Despite Stocks Cratering Donnie Bonespurs Continues To Try To Gaslight Reality- Putting Us All At Risk

"It's MY news turn! That virus is takin' away my blame the Dems an' fake news act! BWAHAHAA!"

"Whereas his supporters can be lied to and gaslighted, a virus cannot. A virus is going to do what a virus does. Viruses are not thinking and aware. Technically, they’re not even living things. They are like an army of androids, multiplying as they attack and infect living things. So none of the tricks that Trump has learned and deployed will work against this virus. Only science, honesty, prudence and genuine concern for public safety will work now."  Charles Blow, NY Times, 'You Can't Gaslight A Virus'

"This virus can't be bluffed or bullied and will soon become Mr. Trump's greatest adversary."     Walter Russell Mead, The Wall Street Journal, , 'Trump and the Pandemic', today, p. A15

"At a moment  citizens are turning to the government for facts and assurance,  Trump has been immersing himself  in grievances and feuds with Democrats and other perceived enemies."-  The Washington Post, today,  'Trump Struggles For Calm As Virus Spreads'

"This crisis has unhelmed and unmasked him. He’s incapable of leading. When it comes to Trump, truth, decency and self-possession have been in quarantine from the start.".  Jennifer Senior, NY Times, 'Trump Is Unfit For This Crisis, Period'. 

You just had to love it if you are a Trump hater: The Washington Post story Sunday of how the blustering 73 year -old brat baby occupying the White House was pitching fits because the coronavirus was knocking him off the news cycle.  "How dare that virus get more attention than me!"   Yeah, but see, sonny, you regard the media as fake news anyway so why the bawling?

Before that the clueless imbecile and dyspeptic buffoon had immortalized himself by way of a number of incidents embodying how chaotic his responses have been:

-  When visiting the CDC on Friday spent 45 minutes hurling epithets including that Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington- was a "snake"

-  Then quickly asking if his town hall on FOX News "got good ratings"

- Then bragging how every doctor at the CDC proclaimed how Doturd "knew so much"

- To which his answer was "Maybe I have a natural ability"

Uh yeah, to pull bullshit out of your ass and then toss it out for public consumption - even when you have to know it's shit

But the most crucial aspect is the number of testing kits, the current shortage of which is leaving us in the dark,  essentially "driving blind" as one health expert quoted on CBS put it yesterday morning.   Given the lack of such kits and appropriate testing, especially of vulnerable populations - like the uninsured- there is little doubt this snafu is allowing the virus to spread.

To fix ideas, even de facto virus "czar" Mike Pence has admitted it "could be a matter of weeks"  before test kits are widely available. In the interim the COVID-19 virus could spread not just to thousands but tens of thousands,  Already we know no less than five Reepo lawmakers  - who came into contact with a known carrier of the coronavirus.  Included in the contacts are Matt Gaetz of Florida and Doug Collins of Georgia who announced yesterday that they had begun two weeks of self-imposed isolation.  

Gaetz himself flew with Trump on Air Force One from Orlando to Washington on Monday and was informed en route that he had come into contact with a virus carrier at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland last month.  Meanwhile, Trump has falsely claimed the virus is “contained” in the United States and accused the media and Democrats of exaggerating the threat it poses, in an effort to make him a one turner.  The execrable maggot seems not to grasp he's doing that to himself.

As for his co-maggots at FAUX News (like Laura Ingraham) who claim this is all a "Left virus plot against the President" - they had better hope Dotard (given his age) doesn't come down with this and end up on a ventilator.   Then they will see just how much of a hoax or "fake news" COVID-19 really is.   See e.g.

