stuff like that ) – while the grotesquely super-rich “ shelter in place ” in obscenely opulent mansions and luxuriant condo complexes .
Begging and praying for them to halt evictions and to provide a universal basic income so that people can survive even if no employer finds it profitable to exploit their labor power anymore .
Begging and praying for them to open the jail , prison , and detention camp doors in America ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so that millions of nonviolent prisoners and detainees can be released from viral breeding grounds where social distancing is impossible .
Begging and praying for them to join the rest of the civilized world in making health care a human right .
Begging and praying for them , I should add now , to redirect resources away from their giant corporate subsidies and their giant insane imperialist war machine ( itself a gargantuan public subsidy for high-tech corporations ) to the manufacture and free distribution of masks , test-kits , ventilators , respirators @ @ @ @ @ @ @ praying for them not to corner all the best medical services and good for themselves while we are left to suffer and die .
Maybe one day thousands and then tens of thousands and millions and then tens of millions of us will stop begging and praying and start fighting for human decency , social justice , environmental and epidemiological sustainability , economic equality , and democracy .
I am aware that we are not supposed to be taking to the streets amidst the coronavirus crisis because doing so threatens to help spread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ love that .
What a dark and ironic gift both to ( a ) the many “ liberals ” I know for whom the only meaningful way to oust Trump is voting from some corporate Democrat for two minutes once every 1.460 days and ( b ) the Trumpenlefty sorts I still hear from who think that to see the demented white-nationalist oligarch and Biohazard Trump ( accurately described by Noam Chomsky as “ the most dangerous criminal in human history ” ) as an extraordinary threat to human life and the common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporate Democrats like Hillary Clinton , Barack Obama , and Joe Biden .
Such wonderful justifications for doing nothing while the dangerous and indecent tangerine beast wreaks havoc on the world .
In yet another predictable outrage , the beast ’ s henchmen are currently trying to turn the coronavirus into a new kind of pretext for indefinitely detaining domestic political opponents and stripping dissidents of habeas corpus – the constitutional right to appear before a judge after arrest and seek release .
But , of course .
As the left historian and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will use this emergency to push us further down road of authoritarianism .
And meanwhile : truth is scientists know virtually nothing about this completely new virus .
We are groping around in the dark .
And while we are staying inside and focusing on keeping ourselves and others as safe as possible these people are working overtime figuring out ways to more effectively control us once this is over — if it gets over.
” A major reason to have been in the streets en masse has been that Trump is at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trusted not to use a crisis ( I was most concerned about a terror attack or a total economic meltdown but did sometimes wonder if a pandemic could do it ) to jack up the dictatorial powers of the imperial presidency and take the cancellation of “ normal ” bourgeois law and checks and balances to a qualitatively new level .
But the virus is not likely forever – there ’ s no historical precedent for a forever pandemic .
We can protest from our homes , both electronically and with banners , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more .
And perhaps things will get so bad that we take to the streets anyway , marching six feet apart , coughing and sneezing and wheezing into the luxuriant corporate suites and abodes of the diseased plutocrats who impose the poisonous and parasitic plague of the pathogenic profits system on the people of the world .
We must protest not just against the demented orange Trumpenstein , of course , but against the lethal class rule system that hatched and empowered it along with so many other interlaced sicknesses of society and @ @

But it isn’t a rational, decent, or democratic society. It’s a capitalist society where concentrated wealth rules, where the ruling class fears real public education and knowledge, and where the nation’s unelected and interrelated dictatorships of money and empire privilege private profit and war preparedness over public health and disease preparedness and other social needs.
Are we really expected to suppress the common sense notion that we the people might just as well nationalize and collectivize giant parasitic businesses we end up re-capitalizing when their system melts down once again, in accord with its own inherent and internal contradictions. “Too big to fail” should be understood as “too big to be privately owned.”
Are we really expected to suppress the common sense notion that we the people might just as well nationalize and collectivize giant parasitic businesses we end up re-capitalizing when their system melts down once again, in accord with its own inherent and internal contradictions. “Too big to fail” should be understood as “too big to be privately owned.”
