Pandemic could spark unrest among West's urban poor: Red Cross aid agency


GENEVA (Reuters) - Social unrest could erupt among the urban poor and marginalized in the West’s biggest cities as they lack sources of income amid the COVID-19 crisis, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Friday.


More than 80,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Italy since the outbreak emerged little more than a month ago and some 8,215 have died, far more than in any other country.

Francesco Rocca, an Italian who heads the world’s largest disaster relief network, said that as well as social unrest the risk of suicide is increasing among vulnerable isolated people.

“We have a lot of people who are living very marginalized, in the so-called black hole of society... In the most difficult neighborhoods of the biggest cities I am afraid that in a few weeks we will have social problems,” Rocca told a U.N. news briefing.

“This is a social bomb that can explode at any moment, because they don’t have any way to have an income,” said Rocca, whose Geneva-based agency also deploys volunteers in hard-hit Spain and France.

He said the largest Western cities could see these problems emerge “in a few weeks”.

Rocca, who is also president of the Italian Red Cross, spoke from Milan in the north, epicenter of the country’s outbreak, after visiting Codogno, Bergamo, Brescia and Lodi.

Some people with a family who normally live on odd jobs that earn them 20-25 euros a time are often outside social assistance programs, Rocca said, adding: “Think about the Roma camps.”


In Italy, Rocca met mayors and some of the 180,000 Red Cross volunteers who visit elderly people confined to their homes, do their food shopping and get medicines from pharmacies. There is a shortage of ventilators in the north and the south, he said.

The IFRC, which has 14 million volunteers in 192 countries, and the International Committee of the Red Cross appealed on Thursday for 800 million Swiss francs ($830 million) to help vulnerable communities worldwide fight COVID-19.


Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Hugh Lawson
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Senegal's graffiti artists join fight against coronavirus

DAKAR (Reuters) - The mural stretched over 10 metres of wall in Senegal’s seaside capital Dakar shows a giant pair of hands reaching out for sanitiser, and a woman in hoop earrings and a facemask colored blue, red, gold and green.


Serigne Boye aka Zeus, a graffiti artist from RBS crew works on his mural to encourage people to protect themselves amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Dakar, Senegal March 25, 2020. Picture taken March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

It is the work of RBS CREW, a collective of graffiti artists who have offered up their spray cans in the cause of public health.

Black and yellow block letters spell out the message “Together against COVID-19,” referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus.

“A big thank you to the caregivers,” reads another message scrawled out like a graffiti tag, next to the government’s health hotline on the high school wall.


“As Senegalese we have a duty, a responsibility to raise awareness,” said Serigne Mansour Fall, the 33-year-old head of the collective who goes by the name “Mad Zoo”.

“Especially as the majority of the population is illiterate, as artists, we can communicate through visuals,” said Fall, whose past work has focused more on Dakar street life and Malcolm X.

Senegal had reported 119 cases and no deaths as of Friday. Figures reported across Africa are still relatively small compared with parts of Asia and Europe, but the World Health Organization has warned the continent’s window to act is narrowing.

That, said Fall, makes it even more important to encourage prevention measures and head off false information, including one online rumor that only white people can catch the disease.

Other murals painted around Dakar by the collective show people washing their hands with soap and water and sneezing into their elbows.

Each year for the past decade, Dakar has also hosted the Festigraff festival, which bills itself as the leading graffiti festival in Africa and attracts artists from around the world.

RBS CREW was set up in 2012 with the goal, according to its website, of making messages ring out “like blasts of gunfire”.

Canada attacks 'damaging' Trump plan to deploy troops at border
David Ljunggren, Idrees Ali

OTTAWA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canada on Thursday slammed a U.S. proposal to deploy troops along their undefended border to help fight the spread of the coronavirus, saying the idea was unnecessary and would damage relations.

The uncompromising comments were a surprise, since Ottawa has enjoyed smooth relations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration over the past 18 months. Last week, the two nations agreed to close the border to non-essential travel to ease the outbreak’s strain on health systems.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday evening that Washington had dropped consideration of the plan, citing an unnamed U.S. official. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland had made clear the Liberal government had no time for a plan to send hundreds of troops to the border to boost security.

“Canada is strongly opposed to this U.S. proposal and we have made that opposition very, very clear ... this is an entirely unnecessary step which we would view as damaging to our relationship,” Freeland told a news conference.

“The public health situation does not require such action,” she said, noting Washington had yet to take a final decision.

Speaking at the White House, Trump appeared to lack details on the possible troop deployment and said he would look into the matter.

He said it would be “equal justice” since the U.S. military had deployed to play a support role on the border with Mexico.

A U.S. official familiar with the matter said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection was stressed on the northern border because virtually all patrol officers and border crossing officials were shifted to the southern border, where they are supplemented by a brigade from the 101st Airborne Division, a Marine battalion and National Guard personnel.

The Canada-U.S. border stretches 8,891 km (5,525 miles) and is a crossing point for one of the world’s largest bilateral trading relationships.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier that Ottawa was in touch with U.S. authorities and would adjust border security measures if needed.

The United States now has the most coronavirus cases in the world, with over 82,000 infections and more than 1,200 deaths.

