A world leader in converting its citizens into coronavirus deaths

I downloaded Michigan coronavirus data this morning. I am usually skeptical of the last couple weeks of data because it gets revised, usually upward. Even so, the last week of data is troubling. The peak in this week was 1231 new cases in a day and is already higher than last week’s peak of 1081 new cases in a day. The last time one week’s peak was higher than the previous week was back at the end of December. This rise (thankfully small so far) is likely because restaurants in Michigan resumed in-person dining a couple weeks ago, though at a quarter capacity. A year ago I had lunch with friends after the morning church service. We would rotate through a few favorite restaurants. It has been a year since we’ve been together, though I did have lunch in a park with two of them last summer. The organizer of our group called this week, saying now that her church is back to in-person services the group would be going out to lunch. Would I like to come along? I declined. They are all older than I am and a couple, perhaps all of them, have had at least one dose of the vaccine. I haven’t. I’m not yet eligible and I’m content to wait my turn. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported on the state of the pandemic.

At the moment, the United States appears to have reached another of those case-count plateaus, this one at around 70,000 new cases per day. Next to the point where the seven-day moving average exceeded 250,000 cases a day on Jan. 11, that may seem fantastic, but it is still astoundingly awful. It’s also a sign that the United States, despite everything, has not broken out of the pattern that has made this nation a world leader in converting its citizens into coronavirus deaths. The first spike of the virus in the early spring of 2020 saw daily cases exceed 30,000, before settling back to a long period around 20,000 cases a day. The second spike that summer took cases to near 70,000, after which they retreated to several months of around 40,000 cases a day. Finally, the big spike at the end of winter took cases over 250,000, and now they’ve retreated … but only to a point. Each new spike of cases has seen the United States fall back, not anything like safety, but to a level that exceeds the worst of the previous spike. That still appears to be the case.

Sometimes I wonder about Democrats. They seem to be afraid to use their power. I’m not the only one to notice this. The current example is about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour as part of the big virus relief package. Joan McCarter of Kos reports on the current efforts. Her story was posted yesterday noon as the House was preparing to vote on the package (which was passed yesterday evening). The Senate parliamentarian has ruled that raising the minimum wage doesn’t belong in a budget bill – a budget bill is being used to prevent a filibuster. Several Democrats are crying foul because of some things that have been included in previous budget bills. Many of them ran on raising the minimum wage This evening Michel Martin of NPR spoke to Democratic advisors Maria Cardona and David Sirota. Early in the 11 minute segment Sirota described what the Senate could do next. VP Kamala Harris could overrule the parliamentarian and when the GOP challenges her they would be required to get 60 votes. But back to being wimpy. Yesterday morning President Biden withdrew Harris from the process. Is he concerned about the two conservative Democrats Manchen of WV and Sinema of AZ? Do those two senators believe that some Americans don’t deserve a living wage? Larua Clawson of Kos added that Sinema and Manchen had declared if the parliamentarian said no they would vote no. So … Onward to Plan B. Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Finance Committee has created a plan to penalize big corporations that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour. The plan would also give a tax credit to small business if they raise the pay of their workers. This plan would replace the minimum wage part of the relief package. Since it directly affects taxes and tax credits it should pass the parliamentarian. Clawson mentioned several GOP senators who are lying about the minimum wage. Here’s one of several examples:

Sen. Roger Marshall would like us to know that he paid for college and graduated debt-free by working minimum wage. He did that at a time when it took 343 hours of minimum wage work to pay the tuition at Kansas State University, which he attended. Today it would take an average of 1,214 hours of minimum wage work to pay tuition at a state university. That’s the difference between working less than seven hours a week year-round and having your college tuition and working more than 23 hours a week year-round.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post also has more examples with analysis. An example of someone who thinks the Dems are wimpy: Jessica Byrd tweeted:

The GOP tried to kill you all and everyone is suffering. Howwwwwwwww is grief and rage not fueling Democratic leaders? HOW. There is a lack of courage in the Democratic Party. No amount of diversity programming or well crafted tweets will change that. Its not “strategy” or “process” that we don’t understand. You are not willing to be uncomfortable. And that’s why we don’t trust you. I mean they tried to kill you. Let alone have been killing all of us for generations. And you’re “disappointed” that people starving won’t get more help AND YOU HAVE THE POWER TO LEAD.

Bree Newsome tweeted about the minimum wage:

People seem to forget that, outside of the real limits on earth’s natural resources, “the economy” is a completely human-made invention that we constantly structure & re-structure. The idea that we can’t have a functioning economy & pay living wages is false & makes no sense. To say people can’t operate small businesses & pay their employees livable wages is the clearest indication of a broken, dysfunctional economy. It means the business isn’t truly solvent & can’t afford its employees. The entire capitalist economy is constantly choked by wealth hoarding of billionaire class & multinational corporations. This prevents equitable flow of capital to 99% of the population, leaving small businesses & their employees overworked, underpaid & unable to compete. Beyond that, the debate against livable wages is just another reminder this society began in slavery. Many wld’ve gladly maintained it, wld gladly return to it now if they cld. Since they can’t, they actively work to keep people as close to a condition of slavery as possible.

And:

Capitalist logic says minimum wage hurts small businesses because the original capitalist model for starting a small business was to kidnap people & force them & all of their descendants to work for free for generations.