Tennis star Osaka adds powerful voice to protests over police brutality in US

Issued on: 30/05/2020 -

Protests: Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka JOSE JORDAN AFP/File


Los Angeles (AFP)

Two-time Grand Slam tennis champion Naomi Osaka joined the chorus of athletes condemning the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of Minneapolis police, posting pictures of protests from the Minnesota city on her Instagram account.

"Just because it isn't happening to you doesn't mean it isn't happening at all," wrote Osaka, whose mother is Japanese and whose father is Haitian.

"It's funny to me that the people who wanna wear chains, blast hip hop in the gym, attempt to get dapped up, and talk in slang are suddenly quiet right now," added Osaka, the former world number one who was this week touted by Forbes magazine as the highest-paid female athlete in the world with earnings of $37.4 million (34.3 million euros).

Minneapolis, Minnesota, has become the epicenter of violent protests since George Floyd died there on Monday after police officer Derek Chauvin pinned him to the ground for several minutes by kneeling on his neck.

Chauvin has been charged with murder and negligent manslaughter, but protests across the country have turned violent.

US sports stars attuned to social issues were quick to voice outrage at Floyd's death.

Three-time NBA champion LeBron James contrasted the knee on Floyd's neck with the kneeling protests of former NFL star Colin Kaepernick in 2016.

Kaepernick, who was ostracized by the NFL for kneeling during the national anthem in protest against racial injustice, has launched a fund to pay for legal representation for protesters who need it.

In Germany on Saturday, Schalke's American midfielder Weston McKennie wore a "Justice for George" armband in his team's 1-0 Bundesliga loss to Werder Bremen.

"To be able to use my platform to bring attention to a problem that has been going on too long feels good!!!" the 21-year-old tweeted.

Rising US tennis star Coco Gauff applauded Osaka's Instagram's post on Saturday.

The 16-year-old African American, who burst onto the international scene with a fourth-round run at Wimbledon last year that included a triumph over her idol Venus Williams, had posted her own chilling condemnation of Floyd's death on social media on Friday.

In a video she referenced a number of unarmed black Americans who died in recent years at the hands of authorities or white fellow citizens.

"Am I next?" Gauff asked.

© 2020 AFP

Nike says "Don't Do It" on racism

Issued on: 30/05/2020 -

San Francisco (AFP)

Nike has taken a stand against racism with a "Don't do it" campaign, a twist on its famous catch phrase, as protests against police brutality spread across the United States.

"For once, Don't Do It... Don't pretend there's not a problem in America," the US sports apparel giant said in a video posted to Twitter late Friday.

The message came as protesters across the United States took to the streets against the treatment of George Floyd, an African American who died in the hands of police in Minneapolis earlier this week.

In a rare sign of solidarity, competitor Adidas retweeted the video, with a message stating: "Together is how we move forward. Together is how we make change."

Floyd's death on Monday was captured in a horrifying cellphone video now seen around the world, in which a white police officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes until well after he went motionless, while three other officers stood by.

"Don't turn your back on racism. Don't accept innocent lives being taken from us. Don't make any more excuses. Don't think this doesn't affect you," Nike said in the video, in which white words appear across a black background.

The campaign hardly marks the first time Nike, whose "Just Do It" slogan is known worldwide, has waded into US social justice issues.

In September 2018, Nike made waves when it released an advertising campaign featuring US football player and activist Colin Kaepernick, criticized for kneeling during the US national anthem at games in protest at racism.

© 2020 AFP

'Justice for George': Schalke's US footballer in armband protest
30/05/2020 -

Schalke's US midfielder Weston McKennie (1st-R) wears an armband reading "Justice for George" during Saturday's defeat to Werder Bremen. Bernd Thissen POOL/AFP

Berlin (AFP)

Schalke's American midfielder Weston McKennie on Saturday wore a 'Justice for George' armband as part of the growing protests over the death of an unarmed black man during a police arrest in Minneapolis in the United States.

"To be able to use my platform to bring attention to a problem that has been going on too long feels good!!!," tweeted 21-year-old McKennie after the 1-0 loss to Werder Bremen.

"We have to stand up for what we believe in and I believe that it is time that we are heard! #justiceforgeorgefloyd #saynotoracism."

