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The single day death toll in the country, as a result of the virus, has reached a record 1,800, bringing the grand total to over 13,000. The virus is decimating the country, causing terrible suffering. The families of those who are dying in hospitals are not allowed to visit them, as the fear is that such visits could lead to more spreading of the virus. As a result of this legitimate concern, such patients are forced to die without being surrounded by family. Further, the family is then forced to arrange a funeral with very few mourners, due to the rules concerning social distancing.

In the midst of this devastation, the journalists are reporting a ”glimmer of hope”, a ”light at the end of the tunnel.” They report that the ”curve is flattening”, that we are ”reaching the apex”, that the anticipated death toll ”may be less than the anticipated 150,000”. Perhaps they think the families of the victims of the virus may take some comfort in this!

As soon as someone dies, it is up to the coroner or Medical Examiner to determine the cause of death. The one and only way to determine if the deceased had the virus, is to administer the test for the virus, which can be done, after death. All too often, this is not being done. The test kits are not available!

The president of the Wyoming Coroners Association stated that testing procedures for the dead are limited, and doubts that ”we will ever know the true impact on fatalities from covid, both for the living and the dead.”

The coroner of Arkansas Clark County was somewhat less polite, when he stated, ”Bodies aren’t tested for covid19. Period.”

The coroner in Douglas County, Colorado, has been begging for test kits. As she put it, ”If you die in my county, I will not know if you died of covid19.”

The coroner in Chester County, Pennsylvania, was a bit more diplomatic when she stated ”Testing has been so restricted and test kits so unavailable, I do not think we really know the scope of the infection or virus related deaths here.”

Coroners all across the country are expressing a similar frustration.

The simple fact is that no one knows precisely how many people are dying as a result of becoming infected with the virus. For that matter, no one even knows how many people are becoming infected with the virus! The hospitals are filled to capacity and beyond, with patients being placed in the hallways. Many people who are sick are being turned away from the hospital, if only because they appear to not be in a life threatening state. There is no time or place for such people. Such patients frequently die at home.

This helps to explain the ”flattening of the curve”, the ”apex of the virus”, the reason fewer people are dying than was anticipated. The infection and death of a great many people is not being reported!

This frustration is shared by the medical workers, the first responders and the delivery service workers. The medical system is at the point of collapse. In one case, two nurses were expected to care for twenty six patients, ten of whom were on ventilators. It is absolutely not reasonable to expect two nurses to provide quality care for patients, under those circumstances. Such examples are by no means isolated incidents. They are common place.

Recently in Detroit, the night shift emergency nursing staff refused to work and demanded more nurses be brought into their overrun emergency room. The hospital administrators in turn told those nurses to either go to work, or go home. A few of them did go home, and the day shift nurses were ordered to continue working, for a twenty four hour shift!

The head of the Michigan Nurses Association spoke quite clearly when she said ”A tipping point is reached where the best thing any RN can do for their patients, their families and their coworkers is to speak out rather than remain silent…it is only a matter of time before more actions like this occur. It is absolutely essential that hospitals start working with nurses and stop silencing our voices.”

In this she is absolutely right, in so far as ”speaking out” is the ”best thing any RN can do”. On the other hand, there is no way the hospital administrators are about to listen to the nurses, nor are they about to ”stop silencing” their voices. The hospital staff is in the service of the class of people who run the country, the capitalists, the billionaires, the Sacred Six Hundred, the bourgeoisie. These people are imperialists, and as Lenin put it, ”Imperialism is reaction, right down the line”. As that is the case, we can expect nothing progressive from these people.

Some of the delivery workers, those who supply the hospitals with medical supplies and are classified as essential services, are already on strike. Any day now, the hospital staff will join them, as they reach the ”tipping point”, the point where people cannot take any more, where they say ”enough is enough”. They are risking their health and even their lives, without proper protective clothing to wear, a shortage of medical equipment, over worked so that they simply cannot perform a proper job, and disrespected by the hospital administrators. There are limits.

This anticipated strike action, on the part of the medical workers, could well be the beginning of a full scale revolution. It is not just the medical system that is at the stage of crisis, set to collapse. The whole system of capitalism is in crisis, although it is doubtful that the capitalists are aware of this. Even if they are aware, they are not about to acknowledge this. As that is the case, perhaps we should draw it to their attention. It is the least we can do. We owe them so much, and it is high time we got even!

The virus has spread around the world, and this is just the start of the Second Great Depression. Even after the virus has run its course, or at least the first wave of the virus, the depression will remain.

