Stephan: Here are some more facts about the obscene wealth inequality in the United States, and the great grift made possible by the pandemic.
The number of U.S. citizens filing for unemployment increased to 38.6 million since March 18, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the same two months, the wealth of U.S. billionaires has surged $434 billion – an increase of 15 percent.
The combined fortunes of Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg alone grew by nearly $60 billion during these two months, according to a new analysis, jointly released by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies, which released Billionaire Bonanza 2020 in April to examine billionaire wealth during the first month of the pandemic.
Between March 18 and May 19, the total net worth of the 600-plus U.S. billionaires rose from $2.948 trillion to $3.382 trillion. In March, there were 614 billionaires on the Forbes list. There are 630 two months later, including newcomer Kanye West at $1.3 billion.
Among other COVID-19 victims are the more than 16 million Americans who have likely lost employer-provided healthcare coverage. Low-wage workers, people of color and women have suffered disproportionately in the combined medical and economic crises. Billionaires are overwhelmingly white men.
Stephan: Here in the words of George Packer writing for Atlantic is the same thing I have been writing for months now. The failure and diminishment of America are incontrovertible if you live in a fact-based world. However, in Maga world, where the words of "Dear Leader Trump are scripture, which is to say about 40% of Americans, all is well. The only problem is the liberal hoax about the Coronavirus.
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 White House took the mic and politicized the message.
Stephan: The hard truth is that you just can't fix stupid. Any political calculation has to start with the fact that the average IQ in the U.S. is 98, with 34% of people being between 98 and 85, and 14% between 85 and 70. Retardation starts diagnostically at 75.
To give further nuance to that 40% don't believe in evolution, and 30% believe the Bible is the inerrant literal word of God.
When you recognize that reality then this Gallup survey about belief in the lethality of the Covid-19 virus, as described in this report, makes better sense.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Partisan gap in perceptions of COVID-19 vs. flu lethality widens in April
Half of Republicans say death rate exaggerated; 5% of Democrats agree
News diet strongly predicts attitudes on COVID-19 when facts get politicized
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The novel coronavirus pandemic provides a view into the deep partisan divisions that have persisted despite the unfolding national crisis. Two recent Gallup/Knight Foundation surveys find Americans’ understanding about the coronavirus is strongly shaped by partisan affiliation and news consumption habits, especially when basic facts are politicized.
Specifically, while Democrats and independents increasingly see COVID-19 as more deadly than the seasonal flu, Republicans’ views have not changed. And while Democrats tend to think the death toll from COVID-19 is understated, Republicans believe it is exaggerated.
Stephan: The White Supremacy christofascists who comprise Donald Trump's base are going to do everything they can honest or deceitful to get him re-elected. In my view this election is going to come down to how many non-christofasct women, people of color, and young people vote for Biden. The Republicans know this, which is why they are so adamantly opposed to vote by mail, even as their "Dear Leader" votes by mail, as do many in Congress.
Evangelicals and Trump
“The Covid virus has been a gift from God,” began Ken Eldred. “The kingdom of God advances through a series of glorious victories, cleverly disguised as disasters.”
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Eldred noted, millions of Americans are turning to Christ, Walmart is selling out of Bibles, and online church broadcasts have hit record numbers.
But while religiosity was growing, there have been setbacks from the disease outbreak. “Satan has been busy too,” Eldred, a major donor to evangelical and Republican causes, explained. “The virus has messed up many of our plans involving our in-person meetings with voters.”
And the rise of mail-in ballots, Eldred added, would undercut voter identification laws, which have been a pillar of GOP election strategy. “The children of the darkness put early voting into this CARES package,” he grumbled, a reference to the $400 million for election assistance programs to states included in the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill.Key Takeaways
United in Purpose is a group on the religious right that worked to grow evangelical support for Donald Trump in 2016.
Ray Sanchez, Joe Sutton and Artemis Moshtaghian, - CNN
Stephan: American police, kill Americans at a rate greater than all the law enforcement agencies in European and Nordic nations COMBINED. And the blatant racism is outrageous.
To quote Statista, a fact-based data website, "Sadly, the trend of fatal police shootings in the United States seems to only be increasing, with a total 228 civilians having been shot, 31 of whom were Black, as of March 30, 2020. In 2018, there were 996 fatal police shootings, and in 2019 this figure increased to 1,004."
And here we have another murder of a Black man by racist White cops. The cop, Derek Chauvin, with his knee on the neck of the Black man, George Floyd, apparently has a history of being involved with police shootings.
The good news is that in contrast to the usual Blue Wall of silence and cover-ups, these four cops were fired immediately, so bravo to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo.
Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd
Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired for their involvement in the death of a black man who was held down with a knee as he protested that he couldn’t breathe, officials said Tuesday. The FBI is investigating the incident, which drew widespread condemnation of the officers after a video showing part of the encounter circulated on social media.Officers responding to an alleged forgery in progress Monday evening were initially told that a person later described as the suspect was sitting on a car and appeared to be under the influence, police said.A pair of officers located the man, who was at that point inside the car and who police said “physically resisted” the officers when ordered to get out. Officers handcuffed the man, who “appeared to be suffering medical distress,” according to police. He died at a hospital a short time later, police said.
The four officers were “separated from employment,” Officer Garrett Parten, a police spokesman, said Tuesday.”I support your decisions, one hundred percent,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, in a […]
