https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8CriBnQFyk
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Diseases like COVID Reveal the Weaknesses & Strengths of an Economy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L923Xgd7oFI
Richard Wolff on Worker Strikes Spreading Across America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFwXdVn3WuM
The Vanguard INTERVIEWS @SocialistMMA of Fred Hampton Leftists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mimk14RxOU
MILLIONS On Brink Of Homelessness As Media Ignores Eviction Moratorium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtAvTHYgj3c
Media USES Dead American Troops To Push FOREVER WAR Lies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1_dGFzk8-4
Afghanistan: International calls to postpone withdrawal deadline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVQTTh9fNJk
International day of the victims of enforced disappearances
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me7l2sVEbwM
Now Patriotic Conservatives Are Killing Veterans 'To Own The Libs'!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-0qtsQKUbA
China hits out at U.S. after three Chinese students get turned back from U.S. airport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AXquzKkv0A
AL SHARPTON CALLS OUT BIDEN, OUR REVOLUTION PRESSURES CLYBURN & SCHOOL CANCELS FREE LUNCH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypyj71AvV8w
Hurricane Ida leaves path of destruction, 1 million without power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ3S0cku_H8
Islamic State claims rocket attack on Kabul airport and other stories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-Y6PjMSlkc
Ret. Army Officer Calls Media "Militarized Snake Oil Salesmen"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8PIX-I-4zc
US troops have left Afghanistan ending a 20-year mission
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__R2sszLs-8
Thousands flee Lake Tahoe resort town as California's Caldor Fire rages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAOKvDHXapE
Economic Update: Extremes of Rich & Poor in U.S. Capitalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erfaekBxauw
Monday, August 30, 2021
MAINSTREAM ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT LIES
By Chris Hedges,
RT.
August 29, 2021
https://popularresistance.org/on-contact-mainstream-environmental-movement-lies/
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Sanders Pitches $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill to Thousands at Indiana Town Hall
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/28/sanders-pitches-35-trillion-spending-bill-thousands-indiana-town-hall
"Never in our lifetime has there been a piece of legislation which goes as far as this does to address the long-neglected needs of the working class and the middle class of this country."
August 28, 2021
Addressing more than 2,300 people in West Lafayette, Indiana Friday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders made the case for the $3.5 trillion spending plan to invest heavily in human infrastructure, explaining how the proposed budget currently being written by Senate and House committees following passage in the House is "the most consequential legislation for working people since the New Deal."
The event was one of two town halls the Senate Budget Committee chairman is holding in Republican and swing districts this weekend, aimed at talking directly with working people who stand to gain from the legislation and its investments in child care subsidies, free community college tuition, paid family and medical leave, and a transformation of the U.S. energy system in a push to rapidly shift away from planet-heating fossil fuel production while creating jobs.
While the chair of the Senate Budget Committee typically works within the halls of Congress, the senator said ahead of the event, "I think really, the function of a budget chairman is to get out among the people."
Sanders drew applause as he opened the event by describing the Civilian Climate Corps, plans for funding "more low-income affordable housing than at any other time in this country," the inclusion of a "massive investment in home healthcare," and other provisions in the bill.
"What is fair to say about this legislation, which again, is going to be funded by demanding that the wealthy and corporations start paying their fair share of taxes," said the senator, "is that never in our lifetime has there been a piece of legislation which goes as far as this does to address the long-neglected needs of the working class and the middle class of this country."
Sanders then invited several community members to talk to the crowd about how their lives had been improved by President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan, which included investments that would be continued in the spending bill.
After receiving unemployment assistance and the child care tax credit in the relief package, single father Cody Kenney said, he was able to afford hockey equipment for his son, which he had never been able to buy during his own childhood in a trailer park.
"Having that to provide for my son and...having dignity around other parents really affected my life and my kid's life," Kenney said. "When I received the pandemic unemployment assistance I was able to provide... This was the first time I had any type of government invest in me."
Mary McCloskey, a single mother, also said the enhanced unemployment assistance that Sanders fought to include in Covid-19 relief legislation last year helped sustain her family.
"When more than 2,300 people come out in the middle of the hottest summer on record in West Lafayette, Indiana to hear Bernie Sanders talk about the $3.5 trillion Senate reconciliation bill, you're doing something right," tweeted Misty Rebik, the senator's chief of staff.
Watch the whole town hall event below:
'Not What Ending a War Looks Like': Biden Vows New Strikes in Retaliation for Kabul Blast
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/28/not-what-ending-war-looks-biden-vows-new-strikes-retaliation-kabul-blast
The Pentagon reported that Friday's drone strike killed two ISIS-K targets, while an elder in Jalalabad said several civilians had been kiiled.
JULIA CONLEY
August 28, 2021
Even as he planned to withdraw all remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan by August 31, President Joe Biden said Saturday that the drone strike that was launched Friday night in retaliation for an attack claimed by ISIS-K "was not the last."
"We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay," the president said in a statement Saturday afternoon. "Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond. That will never be in doubt."
The Pentagon said the drone strike killed two "planners and facilitators" of the explosion outside Kabul's airport, but according to The Guardian, in addition to targets related to the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, an elder in Jalalabad reported that three civilians were killed and four were wounded in the U.S. strike.
The bombing on Thursday killed as many as 170 civilians and 13 U.S. service members, and prompted calls from anti-war groups and lawmakers including Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) for the U.S. to refrain from taking further military action in Afghanistan as two decades of the U.S.-led war there comes to an end.
Following the U.S. retaliatory strike on Friday, Ariel Gold of CODEPINK pointed out that even if no civilians were killed as the Pentagon is reporting, "these drone strikes help ISIS recruit."
"This is not what ending a war looks like," said CODEPINK of the president's threats of even more military action in the coming days, as he warned that more attacks are expected near the airport in Kabul in the next 36 hours.
In addition to the U.S. drone strikes, BBC correspondent Secunder Kermani reported that according to eyewitnesses, many people who were killed in Thursday's attack were shot by U.S. troops.
