Matthew 6:19–21, 24

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.

Pretty good for an Atheist, huh? Said I don’t like it, not that I don’t know it.

You know, I really don’t believe any of that “Christian” stuff when it comes to Evangelicals and Republicans.

Clearly they are Pagan Mammon Worshippers.

Donald Trump’s four-step plan to reopen the US economy – and why it will be lethal
by Robert Reich, The Guardian
Sun 3 May 2020

Donald Trump is getting nervous. Internal polls show him losing in November unless the economy comes roaring back.

But much of the economy remains closed because of the pandemic. The number of infections and deaths continue to climb.

So what is Trump’s re-election strategy? Reopen the economy anyway, despite the risks.

Step 1: Remove income support, so people have no choice but to return to work.

Trump’s labor department has decided that furloughed employees “must accept” an employer’s offer to return to work and therefore forfeit unemployment benefits, regardless of Covid-19.

Trump’s ally, Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, says employees cannot refuse to return to work for fear of contracting the disease. “That’s a voluntary quit,” making someone ineligible for benefits.

GOP officials in Oklahoma are even threatening to withhold the $600 a week of extra unemployment benefits Congress has provided workers, if an employer wants to hire them. Safety is irrelevant.

“If the employer will contact us … we will cut off their benefits,” says Teresa Thomas Keller of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

Forcing people to choose between getting Covid-19 or losing their livelihood is inhumane. It is also nonsensical. Public health still depends on as many workers as possible staying home. That’s a big reason why Congress provided the extra benefits.

Step 2: Hide the facts.

No one knows how many Americans are infected because the Trump administration continues to drag its heels on testing. To date only 6.5m tests have been completed in a population of more than 200 million adults.

Florida, one of the first states to reopen, has stopped releasing medical examiners’ statistics on the number of Covid-19 victims because the figures are higher than the state’s official count.

But it’s impossible to fight the virus without adequate data. Dr Anthony Fauci, the administration’s leading infectious disease expert, warns that reopening poses “a really significant risk” without more testing.

Not surprisingly, the White House has blocked Fauci from testifying before the House.

Step 3: Pretend it’s about “freedom”.

Weeks ago, Trump called on citizens to “LIBERATE” states like Michigan, whose Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, imposed strict stay-at-home rules.

Michigan has the third-highest number of Covid-19 deaths in America, although it is 10th in population. When on Thursday Whitmer extended the rules to 28 May, gun-toting protesters rushed the state house chanting: “Lock her up!”

Rather than condemn their behavior, Trump suggested Whitmer “make a deal” with them.

“The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire,” he tweeted. “These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely!”

Meanwhile, the attorney general, William Barr, has directed the justice department to take legal action against any state or local authorities imposing lockdown measures that “could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens”.

Making this about “freedom” is absurd. Freedom is meaningless for people who have no choice but to accept a job that risks their health.

Step 4: Shield businesses against lawsuits for spreading the infection.

Trump is pushing to give businesses that reopen a “liability shield” against legal action by workers or customers who get infected by the virus.

This week, he announced he would use the Defense Production Act to force meat-processing plants to remain open, despite high rates of Covid-19 infections and deaths among meatpackers.

“We’re going to sign an executive order today, I believe, and that’ll solve any liability problems,” Trump said.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, insists that proposed legislation giving state and local governments funding they desperately need must include legal immunity for corporations that cause workers or consumers to become infected.

“We have a red line on liability,” McConnell said. “It won’t pass the Senate without it.”

But how can the economy safely reopen if companies don’t have an incentive to keep people safe? Promises to provide protective gear and other safeguards are worthless absent the threat of damages if workers or customers become infected.

The truth: The biggest obstacle to reopening the economy is the pandemic itself.

Any rush to reopen without adequate testing and tracing – far more than now under way – will cause a resurgence of the disease and another and longer economic crisis.

Maybe Trump is betting that any resurgence will occur after the election, when the economy appears to be on the road to recovery.

The first responsibility of a president is to keep the public safe. But Donald Trump couldn’t care less. He was slow to respond to the threat, then he lied about it, then made it hard for states – especially those with Democratic governors – to get the equipment they need.

Now he’s trying to force the economy to reopen in order to boost his electoral chances this November, and he’s selling out Americans’ health to seal the deal. This is beyond contemptible.

