The Coronavirus

[Eric the Green]

(04-08-2021, 04:27 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(04-08-2021, 01:55 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(04-08-2021, 08:03 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: The population comparisons are thinning out, but each of them gets increasingly dramatic. We have just passed Albuquerque; on th enext stop, get a mass-market beer (is it any wonder that the city is in decline?) in Milwaukee.  At ro ughly 595K people, it is now America's 31st-largest as pf 2019 estimates.

By the time this dreadful epidemic is over -- and it is now mostly the result of human fault -- we will have a list of cities by official 2020 Census counts.

 

Go ahead. Feel free to hate. Two of the three above evil entities deserved the antipathy of their time. The third is alive and well. It deserves your hatred.

And my reflection. So many beautiful lives lost. Much consolation needed for those who loved them. And so much necessary to see beyond death, and reflect on the possibility that spirit lives on in some way. The eternal lives within the temporal. And the hope that some of us, at least (those who are not fanatical Trump Republicans) can learn something from this, and support for the necessary funds and research which Trump cut off, for plans and medicines to treat this and future pandemics, and support environmental measures that allow humans to stop encroaching on Nature and other species. And sorrow too for those (and their stupid leaders) who refuse to follow the health rules, get vaccinated and keep each other safe; they are paying the price as the pandemic continues.

Pointless death is always a tragedy. Even wartime death, however heroic, in a struggle against slavery or genocide brings to mind the question of whether slavery and genocide can ever have justification. 

America had nearly ideal leaders in the worst and most dangerous years of the last Crisis Eras. Lincoln and FDR were models of decisive, resolute, wise leadership who almost invariably made the right decisions. Maybe Obama did not get quite the opportunity. His style was far more to prevent trouble than to wage war against it. So if one is on the collectivist Far Left, then Obama fails for not leading America into a struggle against the social faults of capitalism. If one is the Hard Right, then Obama fails for not accepting the idea that nothing  matters except the will of economic elites that (those elites claim) society puts at the forefront of all activity lest everything fall apart. Note well: in an age in which scarcity is not the primary concern of the vast majority of people, the political system can solve almost all problems without overthrowing the super-rich. Note also: privilege, which includes great wealth for the potential of sybaritic indulgence, rightly serves as a necessary perquisite of great responsibility. 

I have said enough already about the gross inadequacy of Donald Trump, someone who exploited privilege to its fullest all his adult life yet exacted every benefit of great privilege. Some people must swab the desks; some people must do KP; some people must do farm labor. The conventional three greatest Presidents were George Washington, who defined the Presidency; Abraham Lincoln; and Franklin Roosevelt. All three took a country deeply divided and in grave danger of dissolution, disintegration, or the direst possible defeat and left America far more united with the initial dangers largely gone. Donald Trump took a country with a few unsolved problems and close to being united and provoked social rifts that had not yet existed.

The inadequacy of the people in confederate America (Classic Xer's America) certainly matches that of the previous civil war era. Our new crisis leader Joe Biden certainly aims to manage the crisis well, and is doing pretty good job. He is more like George Washington; steady and practical and dignified, although not as charismatic or eloquent as Lincoln and FDR. The problem is the supporting cast. As long as our country is not split, as under Lincoln, the Republican Party (which has switched to become the confederate Party) is given too much power by our system to block progress. A few Senate Democrats are representing Republican states, so their ability to act is also limited. We may have to separate so that the blue half of the country can make progress. Only as the separate red half later sees itself falling into total ruin will it then petition to join back. Unless enough voters in red and purple states can send enough representatives to congress to support Biden, end the filibuster, pass all the voting rights in the For the People Act, give DC and PR and maybe Guam two senators, reform or abolish the electoral college, reform immigration, and if needed reform and pack the Court, stalemate will continue, and I don't think we can deal with our existential threats without separating ourselves from our retrograde half.