My husband recently recommended that I read a lengthy article from the Atlantic by Ed Yong. Despite the fact that I am a pretty devoted reader of that publication, and a subscriber, I’d missed it.
If you are trapped at home with nothing pressing to do (clean out the refrigerator, or knit face masks, or whatever), you should click through and read the article in its entirety. In case you don’t have the time or inclination, I am cutting and pasting paragraphs that–in my estimation–are insightful and important.
A global pandemic of this scale was inevitable. In recent years, hundreds of health experts have written books, white papers, and op-eds warning of the possibility. Bill Gates has been telling anyone who would listen, including the 18 million viewers of his TED Talk. In 2018, I wrote a story for The Atlantic arguing that America was not ready for the pandemic that would eventually come. In October, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security war-gamed what might happen if a new coronavirus swept the globe. And then one did. Hypotheticals became reality. “What if?” became “Now what?”…
As my colleagues Alexis Madrigal and Robinson Meyer have reported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed and distributed a faulty test in February. Independent labs created alternatives, but were mired in bureaucracy from the FDA. In a crucial month when the American caseload shot into the tens of thousands, only hundreds of people were tested. That a biomedical powerhouse like the U.S. should so thoroughly fail to create a very simple diagnostic test was, quite literally, unimaginable. “I’m not aware of any simulations that I or others have run where we [considered] a failure of testing,” says Alexandra Phelan of Georgetown University, who works on legal and policy issues related to infectious diseases.
The testing fiasco was the original sin of America’s pandemic failure, the single flaw that undermined every other countermeasure….
With little room to surge during a crisis, America’s health-care system operates on the assumption that unaffected states can help beleaguered ones in an emergency. That ethic works for localized disasters such as hurricanes or wildfires, but not for a pandemic that is now in all 50 states. Cooperation has given way to competition; some worried hospitals have bought out large quantities of supplies, in the way that panicked consumers have bought out toilet paper.
Partly, that’s because the White House is a ghost town of scientific expertise. A pandemic-preparedness office that was part of the National Security Council was dissolved in 2018. On January 28, Luciana Borio, who was part of that team, urged the government to “act now to prevent an American epidemic,” and specifically to work with the private sector to develop fast, easy diagnostic tests. But with the office shuttered, those warnings were published in The Wall Street Journal, rather than spoken into the president’s ear. Instead of springing into action, America sat idle.
Rudderless, blindsided, lethargic, and uncoordinated, America has mishandled the COVID-19 crisis to a substantially worse degree than what every health expert I’ve spoken with had feared. “Much worse,” said Ron Klain, who coordinated the U.S. response to the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014. “Beyond any expectations we had,” said Lauren Sauer, who works on disaster preparedness at Johns Hopkins Medicine. “As an American, I’m horrified,” said Seth Berkley, who heads Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “The U.S. may end up with the worst outbreak in the industrialized world.”
The quoted paragraphs are followed by predictions of what will come next–best and worst case. Bottom line: even in the best-case scenarios, this isn’t going to be over any time soon. The “President” may think a vaccine or cure can be magically discovered and mass produced in a couple of weeks, but scientists and sane people know better.
And then there’s the aftermath…
As my colleague Annie Lowrey wrote, the economy is experiencing a shock “more sudden and severe than anyone alive has ever experienced.” About one in five people in the United States have lost working hours or jobs. Hotels are empty. Airlines are grounding flights. Restaurants and other small businesses are closing. Inequalities will widen: People with low incomes will be hardest-hit by social-distancing measures, and most likely to have the chronic health conditions that increase their risk of severe infections. Diseases have destabilized cities and societies many times over, “but it hasn’t happened in this country in a very long time, or to quite the extent that we’re seeing now,” says Elena Conis, a historian of medicine at UC Berkeley. “We’re far more urban and metropolitan. We have more people traveling great distances and living far from family and work.”
After infections begin ebbing, a secondary pandemic of mental-health problems will follow. …People with anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder are struggling. Elderly people, who are already excluded from much of public life, are being asked to distance themselves even further, deepening their loneliness. Asian people are suffering racist insults, fueled by a president who insists on labeling the new coronavirus the “Chinese virus.” Incidents of domestic violence and child abuse are likely to spike as people are forced to stay in unsafe homes.
The article does end with a thin ray of hope–or perhaps “challenge” is a more appropriate word. Pandemics can catalyze social change.