Public health experts and epidemiologists have long been advocating greater preparedness for the likely emergence of a next great worldwide epidemic – a pandemic. If it were a rational, decent, educated, and democratic society, the United States would be spending massive sums on epidemic/pandemic readiness instead of on a Pentagon System that transfers massive wealth to the owners of high-tech “defense” corporations while accounting for 40 percent of the world’s military expenditures and deploying weapons that can blow up the world many times over.
Nonsense. The new coronavirus is not really a surprise to those who know anything about the history of disease. Epidemics, like financial crises, have been a recurrent occurrence in the record of human civilization. Hundreds of epidemics have killed countless millions of people across a vast swath of human history. Wikipedia lists at least 80 epidemics , including 13 pandemics (a disease prevalent over a whole country or the world) since the onset of the modern world system in the 16 th Century. By Wikipedia’s account, the 21st Century alone has already seen more than thirty epidemics, including four that went worldwide (Swine Flu 2009, MERS 2012, Zika virus 2016-16, and Covid-19 2020).
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e live in an age of Orwellian untruth where falsehood is the norm. One key falsehood worth unmasking is the claim that the current COVID-19 stock market decline, soon to usher in a full-on recession, is a “black swan” – an unpredictable (and supposedly unpredicted) “surprise” event with great and negative consequences outside the normal operations of capitalism.
Deadly viruses have a natural basis that predate and will survive capitalism, but capitalism has a knack of both stirring them up and of spreading them beyond their origin sites and around the world in accord with what Marx and Engels rightly identified as its relentless tendency towards globalization. Capital digs its extraction hooks and sales and investment tentacles into every nook and cranny of the planet it can in the unremitting, geographically unbound pursuit of profit. Its system must expand in order to survive. “Healthy” profit rates depend on enlargement and “growth.”
Capitalism has a longstanding tendency towards boom and bust. When the “normal” creation and realization of profit through productive investment is blocked by limits of supply and/or demand and by excess investment, capital flows to financial investment that tends to inflate assets far beyond real economic value. The “moving paper fantasy” ultimately collides with the harsh material value reality. Speculative bubbles crash, leading to devaluation of capital, bankruptcies, unemployment, evictions, deepened poverty, heightened mortality, and other horrific outcomes.
Wikipedia lists 42 stock market crashes since 1837. When the crashes and the underlying imbalances that gave rise to them are big enough, they lead to recessions and even depressions, spreading misery and “social disruption.” Masses of ordinary people in the U.S. today are thrown out of work, off absurdly employment-based health insurance plans, out of homes they can no longer afford. They see their retirement incomes collapse thanks to steep declines in the stock market, to which their “defined contribution” pension plans are hitched through no choice of their own. Amidst all this distress, wealth becomes more concentrated as capitalists unable to ride out the storm are winnowed out and bought up on the cheap.
This is how capitalism “works.” In the current age of hyper-concentrated “too big to fail” corporate and financial consolidation and corporate oligarchy/plutocracy, big capital demands and receives massive public bailouts to protect elite wealth and profits. The working-class majority, by contrast, is inadequately protected.
It’s called “socialism for the rich and capitalism for the rest.”
Did the coronavirus, itself partly symptomatic of inherently globalist capitalism, cause the current stock market collapse, which seems certain to hatch a major recession (perhaps even a bona fide depression)? Yes and no.
Yes, in that the virus is the spark that set the heap ablaze. No, in that the heap was already ripe kindling waiting for a match. If COVID-19 hadn’t started the fire, then something else would have soon enough. The system was overdue for a “correction,” thanks to tremendously inflated asset values, absurdly high P/E ratios, ridiculously debt-leveraged companies, extreme inequality, horribly inadequate wages, colossal consumer and student debt, and toxic financial and social deregulation. I’m not a political economist, but I’ve seen and researched enough of these events for these classic indicators to have had me wondering which day the collapse would come and what the trigger might be for the last two years.