Canada, with a population about 1/9 that of its southern neighbor, has reported 4,043 coronavirus cases and 39 deaths.

The state of New York, which shares a border with Canada, has been an epicenter of the U.S. outbreak.



Tim Currier, the mayor of Massena, New York, a town of 13,000 people 9 miles (15 km) from the border, said a deployment could spark panic if it were not communicated properly.

“I’m concerned about how citizens look at that,” he said.

Canada is no longer accepting migrants who walk over the border at unofficial crossings, instead sending them back to the United States. Washington plans to return them to their countries of origin.

Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration policy with the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center, said the undefended U.S.-Canada border had long been a point of pride.

“I have not seen any reporting whatsoever of an increased threat posture at the U.S.-Canada border,” she said. “Did we not have other stuff that troops could and should be doing?”



Reporting by David Ljunggren and Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay and Ted Hesson in Washington, Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Lisa Shumaker and Peter Cooney

‘Chinese virus’: Americans who rage against political correctness are also the most xenophobic — and most likely to vote Trump in 2020

March 24, 2020 Samuel L Perry, Religion Dispatches


Admittedly, Trump’s initial references to “the Chinese Virus” earlier in March seemed rather ad-hoc. Though clearly xenophobic in context and implication, it seemed that Trump was casually parroting the language of other far-Right commentators like Charlie Kirk. Within the past week, however, Trump has ramped up his labeling campaign, often going out of his way to refer to COVID-19 as “the Chinese Virus” in Twitter storms and White House press briefings.

Two key strategies likely drive Trump’s efforts here. Both involve distracting Americans from his own administration’s failings at dealing with the coronavirus earlier on. The first is simply to blame China, laying responsibility for America’s situation solely at their feet. The fact that a Chinese propaganda director recently suggested the virus may have originated with American soldiers who brought it to China provided the perfect (and tacitly justifiable) motivation for Trump to remind the world forcefully and repeatedly where the virus originated.

The second factor also involves distraction from Trump’s failings, but one in which “China” is only incidental. They are merely a stand-in for all “dangerous outsiders.” By repeatedly and brazenly referring to “the Chinese Virus,” and provoking a media backlash against the xenophobic implications of his language, Trump wishes to remind his base who our internal threats are: politically correct liberals who care more about defending foreigners than they do the American people.

Though Trump has previously raged against political correctness explicitly, and indeed, campaigned on it in 2016, when it comes to this recent COVID-19 labeling campaign, other far-Right thought-leaders have been doing this for him. For example, in a March 14th interview on Fox News, Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton stated, “Anyone who complains that it’s racist or xenophobic to call this virus the Chinese coronavirus or the Wuhan virus is a politically correct fool, and they ought not to be listened to about anything.”

And March 20th, Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly told Glenn Beck: “The worst thing in this pandemic virus outside of the actual illness itself of course is the political [sic] correct media still, still peddling garbage that hurts the American people.” Quoting an ABC News reporter, O’Reilly said in a whiny, mocking voice, “A lot of people think it’s racist if you call it the Chinese Virus. …It’s sickening.”

But survey data confirm that white Americans—like President Trump, Senator Tom Cotton, Bill O’Reilly, or their followers—who attack politically correct language as the enemy are in fact the most likely to hold racist or xenophobic views. In a nationally representative survey fielded in February 2020, we asked Americans to indicate how much they agreed with statements about using politically correct language. We also asked Americans for their views on refugees from the Middle East and America’s control over its Southern border.







In the first figure [left], we see that, as Americans’ agreement with the statement “Too many people are easily offended these days over language” increases, the more likely they are to believe that the federal government should do more to secure the Southern border and that Middle Eastern refugees pose a terrorist threat.

In the second figure [below, right], we see a similar trend, but in the opposite direction. The more strongly Americans disagree with the statement “People need to be more careful with language to avoid offending people,” the more likely they are to hold xenophobic views about refugees from the Middle East and to want stricter border control.






In sum: both figures show that white Americans who voice the strongest opinions against politically correct language also hold the strongest anti-immigrant attitudes.


Just as important, they are also the group most likely to plan on voting Trump in 2020.



The last figure [left] shows the percentage of white Americans who indicate they plan on voting Trump in 2020 by their level of agreement with our two statements regarding politically correct language. Nearly 80% of white Americans who strongly disagree that “People need to be more careful with language to avoid offending people,” or who strongly agree that “Too many people are easily offended these days over language,” intend to vote for Trump in November.

Seen in light of these data, Trump’s dual strategy is clear. By unapologetically referring to COVID-19 as “the Chinese Virus,” Trump is first able to signal to his white base that he too is disdainful of scheming, disease-ridden outsiders. But he can also intentionally provoke a backlash against his hurtful and xenophobic language, which he and his followers can dismiss as leftist “political correctness.” Trump shores up support against both a perceived external threat (immigrants) and an internal threat (liberals) with a single dangerous and offensive swipe.

