THIRD WORLD USA

In Covid-swamped Texas, patients die stranded in rural clinics

Issued on: 06/09/2021 

Carmella, 72, who had a heart attack and could not be transferred to a specialized facility, is seen waiting at Bellville Medical Center in Texas -- one of many rural clinics in the state overwhelmed with Covid patients -- on September 1, 2021 

Francois PICARD AFP/File

Houston (AFP)

Daniel Wilkinson survived two tours of duty in Afghanistan but died of gallstones, deteriorating slowly as his under-equipped doctors looked on helplessly.

Wilkinson, 46, lived only 90 minutes by car or 30 minutes by helicopter from Houston, renowned for its top-flight hospitals. The problem is the Texas health care system has been utterly overwhelmed by people suffering from the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

In this wealthy state, 14,700 people were hospitalized as of September 1, just below a record set in January as a winter Covid wave wreaked havoc across America.

"In the previous surges, we kept a little over 750 patients. Right now we’ve been running between 820 and 850 patients, so the hospitals are quite full," said Roberta Schwartz, executive vice president of Houston Methodist Hospital, which is actually a group of hospitals.

Things are so bad that a conference room at one of the facilities is being used to treat patients.

So rural health facilities are being forced to keep patients they are not equipped to care for -- like Wilkinson.

He was admitted August 21 to the only hospital in his county, a block from his home in the town of Bellville, population 4,000.

The clinic did not have the equipment to remove his gallstones, so it tried to organize a transfer by helicopter to another hospital.

"Our staff and our physician worked nonstop for over six hours trying to get him that transfer to a tertiary care center anywhere," said Daniel Bonk Fache, the CEO of Bellville Medical Center.

"Our emergency room doctor at that time actually went on Facebook trying to get him transferred," said Bonk Fache.

A doctor near the Texas capital Austin offered to take in Wilkinson, then called back five minutes later to say there was no room at his hospital.

- Find a bed, somehow -

"We get a few calls every day from rural hospital leaders that are just frantically trying to find a place to send these patients," said John Henderson, president of the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals. Sprawling Texas has 158 such facilities, more than any other US state.

Blood specimen tubes are seen in the laboratory of Bellville Medical Center in the state of Texas where hospitals are overwhelmed due to record Covid-19 hospitalizations Francois PICARD AFP

Henderson said Wilkinson's case was not an isolated one.

"I would say every day this week we’ve had a situation that didn’t end well and resulted in a patient’s death," said Johnson.

Hospital staff feel powerless and overwhelmed by the frantic search for hospital beds somewhere bigger and more equipped.

"We 'lose' a nurse essentially every day, because that nurse has to call all of the hospitals in the surrounding areas to prove that we are doing our due diligence to get them elsewhere," said Renee Poulter, who manages the nursing staff at the Bellville clinic.

"And that takes hours, hours if not the whole day spent phoning every hospital in the great state of Texas to see if anyone will accept your patient," she added.

The Bellville facility is not designed to have an intensive care unit but like many, out of necessity, it had to fashion one.

"We have a critical, ICU-level Covid-positive patient at our rural facility that we have been taking care of for 11 days because we cannot find him a higher level of care," said Poulter.

To help them, Texas is providing these uber-busy rural hospitals with respirators, oxygen and other means of stabilizing their patients. It is also bringing in nurses from other states.

Two such helpers showed up last week in Bellville, one coming from Pennsylvania and the other from Alabama, each working six shifts per week.

In one of the clinic's rooms, a 72-year-old local woman named Carmella finishes a meal while her husband keeps her company, a day after she suffered a heart attack.

"They did jump in and did as much as they possibly could, but they are just swamped. They tried to transfer me. I heard some of the phone calls. And nobody would take me," said Carmella, who did not give her last name.

"From what I understand, nobody’s leaving here," she said. "It’s a sad situation."

Carmella did eventually get better and was able to go home.

Others have not been as fortunate.

Israel mob killings bond grieving families but divide remains

Issued on: 06/09/2021 - 

Malek Hassuna, on the left, holds a picture of his son Mussa, who was shot dead by Jewish vigilantes. He sits with Effi Yehoshua, whose brother was also killed

 AHMAD GHARABLI AFP

Lod (Israel) (AFP)

Two Israeli men who lost close relatives in sectarian mob violence, one Jewish and one Arab, have bonded in grief -- but their contrasting pursuits of justice highlight a deep divide.

Both are mourning loved ones who were killed in the mixed city of Lod during the spasm of inter-communal unrest that tore through Israel during the latest Gaza war.

Malek Hassuna, who is Arab, said his 31-year-old son Mussa, a scrap metal trader, was shot dead by Jewish vigilantes on May 10, leaving behind a wife and three children.

Effi Yehoshua, who is Jewish, said his 56-year-old-brother Yigal, an electrician, was killed a day later when a rain of stones hit his car. He was survived by his wife and two children.

Seven Arab suspects have been indicted in Yigal's killing, police said.

Four Jewish suspects were arrested in Mussa's death, but then released, with no indictments filed.

"This is not justice," said Hassuna, 62, who recounted how he was mourning his son when he heard that Yigal, his work colleague, had died.

Cars were burned during the intra-communal violence between Arab and Jewish Israelis in the city of Lod near Tel Aviv 

GIL COHEN-MAGEN AFP/File

"Yigal was my friend," Hassuna told AFP.

He said he visited Yigal's grieving family and told them, "your pain is my pain".

The two bereaved men began exchanging messages and voice notes.

Months later, sitting on Hassuna's couch, Yehoshua, 58, told AFP: "Every time the wound opens, it hurts. It tries to heal and it opens again, and for Malek, the wound doesn't heal either."

