Originally published at http://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/22/analysis-shows-us-could-help-vaccinate-world-25-billion-biden-pledged-just-2-billion
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$80B for more bombs without debate or even much reportage on the effectiveness in building US security with the use of the last batch. Anybody think that security of the Fath, er Homeland would be better enhanced with the vaccine spend than the bomb spend?
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iāll be impressed when they get to us in the bottom of their own country.
on the other hand, thereās a nihilistic glee in being class-based typhoid tommies, I suppose.
in the meantime, back to Covid Dodgeball at every location.
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Unless NASA is repeatedly landing upon Mars on a shoestring budget, we could take some money from it and use that for any number of worthy causes, foreign and domestic. Then againā¦
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Since Bill Gates Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuccerberg are such great philanthropists-- if they pooled their pocket change they could cover the cost ā but they are clearly more interested in making money off the huddled masses than they are in helping them.
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Just like our other recent example in Texas, what we see from the handling of the Pandemic from the first world nations is crystal clear.
We are now in end-stage capitalism.
People are a commodity. And just like any commodity, capitalism has assigned people a value. In short, the value of āhuman capitalā has been diminished by our sheer numbers and automation. The only way to correct this market condition is to let the stock dwindle down to a more profitable level. It just so happened that the pandemic has given the free market the test it needed. When the shutdowns occurred in the past year the biggest global corporations and the oligarchs that run them found out that they could still make obscene amounts of money without so many workers. The wealthy have found our Achilles heel and are now ready to exploit it. They no longer need so many of Us, so the herd will be culled.
Covid has shown them the way.
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Have you noticed how the army is suddenly releasing all sorts of ufo and alien āevidenceā?
That is because they are looking to increase their funding for all space related programs by several orders of magnitude.
Given the results of their recent audit i suppose someone figured it would be much easier to hide cash in space since no auditor can actually verify what they are doing up there.
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Well, Biden is probably thinking that since the US represents only about 5% (1/20) of global population, $2b (2/25 = 8%) is a generous contribution. A more accurate figure would be based on the US percentage of global wealth. I donāt have that figure at my fingertips, but if I were a betting man I would bet ten bucks that it is at least ten percent, and ten percent of $25b is $2.5%.
In real world terms, with something like 400 billionaires the US would do itself and the world a favor to tax each of them ONE percent and mount the whole cost of the vaccines AND the infrastructure with billions left over.
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Funny (if not Ha-Ha funny) you should mention the global pandemic in the same breath as what weād normally call (if our speech and language cognition hadnāt been shaped by U.S. media indoctri-NATION) a National Security issue. Who in the U.S. News Media has consistently characterized the Global Pandemic as a āNational Securityā issue? Who in the modern broadcast history of the U.S. has considered the CDC (Center for Disease Control) budget to be a National Security expense?
Who in the U.S. broadcast industry, whether commercial and profit maximizing or non-profit yet endowed by major corporations like the very Military Industrial Complex vendors that General\President Eisenhower warned U.S. about routinely note that each Presidential administrationās annual budgets reflect the nationās actual moral agenda (not any aspirational or propagandized moral agenda).
With a century or more of over-subsidizing our National Security State via Private Profit Maximizing manufacturers and vendors what General\President (but never CEO) Eisenhower called THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. General\President Eisenhower took the dramatic step of airing via national television on his way out the White House door the day before the new administrationās inaugural after his second Presidential term what is described in cautionary terms for U.S. (as the President and former General knew better than most how little coverage the Corporate Caliphate captured U.S. News & Public Affairs media gave this gravest domestic NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT) why the Public\Private Partnership, which is a key tenet of Cold War weaponized Neo-Liberal E-CONomic doctrine, poses such a threat to the republic and needs to be audited and regulated carefully and rigorously.
~https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyBNmecVtdU
And the 50 year anniversary NATION magazine symposium on the Eisenhower āMILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT SPEECHā
~https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2jgwxWGYDI
Interesting to compare General\President Ikeās televised farewell speech posted to U. of Tube dba YouTube aired nationally January 17, 1961 a day before Republican Ike passed our Presidential baton to Dems JFK & LBJ with any of President Donald Trumpās televised appearances in which he attempted to thwart and then obstruct the incoming administration as determined in what 39 different conservative-stacked U.S. judges determined to be free and fair elections that gave Trump\Pence administrationās loyal opposition both popular vote and Electoral College victories despite numerous requested re-counts and court observed and verified tabulations.
