Tuesday, August 4, 2020
COVID-19 CRISIS FAILURE, PEOPLE MUST SAVE THEMSELVES AND THE ECONOMY
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance.
August 2, 2020
https://popularresistance.org/covid-crisis-failure-people-must-save-themselves-and-the-economy/
The US is at a moment of truth. This week, Congress has to face up to a pandemic that is out of control and an economy that is collapsing. The Republican’s and Democrat’s proposals show they will fail this test. The people will need to protect themselves and lead from below.
The pandemic is worsening with more than 60,000 new cases and approximately 1,000 new deaths daily. Deaths, now over 158,000, are spiking across the sunbelt and increasing across the Midwest. By Election Day, the US could have 250,000 deaths making COVID-19 the third largest killer after cancer and heart disease.
The economy shrank at a record 32.9% annual pace in the second quarter, the largest since records were first kept in 1947. Jobless claims increased for the second week in a row with 1.4 million new people seeking unemployment benefits and continuing claims have risen to 17.06 million. More than 35 million people have lost their jobs since March.
In the face of these depression-era numbers, neither the Democrats nor Republicans are planning enough spending to rebuild the economy. President Trump, who has botched the response to the pandemic, is unable to lead but seems willing to sign anything that passes Congress.
Republican HEALS Act Will Spread the Virus, Deepen Economic Collapse
The Republican Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools (HEALS) Act seeks to push people back to work and reopen schools even if it is not safe to do so. Their proposals to cut unemployment benefits are designed to make workers desperate so they will work in conditions that put their health at risk. A large portion of school funding is restricted to schools that physically reopen forcing unsafe schools. Here are some of the details of the bill:
Health care: The inadequacy of for-profit healthcare has been magnified by the pandemic. The loss of jobs resulted in millions of people losing their health insurance on top of almost 30 million people who were already uninsured. Republicans do not include a funding increase for Medicaid, which 70 million people rely on. The National Governor’s Association reports states are experiencing budget shortfalls ranging between 5 and 20 percent. The Republicans do not providing any funding to state and local governments to make up for this loss of income. Without new funding, states will have to cut Medicaid eligibility, reduce benefits, or reduce payments to providers at a time when the economy and virus mean more people need it.
Food: The Census reports 26 million people do not have adequate food. Food banks are reporting shortages and 14 million children are going hungry but the Republicans did not extend funding for food assistance programs. The Republicans did not extend either the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as food stamps, or the Pandemic EBT program, a benefit for households with children who have temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals, which ended in June. In contrast, they did propose a 100 percent deduction on business meals through the end of 2020.
Housing: The eviction moratorium expired last week. It protected an estimated 12 million renters in federally-backed properties. The HEALS Act does nothing to prevent evictions from restarting. There are 110 million Americans who live in rental households. Twenty percent of them, 23 million people, are at risk of eviction by September 30 according to the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project. With the cut in unemployment benefits, the Census Bureau estimates 24 million people will be unable to pay next month’s rent, including 45 percent of Black and Latinx households.
Worker safety: As workers are being forced back to work, the HEALS Act cuts their ability to sue at a time when worker-safety is at its greatest risk in a century. Senator McConnell calls this a “red line” that must be in the final bill. His proposal would preempt the few state workplace safety laws that exist and supersede such federal worker safeguards as the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, among others. The Republican proposal would erect almost insurmountable obstacles to lawsuits by workers who become infected at their workplaces and limit damages. To be immune, employers would merely have to show they were “exploring options” to comply with federal law, or they found the risk of harm to health could not be “reduced or eliminated by reasonably modifying policies, practices, or procedures.” A worker whose lawyer issues a demand letter and settlement offer would find themselves potentially facing litigation by the employer against them. If employers sue workers, there is no limit to punitive damages. These provisions would be retroactive to Dec. 1, 2019, and remain in effect at least until Oct. 1, 2024.
Student debt: The HEALS Act doesn’t extend the interest-free payment pause on federal student loans or halt debt collection on government-held student debt, two forms of relief in the original CARES ACT. Without extending the relief Congress first granted to student loan borrowers through the CARES Act, 40 million people are likely to have to resume payments on September 30, 2020 at a time when there are Depression-like levels of unemployment.
Business support: The Act provides $100 billion more for the problematic Paycheck Protection Program, which has been rife with corruption as members of Congress and the administration as well as their friends, families, and donors got payouts. Big businesses got loans even though the program was intended for small businesses, making small business owners furious. Black and minority businesses were denied loans. Money is needed for main street businesses but PPP needs major changes rather than just pouring more money into the failed program.
The bill also includes $1.75 billion for the FBI building. This was added at the insistence of the Trump administration because the president’s hotel is across the street from the FBI. Without funding to refurbish the building, the FBI could move to Virginia or Maryland, leaving the current building to be torn down and likely replaced with a hotel that would compete with Trump’s hotel.
Military spending: Nearly $30 billion in the HEALS Act would be allocated in a brazen giveaway to the military. The bill includes billions for the Pentagon including $686 million for F-35 stealth fighters, $650 million for A-10 ground attack airplane wing replacements, $1.4 billion for four expeditionary medical ships, and $720 million for C-130J transport aircraft, $375 million for armored vehicles, $360 million for missile defense, and $283 million for Apache helicopters. This is reportedly being added to make up for money taken from the Pentagon for the border wall and comes after Congress recently passed a record military spending bill.
The Democrats Fail To Use Their Power
The Democrats control the House of Representatives. Nothing can pass the Senate without Democratic Party support. The Senate Republicans are divided and Trump is desperate to sign a bill. Polls show Republicans could lose the Senate so they need to pass a good bill. The political alignment favors the Democratic Party but it still isn’t doing what is needed.
The Democrats passed the HEROES (Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions) Act in May, a $3 trillion proposal compared to the $1 trillion HEALS Act. Two months ago this may have been adequate but now that figure needs to be increased as more jobs have been lost, state and city governments have lost income, and the cost of treating the virus has increased with more cases.
