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Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Nina Turner's Lead in Ohio's Democratic Primary is... MASSIVE!
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There’s a Looming Eviction Apocalypse as Corporate Media Anoints Joe Biden as the New FDR
Reporting around the country the last six years, it never ceases to amaze me the gross disconnect between the bobblehead dolls masquerading as journalists on corporate cable news stations and actual living, breathing working people and the most vulnerable among us.
The most jarring case was when I’d turn on the TV at night to watch CNN and MSNBC covering Trump’s latest buffoonish tweets after spending the whole day at Standing Rock witnessing Native Americans on the receiving end of rubber bullets, tear gas, and worse for the crime of singing and banging on drums in protest of a dangerous pipeline going through their reservation and water.
Of course, the disconnect is intentional in order to distract the masses and maintain the status quo. And it remains in place now as the plutocrat-funded media ignores a potential COVID-induced eviction apocalypse just weeks away.
The CDC’s eviction moratorium ends on June 30th with crickets from the corporate media, President Biden, and the Democratic Party politicians in complete control of Washington. According to CNBC, more than 11 million Americans are behind on their rent and face a swift kick in the ass out the door with their families and belongings. In New York City, where the pandemic first overtook in early 2020, there have been 40,000 eviction proceedings initiated since March 2020 with the majority being in the impoverished Bronx neighborhoods, according to the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. Unsurprisingly, the highest eviction cases have struck black and Latino communities.
And as one Twitter user pointed out, there are already tenants being forced out of their homes despite the moratorium, pointing to motels in Illinois being filled up.
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Of course, even during a deadly pandemic, there was never even a discussion in the United Corporations of America about canceling rent for tenants who lost their jobs or had their hours drastically cut back due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Being that we print money for war, subsidies for special interests, and a litany of other wasteful and morally bankrupt things, it was completely within the realm of possibility for then-President Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reach a deal for the government to directly pay landlords—big and small—for the duration of the pandemic.
Instead, Trump and Democrats put forward a patchwork system that tossed billions toward direct rent relief. But like most neoliberal programs, the programs became a bureaucratic nightmare for tenants to actually receive the money. In December, Congress doled out $25 billion in rental assistance and another $21.55 billion in March. But as Vox reported, the administration of the patchwork, state-by-state system led to tenants lacking awareness of the available relief money, missed application deadlines, and programs closing by the time tenants became aware.
From Vox:
“Getting money into the hands of renters has been exceedingly complicated — the National Low Income Housing Coalition has found over 340 different programs attempting to administer the federal aid. Some programs require onerous documentation; others don’t make it easy for landlords to apply and most put the onus on tenants to provide extensive proof of need. And Ashbes is far from unique; many advocates Vox spoke with said tenants often don’t even know the aid is available to them. All of this underscores the difficulty of aiding those at highest risk of eviction.”
Meanwhile, as progressive Peter Dao noted on Twitter, the NY Times and corporate media have been manufacturing consent for President Biden as the heir apparent to FDR—despite the president and Democratic Party doing nothing to permanently protect tenants headed to the streets soon.
By Biden’s own words as a candidate, real journalists could challenge him now for allowing Americans to get booted out of their homes through no fault of their own. During the Democratic Primary, Biden repeatedly said COVID-19 treatment should be free.
“All free, you don’t have to pay for a thing,” Biden said in the final one-on-one debate with Senator Bernie Sanders. “We’re at war with the virus.”
Of course, this was bullshit. Just read the horror stories of COVID patients saddled with million-dollar hospital bills. But by Biden’s phony standard on healthcare—that we’re at war with a virus so we’ll have to temporarily pause the almighty dollar—where in the hell is the progressive pressure for the same standard to be applied to housing?
Just as the corporate media and in-the-majority Democratic Party sat quietly in worship of President Obama as he allowed millions of working-class Americans to be foreclosed on in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash, we now have a corporate media and in-the-majority Democratic Party quiet as a mouse as families face the loss of shelter because capitalism tops COVID and people.