It is to be hoped that the current situation will serve as a ”call to arms”, that conscious people, those who are aware of the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin, will come together and form a revolutionary Communist Party, Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. It is also hoped that all Americans will put aside their differences and join the two mainstream political parties. As well, the leaders of the Women’s March and the Student Protest Movement should once again stage massive protests, this time in support of our heroic medical professionals and against the system of capitalism. They have done it before and they can do it again.

As for the groups who are determined to force through paltry reforms, feel free to face the fact that such reforms are not about to take place. It is time for people of all backgrounds to come together, regardless of race, religion, creed, belief or class heritage. Bear in mind that Marx and Lenin were middle class intellectuals. It is such people who are obligated to bring the class awareness to the working class, the proletariat. Intellectuals are not to be scorned!

On the contrary, it is up to workers, or at least the most advanced members of the working class, to raise their level of awareness to that of the level of intellectuals! Feel free to earn the mantle of working class intellectual! The revolutionary writings of Marx and Lenin are readily available, as is the internet. Make use of these tools, as it is in your best interest.

I most passionately hope that Americans will once again become active, as they have in the past. After all, they have a revolutionary history, of which they can be most proud. March with banners, this time proclaiming class content, calling for scientific socialism, an end to capitalism, the defeat of the billionaires, the Sacred Six Hundred, the bourgeoisie. The beginning of the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat.

I will close this article with suggestions for my usual slogans, as it gives people a place to start:

Workers of the World, Unite!

Scientific Socialism!

Dictatorship Of the Proletariat!

The country is entering the Second Great Depression, that which is expected to be even more severe than the Great Depression of the early twentieth century. The hardship is compounded by the pandemic of the corona virus, so that people are referring to this as a ”double whammy”. In desperation, people are looking for leaders. They are appealing to their democratically elected leader, and in particular the president of the United States, Donald Trump. He takes no responsibility for the crisis which is sweeping the country.

One writer in particular, a true starry eyed optimist, stated that Trump is facing a ”problem that can’t be solved with his usual bag of political tools, obfuscation, denial, deflecting blame and misinformation”. If only that were true!

In fact, Trump denies ever having met with medical professionals in January, in which he was warned of the danger of the corona virus. He was advised of the necessity of containing the virus, of isolating infected areas as well as the individuals who are infected, of preparing for the out break of the anticipated pandemic, of stocking up on medical supplies and giving people warning. This he denies, just as he denies clearly stating, on February 25, ”We are very close to a vaccine”. In fact, the medical professionals are convinced that such a vaccine is at least a year away.

He also stated, on February 28, ”Its going to disappear one day, its like a miracle, it will disappear, it will go away.” He went on to speculate that ”warm weather will kill the virus”, despite the fact that there is nothing to suggest that the weather will have any effect on the virus. Then on March 7, he said that ”anyone who wants a test for the virus can get one”. Such is hardly the case, as to this day, such a test is not widely available.

As Trump recently stated, he ”takes no responsibility for this virus”. The lack of preparation, the ”empty shelves”, he has nailed on the previous administration. The fact that he has been in office for over three years is conveniently overlooked. The journalists who point this out to him, in turn face his wrath and scorn. This is especially true if that journalist is a female. Trump has little patience for women who do not ”know their place”!

This brings us to his top political adviser, his son in law, Jared Kushner. He occupies a ”special post” inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The duties of this ”special post” are carefully not specified. Those who work inside the White House refer to him as the leader of the ”Slim Suit Crowd”.

What ever his official duties may or may not be, we are grateful to Kushner for clarifying the position of the Trump administration, concerning their attitude towards the individual states. As Kushner stated so clearly -if not eloquently- ”The notion of the federal stockpile was, it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be the states stockpiles, that they then use.”

There we have it, folks. Jared Kushner has just drawn a clear distinction between ”us”, or the ”federal’, and ”they”, or the individual states! The individual states which comprise the United States are of no consequence! The ”stockpiles” of the ”federal” are not to be used by the states! The United States are no longer ”United”, merely a miscellaneous assortment of individual states which cannot ”use” the ”federal stockpile”!

To think that most Americans were of the impression that America, by which they meant the United States, was just that! A group of states which were united in purpose, brought together under one federal government, a single country. Such is hardly the case, at least according to Jared Kushner.

It is very likely that the ”us” to whom Kushner refers, is nothing other than himself, his father in law, Donald Trump, and the other billionaires in the country, the Sacred Six Hundred, the super rich, the members of the class of people whom are technically referred to as the bourgeoisie. They rule the country, and have donated hundreds, if not thousands, of billions of dollars to the major corporations which they own. These corporations are considered to be ”Too Big To Fail”, as opposed to the numerous small businesses, which are considered to be Too Small To Succeed. For that matter, countless common people are now losing their jobs, houses and life savings, but we too are Too Small To Succeed. We do not count.