• CPAC attendees insist COVID-19 is no big deal; freak out when it turns out they were exposed  

Apart from the clownish actions at CPAC and the downplaying tactics of Trump and his FOX tools, the most critical issue remains how they've screwed the pooch with the test kits.  Thanks to the Trumpies blowing it with the test kits (not having a Plan B ready in case the CDC flubbed it - as they did with an early version of the test) not every one who wants or needs a test can get it, That, btw, includes nurses and other health care workers on the front lines.  And more than one of these medical workers has made it known our hospitals are nowhere near ready to handle a mass influx of infected people - subsequently found to be positive for COVID-19.

In the midst of this is the orange fungal growth with a red MAGA cap, who believes he is the one who ought to be at the top of the news cycle, and only in a positive fashion  - because he's doing everything "perfectly".  Yeah, right, perfectly wrong. Including lying his fat orange ass off by claiming something everyone with an IQ over room temperature knows is flagrantly false, i.e.:

"Anyone who wants a test can get a test.. Anybody right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test, they're there.  And the tests are beautiful."

Can anyone believe this maggot-ridden asswipe?   I mean, just after this spooge fest we heard governor after governor and doctor after doctor  state this was categorically untrue given all states are in dire need of test kits and testing.  This was echoed by Dr. Walter Mills - president of the California Academy of Family Physicians who   told The San Jose Mercury News:  “We have no local testing available,” 

And then Trump has the absolute temerity to squawk about the "Fake news and democrats" trying to bring him down, while his  FOX News acolytes acts as accessories after the fact. Now, I wouldn't believe this gaslighting POS pretender  if he called an emergency press conference tonight and said the COVID-19 vaccine will be ready in May.   The fact now is thanks to the Trump cabal's fumble on the test kits, there are nowhere near enough available for those who need them.  And without the test kits and strategic testing we can't know how widespread the virus is, or even its fatality rate.

But this so -called leader doesn't even recognize that you can't simply spout falsehoods about a critical test because you wish it were true, or you are trying to throw the media off its game.  Which is actually its duty to alert the American people - including Trump's zombie horde- of where we stand in confronting COVID-19.

What is Trump's game and why is he really so furious at the virus for making it impossible for him to control the news stream?  It is because he's being exposed as the shameless con man he is for trying to manage perceptions.   The dope came right out and spouted this regarding the cruise ship off San Francisco last week, where 21 had tested positive for the virus:

"I like the numbers being where they are.  I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship.  But if they do take em off then the 240 will probably be a much higher number and the 11 too."

Confirming once and for all this two-legged cockroach is unfit to lead, hell even to scrub a toilet.  He I so wrapped up in his solipsistic world of ego and entitlement he can't even see the markets are giving him a total thumbs down as president.  With the 2,000 point dive yesterday it's clear they also aren't buying any of his codswallop.  Why would they, given he's shown he's not serious about dealing with the COVID-19 but rather trying to bullshit the populace on Main Street and the traders on Wall Street using daft promises and happy talk?

Meanwhile, Trump's Reeptardo minions are desperately trying to save his orange carcass by trotting out BS that won't make a dime's worth of difference, like "targeted tax cuts" - compliments of  senile Chuck Grassley.  Oh, and "payroll tax cuts" - which is the last thing we need given they will only hasten the insolvency of Social Security.  For reference, the average increase in weekly wages from such a cut is about $15:00, or chump change.  Simply not worth the blow to Social Security, so the House Dems ought to fight it tooth and nail.

Worse, none of these efforts will relieve the enormously leveraged markets, i.e. based on investors' using debt to purchase shares - say $1 of personal money for every $9 debt - to get a $10 share.  This is a house of cards ready to collapse. Thus, even if the markets buy into Trump's bloviations  and "fixes" it will do nada to relieve the debt pressures ready to explode.  And if anyone doesn't think the COVID-19 virus can't be the great unraveler they need to read the WSJ article 'Network Effects Multiply A Viral Outbreak'  (March 6, p. A 17).

