Democracy faces its Greatest Test here and around the World During the Coronavirus

History has shown that leaders, both enlightened and despotic, have used crises and emergencies to advance their agendas.

The Great Depression in the 1930s gave rise to both the New Deal philosophy of Franklin Roosevelt and the Nazism of Adolph Hitler.

The Great Recession in 2008 gave rise to Barack Obama and the fringe Tea Party Movement.

This Coronavirus has the potential to set the same dynamics in motion.

Democracy faces its greatest test here and around the world and the forces that hold its features and goals dear need to stand up to the threats that are already manifesting themselves around the globe.

In Hungary, its right-wing Populist leader Viktor Orbán has obtained, under the pretext of the Coronavirus, the emergency power to rule by decree. A member state of the European Union, the supranational bloc immediately lodged a “toothless” protest which Orban ridiculed.

The leaders in the European Union need to remember that worthless condemnations did not stop Fascist thugs like Mussolini and Hitler in the 1930s and they will not work with Orban.

They need to react more strongly.

In Israel, arguably the only Democracy in the Middle East (if you do not include the Occupied Territories,) the Israelis Justice Minister, because if the Coronavirus, suspended the courts just a couple of days before Benjamin Netanyahu was due to go on trial for corruption.

A Netanyahu ally, Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein attempted to, again under the rationale of the Coronavirus, halt Parliamentary elections for the next speaker.

The Israelis Supreme Court intervened and the election was held with Benny Gantz, the Blue and White Leader becoming the new speaker.

Unfortunately, the Israelis political situation has not settled even after three elections in a year with some of the opposition calling Netanyahu “King Bibi” for his attempted power consolidation during the health emergency and labeling Gantz “a clone of Netanyahu,” and “rewarding criminality”  for allying with the Israelis Prime Minister in a potential unity government.

Gantz’s Blue and White Movement has divided between those who want to unite the country during the virus and those who refuse to have anything to do with the corrupt, nativist, and autocratic Netanyahu.

Hopefully, the Israelis people (including its Arab citizens) will find a way to rescue their Democracy and institutions.

In the United States, the Mad King, when he has not been making contradictory and lying proclamations at the White House Press Briefing Room Podium has also taken steps to undermine American Institutions.

Yesterday (April 4, 2020) he announced his intention to fire Michael Atkinson, the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community that reported the Whistleblower complaint to Congress that led to the 2016 Popular Vote Loser being impeached.

In justifying the firing, Trump said:

“It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general…That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.”

Yeah right.

When he signed the two trillion dollar stimulus bill last week, the Liar in Chief wrote that he can control what information the Inspector General he appoints to oversee the stimulus programs can give to Congress.

People (including Trump supporters) should be afraid of a President that thinks the people charged with independently holding the government to account should be answerable to only him.

Would Republicans support a Bill Clinton or Barack Obama if they professed this same position?

No way.

The third President in United States History to be impeached also publicly let his views known, during the April 4 White House Briefing, on mail-in balloting for the November election because of the Virus.

He is against it.

Why?

He claims that people cheat when they mail in their ballots.

That is preposterous and numerous studies have already concluded this election after election.

The real reason that Individual One is against mail-In ballots is his fear, as he expressed in an interview with (where else) Fox Island, that he and all the other Republicans would lose with the higher turnout mail-in balloting affords.

Political Prince of Darkness-Enemy of the People-Obstructionist in Chief-Grim Reaper- Moscow Mitch McConnell shares the same sentiment as shown by his blockage of election security measures in the Senate.

This is not the Anti Democratic position the American People should want in their leaders.

Unfortunately, it is the view most Republicans across the country and Arizona hold.

The American People and populace around the world need to resist these moves towards authoritarianism, especially when the attempts are made during a public health crisis.

Leaders, like Orban, Netanyahu, Trump, McConnell and their supporters who prey on these crises and use them to achieve their ends need to be defeated at the first electoral opportunity.

In this country, that is in 213 days.