The New York Times reported Saturday that investigators in Afghanistan are examining where the gunfire came from during Thursday's attack.
Even as he planned to withdraw all remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan by August 31, President Joe Biden said Saturday that the drone strike that was launched Friday night in retaliation for an attack claimed by ISIS-K "was not the last."
"We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay," the president said in a statement Saturday afternoon. "Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond. That will never be in doubt."
The Pentagon said the drone strike killed two "planners and facilitators" of the explosion outside Kabul's airport, but according to The Guardian, in addition to targets related to the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, an elder in Jalalabad reported that three civilians were killed and four were wounded in the U.S. strike.
The bombing on Thursday killed as many as 170 civilians and 13 U.S. service members, and prompted calls from anti-war groups and lawmakers including Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) for the U.S. to refrain from taking further military action in Afghanistan as two decades of the U.S.-led war there comes to an end.
Following the U.S. retaliatory strike on Friday, Ariel Gold of CODEPINK pointed out that even if no civilians were killed as the Pentagon is reporting, "these drone strikes help ISIS recruit."
"This is not what ending a war looks like," said CODEPINK of the president's threats of even more military action in the coming days, as he warned that more attacks are expected near the airport in Kabul in the next 36 hours.
In addition to the U.S. drone strikes, BBC correspondent Secunder Kermani reported that according to eyewitnesses, many people who were killed in Thursday's attack were shot by U.S. troops.
The New York Times reported Saturday that investigators in Afghanistan are examining where the gunfire came from during Thursday's attack.
Experts Warn of 'Potentially Catastrophic' Destruction as Hurricane Ida Reaches New Orleans
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/29/experts-warn-potentially-catastrophic-destruction-hurricane-ida-reaches-new-orleans
The storm is expected to be one of the strongest ever to hit Louisiana, rivaling Hurricane Laura in 2020.
JULIA CONLEY
August 29, 2021
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Weather experts on Sunday said their worst-case-scenario predictions about Hurricane Ida, which damaged homes and knocked down trees in Cuba on Friday, appeared to be coming true as the tropical cyclone made its way towards New Orleans with winds rushing at 150 miles per hour.
The hurricane made landfall Sunday afternoon in southeastern Louisiana, driving thousands of people to evacuate on Saturday.
The National Hurricane Center warned the storm could bring "potentially catastrophic" damage from winds and a "life-threatening" storm surge in the coastal area, with destruction from flooding and other effects extending more than 100 miles inland.
Meteorologists recorded 150mph peak winds, putting the storm two miles per hour short of a Category 5 hurricane.
If the peak winds remain as strong as they were at sea when the storm reaches land, according to the Washington Post, Hurricane Ida will be among the strongest hurricanes ever to hit Louisiana.
Forecasters expressed anguish on social media and in weather reports as they watched the storm approach New Orleans on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall.
"Worst case scenario unfolding for Louisiana," said Tom Di Liberto, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "Absolutely sick to my stomach seeing this."
The expected ocean surge could inundate areas with up to 16 feet of water in some places. New Orleans was expected to see more than a foot of rainfall. The National Weather Service warned that "extremely dangerous flash flooding" could result if the city gets more than 15 inches of rain, which could overwhelm its system of nearly 100 pumps.
Locals who hadn't evacuated on Saturday were cautioned to shelter in place on Sunday morning, as the approaching storm's winds had already made highway travel perilous.
Meteorologists are typically hesitant to connect a single extreme weather event to the climate crisis, but as Discover Magazine reported Saturday, the planetary emergency fueled by fossil fuel extraction is "supercharging" storms like Ida.
"Monster storms cause enormous damage not only because of their winds," wrote Tom Yulsman, director of the Center for Environmental Journalism and a blogger for the magazine. "They also dump unimaginable amounts of water. And research shows that thanks to climate change, they've been getting wetter."
Yulsman continued:
That's happening for a number of reasons. First, a warmer atmosphere can carry more moisture. Research shows that for every one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7 percent more moisture. So far, the globe has warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times.
On Twitter, climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe said the question of whether the climate crisis "causes" hurricanes like Ida is "the wrong question."
"The right one is, 'How much worse did climate change make it?" Hayhoe said.
"Given that science has already showed that a warmer ocean and other aspects of climate change are leading to much faster intensification of hurricanes," Hayhoe added, "the question today is not, to paraphrase climate scientist Kevin Trenberth, how could climate change affect this event—but rather how could it NOT, as it is occurring over the massively altered background conditions of our 1.1C warmer planet."
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Weather experts on Sunday said their worst-case-scenario predictions about Hurricane Ida, which damaged homes and knocked down trees in Cuba on Friday, appeared to be coming true as the tropical cyclone made its way towards New Orleans with winds rushing at 150 miles per hour.
The hurricane made landfall Sunday afternoon in southeastern Louisiana, driving thousands of people to evacuate on Saturday.
The National Hurricane Center warned the storm could bring "potentially catastrophic" damage from winds and a "life-threatening" storm surge in the coastal area, with destruction from flooding and other effects extending more than 100 miles inland.
Meteorologists recorded 150mph peak winds, putting the storm two miles per hour short of a Category 5 hurricane.
If the peak winds remain as strong as they were at sea when the storm reaches land, according to the Washington Post, Hurricane Ida will be among the strongest hurricanes ever to hit Louisiana.
Forecasters expressed anguish on social media and in weather reports as they watched the storm approach New Orleans on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall.
"Worst case scenario unfolding for Louisiana," said Tom Di Liberto, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "Absolutely sick to my stomach seeing this."
The expected ocean surge could inundate areas with up to 16 feet of water in some places. New Orleans was expected to see more than a foot of rainfall. The National Weather Service warned that "extremely dangerous flash flooding" could result if the city gets more than 15 inches of rain, which could overwhelm its system of nearly 100 pumps.
