 |
| And He Does Not Give A Shit How Many People Will Die |
After my cortisone shots last week, I can actually walk again ! I'll be good for another four months thank goodness, despite being blind. At any rate I have not been here because of a million things I had to catch up on instead of sitting in front of the computer. Tomorrow I have to give Paris a bathers, she is going in for her operation to have lumps removed on Friday. Mike had to have tacos over last weekend, so when we were up there we stopped at Sprouts to get meat for Paris and him. The Harris Ranch Ground Sirloin was...$9.98 a pound, Paris's Top Sirloin had gone up to $7.99 a pound. Also I had run out of flour for baking ( can't find it anywhere) I broke down and ordered it from the dreaded Amazon, I won't even tell you how much that was. We did finish watching the newest "Last Tango In Halifax" - but the ending left me blah.
Still, the news I did listen to and read was grim, particularly Trump not allowing Dr. Fauci to testify before the Congress, the insane make America great again demonstrators brandishing automatic weapons, the increase of deaths both here and in the States from the virus, Trump's outrageous interview at the Lincoln Memorial, and now this: Trump's declaration that he is preparing to dismantle the so-called "Coronavirus Task Force." Of course, the only good thing about that is that at least we do not have to look or listen to the great advisor who looks like a ghoul and is an idiot, Jared Kushner. Okay, I said his his name, you can throw up now.
What's the Plan ?
~ From The Guardian : click title for link
Donald Trump's four-step plan to reopen the US economy – and why it will be lethal
"Donald Trump is getting nervous. Internal polls show him losing in November unless the economy comes roaring back.
But much of the economy remains closed because of the pandemic.
The number of infections and deaths continue to climb.
Step 1
Remove income support, so people have no choice but to return to work.Trump’s labor department has decided that furloughed employees “must accept” an employer’s offer to return to work and therefore forfeit unemployment benefits, regardless of Covid-19.
Trump’s ally, Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, says employees cannot refuse to return to work for fear of contracting the disease. “That’s a voluntary quit,” making someone ineligible for benefits.
GOP officials in Oklahoma are even threatening to withhold the $600 a week of extra unemployment benefits Congress has provided workers, if an employer wants to hire them. Safety is irrelevant.
“If the employer will contact us … we will cut off their benefits,” says Teresa Thomas Keller of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.
Forcing people to choose between getting Covid-19 or losing their livelihood is inhumane. It is also nonsensical. Public health still depends on as many workers as possible staying home. That’s a big reason why Congress provided the extra benefits.
Step 2
Hide the facts.No one knows how many Americans are infected because the Trump administration continues to drag its heels on testing. To date only 6.5m tests have been completed in a population of more than 200 million adults.
Florida, one of the first states to reopen, has stopped releasing medical examiners’ statistics on the number of Covid-19 victims because the figures are higher than the state’s official count.
But it’s impossible to fight the virus without adequate data. Dr Anthony Fauci, the administration’s leading infectious disease expert, warns that reopening poses “a really significant risk” without more testing.
Not surprisingly, the White House has blocked Fauci from testifying before the House.
Step 3
Pretend it’s about “freedom”.Weeks ago, Trump called on citizens to “LIBERATE” states like Michigan, whose Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, imposed strict stay-at-home rules.
Michigan has the third-highest number of Covid-19 deaths in America, although it is 10th in population. When on Thursday Whitmer extended the rules to 28 May, gun-toting protesters rushed the state house chanting: “Lock her up!”
Rather than condemn their behavior, Trump suggested Whitmer “make a deal” with them.
“The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire,” he tweeted. “These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely!”
Meanwhile, the attorney general, William Barr, has directed the justice department to take legal action against any state or local authorities imposing lockdown measures that “could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens”.
Making this about “freedom” is absurd. Freedom is meaningless for people who have no choice but to accept a job that risks their health.
Step 4
Trump is pushing to give businesses that reopen a “liability shield” against legal action by workers or customers who get infected by the virus.
This week, he announced he would use the Defense Production Act to force meat-processing plants to remain open, despite high rates of Covid-19 infections and deaths among meatpackers. “We’re going to sign an executive order today, I believe, and that’ll solve any liability problems,” Trump said.
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, insists that proposed legislation giving state and local governments funding they desperately need must include legal immunity for corporations that cause workers or consumers to become infected.
“We have a red line on liability,” McConnell said. “It won’t pass the Senate without it.”
But how can the economy safely reopen if companies don’t have an incentive to keep people safe? Promises to provide protective gear and other safeguards are worthless absent the threat of damages if workers or customers become infected.
The truth
The biggest obstacle to reopening the economy is the pandemic itself.Any rush to reopen without adequate testing and tracing – far more than now under way – will cause a resurgence of the disease and another and longer economic crisis.
Maybe Trump is betting that any resurgence will occur after the election, when the economy appears to be on the road to recovery.
The first responsibility of a president is to keep the public safe. But Donald Trump couldn’t care less. He was slow to respond to the threat, then he lied about it, then made it hard for states – especially those with Democratic governors – to get the equipment they need.
Now he’s trying to force the economy to reopen in order to boost his electoral chances this November, and he’s selling out Americans’ health to seal the deal. This is beyond contemptible."
- Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a columnist for Guardian US
~~~~~
Meanwhile, here is such an excellent up-to-date report at what is happening in Baja California and Mexico and the Trumpista influence over working conditions during the pandemic - hell, he's going to kill us all - and this is not I repeat NOT being reported at all in the San Diego media.
~ From Truthout:
click title for link
Following Mexico’s Worker Strikes, the US Steps in to Keep Border Factories Open
~~~~~
I'll return with the COVID and local drug war stats, which are both increasing. Tomorrow aside from the bathers, I'm going to make a cole slaw to go with Carolina BBQ chicken, but I
can't make the Hummingbird Cake until I get the flour.
Take care everyone and be safe.