Credit: Oliver Munday
When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly. Chronic ills—a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public—had gone untreated for years. We had learned to live, uncomfortably, with the symptoms. It took the scale and intimacy of a pandemic to expose their severity—to shock Americans with the recognition that we are in the high-risk category.
The crisis demanded a response that was swift, rational, and collective. The United States reacted instead like Pakistan or Belarus—like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering. The administration squandered two irretrievable months to prepare. From the president came willful blindness, scapegoating, boasts, and lies. From his mouthpieces, conspiracy theories and miracle cures. A few senators and corporate executives acted quickly—not to prevent the coming disaster, but to profit from it. When a government doctor tried to warn the public of the danger, the […]
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis tries on a mask.
Who would have imagined that the conman responsible for the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history could be so … corrupt?
Way back in 2012, then-Gov. Rick Scott made headlines with a weird new policy: Any claim for unemployment could no longer be done by phone or in person—it had to be filed online using his new website. The website, which cost $77.9 million, was a disaster right out of the gate. For the first quarter of 2012, over 60,000 workers were denied benefits for “procedural” reasons—an increase of more than 200% from the year before.
This wasn’t another display of Scott’s well-established incompetence. No, the system did exactly what it was designed to do: Fail. People complained, but were ignored; I mean, who cares what the unemployed say? Now that the system has collapsed under the weight of the coronavirus layoffs, even Republicans have admitted that failure was the entire point of the scheme. But why, […]
Trump supporters organized and funded by rightwing oligarchs like Betsy DeVos family
Donald Trump on Sunday once again defended protesters demonstrating against the lockdown measures imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus, adding fuel to a fight between the US president and a number of state governors. “These are great people,” the US president said at a press conference on Sunday, as the US death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 40,000. “They’ve got cabin fever. They want to get back. They want their life back. Their life was taken away from them.” Mr Trump has come under fire after he urged his supporters to “liberate” Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia — states with Democratic governors. In some cases, the protesters are not observing social distancing measures. Earlier on Sunday, Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan responded by pointing out that her state is one of the hardest-hit in the US. “The only response is that Michigan right now has the third highest death count in the country,” Ms Whitmer told CNN. “These efforts are making a difference […]
Armed alt-right Trumpers demand an end to Michigan’s coronavirus lockdown orders
A wave of planned anti-lockdown demonstrations that have broken out around the country to protest against the efforts of state governments to combat the coronavirus pandemic with business closures and stay-at-home orders have included far-right groups as well as more mainstream Republicans.
While protesters in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and other states claim to speak for ordinary citizens, many are also supported by street-fighting rightwing groups like the Proud Boys, conservative armed militia groups, religious fundamentalists, anti-vaccination groups and other elements of the radical right.
On Wednesday in Lansing, Michigan, a protest put together by two Republican-connected not-for-profits was explicitly devised to cause gridlock in the city, and for a time blocked the entrance to a local hospital.
It was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, which Michigan state corporate filings show has also operated under the name of Michigan Trump Republicans. It was also heavily promoted by the Michigan Freedom Fund, a group linked to the Trump cabinet member Betsy DeVos.
But the protest also attracted far-right protest groups who […]