A “red line” for the Democrats should be funding state and local government with at least $1 trillion to continue basic services. More than 20 million people work for state and local governments such as firefighters, teachers, police, sanitation workers, and transportation workers. The Economic Policy Institute estimates 5.3 million jobs will be lost without state and local funding. President Trump and the Republicans do not want another massive increase in job loss, so the Democrats are in a strong position to make this demand.
The decrease in unemployment benefits should be another unacceptable “red line” as this will further shrink the economy. The Economic Policy Institute finds the loss of the extra $600 of unemployment benefits, which people are currently spending on basic needs, will result in the loss of an additional 3.4 million jobs.
One area where the Democrats can build on some agreement is the $1,200 COVID-19 relief payment to individuals. These payments are too small. A good COVID-19 relief package would increase payments to $2,000 per person monthly for the duration of the pandemic and recession for households earning under $150,000 as suggested by Sen. Bernie Sanders. This would slow the economic collapse and ease suffering.
It is essential to extend the moratorium on evictions not just for federally-subsidized housing, but the federal government should also cover rent and mortgage payments for the duration of the crises. Otherwise, millions of families will lose their homes in an election year, which should be politically unpalatable for both parties.
We Need a Plan
What is missing from both the Republican and Democratic bills is a strategy to control and stop the pandemic. The virus is 7 months old and still spreading rapidly. President Trump has failed to lead so Congress must do so. The bill should include a massive investment in making rapid testing available across the country. Every business and school should have rapid testing capability before they reopen. This should be combined with hiring 500,000 public health tracers so those who have been exposed to COVID-19 can be tracked to prevent further spread of the virus.
Everyone wants to restart the economy but this must be done safely. In addition to testing and tracing, workplaces and schools must be safe. School districts should decide whether to restart or continue web-based learning and should be supported by the federal government whatever they choose. Hundreds of thousands of tutors who can do one-on-one teaching to support web-based learning are needed. With high unemployment, especially among recent graduates and college students, there are people available to take on this task.
Congress should authorize OSHA to rapidly enact stringent standards for workplaces to reopen, along with funding for necessary safeguards. There should be increased funding for OSHA workplace inspections and investigations of inadequate safety. Employers who meet the standards for a safe workplace should have legal protection from frivolous lawsuits but employees should also have the right to sue if workplaces do not meet safety standards. This approach protects both workers and employers and will reduce the spread of the virus.
Neither party handled healthcare well even before the pandemic. COVID-19 has magnified the failure of for-profit healthcare. To stop the spread of the virus, Congress needs to break away from its privatized approach to healthcare. With the widespread job loss, 5.4 million workers lost their health insurance as did millions more family members. This is the largest decline in health insurance coverage in US history. The rapid response to this healthcare crisis should be the expansion of Medicare to everyone in the United States. Ideological opposition to publicly funded healthcare should not block this essential step. The long term failure of our healthcare system and widening health disparities demonstrate why we need a community-controlled, public, universal healthcare system.
The People Must Rule, and Protect Ourselves
Congress and the President are unlikely to enact the laws needed to confront the pandemic and economic collapse. As a result, both will worsen. We will have to take action to protect ourselves and build popular power to win our demands.
We need to organize mutual aid to people meet people’s basic needs, such as for food and housing. Many cities have vacant buildings owned by the local and federal governments. As homelessness rises, these should be taken over to house people. We discuss the practical steps for taking over homes with Cheri Honkala this week on Clearing The FOG, (available as a podcast on Monday).
We build popular power by taking the streets as people have been doing for over two months now across the country, only buying essentials, refusing to pay rent or debt payments, blocking evictions and by building in our workplaces for a general strike.
Our actions must not be about which presidential candidate from the two parties of the millionaires to elect. Only one serious presidential campaign is right on COVID-19 and the economy, the Green candidates Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker. Our actions need to be about building a people’s movement that grows in power before and after the November elections. No matter who is elected, the people will need to resist, create new systems and rule from below.
https://popularresistance.org/covid-crisis-failure-people-must-save-themselves-and-the-economy/
The US is at a moment of truth. This week, Congress has to face up to a pandemic that is out of control and an economy that is collapsing. The Republican’s and Democrat’s proposals show they will fail this test. The people will need to protect themselves and lead from below.
The pandemic is worsening with more than 60,000 new cases and approximately 1,000 new deaths daily. Deaths, now over 158,000, are spiking across the sunbelt and increasing across the Midwest. By Election Day, the US could have 250,000 deaths making COVID-19 the third largest killer after cancer and heart disease.
The economy shrank at a record 32.9% annual pace in the second quarter, the largest since records were first kept in 1947. Jobless claims increased for the second week in a row with 1.4 million new people seeking unemployment benefits and continuing claims have risen to 17.06 million. More than 35 million people have lost their jobs since March.
In the face of these depression-era numbers, neither the Democrats nor Republicans are planning enough spending to rebuild the economy. President Trump, who has botched the response to the pandemic, is unable to lead but seems willing to sign anything that passes Congress.
Republican HEALS Act Will Spread the Virus, Deepen Economic Collapse
The Republican Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools (HEALS) Act seeks to push people back to work and reopen schools even if it is not safe to do so. Their proposals to cut unemployment benefits are designed to make workers desperate so they will work in conditions that put their health at risk. A large portion of school funding is restricted to schools that physically reopen forcing unsafe schools. Here are some of the details of the bill:
Health care: The inadequacy of for-profit healthcare has been magnified by the pandemic. The loss of jobs resulted in millions of people losing their health insurance on top of almost 30 million people who were already uninsured. Republicans do not include a funding increase for Medicaid, which 70 million people rely on. The National Governor’s Association reports states are experiencing budget shortfalls ranging between 5 and 20 percent. The Republicans do not providing any funding to state and local governments to make up for this loss of income. Without new funding, states will have to cut Medicaid eligibility, reduce benefits, or reduce payments to providers at a time when the economy and virus mean more people need it.