What is actually needed, as any rational (even non-finance ) person can see are supply side (fiscal) aids such as: indefinite paid leave for all working families,  increased unemployment insurance for anyone laid off in the current economic doldrums - and as shutdowns continue,  free testing for COVID-19 for those lacking insurance, and free access to healthcare facilities for all those showing symptoms.   One also can argue for an increase in medical capacity in the event infections out pace the ability of existing hospitals to absorb them. These should all be proverbial 'no brainers'.

Stay tuned.  Thanks to Trump's incompetence we are not out of this by a long shot. If you do the (exponential ) math, as Chris Hayes showed last night, we could be looking at 1 million U.S. cases by early May, and 8 million by mid- June.

See also:

Coronavirus | Donald Trump

Here Are 13 Claims Trump Has Made about Coronavirus That Have Already Gone down in Flames

And:

Coronavirus | Donald Trump

Here Are 7 Ridiculous and Disturbing Moments from Trump’s Visit to the CDC

And:

 As the coronavirus burns, Trump scores a perfect Nero

And:

Trump returns from golf weekend to attack Democrats and media for 'inflaming' coronavirus worries

And:

Disaster preparedness expert on WH coronavirus response: 'Absolute gross amateur-hour incompetence'

And:

• Trump steaks, Trump Airlines, Trump University, Trump America: Failing to plan is planning to fail
  

Barr Disgraces DOJ By Invoking Cockamamey "Russiagate" Conspiracy Idiocy - To Justify Criminal Investigation Of DOJ

"You shall do my bidding catching  flies as a go-fer conspiracy toad until I say no more!"


"I think this is the most concerning development out of the Justice Department we've seen since Donald Trump became president.  Look, obviously if there was a crime committed it ought to be investigated. But we know more about the Russia probe than probably any investigation in the Justice Department's history.  Bob Mueller wrote a 450 page report that became public, the DOJ released a FISA application which it's never done before in its history...and through all of that we've never seen a single evidence of a crime, or an allegation of a crime that would give a single predicate for an investigation. 

I think it's notable in this story it doesn't say what the allegation of a crime is that the Department is now investigating.   I don't think it's a coincidence that the day after an ambassador goes up to the hill and gives incredibly damning evidence about the president extorting a foreign government that we see this leak from the Department of Justice. And I think it's incredibly concerning about the administration of justice and the rule of law in this country."  -   Matt Miller, former Director of Public Affairs, Justice Department, on 'Last Word' Thursday night.

"What do you do when one party stakes its faith — and ultimately government itself — on observable, measurable realities while the other has made the cynical decision to cast these principles away? How do you strategize? How do you cope?"  - Jennifer Senior, NY Times Friday,

Assume for the sake of argument there is a parallel reality in which one nation's political party believes it can control that nation's governance in perpetuity. Impose an indefinite rule of autocratic, one party fascism if you will.  That nation has a constitution which decrees a separation of powers and the existence of a co-equal branch of government to the executive. However, this political party fancies it can rig the system - with the right president-  to remain in power as long as it wants. Also to render the co-equal branch a neutered nonentity. How to do it?

First define a 'unitary executive' doctrine giving an authoritarian president not only total power over the executive branch but also transcendent power over all branches.  

Second, enable this power to be tested with the election of the "right" candidate. Preferably a flouter of norms who also believes the constitution is just a piece of paper and that he can bully or intimidate any group in the nation: intelligence agencies, media, any other political parties, or other voters, i.e. who never voted for him.

Get this character to then commit impeachable offenses, say collaborating or conspiring with a foreign power to steal an election to shoehorn him into office. Then challenge any supposed co-equal branch to hold him in check or administer  constitutional justice. Such that even if he shot someone on the parallel reality's 5th avenue there'd be no crime, and he'd get away with it.

Then third, to escape any predicament of accountability (by media and the co-equal branch), recruit an attorney general who will not be independent but do this odious autocrat's bidding and investigate the investigators of the original debacle and conspiracy, i.e. that got him into office.   This will come in especially handy when he's later caught shaking down the head of another foreign power to dig up dirt on a political opponent.

