Socialists To The Rescue

"China sends medical staff, ventilators, test kits & masks to help Italy fight Covid-19" "China Sends Masks, Gloves and Test Kits to Nations Affected by COVID-19" Those are just two headlines showing how the modern day Red Scare is leading the way in responding to the global pandemic.

There's a couple of ways we can respond to that news. We could argue that the virus originated in China and that it's therefore to be expected that they are most advanced in their response. We could then argue that it's logical and rational to make use of their advanced knowledge, and ask them for help, or at least accept their help should it be offered to us. But we won't. We've racialized the virus, called it a "Chinese virus" consistently, talked at length about how the Chinese culture is to blame for the virus, you know, with them eating bats and dogs and all. We won't ask for or accept their assistance as we're much more comfortable in taking this opportunity to demonize our biggest ideological adversary with an Orange Man leading the way. There's no describing how stupid that is. Mad Cow disease originated in England; did we blame the English? The world's most deadly virus of the last century, the Spanish Flew, originated in America. Surprised? We only call it the Spanish Flew because Spain was the hardest hit country. But do we blame the Spanish or the Americans for that one? A virus doesn't care how, when or where it's born or dies.

You know what other country leads the way in showing international solidarity in solving this health-crisis? It's not the world's most powerful country, nor any of its allies; it's a small island called Cuba. “Humanitarian Solidarity”: Even Under U.S. Sanctions, Cuba Sends Doctor Brigade to Italy and More.

As Italy’s death toll soars past 6,000, Cuba has sent medical brigades to combat COVID-19. Cuba has also deployed doctors to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Suriname and Grenada.
_{source: Democracy Now!}

My family lives in Suriname, just putting that out there. In America however, it's political suicide to praise Cuba for anything at all; Bernie Sanders was once again vilified in the mainstream media when he dared state a simple fact, namely that Fidel Castro's literacy program was a good thing. Do you know what Bernie Sanders is doing right now? Probably not because it won't be reported on in any significant way. He's using his huge platform and his many donations to help America cope with the crisis by donating to social organizations like Meals On Wheels. Every chance he gets, he life-streams to a growing audience, not to campaign but to inform the American people about the latest news and responsible ways to act. He is showing the leadership that's needed, serving the people instead of himself or corporate donors.

So, how does the world's most powerful country respond? One sentence, spoken by Krystal Ball in the below linked video, says it all: "We have lobbyists telling reporters, oh, when it's a crisis, that's when we go to work, that's when we get all of our goodies stuck in these massive bills, and nobody has time to actually go through them and figure out what they've given away before it's already a done deal." This is exactly how y'all got the Patriot Act, remember? How the bailouts of 2008/2009 were filled with provisions that allowed the criminal bankers who caused that crisis to walk away with billions dollars more: those banks, who were already "too big to fail," are now bigger than ever before. It's simple people, there's no big secret about why this is how it works; it's capitalism in action, not crony capitalism, just capitalism. When you center your ideology around making a profit, everybody will try to make a profit. Everybody. That's all individuals and all institutions. In that scenario the ones with the most "grabbing power" will always come out on top. "Disaster capitalism" is just capitalism, because capitalism itself is the disaster.

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