Food: The Census reports 26 million people do not have adequate food. Food banks are reporting shortages and 14 million children are going hungry but the Republicans did not extend funding for food assistance programs. The Republicans did not extend either the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as food stamps, or the Pandemic EBT program, a benefit for households with children who have temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals, which ended in June. In contrast, they did propose a 100 percent deduction on business meals through the end of 2020.
Housing: The eviction moratorium expired last week. It protected an estimated 12 million renters in federally-backed properties. The HEALS Act does nothing to prevent evictions from restarting. There are 110 million Americans who live in rental households. Twenty percent of them, 23 million people, are at risk of eviction by September 30 according to the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project. With the cut in unemployment benefits, the Census Bureau estimates 24 million people will be unable to pay next month’s rent, including 45 percent of Black and Latinx households.
Worker safety: As workers are being forced back to work, the HEALS Act cuts their ability to sue at a time when worker-safety is at its greatest risk in a century. Senator McConnell calls this a “red line” that must be in the final bill. His proposal would preempt the few state workplace safety laws that exist and supersede such federal worker safeguards as the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, among others. The Republican proposal would erect almost insurmountable obstacles to lawsuits by workers who become infected at their workplaces and limit damages. To be immune, employers would merely have to show they were “exploring options” to comply with federal law, or they found the risk of harm to health could not be “reduced or eliminated by reasonably modifying policies, practices, or procedures.” A worker whose lawyer issues a demand letter and settlement offer would find themselves potentially facing litigation by the employer against them. If employers sue workers, there is no limit to punitive damages. These provisions would be retroactive to Dec. 1, 2019, and remain in effect at least until Oct. 1, 2024.
Student debt: The HEALS Act doesn’t extend the interest-free payment pause on federal student loans or halt debt collection on government-held student debt, two forms of relief in the original CARES ACT. Without extending the relief Congress first granted to student loan borrowers through the CARES Act, 40 million people are likely to have to resume payments on September 30, 2020 at a time when there are Depression-like levels of unemployment.
Business support: The Act provides $100 billion more for the problematic Paycheck Protection Program, which has been rife with corruption as members of Congress and the administration as well as their friends, families, and donors got payouts. Big businesses got loans even though the program was intended for small businesses, making small business owners furious. Black and minority businesses were denied loans. Money is needed for main street businesses but PPP needs major changes rather than just pouring more money into the failed program.
The bill also includes $1.75 billion for the FBI building. This was added at the insistence of the Trump administration because the president’s hotel is across the street from the FBI. Without funding to refurbish the building, the FBI could move to Virginia or Maryland, leaving the current building to be torn down and likely replaced with a hotel that would compete with Trump’s hotel.
Military spending: Nearly $30 billion in the HEALS Act would be allocated in a brazen giveaway to the military. The bill includes billions for the Pentagon including $686 million for F-35 stealth fighters, $650 million for A-10 ground attack airplane wing replacements, $1.4 billion for four expeditionary medical ships, and $720 million for C-130J transport aircraft, $375 million for armored vehicles, $360 million for missile defense, and $283 million for Apache helicopters. This is reportedly being added to make up for money taken from the Pentagon for the border wall and comes after Congress recently passed a record military spending bill.
The Democrats Fail To Use Their Power
The Democrats control the House of Representatives. Nothing can pass the Senate without Democratic Party support. The Senate Republicans are divided and Trump is desperate to sign a bill. Polls show Republicans could lose the Senate so they need to pass a good bill. The political alignment favors the Democratic Party but it still isn’t doing what is needed.
The Democrats passed the HEROES (Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions) Act in May, a $3 trillion proposal compared to the $1 trillion HEALS Act. Two months ago this may have been adequate but now that figure needs to be increased as more jobs have been lost, state and city governments have lost income, and the cost of treating the virus has increased with more cases.
A “red line” for the Democrats should be funding state and local government with at least $1 trillion to continue basic services. More than 20 million people work for state and local governments such as firefighters, teachers, police, sanitation workers, and transportation workers. The Economic Policy Institute estimates 5.3 million jobs will be lost without state and local funding. President Trump and the Republicans do not want another massive increase in job loss, so the Democrats are in a strong position to make this demand.
The decrease in unemployment benefits should be another unacceptable “red line” as this will further shrink the economy. The Economic Policy Institute finds the loss of the extra $600 of unemployment benefits, which people are currently spending on basic needs, will result in the loss of an additional 3.4 million jobs.
One area where the Democrats can build on some agreement is the $1,200 COVID-19 relief payment to individuals. These payments are too small. A good COVID-19 relief package would increase payments to $2,000 per person monthly for the duration of the pandemic and recession for households earning under $150,000 as suggested by Sen. Bernie Sanders. This would slow the economic collapse and ease suffering.
It is essential to extend the moratorium on evictions not just for federally-subsidized housing, but the federal government should also cover rent and mortgage payments for the duration of the crises. Otherwise, millions of families will lose their homes in an election year, which should be politically unpalatable for both parties.
We Need a Plan
What is missing from both the Republican and Democratic bills is a strategy to control and stop the pandemic. The virus is 7 months old and still spreading rapidly. President Trump has failed to lead so Congress must do so. The bill should include a massive investment in making rapid testing available across the country. Every business and school should have rapid testing capability before they reopen. This should be combined with hiring 500,000 public health tracers so those who have been exposed to COVID-19 can be tracked to prevent further spread of the virus.
Everyone wants to restart the economy but this must be done safely. In addition to testing and tracing, workplaces and schools must be safe. School districts should decide whether to restart or continue web-based learning and should be supported by the federal government whatever they choose. Hundreds of thousands of tutors who can do one-on-one teaching to support web-based learning are needed. With high unemployment, especially among recent graduates and college students, there are people available to take on this task.
