Monday, May 11, 2020


Fascism, capitalism, Donald Trump and the pandemic: How did we get here?
May 10, 2020 By Andrew O'Hehir, Salon- Commentary



One thing that unites the MAGA-hat cosplay fascists of the anti-lockdown “movement” and the Karens and Chads of the hashtag-resistance is the shared conviction that the United States of America is special and that nothing that happens here has much relationship to anything that happens anywhere else. OK, we might hear some comparisons to Germany in the 1930s — on both sides, honestly! — but even that is kind of a special declaration of specialness, as if fascism hasn’t experienced something of a spring awakening all around the world.





This article first appeared in Salon.
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Normally this blindness to history and context, and this theological belief in the greatness of whichever aspect of Americanness is being foregrounded at the moment — whether that’s constitutional checks and balances or sepia-toned, sentimentalized white supremacy — is totally wrong-headed. I mean, it pretty much always is. But right now, in the deeply improbable timeline where we find ourselves, I think we have to admit that America’s situation is distinctive and unique.


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Our nation is leading the world — right down the historical crapper. Donald Trump is not solely responsible for this, and I’ll stick to my guns on the argument that he’s not all that important, in world-historical terms, and not nearly as anomalous as he seems. But, sweet Jesus, has he found his moment and made the most of it!

After three-plus years of criminality, corruption and general incompetence — much of it so clownish that a mid-level Cleveland mafia boss of the 1950s would have found it insulting — our bleach-injecting, hurricane-nuking, Greenland-purchasing stable genius has finally stumbled into the major crisis that will define his presidency for posterity. (Assuming there is any.) Yeah, whatever about Ukraine and his impeachment trial — which was this year, unbelievably enough, and it’s only May. That’s now totally forgotten. Robert Mueller, pulling long faces on Capitol Hill and delivering indecipherable double negatives perhaps meant to denote grave constitutional concerns? I don’t even remember who that is, do you?

The hell with that stuff. Along came the coronavirus pandemic, which was in general terms a predictable event but one that nonetheless caught the Western world at a vulnerable moment. The major democracies of Western Europe, all of which are going through significant trauma, handled it well in some cases and alarmingly poorly in others. Then the virus came to the United States, and I have to say: When it comes to fucking this up, we’re No. 1.




The Trump administration’s flamboyant display of overconfidence, lies, mixed messaging, buck-passing, goalpost-shifting, petulant blame games, incoherent policy reversals, conspiracy theories and anti-scientific balderdash has, in a certain sense, been wondrous to behold. It has certainly been revelatory, in that our nation has shown its ass to the world, and from now until the end of time will not plausibly be viewed as a leading power in science or medicine or public health.

This isn’t funny, obviously, and I will stop trying to be entertaining long enough to observe that we can now say with confidence that at least 100,000 Americans will die in this pandemic, and probably many more than that. The fact that Trumpian virus-truthers are out there convincing each other that those numbers have been faked somehow, and that the libtards have some vested interest in running up the score, is simultaneously completely unsurprising at this point and deliriously far beyond anything we could have imagined back in the innocent days of the Benghazi investigation and “but her emails.”

How many of those human lives could have been saved with a coherent and rational response from the federal government? We will likely never know, but whatever the number is, it’s much too large.




Will the Trump administration — and, to speak truthfully, its behind-the-scenes puppetmasters in the corporate suites with sweeping views of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty — succeed in framing those deaths as vaguely regrettable but necessary sacrifices to “the economy” or “the American way of life,” understood as grand, inhuman abstractions not unlike the deities of bygone civilizations? We don’t know that either. It’s cold comfort to conclude that their scheme to pretend that the economy has been “reopened” and everything’s going great and this was the plan all along is stupid and won’t work. But that’s where we are.

I remarked on Twitter recently that it would clarify matters if we replaced all such generic references to “the economy” and “the market” and “America” with “Yog-Sothoth,” an all-devouring Elder God from H.P. Lovecraft’s paranoid mythos. Americans are warriors, who have never hesitated to face death to save Yog-Sothoth! Human lives are sacred, of course — even, hypothetically, those of older and less productive people — but not as sacred as Yog-Sothoth!




Please don’t start mumbling at me about how everything will be different after Joe Biden takes office and the Democrats win the Senate. Just take all that old flea-ridden furniture to the dump and drop it off. Because even if all that happens, we’ll get the usual half-baked, apologetic Democratic policy mélange, in which everybody gets an orange slice and the Wall Street banks and Silicon Valley tycoons get monopoly control of all the orange trees, all the water and all the sunlight. If Republicans are all-in on the Yog-Sothoth cult, Democrats have got some really good focus-group pie charts from 2004 that tell them the smart play is to occupy the middle ground between appeasing it and embracing it.

And we will still be, now and forever, the country that elected a third-rate con man who had no actual interest in being president, and whose only policy agenda was to pursue psychic revenge against the elite liberals who mocked him by encouraging racist backlash, pouring gasoline on the culture wars and demolishing the federal government from the top down. And we’re stuck with him, by the way. Please disabuse yourself of the liberal magical thinking that Trump will go to prison after he leaves office (he won’t), that he won’t somehow be rehabilitated as a “controversial yet charismatic” ex-president (he will) or that he won’t get a presidential library in his dotage and a state funeral when he finally kicks the bucket.

Of course it’s true that any other president, even the dim or reactionary ones, would have done a vastly better job during this emergency. Barack Obama would have been great, probably superior at handling a pandemic than he was at the political and economic crises he actually faced — but Bill Clinton and, for that matter, George H.W. Bush would have managed the situation like competent adults as well. (Even George W. Bush would probably have grasped that it was a time to defer to expert advice.) If there’s a silver lining here — and there really isn’t — there’s no longer any question that Trump will be remembered as a massively useless and destructive president. He had some work to do to get past James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson into “worst episode ever” position, but I think he’s done it now.




