Watching Donald Trump and the Republican Party deal with the COVID-19 crisis provides us with a saga of profound and utter incompetence. Paul Krugman writes:
First, let’s talk about the nature of the economic crisis we face. At the worst point in the 2007-2009 recession, America was losing around 800,000 jobs per month. Right now, we’re probably losing several million jobs every week.
What’s causing these job losses? So far it’s not what usually happens in a recession, when businesses lay off workers because consumers aren’t spending enough. What we’re seeing instead are the effects of social distancing: restaurants, entertainment venues and many other establishments have been closed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
And we neither can nor should bring those jobs back until the pandemic has faded. What this tells us is that right now our highest priority isn’t job creation, it’s disaster relief: giving families and small businesses that have lost their incomes enough money to afford necessities while the shutdown lasts. Oh, and providing generous aid to hospitals, clinics and other health care providers in this time of incredible stress.
Recent history has shown, however, that Trump and the Republicans are opposed to disaster relief:
Remember, we’ve had more than three years to watch this administration in action. We’ve seen Trump refuse to disclose anything about his financial interests, amid abundant evidence that he is profiting at the public’s expense. Trump’s trade war has been notable for the way in which favored companies somehow manage to get tariff exemptions while others are denied. And as you read this, Trump is refusing to use his authority to require production of essential medical gear.
So it would be totally out of character for this administration to allocate huge sums fairly and in the public interest.
If there was a textbook example on how not to do something -- anything -- the Trump Administration would repeatedly serve as Exhibit A. Let's hope the rest of the world takes note.
Image: Exhibit A
16 comments:
They have taken note, Owen. Today, Ford announced his list of businesses allowed to stay open. The lengthy list includes such essential services as mines, forestry, liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries. As far as I can make out, about the only things I can't do is clothes shopping, eating in a restaurant and drinking in a bar. Social distancing be damned folks, get back to work!
Cap
It's ironic, Cap, that the best thing we can do to keep each other alive is to stay away from each other.
"Trump will get blamed based on bullshit information that the Obama run CDC gave him at the beginning. He knows that after 2 weeks the economy is fucked in a very bad way. China and the globalists know that...looks like they won that war."
24 Jan: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
10 Feb: “I think the virus is going to be - it's going to be fine."
14 Feb: “We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it. It's like around 12. Many of them are getting better. Some are fully recovered already. So we're in very good shape.”
19 Feb: “I think it's going to work out fine. I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has a very negative effect on that and that type of a virus.”
24 Feb: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Mar 17: “This is a pandemic. I’ve felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”
Mar 19: "They had an obsolete system, and they had a system, simultaneously, that was not meant for this. It wasn’t meant for this. Nobody knew there’d be a pandemic or an epidemic of this proportion. Nobody has ever seen anything like this before."
"I knew the globalists were trying to crash the economy."
That the emperor has no clothes has been obvious to those with eyes for years, Owen. One hopes the scales will soon fall from the eyes of Trump's true believers.
"It's ironic, Cap, that the best thing we can do to keep each other alive is to stay away from each other."
one of my favorite sayings from my study of the tao was
"stay at home and let your neighbors grow old in peace"
with social isolation and distancing
the only thing that has changed with the rona for me
is excessive washing due to cellmates total lack of immunity
and 3 bi-weekly visits have turned into phonecalls
I repeat what an official in the office of New York's mayor said two decades ago, John: "I wouldn't believe a word he says -- even if his tongue were notarized."
There are none so blind as those who choose not to see, Lorne. Not seeing at this point verges on the criminal.
For a lot of us -- who spend a lot of time at home -- not much has changed, lungta. My wife tells me that I've been social distancing for years.
.. the 12:52 comment .. haha.. the stuff of life.. thanks
As for das golden boy .. Del Trumpo
well it looks like el Trumpo's shrivelled 'legacy' is..
quite essentially like Icarus augering in
A historic, hysterical legend in failure and deceit
and the supreme Ultimate Pus Sack . ..
but wait !! There's more.. oh so very much more
He'll be evermore the grifter talisman of the sickening ill wind
this calamity can never be seperated from him. Now it is him
Its his Life Brand, the sum total historically scorched right into him
sittin by my campfire and looking into the coals
I know I'm right here in the here n now
and have lived, witnessed the bizarre spectacle
Dan Rather is a truly interesting chap. no ?
His Twitter utterings on Trump are in the Mark Twain altitude
& pretty short of much humour.
Sadly, the Democrafts have no Huck Finn
or Tom Sawyer.. the Repugnicans huh..
they gots some whiny blowhard riverboat trash
better than nothin I guess
I say.. Trump golfing any single day up to the election
costs him maybe 10-25 % of his vote
The Government of the USA needs triage
I feel the same way about Canada.. Its triage time herein
Right now we dance with the one who brung us, PM Trudeau
but I hear partisan snouters shoutin for a No Confidance SuckerPunch
& I try to envision the rancid Political Party such dullards are so thrilled by
.. '
These are costly times, sal -- economically, of course. But the cost to reputations will be even more severe.
Point taken, Owen, it is no great hardship for some of us to "social isolate." It's just been me and the beagle around this place for a number of years. You become accustomed to enjoying life without the physical presence of others.
My wife and I are not hard done by, Mound. But there are lots of us who are having a hard time. And it is they -- people -- who we must put first and foremost.
@ Sal.
Trump has a better than even bet of being re elected.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2020/mar/24/trump-pandemic-floundering-coronavirus-crisis
It's an America thing, an easy way out and screw your neighbour.
Perhaps one of the USA's biggest exports!
TB
Point taken, Owen, it is no great hardship for some of us to "social isolate."
A few years ago i was about 10 kilometres from the trail head at Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island.
I met a fellow hiker who said; you are doing a no no such as I am!
He meant travelling alone which , to be honest is not advisable in such places.
That said there is much satisfaction and peace in self imposed isolation.
What we have nowadays is very different .
In a world that has thrown out it's social values we seem to crave the herd mentality where we congregate without human interactions.
Ever since we have been told to isolate , I see people walking the local trails , coffee cup in hand, as if they are still in the confines of the local mall from which they came seeking their required two meters spacing.
We are really living in a different world to that of two weeks ago.
TB
That news tells you a great deal about the intelligence of the average American voter, TB.
I agree, TB. The world has changed. And we're still trying to catch up with it.
Post a Comment