I consider it a vain hope that anything, even a Plague, is going to convince the Racist, Bigoted, Misogynistic Deplorables or the Parasite Oligarchs who feast on their rotting flesh.

Fortunately there may not be enough of them.

Here you go. Synchronized Swimming (I guess they call it “Artistic” now) Team and Pairs from Rio 2016.

The odd thing is that I know all the moves. I’m telling you I ran out of all the Water Sports Electives before I got stuck with 4 Square and Arts and Crafts. Enameling was cool (A&C III) because Fire! No I didn’t take it to meet Girls, Camp was totally Sex Segregated. My Sister had Horsies.

I understand they’re bringing back Flaming Chunks of Twisted Metal. Chess is more like a Sport.

Gor is about the most horrible, misogynistic, racist Science Fiction Series (Horseclans is a close Second) I ever bought 20 Volumes of because I’m also a completeist.

The Gor series repeatedly depicts men abducting and physically and sexually brutalizing women, who grow to enjoy their submissive state. According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Norman’s “sexual philosophy” is “widely detested”.

It’s really, really bad.

I regret it in a way that I don’t E.E. “Doc” Smith (Lensmen, Skylark of Space) or even H.P. Lovecraft (a documented Anti-Semite in addition to many other personal failings) because the writing is bad and nonsensical too.

Look, I read Le Guin and L’Engle and I must say for sheer wackiness Heinlein is hard to beat. I’m a sucker for Pournell and Niven even though they are both militant Libertarians, Jerry more than Larry. Used to read Jerry’s Computer column on the regular.

I’ve read pretty much all of Poul Anderson’s stuff and he’s another Libertarian type, SciFi was lousy with them and still is to a large extent. You try to learn to ignore it and I don’t read print as much as I used to ($10 for a Paperback? Screw you). You must read before you can write of course but I find Writing consuming and have very little time.

Some idiot took it into their head to make a Movie out of Gor which I suppose is fair enough because it has a great fan base among Incels (before they were even a thing!) and therefore an audience (complete Box Office failure).

Here it get the full MST3K treatment-

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Nazi Germany’s capital Berlin falls in World War II; Artist Leonardo da Vinci dies; Civil War Gen. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson killed; Nelson Mandela claims victory in South Africa vote; Singer Bing Crosby born.

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You know, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead and Zack Morris is still Trash.

Thomas Piketty has this to say-

The bottom 50 percent of the population in the U.S. owns less than 2 percent of total wealth. It used to be 3 or 4 percent 20 years ago; now it’s less than 2 percent. It’s always been very small, in any case, but it’s not going in the right direction. This has all sorts of bad consequences in terms of how you can plan your own life. These consequences are particularly clear at a time when you don’t have a job and basically when you have no wealth. You need to accept any job, any wage that comes, any working condition, because you have to eat, you have to feed your family. So this puts you in a very weak bargaining position vis-à-vis society in general and vis-à-vis your own life. So the question is: Is 2 percent of total wealth for the bottom 50 percent the best we can do? Or is it possible to think of another economic system, keeping the good aspects of the current system, but trying to do better?

The very basic idea of participatory socialism is to say, “Well, look, if we want to improve that, one way is to have a more progressive tax system. So lower tax on people who are trying to access properties. People who have a lot of debt should pay less taxes. And people who are not in debt should pay more taxes.” What I’m proposing under the label of participatory socialism is to use the proceeds from this progressive tax to finance something. The people who now receive zero inheritance, who are basically the bottom 60 percent of population, will receive €120,000 or $150,000. In order to pay for that, people who now receive $1 million in inheritance would receive $600,000 or $650,000. So you will still have a lot of inequality between children — and if you want my opinion, I think we could go further than that — but this already will make a huge difference because this could put everybody roughly at the median wealth. Basically, it’s an extension of what has been done in terms of progressive taxation.

The other big pillar of participatory socialism is to provide more opportunities for workers to participate in the governance of their companies through more voting rights in the boards of companies. There are many countries, including Germany, Sweden, very successful countries, where up to 50 percent of voting rights in the boards of large companies go to worker representatives. I think this should become the norm.

