[“Speaking Truth to Empower”]
We are witnessing a failure of leadership across the board. The stunning lack of guidance we’re now witnessing is putting the nation at even greater risk.
Photo: YouTube
Is this the guy we should expect leadership from during this COVID-19 crisis?
The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has much of America in a panic. Leadership from the current White House is nonexistent.
Additionally, America’s elites, with their profit-before-people mentality—and their bought-and-paid-for intermediaries in Congress—are also putting Americans at risk.
The lack of information broadcasted over America’s airwaves is equally troubling. Around the clock, we are bombarded with stories about rising coronavirus cases. Daily the death toll increases.
Are Americans being given all the available facts that would keep us safer during this pandemic? Is the media presenting solid in-depth information to empower Americans during this time of fear? Are our leaders doing everything they can to mitigate the damage of COVID-19?
We are witnessing a failure of leadership across the board. The stunning lack of guidance we’re now witnessing is putting the nation at even greater risk. Sadly, in this time of national peril, we have a psychopath as president.
Many have been rightly critical of Trump’s “leadership” in this crisis. After calling COVID-19 a “hoax,” he recently claimed he knew this coronavirus would be bad. If so, why wasn’t he sounding the alarm to prepare us for the virus’ spread?
Of course, Trump lies every time he opens his foul mouth. But he isn’t the only politician who is failing us now. Trump is just a perverse representative example of an American political system that is proving its callous disregard for regular Americans during this time of unprecedented upheaval.
It is now being revealed that several lawmakers knew of the likely damage COVID-19 would cause before it spread in America. But these selfish politicians did nothing to warn us—while they made changes to their financial portfolios, so they wouldn’t lose money.
In particular, a ProPublica expose fingered North Carolina Republican Senator Richard Burr, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Burr apparently sold a large percentage, “between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings, on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions.” Burr used the information he was privy too to change his stocks before the market started to crash.
But Burr isn’t the only politician to put his personal financial interests above the health of Americans. Two other Republicans, Georgia’s Senator Kelly Loeffler and Oklahoma’s Senator James Inhofe reportedly made similar transactions.
Then there is California’s Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein. According to the New York Times, Senator Feinstein, and her husband, apparently sold approximately $1.5 million and $6 million of stock between Jan. 31 and Feb. 18. Feinstein’s spokesperson said her husband is the one who made the transactions, and that Feinstein’s assets are in a blind trust. Evidently, her husband just had a good hunch to make these transactions.
So, here we see politicians who were more interested in protecting their money than protecting Americans. Not surprisingly these lawmakers are making statements saying these transactions are coincidental and have nothing to do with the COVID-19 outbreak.
Lawmakers who prioritize protecting their money over protecting people shouldn’t surprise us.
Over the last week, we’ve seen Republicans in Congress more concerned with defending the profits of big business than with addressing this crisis. Why would Republicans demand that the biggest businesses should be exempt from providing extra sick day pay to workers who are being asked to stay home? Why did 51 Republicans senators vote against expanding sick leave to all workers, on Wednesday—including Burr, Loeffler and Inhofe.
But greedy corporate-controlled politicians aren’t the only ones failing us.
Since COVID-19 spread to America, we’ve heard officials telling us to wash our hands often with soap and to practice good hygiene. This is good information. However, there is evidence that unsanitary food production and preparation is a significant part of this story that is being largely overlooked.
Trump has been busy making racist statements blaming China for COVID-19, calling it the “China virus.” Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, Wednesday, defended Trump saying “People eat bats and snakes and dogs and things like that. These viruses are transmitted from the animal to the people, and that’s why China has been the source of a lot of these viruses.”
Trump and Cornyn obviously can’t control their racist tendencies. But the media’s malpractice on this important historic event may very well make some Americans amplify these racist sentiments.
The mainstream media has connected China’s Hubei province, and it’s capital Wuhan, as the area where the virus emanated from. However, the important point that is being lost in the media’s reporting is this: evidence points to the fact that the virus emanated from so-called “wet markets,” in this area, where unsanitary food products were likely being sold. According to the Center for Disease Control, “many of the patients at the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China had some link to a large seafood and live animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread.”
This information, from the CDC, is a strong indicator that this virus had its roots in food contamination—given the history with other similar viruses.
There are several viruses that the evidence tells us had their origins in unsanitary contaminated food production or preparation. For example, Avian influenza and Salmonella poisoning have been connected to outbreaks occurring after people improperly handled or consumed poultry and pork that were not properly cleaned. A similar thing can be said regarding E. coli bacteria in unclean beef products.
Given this, shouldn’t we be having serious conversations about unsanitary food handling, production, and preparation? Shouldn’t we be questioning whether or not our large-scale food producers are engaged in bad business practices that could unleash a virus here? Or, is this verboten because it would upset business interests who fight regulations that protect consumers—but which may slightly lessen their profits?
Many of us are woefully unaware of the contaminated food we eat, especially in this time of genetically-modified foods. We don’t know how poisonous the meats, vegetables, etc. that we eat really are. This should scare us to act.
Telling people to wash their hands is good. But how about making sure the food we put into our bodies isn’t rotting us from the inside out? Media should be shedding light and empowering people with information on these matters.
On Thursday, Black Star News columnist Ted Glick reported something very important: Cuba has several medicines (primarily Interferon Alpha 2B) that have been reportedly used with success against COVID-19.
Read Glick’s article here:https://www.blackstarnews.com/health/living/could-a-cuban-drug-be-the-answer-to-covid-19.html
In fact, news reports are now saying the outbreak in China is stabilizing, and it should be noted China apparently reached out to Cuba for help during the worst part of their outbreak. It is also being reported that Italy, the U.K, and several Caribbean countries are also actively seeking the assistance of Cuba’s medical doctors.
Unfortunately, because of myopia in American media, and among the political class, most Americans will not hear about the role Cuban medicine is now playing in battling this virus. Especially, since, ironically, in recent weeks the Democratic Party leaders, and press pundits, were crucifying Senator Sanders for saying Cuba has been successful in raising the literacy rate. If these folks were honest, they would admit Cuba is even more renowned for their medicine.
So, where do we go from here with COVID-19? We all need to protect ourselves by educating ourselves. We just can’t expect these misleaders to save us.