Now the latest absurdity from Trump is that ”We see light at the end of the tunnel”. Such is hardly the case, for as Dr. Fauci, his top medical adviser put it, ”This is going to be a bad week… We are struggling to get it under control”. The Surgeon General clearly agrees, as he expects the ”week ahead to be the hardest and saddest.” He also says ”we are facing a crucial two week period…a Pearl Harbour and a nine eleven moment…with a lot of deaths.”

As a journalist just reported, precisely a month ago, the death toll from the virus was precisely eleven. Now, one month later, the death toll is ten thousand! All this talk of the ”peaking of the virus”, of ”flattening the curve”, is just that. Talk. The virus continues to spread, making countless people sick and killing a great many. Further, as thousands of people are desperately sick, kept alive on ventilators, most of those people will soon die, as soon as they are removed from ventilators.

This stands in stark contrast to Trump, the ”eternal optimist”, who is suggesting the use of an untested drug. As he put it, ”What do you have to lose?” In answer to the question, the president of the AMA replied, ”You could lose your life.”

To this day, ninety six percent of the country is placed on ”stay at home orders”, or at least forced to exercise ”social distancing”, so that people leave their homes only when absolutely necessary. In other words, thirteen million people are still moving around, spreading the virus! Trump refuses to exercise his executive authority and force the whole country onto ”stay at home” orders. As a result of this, ever more ”hot spots” continue to appear.

The state of New York has been very hard hit by the virus, with nearly half of the deaths in the country occurring in that one state. Yet when the governor of the state called up the White House and requested more medical equipment, including face masks and ventilators, he was told that he did not know what he had in his own state inventory! Other governors, of other states, have reported similar conversations.

The medical personnel, including first responders as well as hospital staff, are putting their lives as well as their health on the line. In return, they are asking for proper protective gear, such as face masks, as well as hazardous duty pay. In response, the government authorities are telling them ”now is not the time”. Bear in mind that ”now is the time” to bless the biggest, richest, most powerful corporations with mountains of money, tax payer money no less, but the same people who dole out this money have no time to listen to working people!

To all working people, I can only say that now is the time to act! We do not have the time to wait for the virus to run its course. By that time, millions of people will be homeless, as well as unemployed. We have to take action now, to march, as the women marched across the country, at the time Trump was inaugurated, three years ago. The students also marched, in protest of gun violence. Now all Americans, of all walks of life, have got to come together, put aside our differences, and overthrow the system of capitalism, destroy the bourgeois state apparatus and establish the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat!

Now is the time for scientific socialism! It is the billionaires, the monopoly capitalists, the bourgeoisie, who are responsible for this disaster. They are using this as an opportunity to line their own pockets! The problem is not one of Trump or Kushner, but of the class they represent, the bourgeoisie! The whole class must be destroyed! In the process, we can expect the country to break up, as the empire collapses, as working people set up a democratic republic, of the people, by the people and for the people, the working people , the proletariat!

May I suggest that when people march, in order to overthrow the government which protects the billionaires, the bourgeoisie, the people should wear face scarfs, if nothing else. Face masks are not always available. After the revolution, after we crush the billionaires, the bourgeoisie, under the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat, then we can focus on dealing with this virus which is decimating our population.

The same people who organized the women’s march, as well as the students march, must once again become active and organize once again, only this time with the goal of overthrowing the bourgeoisie. All citizens should be encouraged to join the two mainstream political parties, as card carrying members. All conscious people, those who are familiar with the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin, should focus also on forming a proper Communist Party, one which advocates the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. In this way, the Party will be able to distinguish itself from the revisionist parties.

It is to be hoped that this depression and virus will serve as a ”wake up call”. The people are desperate for leaders. Feel free to rise to the occasion.

The United Nations has now referred to the Corona Virus as ”the most challenging issue the world has faced since World War 2”. It has spread around the world, with the number of reported cases now over one million, with 54,000 fatalities. America is the country with the most reported cases of the virus, with almost a quarter million infected and 6,000 dead. The American health care system is in danger of being overwhelmed.

The medical professionals anticipate running out of equipment within a few days. Hospitals in all fifty states are being forced to ”bid against each other”, in an attempt to buy the medical equipment they so desperately need. This includes not only ventilators, but also personal protective equipment, such as face masks, so as to give the staff a measure of protection from the virus. As the situation becomes ever more desperate, the price of all such medical equipment continues to rise.