Some Mormons see a message in the Angel Moroni’s fallen trumpet




By Christopher James Blythe, Religion Dispatches March 24, 2020

AMERICAN NEW AGE (19TH CENTURY) NON CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALIST CULT OF JOHN SMITH, SPIRITUALIST, TABLE RAPPER, FRAUDULENT FREEMASON



On March 18, 2020, at 7:09 in the morning, residents of Salt Lake City and the surrounding counties of northern Utah awoke to a 5.7 magnitude earthquake that struck 10 miles outside the city. Fortunately, there appears to have been no loss of life, although there was some property damage throughout the area. The iconic Salt Lake City Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faced only minor damage. The 12-foot angel standing on the building’s highest tower was shaken to such an extent that the trumpet once positioned to its lips was dislodged and plummeted to the base of the spire. Coincidentally, the building had closed on December 29, 2019, for renovation and a seismic upgrade.

A spokesperson for the LDS Church noted, “This event emphasizes why this project is so necessary to preserve this historic building and create a safer environment for all our patrons and visitors.” Individual members of the Church, however, looked for greater prophetic significance than offered in the statement on the building’s wellbeing.

Knowing the history of the temple and its iconic angel will better explain why the damaged statue might engender a sense of providence. The Salt Lake Temple is one of more than 150 temples, but it’s where Church leaders—apostles and prophets—meet weekly and hold prayer.

Brigham Young had seen the building in a vision shortly after the pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. He believed this temple would fulfill a verse in Isaiah that “in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” Construction began in 1853. In 1892, the Angel Moroni was placed on its tower and a year after that the building was dedicated.

While an angel had appeared on the weathervane of the Nauvoo Temple in the 1840s, this was the first time the iconic figure of the trumpeting angel Moroni was used. Similar angels would later appear on nearly all the church’s temples across the globe. The figure recalls the appearance of the angel Moroni to an adolescent Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter-day Saint tradition, in 1820s New York. The angel directed Smith to the location of the Gold Plates that would become the Book of Mormon.

Before his death in the fifth century, Moroni, a proto-American Indian, had deposited these records near Smith’s home. (In the Latter-day Saint tradition, angels are deceased humans—not so distinct from the Roman Catholic understanding of Saints.) Latter-day Saints associate this appearance of Moroni with a verse from John the Revelator’s vision of “another angel fly[ing] in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” Moroni serves both as a symbol of Latter-day Saint heritage but also of the Saints’ responsibility to preach the gospel in the last days.

When news that Moroni’s trumpet had been dashed from his hand, there was a predictably varied response among Latter-day Saints and others who looked for significance in the moment. Some religious critics of the Church of Jesus Christ suggested that Latter-day Saints should consider themselves divinely rebuked. Others drew on an obscure item of folklore (as much about what Latter-day Saints believe as an example of what they really believe) that held the statue would be animated and blow its horns at the Second Coming. This prophecy had now been proven false, they claimed.

It’s possible the most common response to the news were humorous suggestions that the red state of Utah had been divinely charged to give up its support for President Trump and the Republican Party. Brandon Dew tweeted, “Even Moroni is tired of Trump.”

Some called it “the ultimate mic drop,” while others posted images of Moroni with his arm still upraised alongside either Judd Nelson’s character from The Breakfast Club thrusting his fist into the air or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s winged character from Tooth Fairy.

And last but not least, Dwayne Johnson as the Salt Lake City Temple's Angel Moroni statue. (END) pic.twitter.com/Ws1JM1fp0Z
— Court Mann (@TheCourtMann) March 23, 2020

A more serious response came from Latter-day Saint prophecy enthusiasts who looked for prophetic and even apocalyptic meanings in the fallen trumpet. A popular meme included an image of Moroni without his trumpet and a passage taken from the Hebrew prophet Amos interspersed with commentary:

“That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Beth-el: [Bet-is House] [el- is GOD] and the horns [trumpets] of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. *When the trumpet fell off from Moroni on salt lake temple today.”

While this sounded reasonable to many, the following day, several Latter-day Saint scholars of Hebrew had criticized the faulty reading of the passage and pointed out that horns referred to the actual shape of a Hebrew altar, not to a musical instrument.

Another popular interpretation among Latter-day Saints seeking a prophetic explanation has been that the missing trump is a sign that the church will stop its missionary outreach. One of Joseph Smith’s revelations declared, “Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor. … And after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people.” (D&C 88:81;88)

As a result, Latter-day Saints have looked for a time when their missionaries would be “called home” after which there would be an increase in natural disasters and disease leading up to the Second Coming. Two days later, COVID-19 brought about what some have already begun to see as the fulfillment of this prophecy with the Church’s announcement that “In the coming weeks, based upon world conditions, substantial numbers of missionaries will likely need to be returned to their home nations to continue their service.”

Rod Meldrum, author of Prophecies and Promises: The Book of Mormon and the United States of America, is particularly sure of this connection. On March 20, he is quoted as saying: “And so it begins. First Moroni’s trumpet is removed from the SLC temple, heralding the end of the preaching of the gospel to the world and the beginning of woes. Two days later this….”

Northern Utah has been preparing for a major earthquake for some time. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has done extensive work on the buildings surrounding the Salt Lake Temple, an area known as Temple Square. This includes the historic Tabernacle and Assembly Hall. An official statement noted that the earthquake caused no structural damage to the temple or other surrounding buildings.

Satanists want you to respond to the pandemic with compassion — and reason

By Joseph Laycock, Religion Dispatches
March 24, 2020



The Coronavirus is changing America’s religious landscape as social distancing forces most religious communities to cancel in-person services and invent new online forms of worship. One might assume that Satanists would be unaffected by social distancing or even take a misanthropic delight in it.

