Peak Death, Peak Greed

If the dueling headlines Global Stocks Rise To Record Levels and US Coronavirus Death Rate Doubles In Five Days aren't enough to wake people up to the grotesque reality that "No, Virginia, we're not all in this together," then nothing ever will.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, considered one the country's more prominent liberal public influencers, merely ascribes the horrendous political response to the pandemic to "learned helplessness" while marveling that not only did the  CARES bill contain barely minimal relief for regular people, but that the dastardly Donald Trump actually signed it into law.

He depressingly concludes:

We know what we should be doing in terms of economic policy, and Congress passed a relief bill that, while flawed, was better than I expected. But right now it looks as if our response to the economic emergency will fall far short.

My published comment:

Let's hope we become so adept at sewing our own face masks out of old pillowcases that once this plague abates, the streets will fill with millions of homemade yellow vests waging a long overdue battle against the plague of neoliberal capitalism.

  The same free marketeers who've claimed government is the problem for the past 40 years are first in line to cash in on a multi-trillion dollar slush fund created by the CARES package. Meanwhile, the rest of us are still waiting for those insulting $1200 "stimulus" checks that won't even cover a month's rent.

 Private equity stands to make another record killing. snatching up even more distressed property, destroying livelihoods and raising rents. While the rich enjoy full mortgage freezes for the duration, the have-nots are only granted a temporary stay on evictions.

 The rich only feign concern once infected homeless people threaten their own health. In Vegas, the casino hotels stand empty while the evicted homeless are sleeping on parking lot concrete. And the casino known as Wall Street soars.

 This crisis is not a matter of politicians' "learned helplessness." It's a matter of deliberate, greed-fueled sadism The only way they govern, in fact, is by crisis. They then claim that rewarding themselves and punishing the rest of us is the only way to "solve" - that is, to feed upon - the crisis.

  For the cannibalistic oligarchs, this pandemic has got to be the biggest, fattest, juiciest steak they've ever been served.

The link inserted above on private equity is a how-to guide for the greedy, published by the National Law Review. Venture capitalists are advised to move fast, stress their connections to other greedsters, and take advantage of the fact that normally prickly-stickly banks are so overwhelmed with requests for bailout cash that they'll overlook any potential grift. And best of all, the loans made to "small business" applicants from the private equity/vulture capital biz might never even have to be paid back at all! Anybody can be an elite deadbeat like Donald Trump, as long as that anybody is already a member of the One Percent.

Not for nothing is Trump himself touting an unproven malaria drug cure for the coronavirus. He has, after all, his own "small" financial stake in the drug's manufacturer. He therefore fits the purposely vague definition of the beleaguered "small business" owner being given the bloodsucking chance of a lifetime in the CARES package.

As the National Law Review so discreetly advises hungry vampires: "Our sources tell us that the thought was that this initial round of relief should be for 'Main street, not Wall Street.' However, that perception didn’t consider all the small companies that are owned, in part or whole, by PE or VC but that are not “Wall Street” types.  Our sources note that people in the Administration and on the Hill are aware of this and that it might be addressed in future actions."

So act now while manufactured chaos and crisis rule the day and before the already terrorized little people find out they've been sucked dry in their sleep.