New Revelations About GOP Governors Prove That COVID-19 Has Truly Been An American Genocide

[appalachiablue]

Daily Kos, March 29, 2021. - Ed.

We are now more than a year into social distancing and isolating, of staring at the walls of our homes, of mourning loved ones and worrying about our own health, of fretting about finances, of raging at the ignorance of others, of wondering this wondering when this will all end. At least 563,000 Americans dead of the virus and likely far more than that. Over 31 million confirmed cases. Poverty rising to rates unseen since the Great Depression.
When time provides some buffer and perspective, it will be impossible to recognize the pandemic in the United States as anything but a genocide — at least to those unblinkered by American exceptionalism). With that many deaths driven by cruelty and politics, there’s no other word for it.





As I obsessively chronicled for much of 2020, Republicans consciously ignored all scientists, medical professionals, and policy experts, choosing to instead encourage and even force their own constituents to march towards their own doom. The facts are coming out now; in her apology tour, Trump enabler Deborah Birx just estimated that more than 400,000 American lives were lost due to Trump’s blatant and purposeful mishandling of the virus. But Trump wasn’t the only Republican leader that was grossly negligent and willingly homicidal. Republicans across the country, from senators to governors and state legislators, downplayed the virus and spread lies about it from the moment it arrived and began killing Americans by the dozen.

They did it with an election in mind, knowing that people of color were dying at higher rates and that stoking inane and vulgar culture wars allows GOP powerbrokers to continue their plunder of the American people and the dying planet. The virus wasn’t preventable, but much of the devastation could and should have been avoided. Yesterday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke a story revealing just how much Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp ignored scientists, doctors, and anyone else with any humanity in his mission to please big business and own the libs:

- This examination found Kemp’s administration was slow to act on early warnings about the pandemic’s severity. The governor’s aides, not public health officials, often determined strategy to contain the virus and dictated public messaging. And the state withheld critical information showing the pandemic was worsening as Kemp lifted restrictions. Kemp was one of the nation’s last governors to issue lockdown orders last spring — and then the first to begin lifting them, 22 days later. He never required Georgians to wear face coverings in public, even as 36 other states and DC imposed mask mandates and as a White House task force strongly lobbied him to follow suit - ...

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/3/29/2023529/-New-revelations-ensure-that-COVID-19-will-go-down-as-an-American-genocide-perpetrated-by-Republicans
___________

- The GOP has been fascist at least since the 1932 'Business Plot' to overthrow FDR, minus Ike who was pro-union, pro-Soc. Sec. and almost a Dem.

I'm currently looking down the barrel at two loved ones lost from Republican genocide, my brother from Reagan's Aids denial, and now the love of my life struggling with Covid induced stroke and side effects. God damn them all.

[murielm99]

1. I am so sorry for your losses.

They are all of our losses, truly.

[appalachiablue]

3. Thanks much Muriel, their shame

is our cross to bear for now but hopefully that will change. A new awakening is critical. It's got to happen.

[lagomorph777]

2. Genocide is really the correct word.

It wasn't incompetent response; it was competent murder.

[appalachiablue]

4. It's exactly the word, Thom H. called it

last spring, a year ago. Genocidal murder.

[catrose]

17. That's what I've felt all along. At every chance to make things better, they deliberately didn't.

And worked to make things worse

[2naSalit]

5. Crimes against humanity.

[murielm99]

6. The Butcher of Maralago.

Not original with me. I can't remember where I saw it.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. I wouldn't give Ike such a blanket pass

I read Jean Edward Smith's “Eisenhower in War and Peace". Ike's policies mirrored GOP Congressional priorities at a time when it was unthinkable and unpopular to oppose the legacy of the New Deal. I don't recall a lot about the book (a good read btw, but more on that in a moment), but I do recall Ike pulling some Republican maneuvers in his tenure as president of Columbia University, and his reluctance to support domestic spending and his preference for Wall Street.

Smith was a great biographer to read. He relied on well-researched and often obscure anecdotes that painted a hint of caricature in the personalities of his subjects. One thing I do recall is the irony of Eisenhower. He fed at the government trough his entire life, and the salaries senior military were paid as early as 1910 was astounding, I seem to recall figures of $800 per month rising to more than twice that, and they were given upscale (at the time) government paid housing at taxpayer expense, very high pay for the time period. This was the guy who wanted to reign in domestic spending and favor private enterprise as president.

[KS Toronado]

11. Lincoln and Ike are the only 2 decent republican presidents ever IMHO

Ike raised taxes on the wealthy & business and I'm guessing he had to fight fellow republicans to do it.