In 2017, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson advised Satanic Temple co-founder Lucian Greaves to “crawl back into your hole.” So now that people of all faiths are hunkering in their respective holes, how is The Satanic Temple (TST) faring?

On March 15, TST co-founder Lucien Greaves released a statement announcing that all in-person meetings were cancelled and urging everyone to engage in social distancing. The statement invoked the first of TST’s Seven Tenets, that “One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason,” and reminded readers they have a moral duty to prevent others from becoming infected. It announced plans for an online support system to combat the stress of isolation that will include regular chats, trivia contests, and even virtual “bar nights.” In closing, Greaves stated:

or those upset and saddened at this unexpected turn of events, I promise you, at the end of this there is a massive Satanic celebration to be had, and we will come through this stronger, and more deeply committed, as a community and global Satanic family.

Love,
Lucien Greaves


Civic duty? Family? Love? This is surprising language coming from a group that’s been branded as “a liberal, anti-Christian, anti-life group” and “tiresome provocateurs.” RD called Greaves to get a better sense of how he sees a global pandemic as a Satanist.

Are you social distancing at the moment?

Of course. I was supposed to be touring with Satanic Planet [an experimental music project]. Nobody wants to be the first to pull the plug. A lot of people were playing chicken with this. But everyone must practice social distancing. I think a lot of people still don’t realize how bad this is going to get. We don’t want to spread a virus that can kill the immunocompromised and the aged. That’s horrific.

That attitude might surprise people who regard TST as an “anti-life group.”

We do take life seriously. Everyone has a responsibility to reduce suffering where we can.

That sounds like the First Tenet. Do the other Tenets also inform TST’s response to the pandemic?

Definitely the Fifth Tenet: Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs. We have to defer to scientists on this, especially the projection models of epidemiologists. We also have to reject conspiracy theories, including blaming the current crisis on the Obama administration.

Any others?

As we become frustrated over the response to pandemic, it’s also important to remember the Sixth Tenet: People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused. It’s easy to get disgusted with people, but we have to be more willing to give people a pass for being wrong. You have to give people room to grow. We have a tendency to endlessly demonize someone even if they are willing to amend their ways.


Some religious groups are framing the pandemic as divine punishment or otherwise part of “God’s plan.” As a member of an atheistic religion, do you see any meaning in this pandemic?

Well speaking only for myself, I think this does say something about the treatment of animals. This virus was incubated in wild animal markets where animals are kept crammed together in a state of extreme stress, often forced to live in pools of the combined waste of multiple species. When this is over, I hope there are calls to put an end to such practices.

I am also hopeful that we learn from this that scientific warnings have to be taken seriously. We learned the hard way that the coronavirus is not “fake news.” Now maybe some people will rethink their attitudes about climate change.



Can you say more about this online support system you’re trying to build?

We are trying to keep everyone positive and connected. It’s going to be more and more important to set up alternative forms of socializing. I think this a place where we as a religious community can really provide a service to people.

Is it normal for you to end your communications, “Love, Lucien Greaves?” Have you ever done that before?

I guess I can’t recall ever doing that before. I think it just came naturally from the tone I was trying to convey to people

‘Restart the Economy’ is a prayer to a conservative God who demands human sacrifice

By Stephen Young, Religion Dispatches
on March 24, 2020
According to classic interpretations of the Jewish and Christian Bibles, a Canaanite deity named Moloch demanded the sacrifice of children. There is a long history of writing about this bloodthirsty god spanning the ancient world to John Milton’s Paradise Lost to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” to modern social commentators. One recurring point is that the depravity of Moloch was reflected in his insatiable lust for innocent flesh.

How could anyone worship such a monster?


Readers have drawn further connections: human sacrifice marks not only Moloch as evil, but also the population who offers their children to him. This is the biblical justification given for why Israelites should exterminate Canaanites, the worship of their gods, and their customs from the Promised Land.

But although the prevalent understanding of Moloch as a rapacious child-consuming god falls short in the minds of many scholars,* some deep truth remains. We should absolutely judge a deity by the offerings and piety it demands! Furthermore, what people are willing to sacrifice for their god should likewise be a commentary on their deepest values.

Let us call this an ethics of religious responsibility: we are responsible for the deities we follow. Many people tacitly accept this point when they opine that folks who follow other gods, or at least not their God, deserve to burn in hell. So, if one’s deity demands things like human sacrifice, genocide, or partiality to rapists and autocrats, then this should give some pause.

In a society founded partly on the concept of religious liberty people can, in theory, choose to worship such deities. But in a society also founded on the concept of free speech, shouldn’t people who follow these gods at least have to answer uncomfortable questions about their sociopathic deities? Why should it be bad manners to question people who worship such gods instead of bad manners to promote those gods in the first place?






You can see where this is going. At the moment an influential contingent of conservative leaders and commentators are advocating that we put a stop to measures meant to suppress the spread of COVID-19. Most of these measures fall under the category of social distancing, which has deeply impacted corporations by restricting us from our usual purchasing and employment movements. Combined with broader uncertainties brought by the pandemic, the Stock Market has likewise been tanking.