Congress should authorize OSHA to rapidly enact stringent standards for workplaces to reopen, along with funding for necessary safeguards. There should be increased funding for OSHA workplace inspections and investigations of inadequate safety. Employers who meet the standards for a safe workplace should have legal protection from frivolous lawsuits but employees should also have the right to sue if workplaces do not meet safety standards. This approach protects both workers and employers and will reduce the spread of the virus.
Neither party handled healthcare well even before the pandemic. COVID-19 has magnified the failure of for-profit healthcare. To stop the spread of the virus, Congress needs to break away from its privatized approach to healthcare. With the widespread job loss, 5.4 million workers lost their health insurance as did millions more family members. This is the largest decline in health insurance coverage in US history. The rapid response to this healthcare crisis should be the expansion of Medicare to everyone in the United States. Ideological opposition to publicly funded healthcare should not block this essential step. The long term failure of our healthcare system and widening health disparities demonstrate why we need a community-controlled, public, universal healthcare system.
The People Must Rule, and Protect Ourselves
Congress and the President are unlikely to enact the laws needed to confront the pandemic and economic collapse. As a result, both will worsen. We will have to take action to protect ourselves and build popular power to win our demands.
We need to organize mutual aid to people meet people’s basic needs, such as for food and housing. Many cities have vacant buildings owned by the local and federal governments. As homelessness rises, these should be taken over to house people. We discuss the practical steps for taking over homes with Cheri Honkala this week on Clearing The FOG, (available as a podcast on Monday).
We build popular power by taking the streets as people have been doing for over two months now across the country, only buying essentials, refusing to pay rent or debt payments, blocking evictions and by building in our workplaces for a general strike.
Our actions must not be about which presidential candidate from the two parties of the millionaires to elect. Only one serious presidential campaign is right on COVID-19 and the economy, the Green candidates Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker. Our actions need to be about building a people’s movement that grows in power before and after the November elections. No matter who is elected, the people will need to resist, create new systems and rule from below.
THE RUSSIANS ARE(N’T) COMING!
By Maj. Danny Sjursen (USA Ret.), AntiWar.com.
August 2, 2020
https://popularresistance.org/the-russians-arent-coming/
Paul Reveres, The Washington Hawks Are Not.
One’s opinion on the multiplicity of Russia-inflected-“gates” is now a lucidity litmus test. Spoiler alert: D.C. is apparently an open-air psych ward.
In America’s Emerald City these days, if there’s even a hint of a war-wind-down, imperial-deescalation, or military budget-cuts, Washington’s (non-dribbling) Wizards have a ready response: Russia! Indeed, these military’s magicians have a far-simpler and more effective playbook than the city’s aptly-named NBA franchise. Since President Donald Trump’s election year, basketball’s Wizards are a meager 148-162; the Wizards of Warfare are essentially undefeated – not a single war hath ended. The first-place War Wizards rely on two go-to moves to maintain militarism:
Invent or Exaggerate a “new” Russian threat (anywhere and everywhere).
And, if that hasn’t done the trick:
Plant, time, or twist a “new” media story evincing Trump’s collusion, favoritism, or blindspot for Vladimir Putin.
Enter this last, now typical, Wednesday. At a morning Pentagon press conference, Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed that 12,000 U.S. troops will be removed from Germany per the president’s previously stated intentions. Later that same night, the Daily Beast reported that according to three ironclad sources – “two senior American officials and another individual with knowledge of the matter” – that the State Department “Warn[ed] Russia on Bounties While Trump Cries ‘Fake News.’” The article’s subtle subtitle offered the gist (and motive-rub): “The secret warnings stand in contrast to what President Trump has said about the intelligence in question.”
Rather convenient, that. It’s an old formula. Just in case the chorus of troop withdrawal critics – NATO allies, bipartisan congressmen, private and public intelligence “firms”, et. al.) – can’t seal the deal with a war-weary but confused public, in rides the media to spotlight a repeatedly discredited Trump-Putin link. Presto! The Washington groundhog predicts (and delivers) six more weeks, years, maybe decades, of [potentially nuclear] winter.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Of course advanced degrees are not synonymous with intelligence, and Washington hasn’t functioned in decades. Maybe that’s why it’s difficult for so many to discern that Trump may be a moron but isn’t necessarily wrong on NATO; may be a serial liar, but senses the truth of establishment schemes to scuttle even modest imperial retrenchment.
The Things “We” Know But “They” Do Not Say
There’s just one problem: the entire establishment foundation regarding Russia is so much bullshit. There, I said it! The media mouthpiece for the military-industrial-complex’s 17 personal (if technically official government) intelligence agencies, deliberately deletes all exculpatory evidence and relevant context. They omit, distort, or reframe all things inconvenient or uncomfortable for their pecuniary and professional stake in endless war and war-spending.
For example, that NATO’s founding raison de etre was inherently anti-Russian; and thereby, Moscow’s mistrust of the West’s broken-promise expansion right up to its post-Soviet borders is completely rational.
That Putin isn’t Stalin, and isn’t even a communist. He ran and runs against the Communist Party. He’s no peacenik; but neither is he Pol Pot (whose genocidal mania Washington more than tacitly supported).
That more often than not, the supposed Tsar-Commissar-Premier Putin’s predictable responses to US and NATO provocation are – if not benevolent or preferred – muted or delimited. In 2018, when American special operators-directed airstrikes killed scores of attacking Russian mercenaries in Syria, he distanced himself from his contracted countrymen. In 2014, he seized Crimea, but not (as many locals requested) Ukraine’s entire Eastern Donbass region. In the 2008 war with Georgia, he took de facto control of the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but not the capital city of Tbilisi. If (and it’s a big if), he paid bounties for American scalps in Afghanistan, he sure waited nearly two decades and only after previously cooperating with that US adventure on his very borders. We should perhaps speak of Russia as restrainer rather than renegade.
That Putin’s restraint and restriction is often more of a force for regional and global stability than America’s madcap militarism. In Syria – where Politico recently complained that “Russians squeeze US troops…amid uproar over Trump’s dealings with Moscow” – Putin backed a killer with limited regional capabilities; but Obama aligned the US with Islamists (like Al Qaeda) possessing grandiose transnational ambitions. In Libya, Moscow may support a (former CIA-asset) warlord, but it was Washington which shattered the country in a reckless regime change war and then callously washed its hands of the entire macabre mess.
