If $6 Trillion In Debt For A Corporate Bailout Doesn't Matter, Why Not Get $350 Trillion To Give Each American $1 Million?

I've recently started using Twitter to follow the insanity of what is happening with the economy and this outbreak without having to listen to the forever pathological TV news.  One of the people I follow is Trump so I can get a barometer of the insanity and who he is bullying. That's usually a good indicator that someone is doing something right.

A Tea Party Republican (and fellow electrical engineer who also adds no value to society given our economy has been wholesale shipped out of this nation), Thomas Massie, appears to be  one of a few dissenters in passing this continued fascist takeover of our government.  I love in his profile that he cites himself as a political science denier and the greenest congressperson.

He has posted a long battery of this bill's abuses.  Link here.   He is concerned about the additional power it gives the Federal Reserve in secrecy.  The bill appears to give the Federal Reserve the ability to leverage trillions more than in the bill and handout favors in secret.... so the total cost appears to be $6 trillion.  This is why I noted in a prior post that access to the discount window should be fulling transparent by democracy and the debt and stock of that company should be halted.  The Federal Reserve pulled this criminal secrecy stunt in 2008 to siphon off trillions in payments to Wall Street criminals outside of the view of democracy.  Anyway, you can read his concerns here.

Massie breaks the cost of this bill down by workers.  This is more Republican fascist nonsense right out of the Nazi handbook that only citizens who work of having any intrinsic value as human beings.  And, that value is derived by the size of their paycheck.  Or, as I noted in a recent post, those who don't work or are unemployed in the capitalist poor house or in the capitalist debtor's prison are our untermensch; the term Nazis gave to those in society that didn't work for the state cause.  In English that translates to useless eaters.  Fine fascist society we live in.

I prefer to break it down by households instead of by work.  This bill costs every American household about $60,000.   If this is actually supposed to go to people who are in jeopardy of losing their apartments or homes or cannot pay bills or whatnot, it probably comes to about $120,000 for each of those households.  That's a very unscientific guess.  But instead, this goes to corporations who minted billions in profits and whose leadership made tens to hundreds of millions of dollars a year.  Two weeks of a shutdown ran your business dry?  Seriously?  No, your incompetent leadership, avarice and selfish greed ran that business dry.

Regardless, one has to view the world through a lens that actually makes sense.

The reason I want to highlight his remarks is contained in the title of this post.  Those are Massie's words and one of the points he makes.  In actuality, yes we could give every American $1 million.  Private banks literally give you hundreds of thousand or millions of dollars created out of thin air when you go in for a mortgage loan.  What's the difference?  This is not a false equivalency.  This is really no different than the question I have posed on here over the years of how would the economy work and how would people get paid if in some perfect world everything was automated and no one had to work.  Would we be rich or poor?  How would people get paid?  We'd be wealthy beyond words both in time and economic wealth.

The only caveat that needs to be applied to giving everyone a million dollars is you cannot have everyone running out and spending a million dollars in the economy in a short period of time.  It must be regulated so that the quantity of money in circulation does not create hyperinflation.  There would be other extraneous factors like if they put it in the bank, should it draw interest, etc. in managing the economic impact. But, all of that is easy enough for the Federal Reserve to figure out with their army of economists.  It really is that simple. We don't need the concept of money to have a vibrant economy or society.  All that needs to happen is society produce enough to meet the needs of society.  And, we don't even need to pay money for that to happen.  They simply get their share of that wealth along with everyone else.  And, we could take turns working if that didn't require all in society to participate.  And, I can tell you unequivocally, it doesn't take everyone.  Not even close.   It's no different than what the ancient Egyptians did without money.  And, they had a vibrant, modern society for thousands of years.  Still today, many of their ancient institutions are just as modern as ours.

One of the topics talked about on here many times is at some point in the future, the concept of money will disappear.  The only thing stopping us from this today is the self and all of its foibled manifestations of separateness.  The separateness of the self that conjures up external enemies to protect its own separateness; the source of ignorance, hate, war, jealously, sloth, rage, materialism, hierarchy, etc.  Interestingly, Ayn Rand, someone who had no concept of spirituality or highest good aka selflessness, wrote a book on the virtues of the self or selfishness.   How far our society has crumbled in our own ignorance.  Now, we are a society of hate and separateness.  Karma is a bitch.

This is a standard issue with the ignorance of so many in our nation as it pertains to money.  It's hilarious to hear people talk about gold being honest money.  Who told you that?  I'll tell you who, the person with all of the gold.  Those untermensch or useless eaters don't have any gold.  Isn't that a coincidence?  Gold is one of the most toxic metals to mine and has ravaged the natural world.  That we pollute the planet to dig it up and then label it as honest when only the most wealthy have it is another great delusion of the self.

Money is nothing more than a control system to ensure you get up and go to that god-awful job that serves no purpose to democracy yet enriches your corporate master.  And, then your master's acquisition of massive sums of that money is what allows a ruling elite to control or dominate society.  It's corporate capitalist's surplus value used to transfer wealth from the poor to the rich just as this $6 trillion corporate capitalist bailout bill is.  And, that is a key driver to the booms and busts created by the exploitative profit motive of corporate capitalism.  In actuality, there is no reason for savings other than to acquire massive power to control humanity.  Short of a natural disaster that would wipe out production, production is always available.  You don't need savings for access to any of that.  What you need is an ethical society which we clearly don't have.  Nor does any country because we are controlled by unprecedented evil.

What money really is at its most base form is nothing more than a fiat unit of worth decided by society for the exchange of real wealth of society, goods or services that benefit humanity and the natural world.  It could be juju beans.  But it's quantity in the economy has to be regulated to maintain some degree of sustainability.

As noted many times on here, we are soon enough going to find out the difference between money and wealth.

The Congressional Bailout Is A Shithole Of Corporate Capitalist Rot

Public corporations are horrible things.  Public is a misnomer.  A gentleman in 1776 England was above physical labor.  He may speculate through corporations or stocks or whatnot but never would a gentleman do physical labor.  Duke, lords and other titled gentlemen of nobility scoffed at the working class.  They put them in debtors prisons and poor houses.  Or, they lived in mass poverty.  Just like our titled CEOs, CFOs, presidents, and chairmen in the US of A corporations today.

1776 was when the capitalist manifesto, Wealth of Nations, was written that is now held as the magnum opus today.  I'm not saying its author, Adam Smith, was a complete scumbag but English gentlemen definitely were.  And, still are today.  Just as our corporate capitalist gentlemen with titles and lands granted by our modern day American monarchy are.  Oh by the way, amongst other things, Smith worked for the East India Company.  All corporations were chartered by the monarchy with one intent - to loot and pillage on behalf of English gentlemen and the monarchy who were essentially one and the same.  They were the pre-modern fascists.  The East India Company had its own army, governed English interests for the crown with an iron fist in the areas it exploited and made a mint addicting Chinese on opium amongst other murderous endeavors.  The "government" of England knowingly and intentionally made its greatest profits off of corporate-sold dope.  The capitalists and the monarchy squealed with glee as they pillaged the world backed by the force of the state.  In 1776.  The year we went to war with the English.  Ultimately, the British corporate empire would murder tens of millions of people while looting and pillaging just as U.S. empire backed by a weaponized military-industrial complex and jingoistic, megalomaniacal foreign policy does today.

This bailout bill is sickening.   It is a criminal corporate coup just like 2008 and it is being done without any democratic transparency.  It is being jammed through not because of economic crisis but because they don't want anyone to see it before it's passed.  Just like the 2008 bailout of financial criminals and Obamacare, another corporate bailout.   This bill too will result in future austerity and cuts to social safety nets of democracy.  Public corporations should access the Federal Reserve discount window and receive loans in return for collateral.  They can be zero percent loans or whatever but they should be loans as opposed to handouts that are logged against our national debt that citizens must pay back.  And, given how these companies have been massively mismanaged, I would prefer their senior leadership be removed rather than rewarded as noted in the last post.  But they must be penalized for their incompetence.  Shutting the economy down for three weeks should not be forcing these companies into fear of collapse if they were managed properly.  Corporate malfeasance in this nation is at excrutiating levels.  I see it in the work I do.  The incompetence is literally beyond description.

The government is picking winners and losers and small and local businesses are going to get shafted as are the citizens of this nation.   The winners are corporations and the losers are you.  Don't buy this Republican clap trap that bailing out companies is the same thing as bailing out citizens.  It's more Reaganite trickle down con games.  The only item that should ever be considered as a budgetary item coming out of Congress is a bailout for citizens who are unemployed or impacted by this mess.  Grocery workers, food workers and truckers are heroes.  Force companies who are minting profits off of these workers to grant higher wages and provide them protective gear.  They do this work with no protection and oftentimes subhuman wages.  Everything other than money for citizens comes as a loan.  Frankly, the Federal Reserve could open windows and pay citizens or local businesses debt-free cash but doing so would show the world that the patrician class of predators in this nation could have fixed the socioeconomic issues in this nation long ago.  And, that would likely add resolve to citizen's demands to a living wage, healthcare, free education and whatnot.