The developing cry to end social distancing predictably centers on reversing these obstacles. “Restart the economy” is becoming a refrain. President Trump has already tweeted in this direction: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF.”

WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020



His top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, has spelled-out things further: “The economic cost to individuals is just too great … we’re going to have to make some difficult trade-offs.” And one conservative talk radio host went still further, declaring that “If given the choice between dying and plunging the country I love into a Great Depression, I’d happily die.” Better for a whole lot more people to suffer and die than for the free market to be stifled any further. It’s the economy, stupid!

Given the prevalence of religious voices among support for Trump, perhaps we could think about our situation with the ethics of religious responsibly as outlined above. A simple translation of “restart the economy” suggests itself: the economy or the free market is God. It rules over and defines reality. And this God demands human sacrifice to rescue us from Coronavirus.

Those who know our history will not be surprised. The God of the Economy has long subsisted on human sacrifice in ways that reveal his character. When the Cotton Gin was invented, enslavers needed to increase cotton picking output to feed the machines in order to realize their profits. As Edward Baptist has vividly documented, they didn’t hire more workers or even invest in the large scale acquisition of additional slaves. Instead they intensified their system of slavery into an even more brutal form that exponentially multiplied suffering as a technology to increase production. The God of the Economy got his fill of human flesh.

If the blood of human sacrifice was the seed of the free market, its god remains hungry as ever today. As historians such as Kim Phillips-Fein, Kevin Kruse, and Lawrence Glickman have shown, wealthy followers of this god have been successfully proclaiming their gospel as the exclusive path to freedom for generations.

Their message now seems obvious and their god feels like the only option. These disciples are sick of losing wealth to social distancing, even if it saves lives. They want their economy of the pre-Coronavirus status quo back. It’s the economy that made them rich.

The surprise is not that this god’s followers are eager to offer human sacrifices, but that anyone is still shocked they would offer the rest of us to him or try to sell us on this approach by warning against the “the false god of ‘saving lives.’”

We should, at the least, stop tiptoeing around this god’s followers as though it’s bad manners to identify him as evil or un-civil to make them own that he is the real Moloch. And if their economy is Moloch, why don’t we demand that our leaders serve a new god, or replace them with leaders who aren’t Moloch’s disciples? Surely there are gods to whom we can turn now whose values are health and human flourishing as opposed to bloodthirsty greed. It doesn’t take a biblical scholar to figure it out.

*As biblical scholars such as Francesca Stavrakopoulou and Heath Dewrell have argued, there was no Moloch deity in ancient Canaan. The biblical passages traditionally thought to name him instead refer to a kind of sacrificial offering (mlk). Biblical writers delegitimized this offering—and the idea that their God had commanded it!—by rendering it foreign and evil. Ancient interpreters transformed the mlk offering into a depraved foreign deity, Moloch or Molech. And readers have been off to the races ever since.

‘She drank the Kool-Aid’: Viewers baffled as Dr. Birx ‘incinerates her credibility’ by praising Trump for being ‘attentive to scientific literature’

IN TRUE TRUMPIAN STYLE SHE ATTACKED THE PRESS
March 27, 2020 By Sky Palma


Speaking on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Faith Nation this Wednesday, White House response coordinator for the US Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Deborah Birx, talked about the role faith communities can play in the effort to stem the outbreak, both by “giving out accurate and important information and ensuring that everyone in the household feels engaged in their community even though they’re at home themselves.”

At one point during the interview, Dr. Birx praised President Trump for what she said is his attentiveness to science.

“He is so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data, and I think his ability to analyze and integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit during these discussions about medical issues,” she said.


"[Trump is] so attentive to the scientific literature & the details & the data. I think his ability to analyze & integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit” — this is shocking, hackish stuff from Dr. Birx. pic.twitter.com/c2phsRYaJs
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 27, 2020

Birx’s comment baffled many of Trump’s critics on Twitter, who believe his downplaying of the virus’ threat in the early days of the outbreak is directly responsible for the fact that it’s currently spiraling out of control.

Ok, that’s it. Dr Birx just threw all her credibility out the window.

Trump is NOT attentive to anything but his immediate personal needs, and he CAN’T analyze or integrate a damn thing. https://t.co/9DJPRwiMrf
- Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) March 27, 2020

The sane, science-respecting half of the United States will not be able to trust Birx going forward after watching her incinerate her credibility in a spasm of genuflections at Dear Leader. Which is a damn shame. https://t.co/78lbLA0mXE
— Dan Murphy (@bungdan) March 27, 2020

Sad—no, infuriating—to see Dr. Birx, a seemingly competent professional, utter such demonstrable nonsense during a pandemic that has escalated into a national health and economic crisis because of Trump’s inattentiveness, inaction, and incompetence. Flattery will get us killed. https://t.co/rfHtKU4HkH
— Stephen Schwartz (@AtomicAnalyst) March 27, 2020

Cmon. I worked for Obama for five years. He is one of the smartest people Ive met (& Ive worked most of my life at a university). No Obama official EVER talked on tv about him this way. & Dr. Birx is talking about Trump, not Obama. We need experts talking facts right now ! https://t.co/b7YVszTPHv
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) March 27, 2020

