Anti-Democratic GOP Authoritarian Tribalism Intensifies

The New York Times reports on a split within the GOP in congress over whether or how to provide financial aid to blue states. The pro-democracy side is not considering the politics of the states to be helped and the anti-democratic, authoritarian tribal side is criticizing blue states for irresponsibility behind their own poor financial condition in the face of Covid-19. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) argued at a GOP meeting for the pro-democracy side by asserting that “blue states aren’t the only ones who are screwed.”

The intra-GOP split was sharpened by a letter from Democratic governors of five states, California, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada and Washington State. The letter asserted that that all 50 states would need $1 trillion in “direct and flexible relief” to deal with the financial fallout of Covid-19.

The NYT writes:

“Two days later, Senator Rick Scott of Florida made the opposite point, arriving at another party gathering with his own placard that showed how rosy his state’s financial picture was compared with those of three Democratic states: New York, Illinois and California. Why should Congress help struggling states and cities, he argued, when the bulk of the aid would go to Democratic strongholds that he said had a history of fiscal mismanagement? 

President Trump has not ruled out sending additional money to states. But he has gone after Democratic governors, accusing them of mismanaging their finances, and charged that the party’s members in Congress ‘want help — bailouts — and, you know, bailouts are very tough. And they happen to be Democrat states.’ 

‘The Republican states are in strong shape,’ he said last month. ‘I don’t know — is that luck or is that talent?’ 

On Monday, Mr. Trump again accused Democratic states of dragging their feet on reopening their economies. ‘There just seems to be no effort on certain blue states to get back into gear,’ he said. 

Mr. Trump has said that ‘we’re in no rush’ to produce another round of federal pandemic relief, and branded Democrats ‘stone-cold crazy.’”

Is that luck or is that talent?

The president raises a good question about the alleged good shape that republican states are in compared to democratic states. Looking at the big picture helps put the situation in context.

First and foremost, because the president botched the federal Covid-19 response and continues to fail to this day, one can argue that most of the responsibility for the financial impacts of Covid-19 on all states belongs mostly to an incompetent president. He had a chance to stop Covid-19 and he failed.

That is a combination of very bad luck and lack of talent that hits all states. By framing the issue as blue state fiscal irresponsibility, the president and Trump Party senators deflect from their own responsibility for the federal failure that caused the financial damage in the first place. That is tribal partisan, anti-democratic authoritarian propaganda.

Second, blue states dominate states that pay more in federal taxes than they get get back in federal spending. In the past, the amount of the imbalance for some states such as California was enormous. At present these ten states are net supporters of all other states in order of which state pays the most per state citizen: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Illinois, New Hampshire, Washington state, Nebraska and Colorado. Some former donor states are now net recipients. For example, starting in 2019, became a net recipient. In 2018, California paid $13.7 billion more in taxes than it received. Now California receives $12 more per resident than is sent to the federal government, about $480 million for 2019.

2014 data

In view of what GOP authoritarians want to do, blue states have every right to demand all of their excess federal money back, and to demand 100% equal federal spending among all states going forward. That would probably alter the reality of just how fiscally talented many red states really are. They aren't talented at all. They are welfare queens lucky to be subsidized by so many blue states. The authoritarian allegation that blues states are irresponsible is contradicted by the fact that some blue states have been major donors to red states for many years.

Third, the 2017 tax cut law that the GOP passed with no democratic votes intentionally targeted blue state taxpayers: “‘The Republican tax increase bill disproportionately hurts California taxpayers by capping SALT (state and local taxes) deductions. Today, the average California taxpayer takes a $22,000 deduction,’ de León pointed out. The GOP measure he said, would ‘cap it at $10,000, meaning Californians will be double-taxed.’” That is another bit of bad luck for blue states that are adversely impacted by the 2017 tax cut law, which mostly benefited wealthy people and corporations, including golf course owners.


Blue states look to be at least as fiscally responsible as red states, if not more so. Blue states have suffered from the bad luck associated with the fallout of the 2016 election, including an incompetent president that allowed Covid-19 to run free and wild. And, since the pandemic has not run its course yet and red states are leading the charge to reopen, they could face even worse impacts than they have so far.

All in all, the authoritarian GOP attack on bue states is built mostly on lies, deflections and blind tribal partisanship.

Dare Not To Care - Or Let's All Pitch In To Help The Rich

You may notice in all this nonsense about the lockdown and, increasingly, even masks that the "constitutional rights" being violated are...nothing of the sort. No one has the "right" to get service inside a private business, or to do so without wearing a mask if the private business requires it.

Clearly this isn't about the rule of law, so much as it is about the rule of white Christo-capitalists and the entitlement they think they're owed.