The capitalists refer to this as the ”law of supply and demand”. The greater the demand, the higher the price of the items which are available, so they do their best to limit the supply, possibly hoarding such things as face masks, in order to increase profits. As a result of this, the fact is that countless people are getting sick and many of them are dying. This is of no concern to the capitalists. They are only concerned with their profit, their ”bottom line”. This pandemic, which is sweeping the world and causing untold suffering, they see as an ”opportunity”. Make no mistake, they are taking full advantage of this ”opportunity”, making money ”hand over fist”.

New York City is currently considered to be the ”epicentre” of the outbreak in America, with the hospitals and medical staff stretched to the limit. The New York Fire Department, as ”first responders”, is reported to have 3,000 members out sick, mainly as a result of being exposed to the virus, in the performance of their duties. In addition, the president of the New York Nurses Association pointed out that ”it does not matter how many ventilators we have, if we are dead”. That girl has a way with words!

The American military is not indifferent to the suffering of the citizens, and has graciously sent a military hospital ship, the Comfort, to New York City, to help relieve the pressure. The only stipulation is that the ship will only allow patients who are not infected with the virus to be treated. In that way, hospital beds in the city will become available for those who are infected with the virus.

The patients who are identified as candidates for transferral to the Comfort must first be tested, to see if they have the virus. It takes several days to get the test results, and most hospital patients are released after four or five days. So by the time the test results are produced, the patients are usually released. As a result of this, the Comfort, which has a thousand beds and has been docked in New York harbour for three days, has possibly twenty patients. The medical staff within the city do not refer to this ship as the Comfort. They refer to it as the ”Floating Joke”.

The press reports that certain hospitals are filled to capacity and even overflowing, with patients being placed in hall ways. The doctors are referring to the situation as a ”medical war zone”. There is a palpable sense of despair and frustration within the medical community. The medical crisis is expected to intensify, as the infection rate has not yet reached a ”peak”, to use the popular term.

It is just a matter of time, and probably a short time, before the health care system in the country is overwhelmed. Even now, there are people who are infected and very sick, yet refuse to go to the hospital. They choose to remain at home and die surrounded by their families, as opposed to going to the hospital and dying alone. The sad fact is that people who are placed on ventilators have only a twenty percent chance of recovering. This means that of every five people placed on ventilators, only one is likely to survive. The other four can be expected to survive for days or even weeks, on ”life support”, but almost certainly die once the machine is removed.

This is not to say that patients should be denied ventilators, or anything else they need. It is to say that many of the ventilators which the federal government has in storage are in need of repair. The mayor of New York City is of the opinion that the federal government should ”step up” and provide more assistance, before more people die needlessly. As the highest single day increase in deaths and hospitalizations has just been reported, there is no time to lose.

As the ”federal government” to which he is referring is led by President Trump, no less, this ”assistance” is not about to take place. There are still ten states which have no ”stay at home” rules, so the folks in those states are continuing to travel and gather, to their hearts content, and spread the corona virus. These states are considered to be ”rural”, sparsely populated, so that the health care system in such areas are not on a par with that which is available in ”urban” centres. It is anticipated that any outbreak of the virus will quickly overwhelm the few hospitals which are available.

For that matter, it is just a matter of time before the medical system all across the country breaks down. In other parts of the world, there are reports of victims of the virus dropping dead in the streets, as the hospitals are filled to capacity. Now the press is starting to face reality and reporting that the virus is anticipated to be with us for months and not weeks. After that, it is the opinion of medical experts that we could then be faced with a ”second wave”. Possibly they anticipate that the virus could ”mutate”, and return with a vengeance.

It is worth noting that world wide, the death rate for those infected with the virus is roughly five percent, while in America the death rate is around half, at perhaps two point five percent. The medical care in the country is clearly superior to other parts of the world, and those who are kept alive on ventilators, if only for a few days, are not classified as fatalities. That helps to keep the fatality rate at an artificially low level. As the medical system in the country becomes ever more overburdened, we can expect that number to grow.

In the midst of all this devastation, President Trump has a well established set of priorities. He has called up the leaders of Russia and Saudi Arabia and expressed his concern over the price of oil! He wants them to limit their production of oil, as the low price of oil is adversely affecting the stock market. Americans are getting sick and dying, and Trump is worried about the price of oil! It is strange, but perhaps not too surprising, that the Kremlin is not aware of this call!

The medical professionals, the ”first responders” and the delivery workers, those who are providing desperately needed equipment to those who are in need, in turn need our support. They are risking their health and even their lives, in order to assist those who so desperately require help. To such people I can only offer my most sincere thanks.