Most of this coronovirus economic mess is a corporate capitalist mess and they are being rewarded for it.  But more on that later.

Here Comes The Government Handout -- Corporate Socialism To Eventually Be Paid For By Democratic Austerity

First I want to post two short videos-

Here  (Donald Trump hypocrisy, lies and incompetence)

And, here (Fox News hypocrisy, lies and incompetence)

There's a lot of hypocritical beliefs within the Republican and conservative club that only Democrats and MSNBC are fukcing morons.  Have no fear.  There's plenty to go around.  And, as usual, it causes suffering, cruelty and even death across a wide range of outcomes well beyond this crisis.  

People who support corporate capitalism are either brainwashed or protecting their own wealth. This country has spent tens of trillions of dollars just in the last decade alone bailing out corporations.  This isn't anything new. This is corporate capitalism.  Not only that, but if one understands the fraud of Corporate Personhood, one can appreciate corporate capitalism is actually unconstitutional on many fronts.  That also includes the Constitution's Nobility Clause.  We have rulers now with titles and estates granted by the king. (Corporate CEO, Chairman, President, etc) They live in moated castles just like in the English Monarchy. (Behind secure gates.)  Our founders were well aware of corporations. We fought a revolution against the king's corporations.  If they wanted corporations to have constitutional rights as people, to then have those people employ all of the rest of us as slaves, they would have written that into the Constitution.  There is a hidden history of corporations that has been written out of democracy.

Corporate socialism is endless.  Whether that is the military budget, (Ugh, this is sickening but is probably severely under-reporting the corporate fraud in the military-industrial complex.) the security state apparatus, healthcare, the industrial food and farming complex, the endlessly crooked financial system or on and on and on.  All of this money could have been appropriated to democracy to help serve our children, our communities and institutions that serve the common good -  "We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." 

Corporations are and always have been parasitic wealth extraction schemes for royalty and the ruling class.  Always.  Corporations employ your day labor at below market rates, steal that surplus value and pass it on to the economic aristocracy.  It's wage slavery.  And, as was a popular argument around the time of the Civil War, at least southern plantation owners fed and housed their slaves while northern corporations treated their wage slaves with complete contempt.  In fact, corporate capitalism creates well more poverty than wealth.  Something that is never talked about by those who wax poetic about it.  Because they don't even understand how the system works and could never explain that very fact. 

   

Locally-owned businesses that serve the needs of humanity and democray, I'm all for that.  Businesses. Not corporations. And, in multiple forms - employee owned, community-owned, non-profit and profit alike.  But, if we had democratic capital, most businesses could not compete with employee or community-owned. (As used to be the case with energy utilities and still is the case with water utilities.)  And, if democracy made a decision that a business should be national in size, then we could determine why and what that looked like.  I'd be dubious that no issues we thought needed to be solved by business could not be done at the local level.  We don't need 200,000 person corporations to make a car.  We never did.  And, we definitely don't need 200,000 person corporations printing corporate debt-based money as we have today. 

Corporate capitalism does not serve the needs of democracy or humanity. It never has.  It is highly inefficient at allocating capital to solve human needs.  Now, if you want to give democracy a specific problem to solve, citizens are much better at that than corporate bureaucrats or the government.  That is an avenue that needs to be taken into consideration with what the world looks like in the future.  

And, the U.S. culture of forced corporate work is right out of the fascist Nazi handbook.  In fact, because they can't consume or can't be exploited for day labor, the poor in this nation, most often poor because they were made that way through exploitation and control, are reviled in an eerily similar way as the Jews, Slavs, Gypsies and those not of Aryan blood in Nazi Germany.  They are part of our untermensch or our "useless eaters" that the corporate state abhors.  Our useless eaters are comprised of generally Hispanic immigrant labor, fast food & retail workers, the poor and oftentimes people of color.  

This is an example of the parasites that prop up corporations while letting Americans rot in a cruel and corrupt social and economic system.

So, here we go again as the wildly corrupt Congress and President consider a bailout for corporations.  It looks as though finally there will be some economic relief for citizens.  There's still no relief from the unreal incompetence of our corporate-owned government and our fraudulent healthcare system.  What the final form this legislation takes, I'd rather wait and see if it's actually just and decent.  But, if it appears to be on the surface, the reality is it's to bailout corporations.  Giving people a monthly stipend is to keep corporations going.  China is many things but they sacrificed their economy to save their people.  We sacrificed and continue to sacrifice our people to save our economy. That gives us some insight into how dystopian our society really is.   

Unlike hypocritical and ignorant Lindsay Graham, (parasite link above), here's a few different ideas on how corporate bailouts should be handled.  Especially since most of these companies crying for taxpayers to again foot their wild incompetence used the entire Trump tax cut to line their open pockets with share buybacks.  

1. All publicly traded companies that need a bailout (including Wall Street), can access the Federal Reserve discount window just as Wall Street does.  No secrecy on who is doing that under the premise we are concerned about runs or stock manipulation.  These companies will be publicly made available to society.  Rules for accessing the discount window-
1. That company's stock and bonds are suspended. No additional payouts on any dividends or bonds.
2. The CEO, president, chairman and company board must resign effective immediately.  Interim leaders will be appointed until new leadership can be put in place.  New leadership will be voted upon by all company employees.
3. A new board is convened that is comprised of 50 percent workers (a lottery rotating every month to prevent fraud) so they have a democratic stake in the business decisions to stop the criminal, anti-democratic nonsense of sending jobs overseas, outsourcing workers, busting unions, robbing the company coffers, firing workers to please shareholders, etc.  
4. All stock option and stock payments made to employees making more than $250,000 for the last five years are clawed back and returned to American citizens.
5. All board and C-level compensation for the last five years will be clawed back and given returned to American citizens.  
6. All executive pensions are forfeited and returned to American citizens.  
7. Your access to the discount window requires hard asset collateral; plants, equipment, buildings, etc.   If there isn't appropriate collateral, the company will be put into receivership for eventual sale to non-financial entities. 
8. Any companies over $30 billion in size will be broken up when the crisis passes.
9. All workers in the company making under $20 an hour are to receive a pay raise to that amount.  Any layoffs are temporarily put on hold indefinitely.  That means other company members are likely going to have to take a pay cut to become profitable.  If the company, such as McDonald's, cannot become profitable, they will be put into receivership and shut down or sold to non-financial entities. And, their workers will receive a monthly living wage from the government until a new economic paradigm is created that absorbs them.
10. Ronald Reagan's crooked scheme that created this mess will be legally banned.  No more stock and option compensation in the United States. Period.  
11. Repeal Trump's corporate tax cuts which have been shown to do nothing other than line the pockets of our parasitic capitalist masters.
2. All of the parasitic financial firms such as private equity, hedge funds and Wall Street banks that engage in synthetic instruments and gambling will no longer have access to funds or any exchanges to create these instruments.  No firms comprised substantially of synthetic trading will  have access to the Federal Reserve discount window.  And, as synthetic instrument contracts expire, new ones cannot be placed.  This parasitic Ponzi scheme will be made illegal.   We need to unwind what was closing in on a quadrillion dollars of synthetic leverage.  Forever.  (This is substantially responsible for the massive stock market bubble of mythical paper wealth that has been pricked with leverage unwinding.)
3. The Federal Reserve sets up a window for debt-free cash (not government debt. not debt-based money) to fund all local business payroll shortages to maintain payroll while this crisis continues.  Not to make a profit.  If anyone tries to game the system for this, you forfeit your business and face criminal prosecution.

We can then see what has been missed once this is instituted.  And, adjust accordingly.  It's time democracy hold corporations accountable to serving democracy and humanity. And, get rid of the corporations and pathological corporate executives who fukc over the common good for their own Godless greed and lust for power.

The Rot And Fraud Of U.S. Society Is Fully Exposed -- The Party Told Me To Reject The Evidence Of Your Eyes And Ears. It Was Their Final, Most Essential Command.

Update March 13th afternoon.

This is hilarious.  The crooks at the Fed are now buying Treasuries to bail out Wall Street and our rigged anti-democratic monetary system.  (Think about this. All of the money in the U.S. is created out of thin air by private, for-profit corporations.  Corporate debt-enslavement money. We live on a corporate plantation and the politicians are the field bosses. We are the slaves.) If society was only more educated on money so we all saw the rot. But our masters don't want us educated. Then they can't exploit us. 

I'm fine with government helping society through a crisis.  But instead they lie to us, dehumanize us and throw us to corporate capitalism's social Darwinism while instead bailing out corporations and the elites. Then they tell us there's no money for the poor.  No money to fund needed social reform.  No money to recreate out communities.