Dr Birx is now a card carrying member of the Trumpism cult, and as such, we must stop listening to EVERYTHING she has to say if we want to increase our chances of surviving this existential threat.https://t.co/zYB9kZSTZL https://t.co/p0JOI4XB0b

— Adam Rifkin  

(@ifindkarma) March 27, 2020


She’s done drank the koolaid.
— LisaB (@6bottoms) March 27, 2020


Has Trump infected her with GOPID-45?
-- Marc Goldstein (@marcgoldstein_) March 27, 2020

May God help us. None of what she is saying is true and surely she knows it, so that makes her a Trump cultist.
— Adeline (Recognize Trumpism as cult worship) (@HonorDecency) March 27, 2020

What does she possibly have to gain by spreading this disinformation? It is so troubling how people in Trump’s orbit sacrifice themselves to toe the Party line. Almost as if they feel threatened…
— whathappensnext (@jsdmd2010) March 27, 2020

Nobody should listen to her anymore
— Katie (@Katie61548) March 27, 2020

The longer you expose yourself to a malignant narcissistic psychopath, you inevitably become more corrupt, tainted or your reputation permanently damaged. Just add her to the long list that’s already been established.
— Robert Covington Jr. (@robcovingtonjr) March 27, 2020

Trump and his GOP enablers say the quiet part out loud: Americans must die of the coronavirus in order to save capitalism

March 27, 2020 By Chauncey Devega, Salon- Commentary

Donald Trump has given the Democrats a gift — if they are brave enough to use it.

Last Sunday, Donald Trump declared on Twitter: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!”

This slogan, imported from the libertarian far right, signaled an important shift toward ending social distancing and “reopening” the economy, even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread Trump’s mouthpieces at Fox News and elsewhere then began to parrot the same macabre and disturbing argument.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, told Fox News: “Let’s get back to living… And those of us that are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves.”

Right-wing propagandist Glenn Beck told viewers of his BlazeTV show that Americans who are older should just go back to work and prepare to die: “Even if we all get sick, I would rather die than kill the country.”

Brit Hume of Fox News told Tucker Carlson that he supported Dan Patrick’s view of this potentially lethal transaction:

What we’re living in now, this circumstance as we try to beat this virus, is not sustainable — that the utter collapse of the country’s economy, which many think will happen if this goes on much longer, is an intolerable result… [H]e is saying, for his own part, that he’d be willing to take a risk of getting the disease if that’s what it took to allow the economy to move forward. And he said that because he’s late in life, you know, that he would be perhaps more willing then he might’ve been at a younger age, which seems to me to be an entirely reasonable viewpoint.

What are they really saying? Donald Trump and the Republican Party are now openly willing to sacrifice those Americans they consider to be “useless eaters” — in this case older people, people with pre-existing health conditions and anyone else who may die from the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday, Trump said the quiet part loud, basically admitting on Twitter that his electoral fortunes are tied to the pandemic’s impact on the American economy:

The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success. The real people want to get back to work ASAP. We will be stronger than ever before!

To paraphrase the character Ivan Drago in the movie “Rocky IV”: “If they die, they die”. Or as another famous Russian, Joseph Stalin, is reported to have said: “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.”

For Trump and his allies, worsening the coronavirus pandemic, even at the risk of many lives, is of little importance compared to keeping him in office to continue a regime of looting, extortion and massive corruption.

The Democratic Party needs new slogans for the 2020 presidential election, I would suggest these:

Trump wants you to die — so he can stay in office forever.

Trump and the Republicans are trying to kill you — for money.

Are you 60 or older? Have a pre-existing health condition? Donald Trump and his Republican Party don’t care if you die from the coronavirus.

Donald Trump could have stopped the coronavirus. He lied, and people died.

Yes Trump and the right are embracing and celebrating death. It is ghoulish. It is also one more illustration that the Age of Trump is an American dystopia where what was previously unimaginable (for most decent people) has become “normal.”

Yes, Trump and his movement’s death impulses are part of a natural progression in which an authoritarian regime maximizes its power by terrorizing the public.

These calls by Trump and his allies for millions of Americans to sacrifice themselves for such abstractions as “the country,” “the economy” and “the market” should not be a surprise. Such madness and cruelty are the logical and inevitable result of decades of right-wing strategy and policies.




These plans were never hidden. Indeed, they were clumsily obvious. Since the 1970s, predatory gangster capitalism has been accepted as either “normal” or “inevitable” in the United States (as well as the United Kingdom and elsewhere). To that end, the “free market” was presented by the news media, many Democrats and virtually all Republicans, and most of the educational system as somehow synonymous or interchangeable with “freedom” and “democracy.”

This form of predatory gangster capitalism, now often called “neoliberalism,” rests upon several basic tenets:

Profits are more important than people.

Every part of human life and existence should become a commodity or a financial instrument.

Society should be organized around the “survival of the fittest,” in Malthusian or social-Darwinist terms: Those who cannot survive and prosper under “free markets” will be abandoned, quite likely to die.

Notions of the collective good, the commons, the social safety net and other aspects of social democracy, as well as the very idea of government and collective action, are to be undermined and eventually eliminated in service to “freedom” and “individual liberty.”
There should be few if any restrictions on the behavior of corporations, banks and the ultra-rich, or on the financier class.