Far fetched nonsense? Nope, it's already unfolding even as we've seen William Barr now commence a criminal inquiry into the alleged "Russiagate" conspiracy despite Mueller's judicious probe (involving dozens of FBI agents and others) that led to the Mueller report, e.g.

www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf

In other words, Barr and his Justice Department is in the process of opening a criminal inquiry into its own  Russia investigation.  See e. g.  NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/politics/john-durham-criminal-investigation.html

How can this head popping anomaly be, you ask? Well, because the DOJ has now been taken over by rank authoritarians and puppets of such who intend to push the specious doctrine of the unitary executive to its limits, devil take the hindmost.  

No surprise then that Barr has mutated into an officious, hop scotching  human toad -   hopping all over the world trying to dig up dirt on his own agency, the intelligence agencies under its roof (the FBI) and ancillary investigators who probed the Russian infiltration into the 2016 election.  Except in this case it isn't to go after the Russkies (and Trumpies who collaborated with them), but those who investigated the conspiracy to steal the election for Donald Trump. In other words Barr has debased the DOJ by converting it into an expeditious vehicle for Trump's political revenge.

Of course, by shamelessly acting on Trump's behalf, Barr has now put himself into impeachment jeopardy. . He's also created enormous embarrassment for the nation in his desperate antics, even as everyone with a brain knows exactly what he's up to: providing an alternative "criminal inquiry" to counter and offset the Democrats justifiable impeachment inquiry. One, I might ad, that now has even more ballast after a federal court judge deemed it legitimate and that the DOJ and Barr now must turn over all previously concealed (e.g. grand jury) materials from the Mueller probe.  See:

Impeachment Inquiry Is Legal, Judge Rules, Giving Democrats a Victory

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/us/politics/house-impeachment-subpoenas.html

As for embarrassing the nation, Giuseppe Conte,  the  Italian prime minister was asked by Italian lawmakers to explain what in the world the U.S. attorney general wanted. The New York Times published this striking account yesterday:

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy said his country’s intelligence services had informed the American attorney general, William P. Barr, that they played no role in the events leading to the Russia investigation, taking the air out of an unsubstantiated theory promoted by President Trump and his allies in recent weeks.

“Our intelligence is completely unrelated to the so-called Russiagate and that has been made clear,” Mr. Conte said in a news conference in Rome on Wednesday evening after spending hours describing Italy’s discussions with Mr. Barr to the parliamentary committee on intelligence. 

Mr. Conte publicly acknowledged for the first time that Mr. Barr had twice met with the leaders of Italy’s intelligence agencies after asking them to clarify their role in a 2016 meeting between a Maltese professor and a Trump campaign adviser on a small college campus in Rome, Link Campus University.

As bizarre as this may seem, Barr appears to have also gone to other allied nations in his Quixote- like tilting at fantasy conspiracy windmills. The toad was driven by the need to find something, anything to save Trump's butt, looking for damaging information about American officials involved in "Russiagate" , which he thought might help Donald Trump.

Italy, not surprisingly, had no such information, and seemed baffled as to what the United States’ top law-enforcement official was looking for.

The precise details of the relevant  conspiracy idiocy -  I can't dignify it with "theory" -  are mind-numbing in themselves.  They apparently involve George Papadopoulos, who served as an adviser to the Trump campaign, a London-based Maltese professor named Josef Mifsud, and assorted characters. The sum of the accusations, speculations and misinformation are enough to blow a hole into the sanity and mind of a normal person, but would do a QAnon zombie proud.  To be sure they are absolutely  ridiculous, almost on the level of the "Pizzagate"  rubbish that pushed the hare -brained malarkey that Hillary was operating a child sex slave ring in the basement of a D.C.  pizza parlor.

