The golden age of impunity Will we ever recover from the Trump Pandemic? Some foreigners are terribly concerned about the future of the Divided States of America. They say we are committing mass suicide. We are in the middle of a number of national pandemics we need to fight. The 400 million firearms flooding the country are now appearing on both sides in our current racial civil war. Protesters supporting Black Lives Matter protests in hundreds of cities have been killed and wounded during marches by firearms made available through a firearms tsunami of the National Rifle Association and the gun culture. We evidently have failed to learn the
lessons taught at the OK Corral and all of our mass shootings. We have hundreds of private militias “snoopin’ and poopin’” in the woods, preparing to continue the civil war. One of these days we are going to read about a mass killing of protesters and antimaskers by an exchange of AR-15 bullets. It is inevitable unless conceal and carry laws are changed quickly. Firearms are for hunting, not for settling disputes, establishing policy or shopping at the mall. Carrying firearms and magazines loaded with bullets is as dumb as spreading COVID-19 by not wearing a mask. There are ways to eliminate both pandemics. Politics at the point of a
THE GADFLY
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gun is outrageous. We don’t need a High Noon atmosphere to dominate civil rights protests: “I do not know what fate awaits me, I only know I must be brave And I must face a man who hates me, or lie a coward A craven coward, or lie a coward in my grave.” There is another national pandemic brought on by disaster capitalism, often called “plantation” capitalism by blacks who suffer from it. It’s the overwhelming greed of the drug, insurance, and health care industries that have killed more than 70,000 Americans in 2019 and more than 230,000 in the last five years. Deadly drug overdoses and addiction by highly addictive opioids have decimated the middle class to the point where our overall life expectancy is declining. All other developed countries are constantly increasing their life expectancy. And then we have a psychopathic bunco con man who has convinced many “Christians” he is “The Chosen One!” He is a president who is the leader of the Ku Klux Klanners and has psychological flaws too numerous to mention here. Read the criteria for sociopath and psychopath in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disabilities (DSM-5) and see if you find one that does not fit Trump’s character. He is another national pandemic we need to eliminate. The world Is worried about the lack of American leadership I was somewhat surprised to see a column titled “”To America, From A Worried European Friend” in the July 29 issue of the conservative Wall Street Journal, written by Daniel Schwammenthal, director of the American Jewish Committee, a global advocacy organization based in Brussels, Belgium. The paper knew a lot about him because he worked for the WSJ seven years as an editorial page writer and op-ed editor in Brussels and Amsterdam before assuming his present position. He was quite eloquent in expressing his concerns about Trump Company: “America today is what it has always been: a flawed society, like all others, but also a unique force for good in the world. No other multiethnic, multi-religious society can credibly claim to be more democratic, more prosperous and more just than the U.S. But America
cannot remain the leader of the free world if it is itself no longer free. To be the guarantor of Western security requires military and economic power, but also a sense of mission. And right now Americans are committing mass character suicide…A country convinced that it is irredeemably racist can’t lead the world as the indispensable nation. America’s headed for unprecedented polarization and possible civil unrest.” The former WSJ op-ed editor has expressed the thoughts of most of the capitals of Europe. It has come to pass that the rich since Ronald Reagan are enjoying a Golden Age of impunity. For the last 40 years disaster capitalism has screwed the middle class and the colored races, including some whites. In the future we will need an economic system that will work for everyone, not just the top Ten Percent. We currently have 705 billionaires and 18.6 million millionaires in the Divided States of America. About 60% of their current wealth is inherited. In 2020 Americans will inherit about $765 billion. Many inheritors have never worked a day in their lives. They don’t even stick around when the going gets a little tough. The census takers in New York City are having a devil of a time doing their job because the lowest response rates to the census come from the wealthiest areas of the city. Many official residences of the wealthy are empty because they have escaped the virus by going to their island alwayson-vacation homes around the world. What are the 500,000 ultrawealthy doing to help? There are 500,000 people in the world who have fortunes exceeding $30 million. Many keep busy flitting among the estates most of them own. An underwhelming 83 of them have called upon their governments to permanently increase their taxes to help their countries pay for the economic recovery from COVID-19. Some of the rich have empathy: “We are not the ones caring for the sick in intensive care wards. We are not driving the ambulances that will bring the ill to hospitals. We are not stocking grocery store shelves or delivering food door to door. But we do have money, lots of it. Money that is desperately needed now and will continue to be needed in the years ahead, as our world
