Factual Dispatch #49: There is No Plan

This is a map of the outbreaks that have occurred on college campuses, with the number detailing the case counts, as tracked by the New York Times. 100% of these cases were preventable. But, since we’ve become a rudderless nation of tactical grifters and the plague buck apparently stops nowhere, our nation remains pockmarked with disease.

Now that the Mayor of NYC has pushed back the opening of public schools for the second time, I hope the total lack of leadership at every level is becoming apparent. Why is this happening? Because they shouldn’t be opening in the first place but no one is willing to stand against the tide of craven fear and greed. It’s the end result of an equation we’ve been running for decades. Just pick your target.

Public Elementary schools? The ones that we’ve cut funding for decade after decade, to the point where it’s so expected that teachers pay for their own school supplies, they have their own little GoFundMe website in Teacher’s Choice. We’re surprised they don’t have PPE, or an organized plan, or enough teachers? Surprised that a nurse showed up testing positive? Even if we could guarantee proper gear and a plan, parents are still knowingly sending their sick kids into schools, because they have to go to work and can’t afford childcare. Even if we could guarantee temperature checks, those might not be reliable in kids.

These are buildings that don't even have air conditioning to allow for education into the late summer months. Some rooms barely have proper ventilation for calm breathing, much less COVID-19 clearance. There is a lawsuit pending that teachers were denied medical exemptions wrongly, because if there’s one thing I trust, it’s the NYC Dept. of Education’s ability to evaluate medical claims. But, if the lawsuit succeeds, it could effectively guarantee there aren’t enough teachers for in-person education.

College Sports? The ones that don’t pay their athletes and have to be forced to even acknowledge the value they provide to the universities they earn millions for? How could we have seen the exploitation of black and brown athletes by their coach & administrative staff coming?

You could probably convince me that the craven and cowardly nature of university administrators was genuinely shocking to American parents and citizens writ large. But that’s only because we’ve been ignoring the plight of adjunct professors, grad students, custodial staff, and immigrant workers at universities for the entire time they’ve been warning us.

Whether it’s football cash, tuition cash, or “don’t want to pay unemployment benefits anymore” cash, that’s what it always comes down to. We have the slack in our budgets, but revenue gonna revenue. And, it’s not about principles, given what many campuses have done re: voting. Here’s a perfect example from UGA:

To quote Barry Petchesky at Defector, “JUST SAY MONEY:”

That so many of these schools waited until non-refundable deposit dates passed, or snatching tuition while pretending outrage at college kids being college kids, is just on-brand for not just the year, but the general “Because Fuck You, That’s Why” attitude of the era. Let’s be very clear here, we still don’t know the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the cardiac, nervous, and respiratory systems, but that doesn’t seem to concern the Big-10. The football players are being thrown under the bus just like the Post Office. Thousands of postal workers who have gotten COVID-19, because again, protecting them would not be profitable.

But clearly the finance and bank people know better right? Wrong. Both JP Morgan and Barclay’s have had to backpedal hard on their plans to re-open their New York offices after positive test results in employees. This was after it was disclosed that many of the NYC elite in biz and real estate have been pressuring their colleagues at big banks to accelerate re-opening.

The common thread to all of this explains why teachers have been hounding their union reps for answers across the country. It explains why meatpacking plants remain disease hotspots. It explains why the rest of the industrialized world has been essentially paying the salaries of its workers for 6 months, while Americans got a check for 6 bucks a day. The only coherent plan from the people in charge right now is to own the libs, a sentiment that will probably outlast Trump, or grift as much as you can from the system before it finishes burning down completely.

We will get through this, but not before our species is needlessly scarred forever, like an overly anxious teen with oily pores who can’t stop from scratching his face before prom. Be safe out there, keep your head down until the morons sort themselves out.

You’re missed,T