- Finding the truth -

Both men say their loved ones moved easily between the Jewish and Arab communities of Lod, a working-class city of around 80,000 people.

About a third of residents are Arab citizens of Israel, the descendants of Palestinians who remained after Israel's 1948 founding.

Israelis stand in a home that was damaged by fire during the intra-communal violence in Lod 

GIL COHEN-MAGEN AFP/File

For years, Jews and Arabs shared Lod, though Arab residents complained of unequal treatment in housing and land.

The calm was shattered in May when unprecedented violence by Arab rioters and Jewish vigilantes left synagogues smouldering, Muslim gravestones smashed, and cars charred along the city's roads.

Tensions had flared nationwide after Israeli police stormed Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque in response to worshippers throwing rocks and explosives.

The fighting exploded when Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas fired rockets and Israel pounded the blockaded enclave with intense airstrikes.

"Lod never had anything like this in 70 years," Yehoshua said.

The Arab suspects indicted over Yigal's death included two West Bank residents and five Israeli citizens, police said.

According to the charges, the defendants hurled rocks through Yigal's car windows, cracking his skull and causing fatal brain damage.

Effi Yehoshua said he attends every court hearing for his brother's alleged killers.

"I believe in the legal system, believe in the security forces, that they will arrest these people and give them what they deserve," he said.

In the case of Mussa's shooting, police questioned four Jewish suspects but later released them.

"Israel makes a distinction, that it's very normal for an Arab to die in cold blood," Hassuna said.

- Wave of violence -

Israeli police told AFP they arrested 154 people, including 120 Arabs, connected to "disturbances" in Lod.

Malek Hassuna, left, holds up his phone with a picture of his late son Mussa, and Effi Yehoshua shows a photo of his late brother Yigal 

AHMAD GHARABLI AFP

Police said officers investigate "every instance of violence and murder ... without any tie to the background of the suspect or victim in a crime".

However, Jafar Farah, director of the Mossawa Center rights group for Palestinian citizens of Israel, told AFP that "there is selective implementation of law enforcement when it comes to Arab citizens".

Farah's organisation said police had arrested more than 2,300 Arab citizens since May, compared to 180 Jewish citizens.

The justice ministry did not confirm the arrest figures, but said it issued 515 indictments for various offences, with Jewish defendants comprising about 13 percent.

Among those arrested, in June, was Mussa's brother Ayoub, 29, who remains in prison on what his father argues are bogus charges.

In July, Hassuna spoke in Israel's parliament and begged for justice for Mussa.

He blamed Lod's unrest on its mayor, Yair Revivo, who had called on Jewish Israelis to come with weapons "to defend us".

"If there wasn't Yair Revivo, all would be quiet," Hassuna told lawmakers.

On his way home, Hassuna received a call from Revivo threatening to sue him and seize his property.

"Watch out for me," Revivo warned, in a taped call AFP obtained.

- 'My heart calms' -

Effi Yehoshua said he spent six days at Yigal's bedside in hospital.

His family donated Yigal's organs; a Palestinian woman from east Jerusalem received a kidney.

Israeli mourners attend the funeral of Yigal Yehoshua in the city of Modiin on May 18 ahmad gharabli AFP/File

Since then, Yehoshua has returned to his office job at a water company. He said a commercial TV channel was making a documentary about his brother.

Malek Hassuna said he is raising Mussa's children, along with six others from two sons in jail. His work as a tractor operator does not cover his expenses.

"Nobody is helping me," he said. "I'm 62, I have heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure. I worry I will collapse and my family will have a problem."

Amid the crisis, Hassuna said he found solace in his new friend.

"When I see Effi I remember Yigal and I feel secure. My heart calms," Hassuna said.

Effi Yehoshua said he, too, was enriched by the relationship.

"I've become a better man since we met," Yehoshua said of Hassuna.

"If I can be with him and all his pain and I don't let go, it's a good message for all -- not to hate."

© 2021 AFP

How will legal cannabis firms navigate Mexico’s business risks?

The Mexican senate is expected to take up cannabis legalisation this month and big international firms are eager to profit from the country’s market. But will corruption and extortion be part of the cost of doing business?

Mexico's proposal to legalise cannabis - shown growing here at a Cannativa AC research lab in Mexico City - has hit a snag in the country's senate, where a revised version of the bill is under consideration 

[File: Maurio Palos/Bloomberg]

By Ann Deslandes
3 Sep 2021

Mexico City, Mexico – Legal cannabis is coming to Mexico, and many foreign investors are chomping at the bit.

Mexico has been inching closer and closer to full legalisation ever since its Supreme Court of Justice ruled in 2018 that banning the drug was unconstitutional. In January, the country’s health ministry laid out regulations for its use for medical purposes.
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Now, a bill to legalise recreational use by people over the age of 18 is in the hands of the country’s Senate of the Republic, which is expected to vote on it this month.

There is plenty of money to be made: the size of the medical cannabis market alone in Mexico is expected to reach $249.6m by 2025, according to an analysis by United States-based consultancy Grand View Research.

Major global cannabis firms such as Canopy Growth, Biomedican and Aurora Cannabis have been keeping a close eye on the legislative developments in Mexico with a view to profit from a countrywide market once the legalisation bill passes.

Supporters of legalisation rallied in Mexico City on July 3, urging the senate to approve the measure 

[File: Ginnette Riquelme/AP Photo]

For Andres Fajardo, president of multinational cannabis company Clever Leaves, legal cannabis is set to have a nothing less than “transformative” effect on Mexico, “generating proper paying jobs or generating formal employment” along with providing new pharmaceutical options for people in need of medical care, he told Al Jazeera.

