From fascism to exterminism
Around the time of the 2016 election it became popular to revive the word "fascism." Trump was a fascist, we were told. No, I argued, Trump isn't a fascist. A fascist would disdain democracy; Trump is bad, but he's not quite there yet, and besides, "fascism" is a word belonging to an earlier period of history, a period of expanding capitalism. Our period is one of declining capitalism.
Now I still think "fascist" is the wrong word to describe Trump. But mostly because it's too kind -- because Trump is perhaps something of an exterminist.
I first read this term "exterminism" from something Stan Goff said. It wasn't in the piece I linked, but somewhere else. Anyway, Goff's writing is of a piece, and the piece I linked tells the story:
We are living through a long period of exterminism, the last stage of imperialism.
Well, anyway, I did a Google search on it, and it turns out that the celebrated scholar E. P. Thompson did a piece on "exterminism." Thompson thought of "exterminism" when considering the power of the state to wage nuclear war, as a threat to exterminate nearly everyone on the planet. It was republished in Verso a bit over three years ago. Here's Thompson's definition of "exterminism":
Exterminism designates those characteristics of a society — expressed, in differing degrees, within its economy, its polity and its ideology — which thrust it in a direction whose outcome must be the extermination of multitudes. The outcome will be extermination, but this will not happen accidentally (even if the final trigger is "accidental") but as the direct consequence of prior acts of policy, of the accumulation and perfection of the means of extermination, and of the structuring of whole societies so that these are directed towards that end.
Doesn't this describe Donald Trump's coronavirus policy to a T? "So, yeah, lots of people are going to die. Do we look like we give a sh*t?"
Frankly, I expect that only a few of those who die will actually die because of the coronavirus. More likely we will see lots of people dying because they can't get any food to eat, in the same way in which the economic collapse of the Great Depression of 1929-1932 produced large starving populations. We aren't getting free testing, we aren't getting sick leave, and most of us won't have jobs or income or food stamps or anything once most of the population is either quarantined or waiting to get into the ICU.
So it's beginning to look like we ought to revive this term "exterminism." It's the ultimate expression of the ruling class's contempt for the rest of us. You know who's been tested? Rich people.
Comments
The word 'fascism' didn't
The word 'fascism' didn't need reviving in 2016. It has been alive and well, for centuries.
Not really.
The word "fascism" is derived from "Fasces," to be sure, which does have a classical Latin origin, but it became an "ism" only with Mussolini, in 1914.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
Fascism is being overused to the point of meaninglessness
Whatever happened to call a spade a spade? This is the era of PC political correctness and SJW social justice wars, topped off with an equally unhealthy dose of identarianism. Cause or effect? Doesn't matter. The entire system will be taken down, whether on purpose or, more likely, the system collapses from the long-standing and worsening institutional rot.
I don't know what to call the extreme polarization of our population AND of the warring Duopoly factions--but extremism seems to me, the proper word.
Good on you, Cass, for this fine essay. Some of my other comments down thread will appear.
The ameriKan trifecta, not good
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/03/links-3-15-2020.html
About a month ago I joked COVID-19 was exposing each East Asian country's weakness. China had intransparent & authoritarian gov't. Japan had inflexible & sclerotic bureaucracy. S Korea had irresponsible cult fanatics.
Turns out US had all three together.
— T.K. of AAK! (@AskAKorean) March 12, 2020
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
I guess I'm the only person who's actually grateful to
the admittedly horrible, authoritarian Chinese government for having acted as decisively as it did. Were COVID-19 as rampant and uncontrolled in China as it is/has been in Italy, I'm not sure the world would have a chance to deal with it. I think China, Japan, and South Korea have done better than most places--although I have no idea what Russia is doing.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Russia
Russia has tested 104,000 people and has 63 confirmed cases. Source: The Moscow Times
According to WaPo and NYT media reports
Vladimir Putin banished Russian citizens who were evacuated from Wuhan to serve 14 days in quarantine in Siberia.
WaPo & NYT are Russiagate propagandists,
Surely you know this. It could be true and very interesting, but I'd rather hear it from objective, trustworthy news sources.
Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl
I don't believe there are any.
RT is about as trustworthy as WaPo, or any of the rest of them. I'm deeply skeptical of the motives and content of any published news or editorial media these days.