That Trump’s only cutting 12,000 troops from a Germany-based force of 36,000 that couldn’t counter a full-throated invasion of Central Europe (that isn’t and wasn’t ever coming) anyway; and a force which probably wouldn’t, and damn sure shouldn’t try to stop even a Russian incursion into its former-Soviet – and now, foolishly, NATO-incorporated – Baltic Republics. Something tells me that Trump’s recently tapped and much-maligned – he the “renegade” former colonel – nominee for ambassador to Germany implicitly knows this. After all, the German-speaking Douglas Macgregor spent a career studying Soviet military tactics and history. At one time, he intensely debated none other than Trump’s hawkish former National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, on the efficacy of a Russo-American War in Eastern Europe. The former advises caution in dealing with nuclear-armed Russia and opposes provocative NATO-expansion; the latter, well…visions of glorious catastrophic war dance in his head.
Thing is, Putin knows he could probably call some bluffs and seize these former Soviet satellite states. He hasn’t. Ironically, a bipartisan Russia-hawk “Team Swamp” – ranging from Republican neocon spawn Liz Cheney to Democrat machine boss Nancy Pelosi – that’s fronted by climate-science-touting liberals, willing risks the equally-scientific cataclysm of even a “limited” nuclear war over inessential and distant little Latvia. See, the establishment opposes the potential slow-death of global warming but is apparently unconcerned about the immediate extinction of nuclear winter. We humans are a strange species, indeed – though maybe not long for this world.
Thus, is it so crazy to admit Putin prefers playing chess to Russian Roulette? Well, Washington’s professional gas-lighters will certainly say so.
Goodbye To Gaslighting
After nearly three decades of post-Soviet alarmist nonsense – and four years of veritable Trump-era hysteria – some of us are sick of politely hedging our Russiagate/New Cold War skepticism. What’s the point of qualifying or caveating critiques of the next “bombshell” revelation of Putin the Terrible’s latest misdeeds? The establishment media-congressional-intelligence bipartisan blob will go ahead and gaslight us anyway.
Indeed, after perusing a piece on gaslighting warning signs – penned by an experienced psychoanalyst PhD, directing the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence – it’s clear we skeptics are in emotionally abusive relationships with our prominent politicians and pundits. Allow me to Russiagate(s) translate just the first four ways to know you-might-be-a-gaslight-victim for all those other anxious skeptics out there:
You ask yourself, “Am I too sensitive?” many times per day.
Maybe I am overthinking this or seeing Russia-baiting connections where they aren’t?
You often feel confused and even crazy in the relationship.
AM I crazy? Am I the only one who sees through this nonsense?
You’re always apologizing.
Yes, I’m not saying I like Putin; and sure, Assad is awful; But…
You can’t understand why you aren’t happier.
I’ve been empirically vindicated on this stuff every time – so why doesn’t it feel good?
For those sentient thinkers who see themselves in the list – fear not. Hope lingers with saner voices than mine (among the purported insane, that is) who’ve already had enough, and say so in appropriately blunt terms:
Lee Camp, Consortium News, July 1: “US Media Used To Stop The ‘Threat’ of Peace” – points out the suspicious timing of every media-intelligence Russian bad boy-bombshell dropping soon after Trump (who Lee loathes!) dares hint at troop withdrawals from Syria, Afghanistan, or Europe.
Aaron Mate, The Gray Zone, “US claim of ‘Russian Bounty’ plot in Afghanistan is dubious and dangerous” – no explanation needed.
Antiwar.com‘s own Scott Horton, speech to the King County, Washington Libertarian Party, February 29, 2020, “The New Cold War With Russia Is All America’s Fault” – a thirty year saga of the US incompetence, deceit, and provocation that answers the old cliche-query: “How did we get here?”
Notice that none of these accurate, but dismissed and/or disregarded, authors appeared in the New York Times or on CNN. In fact, a daily-alarm-raising establishment obsessed with unearthing a grand Russian conspiracy, usually rejects such voices as alarmist, obsessive, conspiratorial. Victimizers do love to blame their victims, don’t they?
So when it comes to Russia-Cold-War-hype, perhaps paranoia is the new prudence.
And a “conspiracy theory” simply Occam’s new razor.
https://popularresistance.org/the-russians-arent-coming/
Paul Reveres, The Washington Hawks Are Not.
One’s opinion on the multiplicity of Russia-inflected-“gates” is now a lucidity litmus test. Spoiler alert: D.C. is apparently an open-air psych ward.
In America’s Emerald City these days, if there’s even a hint of a war-wind-down, imperial-deescalation, or military budget-cuts, Washington’s (non-dribbling) Wizards have a ready response: Russia! Indeed, these military’s magicians have a far-simpler and more effective playbook than the city’s aptly-named NBA franchise. Since President Donald Trump’s election year, basketball’s Wizards are a meager 148-162; the Wizards of Warfare are essentially undefeated – not a single war hath ended. The first-place War Wizards rely on two go-to moves to maintain militarism:
Invent or Exaggerate a “new” Russian threat (anywhere and everywhere).
And, if that hasn’t done the trick:
Plant, time, or twist a “new” media story evincing Trump’s collusion, favoritism, or blindspot for Vladimir Putin.
Enter this last, now typical, Wednesday. At a morning Pentagon press conference, Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed that 12,000 U.S. troops will be removed from Germany per the president’s previously stated intentions. Later that same night, the Daily Beast reported that according to three ironclad sources – “two senior American officials and another individual with knowledge of the matter” – that the State Department “Warn[ed] Russia on Bounties While Trump Cries ‘Fake News.’” The article’s subtle subtitle offered the gist (and motive-rub): “The secret warnings stand in contrast to what President Trump has said about the intelligence in question.”
