Let us begin at the beginning, noting with uncertainty that the curse of the virus envelops humanity like an invisible fog and all numbers are impermanent. As of this writing, covid deaths in the US have passed 300,000 and covid infections number is more than 17 million. These are the highest numbers for any country in the world. (By way of comparison, deaths per 100,000 of the population are: 91.44 US, 96.66 UK, 10.60 India. Fatality/case ratios are: 1.8% US, 3.5% UK, 1.5% India. Relative to the population of each country, the infection rates would be: 2.7% US, 2.4% UK, 0.7% India. These countries, with different populations and places in the sun, have taken different paths to tackle the virus.

(The numbers used are from Johns Hopkins University database and from population figures generally available. All power to those who have more accurate sources.)

It is not clear to me who has weathered the onslaught and how—we haven’t seen the worst of it globally yet, say many public health experts—but the trends are undeniable. Precautionary measures no doubt work as preventive measures, but misconstrued/misapplied regulations without vision or rationality don’t. In general, PUBLIC HEALTH VERSUS PRIVATE GREED remains the main contradiction everywhere, NOT A CONFLICT BETWEEN DYING AND LIVING without care and sustenance, and on both counts—that is, living and dying—without dignity.

We are repeatedly misled by our rulers (and their lackeys of different brands) about the pandemic and its effect on the social/economic life of all human beings. Just look at the inability of the US healthcare infrastructure to cope with the new covid spikes everywhere, and at the same time the unwillingness of cowardly politicians of all hues to authorize an economic relief package for despairing Americans. The only saleable optimism around here is that the vaccines are here! Look, the vaccines are here! To be clear, here doesn’t mean everywhere.

It appears that the various vaccines in the news have been proved to be effective and safe for the test samples. But these samples do not include large swatches of the unruly billions across the globe. How the vaccines will fare across the world in the months to come (specially among the wretched of the earth), no one really knows. Even the wise ones point to a murky picture, and indeed, no one can risk audacious predictions.

The real problems lie in the VACCINATING part of the process, given the premise that we cannot successfully combat a pandemic by NATIONALIZING vaccines. The other day, I heard Venki Ramakrishnan (chemistry Nobelist) from London say about the success of vaccines, “NO ONE CAN BE SAFE UNLESS EVERYONE IS SAFE.” Others have expressed a similar sentiment. We already see different vaccines being exported to different parts of the world. Last April I wrote, “…in a world where the basic principle of our survival is SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL INEQUALITY (structural and historical)—in jobs, education, food and living condition, healthcare. In that world, reciting unqualified numbers attached to people who are getting sick, who are dying, is really not much more than a magician’s misdirection. Because the haves and have-nots, the privileged and the deprived are not affected by the coronavirus in the same way.” The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that “vaccine nationalism” is moving “at full speed,” leaving poor people around the globe watching preparations for inoculations against the coronavirus in some rich nations and wondering if and when they will be vaccinated.

So, what will be the VACCINATING PATTERN in the end? Remember too, manufacturing, storing, distributing and actually injecting multiple doses constitute an enormous task to begin with. Add to that populations unwilling to be vaccinated—in the US, for opposite reasons. African-Americans, for example, have been victims of criminal adventures in the malpractice of medicine and medical experimentation, yet, as disproportionate victims of Covid-19 they can’t afford to be skeptics this time around. On the other pole, covid-deniers, Trumpites in general and religious bigots have continued to resist the vaccine, based on their mythology not their lived reality. A poll I saw described the willingness of the Americans by “race” to take the covid vaccine: 61% Whites, 63% Latinos, 82% Asians and 42% Blacks in the sample said yes. I went to the population distribution (noting that the American Indians were excluded from this poll) and found that this amounts to 60% of Americans willing to be vaccinated against covid-19. Therefore, we’ll have to do a lot better—get to 75 to 80%, for there to be real “herd immunity”.

While these problems must be solved, we must not forget—more significantly, THE COST TO ORDINARY PEOPLE WORLD WIDE. Again, the absence of a single payer national healthcare system in the US will leave many out of the vaccine picture, unless there’s some form of universal subsidy—a transparent safety net. IN THE END, VACCINES MUST BE MADE FREE FOR EVERYBODY, EVERYWHERE. We are learning about different vaccines being exported to different parts of the world. Let us see how this plays out.

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So, as Joe Biden is finally sanctioned by the Electoral College to enter the Presidential Palace on January 20, 2021, what can he do about any of this while protecting the American empire and preserving a healthy billionaire class—the 1%? It is important to note that the Trump banner, waved by a significant portion of the American population is not going to get “furled” in the foreseeable future and I don’t believe either of our two parties has figured out how to contend with this phenomenon. Another forum will be required for that discussion.

After the election, the formation of a covid-19 task force was probably the best idea the Biden people will ever have. Trump’s criminal perspective and inept ground level action may never be properly redressed, but the Biden people has that once in a lifetime opportunity to set things right—BUT WITHOUT A XENOPHOBIC APPROACH TO VACCINATION. In fact, the “rich nations” are openly hoarding covid vaccines (regardless of need)—as another form of capital accumulation—making it difficult for the rest of the world to combat the beast.

Otherwise, J’Biden has decided to construct a third Obama term, keeping his old boss in the limelight in his neo-lib petri-dish, along with bringing to the forefront “consultants” (lobbyists and stewards) who have served the corporate world well during the Trump years. Thus, Biden, who was a weak, propped up candidate after all, claims a mandate as he goes about fulfilling two promises, quoting slogans and cliches, adding to our despair.

ONE, in practice to “bring back better” means to advance his VP life by promoting to levels 2 and 3, operators who were on level 1 in those days, so to speak —his colleagues and subordinates. This demonstrates that "let's erase the lingering lefties once we get in", was always the plan.