See my reply to laurel
Exactly.
These
newspropaganda agencies actually used that term, Siberia, to describe where the Russian government sent Russian citizens from China to be quarantined. What they didn't tell you that it was a modern city of 700,000 with all the amenities. If you check the link I supplied you will understand. Most people will automatically think of "gulag" in the middle of nowhere. The Russians had used a military flight to pick up their citizens from Wuhan and they have an airbase in Tyumen, Siberia. It was just convenient for them. When their quarantine is over they will be flown on to Moscow.Just another example how those two propaganda subtly spread shit about countries they want to denigrate and/or destroy.
Ah, should have clicked your link,
. Thank you, it's quite an eye-opener, and I would imagine they said it that way to evoke horror in their readers. If you have a sign-on and the article is current, you could write a comment to the NYT. NYT used to be an interesting place for commenting. They went sour for me ~ five years ago with hit pieces on Bernie. Dishonest, too -- they tried at first to paint him as a has-been whose supporters were all old faded hippies.
Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl
Can't find the COVID-19 reference in your link
Probably due to my ineptitude in navigating Russia Today. If I missed it, it was probably under my large nose, which blocks my little beady eyes from seeing it. Please direct me, kindly CB. Help.
See my reply to laurel
Now I understand.
Pretty place but probably only warm enough for swimming outdoors two months yearly.
Not to worry, you can swim all year round
11 km from Tyumen you can relax and rejuvenate your scales in the
After a few hours of luxurious soaking you can invigorate your gastric juices at The Chum Restaurant.
Thanks, CB
But if I went now, would I be able to return to the good ol' US of A? Does the travel ban apply to reptiles?
Read:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/peoplescoronavirusresponse/permalink/227...
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
People use the word "fascist"
to mean "any authoritarian bigot."
They use the word "Nazi" similarly.
It drives me fucking crazy.
Personally, I think Trump's opponents are closer to being fascists than he is. Which does not mean I think "Trump good/Trump opponents bad."
Apparently Mussolini didn't say this,
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power."
but if you agree that fascism should more properly be called corporatism, that it involves the increasing identification of the interests of the state with the interests of large private-sector business and financial entities, then actually it's the Bushes and Clintons and their ilk (in both parties) who are the pre-eminent fascists around here.
I like that definition because it a)describes a real tendency in modern politics, and b)it IS a definition. In other words, it attempts to define fascism, it's curious about what fascism IS, instead of just throwing the word around willy-nilly.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Here's what Mussolini said, I think
The trains will run on time....s/
Seriously for a change, they system Benito and company crafted was the merger of state and corporations, but the black shirts didn't call it corporatism. Not sure what they called it, other than the Italian word for Fascism (yes, I know fasces is Latin. Anybody who brings that up will summarily be whipped by bundled tree branches).
However, that is not your point here.
And your point is a good one, which also attempts to define one of the primary tendencies of modern politics and business.
Good essay, good thought.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I mean, this is what climate policy is, and has been, for
thirty-five years now. And that's why I made so many political mistakes up till around 2011. I didn't understand that a majority of the powerful were actually exterminists. Because, in my view, that's crazy. It's especially crazy when applied to climate, but don't get me started.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal poke poke poke...
poke poke poke...
[video:https://youtu.be/SGyOaCXr8Lw]
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Climate policy --
as I've pointed out repeatedly, is a product of the elite's collective immersion in fantasies of money and property and commodities. They can't do anything because they are so lost in capitalism that all they can think of is: "let's do a few Boy Scout or Girl Scout deeds here and there while keeping the existing system intact." It's obviously not going to work, but since their primary function is to keep an existing system intact, they won't do anything else.
Climate Change Mitigation in Fantasy and Reality
Password: AddletonAP2009
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
Sigh.
Trump hatred is just a manifestation of denial and scapegoating. He is NOT unique, he is not the worst,he is not a Sauron, or a Satan, or even a Hitler - hell, Hitler wasn't a Hitler. Trump is not as bad as W, and neither could match the evil of Reagan, who was nothing but an Archie Bunker who got lucky. None of those devolved into exterminists - being responsible for 8 billion deaths would be bad for their legacy, bad for their standing in the polls, bad for business. Trump hatred is nothing but explaining away how owe didn't do anything about W, or how our parents didn't do anything about Reagan.