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Jordan Chariton
Class action lawsuit filed against company pushing unsafe ionizers to reopen classrooms across the US
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/02/ioni-j02.html
Renae Cassimeda
10 hours ago
In the interest of reopening schools as soon as possible, hundreds of K-12 school districts, private schools, and universities across the US have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in federal relief funding provided by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to purchase Needle Point Bipolar Ionizers (NBPIs), supposedly to clean indoor air and kill coronavirus particles.
Despite their lofty claims to neutralize virus particles, recent independent studies show that NBPIs do not improve indoor air quality. A recently filed class action lawsuit consolidates the science by air quality experts and puts forward strong refutations against the claims made by manufacturers, and echoed by hundreds of districts and campuses across the country, that NBPIs are safe and remove pathogens including SARS-CoV-2 from the air.
Air ioniser and purifier with its dust collection plates removed (Credit: Wikimedia)
Michael Mills, one of the attorneys on the case, told the World Socialist Web Site, “The evidence is overwhelming. We are convinced we are right. I don’t know how districts can continue to use these products. If teachers or students get sick, these districts have zero protection.”
The lawsuit was filed last month against Global Plasma Solutions (GPS), a top selling manufacturer of NBPIs. The suit charges the company with fraud and claims the company used false, deceptive and misleading claims to sell its products and capitalize from the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the mad dash to reopen schools, ionizers have been installed in classrooms, school buses, offices, gymnasiums and cafeterias, providing a false sense of protection from COVID-19. Furthermore, harmful byproducts produced by the technology place the health and safety of millions of students and staff at heightened risk.
GPS and other manufacturers of NBPIs claim that their ionizers remove over 99 percent of SARS-CoV-2 particles from the air. However, a recent peer reviewed study led by three universities revealed that NBPIs had an entirely negligible effect on removing the airborne particles of coronavirus and only reduced 20-30 percent of the virus from surfaces.
Dr. Delphine Farmer, a leading researcher in the study, recently explained to the WSWS that ionizers do not actually accomplish their “bold claims” in real world settings. GPS based its claims of a 99 percent removal of coronavirus from the air on a company-funded study conducted in a shoe box-sized container (not a room or classroom). Instead of neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 particles in the air, the devices instead produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
According to the lawsuit, independent studies cited in the case documents show that the products are not only ineffective at cleaning the air in real world conditions, but byproducts from the devices include the following harmful toxins:
Acetone: long-term exposure can produce damage to kidneys, liver, skin, central nervous system and reproductive system.
Ethanol: chronic intermittent ethanol vapor exposure produces widespread significant tissue injury including hepatic, pulmonary, and cardiovascular changes.
Toluene: long-term inhalation of toluene can cause permanent damage to the brain, muscles, heart, and kidneys.
Butyraldehyde: inhalation of Butyraldehyde can irritate the lungs, causing coughing and shortness of breath, while higher exposures can cause a pulmonary edema.
In addition to the above toxins, Dr. Marwa Zaatari, a mechanical engineer, expert on indoor air quality and member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) epidemic task force, also warns that ionizers have been shown to produce ozone and formaldehyde.
GPS and other companies selling these “snake oil” ionizer devices have profited tremendously off of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the lawsuit documents, GPS, which was founded in 2008, had a previous focus on “providing energy savings solutions. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the company’s focus shifted, and in CEO Glenn Brinckman’s words, ‘it’s all about pathogens and coronavirus and COVID-19.’”
ActivePure Technology, which employs former Trump adviser Dr. Deborah Birx as its chief medical and science adviser, is another company profiting from ionizers. A recent LinkedIn job ad for the company recruiting salespeople stated, “Make Tons of Money with this COVID-killing Technology!!...We have reps [who] made over 6-figures in 1 month selling to 1 school district.” Foaming at the mouth over the profits to be made, the ad exclaims, “By the way, the company is expanding by triple digits each month and this is just the tip of the iceberg!”
