mintpressnews--2020-05-11--The Execution of Julian Assange

The Execution of Julian Assange

I do not respect anyone who has not been to prison.
” Julian Assange once said to Renata Avila , a Guatemalan human rights activist who serves as legal counsel for WikiLeaks .
“ What he meant , ” Avila says , “ was that being in prison means that you have made so much trouble for the system that the only way for the system to deal with you is to lock you up and try to silence you.
” After a decade of being shuttled from house arrest to confinement in an embassy to Belmarsh Prison to , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way , ADX Florence in Colorado , there is no question that the Executives of Empire are trying to silence Assange .
Assange and Avila are not the first to make such an observation , for in his classic essay “ Civil Disobedience , ” the nineteenth-century American writer Henry David Thoreau said , “ Under a government which imprisons unjustly , the true place for a just man is also a prison… where the State places those who are not with her , but against her.
” With the remaining three weeks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to begin Monday , May 18 , Thoreau ’ s philosophy of civil disobedience offers lessons about the history of the U.S. government ’ s retaliation against those who refuse to submit .
These lessons appear most clearly in Thoreau ’ s commentary on the execution of John Brown .
Brown was a militant abolitionist from Connecticut who made his reputation by using violence against slavers during the antebellum period .
While living in Kansas , he once led a group of antislavery guerrillas who attacked a group of slavery sympathizers who participated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ five men from their cabins and hacking them to death with hatchets .
Most famously , however , Brown led a raid on a U.S. military armory at Harpers Ferry , hoping to steal weapons and incite a slave rebellion .
The raid failed .
Brown was found guilty of treason and hanged .
Thoreau was enamored with John Brown .
As he wrote in “ A Plea for Captain John Brown , ” Brown was “ a man of rare common sense and directness of speech , as of action ; a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ideas and principles… not yielding to a whim or transient impulse , but carrying out the purpose of a life.
” Thoreau believed , with good reason , that principled individuals like Brown , who served the people with their consciences , were rare .
When such people did appear , “ they are commonly treated as enemies ” by the state .
Of course , Thoreau was disgusted by his contemporaries , many of whom , in Thoreau ’ s eyes , failed to understand Brown ’ s principled stance against slavery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ higher principles .
Against those naysayers who claimed Brown was a fool who threw his life away , Thoreau declared : “ they can not conceive of a man who is actuated by higher motives than they are .
Accordingly they pronounce this man insane , for they know that they could never act as he does , as long as they are themselves.
” Even the self-proclaimed abolitionist media denounced Brown , arguing that his means were inappropriate to the cause of ending slavery .
This Thoreau could not abide , for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ values exposed them all as spineless dilettantes .
The disparity between the media ’ s words and deeds was enough for Thoreau to conclude that only a small fraction of people who professed abolitionism were truly committed to it .
Like Brown , Assange is a principled individual who is being punished for his integrity .
“ WikiLeaks nurtures and ethic of unconditionality , ” Geoffroy de Lagasnerie has written .
“ Our democracy is in decline today precisely because our repeated tendency to suspend and defer democratic principles in the interest of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brown excelled in principled action compared to his expedient , supposedly anti-slavery contemporaries , Assange abides by principles that eschew all nationalism and militarism , which is exactly why militaristic , nationalist states like the US government hate him so much .
To be sure , Assange generally eschews violence as a means to social and political change , and Assange is not—as of now—facing threats of physical execution ( though he has been threatened with that many times in the past ) .
Nevertheless , just as Brown was physically executed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decade of social execution by character assassination .
“ Corrupt and unaccountable power uses its political and media influence to smear Assange , ” Caitlin Johnstone observes , “ because , as far as the interests of corrupt and unaccountable power are concerned , killing his reputation is as good as killing him.
” “ When looked at in its proper context , ” she adds , “ what we are witnessing is the slow-motion assassination of Assange via narrative/lawfare.
” There are many parties involved in the social execution of Assange , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The obvious , of course , is the U.S. government and corporate media .
Just as the abolitionist press failed to support a true abolitionist when he took action , the U.S. corporate media have taken the lead in Assange ’ s social execution .
In fact , the media have taken up the Pentagon ’ s strategy without being coerced or even asked .
Citing a 2008 U.S. Defense Department report on WikiLeaks , which was later published by WikiLeaks , John Pilger explains that character assassination of Assange has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years .
The report , writes Pilger , described in detail how important it was to destroy the ‘ feeling of trust ’ that is WikiLeaks ’ ‘ center of gravity.
’ This would be achieved , they wrote , with threats of ‘ exposure [ and ] criminal prosecution ’ and an unrelenting assault on reputation .
The aim was to silence and criminalize WikiLeaks and its editor and publisher .
It was as if they planned a war on a single human being and on the very principle of freedom of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personal smear .
Their shock troops would be enlisted in the media—those who are meant to keep the record straight and tell us the truth.
” “ The irony , ” he concludes , “ is that no one told these journalists what to do.
” U.S. corporate media is so comfortable with government propaganda that they do not even have to wait for directions .
They spontaneously carry out assassinations by propaganda just as the CIA carries out assassinations by drone .
U.S. liberals are another obvious party to the social execution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support Assange when WikiLeaks publishes documents perceived to be unthreatening to the Democratic Party .
“ What happened in 2016 broke a lot of people ’ s hearts , ” stated Lisa Lynch , a communications professor .
Assange “ proselytized about radical transparency , ” she said , but he ended up a pawn , used by Russian hackers in a geopolitical game .
“ I find Assange to have been a pawn in a lot of games , ” she said , warning the public not to grant Assange too much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the corporate media , the Pentagon , and liberals , self-styled “ leftists ” have participated in the character assassination of Assange .
“ I had trouble seeing him as a journalist from the start , ” said Todd Gitlin , a journalism professor .
“ But he certainly was a publisher .
It turns out he was not just any old publisher , he was a publisher with a distinct angle .
And his angle is anti-democratic.
” Gitlin , who was a leader of the antiwar movement in the 1960s , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he isn ’ t busy endangering First Amendment press freedoms by throwing a journalist who isn ’ t U.S. Government Approved™ under the imperial bus .
Apparently anyone whose politics can not be crammed into the narrow , partisan ideology of the so-called American “ left ” is simultaneously an anti-democratic knave and a naïve pawn .
As Johnstone has astutely reminded us , even those so-called leftists who repeatedly claim that “ I support Assange but he is trash ” have already internalized Pentagon propaganda .
They have already acquiesced to Empire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It is no coincidence that someone who has embarrassed the Empire over and over is presented to the public as “ literally the worst person in the whole entire world.
” Like Thoreau , those of us who care about human rights , press freedoms , and self-determination for the nations victimized by relentless U.S. imperialism ought to be appalled by those among our contemporaries who would rather acquiesce to the power of the military-media complex than stand on principle .
The entire narrative surrounding Assange stems from a narrowly partisan and nationalist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him not because of what he does but because of what he stands for .
Most of those who contribute to Assange ’ s social execution can not think beyond party loyalties and nationalist sentiments .
If United Kingdom courts rule in favor of the United States and grant extradition , Assange will be sentenced in the same place that all U.S. government whistleblowers have been sentenced : the Eastern District Court of Virginia .
I say “ sentenced ” not “ tried ” because those indicted under the Espionage Act , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves in court .
Assange faces up to 175 years in a supermax prison , but at 48-years-old , even one-quarter of that would mean Assange will like likely die in prison .
Such a sentence would complete his social execution .
“ He could not have been tried by a jury of his peers , ” Thoreau wrote of John Brown , “ because his peers did not exist.
” Corporate media has already tried Assange in the court of public opinion , but they are not his peers .
If the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a court of law , neither there will he be judged by his peers .
In the end , Thoreau was right to ask one question : “ Who is it whose safety requires that Captain Brown be hung ?
” Thus , we might ask : Who is it whose safety requires that Julian Assange be locked away for life ?
Patrick D. Anderson is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Grand Valley State University .
His research focuses on the Anticolonialism , Black Radical Philosophy , and the connections between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He also contributes to Black Agenda Report .
He can be reached at anderpat @ gvsu.edu .

