Noam Chomsky on Trump’s Disastrous Coronavirus Response
l3wis Whether you agree or like Chomsky is beside the point. In this short interview he explains the situation in very intelligent, short sentences.
April 2020
UPDATE: Lack of Local Leadership has caused the Smithfield outbreak to be much worse
UPDATE: Governor Noem just announced Paul and her are asking for a 14 day closure and pay the workers during this time period. And how are they proposing this to Smithfield? In a letter.
A letter doesn’t mean squat. They have the power to use the state and city health departments to force a closure LEGALLY!
If they don’t want to pay the workers, they can collect unemployment. Why is it so hard for these people to figure this out?! Letters and stern requests don’t hold up in court and don’t mean a pile of hog crap.
Noem was asked by Bob Mercer, what would happen if they reject the letter. Noem said they will take ‘further action’. Which means they will do nothing.
Another reporter asked if the State would be financially supporting the workers if Smithfield decides not to. She smugly said ‘NO’. What great Christian values a day before Easter.
Paul said the letter was ‘stiffer’. Stiffer than what? A wet paper bag?
PTH keeps pushing this idea, that he kind of vaguely revealed came from Smithfield management, that the employees have been spreading this virus amongst themselves outside of the plant. Sure, if all the employees lived in barracks together. They don’t. We know this is being spread at the workplace in close working conditions. I’m not a scientist, but I think I know how viruses are transmitted easily. To keep pushing this, now twice, is irresponsible. Knock it off!
Paul was asked the same question about if they rejected the letter. He said he hopes they do and brings up that they cannot in a Democracy legally shut them down. They can, this is poppycock.
Todd Epp asks if Smithfield has been a good corporate partner by not being transparent. Paul goes into a rant about how this is the Union’s duty to protect the workers. Hey Paul, they have been trying for weeks, and you have done nothing.
Epp also asked why isn’t Smithfield at these press conferences being transparent? I will answer that question. It is NOT in their best interest.
The hospitals clarified you cannot get a test unless you have a doctor’s order. WTF!!!!!!! Trump has said anyone can get a test. Really?
Paul went into a strange rant about how if someone has Covid, authorities have the power to make them quarantine, but somehow they don’t have the power to close businesses. Huh? That makes no sense at all. If you legally force individual people to stay home, you can legally shut down businesses. In fact I would argue, individuals have more constitutional rights than privately owned companies, especially ones owned by foreign communists.
BTW, no one was wearing masks at the presser.
Another reporter asks when they expect to hear an answer from Smithfield. I guess I would have gave them a call instead of sending a ‘letter’. And PTH says he didn’t talk to the CEO of Smithfield’s today. Huh?
I think that closing the plant for 3 days is some kind of sick joke (no pun intended). The plant not only needs to close indefinately until the virus passes, it needs to pay all of it’s employees during that time period and cover all medical expenses associated with covid treatment and care.
As you can see from this story, workers have been begging anyone who would listen that there needed to be an intervention at the plant;
Weeks before the announcement that Smithfield foods had become a coronavirus hot spot, employees were asking for more protection during the pandemic. Kooper Caraway is the President of the Sioux Falls AFLCIO.
“Secondary screening for folks with elevated temperatures, staggered lunch schedule, practicing social distancing on different shifts, and whatnot. The workers and their local union leadership have been pushing for these things for a month and it hasn’t been until the last week since management has started to implement these things,” said Caraway.
South Dakota Voices for Peace Attorney Taneeza Islam says most employees don’t see an option to walk away.
“They live paycheck to paycheck. If they quit or walk out they are not eligible for unemployment assistance, and that’s really what the choice is, right? Do I feed my family, or do I expose myself to COVID and then go home and expose my family to COVID,” said Islam.
As you can see, people have been trying to mitigate a pending crisis. Where was our governor and mayor? They have argued that Homeland Security has classified them as ‘essential’ but we all know, that Noem and Thune have a direct line to the president’s desk and could have closed the plant weeks ago or at the very least make them (and other manufacturers in SF) to implement strict safety precautions outlined by the CDC and Union reps.
We heard the strange Trumpian/Libertarian arguments from the Governor’s office, including at one point calling out the ‘fake news’ to where Kelo Radio reporter Todd Epp lashed back.
This mess (which will soon spread to other manufactures and families throughout our city) shows the utter lack of leadership on a local level, something I have warned about for the last month.
Mayor TenHaken could have made a directive to have the health department go around to these businesses and implement strict guidelines, but instead he decided to tweet about people having a few beers at The Barrel House. He could have also begged the Governor to contact the president and Homeland Security to intervene. In this video, Paul even suggested that the spread may have happened outside of the plant, WHAT!
The governor could have intervened also with strict guidelines or could have called the president and Thune to intervene. Instead, Thune faked covid so he could get out of voting on the stimulus bill (that’s the rumor going around) and has done nothing to protect South Dakotans, but that’s normal for him, the biggest do nothing senator in the history of the state.
But what makes this even more egregious is that we are allowing a company owned by Chinese investors from a communist nation tell our government what they are going to do. The irony is that Noem has argued putting in a directive to stay at home would look communist, all the while communists are running the show. I know, if it weren’t tragic it would be laughable.
I’m asking everyone to boycott pork products until the crisis is over. Sorry, but bacon isn’t an essential to the security and safety of our country. Unfortunately our local elected leaders are proving they are the real threat to our safety and security.
Mayor TenHaken to have a ‘Call to Action’ at 4 PM today
I’m assuming this will be played on the city’s FB page. While I will admit, we need to get people to hunker down, this should have happened weeks ago. Now we just need to figure out how to weather the storm at this point.
City of Sioux Falls Municipal elections prediction update
As someone reminded me yesterday, we were scheduled to have an election next Tuesday. Thank God that didn’t happen as the city is starting to peak in covid cases. But if it would have happened, I still believe Stehly would have won by a landslide. The factors would have been a normal municipal election turnout of your usual 4% or so.
I think those factors have changed, and not sure how this will play out. The biggest thing that has happened was the SOS’s decision to mail everyone a absentee voter application in the mail. You can pick the ballots you want (for instance in SF you could pick city/school & primary). I think this will be hugely popular as you see the numbers of covid cases rise. I’m putting at least a 30-40% voter turnout. I think you will see that many people will like to vote this way, and if anything positive comes from this crisis, it may be pushing for vote by mail, which I think is a great idea. It will increase voter turnout. The critics are on both sides of the aisle, but more heavily from Republicans who have depended on voter suppression for years. This levels the playing field, and it scares them. I’m not sure where their claims of fraud and abuse come from. We have doing absentee by mail for several years in South Dakota, and I think if there was a widespread issue with voter fraud, we would have heard about it already, not just from talking points coming from POTUS’s butt. Remember he claimed millions illegally voted in California in 2016, something that has never been proven.
As you can see from these articles, it is pretty rare and the fines and penalties are steep if you get caught. I don’t think people would be willing to risk it.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy institute which describes itself as progressive, “The consensus from credible research and investigation is that the rate of illegal voting is extremely rare, and the incidence of certain types of fraud – such as impersonating another voter – is virtually nonexistent.”
I still think Stehly will prevail, especially since both her supporters and Jensen’s will get the same applications in the mail. It will be a matter of who gets their supporters to fill out that application. Time will tell. Another factor is that voters will have more than a few minutes to study the ballot at their kitchen tables and discuss it with friends and do research. I’m not saying everyone will, but I think you will see more reasoned and educated voting by going this route.
This is going to be an interesting experiment in our Democracy. The results will be fascinating to study.
In a Crisis, Good Government is very important
What are those principles? There are four I always go back to;
• The obvious
• Integrity (and ethics)
• Common Sense
• Transparency
Like tying your shoe, good government is easy. The problem is partisan hacks and people with ‘ideals’ often want to wreck a good thing. Nothing ever comes from new ideas about how people are governed. What do I mean by that? I often tell people that the toaster has never really been re-invented since it’s inception. Why? Because it works. Why mess up a good thing? Philosophers, including my favorite, Plato has laid a road map that works. Anytime we sway from that map, it turns out badly.
So let’s review’
• The obvious. Like a toaster, if something works, and works well, why change it? If history teaches us something that is effective, let’s keep doing it until it is not.
• Integrity. Having a moral compass that says helping yourself really means helping others in an honest method can only result in trust. Unethical people are not trusted. To that I say ‘duh’.
• Common Sense. Some call this No nonsense, but it really doesn’t matter how you frame it. If a commonly held idea works, run with it. There is no reason to change something based on simply wanting change. If something works, you roll with it. I have been mostly going to the same barber for almost 20 years. Why? Because she cuts my hair the I want her to.
• Transparency. And while I leave this as my last point, it is the most important. Nothing for the common good can happen in darkness. Mark Twain says it best;
“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.â€
Giving truthful information to the public in a timely manner will never bite you in the ass. You can always say later, ‘I told you so.’
I know I am wishful thinking right now that our elected officials will do the right thing, but they won’t unless they apply simple rules. Now excuse me while I enjoy some peanut butter and toast.