The Kidnapping Of An Era

F O R A G E R The Kidnapping Of An Era 15 October 2020 Now we understand a little better what being in prison must be like. We are not permitted. We may not go. You cannot attend the entertainments. You may enjoy your friends and family at a distance for only a short period, which is used only to commiserate and practice more gallows humor. Plexiglas confines our transactions and interactions. We douse our hands in sanctifying gel as we enter the church of transaction. Scattering is employed to safeguard the willing. We are all vectors that must break our breath to shield the future. We step back. If the reflex was fear it would be understandable, but retreating is more like the tentative movements of ants who have lost their way while following the broken scent of lost multitudes. Congratulations, Mr. President, you built a wall made of disease around the country. This kind of community stress is having notable effects on our personal relationships and our economic health. The pandemic is proving to be a far greater risk to our democracy than Vladimir Putin. To surmise that the challenge to voting was planned back in March by the Trump Administration may be giving too much credit to people who, up until now, never demonstrated they understand cause and effect. Take the trade “war” with China, which we lost. Iowa will demonstrate a very short memory of farm equipment forfeitures and rural economic and family hardship if Iowans insist on voting for Trump and every other Republican who wrecked corn-belt farms due to the senseless tariff disputes with China. The only thing that saved the farms and towns was sudden Socialism. The USDA was forced to pay out nearly 15 billion to farmers and farm enterprises in 2019 alone. The limit was $250,000 per farm. $500,000 if you had hogs and grew their feed. That doesn’t sound very MAGA to me. More like bribery. We had a chance to solve Covid 19 and the evidence of success elsewhere is a pedestrian fact. Japan has been a model of health courtesy since the 1919 flu pandemic, when masks were first introduced. Japan has 125 million residents, which is roughly one third the population of the US. The current pandemic in Japan has claimed 1,700 lives and caused 90,000 cases of Covid 19. At a factor of three, in comparison to Japan, US fatalities would be 5,000, not 215,000, with 270,000 cases, not 8 million, if we had handled this crisis with any other measure of scientific acceptance and political will. Instead, we are looking more like India. At least India can be excused for not being the number one economic power in the world. Our hypocrisy will never be matched. This pandemic life is a just compensation for laziness, ignorance and selfishness. It apparently can happen here. Four years squandered while we helplessly watched a lunatic kidnap an era. Nothing was accomplished because that has been the deliberate goal of capital for decades. Do nothing to alter the upward trek of wealth accumulation. Build myths with medieval symbolism and promise a return to an ideal that never existed. Pile imaginary threats on the rampart to distract the viewership while the heist can continue. Flout the law. Accuse your adversaries of larcenies and lies you are actually committing. Vilify cooperation and common sense as if they are challenges to personal freedom. Do not as you say. And now the ultimate threat is to drag us all down with you, openly encouraging domestic terrorism, shielding criminal associates, questioning the keystone of democracy: the vote of every citizen. The FORAGER is the weekly newsletter of The Farmer and The Cook which usually speaks to the current availability of vegetables from the farm and how to prepare them. -- Steve Sprinkel www.farmerandcook.com