Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Capitalistic Necromancy

The Grand Re-Opening of the United States, a/k/a  global Blooperpower, will proceed despite the expected septupling of Covid-19 cases in the coming months. The death rate itself is expected to double to nearly 3,000 Americans a day by June 1st.

Call it depraved indifference to human life,call it Newgenics, call it a crime against humanity or call it genocide . All of these appellations would be correct. But the media-political complex idiots running this show are, with various degrees of rationalization and gaslighting and coercion and propaganda and magical thinking, actually celebrating the increased morbidity and mortality as the regrettable but acceptable "collateral damage" of any typical Blooperpower war for profit and democracy.

If you or a loved one is personally affected by the enhanced infection rate as a result of their cold-blooded policies, just think of yourselves as patriots who are nobly sacrificing yourselves for your country and the American Way of Life.  You wouldn't want your failure to enlist and get with the program to label you a traitor or a draft dodger, would you?

The well-padded gourmand and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie went on CNN to warn that we will simply have to "swallow the idea" of losing thousands more lives. He said that being forced into quarantine is every bit as "sad" as dying from Covid-19. I mean, if you can't  breathe while your labor is being extracted from you, then there is no point in even breathing. Buck up, you rotten bunch of death-haters and emulate of the Greatest Generation who so willingly fought and died for us in World War II. Heaven forbid that those extra hundred thousand body bags that the Trump administration so thoughtfully ordered for you went to waste, after all.
“Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can ― but the question is, towards what end, ultimately?” Christie asked. “Are there ways that we can  thread the middle here to allow that there are going to be deaths, and there are going to be deaths no matter what?”
This is the very definition of extreme centrism, or what the corporate media likes to euphemise as pragmatism or moderate politics. And if you don't like it, then you're simply being unreasonable. There is no alternative.




An internal government report obtained by the New York Times this week projects 200,000 Covid-19 new cases each day by the end of May, as compared to 34,000 daily cases now. That is a nearly seven-fold increase in less than a month. Donald Trump and his collaborators would probably characterize this as a Lucky Seven victory for them in the lottery of life. Because the house always wins. 

At least for now. How many patriots actually will stand up and say "I regret that I have only one life to give for my Trump, my Christie, my McConnell , my Pelosi, my Smithfield Farms, my Jeff Bezos?"

8 comments:

Shrek Shriek said...


"Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make." Lord Farquaad

"Many of you will die, but that is a sacrifice you should be willing to make." C. Christie



Bill said...

“The numbers of deaths definitely will be high,” Daniel Jernigan, director of the Center for Disease Control’s influenza division, regarding plans to "re-open America."

The Joker said...

Three weeks ago, I commented here in the form of a film scene, which I addressed to Capitalists in general:

"God damn you all to hell!!!"

https://youtu.be/mDLS12_a-fk

That's still applicable, even more so, in direct response to Trump, Christie, and their entire gang of sociopaths.

Erik Roth said...

The Great Realisation —
https://youtu.be/Nw5KQMXDiM4

Portal economics —
https://medium.com/future-crunch/portal-economics-ae11000a4f4d

Jay–Ottawa said...


Necromancy, indeed. Let America be "open" again means the US has surrendered to Covid-19.

All governments aim for herd immunity, one way or another. The only difference between how China did it and how the US and Canada propose to achieve herd immunity is the timing. China, with considerable concentration of resources, human and material, cornered the virus until it was snuffed out, or at least under tight control until a vaccine is available.

The US is opting for the laissez-faire approach; agency will be turned over to the virus. It will be allowed to roam free and do its thing. The people who survive infection, mostly the young and strong, will make up the national herd of the immune.

But there's a catch. The old and weak will die in great numbers. Of those who have died under delayed or half-assed measures so far, about 90% were over 70 years old. Good riddance to those pokey drivers on the road and Medicare and Social Security gluttons.

America will be made great again with a younger, more vibrant, productive population, which is good for busine$$.

Here's what one commentator described as the side effects of going for herd immunity before a vaccine is available:

"[W]hen herd immunity has been tried in the past, as with smallpox, immunity was gained primarily with a vaccine. Now vaccines are typically benign to the human body, so you may end up with a sore arm for a few days, or a low-grade fever, but very seldom do you end up suffering the full ravages of the target disease. This is not at all the type of herd immunity the Quebec government was suggesting. They were hoping for immunity gained by full infection by a dangerous virus.

"And unlike a vaccine, full infection by a dangerous virus is no laughing matter. It looks like covid-19 has a death rate of 3-5%, which is scary on a personal level, and terrifying on a provincial level -- 3% of Quebecers is about 250,000 souls. Further, even if one is lucky enough to be young, and less at risk of dying, surviving this disease can be a nightmare. Ex NHL-er Georges Laraque was training for a marathon, now he can barely get out of bed. CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was hallucinating at night for 2 weeks. Actor Nick Cordero had to get a leg amputated because of blood clots associated with the cardio-vascular effects of the virus -- the last I checked he was still in a coma. Add to this the possible long-term effects of the disease, such as scarring of the lungs that might never heal, and this would seem to be a disease we should not be considering giving to 60-70% of the population. It sounds more like surrender than a plan."

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-herd-immunity-against-covid-19-theres-a-big-catch/wcm/097536ad-94fe-4afc-8cc4-ced2170e5243/

Anonymous said...

I think I now know what it must be like to believe in a God. They are the SIR curves. Immutable. Incapable of emotion. Equally unmoved by either the Dow Jones Industrial Average, or the Pope. Dependent differential equations; the change of susceptibility, infection and recovery, over time, of an infectious disease. In the end they will get the bastards too. I find that comforting.

voice-in-wilderness said...

A couple of years ago I read a detailed report somewhere, maybe in The Atlantic or ProPublica, about one of the chicken processing plants. What struck me was that nothing had changed since the days when Upton Sinclair wrote "The Jungle" -- except the ethnicity of the workers!

Currently much of the discussion is about staying home or going back to work. For now this involves blue collar jobs as many white collar workers can work from home or work in conditions that maintain distancing. But over the summer we will see another category emerge and grow into the millions. That will be those for whom there is no work and who lose their homes to eviction or foreclosure.

What will Trump do with those people who will be homeless and penniless? I predict Trump will develop large concentration camps where these families are given minimal shelter (tents) and minimal food rations, while removing them from an urban environment. Media will not have access to them. ICE has gained useful experience with this sort of thing with the network of immigration camps/centers.

The Joker said...

"Payday lenders that charge 400 percent interest want access to small-business loans.
For years, payday lenders have defended their business model. Now, the industry wants access to taxpayer-funded loans at 1 percent interest."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/08/payday-small-business-loan/