George Floyd died in Minneapolis in an arrest by a police officer who pinned him to the ground for several minutes by kneeling on his neck.

Derek Chauvin was charged Friday with one count of third-degree murder -- unintentionally causing a death -- and one count of negligent manslaughter.

McKennie's USA team-mate Jozy Altidore, who plays for FC Toronto, saluted the Schalke player.

"Salute lil bro," tweeted Altidore.

McKennie is the latest American sports star to add his voice to the protests after US tennis player Coco Gauff on Friday posted "Am I next?" on a TikTok video on her Twitter feed.

McKennie grew up in Texas, but spent part of his childhood in Germany and joined Schalke as a junior from Dallas Academy in 2016.

He has made 19 appearances for the United States national team since 2017.

© 2020 AFP

AMERICAN NURSES WALK OUT OVER PPE

Pope calls for end to 'pandemic of poverty' after virus
Issued on: 31/05/2020

"From the great trials of humanity -- among them this pandemic -- one emerges better or worse," said Pope Francis as he marked the feast of the Pentacost Handout VATICAN MEDIA/AFP/File
Vatican City (AFP)

Pope Francis called on Saturday for a "more just and equitable society" in the post-coronavirus world, and for people to act to "end the pandemic of poverty".

"Once we emerge from this pandemic, we will not be able to keep doing what we were doing, and as we were doing it. No, everything will be different," he said, speaking in Spanish in a video message to mark the feast of Pentecost.

"From the great trials of humanity -- among them this pandemic -- one emerges better or worse. You don't emerge the same. I ask this of you: how do you want to come out of it? Better or worse?" he added.


People needed to open their minds and hearts to learn the central lesson from this crisis: "We are one humanity," said the pope.

"We know it, we knew it, but this pandemic that we are living through has made us experience it in a much more dramatic way," he added.

Now there was a duty to build a new reality particularly for the poorest, who had been discarded, the pope said.

"All the suffering will be of no use if we do not build together a more just, more equitable, more Christian society, not in name but in reality," he added.

He called for action to "end the pandemic of poverty in the world".

© 2020 AFP

Trump warns cities, states to get ‘much tougher’ on anti-police protests
HE BLAMES HIS FAVORITE BAD GUYS THE ANTI-FA (AUNTY-TEA-FA)

NO MENTION OF WHITE SUPREMACISTS WHICH IS WHO WAS CAUSING THE 

VANDALISM IN ATTEMPT TO CREATE A RACE WAR JUST FOR THEIR GREAT LEADER 

Issued on: 30/05/2020

Security forces on May 30, 2020 block the entrance to Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC during a protest against the death in police custody of George Floyd. REUTERS - YURI GRIPAS

Text by:FRANCE 24Follow|

Video by:FRANCE 24Follow

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that states and cities must get "much tougher" on anti-police protests or the federal government will step in, including by using the military and making arrests.

"Liberal Governors and Mayors must get MUCH tougher or the Federal Government will step in and do what has to be done, and that includes using the unlimited power of our Military and many arrests," Trump said in a tweet.

Crossing State lines to incite violence is a FEDERAL CRIME! Liberal Governors and Mayors must get MUCH tougher or the Federal Government will step in and do what has to be done, and that includes using the unlimited power of our Military and many arrests. Thank you!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2020

The warning followed several nights of unrest in some US cities as anger mounted over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes earlier this week in Minneapolis.

Peaceful protests were held across the country Saturday with demonstrators chanting, "I can't breathe," a reference to Floyd's last words recorded in video footage that went viral earlier this week.

#BlackLivesMatters protest going on now in Philadelphia, PA at The Philadelphia Museum of Art (Rocky Steps) pic.twitter.com/88lgEO4MzF— Cam Countryman (@CamCountryman3) May 30, 2020

Pentagon puts units on alert as ‘prudent planning measure’

The Pentagon said Saturday it was ready to provide military help to authorities scrambling to contain unrest in Minneapolis, but Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had not requested federal troops.

Jonathan Rath Hoffman, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said several military units had been placed on higher alert “as a prudent planning measure” in case Walz asked for help. Hoffman did not identify the units, but other officials said they are mainly military police.

Hoffman said these were units normally on 48-hour recall to support state authorities in the event of crises like natural disasters.

Defence officials said there was no intent by the Pentagon to deploy any federal forces to Minnesota unless Walz asked for help. If he did make such a request, federal units such as military police could provide logistical and other kinds of support to the Minnesota National Guard or state law enforcement, but would not get directly involved in law enforcement under current plans, the officials said.

Riots ‘no longer’ about Floyd’s murder

In Minnesota, Walz fully mobilised the state’s National Guard and promised a massive show of force to help quell unrest that has grown increasingly destructive.

“The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” Walz said. “It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.”

Meanwhile one person was killed in downtown Detroit late Friday, a Detroit police spokeswoman said Saturday.

The shooting occurred near Detroit's Greektown entertainment district as officers were confronted with dozens of protesters, said Sgt. Nicole Kirkwood, a police spokeswoman. She said an officer wasn't involved in the shooting.

A police report released Saturday said the shooting victim, a 21-year-old man, was sitting in the driver's seat of a silver Dodge Caliber in a parking lot with two other male occupants when an unknown person fired shots into the vehicle and then fled on foot.

Of the 60 people who were arrested in Detroit's overnight protest, 37 don't live in the city, police Chief James Craig said Saturday. Although Detroit is about 80 percent black, many of those arrested were white.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

THE AHMAUD ARBERY MURDER VIDEO  LIKE THE GEORGE FLOYD MURDER VIDEO 

THIS TOO IS A SNUFF FILM 

BY ALL DEFINITIONS OF THE TERM 

THE INTERNET IS THE AGE OF THE SNUFF SHOW

Snuff film - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Snuff_film

Jump to Definition - A snuff film, or snuff movie, is "a movie in a purported genre of movies in which a person is actually murder or commits suicide. ... Some filmed records of executions and murders exist, but in those cases, the death was not specifically staged for financial gain or entertainment.

THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING 

A Law Enforcement Officer Shot At A Reporter With Pepper Balls While She Covered A Protest On Air

Kaitlin Rust was reporting on air when an officer approaches her and her crew and appears to aim directly at them.

Clarissa-Jan Lim BuzzFeed News Reporter May 30, 2020

The Louisville Metro Police Department has apologized after an officer appeared to aim directly at a local reporter covering the protests Friday night to shoot pepper bullets at her and her crew.

Kaitlin Rust, a journalist with the Louisville network Wave 3, was standing near a row of Louisville Metro police officers with her mic and camera crew when she starts yelling, "I'm getting shot!" The camera then turns to a uniformed officer who points a pepper ball gun at them and continues shooting.


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"Rubber bullets, rubber bullets. I'm OK," Rust says. "It's those pepper bullets."

"Who are they aiming that at?" an anchor asks.

"At us, directly at us!" Rust answers, as the bullets continue pelting her. She also tells her colleagues off air that she doesn't know why they're shooting at her.



Timothy Burke@bubbaprog

Police literally opening fire on the free press.02:09 AM - 30 May 2020
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Louisville, Kentucky has been rocked by heated protests this week as anger over the death of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by LMPD officers in her home in March, bubbled over in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis after an officer put him in a knee chokehold.

The LMPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The department's spokesperson Jessica Halladay told CNN they were not able to confirm whether the officer in the video is with the LMPD, though he could be a member of its special response team.

Halladay said Rust should not have been singled out because she is a reporter, if that were the case, and that police do not intend to target members of the media who are covering the protests.

It's not the first time a reporter was targeted by law enforcement while covering the protests against police killings that have roiled the country.

In Minneapolis, CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his two colleagues were arrested on air early Friday while covering the protest against Floyd's death. They were released shortly after, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz later apologized, calling it "totally unacceptable."


MORE ON THIS
A 26-Year-Old Woman Was Fatally Shot By Police In Her Home, And Now Kentucky’s Attorney General Is Investigating 

Stephanie K. Baer · May 14, 2020

A Black CNN Reporter And His Crew Were Arrested Live On Air At The Minneapolis Protests

Julia Reinstein · May 29, 2020

There Were Massive Protests Around The Country For A Second Night In Response To The Killings Of George Floyd And Breonna Taylor

Amber Jamieson · May 29, 2020

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News. She is based in New York.

IT'S FRIDAY, PURGE DAY

LOU DOBBS FOX CABINET SECRETARY

Trump justice department forces out top FBI lawyer in Flynn case – report

NBC News: general counsel Dana Boente forced out on Friday

Fox News host Lou Dobbs slammed lawyer in April

Flynn transcripts show he discussed sanctions with Russian
Martin Pengelly in New York
@MartinPengelly

Sat 30 May 2020
 

Dana Boente in 2015 became the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, after being nominated by Barack Obama. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

A top FBI lawyer who was criticised on Fox News for his role in the investigation of Michael Flynn has resigned after being asked to do so by senior figures at the Department of Justice, NBC News reported on Saturday.

The FBI confirmed to NBC that Dana Boente, its general counsel and a former acting attorney general, announced his resignation on Friday after a near-40-year career. NBC cited two sources anonymous sources as saying the decision came from “Attorney General William Barr’s justice department”.

Boente joined the DoJ in 1984 and in 2015 became the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, after being nominated by Barack Obama.

In January 2017, he briefly served as acting attorney general, after Trump fired Sally Yates, an Obama-era deputy, for refusing to defend an executive order on immigration.

Temporarily overseeing the investigation of Russian election interference, Boente signed a warrant authorising FBI surveillance of Flynn.

The retired general, Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, was fired for lying to the vice-president about contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the conversations and cooperated with the special counsel Robert Mueller as he took over the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.

Flynn sought to withdraw his guilty plea before sentencing. Earlier this month, Barr said the justice department would drop the case, although a federal judge put that decision on hold.

On Friday, the same day Boente was forced out of the FBI, Trump’s new director of intelligence and Senate Republicans released transcripts of the calls in question, between Flynn and the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Opponents of the president said the transcripts proved that Flynn had been treated fairly. Supporters of Trump said they showed Flynn had been treated unfairly.

As Trump attempts to construct a scandal called “Obamagate”, with the surveillance of Flynn at its centre, his administration is releasing material it hopes will put Obama officials in a bad light.

Boente also wrote a leaked memo concerning material put into the public domain about Flynn, which he said was not exculpatory.

Trump is notoriously open to the views of key Fox News contributors.

On 27 April, the Fox News host Lou Dobbs told viewers: “Shocking new reports suggest FBI general counsel Dana Boente was acting in coordination with FBI director Christopher Wray to block the release of that evidence that would have cleared General Flynn.”

Trump has reportedly been urged to fire Wray, whom he appointed to replace James Comey, the man he fired in May 2017 in an attempt to close the Russia investigation.

Comey’s firing led to the appointment of Mueller, who concluded a near-two year investigation without proving criminal conspiracy between Trump and Russia.

ueller did, however, obtain convictions of Trump aides and say in his report the campaign was receptive to Russian help. He also laid out extensive evidence of attempts by the president to obstruct his investigation.

Trump has fired or forced out FBI and DoJ figures including Andrew McCabe, Comey’s deputy, lawyer Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, an FBI agent who worked on the case.

On Friday, Wray issued a statement about Boente.

“Few people have served so well in so many critical, high-level roles at the department,” he said. “Throughout his long and distinguished career as a public servant, Dana has demonstrated a selfless determination to ensure that justice is always served on behalf of our citizens.”

ANTI-VAXXERS ARE PARENT RIGHTS ACTIVISTS & HOME SCHOOLERS
In a recent survey, 24% of Americans said they will refuse a coronavirus vaccine. Adam Gabbatt investigates the anti-vaxxer movement in the United States – and how the pandemic is helping to fuel its resurgence
Another threat looming in the fight against coronavirus: anti-vaxxers
Adam Gabbatt, Tom Silverstone, Katie Lamborn and Charlie Phillips

Fri 29 May 2020 

WHAT IS ANARCHY? IT'S AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE

     WE ALL ARE!





