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.
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.
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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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.
- What do we do if any critical businesses or public services are shut down for any reason in the event of a crisis?
- 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?
- 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?
- How do you stop runs on resources such as groceries or gasoline? What is the rationing plan if one is needed?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- What is the plan for local communities? What should mayors and city councils be doing?
- Which of these operational plans are the responsibility of the CDC? Communities? States? Federal government? What agencies? Citizens? Companies?
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
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.
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