Just when you thought the level of cynicism couldn't get any worse, Fox "News" lowers the bar once again by essentially asking viewers to "die for the economy." Given that the average age of Fox viewers is over 60, the most at risk group to the virus, that's a staggering request.
This came as a result of Trump showing his determination to reopen the economy before Easter regardless of the consequences. He let it be known that he disagrees with the doctors who "want to shut down the world," feeling that it is better to get businesses up and running even if "this is going to be bad," referring to the potential death toll that might arise if everyone goes back to work.
His pronouncement flies in the face of health experts' requests around the world, who believe we should maintain as strong as possible a lockdown until more is known about the fatal COVID-19 virus, which is currently ravaging Italy and Spain. Dr. Fauci has been conspicuously absent from press briefings this week, replaced by Bill Barr of all people. This was after Fauci's infamous face palm in response to the president going off on one of his many insane tangents.
It seems Wall St. likes the idea. Stocks rose the past two days by more than 2500 points. A large part of this was due to the bailout package the Senate agreed on yesterday and the Fed promising to pump as much as $6 trillion into the shutdown economy. Ever since stock prices have become the bottom line of a company's well being, workers' rights have become less of a concern. Stocks tend to rise with "restructuring," which translates into cutting back on the payroll.
The Senate bill still has to go through the House, but some GOP senators are already balking at too much money being earmarked for unemployment compensation, calling it a "drafting error." They would have liked to see the bulk of the money go through the White House, largely unaccounted for, so as to give their corporate backers as much free cash as possible. Senate Democrats demanded a Congressional oversight committee be set up similar to the one we had to administer the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP. Schumer also added an amendment that neither Trump nor any government officials could benefit from the bailouts, although I imagine the Trump Family Business will find a way to get their hands on some of that cash.
With so much money being poured into the economy by the Fed and all these potential bailouts, what's the rush as far as getting back to work? We could conceivably keep the partial lockdown in place through May, which is what most health safety officials would prefer. It's no skin off anyone's nose, least of all Donald-Do-Wrong. He's never really had to work a single day in his life.
His biggest concern is the stock market tanking and the prospect of massive layoffs, ruining his low unemployment rate numbers. This is a vanity project and as usual Fox "News" supports him wholeheartedly, even to the point of sacrificing a great many of its viewers.
Dunno about anyone else but, as a senior, I am not willing to be a victim of RePUKEblican party death panels.
ReplyDeleteUnlike past generations where it took years or perhaps even decades for society to take strict measures to prevent proliferation of disease (such as quarantine or forced inoculations), today we take corrective measures before deadly diseases spread. We are doing that now such as the mitigation order given by Governor Walz where people now will largely stay home for the next 2 weeks. More could have been done by Washington DC's Clown In Chief to prevent the widespread CV19. Sadly, he was convinced by his pals that it was no worse than a cold and that anti-tRUMP hysteria was being fomented by the news media and by the Democrats. I know it's hard to believe that people can be so stupid as to accept the nonsense spewed by these right wing turd for brains. But that's the way they are.
The number of deaths increased exponentially this past week. It is now more than 3000 nationwide. We will soon top Italy and Spain at this rate. Yet, our SCROTUS seems to believe he has the situation under control.
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