As noted on here countless times, all that would now need to happen after the purchase of Treasuries is for the Federal Reserve to issue a credit to the Treasury's Federal Reserve account, move a few decimal places on the computer screen to the right. And, voila.  We've created democratic money without debt to build bridges, provide basic income to all Americans, (to force corporations to pay us a living wage so we have the liberty to quit corporations that exploit the world, the planet or us.) build high speed rails, pay off student loans, fund Social Security and on and on.  Now, this power should never be given to politicians but rather We The People, transparent democracy. And, should be constitutionally forbidden from funding wars or corporate socialism or other crooked fingers in democracy's till. That would continue to be funded with Treasury debt to encourage society to do neither.

How would this change the world?

Original post

A little levity to end the week.  😒

There's no pretense hiding our ruler's vile and Godless behavior............  That's how you know the system is finished be it today, tomorrow or soon enough.  People now get a chance to see what they have been propping up by voting for Democratic and Republican Party crooks for generations.  This current situation exposes how rotten, rigged and cruel our society is.  And, how rotten and cruel the political and corporate class really is.  But mostly, it exposes how wildly incompetent corporations and politicians really are as we fumble endlessly to get out of our own way.  We'd better hope and pray that this virus burns itself out.

Italy is reporting a nearly 8% mortality rate.  And, their hospitals and medical workers near the infections are flooded.  If that happens here, Katy bar the door.  My question is why wouldn't that happen here?  Now maybe the mortality rate is less than that and they don't have a grip on how many are infected.  That's Trump's explanation.  Does that make you feel better?   Trump is a prime example of corporate socialism in action.  Bankrupt seven times.  Completely incompetent.  But democracy paid his bill as we do for all corporate bailouts.

Trump's administration has tested less than 100 this week nearly three months into his morass.  (It's so surreal it's not even believable.)  One created by him personally because he stated numerous times this would just disappear.  There are already deaths on our government's hands.  Where is the Congress stepping up to do their Constitutional duty?  We need a new society that relieves us of politicians.  The ancient Greeks didn't have them. We don't need them.  In fact, having a political class is itself corrupt.  Service in ancient Greece was nomination decided by a corruption-proof process that required all citizens to serve.  This kept people like Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Billary Clinton, Jamie Dimon, Michael Bloomberg, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and the Gilded Age corporate monopolies (Yes, corporations are people through the wildly corrupt, rotten Supreme Court decisions.) and other pathological crooks from gaining absolute power.  The system was self-regulating.

Trumps disturbing comments which I believe are from the day of his news conference.  If not, the day before. I'm too lazy to check dates.  This is sickening. No empathy. No humanity. Pure pathology.  The system has dehumanized people by turning them into manipulated, controlled, mindless consumers of corporate capitalist's endless junk.  Why should it surprise us with the first outwardly fascist, inhumane President?

Then... Trump blocks states from using Medicaid to expand medical response to crisis. That's fine. What's your plan to be able to immediately react to assist the poor, the downtrodden and those underserved by the corporate state?  Government's primary role is to protect the weak from the strong....  Except in the corporate state where the weak are endlessly exploited by the powerful.  Power created and enforced by the corporate state.  Citizens? No mention of them. Democracy is dead. Consumers? Trump loves them. Feeds the corporate state coffers.

Then we have Mike Pence.  If you watch this interview, you know why society has no confidence in the con game anymore. Someone with no ability but political manipulation.  He literally just can't authentically communicate.  People see right through this kind of fraud.  The only mission is to control the narrative.  The truth be damned.

Federal Reserve pumps $1.5 trillion socialist dollars into banking system. The same system that said Medicare for all is communist or whatever.  (Primary exit polls in every state so far have very high support for Medicare for all. Every. Single. State.)  Where'd the Fed get that money to give the pig men?  Oh yeah, they just made it out of thin air.  As noted many times, this whole concept of debt-based money created by private corporations is the biggest social con in history.  If there is excess labor and intellectual capital available in any society, then money plays absolutely no role in whether anything is possible. Money is a control system created by crooks and liars.  The ancient Egyptians didn't have money.  They had the labor and the intellectual capital so they built the pyramids.  What did you do?

Every country that has stopped the spread of the virus or gotten ahead of it has national health care.  Germany, one of the first to test in large volumes, has had national health care for 130 years.  By the way, Germany also has free college education.  Oh, and California had tuition-free college for 130 years before Ronald Reagan, noted on here to be one of this country's greatest crooks but revered by the corporate state, became governor and overturned it.  Let me get on a little rant here about my buddy, Ronald Reagan.  Ronald Reagan took corporate bribes after WWII to produce a McCarthyism, red-baiting record (vinyl) on why national healthcare would turn us into the Soviet reds when it was proposed for the umteenth time. Maybe we should thank the father of neoliberalism and normalizing the flood of dirty corporate money in modern politics for this current mess.  Oh, no.  It's not his fault.  Putin is responsible.  The Russians created the coronavirus.  And, a reminder that more people in the Reagan administration were charged criminally or stepped down with ethical violations than any other President in our history.  And, we've recently found out from papers released by a Reagan's donor and future appointee, Chase CEO and infamous crook, David Rockefeller, had back channel communications with Iran trying to stop them from releasing the hostages until Reagan got into office.  Then, we have Iran/Contra which may be the most criminal act of any President.  Oh, and we have Reagan's S&L crisis which sent hundreds of corporate capitalists to prison and almost tanked our entire economy.  But, thanks to socialist bailouts, corporations were soon back at it again.  Plenty more where that came from.  How about that Reagan called African diplomats  "monkeys"?  Oh, I'm just getting started.........  I could go on for a long time on Ronald Reagan.

Any Global Public Health Crisis Will Almost Certainly Hit The U.S. Especially Hard. Has The U.S. Still Only Tested 6,500 People As Reported Yesterday?

Update March 11th afternoon update.
I know this isn't a laughing matter but I couldn't help but post Trump's endless ignorance and inaccurate, unscientific predictions on this topic.  You don't need to be a member of Twitter to watch the below link to the Daily Show.  While trend analysis isn't science, if we continue to follow trend, the U.S. will have about more than 20,000 confirmed cases by the end of March.  Also, while this is simply a quick, anecdotal analysis, if I look at the S&P 500, I would anticipate we have dropped half way to any future price support level.  In other words, the decline will find some level of support for at least a pause when it hits a 40% decline.  All bets are off with any flash crashes.  Trump is speaking to the nation tonight and while I have little confidence in Trump, our society, our government or our health care system's ability to respond with a high level of competence per the original post, I am hoping he surprises me and at least redeems himself from the endless stupidity in the Daily Show's compendium.

The Daily Show's compendium of Trump coronavirus idiocy.

Update March 11th after Trump;s speech.
Trump's speech was a complete disaster with no specifics. I go back to my March 4th post on building out a public policy plan for a public health crisis.  We should already have a generalized plan that can be tailored to this crisis.  It should already have been tested with state, local, federal and private stakeholders. Ok, we don't have that plan.  That's not Trump's fault even though it does seem he's muzzling public policy comments, making meetings confidential and seemingly continuing to view any validation that this is real as a personal political attack. This creates angst and is not how you manage a crisis or lead.

WTF is the public policy plan for those who have little to no insurance? Where are the f#cking test kits?  Who sprcifically is responsible for what public policies?   Why can't be test people in temporary setups that accept walk-ins in every state?  It appears the number of people who need medical care is projected to be 20-30% according to a leading virology scientist who is working with Gilead on their attempted vaccine.  We can quibble about the mortality rate but it doesn't matter.  Korea's low mortality rate is likely driven by a whole host of factors that are unique to Korea such as they have a national health care system and were prepared.  The Korean immune system is likely substantially different that ours.  They don't deal with morbid obesity or Twinkie and Coke diets.  The list of social differences is enormous.  That doesn't even take into consideration if it was a different strain.

Trump is telling us that young people will be okay.  That's a f#cking irresponsible and nonscientific statement about a virus we know little about.  Or, about how it may act in the future.  Will the virus mutate?  China has stated there are two strains and one is much more virulent.  Will there be more?  He needs to be muzzled and leave public statements about the virus to scientists.

The United States should be proactively executing on a specific plan right now to handle one million (arbitrary) people who need medical care. Right. Now. They shouldn't go to hospitals. There aren't enough beds. We don't want to infect an entire hospital staff or other patients.  What is the plan?  What facilities will we use to treat people?  What medical equipment do we need?  Who will staff those facilities?  Do we need to create make-shift beds?  There's no plan across an entire host of issues.

