Death is stalking our land but it is not acting alone. The Covid-19 pandemic has killed over 44,000 Americans by the latest count, and 180,000 worldwide, according to what’s being reported.

“Merchants of death” is a phrase that is usually associated with war mongers, but now it applies to those who’ve been pushing against scientifically and medically-grounded efforts to fight off the virus.

With Trump still in the White House, too many of us have already become desensitized to the latest iterations of downright appalling behavior that the ruling elites in this country have been willing to sanction and support. The latest case is the cynical mobilization of crazy persons to demonstrate against the sane public health measures to practice social distancing.

It has been well documented that this growing national movement, the latest version of the Tea Party, is yet another “grasstops” effort (as opposed to “grassroots,” this is a fake exhibition of populist rage, paid for and organized by professional rabble rousers) motivated and funded by radical wealthy right wing interests. Their objective is to clear a path for their monied allies to continue their rape of the population and the national economy without obstruction.

Yes, there can be no doubt that they are representatives of the top one percent in the U.S. who control more wealth than the rest of us combined.

What do they care about whether a few tens of thousands of vulnerable Americans die from a deadly virus? They’ve got the means to insulate themselves from the pandemic and the data already shows that there is an obscene trend of higher death rates among racial minorities, which also translates as those who are less well-off and unable to either maintain their personal health or distance themselves from the pandemic.

I guess it is no longer astonishing to see the official Republican Party of the U.S. piling in behind the grasstops movement to force the removal of protections against the pandemic. This includes the crackpots at Fox News, including three quacks who have been peddling their pseudo-scientific views as “doctors,” Dr. Drew, Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil, who’ve all ruined any shreds of credibility they’d been clinging to with their patently false and dangerous on-air prescriptions on national TV.

Families of thousands who’ve died in this pandemic are in an extraordinary position to sue those quacks, Fox itself, and while they’re at it, any among the so-called evangelical preachers who used the airwaves to offer fake cures and to persuade the gullible to show up at mass religious events putting themselves at grave risk of exposure to this highly-contagious virus.

The allies of this virus’ spread, now ranging beyond a deranged lunatic fringe to the centers of control of the Republican Party, are rapidly losing support among the American citizenry, with polls of now highly alarmed Americans showing support for the president and GOP leaders beginning to nosedive into the 33 percent range.

Why in the world does this administration persist in its serious lack of adequate testing? What is the true motivation behind this cruel obstruction? It is unquestionably clear that Trump’s claims to the contrary are false, flat out lies.

Only about 150,000 tests per day are being performed now, when the professionals say that a minimum of 500,000 need to be tested daily. The only thing standing in the way is the president, through his refusal to evoke the Defense Production Act powers at his disposal to achieve this level.

One can only speculate why the president is obstructing the process in this way. Can it have something to do with the fellow travelers who’ve been advising and influencing him all this time?

Is it outlandish to point to the unanimous bipartisan vote of the Senate Intelligence Committee this week endorsing the U.S. intelligence community conclusion that Russia interfered extensively in the 2016 to elect Trump and defeat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton?

If Trump is, as suggested, an effective agent of a hostile foreign power, then what would be more impactful than for him to permit a rampant pandemic to savage the American population?

It wouldn’t surprise me.