Locals who hadn't evacuated on Saturday were cautioned to shelter in place on Sunday morning, as the approaching storm's winds had already made highway travel perilous.
Meteorologists are typically hesitant to connect a single extreme weather event to the climate crisis, but as Discover Magazine reported Saturday, the planetary emergency fueled by fossil fuel extraction is "supercharging" storms like Ida.
"Monster storms cause enormous damage not only because of their winds," wrote Tom Yulsman, director of the Center for Environmental Journalism and a blogger for the magazine. "They also dump unimaginable amounts of water. And research shows that thanks to climate change, they've been getting wetter."
Yulsman continued:
That's happening for a number of reasons. First, a warmer atmosphere can carry more moisture. Research shows that for every one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7 percent more moisture. So far, the globe has warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times.
On Twitter, climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe said the question of whether the climate crisis "causes" hurricanes like Ida is "the wrong question."
"The right one is, 'How much worse did climate change make it?" Hayhoe said.
"Given that science has already showed that a warmer ocean and other aspects of climate change are leading to much faster intensification of hurricanes," Hayhoe added, "the question today is not, to paraphrase climate scientist Kevin Trenberth, how could climate change affect this event—but rather how could it NOT, as it is occurring over the massively altered background conditions of our 1.1C warmer planet."
Inside US Afghanistan pullout, CIA opium ratline, pipeline conflict, new cold war
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiF3TQZSxhs
ONLY THOSE TAKING ACTION AGAINST CLIMATE VIOLENCE ARE LABELED ‘TERRORIST’
By Janine Jackson,
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting.
August 28, 2021
https://popularresistance.org/only-those-taking-action-against-climate-violence-are-labeled-terrorist/
Floods, fires, ice caps melting, hurricanes—all attest to the violence of human-caused climate disruption. It’s undeniable and undeniably fatal, and the only question for historians will be not what mysterious “factors” prevented humans from responding, but which political structures prevented the humans that wanted to respond meaningfully from doing so. When those books are written, at least a chapter will be devoted to cases like that of Jessica Reznicek, the activist now facing eight years in federal prison for damaging equipment at the Dakota Access Pipeline in Iowa.
In 2016, Reznicek, with fellow activist Ruby Montoya, set fire to heavy machinery, delaying construction for weeks on the pipeline that would move a half-million barrels of crude oil a day under the Missouri River and Lake Oahe, the reservoir that is the primary water source for the Standing Rock Reservation. Listeners will know of longstanding protests against the threats pipelines like Dakota Access present for water, land and communities—as well as the global climate. The pipeline violates Indigenous sovereignty and treaty rights, and contributes to the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, exacerbated by the so-called “man camps” set up near pipeline projects.
Reznicek’s sentence was doubled by the labeling of her property damage as “terrorism,” and the Des Moines Register (7/22/21) contrasts her eight years to the three years and change given to an Iowa man who defrauded the government of more than $1.3 million in federal loans intended for Covid relief.
Years from now, corporate media may note that Reznicek’s imprisonment came the same week the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a new report that the planet faces climate catastrophe unless drastic efforts are made to reduce greenhouse gases. They will probably not note their own complicity in reporting on pipelines like Dakota Access as “controversial,” while silently abiding that only one side of the controversy is labeled “terrorist” and goes to prison.
EDUCATION SHOULDN’T BE A DEBT SENTENCE
By Nick Marcil,
In These Times.
August 28, 2021
https://popularresistance.org/education-shouldnt-be-a-debt-sentence/
My Debt Is Symptomatic Of Capitalism.
It Should Be Canceled.
When you look at a student like myself, you don’t know that I am working multiple jobs, that I have gone without health insurance at some points, that I’ve been living at home with my parents for more than a year. You also do not know about my family’s medical debt, or about my father’s periods of unemployment, or that my mother’s job as a preschool aide isn’t enough to cover the gaps.
Even though I have mowed my former mailman’s lawn for eight summers to help afford school, even though I secured two “free” years of campus housing through my job as a resident assistant and received numerous scholarships, awards and assistance, I still graduated from a state school with $17,000 in debt. I carry this debt from my bachelor’s degree as I go into my second year of graduate school.
This debt acts like a ball and chain tied to the back of my mind. It limits my decisions. Before the Covid-19 moratorium on loan payments (which started March 2020), that $17,000 made me feel wrong about going out to eat, going to a bar or buying a video game. It pushed me to look at all of my “free time” as time I need work. Each lawn I mow is $15 an hour toward payments.
Certainly the moratorium helped; I stopped my payments after two months and use my “extra” money to pay off medical bills and for car repairs. I have been saving toward moving out of my parents’ house. I am less stressed now that huge chunks of my rather small bank balance stopped disappearing. I know that extra layer of stress is likely to return in October, when the moratorium is set to end.
My debt is something society expects me to pay because my parents did not have enough money to pay for my education. But instead of seeing this debt as just something of my own that only I could fix, I’ve started to see it as something symptomatic of capitalism.
This spring, I decided to take action against my debt by joining the local chapter of a national debtors’ union, the Debt Collective, which has more than 10,000 members, including 1,500 students currently striking, and has raised money to abolish more than $1 billion of student debt. It has been a relief to talk with others who see that a public institution — a public good — should not be designed to put individuals in debt for education; that people are in debt not because they live outside their means, but because they don’t receive the means to live; that the system has been designed to limit who goes to college, limit dissent and promote free market ideals.
I firmly believe my debt, along with all student debt, should be canceled. Not just forgiven, but canceled.
I never expected President Joe Biden or the Democratic Congress to do this on their own. Biden has the authority to deal with federal student debt but refuses to act. The Democrats in Congress will do as they have always done — find a means-tested way to do what they think will appease enough people. It was only due to the power of student loan activists and mounting public pressure that the moratorium was put into place. Those in power respond to one thing: power. That is why I am joining the Debt Collective in September in Washington, D.C., to demand Biden cancel all student debt.