Perhaps the nation will learn that preparedness isn’t just about masks, vaccines, and tests, but also about fair labor policies and a stable and equal health-care system. Perhaps it will appreciate that health-care workers and public-health specialists compose America’s social immune system, and that this system has been suppressed.
If we are very, very fortunate, in November we will not retreat further into authoritarianism and fear; instead, we’ll recognize that all diseases aren’t physical, and all tests aren’t medical.
Our test is whether America will repudiate the virus of bigoted “America first” politics, reject kakistocracy, and pivot from isolationism to international cooperation.
Sheila,
“Our test is whether America will repudiate the virus of bigoted “America first” politics, reject kakistocracy, and pivot from isolationism to international cooperation.”
Because of Sheila’s draw, pull, etc. etc. etc., the COMBINED MINDS of this blog have the ability to start making this PIVOT or TRANSITION right now, if we can all work together.
Donald Trump can’t do anything, at this point in time, other than leading us further into the depths of HELL.
The present situation is very much like competitive sailing, you must, continually, make the right TACKS [to change course suddenly] in order to WIN. But the CREW can’t do that without an experienced CAPTAIN.
Kakistocracy, LOL & SMH
How! How? And how.
In this supposed age of Enlightenment, how could an advanced civilization, (or so many thought) be run by a Stunad? The idea of power is quite intoxicating, and Tooter turtle McConnell and his tooties have been trying to wrestle power into submission for a long time, even to the point of not fulfilling their constitutional obligations. And we can plainly see how easy it is to corrupt a government. Not that our government was not corrupt, at least it was functionally corrupt. Now, it’s floating around like a ship without a rudder, rolling downhill like a train without an engine, the only thing that they can come up with during this “Plague” is to drill water leter outers (yes Three Stooges) while the boat is drifting aimlessly without a rudder.
It seems that these hangers on, those looking for self-aggrandizement and power, really don’t have a clue on how to control the lunatic who has the most power, how? How did a person with a 100 word vocabulary end up running the country? I think, if Jeb Bush would have walked over and punched bozo in the chops after he insulted his wife, we could have been pounding on Jeb instead of president Nero. At least Jeb would have been able to get government functional, maybe? Maybe!
It just goes to show, the level of malaise runs deep, to have malaise one usually have to have some intellect, so, that means the lunatics are running around energized because at least they’re smart enough to see a good power grab. And by lunatics, I mean the Nazis, the Klann, the con artists, the wing nuts, and every other dreg of society!
We are headed towards a disjointed hegemonic era on this planet, how many generations can your family keep their heads down and try and survive? There is no place else to go! I remember commenting on several of these threads, that there will be blood, and there was a bit of blowback on that, anyone think there’s a possibility of some blood being spilled? Anyone think of a possibility that there could be martial law declared? Because, in the United States at least, all Trump has to do is write an executive order. He would and could suspend habeas corpus, suspend posse comitatus, and that would very much be the end of the good old US of A. The Eric Prince brownshirts would be running around exacting revenge, while the military would patrol the streets along with the federalized National Guard!
Sound familiar? This plague could be our Reichstag fire, that was the tipping point! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see! But, it will not stop at our borders, just like the plague or pandemic, it will circumvent the globe.
john,
You’re being too optimistic.
Devotees of the very stable genius are just fine with his leadership; have given him a bump back to 49% approval. I doubt Biden will inspire them and gain their vote. Before the virus there was confidence the genius would be ousted. In the middle of the stream will his admirers switch captains?
So, with the luxury of the internet and social media, we concerned citizens can find ways to overcome the dreadful Republican voter purge initiatives in the red states. We must find ways to get those disenfranchised citizens registered…and to the polls in November. The right-wing bastards will try to pull every stunt in the book to prevent people from voting, especially in those demographics who vote Democratic.
The so-called “patriot” party is working overtime to deny the citizens of this country their Constitutional rights…one after another. We MUST work around this crisis to make sure that the “other” crisis is excised in November.
“Our test is whether America will repudiate the virus of bigoted “America first” politics, reject kakistocracy, and pivot from isolationism to international cooperation.”
AIDS was barely stopped in time before becoming a worldwide pandemic due to international LGBTQ bigotry; there were the usual missteps, cover ups and snake oil cures but homophobia was stronger and a pandemic was avoided. Trump’s “America first” didn’t prevent the virus from slipping across our borders on all directions and via all modes of transportation to become airborn nationally.