You laugh, but one Trumpie imbecile actually took a rifle to the suspected establishment to mete out justice and a tragedy was only averted by quick thinking - and reaction.  Needless to say I am not going to waste time (or blog space)  regurgitating this latest horse shit. Anyone who really wants
 more information can obtain it from Thursday night’s A block and this Vox piece from last month. Be sure you ration your neural exposure time!

In the end, sadly, the Trumpies and their cabal have succeeded in literally reducing our country to a laughing stock.  If my Revolutionary War ancestor Conrad Brumbaugh was alive to day to see this, he'd puke. The United States – the world’s preeminent superpower, ostensibly the global leader on matters of international affairs – has an attorney general who has gone to foreign countries, cap in hand, looking for dirt on his own country’s officials, begging for help with a ridiculous conspiracy, only to be told by our allies, “We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

If that doesn't embarrass any red-blooded American I don't know what would.

See also:

https://www.salon.com/2019/10/25/bill-barrs-alternate-universe-investigation-has-a-goal-right-wing-authoritarian-rule/


And:

The Trump Administration | 2016 Elections | William Barr

Watch Out for Bill Barr's Flunky John Durham to Fabricate a Report That Would "Absolve" Russia of 2016 Election Interference

And:

Donald Trump | Republicans

What Would Republican Senators Do If Trump Shot Someone on Fifth Avenue?

And;

Donald Trump | Republicans

The GOP: Trading Its Future for a Criminal

U.S. Society - Why Such A Toxic Effect On Families, Workers?

Yesterday, 'May Day' or International Workers Day in much of the rest of the world, is often called the "Socialist's Labor Day". It is a day for many in socialist nations to reflect on the meaning of work, and whether it is still possible to have purposeful paid work in globalized, capitalist mercantile societies that often value profits over people.

As author Michael Parenti has noted ('America Besieged'), at its best work is ennobling and also humane, allowing families and individuals to live in some degree of relative comfort - as opposed to depredation and deprivation. That doesn't mean living the life of Riley but it does mean being able to afford the basic necessities:  sufficient food, adequate clothing, housing and health care. The problem is that outside the socialist nations, citizens are too often either not able to earn the living wages needed for life's necessities or - if they do - these are only attained at enormous social and psychological cost (i.e. working 2 or 3 low wage jobs).. This dual deficit has led to stupendous suicide rates, mental illness (1 of 10 Americans), startling homicide frequency,  as well as other manifestations of a toxic social fabric. One is thus led to inquire into the factors giving rise to such societal toxicity

As we near the end of the political primary season, faced with two of the worst presidential candidates ever- in terms of their negatives - one must ask if either of them can convert the U.S. into a less toxic society. The answers, alas, are not designed to inspire confidence, and the choice between a bombastic proto-fascist billionaire and a war hawk Neoliberal who fetishizes Netanyahu and Israel, may well turn into what might be called a "Hobson's choice".  Point being, either one of these two as President has the potential to render this nation even less hospitable for many, and intolerable for more than a few. See, for example, William Rivers Pitt's take here:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/william-rivers-pitt/66966/the-empire-strikes-back-donny-and-hills-big-night


Quoting smirkingchimp.com blogger David Swanson:

"If you've just seen Michael Moore's movie and are wondering how in the world the United States got diverted into the slow lane to hell, go watch Noam Chomsky's movie. If you've just seen Noam Chomsky's movie and are wondering whether the human species is really worth saving, go see Michael Moore's movie. If you haven't seen either of these movies, please tell me that you haven't been watching presidential debates. As either of these movies would be glad to point out to you, that's NOT HOW YOU CHANGE ANYTHING"

This elicits the question of what exactly needs to be changed. For a frame of reference see the Wall Street Journal piece from 6 weeks, ago, 'Populists Reject Economic Orthodoxy'. You will agree it is the economic orthodoxy inherent in Neoliberal capitalist dogma. As author Greg Ip notes, for most election cycles Wall Street and the economic elites don't worry because "once in office presidents of both parties tend to hew to economic orthodoxy".