I feel lucky my debt isn’t more; the average debt from a bachelor’s degree for the class of 2019 was $28,950. The average comprehensive cost to attend a four-year public institution — in-state — for the 2020- 2021 school year was $26,280.
We must ask why it is that, in parts of the country, higher education used to be free and now costs tens of thousands of dollars. The answer is that America now treats education as a business rather than a public good. At a Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Board of Governors meeting in July, I heard one trustee say, “I know there are some who do not believe an educational institution is a business; yes, it is. We produce goods and services, a product that people pay for.”
This business mentality is especially destructive to those in poverty and people of color, who start out with various disadvantages because of the racial wealth and income gap. In my home state of Pennsylvania, public university costs, on average, 32% of the median white income and 54% of the median Black income, as of 2017. Nationwide, Black women disproportionately owe more in student loans than any other group, at over $40,000 on average.
I have seen so many fellow students saddled with debt simply because they wanted to learn and needed a place to live. This debt is something that can only be solved collectively, because it affects more than any one individual. It affects my parents because I need to live with them; it affects others when I drive with a broken taillight because I’m worried about spending money; it affects society in general, tricking us into thinking individual competition against each other (to make more money to pay off our debt and “get ahead”) is the only solution.
Debt is harmful not only financially, but emotionally and in relationships. When we have an education system built on debt, we are indebting students to pay for faculty salaries — a reality that weighs on several faculty members I’ve talked with. Debt also complicates family relationships and support systems, as when a student needs a Parent Plus loan or leans on family to keep up with their bills to stay enrolled.
Education shouldn’t be a debt sentence. Instead of treating education as a business, we need a free and liberatory higher education system that all can attend.
Creating a National Progressive Coalition at the National Justice Roundtable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VqJWGeF6PU
Richard Wolff DEBUNKS Economic "Comeback" Propaganda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbeERiOMrFQ&t=29s
S. Korea’s chief nuclear envoy departs for U.S. to discuss efforts to resume talks with N. Korea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QknAes52qc
Biden: Another attack on Kabul Airport 'highly likely' | DW News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWXsg12AZuo
For a global strategy to stop the pandemic and save lives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9J-VXAdOAk
Current Climate Extremes Double at 2 Degrees Warming and Quadruple at 3 - Lead IPCC Author
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emlkfisj1oI
Krystal & Kyle React In Real Time to Attack Outside Kabul Airport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oHjjtR_rMA
Uber Funder Offers Pathetic Defense of Prop. 22 After It's Declared Unconstitutional
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blnZSLQqr-c
Watch John Pilger use facts to shut down neocon Bill Kristol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDzA_JomQAg
PREENING Congressmen Who Sought Photo Op In Kabul UNITE Nation In Disgust
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj2KgUjMRXM
Reconcilation UPDATE, Rahm Emanuel CORRUPT Sweetheart Deal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMPv7muWkA4
Former British Soldier DESTROYS Official Afghanistan Narrative
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fMX72z8gp8
Judge Orders State Attorney general To Throw 5 Parties After Killing Pedestrian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJD5PfsmMio
Saturday, August 28, 2021
Jimmy Dore & Chris Hedges CALL OUT The Squad / Nina Turner's New Article / Bernie to Rally in WV?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jolj_4hC38E
Hurricane Ida leaves Cuba and is expected to reach Louisiana
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRuWQOxIMrE
Iraq hosts summit aimed at easing tensions in the Middle East
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wIWERrA0GE
Millions face loss of their homes in wake of US Supreme Court ruling overturning eviction moratorium
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/08/28/evic-a28.html
Chase Lawrence, Barry Grey
17 hours ago
On Thursday night, the US Supreme Court overturned the national moratorium on evictions of renters put in place as a pandemic relief measure. The six-to-three ruling, with the right-wing bloc solidly aligned against the nominally liberal minority, upheld an emergency petition brought by realtors’ groups in Alabama and Georgia to terminate an extension of the eviction ban enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) early this month following the July 31 expiration of a prior ban.
People from a coalition of housing justice groups hold signs protesting evictions during a news conference outside the Statehouse, July 30, 2021, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
The right-wing majority on the court had already signaled its intention to terminate the eviction ban, which, in any event, was slated to expire on October 3. Under conditions of an out-of-control pandemic, surging housing costs and consumer prices, and the expiration of federal unemployment benefits set for early September, the ruling by the unelected court marks a dramatic escalation of the class war policies being pursued by the corporate-financial oligarchy and all of its official institutions and parties.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the number of adults living in households that are behind on their rent could exceed 11 million.
According to data from a Census Bureau survey, 6 percent of renters nationwide—more than 3.5 million people—say they are unable to pay their full rent due to the pandemic and are “likely” or “very likely” to face eviction. In several Southern and Midwestern states, including Missouri, North Carolina and Louisiana, almost one in five renters say they are worried about getting evicted.
The Wall Street Journal bluntly summed up the situation in an article headlined, “Renters Prepare for Eviction After Supreme Court Ruling.” It explained that landlords, with the exception of those in a handful of states and cities that have their own restrictions, can immediately go to court to obtain evictions for unpaid rent. In most courts, delayed eviction cases will now go forward. In others, already approved evictions will now be carried out by marshals and sheriffs.
The savagery of the ruling was underlined by its being carried out under an expedited “shadow docket” procedure that omits oral hearings, does not require signed opinions and, in general, curtails standards generally associated with due process.
The majority opinion, unsigned, declared that the CDC was overreaching its legal powers by ordering the eviction ban on public health grounds, citing the increased risk of COVID-19 infections and deaths resulting from a surge in homelessness. The ruling said the moratorium could not be maintained without congressional action.
The dissent, authored by Justice Stephen Breyer, denounced the use of the “shadow docket” procedure to decide such a socially consequential matter and cited the explosive spread of the pandemic with the proliferation of the Delta variant. He essentially argued that it was an inopportune time to terminate the eviction ban, writing: “The public interest strongly favors respecting the CDC’s judgment at this moment, when over 90 percent of counties are experiencing high transmission rates.”