These technologies are being utilized by districts to provide a false sense of security and reassurance to concerned students, staff and parents who have faced a relentless barrage of propaganda to send them back to unsafe classrooms. Significantly, when a recent statement from Columbia County School District in Georgia announced masks are no longer a requirement in classrooms, officials sought to reassure their community that the continued use of ionizers in classrooms and on buses would provide adequate protection from COVID-19.
The installation of ionizers also solves another issue for districts, as they are far less costly and have no industry standards compared to proven mitigation strategies for improving indoor air quality, such as updating Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems, using Merv-13 filters, and operating HVAC systems at high efficiency in order to ensure at least five complete air exchanges per hour.
The lawsuit itself shows that opposition among parents, educators, and students has emerged in response to haphazard reopening campaigns which have allowed schools and workplaces to transform into sites of spread and infection of the virus.
Concerned parents of Montclair Public Schools in New Jersey expressed opposition to the use of GPS ionizers in classrooms during an April school board meeting. Parents cited independent scientific papers, articles and letters from experts in air quality, and in response the district disconnected the devices until further notice.
Superintendent Mark Triplett of Newark Unified School District in California recently announced the district will turn off all 556 ionizers it installed from GPS until further notice. According to local news media, Triplett sent an email to the entire district on Tuesday, saying the district had “been made aware” of a proposed class action lawsuit filed against Global Plasma Solutions in Delaware.
The San Diego Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee has called for ionizers to be shut off in the Sweetwater Union High School District, and urges educators, parents and students across the US and globally to form similar committees to fight for safety and the defense of public education. All educators and workers concerned with placing the highest levels of safety in classrooms and workplaces should contact the WSWS today to build a committee in your schools and district.
On eve of crisis election, Peru more than doubles its COVID-19 death count
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/06/02/peru-j02.html
Bill Van Auken
9 hours ago
Just days before a sharply polarized second-round presidential election, the Peruvian government acknowledged that the country’s death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic is at least 2.5 times higher than previously acknowledged.
Based on the advice of Peruvian and international health experts, the number of deaths was revised from nearly 70,000 to 180,000. This makes Peru, with a population of 33 million, the country with the highest fatality rate in the world and the fifth highest in terms of absolute numbers of deaths.
The change in the fatality count was based upon including not just those who died after having tested positive for the virus, but also those who died with symptoms corresponding to COVID-19 or who had “an epidemiological link to a confirmed case.”
Families wait in a line for a free meal in Lima, Peru, June 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Even the new number undoubtedly underestimates the real death toll. This is not merely a Peruvian phenomenon. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared that up to three times more people may have died from the pandemic than is reflected in official figures. This would put the real global death toll at over 10 million.
The president of Peru’s Medical Federation, Dr. Godofredo Talavera, told the BBC that the higher number came as no surprise and was a product of the breakdown of the country’s health care system and the policies of its government.
“We believe this occurs because our health system does not have the necessary conditions to care for patients.
“There has been no government support with oxygen, with intensive care beds. We do not have enough vaccines at the moment. The first line of care has not been reactivated. All this makes us the first country in the world in mortality,” he said.
Compounding the crisis has been the rapid spread of the more contagious and lethal variants of the virus, including the one that originated in the Amazonian city of Manaus, Brazil, as well as the government’s mismanagement of the purchase and rollout of vaccines, with still barely 70,000 vaccinations taking place daily. Former President Martín Vizcarra, who failed to organize vaccine contracts, was embroiled in a scandal after secretly having himself, his wife and closest political associates vaccinated and then falsely claiming they were part of a vaccine trial.
More than half of the deaths have taken place in this year’s second wave of the pandemic.
The government’s admission of the catastrophic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic came just six days before Peruvians are set to go to the polls in one of the most politically polarized elections in the country’s history.