TWO, to champion appointees “who look like America” (not necessarily who speak for our people) means to bring to the forefront the worst manifestation of identity politics we have seen—probably ever. Mind you, setting up the artificial and absurd contradiction between class and race has been very much the hallmark of neo-liberal identity politics.

I mean, only in casting TV shows today, producers may demand, “Other than the usual crop of white guys, one of whom must be gay, we need a Hispanic, two Blacks and one Asian. Four women who could be of any color, and maybe one of our own Natives."

I mean, there were some 16 first-timers—Republican women elected to the House in November, shrinking the Democrat majority, but increasing the number of women in Congress.

I mean, in my “battleground” state, while Biden beat Trump by 1.17%, Republicans won two out of the three statewide offices on the ballot. Our state senate and house remain firmly in the grip of Republicans—all supporters of Trump in 2020. So, getting rid of Trump ain’t no mandate. In fact, while Trump continues to consolidate his base as he plans his next move and looks toward 2024, Biden is moving away from HIS BASE WITHOUT WHOSE SUPPORT HE COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE WON IN 2020. How ironic and scary!

So, there’s nothing I can detect in J’Biden’s policy initiatives beyond untenable neo-lib placations—most of them out of touch with the world he has to cope with. Are the American people excited to hear their man will become the new patriarch at the head of a global banquet table heaped with victims of war and pestilence, with extinct species and sanctioned body parts? To be sure, the rest of this world will continue to live in fear and uncertainty with such pronouncements.

What’s going to happen to the 800 U.S. military bases and outposts spread across the globe? Also to the Trump’s “Space Force” and Obama’s drone warfare? To U.S. suppliers of sophisticated weapons to criminals out there? How’ll J’Biden tackle Trump buddies (but also America’s dear friends overall)? Bolsonaro and Orban, Netenyahu and Modi-- and others who’d love to sit at that banquet table with him? Given the continuing gobbling up of land mass in Gaza and the West Bank, is a free Palestinian State even possible anymore? What will Tsar Kerry contribute to the fight against climate disasters caused by greed? Will we be even close to a just and humane immigration policy? Will we be a sanctuary for refugees fleeing wars started or sanctioned by the U.S.?

Of course, J’Biden’s domestic agenda has received much scrutiny already and there’s no need for me to provide details here. I would simply remind us of issues debated during Trump’s four years.

The Biden crew has opposed any form of a single-payer healthcare system including Medicare for all, so, what’s with Obamacare as the shining star? Any chance J’Biden will initiate an eradication of student loans and move toward tuition-free education? What’ll happen in 2021 when impoverished tenants are evicted en masse from their apartments—their homes? And the already homeless multitude? Will J'Biden try to demilitarize our police forces? It appears that insurance companies and “Big Pharmas” have rapidly come into the Biden administration’s “circle of trust”, as have agrobusiness and finance capital. (Remember the lobbyists.) What too is the nature of “my kind of a Green New Deal”? But everything aside, looking from the bottom up, it is appalling to witness how all components and agencies of our government (Red and Blue together) have criminally neglected millions of Americans in dire need during the Covid-19 catastrophe. And there’s no sense of shame anywhere—only accusations.

I want to note that all liberal and not so liberal democracies of Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, Singapore and Thailand and many more countries have provided genuine safety nets for their people in this crisis. A few examples are in order. Money in U.S. dollars.

France provided 84% of net income to furloughed workers, up to $8400/mo. The Netherlands, 90% capped at $10,780/mo. extended to summer of 2021; Japan, up to 100% plus a one-off payment; So. Korea, 70% of net income; Singapore, up to 75% till September and 50% after that; Australia, $1040 every 2 weeks; Malaysia, $140/mo.; Costa Rica, $220/mo.; Poland up to 40%; Canada, up to 75%... and so on. There are usually subsidies for free-lancers and part-time workers as well. All this within the general rubric of declining wages and increasing inequality. Everyone knows that the 1% has accumulated billions during the pandemic. Check the facts if you are surprised.

I don't need to comment on the general commie-phobia among Americans. Bred in since WW II, this fear probably rejects even today government aid for survival, like examples I cited. Yet, witness thousands of people lining up for food in so many of our parking lots because families simply can’t make ends meet. Luckily, people of our children's and grandchildren's generations don’t automatically succumb to such delusions. Many of them have found themselves asserting political solidarity even in the middle of the pandemic, as we saw in Black Lives Matter initiated protests this summer and fall. Some of them have emerged as fighters for truth and justice-- as future leaders in struggle to end this obscene inequality with which we live in this country-- every single day.

Most people I know keep deriding the two-party stranglehold in America again and again. We call the system moribund, yet come election time, our choices remain only blue or red, notwithstanding a handful of other candidates. All political discussion and debate, visions of peace and justice, struggle for equality by and large remain contained in this binarism. This two-party “umbrella/tent” metaphor pretends it is the whole political/ideological spectrum. In reality, it is a formula for addictive discontent.

The emergence of a People’s Party in the fall—its political dialogue and organizational activity in all 50 states definitely brings hope to someone like me. At the same time, I watch with apprehension the possible formation of a neo-fascist/white-supremacist NATIONAL party if Trumpism cannot carry the Republicans as a whole. That is, their tent is torn apart like the shattered Democrat umbrella.

Inside the den of this imperialist Godzilla, perhaps it is hard to see beyond the immediate. That’s okay as long as we remember that the people alone are the true makers of history and beyond that, REVOLUTIONS ARE NOT BANQUETS…A REVOLUTION IS AN INSURRECTION… In these times, understanding America’s history without rationalized denial is crucial to developing any construct for future action.

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