 

THANK PIRATES FOR THE ORIGIN OF INSURANCE
LLOYDS BANK WAS THE FIRST INSURANCE COMPANY TO INSURE BRITISH SHIPPING FOR PIRACY

AND BECAUSE OF INSURANCE ANY LOOTED OR VANDALIZED BUSINESSES 
WILL BE REPAID IF THEY ARE INSURED 

THEFT IS NOT A CAPITAL CRIME


SHOOTING LOOTERS IS 

OF COURSE IT IS

US government is funding website spreading Covid-19 disinformation

State Department-backed Armenian project to promote democracy instead features false information


Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Andrew Roth in Moscow

Thu 28 May 2020  THE GUARDIAN

A hospital worker (C) wearing a protective face mask and outfit, speaks with two ambulance doctors wearing yellow protective suits at the Grigor Lusavorich Medical Centre in Yerevan amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Photograph: Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images

The US government is funding a website in Armenia which is spreading disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, including warnings that Armenians ought to “refuse” future vaccine programmes.

The website, Medmedia.am, was launched with the help of a US State Department grant meant to promote democracy, but instead has been used to promote false information about Covid-19, according to an investigation by the British news website openDemocracy.

Among Medmedia’s most popular articles are pieces that have called Covid-19 a “fake pandemic” and falsely reported that a morgue offered to pay hundreds of dollars to a dead patient’s family if they claimed the death had been caused by the coronavirus.

The grant was awarded by the State Department to a group called the Armenian Association of Young Doctors, which launched the website last year and is led by a controversial doctor called Gevorg Grigoryan.
He has been known for his strong criticism of the government’s health ministry and its vaccine programmes, and has a history of anti-LGBT statements, including remarks posted on Facebook in 2014 in which he called for gay people to be burned.

Grigoryan, who has claimed that he is not opposed to vaccinations, has teamed up with a prominent journalist and lawyer, both with reported ties to a far-right party called Veto, to create what they called a public fact-finding group on the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.

This week, the group’s official Facebook page claimed that the government led by prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, who led a nonviolent reform movement before his election, had “completely failed the fight” against coronavirus. Grigoryan said he was not aligned with a specific political party and denied that Medmedia or the fact-finding project were political fronts aimed at opposing the government.

“If we look at everything from a political point of view then we’re not going to go very far,” he said. “But from an expert point of view, the statistics speak for themselves.”

Armenia has reported about 7,100 coronavirus cases and a rising rate of infections. The country has also grappled with a drop in childhood vaccine rates, which the health minister, Arsen Torosyan, has blamed on anti-vaccine propaganda.

The State Department declined to comment on questions about the size of the grant or its review process.

A post on the US embassy’s website in Armenia said grants under the Democracy Commission Small Grants Program – which are worth up to $50,000 – are awarded on a competitive basis to local NGOs and are meant to focus on issues like transparency and accountability in governance, advancing human rights, eliminating corruption, and enhancing economic growth and development.

But the openDemocracy investigation found that, while Medmedia had published some news articles, most of its opinion pieces were republished Facebook posts that spread false information.

Grigoryan told the Guardian that the US embassy in Armenia had contacted him with “concerns” about op-eds and articles on the site. But, he said: “I am sure I was able to answer all those questions and those concerns disappeared. The site is not an anti-vaccine forum.”


He would not say how much money was given to his Armenian Association for Young Doctors by the US embassy, or how much of that was invested in the website. He called it a “small amount” and addressed questions on specifics to the US embassy. The grant period is due to end in several days, he said.

A disclaimer on the Medmedia website said the site was US-funded but that its articles “do not necessarily reflect” the views of the US government.

Grigoryan defended the articles in an interview with the Guardian, saying the website had been “created to make the voice of the public heard”. “If someone says that Armenia should refuse vaccinations and the government refutes this with weighty proof, it’s already served [the public] good,” he said.

Asked specifically about the articles, he said that he didn’t share their opinions but said they would not be taken down. “It’s not fake news,” he said. “It’s the opinion of a specialist, the opinion of a doctor, of the head of an NGO. It’s an opinion. So it’s not fake news.”

He denied that posting the articles could pose a public health risk, saying they would “initiate discussion.”

While he denied being personally opposed to vaccines, he claimed the articles on his site were representative of skepticism about vaccines in Armenian society.

“The problem is that due to the government’s incorrect [information] policy these kinds of articles are becoming widespread,” he said.