But to act like it’s just bad luck that we wound up with a hateful, soulless idiot in the White House at this perilous moment is missing the point on a grand scale. We got here because this is where we are. Donald Trump could only have happened now, and he represents the confluence of various toxic currents that have been thrown into stark relief by the coronavirus pandemic. We can summarize those in familiar terms: the two-party political system is paralyzed, our civic culture is bitterly divided and dysfunctional, economic inequality has reached epic proportions, and the global economic system, undergirded by the philosophy known as “neoliberalism,” is in profound and worsening crisis.

One consequence of all that bad stuff is the global resurgence of fascism, which I mentioned up top. In the American context that has provoked an increasing number of violent hate crimes along with a whole lot of theatrical play-acting, such as the armed goons seen protesting in Lansing, Michigan, and other state capitals. I’m not suggesting those people are not dangerous — read this cautionary essay by Aleksandar Hemon, who lived through the violent collapse of Yugoslavia — but for the moment they’re disorganized and their numbers are small. Most American fascism is just petty, lard-ass older people emitting gas on the internet.

Bands of gun-toting morons staging photo-ops on the statehouse steps, as I read things, is more a symptom of cultural collapse than a cause. It’s also unclear whether Donald Trump has any actual thoughts about the fascist renewal, beyond an instinctive sympathy with malice, racism and stupid caricatures of masculinity. He’s had Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller whispering dark wisdom in his ear at various times, but he possesses no vision of the world beyond his own self-glorification.

When it comes to the free-trade and fiscal austerity policies identified with neoliberalism, the equation is different: Trump doesn’t understand those things and instinctively dislikes them, which might be the only borderline-redeeming quality of his presidency. Bannon tried to push him toward full-throated “national socialism,” which would never have worked but at least had the virtue of logical consistency. Which, come to think of it, is no longer a virtue!




After following a trail of billion-dollar crumbs into the forest to the cabin in the woods haunted by Mitch McConnell and the CEO class, Trump has now thoroughly imbibed the brainworms of the Yog-Sothoth paradox, served in a delicious cocktail of Lysol and hydroxychloroquine. That would be the paradox through which a system that oppresses almost everyone in endless cycles of overwork, bottomless debt and pointless consumption, while massively enriching a few, is identified with “freedom.” This is how neoliberal capitalism and the rising tide of fascism, which from the beginning were supposed to be incompatible, have become aligned.

If this vision of freedom is completely incoherent or psychotic, in America it gets invested with all kinds of symbolic meaning. The “freedom” to go into Publix without wearing a mask or to buy a toaster oven without standing in line — like the freedom to reject scientific thought as “cultural Marxism” or the freedom to hold fantastic and irrational opinions because coastal liberals find them obnoxious — becomes a totem of heroic individual resistance to tyranny, a marker of identification with the founding fathers and the noble “lost cause” of the Confederacy and John Wayne at the end of “Stagecoach.”

It’s perfectly true that most Americans do not hold blatantly insane beliefs about freedom and science and history and the nature of our economy, and that large majorities appear to favor what could broadly be called social-democratic solutions to our nation’s worsening problems. That may yet create legitimate reasons for optimism in the decades ahead, but in the short and medium term it’s nowhere near as encouraging as it ought to be. W.B. Yeats’ lines from “The Second Coming” get quoted too often, because they’re irresistible:


The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.






Given our political duopoly, “the best” must be read as “the best available option,” that being the not-blatantly-insane party, which — even faced with the cult of Yog-Sothoth — remains consumed by existential doubt and internal conflict, not to mention pathologically averse to anything that resembles a large or ambitious plan not cloaked in immense draperies of bewildering bureaucratic language.

It’s not just that the NBI Party has selected a hilariously terrible candidate to run against Trump, or that it keeps flirtatiously trying to strain the biggest chunks of fascism out of the neoliberal Clorox cocktail and chug the remainder. Those things are only true in the first place because everyone in mainstream American politics remains trapped in the toxic myth of American exceptionalism — the narrative frame that insists we are a special nation anointed by God and invested with divine purpose, if only we can figure out what that is.

That’s a blatantly insane belief that has distorted our entire history, and has now brought us Donald Trump and the national tragedy and humiliation of this pandemic. Those things are not anomalies, and we cannot wish them away. We will never get past them unless we free ourselves from the collective delusion of our national greatness. Time is running out.
Yale Fascism expert: Pandemic offers Trump a dangerous opportunity to ‘rule by decree’ — and consolidate his power

May 11, 2020 By Chauncey Devega, Salon- Commentary

A moment of reckoning is here. America must have committed great wrongs to be afflicted with the coronavirus pandemic and Donald Trump at the same time.

Authoritarians like Trump love disasters. Because they can only destroy and not create, authoritarians use such moments of misery and fear to expand their power.

Donald Trump is announcing that fact when he proclaims himself to be a “war president.” Such language is not just the superficial trappings of Trump wrapping himself in the flag and using empty words about “sacrifice” and “bravery” and “heroism.” It is something far worse and more sinister. As a “war president,” Trump is putting himself above the law and proclaiming the country is in a state of emergency.

I recently spoke with Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley, author of the books “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them” and “How Propaganda Works.” He warns in this conversation that the coronavirus pandemic is an opportunity for the Trump regime to further advance its campaign against the Constitution, democracy, human rights, human dignity and freedom across all areas of American society.
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Stanley also explains how the fake coronavirus “protests” staged by Trump supporters in Michigan and other parts of the country exemplify the kinds of forces that have brought fascist and authoritarian movements to power, including Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.

Stanley explains that he sees America’s colleges and universities as key sites for teaching critical thinking and engaged citizenship — which is why gangster capitalists, neo-fascists and other right-wing forces are using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to further undermine the country’s system of higher education.

You can also listen to my conversation with Jason Stanley on my podcast “The Truth Report” or through the player embedded below.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

At this moment there are rent strikes and other forms of protest taking place all across the United States in response to the economic calamity and destruction brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and the Trump administration’s response. Discontent is most certainly in the air.

If discontent isn’t in the air now, when is it going to be? Consider what has happened with the stimulus. Trillions of dollars have been given to the wealthiest individuals and the largest corporations. Did they think that people would not notice?