With that in mind, and considering the fact that we are now entering a depression, may I suggest that it is high time people take action. The internet and modern communications, by which I mean various digital devices, have provided us with valuable tools. We would be fools to not take advantage of them. We are not our grandparents, we are more aware now than they ever were, and we should act accordingly.

Recently, the American women and students have proven themselves to be excellent organizers. They have managed to arrange protests across the country. Those protests were mainly focused on Trump and gun violence. Now it is once again necessary to protest, the difference being that this time such protests must not be limited to one issue. People must ”broaden their horizons”, and focus on destroying the whole system of capitalism.

As for those who find that somewhat unreasonable, feel free to face the facts. The country is entering a depression, even broader and deeper than the Great Depression. The country is ”head over heels” in debt, and cannot possibly come out of it. Equally without doubt, the capitalists fully intend to try, possibly by provoking a war with Iran. Millions of working people, proletarians, are now losing their jobs. As well, millions more small business owners, middle class people, petty bourgeois, are losing their businesses, facing bankruptcy. They too are unemployed. All are about to also lose their medical coverage and their homes. Many will be forced to live in their cars and even under bridges. As Sargent Friday of Dragnet fame was fond of saying, these are ”just the facts”.

It is also a fact that there are over 600 billionaires in the country, and they are profiting from this depression! The ”Economic Stimulus Package”, otherwise known as ”Corporate Welfare”, has served to enrich them. The federal government has chosen to bless those chosen few, those who own businesses which are Too Big To Fail, with vast sums of money, hundreds of billions. This money was collected from American taxpayers, those who are Too Small To Succeed. Bear in mind that these Sacred Six Hundred are members of a class which are technically referred to as the bourgeoisie. They run the country, and are only concerned with ”lining their own pockets”. They can and must be destroyed.

With that in mind, may I suggest that the ”army” of women and students has just received ”reinforcements”, in the form of those who have recently been ruined by the bourgeoisie. Of course, I am referring to the former small business owners, newly created proletarians. No doubt many of them are quite bitter -who can blame them?- as their dreams of becoming successful and even of joining the ranks of the bourgeoisie, have been completely crushed. Practically overnight, their life savings, their years of hard work, have been flushed down the toilet.

Those same people are now being offered small business loans. To accept those loans would only prolong the agony, driving those people ever deeper into debt. This is a depression, and in a depression, there is no room for any small business. Further, there is no way out of this crisis in capitalism. Face the fact that your businesses are gone and not coming back.

Now is the time to cast away the dreams of success, to transform that bitterness into determination, to face the fact that capitalism has had its day, that revolution and socialism is on the horizon. The world will be a far better place without capitalism!

Join the ranks of the women and students, those who have marched for change, in the past. As formerly successful business people, you have valuable knowledge and skills, which can be of great service to the working class. Most of you are aware of the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin, especially that of the necessity of scientific socialism, which includes the smashing of the existing state machinery and establishing the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. Feel free to bring this awareness to the working class. You can speak from experience, so working people are more likely to listen to you.

Time is not on our side, as the revolution waits for no one. It will break out when it breaks out. People are bound to rise up spontaneously, and are in desperate need of class consciousness. That is where middle class, conscious people can be of great service. As it is my most fervent belief that the best way to reach the vast majority of people is with slogans, may I suggest:

Workers of the World, Unite!

Scientific Socialism!

Dictatorship Of the Proletariat!

April first today, April Fools day. As I watch the news, I cannot help but wonder if the politicians and economists are not fabricating some sort of twisted April Fools day joke. But then I realize that it is merely wishful thinking on my part. That which is happening now is too sick to be a joke, too terrible to be a nightmare. Our leaders are too incompetent, too stunned to face reality.

President Trump has ten thousand ventilators in stock, and he is holding on to them. The hospitals are desperately short of medical supplies, including ventilators, yet Trump is not impressed by this. He is saving them for the next two weeks, when ”the surge is coming”. He is convinced the corona virus pandemic will peak within the next two weeks. No one knows the reason for this belief, but then Trump believes strongly in intuition.

Most of the country is in a state of lockdown, at least until the end of April. After that, he expects the country to ”return to normal”, in time for fall and the elections. It is clear that Trump is living in his own little world, a world of delusion.

It is true that eighty percent of the country is in a state of lockdown, which means that twenty percent of the country is not locked down. Simple math tells us that 66 million people are running around, spreading the virus. This is not rocket science.

The medical experts are predicting that the death toll from the virus could reach 240,000. Then again, one of the most highly respected medical professionals, Dr. Brix, gave a figure of two million! These impressive numbers did not come to the doctors in the form of a sacred vision. Instead, they played with some numbers, did the math, and came to some different conclusions. The reason for the vastly different estimates for the death toll is quite simple. No one has any idea of the number of people who will contract the virus, so we can only work with estimates. Or you can call them guesses if you like, because that is precisely what they are.