The Biden White House, which had been prepared to accept the expiration of the eviction ban at the end of July and has made clear it will not seek to extend the federal unemployment benefit, signaled that it would not fight the court ruling. It and the Democratic Party are focused on forcing millions of unvaccinated children and hundreds of thousands of teachers into unsafe schools, even as infections and deaths hit new highs, rising most rapidly among school-age children.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Thursday that the administration would not seek to pass legislation to block evictions, and instead would seek to facilitate the distribution of $46.5 billion that had previously been appropriated to aid distressed renters and homeowners. The Treasury Department reported on Wednesday that only some $5.1 billion of this money had actually been disbursed by states and localities as of the end of July. Entire states, including New York, have not distributed a penny in renter relief funds.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi similarly said the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives would seek to expedite the flow of rental-aid funds and said nothing about reinstituting a halt to evictions.
Even were the entire amount allocated to be immediately disbursed, it would be a drop in the bucket compared to the depth of the housing crisis. Responding to the court ruling, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) Diane Yentel said the result would be “millions of people losing their homes this fall and winter, just as the Delta variant ravages communities and lives.” She added that “evictions further burden overstretched hospital systems and make it much more difficult for the country to contain the virus. Evictions have been shown to increase the spread of, and potentially deaths from, COVID-19.”
According to an NLIHC report released in July, titled “Out of Reach 2021: The High Cost of Housing,” in “no state, metropolitan area, or county can a full-time minimum-wage worker afford a modest two-bedroom rental home, and these workers cannot afford modest one-bedroom apartments in 93 percent of US counties.” The report continues: “Over 7.5 million extremely low-income renters are severely housing cost-burdened, spending more than half of their incomes on housing.”
“More than 226,000 people in the US experienced homelessness on sidewalks or other unsheltered locations on a given night in 2020,” the report notes, “and another 354,000 experienced homelessness in emergency shelters, with limited ability to self-isolate. In addition, more than 2.7 million renters live in overcrowded housing conditions.”
Another NLIHC report issued in July states that many who have remained caught up on rent “may have done so by unsustainable means,” such as “using credits cards or loans, selling assets or drawing down savings, or borrowing from friends and family…” Of those who had fallen behind in rent, a majority reported delaying bills and cutting back on food, while more than a quarter had forgone medical care.
Moreover, in much of the country, evictions continued even before the ending of the moratorium, which was poorly enforced and frequently defied by right-wing judges. The Princeton University Eviction Lab reported over 6,500 evictions last week in the six states and 31 cities it tracks. Since March 2020, 480,000 eviction cases have been filed. Some cities are already up to or above pre-pandemic levels of evictions, including Las Vegas, Nevada and Gainesville, Florida.
John Jopling, director of housing law at the nonprofit Mississippi Center for Justice, told the Washington Post, “You hear a lot of people talk about this cliff that we’re headed for as far as evictions, but really, I think, it’s more of a rolling tide—and we’re already in the middle of it.
“These tenants, they’re going to wind up in cars, they’re going to wind up on top of relatives, which is not what they need to be doing especially now in intergenerational households with all the variants of COVID that are spreading out there. They’re going to wind up on top of elderly relatives because of that immediate removal.”
The social and economic interests that dictate government policy were underscored by the concurrence of the Supreme Court attack on hard-pressed working-class families and the speech delivered the following morning by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Giving the keynote address at the annual Jackson Hole, Wyoming meeting of Fed officials and world central bankers, Powell reassured Wall Street that the flood of money into the financial markets by means of zero interest rates would continue indefinitely, and any tapering of quantitative easing purchases of financial assets—currently at the rate of $120 billion every month —would be carried out slowly, despite the highest rates of US inflation in 30 years.
The result was a further surge in stock prices, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes closing at new record highs.
It’s time to create an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1%.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0b-E-YSgMc
Death toll in Kabul airport terrorist attack rises to 170, as US military continues evacuations
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/08/28/afgh-a28.html
Jordan Shilton
17 hours ago
The official death toll from the terrorist attack outside Kabul international airport on Thursday was increased significantly on Friday to over 160. The number of Afghan victims almost tripled and the US Defense Department confirmed the death of one additional service member, bringing the total of American military fatalities to 13.
Wounded Afghans lie on a bed at a hospital after a deadly explosions outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Mohammad Asif Khan)
At a Defense Department press briefing Friday morning, Major General Hank Taylor stated that only one suicide bomber was involved in the assault. Originally, reports indicated that a second blast occurred at a nearby hotel. After the bomb exploded amid a large crowd waiting to be processed for travel at the airport’s Abbey Gate, other Islamic State-Khorazan (ISIS-K) attackers opened fire. American troops also fired into the crowd to clear the area. It remains unclear how many lives were lost as a result of the gunfire.
Taylor also stated that the evacuation of US and allied officials, operatives and citizens, as well as Afghan collaborators with the two-decade-long neocolonial occupation, was continuing. He said that 89 flights had left Kabul in the previous 24 hours carrying a total of some 12,500 people. Among them were 300 Americans, taking the total of Americans who have left since the Taliban came to power to over 5,100. Two flights carrying 18 wounded American soldiers left for the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Since evacuations began on August 14, some 111,000 people have been flown out. Taylor confirmed that another 5,400 people are inside the airport waiting to leave.
At a White House briefing later in the day, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the Biden administration’s national security team believed that a further terrorist attack prior to the August 31 deadline for the end of the evacuation and withdrawal of US troops was “likely.” She added that “maximum force protection” measures were being taken at the airport.
It was made clear at both briefings that the numbers being evacuated over the coming days will drop sharply as US troops begin the process of withdrawal. Taylor declared, however, that it will be possible to evacuate people “until the very end.”
