Mitch's Blog

A far-right rallying cry: Older Americans should volunteer to work

This article compares current conservative calls to sacrifice older Americans against the Obamacare “death panel” scare. But that’s rubbish because the death panels never existed, whereas this kill-the-olds movement is real.

Hillary was right. A good percentage of Trump supporters really are deplorable.

We do not sacrifice the weak and old to protect society. The reason we have society is to protect the weak and old.

He urged saving the economy over protecting those who are ‘not productive’ from the coronavirus. Then he faced America’s wrath. - The Washington Post

Attorney Scott McMillan brought the wrath of the internet on himself when he tweeted: “The fundamental problem is whether we are going to tank the entire economy to save 2.5% of the population which is (1) generally expensive to maintain, and (2) not productive.”

Yes, it’s wrong and appalling but so what? Cut him some slack.

Internet shaming and death threats are never the answer.

I have a special interest in this because McMillan is in La Mesa, the San Diego, CA suburb where we live.

His statement is wrong and appalling because we do not measure the value of people by their productivity.

And the flood of deaths that will follow ending the quarantine prematurely, like Trump and McMillan suggest, will be a million times worst for the economy than extended quarantine.

Also, McMillan says he doesn’t want the younger generation to be like the generation that grew up in the Depression. That generation includes my parents. They turned out fine. They went without as kids, but sacrificing their grandparents’ generation would not have made them better off.

If people have to die to support the economy, then fuck the economy.

Gig workers for companies like Uber, Lyft would get unemployment benefits under $2 trillion Senate stimulus bill www.cnbc.com/2020/03/2…

Good news.

But Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is looking for a “third way” to classify workers, apart from employees or contractors. This sounds like self-serving rubbish to me. How are Uber drivers not employees?

The thesis of the new book is that “the ‘laws’ of economics are actually policies, created to ‘justify a society’s inequalities,’ providing a rationale to convince poor people not to start building guillotines.”

pluralistic.net/2020/03/2…

My $0.02: You see this in one of the main conservative and so-called moderate Democrat arguments against Medicaire-for-All: That we can’t afford it.

If society can’t afford to save lives, then we can’t afford to have that society.

There are other arguments against M4A, namely that it might suck. I do not necessarily share those arguments, but they are reasonable.

Cory:

The elites' indifference to working people is grounded in an alliance between the Brahmin Left (educated, well-paid liberals) and the Merchant Right (the finance sector). Notionally leftist parties, like the Democrats, are dominated by the Brahmin Left.

Me: This is one of the leading Republican criticisms of the national Democratic Party. And it has a lot of merit to it.

But more than any other, Macron epitomizes this alliance: proclaiming his liberal values while slashing taxes on the wealthy — punishing poor people for driving cars, exempting private jets from his “climate” bill.

Life in a “meritocracy” is especially cruel for poor people, because meritocracies, uniquely among ideologies, blame poor people for poverty. It’s right there in the name. French kings didn’t think God was punishing peons, rather, that the Lord had put them there to serve.

• The Internet Archive is supporting unlimited book-lending during the crisis. “… they buy and scan one copy of every book (pretty much every book, ever) and lend it out to one person at a time. They’ve just announced that during the crisis, they are lifting the one-borrower-at-a-time restriction and allowing unlimited borrowing, ‘to meet the needs of a global community of displaced learners’. They call it the ‘National Emergency Library.'”

• Kaiser threatens to fire Oakland nurses who wear their own masks. “Nurses who report for work wearing their own N95 masks have been threatened with immediate dismissal for ‘insubordination.'” Those masks don’t just protect nurses; they protect patients too.

• O’Reilly is getting out of the conference business. Not just now – forever. Can’t plan for the future when they don’t know when the emergency will end.

• Trump’s bible study teacher, Ralph Drollinger, thinks coronavirus is God’s wrath for Chinese excess, women working outside the workplace, American tolerance for homosexuality, and environmentalism. (I’m a Jewish nonbeliever, but I had the distinct impression that Christ preached loving your neighbor, charity toward the least of us, and not judging others.)

• The $3/month DoNot Pay service uses an chatbot to automatically petition companies for relief during the coronavirus crisis. “Using a chatbot, you determine which of your bills are eligible for relief. Then it generates a ‘compassionate and polite request’ seeking help. If the company does not comply, it follows up with a firmer letter citing relevant state/federal laws.”

• “Xi’s enemies sense weakness: Autocracies are only as good as their last crisis-response.

• Immigrants face infection in ICE lockups.

• Doctors and dentists are hoarding chloroquine in case it turns out to be an effective Covid-19 treatment, thus depriving people who rely on the drug for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

• The Toilet Paper Splitter is “a DIY project to separate a single two-ply roll into two single-ply rolls.”

• This year’s science fiction Worldcon has been cancelled. WorldCons began in 1939, and have been held every year since other than 1942-45 during World War II.

• The United States Postal Service is crucial to emergency response; it’s the only federal agency that can knock on every door in America in a single day. “When (if?) effective covid meds are available, it’s likely a postal worker will deliver them to you. Now is a good time to remember that the GOP have been trying to dismantle the universal, self-funding, vital USPS for decades, so that private carriers like UPS and Fedex can cream off the most profitable parts of its business and leave rural Americans in the cold.”

• Volante Design is making stylish masks for covid responders – they can protect N95 masks from contamination, prevent you from touching your face, and partly contain coughs when medical masks are unavailable. They’re looking for donations to make and shop more. docs.google.com/spreadshe…

pluralistic.net/2020/03/2…