One of the most infuriating developments of this week was the revelation that taxpayer purchased medical supplies are being sent to the private sector for sale to the highest bidder. We hard-working Americans are buying supplies twice, the second time at a steep markup. I have no doubt that Trump and his horrible family are taking their vigorish from connected distributors.
The one individual in the country who knows the importance of honest, competent disaster relief is General Russel Honoré, the hero of the otherwise incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina, and the man is livid at the Trump Maladministration's handling of the COVID-19 crisis. The man's last name says it all, and he seems to have no tolerance for the dishonorable.
I can't see this situation remaining sustainable any longer. NATO allies are accusing the US of diverting medical supplies. The supplies sent to US hospitals are sometimes non-functional due to a lack of maintenance sparked by a dispute over a contract. The pandemic hasn't even crested in the hotspots, and it's going to hit the elderly-skewing populations of Florida and Arizona like a two-ton heavy thing.
The whole rural south. Florida is getting all the supplies they ask for from Trump and family, but DeSantis can't quite shut down his state (and will override local attempts to prevent counterproductive large church gatherings down). Kemp can try a stay at home order, but keeps the beaches open (his strengths lie more with stealing elections than governance, alas). The "libertarian" streak of conservatism is bad at both civic spirit and funding public goods, like health care (hence high maternal and infant mortality, among other grim statistics). But even if they were more liberal in effect, these states are generally poorer. Even if the Trump government favors the states that support him the most, I don't know that his largesse is going to stop things from being horrific. Because the attitude that chases evidence of a major outbreak by the number of the worst stricken, instead of testing to anticipate them, isn't ever going to get on top of a situation that will rapidly overwhelm underfunded systems.
ReplyDeleteI am not a person given to prayer. But I curse every person whose public assheadedness made this situation far worse than it ever should have been, and hope loud statements of correction can somehow benefit anyone by the removal of human obstacles to better practices.
Well-spoken, both of you.
ReplyDeleteLet us not talk too much about it now, but, should we be fortunate enough to rid ourselves of this administration in the next election, criminal prosecutions ought to follow. The phrases "negligent homicide" and "wanton disregard for human life" come to mind.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I fear about Biden is that to preserve his bipartisan reputation, he will sweep everything under the rug if he becomes President. At some point, the nation will need a few object lessons that allowing people to die simply to line one's pockets (or one's ego) is a crime that will not be tolerated and that has grave consequences.
Yours very crankily,
The New York Crank
I think the real problem, VS, is that the rural hospital system was largely dismantled. When the nearest healthcare facility is fifty miles away and has a hundred beds, people will die.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ali.
Oh, yeah, crank, we're going to need some serious trials to have any hope of rooting out the graft and corruption. I think that, because mass graves are hard to hide, this has a chance of happening.