The past weeks have seen the world swept up by a maelstrom of hysteria, misinformation, and confusion under the guise of a new global pandemic. The oversaturation of information overwhelms the senses and is almost designed to inflame the mass panic, which has taken a life of its own and even threatens to trigger a total financial blowout of the trans Atlantic bubble economy.
The corona crisis sends shockwaves through political, economic and social systems. The status quo simply cannot continue, writes Marc Saxer.
Marc SAXER
No one knows how long the pandemic will last, how many people will fall ill, how many lives the coronavirus will claim. But the economic and political consequences of the outbreak are already emerging. Measures to contain the pandemic are disrupting public life around the world.
Despite Joe Biden’s recent pot shot at Italy’s struggling response to the pandemic, Andrew Spannaus says the Italian and U.S. medical systems have more in common than many realize.
Andrew SPANNAUS
Amid rumors of a national lock-down, and the National Guard already activated in states across the country, rumors are rife that the land of the free will soon be cordoned off behind an iron curtain of martial law.
Although there have been just 258 reported deaths from coronavirus in the United States, Pentagon officials announced Friday it is drafting plans to take over hotels, college campuses, sports facilities and other buildings “if necessary” to help hospitals accommodate patients.
As the US and the UK, to stem Covid-19 infections, adopt a close-to-wartime approach, with intrusive levels of intervention into social life, these governments – as the corollary to lockdown – are proposing massive bail-outs. At first brush, this may seem both sensible and appropriate. But wait. Bailing out what? Well, financial markets of course, but then … just about everything: Boeing, the US Shale-oil industry, airlines, the tourist industry, and (in the US) every citizen – through posting them a $1,000, or a $2,000 cheque, this week – or, as is mooted in DC – perhaps one every month.
Martina MONEKE
There is no dearth of examples suggesting that President Donald Trump lives in an alternate reality. But his belief that the coronavirus “came out of nowhere” and “blindsided the world”—even though public health experts had been warning about the next pandemic for years—may be the reason why the United States is so unprepared to deal with the crisis.
Three world leaders have displayed a total lack of leadership qualities during the worst global calamity since World War II. Not surprisingly, all three are products of the extreme right-wing, a political faction that excels at carnival stunts and outrageous rhetoric but has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of governance ability. Among the leaders who have done the most miserable jobs at the helms of their respective ships of state are U.S. President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Llewellyn H. ROCKWELL, Jr.
Governments all over the world are using the alleged threat of a COVID-19 pandemic to shut down the world’s economy. Daniel Lacalle, an authority on energy economics, writes: “The decision to shut down air travel and close all nonessential businesses is now a reality in major global economies. The United States has banned all European flights as Italy enters a complete lockdown, Spain declares a state of emergency, and France closes all nonessential public places and businesses.”
The wicked social control experiment using virus as the pretext for further enslavement is performing magnificently by implanting a sense of helplessness, dependence, and blind conformism. It should be noted that the favorable atmosphere enabling Them (whoever they are) to accomplish just that was contrived by the controlled and unscrupulous media in under a month of intense, coordinated, global brainwashing. Praise is in order, not for the obviously immoral master plan but for the technical excellence of its execution.
Governments throughout the world are now facing heavy activity by lobbyists seeking a bailout by their government. The activity is ferocious, and ferociously competitive, because some lobbies have bigger money backing them than others do, and different politicians owe their careers to different types of lobbies; so, for example, if one politician is funded primarily by the oil industry, and another is funded primarily by the retail industry, those two politicians will probably be looking to save different special interests.
