Coronavirus / COVID-19

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Wealth? WEALTH??!??!

Your comment conveys the impression that the possession of massive wealth can excuse or diminish world-historical crimes to the violation of millions.

...and the stark truth that wealth translates directly to the power to avoid accountability.

Numerous forms of power do this and have throughout history. Less so, though sadly only marginally, in many Western societies.

How does one negate power? Not counter it or shift it or redistribute it -- all of these have been tried, are being used and none of them answer the problem of power completely. So how does one negate it? And if successful, how does anything get done in its absence?

I remind you that the Nuremberg Trials did not have any independent framework embedded in or legitimized by some system of "rule of law." Sometimes to deliver justice a bespoke mechanism suited to extraordinary circumstances is necessary. And it's abstract deontology anyway, we all know few of the principals will ever see the inside of a court, let alone a stamp of attainder.

Some justice was meted out at Nuremburg. Some punishment and vindictiveness as well. It was, as you note, an imperfect tool. Attainder, either in the meaning of legislative determination of guilt absent trial or the confiscation of all real property and chattels has been, historically, much abused. Was your comment (which I thought a hyperbole when I read it) prompted by justice or vindictiveness? Only you know.

As to malfeasance, everything connected to this pandemic will be under a microscope for years. If such has occurred, it will out and criminal charges can be leveled as appropriate.

As to those pumps, the stated purpose was to build up a federal "reserve" that could be deployed to hot spots in danger of being overwhelmed. Mind you, setting up such a reserve in the manner it was done and with those hot spots already appearing and clamoring for resources was poorly handled -- but I am generally readier to believe in ineptitude and ham-handed reactive efforts by government in general (and this sad sack administration in particular) than I am to assume malfeasance. Hanlon's Razor is one of my favorite tools with which to analyze organizations and organizational conflict.

The man is an asshat, a poor leader, and has begat an administration which does things sloppily at best and all too often incompetently into the bargain. I will have little trouble voting for Biden come November. Though I pity the man and what he will be wading through at first.