Advocates for legalisation have also claimed that sanctioning the drug will reduce the violence that comes with narcotrafficking.

Cannabis has long been an important product for Mexico’s drug cartels and the hope has been that legalisation will deprive organised criminal groups of income and reduce battles over territory for growing the plant.

But whether legalising cannabis will solve the country’s violence problem remains to be seen, as does legal cannabis firms’ ability to navigate an industry whose illicit nature has historically made it rife with corruption and extortion.

“The legal cannabis industry is likely to face security challenges, given that cannabis production and subsequent trafficking still represents a large percentage of the revenues of many organised criminal groups,” Eduardo Arcos, a senior analyst with risk management consultancy Control Risks, told Al Jazeera.
Risks of violence and extortion

There’s no denying that doing business in Mexico comes with risks of violence, theft and corruption. The country ranks 124 out of 180 worldwide on Transparency International’s 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index.

In recent years, foreign mining corporations, food distribution companies and a Coca-Cola distribution plant have all shuttered operations in Mexico due to security concerns.

A 2018 survey by the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico polled 415 executives and directors in departments related to business security and found that 42.1 percent of respondents said their companies had suffered attacks to supply-chain transport in the previous 12 months.

The organisation’s report (PDF) found that “virtual extortion, robbery and threats to employees, facilities trespassing, protests and blockades stand as recurrent security problems.”

Cannabis plants grow at a Cannativa AC research lab in Mexico City, Mexico, where proponents of the drug are hoping the country’s senate will pass a legalisation bill this month 

[File: Maurio Palos/Bloomberg]

Arcos said extortion is of particular concern to companies doing business in Mexico.

“Perpetrators target businesses based on their perceived chances of success in coercing businesses to cede to their demands, which typically involve one-off or regular payments,” he told Al Jazeera.

Coercion sometimes involves the threat or act of armed violence, kidnappings, and theft or robbery of machinery in order to exact payment from the victim for “protection” from the perpetrator.

“At the heart of extortion is protection, not necessarily violence,” Maria Teresa Martinez Trujillo, a professor and researcher at Monterrey Technological College, told Al Jazeera. “In the workplace, someone is offering you protection from a threat they represent themselves. So the source of protection and threat is the same.”

The most recent data from the Mexican national statistics agency’s annual survey of 33,866 business victims of crime shows the scope of the extortion problem. Some 688 of every 10,000 business entities reported being victims of extortion, making it the third most common crime businesses face after employee theft and the theft or damage to merchandise, money, goods or other business inputs.

Arcos noted that “businesses operating in remote locations with little presence of law enforcement, such as mining, energy and construction companies, are frequent targets of extortion by organised criminal groups”.

Remote cannabis farms could fit that bill, which could make them vulnerable to criminal groups that “wield wide-ranging control over economic activities in a given region and have the capability to significantly disrupt their operations,” he said.

Arcos added that the burgeoning legal cannabis industry in Mexico should therefore be cautious.

“Security threats for the legal cannabis industry will likely include threats of violence from organised crime, extorted concessions in exchange for permission to operate in criminally controlled areas and the threat of kidnapping of personnel,” he said.

 “Additional security threats are likely along the product supply chain, including distribution channels.”

Mitigating risk

So how might business ventures associated with a new legal cannabis industry confront violence and extortion?

Clever Leaves is hoping that its experience with Mexico’s southern neighbour, Colombia, will help. Colombia legalised medical cannabis in 2016 and has its own history of problems with drug trafficking and organised criminal groups.

Fajardo, Clever Leaves’ CEO and co-founder, said he believes choosing the right place to grow legal cannabis is essential

.

Entrepreneurs like the co-founders of Cannativa AC are hoping to cash in on legalisation as soon as it is allowed in Mexico 

[File: Maurio Palos/Bloomberg]

“We picked our locations within Colombia in regions that not only have the right agro-industrial characteristics to it in terms of weather, the humidity, the sun, exposure to the sunlight, et cetera — we also looked at the social-political factors,” he explained.

Fajardo said the firm chose to grow its crop in parts of Colombia where recent years have seen minimal violence, hiring a private investigation firm to obtain information regarding land ownership to ensure there was no conflict.

“In the region where we operate a cultivation facility, there have been zero deaths [by homicide] per 100,000 inhabitants for the last 15 years,” he said.

The facility is in the central Colombian department of Boyaca — where, Fajardo also pointed out, a Colombian army base is located close by.
Local partners

Fajardo also said strong local partnerships are essential to setting up a viable legal business.

Clever Leaves has recently entered the Mexican market as a partner of local business CBD Life, supplying the wellness company with pharmaceutical cannabis for its consumer products such as lotions and drinks infused with cannabidiol (CBD, a chemical compound found in cannabis and shown in studies to reduce pain and address the symptoms of mood disorders).

In Mexico as in anywhere, Fajardo said, the firm feels it needs a local person “who knows the market, who better understands the regulator, who can better navigate the market”.

Luis Armendariz, a cross-border business attorney specialising in Mexico’s cannabis industry, said this is precisely what he advises his clients.

Armendariz said “it’s a reality and undeniable fact that there are criminal threats or even extortion or corruption” in doing business of any kind in Mexico.

“But you can find, for example, good local partners that can guide you and represent you and bridge the gap between the government and the way that Mexican culture works.”


“These local partners can be anyone from employees or managers to joint venture partners,” he added. “If you find a good local partner, I think that’s a way to mitigate the risk.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

China created more billionaires than the U.S. Now it is cracking down.

