I do not see how, even with Biden as POTUS, the US will stop COVID-19
Last edited Wed Oct 21, 2020, 11:39 AM - Edit history (1)
100 million (or so) MAGAts and their families, plus their non-voting brethren, plus the Red/Purple states (especially with Rethug Governors) power structures (and local Red areas as well) in full coronaviral rebellion equals:
1. They will not socially distance, and I suspect they will only increase their violent attacks on mask wearers and social distancers, or people to try to force the insurrectionists to comply
2. They will not close their businesses, even temporarily in numbers large enough to have universal systemic impact
3. They will not wear masks, they will not stop meeting in large groups
4. A huge number (some non Rethugs too) will not take a vaccine (which will be only partially effective IF one is even found)
5. Local law enforcement in many cases will not enforce shit (even in Blue states)
6. They will not close schools in many cases, they will not close their churches, nor their sporting events, in so many cases
7. The will travel to states and areas in their own states that ARE following safety regulations and practices, and spread it there
8. They will violently resist orders, and it will get FAR worse when it is a Democratic POTUS who is trying to crack down
9. A defeated Trump and other RW sources (Fux Newz, OANN, hate radio, hate internet, YT, Twitter, FB, etc etc) will stir up insurrection, resistance, non-compliance non-stop resistance and sabotage of Biden and all Democratic attempts at mitigation.
10. Even herd immunity may not work (even after 2 to 3 million plus die) due to mutations, or a going away of T-Cell and antibody immunity, or simply the percentages needed to for herd immunity to work never being reached.
I am sure I have left a lot out, too.
How does Biden change this? Nationwide martial law? That will cause insane violence and resistance, and there just isn't enough enforcement personnel in terms of raw numbers.
Colour me very pessimistic the US can come to grips with the pandemic, even with a massive Blue Wave in the elections. I can see it TRULY becoming a global pariah state, with Americans banned from entering many nations (barring a 2 or 3 week managed quarantine once they fly or drive in) years, and basically being known chiefly as a death projector.
I so, so, so welcome/am-open-to any suggestions/programmes/hopes/alternative scenarios, etc etc that show me as being dead wrong.
= new reply since forum marked as read
That said, martial law was probably not the best subject to toss out in the OP, as it is such a loaded term.
This article was directed at things to worry about with Trump, but is applicable to any POTUS.
The Alarming Scope of the President's Emergency Powers
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/
snip
But will they? Unknown to most Americans, a parallel legal regime allows the president to sidestep many of the constraints that normally apply. The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—more than 100 special provisions become available to him. While many of these tee up reasonable responses to genuine emergencies, some appear dangerously suited to a leader bent on amassing or retaining power. For instance, the president can, with the flick of his pen, activate laws allowing him to shut down many kinds of electronic communications inside the United States or freeze Americans’ bank accounts.
Other powers are available even without a declaration of emergency, including laws that allow the president to deploy troops inside the country to subdue domestic unrest. This edifice of extraordinary powers has historically rested on the assumption that the president will act in the country’s best interest when using them. With a handful of noteworthy exceptions, this assumption has held up. But what if a president, backed into a corner and facing electoral defeat or impeachment, were to declare an emergency for the sake of holding on to power? In that scenario, our laws and institutions might not save us from a presidential power grab. They might be what takes us down.
1. “A LOADED WEAPON”
The premise underlying emergency powers is simple: The government’s ordinary powers might be insufficient in a crisis, and amending the law to provide greater ones might be too slow and cumbersome. Emergency powers are meant to give the government a temporary boost until the emergency passes or there is time to change the law through normal legislative processes. Unlike the modern constitutions of many other countries, which specify when and how a state of emergency may be declared and which rights may be suspended, the U.S. Constitution itself includes no comprehensive separate regime for emergencies. Those few powers it does contain for dealing with certain urgent threats, it assigns to Congress, not the president. For instance, it lets Congress suspend the writ of habeas corpus—that is, allow government officials to imprison people without judicial review—“when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it” and “provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.”
Nonetheless, some legal scholars believe that the Constitution gives the president inherent emergency powers by making him commander in chief of the armed forces, or by vesting in him a broad, undefined “executive Power.” At key points in American history, presidents have cited inherent constitutional powers when taking drastic actions that were not authorized—or, in some cases, were explicitly prohibited—by Congress. Notorious examples include Franklin D. Roosevelt’s internment of U.S. citizens and residents of Japanese descent during World War II and George W. Bush’s programs of warrantless wiretapping and torture after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Abraham Lincoln conceded that his unilateral suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War was constitutionally questionable, but defended it as necessary to preserve the Union. The Supreme Court has often upheld such actions or found ways to avoid reviewing them, at least while the crisis was in progress. Rulings such as Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company v. Sawyer, in which the Court invalidated President Harry Truman’s bid to take over steel mills during the Korean War, have been the exception. And while those exceptions have outlined important limiting principles, the outer boundary of the president’s constitutional authority during emergencies remains poorly defined.
snip
setting up his defense to try to avoid jail. Hopefully that won't work.