So to the economic orthodoxy bunch,  a choice between Hillary and the Donald is really between Tweedledee and Tweedledum given both are in the pockets of Wall Street.

True, for a time these wizards of Wall Street and highbrow media overlords were terrified because well, Bernie Sanders appeared quite serious in his determination to break up the big banks, assure free public college and establish a universal health care standard like many civilized nations of Europe. And he was, despite the skinny circulated by the MSM that he "lived in fantasy land'  and "didn't know what he was talking about". The fact is he DID know, and THAT is what terrified the living fuck out of them. This had all of them (especially the Neolibs ensconced at the WaPo)  grabbing their balls because Bernie's prescriptions threatened the speculator-debt model of Neoliberalism. As Ip quoted one analyst at Cornerstone Marco:

"A President Sanders could 'beat the tar' out of banks" i.e. using everything from regulatory executive orders to the bully pulpit.

Well, that's because the Neoliberal order needs to be changed. Because unless it is, Americans and their nation will be hurled pell mell into an economic shit pit. This is no lie.  Working parents now more than ever say they feel stressed, tired, rushed and short on quality time with their children, friends, partners or hobbies, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

That tension is negatively affecting American family life, Pew found. Fifty-six percent of all working parents say the balancing act is difficult, and those who do are more likely to say that parenting is tiring and stressful, and less likely to find it always enjoyable and rewarding. For example, half of those who said the work-family balance was not difficult said parenting was enjoyable all the time, compared with 36 percent of those who said balance was difficult.

In a 1989 book called “The Second Shift,” the sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild described the double burden employed mothers face because they are also responsible for housework and child care. Last year she said that despite some changes in society, the workplace had not changed enough to alleviate the problems. In a book last year, “All Joy and No Fun,” the journalist Jennifer Senior described how little had improved: Working parents face similar stresses, but they are now exacerbated by inordinate tensions affecting American family life, Pew found.

Fifty-six percent of all working parents say the balancing act is difficult, and those who do are more likely to say that parenting is tiring and stressful, and less likely to find it always enjoyable and rewarding. For example, half of those who said the work-family balance was not difficult said parenting was enjoyable all the time, compared with 36 percent of those who said balance was difficult.

Of full-time working parents, 39 percent of mothers and 50 percent of fathers say they feel as if they spend too little time with their children. Fifty-nine percent of full-time working mothers say they don’t have enough leisure time, and more than half of working fathers say the same. Of parents with college degrees, 65 percent said they found it difficult to balance job and family; 49 percent of nongraduates said the same. Pew did not investigate why, but one reason might be that professional workers are more likely than hourly workers to be expected to work even after they leave the office. However, they also tend to have more flexibility during the day.

The survey also found that white parents were more than 10 percentage points more likely to express stress than nonwhite parents. Historically, white and black mothers have been more likely to work outside the home than Asian and Latina mothers, and foreign-born mothers have been particularly likely to stay home, Pew has found.

In 46 percent of all two-parent households, both parents work full-time, according to Pew, up from 31 percent in 1970. The share of households with a mother who stays home has declined to 26 percent from 46 percent. Pew surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,807 parents in every state on both landlines and cellphones.

Other data also show that working parents are the new norm. Sixty percent of children now live in households where all the parents at home work at least part time, up from 40 percent in 1965, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

The shift has economic implications. The median household income for a family in which both parents work full time is $102,400, according to Pew, compared with $84,000 when mothers work part time and $55,000 when they stay home. The data highlight the complicated trade-offs that working families make. 

Forty-one percent of working mothers said being a parent made it harder to advance in their careers, compared with 20 percent of fathers. Men’s careers took priority more often than women’s did, though the majority said they were equal. Fathers earned more than mothers in half of full-time working families, the same as mothers in about a quarter and less than mothers in a quarter.