"This is an opportunity to portray itself as a forward-thinking government that cares about its citizens," Austin Strange of University of Hong Kong said.


Sept. 5, 2021, 
By Alexander Smith and Robbie Hu

Communist China has relentlessly pursued economic growth for decades, creating more billionaires than the United States, lifting 800 million people out of poverty, but leaving another 600 million to live on $150 a month.

Now, President Xi Jinping is planning what some experts say would be a dramatic about-face, trying to restructure Chinese society by cracking down on the country's newly minted super-rich and redistributing wealth more evenly among its population of 1.4 billion.

The drive involves plans to "regulate excessively high incomes" and "encourage high-income people and enterprises to return more to society," according to a readout of Xi’s comments at a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party by the state-run news agency Xinhua.

While his slogan of "common prosperity" was hardly new among Chinese leaders, Xi's speech last month was the starkest example of his apparent plan for a reshaped society.

Some experts believe that, for the party, there is a self-preservation rationale behind the goal of better income equality. For years the Communist Party has staked its legitimacy on growth that has outpaced that of any other major economy; now that that is slowing, it may feel it has to offer a new promise: equality.

Women look at bags at Louis Vuitton's flagship store Shanghai.

China Photos / Getty Images file

"China's government is aware that both domestic and international audiences are watching," said Austin Strange, an assistant professor of politics at the University of Hong Kong. "This is an opportunity to portray itself as a forward-thinking government that cares about its citizens, including those near the bottom of the wealth distribution."

As part of the Communist Party’s sweeping vision for the future, the government has enforced a regulatory crackdown against Chinese tech giants that sent Western financial markets into a spin.

But the efforts extend beyond the economy, including everything from limiting video gaming hours for minors, to trying to stamp out a fan culture that sees teenagers "blindly idolize celebrities," as the hawkish, party-controlled newspaper Global Times put it last week.

This message resonates with Cao Xinyin, 19, a college student in Beijing whose demographic — university-educated urbanite — the Communist Party is keen to keep on its side.

"Common prosperity means that everybody can live a high-quality life," she said. "People will live a healthier life, be better behaved, have a happier mood and will be more likely to pursue and realize their dreams."

Others aren't convinced, however.

Shaun Jiang, 28, the former owner of an education company in the southwestern city of Chengdu that recently closed, said common prosperity was little more than a political slogan, lacking “a clear roadmap and feasibility."

Either way, Xi’s attempts to control the market are unprecedented, according to Bill Bikales, a New York-based economist who spent years in China working on economic policy at various United Nations agencies.

"It's quite an extraordinary situation," he said. "What's surprising is the extent to which Xi thinks that the role of the market can be restricted, and restricted and restricted again."

Political legitimacy at stake

Xi’s latest effort at state intervention might seem unsurprising for a one-party communist state. But since the 1970s, China has turned away from the Marxist zeal of former Chairman Mao Zedong and embraced reforms that opened up its economy and helped transform it into the global powerhouse of today.

An apartment building in Chongqing, the largest municipality in southwest China

.Zhou Zhiyong / AP file

More than 800 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1978, according to the World Bank, and more than half the population is now considered middle class. As of last year, there were 1,058 billionaires living in China compared with 696 in the U.S., according to the Hurun Report, a Shanghai-based organization that tracks China's wealthy population.

But although forecasts predict China's economy could overtake the U.S. in size as early as 2028, the country also has one of the highest levels of income inequality of any major world economy.

Some 600 million people — almost twice the U.S. population — are still living on the equivalent of about $150 a month, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said last year.

"The wealth disparity has been quite serious in China," said Jiangnan Zhu, an associate professor of politics at the University of Hong Kong.

China was the only major economy that expanded last year, having largely eliminated the coronavirus after it was first detected there in late 2019. But in recent years there has been an overall slowdown in the country's stratospheric economic growth, which had been a "crucial pillar of the Chinese Communist Party’s political legitimacy," according to Strange at the University of Hong Kong.

Now that "the era of breakneck economic development is over," said Ryan Hass, a senior fellow at the Washington think tank Brookings Institution, "the Chinese leadership is shifting its focus toward improving quality-of-life issues as a new source of performance legitimacy."

Meanwhile, Beijing is under growing criticism from abroad over a wide range of issues, including its increasing military activity around Taiwan, tightening grip on Hong Kong and treatment of Uyghur Muslims, which the U.S. and others have described as genocide.

A child eats a snack in her temporary 290 square-foot studio apartment in Hong Kong. Squeezed into the tiny temporary apartment, her family struggles to make ends meet in the notoriously unequal city.

Anthony Wallace / AFP via Getty Images

Some tech giants have responded to the government's regulatory crackdown by promising cash for philanthropic social programs. One of China's largest companies, Tencent Holdings Ltd., has pledged some $15 billion for a raft of initiatives, covering everything from the environment to education and rural reform to providing technological assistance for senior citizens.

Tencent said the move was a direct response to "China's wealth redistribution campaign."

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., another Chinese tech giant, pledged a similar amount on Thursday.

Along with a revamped taxation and welfare system, Xi may be planning to use these types of large charitable donations as a central driver for his reforms, said Vivian Zhan, an associate professor of politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The Communist Party has "many policy tools to regulate big companies and mobilize resources from them for redistribution and other policy goals," she said.

But the common prosperity drive still faces other challenges such as corruption, the eradication of which has been the focus of a yearslong campaign by Xi. More than 60 percent of Chinese people still believe corruption is a big problem, according to Transparency International, a nonprofit organization based in Berlin.

"Common prosperity is a good idea, nice to hear but difficult to realize," said Qin Guiying, 52, who used to work as a farmer in Sichuan province but now works at a car wash in Beijing.