I do not respect anyone who has not been to prison.” Julian Assange once said to Renata Avila, a Guatemalan human rights activist who serves as legal counsel for WikiLeaks. “What he meant,” Avila says, “was that being in prison means that you have made so much trouble for the system that the only way for the system to deal with you is to lock you up and try to silence you.”
After a decade of being shuttled from house arrest to confinement in an embassy to Belmarsh Prison to, if the United States government gets its way, ADX Florence in Colorado, there is no question that the Executives of Empire are trying to silence Assange.
Assange and Avila are not the first to make such an observation, for in his classic essay “Civil Disobedience,” the nineteenth-century American writer Henry David Thoreau said, “Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison… where the State places those who are not with her, but against her.”
With the remaining three weeks of Assange’s extradition trial scheduled to begin Monday, May 18, Thoreau’s philosophy of civil disobedience offers lessons about the history of the U.S. government’s retaliation against those who refuse to submit. These lessons appear most clearly in Thoreau’s commentary on the execution of John Brown.
The execution of John Brown
Brown was a militant abolitionist from Connecticut who made his reputation by using violence against slavers during the antebellum period. While living in Kansas, he once led a group of antislavery guerrillas who attacked a group of slavery sympathizers who participated in an anti-Black race riot, dragging five men from their cabins and hacking them to death with hatchets. Most famously, however, Brown led a raid on a U.S. military armory at Harpers Ferry, hoping to steal weapons and incite a slave rebellion. The raid failed. Brown was found guilty of treason and hanged.
Thoreau was enamored with John Brown. As he wrote in “A Plea for Captain John Brown,” Brown was “a man of rare common sense and directness of speech, as of action; a transcendentalist above all, a man of ideas and principles… not yielding to a whim or transient impulse, but carrying out the purpose of a life.” Thoreau believed, with good reason, that principled individuals like Brown, who served the people with their consciences, were rare. When such people did appear, “they are commonly treated as enemies” by the state.
Of course, Thoreau was disgusted by his contemporaries, many of whom, in Thoreau’s eyes, failed to understand Brown’s principled stance against slavery because they themselves lacked any commitment to higher principles. Against those naysayers who claimed Brown was a fool who threw his life away, Thoreau declared: “they cannot conceive of a man who is actuated by higher motives than they are. Accordingly they pronounce this man insane, for they know that they could never act as he does, as long as they are themselves.”
Even the self-proclaimed abolitionist media denounced Brown, arguing that his means were inappropriate to the cause of ending slavery. This Thoreau could not abide, for their inability to stand behind their professed values exposed them all as spineless dilettantes. The disparity between the media’s words and deeds was enough for Thoreau to conclude that only a small fraction of people who professed abolitionism were truly committed to it.
Like Brown, Assange is a principled individual who is being punished for his integrity. “WikiLeaks nurtures and ethic of unconditionality,” Geoffroy de Lagasnerie has written. “Our democracy is in decline today precisely because our repeated tendency to suspend and defer democratic principles in the interest of short-term practical objectives.” Just as John Brown excelled in principled action compared to his expedient, supposedly anti-slavery contemporaries, Assange abides by principles that eschew all nationalism and militarism, which is exactly why militaristic, nationalist states like the US government hate him so much.
To be sure, Assange generally eschews violence as a means to social and political change, and Assange is not—as of now—facing threats of physical execution (though he has been threatened with that many times in the past).
Nevertheless, just as Brown was physically executed, Assange has been victimized by approximately a decade of social execution by character assassination. “Corrupt and unaccountable power uses its political and media influence to smear Assange,” Caitlin Johnstone observes, “because, as far as the interests of corrupt and unaccountable power are concerned, killing his reputation is as good as killing him.” “When looked at in its proper context,” she adds, “what we are witnessing is the slow-motion assassination of Assange via narrative/lawfare.”
The social execution of Julian Assange
There are many parties involved in the social execution of Assange, ranging from the obvious to the disappointing. The obvious, of course, is the U.S. government and corporate media. Just as the abolitionist press failed to support a true abolitionist when he took action, the U.S. corporate media have taken the lead in Assange’s social execution. In fact, the media have taken up the Pentagon’s strategy without being coerced or even asked.
Citing a 2008 U.S. Defense Department report on WikiLeaks, which was later published by WikiLeaks, John Pilger explains that character assassination of Assange has been the Pentagon’s plan for twelve years. The report, writes Pilger,
described in detail how important it was to destroy the ‘feeling of trust’ that is WikiLeaks’ ‘center of gravity.’ This would be achieved, they wrote, with threats of ‘exposure [and] criminal prosecution’ and an unrelenting assault on reputation. The aim was to silence and criminalize WikiLeaks and its editor and publisher. It was as if they planned a war on a single human being and on the very principle of freedom of speech. Their main weapon would be personal smear. Their shock troops would be enlisted in the media—those who are meant to keep the record straight and tell us the truth.”
“The irony,” he concludes, “is that no one told these journalists what to do.” U.S. corporate media is so comfortable with government propaganda that they do not even have to wait for directions. They spontaneously carry out assassinations by propaganda just as the CIA carries out assassinations by drone.
U.S. liberals are another obvious party to the social execution of Assange, for they apparently only support Assange when WikiLeaks publishes documents perceived to be unthreatening to the Democratic Party. “What happened in 2016 broke a lot of people’s hearts,” stated Lisa Lynch, a communications professor. Assange “proselytized about radical transparency,” she said, but he ended up a pawn, used by Russian hackers in a geopolitical game. “I find Assange to have been a pawn in a lot of games,” she said, warning the public not to grant Assange too much agency.
Not to be outdone by the corporate media, the Pentagon, and liberals, self-styled “leftists” have participated in the character assassination of Assange. “I had trouble seeing him as a journalist from the start,” said Todd Gitlin, a journalism professor. “But he certainly was a publisher. It turns out he was not just any old publisher, he was a publisher with a distinct angle. And his angle is anti-democratic.” Gitlin, who was a leader of the antiwar movement in the 1960s, now sheepdogs for the Democratic Party when he isn’t busy endangering First Amendment press freedoms by throwing a journalist who isn’t U.S. Government Approved™ under the imperial bus.
Apparently anyone whose politics cannot be crammed into the narrow, partisan ideology of the so-called American “left” is simultaneously an anti-democratic knave and a naïve pawn.
As Johnstone has astutely reminded us, even those so-called leftists who repeatedly claim that “I support Assange but he is trash” have already internalized Pentagon propaganda. They have already acquiesced to Empire’s social execution of Assange. It is no coincidence that someone who has embarrassed the Empire over and over is presented to the public as “literally the worst person in the whole entire world.”
Like Thoreau, those of us who care about human rights, press freedoms, and self-determination for the nations victimized by relentless U.S. imperialism ought to be appalled by those among our contemporaries who would rather acquiesce to the power of the military-media complex than stand on principle. The entire narrative surrounding Assange stems from a narrowly partisan and nationalist perspective. Assange’s critics despise him not because of what he does but because of what he stands for. Most of those who contribute to Assange’s social execution cannot think beyond party loyalties and nationalist sentiments.
If United Kingdom courts rule in favor of the United States and grant extradition, Assange will be sentenced in the same place that all U.S. government whistleblowers have been sentenced: the Eastern District Court of Virginia. I say “sentenced” not “tried” because those indicted under the Espionage Act, as Assange is, are prohibited from defending themselves in court. Assange faces up to 175 years in a supermax prison, but at 48-years-old, even one-quarter of that would mean Assange will like likely die in prison. Such a sentence would complete his social execution.
“He could not have been tried by a jury of his peers,” Thoreau wrote of John Brown, “because his peers did not exist.” Corporate media has already tried Assange in the court of public opinion, but they are not his peers. If the U.S. government succeeds in trying Assange in a court of law, neither there will he be judged by his peers.
In the end, Thoreau was right to ask one question: “Who is it whose safety requires that Captain Brown be hung?” Thus, we might ask: Who is it whose safety requires that Julian Assange be locked away for life?
Feature photo | “Assange.” Acrylic and oil pastel. @fabulosfab_fab
Patrick D. Anderson is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Grand Valley State University. His research focuses on the Anticolonialism, Black Radical Philosophy, and the connections between technology, ethics, and imperialism. He also contributes to Black Agenda Report. He can be reached at [email protected].


