mintpressnews--2020-08-07--Don’t Let His New Book Fool You, Bush Laid the Groundwork for Today’s Immigration Nightmare

George W. Bush , the 43rd president of the United States , has announced he is releasing a new book called “ Out of Many , One ” which will celebrate America ’ s diversity and immigrant populations .
“ Our immigrant heritage has enriched America ’ s history .
It continues to shape our society .
Each generation of Americans — of immigrants — brings a renewal to our national character and adds vitality to our culture .
Newcomers have a special way of appreciating the opportunities of America , and when they seize those opportunities , our whole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
The book , scheduled for release in March 2021 will feature 43 images of immigrants , painted by Bush himself , and will retail at $ 38 , although avid fans will be able to purchase an oversized deluxe signed edition for $ 250 .
“ While I recognize that immigration can be an emotional issue , I reject the premise that it is a partisan issue .
It is perhaps the most American of issues , and it should be one that unites us , ” he said in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that this book will help focus our collective attention on the positive impacts that immigrants are making on our country.
” With immigration becoming an increasingly hot partisan issue , the move celebrating the practice is the latest in a series of actions that Bush has taken to distance himself from the current Republican president .
Both Bush and his father claimed they did not vote for Trump in 2016 , leading to delight from many Democrats .
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi , for example , yearned for a by-gone age @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president , even though at the time she described him as a “ total failure ” in every aspect of governing .
So complete was the rehabilitation of the figurehead of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that he was embraced and praised by liberal talk show host Ellen DeGeneres .
Yet those with long memories will remember that , despite claiming to love immigrants , both the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) were created under his auspices .
The DHS , often described @ @ @ @ @ @ @ standing army , ” has been at the forefront of crushing protests against racist police brutality in Portland , with anonymous , masked and armed agents abducting individuals off the street , throwing them into unmarked vehicles .
The DHS ’ s actions have been condemned by Democrats representing Portland at the local , state , and national levels .
The department ’ s chief Ken Cuccinelli has tried to justify his agents ’ presence by pointing to “ weapons ” like shields and gas masks confiscated at protests .
Meanwhile , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ launched a huge drive to “ flood the streets ” of sanctuary cities with officers to arrest as many undocumented immigrants as possible .
“ I have gotten frantic texts from people that they are spotting ICE in their New York City buildings knocking on doors .
They are terrified .
This is happening today .
Right now .
People [ are ] being hunted down , ” wrote journalist Maria Hinojosa in March .
After the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border that began after the North American Free Trade Agreement decimated the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weapon used to pacify the immigrant population , lest they or their loved ones be taken away to one of many detention camps the group operates .
In April , it was reported that ICE was knowingly deporting COVID-19 positive detainees to countries that could not deal with the influx .
The Bush administration also drastically increased the militarization of the Mexican border .
Between 2001 and 2007 border security funding more than doubled from $ 4.6 billion to $ 10.4 billion , with the number of Border Patrol agents employed also doubling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sending 6,000 national guardsmen to the southern border .
Bush bragged about greatly increasing the U.S. ’ detention capacity for immigrants , using drones to patrol the area , and building 700 hundred miles of fencing and wall , which served as a stepping stone to Trump ’ s border plans .
The increasingly militarized border mirrored the increasingly hostile rhetoric towards immigrants that dominated the Republican Party today .
Bush is no stranger to covering controversial topics in his art .
In 2017 , he released a similar bestselling book called “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chief ’ s Tribute to America ’ s Warriors.
” In it , he painted dozens of fallen American servicemen , all of whom died fighting in wars he started under false pretenses and has expressed no remorse for doing so .
Neither Bush nor the great number of outlets who praised the book appeared at all interested in Middle Eastern victims of his policy .
Now , as then , it appears few see the irony of a former commander-in-chief extolling the virtues he helped take away from so many .
Feature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , stands with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff after his speech about border security and immigration reform at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia , N.M. , June 6 , 2006 .
Charles Dharapak | AP Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, has announced he is releasing a new book called “Out of Many, One” which will celebrate America’s diversity and immigrant populations. “Our immigrant heritage has enriched America’s history. It continues to shape our society. Each generation of Americans — of immigrants — brings a renewal to our national character and adds vitality to our culture. Newcomers have a special way of appreciating the opportunities of America, and when they seize those opportunities, our whole nation benefits,” the former president said.
The book, scheduled for release in March 2021 will feature 43 images of immigrants, painted by Bush himself, and will retail at $38, although avid fans will be able to purchase an oversized deluxe signed edition for $250. “While I recognize that immigration can be an emotional issue, I reject the premise that it is a partisan issue. It is perhaps the most American of issues, and it should be one that unites us,” he said in a press release. “My hope is that this book will help focus our collective attention on the positive impacts that immigrants are making on our country.”
Man this George Bush rebranding is amazing. It's almost like he wasn't the Donald Trump of his days https://t.co/aAucRzDJeA — Maximilien Robespierre (@Imperator_Faora) August 7, 2020
With immigration becoming an increasingly hot partisan issue, the move celebrating the practice is the latest in a series of actions that Bush has taken to distance himself from the current Republican president. Both Bush and his father claimed they did not vote for Trump in 2016, leading to delight from many Democrats. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for example, yearned for a by-gone age, admitting to wishing Bush were still president, even though at the time she described him as a “total failure” in every aspect of governing. So complete was the rehabilitation of the figurehead of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that he was embraced and praised by liberal talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.
Yet those with long memories will remember that, despite claiming to love immigrants, both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were created under his auspices. The DHS, often described as the United States’ “new standing army,” has been at the forefront of crushing protests against racist police brutality in Portland, with anonymous, masked and armed agents abducting individuals off the street, throwing them into unmarked vehicles. The DHS’s actions have been condemned by Democrats representing Portland at the local, state, and national levels. The department’s chief Ken Cuccinelli has tried to justify his agents’ presence by pointing to “weapons” like shields and gas masks confiscated at protests.
Meanwhile, at the beginning of the pandemic, ICE launched a huge drive to “flood the streets” of sanctuary cities with officers to arrest as many undocumented immigrants as possible. “I have gotten frantic texts from people that they are spotting ICE in their New York City buildings knocking on doors. They are terrified. This is happening today. Right now. People [are] being hunted down,” wrote journalist Maria Hinojosa in March.
After the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border that began after the North American Free Trade Agreement decimated the Mexican working-class, ICE became the main weapon used to pacify the immigrant population, lest they or their loved ones be taken away to one of many detention camps the group operates. In April, it was reported that ICE was knowingly deporting COVID-19 positive detainees to countries that could not deal with the influx.
The Bush administration also drastically increased the militarization of the Mexican border. Between 2001 and 2007 border security funding more than doubled from $4.6 billion to $10.4 billion, with the number of Border Patrol agents employed also doubling during his time in office, also sending 6,000 national guardsmen to the southern border.
Bush bragged about greatly increasing the U.S.’ detention capacity for immigrants, using drones to patrol the area, and building 700 hundred miles of fencing and wall, which served as a stepping stone to Trump’s border plans. The increasingly militarized border mirrored the increasingly hostile rhetoric towards immigrants that dominated the Republican Party today.
Bush is no stranger to covering controversial topics in his art. In 2017, he released a similar bestselling book called “Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors.” In it, he painted dozens of fallen American servicemen, all of whom died fighting in wars he started under false pretenses and has expressed no remorse for doing so. Neither Bush nor the great number of outlets who praised the book appeared at all interested in Middle Eastern victims of his policy. Now, as then, it appears few see the irony of a former commander-in-chief extolling the virtues he helped take away from so many.
Feature photo | President Bush, second right, stands with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff after his speech about border security and immigration reform at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, N.M., June 6, 2006. Charles Dharapak | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-08-07--Disbelief as Trump Appoints Disgraced Iran-Contra Criminal Elliott Abrams as Iran Envoy