With that in mind, may I suggest that readers apply the same math that the medical experts are using, as it is not difficult, and determine your own estimate. This may help to give the readers some idea of the magnitude of the problem.

The population of the country is roughly three hundred thirty million, or 330,000,000, to put it in mathematical form. If even five percent -expressed as 5%- of the population contracts the virus, then roughly sixteen million people will be infected. Of those sixteen million people, we can expect possibly two percent, – 2%- of those people to die. Using that estimate, we can expect 320,000 fatalities.

The trouble being that we have no idea of the percentage of the population who will be infected. We do know that the more people move around, the more people will be infected, the higher the percentage of infected people. By contrast, the more people sit tight, the less people will be infected, the lower the percentage of the population who will be infected. Hence, the estimate of the percentage of the people who will be infected can only remain a guess. We also know that the more people who are infected, the more people will die, especially if the medical system in the country breaks down.

Then there are other facts, which are awkward, as well as not pleasant. The fact is that in the last three days, the fatality rate, as a result of the virus, has doubled to 835, and that was the death rate in one day. We now have 4,564 total dead, and that number is rising. New York City has been hit very hard, and is considered to be the ”epicentre” of the pandemic in America, possibly because so many people are forced to live so close together. Within that city, seventeen percent of the police are out sick, mainly as a result of contracting the virus, in the performance of their duties.

Other ”hot spots” include New Jersey, New Orleans, Florida, Detroit, Albany, Texas, Philadelphia, California, Miami and Georgia. Medical supplies are in demand, including personal protective equipment, such as masks, and those which are available are selling for ten to twenty times the usual price! Here we have a bright shining example of capitalism in all its glory. The corona virus is ravaging the country, countless people are sick and many are dying, first responders and medical personnel are putting their lives on the line, trying to help the infected, and the capitalists are using this as an opportunity to enrich themselves!

Officially, the current number of people who are infected stands at 205,239. Unofficially, the number is thought to be much higher, as people can carry the virus for days and show no symptoms. Relatively few people are being tested for the virus, as the government has yet to master the art of testing multitudes of people. Other countries have managed that quite well, but they must know something we do not. They are also aware that those who do not move around do not mingle with others and consequently do not spread the virus. Perhaps someone should let the Washington bureaucrats in on that little secret.

That brings us to the economists for the largest, most highly respected financial institutions in the country. They are predicting this little downturn in the economy, this ”recession”, will turn around ”by the fourth quarter”. They must live in the same fantasy world as Trump.

Someone should advise these mental midgets that there are -or were- thirty million small businesses in the country. These small businesses employed nearly half the private work force. Very few of those businesses can afford to remain idle for more than a week or two. Now they are faced with the prospect of being idle for six to eighteen months! Few, if any, can afford to shut down for that long. It follows that most, if not all, of their work force is about to be unemployed. Most of the owners are also about to join the ranks of the working class, also unemployed. In short, the unemployment rate is sky rocketing. As that is the case, Mister Big Business Economist, just where do you get the idea that the economy is about to boom once again, later on in the year? Feel free to get it through that thick skull of yours that the country is now entering a depression, one that is expected to be more severe than the one of the nineteen thirties.

But then, as Lenin pointed out, it is the task of the bourgeois economist to ”present it in a favourable light”. He goes on to say that ”simplicity of mind on the part of the bourgeois economists is not surprising. Besides, it is in their interests to pretend to be so naive”.(italics by Lenin) It is safe to say that the bourgeois economists are certainly earning their pay!

The biggest businesses, the monopoly corporations, those which are referred to as Too Big To Fail, are now even bigger, more powerful, more wealthy than ever before, if only because of the government hand outs, the corporate welfare, in the guise of the Economic Stimulus Package. The class of people who own those corporations, the billionaires who are technically referred to as the bourgeoisie, are now far more wealthy. At the same time, the small business owners, the petty bourgeois, are effectively wiped out. They are being forced into the ranks of the working class, the proletariat. The monopolies are becoming ever stronger, ever more complete. It is to their advantage as they now have no competition from the small business owners, the middle class, the petty bourgeois.

Many of those former members of the middle class, petty bourgeois, are aware of the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin. They used to live a relatively comfortable life as small business owners. Those days are gone, never to return. Now they are being forced into the ranks of the working class, the proletariat. To such people, I have only one word: Welcome!