[bucolic_frolic]

12. Don't guess. Read biographies! ./nt

[wnylib]

13. It was under Ike that the groundwork was

laid for an invasion of Cuba. Nixon was expected to win in 1960 and follow through on it. Kennedy initially opposed the plan, then reluctantly agreed to it on the condition that the Cuban people would join in overthrowing Castro. If they were against it, Kennedy said he would not back the CIA with military. This led to the Bayy of Pigs fiasco.

People in Ike's administration were also connected personally to United Fruit and encouraged the Central American dictators who would keep the population in line so the corporations like United Fruit could prosper. I was only a kid then, but I remember TV coverage of VP Nixon being booed on a trip to Latin America with signs and chants of "Yankee go home."

It was also under Ike that the US and UK overthrew the democratically elected leader of Iran in order to preserve oil profits. This led to the dictatorship of the Shah and yesrs later, to the Iranian revolution and capture of US diplomats at the US Embassy in Tehran.

[bucolic_frolic]

14. Good examples of bank loans front-running capitalist investment and strong men

John Perkins, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man".

We do it over and over. It was the same battle in Eastern Europe post-WWII. Soviets wanted their government to rake the profits from those countries. We wanted free elections and capitalism and banking.

Agriculture, mining, oil, resources, labor. Africa is being divvied up as we speak.

[Botany]

22. Ike opposed any military operation in Cuba

n/t

[wnylib]

23. I think you've mixed up Ike with Jack.

Look up the Trinidad Plan and how it got that name.

[Botany]

24. No I had a family member who knew people in Ike's White House

Ike was against any military action against Castro.

[wnylib]

25. Then why did Ike authorize the CIA

to form a paramilitary group to overthrow Castro? The main idea was to recruit Cubans to fight, but when an action like that is undertaken, it requires some military backup, as JFK found out and refused to give. Nobody would understand that the military would get drawn in better than a general who commanded the allied troops in the WWII European theater. Regardless of what Ike SAID, he had to know that his authorization of the CIA to overthrow Castro would result in troop involvement.

[ad121rome]

8. Number 1

The Butcher Of MaraLargo, that has a nice ring to it. It will look good in print. Trump always says he’s number one at everything, well this is a record for any other President to beat. No other President has lost so many and done so little to contain it. He is on the hook for 500,000 deaths on his watch, that would make a great marble monolith around his Presidential library. All the names of all the people who were infected and died because of his sheer incompetence. Nobody could say he doesn’t deserve that outstanding recognition as number 45 rides into the record books.

[Duppers]

15. Great idea!

Only I rather doubt he'll ever have a library, because, you know he never read anything.

If there ever were a DJT library, the only thing it should contain would be his old BlackBerry.

[monkeyman1]

9. shame to say " ronny death sentence in Florida still is doing this ".

[peppertree]

10. To say nothing if it's ever confirmed

that this was a bio-warfare attack ordered by Cheeto by way of retaliation (using mercenaries, as he did in Operation Gideon against Venezuela).

No one knows, of course - and we probably never will.

[Duppers]

16. Sorry to know that...

the love of your life is struggling with a Covid induced stroke & side effects.

And Yes, "God damn them all."

[appalachiablue]

18. Thanks Duppers, what a Hell year it's been

for far too many in this world. Better times ahead I hope.

[LaMouffette]

19. My heart goes out to you and to your loved one struggling with Covid, appalachiablue!

And I'm so sorry for the loss of your brother!

Trump and his enablers are mass murderers. As you know, it's not only the 560,000 plus victims of Covid, but the millions of family members and friends whose lives are wrecked forever by their loved ones' senseless, preventable deaths.

These evil bastards must be held accountable.

[appalachiablue]

21. Merci La Moufette, there has to be

a major reckoning for this crime of mass inhumanity and suffering. So much has been changed yet we must stay strong somehow and work for the future.

[seta1950]

20. It is genocide

When knowing that he is sick a so called president takes secret service agents on a ride, for his ego, when 500.000 people die unnecessarily, because of the gop criminal neglect, I could go on and on.

[AllyCat]

26. Oh no, AB. I am so sorry this has hit your family so close

Republicans are the masters of kill to make money. They have no concern for anyone but themselves and their big donors. This pandemic has laid it bare.

Peace to you and your much loved partner.

[appalachiablue]

27. The sociopathic predators and

greedheads that have flourished here for 40 years have to be rooted out for the sake of our democracy and survival. It's deadly serious.

Right now this personal challenge is getting every resource possible and we're hoping for the best. Your kind words are much appreciated, peace to you.