A vast fortune has been transferred to the richest Americans under so-called trickle-down economics — a theory which has been disproved, by the way. The idea is that giving money to the richest Americans is supposed to help average people. Let us see what happens when the average people determine if that is in fact the case. Hopefully, that moment will be one when people mobilize.

The 2020 election is quickly approaching. Nearly four years into Donald Trump’s rule, how is American democracy doing? Where are we in the story of Trump and American authoritarianism?

Propaganda is the denial of reality. For example, when Donald Trump says, “I’ve done the best job ever.” His surreal press conferences are another example. Trump has been able to use the coronavirus pandemic to transfer the country’s news media environment into one big authoritarian spectacle. He was able to be on television for two and a half hours a day for a month. Such a thing happens in authoritarian societies. Trump’s authoritarian rule is really a sign of the problem with the Republican Party. The United States is now in a situation where the minority party, in terms of representing the people’s will, has a lockdown on many of the nation’s institutions.

The problem with the United States is that it is already a flawed democracy. When there is such extreme partisan capture of our country’s institutions, does there really need to be a fascist or authoritarian takeover? With gerrymandering, voter suppression, control of the courts and making voting difficult in other ways, one does not need an explicit takeover and overthrow of democracy by an authoritarian movement to exercise almost the same level of power and control.

How do you make sense of this nightmare confluence of events, with the combination of an authoritarian regime and the coronavirus pandemic?

The concept of “emergency” is essential to fascism. Trump is able to use the pandemic to rule by decree. Another example of authoritarian takeover through “emergencies” is a Reichstag fire moment, such as how Hitler and the Nazis took control in Germany, where one manufactures the “emergency” and then claim a need to seize full power.

By comparison, the coronavirus is a real emergency. Authoritarian governments all over the world are using the pandemic as an excuse to seize more power. In the United States this has taken place with Trump and the Republicans using the pandemic as protective cover for massive corruption. With Trump’s purge of inspector generals there is really no independent oversight of his administration.

The public does not know, for example, where the money from the coronavirus relief bill is really going. As with other authoritarians, the coronavirus emergency is a way for Trump to enact his goals and policies much faster and with less oversight and possibilities for resistance.

Trump and his news media and representatives are consistently using the language of “war,” and describing Trump as a “war president” during this pandemic. Most mainstream commentators and analysts have failed to understand the true meaning and origins of that language. “War president” is another example of a logic where democracy no longer applies. Carl Schmitt — a political theorist and jurist whose thinking was foundational for the Nazi regime — described this condition as one of “exception,” where the leader can ignore the rule of law and other norms. How can we better explain what Donald Trump and his agents really mean when they talk about him as a “war president”?

You are absolutely correct. When an authoritarian or like-minded leaders and regimes want to suspend democracy, they use the language of “war.” Trump calling himself a “war president” enables him to do drastic things such as rushing bills through Congress without proper debate, hearings and public scrutiny. An emergency is a very dangerous time, and the fact that the coronavirus pandemic is a real emergency makes matters much more perilous and complicated.

Trump, the Republicans and many of their supporters have argued that older people and others who are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus should be willing to face death as an act of “loyalty” and “patriotism” to save “the economy.” How does this relate to authoritarianism and fascism?

This coalition of the business elite, right-wing Christian evangelicals, and white nationalists and other white supremacists is very dangerous. Fascism is ultimately a death cult.

Social Darwinism is the heart of fascism as well as the heart of capitalism. With the pandemic, and the way capitalism is a type of religion in America, the Darwinian idea of “survival of the fittest” is made even more central. The notion that “Life is always a struggle, the weak will die” is central to fascism. That idea is also common to certain ways of thinking about capitalism. Remember, Adolf Hitler’s book was called, “My Struggle” — that “struggle” was survival of the fittest. That is exactly what we are seeing in this moment with Trump, the Republican Party and the coronavirus pandemic.

Crisis is an opportunity for Donald Trump. Several weeks ago, Donald Trump announced via Twitter that the United States was ending all legal immigration because of the coronavirus emergency. Of course, that is part of Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s white supremacist agenda.

Notice Trump’s verbiage when he describes the coronavirus: He calls it the “invisible enemy”. That language is an allusion to Jewish people. For centuries anti-Semites and other hate mongers for centuries have used such eliminationist, conspiratorial language. Trump’s announcement “banning” legal immigration — which was likely written by Stephen Miller — was also made on Hitler’s birthday. Miller has repeatedly signaled through his policies, language, emails and use of codes such as “14” and “88” in government documents and announcements a deep affinity with Nazis and other neo-fascists.

It is obvious that the Trump administration was going to move from stopping “illegal immigration” by nonwhite people and other stigmatized groups to then finding a way to stop legal immigration. Now Trump and Miller are using the coronavirus as an excuse to do just that. That Trump announced such a change on Hitler’s birthday should have been much bigger news. That the news media did not pick up on that date and the announcement, quite frankly, is shocking to me.

Who is Trump’s real audience? What other ways is he signaling his intent to them?

This goes back to the philosopher Carl Schmitt. The friend-enemy distinction is at the heart of fascist ideology. By summoning the logic of the friend-enemy distinction during a war or other type of dire emergency, then all actions by the leader or ruler are justified. The truth does not matter when you are fighting an enemy. There is no democratic way of dealing with the enemy or resolving the crisis or emergency. Science is not a solution. One must use any means available, be it fair or not fair. That’s what the friend-enemy distinction does. Again, it is Social Darwinism. Kill or be killed.

The anti-lockdown “protests” have featured armed right-wing paramilitaries and militias. What is their role in failing democracies and the emergence of fascism and authoritarianism?

Fascism involves the typed of paramilitary forces we have seen in Michigan and elsewhere during Trump’s time in office, and before as well. Trump has constantly called for his supporters to use force against their and his “enemies.” Trump is trying to organize armed paramilitary groups on his behalf if there is a contested 2020 presidential election or some other outcome he does not like.