Rather convenient, that. It’s an old formula. Just in case the chorus of troop withdrawal critics – NATO allies, bipartisan congressmen, private and public intelligence “firms”, et. al.) – can’t seal the deal with a war-weary but confused public, in rides the media to spotlight a repeatedly discredited Trump-Putin link. Presto! The Washington groundhog predicts (and delivers) six more weeks, years, maybe decades, of [potentially nuclear] winter.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Of course advanced degrees are not synonymous with intelligence, and Washington hasn’t functioned in decades. Maybe that’s why it’s difficult for so many to discern that Trump may be a moron but isn’t necessarily wrong on NATO; may be a serial liar, but senses the truth of establishment schemes to scuttle even modest imperial retrenchment.
The Things “We” Know But “They” Do Not Say
There’s just one problem: the entire establishment foundation regarding Russia is so much bullshit. There, I said it! The media mouthpiece for the military-industrial-complex’s 17 personal (if technically official government) intelligence agencies, deliberately deletes all exculpatory evidence and relevant context. They omit, distort, or reframe all things inconvenient or uncomfortable for their pecuniary and professional stake in endless war and war-spending.
For example, that NATO’s founding raison de etre was inherently anti-Russian; and thereby, Moscow’s mistrust of the West’s broken-promise expansion right up to its post-Soviet borders is completely rational.
That Putin isn’t Stalin, and isn’t even a communist. He ran and runs against the Communist Party. He’s no peacenik; but neither is he Pol Pot (whose genocidal mania Washington more than tacitly supported).
That more often than not, the supposed Tsar-Commissar-Premier Putin’s predictable responses to US and NATO provocation are – if not benevolent or preferred – muted or delimited. In 2018, when American special operators-directed airstrikes killed scores of attacking Russian mercenaries in Syria, he distanced himself from his contracted countrymen. In 2014, he seized Crimea, but not (as many locals requested) Ukraine’s entire Eastern Donbass region. In the 2008 war with Georgia, he took de facto control of the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but not the capital city of Tbilisi. If (and it’s a big if), he paid bounties for American scalps in Afghanistan, he sure waited nearly two decades and only after previously cooperating with that US adventure on his very borders. We should perhaps speak of Russia as restrainer rather than renegade.
That Putin’s restraint and restriction is often more of a force for regional and global stability than America’s madcap militarism. In Syria – where Politico recently complained that “Russians squeeze US troops…amid uproar over Trump’s dealings with Moscow” – Putin backed a killer with limited regional capabilities; but Obama aligned the US with Islamists (like Al Qaeda) possessing grandiose transnational ambitions. In Libya, Moscow may support a (former CIA-asset) warlord, but it was Washington which shattered the country in a reckless regime change war and then callously washed its hands of the entire macabre mess.
That Trump’s only cutting 12,000 troops from a Germany-based force of 36,000 that couldn’t counter a full-throated invasion of Central Europe (that isn’t and wasn’t ever coming) anyway; and a force which probably wouldn’t, and damn sure shouldn’t try to stop even a Russian incursion into its former-Soviet – and now, foolishly, NATO-incorporated – Baltic Republics. Something tells me that Trump’s recently tapped and much-maligned – he the “renegade” former colonel – nominee for ambassador to Germany implicitly knows this. After all, the German-speaking Douglas Macgregor spent a career studying Soviet military tactics and history. At one time, he intensely debated none other than Trump’s hawkish former National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, on the efficacy of a Russo-American War in Eastern Europe. The former advises caution in dealing with nuclear-armed Russia and opposes provocative NATO-expansion; the latter, well…visions of glorious catastrophic war dance in his head.
Thing is, Putin knows he could probably call some bluffs and seize these former Soviet satellite states. He hasn’t. Ironically, a bipartisan Russia-hawk “Team Swamp” – ranging from Republican neocon spawn Liz Cheney to Democrat machine boss Nancy Pelosi – that’s fronted by climate-science-touting liberals, willing risks the equally-scientific cataclysm of even a “limited” nuclear war over inessential and distant little Latvia. See, the establishment opposes the potential slow-death of global warming but is apparently unconcerned about the immediate extinction of nuclear winter. We humans are a strange species, indeed – though maybe not long for this world.
Thus, is it so crazy to admit Putin prefers playing chess to Russian Roulette? Well, Washington’s professional gas-lighters will certainly say so.
Goodbye To Gaslighting
After nearly three decades of post-Soviet alarmist nonsense – and four years of veritable Trump-era hysteria – some of us are sick of politely hedging our Russiagate/New Cold War skepticism. What’s the point of qualifying or caveating critiques of the next “bombshell” revelation of Putin the Terrible’s latest misdeeds? The establishment media-congressional-intelligence bipartisan blob will go ahead and gaslight us anyway.
Indeed, after perusing a piece on gaslighting warning signs – penned by an experienced psychoanalyst PhD, directing the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence – it’s clear we skeptics are in emotionally abusive relationships with our prominent politicians and pundits. Allow me to Russiagate(s) translate just the first four ways to know you-might-be-a-gaslight-victim for all those other anxious skeptics out there:
You ask yourself, “Am I too sensitive?” many times per day.
Maybe I am overthinking this or seeing Russia-baiting connections where they aren’t?
You often feel confused and even crazy in the relationship.
AM I crazy? Am I the only one who sees through this nonsense?
You’re always apologizing.
Yes, I’m not saying I like Putin; and sure, Assad is awful; But…
You can’t understand why you aren’t happier.
I’ve been empirically vindicated on this stuff every time – so why doesn’t it feel good?
For those sentient thinkers who see themselves in the list – fear not. Hope lingers with saner voices than mine (among the purported insane, that is) who’ve already had enough, and say so in appropriately blunt terms:
Lee Camp, Consortium News, July 1: “US Media Used To Stop The ‘Threat’ of Peace” – points out the suspicious timing of every media-intelligence Russian bad boy-bombshell dropping soon after Trump (who Lee loathes!) dares hint at troop withdrawals from Syria, Afghanistan, or Europe.