In a second-round ballot on June 6, Pedro Castillo, a former teachers strike leader, will face Keiko Fujimori, leader of the Peruvian right and daughter of the former dictator Alberto Fujimori, who is currently serving prison sentences on charges related to corruption and police-state massacres.
According to the latest poll, Castillo is leading Fujimori by 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent. Fujimori has managed to close what had been a two-to-one lead by Castillo in the aftermath of April’s first round election, with the bulk of the corporate media echoing her virulent anticommunist campaign, linking Castillo to “terrorism” and claiming his election would turn Peru into another Venezuela.
The right-wing candidate and her supporters also managed to exploit a May 23 massacre of 16 people in the central Amazonian region of Junín. Gunmen killed 16 people in attacks on two bars that reportedly doubled as brothels.
Without even going to the scene of the crime, the military and police immediately blamed the killings on Sendero Luminoso, the Maoist guerrilla movement that was defeated in a brutal counterinsurgency campaign that left tens of thousands dead in the 1980s. While splinters from the movement have operated in the region in collaboration with drug gangs, there is no history of them carrying out such attacks.
Castillo has appealed to the immense popular hostility to the major parties, including Fujimori’s Fuerza Popular, and their ties to the wholesale corruption that has seen every living ex-president charged in bribery and kickback schemes. Keiko Fujimori was herself arrested and jailed on charges of corruption and leading a criminal organization, i.e., her party.
In the face of the anticommunist campaign of Fujimori and the unions, Castillo has repeatedly sworn his allegiance to private property and his support for foreign investment, insisting that his main aims are to improve tax collection and drive better bargains with the transnational mining companies.
The prospect of a Castillo victory has sparked talk of a potential coup by Peru’s military or a nullification of his presidency by Congress. There is every indication, however, that if elected Castillo would follow a similar path as former President Ollanta Humala, who ran as a left nationalist and once in office pursued a right-wing, pro-capitalist policy.
The crisis in Peru is mirrored throughout Latin America. The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief Michael Ryan said on Tuesday that eight of the 10 countries reporting the highest COVID-19 mortality rates in the last week were in the region.
“The situation in South America right now remains of very high concern,” he told reporters. “South America was really in a difficult situation only a couple of months ago, and that situation again is starting to turn in the wrong direction.” He noted that death rates have increased by 20 percent in Bolivia and Paraguay over the past week and pointed to stunningly high test positivity rates in a number of countries: 37 percent in Paraguay, 33 percent in Argentina and 30 percent in Colombia.
At the same time, he said, the fact that “case fatality rates in South America [are generally] higher than in many parts of the rest of the world” was attributable to the deterioration of health care systems on the continent “for a very long time,” under the impact of successive IMF-directed austerity measures.
“The transmission of the disease in the region is intense, the health care systems are under great pressure, and this is reflected in the high mortality rates,” Ryan concluded.
The pandemic crisis gripping the region has found expression in the chaos surrounding plans for the Copa America soccer championship, which was cancelled last year due to the onslaught of the coronavirus. Initially, Colombia and Argentina were to host the games between 10 South American teams. The Colombian government was forced to pull out in the face of mass popular protests that have continued into a second month, while Argentina withdrew this week because of surging infection rates.
Now an invitation has been extended by the Brazilian government of fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro, who dismissed COVID-19 as a “little flu” and has presided over the uncontrolled spread of the virus and the second largest recorded death toll, or 463,000, in the world.
Ethel Maciel, the head professor of epidemiology and well-known coronavirus researcher at the Federal University of Espírito Santo, described the announcement that Brazil would host the games as “incredible,” noting the new spread of the variant first identified in India. “It is very sad,” she said. “It is a great irresponsibility with the lives of Brazilians. Once again, financial questions are superseding questions of public health.”
Last weekend, there were mass demonstrations throughout Brazil denouncing the government’s homicidal mishandling of the pandemic and demanding the downfall of Bolsonaro.
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