Now may I suggest that you share your class awareness with the other members of the class you have just joined. Explain to workers the existence of classes and the necessity of revolution and the subsequent Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. Put your organizational skills to work in preparing demonstrations and marches. Harass the bourgeoisie, allow them no rest. Give them no peace. Encourage all Americans to join the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Form a most exclusive Communist Party, one which advocates the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. The working class needs leaders.

I will end this article with my usual slogans, as they are so important:

Workers of the World, Unite!

Scientific Socialism!

Dictatorship Of the Proletariat!

The daily death toll in America, as a result of the corona virus, has just reached a record 502, so that nearly 3,000 Americans have now died, as a result of the sickness. That number is expected to rise dramatically, as the virus continues to spread. The medical experts are predicting an eventual death toll of between 100,00 and 200,000, although others predict the death toll could rise to the millions. To support their predictions, the medical experts are producing graphs, charts and ”curves which must be flattened”, ”epicentres”, ”hot spots” and percentages, number of people infected and number of fatalities.

Perhaps the medical professionals and journalists are convinced that most common people, members of the public, are at heart mathematically inclined, as it is only mathematicians who find these figures and charts to be fascinating. Such is hardly the case. Or perhaps those same people are of the opinion that it is necessary to confuse common people, as they do not want anyone to understand the breadth and depth of their incompetence.

With that in mind, it is best to explain a few simple terms, which many people may find to be a bore, but bear with me, as this is important. The medical people love to speak in terms of percentages, so let us start with that.

Think of a base of one hundred people, so that one person is one out of a hundred, referred to as one percent. For every one hundred people who get the virus and one person dies, then the fatality rate, which is the death rate, is one percent. By contrast, if five of those hundred people die as a result of getting the virus, then the fatality rate is five percent.

That is quite simple, but then the fatality rate can be expressed in different terms, such as four point two percent, or 4.2%. Think of this as 42 out of 1,000, or forty two people out of one thousand people who are infected, and destined to die.

Now the press is reporting that world wide, there are 775,300 people who are infected with the corona virus. Of those people who are infected, 36,900 have died. By dividing the number of people who have died by the number of people who have been infected, we arrive as a fatality rate of 4.7%. This means that for every thousand people who are infected by the virus, forty seven have died.

By contrast, in America, there are a reported 158,400 cases of corona virus, with a death toll of 2,919. That gives us a mortality rate of 1.8%, or one point eight percent. This means that for every one thousand Americans who catch the virus, eighteen have died. This is lower than the world wide average, for good reason. The medical care in America is far better than in most parts of the world.

These numbers are important, because the medical professionals use them to estimate the number of people who will get sick and die, as a result of this virus. The virus is very contagious, or ”catchie”, as is the popular term. So the experts put their calculators to work and estimate that if ten percent of the population, which is ten of every hundred Americans catch the virus, then thirty three million Americans will be infected. Further, if one point eight percent of those who are infected were to die, then 594,000 Americans would die.

Those numbers are far higher than the estimated number of Americans who are expected to die as a result of being infected with the virus. The experts have come up with a number of between 100,000 and 200,000. Clearly they expect far fewer people to be infected with the virus, and they also expect the medical attention they receive to remain at a very high level.

The fact remains that the more people who become infected, the more people will die. It is also a fact that the higher the level of medical care patients receive, the less people will die.

The best we can say about these numbers is that they are wildly optimistic. Perhaps the only way to control the spread of the virus is to isolate people who are infected, to keep them away from other people. They simply cannot infect people with whom they have no contact. This approach has proven effective in other parts of the world.

Compare this with the situation in America. New York City is now considered the ”epicentre” of the epidemic in the country. Of the nearly 3,000 dead so far, nearly half have died in the state of New York. On one day alone, 253 people have died in the state. Across the country, the death toll for the day stands at 502. The hospitals in New York City are being described as ”swamped”, a ”medical war zone”, with the medical facilities on the verge of collapse. Of the New York City police, thirteen percent are out sick, mainly as a result of being infected with the virus, in the performance of their duties.

The New York City first responders and medical workers are on the ”front lines” of this ”medical war zone”. Many of them are personally shopping for personal protective equipment for themselves and their patients, as there is such a severe shortage. Both hospital staff and first responders are working around the clock, short handed and desperate for the proper equipment. It is estimated they will run out of equipment within a week.

The navy hospital ship, the Comfort, has been sent to New York City, in an attempt to take some pressure off the hospitals. In addition, a temporary hospital has been set up in Central Park. It is not clear where they expect to find the equipment or the personnel to work at this hospital.

In addition, those who are classified as working in ”essential services”, which is to say the delivery personnel, are going on strike, demanding personal protective equipment and hazardous duty pay. Many of these people too are becoming infected with the virus, also in the performance of their duties.