I am half Swedish and half Bajan (Barbados)
I have written extensively, in great detail, for well over half a year on Sweden.
Sweden and the RW US framings of COVID are massively different, and there has been an insane amount of disinfo about Sweden pushed out there by so many sides (still is, especially on MSNBC, CNN, and even Fux news, albeit Fux spins it 180-degree opposite) , trying to us us as an example of why they are right and their opponents are wrong.
I will try to summarise quickly and not write pages. I can, if pressed, provide mountains of documentation to back up what I shall say.
1. Sweden NEVER had herd immunity as it goal to deal with COVID-19. This is the biggest disinfo angle shot out there in the US press, and I have debunked it so many times.
2. Sweden has a different level of government power versus the other Nordics in (and most all other Western nations) terms of what can be ordered by our government, The health authorities have far more legal control, barring new sets of laws passed (some have been, but were not in place when the peak was hitting).
3. Sweden's main tragedy with COVID-19 came from our elderly care system, which is run differently than the other Nordics. t is far more open, and far less professionally-staffed (a recent development due to brain drain from us to Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, etc). The workers we now have are far less competent and les trained when taken as a whole. The % of staffing by immigrants and refugees is vastly higher, as is our overall % of population, compared to the other Nordics. The immigrant/refugee populations here were the other main group devastated by COVID-19 (due to sociological and economic issues, especially crowed living arrangement and almost no history of innate social distancing, something Swedes natural do anyway, plus natives and multi generation immigrant Swedes live alone at vastly higher rates). Our numbers were inflated by the sheer higher %'s of impacted groups as well.
4. ALL the other Nordics, not just Sweden, for close to 5, 6 months, said do not wear masks. Norway and Denmark especially (they have changed a bit now, for trains, etc). This is almost never brought up, only Sweden is taken to the woodshed, as we had so many more deaths, again due to elderly and the immigrant sectors that I have documented so many times They did lockdown for a bit near the beginning, and we did not fully (there were and are many restrictions here, another myth is that we were wild west wide open, which is just patently untrue) lockdown. I do wish we had done the lockdown like Norway did.
5.Sweden is vastly more socially-distanced than the RW is in the US. That is a natural social thing here. The main groups who are not are the two that were ravaged (the elderly and the immigrant refugees groups). The RW in the US are disingenuous rotters when they try and say we are like them. we are NOTHING like them. We also are FAR more healthy in terms of most all age groups, especially the 50, 60 year olds and under cohorts. That is why our death count is so so low in the the younger (under 60 years of age) groups.
6. Our level of infection per million is actually fairly low, 48th (and dropping) in the world. Our death rate per million is now 16th, and dropping. Notice the huge difference. We have a huge percentage of deaths becuase it was so so high a percentage of infections in the oldest sectors, the ones most likely to die. It was mostly all front loaded, and has been vastly lowered. I saw an ex CDC head all other lying and saying we were still the worst in the EU and exploding. this was just a couple days ago, and it is a flat out lie.
7. The bottom half (over 5 million people) of our population has had to date, only 31 deaths total. That is for the entire under 40yo population. Zero schoolchildren's have died, only 2 under 20yo have died, a 4 yo and a 1 year old, both with massive comorbidity. This is despite the schools under high school (and some high schools) remaining open the whole time. 99% of all deaths have come from people 50 and older, 96% were 60yo and over over 60yo, 89% of all deaths were 70 years of age and older.
8. As for our economy, we did better than almost all of the EU in Q1, better than many in Q2 (again there was a tonne of disinfo initially sloshed around out there based off a faulty flash estimate from earlier), but still took a large hit, and will continue to take hits, although in 2021 we should recover a lot. We are extremely export-driven, with manufacturing making up a high percentage of that, so the global supply change seizing up hurt us, as did decreased demands for out exports. Our internal consumption was more robust.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
front loaded deaths, vastly reduced rate of death now (due to our incredibly poor handing of the lederly care homes and scattered site housing)
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/09f821667ce64bf7be6f9f87457ed9aa
last double digit death day was over 3 months ago (11 deaths on July 18th)
deaths were are are massively skewed to the oldest sectors
"A mask is not a political statement. Its an IQ test".
Make wearing a mask the smart thing to do. Make it the PATRIOTIC thing to do. 
I think escalating fines are a good idea for non-compliance. Big fine if you insist on having a party, jail time if you have a second one. Same penalty for companies that don't comply--at the top, not the workers on the job being forced to follow orders or lose their jobs.
Insist/encourage states to have testing checkpoints at their borders. Law officers who refuse to enforce laws are fired. No second chances.
There are pretty strict laws about insurrection. Enforce them at ALL levels.
huge power cut that affected 50K or so people here in Södermalm (Stockholm), so I couldn't correct it until now.
Your other points are valid and thank you for them.
Because that's how Biden doesn't make it past his first year. The mere mention of it would cause conservatives to go apeshit. Like seriously rabid levels of apeshit crazy. 
... after Gov. DeWine finally announced a statewide mask mandate.
I never imagined the mandate would make much of a difference, considering the hostility that I saw when I was in the extreme minority of mask-wearers here, but it did.