That remains to be seen, with a Taliban spokesman claiming late Friday that the organization had taken over control of parts of the airport. Although the Pentagon promptly denied the report, BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, who is currently in Kabul, was informed by sources that American and British troops would hand over control of the airport to the Taliban in a matter of hours.
The extent to which Washington is dependent on coordinating and cooperating with the Taliban in the final stages of its withdrawal underscores the scale of the debacle suffered by US imperialism with the collapse of its puppet regime in Kabul. Even Biden administration officials were forced to acknowledge that the outcome of the remainder of the mission is to a considerable degree dependent on the Taliban’s support.
Asked whether coordination with the Taliban was the best of many bad options, or the only option, Psaki frankly responded, “Maybe both.” She added that “by necessity, that is our option,” because the Taliban controls “wide swathes” of Afghanistan and the area surrounding the airport. The coming days would be the “most dangerous period to date” in US military operation, she added in a prepared statement.
For its part, the Taliban appears to be offering an olive branch to Washington with its appeal, reported by the State Department yesterday, for the US to retain a diplomatic presence in Kabul after August 31. A Taliban spokesman also told al-Jazeera that the movement planned to announce an “inclusive caretaker government,” including members from the Uzbek and Tajik minorities.
Under questioning, Defense Department and State Department officials went out of their way to reject accusations of Taliban complicity in, or responsibility for, Thursday’s attack, the background to which remains murky.
ISIS-K claims to be a regional affiliate of Islamic State, and perpetrated a series of attacks that strengthened the US-backed puppet regime. Whatever the current affiliation of this organization, which reportedly has less than 2,000 followers in Afghanistan, it remains a fact that all of the Islamist militias, including Islamic State and the Taliban, are the product of the tragic encounter experienced by Afghanistan and the broader region with over four decades of US imperialist intrigue and brutal neocolonial war.
Underscoring the disastrous outcome of these policies for the imperialist strategists in Washington, even some of Biden’s fiercest critics have tacitly accepted that the US has no alternative but to withdraw. In a press conference convened Friday in response to the previous day’s terrorist attack, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy denounced Biden for “weakness and incompetence,” and for accepting a “Taliban-dictated deadline.” But when it came to explaining his alternative course of action, all he could offer was a call for the reconvening of the House to receive a confidential intelligence briefing and adopt a bill that would prohibit US troops from withdrawing until “every single American” has been evacuated.
Retaining an American military presence in the war-ravaged country would require the deployment of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of troops. Biden and his foreign policy and national security advisers have ruled this out because they view such an expenditure of military and financial resources as a diversion from the main conflicts they confront, against Russia and above all China.
These geostrategic considerations are buried in the media coverage, which portrays the American and allied soldiers as saviors rushing to the rescue of the Afghan people to protect them from barbarism and death. American soldiers are “saving as many people as they can,” Taylor proclaimed at Friday’s Pentagon press briefing, and are engaged in a “noble mission.”
This militarist claptrap has been repeated ad nauseam by the media and political establishment in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. As Germany concluded its evacuation mission yesterday with the arrival of around 300 soldiers in the country, media outlets reported breathlessly about the returning heroes. The soldiers “brought thousands of people out of Afghanistan to safety,” wrote German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “Our country is proud of you.”
In reality, the American soldiers and their European allies are leaving behind a war-ravaged country in which hundreds of thousands of Afghans were slaughtered and maimed by air strikes, night raids, torture and abuse carried out by the imperialist powers and their local collaborators.
The Cost of War Project estimates that 700 civilians were killed by allied air strikes during 2019 alone, the highest figure since the war began. Although US air strikes declined in 2020 after the Trump administration signed a ceasefire with the Taliban, those conducted by the Afghan Air Force, which was entirely dependent on the US for ammunition and maintenance, increased. Some 3,000 civilians were estimated to have lost their lives in the conflict during 2020.
The pro-imperialist stooge regime that presided over these horrendous conditions was up to its eyeballs in graft and corruption. While former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reportedly fled the country with over $150 million in cash, 90 percent of the Afghan population was living on less than $2 a day after two decades of US-led military occupation.
In a briefing released Friday that received far less attention than the fate of the comparative handful of people crowded around Kabul airport, the UN reported that up to half a million people could flee the country by the end of 2021 due to a looming food crisis. The UN reported that prior to the Taliban coming to power, half of the population required some form of humanitarian aid and half of all children under five years of age were acutely malnourished.
Since the beginning of 2021, 560,000 people have been registered as internally displaced, adding to the 2.9 million internally displaced persons at the end of 2020. Over 80 percent of those displaced since the beginning of the year are women and children.
Oxygen runs low and morgues overflow as Florida’s death toll from COVID-19 continues to mount unabated
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/08/28/flor-a28.html
Benjamin Mateus
18 hours ago
As the pandemic continues to rage across the US, there has been a more than ten percent rise in new cases in the past week. Deaths are also up by a staggering 41 percent. Thursday’s death toll reached 1,289 while the seven-day moving average has surpassed 1,000 for the first time since mid-March.
Students sit in an Algebra class at Barbara Coleman Senior High School on the first day of school, in Miami Lakes, Florida on August 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
The US is now fast approaching 40 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 while the death toll has exceeded 650,000 according to the Worldometer coronavirus tracker. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has projected that based on current projections, the US can expect to see close to 740,000 COVID-19 reported deaths by December 1, 2021. There are currently more than 100,000 people hospitalized across the country with nearly 25,000 in an intensive care unit (ICU).
These statistics are unprecedented and will continue to grow worse without immediate intervention to implement basic public health measures that will eradicate the virus and stop unnecessary deaths—the closure of schools and non-essential businesses, lockdowns, mask mandates and social distancing combined with a ramped-up vaccination initiative. Scientists estimate that it would only take a few weeks to finally end the pandemic.
With every means and resource at their disposal, not one finger is being lifted by the Biden administration or by state governments to bring this pandemic to a rapid end. There is now, among every capitalist politician along the political spectrum, an open and complete disregard for the life and livelihood of the population. Death has assumed such a state of normalcy that the reporting of such statistics produces little more than a noticeable irritation on their countenance.