The Trump administration has appointed disgraced neoconservative hawk Elliott Abrams to the new position of chief advisor on Iran after former insider Brian Hook handed in his resignation earlier this week .
“ Special Representative Hook has been my point person on Iran for over two years and he has achieved historic results countering the Iranian regime , ” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday , “ Following a transition period with Brian Hook , Elliott Abrams will assume the position of Special Representative for Iran , in addition to his responsibilities as Special Representative for Venezuela.
” Anger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emotions stirred by the decision .
“ Elliott Abrams appointment as Special Representative for Iran is as ludicrous as his failed career as Venezuela envoy , ” reacted United Nations Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas .
“ Convicted war criminal Elliott Abrams gets to try and destroy Venezuela and Iran at the same time .
He certainly does have a great track record in dealing with Iran and Latin America all at once , ” wrote journalist Anya Parampil , referencing his participation in the Iran-Contra scandal .
Activist group CODEPINK was equally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another low point for the Trump administration ’ s disastrous policy towards Iran.
” “ The dangerous conflict resulting from Trump ’ s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement will be exacerbated by a man committed to Washington ’ s failed policies of regime change , including in his present-day position as Trump ’ s representative for Venezuela , ” they added .
Even mainstream , corporate-funded outlets could not hide their skepticism at the decision .
“ Elliott Abrams , convicted of lying about Iran-Contra , named special representative for Iran , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ first day on the job in the Reagan administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs could hardly have been more conspicuous .
The previous day , a U.S.-backed and trained death squad in El Salvador had conducted a massacre in the village of El Mozote , killing at least 800 people and raping girls as young as 10 .
Survivors testify that the soldiers threw a three-year-old boy in the air and impaled him on their bayonets .
Abrams immediately led a cover-up , telling the Senate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” and the massacre was being “ significantly misused as propaganda against their side .
In total , around 75,000 people were killed in what is misleadingly described as a “ civil war , ” but was , in reality , a campaign of extermination directed at anyone who dissented against the U.S.-backed dictatorship .
Abrams lauded what happened in El Salvador as a “ fabulous achievement ” for democracy .
Investigative journalist Jon Schwarz described Abrams as “ supporting Latin American democracy pretty much like [ serial killer ] Jeffrey Dahmer supported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his apartment.
” Throughout the 1980s , Abrams was a chief architect of the genocides and dirty wars plaguing the region .
In Guatemala , he pushed for arms sales to the dictatorship of General Efrain Rios Montt , claiming he had “ brought considerable progress ” to human rights in the region .
“ We think that kind of progress needs to be rewarded and encouraged , ” he said .
While General Rios Montt was later convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity , Abrams faced no consequences for his role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nor did he suffer serious repercussions for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair , where government organizations sold weapons to Iran in order to fund far-right death squads in Nicaragua .
Abrams pled guilty to lying to Congress about the affair but was quickly pardoned by George H.W .
Bush .
“ The failure of Trump ’ s obscure government hawk character , Elliott Abrams , was evident in the U.S. Senate today .
His criminal record and his arrogant vision of the Cold War has caused him to crush the dignity and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ again , ” wrote Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro , on hearing the news about Abrams ’ new position .
Since January 2019 , Abrams has been tasked with overthrowing the Venezuelan government , constantly encouraging the country to rise up , and placing crippling sanctions on others who trade with the Caribbean nation .
Yesterday , he confirmed that he has been attempting to bribe military generals to rebel and overthrow the country ’ s elected leader .
The appointment of perhaps the most hardline neoconservative hawk to the new position of Special @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a long line of escalatory measures the Trump administration has taken .
In the last two years , the president has abandoned the nuclear deal , greatly increased sanctions on the country , supported anti-government protests in Tehran , assassinated Iranian General Qassem Soleimani , and prevented the importation of COVID-19 medicines and supplies .
Given his record , it is doubtful whether many in Iran will be celebrating the return of Elliott Abrams .
Feature photo | Elliot Abrams , the U.S. special adviser for Venezuela and now Iran , listens to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Lisbon , April 9 , 2019 .
Armando Franca | AP Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

The Trump administration has appointed disgraced neoconservative hawk Elliott Abrams to the new position of chief advisor on Iran after former insider Brian Hook handed in his resignation earlier this week. “Special Representative Hook has been my point person on Iran for over two years and he has achieved historic results countering the Iranian regime,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday, “Following a transition period with Brian Hook, Elliott Abrams will assume the position of Special Representative for Iran, in addition to his responsibilities as Special Representative for Venezuela.”
Anger and disbelief appeared to be the chief emotions stirred by the decision. “Elliott Abrams appointment as Special Representative for Iran is as ludicrous as his failed career as Venezuela envoy,” reacted United Nations Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas. “Convicted war criminal Elliott Abrams gets to try and destroy Venezuela and Iran at the same time. He certainly does have a great track record in dealing with Iran and Latin America all at once,” wrote journalist Anya Parampil, referencing his participation in the Iran-Contra scandal. Activist group CODEPINK was equally condemnatory, claiming the appointment was “another low point for the Trump administration’s disastrous policy towards Iran.” “The dangerous conflict resulting from Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement will be exacerbated by a man committed to Washington’s failed policies of regime change, including in his present-day position as Trump’s representative for Venezuela,” they added. Even mainstream, corporate-funded outlets could not hide their skepticism at the decision. “Elliott Abrams, convicted of lying about Iran-Contra, named special representative for Iran,” read CBS News’ headline.
Killy Elliott
Abrams’ first day on the job in the Reagan administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs could hardly have been more conspicuous. The previous day, a U.S.-backed and trained death squad in El Salvador had conducted a massacre in the village of El Mozote, killing at least 800 people and raping girls as young as 10. Survivors testify that the soldiers threw a three-year-old boy in the air and impaled him on their bayonets. Abrams immediately led a cover-up, telling the Senate that eyewitness reports were “not credible” and the massacre was being “significantly misused as propaganda against their side. In total, around 75,000 people were killed in what is misleadingly described as a “civil war,” but was, in reality, a campaign of extermination directed at anyone who dissented against the U.S.-backed dictatorship. Abrams lauded what happened in El Salvador as a “fabulous achievement” for democracy. Investigative journalist Jon Schwarz described Abrams as “supporting Latin American democracy pretty much like [serial killer] Jeffrey Dahmer supported all the people that he brought to his apartment.”
Throughout the 1980s, Abrams was a chief architect of the genocides and dirty wars plaguing the region. In Guatemala, he pushed for arms sales to the dictatorship of General Efrain Rios Montt, claiming he had “brought considerable progress” to human rights in the region. “We think that kind of progress needs to be rewarded and encouraged,” he said. While General Rios Montt was later convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, Abrams faced no consequences for his role in the killing over 200,000 people, nor did he suffer serious repercussions for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair, where government organizations sold weapons to Iran in order to fund far-right death squads in Nicaragua. Abrams pled guilty to lying to Congress about the affair but was quickly pardoned by George H.W. Bush.
New regime change opportunities
“The failure of Trump’s obscure government hawk character, Elliott Abrams, was evident in the U.S. Senate today. His criminal record and his arrogant vision of the Cold War has caused him to crush the dignity and courage of a free people time and again,” wrote Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, on hearing the news about Abrams’ new position. Since January 2019, Abrams has been tasked with overthrowing the Venezuelan government, constantly encouraging the country to rise up, and placing crippling sanctions on others who trade with the Caribbean nation. Yesterday, he confirmed that he has been attempting to bribe military generals to rebel and overthrow the country’s elected leader.
The appointment of perhaps the most hardline neoconservative hawk to the new position of Special Representative for Iran is the latest in a long line of escalatory measures the Trump administration has taken. In the last two years, the president has abandoned the nuclear deal, greatly increased sanctions on the country, supported anti-government protests in Tehran, assassinated Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, and prevented the importation of COVID-19 medicines and supplies. Given his record, it is doubtful whether many in Iran will be celebrating the return of Elliott Abrams.
Feature photo | Elliot Abrams, the U.S. special adviser for Venezuela and now Iran, listens to questions from reporters at the US embassy in Lisbon, April 9, 2019. Armando Franca | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-08-07--With an Eye on Balkanization, Israel throws Support Behind Separatist Militants in Southern Yemen

ADEN , YEMEN — As the war in Yemen nears its sixth year , the situation in the war-torn nation is escalating as Israel enters the fray , throwing its support behind the Emirati-backed separatist militant group , the Southern Transitional Council ( STC ) .
The STC has already effectively captured Aden and more recently seized Socotra Island .
Israel ’ s entrance into the already convoluted and crowded theater is likely to open the door for further escalation , particularly in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait .
Amid the ever-growing normalization of relations between Tel Aviv @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Emirati-backed STC , now the de facto authorities in the south of the country , have already established a secret relationship with Israel encouraged by the United Arabic Emirates ( UAE ) according to informed sources in Aden .
Despite strong opposition from leaders inside the STC and from Southern Yemen ’ s public , the UAE-backed group receives various forms of support from Israel , including weapons and training facilitated by the UAE following secret talks between STC officials and Tel Aviv sponsored by the UAE .
Prior to that , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Breik announced that the group has a willingness to establish relations with Israel , saying “ the peace with Israel is “ coveted and aspiring ” for them .
However , he claimed that any relationship with Israel should be within the framework of the Arab peace initiative made by the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz , but he stressed their willingness to establish relations with any country that helps them to “ restore their state.
” The development comes after the Warsaw Conference held in February 2019 that ostensibly focused on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Khaled al-Yamani , Yemen ’ s former foreign minister , executed a very public warming of relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu .
In its wake , U.S. peace envoy Jason Greenblatt , who also served as Donald Trump ’ s personal lawyer and advisor on Israel , remarked that the friendly incident could be the first step in establishing cooperation between Yemen and Israel .
In a related development , Israel ’ s most widely-read newspaper , Israel Today , claimed that Tel Aviv has been conducting secret meetings with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ STC ) , reporting that the STC are “ secret friends ” to Israel .
In fact , that positive attitude towards Israel has been confirmed by the Deputy Head of the STC himself in a video posted on YouTube .
Superficially , Tel Aviv ’ s support aims to help the STC against the local forces that oppose them , but the fact is that Israel is trying to establish a foothold on the Yemeni Islands in the Bab-El-Mandeb Strait .
The Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab are vital interests to Tel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ STC needs not only to tighten its control over Yemen ’ s southern districts and pursue its long-time goal of declaring secession from the north of the country , but they need a gateway to the United States and to the world .
Like many Gulf Arab states , the STC has long believed the road to American validation runs through Israel .
However , southern political leaders who spoke to MintPress realize that relations with Israel will not bring about “ an independent state ” and that that relationship will be an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , southerners consider the Palestinian cause to be the cause for all , a situation that STC will not succeed in changing .
They say that the Palestine issue is one that concerns Muslims as a whole , something that any local force could never hope to change .
Of all Yemen ’ s myriad political forces , tribes , and military powers , the Ansar Allah-led military , is best prepared , and likely the most willing , to take retaliatory action against both the STC and Israel .
Ansar Allah , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Houthis , are committed to the territorial integrity of Yemen and announced that that they would not hesitate to “ deal a stinging blow ” to Israel in the case that Tel Aviv decides to involve itself in Yemen .
A high-ranking official quoted the words of Ansar Allah leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi when he threatened Israel in November 2011.
” Our people will not hesitate to declare jihad ( holy war ) against the Israeli enemy , and to launch the most severe strikes against sensitive targets in the occupied territories if the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people.
” In 1956 , 1967 , and 1973 war with Israel , Yemen successfully closed off the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and prevented Israeli ships from crossing through it .
The National Salvation Government in Houthi-controlled Sana ’ a accused the United Arab Emirates of providing cover for Israel ’ s efforts in southern Yemen .
“ The Israeli enemy sees Yemen as a threat to it , ” said Information Minister Dhaifalla Al-Shami , “ especially in its strategic location , so it has worked to find a foothold in Yemen through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , UAE ambassador to Washington , Yousef Al-Otaiba , said in an article for the newspaper Yediot Aharonot that his country “ pushed for initiatives that would have granted Israel privileges.
” Given the fact that the fragmentation of the Middle East is consistent with Israel ’ s strategy in Yemen , the STC ’ s , and by extension the UAE ’ s , relationship with Israel not only violates the Yemeni religious and national constants held firm by nearly all Yemenis , but it is also a threat to the prospect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forces , including Ansar Allah , see Israel ’ s efforts to back the emergence of a break-away separation state in the south as a dangerous game .
In fact , unconfirmed reports allege that Israel participated in the war against Yemen on behalf of the Saudi-led coalition as a part of a series of covert interventions involving mercenary forces , the reported launching of dozens of airstrikes in the country and even the dropping of a neutron bomb on Nuqm Mountain in the middle of the capital city of Sana ’ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Israeli presence in the south will lead to an inevitable clash with Israel , according to decision-makers in Yemen .
Feature photo | An emblem of the STC at the headquarters of the separatist Southern Transitional Council in Ataq , Yemen August 27 , 2019 .
Ali Owidha | AP Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist .
He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media .