So here we are again, with the rich calling for their corporations and financial institutions to be given corporate socialist bailouts – oh and please taxpayers foot their executives’ multi-million-dollar salaries. Are we really expected to suppress the common sense notion that we the people might just as well nationalize and collectivize giant parasitic businesses we end up re-capitalizing when their system melts down once again, in accord with its own inherent and internal contradictions. “Too big to fail” should be understood as “too big to be privately owned.”
Here we are again begging the masters – maybe I should follow the late George Carlin and say “our owners” – for minimally adequate protections for the working-class people who are being stripped of jobs and viable pensions and hence the ability to pay for necessities – food, clothing, medicine, doctor visits, and shelter (you know, stuff like that) – while the grotesquely super-rich “shelter in place” in obscenely opulent mansions and luxuriant condo complexes.
Begging and praying for them to halt evictions and to provide a universal basic income so that people can survive even if no employer finds it profitable to exploit their labor power anymore.
Begging and praying for them to open the jail, prison, and detention camp doors in America’s globally unmatched racist mass incarceration state so that millions of nonviolent prisoners and detainees can be released from viral breeding grounds where social distancing is impossible.
Begging and praying for them to join the rest of the civilized world in making health care a human right.
Begging and praying for them, I should add now, to redirect resources away from their giant corporate subsidies and their giant insane imperialist war machine (itself a gargantuan public subsidy for high-tech corporations)to the manufacture and free distribution of masks, test-kits, ventilators, respirators, and medical facilities.
Begging and praying for them not to corner all the best medical services and good for themselves while we are left to suffer and die.
Maybe one day thousands and then tens of thousands and millions and then tens of millions of us will stop begging and praying and start fighting for human decency, social justice, environmental and epidemiological sustainability, economic equality, and democracy.
…and Beyond Trump
I am aware that we are not supposed to be taking to the streets amidst the coronavirus crisis because doing so threatens to help spread the virus. How the masters must love that. What a dark and ironic gift both to (a) the many “liberals” I know for whom the only meaningful way to oust Trump is voting from some corporate Democrat for two minutes once every 1.460 days and (b) the Trumpenlefty sorts I still hear from who think that to see the demented white-nationalist oligarch and Biohazard Trump (accurately described by Noam Chomsky as “the most dangerous criminal in human history”) as an extraordinary threat to human life and the common good is to become a fan of corporate Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. Such wonderful justifications for doing nothing while the dangerous and indecent tangerine beast wreaks havoc on the world.
In yet another predictable outrage, the beast’s henchmen are currently trying to turn the coronavirus into a new kind of pretext for indefinitely detaining domestic political opponents and stripping dissidents of habeas corpus – the constitutional right to appear before a judge after arrest and seek release. But, of course. As the left historian and journalist Terry Thomas writes, “They will use this emergency to push us further down road of authoritarianism. And meanwhile: truth is scientists know virtually nothing about this completely new virus. We are groping around in the dark. And while we are staying inside and focusing on keeping ourselves and others as safe as possible these people are working overtime figuring out ways to more effectively control us once this is over — if it gets over.”
A major reason to have been in the streets en masse has been that Trump is at very least fascistic and could not be trusted not to use a crisis (I was most concerned about a terror attack or a total economic meltdown but did sometimes wonder if a pandemic could do it) to jack up the dictatorial powers of the imperial presidency and take the cancellation of “normal” bourgeois law and checks and balances to a qualitatively new level.
But the virus is not likely forever – there’s no historical precedent for a forever pandemic. We can protest from our homes, both electronically and with banners, loudspeakers, banners, banging pots and more. And perhaps things will get so bad that we take to the streets anyway, marching six feet apart, coughing and sneezing and wheezing into the luxuriant corporate suites and abodes of the diseased plutocrats who impose the poisonous and parasitic plague of the pathogenic profits system on the people of the world.
We must protest not just against the demented orange Trumpenstein, of course, but against the lethal class rule system that hatched and empowered it along with so many other interlaced sicknesses of society and soul.