Turn out, vote and save Democracy.

https://blogforarizona.net/democracy-faces-its-greatest-test-here-and-around-the-world-during-the-coronavirus/

New Rules with Bill Maher from 4/4/20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0saoqIprD0

Shields and Brooks from 4/4/20

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/shields-and-brooks-on-political-lessons-from-covid-19

Idea of the Week: Donate to a Food Bank

Editorial Cartoons for the Week

Leaders Across the Country are Failing Mother Nature’s IQ Test

When asked why she did not cancel the Mardi Gras this year, the New Orleans Mayor, LaToya Cantrell, said the Federal Government did not advise her to cancel the event.

Is she kidding?

She could see the Coronavirus sprouting up across the country in Washington State and California. She should have known by then how the virus could spread.

The Mardi Gras apparently proved to be a smorgasbord for the Coronavirus.

Now Lousiana is among the state’s highest hit with the virus.

The New Orleans Mayor and Louisana’s Governor (John Bel Edwards,) both Democrats, failed Mother Natures IQ Test when they allowed the Mardi Gras to go on.

This failure to fathom reality and imagine worst-case scenarios has also displayed itself with other leaders across the country.

Brian Kemp, the Republican Governor of Georgia claimed in a press briefing when he announced that states Stay at Home order that he was unaware “asymptomatic people can transmit #Covid19, saying,  “Individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad, but we didn’t know that until the last 24 hours.” 

Jaws dropped across the literate and informed portions of the populace after Kemp uttered those words.

As one of the commentators on one of the Cable Networks said, the Center for Disease Control is within walking distance to the Governor’s office in Georgia. He really did not think to make a local call to the experts in the area to find out how the virus could spread.

Ron DeSantis, the Republican Governor of Florida is no better. He based his decision to issue a Stay at Home Proclamation, not on the science, but the demeanor of Donald Trump at one of his press briefings, saying “when you see the President up there and his demeanor the last couple of days, that’s not necessarily how he always is.” 

Now because of his failing Mother Nature’s IQ test, Floridians, with a high senior population are struggling to make ends meet, with people, laid off because of the virus, not able to get unemployment insurance processed in a timely fashion because of the screws DeSantis predecessor and now Senator Rick Scott put on the safety net in Florida.

Even in Arizona, the golf courses are still open and there are legislators like Mark Finchemand Kelly Townsend that worry about asking people to stay home because it would needlessly compromise individual freedoms and the economy.

Most would agree it is better safe at home then dead because you wanted to play with your buddies on the golf course.

The major example of leaders failing Mother Natures IQ Test and not having an imagination is in the White House. The list of unforced errors is starting to be endless so the focus in this piece is the decision by the Stable Genius to put his son in law Jared Kushner in a position to help coordinate the response to the Coronavirus.

Kushner made his first public comments on the Coronavirus at the White House Briefing Room yesterday.

The headlines following his appearance say it all.

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times wrote a piece titled “Putting Jared Kushner In Charge Is Utter Madness.”

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post wrote an article called “An Outbreak of Incompetence.”

In another post article written by Allyson Chu called “Jared Kushner’s Coronavirus briefing debut sparks outcry, confusion,” Kushner was introduced by Vice President Mike Pence, saying he “was grateful for his efforts (Kushner’s) and his leadership.”

GAG ME.

Kushner then went on a rant, like his father in law, of blaming the Governors and other local leaders of mismanaging the situation.

Some of his noteworthy comments reported by the Post pieces were:

“The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.”

“Some governors you speak to, or senators, and they don’t know what’s in their state….Don’t ask us for things when you don’t know what you have in your own state. Just because you’re scared, you ask your medical professionals and they don’t know. You have to take inventory of what you have in your own state and then you have to be able to show that there’s a real need.”

“What a lot of the voters are seeing now is that when you elect somebody … think about who will be a competent manager during the time of crisis.” 

GAG ME AGAIN. There is no way his father in law, the 2016 Popular Vote Loser is competent.

In the Goldberg editorial, Kushner, despite the views of Dr. Anthony Fauci, said that New York did not need the 33,000 ventilators Governor Cuomo had been asking for.