On to Biden since 1973
True enough
It's hard to apply the word extremism as an experience, because for most of us it's been a 40 -50 year slow walk to get to this point. We're those frogs everyone brings up. The extremism doesn't occur when the water goes from 208 degrees to 212 degrees, it's been rising all along.
Exter, extre
ExtERminism, not extREmism. Derived from extermination. Unless you're referring to a different subject than the essay is.
Sigh, you're right
I usually can catch myself. I plead Emily Litilla.
Of course he's not unique.
But you do have to concede that it's amazing that they found one of their own to run "against" him who not only shares nearly all of his policy portfolio, but also his mental dysfunction.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
You want to add another term? (snark)
Are you kidding? We (the US population) can't even hold a meaningful conversation now, but you want to add another term to the word salad we engage in that poses as dialog?
On a more serious note:
Peter Frase from Jacobin;
snip
We (The US) are already barbarians, we just dress nice. When a "society" allows it's fellow citizens to die, simply because they can not afford healthcare services, we have reached a state of "Barbarism", which has existed in the US for quite some time, like since before the colonies revolted against the British.
We ARE the barbarians...
[video:https://youtu.be/6DXDU48RHLU]
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Good comment,
. Capitalism accounts for certain features of human activity but it bases itself in the lowest element of our existence, survival mode materialism. It's always there, of course -- after all, we are animals. But there is so much more to human existence. The ultimate goal cannot be the mere accumulation of material wealth; this short-changes everything we are capable of.
Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl
Unalloyed rugged individualism will be the end of us and US
Capitalism is a cancer, which has co-opted its purported masters, those whom the people select to protect the system. But who watches the watchers? The watched bribe the watchers routinely. We know how that works out.
The fiduciary is an economic control, run amok. Using a biological analogy, the fiduciary system works best when it benefits the host, sort of like an immune system. That means the proper operation of any fiduciary system MUST benefit the society as a whole. But the elites have bought the system (as in bought and sold), turning the autoimmune societal function into a state of escalating self-destruction. A hyperimmune response, one which instead of protecting the host as per usual, the current fiduciary system only benefits the cancer cells--the Oligarchs.
I always thought fascism
was the partnership of the state and "business" as co equals to form a government. We do that all the time, big time. Except our trains don't run on time.
That's one part of it.
The fascists, however, were largely interested in crushing opposition and abolishing democracy, which goes far beyond the simple inclusion of corporations as junior partners in the state.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
Since the government does the bidding of the rich corporations,
, I would insist that it is not the corporations who are the 'junior partners', but rather, the government itself.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
You've just described the Democratic Party,
.
This is precisely what the DNC is doing right now. DWS, Tom Perez, HRC, and hundreds of DNC-employed minions, including the MSM, are shamelessly carrying out this precise fascist dictum.
See them for what they are.
Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl
They're exterminists.
The fascists of old were really up-front about their disdain for democracy. The first, last, and only election allowed by Hitler was in March of 1933. Here is what happened in that election. The DNC charades are small potatoes when compared to what Hitler did then.
The DNC is like the PRI in Mexico -- they're cool with elections but they like to cheat now and then, just enough to tip the scales. Eventually the PRI relented, though, and AMLO was allowed to be President. The main problem with the Demopublicans and the Republicrats is that their ideas of governance will end up killing us all. I'm not sure they understand this, which is why when push comes to shove they might let Bernie win. But, yes, if they are allowed to win indefinitely, we will all die.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
Yes and no
The Duopolitans are not interested in any other than the well-being of the Elite Caste. But the DNC will never allow that flaming, raving, fire-breathiest commie-socialist Vermonter anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania--not even on school tours.
It's a necessary corollary to that partnership
whether the businessmen are junior partners, as in Nazi Germany, or senior partners, as here. None of this would be possible without authoritarian political and social structures.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
If this were real fascism
This diary wouldn't exist.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
We'll have to agree to disagree.
Fascists in the twenty-first century might not behave the same as those in the era of the movement's birth.
