Wuhan Killer Sneeze (thanks Tea)

[version]

The shock really is the virus itself. And it has been managed in a way that is maximising confusion and minimising protection. I don’t think that’s a conspiracy, that’s just the way the U.S. government and Trump have utterly mismanaged this crisis. Trump has so far treated this not as a public health crisis but as a crisis of perception, and a potential problem for his reelection.

It’s the worst-case scenario, especially combined with the fact that the U.S. doesn’t have a national health care program and its protections for workers are abysmal. This combination of forces has delivered a maximum shock. It’s going to be exploited to bail out industries that are at the heart of most extreme crises that we face, like the climate crisis: the airline industry, the gas and oil industry, the cruise industry – they want to prop all of this up.

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/...avirus-and-disaster-capitalism-shock-doctrine

 

[john eden]

Knocked cafe OTO on the head for now.

Saw Eddie Prevost last week at Ilklectic and he is now old and blind and still amazing.




But I don’t want his demise on my conscience and the same would be true of the ageing performers and audience at OTO.

 

[sufi]

Knocked cafe OTO on the head for now.

 

[sufi]

I'm beginning to feel a bit calmer about all this than a couple of days ago, i've helped make some good arrangements for my vulnerable people, which is a great weight off. and this place has helped get perspective, thanks all

so to share north london balcony stories of the virus (as balconies of wuhan and italy have become a thing):

• in the middle of thursday night i was listening to the birds, they seemed to be singing extra loud "humans humans you got the virus, we're getting our planet back, humans got the virus!" just hope that avians are not susceptable to this one
  
  
• by the middle of the night last night, on the balcony i heard a neighbour's dry cough and felt anxious for a moment, ... til i smelt that distinctive aroma of strong skunk
  :crylarf:

 

[Corpsey]

Can't Trump die at least? We need a silver lining here.

 

[IdleRich]

I've been hoping that for the longest time. I felt a bit down when he announced that he has tested negative but then I realised that he lies all the time and so he might still have it. Also I've seen reports that it was a mix-up, it was actually his IQ test that came back negative....
Anyway, yeah, in Lisbon they've been doing that thing where they cheer the workers and so on, but here where I live there aren't really any noticeable effects, good or bad. Streets a bit quieter I guess.

 

[Corpsey]

It feels like this whole situation COULD make people nicer and more concerned about each other, and realise just how scummy the Tory agenda is...

Otoh it could make everyone a lot worse. Scared people are more selfish.

What I've found really weird about this is how it's sort of hollowed out a system that usually seems (to me anyway) as invincible and inevitable as the sun rising and setting. The empty shelves alone, almost reminds me of Ballard's empty swimming pools.

You can see how already stuff that would have seemed important (film releases e.g.) a few weeks ago even now just seems pathetically irrelevant. Very strange.

It's the most strange protracted experience I've ever had. A bit like when a terrorist attack happens, but more drawn out, if that makes sense?

Perhaps (forgive me here if I'm talking shit, I recognise I'm totally politically nonplussed) this is a chink in the facade of"capitalist realism"?

 

[Leo]

Decided against my better judgment to pop in here and glad I did.

Martin, I'm sincerely sorry to have pissed you off. I feel like you misunderstood of my post, which wasn't in reaction to any one comment in this thread (I'm sure I read yours but at this point don't recall what it said). Mine was meant as a post about being deluged with this stuff via TV and online news all day and longing for an occasional brief refuge. I would never express an issue with the good advice and help put forth here, of course that's a positive and needed thing.

I apologize for posting something that upset you, I should have been clearer. Please understand I honestly did not mean it the way you took it.

 

[IdleRich]

I think that was all a misunderstanding, I never read your post as aimed at him.
Corpsey, I dunno, one of those things that could go either way I guess. Did you see Darren Grimes posting a pic on Twitter saying that these empty shelves give us a vision of what could have happened under Corbyn? He's been soundly slapped down with everyone saying "but it's showing us what actually IS happening under Johnson".
In Italy they caught some big mafia guy cos they interviewed a guy who was outside and his excuse of buying vital groceries seemed weird in an area of supposedly empty villas so they followed him back and found a fugitive mob boss.