Trump’s paramilitary forces are making violent threats against Democratic elected officials and other lawmakers. The armed militia that tried to take over the Michigan state capitol building by blocking the governor’s door is an example of such a threat.

Right now, we are seeing how many men with guns can be called out on to the street by Donald Trump and his administration. The United States military is controlled by civilians. But with Trump’s paramilitary forces and other armed groups, he can give them orders and then claim some type of plausible deniability. These types of armed militias and paramilitaries are given license to act by Donald Trump and other authoritarians.

The official leaders in a full-on authoritarian regime or failing democracy then deny responsibility for the violence. The history of fascism repeatedly shows that leaders such as Donald Trump inspire these militias and paramilitaries to act, and then Trump can say, “No, that violence and those groups have nothing to do with me. They’re not the government. Those are some random people on the street!”

What is the role of higher education in resisting fascism and authoritarianism, especially during this emergency?

One must locate the attack on colleges and universities within an international perspective. If you look at the other countries which are under the control of far-right leaders, such as Brazil, India or Hungary, they all have featured incredible attacks on universities and other sites of higher education and learning. Academic freedom has been overturned. Schools have been defunded. Universities and their professors, staff and students have been targets of right-wing violence. In these regimes, universities are being attacked for supposedly being hotbeds of left-wing ideology.

In the United States such attacks are being mainstreamed by the right wing, in terms of attacking colleges and universities by slurring them as sites of “cultural Marxism.”

In terms of dismantling resistance to fascism, how does that work?

If we cannot physically gather together it makes it harder to resist. Universities are sites of resistance, which is why they are always targeted by fascists and authoritarians. Universities are places for free speech, questioning the government and engaging with challenging ideas about the relationship between power and society.

What happens when there is an educational system which does not teach critical thinking and engaged citizenship? What types of citizens are being produced by such an educational system?

Those citizens will not be democratic, capable of understanding, nurturing, participating in and protecting a healthy democracy. Democratic citizens criticize the powerful. That is what they do.

The goal of these authoritarians and right-wingers in the United States is to reduce and replace critical thinking that is taught and learned in the humanities and social sciences with just a “great books” curriculum and job training. Any other type of education and thinking is to be vilified as “cultural Marxism.”
Noam Chomsky: Trump’s love of ‘wealth and corporate power’ played a key role in country’s staggering coronavirus death toll


President Donald Trump has been widely criticized on the left — as well as by centrist Democrats and Never Trump conservatives — for failing to take the threat of coronavirus seriously back in January and February. But left-wing author Noam Chomsky, in an interview with The Guardian, asserts that Trump’s culpability goes way beyond downplaying COVID-19’s severity: as Chomsky sees it, Trump’s love of corporate power is a fundamental reason why he has handled the crisis so badly.

The 91-year-old Chomsky told The Guardian that Trump’s cutting federal government funding for research on infectious diseases is “something that Trump has been doing every year of his term, cutting it back more. So, (his plan is): let’s continue to cut it back, let’s continue to make sure that the population is as vulnerable as we can make it — that it can suffer as much as possible, but will, of course, increase profits for his primary constituents in wealth and corporate power.

Chomsky told The Guardian that for Trump, not doing enough to help governors who are tirelessly battling the pandemic in their states is “a great strategy for killing a lot of people and improving his electoral politics.”

When The Guardian asked Chomsky if he blamed Trump for the staggering number of coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S., he responded, “Yes, but it’s much worse than that, because the same is true internationally. To try and cover up his criminal attacks against the American people — which have been going on all of this time — he’s flailing about to try and find scapegoats.”

According to Chomsky, one is seeing two very different responses to the pandemic — one very positive and one very negative.

“One is: let’s take the savage Reagan/Thatcher approach and make it worse,” Chomsky told The Guardian. “That’s one way. The other way is to try to dismantle the structures, the institutional structures that have been created — that have led to very ugly consequences for much of the population of much of the world (and) are the source of this pandemic. To dismantle them and move on to a better world.”

As part of the “better world” approach,” The Guardian’s Richard Partington notes, Chomsky is part of the launch of the Progressive International — whose other participants include Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Yanis Varoufakis (former finance minister in Greece). Partington describes the Progressive International as a “global initiative to unite, organize and mobilize progressive forces around the world.”

But Chomsky, who compares the rise of far-right nationalist movements in a variety of countries to the rise of the Nazis in Germany in the late 1920s, warns that building and advancing a new progressive movement will take a lot of hard work.

“It’s not easy,” Chomsky told The Guardian. “There are forces fighting back. The International is going to be facing similar attacks. To overcome them, it depends on the peasants with the pitchforks.”


Trump is culpable in deaths of Americans, says Noam Chomsky


Professor argues US president is stabbing citizens in back while pretending to be saviour


Richard Partington Economics correspondent Mon 11 May 2020 
THE GUARDIAN


Donald Trump is culpable in the deaths of thousands of Americans by using the coronavirus pandemic to boost his electoral prospects and line the pockets of big business, Prof Noam Chomsky has said.

In an interview with the Guardian, the radical intellectual argued the US president was stabbing average Americans in the back while pretending to be the country’s saviour during the worst health crisis in at least a century.

He said Trump, who will seek re-election later this year, had cut government funding for healthcare and research into infectious disease for the benefit of wealthy corporations.

Chomsky said: “That’s something that Trump has been doing every year of his term, cutting it back more. So [his plan is] let’s continue to cut it back, let’s continue to make sure that the population is as vulnerable as we can make it, that it can suffer as much as possible, but will of course increase profits for his primary constituents in wealth and corporate power.”


Chomsky also said the president had abandoned his duties by forcing individual state governors to take responsibility for combating the virus: “It’s a great strategy for killing a lot of people and improving his electoral politics.”

Asked to clarify if he viewed Trump as culpable in the deaths of Americans, he said: “Yes but it’s much worse than that, because the same is true internationally. To try and cover up his criminal attacks against the American people, which have been going on all of this time, he’s flailing about to try and find scapegoats.”