Aaron Mate, The Gray Zone, “US claim of ‘Russian Bounty’ plot in Afghanistan is dubious and dangerous” – no explanation needed.
Antiwar.com‘s own Scott Horton, speech to the King County, Washington Libertarian Party, February 29, 2020, “The New Cold War With Russia Is All America’s Fault” – a thirty year saga of the US incompetence, deceit, and provocation that answers the old cliche-query: “How did we get here?”
Notice that none of these accurate, but dismissed and/or disregarded, authors appeared in the New York Times or on CNN. In fact, a daily-alarm-raising establishment obsessed with unearthing a grand Russian conspiracy, usually rejects such voices as alarmist, obsessive, conspiratorial. Victimizers do love to blame their victims, don’t they?
So when it comes to Russia-Cold-War-hype, perhaps paranoia is the new prudence.
And a “conspiracy theory” simply Occam’s new razor.
NICARAGUA TARGETED FOR US OVERTHROW IN 2020-21
By S. Brian Willson, Popular Resistance.
August 2, 2020
https://popularresistance.org/nicaragua-targeted-for-us-overthrow-in-2020-21/
The USA Failed State Continues To Seek Destruction Of NICARAGUA (Among Other Nations Such As Venezuela, Cuba, Syria And Iran, Who Refuse To Obey US Demands For Neoliberal Privatization That Enrich The Already Rich.
George Washington, who waged scorched Earth warfare Against the Iroquois Indigenous in the 1770s, 1780s, and 1790s, was described by the Iroquois Chiefs as the “Town Destroyer” as he had left dozens of their towns in ashes (one of which was my Finger Lakes hometown of Geneva, NY, then called Kanadesaga). His orders: “total destruction and devastation of their settlements”, “ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more”, “lay waste all the settlements … that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed”, “our future security will be in their inability to injure us and in the terror with which the severity of the chastisement they receive will inspire them”.[1] His orders were successfully carried out with joy, as his officers toasted to their mantra, “Civilization or death to all American savages”.[2]
The US has never stopped destroying, and its obscene military budget today is all about technology designed to destroy the people and nations of the Earth, and the Earth herself.
Nicaragua Today
The US has launched a brazen, criminal and arrogant plan to overthrow Nicaragua’s government. A well orchestrated plan financed by the United States to launch a coup d’état in Nicaragua over the next two years was leaked in a document from the US embassy and presented July 31, 2020 by Nicaraguan journalist William Grigsby on his political analysis program “Sin Fronteras”, on Radio La Primerísima.
The new coup plan is in response to the fact that the US realizes President Daniel Ortega will likely win the November 2021 elections. The 18-page document (RFTOP No: 72052420R00004) has the title RAIN (Responsive Assistance in Nicaragua). The document describes contracting with a US company (Blackwater or its successor?) to take charge of carrying out the coup, whose purpose is to implement blatantly criminal plans to destroy public order and do other violent actions before, during and/or after the 2021 elections.
The USAID (US Agency for International Development) will continue to fund these destabilizing activities, using local partners: public opinion analysts, media, businesspersons, NGOs, students, and social networks to orchestrate false news reports. USAID provided millions of dollars to fund the 2018 US-attempted coup operators against Nicaragua.
If the opposition were to win the elections the new government must immediately submit to the policies and guidelines established by the United States, including persecution of Sandinistas, dissolving the National Police and the Army, among other institutions. The document seeks to aggravate the pandemic which is well under control, no thanks to the US-imposed sanctions. The opposition has already received more than $31 million from the United States between the end of 2017 and May 1, 2020.
The document also details the participation of the US Embassy in Managua, under leadership of US Ambassador Kevin K. Sullivan, who will be in charge of executing a series of diplomatic actions such as the creation of a commission to delegitimize the ousted government while legitimizing the new government imposed by a coup d’état.
Remember the name Sullivan relating to US efforts in 2020-21 to overthrow the democratically elected sovereign government of Nicaragua.
Read the Alliance For Global Justice, June 2019 report, “Live From Nicaragua: Uprising or Coup?”, and July 2020 report, “The Revolution Won’t Be Stopped: Nicaragua Advances Despite U.S.”
Brian Willson is a Viet Nam veteran and trained lawyer. He has visited a number of countries examining the effects of US policy. He wrote a psychohistorical memoir, Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson (PM Press, 2011), and in 2018 wrote Don’t Thank Me for my Service: My Viet Nam Awakening to the Long History of US Lies (Clarity Press). He is featured in a 2016 documentary, Paying the Price for Peace: The Story of S. Brian Willson, and others in the Peace Movement, (Bo Boudart Productions). His web essays: brianwillson.com. He can be reached: postmaster@brianwillson.com. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
[1] John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of George Washington. Washington: Government Printing Office,
1936), XV, 189-193; Richard Drinnon, Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire Building (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1980), 331. Todaysterillson, August 1 2020reign goverment oerthrow anadesag budget todays, and 1790s, was described by Irog=quois Chief as
[2] Ray Raphael, Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past (New York: The New Press, 2004), 229.
https://popularresistance.org/nicaragua-targeted-for-us-overthrow-in-2020-21/
The USA Failed State Continues To Seek Destruction Of NICARAGUA (Among Other Nations Such As Venezuela, Cuba, Syria And Iran, Who Refuse To Obey US Demands For Neoliberal Privatization That Enrich The Already Rich.
George Washington, who waged scorched Earth warfare Against the Iroquois Indigenous in the 1770s, 1780s, and 1790s, was described by the Iroquois Chiefs as the “Town Destroyer” as he had left dozens of their towns in ashes (one of which was my Finger Lakes hometown of Geneva, NY, then called Kanadesaga). His orders: “total destruction and devastation of their settlements”, “ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more”, “lay waste all the settlements … that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed”, “our future security will be in their inability to injure us and in the terror with which the severity of the chastisement they receive will inspire them”.[1] His orders were successfully carried out with joy, as his officers toasted to their mantra, “Civilization or death to all American savages”.[2]
The US has never stopped destroying, and its obscene military budget today is all about technology designed to destroy the people and nations of the Earth, and the Earth herself.