My vote?  The simplest answer is to get out of the way and bring in the Army Corps of Engineers to develop an executable plan across all medical, social, economic, public policy and logistical issues.  And, have them manage and drive the plans across specific agencies, states, communities, private health care providers, the CDC and the like to ensure we are executing on that plan.  Engineers are the world's practical solution builders/scientists.  The Corps of Engineers isn't the expert.  They work with the experts and stakeholders across all of the impacted areas to develop an executable approach signed off on by the experts.  Then work with the experts and stakeholders to ensure they are accountable, know what they need to have done and when, raise their hands if they run into road blocks or the minute they realize their dates are slipping so solutions to those issues can be found, have the resources needed to complete their efforts and manage the overall logistics.  This is not that hard.  But it is for people who don't know how to make anything.  That includes making a plan.  Bring me in and I'll do it. (A joke. Although I certainly could do better than a cluster f#ck of politicians.)  For God's sake, do something.  We are not prepared for this.  Not even close.

It's imperative the American people are communicated to about any plan on a regular (possibly daily) basis by a person or people they can trust.  Aka not a politician.  It might be 15 minutes but that is simple crisis management and will help alleviate any panic because people aren't being told what's going on.  Trump Tweeting about nonspecifics and how great our healthcare system is is counterproductive.  It's not great.  It's a disaster and many of the people at the highest risk appreciate that.  Fess up and be honest about what we need to do. And, bring experts in who know what they are doing.  That includes an overarching organization or personnel who know how to stand up an operation.  Because that's what this is.  That's what the Army Corps of Engineers does for a living. 

Original post

I'm not a Trump fan. But I also know that Russiagate and other attempts from Democrats to smear him are more political propaganda than anything.  I've never seen such outward universal deceit as I've seen with the Democratic Party towards Trump.  Well, other than Trump's endless lying.  In fact, I would be very surprised if someone on the Democratic side, the CIA or someone who was handled by either-or doesn't go to prison regarding Russiagate.  It's the same smears that the Republican and Democrat establishment have targeted to Bernie Sanders. And, we see the Russiagate label being attached to him as well. The outward endless lies without facts are nothing more than establishment tactics to manufacture consent (propaganda), maintain control over society and keep the corporate money flowing into party coffers.  Trump now gets a pass with the rise of Bernie Sanders.  The Democratic Party establishment is more worried about Sanders blowing up their corporate-funded racket than they are worried about losing to Trump this fall.  It's imperative they stop Sanders or the corporate money train will disappear for the Democratic Party.  Maybe for both parties, which is why the corporate wing of the Republican Party is finding common ground with Democrats in their efforts. So much for that immediate threat of Trump that required his immediate impeachment from office.  All of it is pathological political maneuvering.

You know the system is in its final stages when so many lies without literally any facts are thrown into the public domain to protect the establishment.  That is a bipartisan statement.  Equal opportunity crooks.  The evil is there for everyone to see.  How do I know that?  Because their fangs are out.  There's no pretense hiding their vile and Godless behavior anymore.

The reason for that introduction is the baseline for this post. Now, Trump is not the only issue but his involvement is a major roadblock to dealing with this pandemic.  And, let's be frank. It fits the definition of a pandemic.  That doesn't mean every single person is going to die.  It means the virus is spreading geographically. It's now on every continent.  What's next?

Trump recently informed us that his team is very well prepared at the link behind this text.  And, that he's got the same genes as his "super genius" uncle who taught electrical engineering at MIT. And, he gets all of this coronavirus stuff. And, the doctors are the CDC are very impressed by his intellectual capability.  What the f#ck?  This is a Saturday Night Live skit, right?  This is a joke and Trump is going to say just kidding any moment?  Are we back to the concept of birthright privilege under the argument that royalty has superior genes granted to them by God?  I guess maybe I should go stand beside Tom Brady.  I might inherit some of his football ability through proximity.  Better yet, let me go down to the CDC.  Being in proximity to their researchers, I'll come up with a cure for all illness in a matter of weeks.

We probably never should have created an executive branch in this country.  It is a remnant of monarchy and we saw its impact almost immediately when George Washington was called excellency and other titles of lordship.  The Presidency in this nation has morphed into emperor.  And, every corporate capitalist empire needs an emperor.  Really, the President should only be relevant in times of war as the commander-in-chief.  But we worship the position as royalty and grant incredible entitlement to the position.  We cheer the position when he's on our "team" and curse him when he is not.  That's a problem for democracy.  If the United States survives, that's probably one topic for a potential do-over with an updated constitution; something Jefferson advocated every few decades.

On that note, Trump's aforementioned omniscience has led him to whine that the Democrats are turning a small virus outbreak into a crisis so he loses the election or so the economy tanks under his watch.  I literally haven't watched TV news in decades but saw some clips of Sean Hannity's show on Fox and my jaw hit the floor in his attempt to politicize the entire coronavirus outbreak concerns.  He even brought on a doctor (who is not an infectious disease or public policy expert and thus is as ignorant as everyone else giving uninformed opinions.)  to defend his position that this isn't any worse than the flu for most.  That is ignorant and ill-informed on so many levels that he would get torched by an infectious disease or virus scientist.  I suspect he's panicked that Trump is going to be blamed. Rumor is they talk daily.  But, there's a reason Hannity makes $40 million a year to do nothing but talk.  Hannity is one of the original leaders in modern identity politics along with Limbaugh and Beck.  That brainwashing creates a large mass of followers from which to make enormous amounts of money.  Class and hierarchy are necessary for identity politics to even exist. That's why it has now become so popular on the left.  Self-proclaiming you are a leader of a class of people in a money-driven culture creates massive power and wealth concentration for the chosen few.

Anyhow, back to the topic at hand.  I hate to break it to Trump or his fellow political thugs but financial markets don't operate based on what CNN, Fox News or Nancy Pelosi have to say.  The financial market meltdowns are because the world is facing a real issue with real consequences.  It has been made magnitudes worse because corporate capitalism and the bought-and-paid-for US government have offshored our democratic economic determinism and in the process built a wildly unstable global economic system with so many direct ties into Communist China and nearly every other nation on earth. This unnatural economic system is wildly exposed to massive shocks in any crisis.  And, U.S. empire needs its emperor to manage those shocks.  The problem is the emperor has no clothes. (From a policy standpoint, it's arguable that Trump is a better President than Obama, Bush or Clinton. Personally, if I were king for a day, I'd put all three in prison for major crimes against humanity and against America.  But, Trump's personal behavior also qualifies him as one of the world's great idiots.)

The reason I'm putting up this post is that I'm confident if this virus hits very hard around the world in the next year or two, the U.S. will be one of the hardest hit regardless of what politicians say. And, I want to highlight below many of the dystopian dynamics that will likely fuel a U.S. crisis.  This virus is already a pandemic.  Pandemic doesn't mean everyone dies like the black plague.  In fact, many very deadly infectious diseases can burn themselves out if people die too quickly or if they are symptomatic before they are infectious to others.  This virus is on every continent and continuing to spread.

We have no idea how bad the situation is in the U.S. but the rate of spread isn't really that hard to calculate if you know a few factors.  The CDC's response has been a mess to put in mildly.  But, that's representative of the federal government's overall response that is also a mess.  It appears states and communities are starting to do their own testing rather than wait on the CDC.  This should have been the approach from the very beginning.   A sign of a complete lack of vetted and tested public policy for just such a public crisis situation.

One must appreciate that the main reason for such a disastrous response in the U.S. is because the public health plans are not there.  We have the Health and Human Services Secretary, a former corporate lobbyist, telling us that this is what we do.  That infectious disease control is our core competency as a society.  Oh, really?  How many infectious disease crises did you manage while "legally" bribing our government for your corporate masters?  (Trump has hired well more than 200 corporate lobbyists.  His administration has become the swamp.  He's a faux populist.)

Dynamics that will likely contribute to U.S. responsiveness to any substantial pandemic.