Also, compare the state of and operative condition of General\President Eisenhower\Nixon administrationās cabinet level federal agencies with the utter disarray if not sabotage of a functioning FIRST WORLD Nationās government after the Trump\Pence and family business advisers and private consultantsā placed new Heads of the Departments of Agriculture, Defense (Offense), Health, Education, Welfare, State, Interior, Treasury, Attorney General (Justice Departmentās Top Cop), POSTMASTER GENERAL, LABOR, Commerce, Budget, Ambassador to the U.N. and White House Chief of Staff, each of whom had a record of being hostile to the purpose of each of those federal agencies (vital organs of government, especially for the worldās default leader until the end of the Trump\Pence administration).
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters and Song Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers)
Media Discussion List and Looksee
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NASAās budget is 25-30 billion. I donāt want it cut at all but Iād cut any number of pentagon budgets including Obamaās nuclear weapons modernization crap.
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You know, Iām really not upset that the USA is not picking up the entire tab for vaccinating the entire world. Iāve got no problem in letting other countries share the load. The interesting part was buried rather far down the article ā¦ that Bidenās $2 billion pretty much matched what the entire rest of the G7 was willing to put into the pot. They are all cheapskates.
Yes, they should all put in more. Iād love to see the US cancel one of a line of carriers that are planned at $15-$20 billion apiece. Missile warfare is making them useless anyways, use this money for this and for other vital tasks more important than a carrier. Like fixing our electric grid perhaps? But I donāt mind a bit Biden holding back and getting the rest of the capitalists to pitch in to cover the cost as well.
Meanwhile, the big mistake appears to be not inviting China to the meeting.
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Another thought could be something like thisā¦
Biden says he wonāt put much money into the pot. But, he does issue a statement that says that vaccines that America already gave Big Pharma at least $1 billion in order to pay for the research and development, that since the USA paid for these vaccines, we are waiving Intellectual Property rights, releasing the technology to the world, and being willing to teach others how to make these vaccines.
Less money, big impact. Give the vaccines that we the American taxpayers paid for to the world.
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āā¦Iām really not upset that the USA is not picking up the entire tab for vaccinating the entire world.ā
Well in a way, we already have, it was reported the US government kicked in 75 billion to develop the vaccine, so in reality we (the people) own the rights to the vaccines developed in this country, not the pharmaceutical companies. I vote we open source the data and allow the rest of the world to replicate them.
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Fascinating that we were both typing pretty much the same thing. I obviously had a much lower figure than you. Mine is based on nothing, so Iāll accept your $75 Bil.
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Iām not sure which dollar amounts are correct, itās been months since those stories were put out, and I have nothing bookmarked after July (hard drive crash), but weāre on the same page.
Didnāt see your second comment until after my first post.
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And nobody is even talking about next year yet.
We donāt know how long the vaccine protection lasts. We donāt know how soon after youāve been sick with this once, that you can catch it again. For the flu, we get a shot every year. Partly because the virus mutates somewhat and they adjust the target each year, but also because you donāt get life-time immunity to the flu. Its not like chickenpox.
So, to me, it seems like pretty good bet that after the world gets everyone vaccinated this year, then we have to move on to next year.
I saw someone from Big Pharma saying not to worry about the mutations that are being found, they will research and update the vaccine. But this isnāt computer code. They canāt just tell the already vaccinated to download a patch. When the virus mutates and they update the vaccine, everyone is going to need another shot.
But hey, Uncle Joe says this will all disappear by Christmas.
Something donāt quite add up.
This study says the USA could vaccinate the world for $25 billion. Bidenās $1.9 Trillion COVID bill contains $20 billion for āhelping withā vaccinating Americans.
If the 7 billion people in the entire world can be vaccinated for $25 billion, then someone is wasting money in America since we are paying that or more to vaccinate only 330 million Americans.
Just saying that something donāt seem to add up with these numbers. Donāt know what.
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Exactly so- Nailed it.
This is why status quo, returning to ānormalā and Nothing will fundamentally change, are all a death spiral
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On board with the latter, but if I/we look at the latest Mars landing - an automobile-sized object lands softly after traveling at 12,000 mph - and then look at Texas over the weekend - the contrast is - to put it mildly - surreal.
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The Gates Foundation supposedly prioritizes public health. The foundation could fund the global vaccination program itself.
(The Gates Foundation is a neat trick: Donate all your money to yourself, and write it off your taxes.)
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