Add to that the new evidence that the quantity and quality of sleep one gets is directly dependent on one's income level, and you have the basis for why many of the middle and working class are fed up, and gravitate to outsiders like Sanders and Trump. They understand the whole system is rigged against them and on their daily "gerbil wheel" they are likely to have more health problems - including mental - and also more likely to lose it. See more on this aspect here:

http://www.salon.com/2016/04/29/america_has_a_sleep_inequality_crisis_to_match_its_income_inequality_crisis_partner/

Michael Parenti  (America Besieged), highlighted the origin of many of these toxic elements more than 20 years ago. He showed the country's social welfare and economic indicators disclose it's not the "land of opportunity" portrayed by the Neoliberal elites and political class.   In his chapter 'Hidden Holocaust, USA' ,  Parenti demolishes the myth that the country is on an ever upward path - and instead we have an insidious, media-inserted embolism of false consciousness and delusion mind-fucking the majority. He cites a typical year’s statistics to start, showing how these vary little year to year in the US of A:

Amongst the items noted then (ibid., pp. 3-6):

- 27,000 commit suicide each year

-23,000 murdered each year

-5.5 million arrested each year

- 25 million seek mental health assistance

-6.5 million use crack, speed, heroin, PCP or some other hard drug on a regular basis each year

- 37 million use emotion-controlling or numbing drugs, to face reality. Their own false optimism and delusions aren't enough to get them through the day

- 1.3 million suffer permanent kidney damage from treatments received at hospitals each year

-80 million go to some type of psychological counselor each year

- Up to 4 million women are beaten, battered

- More than 30,000 children are left permanently disabled each year from neglect and battering

- One woman is raped every 45 seconds throughout the year (700,000 in all a year)

-14,000 are killed on the job each year

- 60,000 are killed directly by toxic, environmental pollutants each year, 300,000 more get cancer from environmental toxins each year and die

- 5 million workers injured seriously on the job each year

Is this a country on a path of enhanced social advancement or improved national integrity? Hardly!  Now, the SPI stats confirm it.  The results also confirm eco-economist Herman Daly's assertion that GDP is a poor barometer to measure national health.    Thus, while the U.S. sports the second highest per capita GDP of $45,336, it ranks in an underperforming 16th place overall. It gets worse. The U.S. ranks 70th in health, 69th in ecosystem sustainability, 39th in basic education, 34th in access to water and sanitation and 31st in personal safety.

In other words, we're bordering on the conditions of a third world country. Allow a few more years of mass fracking to continue, despoiling our water sources (especially out here in the drought prone West) and we will likely join the likes of Malawi and Mauritania.   Allow the intolerable existing economic inequality to metastasize and we will - as a nation - soon sport a murder rate higher than Jamaica's.

Will either a President Hillary Clinton or a President Donald Trump reverse the destructive trends and provide the hard solutions needed to become a more humane and responsible society and nation? The indicators all show this is about as likely as an advanced race of aliens landing from the 3rd planet of Tau Ceti and taking over, since we've made such a mess of this planet.

Evidently neither the Hillary Cult or the Donald Cult see this and care. They'd rather retain the status quo with all that implies: More 'Holocaust USA'.   They'd also rather make sundry specious excuses for not acting and simply doing the same things we have been over and over again: keeping a minimum wage below survival levels when it ought to be at least $22/ hr (taking into account the rate of inflation since 1960), disallowing paid leave for illness or sick family members, and dispatching all the best paying jobs and benefits to foreign lands where cheap labor reigns - as Carrier recently announced (sending 1,400 jobs from Indiana to Mexico where the pay rate is $6/hr instead of $34/hr).

Fulfilling the very definition of insanity given by Einstein "doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result". In this case, a better, more improved America. Sorry, not going to happen!

See also:

http://www.salon.com/2016/02/04/american_capitalism_has_failed_us_were_overworked_underemployed_and_more_powerless_than_ever_before_partner/