mintpressnews--2020-05-11--The Botched Infiltration of Venezuela Leaves Guaidó Tainted Beyond Repair

The latest chapter in the ongoing effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government reads like a bad spy thriller : a group of mercenaries piloted speedboats from Colombia to Venezuela ; half of them were killed or captured by Venezuelan security forces immediately upon landing , while the other half – apparently delayed by mechanical issues with their boat – surrendered to local police and militia the next day .
Thirty-nine attackers have been captured so far , including two Americans , both former special forces soldiers .
Their plan was to capture or kill high-value targets , including Venezuelan President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ miserably and raised more concerns about the leadership of opposition figure Juan Guaidó .
Information about the attack continues to trickle out , yet there is overwhelming evidence of Guaidó ’ s involvement .
According to multiple sources , Guaidó signed a $ 212 million contract with Jordan Goudreau , an ex-Green Beret , for Goudreau ’ s private security firm to overthrow President Maduro , although payments were never made .
This corroborates an accusation made in late March by Clíver Alcalá , an opposition-aligned , retired Venezuelan general who surrendered to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indicted for drug trafficking .
Copies of a general services agreement with the signatures of Guaidó and Goudreau have been leaked online , and the Washington Post reported news of a video call in which Guaidó says he is “ about to sign ” the contract .
Furthermore , several of the Venezuelans who took part in the raid have links to Guaidó , including at least two who participated in the April 30 , 2019 coup attempt .
The paramilitary force that would have resulted from the contract has been described as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in El Salvador , Nicaragua and Guatemala in the ’ 80s .
This is no exaggeration .
The contract explicitly identifies colectivos as a military target , without ever defining the term .
The nebulousness of this term suggests that anyone who runs afoul of the paramilitaries could be categorized as part of a colectivo .
Leopoldo López , the founder and leader of Guaidó ’ s party Voluntad Popular , recently wrote an opinion piece in El País , Spain ’ s most important newspaper , in which he implied that chavismo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not difficult to see how this sort of rhetoric influenced the contract .
Page 11 of the contract ’ s attachment B authorizes the “ on scene commander ” of an operation to lethally target certain civil servants of institutions – including the Foreign Ministry , Planning Ministry and Youth Ministry – even in cases that could result in high collateral damage .
The message is clear ; anyone close to a chavista can be considered expendable .
The Venezuelan government , which was apparently able to stop the raid after being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accused the United States of being involved .
The Trump administration has denied any involvement , but there is good reason to suspect otherwise .
Secretary of State Pompeo left open the possibility that the U.S. knew “ who bankrolled ” the operation while refusing to “ share any more information about what we know took place.
” Moreover , the Associated Press reported that the DEA had informed Homeland Security of Goudreau ’ s plans to smuggle weapons into Colombia .
Goudreau met twice with Keith Schiller , a longtime bodyguard and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ security at a Trump campaign rally in 2018 .
In addition , the Wall Street Journal reported the CIA was aware of the plan .
The plan involved kidnapping President Maduro , taking control of an airport , and flying him to the United States , ostensibly to collect on the $ 15 million bounty offered by the Department of Justice .
Had the mercenaries been successful , it is hard to believe that the Trump administration , with the US Navy floating right outside Venezuela ’ s maritime border , would not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Maduro .
Yet whether the United States government was involved in this particular raid , the Trump administration has been openly and directly supporting violent regime change in Venezuela since April 30 , 2019 .
That is the date Guaidó launched his failed military uprising , in which he tried to take over a Caracas airbase .
Had a few things gone differently that day , Venezuela would be in a civil war .
Guaidó was responsible then and he is responsible now .
Additionally , he was educated in Washington , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Washington , he has bipartisan political support and he receives U.S. taxpayer money .
Given Guaidó ’ s involvement , it is impossible for Washington to wash its hands of the plot .
The Trump administration is responsible for giving him what little power he has , and therefore it is responsible for his actions .
Guaidó has denied knowledge of the affair , but he is proving to be a liability for the Trump administration .
He has been photographed with members of a drug cartel who subsequently claimed Guaidó traded favors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raised from a “ humanitarian aid ” concert held in Colombia .
He led a failed uprising in April 2019 that was ridiculed around the world , as it consisted of just a few dozen soldiers .
He is using Venezuelan funds previously frozen in a Citibank account to pay his associates $ 5,000 a month while failing to deliver on promises to send Venezuelan doctors and nurses $ 100 for their efforts in fighting Covid-19 .
Now he faces credible accusations and evidence that he is involved in arms trafficking , financing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ genocide in Venezuela .
The capture of two Americans may change the political landscape , as they are poised to become a point of contention between the Trump and Maduro administrations .
Secretary Pompeo said the United States will “ use every tool ” to secure the release of the two Americans , but to date , there is one tool the Trump administration has never used with regards to Venezuela : dialogue .
The best-case scenario is the handover of the pair to the United States as part of a deal to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The worst-case scenario is that the Trump administration will perceive them as hostages and retaliate with military action .
Sensible politicians could use this event as a catalyst to spur talks within Venezuela and between Venezuela and the United States .
The Puebla Group , a bloc of progressive Latin American politicians that includes ten former heads of state , has done just that , issuing a statement which warns that military action would lead to “ geopolitical instability throughout Latin America ” and calls for “ democratic dialogue and a peaceful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. , Democrats have been almost entirely silent on the matter , with the exception of a letter by Senators Chris Murphy , Tom Udall and Tim Kaine that questions the Trump administration ’ s tactics , but not its strategy or objectives .
Unless Democrats begin to take advantage of the liability Guaidó represents and push back against Trump ’ s regime change efforts , there seems to be little hope of improving U.S. – Venezuela relations , regardless of who wins the presidency in November .
Feature photo | The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ honored for their role in the capture of eight mercenaries .
Leonardo Flores is a Venezuelan American political analyst and works for peace group CODEPINK

The latest chapter in the ongoing effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government reads like a bad spy thriller: a group of mercenaries piloted speedboats from Colombia to Venezuela; half of them were killed or captured by Venezuelan security forces immediately upon landing, while the other half – apparently delayed by mechanical issues with their boat – surrendered to local police and militia the next day. Thirty-nine attackers have been captured so far, including two Americans, both former special forces soldiers. Their plan was to capture or kill high-value targets, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Instead, it failed miserably and raised more concerns about the leadership of opposition figure Juan Guaidó.
Guaidó’s Insidious Contract
Information about the attack continues to trickle out, yet there is overwhelming evidence of Guaidó’s involvement. According to multiple sources, Guaidó signed a $212 million contract with Jordan Goudreau, an ex-Green Beret, for Goudreau’s private security firm to overthrow President Maduro, although payments were never made. This corroborates an accusation made in late March by Clíver Alcalá, an opposition-aligned, retired Venezuelan general who surrendered to U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency custody after being indicted for drug trafficking. Copies of a general services agreement with the signatures of Guaidó and Goudreau have been leaked online, and the Washington Post reported news of a video call in which Guaidó says he is “about to sign” the contract. Furthermore, several of the Venezuelans who took part in the raid have links to Guaidó, including at least two who participated in the April 30, 2019 coup attempt.
The paramilitary force that would have resulted from the contract has been described as similar to the death squads that operated in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala in the ’80s. This is no exaggeration. The contract explicitly identifies colectivos as a military target, without ever defining the term. The nebulousness of this term suggests that anyone who runs afoul of the paramilitaries could be categorized as part of a colectivo.
Leopoldo López, the founder and leader of Guaidó’s party Voluntad Popular, recently wrote an opinion piece in El País, Spain’s most important newspaper, in which he implied that chavismo is a virus like Covid-19. It is not difficult to see how this sort of rhetoric influenced the contract. Page 11 of the contract’s attachment B authorizes the “on scene commander” of an operation to lethally target certain civil servants of institutions – including the Foreign Ministry, Planning Ministry and Youth Ministry – even in cases that could result in high collateral damage. The message is clear; anyone close to a chavista can be considered expendable.
The United States’ role
The Venezuelan government, which was apparently able to stop the raid after being tipped off by sources in Colombia, accused the United States of being involved. The Trump administration has denied any involvement, but there is good reason to suspect otherwise. Secretary of State Pompeo left open the possibility that the U.S. knew “who bankrolled” the operation while refusing to “share any more information about what we know took place.” Moreover, the Associated Press reported that the DEA had informed Homeland Security of Goudreau’s plans to smuggle weapons into Colombia. Goudreau met twice with Keith Schiller, a longtime bodyguard and advisor to President Trump, and worked security at a Trump campaign rally in 2018. In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported the CIA was aware of the plan.
The plan involved kidnapping President Maduro, taking control of an airport, and flying him to the United States, ostensibly to collect on the $15 million bounty offered by the Department of Justice. Had the mercenaries been successful, it is hard to believe that the Trump administration, with the US Navy floating right outside Venezuela’s maritime border, would not have seized the opportunity to grab President Maduro.
Yet whether the United States government was involved in this particular raid, the Trump administration has been openly and directly supporting violent regime change in Venezuela since April 30, 2019. That is the date Guaidó launched his failed military uprising, in which he tried to take over a Caracas airbase. Had a few things gone differently that day, Venezuela would be in a civil war. Guaidó was responsible then and he is responsible now. Additionally, he was educated in Washington, he declared himself “president” because of Washington, he has bipartisan political support and he receives U.S. taxpayer money. Given Guaidó’s involvement, it is impossible for Washington to wash its hands of the plot. The Trump administration is responsible for giving him what little power he has, and therefore it is responsible for his actions.
A Growing Liability
Guaidó has denied knowledge of the affair, but he is proving to be a liability for the Trump administration. He has been photographed with members of a drug cartel who subsequently claimed Guaidó traded favors with them. His team embezzled funds raised from a “humanitarian aid” concert held in Colombia. He led a failed uprising in April 2019 that was ridiculed around the world, as it consisted of just a few dozen soldiers. He is using Venezuelan funds previously frozen in a Citibank account to pay his associates $5,000 a month while failing to deliver on promises to send Venezuelan doctors and nurses $100 for their efforts in fighting Covid-19. Now he faces credible accusations and evidence that he is involved in arms trafficking, financing a terror plot and planning a potential genocide in Venezuela.
The capture of two Americans may change the political landscape, as they are poised to become a point of contention between the Trump and Maduro administrations. Secretary Pompeo said the United States will “use every tool” to secure the release of the two Americans, but to date, there is one tool the Trump administration has never used with regards to Venezuela: dialogue. The best-case scenario is the handover of the pair to the United States as part of a deal to begin direct talks between the two governments. The worst-case scenario is that the Trump administration will perceive them as hostages and retaliate with military action.
Sensible politicians could use this event as a catalyst to spur talks within Venezuela and between Venezuela and the United States. The Puebla Group, a bloc of progressive Latin American politicians that includes ten former heads of state, has done just that, issuing a statement which warns that military action would lead to “geopolitical instability throughout Latin America” and calls for “democratic dialogue and a peaceful solution” to the conflict.
In the U.S., Democrats have been almost entirely silent on the matter, with the exception of a letter by Senators Chris Murphy, Tom Udall and Tim Kaine that questions the Trump administration’s tactics, but not its strategy or objectives. Unless Democrats begin to take advantage of the liability Guaidó represents and push back against Trump’s regime change efforts, there seems to be little hope of improving U.S. – Venezuela relations, regardless of who wins the presidency in November.
Feature photo | The townspeople of Chuao, Venezuela, being honored for their role in the capture of eight mercenaries.
Leonardo Flores is a Venezuelan American political analyst and works for peace group CODEPINK


mintpressnews--2020-05-11--Joe Biden is Ridin’ the Pandemic All the Way to the White House