Grigoryan said his past anti-LGBT statements, including one that said he would “always fight against gays,” had been misinterpreted and were prompted by specific cases of “anti-social behaviour.” Asked about a Facebook post from 2014 in which he wrote that “gays should be burnt and in a public place”, he said that the post was a reference to the film Pulp Fiction and was meant as a joke.

'Here's a bedsheet, make a parachute!' Republicans say, pushing us out of a planeHamilton Nolan

The heart of the Republican governing philosophy causes ludicrously insufficient responses to an existential crisis

Fri 29 May 2020 
 

‘The fundamental purpose of the Republican party is to cut taxes and otherwise serve the interests of the rich.’ Photograph: Vladimir Smirnov/Tass

The Republican fetish for “work” has always been a sham. The prime beneficiaries of Republican policies are, after all, the investor class, who by definition make their money while not working. As our current economic crisis worsens, Republicans cling to ideas that become increasingly separated from reality, like fundamentalists rejecting modern medicine even as their family member is dying. All of you, go back to work, or die trying!

Most of the world has asked people to stop going to work – temporarily, in theory – for the sake of public health. In the wiser countries of the world, the government is covering the payrolls of businesses through the worst part of these shutdowns, which has the dual benefits of helping employers not go broke, and keeping workers paid and employed until things can start getting back to normal.

America, of course, did not do anything so rational. Instead, we just sweetened unemployment benefits, forcing nearly 40 million people to pile into broken and dysfunctional state unemployment systems, while millions more give up altogether. The US did an excellent job propping up the financial markets, a mediocre job giving lifelines to businesses, and a poor job saving working people. And now, as we stare down the worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression, Republicans in Congress have a bright idea: cutting off the extra money we’ve been giving to unemployed people, and instead incentivizing work. As if workers needed more incentive than desperately trying to avoid starvation.

Rob Portman, the Republican senator from Ohio, is proposing a temporary new $450-a-week bonus for unemployed people who go back to work. Consider the wonderful benefits this would provide: the Republicans will do away with the $600-a-week benefit you are currently getting for the unemployment you were forced into, and instead offer you a lesser amount in order to return to your job that no longer exists. The government’s failure to put in place a coherent response to this crisis from the beginning – a failure that will now force countless small businesses to close forever and will leave tens of millions of people persistently unemployed and tens of millions more newly stuck in part-time jobs without benefits – will now be compounded by a weird adherence to the idea that everyone is dying to cling to public benefits for the rest of their lives, unless we force them to do otherwise. Portman’s plan is like pushing someone out of a plane and then offering them some string and a bed sheet on the way dow – incentivize them to make their own parachute, rather than lazily relying on a government handout. (Republicans are also pushing a capital gains tax “holiday”, so the investor class will be handed two parachutes each, just in case anything goes wrong with the first.)

It is the lie at the heart of the Republican governing philosophy that causes all of these ludicrously insufficient responses to an existential crisis. The fundamental purpose of the Republican party is to cut taxes and otherwise serve the interests of the rich. That’s it. Everything else is in service of that goal. In order to hang on to enough electoral support to do this, they construct a morality tale about the sanctity of work and the evil of government handouts, a quasi-religious tale designed to ensure both the upper class and working class parts of the party’s base that the existing social arrangement is honorable and right. Now that we find ourselves in a crisis for which the obvious solution is unprecedented government support of the economy, the Republican party finds itself in a quandary. Doing what should be done would lead a lot of people to begin asking uncomfortable questions. If government aid can save us from another Great Depression, might it not be able to do something about inequality too? Republicans simply can’t have that in their own party.

What we will get instead are paltry tax credits and work incentives and much rhetoric about Strong Americans Rallying Around the Flag, while the stock market is backstopped and everyone without six months of expenses saved up is told that risking their lives to return to work is the patriotic thing to do. In one sense, the Republican leadership was prepared for their role at this moment. Fomenting the possibility of mass death in order to avoid any softening of the public’s attitude towards socialism is something that they have been adept at for many years.