Trump appears to believe that we believe he has “seen the light”; that he now knows science and Climate Change are realities because he added 30 days to his suggested social distancing and used the Defense Production Act to order one company to begin producing ventilators. A company which; along with countless other American companies who have sought federal approval to begin production. He has stated that one million Americans have been tested for coronavirus; have any of you on the blog, any of your family members or friends or anyone you have heard of been tested? I know one who knows one who has all symptoms and his wife is hospitalized with coronavirus and underlying health issues but he is not one of Trump’s millions who have been tested. We do not even have the information as to what requirements are to qualify for testing.
“Perhaps the nation will learn that preparedness isn’t just about masks, vaccines, and tests, but also about fair labor policies and a stable and equal health-care system.”
Trump’s response to an “equal health-care system” is to cut health-care for children from existing coverage, cut food stamps to the needy and repeal more EPA regulations, further polluting the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. Summaries usually come at the end of an issue or an after the fact of a disaster; this particular Summary is coming at the beginning of what can be the end of America and Americans as we have known it due to the escalating numbers of Covid-19 Pandemic due to Trump’s unending lies, destruction of fair labor policies and continuing fight to end our health care system in toto.
Wayne,
“In the middle of the stream will his admirers switch captains?” Only if they hit an ICEBERG like the TITANIC.
trump is guilty of negligent homicide. He is responsible for thousands of American deaths and should be held accountable.
So one million have been tested. Big woopee deal. There are three hundred and thirty million plus people in the country. Hardly an inspiring result after the virus has been here for months. And now we are told that we should have been wearing masks after all.
Wayne,
Unfortunately, we’re ALL on the TITANIC, whether we like it or not. That’s why MUTINY, before we hit an ICEBERG, is our only option.
I see signs of 2016, when news media gave free and full coverage of 45’s rallies. Now they’re giving him free and full coverage of his daily updates, which are essentially campaign rallies, where he feeds everyone misinformation, lies, distortions etc. After he makes his proclamations Pence gets up and tells everyone how wonderful our fearless leader is. Pence is followed by either Brix, who gives us her considered medical opinion that the dear leader is indeed wonderful, or Fauci, who tries to correct the medical misinformation that is the heart of the first 45 – 60 minutes. All of this is wired into your living room just in time to interrupt the local evening and national news, which people who are not tuned in, watch to keep up.
We need to ask the cable and network news operations to STOP. Just give us the actual, factual information that comes from those briefings. Make the jackass pay for his ad space, just like everybody else.
Does anyone believe that Adolph Hitler, once he was in power, would have allowed an election, if he thought he could lose?
The lack of faith in human goodness of the majority of the contributors to this blog continuously amazes me. If indeed you think most voters in November will stay home rather than vote against the corruption, chaos and uncaring governance of the past three years, than why don’t you set up a national hari-kari pact for the day after election day. Or, would you really rather visit your local gun shop and get ready to go to the streets and battle the MAGAs?
“Cooperation has given way to competition; some worried hospitals have bought out large quantities of supplies, in the way that panicked consumers have bought out toilet paper.”
Aw yes, the free market system in action. Americans can only find four rolls of TP to purchase because the hoarders wiped out the shelves during panicked buying.
The main problem with our health care system is it’s not designed to prevent diseases — it’s designed is to profit from disease-ridden people who fill up hospital beds. If our government and health care system were interested in disease prevention, there would be no profits in running hospitals.
What I find fascinating is Governor Holcomb refuses to tell people the truth about the crisis in Indiana because he’s made agreements with the large hospital chains. He wants to “honor these agreements.”
Once again, the primary purpose of a corporation is to maximize shareholder profits. Investing and storing tests and ventilators for a disease that may or may not happen isn’t profitable. Therefore, how can you hold this system accountable?
Believe it or not, there is a presidential candidate who wants to change our free market, for-profit, healthcare system, but voters have ignored him for the safe candidate with deteriorating mental acuity.
One would then concur, Americans are getting exactly what they deserve. If we wanted better, the votes would reflect more informed choices. We would demand a more responsive economic and political system that doesn’t produce gross inequalities for the masses.
Maybe the younger generation will make these demands as Boomers die off in this country. Possibly this pandemic will be Gladwell’s tipping point.
Frankly, I don’t see an opposition party in this country willing to take on these challenges because Wall Street controls it. When $2 trillion is injected into an extractive economic system, guess what?