The professor said Trump’s decision to freeze payments to the World Health Organization, would lead to deaths in Yemen and across the African continent.

Chomsky was speaking in an interview to mark the launch of the Progressive International, a global initiative to unite, organise and mobilise progressive forces around the world.

First convened by Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, and Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister, it aims to mount a fightback against the increasing rise of rightwing populist movements around the globe.

Other members include Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the Icelandic prime minister, former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell, the authors Naomi Klein and Arundhati Roy, and Rafael Correa, the former president of Ecuador. In September, pandemic permitting, the council will convene for an inaugural summit in Reykjavik.

Also speaking in an interview to mark the launch, Varoufakis said articles he and Sanders wrote in the Guardian two years ago were among catalysts for launching the Progressive International.

He said: “It’s been urgent for quite a while now. If anything I’m worried that we’re coming to the party too late. I hope not..”

Expressing anger at the EU response to the pandemic as a “very sad dereliction of duty”, he said the crisis could tear apart the euro single currency bloc. “I don’t think the eurozone can survive it. But it can survive long enough to deplete huge amounts of wealth and social capital. Europe is rich enough, it can pretend and extend.”

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EU leaders have agreed to draw up a €540bn (£480bn) package of emergency measures. However, there is a deep split between countries demanding grants for stricken economies, such as Italy and Spain, and northern members such as Germany who favour loans.

The launch of Progressive International comes amid growing calls to drastically alter the global economic and political status quo as Covid-19 continues to expose and exacerbate entrenched levels of inequality and poverty.

Pressure had also been mounting since the 2008 financial crisis to reverse more than four decades of government retreat from intervening in the economy, amid widespread dissatisfaction with modern capitalism from supporters and detractors.

Faced with rightwing nationalist responses and the growing urgency to combat global heating, McDonnell said the new organisation would help develop and promote a more progressive vision of the future.

Speaking to the Guardian, he said: “This initiative comes at just the right time. It’s about the nature of society we want. It’s also about how we tackle the real threat upon us from climate change.


Comparing the threats from rightwing populism to the rise of Nazism in 1928 when he was born, Chomsky said two approaches were being promoted in the response to Covid-19.

He said: “One is let’s take the savage, Reagan, Thatcher approach and make it worse. That’s one way. The other way is to try to dismantle the structures, the institutional structures that have been created; that have led to very ugly consequences for much of the population of much of the world, [and] are the source of this pandemic. To dismantle them and move on to a better world.”

“It’s not easy. There are forces fighting back. The International is going to be facing similar attacks. To overcome them, it depends on the peasants with the pitchforks.”

Andy Riley on Twitter: "Watching the 1931 Frankenstein. You know ...

Trucker demonstrations trigger tweet from President Trump

MAY 4, 2020
Mark Schremmer
|

A demonstration involving dozens of truckers in Washington, D.C., caught the attention of President Donald Trump.
“I’m with the TRUCKERS all the way,” President Trump posted on Twitter on Sunday, May 3. “Thanks for the meeting at the White House with my representatives from the Administration. It is all going to work out well!”
President Trump’s post appears to be in response to protests held over the weekend by truck drivers speaking out against historically low freight rates. The president’s post did not offer any insight as to how the problem would be fixed.
Video footage shows trucks lining Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., on May 1.
“We applaud the recent trucking protests in Washington, D.C.,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said. “OOIDA was established as a result of similar protests nearly 50 years ago. When done properly, this form of activism can generate interest from lawmakers, regulators, and the general public. In short, job well done.
Similar demonstrations or protests were reported in Hartford, Conn., and El Paso, Texas.
WTNH reported that truckers held a rally in Hartford on May 2 to raise awareness about price gouging and brokers profiting from the national emergency.
KTSM reported that hundreds of trucks gathered in El Paso on May 1 to demand better freight rates. According to the report, several drivers received citations for impeding traffic.

Fighting against low rates

OOIDA said it is working toward create more transparency regarding freight rates.
“Now our collective goal is to ensure there is a mechanism to foster change to address real issues, such as the need for more transparency in freight rates,” Spencer said. “While trucking was economically deregulated decades ago in the belief that open markets work best, that only really applies when all parties are dealing with the same or similar circumstances and have access to the same information. Requiring every broker to provide rate sheets to carriers upon delivery of a load would be a great first step.”
OOIDA sent an informational bulletin to its more than 160,000 members on May 1, advising them to be leery of unscrupulous brokers, to avoid cheap freight, and to file complaints regarding any issues with brokers.
“We are aware that freight rates are at historic lows,” OOIDA wrote in a letter signed by Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh. “Trucking has often suffered from chronic overcapacity­ too many trucks and trailers and not enough freight. The resulting market conditions are magnified right now. While there is no quick or easy solution, hauling cheap freight is not a viable or sustainable approach, and we strongly advise against it just as we always have.”
OOIDA said it also is continuing to work with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Congress to prevent brokers and shippers from exploiting truckers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We also realize some brokers and shippers are exploiting the ongoing crisis,” OOIDA wrote. “While federal regulations require brokers to be transparent about certain rate information, there are far too many loopholes that effectively undermine the regulations. We continue to work with FMCSA and Congress to require additional transparency and close as many loopholes as possible. Unfortunately, this will not provide any immediate relief.”
The Association also urged its members to file complaints with FMCSA’s National Consumer Complaint Database when needed.
“While the NCCDB is far from perfect, we need complaints filed because it helps us show just how broken it is and might hopefully lead to meaningful changes,” OOIDA wrote. “If you do file a complaint, you should also forward a copy to your lawmakers and OOIDA.”

ANCIENT VOLCANO DISCOVERED ON DUTCH SEAFLOOR

By Byron Mühlberg on May 9, 2020 


The Mulciber volcano (in red) found at the bottom of the North Sea. Three kilometers of sediment lies on top of it.Graphic: TNOTNO


An extinct volcano has been discovered about 100 kilometers off the coast of Texel, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) confirmed this week. The 150-million-year-old volcano, named 'Mulciber' after the Roman god of fire, was discovered accidentally by TNO researchers during a reanalysis of old seafloor maps while on the search for oil.