ADEN, YEMEN — As the war in Yemen nears its sixth year, the situation in the war-torn nation is escalating as Israel enters the fray, throwing its support behind the Emirati-backed separatist militant group, the Southern Transitional Council (STC). The STC has already effectively captured Aden and more recently seized Socotra Island. Israel’s entrance into the already convoluted and crowded theater is likely to open the door for further escalation, particularly in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Amid the ever-growing normalization of relations between Tel Aviv and wealthy Gulf Aab states, the Emirati-backed STC, now the de facto authorities in the south of the country, have already established a secret relationship with Israel encouraged by the United Arabic Emirates (UAE) according to informed sources in Aden. Despite strong opposition from leaders inside the STC and from Southern Yemen’s public, the UAE-backed group receives various forms of support from Israel, including weapons and training facilitated by the UAE following secret talks between STC officials and Tel Aviv sponsored by the UAE.
Prior to that, the Deputy Head of the STC Hani bin Breik announced that the group has a willingness to establish relations with Israel, saying “the peace with Israel is “coveted and aspiring” for them. However, he claimed that any relationship with Israel should be within the framework of the Arab peace initiative made by the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, but he stressed their willingness to establish relations with any country that helps them to “restore their state.”
The development comes after the Warsaw Conference held in February 2019 that ostensibly focused on security in the Middle East. There, Khaled al-Yamani, Yemen’s former foreign minister, executed a very public warming of relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In its wake, U.S. peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, who also served as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and advisor on Israel, remarked that the friendly incident could be the first step in establishing cooperation between Yemen and Israel.
In a related development, Israel’s most widely-read newspaper, Israel Today, claimed that Tel Aviv has been conducting secret meetings with the Emirati-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), reporting that the STC are “secret friends” to Israel. In fact, that positive attitude towards Israel has been confirmed by the Deputy Head of the STC himself in a video posted on YouTube.
Superficially, Tel Aviv’s support aims to help the STC against the local forces that oppose them, but the fact is that Israel is trying to establish a foothold on the Yemeni Islands in the Bab-El-Mandeb Strait. The Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab are vital interests to Tel Aviv. For their part, the STC needs not only to tighten its control over Yemen’s southern districts and pursue its long-time goal of declaring secession from the north of the country, but they need a gateway to the United States and to the world. Like many Gulf Arab states, the STC has long believed the road to American validation runs through Israel.
However, southern political leaders who spoke to MintPress realize that relations with Israel will not bring about “an independent state” and that that relationship will be an obstacle in getting public support. Moreover, southerners consider the Palestinian cause to be the cause for all, a situation that STC will not succeed in changing. They say that the Palestine issue is one that concerns Muslims as a whole, something that any local force could never hope to change.
Houthi resistance
Of all Yemen’s myriad political forces, tribes, and military powers, the Ansar Allah-led military, is best prepared, and likely the most willing, to take retaliatory action against both the STC and Israel. Ansar Allah, the political wing of Yemen’s Houthis, are committed to the territorial integrity of Yemen and announced that that they would not hesitate to “deal a stinging blow” to Israel in the case that Tel Aviv decides to involve itself in Yemen.
A high-ranking official quoted the words of Ansar Allah leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi when he threatened Israel in November 2011.” Our people will not hesitate to declare jihad (holy war) against the Israeli enemy, and to launch the most severe strikes against sensitive targets in the occupied territories if the enemy engages in any folly against our people.” In 1956, 1967, and 1973 war with Israel, Yemen successfully closed off the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and prevented Israeli ships from crossing through it.
The National Salvation Government in Houthi-controlled Sana’a accused the United Arab Emirates of providing cover for Israel’s efforts in southern Yemen. “The Israeli enemy sees Yemen as a threat to it,” said Information Minister Dhaifalla Al-Shami, “especially in its strategic location, so it has worked to find a foothold in Yemen through the UAE’s role.” Recently, UAE ambassador to Washington, Yousef Al-Otaiba, said in an article for the newspaper Yediot Aharonot that his country “pushed for initiatives that would have granted Israel privileges.”
Given the fact that the fragmentation of the Middle East is consistent with Israel’s strategy in Yemen, the STC’s, and by extension the UAE’s, relationship with Israel not only violates the Yemeni religious and national constants held firm by nearly all Yemenis, but it is also a threat to the prospect of a unified Yemen. Yemeni political forces, including Ansar Allah, see Israel’s efforts to back the emergence of a break-away separation state in the south as a dangerous game.
In fact, unconfirmed reports allege that Israel participated in the war against Yemen on behalf of the Saudi-led coalition as a part of a series of covert interventions involving mercenary forces, the reported launching of dozens of airstrikes in the country and even the dropping of a neutron bomb on Nuqm Mountain in the middle of the capital city of Sana’a in May of 2015. But any Israeli presence in the south will lead to an inevitable clash with Israel, according to decision-makers in Yemen.
Feature photo | An emblem of the STC at the headquarters of the separatist Southern Transitional Council in Ataq, Yemen August 27, 2019. Ali Owidha | AP
Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.


mintpressnews--2020-08-07--Susan Abulhawa Embodies the Spirit of Palestinian Resistance in Her New Book: Against the Loveless W

Susan Abulhawa Embodies the Spirit of Palestinian Resistance in Her New Book: Against the Loveless World