There are “winners” and “losers” in society, “makers” and “takers” in society. These are natural and almost inexorable categories. The winners are to be subsidized by the state and the public. The losers are to be punished, and if possible eliminated.
Capitalism and democracy are the same thing.

Of course the harsh realities and negative consequences of predatory gangster capitalism have been effectively concealed from the public, which has come to accept this ideology through the use of anodyne language like “entrepreneurship,” “efficiency,” “transparency,” “accountability,” “public-private” and “opportunity.”
All claims that this system has been successful are dubious. Serious economists and other intellectually honest policy experts have repeatedly proven that its premises are fundamentally incorrect.

Gangster capitalists exploit system shocks and other crises (sometimes crises they themselves have caused) as a means of advancing their agenda.

Consider the coronavirus relief bill as originally submitted by the Republicans, which proposed creating a $500 billion slush fund to subsidize the richest corporations and wealthiest Americans, with no accountability and no oversight – a fund that Donald Trump and his vassals could loot at will — while handing out much smaller sums to ordinary Americans who are struggling to survive in a moment of economic calamity.

The moral obscenity of that bill even included petty cruelty: The poorest Americans would receive little if any money in direct payments, while money flowed to corporations and the ultra-rich by the billions.


These disparities have been somewhat painted over in the Democrats’ counterproposals in the House and Senate. But on a grand scale, the picture is not that different: The largest corporations will still receive at least $500 billion — with minor oversight and a few insignificant restraints — that they will inevitably use to enrich their shareholders at the expense of their employees and the public.

In practice, neoliberalism amounts to socialism for the rich and the powerful and the harsh medicine of the “free market” for everyone else. The coronavirus relief bill is more proof of that fact.

This is the logic of “too big to fail.” It’s also a function of the moral hazard that allows a plutocrat like Donald Trump to gain control over a so-called democracy with the goal of funneling resources (through tax policies, government subsidies and other laws) to themselves and other members of his class, while denying resources and opportunities to the vast majority of Americans.

Donald Trump’s proposed 2021 federal budget is a statement of values. As with the coronavirus relief bill, it punishes the poor and vulnerable by gutting the social safety net and transferring more money, both in the form of tax cuts and direct subsidies, to huge corporations and the richest Americans.

As documented by Dr. James Gilligan in his book “Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others” the policies of the Republican Party on issues ranging from health care to guns, the environment and tax policy have shortened the American people’s lifespans and caused other forms of physical harm.

Predatory gangster capitalism needs agents and other actors to advance its goals. The corporation is one of the primary means through which this form of capitalism wages its “revolutionary” struggle against a humane and democratic society.

As has been widely noted, if the corporation was a person, it would be a sociopath. This makes the corporation an indispensable part of Donald Trump’s coronavirus death cult.

James Gamble, a retired corporate attorney who is now director of the National Center for Access to Justice, offered a warning, in a recent article at Medium, about “the extraordinary power of corporate ‘persons’ who are legally obligated to act like sociopaths”:

Sociopath? Yes. The corporate entity is obligated to care only about itself and to define what is good as what makes it more money. Pretty close to a textbook case of antisocial personality disorder. And corporate persons are the most powerful people in our world.

The “maximize rule” does its damage in two ways. Corporate entities are direct actors in the world. A decision to build a factory in a place with weak environmental laws, low wages and poor worker protection matters. Preferring share buybacks to increased wages or lower prices matters. Lobbying for taxpayer subsidies that transfer wealth from poor to rich matters. They contribute to the problems listed in paragraph one in obvious ways. More damaging: the maximize rule infects real people with tragic faith in the magic of markets.


A recent Business Insider article sheds further light on the corporation as sociopath:

The coronavirus crisis in the United States is only just beginning. But it’s not too early for some Americans to flout social distancing and isolation guidelines and return to work, according to some executives.

Dick Kovacevich, the former CEO and chairman of Wells Fargo, told Bloomberg News that healthy workers under the age of 55 should return to work in April if the outbreak is controlled, saying that “some may even die” with his plan.

“We’ll gradually bring those people back and see what happens. Some of them will get sick, some may even die, I don’t know,” said Kovacevich, a current executive at Cisco and Cargill. “Do you want to suffer more economically or take some risk that you’ll get flu-like symptoms and a flu-like experience? Do you want to take an economic risk or a health risk? You get to choose.”

While this iteration of capitalism sells itself to the public as indispensable to “liberty” and “freedom,” its ultimate tendency is authoritarian and fascistic. Such traits and goals make it a natural tool and weapon for Trump and his allies.

While the American people and the world are paralyzed the coronavirus pandemic, Attorney General William Barr is refusing to let a good crisis go to waste. As reported by Betsy Woodruff Swan for Politico, the Trump regime wants to use the coronavirus to enact a de facto state of martial law where basic legal rights are suspended:



The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies — part of a push for new powers that comes as the novel coronavirus spreads throughout the United States….

The move has tapped into a broader fear among civil liberties advocates and Donald Trump’s critics — that the president will use a moment of crisis to push for controversial policy changes. Already, he has cited the pandemic as a reason for heightening border restrictions and restricting asylum claims. He has also pushed for further tax cuts as the economy withers, arguing it would soften the financial blow to Americans. And even without policy changes, Trump has vast emergency powers that he could deploy right now to try to slow the coronavirus outbreak.

