As America fights to get through the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated by Trump’s inaction, his ‘war profiteering’ is so much more obscene.
Obscene Trump war profiteering
A few days ago it was pointed out in the post “Trump is trying to brainwash Americans. Only safe if he’s president!” that the Trump administration was trying to brainwash Americans into the belief that the private sector, read corporate cronies, would be the ones to get us through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump and his cabal bungled the coronavirus pandemic. I am not convinced that incompetence was the sole reason. I think the goal ultimately is for the government to fail and for the private sector delivered by Trump to come in and save us, read, rip us off. It was a poor unfettered capitalist move.
If one listens to the press conferences, check to the number of times they use a term like “private sector” and similar terms for those solving the problem. Of course, those would be his friendly corporations. The president through his cabal made it clear that he would use his “Defense Production Act ” only when “coercion” was necessary.
We should not take Trump’s rhetoric lightly. Especially in times of stress, people tend to gravitate to promises even if deep inside they know it is unattainable as long as it gives the comfort they yearn for in the near term.
It was clear then that Trump was trying to change the narrative from government responsibility to one where a private sector comes to the rescue.
Later it was made clearer as he paraded a few of his corporate sycophants on stage at one of his rallies, I mean, press conferences, described in the post “Watch how Trump press conference serving to prop up an exploitative corporate sector.”
The plutocracy understands that their failure is precipitating their demise. The Trump admin is using his press conference to both pander and attempt to build-up the image of an exploitative private sector. …
While the CDC fiddled for weeks with a test that did not work, they could have purchased the test manufactured by a German company. But America has a policy of developing these tests on its own.
It is not hard to assume that just like Trump was attempting to prop up the exploitative corporate sector as a benevolent entity patriotically trying to solve the coronavirus pandemic, that America would have the policy to ensure its chosen corporations are blessed with the profits from the pandemic. This reality is hard to refute given the nature of his COVID-19 pressers.
Rachel Maddow used a CBS-acquired video of a call between the Trump team and governors where he made light of their request that he nationalize the supply chain to point out the president’s lack of real concern. Later she would point out that the private sector was exporting needed medical supplies.
In the most recent press conference, the administration’s sycophants put into words what many have been stating for weeks. In effect, the president is war profiteering.
A military guy said sternly that the masks and supplies would be ‘delivered tomorrow’ when asked about delivery. The vice president wanted to interject.
“Let me be clear if I can,” Pence said. “What Jared announced … is that pallets are being loaded right now to send 200 thousand N95 masks to New York City, to the public health hospitals.”
The military guy then sort of corrected the vice president.
“To the public health warehouse in New York City,” he interjected.
Then the vice president gave a message of comfort that really was a political statement.
“All the healthcare workers,” Pence said. “Help is on the way.”
Sounds good right? Forget about it.
A reporter decided to interrogate a little deeper. And the interchange shown in the video in this post said it all. The Trump administration is in this to make profits for his corporate cronies.
It turns out that those masks are being delivered to commercial distributors. Worse, those commercial distributors will then have the price of those masks bid up. And the ultimate buyer could even be a foreign company at the right price.
Confronted with that reality the reporter pointed out that was the concern of the governors. The military guy said his job was not to disrupt the normal operation of the business supply chain.
In a pandemic the idea is to optimize the supply chain under one entity to solve the problem. It is clear the war profiteering of the Trump administration is killing Americans and will continue to do so.
Let’s not sit back and blame Trump. This is our inhumane economic system where the government is but a department of the corporatocracy. If we want a change, it must start locally with each of our representatives and senators. And we don’t get there by electing corporate-owned politicians, neoliberals, and purported centrists. Their relation with the corporate cronies are just a few degrees apart. Trump only has the powers they give him, limited constitutional powers notwithstanding.
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