Nicaragua Today
The US has launched a brazen, criminal and arrogant plan to overthrow Nicaragua’s government. A well orchestrated plan financed by the United States to launch a coup d’état in Nicaragua over the next two years was leaked in a document from the US embassy and presented July 31, 2020 by Nicaraguan journalist William Grigsby on his political analysis program “Sin Fronteras”, on Radio La Primerísima.
The new coup plan is in response to the fact that the US realizes President Daniel Ortega will likely win the November 2021 elections. The 18-page document (RFTOP No: 72052420R00004) has the title RAIN (Responsive Assistance in Nicaragua). The document describes contracting with a US company (Blackwater or its successor?) to take charge of carrying out the coup, whose purpose is to implement blatantly criminal plans to destroy public order and do other violent actions before, during and/or after the 2021 elections.
The USAID (US Agency for International Development) will continue to fund these destabilizing activities, using local partners: public opinion analysts, media, businesspersons, NGOs, students, and social networks to orchestrate false news reports. USAID provided millions of dollars to fund the 2018 US-attempted coup operators against Nicaragua.
If the opposition were to win the elections the new government must immediately submit to the policies and guidelines established by the United States, including persecution of Sandinistas, dissolving the National Police and the Army, among other institutions. The document seeks to aggravate the pandemic which is well under control, no thanks to the US-imposed sanctions. The opposition has already received more than $31 million from the United States between the end of 2017 and May 1, 2020.
The document also details the participation of the US Embassy in Managua, under leadership of US Ambassador Kevin K. Sullivan, who will be in charge of executing a series of diplomatic actions such as the creation of a commission to delegitimize the ousted government while legitimizing the new government imposed by a coup d’état.
Remember the name Sullivan relating to US efforts in 2020-21 to overthrow the democratically elected sovereign government of Nicaragua.
Read the Alliance For Global Justice, June 2019 report, “Live From Nicaragua: Uprising or Coup?”, and July 2020 report, “The Revolution Won’t Be Stopped: Nicaragua Advances Despite U.S.”
Brian Willson is a Viet Nam veteran and trained lawyer. He has visited a number of countries examining the effects of US policy. He wrote a psychohistorical memoir, Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson (PM Press, 2011), and in 2018 wrote Don’t Thank Me for my Service: My Viet Nam Awakening to the Long History of US Lies (Clarity Press). He is featured in a 2016 documentary, Paying the Price for Peace: The Story of S. Brian Willson, and others in the Peace Movement, (Bo Boudart Productions). His web essays: brianwillson.com. He can be reached: postmaster@brianwillson.com. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
[1] John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of George Washington. Washington: Government Printing Office,
1936), XV, 189-193; Richard Drinnon, Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire Building (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1980), 331. Todaysterillson, August 1 2020reign goverment oerthrow anadesag budget todays, and 1790s, was described by Irog=quois Chief as
[2] Ray Raphael, Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past (New York: The New Press, 2004), 229.
BORDER PATROL AGENTS RAID NO MORE DEATHS MIGRANT AID CAMP
By Alisa Reznick, AZPM.org.
August 2, 2020
https://popularresistance.org/border-patrol-agents-raid-no-more-deaths-migrant-aid-camp/
The Group Says The Event Is The First Of Its Kind In Over A Year.
The humanitarian group No More Deaths said an aid camp it operates for migrants crossing the desert was raided and then surrounded by Border Patrol agents. The group said the move as an escalation of tensions at a time when the aid they provide is vital.
Byrd Camp is located near Arivaca and serves as a medical aid site for people passing through one of the deadliest desert corridors of the borderland.
No More Deaths volunteer Emily Saunders said Border Patrol usually allows activities there to continue. But in late July, agents entered the property and arrested a migrant receiving care.
“This does seem like an escalation, a retaliation and targeting of those working to be in solidarity with and prevent the death of folks in the desert,”she said.
Agents were still at the property a day later. The move comes a few days after No More Deaths released documents detailing the lead up to a larger Border Patrol raid on Byrd Camp in 2017. Saunders said the group sees the new raid as a retaliation.
Saunders said agents surrounded the property after the arrest. She said agency presence deters migrants from accessing life-saving care during a deadly heat wave across Arizona.
Saunders said agents on horseback, foot and in agency cars were still surrounding the property as of Friday afternoon. She said that presence deters migrants from accessing life-saving care, just as an extreme heat warning goes into effect in southern and central Arizona.
Border Patrol officials did not respond to requests for comment.
https://popularresistance.org/border-patrol-agents-raid-no-more-deaths-migrant-aid-camp/
The Group Says The Event Is The First Of Its Kind In Over A Year.
The humanitarian group No More Deaths said an aid camp it operates for migrants crossing the desert was raided and then surrounded by Border Patrol agents. The group said the move as an escalation of tensions at a time when the aid they provide is vital.
Byrd Camp is located near Arivaca and serves as a medical aid site for people passing through one of the deadliest desert corridors of the borderland.
No More Deaths volunteer Emily Saunders said Border Patrol usually allows activities there to continue. But in late July, agents entered the property and arrested a migrant receiving care.
“This does seem like an escalation, a retaliation and targeting of those working to be in solidarity with and prevent the death of folks in the desert,”she said.
Agents were still at the property a day later. The move comes a few days after No More Deaths released documents detailing the lead up to a larger Border Patrol raid on Byrd Camp in 2017. Saunders said the group sees the new raid as a retaliation.
Saunders said agents surrounded the property after the arrest. She said agency presence deters migrants from accessing life-saving care during a deadly heat wave across Arizona.
Saunders said agents on horseback, foot and in agency cars were still surrounding the property as of Friday afternoon. She said that presence deters migrants from accessing life-saving care, just as an extreme heat warning goes into effect in southern and central Arizona.
Border Patrol officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)