Dennis Prager said on his podcast a couple of weeks ago that "science" was getting the virus wrong: the death rate was being far overestimated, he said, because no attempt had been made to distinguish between c19 deaths and deaths unrelated to it. Therefore the straightforward solution was to isolate the sick and vulnerable from everyone else, and to let everyone else go about their business. This is actually a fairly widespread "case" being made on the right, and the fact that the last part is true makes it particularly believable and intuitive.

It is not true for us, however, because der Drumpf has refused to honor his oath of office and provide for the well fare of the American people by ensuring we have the testing capability we need to know who's sick and who isn't. He get's "lava mad" at his staff for his personal exposure, of course, but the rest of us can die in our thousands without so much as a crocodile tear from this psychopathic toddler in an aged and corpulent corpse.

This is, of course, the exact example his brownshirts are taking when they refuse to wear masks: it is our safety, not theirs, they put at risk. It's okay if the rest of us want to take their health seriously, but the "constitutional" principle in play here seems to be a desire for the "rugged individualism" they imagine our forebears embraced. Daring? If they dare to do anything, it is simply not to care. I've quoted Upton Sinclair so many times in the past, about it being difficult to get a man to understand something if his paycheck depends on his not understanding it. The lesson the pandemic is reinforcing is, however, that it's hard to get someone to unlearn a lie when their dinner depends on believing it.

It is especially hard when the other side has completely abandoned the working class, preferring moralizations about race, sex, and various "cause-isms" to offering the substantial defenses against the predator billionaire class that the working class needs.

Nobody's a better example at the moment of predator billionaires than Elon Musk, who has threatened to move his lucrative business Tesla out of California unless the state allows his employees to get back to work. And what do you think they produce? Cars? Not at all. They produce riches for the rich, for Elon himself. He has called the quarantine "fascist" which seems to me of a kind with calling a diver putting himself at personal risk to save a caveful of Thai children a pedophile. Disgusted doesn't even begin to express my feelings about it.

Nevertheless, his propaganda - and that of his class - is winning the day. These poor working class stiffs need to go back to work because they're just so poor. They'll be homeless and hungry without Musk's jobs. Which is true, though it needn't be. In fact what's happening here is that the American people have bought the proverbial bridge in Arizona, in which they positively refuse to demand of the Croesian class that they should make some of their unimaginable wealth available to keep the real producers in this country housed and fed.

The need for a minimum basic income has never been clearer, and yet those who should be threatening the Musks of the world are instead shooting each other at McDonald's because they can't sit inside the restaurant. And where in all this is the single most powerful voice of the opposition? At home, in his basement, quietly denying allegations of sexual misconduct.

To mask or not to mask… that is the (curious) question.

Date Sunday, May 10, 2020

Regarding this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, should my title question here even be considered a legitimate question?  To me, it seems like a slam-dunk, no-brainer of a question.  I think to any reasonable, responsible person, it should be a no-brainer, but….  Yes, always the dreaded “but.”

BUT… when it comes to mask-wearing, Americans are split between the more careful among us, and the more daring among us.  The answer seems to be a hard “yes/no” for virtually everyone.  Boom!  No room for wishy-washiness there. :-O

Now the political kicker to this is, in some kind of ironic twist, the more careful-types are viewed by the greater society as likely belonging to the “politically liberal” crowd, and the more daring-types are viewed as likely belonging to the more “politically conservative” crowd.  (See what I did there?  Careful = liberal ~ Daring = conservative ;)  To put it simply, if you wear a mask, you likely skew Democratic; if not, you likely skew Republican.  For some, it has almost become an outward personal “political symbol/statement.”

Now some questions:

Q1: How does the whole of a society get convinced that all its members should “mask-up”; that it’s for everyone’s own good?

Q2: Should/Can a society make all of its members mask-up.  Or is that a personal affront on our freedoms?

Q3: If/When you go out into the public, do you mask-up?

Q4: Are you, do you, skew politically liberal or politically conservative?

Thanks for posting and recommending.

What is the Point of Continuing Lockdowns?

Reuters and other sources are reporting that Elon Musk has sued California's Alameda County to force it to reopen his Tesla manufacturing plant in that county. The lawsuit claims the lockdown is unconstitutional under both the California state constitution and the US Constitution. The county’s health department said the plant has to stay closed due to a lockdown to curb coronavirus spread. Musk claims that it had developed a plan to limit virus spread, but the county isn't communicating. The plan includes online video training, work zone partition areas, temperature screening, requirements to wear protective equipment and disinfecting protocols.

Musk commented on Twitter: “If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen (sp) on how Tesla is treated in the future.” He threatened to move his operations out of California.