"The main problem is corruption of local officials," she added. "I think the rich people will remain rich, while the poor will remain poor because of corruption."

Trump’s coup attempt has not stopped – and Democrats must wake up

He still refuses to concede and riles up supporters with his bogus claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Tens of millions of Americans believe him

A far right rally attendee holds a Donald Trump flag in Portland, Oregon in August.

 Photograph: Daniel Steinle/EPA

Robert Reich
Sun 5 Sep 2021 

The former president’s attempted coup is not stopping. He still refuses to concede and continues to rile up supporters with his bogus claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Tens of millions of Americans believe him.

Last Sunday, at a Republican event in Franklin, North Carolina, Congressman Madison Cawthorn, repeating Trump’s big lie, called the rioters who stormed the Capitol on 6 January “political hostages”.

Cawthorn also advised the crowd to begin stockpiling ammunition for what he said was likely to be American-versus-American “bloodshed” over unfavorable election results.

“Much as I am willing to defend our liberty at all costs,” he said, “there’s nothing I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American.”

On Tuesday, Texas Republicans passed a strict voter law based on Trump’s big lie – imposing new ID requirements on people seeking to vote by mail and criminal penalties on election officials who send unsolicited mail-in ballot applications, empowering partisan poll watchers, and banning drive-through and 24-hour voting.

This year, at least 18 other states have enacted 30 laws that will make it harder for Americans to vote, based on Trump’s lie.

On Thursday, at Trump’s instigation, Pennsylvania Republicans launched an investigation soliciting sworn testimony on election “irregularities”, scheduling the first hearing for next week.
Even as Trump’s attempted coup gains traction, most of America continues to sleep. We’ve become outrage-fatigued

Arizona’s Republican “audit” will report its results any day. There’s little question what they’ll show. The chief executive of Cyber Ninjas, the company hired to conduct it, has publicly questioned the election results. The audit team consists of Trump supporters and is funded by a group led by Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

The Republican chair of the Wisconsin state assembly campaigns and elections committee has begun “a full, cyber-forensic audit”, akin to Arizona’s. Trump’s first White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, says Wisconsin Republicans are prepared to spend $680,000.

These so-called audits won’t alter the outcome of the 2020 election. Their point is to cast further doubt on its legitimacy and justify additional state measures to suppress votes and alter future elections.

It’s a vicious cycle. As Trump continues to stoke his base with his big lie that the election was stolen, Republican lawmakers – out to advance their careers and entrench the GOP – are adding fuel to the fire, pushing more Americans into Trump’s paranoid nightmare.

The three top candidates to succeed Richard Burr in North Carolina all denounced the senator’s vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial. The four leading candidates to succeed Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania all embraced Trump’s call for an “audit” of election results.

A leading contender for the Senate seat being vacated by Richard Shelby in Alabama is Representative Mo Brooks, best known for urging the crowd at Trump’s rally preceding the Capitol riot to “start taking down names and kicking ass”. Brooks has been endorsed by Trump.

Yet even as Trump’s attempted coup gains traction, most of the rest of America continues to sleep. We’ve become so outrage-fatigued by his antics, and so preoccupied with the more immediate threats of the Delta variant and climate-fueled wildfires and hurricanes, that we prefer not to know.

A month ago it was reported that during his last weeks in office Trump tried to strong-arm the justice department to falsely declare the 2020 presidential election fraudulent, even threatening to fire the acting attorney general if he didn’t: “Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the [Republican] congressmen.”

The news barely registered on America’s collective mind. The Olympics and negotiations over the infrastructure bill got more coverage.

A top Trump adviser now says Trump is “definitely running” for president in 2024, even though the 14th amendment to the constitution bars anyone from holding office who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the nation.

Federal legislation that would pre-empt state voter suppression laws is bogged down in the Senate. Biden hasn’t made it a top priority. A House select committee to investigate the Capitol riot and Trump’s role is barely off the ground. The justice department has made no move to indict the former president for anything.

But unless Trump and his co-conspirators are held accountable for the damage they have inflicted and continue to inflict on American democracy, and unless Senate Democrats and Biden soon enact national voting rights legislation, Trump’s attempted coup could eventually succeed.

It is imperative that America wake up.



Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist

Five things to know about the People's Party of Canada's platform

WHITE, NATIONALIST, ANTI MIGRANT, CLIMATE DENYING, ANTI VAXXERS

The Canadian Press Staff
Saturday, September 4, 2021 

Maxime Bernier, leader of the People's Party of Canada, is campaigning on a platform that is mostly the same as the one his party put forward in 2019, with some updates to reflect the COVID-19 pandemic and the current legislative and fiscal context.

Here are five things to know about the People's Party of Canada platform:

Deficit and the economy

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The PPC would eliminate the deficit by the end of a first mandate, which they promise to achieve partly by phasing out all pandemic spending programs, cutting corporate welfare to the tune of $5-10 billion, cutting $5 billion in foreign development aid, defunding the CBC to save $1 billion, cutting equalization payments and funding for programs that fall within the responsibilities of provinces or cities.

After the deficit is eliminated they would cut personal income taxes, corporate taxes and the personal capital gains tax.

Multiculturalism and immigration

They would eliminate all multiculturalism funding and instead promote the integration of immigrants into Canadian society. They also want to "substantially" lower the total number of immigrants and refugees Canada accepts each year and accept a larger proportion of economic immigrants.

The PPC would limit the number of immigrants accepted under the family reunification program, including ending it for parents and grandparents, limit the number of temporary foreign workers and increase resources for law enforcement agencies to do background checks on immigrants.