1. The United States has little to no functioning social fabric to respond to a national crisis.
1. The United States is one of the world's most dysfunctional societies. I wouldn't even classify it as a society so much as a corporate colonization.  Think of the company towns that existed.  You worked for the company. You lived in conpany housing. You shopped at the company store.  And, if you were lucky, you were able to see a company doctor.  You know, like the Chinese Apple workers who live in barbed wire compounds.  That is still the U.S. but we've become completely assimilated into the system so we don't generally see it from the outside looking in.  If you want to see the present and future, you simply need to look at the past. Corporations colonize a geography (before states) or second and third world countries and determine what type of government there will be. (A non-functioning one that is easily bought.)   In many regards, we are that third world country.  
2. We have no idea how to organize (cooperate) anymore. Unions have been busted and as a result we don't have any social fabric or communities other than dystopian corporate communities. The busting of unions had a very profound impact on society far beyond anything discussed. They allowed corporations to start dismantling real communities and destroying the social fabric that tied those communities together. Today corporate minions either either live in contrived suburbs or gentrified urban areas where all like-minded (brainwashed) minions live. Or, people live in ghettos with corporate capitalism's throwaways.  Some rural areas still have somewhat of a community remaining but they are dying for the same reasons.  Most have no funds and limited facilities to deal with exploding public health crises and drug epidemics.  If we can't deal with drug addiction, what makes anyone think we can deal with a pandemic? With a complete lack of community, there is no social fabric remaining to organize a response to a crisis.  
2. Politicians in the United States are wildly unqualified for any real leadership or crisis management.  That most definitely includes the corporate appointees of the Trump administration.
1. Our government is a disaster. Because our government, be it state or federal, is so corrupted by corporate money, we don't have public servants who represent the common good.  Instead, the personality type attracted to politics in this nation is pathological.  That is generally someone who can be manipulated, is not a critical thinker, has amorphous ethical standards, has no ethical purpose to change anything, will stomp on the face of their opponent and has no expertise other than being likable.(electable)  It's no surprise these are the same qualities of public corporation leaders.  Nor is it surprising that those same corporations are pathologically political as is our government.  (That's a real thing.)  This is the type of persona required to be a toady for corporate lobbyists and corporate power.  
2. Our political class is incredibly incompetent at doing anything other than talking and kissing babies. They certainly are not qualified to manage crises or manage our country.  We see this with the existential crises facing our society.  We've seen that in spades in relatively small (compared to a national crisis) natural disasters such as the hurricanes in New Orleans or Puerto Rico. In the New Orleans crisis, which exposed what a complete and abject failure FEMA was.  FEMA was run by a political idiot appointed by another political idiot, George Bush. They couldn't effectively do anything other than hand out bottled water.  The horrors that the people of New Orleans went through were what you'd see in a rotten-to-the-core third world country.  The people of New Orleans were dehumanized during that crisis. It literally made my heart hurt to witness that.  That is not an isolated incident. It's native to the corporate state. As a general rule, qualified, ethical people do not go into politics for a reason. That is substantially because the two registered corporations that control our politics, the Republican and Democratic Parties, are controlled by corporate capitalism's briberies.  To be considered for that role, you have to be of low moral standing with no true courage to do what is ethically right.  Do some less than pathological people slip through the cracks and get elected?  Sure.  But it's the exception and most are run out of politics, quit in disgust or become what they got into politics to replace.  The ego or self is the consummate deceiver.  (Although there currently is a broadening grass roots, populist movement to change that.)
3. Public resources, especially at the federal level, have become pathologized and are aligned to support corporations rather than democratic public policy and hence public crises.  
1. The entire world had test kits available while we were napping. Germany, Korea and other public health officials are able to test people on the street or you can drive up and they'll test you.  Italy suspended mortgages to provide relief to its citizens.  More solutions to help global citizens will likely come.  Contrarily, we are doing shit because we don't have a public policy plan.  Well, we are creating one on the fly that consists of  contemplating tax cuts, which will not work.  We have tens of millions of people who don't have jobs or don't make enough to get any substantial relief from a tax cut.  And, then you have the demand issue.  Do Trump cabinet members think that tax cuts will spur people to go out to eat, to shop for cars or to a sporting event when the CDC and experts are encouraging social distancing?  And, this isn't even taking into consideration the potential layoffs in the millions.  What are the public policies for the common good to help society respond and recover?  They don't exist and the half wits in Washington can't think without their corporate lobbyists telling them what to do.  This won't get better.
2. At some point, if a vaccine is developed, and I'm dubious because of mutations and genetic variation , then we'll f#ck around for weeks or months trying to figure out who's paying for it and how we build out the infrastructure we don't have and resources to administer it.   If the virus is around that long, those weeks could mean hundreds of thousands or even millions more will be infected.  The point is while the Trump administration considers more corporatized neoliberal policy decisions that don't support all of our citizens or public policy supporting our citizens, the rest of the world is acting.   I see no reason for hope this will improve.  (As a side note, it appears China is testing a Cuban drug for effectiveness at treating the virus.  But, we have a ban on anything related to Cuba because our politicians are demagogues who pander to hypocritical political rhetoric. Why is it okay to trade with China, a country that may be the most outwardly controlled in the world,  A country that has butchered or imprisoned massive numbers of people. But, it's not possible to trade with Cuba?  Would Cuba's drug help the US? )  
4. This level of corruption in this nation has perpetuated a level of distrust and even hatred of the US government by a large amount of the population.  This reinforces the effort of  corporations and Wall Street who wish to continue to slash government spending for democracy and transfer more of those government handouts to corporations.  It's easy to get cuts approved, even if they are for beneficial programs, if a large percentage of the population distrusts the government.  This has an impact of no will for citizens to spend on the appropriate level of public policy readiness for any type of crisis or infectious outbreak infrastructure.  Not when the outbreak happens but when there is no outbreak so that we are prepared. 
5. The American myth of rugged individualism has created a society-less society.
1. From the moment we are born, we are inculcated with endless propaganda of competition and associated individualism rather than love, connection and community. This individualism is glorified by class and hierarchy. It indoctrinates and normalizes  the forced march competition to survive under corporate capitalism. It also divides society.  This myth of individualism is required to justify having obscene wealth when most people don't have a pot to piss in.  "I" earned it.  It's mine. 
2. I've studied complex systems my whole life. In another life, I designed them. For many years I have applied those dynamics to sociology and economics.  In the field of social complex systems, it is generally accepted that those who exhibit this high level of  individualism have an inability to cooperate with others and that these people will be the first to die in any substantial collapse that threatens human life.  While this isn't a moment that threatens all of society with death, this dynamic does come into play.  I've got mine and to hell with you comes into play daily in this nation.  This dynamic describes the economic elites in this nation and the useless idiots who follow their ideology.  It's important to understand that our society has generally been built on this precept.  This can play a dangerous a role in any crisis from hoarding of food and supplies that create shortages to the lack of ability to organize (cooperate) society for the common good.  We already see this in that there is no outrage within the establishment in any of the social injustices whether that is the New Orleans hurricane response, the extreme poverty or that people die daily in this country for lack of access to medical care.   They killed the last person who was outraged to the point of organizing society for change.  His name was Martin Luther King.  
6. The corporate state's social control and brainwashing has created a culture of learned helplessness.
1. Need I say anymore?  We are taught what to think rather than how to think. The concept of free public education in the areas of study that are required for people to become good citizens of democracy that was so crucial to ancient Greeks is dead.  Instead, we are taught the minimum skills necessary for corporate success.  And, critical thinking skills needed for democracy to flourish? Your masters will stop that at any cost.  If we were an educated society, would we accept living in a corporate state dystopia with endless cruelties and emnity?  
2. Because we don't make things anymore, we don't know how to do anything that requires effort. One outcome of this is that we have turned men of every color and race into hollow shells of their authentic self.  I am empathetic to the struggle of all people and gender who are exploited in this system.  But, there's something extremely disastrous about a society where men have been marginalized and in many cases dehumanized.  While I am a white male and see how this dynamic has so impacted the lives of other white men, I am most disturbed by how this system goes even farther and oftentimes dehumanizes men of color.  How many people in this country have been marginalized?  Yes, definitely women too. (This is class violence and class struggle in an institutionalized system of hierarchy regardless of race and gender.)  But in a national or international crisis, how will we respond with countless tens of millions of marginalized men not participating in society?  Yes, women too.  But as it pertains to crisis, men have always been first-responders in society and there is a reason for that.  Whether it is the disaster at Chernobyl or thwarting Nazi Germany or dealing with a national crisis.  Men do the shit jobs to protect society and there is every reason to consider this an innate male virtue.  Regardless of the political narrative, most women understand and appreciate men for their valor and manly virtues.  That's not politically-correct in many identity politics circles but it's also the truth.  In fact, there is ample evidence this is a major reason why our response to crises is so pathetic.  Community is lost. Men participating as leaders has been lost in so many communities.  
7. A private for-profit healthcare system is organized for the profit motive rather than serve society or be prepared for a public health policy response.  The U.S. sickcare system kills and bankrupts millions as a normal course of action.  What do you think it will do in a national public health crisis?  This topic has been discussed in detail over the last handful of posts.  No point in rehashing it.  Serving the common good is not consistent with corporate capitalism's primary intent of maximizing profits.  This is the main reason why the government entered the healthcare system in the first place.  Can you imagine being 80 years old, dealing with a $10,000 annual medical premium, a $10,000 deductible and copays?  And fighting to get procedures covered as people do everyday under our corporate-controlled healthcare system?  Our elderly would be in perpetual crisis.  In fact, they were before Medicare.   That is the reason liberal leaders stepped in to provide Medicare after attempting to force private providers to provide healthcare to the elderly and poor.  It is becoming manifestly obvious with each passing day that the developed world's only private healthcare system is a f#cking disaster in the making with this coronavirus whether that is lack of supplies, beds and facilities or a lack of public policy that corporations simply don't have because that would cost money and take away from shareholder value.   
8. The U.S. media is rotten to the core and it's leaders and broadcasters are deplorable people with no ability to consistently and accurately inform and help guide the American people.  That's pretty self-explanatory.  The same qualities that define American politicians cited above are the same qualities that define most American broadcasters and journalists.  Because the role is the same.  To be able to attract viewers and to be of a low moral constitution so they will do the bidding of their corporate masters.  (There are some fantastic journalists out there although most have migrated to secondary or third tier news services.)