Lester,
“If indeed you think most voters in November will stay home rather than vote against the corruption, chaos and uncaring governance of the past three years, than why don’t you set up a national hari-kari pact for the day after election day.”
Who said that? Be honest. You just don’t want to fight back. That’s understandable.
Marv,
WADR – I have spent the last 3 years growing a grassroots citizens movement from 0 to 725 members actively engaged in simultaneously getting seldom/never voters to vote for servant leader candidates to the US House. We worked with 60 candidates in the 2018 cycle, assisting 4 to Congress where they have been ardently “post-partisan” and fighting bravely for non-ideological practical approaches to our nation’s challenges. We have begun the same effort for the 2020 cycle and already have 1 candidate qualified for November and 2 in primary run-offs.
And you?
“And You?”
For a starter:
Lester,
“And you?”
As a starter:
Jacksonville, 1961-Lead strategist for my father in breaking the color barrier in college football in the “Deep South.”
Dallas, 1991-Lead strategist in the victory for 1 man, 1 vote which was a decade long battle.
Keep dreaming it’s good for the soul. However, be honest and admit your prejudice about fighting back. It’s understandable. It’s a 2000 year tradition.
Lester,
I hope you know where you’re going with all of this. But, I don’t think so.
I have come to believe that human governments and systems fail often to be proactive. Take, for example, New Orleans which was a sitting duck for a horrific hurricane. The governments did little to nothing to prepare for such a natural disaster. We have known about climate change for decades. What have leaders around the world done to address this? Not enough. So, I am not very surprised that we have an ineffective response to COVID 19 because as an RN I have known for many years that our health systems fail to be proactive, fail to invest in preventative strategies that could say many lives. Prevention is much more cost effective.
Obviously the countries that have had more success with minimizing the spread of COVID 19 have tested thousands of their citizens daily. We have not.
And, of course, to make matters worse, many people in our country do not have economic access to health care due to the “managed care” of insurance companies or their inability to pay high premiums.
Obviously the current POTUS has done nothing to make our health care system great again.
Marv – sincere commendation for your past active efforts, since 2016?
Peter Hessler in last week’s New Yorker reports from Chengdu on life there during the pandemic and on how China has aggressively worked to prevent it’s spread. He’s an American teacher who’s lived there for several decades. The government there has acted aggressively with enforced home isolation, but it follows up on every infected case with teams of epidemiologists, 1800 of them to track down, test, and treat those affected. Whether our piecemeal approach will work here would seem to be in serious question.
I wonder about the conclusion. Where some countries are trying to prop up business so that they still pay their employees, the US is having companies lay off employees. I know the wages stop, but what about their healthcare benefits? Now you have millions of people in the middle of a pandemic with no health insurance.
Perhaps there will be systemic changes in the years to come.
Lester,
“Marv-sincere commendation for your past active efforts, since 2016?”
Let’s keep it friendly. I’m not demeaning your efforts. Try not to demean mine.
Seven days after Trump announced he would run, I purchased the URL: TrumpCard.video. I also predicted that Trump would win the election. You’re relatively new on this blog. Gerald can verify this. Since the election, I’ve been refining P.E.I.S Systems, a counter-platform to the forces that make up the Tea Party, which was the most important element in the Trump victory.
See http://www.StrategicPower.org. P.E.I.S. [PEACE] Systems is an extension of The Political Epidemiology Institute, very much like the Epidemiology Intelligence Service is to the CDC. You might also want to check out http://www.TheAlarmReport.info; http://www.Democracide.info; and http://www.KillingtheMessenger.info. All three of these sites have been posted since 2016.
By the way, in the past [which I’m not hearing much about it from you] in Dallas, I was both the Spokesperson for the American Jewish Congress, as well as, the Jewish War Veterans, along with representing the Presbyterian Church. In certain situations, it helps to come from a mixed Jewish/Christian background.
I believe there is room for both of us to be successful. But we can’t live in the past, especially when it comes to fighting anti-Semitism and racism.
Just a note on some help from those who will not be recognized as they should be. My daughter-in-law, Anne, is chief custodian at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church here; she is working half-days at cleaning and sanitizing school and church areas. This morning she arrived to find their aging walk-in freezer which stored food for student lunches had died; the order for replacement was set for June at the end of the school year. Anne and another worker are delivering all food from OLL’s kitchen to local shelters; she called the company to replace the freezer now rather wait till June. They were glad to get the work to keep their men working at this time.
Maybe we can share such stories here if we learn of them; we are all need of some uplifting news during this dark time.
I just see a perfect storm–Narcissist in Chief who lies for a living and has never been held accountable in his 70+ years of life–an inevitable pandemic and our arrogance. The richest country in the World, if I hear that one more time I am going to scream–our hospitals, healthcare workers, police, fire fighters, and EMT are begging for help and this wealthy country can’t deliver. A chain of incompetence and wealthy people buying themselves titles and influence with gov’t assistance while the rest of us once again are working and putting ourselves in harms way.
Social Civil War–I know I am getting tired of hearing the wealthy wanting us all to go back to work so that they can continue to screw us and buy another Bentley while some of us are begging for PPE’s to help ourselves and patients and to save lives.
Maybe this pandemic is going to be a wake up call and a society shift that is greatly needed in my opinion.
Elaine,
“Maybe this pandemic is going to be a wake up call and a society shift that is greatly needed in my opinion.”
We better do it. Pronto!!! They’re not that stupid.
My wife asked if i heard trump the other day? i said why? dr trumps medicine show is for those who invest in tragedy.. trump as i read in the guardian yesterday,well he musta been on a caffeen roll, at fox and trump,how protecting the voters needs, (gaurdian)will only keep republicans from being elected..,like we didnt know that,glad his mouth overran his BB,again…facts here in this piece by the Atlantic, as we piece together the time line and whos who, in this catastrophe,we get a better picture of how we were infected while trump plays golf. seems he handed his problem to his personal henchmen and they contacted wall street first.. the wsj sometimes produces news in time,that is relevent to everyone,otherwise, a once great news paper seems diamond,,.. the white,house,
just passed on to who needed to unload its earnings before tutions were due. (sick eh burr) before allowing,,the need to knows,and cover ones ass,( propaganda) on what trump unloaded to give his buddies(,the tax cuts,) our safety nets,though not guarenteed by the goverment anymore,before media blitzed the issue.. we have ignorance financed by one approach,trump,whereas many just ignored any perdictions, and or relevant information,be cause leader ship lacks and the press gets a shit sandwich at white,house,breifings..one might have been better off, looking to relivent information from the euro news wires, and could see germany was already on the media about this virus,and,well they have a plan,healthcare,and a need beyond its economy to keep people safe and alive..hense,we see a reversal of 1934 in terms where,,,we are the nazis killing off our own ,while germany looks on,in horror..see DW.com the time line i reading from there is,factual and a decisive goverment,(except the AFD which mimics todays republican party here).. orban of hungry has made the move,to have all power rested on his personal lap…and his congress they giddy the passage. (rightnwing all the way) euro union is now seeing a trump like virus in action,,,except, orbans lock,down will include jail times…
Historian write of the Dark Ages, the rise of the mistrust of knowledge in an onslaught of religious dogma, which ended with the Age of Enlightenment when the invasion of dogma was finally repelled and over time and generally people returned to human intelligence and ideas to inform their actions. I’m sure every word of that is a mixture of fact and myth but ask ourselves the question, will the pandemic do the same for us?
Certainly mainstream media reports often about the failure of political dogma to save us body or soul and the desperate rush to science in order to save our bodies. While the body count is still growing daily almost everywhere at least the search for the only possible ending to this nightmare, a vaccine that confers immunity, is in the hands of those capable of accomplishing it.
What will we rebuild on the ruins of everything we have known? That will be determined by us as workers, consumers, taxpayers, and voters. Some of us have signaled that we are out of the reach of further learning. Those people will act to rebuild what was despite the evidence of its failure. That’s tempting for them because they remember what was very fondly as it entitled them. How about the rest of us who will learn from this experience? Will we be too tired and depressed because of what we’ve been through to care?
What happens will define the US for the next few centuries as the Revolutionary War did once.
jack,
“euro union is now seeing a trump like virus in action,,,except, orbans lock,down will include jail times…”
We’ve been spreading the virus to Europe since 2011 through the INTERNET. The massacre in Norway, at that time, was directly linked to the U.S. I warned my, high ranking, contact in Sweden, as to what was going to come in the future. And it did with a vengeance
They couldn’t do it UPFRONT, like the Nazis in Germany. That would have been too obvious. Instead of rockets, this time it was the internet. Just the right vehicle.