Political failure

Most experts believe that the volume of testing for Covid-19 infection and antibodies in the US is still too low. Other countries are testing at higher rates and at a rate far lower than experts suggest is needed.

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-testing

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/07/851610771/u-s-coronavirus-testing-still-falls-short-hows-your-state-doing

Meanwhile, the president continues to spread lies and sow confusion about how to respond to the pandemic. He is now openly attacking the value of testing without any basis in fact or science. He also falsely claims that (1) the US tests more than other countries, and (2) the only reason US infection number is so high is due to the false assertion that the US is testing at a very high rate. Because millions of Americans believe the president and not the experts, public confusion and discord on this point is likely increasing.

As shown below, data as of May 9 indicates that cumulative infections continues to rise at a nearly straight line rate, suggesting that lockdowns are not slowing the rate of new cases. Instead, despite lockdowns the data seems to be showing that new infections have been accumulating at a rather steady rate since the 2nd half of March. The curve my be flattened, but is it isn't sufficient to stop a relentless increase in infections.

Given the constant lies and disinformation about the pandemic and the increasing social damage that is causing, one has to ask if the lockdowns can reasonably be sustained or if they even can save America from developing herd immunity the old fashioned way. The president has been able to almost completely neutralize expert opinion right from the start. Early on, he simply ignored advice to do something about the pandemic and started making false statements that experts and/or facts directly contradict. The president backed by a relentless barrage of dark free speech, has been able to negate science, facts and expert opinion among an apparently growing number of Americans, maybe as much as 45% of the adult population.

What it looks like to me

My analysis of the data and relevant facts is indicates that we are in a situation where:

1. Before lockdowns are relaxed, states will not be able to do enough testing for months or maybe at any point in time after that
2. Many or most states will open up knowing that they cannot sufficiently test their residents, while falsely claiming they can reopen safely
3. The rate of new infections is likely to increase, maybe to the point that the health care systems in at least some states are overwhelmed
4. The president will continue to mischaracterize and politicize the situation to deflect from his incompetence and the true nature of the situation we are in
5. The economic damage is now so severe that there probably is no practical choice but to start relaxing lockdowns now and hope for the best
6. There will probably be 1-2  million deaths by July of 2021, maybe several million more
7. Americans will be significantly to severely polarized over the pandemic; the president's supporters will claim he did a good to excellent job, but his critics, backed by facts and expert opinion, will claim he mostly to completely failed to respond competently, honestly or in the public interest

Given the president's incompetent response and corrupt, self-serving behavior, America is probably now between a rock and a hard place with no good option. We will have to go through a very bad experience with the pandemic. Significant pain and death is likely to last at least until July of 2021. 

THE BIG DEBATE, TRUMP or LINCOLN

OK, opinion about whether Trump is being treated worse than Lincoln was WILL depend a lot on whether you think Trump is a complete buffoon for even saying so (LIKE I DO), or if you are still a supporter of his and therefore will excuse whatever he says.

SO, let's go to the press, shall we?

President Donald Trump whined Sunday night that he's been harassed by a "hostile press" and claimed that he's been treated worse than President Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated in 1865.

"I am greeted with a hostile press the likes of which no president has ever seen," Trump, 73, claimed Sunday night during a Fox News virtual town hall in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

"The closest would be that gentleman right up there," Trump said while pointing at Lincoln's statue. "They always said nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse."

Trump's comments came as an answer to a remote question from a woman who expressed her support for the president but complained about him using divisive language and “descriptive words that could be classified as bullying."

“The U.S.A. needs you,” she said. “Please hold on to your wonderful attributes that make you our great leader and let go of other characteristics that do not serve you.”

The president's whining response drew immediate backlash online.

"Lincoln was assassinated, but that’s nothing compared to Trump having to answer questions from reporters," CNN commentator Keith Boykin tweeted.

https://people.com/politics/donald-trump-says-hes-been-treated-worse-than-abraham-lincoln/

Now, let us contrast that article with this next one:

In context, the quote “I believe I am treated worse” was very clearly in reference to the press. A handful of journalists did their job correctly, and posted accurate reports of Trump’s claim on Twitter.

It’s not that hard. Plenty of other journalists, however, stripped the quote out of its context, mocking and criticizing Trump for comparing himself to a president who was assassinated. This is an easy case study in the bad faith reporting that gives Trump legitimate reason to complain about the media’s intensely unfair coverage of him.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/04/media-runs-with-totally-misleading-narrative-about-trumps-lincoln-comparison/

CLEARLY TWO CASES of bias reporting, the first using the word whine when describing Trump's remarks, the other excusing his remarks.

Are both wrong, both right, one right, one wrong?

HAVE YOUR SAY.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. -Mark Twain

ICYMI:

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