Such a mood is best exemplified by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida whose state is in a calamitous predicament.
Florida is registering cases at twice the rate of the entire nation with 105 cases per 100,000 people this week. This translates to more than 21,600 new cases per day. The seven-day moving average for deaths has reached 242 with 901 deaths registered just on August 26, 2021. With such massive and rapid numbers of cases, the state’s health care system and health care workers have been placed under extreme pressure.
For instance, Palm Beach County (population 1.5 million) reported on Thursday that they only had a four percent ICU capacity across its 17 hospitals. In Broward County (population 2 million), there is only three percent ICU capacity at its 16 hospitals. The patients being admitted are getting sicker in part due to the more virulent nature of the Delta variant which means many have to be placed on ventilators. Currently, 55 percent of Florida’s ICUs are occupied by COVID-19 patients, a doubling of the figure from last month. By comparison, nearly one-third of the nation’s ICU beds are presently filled with COVID-19 patients, which by itself represents a complete failure by the ruling establishment to contain the pandemic.
The tragic situation has been made more complex by the fact that the number of patients requiring ventilator support is climbing while there is a shortage of critical care staff to manage and treat these patients. Those that are in the hospitals are in full regalia of personal protective equipment working overtime to care for these incredibly ill patients. This week 75 doctors and hospital employees in South Florida held a news conference outside of their hospital urging people to get vaccinated and raised concern over the strains being placed on their hospital.
Dr. Scott Ross, chief medical officer at Cleveland Clinic in Weston, a suburban city in Broward County, told the Sun Sentinel, “The numbers of COVID patients in the ICU is increasing because patients are younger, which translates into a longer ICU stay when compared to the surge last year. We are seeing patients as young as 18 needing mechanical ventilation and patients in their 20s and 30s not surviving this virus.”
Such a massive strain on hospitals also means the overutilization of these health systems’ oxygen delivery capacity. According to a Florida Hospital Association (FHA) survey released on Wednesday, they found that 68 hospitals in the state had less than 48 hours of oxygen supplies on hand. Half of these had less than 36 hours, meaning that by the end of this weekend reports of asphyxiation deaths, as have been reported in India, could surface.
Medicinal oxygen is perhaps the singularly most important treatment for those suffering from a debilitating respiratory condition that prevents their lungs from delivering the vital oxygen needed for their organs to survive. That conditions have deteriorated to such an extent that this may even be a possibility in the wealthiest country in the world exposes more than just neglect: It is cold blooded social murder.
Speaking with WFME, an NPR affiliate in Central Florida, Mary Mayhew, the president of FHA, said, “This is not like running out of masks, right? And right now, we’re focused on how to make sure that does not happen. And, so, hospitals have been raising these concerns, with the state, with the division of emergency management, with the governor’s office, and have raised these concerns federally.”
And, yet, Governor DeSantis, rather than taking the decision to lockdown the state and ensure these healthcare systems are provided breathing space, took to Fox News this week to tout and defend his response calling his opening of treatment facilities providing COVID-19 patients with monoclonal antibodies a “great success” while resisting all efforts to close schools or institute mask mandates.
Little has been mentioned of the incestuous relationship between Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund which has invested in the monoclonal antibody treatment sold by Regeneron and donated more than $10 million to DeSantis’ political committee, and DeSantis’ promotion of Regeneron as a preventive measure against severe COVID-19.
DeSantis has banned schools from implementing mask mandates—a minimal measure in the toolkit for fighting the pandemic—and has threatened to cut off funding from those that have chosen to do so in defiance of the law and at the behest of concerned parents and students. A possible Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, following President Trump’s fascistic playbook, DeSantis, speaking at a news conference, said, “Those school districts are violating state law and they are overriding parents’ judgment on this. If these entities are going to violate state law and take away parent’s rights, obviously the way it works, there are consequences for that and there will continue to be more.”
Several hospitals in Central Florida belonging to AdventHealth are turning to renting mobile morgues to keep bodies of the deceased in coolers as they have surpassed their hospital’s capacity. Hospital health officials have called the governor’s office asking for assistance through a disaster declaration. No word has come back, according to Newsweek. WTFV-9, a local news station, released an email from AdventHealth which noted, “We have begun utilizing rented, refrigerated coolers at ten of our campuses throughout Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, and Volusia counties. These coolers are quickly becoming filled.”
The response by DeSantis to the pandemic is not new nor even the most exaggerated expression of the psychopathic behavior that has marked the ruling elites’ response to the global pandemic. He is in essence repeating Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s profanity, “No more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands.” Schools will remain open regardless of how many students, teachers and staff are sickened and die or if children pass the virus to their parents who may perish leaving them orphans so that businesses can remain open to generate record profits at the expense of the working class.
DeSantis’ murderous stand in defense of corporate profit should be a warning to Florida’s population that the health care system is most likely in dire straits without intervention by the working class. Needless deaths will mount as emergencies completely unrelated to COVID-19 will occur simply due to lack of healthcare capacity, whether it be a stroke, heart attack, or motor vehicle accident.
Educators, parents, autoworkers, logistics workers, health care workers and the entire working class internationally must take action to stop the pandemic and save lives and take up the fight for the eradication of COVID-19. This will require the immediate closure of schools and non-essential businesses, with full compensation for workers and small businesses owners, until transmission of the virus is halted and COVID-19 is eliminated as a threat to humanity.
The US is now fast approaching 40 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 while the death toll has exceeded 650,000 according to the Worldometer coronavirus tracker. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has projected that based on current projections, the US can expect to see close to 740,000 COVID-19 reported deaths by December 1, 2021. There are currently more than 100,000 people hospitalized across the country with nearly 25,000 in an intensive care unit (ICU).