They would also have would-be immigrants answer questions about "Canadian values and societal norms" in a face-to-face interview.

Environment

The party claims there are "uncertainties over the scientific basis of global warming" and there is no reason for government interventions. (There is a scientific consensus that climate change is caused by human activities, described in reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.)

The PPC would withdraw from the Paris agreement and abandon "unrealistic" greenhouse gas emissions-reduction targets.

It would scrap the federal carbon price and let provinces decide if they want carbon-pricing mechanisms. They would also end subsidies for green technology.

Free expression

The PPC wants to repeal any legislation or regulation curtailing free expression on the internet, repeal legislation adding gender identity to prohibited grounds of discrimination, and repeal a non-binding motion condemning Islamophobia.

They propose restricting the definition of hate speech in the Criminal Code to explicitly advocating the use of force against identifiable groups or people based on protected criteria.

As well, they would withhold funding from any post-secondary institution that violates the freedom of expression of its students or faculty.

COVID-19

The party says it would approach COVID-19 policy rationally and scientifically, protecting the most vulnerable while rejecting "coercion and discrimination."

They would fire Dr. Theresa Tam, the chief public health officer of Canada, and replace her with someone who works with provinces to implement a "rational approach" instead of following the recommendations of the World Health Organization.

They would repeal vaccine mandates and vaccine passports, as well as support legal challenges of those measures by provincial governments in court.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 4, 2021.



People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier launches his campaign during a press conference at a hotel in Saint-Georges, Que., Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot)

Housing affordability promises unlikely to influence election results: Environics Analytics


Jackie Dunham

CTVNews.ca Writer
Thursday, September 2, 2021 

TORONTO -- As the federal party leaders pitch their plans to make home ownership more affordable to Canadians, new data from Environics Analytics suggests these policy announcements are unlikely to influence the election results in a significant number of ridings.

That’s because there is a relatively small percentage of Canadian households that are planning to buy real estate in the next year, according to Environics Analytics projections.

The projections show that only 6.7 per cent, or one million of Canada’s 15 million households, intend to purchase real estate in the next year.





“It’s a relatively small percentage of households that are going to be considering getting into the real estate market,” Environics Analytics’ Rupen Seoni told CTVNews.ca during a telephone interview on Wednesday.

“So if you're not considering getting in the real estate market, or you don't want to get in the real estate market, the housing policies are maybe not going to be as relevant to you, or not going to motivate your vote as much.”

WHO WANTS TO BUY REAL ESTATE?

As for who intends to buy real estate in the near future, Seoni said it varies depending on the segment of the population. To understand this, Environics Analytics analyzed voter behaviours and socio-demographic characteristics to create 15 voter segments.

Of these voter segments, Seoni said political promises to make housing more affordable was disproportionately appealing to those in the “Big City Burbs,” “Jeunes en Villes,” and “Young in the City” voter segments.

In the “Big City Burbs” segment – a collection of prosperous suburbs mainly found in B.C., Alberta and Ontario that tends to contain well-established immigrant and second-generation professionals and service workers who are raising their children in fast-growing communities – nearly 10 per cent of households intended to be in the housing market in the next year.

This was also the case among the “Jeunes en Villes” segment, which consists of young people living in central neighbourhoods in Quebec’s cities and has many well-educated professionals with a relatively high degree of cultural diversity, where approximately 10 per cent planned to buy real estate

The projections show that only 6.7 per cent, or one million of Canada’s 15 million households, intend to purchase real estate in the next year.

Finally, in the “Young in the City” segment, which is the Anglo equivalent of “Jeunes en Ville”: young, highly educated singles and couples in English Canada’s larger cities, approximately 8 per cent of households intended to get into the real estate market.

“The populations that are likely to be in the market, they reflect where housing markets, for the most part, are hot,” Seoni said, "right in and around the big cities. “You've got a combination of young people, and you've got ... families, younger to mature and families, that are probably trying to upsize their homes.”

Notably, the data showed that none of the top ridings with the highest percentage of households intending to buy real estate were in British Columbia, despite the province’s hot housing market.

“Clearly, in terms of people intending to be in the home-buying market, what I'm extrapolating from that information, is that there may be sort of a latent demand for new housing in B.C. But it's just so expensive that a lot of people are just saying, ‘I'm not even going to try,’” Seoni said.
LIBERAL STRONGHOLDS

Seoni said it was interesting to discover that of the 41 ridings with the highest percentage of households intending to be in the market, the majority (34) were Liberal strongholds during the 2019 federal election.

“What I thought was super interesting about the actual riding breakdown of where you see the highest percentage of households that are intending to be in the market for a home is how overwhelmingly Liberal they were in the last election. That blew me away,” he said.

What’s more, of these 41 ridings, very few were competitive in the 2019 election and most were won by margins of 20 per cent or more over the second-place party.

“[I’m] not saying that there couldn't be upsets in any of those ridings where they could switch parties, but it's probably not going to be just on this issue,” he said.

View full-screen version of interactive map by Esri Canada

Ultimately, Seoni said that if the parties are just trying to create policies with targeted benefits to a specific segment of voters, in this case prospective homebuyers, he doesn’t think it will be the most effective strategy to win votes, based on their data.

However, he said the parties have the opportunity to augment their brand by trying to address shortcomings in the housing market as part of their platform policies based on their principles and doing the right thing for Canadians.

“And there seems to be enough of a groundswell of interest, that hopefully the parties will mobilize themselves and propose policies that will actually fix the things that are wrong,” he said.