If this system were in place in the future, during a crisis like this one, you wouldn’t see these poor people in the street searching for food, searching for work. The majority would be in a position to not have to accept everything. You can make plans. You can have better control over your own life. That’s the purpose. It’s much more than money. It’s really more in terms of power about your own existence.

As Bob Reich puts it-

The Covid-19 Class Divide
by Robert Reich
Monday, April 27, 2020

The pandemic is putting America’s deepening class divide into stark relief. Four classes are emerging.

The Remotes: These are professional, managerial, and technical workers – an estimated 35 percent of the workforce – who are putting in long hours at their laptops, Zooming into conferences, scanning electronic documents, and collecting about the same pay as before the crisis.

Many are bored or anxious, but they’re well off compared to the three other classes.

The Essentials: They’re about 30 percent of workers, including nurses, homecare and childcare workers, group home workers, farm workers, food processors, truck drivers, warehouse and transit workers, drug store employees, sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, and the military.

Too many essentials lack adequate protective gear, paid sick leave, health insurance, and childcare, which is especially important now that schools are shuttered. They also deserve hazard pay.

Their vulnerability is generating a
wave of worker activism at businesses such as Instacart, Amazon, Walmart, and Whole Foods.
Mass-transit workers are organizing work stoppages.

Trump’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has the legal authority to require private employers provide essential workers with protective gear. Don’t hold your breath.

The Unpaid: They’re an even larger group that the unemployed – whose ranks could soon reach 25 percent, the same as in the Great Depression. Some of the unpaid are furloughed or have used up their paid leave. So far in this crisis, 43 percent of adults report they or someone in their household has lost jobs or pay, according to the Pew Research Center.

An estimated 9.2 million have lost their employer-provided health insurance.

Many of these jobs had been in personal services that can’t be done remotely, such as retail, restaurant, and hospitality work. But as consumers rein in spending, layoffs are spreading to news organizations, tech companies, consumer-goods manufacturers.

The unpaid most need cash to feed their families and pay the rent. Fewer than half say they have enough emergency funds to cover three months of expenses, according to a survey conducted this month Pew.

So far, government has failed them, too. Checks mailed out by the Treasury last week are a pittance. Extra benefits could help, but unemployment offices are so overwhelmed with claims that they can’t get money out the door. Loans to small businesses have gone largely to big, well-connected businesses, with banks collecting fat fees.

On Wednesday, Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he opposed to any further federal aid to state and local governments, suggesting states
declare bankruptcy instead. Which means even less money for unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and everything else the unpaid need.

The resulting desperation is fueling demands to “reopen the economy” long before it’s safe. If it comes down to a choice between risking one’s health and putting food on the table, many will take latter.

The Forgotten: This group includes everyone for whom social distancing is nearly impossible because they’re packed tightly into places most Americans don’t see – prisons, jails for undocumented immigrants, group homes for the severely disabled, camps for migrant farmworkers, Native American reservations, homeless shelters, and nursing homes.

While much of New York City is sheltering at home, for example, more than 17,000 men and women, many already in poor health, are sleeping in roughly 100 shelters for single adults.

All such places are becoming hot spots for the virus. These people need safe spaces with proper medical care, adequate social distancing, testing for the virus and isolation of those who have contracted it. Few are getting any of this.

Not surprisingly, the Essentials, the Unpaid, and the Forgotten are disproportionately poor, black, and Latino. And they are disproportionately becoming infected.

An Associated Press breakdown of available state and local data showed close to 33 percent of coronavirus deaths so far are African-American, despite representing only 14 percent of the total population in areas surveyed. The Navajo Nation already has lost more to coronavirus than have 13 states. Four of the 10 largest-known sources of infection in the United States have been correctional facilities.

These three groups aren’t getting what they need to survive this crisis because they don’t have lobbyists and political action committees to do their bidding in Washington or state capitals.

The Remotes among us should be concerned, and not just because of the unfairness of the Covid-19 class divide. If the Essentials aren’t sufficiently protected, the Unpaid are forced back to work earlier than is safe, and the Forgotten remain forgotten, no one can be secure. Covid-19 will continue to spread sickness and death for months, if not years to come.

Truthfully I don’t see much difference from Classic Neo Liberalism. This has been the Class Divide for 40 Years.

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

President George W. Bush announces major combat has ended in Iraq; U2 spy plane shot down over Soviet Union; Empire State Building dedicated.

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