During World War Two, Franklin Roosevelt had George Marshall to help manage World War Two.

Jared Kushner is not George Marshall.

It is time for Ivanka and him to go home to New York.

In the Rubin article, examples abound of Trump’s third and fourth team appointees, either because of ideology or plain smarts, being unable to rise to the challenge of this public health crisis.

Republican and Democratic Governors across the country like Mike DeVine, Jay Inslee, Gretchen Whitmer, Larry Hogan, Gavin Newsom, Charlie Baker, and Andrew Cuomo have shown what a strong response to the Virus should look like.

Other leaders like Trump, Kemp, DeSantis, Bel Edwards, and Cantrell would do well to stop failing Mother Nature’s IQ test and start to learn from the above-mentioned governors and science experts in moving forward or at the very least read books like the Andromeda Strain or the history of the 1918 Influenza Virus. If they are reading challenged, watch Outbreak or  Twelve Monkeys to gain an appreciation of how serious this is.

They need to pick competent people like a Fauci or someone from the Army Corp of Engineers to handle the national response to this virus and coordinate with all 50 states.

They need to do that now.

https://blogforarizona.net/leaders-across-the-country-are-failing-mother-natures-iq-test/?fbclid=IwAR1qcuCYQPc0fSbfhhA4brbV1TcqlBP25YO2L_UctjR9oW2hSOVGvMvcGR0

There Should be a Special Place in Hell for People who Price Gouge during a Pandemic

According to reporting by AZ Central, police and fire departments throughout the cities and towns in Maricopa County have been “waiting for days on N95 face masks and other protective gear.”

While the wait is unbearable, what is potentially criminal is that the vendor supplying these masks and protective gear, called Galls, has reportedly marked the price of these items 500 percent.

Arizona House Representatives Ruben Gallego and Greg Stanton have sent a letter to the Attorney General and Federal Trade Commission Office to protest Gall’s price gouging and call for a criminal investigation into the matter.

In the letter, shared by television journalist and commentator Brahm Resnik on social media, the Representatives wrote:

“……We have learned that a vendor who regularly supplies the City of Phoenix Fire and Police Departments with life-saving medical supplies is attempting to charge the city nearly 600 percent more per N95 mask than the city was charged for the same equipment as recently as two weeks ago. This is price gouging, plain and simple, and we respectfully request the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission open investigations immediately. In addition, this vendor is requiring significant pre-payment for the masks rather than the standard practice of billing upon receipt which leaves our first responders at further risk – and unable to turn to a different vendor – if the equipment is not delivered on time…. We understand that some departments are days or weeks away from running out of much-needed personal protective equipment. Profiting from the coronavirus pandemic – especially in a manner that places our first responders in harm’s way – is morally indefensible, and we commend the President for recently issuing an Executive Order to combat price gouging. We respectfully encourage your prompt attention to this matter and for your agencies to deliver justice for our first responder.”

There Should be a Special Place in Hell for People who Price Gouge during a Pandemic.

The first responders are the people who risk their lives to save others every day.

No one should take advantage of them or the people they serve during a public health emergency.

The people who are perpetrating this scam on the people of Arizona belong in prison.

The 2016 Popular Vote Loser bears some responsibility for this as well.

While Mr. Trump has issued the Executive Order to combat price gouging, this behavior, along with other vendors launching a, what New York Governor Andrew Cuomo calls an “E Bay” bidding war among states in need, would not be occurring if the President of the United States fully invoked the Defense Production Act.

He should have formalized that weeks ago and it needs to be done without delay.

The American People should not be at the mercy of avaricious war profiteers.

They will remember who allowed it if nothing is done in 216 days.

https://blogforarizona.net/there-should-be-a-special-place-in-hell-for-people-who-price-gouge-during-a-pandemic/?fbclid=IwAR1XsjJW9YWLJNgPUpk0hENLGPui76wsO1l31Fb4kQfdgq4X-EJvDQpowAI