The ancient formation was recognized by deviations in the seafloor's structure, combined with measurements of the earth's magnetic field. According to Michiel van der Meulen, who headed up the Geological Survey of the Netherlands for the TNO, the discovery marks an important moment in the understanding of volcanism in the North Sea.

"The North Sea and the geological deposits in it seem to me to be reading an exciting story. We think we know the big story now. But if as you reread it, characters and storylines become more and more apparent, so this discovery adds to the general knowledge about our living environment," Van Der Meulen explained to public broadcaster NOS on Saturday.

He also explained in a separate statement about the discovery that the volcano will most likely never erupt again. "The chances of the Mulciber erupting are nearly zero. Geologists distinguish between dormant and extinct volcanoes. Dormant means that it is now quiet but can become active again. This is possible after hundreds or even thousands of years of inactivity. But we can declare the Mulciber extinct."


Mulciber is the second volcano to be discovered in Dutch territorial waters. The first, the extinct Zuidwal Volcano, was discovered in 1970 during an oil search. It is located around 2 kilometers below the surface of the Wadden Sea, just off the coast of the Netherlands.

The latest geological find was not confirmed the same way the Zuidwal discovery was made, where an oil company accidentally bored into it. Still, the Mulciber was positively confirmed as a volvano. "Substrate composition, deposits, age, seismic data: everything confirmed the presence of a volcano," said researcher Geert-Jan Vis in a statement.

In addition to Mulciber and the Zuidwal Volcano, there are two active volcanoes in Dutch overseas territories in the Carribean. One of which sits on the island of Saba, and the other on St. Eustatius.  



Researchers discover seabed volcano 100 km from Texel 
Society
 May 9, 2020


 
Map showing the magnetic field anomalies. Illustration: TNO The geological department of the Dutch research institute TNO has discovered a dead volcano three kilometres below sea level, some 100 kilometres north west of the Wadden island Texel. The newly found volcano, which was named Mulciber after the Roman god of fire and is 150 million years old, was found when scientists were reviewing old geological data of the North Sea on behalf of energy companies in search of gas beneath the ocean floor. What gave the presence of the volcano away were a number of anomalies in the structure of the subsoil and the earth’s magnetic field, geologist Michiel van der Meulen said. Fifty years ago similar changes led to the discovery of  the Zuidwalvulkaan, another dead volcano in the Wadden Sea. Van der Meulen said, the North Sea may well hide more. The tally for Dutch volcanoes is now four, including Mount Scenery on Saba and Quill in St Eustatius. Both Caribbean islands, part of the  former Dutch colonies in the area, have the status of a Dutch local authority. Van der Meulen called the discovery a one off. ‘How many times in a geologist’s career do you get to find and name a volcano? Studying the North Sea and the geological sediments in it is like reading an great book. We think we know the gist of the story but every time we go back to it we get to know the protagonists and the story lines better. In that sense this discovery adds to what we already know about our living environment,’ Van der Meulen told broadcaster NOS. The data revisited by Van der Meulen and his team dates from the 1980s. ‘The geological data gathered as a result of exploratory drilling by companies always comes to us. It would cost billions to do it all again so that is why we have this treasure trove.’ The information is of enormous value for the future of sustainable energy, Van der Meulen told the broadcaster. ‘Old data which aimed a pumping up gas and oil can now be used for geothermal energy or CO2 storage research,’ he said. 63 Share Share Tweet Share

Read more at DutchNews.nl:



Surprising Trigger Identified for Explosive Eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano


By EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (ESA) MAY 6, 2020


The eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano in 2018 was one of the most destructive in this volcano’s recorded history. Why this happened has remained a mystery until a paper published recently in Nature suggests that rainfall could have been the culprit. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

The notion that rain could lead to a volcanic eruption may seem strange, but scientists from the University of Miami in the USA, have used information from satellites, including the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, to discover that a period of heavy rainfall may have triggered the four month-long eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano in 2018.

Producing about 320,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools’ worth of lava that reshaped the landscape, destroyed hundreds of homes, and caused the collapse of the summit caldera, the 2018 eruption was one of the most destructive in Kilauea’s recorded history.

A paper published recently in Nature proposes a new model to explain why this eruption happened. The authors, Jamie Farquharson and Falk Amelung from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, suggest that heavy rainfall may have been the culprit.

Restless Kilauea. Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

In the months before the eruption, Hawaii was inundated by an unusually prolonged period of heavy, and at times extreme, rainfall.

The rainwater would have found its way through the pores of the volcanic rock and increased the pressure within – decreasing the rigidity of the rock and allowing magma to rise to the surface.

Falk Amelung said, “We knew that changes in the water content in the Earth’s subsurface can trigger earthquakes and landslides. Now we know that it can also trigger volcanic eruptions. Under pressure from magma, wet rock breaks easier than dry rock. It is as simple as that.”

Using a combination of ground-based and satellite measurements of rainfall, Farquharson and Amelung modeled the fluid pressure within the volcano’s edifice over time – a factor that can directly influence the tendency for mechanical failure in the ground, ultimately driving volcanic activity.

Pre-eruption ground deformation around Kilauea Volcano (red triangle) in Hawaii. Credit: J. Farquharson/F. Amelung

This is not an entirely new theory, but it was previously thought that this could only happen at shallow depths. Here, the scientists conclude that the rain increased pore pressure deep down – at depths of up to 3 km.

The team’s results highlight that fluid pressure was at its highest in almost half a century immediately prior to the eruption, which they propose facilitated magma movement beneath the volcano. Their hypothesis also explains why there was relatively little widespread uplift around the volcano in the months prior.

“We would normally see the ground inflate, or ‘uplift’ before an eruption as the magma chamber swells. We used radar information from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission to see that the amount of inflation was low.

“This lack of substantial inflation suggests that the intrusion–eruption could not only have been triggered by an influx of fresh magma from depth, but that it was caused by a weakening of the rift zone. The six-day repeat observations from the Sentinel-1 mission were key to our research.