As I sit here, waiting for my disabled son to give me a call to come in and help him bag up his groceries, I read Sheila’s emphatic request once again. So I as I read the Atlantic article, oh my God, this is so much worse then any of the so-called science fiction movies I’ve seen concerning pandemics.
This virus is going to end up taking the intellect out of the country. Whatever intellect is left, the older generation is the most intellectual, and that group is going to be hardest hit by this plague.
This president was so eager to burn down anything that had to do with the previous president, he shot himself right between the eyes! now that’s not to say that he will not continue to be president for another four or eight years or whatever the case may be, or maybe a family dynasty? But the brains and the experience have been emphatically and unequivocally executed by this administration, executed like common criminals!
Our friend in Italy was crying last night, not because it’s not getting better, the country is tearing itself to shreds because people are dying and stacked up like piles of firewood. They don’t even have the refrigerated elements to keep the bodies from decaying. They’re starting to cremate everyone. The southern portion of the country is getting ready to start their own insurrection. The vacuum that’s been left by government is being filled by the mafia in Sicily and southern Italy. Of course, criminals can get the disease just like anyone else, it’s not discriminating in that regard. but people are freaking out because they don’t have their money, they can’t get their money, they’re having a hard time getting food, can you imagine that here?
I live north of Chicago, I have security lights, I have a pitbull, and I have a sig Sauer 380 and a Winchester 12 gauge home defender. Some of my friends on the police force have said there are gangs marauding through neighborhoods, getting into apartment buildings, and robbing everyone at gunpoint.
I have young granddaughters at home, plus a sick wife, plus a disabled son. I’ve been beat up from years of hard work and other things, LOL. And if somebody feels necessity to test my resolve, I pity that fool. My wife and granddaughters are definitely ones I would sacrifice myself for, spiritually and physically!
I just hope that switch never gets flipped, that is a really bad switch the flip, and that genie won’t be put back in the bottle. Like my great-grandfather used to say, sometimes it’s better not to ask permission but ask for forgiveness later. I think that’s a good idea!
john,
It’s best to stay ahead of the game. It’s going to get rough, real rough.
Geraldine and Marv – I have been working on the accountability of Trump for his negligent and/or intentional conduct as a proximate cause of the deaths and other injuries to Americans beyond what they would have been but for such misconduct, and your (Geraldine’s) suggestion of negligent homicide is one of the ideas that occurred to me, though as to civil damages, trying to find a remedy given such a unique factual background where Trump will defend on policy grounds is not easy.
However, I am encouraged to know that since the fusion of law and equity we don’t really need a conventional remedy since case law holds that where there is a wrong the court will fashion a remedy if none exists, so I suppose plaintiffs in a class action against Trump and his sycophants can alternatively plead several grounds for relief, including a paragraph asking the court to fashion a remedy if none of the other paragraphs adequately state grounds for relief.
The foregoing preliminary analysis is something we old retired lawyers do to pass the time while in Trump’s jail. Perhaps we can have our proposed prototypes of indictments and complaints ready for filing by this fall, and all without concern for any statute of limitations since Trump will continue to do the wrongs complained of to and probably after the filing date.
Marv – mutual peace wishes. I am at least as concerned as you are for our country and tend to have a laser focus on results over words…
Anyway, suggest we might have a mutual friend/spirit in Gene Nichol at UNC.
I do not watch much TV these days, or least the “News” on CNN, Fox or MSDNC. The Trumpet’s daily briefings have become propaganda events, with Pastor Pence with his best emotionless look standing in the wings. When called upon Pastor Pence simply confirms all the lies, distortions and mis-information of the Trumpet.
The Trumpet in his usual style berates and belittles any reporter who calls him out on something he said. The Trumpeter’s on Face Book love it, The Trumpet is The Macho Man, lashing out.
I just wish once a reporter would say Mr. President, You are clearly the most incompetent president of all time.
Gerald,
“Geraldine and Marv – I have been working on the accountability of Trump for his negligent and/or intentional conduct as a proximate cause of the deaths and other injuries to Americans beyond what they would have been but for such misconduct.”
It’s all about negligence. Trump/Bannon misperceived and than miscalculated the political environment. And all Trump can do now is to replicate a Nazi-like movement in a country where the make-up of the population is entirely different than the Germany of 1934. It’s an impossible task, save a CIVIL WAR.
You’re the Lead Prosecutor, let’s work together and prepare an indictment, as Geraldine has suggested, for NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE. If nothing else: IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION.