But that's heading toward a less useful semantic discussion than the one you were having in your essay.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I am not interested --
in crowing "Fascism! Fascism!" and spreading ignorance of what historical fascism was. Fascism originated with Mussolini, or more likely with his ghostwriter Giovanni Gentile. Mussolini had no interest in permitting the slightest hint of formal democracy. Existing power loves formal democracy here in the US -- it allows the public to own the elites' choices like nothing else would.
There is an alternative term, championed by the late professor Sheldon Wolin: "Inverted Totalitarianism." Use that term.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
That's because in this case
big business, not the state, has the upper hand in the partnership.
also because the powerful no longer want to have a civilization.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Thompson's Exterminism extends to any aspect of
Capitalism that can't be made to generate the highest levels of ROI, no matter how essential it is to the survival of society. Anything of potential value can be disrupted, converted, privatized, enclosed, dammed, polluted, broken up or destroyed, if that yields additional profit for the investor class. That includes any type of government, common lands, the air and water, gene pools, product, company, industry, institution, occupation, or class of the population.
Taken to it's inevitable conclusion, economic Exterminism becomes societal Suicidism. Another term for that is Nihilism. When that is the dominant paradigm of the ruling class, it's Subversion From Above. Exterminism can manifest as mass poulation transfers, pogroms, "ethnic cleansing" and very real genocide.
Subversion From Above leading to collective suicide is inherent to the late Capitalist system, even if it's not the immediate intention. Subversion is not so much a conspiracy as just another day at the office.
Thompson --
was engaged in an anti-nuclear-weapons movement; the two webpages I cited scream "nuclear weapons" throughout their lengthy content. If you want to read about the form of exterminism which Thompson opposed, please pick up a copy of Robert Scheer's With Enough Shovels.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
Thompson wrote the Working Class was as much
self-made by the old peasantry as by the new capitalist classes through enclosure and other measures to force proletaritization. Thompson's concerns with the extermination of the communal way of life, and the lethal suppression of those who resisted the privatization of the commons in England, as he documented in "The Making of the English Working Class", long pre-dated his involvement with the Ban the Bomb movement.
That's not what's meant by extermination here.
Exterminism is about physical extermination, not the "extermination" of a way of life.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
Those who consider themselves
forward-thinking planners,
,
call it "depopulation" . . . sounds so much nicer, you know.
Edited to remove a space between "them" and "selves" in the subject line.
Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl
The dominant error in calculating return on investment
is selecting the appropriate time frame used to calculate the essential period during which an economic operation is allowed to continue before evaluating the rate of return. A period of 3 months, which seems to be the current American model (for many years) inevitably leads to what has been called subversion from above.
Another consideration should be long term planning as the period to consider ROI. A well-constructed 5 year plan, provided the public interest is served, yields a much more equitable result than 3 month scoop and run.
A world run by accountants is as dangerous
as one where the Generals are in charge. Neither consider any individual to be of much value. We're all just profit margins or body counts to them.
I really like the fine point you put on
...using the word 'fascism' to define politics in the 21st century:
.
Exactly. 'Fascism' is mostly used by people who don't really understand how bound it is to the history that defined it. It is much too small a word to find context in the infinitely complex system that we live in.
As for exterminism, which you seemed to suggest was a gradual layering of policies that are so mindlessly coercive and stubbornly negligent that, taken as a whole, they consign the governed into self-extinction. You ask:
.
I can understand how the term 'exterminism' could be pinned on Trump, but Trump so actively resists extinction as a fate for any of his "properties." And the US has now become one of Trump's properties. I think of exterminism as a deliberate plan or device. For example, establishing a national doomsday device that will be triggered by the governed if they do not accede to the demands of the State..
After following your link and reading the brilliant essay by Stan Goff, I realize that 'exterminism' actually has a more indirect meaning that is easier to link to Trump. Exterminism is the unfortunate by-product of a thoughtless and self-absorbed system, rather than a nihilistic act of coercion. (Goff certainly does live a considered life, doesn't he? I could hardly tear myself away.) His lament:
.
Somehow, this entire discussion of exterminism reminds me very much of the Democratic Party, which is currently busy exterminating itself. It's latest rally for "No matter who, Vote Blue" is not-so-much a cry for help as it is a signal of its final destruction. In his essay, Goff reminded me why I loathe the term, "Progressive" so much. He firmly rejects the "myth" that human history is a history of progress:
.