Sentinel-1 delivers radar imagery for numerous applications. Radar images are the best way of tracking land subsidence and structural damage. Systematic observations mean that ground movement barely noticeable in everyday life can be detected and closely monitored. As well as being a valuable resource for urban planners, this kind of information is essential for monitoring shifts from earthquakes, landslides and volcanic uplift. Moreover, Sentinel-1 is designed specifically to provide images for rapid response to disasters such as floods and earthquakes. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

“A fact that must be considered when assessing volcanic hazards is that increasing extreme weather patterns associated with ongoing anthropogenic climate change could also increase the potential for rainfall-triggered volcanic activity.”


The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission is a constellation of two identical radar satellites offering the capability to monitor ground deformation with the technique of interferometry. The constellation provides the capability to image part of the globe in the same geometry every six days – a repeat that is ensured for the Group on Earth Observation’s Geohazard Supersites, to which Hawaii islands belong.

Read Destructive KÄ«lauea Volcano Eruption Triggered by Extreme Weather in Hawaii for more on this study.

Reference: “Extreme rainfall triggered the 2018 rift eruption at KÄ«lauea Volcano” by Jamie I. Farquharson and Falk Amelung, 22 April 2020, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2172-5

Earthquake shakes Maniwaki, Que., area

CBC.ca-May 9, 2020
A minor earthquake shook parts of western Quebec near the town of Maniwaki Saturday afternoon. The epicentre of the 4.3-magnitude quake ...

Story image for earthquake from Daily Hive

Magnitude 4.5 earthquake strikes off the coast of Vancouver ...

Daily Hive-16 hours ago
EARTHQUAKE Mag=4.5 on 09 May at 21:46 PDT. Details : https://t.co/En7VGZP3Hj. 112 km SSW of Port Alice, BC. — Earthquakes Canada (@ ...
Moderate earthquake rattles area near Salton Sea
International-The Desert Sun-10 hours ago









Magnitude 3.7 earthquake rocks southern Quebec, no reports ...

Globalnews.ca-May 6, 2020
The epicentre of the earthquake was located nine kilometers south-east of Bedford, in the Montérégie region, close to the U.S. border and 73 ...
The US was offered millions of masks in January. The Trump administration turned the offer down.
A Texas medical supply company told the federal government it could make 1.7 million N95 masks for the US per week — but no order came.

By Riley Beggin May 10, 2020
President Donald Trump is presented with an N95 mask at a Honeywell factory in May 2020. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images


The federal government turned down an offer that would have allowed the United States to significantly ramp up domestic mask production in the earliest stages of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by the Washington Post. The decision later forced the Trump administration to turn to expensive, untested third-party distributors and to use the Defense Production Act to compel companies to increase output.

It’s unclear exactly why top officials turned down the offer, but the decision to do so continues to have consequences for the many frontline workers who still lack the necessary equipment to protect themselves on the job.

The Post reports Mike Bowen, owner of the largest surgical face mask producer in the US — Prestige Ameritech in Texas — contacted top officials in the Department of Health and Human Services on January 22, the day after the first US coronavirus cases were identified.

His pitch: Provide the funds needed to dust off four dormant manufacturing lines, and his firm would produce 1.7 million N95 masks every week. According to Bowen, he’d been raising the alarm for years that the US was too dependent on foreign countries (where nearly 90 percent of masks used in the country come from) for production, and argued his manufacturing lines offered both a way around that, and to ensure the US would have the masks it needed.

Rick Bright — the former director of HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (who was ousted in April, and later filed a whistleblower complaint alleging he was demoted for fighting for science-based preparations “over political expediency”) — pushed top HHS officials to accept Bowen’s offer, to no avail. Prestige Ameritech later exported a million masks to China.

Officials gave the Post a variety of reasons why the Trump administration did not restart Prestige Ameritech’s lines. Some officials claimed it was because HHS didn’t have enough money at the time to pay for increased production; another blamed the lethargic pace of government contracts. White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, on the other hand, said that “the company was just extremely difficult to work and communicate with.”


“This was in sharp contrast to groups like the National Council of Textile Organizations and companies like Honeywell and Parkdale Mills, which have helped America very rapidly build up cost effective domestic mask capacity measuring in the hundreds of millions,” Navarro told the Post.

The federal government went on to spend more than $600 million on contracts including mask production. Honeywell and 3M were given contracts worth more than $170 million to produce protective gear. And a tactical training company with no history of producing medical equipment was given $55 million to make N95 masks for $5.50 each — a price around seven to nine times greater than other suppliers, including Bowen’s company. Prestige Ameritech was eventually given a $9.5 million contract in early April to produce N95 masks for 79 cents each.

Bowen’s manufacturing lines, which could be making more than 7 million masks every month, remain unused.
A shortage of personal protection equipment has dogged the nation’s coronavirus response

Revelations of Bowen’s offer come as US health care workers, grocery store employees, and other frontline workers have struggled for two months to secure the personal protection equipment (PPE) — including masks, gloves, face shields, and more — necessary to stay safe on the job.

As health care providers and employers have desperately sought to buy PPE at skyrocketing costs, it’s become more and more clear that no country, including the US, was prepared for a pandemic of this magnitude. The surge in demand couldn’t quickly be met by stores in the US’s Strategic National Stockpile, and companies that traditionally make equipment were inundated with requests from around the globe.

Vox’s German Lopez explained the issue this way:


The problem is about both supply and demand. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, China made half the world’s face masks. When the outbreak took off there, China started to use its supply and hoard what remained. This problem has only spread since, as more and more countries hoard whatever medical supplies they can get — with some, like Germany, even banning most PPE exports. So as demand increased due to Covid-19 — not just from health care workers but from a general public increasingly scared of infection — there was less supply to go around.

Health care workers were forced to use disposable equipment multiple times, making them more vulnerable to infection and threatening hospitals’ ability to care for an influx of patients when they need it most.