Book Review — “ I don ’ t care to be accommodating , ” Nahr , the lead character in Susan Abulhawa ’ s new novel , “ Against the Loveless World , ” tells us .
Perhaps she says this to prepare us or even warn us of what lies ahead .
Either way , the statement runs like a thread throughout the entire book .
As the pages of the novel turn and the story of Nahr ’ s life unfolds , we go through the ups and downs of this Palestinian woman ’ s unpredictable life .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the power of her story , we come to realize that Nahr ’ s unwillingness to be accommodating is admirable but comes at a heavy price .
Susan Abulhawa is the author of the international bestseller , “ Mornings in Jenin , ” among other important works of prose and poetry .
Personally , I found her newest novel to be daring , honest , and totally unaccommodating .
Abulhawa is also a friend of mine , and reading her novel felt a lot like listening to her talk .
Nahr is an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Israeli prison and she tells us the story from her tiny cell .
This is no ordinary cell , the Israeli authorities placed Nahr in a highly sophisticated cell where everything is automated : the light and the shower turn on and off on their own ; the toilet flushes at set times and Nahr the inmate needs to accommodate herself to their schedule .
She lives in this cell and is unable to tell if it is day or night or what time of day it is .
For reasons that she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not permitted to have visitors of her choice but from time to time an international observer , a journalist , or a prison guard come into the cell .
It is during these random visits that we see Nahr expressing her unwillingness to be accommodating for the first time .
I can ’ t decide which metaphor better describes Nahr ’ s story , so I will use two .
The first is a piece of Tatreez , or Palestinian embroidery .
The characters in the story are the colors and designs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and regions of Palestine .
It is embroidered over a black cloth , thus displaying both the immense beauty and unspeakable tragedy of Palestine .
The other metaphor is a cluster of vines that twist and grow around the trunk of a large tree .
In Palestine , one sees this often .
They are particularly beautiful when they are in full bloom , wrapped around large trunks of tall trees .
The stories of Nahr and the people around her are the vines wrapping around Palestine .
Nahr is surrounded by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ represent the breadth of the Palestinian experience .
Their stories are told through Nahr ’ s story and together they evoke the powerful emotions that we experience together with her : innocence , passion , love , and hate , sadness and anger as well as delicately threaded tenderness , yearning , and even compassion .
Abulhawa seamlessly weaves Nahr ’ s personal story and the stories of the other characters into the greater story of Palestine .
The story takes us into two of the largest Palestinian refugee communities in the world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ face to face with Palestinians who became refugees in 1948 , and then again in 1967 , and then brutally kicked out of Kuwait and turned into refugees again as a result of the first Gulf War .
Each time they think they can finally rest , something happens and they are forced to move again .
Yet throughout this painful and seemingly endless odyssey their anchor continues to be Palestine .
Nahr experiences the full scope of cruelty meted out to women by men , by the patriarchy .
Since men ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a particular race , nationality , or culture , her experience is universal .
And yet , although she suffers greatly at the hands of men , she is capable of feeling and expressing a deep , sincere love for a man .
Though she speaks to us from a cold , lonely cell in which she is held by Israel , Nahr is able to relay her feelings to one man who she truly loves and who loves her completely .
She admits to “ a sexual yearning made insatiable by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sky.
” In one scene Nahr watches the man she loves and describes what she sees , “ the guilt , the impotence of seeing those settlements , the anguish over his brother , his mother , the years in prison , the torture , the inability to move.
” Then , reflecting on her own sense of helplessness she says , “ I wanted to take him in my arms and fix everything , ” but , Nahr sums it up “ all I could do was help carry the tea glasses.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ torn away from her and for those who care for her , is like a loved one dying of terminal cancer .
Hard as we may try , all we can do is watch as she is being eaten away by the cancer of Zionist brutality , and make her as comfortable as possible as she slips away .
Nahr ’ s pain is deep and real and reading this novel one often forgets that it is , in fact , fiction .
She experiences pain as a woman , as a Palestinian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In Nahr ’ s own words , it is “ a cloistered , unreachable , immutable ache.
” Nahr tells us about “ the epic fabrication of a Jewish nation returning to its homeland.
” She goes on to say that the deceit , “ had grown into a living , breathing narrative that shaped lives as if it were truth.
” She describes the Jewish-only settlements that she sees spreading all over Palestine .
Entire cities , neighborhoods , and homes of people she knows and loves who were forced to flee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ settlers .
She describes the silences of older Palestinians who can not bear to talk about their loss .
But the spirit of resistance is alive in Palestine and Nahr will not stand idly by as others prepare to act .
Nahr is enraged by the ruthlessness of settlers and soldiers , tucked away safely in their exclusive , Arab-free colonies .
They live on stolen Palestinian land and come out periodically to attack Palestinians with impunity .
Once she realizes that people around her are engaged in acts of resistance , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , once again , we see Nahr unaccommodating , fierce , and willing to face the consequences .
From her solitary cell in an Israeli prison , Nahr recalls Ghassan Kanafani and James Baldwin , two great writers , who , like her , were unwilling to be accommodating .
They suffered greatly because of who they were , one a Palestinian , the other a Black American .
They both wrote and spoke with unmatched courage and clarity , and although dead for decades , ( Kanafani was murdered by Israel in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1987 ) , they remain icons of the struggle against racism , oppression , and colonialism .
Along with Ghassan Kanafani and Ibrahim Nasrallah , Susan Abulhawa ’ s writing has the rare quality of allowing us to taste the flavor , to smell the fragrance , and to feel the pulse of Palestine .
A true understanding of the Palestinian experience is not possible without reading the work of these three writers .
Feature photo | A Palestinian woman enjoys the Mediterranean during the Eid al-Adha holiday , Aug. 2 , 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is an author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem .
He is the author of “ The General ’ s Son .
Journey of an Israeli in Palestine , ” and “ Injustice , the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five .
”

Book Review — My friend, author Susan Abulhawa, just published a new novel titled, “Against the Loveless World. She is the author of the international bestseller, “Mornings in Jenin,” as well as “The Blue Between Sky and Water,” and a collection of poems titled, “My Voice Sought the Wind.” Personally, I found her new novel to be daring, honest, and unaccommodating. Her writing has many qualities, one of them is that reading her novel feels a lot like listening to her talk.
Unaccommodating
One of the most painful aspects of any foreign occupation, including that of Palestine of course, is that of occupied people accommodating their occupiers. It is done because of the false belief that accommodating the beast will calm it down. It is done because people living under occupation rely on their oppressors, their occupiers for everything and oppressive regimes take advantage of the weaknesses of their subjects and use these weaknesses to get information or whatever else they may need to maintain their oppression. This has been going on since time immemorial.
Because Palestinians need a permit from the State of Israel for almost everything, there is a serious problem of informers. Be it due to greed or necessity – having never lived under an oppressive occupation myself I will be the last to judge – many Palestinian cooperate, collaborate, and sometimes just accommodate the Israeli authorities.
There naturally exists a conflict between those who fall into the vicious cycle of accommodating the regime and those who demand resistance. We know that throughout history this has led nations to bloodshed and fratricide. This is why it is particularly telling that very early on in the story, Nahr, the lead character in the novel, says, “I don’t care to be accommodating.”
As the pages of the novel turn and the story of Nahr’s life unfolds, we go through the ups and downs of this Palestinian woman’s unpredictable life. Then slowly, as we find ourselves gripped by the power of her story, we come to realize that Nahr’s unwillingness to be accommodating runs like a thread throughout the entire book. It is admirable but it comes at a heavy price.
A cube and a language
Nahr is an inmate held in solitary confinement at an Israeli prison and she tells us her story from her tiny cell, which she calls, “The Cube.” This is no ordinary cell, the Israeli authorities placed Nahr in a highly sophisticated cell where everything is automated: the light and the shower turn on and off on their own; the toilet flushes at set times and Nahr needs to accommodate herself to their schedule. She is unable to tell if it is day or night or what time of day it is.
Nahr is not permitted to have visitors of her choice but from time to time an international observer, a journalist, or a prison guard come into the cell. During these random visits, Nahr expresses her unwillingness to be accommodating.
From her solitary cell in an Israeli prison, Nahr recalls Ghassan Kanafani and James Baldwin, two great writers, who, like her, were unwilling to be accommodating. They suffered greatly because of who they were, one a Palestinian, the other a Black American. They both wrote and spoke with unmatched courage and clarity, and although dead for decades, (Kanafani was murdered by Israel in 1972, Baldwin died of cancer in 1987), they remain icons of the struggle against racism, oppression, and colonialism.
Abulhawa’s book is in English of course, but Nahr uses the Arabic language to release us and her from her tiny cell. The novel takes place in the Arab world, a world that exists outside of Nahr’s cell. The cell, the prison, and the entire State of Israel are artificial creations that were forced upon Palestine. None of them are organic and each of them – to varying degrees – is used to imprison Palestinians.
Nahr speaks to us from within the cell using as much Palestinian Arabic as possible. Her Arabic takes us out of the cold artificial cell, out of the prison and even out of Israel – as much as one can while remaining in Palestine – and places us in the heart of the world in which the story takes place.
Nahr uses Arabic for names of people and places, for names of Arabic dishes, for nicknames and for wherever else she sees fit. The first and maybe most striking example of how Nahr uses Arabic is the way she writes the name, Muhammad. It is without a doubt the most common male name in the world, and in Arabic, it is pronounced Mhammad, which is exactly the way Nahr writes it for us.
Tatreez
Nahr’s story brings to mind two metaphors. The first is a piece of Tatreez, or Palestinian embroidery. The characters in the story are the colors and designs that represent the various towns, villages, and regions of Palestine. It is embroidered over a black cloth, which is Palestine. The novel displays both the immense beauty and unspeakable tragedy of Palestine.
The second metaphor is a cluster of vines that twist and grow around the trunk of a large tree. In Palestine, one sees this often. It is particularly beautiful when the fines are in bloom, wrapping around large trunks of tall trees. The stories of Nahr and the people around her are the vines wrapping around a y tree with a thick trunk. That tree is Palestine.
Nahr is surrounded by strong characters who represent the breadth of the Palestinian experience. Their stories are told through Nahr’s story and together they evoke powerful emotions, which we experience together with her. They include innocence, passion, love, and hate, sadness, and anger as well as delicately threaded tenderness, yearning, and compassion. Abulhawa seamlessly weaves Nahr’s personal story and the stories of the other characters into the greater story of Palestine.
The story takes us into two of the largest Palestinian refugee communities in the world, Kuwait and Jordan. We come face to face with Palestinians who became refugees in 1948, and then again in 1967, and then brutally kicked out of Kuwait and turned into refugees again as a result of the first Gulf War. Each time they think they can finally rest, something happens and they are forced to move again. Yet throughout this painful and seemingly endless odyssey their anchor continues to be Palestine. Nahr tries to talk to these people, to hear about their experience, but she is met with silence. Silence of a generation of Palestinians who cannot bear to talk about their loss.
A story of love
Nahr’s experiences are perhaps not unlike other women living under oppressive regimes. But in one aspect her experience is truly universal – she experiences the full scope of cruelty meted out to women by men, by the patriarchy. Men’s brutality towards women is not unique to a particular race, nationality, or culture, making her experience universal. But still, although she suffers greatly at the hands of men, Nahr is capable of feeling and expressing a deep, sincere love for a man.
Though she speaks to us from a cold, lonely cell in which she is held by Israel, Nahr is able to relay feelings towards the one man who she truly loves and who loves her completely. She describes it as “a sexual yearning made insatiable by love so vast, as if a sky.”
In one scene Nahr watches this man whom she loves so deeply, and what she sees is, “the guilt, the impotence of seeing those settlements, the anguish over his brother, his mother, the years in prison, the torture, the inability to move.” Then, reflecting on her own sense of helplessness she says, “I wanted to take him in my arms and fix everything,” but, “all I could do was help carry the tea glasses.”
Palestine, for those who were torn away from her and for those who care for her, is like a loved one dying of terminal cancer. Hard as we may try, all we can do for her as she is being eaten away by the cancer of Zionist brutality, is make her comfortable.
Nahr’s pain is deep and real and reading this novel one often forgets that it is, in fact, fiction. She experiences pain as a woman, as a Palestinian, and as a human being. In Nahr’s own words, it is “a cloistered, unreachable, immutable ache.”
The spirit of resistance
Nahr describes what she sees in Palestine, and which few if any dare to admit: “the epic fabrication of a Jewish nation returning to its homeland.” She says that the deceit, “had grown into a living, breathing narrative that shaped lives as if it were truth.” The epic fabrication, the deceit is one and the same: the Zionist myth upon which the State of Israel was created. Israel is an enormous prison that separates Palestinians from each other and from their land. To enforce its oppressive existence on Palestine the State of Israel created a brutal war machine.
Nahr describes the Jewish-only settlements that she sees spreading like cancer all over Palestine. Entire cities, neighborhoods, and homes, including ones that belonged to people who she knows and loves and who were forced to flee their homeland, taken over by Jewish settlers.
But the spirit of resistance is alive in Palestine and Nahr will not stand idly by as others prepare to act. She is enraged by the ruthlessness of settlers and soldiers, tucked away safely in their exclusive, Arab-free colonies. She sees how they live on land stolen from Palestinians, how they come out periodically to attack Palestinians, how they act with impunity, and she, like many others, wants to see justice.
As soon as Nahr senses that people around her are engaged in acts of resistance she wants in on the action. But she is an outsider, she grew up in exile in Kuwait and it isn’t clear if she can be trusted. It is not clear whether or not she is an informant herself, in which case letting her in will be disastrous. Here, once again, Nahr is unaccommodating, fierce, and willing to face the consequences of her actions.
Feeling the pulse
Along with Ghassan Kanafani and Ibrahim Nasrallah, Susan Abulhawa’s writing has the rare quality of allowing us to hear the sound, taste the flavor, smell the fragrance, and feel the pulse of Palestine. She offers a rare insight and we would be foolish not to accept it.
Editor’s Note | An earlier version of this article was amended to add more information.
Feature photo | A Palestinian woman enjoys the Mediterranean during the Eid al-Adha holiday, Aug. 2, 2020. Oded Balilty | AP
Miko Peled is an author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. He is the author of “The General’s Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and “Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.”