METHODOLGY:

Housing marketing purchase intention estimates are from Environics Analytics’ Opticks Powered by Vividata database. Estimates are updated annually based on survey data from Vividata that are projected to six-digit postal codes using geodemographic modelling methods. Property values are from EA’s WealthScapes database, which contains annual neighbourhood-level estimates for about 100 financial variables (types of assets and debt), with about 20 of these being updated quarterly.



Snapshot of an Esri Canada map showing the top 41 ridings with the highest percentage of households in the market to puchase real estate, based on data by Environics Analytics (Esri Canada)

The Pandemic Turned Me Into a Witch

By Daniel Zomparelli

Photo: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images

It was over dinner at the local Italian family restaurant in my hometown of Burnaby, British Columbia, that my father first told us he believed he was cursed. My father, an Italian immigrant whose two usual go-to lines are “go to bed” and “what is your job?”, had the red-wine mouth of a Star Wars villain; he started to get chatty. A curse, he told us, had been placed on him when he was a young man in Italy and he brought along the curse when he emigrated to Canada. It’s the reason he has anxiety (which he calls “being sick”) and the reason for anything bad that has happened to our family. When pushed on it further, he claimed he had proof. A witch (a strega, in Italian) had once cracked an egg in front of him and the yolk poured out black.

That story, believe it or not, explained a lot. Like why my older aunts constantly warned me against people putting curses on each other; or the way they said my nervous cough was something more than just a bad case of GERD; and that I’d been taught to believe that open windows would “let the evil in.” One time I visited one of my oldest aunts in Burnaby and four other Italian widows, all wearing black, showed up out of nowhere and spent the day feeding me meatballs and complimenting me. I left feeling superhuman; was this a coven? It wasn’t, but still. Witchcraft was, in some way, part of the family.

A few years after that “curse” dinner, my family gathered to celebrate my dad’s birthday. His birthday falls near the Epiphany, a celebration of the 12th day of Christmas. One of my older, impeccably silver-haired aunts came up to me and asked in Italian if I remembered her: “Ti ricordi me?” I said yes, obviously, but she asked again if I knew her. “Lo sono Befana,” she joked, claiming she was the Befana. Known mostly as the Italian gift-giver, La Befana appears on Epiphany Eve, flying around giving toys to good children and garlic or coal to the naughty ones. A witch who loved Christmas?! I thought, Legendary.

This was also around the time that I’d begun the immigration process to be with my husband in America — an especially stressful life change for someone who up until then had never lived more than ten miles from family. We got married and moved into our first home together in L.A., and soon after found ourselves browsing the local mainstay witch store, House of Intuition. It’s the kind of place that sells “moon ritual items” and “healing boxes.” Turns out, we’d both been into witchcraft at a young age, even owning versions of the Book of Shadows, thanks to Charmed and The Craft.

Growing up Catholic, I attended Catechism, a weekly religious school where I was constantly in trouble for giggling. (Like that time a priest was illustrating how large the ceremonial pillar candle was by, uh, using a long stroking motion with his hands.) There, I was taught that witchcraft was sinful. Now, in a store dedicated to witches, I felt like I was getting to enjoy, wait for it, a forbidden fruit. At House of Intuition, after a detour in crystals (they’re pretty), I headed straight to the shop’s candles-and-oils section. A wall full of prayer candles of every color stared back at me. There were candles for everything: positivity, success, even ridding of spirits, which is a candle I refuse to buy just in case the spirits of my mom and sister won’t like it. We settled on the House Blessing candle and Creativity candle.

At home, we followed the instructions, oiling the wick with the corresponding intention oil while mentally imbuing our intentions onto the candle before letting it burn entirely. We were back in the shop every other week after that. It became a ritual for us, lighting a candle when we felt like we needed a boost of magic in our life: an upcoming deadline, a writer’s block, just a bad funk of negativity.

Fast-forward a couple years into living in America, and I was finally feeling more comfortable and less anxious about being in a new, big city in a new, big country — then the pandemic hit. Without warning, I felt farther away from my family than ever before with the border between America and Canada shut down. As someone who already suffers from very bad anxiety, I was struggling. So I did the only thing I could think of: ordered more candles and oils online.

Here’s the thing about doing spellwork: The process forces me to take note of where I am, what I want, and where I want to go. It grounds me in a way that makes me feel connected to a world that I can sometimes feel outside of. When the pandemic began and someone I care for deeply became very sick, I did a spell to feel hope that I would see her again, that the vaccine would happen, that we would be reunited once more. And yes, it really, seriously did help. From there, I did spells for everyone/thing: family members who weren’t feeling well, friends who needed help not texting exes, at least one divorce settlement.

Despite the passed-down traditions of believing in curses and witches, I didn’t tell my family about any of this. (Telling some old Catholics you’re doing a spell usually doesn’t go over well.) They prefer to ask for prayers, which is what this was, in a way — hoping for, and visualizing, good vibes for my loved ones sans all the baggage that comes with being queer and raised Catholic.

Sure, there is the part of my brain that knows the act of my oiling a wick, while picturing someone or something and imagining we’re in the same space together, has no real-world effect on, say, my family’s well-being. But in that brief moment, after oiling the wick, imagining the cells in their body creating protective antibodies, my brain feels calm. And that, even if just for a second, gives me a sense of control amid chaos. For someone who had given up on spirituality after trying to “pray the gay away,” I found something I had unknowingly longed for. Oh, and as for my dad’s curse, he claimed two years ago that the spell had been lifted. The woman who cursed him must have passed away, he says. If anything else happens, at least he has a witch in the family now.