These statistics are unprecedented and will continue to grow worse without immediate intervention to implement basic public health measures that will eradicate the virus and stop unnecessary deaths—the closure of schools and non-essential businesses, lockdowns, mask mandates and social distancing combined with a ramped-up vaccination initiative. Scientists estimate that it would only take a few weeks to finally end the pandemic.
With every means and resource at their disposal, not one finger is being lifted by the Biden administration or by state governments to bring this pandemic to a rapid end. There is now, among every capitalist politician along the political spectrum, an open and complete disregard for the life and livelihood of the population. Death has assumed such a state of normalcy that the reporting of such statistics produces little more than a noticeable irritation on their countenance.
Such a mood is best exemplified by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida whose state is in a calamitous predicament.
Florida is registering cases at twice the rate of the entire nation with 105 cases per 100,000 people this week. This translates to more than 21,600 new cases per day. The seven-day moving average for deaths has reached 242 with 901 deaths registered just on August 26, 2021. With such massive and rapid numbers of cases, the state’s health care system and health care workers have been placed under extreme pressure.
For instance, Palm Beach County (population 1.5 million) reported on Thursday that they only had a four percent ICU capacity across its 17 hospitals. In Broward County (population 2 million), there is only three percent ICU capacity at its 16 hospitals. The patients being admitted are getting sicker in part due to the more virulent nature of the Delta variant which means many have to be placed on ventilators. Currently, 55 percent of Florida’s ICUs are occupied by COVID-19 patients, a doubling of the figure from last month. By comparison, nearly one-third of the nation’s ICU beds are presently filled with COVID-19 patients, which by itself represents a complete failure by the ruling establishment to contain the pandemic.
The tragic situation has been made more complex by the fact that the number of patients requiring ventilator support is climbing while there is a shortage of critical care staff to manage and treat these patients. Those that are in the hospitals are in full regalia of personal protective equipment working overtime to care for these incredibly ill patients. This week 75 doctors and hospital employees in South Florida held a news conference outside of their hospital urging people to get vaccinated and raised concern over the strains being placed on their hospital.
Dr. Scott Ross, chief medical officer at Cleveland Clinic in Weston, a suburban city in Broward County, told the Sun Sentinel, “The numbers of COVID patients in the ICU is increasing because patients are younger, which translates into a longer ICU stay when compared to the surge last year. We are seeing patients as young as 18 needing mechanical ventilation and patients in their 20s and 30s not surviving this virus.”
Such a massive strain on hospitals also means the overutilization of these health systems’ oxygen delivery capacity. According to a Florida Hospital Association (FHA) survey released on Wednesday, they found that 68 hospitals in the state had less than 48 hours of oxygen supplies on hand. Half of these had less than 36 hours, meaning that by the end of this weekend reports of asphyxiation deaths, as have been reported in India, could surface.
Medicinal oxygen is perhaps the singularly most important treatment for those suffering from a debilitating respiratory condition that prevents their lungs from delivering the vital oxygen needed for their organs to survive. That conditions have deteriorated to such an extent that this may even be a possibility in the wealthiest country in the world exposes more than just neglect: It is cold blooded social murder.
Speaking with WFME, an NPR affiliate in Central Florida, Mary Mayhew, the president of FHA, said, “This is not like running out of masks, right? And right now, we’re focused on how to make sure that does not happen. And, so, hospitals have been raising these concerns, with the state, with the division of emergency management, with the governor’s office, and have raised these concerns federally.”
And, yet, Governor DeSantis, rather than taking the decision to lockdown the state and ensure these healthcare systems are provided breathing space, took to Fox News this week to tout and defend his response calling his opening of treatment facilities providing COVID-19 patients with monoclonal antibodies a “great success” while resisting all efforts to close schools or institute mask mandates.
Little has been mentioned of the incestuous relationship between Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund which has invested in the monoclonal antibody treatment sold by Regeneron and donated more than $10 million to DeSantis’ political committee, and DeSantis’ promotion of Regeneron as a preventive measure against severe COVID-19.
DeSantis has banned schools from implementing mask mandates—a minimal measure in the toolkit for fighting the pandemic—and has threatened to cut off funding from those that have chosen to do so in defiance of the law and at the behest of concerned parents and students. A possible Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, following President Trump’s fascistic playbook, DeSantis, speaking at a news conference, said, “Those school districts are violating state law and they are overriding parents’ judgment on this. If these entities are going to violate state law and take away parent’s rights, obviously the way it works, there are consequences for that and there will continue to be more.”
Several hospitals in Central Florida belonging to AdventHealth are turning to renting mobile morgues to keep bodies of the deceased in coolers as they have surpassed their hospital’s capacity. Hospital health officials have called the governor’s office asking for assistance through a disaster declaration. No word has come back, according to Newsweek. WTFV-9, a local news station, released an email from AdventHealth which noted, “We have begun utilizing rented, refrigerated coolers at ten of our campuses throughout Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, and Volusia counties. These coolers are quickly becoming filled.”
The response by DeSantis to the pandemic is not new nor even the most exaggerated expression of the psychopathic behavior that has marked the ruling elites’ response to the global pandemic. He is in essence repeating Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s profanity, “No more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands.” Schools will remain open regardless of how many students, teachers and staff are sickened and die or if children pass the virus to their parents who may perish leaving them orphans so that businesses can remain open to generate record profits at the expense of the working class.
DeSantis’ murderous stand in defense of corporate profit should be a warning to Florida’s population that the health care system is most likely in dire straits without intervention by the working class. Needless deaths will mount as emergencies completely unrelated to COVID-19 will occur simply due to lack of healthcare capacity, whether it be a stroke, heart attack, or motor vehicle accident.
Educators, parents, autoworkers, logistics workers, health care workers and the entire working class internationally must take action to stop the pandemic and save lives and take up the fight for the eradication of COVID-19. This will require the immediate closure of schools and non-essential businesses, with full compensation for workers and small businesses owners, until transmission of the virus is halted and COVID-19 is eliminated as a threat to humanity.
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