The world is in the midst of a COVID-19 crisis and in our corner of the planet , a presidential campaign has been reduced to a single issue : Trump or not Trump .
Pick your poison .
At a time that calls for national leadership , or least debate on the issues , Congress has unanimously passed the two-trillion-dollar Coronavirus Aid , Relief , and Economic Security ( CARES ) Act handing money to corporations so that they can , among other things , buy up the competition at pandemic prices .
What passes for a liberal agenda is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hope has retreated to Vermont , the bankruptcy of the Democratic Party is further exposed .
Sanders ’ plea to complete the New Deal with universal healthcare coverage , a green new deal , and ending endless wars has quickly been blown away , leaving nothing but a vote for the ostensibly lesser evil .
What passes for a liberal agenda is basically without content other than proffering a candidate whose main qualification is that he is not Trump .
Joe Biden is sheltering in place , only coming out on occasion to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ with Biden ” videos showing he ’ s nice a guy .
Of course , nods to progressive measures will be in the Democratic party platform and some scripted murmurs to that effect will be made on the campaign trail .
But we should remember the lessons from Obama , who chose as his running mate one of the more conservative members of his party – and incidentally this year ’ s Democratic standard bearer .
Doing Obama one better , Biden has even floated the possibility of a Republican running mate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we were told to “ give Obama a chance ” to close Guantánamo , pass a union card check-off , revoke NAFTA , withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan , and prosecute the Bush regime for war crimes .
That didn ’ t happen , so the lesser-evil proponents whined that Obama ’ s “ hands were tied.
” And indeed , they were .
His hands were tied to the ruling circles that financed his campaign and to whom he was beholden .
This will be the case even more so with Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crisis .
Biden obsequiously reassured a group of billionaire Wall Street bankers that if he wins : “ No one ’ s standard of living will change , nothing would fundamentally change…I need you very badly…I won ’ t let you down .
I promise you.
” Despite Biden ’ s homilies about the middle class , there is no ambiguity about which class he serves .
The argument made by many proponents for voting Democrat is that the evils in the world are personified by Trump .
Some liberals seem more troubled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make the distinction .
A couple of months ago , Trump ’ s prospects for four more years looked auspicious with Bernie burned out and the Democrats left with a candidate who confused with sister for his wife .
The economy was doing well for those who do well , especially after Trump ’ s 2017 tax cuts .
What could go wrong for Trump ?
Then the pandemic hit and , as we are just beginning to fully comprehend , everything has changed with what geneticist Georgi Marinov calls the end of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tests for the virus are problematic .
The disease can be latent or asymptomatic , facilitating its spread .
Once contracted , there is no known cure .
The disease can be fatal or leave permanent disabling effects .
Immunity after exposure may be temporary , weak , or non-existent .
And like AIDS , a vaccine may not be forthcoming .
At best , a vaccine is years in the making and may be of limited effectiveness .
Unlike AIDS , COVID-19 is much more difficult to contain .
Others have a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , acquired immunity .
Still , the economic , social , and political challenges to achieving what approximates herd immunity for COVID-19 in the modern , interconnected global community are daunting .
Piecemeal measures , in one region or one country , are like having peeing sections in a swimming pool .
Governments are caught in a bind .
Quarantine the population and the real economy is sequestered .
Expose the workforce to the virus and it spreads , necessitating containment by quarantining , only made more difficult than if the workforce was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dystopian future is not beyond the realm of possibility , where the ability of essential workers to supply necessities such as food , water , and electricity is compromised .
By the numbers and mounting : 77,177 deaths , 23.08 million unemployed , 24 percent economic contraction projected for the United States .
Neoliberalism ’ s limitations to provide for the public welfare Exposed is the failure of private enterprise to meet basic human needs .
The “ market ” has a simple solution for the shortages of medical supplies such as personal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the prices so that those with means can obtain them and those without can risk death .
The public health need for research in combating varieties of coronaviruses was evident after the outbreaks of SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012 .
But for big pharma , profits are in treating the symptoms of chronic diseases , such as hypertension and diabetes , and not in preventing the disease itself .
The inadequacy of private enterprise to meet public health needs is not due to the personality defects of greedy drug conglomerate owners @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capitalism , driven by profits .
The pandemic has exposed the insufficiency of market mechanisms to meet public welfare functions , counter to the ideology of neoliberalism that government is the problem .
The neoliberal model reserves to the government the coercive powers of the state , such as police and military , and leaves the welfare functions to private enterprises and charities .
The Reagan mantra of small government and deregulation of corporations – actually started by the Democrat Jimmy Carter – no longer has its panache .
A government welfare measure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bernie Sanders ’ signature program , Medicare for All .
While Trump is providing Medicare payments to hospitals for uninsured COVID-19 patients , Biden and the Democrats are serving as a firewall for the private insurance industry .
Outflanking Trump on the right , they propose subsidizing COBRA coverage to newly unemployed workers to pay their private insurance bills , leaving the unemployed who can not afford COBRA and tens of millions of others without coverage .
Now that it is ever clearer government needs to step in where private enterprise has failed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in whose interest does the government serve .
Neither of these questions – the welfare vs. the coercive functions of the state and the class basis of the state – are ones the political class wants to be raised , let alone addressed .
A ruling class consensus is coalescing that Trump will be the fall guy , blamed for the increasingly undeniable defects of the neoliberal model .
Let Trump take the hit for his obvious mismanagement of the crisis while leaving intact the underlying structural imperatives of the neoliberal state ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ welfare .
That is , their solution is to avoid addressing a solution .
The fix is in .
Trump will not be enjoying the free and favorable corporate media coverage as he did in 2016 .
The evil Donald Trump will retreat to his midtown Manhattan tower and the avuncular Joe Biden will sleepwalk into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue .
Feature photo | 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden shows off his homemade coronavirus face mask on NBC .
Photo | Screenshot via NBC Roger D. Harris is on the state central committee of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only ballot qualified socialist party in California .

The world is in the midst of a COVID-19 crisis and in our corner of the planet, a presidential campaign has been reduced to a single issue: Trump or not Trump. Pick your poison.
At a time that calls for national leadership, or least debate on the issues, Congress has unanimously passed the two-trillion-dollar Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act handing money to corporations so that they can, among other things, buy up the competition at pandemic prices.
What passes for a liberal agenda is without content
Now that the Great Gray Hope has retreated to Vermont, the bankruptcy of the Democratic Party is further exposed. Sanders’ plea to complete the New Deal with universal healthcare coverage, a green new deal, and ending endless wars has quickly been blown away, leaving nothing but a vote for the ostensibly lesser evil.
What passes for a liberal agenda is basically without content other than proffering a candidate whose main qualification is that he is not Trump. Joe Biden is sheltering in place, only coming out on occasion to make feel-good “I’m Ridin’ with Biden” videos showing he’s nice a guy.
Of course, nods to progressive measures will be in the Democratic party platform and some scripted murmurs to that effect will be made on the campaign trail. But we should remember the lessons from Obama, who chose as his running mate one of the more conservative members of his party – and incidentally this year’s Democratic standard bearer. Doing Obama one better, Biden has even floated the possibility of a Republican running mate.
Once in the Oval Office, we were told to “give Obama a chance” to close Guantánamo, pass a union card check-off, revoke NAFTA, withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, and prosecute the Bush regime for war crimes. That didn’t happen, so the lesser-evil proponents whined that Obama’s “hands were tied.” And indeed, they were. His hands were tied to the ruling circles that financed his campaign and to whom he was beholden.
This will be the case even more so with Biden, who helped create the student debt crisis. Biden obsequiously reassured a group of billionaire Wall Street bankers that if he wins: “No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change…I need you very badly…I won’t let you down. I promise you.” Despite Biden’s homilies about the middle class, there is no ambiguity about which class he serves.
The argument made by many proponents for voting Democrat is that the evils in the world are personified by Trump. Some liberals seem more troubled by Trump than the pandemic… if they make the distinction.
A couple of months ago, Trump’s prospects for four more years looked auspicious with Bernie burned out and the Democrats left with a candidate who confused with sister for his wife. The economy was doing well for those who do well, especially after Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. What could go wrong for Trump?
The end of epidemiological comfort
Then the pandemic hit and, as we are just beginning to fully comprehend, everything has changed with what geneticist Georgi Marinov calls the end of epidemiological comfort.
Marinov reports that diagnostic tests for the virus are problematic. The disease can be latent or asymptomatic, facilitating its spread. Once contracted, there is no known cure. The disease can be fatal or leave permanent disabling effects. Immunity after exposure may be temporary, weak, or non-existent. And like AIDS, a vaccine may not be forthcoming. At best, a vaccine is years in the making and may be of limited effectiveness. Unlike AIDS, COVID-19 is much more difficult to contain.
Others have a more sanguine medical prognosis on, say, acquired immunity. Still, the economic, social, and political challenges to achieving what approximates herd immunity for COVID-19 in the modern, interconnected global community are daunting. Piecemeal measures, in one region or one country, are like having peeing sections in a swimming pool.
Governments are caught in a bind. Quarantine the population and the real economy is sequestered. Expose the workforce to the virus and it spreads, necessitating containment by quarantining, only made more difficult than if the workforce was quarantined in the first place. A dystopian future is not beyond the realm of possibility, where the ability of essential workers to supply necessities such as food, water, and electricity is compromised.
By the numbers and mounting: 77,177 deaths, 23.08 million unemployed, 24 percent economic contraction projected for the United States.
Neoliberalism’s limitations to provide for the public welfare
Exposed is the failure of private enterprise to meet basic human needs. The “market” has a simple solution for the shortages of medical supplies such as personal protective equipment (PPE). Raise the prices so that those with means can obtain them and those without can risk death.
The public health need for research in combating varieties of coronaviruses was evident after the outbreaks of SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012. But for big pharma, profits are in treating the symptoms of chronic diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, and not in preventing the disease itself. The inadequacy of private enterprise to meet public health needs is not due to the personality defects of greedy drug conglomerate owners. Rather, it is hardwired into capitalism, driven by profits.
The pandemic has exposed the insufficiency of market mechanisms to meet public welfare functions, counter to the ideology of neoliberalism that government is the problem. The neoliberal model reserves to the government the coercive powers of the state, such as police and military, and leaves the welfare functions to private enterprises and charities. The Reagan mantra of small government and deregulation of corporations – actually started by the Democrat Jimmy Carter – no longer has its panache.
A government welfare measure long overdue even before the pandemic is Bernie Sanders’ signature program, Medicare for All. While Trump is providing Medicare payments to hospitals for uninsured COVID-19 patients, Biden and the Democrats are serving as a firewall for the private insurance industry. Outflanking Trump on the right, they propose subsidizing COBRA coverage to newly unemployed workers to pay their private insurance bills, leaving the unemployed who cannot afford COBRA and tens of millions of others without coverage.
Now that it is ever clearer government needs to step in where private enterprise has failed, a corollary question is raised: in whose interest does the government serve. Neither of these questions – the welfare vs. the coercive functions of the state and the class basis of the state – are ones the political class wants to be raised, let alone addressed.
A ruling class consensus is coalescing that Trump will be the fall guy, blamed for the increasingly undeniable defects of the neoliberal model. Let Trump take the hit for his obvious mismanagement of the crisis while leaving intact the underlying structural imperatives of the neoliberal state’s failure to provide for the public welfare. That is, their solution is to avoid addressing a solution.
The fix is in. Trump will not be enjoying the free and favorable corporate media coverage as he did in 2016. The evil Donald Trump will retreat to his midtown Manhattan tower and the avuncular Joe Biden will sleepwalk into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Feature photo | 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden shows off his homemade coronavirus face mask on NBC. Photo | Screenshot via NBC
Roger D. Harris is on the state central committee of the Peace and Freedom Party, the only ballot qualified socialist party in California.