When I was typing this, a thought that describes all of this came to mind.  It's from one of Hemingway's books- 

“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

This defines the cruelty of our pathological society.  And, it sums up everything I typed above into a few sentences.  The people who rise to the top of hierarchical institutions such as politics and corporations will eventually be comprised of society's weakest and most vile people.  They have an intent of controlling other people and the world around them to ameliorate their own inner demons.  The intent of controlling others is evil manifested.  They have little to no connection to their highest good or their own Divinity so they have little to no courage.  True courage is Divine.  If they did, the cruelty in society we see today would be eradicated in a moment's notice.  

If there is one thing I understand beyond equivocation, it's that those driven by the self or ego fear and hate anyone with courage.   Which is the primary reason why they need to marginalize and dehumanize those in society they exploit.  Modern society is a Godless cult of the self.

Brief Financial Markets Commentary

It's no secret that we are seeing some substantial shocks in financial markets.  It appears much worse than what has actually manifested in any outcome thus far.  Corporate capitalism is already in systemic failure.  So, the economic system is wildly unstable.  It won't take much to push it over the edge.

For anyone who has recently come across this blog, historically through the use of analytics and a deep understanding of monetary economics, we predicted a lot of outcomes on here including the 2008 collapse and many specific outcomes around that, the Chinese equity market collapse, the collapse in gold, the collapse in oil and and on and on.  And, then the bottom in equities and gold in 2009.  Most people don't have access to a lot of valuable financial information so I thought I'd put up a few comments given we are starting to experience shocks that could easily be with us for years.  I don't have access to the models I used historically without a paid subscription but I can share some generally available insight-

• There has been an implosion in equity market futures liquidity since 2018.  There are likely one of two reasons for that.  One, the system is running on fumes and is leveraged to the hilt.  Or, traders recognize how unstable and overvalued markets are and have walked away.  It's almost certainly the first reason given Wall Street will ignorantly jam prices higher forever if the liquidity is available to do so.  (As noted on here many times, equity prices are far more overvalued than any "expert" understands.  My long term downside target on the S&P remains 200-450.   That sounds absurd because society, including corporate capitalist leaders and politicians, are brainwashed ... and then they brainwash us ... but in 2008 we printed 666 on the S&P and the global economy is a much worse f*cking disaster.  
• Treasury debt is pointing to future instability and has been since mid last year.  In the last few weeks it is pointing to outright disaster.  We are now printing Treasury rates that have no historical precedence.  (There is almost certainly to be disastrous outcomes in the financial sector due to the massive leverage on Wall Street.  In other words, we could easily see similar (but easily could be much worse) dynamics to 2008 where financial firms implode. )
• Peak equity flows happened in 2018 and have been imploding ever since.  And, I do mean imploding.  Why is this the case? Likely due to the liquidity Ponzi scheme to save capitalism coming home to roost.
• Equity market internals peaked in 2018.  The rise in equity prices has been provided by fewer and fewer companies ever since.  The market has been thinly traded for months, and relying on large moves by a small number of companies, making it ripe for a waterfall decline.
• U.S. companies are wildly mismanaged and very unstable. Corporate balance sheets are in disastrous shape.  There is an epidemic of lax accounting and reporting, that could often be interpreted as fraud, endemic to this system. Actually, it's needed by capitalism to keep the scheme going.  You could call this a form of corporate bailouts.; let standards decline to keep the system running.
• Bank balance sheets were supposed to improve under Dodd-Frank.  Good luck with that.  Banks continue to pay fines in the billions or tens of billions for fraud.  Paying fines in order to endlessly steal from society is baked into their business model.  And, that's the corrupt behavior that the government actually decides to go after.  Banks hold all of the malfeasance of corporate capitalism.  Stress tests?  Seriously?
• The world is engulfed in debt. As noted countless times, debt is an illusion. The issue isn't debt. It's that debt is used to bail out corporations to keep capitalism going. This has led to endless overcapacity that corporations need to survive. And, has been used to replace wage growth to enslave people to corporate rent.  (The real impact of debt implosion would be massive unemployment.  That massive unemployment would be a result of the massive overcapacity being taken out of the system.  In other words, globalization for the last 40 years was nothing more than a wealth-shifting scheme.  While most experts will dispute this because they don't understand the complexities of this system, globalization is a zero sum game created by corporate capitalism. )
• Oil is imploding.  As noted on here many years ago, my long term target for oil is $10 a barrel.   The excess capacity of often useless businesses that serve no purpose for humanity or democracy is staggering. When this capacity is taken out of the global economy, oil demand will disappear across so many dynamics.  (Remember Peak Oil and the panic created that we would soon be living in caves?  Something called out on here as bullshit.  We may soon be living in caves but it won't be due to Peak Oil.)
• High yield (formerly known as junk debt but name-massaged to brainwash society that was used to bail out capitalism)  debt safety peaked in 2013.  And, it is within a few percentage points of testing the 2008 financial market disaster.  

I've seen comments recently such as the last time we saw this indicator or data point at this reading, the stock market was historically higher 90% of the time.  Or whatever.  Just an example.  Remember that statistics is not science.  And most people who cite statistics don't understand science or the limits of statistics.  With the improper interpretation of statistics, I can make a goose look like Marilyn Monroe.  Or, as noted in my post a few weeks ago, Trump is citing the economy was great and I took his same statistics to show you what a disaster the economy is.

Could we whipsaw higher in equities?  Sure.  Could this crisis pass and we be back to the races for some time?  Sure. But, the real issue we face now is one that Wall Street has a hard time papering over.  That is, structural liquidity is crashing.  How do you reflate that?  The Federal Reserve cutting rates will only mildly help current debt holders.  It will not create demand for more liquidity.  

On that note, I highlighted in the aforementioned recent post that Trump's tax breaks did nothing to enhance corporate profits.  Nor, did it help with their disastrous balance sheets.  So, one might interpret that to also mean the tax breaks being floated by politicians to help with this crisis would be like pushing a string up a hill.  There are policies that can assist society that I raised in my post about society's preparedness for a crisis but it's not tax breaks that our corporate captured government are floating.  Tax breaks are what elites and corporate executives want because that's what lines their pockets.  It does nothing to help someone making $30,000 a year or who is unemployed.

Is The United States Ready For A Public Health Crisis? (Or Any National/Global Crisis Including One Of Corporate Capitalism?)

Update on the afternoon of March 4th.  A Seattle resident's ridiculous interaction with the health care system trying to determine if she has the coronavirus.  This is on Twitter but you can view it without having an account.  Click on show this thread to Sketchy Lady's first post.  This link has received quite an audience.

Update number two on March 5th.  Just to be clear, I am not talking about business continuity plans that are often developed by public companies.  Especially regulated companies. (By the way, it is my experience that with the race to the bottom of the barrel with neoliberal economics embraced by corporations, that these plans are seldom complete and almost never tested anymore. How do you test an organization that is flung around the world with so many outsourced components?  Think Apple as just one example. Most every major U.S. company fits this profile to some degree.)  Banks, as an example, are starting to act upon testing their business continuity plans.   I am talking about the public policy government needs to keep society going. Private businesses do not have this capability.  A bank may be able to have people work from home due to a potential outbreak but they don't have the policy decisions to ensure there aren't runs on banks. That's a public policy issue.  Democracy needs an all-encompassing plan that ensures society continues to operate in the event of a crisis.  That is a public policy plan.  It's like building a house.  The government is the general contractor.  Banks or private power generating firms may be subcontracted to lay brick or install drywall but the government is responsible for the plan to build out the entire house.  Given so much of our government has been outsourced to corporations, corrupted by corporations or dismantled by corporations, its effectiveness has imploded.  Does anyone have the confidence the government has, let along can act upon, a public policy plan as outlined below?

Update number three on March 6th. We are witnessing what happens when ignorance is a primary driver of society.  I heard a rather famous Wall Street type ask why are we all worried about the coronavirus if everyone can get it.  Just go to work and let it work its way out.  Then, we hear that Trump thinks heat will kill the coronavirus.  And, we find out that the million count of test kits isn't available as politicians have promised.  In fact, the amount available is far lower than that.  Because politicians won't give us a number, it's almost certainly a complete f*cking disaster.  And, this isn't the only asinine statement Trump has made. I saw Trump ask experts why the flu vaccine wouldn't work.  This is not a flu virus.

Politicians need to get the f*ck out of the way and stop trying to control the narrative. They aren't qualified in science, public health policy, crisis response or logistics to manage a crisis response.  Most are glad-handing liars and con artists who did everything possible to get to a position to control other people, a wildly dysfunctional and oftentimes incredibly evil dynamic.  A dynamic that direct democracy completely rejects.  And, because this is massively impacting the economy, there needs to be a daily communication given from whomever is managing all of this to the American people.  TV, Youtube, whatever.  It should be a face and not a post on a web page.  You don't manage major social impacts that have the potential to turn ugly very quickly through a Tweet or through a web site post.  People need to see leadership, be honestly engaged and updated on the efforts that are being taken.  Nothing like this is happening.

The U.S. politicians sat on this for months while other countries responded.  And, while I haven't done any investigation, it seems bizarre that no one has ever mentioned where those test kits are made.  Who has the ability to ramp up to make anything in the U.S. in the millions in weeks?  Want to bet the government let public policy at the CDC be bribed by corporate influence and these test kits are coming from a corporation in China? Something smells like rot with regards to this.  Hawaii actually asked the CDC if they could have Japan ship them test kits.

A few comments on the above dynamics.  Again, no one knows how this will play out from an infection standpoint.  Educated guesses can be made based on the science, epidemiology, death rates, etc.  The below points are for illustrative purposes of any potential pathogen or public health crisis.  Again, no one knows where this current is headed from an infection standpoint.  Panic is the worst thing people can do.  But without public leadership effectively communicating with the American people on a daily basis, panic is certainly a normal human reaction. Especially in a society that is so controlled by institutionalized, hierarchical pathology.

First off, viruses are very bizarre things. It is not agreed to in the scientific community if they are even alive.  So, Trump's comments about killing the virus should actually be that ultraviolet radiation from the sun can inactivates viruses.  This is a fascinating topic given so much of human DNA is comprised of viruses.  I'm not going into this but discussed that viruses are likely protagonists in evolution.  This is something that was out of the mainstream years ago but it becoming more appreciated by science.

Secondly, this is not a flu virus.  So, the flu vaccine wouldn't do anything.  Why is Trump or any politician even involved in this scientific minutia?  Because like most politicians, he's a narcissistic control freak who appears as worried about his own political situation as he does about facts and the well-being of society.

Thirdly, from the comment about just letting this virus run its course if we don't think we can stop it.  What a dumbass statement.  The institutionalization of corporate hierarchies ensures that we live in an inverted society.  In other words, incompetence fails upward so idiots rise to the top and the general population ends up being ruled by a corporate idiocracy. 

From CDC data, the number of people who got the flu in the U.S. last year was about 35 million.  That's about ten percent of the population.  About half of those people received medical treatment.  And, ninety eight thousands of one percent died.  Public health officials and scientists are concerned that a very large percentage of the population could contract any type of pandemic pathogen.  Large meaning potentially half of the population or more.  That would be about 170 million or more in the U.S. alone.  The latest WHO global mortality rates for coronavirus are 3.4%.   This is a 35 times higher death rate than the flu.   Do you see the public health issues? Our hospitals and healthcare system could be collapsed with a hundred million or more sick patients needing medical care just from one pathogen.  Any pathogen would certainly make health care professionals sick. Likely in large numbers. Hospitals would turn into factories for coronavirus or any communicable pathogen. Sick patients in hospitals wouldn't get the care they need for their illness. They could potentially contract a pandemic pathogen, thus providing even greater complications.  All with the potential that no one would be there to care for them.  Or, at least not enough health care professionals.  And, we could be left with 5 or more million dead bodies.

This doesn't even go into the issues of what it would do to the economy.  (What this situation today will almost certainly do to the Humpty Dumpty global economy built by free market, deregulated corporations.)   Which is why I noted the public policy issues below that are almost certainly nonexistent given the corporate capture of our government.

This is all exacerbated because our for-profit corporate-controlled healthcare system has taken out so much capacity and shut down so many hospitals and health care facilities in order to enhance shareholder value rather than serve democracy's public policy or public health needs.  This is an enhancement feature of corporate capitalism.  Tongue in cheek.  Do the neoliberal free-market corporate capitalist dunces yet see any flaws in dismantling regulations and public policy?  As I noted in the original post below, the U.S. is not prepared for any social crisis (economics, healthcare, natural disaster, etc) given the corporatization of our healthcare system and the corporate destruction of our public policies.  Even in a perfect world this type of situation would be a massive challenge.  But corporations have made it a near certainty that any crisis would be made magnitudes worse by their actions.  Most specifically, their long-time capture of our government and the associated destruction of a functioning democracy.

Fourth, Trump is painting it as implied fact that we will develop a vaccine.  There are many viruses where no vaccine exists.  Herpes and HIV are two well-known viruses that have been around for a long time without a vaccine.  Then, there is testing of a vaccine, production of the quantities needed without the likely US capacity since corporations have offshored pretty much our entire production economy.  There is zero guarantee a vaccine will be made.  And, then you have the ability for this virus to apparently mutate quite easily per virologists who has been studying coronaviruses for decades.  What does that mean for any potential vaccine?  That even if we develop one, there is no guarantee it will work on mutations.

The risks are large for any potential crisis.  Or, what certainly looks like a high probability economic crisis substantially exacerbated by the massive corruption of our government captured by corporations.


Original Post Below

I'm not going to participate in the rampant speculation and ignorance that pervades the internet and media about the current coronavirus.  But I do have comments to make about a potential disaster or crisis of any kind.  And, now is a good time to have that crisis because right now it appears the coronavirus is less a public health crisis than a potential economic crisis.  What the future holds about this virus, no one knows.  But, we do know that science has been ringing the alarm about coronaviruses for decades so this shouldn't catch the government off guard.  (Tongue in cheek.)

It's amazing how many people in the media or on the internet want to have a public opinion about something they just don't understand.  That includes a lot of people in the medical establishment.  Just because you have an MD behind your name doesn't qualify you to a public opinion on coronavirus.  Medical doctors are not scientists.  They have taken some amount of biology and chemistry classes but then so did half of college dropouts.  I am being a little tongue-in-cheek but medical doctors practice establishment orthodoxy.  Most have never conducted any scientific research.  We all certainly have the freedom of speech to say what we will but people should have the self-awareness not to provide uninformed commentaries when we still know so little about this situation.  Half wits who remark that half of the world will be infected are doing no one a favor.  If you have this ability to predict that future, you should go buy the winning lottery ticket.   Because otherwise, you are just providing confusion and fodder for irrational responses that will create other crises.

Given the general civic ignorance and apathy that exists around the world, it's quite obvious to draw the conclusion that most people have well too much confidence in the government to take care of them.  We should have a government that protects us within the limits of their resources but that's certainly not politicians.  Politicians have been dismantling that ability since the beginning of civilization.  As I've noted on here countless times, politics is an anti-democratic institution of the ego and a relic from times gone by.  The modern world has no need for politicians.  The ancient Greeks didn't elect politicians.  Their society was literally self-ruled.   The guy cleaning the toilet and the wealthiest in society shared the responsibility.  There was substantial civic consciousness. Which is massively on the rise in the new global awakening.  That cat is never going back in the bag.  As noted many times over the years in discussing this cycle of volatility, the world as we knew it before is over.  Forever.

Regardless, listening to the political half wits, you'd think the U.S. is incredibly prepared for this situation or any potential pandemic.  Unless there is some special secret sauce that has yet to be revealed, they aren't.  Not even close.  Because our public policies, public social programs and democracy have been dismantled over the last 70+ years of corporate domination.  This could be like watching The Three Stooges if the coronavirus or associated economic impacts to any social crisis develops into something severe. 

I would like to throw something against the wall that the sun's radiation is nature's greatest answer to disabling viruses.  So, one may anticipate this situation may somewhat limit itself in a few months.  But, then reappear this fall.  A completely wild guess but based on some historical precedence.  But considering the sun is at its weakest in ages, that could well not happen.  A thought to ponder.  Do outbreaks or potential pandemics worsen with correlation to low intensity periods of solar activity?  Or, does the universe create them in times of low solar activity?  I'm asking because there is substantial precedence for this.  And, science has recognized that precedence.  What has been written on here for the last decade?  We are headed into a period of low solar activity and global cooling.  We really don't know what viruses are.  And, long ago I wrote that some scientists believe viruses are responsible for evolution.  Our DNA is substantially comprised of viruses.  It's interesting to consider if some events are preordained and why.  The reality is we are clueless about the many mysteries of life.

Back to a potential public health crisis.  It's interesting that the Federal Reserve is already dropping their pants to give handouts to banks but the Trump administration HHS Secretary's initial remarks were that the vaccine wouldn't be free because corporations needed to make money.  That was a disaster so Trump himself walked this back.  Socialism for the banks but if you are poor, I'm guessing your life is expendable.  For the half wit HHS secretary, it's interesting to note that the most promising coronavirus vaccine from Gilead, an American firm, being tested in China, was substantially developed at an American PUBLICLY-funded state university using federal government taxpayer research funds.  I think we call that socialism.  For corporations.  I've made quite a few jabs on the topic of corporate socialism recently because any policy meant to improve the lives of our citizens that may take away from government handouts to corporations is so grotesquely used by politicians and our corporate masters in the latest incarnation of modern political terrorism, McCarthyism and red-baiting.  And, I'm not picking on Trump.  The entire system is rotten to the core.

The activities of our government around any potential crisis should be completely transparent.  And, I'm talking way more transparent than anything we've ever witnessed under any political party or any administration.  It's not transparent because they are corporate-captured buffoons and making it transparent would expose their massive incompetence.  Any type of national crisis creates the potential to end the political career or presidency of the incumbent because of the institutionalized incompetence.  Examples on transparency.  Who is leading what effort?  What are the daily updates?  How are the various public and private institutions and communities coordinating said response?  What are citizens supposed to do in certain anticipated situations?  Where is all of this data held so that democracy can review our various plans, make suggestions and be aware and engaged to help our communities and our government in a coordinated response?

I'm not talking about a short article on whether you should wear a mask that's available on the CDC website.   Or, that you should cough into your sleeve or wash your hands.  I'm talking about a coordinated operational plan across all social impacts in communities, government, medical professionals, industry and the like.  Something transparent that is updated daily.  That citizens have the ability to impact with ideas and suggestions to improve our proactive response.  And, something that is communicated daily to all Americans.  There is nothing like this being done because there is nothing that exists unless I'm missing something.  But a major missing component to this is civic participation.  The best ideas for response are going to come from citizens and not bureaucracies.  Participatory democracy is necessary in crises.

So, to ensure we are proactive, let me rattle off a few public and private policy continuity plans we should be considering before we are in the midst of any future crisis.  This list is random since I'm creating it as I type so it certainly isn't complete. But if democracy had access to these types of conversations and documented plans, we could vet them, improve it and ensure everyone is prepared to execute upon them.

1. What is the policy plan to ensure we have limited to no shocks in our food supply?  This is especially important given we are a food-insecure nation.  Corporations have outsources a large chunk of our food production outside of our borders. In a crisis, I can almost guarantee you that those countries are not likely to send us their food supply.  Essentially, I guarantee there is no plan because if there was, public policy would have not allowed corporate capitalism to outsource that production outside of the U.S.  Major risk without a plan as all of the below items are as well.
2. What are deemed the most critical infrastructure to ensure society continues to operate?  And, where is the documented coordinated public policy plan to ensure we maintain that infrastructure in times of crisis?
3. What are our plans with electricity, sanitation, water in the case of a crisis?  Who is cross-trained outside of those working in that capacity should everyone in critical hands-on positions not be available if workers become incapacitated?
4. What are considered key businesses and what is the public policy to ensure those businesses have executable business continuity plans? Who from government is working with those businesses to ensure they have everything they need in the event of a crisis? Who is coordinating that across the entire nation between various organizations including businesses, federal, state and local government?
5. What is the business continuity plan to ensure necessary services aren't impacted? Items such as receiving Social Security checks for poor and handicapped people?
6. What is the plan to ensure consumer banking is not impacted?  To ensure ample cash is on hand and banks are provided with the necessary tools they need to continue to operate?  We don't want runs on banks.
7. What do we do if any critical businesses or public services are shut down for any reason in the event of a crisis?  
8. If businesses have to be shut down and no work is being performed, how to people continue to get paid so they can afford to pay their bills? What about the unemployed or those who are laid off because of the crisis?
9. If we have to shut down large swaths of the economy that involve people congregating in large masses such as office buildings, sporting events or whatnot, how do those impacted continue to get the money and resources they need to survive?
10. How do you stop runs on resources such as groceries or gasoline?  What is the rationing plan if one is needed? 
11. How many needles, hazmat suits, masks and the like are needed in the event of a national pandemic?  It is far more than anyone is talking about today.  Far, far more.   Do we have enough so that people can continue to go to work in critical positions such as water or electricity generation?  Do these items even provide the necessary safety to stop transmission?
12. What industries are required to be completely conducted within the United States for all of these reasons and more?   In other words, what have we allowed corporations to outsource that are going to cause massive dislocations or even massive deaths in a severe crisis of any kind?   
13. How do we monetize a national expense if 50 million (example) people aren't able to go to work and we essentially suspend capabilities for months or longer?   We don't want companies and people dropping line dominoes.  There are solutions to this.  What are they?
14. What is the plan for local communities? What should mayors and city councils be doing?  
15. Which of these operational plans are the responsibility of the CDC? Communities? States? Federal government? What agencies? Citizens? Companies?  
16. What should people do who think they are sick? Today, they are likely to go to the emergency room if they don't have insurance.  Bad plan.  We don't want them being tested in hospitals. Soon everyone working in hospitals and patients there for other reasons could become sick. Should we set up emergency clinics for testing?
17. Recently the national nurses union surveyed nurses who stated that large numbers of nurses  have no idea what protocols to use, what equipment to use to keep them safe and what the plan of care is.  This is my surprised face.   
18. Who is going to manage all of these items?  It's not all the responsibility of the CDC.  They aren't just public health issues.  And, the CDC is not the catchall for all public health policies and issues.  Many of these issues, including public health issues, should not be run by politicians who have zero idea what they are doing.  Aka political solutions as opposed to public health solutions.  This is what appears to be happening in China where politicians are essentially rounding people up.  Possibly even using this to round up dissidents rather than public health officials taking the lead on health-related issues.  

These are just a handful of issues I would draw concern about.  Issues that popped into my head sitting here blogging in my underwear.  Issues that almost certainly aren't documented with plans because our government has been captured by corporations, and thus, doesn't serve democracy and its required public policy.  Our leaders should be proactive rather than waiting for disaster to strike.  We need plans for issues like this if we are to be prepared to avert major crises in any public health or national crises.  If it isn't the coronavirus, it'll be something else.

This is what the mainstream media should be asking as a public service.  Instead, we get histrionics without any facts about how Donald Trump is the greatest threat to our nation or utter bullshit about how Russian interference impacted our elections. Propaganda.

Mind you, the corporate state has been dismantling public policy and public programs ever since Roosevelt left office and World War II ended.  This isn't a Trump issue.  But, potential crisis does point to the fact that public policy, including health policy, has been infiltrated and decimated by corporate socialism courtesy of paid off politicians.  

The overarching theme on here over the last fifteen years is that we are in a cycle of volatility.  In retrospect, how accurate has that been?  The natural world, the world of state violence, the world of human devolution, the world of political and social madness and on and on and on.  Pertaining to this post, eight of the major outcomes discussed as a part of that are that 1) we are in the midst of witnessing the end of corporate capitalism and 2) globalization is dead and 3) we will likely see large corporations fall like dominoes when that happens and 4) US corporate empire will cease to exist by 2022 and 5) both political parties will collapse and 6) if capitalism fails, the stock market will disappear and 7) the concept of a corporate career if a mythical modern delusion that is likely to disappear and finally 8) The United States, the EU and other large nations as we know them could shatter into pieces. (Actually, I noted long before the current EU crisis that the EU would shatter not may shatter.)  Actually, there are probably another dozen major outcomes discussed here that I can think of off the top of my head but these will suffice.  These were all very unique to this blog because they came from substantial analysis not parroting what the corporate state's societal madness was focused on.

Anyway, all of these outcomes are still in play.   The main reason I bring this up is because this environment could be the trigger I have been anticipating to send corporate capitalism over the edge.  The corporate socialism and bailouts necessary to save the overly complex web of exploitation set up around the world is staggering.  Corporations couldn't wait to send our jobs to China but the contradictions it created are staggering.  That includes draining the US public coffers and creating a welfare state.  Just from a (quality) lean process standpoint, extending supply chains far beyond the point of consumption is a massive risk across so many outcomes.  But, this is corporate capitalism.  It's a control system build on endless contradictions that will always resolve themselves.  Violently at that.  

At some point, likely sooner rather than later, we are going to find out what the capitalist half wit's concept of free market really is as the forces of nature take over. The government doesn't have the ability or resources to be able to stop a systemic failure of capitalism.  Franklin Roosevelt, hated by capitalists, actually saved them from themselves and their massive incompetence after the Great Depression's collapse had passed.  (What really saved them was World War II - substantially created by American capitalists and their corrupt complicity in the Nazi regime- that destroyed all of the world's production capacity. That global rebuilding fueled America's economy for decades thereafter. )  Any crisis will likely decimate political parties for their complicity in the evil, Godless rot and systemic incompetence that pervades our society, our institutions and corporations.  And, the lack of public oversight and public policy that allowed it will expose our political system as grossly incompetent, grossly evil and grossly corrupt.  While corporate capitalism may be the root cause, politicians are the bidders of our corporate masters.  

Every philosopher and critical thinker has coalesced on government's primary role is to protect the weak from the strong. Our government has allowed the strong to endlessly exploit the weak.  And, it certainly smells like the chickens are coming home to roost.