Earlier, I was reading a long and argumentative thread where the Left in the Primaries were explaining to the Democrats that, no, they would not be voting "blue" in the 2020 election if Biden was the nominee. No matter how fiercely the Democrats played the Trump card or the Supreme Court card, the Left would not budge. They were done with the Party. The Democrats were apoplectic. They were angry, insulting, threatening, and then begging. The Left seemed bored and tired of explaining themselves.
Which side were the exterminists?
Someone came along and posted a tweet and video comment from a younger Lawrence O'Donnell telling the Left how to deal with the DNC. This is surely exterminism in action.
I find it hard to agree
that progressivism was patriarchal or racist when its tenets where defined by the great Eleanor Roosevelt.
I agree. Sometimes it's a mistake to absolutely
characterize a movement as only one thing. It depends how tightly controlled, from the top, the movement is and by whom. The less homogenous it is, the more carefully one must talk about it. Assuming there's a future, it will be interesting to see how the future describes the BLM movement, since I see at least two quite different versions of it.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Yes!
This is what I've been calling "Biden bullies." They have to resort to bullying tactics because the candidate they're bullying people for cannot be seen in public. Biden's handlers have been, since August, at the point where any exposure that is not really carefully choreographed has to be really short. Wasn't it that Biden managed an appearance of about seven minutes in St. Louis, and those seven minutes weren't good ones?
And this is the guy who is getting the endorsement of about two-thirds of "the field" as it existed until late last year. Was ever the multiple face of public contempt so obvious? Here is a list of people who don't care if their party has Mr. Gaffe Republican, their weakest candidate (with Bloomberg a close second) running for President because their donors are afraid of Bernie Sanders. Doing it during the global spread of the coronavirus was an additional stroke of genius.
On Doug Henwood's Facebook thread the second-guessers were all echoing each other about how the coronavirus would doom Donald Trump's chances of re-election. The second-guessers have obviously not been thinking about how badly the Democrats want to lose.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
hmm, tired of politics and viruses used to excuse bad politics
I don't know if that fits in here. There are two parts to this video. I can't stand if people fight over categorizations, labels and then use that to abuse scienctific facts or obfuscate scienctific facts:
[video:https://youtu.be/0fZ19Ina5cI]
and Tulsi is fighting on:
[video:https://youtu.be/J-kQDD8oUj0]
https://www.euronews.com/live
Earlier today somebody here's tagline
kept nagging at me, but I couldn't remember whose it was. I did remember it was about the best definition I'd ever seen for fascism.
Well, a trip across the site this evening landed me at CStMS' Open Thread where enhydra lutris was commenting somewhat mathematically, and there it was, the excellent definition:
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
It works and it's so clean.
Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl
Trump initially was dealing with prior epidemiology policy
What I fault mainly here are:
1. delayed realization COVID-19, hereinafter referred to by me as the Wu Flu, was going to a higher case fatality rate than prior influenzal epidemics since the "Spanish" (really American) flu which literally decimated WW1 military forces.
2. delayed implementation to fast track our country's responsiveness
3. delaying the transition from the initial NO action phase, through the current reactive phase. Cities, counties and communities currently are doing most of what little proactive things are now happening
4. Because testing is so vital not only for case ascertainment but to evaluate changing epidemiology, the delay in Wu Flu testing is egregious.
For a few brief years of my life
I read poets, philosophers, critics, great thinkers, then some hard life set in, and it continues to this day.
Cass, you have been on fire lately.
I have no time anymore to think in your analytical terms, but I once did, before other imperatives arose, took the lead.
You very often remind me of myself decades ago.
I truly appreciate all that you do.
There is a pervasive exterminism (let's kill a whole lot of people, one way or another)right there in our faces.
We need to know and understand exactly what we are looking at, because, as I advise my clients, you cannot address a problem until you can define it.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
"Exterminism", is it?
What more rock-solid, plain-as-day, common-sense justification could there possibly be for outright violent revolution?
WTF are we waiting for?!?
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Here's one way in which it works:
https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/wait-a-second-governor-stuns-msnbc-host...
Trump's buddies wanted to make a profit off of the testing kits, currently with market value of $1300. So Trump engineered a shortage. And so there it is, folks.
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger