Click to see the full-size image
Written by Caitlin Johnstone; Originally appeared at her blog
“Corona is a black light and America is a cum-stained hotel room,” comedian Megan Amram colorfully tweeted a couple of weeks ago. Her observation has only grown more accurate since.
The corporate cronyism of America’s political system has been highlighted with a massive kleptocratic multitrillion-dollar corporate bailout of which actual Americans are only receiving a tiny fraction. Instead of putting that money toward paying people a living wage to stay home during a global pandemic, the overwhelming majority of the money is going to corporations while actual human beings receive a paltry $1,200 (which they won’t even be getting until May at the earliest) at a time of record-smashing unemployment.
America’s capitalism worship has been highlighted with Wall Street Journal headline “Dow Soars More Than 11% In Biggest One-Day Jump Since 1933” running at the exact same time as “Record Rise in Unemployment Claims Halts Historic Run of Job Growth — More than 3 million workers file for jobless benefits as coronavirus hits the economy”. Stocks are booming, Amazon is surging, and mountains of wealth are being transferred to sprawling megacorporations, while actual human beings are terrified of what the future holds.
America’s joke of a healthcare system is being highlighted as uninsured COVID-19 patients are racking up $35,000 medical bills and even insured COVID-19 patients are looking at out-of-pocket expenses in excess of $1,300. Combine this with the millions of Americans getting thrown off of employer-provided health insurance and you’re looking at a huge number of people who will avoid getting tested and avoid treatment as much as possible. Both heads of America’s two-headed one-party system have spent decades forcefully creating this dynamic.
America’s income and wealth inequality is being highlighted in a nation suffering from all of the above problems while most Americans were already unable to afford a mere $1,000 emergency expense. A one-time $1,200 payment to a population already stretched that thin guarantees that millions will be plunged into crushing debt and destitution in a nation with a historically unprecedented billionaire class raking in even more unearned wealth.
The insanity of America’s war machine has been highlighted as awareness grows during a global health emergency that government military spending negatively impacts government healthcare spending and the US has the most bloated military budget on the planet. Now as journalist Max Blumenthal explains this war machine’s escalating hostility toward China is causing Americans to needlessly die of the virus.
America’s fake political system has been highlighted as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee completely vanished for a week and then returned to deliver an embarrassing string of befuddled interviews upon his return, reminding the nation once again that the Democrats are running an actual, literal dementia patient for the most powerful elected office in the world. Biden will of course be running against an incoherent reality TV star who only last week decided that the virus is indeed a real problem which needs to be seriously addressed, and who now already wants to begin rolling back the inadequate measures his administration implemented far too late. The debates between two men who don’t understand what they’re doing and can’t string a sentence together between them will soon be broadcast around the world for all of civilization to behold.
America’s lying mass media are being highlighted with propagandistic lines that would make Kim Jong Un blush, like The New York Times claiming today that “the American medical system is unsurpassed and its public health system has a reputation as one of the finest in the world”. We can safely expect US media to get even more demented as they expands their hysteria-inducing new cold war propaganda campaign against Russia to China as well.
America’s murderous sanctions machine has been highlighted as the US continues ramping up its economic warfare against Iranian civilians, with thousands already dead and potentially millions to follow due to Tehran’s inability to access necessary equipment, medicine and resources during the pandemic. The Trump administration has not eased the sanctions during the outbreak, and has in fact added to them, because killing Iranian civilians has always been the goal. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has gone on record to say that the objective is to make Iranian civilians so miserable and desperate that they overthrow their own government.
So basically everything crazy about America is being amplified to absurd caricatures of its own insanity and highlighted for everyone to see. There’s a lot of ugliness coming out into the light as a result of this virus, which may end up being one of its few perks for everyone. As they say of both viruses and governments, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
It is unknown whether Covid-19 was a natural crossover animal to human virus or a product of a US biological weapons lab. The fact it first appeared in two countries at the top of the US hit list, China and Iran, is suspicious to say the least. But China has it under control for the present while the USA is now leading the list for number of people infected as its dysfunctional health non-care system fails to cope with a flood of new cases. As Malcolm X once remarked, “The chickens have come home to roost.”
I’ll post this here without having to wonder if it will be deleted or not.
Far too many of my comment are being deleted on ws – I decided to put this knowledge forward to Kishore, a little time past then one of the mods responded and claimed to have been forwarded my email by JK – gone thru my comments for the last year to arrive at the conclusion that I had NeoFascist & anti semetic leanings because of a link to a podcast [provided by Pepe Escobar] in one of my replies regarding Black Rock who have bought up all US government bonds in the recent bailout.
Podcast – https://fashthenation.com/2020/03/ftn-300-i-am-the-line-thy-god/
I didn’t reply to his email instead I challenged him to debate me on this on the comment thread so that everyone would be able to discover his illogical narrative out in the open – Needless to say – the reply never saw the light of day.
To be opposed to Zionism doesn’t provide valid logic to label one an anti Semite.
If the mods on wsws consider me to be anti semite then they must harbor Zionist leanings.
The WSWS, or more precisely the SEP, is as much a religious organization as a political party, Southern. Like many small sects, religious or political, they have a certain percentage of openminded members and a number of “true believer”zealots like Pierre. The comment above was originally posted on the WSWS but as I expected they didn’t post it so I reposted it here on Southfront.
I find anything positive I say about Cuba or Russia tends to be deleted, as it is a fundamental canon of the SEP religion that Fidel was the “antichrist” and Putin is Satan in the flesh. Anybody who points out that Cuba meets all the criteria for a socialist country is denounced as a “petty bourgeois” and “anti-working class”.
