Author: Blue Bronc

not on fighting the old, but on building the new.  Socrates

Since the start of the shutdown of the world, the talk of certain types was to get it all restarted.  They have no price on human life, it is the “economy” which is dying and requires a restart.  Sure, lives will be lost, but that is normal life, people die every day.

Discussion of what a life is worth was not part of the deal of this pandemic.  The cost of saving civilization was more important.  At least at the start.  Now there are some who no longer care about civilization, only their alternative world civilization (which seems to only have white people roaming around in it).

Other than a few “America only” articles for building things, there is no talk about how the world is interconnected.  Not just Canada, Mexico, U.S. in NAFTA2, but how the U.S. exports to other countries which do work on a product which is shipped somewhere else and eventually returns to the U.S. as a completed product or as a component which ends up in a U.S. completed product. It is about manufacturing clothing or cell phone covers in other countries.

I get to see international trade in a way few others do.  It is eye opening at how components move around the world before ending up in a final product.  The basic fact is the countries of the world are all part of international trade.  Even China imports components and products for domestic use.

To get the “economy” going takes more than a bunch of yahoos running around shouting and waving killer guns.  The U.S. was on the down hill slope due to horrible trade decisions and belligerent, and extremely ignorant, actions of the White House before the noval coronavirus arrived. To get the “economy” going again takes smart people and that may need to wait until January 19, 2021.

Made in America is one thing, I buy American made when I can.  But, due to economic pricing and decades of presidential and congressional actions, only certain products are totally American made.  But, to “bring back” industry takes more than a stupid tariff and yelling.  It also means creating industry where none exists, that is not fast nor is it easy.

It makes little sense to force a complex industry to only create in America with American parts. That was done a long time ago, before modern electronics were created. Now it takes the world to build a cell phone. Some of the components are only available in certain parts of the world, not in the U.S.

We live in a different world than we did January 1, 1930. We live in a different world than we did January 1, 1950.  We live in a different world than we did January 1, 2020.

— comes new strength and new thoughts. Eleanor Roosevelt

The First Day

While we are forced to live in a weak and crippled America for the next nine months, until Biden is sworn in as president, we can hold hope of a rapid restart.  Knowing that the political appointees will be submitting their resignations, and that a competent new administration will accept those, gives hopes to a cleansing post haste.   As there is a lack of appointments now, a deliberate act by the person in the White House and the far right group hoping to establish a dictatorship. We should expect Biden will be able to prepare a thousand new names, ready to fill the empty positions the minute he is sworn in. 

As this week begins there is a slight peek past election day that the Dems will have the Senate majority.  There is also hope that one Moscow Mitch will be out too.  That will make investigating him and his wife easier.  Having the Senate in Dems hands will make it easier to install the Biden picks.

I also look at restarting American science with a plan installed to take on the coronavirus COVID-19.  Yes, that nasty killer will still be with us.  It will be combined with the flu strains to attack and kill Americans in numbers which are still unknown.  The United States used to be the lead for finding solutions to previous health crises, but not now.  There is no federal plan from this failed administration.  Leave to the for-profit companies to find something is not a plan.

Although this may be wishful thinking, I hope that Biden and his team are already starting the transition plan to replace this disgraced administration.

The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.  Julius Caesar (Act II, Scene II, Line 31)  Shakespeare

Death is the driving hell behind this novel Coronavirus, COVID-19.  Somewhere between ten percent and two percent of those who are infected die.  It has wiped out families and those without. It has killed celebrities and those who sweep floors.  It has no care about making some people without symptoms and those whose body can no longer breathe.

What a pandemic or epidemic does is bring death to the door.  Not a pleasant leaving this mortal coil (Shakespeare) as often is the blessing of dying in one’s sleep.  Not a violent end from a automobile crash.  It is a disease that makes one ill or horribly ill and a death with a tube in your lungs.  Or your neighbor’s lungs.  Or your children’s teacher.

Some live, some die.  You cannot know who will live, who will not.  That is what happens with a disease like a virus.

This afternoon I was watching MSNBC Nicolle Wallace when one of the panelists said he has lost ten friends to COVID-19. I started having flashbacks (yes, real horrible flashbacks) to the mid-1990’s when I was fighting for my life against a virus, Hepatitis C.  Death was a constant for us.

I was on Prodigy, AOL and CompuServe various boards related to HepC.  Starting in 1995 we realized the death rate was nothing like the governments were telling us.  By 1997 we were losing at least one person, a Hepper (I made up the name Leper and Hepatitis) every day.  I started a website as a memorial website of those who died. It had many hundreds of memorials.  I ended it when a friend committed suicide.

We lost thousands of Heppers.  Some showed up for a few visits on the boards, a few were regulars.  What made all of us the same was being infected with HCV and not knowing if we were going to die.  Death with HCV is terrible, just as death with COVID-19 is.

The experience hardened me.  When you have hundreds of people you know by name and have shared lives and hopes, and they die it does something to you.  My psychologists have helped.  They understand what mass death means.  This pandemic is doing the same.  You see life differently, you feel life differently.  And for those who survive you are changed.  You are changed in ways others may never understand.

My sympathy goes to all those affected by this virus.  I fought mine to a draw.  It took me almost fifteen years to recover most of my strength.  I hope these people do not face that life.

Disney song, movie title, your imagination of other uses

January 3, 2021 – the date Mitch McConnell is no longer a threat to America.  The end of the 116^th Congress of the United States which ends his career.  The Democratic Party members control the Congress and the White House. 

The question is will the Dems investigate the conduct of the republicans?  Will the FBI investigate and the DOJ prosecute those republicans who may have been under Kremlin control?  Will the state and other local police and prosecutors look into election law violations.

Can (not will) Americans begin to once again trust their governments?  Aside from the idiots who comprise anti-American values cults, the rest of our nation and the world deserves to know they can trust these United States to return to a world where we support and help others.  Americans have helped others with food and support, unfortunately that often meant weapons.

No more Cheney trying to fight Vietnam to a win, albeit in Iraq and Afghanistan. To which we are still fighting. No more tearing up treaties and agreements because of hate of skin color or religion.  No more blocking refugees from having their lives saved and improved.

Because of this current president the white supremacists and other hate groups have felt enamored to try to destroy our country. These people feel free to use their hate to hurt others and to break American values. They openly oppose authority, and have attacked religious locations. Can they be disarmed?

Will this pandemic change America and the world? I think these United States and many other countries have already been changed in the last ten weeks.

Some will argue this is too early to look at the possibility that this election will cause a change in the administration and Congress.  Some will say do not jinx this election.  Some will say that it cannot happen because the republicans will cancel the November elections.  And, a lot will say we must win, we have to win – we will win back America from Putin.