mintpressnews--2020-08-10--New Report Reveals US Special Forces Active in 22 African Countries

A new report published in South African newspaper The Mail and Guardian has shed light on the opaque world of the American military presence in Africa .
Last year , elite U.S. Special Operations forces were active in 22 African countries .
This accounts for 14 percent of all American commandos deployed overseas , the largest number for any region besides the Middle East .
American troops had also seen combat in 13 African nations .
The U.S. is not formally at war with an African nation , and the continent is barely discussed in reference to American exploits around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ operatives die in Africa , as happened in Niger , Mali , and Somalia in 2018 , the response from the public , and even from the media is often “ why are American soldiers there in the first place ?
” The presence of the U.S. military , especially commandos , is rarely publicly acknowledged , either by Washington or by African governments .
What they are doing remains even more opaque .
U.S. Africa Command ( AFRICOM ) generally claims that special forces go no further than so-called “ AAA ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ missions .
Yet in combat , the role between observer and participant can become distinctly blurry .
The United States has roughly 6,000 military personnel scattered throughout the continent , with military attachés outnumbering diplomats in many embassies across Africa .
Earlier this year , The Intercept reported that the military operates 29 bases on the continent .
One of these is a huge drone hub in Niger , something The Hill called “ the largest U.S. Air Force-led construction project of all time.
” The construction cost alone was over $ 100 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to top $ 280 billion by 2024 .
Equipped with Reaper drones , the U.S. can now conduct cross border bombing raids all over the North and West of Africa .

A new report published in South African newspaper The Mail and Guardian has shed light on the opaque world of the American military presence in Africa. Last year, elite U.S. Special Operations forces were active in 22 African countries. This accounts for 14 percent of all American commandos deployed overseas, the largest number for any region besides the Middle East. American troops had also seen combat in 13 African nations.
The U.S. is not formally at war with an African nation, and the continent is barely discussed in reference to American exploits around the globe. Therefore, when U.S. operatives die in Africa, as happened in Niger, Mali, and Somalia in 2018, the response from the public, and even from the media is often “why are American soldiers there in the first place?”
The presence of the U.S. military, especially commandos, is rarely publicly acknowledged, either by Washington or by African governments. What they are doing remains even more opaque. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) generally claims that special forces go no further than so-called “AAA” (advise, assist and accompany) missions. Yet in combat, the role between observer and participant can become distinctly blurry.
The United States has roughly 6,000 military personnel scattered throughout the continent, with military attachés outnumbering diplomats in many embassies across Africa. Earlier this year, The Intercept reported that the military operates 29 bases on the continent. One of these is a huge drone hub in Niger, something The Hill called “the largest U.S. Air Force-led construction project of all time.” The construction cost alone was over $100 million, with total operating costs expected to top $280 billion by 2024. Equipped with Reaper drones, the U.S. can now conduct cross border bombing raids all over the North and West of Africa.


mintpressnews--2020-08-10--Nancy Pelosi Has a Solution to COVID-Induced Hunger, Evictions and Poverty: Pray for Republicans

Amid a COVID-induced economic crisis that is causing 26 million Americans to go hungry , up to 40 million to face imminent eviction , and more than 50 million to file for unemployment , Americans are looking to elected officials for leadership , guidance , and hope .
On Sunday morning , Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi answered in an unusual manner : by issuing a public prayer asking the country to pray for the sick , struggling and needy , but also to “ pray harder ” for those who refuse to help them , presumably meaning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as we pray for the American people , I wanted to share “ A Responsive Prayer for Justice , ” wrote Pelosi on her official government website : Pray for those who are hungry .
Pray harder for those who will not feed them .
Pray for those who struggle each week to pay their bills .
Pray harder for the wealthy who do not care .
Pray for those who are homeless .
Pray harder for those who deny them shelter .
Pray for the sick and lonely .
Pray harder for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Pray for those who cry out for dignity .
Pray harder for those who will not listen .
Pray for those oppressed by unjust wages .
Pray harder for those who exploit them .
Pray for those who bear the yoke of prejudice .
Pray harder for those who discriminate against them .
Pray for those whose basic needs are denied .
Pray harder for the public officials who cater to the greedy and ignore those bound unjustly .
The prayer was published as a press release , suggesting Pelosi wanted it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the crisis was not well received by some users on social media , who felt that given her considerable political power , she was in a position to offer the public far more than symbolic assistance .
“ The people of San Francisco and the United States need voices willing to represent us and actually stand up for our policy needs rather than serving Wall Street and Beltway agencies .
Nancy Pelosi ’ s prayers are a poor substitute , ” responded her Democratic primary challenger Shahid Buttar .
Republicans and Democrats are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic .
Among the consequences of the virus has been a sharp spike in the amount of Americans unable to find enough food .
Surveys have shown that nearly 11 percent of the country went hungry at some point in the last week , that number almost doubling for black and Latino respondents .
Food banks across the country have been inundated .
The federal moratorium on evictions has now expired , with up to 40 million at risk of losing their houses .
Tens of millions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ healthcare as a result .
But at the same time , the country ’ s billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $ 685 billion since lockdowns began in March .
Despite this , Pelosi continues to oppose Medicare-for-All and has already indicated that she is willing to cave in to Republicans on the latest coronavirus response bill , telling CNN yesterday that , while they are advocating for a $ 2 trillion stimulus package , Democrats will automatically accept $ 1 trillion , hardly the best strategy to begin negotiations .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actions that poorly judge the public mood .
In April , she appeared from her house on The Late Show with James Corden , sitting in front of a $ 24,000 refrigerator , telling the English comedian of her passion for a brand of ice cream that costs $ 13 per pint .
Many felt that Pelosi , who has an estimated net worth of $ 120 million , was out of touch with the economic hardships faced by ordinary Americans suffering during the pandemic .
In June , amid a growing protest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and other top Democrats filmed themselves taking a knee while wearing West African Kente cloth , but refused to endorse many of the movement ’ s demands , including a serious reckoning with the nature and funding of policing .
Indeed , a leaked 2015 memo from the DCCC advises Democrats not to offer support to the movement , to listen but not offer any guarantees .
Thus , while she rhetorically sympathizes with those affected by the economic fallout from the pandemic , it appears that Pelosi will not push for systemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the people thoughts and prayers instead .
Feature photo | House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif. , pauses as she speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington , Aug. 6 , 2020 .
Carolyn Kaster | AP Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

Amid a COVID-induced economic crisis that is causing 26 million Americans to go hungry, up to 40 million to face imminent eviction, and more than 50 million to file for unemployment, Americans are looking to elected officials for leadership, guidance, and hope. On Sunday morning, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi answered in an unusual manner: by issuing a public prayer asking the country to pray for the sick, struggling and needy, but also to “pray harder” for those who refuse to help them, presumably meaning the Republicans.
On this Sunday morning as we pray for the American people, I wanted to share “A Responsive Prayer for Justice,” wrote Pelosi on her official government website:
Pray for those who are hungry.
Pray harder for those who will not feed them.
Pray for those who struggle each week to pay their bills.
Pray harder for the wealthy who do not care.
Pray for those who are homeless.
Pray harder for those who deny them shelter.
Pray for the sick and lonely.
Pray harder for those who will not give them comfort.
Pray for those who cry out for dignity.
Pray harder for those who will not listen.
Pray for those oppressed by unjust wages.
Pray harder for those who exploit them.
Pray for those who bear the yoke of prejudice.
Pray harder for those who discriminate against them.
Pray for those whose basic needs are denied.
Pray harder for the public officials who cater to the greedy and ignore those bound unjustly.
oh hell yes, @SpeakerPelosi has thoughts and prayers for 50 million unemployed and a predicted 40 million homeless families (that's 4 times higher than the Great Recession). I hope Nancy's prayers to baby Jesus will help, since US government sure the fuck isn't. https://t.co/is53EgiRcj pic.twitter.com/j41FJ3E3Uo — One of Many Beths (@BethLynch2020) August 9, 2020
The prayer was published as a press release, suggesting Pelosi wanted it read widely. Yet this response to the crisis was not well received by some users on social media, who felt that given her considerable political power, she was in a position to offer the public far more than symbolic assistance. “The people of San Francisco and the United States need voices willing to represent us and actually stand up for our policy needs rather than serving Wall Street and Beltway agencies. Nancy Pelosi’s prayers are a poor substitute,” responded her Democratic primary challenger Shahid Buttar.
https://twitter.com/McAuleyATL/status/1292514060622340098
Republicans and Democrats are currently negotiating new bills to respond to the fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the consequences of the virus has been a sharp spike in the amount of Americans unable to find enough food. Surveys have shown that nearly 11 percent of the country went hungry at some point in the last week, that number almost doubling for black and Latino respondents. Food banks across the country have been inundated. The federal moratorium on evictions has now expired, with up to 40 million at risk of losing their houses. Tens of millions have lost their jobs and their employer-based healthcare as a result. But at the same time, the country’s billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $685 billion since lockdowns began in March.
Despite this, Pelosi continues to oppose Medicare-for-All and has already indicated that she is willing to cave in to Republicans on the latest coronavirus response bill, telling CNN yesterday that, while they are advocating for a $2 trillion stimulus package, Democrats will automatically accept $1 trillion, hardly the best strategy to begin negotiations.
The Californian politician has a history of tone-deaf actions that poorly judge the public mood. In April, she appeared from her house on The Late Show with James Corden, sitting in front of a $24,000 refrigerator, telling the English comedian of her passion for a brand of ice cream that costs $13 per pint. Many felt that Pelosi, who has an estimated net worth of $120 million, was out of touch with the economic hardships faced by ordinary Americans suffering during the pandemic.
In June, amid a growing protest movement against racist police violence, she and other top Democrats filmed themselves taking a knee while wearing West African Kente cloth, but refused to endorse many of the movement’s demands, including a serious reckoning with the nature and funding of policing. Indeed, a leaked 2015 memo from the DCCC advises Democrats not to offer support to the movement, to listen but not offer any guarantees.
Thus, while she rhetorically sympathizes with those affected by the economic fallout from the pandemic, it appears that Pelosi will not push for systemic or substantial change, quite literally offering the people thoughts and prayers instead.
Feature photo | House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., pauses as she speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 6, 2020. Carolyn Kaster | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-08-10--Chris Hedges: America’s Death March

Chris Hedges: America’s Death March

Princeton , New Jersey ( Scheerpost ) — The terminal decline of the United States will not be solved by elections .
The political rot and depravity will continue to eat away at the soul of the nation , spawning what anthropologists call crisis cults — movements led by demagogues that prey on an unbearable psychological and financial distress .
These crisis cults , already well established among followers of the Christian Right and Donald Trump , peddle magical thinking and an infantilism that promises — in exchange for all autonomy — prosperity , a return to a mythical past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yearnings among the white working class for vengeance and moral renewal through violence , the unchecked greed and corruption of the corporate oligarchs and billionaires who manage our failed democracy , which has already instituted wholesale government surveillance and revoked most civil liberties , are part of the twisted pathologies that infect all civilizations sputtering towards oblivion .
I witnessed the deaths of other nations during the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and later in the former Yugoslavia .
I have smelled this stench before .
The removal of Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for racist violence he incites and the intoxicating elixir of white nationalism .
The ruling elites , who first built a mafia economy and then built a mafia state , will continue under Biden , as they did under Trump , Barack Obama , George W. Bush , Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan , to wantonly pillage and loot .
The militarized police will not stop their lethal rampages in poor neighborhoods .
The endless wars will not end .
The bloated military budget will not be reduced .
The world ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ upon the country .
The manufacturing jobs shipped overseas will not return and the social inequality will grow .
The for-profit health care system will gouge the public and price millions more out of the health care system .
The language of hate and bigotry will be normalized as the primary form of communication .
Internal enemies , including Muslims , immigrants and dissidents , will be defamed and attacked .
The hypermasculinity that compensates for feelings of impotence will intensify .
It will direct its venom towards women and all who fail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ especially artists , LGBTQ people and intellectuals .
Lies , conspiracy theories , trivia and fake news — what Hannah Arendt called “ nihilistic relativism ” — will still dominate the airwaves and social media , mocking verifiable fact and truth .
The ecocide , which presages the extinction of the human species and most other life forms , will barrel unabated towards its apocalyptic conclusion .
“ We run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us to stop us seeing it , ” Pascal wrote .
The worse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worse as the pandemic hits us in wave after deadly wave with an estimated 300,000 Americans dead by December and possibly 400,000 by January — the more desperate the nation will become .
Tens of millions of people will be thrown into destitution , evicted from their homes and abandoned .
Social collapse , as Peter Drucker observed in Weimar Germany in the 1930s , brings with it a loss of faith in ruling institutions and ruling ideologies .
With no apparent answers or solutions to mounting chaos and catastrophe — and Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the kind of New Deal programs and assault on oligarchic power that saved us during the Great Depression — demagogues and charlatans need only denounce all institutions , all politicians , and all political and social conventions while conjuring up hosts of phantom enemies .
Drucker saw that Nazism succeeded not because people believed in its fantastic promises , but in spite of them .
Nazi absurdities , he pointed out , had been “ witnessed by a hostile press , a hostile radio , a hostile cinema , a hostile church , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out the Nazi lies , the Nazi inconsistency , the unattainability of their promises , and the dangers and folly of their course.
” Nobody , he noted , “ would have been a Nazi if rational belief in the Nazi promises had been a prerequisite.
” The poet , playwright and socialist revolutionary Ernst Toller , who was forced into exile and stripped of his citizenship when the Nazis took power in 1933 , wrote much the same in his autobiography : “ The people are tired of reason , tired of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what has reason done in the last few years , what good have insights and knowledge done us.
” After Toller committed suicide in 1939 , W.H .
Auden in his poem “ In Memory of Ernst Toller ” wrote : We are lived by powers we pretend to understand : They arrange our loves ; it is they who direct at the end The enemy bullet , the sickness , or even our hand .
The poor , the vulnerable , those who are not white or not Christian , those who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ repeat the cant of a perverted Christian nationalism , will be offered up in a crisis to the god of death , a familiar form of human sacrifice that plagues sick societies .
Once these enemies are purged from the nation , we are promised , America will recover its lost glory , except that once one enemy is obliterated another takes its place .
Crisis cults require a steady escalation of conflict .
This is what made the war in the former Yugoslavia inevitable .
Once one stage of conflict reaches a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must be replaced by ever more brutal and deadly confrontations .
The intoxication and addiction to greater and greater levels of violence to purge the society of evil led to genocide in Germany and the former Yugoslavia .
We are not immune .
It is what Ernst Jünger called a “ feast of death.
” These crisis cults are , as Drucker understood , irrational and schizophrenic .
They have no coherent ideology .
They turn morality upside down .
They appeal exclusively to emotions .
Burlesque and celebrity culture become politics .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ become heroism .
Crime and fraud become justice .
Greed and nepotism become civic virtues .
What these cults stand for today , they condemn tomorrow .
At the height of the reign of terror on May 6 , 1794 during the French Revolution , Maximilien Robespierre announced that the Committee for Public Safety now recognized the existence of God .
The French revolutionaries , fanatical atheists who had desecrated churches and confiscated church property , murdered hundreds of priests and forced another 30,000 into exile , instantly reversed themselves to send to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In the end , exhausted by the moral confusion and internal contradictions , these crisis cults yearn for self-annihilation .
The French sociologist Emile Durkheim in his classic book “ On Suicide ” found that when social bonds are shattered , when a population no longer feels it has a place or meaning in a society , personal and collective acts of self-destruction proliferate .
Societies are held together by a web of social bonds that give individuals a sense of being part of a collective and engaged in a project larger than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through rituals , such as elections and democratic participation or an appeal to patriotism , and shared national beliefs .
The bonds provide meaning , a sense of purpose , status and dignity .
They offer psychological protection from impending mortality and the meaninglessness that comes with being isolated and alone .
The breaking of these bonds plunges individuals into deep psychological distress .
Durkheim called this state of hopelessness and despair anomie , which he defined as “ ruleless-ness.
” Ruleless-ness means the norms that govern a society and create a sense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The belief , for example , that if we work hard , obey the law and get a good education we can achieve stable employment , social status and mobility along with financial security becomes a lie .
The old rules , imperfect and often untrue for poor people of color , nevertheless were not a complete fiction in the United States .
They offered some Americans — especially those from the white working and middle class — modest social and economic advancement .
The disintegration of these bonds has unleashed a widespread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ self-destructive pathologies that plague the United States — opioid addiction , gambling , suicide , sexual sadism , hate groups and mass shootings — are products of this anomie .
So is our political dysfunction .
My book , “ America : The Farewell Tour , ” is an examination of these pathologies and the widespread anomie that defines American society .
The economic structures , even before the pandemic , were reconfigured to mock faith in a meritocracy and the belief that hard work leads to a productive and valued role in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York Times pointed out , has increased 77 percent since 1973 but hourly pay has grown only 12 percent .
If the federal minimum wage was attached to productivity , the newspaper wrote , it would be more than $ 20 an hour now , not $ 7.25 .
Some 41.7 million workers , a third of the workforce , earn less than $ 12 an hour , and most of them do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance .
A decade after the 2008 financial meltdown , the Times wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s net worth is more than $ 40,000 below what it was in 2007 .
The net worth of black families is down 40 percent , and for Latino families the figure has dropped 46 percent .
Some four million evictions are filed each year .
One in four tenant households spends about half its pretax income on rent .
Each night some 200,000 people sleep in their cars , on streets or under bridges .
And these stark figures represent the good times Biden and the Democratic Party leaders promise to restore @ @ @ @ @ @ @ close to 20 percent — the official figure of 10 percent excludes those furloughed or those who have stopped looking for work — some 40 million people are at risk of being evicted by the end of the year .
An estimated 27 million people are expected to lose their health insurance .
Banks are stockpiling reserves of cash to cope with the expected wave of bankruptcies and defaults on mortgages , student loans , car loans , personal loans and credit card debt .
The ruleless-ness and anomie that defines the lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ orchestrated by the two ruling parties in the service of a corporate oligarchy .
If we do not address this anomie , if we do not restore the social bonds shattered by predatory corporate capitalism , the decay will accelerate .
This dark human pathology is as old as civilization itself , repeated in varying forms in the twilight of ancient Greece and Rome , the finale of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires , revolutionary France , the Weimar Republic and the former Yugoslavia .
The social inequality that characterizes all states and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cabal — in our case corporate — leads to an inchoate desire by huge segments of the population to destroy .
The ethnic nationalists Slobodan Milošević , Franjo Tudjman , Radovan Karadžić and Alija Izetbegović in the former Yugoslavia assumed power in a similar period of economic chaos and political stagnation .
Yugoslavs by 1991 were suffering from widespread unemployment and had seen their real incomes reduced by half from what they had been a generation before .
These nationalist demagogues sanctified their followers as righteous victims stalked by an array of elusive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of vengeance and violence , leading , as it always does , to actual violence .
They trafficked in historical myth , deifying the past exploits of their race or ethnicity in a perverse kind of ancestor worship , a mechanism to give to those who suffered from anomie , who had lost their identity , dignity and self-worth , a new , glorious identity as part of a master race .
When I walked through Montgomery , Alabama , a city where half of the population is African-American , with the civil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ago , he pointed out the numerous Confederate memorials , noting that most had been put up in the last decade .
“ This , ” I told him , “ is exactly what happened in Yugoslavia.
” A hyper-nationalism always infects a dying civilization .
It feeds the collective self-worship .
This hyper-nationalism celebrates the supposedly unique virtues of the race or the national group .
It strips all who are outside the closed circle of worth and humanity .
The world instantly becomes understandable , a black and white tableau of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in history see people fall into collective insanity .
They suspend thought , especially self-critical thought .
None of this is going away in November , in fact it will get worse .
Joe Biden , a shallow , political hack devoid of fixed beliefs or intellectual depth , is an expression of the nostalgia of a ruling class that yearns to return to the pantomime of democracy .
They want to restore the decorum and civic religion that makes the presidency a form of monarchy and sacralizes the organs of state power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ineptitude is an embarrassment to the architects of empire .
He has ripped back the veil that covered our failed democracy .
But no matter how hard the elites try this veil can not be restored .
The mask is off .
The façade is gone .
Biden can not bring it back .
Political , economic and social dysfunction define the American empire .
Our staggering inability to contain the pandemic , which now infects over 5 million Americans , and the failure to cope with the economic fallout the pandemic has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ model as bankrupt .
It has freed the world , dominated by the United States for seven decades , to look at other social and political systems that serve the common good rather than corporate greed .
The diminished stature of the United States , even among our European allies , brings with it the hope for new forms of government and new forms of power .
It is up to us to abolish the American kleptocracy .
It is up to us to mount sustained acts of mass civil disobedience to bring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world as it poisons us .
If we mobilize to build an open society , we hold out the possibility of beating back these crisis cults as well as slowing and disrupting the march towards ecocide .
This requires us to acknowledge , like those protesting in the streets of Beirut , that our kleptocracy , like Lebanon ’ s , is incapable of being salvaged .
The American system of inverted totalitarianism , as the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin called it , must be eradicated if we are to wrest back our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We need to echo the chants by the crowds in Lebanon calling for the wholesale removal of its ruling class — kulyan-yani-kulyan — everyone means everyone .
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times , where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper .
He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News , The Christian Science Monitor , and NPR .
He wrote a weekly column for the progressive website @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fired along with all of the editorial staff in March 2020 .
[ Hedges and the staff had gone on strike earlier in the month to protest the publisher ’ s attempt to fire the Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer , demand an end to a series of unfair labor practices and the right to form a union . ]
He is the host of the Emmy Award-nominated RT America show On Contact .

