Mar 26, 2020
No trump, I won’t give my life for you to look like you know what you are doing, nor so you can get more money
(the man is full of hot air and is a whiny baby…what better emblem of his can there be)
I have always seen trump as a soulless money grubbing con-artist/crook. There has always been evidence of this if one reads of his dealings with other businesses in New York. In fact, the vendors and employees who report being cheated by him are abundant indeed. In addition, we now that the New York City has been on to him for some time, and he certainly has been in enough lawsuits for 10 people. Most of which he has settled because obviously there was enough to the case that he knew he would lose more by going to court.
However, now he is in the White House and has the mistaken idea that he can do anything he wants and the American people will never put an end to it. But he have finally bite off a bit more than he can chew. How’s that you may ask? Well, let me tell you.
At a time when the CDC and state governments are all telling us that our current situation is that we are just seeing the start of this pandemic, trump and his followers are all suggesting that it is now time to “get back to business.” trump himself has hinted that he sees the deadline as April 12, Easter Sunday. (after all, nothing says Christianity like a combination of a religious holiday and plenty of grubby grabbing of mammon)
Let’s first look at the advance of this pandemic. In the time between yesterday’s and today’s report, presumably 24 hours apart, here is what we are looking at. On the national level, the number of cases increased by about 10,000. Here in Louisiana alone, the number of known cases went up by 500. Meanwhile 18 more people died. Today, probably after that report, another person died here in New Orleans. This person was only 17 years old.
Now does this really sound like the time to talk about giving out deadlines as to when the economy needs to be totally back on track? And as to the other suggestion that people like Rush Limbaugh and other right wing “all about the money” people are putting forth, I will give them their answer quite clearly and precisely. Not just No, but HELL NOOOO, I will not lay down my life so your economic balance sheet can look good.
The economy comes down to a agreement we make as a society. Apparently, looking at the current evidence, we have a pretty crappy agreement. First, the workers can struggle all day, every day and get a pittance. This is achieved by having such horrors as “Citizens United” which, might it was going on before, official established that in the United States, one can have the best government we can afford. The rich have money and can buy top grade representation. That is not true for us mere citizens.
Under this economic system, and with the party most attuned to the richest (ie the Republican party), we have great enthusiasm of bringing back Wall Street and the stock market generally. However, there are actually monsters on the right in the Senate complaining that unemployment might be explained.
Let’s look at the situation again from this new viewpoint and see if we can understand what these people are telling us. I will use bullet points:
1. the virus is dangerous, the danger is only now being noticed (we won’t go into how it could be that trump ignored the thing until the last minute and could have done something about it in Jan but didn’t aside for now)
2. We have no idea how many MORE people are still in the beginning states or simply haven’t been tested. But even so, nationally it is growing by thousands a day.
3. To be safe, we have to reduce social contact
4. part of social contact is business dealing, some of which are more important than others. I would suggest it is more important that a patient be able to see a doctor than that someone is able to get to Starbucks for a mocha.
5. Wisely some businesses have been shut down to achieve safety as mentioned in 3 and 4.
6. Yes, some businesses will not make as much money, people will be laid off.
Let’s remember, however, the economy is a social agreement. There is nothing intrinsily valuable about a piece of paper or coinage. The only value it has is what it is worth. I personally fail to see why a day of hard worth is not work very much in some places, but suddenly we are concerned because some wannabe tycoon might lose a bit of money.
The government needs to do its job and focus on the people….not the made-up entity of corporations. Yes, bail out the mom and pa businesses, by all means. But corporations that have benefited from every tax loophole, include the so called “tax reform of 2017” are hardly my concern.
The most chilling of all this, however, is that trump apparently had some businesses shuttered right before he started talking about “putting America back to work”. I think I know, and if you really give it an honest look, I think you know also what his REAL concern. He wants to make he maintains his financial empire…part of which was founded on associations with mobsters as revealed in more than one book (Russian ones as I have written about before).
The House is going to vote on the bail out tomorrow. And trump’s enablers seem to have already been called trying to pull a fast one. There was an agreement that trump himself would not benefit from the bail out. When the Democrats looked over that one last time, they indicated that phrase wasn’t in there. Oversight or deliberate attempt to get over on the Democrats and once more reward trump personally to keep him happy? You be the judge. I think I already know the answer.
