Rethinking: Aliens invade and humanity pulls together to fight them

I downloaded Michigan’s COVID data. The number of new cases per day peaked at 1388 this week. This has been a steady rise since the end of June, though a much slower rise compared to the outbreaks last October and March. The number of deaths per day has been 12 and under for eight weeks, since mid June. Deaths have not been rising following the rise in cases. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos, working on research by ProPublica, reported that the Republican tax cut for the wealthy in 2017 was a custom fit for particular billionaires – just 82 households saved over $1 billion. The bill started with a general outline. Then it went through hundreds of hands, blatantly and directly influenced by lobbyists, who inserted deals to help out particular rich people. Some of these deals were touted as benefiting mom-and-pop businesses, though most of the benefit went to the top 0.1%. Sumner wrote:

The Republican Party exists to service these people, and Trump’s tax bill gave them exactly what they wanted. At this point, Republicans exist only to defend that bill, and billionaires are willing to tolerate a little insurrection and a few hundred thousand deaths. It doesn’t just keep their taxes low, it keeps their taxes net-negative.

From my understanding the purpose of these tax cuts wasn’t so much to keep the money in the hands of super rich people, but to keep the money out of the hands of poor people, to make their lives more miserable. The tax cut also prevents (as Republicans keep telling us) the US government from having enough money to offer service to the poor to relieve their oppression. Joan McCarter of Kos reported that just a few days after the Senate voted on the bipartisan infrastructure package they voted on the outlines of the $3.5 trillion infrastructure package that will bypass a Republican filibuster. The outline passed 50-49 because one GOP senator was not there. But bypassing the filibuster means that the amendment process cannot be shut down and Republicans threw all they could at it. The actual vote was at 4:00 am. McCarter wrote of one particular statement made after the outline passed:

That work done, Sen. Joe Manchin, promptly became the turd in the punchbowl of Biden's aspirations Wednesday morning, with a statement outlining his concerns. His "serious" concerns over the "grave consequences" for the future of spending that much money. Manchin apparently hasn't had time to read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report about the grave consequences we're already living with due to not spending trillions of dollars to avoid climate change. Manchin's deficit peacock shrieks are unwittingly and darkly ironic. He decries the "negative effects on our children and grandchildren" of adding to the national debt, ignoring the fact that our children and grandchildren are facing a world where basic existence is under threat. He says the economy, based on absolutely no concrete evidence, is "on the verge of overheating." How rich is that? No, inflation is not the "overheating" thing to worry about right now.

Chitown Kev, in his pundit roundup for Kos, quoted Laura Zhou of the South China Morning Post. China recalled its ambassador to Lithuania because that little country set up diplomatic offices in Taiwan. China insists Taiwan isn’t a separate country, but one of their own provinces. Zhou wrote:

Hours after Beijing‘s announcement, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that as a sovereign country, Lithuania would decide its foreign policy for itself and urged Beijing to change its decision. “Sino-Lithuanian relations should be based on the principle of mutual respect. Otherwise, the dialogue turns into one-sided ultimatums, which is unacceptable in international relations,” he told the Baltic News Service. “At the same time, as a sovereign state, Lithuania itself decides with which states or territories to develop economic and cultural relations, without violating its international obligations.”

Kerry Eleveld of Kos has another story about governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas are making sure the children of their state cannot be protected from COVID. One new detail is DeSantis received $7 billion from the federal government to help the state’s schools reopen safely. He has spent none of it. The White House is looking to give money directly to school districts. Eleveld wrote:

The fact we are even forced to discuss the politics of putting kids' lives at risk is unfathomable. But that is exactly where the extremist ideology of today’s Republican Party has landed us. The message of DeSantis and Abbott is crystal clear: Sorry, kids, you're on your own. The GOP has turned into such a pro-plague death cult that both governors are more than happy to put children’s lives on the line to score a few political points with their base. ... DeSantis, Abbott, and other GOP governors are now the face of the delta surge, brought to you by an extremist anti-science, pro-pandemic Republican Party. If justice indeed exists in this universe, the GOP's willingness to sacrifice the lives of children in service of political gain will sink the party in 2022 just like it sank Donald Trump in 2020.

Lauren Floyd of Kos reported that dozens of parents from a half-dozen counties have sued DeSantis over his ban of mask mandates. The Florida constitution says that public officials must “ensure that Florida’s schools operate safely” according to the suit. A judge will hear the suit promptly. Sumner has his own post about Abbott and DeSantis (I’m old enough to think about Abbott and Costello and it seems I’m not that far off) and added Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota. SD includes the town of Sturgis, where a huge motorcycle rally happening about now will definitely not be masked for the second year. It was a superspreader event last year, with attendees taking the virus back to their home states. This year the virus spreads faster and is deadlier. Sumner wrote:

Every author or filmmaker who ever created a book or a movie around the theme of “Aliens invade, and humanity pulls together to fight them” needs to do a major rethink. Because we just had that scenario. And one of America’s two major parties chose Team Alien.

A couple days after the earlier post Eleveld reported what has happened in Florida over those two days. One thing that happened, as Eleveld wrote:

Explaining that the delta variant is "airborne," DeSantis offered simply, "We just have to understand when that's happening, these waves are something you just have to deal with." Sorry folks, we’re sitting ducks here. That was the message from DeSantis, as if getting vaccinated and masking up—the two most highly effective preventative measures—weren't worth a mention.

That, and everything else, prompted Eleveld to give a new name to Florida’s top guy: Gov. DeathSentence.