mintpressnews--2020-05-12--No Stimulus for the Weary: The US is Now Sitting on an Inflation Time Bomb

The consequences of the $ 2.2 trillion stimulus package are being ignored , even by the White House budget office that put it together , admitting that the package had “ come together so quickly , ” that they had no time “ to do the customary modeling of its fiscal impact.
” What does appear to have consensus in financial circles is that after this is over central banks will effectively own the governments of the world , including the United States .
When it is all said and done , President Trump ’ s stimulus checks will carry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their original $ 1,200 value in the pre-coronavirus economic reality , a reality that probably won ’ t become apparent until after the election in November .
By then the checks will have served their purpose as a political move , not an economic one .
When understood from the vantage point of what is in store for the American working classes as we emerge from this red light on main street , Trump ’ s checks will only add fuel to the inflationary fire just ahead , according to Neal Kimberley , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Morning Post .
An economic realignment is unfolding in the wake of the shutdowns prescribed by pandemic response protocols .
The coordinated effort to restrict individual participation in the economy spans the globe but is an inherently local matter .
While corporations around the world “ ride it out ” by hoarding their government bailout money in the bond market , regular working people are bearing the brunt of the risk and facing a brave new world on the other side of the COVID Spring , where the distance between them and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years further than the recommended six feet .
Shocks to demand elicit certain reactions from the market , whereas shocks to the supply-side call on others .
It is exceedingly rare for an economy to suffer shocks on both ends simultaneously , as is occurring at this very moment when both consumers and suppliers are in stasis .
While governments slash interest rates to keep their borrowing costs low , the unprecedented flood of new money is accumulating in the hands of the wealthiest and most powerful people and corporations , who have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like a horse at the gate of the Kentucky Derby .
As soon as the trumpet is blown and the economy restarts itself , those same trillions of dollars will come rushing out and cause massive inflation , which will only be exacerbated by low-interest rates .
In other words , we ’ re sitting on a time bomb , and it is counting down the last seconds .
The same will hold true for recipients the SBA CARE Act loans , which has expanded the availability of government debt beyond traditional for-profit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public money sweepstakes .
Beginning in 2001 , when Geroge W. Bush first proposed a Faith-based and Community Initiative as part of his Presidential Management Agenda , the gradual inclusion of non-profits like churches and synagogues , but also a myriad other religious organization , into direct government assistance programs has continued unabated and the increasingly blurred line between church and state all but vanished once Trump ’ s Treasury department issued an “ Interim Final Rule ” for the CARES Act , making payroll protection loans accessible to faith-based organizations .
To @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in perspective , the bill allocated a paltry 10 percent of the total ( $ 250 billion ) for direct individual assistance in a pie that was divided into hundreds of millions of recipients .
$ 500 billion was allotted to SBA-related loans and the rest , or $ 1.7 trillion , went directly into the pockets of a comparatively minuscule portion of the population .
From a macroeconomic perspective , the CARES Act only spread the government ’ s insurmountable debt further out into the economy , which is already more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Great Recession ” and is set to increase exponentially in the relatively near future .
The dynamics put in play by the COVID Spring mirrors the conditions that led to the 2008 financial crash and its aftermath , in that a giant ball of financial poison had been festering behind the scenes and then metastasized around the world , ruining anyone in close proximity to a toxic derivative and no access to the FED window .
The toxic asset right now is the piles and piles of U.S. dollars and dollar-denominated assets and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is tied to a nation – the U.S. – on a completely unsustainable economic path .
The degree to which inflation hits us is still a matter of debate among economists but many are expecting it will happen sooner or later .
They concede that it is not out of the realm of possibility that “ persistent ” inflation is on the horizon .
“ We think the trade war has set this very real possibility in motion , ” advised RBC economists to their clients .
“ Covid-19 , ” they continued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ further upfield.
” Ultimately , the pressures of a hopelessly indebted nation populated by a hopelessly indebted citizenry who are being told interacting directly with each other is dangerous sets us up for an Orwellian nightmare that no amount of Trump checks can justify .
Feature photo | Phu Dang , left , the owner of i5 Pho restaurant , gets help from a contractor as he boards up his business in Seattle ’ s downtown Pioneer Square neighborhood , March 30 , 2020 .
Ted S. Warren | AP

