Global

Many media commentators have mentioned that the COVID-19 crisis of 2020 is similar to other national crises that have led the United States into war.

Three other examples include 1] Germany’s sinking of the Lusitania on 5/7/15 (that led to the entry of the US into WWI), 2] the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41 (that led to the US entry into WWII) and the self-inflicted, controlled demolitions of the three World Trade Center buildings on 9/11/01 (that led to the G. W. Bush/Dick Cheney administration’s push to invade the Middle East in what many call Operation Iraqi Liberation (“OIL”).

For me, the most pertinent similarity between these events can be stated in the simple truism mentioned in the title above: “The first Casualty of War is Truth.”

Journalists aren’t supposed to “bury the lead.” But when death is the topic and corporate power is the culprit, the connection routinely goes unmentioned.

Class war -- waged methodically from the top down -- is so constant and pervasive that it might seem unremarkable. The 24/7 siege to make large companies more profitable and the wealthy more wealthy is going on all around us. In the process, it normalizes avoidable death as a cost of doing business.

The Global War on Terror or GWOT was declared in the wake of 9/11 by President George W. Bush. It basically committed the United States to work to eliminate all “terrorist” groups worldwide, whether or not the countries being targeted agreed that they were beset by terrorists and whether or not they welcomed U.S. “help.” The GWOT was promoted with brain-dead expressions like “there’s a new sheriff in town” which, after the destruction of large parts of the Middle East and Central Asia, later morphed into the matrix of the God-awful belief that something called “American Exceptionalism” existed.

On May 15, thousands of Palestinians in Occupied Palestine and throughout the ‘shatat’, or diaspora, participated in the commemoration of Nakba Day, the one event that unites all Palestinians, regardless of their political differences or backgrounds. 

For years, social media has added a whole new stratum to this process of commemoration. #Nakba72, along with #NakbaDay and #Nakba, have all trended on Twitter for days. Facebook was inundated with countless stories, videos, images, and statements, written by Palestinians, or in global support of the Palestinian people. 

“Guns aren’t just a danger in and of themselves,” writes Noah Berlatsky at Quartz. “They enable a policing philosophy built on violence and forced compliance, rather than one founded on respect, trust and consent. That philosophy affects every police interaction, even those that don’t involve actual shooting.”

The 2020 TrumpVirus pandemic that is killing so many of us today has deep roots in World War I and the Woodrow Wilson Influenza that killed 50,000,000 back then.

Along with mass death, both viruses have brought fascism to America. To avoid a full-on replay, we need to know how.

Like today’s TrumpVirus catastrophe, the global pandemic of 102 years ago was almost entirely avoidable. It was not an innocent accident or Act of Nature. It spread from the fascist decisions of one man: Woodrow Wilson.

Wilson was elected president in 1912 as a liberal democrat. He sold himself as a man of peace. But he was (like Donald Trump) a KKK-supporting White Supremacist. In 1915, for no good reason, he sent US troops crashing into Mexico City to “teach a lesson” to “our little brown brothers.”

The U.S. government is certainly in the running for worst handling of coronavirus on earth. Where did this grotesque incompetence and indifference to human lives come from so suddenly?

What if it was always there?

What if it’s to be found in long-standing U.S. policies on environment, energy, labor, healthcare, education, and retirement?

What if U.S. policy on climate collapse is just as catastrophic as on coronavirus, but the clown car simply hasn’t yet reached the edge of the cliff it’s been barreling toward?

What if the scientists who are screaming that the Doomsday Clock is nearer midnight than ever before, that the earth is more likely than ever to experience nuclear apocalypse, don’t view U.S. nuclear policy as somehow wiser than U.S. coronavirus policy? What if we’re still here at all principally because of outrageously great luck that cannot possibly hold out much longer?

We don’t know what the long-term damage is of coronavirus in those who recover. We don’t know who will die among those who catch it. We do know that we each have a responsibility to avoid catching it and avoid spreading it. Here are some ways to do that.

1) If you can’t relocate to a well-run country, do get booked for a meeting with Donald Trump or Mike Pence, so that you qualify to be tested; but don’t actually go to such a meeting because,

a) The White House is a hotbed.
b) The reckless attendees won’t be careful.
c) You’d be meeting with Donald Trump or Mike Pence.

2) Do not go to jail. Avoid it at all costs. The place is likely to be a hotbed with cramped quarters and non-existent basic rights — almost like an aircraft carrier (and I do mean carrier) or a military base, only with nicer guards.

I saw a criticism of NPR for reporting on claims that coronavirus is being used to set up a world government. The criticism was that NPR never mentioned that the claims are nonsense lacking any documentation. I have an additional criticism: neither NPR nor its critics mentions that it might be a very good thing if such claims were true.

There’s nothing completely new here. Often the very best ideas in U.S. politics are things that paranoid rightwingers allege are happening. But it’s worth explaining why, and getting some of the details right. For example, I’d rather not have the Antichrist be in charge of the new world government, in part because he sounds horrible, but principally because he’s a nonexistent fictional character. (Same with Satan and the rest of the gang.)

Also, there’s a bit of a contradiction between the secrecy sometimes attributed to these plots and the widespread size and reach attributed to them. I’d prefer to resolve this contradiction by dropping the secrecy and going with a widespread movement that maximizes public involvement.

But why have a global government at all? Why might that be a good thing?

If nothing changes, New York State will not have independent candidates on the general election ballot in November. Only candidates who affiliate with a party and win their party’s nomination will be on the ballot this November. Governor Cuomo’s executive order suspending petitioning for independent candidates, for both the Presidential race and for all races down the ballot, offer no alternative to get on the ballot in November. Governor Cuomo must offer a path to the ballot for independent candidates. Otherwise, he risks presiding over a constitutionally defective election. Moreover, in negotiating a path for independent candidates, the Governor needs to move past the petty politics that dominate the party primaries, to end the byzantine petitioning process and to switch to digital or electronic signatures.