Edmonton business owners reward vaccinated staff following province’s $100 incentive for unvaccinated

By Chris Chacon Global News
Posted September 4, 2021 


To incentivize Albertans who have not yet received their first or second COVID-19 vaccine shot, the Alberta government will give you a one-time payment of $100. But with that cash only being offered to the unvaccinated or those needing a second dose, one Edmonton business owner has taken matters into his own hands to give back to those who already have both their shots. Chris Chacon reports

To incentivize Albertans who have not yet received their first or second COVID-19 vaccine shot, the Alberta government will give you a one-time payment of $100.

But with that cash only being offered to a select number of people, one Edmonton business owner has taken matters into his own hands to give back to those who already have both their shots.

READ MORE: Alberta introduces new COVID-19 measures, offers $100 incentive to increase vaccine numbers

“When I woke up this morning, and he gave me the news, I was ecstatic,” Warp 1 Comics and Games employee Ethan Jordan said.

“It’s a pretty awesome thing to do,” Warp 1 Comics and Games employee Andrew Traynor said.

Staff members at Edmonton’s Warp 1 Comics and Games began their Saturday shift on a high note.

“We have decided, as a small business, to reward our employees,” Warp 1 Comics and Games owner David Bryenton said.

That reward is a $100 gift card for each vaccine every employee has received.

READ MORE: Alberta introduces new COVID-19 measures, offers $100 incentive to increase vaccine numbers

It’s a contrast to the incentive announced Friday by the province for unvaccinated Albertans or people needing a second dose.

People 18 or older who get an approved COVID-19 vaccine between Sept. 3 and Oct. 14 will get a $100 debit card.

“I felt bad for my staff having asked them to make sure they are protected, that they protect the rest of society out there and that they are not getting rewarded,” Bryenton said.

University of Calgary health law and policy associate professor Lorian Hardcastle said she understands the need for businesses owners who want to reward vaccinated employees, but that responsibility ultimately lies elsewhere.

“We now have this patchwork system where we have business owners and others trying to fill in gaps that should have been filled by the government,” Hardcastle said.

Hardcastle said this latest incentive may slightly boost vaccination rates, but its impacts are difficult to know.

READ MORE: Alberta weddings and events hit by latest COVID-19 restrictions

Bryenton is challenging other businesses capable of rewarding their vaccinated employees to do so.

“I thought it was an amazing idea, so I told him I was going to jump on board, and I’m going to do the same thing,” Kingsgate Automotives owner Wayne Paulsen said after learning about what Bryenton has done for this staff.

Paulsen said it was an easy choice to want to recognize employees who got vaccinated and helped many struggling businesses stay open.

“They deserve a lot more because they’ve sacrificed a lot over the last almost two years now, but it’s the least I can do,” Paulsen said.

© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

'Let's stop underestimating this virus': Doctors call for vaccine passports in Alberta


CTV News EdmontonStaff
Saturday, September 4, 2021 

Doctors push for vaccine passport in Alberta

NOW PLAYING
Concern and disappointment are just two words being used to describe the province’s plan to fight surging cases. Amanda Anderson reports.


EDMONTON -- Some doctors are disappointed with Alberta’s government for not introducing vaccine passports, which they say would be a better tool to fight the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had hope and then we entered a dark phase where all of a sudden we lost our leadership,” said Dr. Darren Markland, an ICU physician.

On Friday, Alberta announced financial incentives in the form of $100 gift cards for unvaccinated people if they get vaccinated. This is in addition to the Open for Summer Lottery, which recently drew for its second $1-million prize.

“It does not work,” said Markland. “The people who’ve decided not to get vaccine won’t until they literally get skin in the game and that skin is to participate in their previous lives, which everybody wants, so no, a hundred bucks isn’t going to do it.”

On Friday, Health Minister Tyler Shandro said that financial incentives have been used successfully in the U.S. An infectious disease physician called the evidence around such incentives “mixed.”

“New York City offered $100 incentives and that wasn’t sufficient and they’ve fundamentally needed to institute vaccine passports,” said Dr. Leyla Asadi. “Let’s stop underestimating this virus, please, please, now, finally… and do what we need and get through this.

“We don’t want to be shutting down businesses, businesses have been through enough and it fundamentally seems unfair to have to keep doing that when we could say, ‘Okay, if you are at high risk of becoming infected or spreading the virus we don’t want you in these places where you could be a super spreader.’”

The premier has stated that vaccine passports will not be implemented in Alberta.

“We really need to move to this model where we’re not punishing everybody, where we acknowledge that we need to take measures to reduce the number of cases, we acknowledge that there’s potential for strain on the health care system but we want to take steps that are not as drastic as what we had previously,” said Asadi.

With COVID-19 cases in the province rising, Alberta Health Services is postponing non-urgent surgeries in all five health zones.

More surgeries postponed in Alberta because of jump in COVID-19

“A scheduled surgery is not a minor thing, someone might have waited 12 months or longer to get their hip fixed because they can’t walk without pain,” said Dr. Paul Parks, Alberta Medical Association Emergency Medicine Section president. “The choices people, Albertans, are making right now to not get vaccinated are impacting other people.”

According to AHS CEO Dr. Verna Yiu, intensive care units across the province were sitting at 95 per cent full as of Friday.

“One of the things people forget… is that we need those ICU beds for non-COVID patients too,” said Parks.

With schools back in session, Asadi said that it is only a matter of time before community transmission rates increase.

“I would’ve liked to see the province say, ‘Okay, in schools we want to invest in better ventilation, filtration with portable HEPA filters, I would’ve liked to see them encourage masking in schools,” said Asadi.

“To pretend that transmission somehow doesn’t happen in schools, I don’t think that that’s founded in the science, I don’t think that that’s a reasonable stance anymore.”

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