The consequences of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package are being ignored, even by the White House budget office that put it together, admitting that the package had “come together so quickly,” that they had no time “to do the customary modeling of its fiscal impact.” What does appear to have consensus in financial circles is that after this is over central banks will effectively own the governments of the world, including the United States.
When it is all said and done, President Trump’s stimulus checks will carry an inflationary cost many multiples more than their original $1,200 value in the pre-coronavirus economic reality, a reality that probably won’t become apparent until after the election in November. By then the checks will have served their purpose as a political move, not an economic one. When understood from the vantage point of what is in store for the American working classes as we emerge from this red light on main street, Trump’s checks will only add fuel to the inflationary fire just ahead, according to Neal Kimberley, a macroeconomics analyst for the South China Morning Post.
There is an inflationary cost to the Fed printing ~$50,000 per citizen in stimulus. If you have only received $1,200 you should be asking why you are bearing the inflationary cost for another $48,800 you never got. Instead of a bailout you’re paying a hidden tax. Speak up. — Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) May 10, 2020
An economic realignment is unfolding in the wake of the shutdowns prescribed by pandemic response protocols. The coordinated effort to restrict individual participation in the economy spans the globe but is an inherently local matter. While corporations around the world “ride it out” by hoarding their government bailout money in the bond market, regular working people are bearing the brunt of the risk and facing a brave new world on the other side of the COVID Spring, where the distance between them and the richest 0.01 percent will have grown light years further than the recommended six feet.
Shocks to demand elicit certain reactions from the market, whereas shocks to the supply-side call on others. It is exceedingly rare for an economy to suffer shocks on both ends simultaneously, as is occurring at this very moment when both consumers and suppliers are in stasis.
While governments slash interest rates to keep their borrowing costs low, the unprecedented flood of new money is accumulating in the hands of the wealthiest and most powerful people and corporations, who have parked all of it in bond instruments like a horse at the gate of the Kentucky Derby. As soon as the trumpet is blown and the economy restarts itself, those same trillions of dollars will come rushing out and cause massive inflation, which will only be exacerbated by low-interest rates. In other words, we’re sitting on a time bomb, and it is counting down the last seconds.
Expanding the debt pool
The same will hold true for recipients the SBA CARE Act loans, which has expanded the availability of government debt beyond traditional for-profit businesses and brought faith-based organizations into the public money sweepstakes.
Beginning in 2001, when Geroge W. Bush first proposed a Faith-based and Community Initiative as part of his Presidential Management Agenda, the gradual inclusion of non-profits like churches and synagogues, but also a myriad other religious organization, into direct government assistance programs has continued unabated and the increasingly blurred line between church and state all but vanished once Trump’s Treasury department issued an “Interim Final Rule” for the CARES Act, making payroll protection loans accessible to faith-based organizations.
To put the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in perspective, the bill allocated a paltry 10 percent of the total ($250 billion) for direct individual assistance in a pie that was divided into hundreds of millions of recipients. $500 billion was allotted to SBA-related loans and the rest, or $1.7 trillion, went directly into the pockets of a comparatively minuscule portion of the population.
From a macroeconomic perspective, the CARES Act only spread the government’s insurmountable debt further out into the economy, which is already more than “twice what it was before the Great Recession” and is set to increase exponentially in the relatively near future.
Sooner or Later
The dynamics put in play by the COVID Spring mirrors the conditions that led to the 2008 financial crash and its aftermath, in that a giant ball of financial poison had been festering behind the scenes and then metastasized around the world, ruining anyone in close proximity to a toxic derivative and no access to the FED window.
The toxic asset right now is the piles and piles of U.S. dollars and dollar-denominated assets and instruments saturating the global economy, which is tied to a nation – the U.S. – on a completely unsustainable economic path.
The degree to which inflation hits us is still a matter of debate among economists but many are expecting it will happen sooner or later. They concede that it is not out of the realm of possibility that “persistent” inflation is on the horizon. “We think the trade war has set this very real possibility in motion,” advised RBC economists to their clients. “Covid-19,” they continued, “is likely just pushing it further upfield.”
Ultimately, the pressures of a hopelessly indebted nation populated by a hopelessly indebted citizenry who are being told interacting directly with each other is dangerous sets us up for an Orwellian nightmare that no amount of Trump checks can justify.
Feature photo | Phu Dang, left, the owner of i5 Pho restaurant, gets help from a contractor as he boards up his business in Seattle’s downtown Pioneer Square neighborhood, March 30, 2020. Ted S. Warren | AP
Raul Diego is a MintPress News Staff Writer, independent photojournalist, researcher, writer and documentary filmmaker.


mintpressnews--2020-05-13--From Lebanon to Syria, the Arab World is Failing Palestinian Refugees

Heinous racism .
That is how the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor described a recent decision by Lebanese authorities to bar Palestinian refugee expats from returning to Lebanon .
Lebanon ’ s restrictions on its ever-diminishing population of Palestinian refugees is nothing new .
However , this event is particularly alarming as it may be linked to a long-term official policy regarding the residency status of Palestinian refugees in this Arab country .
Many were taken aback by a recent Lebanese government ’ s order to its embassy in the United Arab Emirates , instructing it to prevent Palestinian refugees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Tariq Hajjar , a legal advisor to the Euro-Med Monitor said in a statement that “ the circular includes heinous racial discrimination against Palestinian refugees holding Lebanese travel documents.
” Hajjar rightly insisted that “ the holder of this document should receive similar treatment to the Lebanese citizen.
” Indeed they should , as has been the practice for many years .
Otherwise , there is no other place where these refugees can possibly go , considering that Lebanon has been their home for decades , starting in 1948 when Israel forcefully @ @ @ @ @ @ @ historic homeland .
Refugees , regardless of their race , ethnicity or religion , should be treated with respect and dignity , no matter the political complexity of their host countries .
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon can not be made an exception .
Last April , the Palestinian Association for Human Rights called on the United Nations to provide financial assistance to Lebanon ’ s Palestinian refugees , indicating that due to the coronavirus pandemic , a whopping 90 percent of all Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have lost their jobs .
Under discriminatory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allowed to practice 72 types of jobs that are available to Lebanese nationals .
This is merely one of many other such restrictions .
Thus , employed Palestinian refugees in Lebanon ( the vast majority of whom are now unemployed ) have been competing within a very limited work market .
A large number of those refugees have been employed at the various projects operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency ( UNRWA ) .
Many of those who were lucky enough to receive university degrees opted to leave the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , engineering , banking , and medical sectors in Arab Gulf countries .
However , due to the coronavirus , the severe financial hardship suffered by UNRWA and to new Lebanese government regulations , all doors are now being shut in the face of Palestinian refugees .
For thousands of those refugees , the only remaining option is sailing the high seas in search for a better refugee status in Europe .
Yet , sadly , tens of thousands of those refugees are now living a miserable life in European camps , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ undertaking these perilous journeys .
According to a recent survey by the Lebanese Central Administration of Statistics , conducted jointly with the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics , only 175,000 ( from nearly half a million ) Palestinian refugees still reside in Lebanon .
That said , the Palestinian refugee tragedy in Lebanon is only a facet in a much larger ailment that is unique to the Palestinian refugee experience .
Syria ’ s Palestinian refugees arrived in the country in waves , starting with the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Others fled the Golan Heights after the Israeli invasion in 1967 .
Many more fled Lebanon during the Israeli 1982 invasion .
The relatively safe Syrian haven was ruptured during the ongoing Syria war started in 2011 .
UNRWA ’ s mission , which allowed it to provide the nearly half a million Palestinian refugees in Syria with direct support was made nearly impossible because of the destructive war , and the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled the country or became internally displaced .
The devastating impact of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an exact copy of what had transpired earlier during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 .
In the case of Iraq , where most of the country ’ s 35,000 refugees fled , the Palestinian refugee crisis was particularly compounded .
While Palestinians enjoyed a permanent residence status ( though no ownership rights ) in Iraq before the war , they were still not recognized as refugees as per international standards , since UNRWA does not operate in Iraq .
Post-2003 Iraqi governments exploited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the displacement the country ’ s Palestinian population .
Since its advent , the US Administration of President Donald Trump has waged a financial war on the Palestinians , including the cutting of all aids to UNRWA .
This infamous act has added layers of suffering to the existing hardships of refugees .
On May 5 , UNRWA , somberly declared that it only has enough cash to sustain its operations until the end of the month .
The truth is that , long before Trump targeted the UN agency , UNRWA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an inherent vulnerability .
UNRWA was established exclusively with a UN mandate that provided the organization with a “ separate and special status ” to assist Palestinian refugees .
Arab governments , at the time , were keen for UNRWA to maintain this ‘ special status ’ based on their belief that lumping Palestinian refugees with the burgeoning world refugee crisis ( resulting mostly from War World II ) would downgrade the urgency of the Palestinian plight .
However , while that logic may have applied successfully in the immediate years following the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in later years , as the status and definition of what constitute a Palestinian refugee remained historically linked to UNRWA ’ s scope of operations .
This became clear during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 , but , especially , since the start of political upheavals and subsequent wars in the Middle East in the last decade .
This is precisely why the US and Israel are keen on dismantling UNRWA , because , according to their logic , if UNRWA ceases to operate , the Palestinian refugee ceases to exist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Such precarious reality calls for an urgent and creative solution that should be spearheaded by Arab countries , UN-registered NGOs , and friends of Palestine everywhere .
What is needed today is a UN-adopted formula that would allow the legal status of Palestinian refugees under international law to remain active regardless of UNRWA ’ s scope of operation while providing Palestinian refugees with the material and financial support required for them to live with dignity until the Right of Return , in accordance to UN Resolution 194 of 1948 , is finally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refugees to be maintained and for the Lebanon , Iraq , and Syria scenarios not to be repeated , the Arab League must work within the framework of international law – as determined by the UN General Assembly – to safeguard the Palestinian refugees ’ legal status which is currently under an unprecedented attack .
Palestinian refugees must not have to choose between forfeiting their legal and unalienable right in their own homeland and accepting a life of perpetual degradation and uncertainty .
Feature photo | A Palestinian man walks down an empty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Jalil , or Galilee refugee camp , in Baalbek , Lebanon , April 24 , 2020 .
Hussein Malla | AP Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle .
He is the author of five books .
His latest is “ These Chains Will Be Broken : Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons ” ( Clarity Press , Atlanta ) .
Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs ( CIGA ) , Istanbul Zaim University @ @ @ @ @ @ @ www.ramzybaroud.net .

