Politics of the Pandemic

The COVID19 virus has been spreading fast within the US, and is out of control. Right now, the US has the largest numbers of infections and deaths. This number is growing.

Trump’s handling of the fallout has been abysmal, and he is having a hard time.

He has been lashing out at everyone, when he himself has done much to leave the US unprepared for dealing with the results of this corona virus outbreak.

Two years ago, Trump dismissed officials and specialists tasked with emergency pandemic response and cut their funding.

In October of 2019, Trump removed a CDC representative from China, leading to a break in communication and cooperation when it came to viral outbreaks such as this.

At the beginning of January of this year, when China warned other nations that it is facing a contagious and dangerous mass-spreading virus, Trump brushed it off, told everyone that there is nothing to worry about, and started hurling insults and accusations against China.

In November of 2019, the US intelligence agencies warned of a possible risk of a mass-viral outbreak in China. The report has been buried, for unknown reasons.

Trump has ignored science and sound advice from specialists, then went over their heads with his own broken ideas.

By doing so, Trump wasted about two months that could’ve been used to prepare to deal with this outbreak. 

Instead, Trump went on a murder spree against Iranian and Iraqi officials. Such are Trump’s ‘priorities.'

Because of his shortsightedness, the rate of infections spread quicker than it would have, and as a result more people will die.

In the midst of all this, Trump has also passed more sanctions against Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, preventing these countries from getting help during this pandemic and causing infections to rise. These are criminal acts of murder which must be condemned.

Faced with mass-criticism, failures, and embarrassment, Trump has started lashing out at everyone and everything to deflect attention from his incompetence.

He has been more concerned about his image and the financial aspect of this crisis than the actual people out there being affected. As long as he and his rotten family clan is fine, he couldn’t care less, it looks like. He just wants to play politics and win the next election.

And in this spirit, Trump wants to lift the restrictions on movement and self-quarantine ASAP, regardless of all the warnings from professionals who say that it is too soon to do so, and that it could lead to more infections.

Trump recently cut WHO (World Health organization) funding. The reason he gave for this was that WHO ‘conspired with China and didn’t alert countries soon enough about this outbreak,’ a notion that is not true.

This is Trump in a nutshell. Whenever something doesn’t work out the way he wants, even if it is due to his mistakes and bad judgment, he immediately looks for a scapegoat. This is the behavior of an inept loser.

The man has made himself look like a complete fool. His so-called countermeasures are too little, too late, and mostly wrong.

It is each nation's leader’s responsibility to coordinate the containment of this outbreak. Blaming others and threatening them is not going to help.

Trump’s incompetence and failure to act in time is one problem. But another is the miserable, for-profit healthcare system in the US that prices too many people out of getting the medical help they need. This is certainly a major cause of why this virus is spreading so fast within the US.

All this COVID19 mayhem has battered the US economy, which has still not recovered from the damage caused by the 2008 economic crisis.

It has been kept afloat with printing money, recycling debt, and other tricks and gimmicks since then.

For all its puffery and pontifications, the US has turned out to be the sick man of the world.

And where is NATO? Why isn’t it out in full-force, setting up field hospitals, treating the infected, distributing masks and ventilators, and disinfecting everything in sight?

It seems NATO is only good at putting on meaningless, for-show military exercises, and the US defends only when there is money to be made off weapons sales.

When it comes to a pandemic, none of these F-35 fighter planes and other weaponry does anyone any good.

Did NATO not plan for such scenarios? This is a serious operational failure on its part.

And where is the so-called ‘unity’ of the EU? It seems like everyone is out for themselves, grabbing ventilators and face masks from under each other’s nose.

We are witnessing the utter uselessness and failure of all these western institutions and the ‘Trans-Atlantic consensus.’

All this feel-good propaganda, PR spin, and billions spent have been for nothing. There is no unity. There is no common defense. It’s all a sick, pathetic, and insanely expensive joke.

If, and when this pandemic is over, it would behoove the rest of the world to stop listening to the US, and keep a greater distance from it. Clearly, the US is ran by incompetent nutcases who don’t know what they’re doing.

While Russia and China are helping countries, without resorting to insults, ridicule, blame and false accusations, the Trump regime is caught in a temper tantrum of its own making, which makes the situation even worse. The US is the laughing stock of the world.

The result of any Russian and Chinese help for countries affected by COVID19 will undoubtedly be an even nastier, more bitter and vindictive US establishment. They see it as an affront and as a betrayal to have the Russians and the Chinese help anyone. US egos have been severely bruised, and Russia and China must be ready for a round of sanctions and other dirty tricks the likes of which they have never seen after this COVID19 emergency passes. Russia and China made the US look weak and ineffectual in front of the world, and this just will not be allowed. The US has a mortal fear of looking weak. This is what drives its terrible, misguided, emotionally-charged decisions and murderous policies worldwide.

After this COVID19 epidemic settles down, whenever that will be, the world also needs to reassess its policies and priorities. The stale old profiteering off the bottom, and divisive scare-mongering to sell weaponry is no longer viable.

But this is a tall order. What will most likely happen is that the failing western establishment will regroup, pretend that they did a great job and pat each other on the back, ignore and quickly forget all their errors and failures, their representatives will make grand speeches about ‘unshakable bonds,’ and will go back to business-as-usual. They will most likely not even bother with any type of reforms and plans to prepare for a future pandemic.

Already, the EU is exploiting this situation to fleece member-states, saddle them with huge loans, instead of actually helping. The Trump regime is doing the same-stuffing trillions into the pockets of big banks, corporations and the wealthy-while most of the citizenry gets peanuts and crumbs.

The so-called stimulus plans Trump has touted are not good enough to bring the US economy back on track. Neither are those of the EU.

Politicians also need to stop using this pandemic as an excuse to realize their legally and morally questionable self-serving pet-projects.

First off, they need to postpone any and all upcoming elections, and refrain from manipulating public laws and eroding peoples’ rights for political gain.

Second, they need to listen to the recommendations of epidemology and public health experts and carry them out in the best and quickest manner possible, without any attempts at upstaging, whining and politicking. Lives are at stake here.

The public must also remain alert to what their governments are doing, because it is in such crises as this that governments monopolize power at the cost of personal freedoms under the guise of keeping people safe. Governments must be especially watched during such times as these, and held to account for everything they do.

This virus has exposed fundamental weaknesses not only in the US and the rest of the west, but it has exposed the weakness of capitalism itself.

A system which puts profits above the welfare of the general population is simply not sustainable and will lead to serious failures, including the loss of human life- as we can now see.

There have to be serious, major changes made in the ways countries conduct themselves and in their policies and interaction, or else this situation will repeat itself; and it will repeat. Human history is full of pandemics. It is just a matter of when.

In such troubled times as these, cooperation-not confrontation-must be the norm.