 

[constant escape]

Perhaps (forgive me here if I'm talking shit, I recognise I'm totally politically nonplussed) this is a chink in the facade of"capitalist realism"?

I haven't read capitalist realism, but I suppose a quake of a high enough magnitude can crumble anything. The question could also be figured as: Will this prove just to be the highest hurdle capitalism is capable of clearing, or will it finally stumble? That is to say, in what manner will we continue to orient ourselves around growth? Does a chink in the facade of capitalist realism equate to a chink in the public's image of capitalism?

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Crisis is integral to capitalism and so is valuing profit above people

the reason the U.S. has less hospital beds per capita than Italy (!!) is that it doesn't make economic sense, with our terrible health care system, to build hospitals that won't operate in normal circumstances at relatively close to peak capacity

that insane press conference on Friday was Trump and a bunch of pharma etc CEOs. our top virologist, one other doctor, and like 10 CEOs.

also, Trump + co came out a half hour after the scheduled start time, almost certainly so as to time the press conference to the stock market - i.e., the market jumps as Trump declares (far too late) national emergency and some kind of coordinated response, then trading closes right before the Q+A, which will obviously expose the many gaping holes in what he's just said.

 

[version]

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

that intense infatuation with the stock market as a measure of his own success is particular to Trump

but he's only a heightened version of those inherent driving ambitions in capitalism, and especially our current iteration of it

what are some of the reasons we're in a bad situation to handle a pandemic?

our health care system is primarily devoted to profit, rather than caring for people, so that's the logic by which it builds and distributes resources. we don't build enough hospitals. virology research isn't (to my understanding) profitable, so it doesn't have enough resources devoted to it. many people won't get tested because they can't afford it, because they can't afford reasonable health insurance. and so on.

this isn't - like 2008 - a crisis directly from within capitalism (although it is related, as an above article noted, to the drive for profit in industrial agriculture, deforestation, etc), but we're in a bad place to deal with it largely because of the logic of profit>>people.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

contra some people above, I'm not rooting for Trump to die from coronavirus

if he does, I think it will increase the chaos here so greatly that any benefit won't be worth it. possibly in the longer-term, but we have to make it there.

almost certainly some portion of his base will refuse to believe it wasn't some kind of conspiracy.

and it would leave us with Pence, which is not an upgrade. he's basically a cryptofascist, and I wouldn't be surprised if he jumped right to martial law.

tbf, the lunatic part of Trump's base probably won't believe election results either, but a stable transfer of power would be ideal

granted that wasn't guaranteed even under ideal circumstances, let alone now

 

[droid]

I think its important to try to come to terms with what's happening here.

• There will be deaths, hopefully they wont hit too close to home, but its quite possible.
  
• Its going to last a long time, probably until June, possibly a lot longer.
  
• This is NOT the apocalypse
  
• Everything will be very different afterwards.

Luckily, as well as being stupid and fearful, people are also compassionate, adaptable and resilient, even when systems and governments are shit. Also, as prompts for possible radical restructurings of society go, it could be far, far worse.

So - isolate, look out for yourselves and your family first, check in on your friends and neighbours, try and help the vulnerable however you can and prepare for the worst.

But also be hopeful for the future, cos this ain't the thing thats gonna get us.

 

[droid]

contra some people above, I'm not rooting for Trump to die from coronavirus

Nah, fuck him. I hope he drowns in his own pus along with Bolsonaro.

 

[sufi]

That does make the mutual aid efforts seem quite complicated then, there’s one in my area but I’ll be very wary of going near elderly people for the time being

,

There’s a safeguarding training for Mutual Aid Networks hosted by the National Food Service on Tuesday at 6.30pm, zoom details will be announced nearer the time, this is the FB link for the event.

 

[IdleRich]

But isn't it true that if Trump and Pence are out of action the person who will become caretaker president is Pelosi? I'd be happy with that.

 

[IdleRich]

That wrestling thing was fucking funny Version, stealing it.

 

[IdleRich]

Agreed re Trump. If the problem with modern society is that it values money and the economy above human life and other things, then Trump takes that to an extreme by boiling how well the economy is doing to one single number - the level of the stock market.