You can contact me: mgremark@gmail.com. It’s doable.
Lester,
“Anyway, suggest we might have a mutual friend/spirit in Gene Nichol at UNC.”
I agree, let’s all communicate. My email address: mgremark@gmail.com. We’re all on the same page.
Marv – You write up the indictments and civil complaint for damages and use me in an advisory capacity. I have no law library and no access to form books and I am sure law libraries are closed. There is a court of public opinion out there and perhaps a tangible summary of what Trump has done and is doing would arouse a measure of resistance to his planned dictatorship, thus justifying our effort.
I have a theory. Perhaps nothing new. I’m open to suggestions.
My theory is this. The USA was NEVER, and is NOT, a Democracy (not even an “experimental” one). In my fair reading of history, wealthy white male land holders (so-called “Founding Fathers) who owned cheap labor (slaves in chains and whipped or shot if not doing their “jobs”) as the foundation of their “capital” wealth created a government and a Constitution designed to keep and grow their wealth. Period. Everything else is commentary.
The Civil War “emancipated” slaves to a 100+ year future of Jim Crow and inner city systemic squalor in a country STILL dominated by wealthy white holders of business, real-estate and capital. Walton Family, Bezos, Gates, Buffett, et al.
Those same kind of chaps invented America’s Wall Street and central banking systems that gives them iron clad grips on their Constitutional right to profit maximization. Good to be king!
Voter oppression/depression is as old as our country. People of color are STILL fighting the gate keepers long after 1964. Hell, even women had no say until my mother was born in the 1920’s!!! Equal pay anyone??? Not likely.
When is the last time our country had a 65% voter turnout for a Presidential election? Hint: not this century or last.
What does that one fact alone say? If we call ourselves a “self-ruled” Democracy, where is the 50% give or take of “selves” every 4 years (midterms are even more horrid) who have, in my opinion, given up on this so-called Democracy?
When I look at who makes up our government at state and federal levels in 2020, I see (largely) the same white male wealthy “owners” who either run for office and/or “invest” in a worker to run, fully expecting his worker (politician) to make his/her investment pay off!!!
As someone said decades ago, we have the best government money can buy.
So why should ANYONE be surprised we have a wealthy white male holding the highest office in America? In my opinion, his corruption is really nothing new. He just doesn’t bother putting lipstick on it. He is disgusting for many because of just how publicly brazen he is with his corruption. Period.
I ask you to do one thing. Google up The Senate and/or House and see who their major “contributors” are. Spoiler alert: THAT’S WHO THEY WORK FOR!!! You might notice that party affiliation has no bearing on who gets the “pay off.”
We had an area hospital, just yesterday, SHUT DOWN on the other side of state line (I live in KC Mo.). The owners of the hospital said it was “not making money!” Seriously. No shit. They did not even bother giving warning of the shut down to the Doctors and Nurses.
When a country is created and ran upon the FOUNDATION of private business and profits (I always state that the ONLY thing the Revolutionary War changed was the distance that profits traveled), it should be no “shock and awe” to anyone that we are as sick (systemically speaking and physically) as we are. We have been on this downhill slide since the late 70’s.
As for our so-called “court system?” LOL!!! The recent “acquittal” in D.C. is just the latest news on that front. Indeed, a system for one class of people, quite a different one for the masses. Again, as old as our country.
No one on this thread should be disgusted by a virus running rampant upon a society whose main values lie in power and money.
Peace out.
Gerald,
I don’t have a law library or access to form books either. However, I agree with you EXACTLY:
“There is a court of public opinion out there and perhaps a tangible summary of what Trump has done and is doing would arouse a measure of resistance to his planned dictatorship, thus justifying our effort.”
That’s the direction I’ve always wanted to go.
My success as a criminal defense attorney was always predicated on my sense that there were always one or two members of the jury that would vote their own PERSONAL convictions and not be swayed by the evidence.
I doubt very seriously, that many Trump supporters want to be a victim of NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE no matter what their political beliefs consist of, especially when they can sense that they PERSONALLY will ALSO be a victim.
Gerald,
When it comes to TRUMP, I believe it also helps that I’ve defended close to 100 MENTAL ILLNESS COMMITMENTS along with being the attorney of record at trial and on appeal in the case of The State of Texas vs. Paul Pesch, which set the definition of INSANITY in criminal cases in Texas.