There are numerous other ”hot spots” in the country, such as New Orleans, Chicago, Florida, New Jersey and Philadelphia, to name a few. Others are popping up on a daily basis. It is anticipated that the ”rural America health care system will be quickly over whelmed”. In fact, it is clear that the whole American medical system is in danger of collapse. If that happens, the death rate from the corona virus will sky rocket.

Other countries are taking decisive action. Italy and Spain are completely shut down. People are allowed to leave their homes only to get groceries or in case of an emergency. Only essential services workers are continuing to perform their duties, and they are provided with proper personal protective equipment. The leaders of those countries are aware of the gravity of the situation and are taking the appropriate measures to protect their citizens.

That stands in stark contrast to the American leaders. As Trump stated the issue, ”We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself”. As he sees it, the ”problem” is the corona virus, and the ”cure” is isolation, or ”social distancing”, to use the technical term. This begs the question: How can isolation be worse than the ”problem” of citizens being infected with the virus and many of them dying?

To answer that question, we have only to take a glance at the stock market. This should not be difficult, as the news reports are divided between the devastation caused by the virus, and the dropping stock market. The two are connected, to an extent, as people who are ”self isolating” are not spending their money, if for no other reason than that they do not have any money to spend. A great many people are out of work, and the number is growing, as most small businesses are shutting down. These are considered to be Too Small To Succeed. The major corporations, those which are considered Too Big To Fail, are merely laying off their workers, while receiving massive amounts of corporate welfare.

The contrast is sharp and clear. The country is entering a depression, millions of workers are losing their jobs and will soon lose their houses, to become homeless. Countless people are becoming infected with the virus and many of them will die, if only because the medical treatment they so desperately need is not available. The small business owners, the middle class or petty bourgeois, are being wiped out, forced to join the ranks of the working class, the proletariat. Yet the money they pay in taxes is being given to the super rich, the billionaires, the bourgeoisie! The government cannot afford to equip the medical professionals with the equipment they so desperately need, yet they can afford to donate countless billions to the bourgeoisie!

To add insult to injury, Trump is accusing the medical people of stealing their own equipment! The same people who are putting their lives on the line, risking their health in order to assist those who are sick and injured, are in turn being accused, by their own president, of being thieves! Look who’s talking! The ”kettle calling the pot black”! Trump is a most accomplished thief, with a long history of stealing at every opportunity. For that reason, he just naturally assumes that every one else is no different.

I have news for you, Mister President. Not everyone is like you. Working people are poor for a reason. We work for a living! We support ourselves, we contribute to society, we pay taxes, and that is the reason we are poor! You on the other hand are extremely rich, do not pay taxes, do not support yourself, and steal at every opportunity. That is the reason that you, and the other members of your class, the bourgeoisie, are so rich!

What is more, Mister Billionaire President, we have had enough! You and your class, the bourgeoisie, place profits before people! That is the reason you are so reluctant to isolate those who are infected with the corona virus. You are afraid it will cut into your profits! You do not call it profit, you refer to it as the ”economy”. As if you care about the economy! You care only about your profits!

To put it in popular terms, ”your days are numbered”. The working people are fed up. The essential services workers are now rising up. The nurses are demonstrating, and the delivery service workers are going on strike. This could well be the start of a nation wide protest, a revolutionary uprising. It is just a matter of time, and very likely a short time.

To those who are aware of the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin, I can only suggest that you get active and form a proper Communist Party, one which openly advocates for the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. That will help to distinguish yourselves from those who claim to be Marxists, but are revisionists.

As for those who are not aware of those theories, I suggest a careful reading of the Essential Works of Lenin, to start. That should give you a proper grounding in Marxist revolutionary theory. As for those who have little use for theory, may I point out that the success -or failure- of the approaching revolution depends upon the proper application of the theory – or the advice if you will- of Marx and Lenin.

I can also suggest that all working people join the two mainstream political parties, Republican and Democratic, as card carrying members, party bosses. At the moment, they are firmly in the hands of the bourgeoisie. They should be challenged, if for no other reason than to add to the misery of the bourgeoisie. Do not pass up any opportunity to make their lives miserable. Besides, this will provide valuable training for such workers, which will be put to good use after the revolution, after we smash the existing state machinery and crush the bourgeoisie under the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat.

The revolution is fast approaching, and is not about to wait until we are prepared. Time is not on our side. Now is the time to act. Spread the advice of Marx and Lenin:

Workers of the World, Unite!

Scientific Socialism!

Dictatorship Of the Proletariat!