Swan explains that these Justice Department requests “span several stages of the legal process, from initial arrest to how cases are processed and investigated,” and appear to have important implications for habeas corpus, “the constitutional right to appear before a judge after arrest and seek release.”

According to Norman L. Reimer, executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, this means that “you could be arrested and never brought before a judge until they decide that the emergency or the civil disobedience is over. I find it absolutely terrifying. Especially in a time of emergency, we should be very careful about granting new powers to the government. … That is something that should not happen in a democracy.”

This union of neoliberal gangster capitalism and authoritarianism can result in a society ruled by “inverted totalitarianism.” In his seminal book “Democracy Incorporated,” philosopher Sheldon Wolin explains how this happens:




Antidemocracy, executive predominance, and elite rule are basic elements of inverted totalitarianism. Antidemocracy does not take the form of overt attacks upon the idea of government by the people. Instead, politically it means encouraging what I have earlier dubbed “civic demobilization,” conditioning an electorate to being aroused for a brief spell, controlling its attention span, and then encouraging distraction or apathy. The intense pace of work and the extended working day, combined with job insecurity, is a formula for political demobilization, for privatizing the citizenry. …

It works indirectly.

Citizens are encouraged to distrust their government and politicians; to concentrate upon their own interests; to begrudge their taxes; and to exchange active involvement for symbolic gratifications of patriotism, collective self-righteousness, and military prowess. Above all, depoliticization is promoted through society’s being enveloped in an atmosphere of collective fear and of individual powerlessness: fear of terrorists, loss of jobs, the uncertainties of pension plans, soaring health costs, and rising educational expenses.



Will the American people follow the commands of Donald Trump’s coronavirus death cult? Are they willing to sacrifice their lives on the altar of “the economy” and Trump’s re-election campaign by returning to work, ending social distancing and ignoring the warnings of scientists and public health experts?

Some will. Trump’s cult members will follow his commands without question. They have been systematically programmed by Trump’s cult and its disinformation machine. They understand that protecting and defending the cult leader must always come first.

Many Americans who do not have sufficient savings, live on stagnant wages, have little if any job security, are not union members, cannot work from home and are otherwise stuck in a precarious economic conditions may well be coerced into risking their lives, because they lack other options.

If public opinion polls are correct, Trump is becoming more popular because of the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying stagecraft and spectacle of his lie-filled “daily briefings.” Despite his incompetence, a new Gallup poll reports that 60 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s response to the pandemic. (Including nearly all Republicans, of course.)

This evidence suggests that Trump, the Republican Party, the right-wing media and their corporate allies are effectively leveraging decades of programming in which most Americans have been taught to believe that patriotism, capitalism, freedom and consumerism are inexorably connected, if not in fact the same thing. In the Age of Trump and his pandemic, such beliefs can kill.

Trump again claims he’s invoked the Defense Production Act – then backtracks saying ‘maybe we won’t need’ to fully use it

March 27, 2020 By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

President Donald Trump Friday afternoon announced he has invoked the Defense Production Act to require GM to produce vitally-needed life-saving ventilators. But it’s not the first time has and his administration have claimed the DPA was being used to require the production of critical equipment, nor is it being used as it should be.

In announcing he had finally invoked it, to force GM to make ventilators they already have announced they will produce, Trump immediately backtracked, nonsensically saying he might not need to fully use the law.

“I’ve enacted the Act, we’ve used it three of four times,” Trump said, which is a lie, claiming “the companies came through in the end they didn’t need the Act.”

That’s not how the law works.

“It’s been great leverage I have instituted it against General Electric, we thought we had a deal for 40,000 ventilators,” Trump claimed, which again is false, it was for 20,000.

“We did activate it with respect to General Motors and hopefully – maybe we won’t need the full activation we’ll find out,” he said, after calling the car company “General Electric.”

Here’s Trump saying of the Defense Production Act that “I have instituted it against General Electric,” then saying 30 seconds later that “we did activate it with respect to General Motors”  pic.twitter.com/VyvXBJa6l0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 27, 2020

Every day that went by that the DPA remained unused is a day in the future more people will die, literally unable to breathe due to an insufficient number of ventilators across the nation.

Trump finally invokes Defense Production Act to force GM to manufacture ventilators

March 27, 2020 By Bob Brigham

President Donald Trump is using the Defense Production Act to force General Motors to manufacture the medical ventilators that are necessary to respond to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, reported the news on Twitter.

The order Trump signs directs Azar "to require General Motors Company to accept, perform, and prioritize contracts or orders for the number of ventilators that the Secretary determines to be appropriate."
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) March 27, 2020

The announcement came after Trump publicly complained his failure to use the Defense Production Act was not working.

As usual with “this” General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, “very quickly”. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke “P”.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020

General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!! @GeneralMotors @Ford

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020

It has been nine days since Trump invoked the powers of the Defense Production Act.

I only signed the Defense Production Act to combat the Chinese Virus should we need to invoke it in a worst case scenario in the future. Hopefully there will be no need, but we are all in this TOGETHER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2020