Princeton, New Jersey (Scheerpost) — The terminal decline of the United States will not be solved by elections. The political rot and depravity will continue to eat away at the soul of the nation, spawning what anthropologists call crisis cults — movements led by demagogues that prey on an unbearable psychological and financial distress. These crisis cults, already well established among followers of the Christian Right and Donald Trump, peddle magical thinking and an infantilism that promises — in exchange for all autonomy — prosperity, a return to a mythical past, order and security. The dark yearnings among the white working class for vengeance and moral renewal through violence, the unchecked greed and corruption of the corporate oligarchs and billionaires who manage our failed democracy, which has already instituted wholesale government surveillance and revoked most civil liberties, are part of the twisted pathologies that infect all civilizations sputtering towards oblivion. I witnessed the deaths of other nations during the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and later in the former Yugoslavia. I have smelled this stench before.
The removal of Trump from office will only exacerbate the lust for racist violence he incites and the intoxicating elixir of white nationalism. The ruling elites, who first built a mafia economy and then built a mafia state, will continue under Biden, as they did under Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, to wantonly pillage and loot. The militarized police will not stop their lethal rampages in poor neighborhoods. The endless wars will not end. The bloated military budget will not be reduced. The world’s largest prison population will remain a stain upon the country. The manufacturing jobs shipped overseas will not return and the social inequality will grow. The for-profit health care system will gouge the public and price millions more out of the health care system. The language of hate and bigotry will be normalized as the primary form of communication. Internal enemies, including Muslims, immigrants and dissidents, will be defamed and attacked. The hypermasculinity that compensates for feelings of impotence will intensify. It will direct its venom towards women and all who fail to conform to rigid male stereotypes, especially artists, LGBTQ people and intellectuals. Lies, conspiracy theories, trivia and fake news — what Hannah Arendt called “nihilistic relativism” — will still dominate the airwaves and social media, mocking verifiable fact and truth. The ecocide, which presages the extinction of the human species and most other life forms, will barrel unabated towards its apocalyptic conclusion.
“We run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us to stop us seeing it,” Pascal wrote.
The worse it gets — and it will get worse as the pandemic hits us in wave after deadly wave with an estimated 300,000 Americans dead by December and possibly 400,000 by January — the more desperate the nation will become. Tens of millions of people will be thrown into destitution, evicted from their homes and abandoned. Social collapse, as Peter Drucker observed in Weimar Germany in the 1930s, brings with it a loss of faith in ruling institutions and ruling ideologies. With no apparent answers or solutions to mounting chaos and catastrophe — and Biden and the Democratic Party have already precluded the kind of New Deal programs and assault on oligarchic power that saved us during the Great Depression — demagogues and charlatans need only denounce all institutions, all politicians, and all political and social conventions while conjuring up hosts of phantom enemies. Drucker saw that Nazism succeeded not because people believed in its fantastic promises, but in spite of them. Nazi absurdities, he pointed out, had been “witnessed by a hostile press, a hostile radio, a hostile cinema, a hostile church, and a hostile government which untiringly pointed out the Nazi lies, the Nazi inconsistency, the unattainability of their promises, and the dangers and folly of their course.” Nobody, he noted, “would have been a Nazi if rational belief in the Nazi promises had been a prerequisite.” The poet, playwright and socialist revolutionary Ernst Toller, who was forced into exile and stripped of his citizenship when the Nazis took power in 1933, wrote much the same in his autobiography: “The people are tired of reason, tired of thought and reflection. They ask, what has reason done in the last few years, what good have insights and knowledge done us.” After Toller committed suicide in 1939, W.H. Auden in his poem “In Memory of Ernst Toller” wrote:
We are lived by powers we pretend to understand:
They arrange our loves; it is they who direct at the end
The enemy bullet, the sickness, or even our hand.
The poor, the vulnerable, those who are not white or not Christian, those who are undocumented or who do not mindlessly repeat the cant of a perverted Christian nationalism, will be offered up in a crisis to the god of death, a familiar form of human sacrifice that plagues sick societies. Once these enemies are purged from the nation, we are promised, America will recover its lost glory, except that once one enemy is obliterated another takes its place. Crisis cults require a steady escalation of conflict. This is what made the war in the former Yugoslavia inevitable. Once one stage of conflict reaches a crescendo it loses its efficacy. It must be replaced by ever more brutal and deadly confrontations. The intoxication and addiction to greater and greater levels of violence to purge the society of evil led to genocide in Germany and the former Yugoslavia. We are not immune. It is what Ernst Jünger called a “feast of death.”
These crisis cults are, as Drucker understood, irrational and schizophrenic. They have no coherent ideology. They turn morality upside down. They appeal exclusively to emotions. Burlesque and celebrity culture become politics. Depravity becomes morality. Atrocities and murder become heroism. Crime and fraud become justice. Greed and nepotism become civic virtues. What these cults stand for today, they condemn tomorrow. At the height of the reign of terror on May 6, 1794 during the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre announced that the Committee for Public Safety now recognized the existence of God. The French revolutionaries, fanatical atheists who had desecrated churches and confiscated church property, murdered hundreds of priests and forced another 30,000 into exile, instantly reversed themselves to send to the guillotine those who disparaged religion. In the end, exhausted by the moral confusion and internal contradictions, these crisis cults yearn for self-annihilation.
The French sociologist Emile Durkheim in his classic book “On Suicide” found that when social bonds are shattered, when a population no longer feels it has a place or meaning in a society, personal and collective acts of self-destruction proliferate. Societies are held together by a web of social bonds that give individuals a sense of being part of a collective and engaged in a project larger than the self. This collective expresses itself through rituals, such as elections and democratic participation or an appeal to patriotism, and shared national beliefs. The bonds provide meaning, a sense of purpose, status and dignity. They offer psychological protection from impending mortality and the meaninglessness that comes with being isolated and alone. The breaking of these bonds plunges individuals into deep psychological distress. Durkheim called this state of hopelessness and despair anomie, which he defined as “ruleless-ness.”
Ruleless-ness means the norms that govern a society and create a sense of organic solidarity no longer function. The belief, for example, that if we work hard, obey the law and get a good education we can achieve stable employment, social status and mobility along with financial security becomes a lie. The old rules, imperfect and often untrue for poor people of color, nevertheless were not a complete fiction in the United States. They offered some Americans — especially those from the white working and middle class — modest social and economic advancement. The disintegration of these bonds has unleashed a widespread malaise Durkheim would have recognized. The self-destructive pathologies that plague the United States — opioid addiction, gambling, suicide, sexual sadism, hate groups and mass shootings — are products of this anomie. So is our political dysfunction. My book, “America: The Farewell Tour,” is an examination of these pathologies and the widespread anomie that defines American society.
The economic structures, even before the pandemic, were reconfigured to mock faith in a meritocracy and the belief that hard work leads to a productive and valued role in society. American productivity, as The New York Times pointed out, has increased 77 percent since 1973 but hourly pay has grown only 12 percent. If the federal minimum wage was attached to productivity, the newspaper wrote, it would be more than $20 an hour now, not $7.25. Some 41.7 million workers, a third of the workforce, earn less than $12 an hour, and most of them do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance. A decade after the 2008 financial meltdown, the Times wrote, the average middle class family’s net worth is more than $40,000 below what it was in 2007. The net worth of black families is down 40 percent, and for Latino families the figure has dropped 46 percent. Some four million evictions are filed each year. One in four tenant households spends about half its pretax income on rent. Each night some 200,000 people sleep in their cars, on streets or under bridges. And these stark figures represent the good times Biden and the Democratic Party leaders promise to restore. Now, with real unemployment probably close to 20 percent — the official figure of 10 percent excludes those furloughed or those who have stopped looking for work — some 40 million people are at risk of being evicted by the end of the year. An estimated 27 million people are expected to lose their health insurance. Banks are stockpiling reserves of cash to cope with the expected wave of bankruptcies and defaults on mortgages, student loans, car loans, personal loans and credit card debt. The ruleless-ness and anomie that defines the lives of tens of millions of Americans was orchestrated by the two ruling parties in the service of a corporate oligarchy. If we do not address this anomie, if we do not restore the social bonds shattered by predatory corporate capitalism, the decay will accelerate.
This dark human pathology is as old as civilization itself, repeated in varying forms in the twilight of ancient Greece and Rome, the finale of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, revolutionary France, the Weimar Republic and the former Yugoslavia.
The social inequality that characterizes all states and civilizations seized by a tiny and corrupt cabal — in our case corporate — leads to an inchoate desire by huge segments of the population to destroy. The ethnic nationalists Slobodan Milošević, Franjo Tudjman, Radovan Karadžić and Alija Izetbegović in the former Yugoslavia assumed power in a similar period of economic chaos and political stagnation. Yugoslavs by 1991 were suffering from widespread unemployment and had seen their real incomes reduced by half from what they had been a generation before. These nationalist demagogues sanctified their followers as righteous victims stalked by an array of elusive enemies. They spoke in the language of vengeance and violence, leading, as it always does, to actual violence. They trafficked in historical myth, deifying the past exploits of their race or ethnicity in a perverse kind of ancestor worship, a mechanism to give to those who suffered from anomie, who had lost their identity, dignity and self-worth, a new, glorious identity as part of a master race. When I walked through Montgomery, Alabama, a city where half of the population is African-American, with the civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson a few years ago, he pointed out the numerous Confederate memorials, noting that most had been put up in the last decade. “This,” I told him, “is exactly what happened in Yugoslavia.”
A hyper-nationalism always infects a dying civilization. It feeds the collective self-worship. This hyper-nationalism celebrates the supposedly unique virtues of the race or the national group. It strips all who are outside the closed circle of worth and humanity. The world instantly becomes understandable, a black and white tableau of them and us. These tragic moments in history see people fall into collective insanity. They suspend thought, especially self-critical thought. None of this is going away in November, in fact it will get worse.
Joe Biden, a shallow, political hack devoid of fixed beliefs or intellectual depth, is an expression of the nostalgia of a ruling class that yearns to return to the pantomime of democracy. They want to restore the decorum and civic religion that makes the presidency a form of monarchy and sacralizes the organs of state power. Donald Trump’s vulgarity and ineptitude is an embarrassment to the architects of empire. He has ripped back the veil that covered our failed democracy. But no matter how hard the elites try this veil cannot be restored. The mask is off. The façade is gone. Biden cannot bring it back.
Political, economic and social dysfunction define the American empire. Our staggering inability to contain the pandemic, which now infects over 5 million Americans, and the failure to cope with the economic fallout the pandemic has caused, has exposed the American capitalist model as bankrupt. It has freed the world, dominated by the United States for seven decades, to look at other social and political systems that serve the common good rather than corporate greed. The diminished stature of the United States, even among our European allies, brings with it the hope for new forms of government and new forms of power.
It is up to us to abolish the American kleptocracy. It is up to us to mount sustained acts of mass civil disobedience to bring down the empire. It poisons the world as it poisons us. If we mobilize to build an open society, we hold out the possibility of beating back these crisis cults as well as slowing and disrupting the march towards ecocide. This requires us to acknowledge, like those protesting in the streets of Beirut, that our kleptocracy, like Lebanon’s, is incapable of being salvaged. The American system of inverted totalitarianism, as the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin called it, must be eradicated if we are to wrest back our democracy and save ourselves from mass extinction. We need to echo the chants by the crowds in Lebanon calling for the wholesale removal of its ruling class — kulyan-yani-kulyan — everyone means everyone.
Feature photo | Feature artwork by Mr. Fish | Original to Scheerpost
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. He wrote a weekly column for the progressive website Truthdig for 14 years until he was fired along with all of the editorial staff in March 2020. [Hedges and the staff had gone on strike earlier in the month to protest the publisher’s attempt to fire the Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer, demand an end to a series of unfair labor practices and the right to form a union.] He is the host of the Emmy Award-nominated RT America show On Contact.