People need healthcare. People need jobs that pay a living wage. People need food, and the forgiveness of rent payments, and a social safety net that is up to the challenge of being strained like it never has before. These are things the Republicans do not offer. They have an alternate plan: support for capital markets, a little bonus if you can find yourself a new job, and a vow to “wait and see” how things go, after state and local governments are forced to slash public services. Doesn’t that sound nice? Your $0 stock portfolio can sustain you over the next year after the restaurant where you worked goes out of business. The closer you slide to homelessness, the greater your incentive to participate in the economy will become.

The government’s response to this crisis does not work for the majority of humans. But it does work for the Republican idea of work itself. Work comes above all. The more of your fellow Americans that die, the greater your chance of finding a new job. When you look at it like that, it’s a win-win situation.


Hamilton Nolan is a labor reporter at In These Times

'Gross incompetence at highest levels': ex-Obama adviser blasts Trump's Covid response

Samantha Power also tells online Hay festival that former US administration underestimated how ‘ripped off’ Americans felt, and discounts possibility of Michelle Obama as vice-president

Alison Flood

Fri 29 May 2020 14.13 BSTLast modified on Fri 29 May 2020 22.17 BST

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 Samantha Power speaks at the UN general assembly in 2016. Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP

The US has shown “gross incompetence … at the highest levels” in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Samantha Power, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under Barack Obama.

Speaking to Philippe Sands for the online version of the Hay festival, Power said that Donald Trump’s administration had failed to learn from the countries hit by the coronavirus before the US.

“We could have had an awful lot in place before it struck in earnest on the continent,” she said, highlighting the “gross incompetence” shown “not by the heroic health workers and public servants who are on the frontlines, but at the highest levels, diminishing the threat posed by the pandemic in its early stages”.

Power served for four years as Obama’s human rights adviser and from 2013 to 2017 in his cabinet and as US ambassador to the UN. The coronavirus outbreak in the US has been “mishandled for a set of reasons that go well beyond the pandemic, a scepticism about science and evidence and global cooperation,” she said.

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 Underestimated … Trump supporters in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in November 2016. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

She admitted that the Obama administration had “definitely underestimated the potency” of “a view represented by President Trump but shared by millions of Americans, that the international system has ripped us off, that we have been giving more than we’ve been getting”.

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“We saw the pain caused, of course, by economic globalisation and saw the degree to which many in our own communities were being left behind. But the idea that that would be laid squarely on political globalisation or on alliances or on the United Nations, it was not accurate, it seemed like too big a leap to get the fuel and the momentum that Trump has given it, so we were wrong to underestimate that,” she said.

Power was asked by Sands if there was any coming back for the US after what he called “almost irrecoverable” damage done to the support for global order by the Trump presidency. Power said it wasn’t just about Trump threatening to pull out of the World Health Organization, and withdrawing the US from organisations including Unesco and the United Nations human rights council.

“There is that. But maybe even more damaging than that is the pullback from alliances that are at the heart of effective multilateralism … How do you recover the belief among German, French, British, Irish, Spanish citizens that when America attaches its name to an agreement, whether a climate agreement, or an Iran nuclear agreement, that is going to be an enduring signature?” she said. “What Trump has jeopardised more than anything is the sense of American constancy, [that] we’re going to be there when you need us. And that’s going to be the hardest thing of all, I think to build back that trust.”

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 Hopeful … Joe Biden campaigning in Detroit in March. Photograph: Paul Sancya/AP

Power was hopeful that Joe Biden will emerge the victor at this November’s presidential election due to Trump’s handling of the pandemic.

“You can holler fake news and be kind of tribal in terms of your party mentality. But if your insulin prices have tripled, and you no longer have a paycheck and the government subsidy you’re getting isn’t enough to pay for insulin for your kid, there’s only so many Trump tweets and allegations of voter fraud that are going to distract you from your own plight,” said Power, who recently published her memoir, The Education of an Idealist.

Asked by Sands if there was any chance that Michelle Obama would step in as Biden’s vice-president, Power said that while there was a “very, very, very slim” possibility because of “how much she cares about the country”, it was unlikely.

“I suppose there is some scenario where maybe she could be convinced that this is the only way,” Power added. “But now that Biden has at least a modest lead in some of the polls, I think she’ll be convinced probably that there are other paths. I’m not sure anybody who has seen the presidency up close would volunteer for it.”