I occasionally point out that in Canada where I live, and more particularly in British Columbia on the left coast, the social democrats (NDP) have while in power enacted a lot of legislation that has greatly benefited working people; especially bringing in Medicare to cover all Canadians. In Canada when you need medical assistance, visit a doctor, get a CT scan, get a lab test, stay in a hospital and such, you show your free CareCard, not your credit card. That really gets Pierre et al foaming at the mouth as it proves I am “pseudo-socialist” in their bizarro world. Nothing social democrats or unions do can benefit working people in the context of their religious cult, and if you point to any benefits they have provided, you are a “class enemy”.
Anyway, good to see you on Southfront where we can chat without censorship. I always appreciate your contributions along with dmorista, Carolyn, Eric (in China), and a few others who post on WSWS. I follow your posts via Discus (which is probably a CIA front for keeping track of us ;-) and I’m often amazed at the number of sites you monitor. Don’t have that much free time myself, so I appreciate your posts as they often give me a lead to follow to an interesting article. Stay healthy, Southern.
For the moment I have a lot of time, that could change.
I’d be surprised if disqus could not be linked to some alphabet soup – the extend of their spying knows no limits – f.e.first Robert Scheer then Chris Hedges spoke with William Binney on their podcast recently – Binney explained how ”the CIA owned a company in Switzerland that provided encryption for diplomatic communications.
That went on for decades – Many nations around the world used that company – yet I hear no protest or condemnation for having been spied on yet again.
Following a religion does not automatically determine anyone’s ethnicity – while there are Israeli’s all following the same religion their ethnic backgrounds originate from all over the world.
On the flip side, ethnicity does not necessarily indicate a religious or political belief or the absence thereof. I have quite a few ethnic Jewish friends, for instance, but none of them are religious. Ditto my Ukrainian, Russian, Irish, Scottish, Estonian, Guatemalan, etc friends. While their homelands have dominant religions my personal friends are all agnostics or atheists. Being Irish doesn’t necessarily mean you are a Catholic nor does being an ethnic or cultural Jew living in Israel necessarily mean you are a religious Jew or, politically, a Zionist.
It’s a real problem for people who are ethnic or cultural Jews but not religious Jews or Zionists because they tend to get tarred with the same brush by ignorant people who can’t think past labels. The same problem for people describing themselves as socialists or communists especially in the US where 95% of the population is completely ignorant of what those terms actually mean, and are too lazy or just plain dumb to look them up in a dictionary or encyclopedia before passing judgement based on a false perception created by the miseducation system and mainstream media.
But I’m preaching to the converted as a Scottish relative once said when I was talking to him about Margaret Thatcher while on a visit to Scotland back in the 1980’s.
Interesting reply – I’ve used a virtually identical reasoning – however since you follow my account you might have noticed previously
As originally stated my point – following a religion does not and cannot determine anyone’s ethnicity or nationality – there are Catholics in Ireland South America and in the Philippines – all following Catholics yet they all have different nationalities and ethnicities and do not claim to be Catholic by ethnicity which is impossible since following a religion does not determine anyone’s ethnic group.
The same logic applies to the Jewish religion – those that follow the Jewish religion have origins from all over the world including Russia, Iran, Ethiopia, all over the planet with the obvious point being that they all have different nationalities and belong to different ethnic groups.
However – exactly how could someone logically claim to be Jewish yet not religious while their ethnicity could be from anywhere on the planet?
Feel free to follow any peaceloving religion that you desire – just be sure that it doesn’t become the state for it will all go pearshaped.
Since TD canned disqus commenting Popular Resistance are featuring Chris Hedges and his weekly interviews on RT
This weeks topic is discussing a new book on Palestine.
Consider yourself invited – https://popularresistance.org/on-contact-colonial-war-on-palestine/
Thanks, Southern. Caught it on Hedge’s RT TV show which my local cable company carries as a free channel. I’ve installed the Portable.TV app on my devices for the day Uncle Sam pulls the plug on RT TV like they did a few months back on FARSnews. Any day of the week they can block any site on the internet so I may have to dust off my old shortwave radio one of these days and go back to listening to international stations to find out what is going on in the rest of the world.
What’s next we’ve already been sent home now all they have to do is restrict access to the web [which will cause a massive uproar.]
The short wave radio is not a bad idea – I know of one system where it was used to transmit data from one pc to another but on UHF which is limited in range.
The economies have been destroyed – it’s never quite going to return to what it was.
a “natural” Virus crossover animal to human is NOT possible.
the only possible way achieving that , would be DIRECT injection…..ie through a vaccine….
ps. it is a RIDICULOUS assumption, that a human eats for example bat, and thus gets a “bats” Virus into his Body……….absolutly biologicly scientific IMPOSSIBLE!!!
the same goes for HIV, and africans Eating MONKEYS and thus getting infected with HIV Virus…..ridiculous
There are many viruses spread by rats
The bugs infect mice, so it is not really the mice or rats that are the source. If mice are healthy they are not a problem.
You make ridiculous claims. https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/basics/zoonotic-diseases.html
Look in the mirror meat eater, egg eater, animal cager, you are indeed responsible for spreading corona viruses including covid-19.
The US for a long time has been preoccupied abroad suppressing foreign people whilst their own country goes to pot. Quite soon they will have hyperinflation and no means of correcting their failing infrastructure apart from yet another ‘new deal’, where americans will be sold slave labour as patriotism.
The US is one giant cesspool on Mankind.