Workers in grocery stores, big box stores, and delivery services have also been put in harm’s way, having to show up to work and interact regularly with the public, oftentimes without adequate protection, as Vox’s Emily Stewart has explained.

A survey conducted by the University of California Berkeley and UC San Francisco between March 7 and April 9 found that only 19 percent of essential workers at companies such as Walmart, McDonald’s, Costco, Amazon, UPS, and Walgreens were given masks, while 56 percent said their employer made gloves available. In the weeks since the survey was taken, companies may have implemented more protective rules, though guidelines often vary by state.

Despite clear delays in preparing to protect frontline workers from the virus, there are still ways the country can catch up.

As Vox’s Matthew Yglesias has argued, the government could use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to issue loans and purchase guarantees to companies, helping them expand production while giving them a measure of comfort in hiring more workers at an uncertain economic moment.

The DPA could also be used to loosen restrictions on regulation and inspection to speed up production without liability in the face of the emergency. In the meantime, after years of poor preparation, the rejection of Prestige Ameritech’s offer, and weeks of delivery and acquisition delays, many frontline workers must continue to make do with inadequate — and even dangerous — levels of PPE.
WINNIPEG
Protesters ignore social distancing, call for end to restrictions

By: Malak Abas Posted: 05/9/2020


Approximately 100 people attend an anti-lockdown rally at the Manitoba Legislature. A group called Winnipeg Aware is calling for the COVID-19 restrictions be lifted in the province, claiming the restrictions are more harmful to human health than the novel coronavirus.


Protests calling for an end to COVID-19 restrictions made their way to Winnipeg Saturday.

Just over 100 people congregated at the Manitoba Legislative building for "A Rally For Freedom and Human Rights" hosted by a group calling itself Winnipeg Aware. The group is demanding lockdowns be lifted, saying there is no scientific basis for social distancing and "counterproductive to the development of the natural immune system," the group said in a press release.


Winnipeg Aware spokesperson Gerry Bohemier called for an end to COVID-19 vaccine development to the crowd, some of whom carried signage with slogans including "W.H.O. = China," "Stop the doctator" and "Go see hospitals are empty, practice fake news distancing."

"They want us to believe that they’re going to be waiting 18-20 months, or maybe even fast-tracking, a miracle vaccine," Bohemier said to a chorus of boos.
Event organizer Gerry Bohemier (centre), speaks to the protesters. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)

Bohemier, who has publicly criticized vaccines in the past, suggested the virus would "leave" by May, because "the sun starts to shine very high in the sky, and we start to expose our skin to a process that makes vitamin D."

"We don’t believe that a vaccine is necessary," he said. "Herd immunity is gotten by people who are healthy going out, being exposed to the virus, and then not getting sick and then being immune to that virus. And guess what? The season comes, we get sick, it goes away real quickly, two, three, months, and it’s gone."

Herd immunity involves exposing large groups to a virus gradually in hopes that people will develop a natural immunity. The practice is often utilized with the help of a vaccine – if enough people are vaccinated, the amount of unvaccinated people will be low enough that the virus will be unable to spread.

Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam has cautioned people not to rely on herd immunity as the country reopens its doors, noting there is still not enough evidence to make an informed decision as to whether people who develop the virus and recover will become immune to being re-infected.

A spokesperson for Premier Brian Pallister said the province would "continue to act on the advice of health care experts and Manitoba’s chief public health officer in the fight against COVID-19." 


An unidentified person holds signs criticizing the World Health Organization. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)

A spokesperson for NDP leader Wab Kinew said the party had "decided not to comment on this story."

One provincial leader had a more direct message to protesters.

"If you want to protect yourself and your neighbours from possibly catching or passing on an illness that will result in a horrible, unnecessary death – wash your hands, keep your distance, and wear a mask," Liberal Party leader Dougald Lamont said in a statement to the Free Press.

"If you want people to die because you are a selfish, paranoid, and misinformed attention-seeker – wear a tinfoil hat. There are enough real problems in the world. There is no need to make up new ones."

A protester who asked not to be named said ending the lockdown was a human rights issue.
An unidentified man throws a nazi salute, mocking the protesters, during the rally. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)

"I feel as though our rights are being infringed upon, and (I came) for my children and their future," she said.

She referred to having had to shut down her business and lay off more than 50 employees, something she believed shouldn’t have been necessary.

"The original model that they were using, (it) made sense to take precautions. But we quickly realized that model was incorrect, yet our government did not make changes to that. It continued to put people into social distancing, forced businesses to close, when we can clearly see that it wasn’t necessary."

Another protester, who carried a sign reading "COVID = Flu" and also asked not to be named, said he was here because of the effects he feared the lockdown would have on people with mental illnesses, who he said he worked with, should it continue.

"The isolation is hurting them, it’s really hurting them, and it’s gone beyond the point of being a good thing, it’s now become a really aggressive, harmful thing," he said.
Children play in front of protesters holding signs during the rally. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)

He said while at the beginning the lockdown was warranted, the province now had a responsibility to begin the re-opening process.

Manitoba began phase one of its re-opening strategy last week, which included the re-opening of many retail businesses, dental clinics, hair salons and patios.

Despite this, public gatherings of more than ten people are still restricted. The City of Winnipeg has utilized Community Service Ambassadors to educate people on proper social distancing. If people do not disperse, bylaw officers can ticket people for fines up to $1,000 and up to six months imprisonment.

Protesters were able to congregate for over an hour without intervention. When asked why there had been no bylaw officers or community service ambassadors present asking protestors to disperse, Winnipeg Police Service public information officer Jay Murray said the police "was aware of the event and monitored it accordingly."

He then referred to other instances of protesters gathering in groups during the pandemic and said the WPS recognizes the right to peaceful assembly.

"The Winnipeg Police Service places an emphasis on ensuring all peaceful assemblies remain peaceful, and as such, that often dictates our response," he said.

On Thursday, Dr. Brent Roussin said while he recognized people’s right to protest, he cautioned against congregating in large groups.

Malak Abas is a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press.