Heinous racism. That is how the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor described a recent decision by Lebanese authorities to bar Palestinian refugee expats from returning to Lebanon.
Lebanon’s restrictions on its ever-diminishing population of Palestinian refugees is nothing new. However, this event is particularly alarming as it may be linked to a long-term official policy regarding the residency status of Palestinian refugees in this Arab country.
Many were taken aback by a recent Lebanese government’s order to its embassy in the United Arab Emirates, instructing it to prevent Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes in Lebanon.
Tariq Hajjar, a legal advisor to the Euro-Med Monitor said in a statement that “the circular includes heinous racial discrimination against Palestinian refugees holding Lebanese travel documents.”
Hajjar rightly insisted that “the holder of this document should receive similar treatment to the Lebanese citizen.”
Indeed they should, as has been the practice for many years. Otherwise, there is no other place where these refugees can possibly go, considering that Lebanon has been their home for decades, starting in 1948 when Israel forcefully expelled nearly a million Palestinians from their historic homeland.
Refugees, regardless of their race, ethnicity or religion, should be treated with respect and dignity, no matter the political complexity of their host countries. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon cannot be made an exception.
Last April, the Palestinian Association for Human Rights called on the United Nations to provide financial assistance to Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees, indicating that due to the coronavirus pandemic, a whopping 90 percent of all Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have lost their jobs.
Under discriminatory Lebanese laws, Palestinian refugees are not allowed to practice 72 types of jobs that are available to Lebanese nationals. This is merely one of many other such restrictions. Thus, employed Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (the vast majority of whom are now unemployed) have been competing within a very limited work market.
A large number of those refugees have been employed at the various projects operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Many of those who were lucky enough to receive university degrees opted to leave the country altogether, mostly working in the teaching, engineering, banking, and medical sectors in Arab Gulf countries.
However, due to the coronavirus, the severe financial hardship suffered by UNRWA and to new Lebanese government regulations, all doors are now being shut in the face of Palestinian refugees.
For thousands of those refugees, the only remaining option is sailing the high seas in search for a better refugee status in Europe. Yet, sadly, tens of thousands of those refugees are now living a miserable life in European camps, or stranded in Turkey. Hundreds drowned while undertaking these perilous journeys.
According to a recent survey by the Lebanese Central Administration of Statistics, conducted jointly with the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, only 175,000 (from nearly half a million) Palestinian refugees still reside in Lebanon.
That said, the Palestinian refugee tragedy in Lebanon is only a facet in a much larger ailment that is unique to the Palestinian refugee experience.
Syria’s Palestinian refugees arrived in the country in waves, starting with the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine during the ‘Nakba’, or Catastrophe. Others fled the Golan Heights after the Israeli invasion in 1967. Many more fled Lebanon during the Israeli 1982 invasion.
The relatively safe Syrian haven was ruptured during the ongoing Syria war started in 2011. UNRWA’s mission, which allowed it to provide the nearly half a million Palestinian refugees in Syria with direct support was made nearly impossible because of the destructive war, and the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled the country or became internally displaced.
The devastating impact of the Syrian war on Palestinian refugees was almost an exact copy of what had transpired earlier during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In the case of Iraq, where most of the country’s 35,000 refugees fled, the Palestinian refugee crisis was particularly compounded. While Palestinians enjoyed a permanent residence status (though no ownership rights) in Iraq before the war, they were still not recognized as refugees as per international standards, since UNRWA does not operate in Iraq. Post-2003 Iraqi governments exploited this fact to the fullest, leading to the displacement the country’s Palestinian population.
Since its advent, the US Administration of President Donald Trump has waged a financial war on the Palestinians, including the cutting of all aids to UNRWA. This infamous act has added layers of suffering to the existing hardships of refugees.
On May 5, UNRWA, somberly declared that it only has enough cash to sustain its operations until the end of the month.
The truth is that, long before Trump targeted the UN agency, UNRWA has functioned for over 70 years with an inherent vulnerability.
UNRWA was established exclusively with a UN mandate that provided the organization with a “separate and special status” to assist Palestinian refugees.
Arab governments, at the time, were keen for UNRWA to maintain this ‘special status’ based on their belief that lumping Palestinian refugees with the burgeoning world refugee crisis (resulting mostly from War World II) would downgrade the urgency of the Palestinian plight.
However, while that logic may have applied successfully in the immediate years following the ‘Nakba’, it proved costly in later years, as the status and definition of what constitute a Palestinian refugee remained historically linked to UNRWA’s scope of operations.
This became clear during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, but, especially, since the start of political upheavals and subsequent wars in the Middle East in the last decade.
This is precisely why the US and Israel are keen on dismantling UNRWA, because, according to their logic, if UNRWA ceases to operate, the Palestinian refugee ceases to exist with any status that makes him/her unique.
Such precarious reality calls for an urgent and creative solution that should be spearheaded by Arab countries, UN-registered NGOs, and friends of Palestine everywhere.
What is needed today is a UN-adopted formula that would allow the legal status of Palestinian refugees under international law to remain active regardless of UNRWA’s scope of operation while providing Palestinian refugees with the material and financial support required for them to live with dignity until the Right of Return, in accordance to UN Resolution 194 of 1948, is finally enforced.
For the rights of Palestinian refugees to be maintained and for the Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria scenarios not to be repeated, the Arab League must work within the framework of international law – as determined by the UN General Assembly – to safeguard the Palestinian refugees’ legal status which is currently under an unprecedented attack.
Palestinian refugees must not have to choose between forfeiting their legal and unalienable right in their own homeland and accepting a life of perpetual degradation and uncertainty.
Feature photo | A Palestinian man walks down an empty street after lockdown imposed by Lebanese authorities at Jalil, or Galilee refugee camp, in Baalbek, Lebanon, April 24, 2020. Hussein Malla | AP
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.


mintpressnews--2020-05-13--American Weapons Manufacturers Are Thriving Even as the US Economy Suffers

The economy has crashed .
A nationwide pandemic that has ( officially ) claimed some 84,000 Americans has also resulted in an estimated 36 million filing for unemployment insurance and millions frequenting food banks for the first time .
Yet business is booming for one unlikely industry ; weapons manufacturers are busier than ever and are even advertising for tens of thousands of more workers .
Northrop Grumman announced that it was planning to hire up to 10,000 more employees this year .
Airlines are being hit particularly hard , as the number of people flying on commercial planes has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to civilian aircraft manufacturers , has lost a great deal of business .
Yet it is still advertising 2,000 new jobs in the military wing of its business .
Boeing , who endured a torrid 2019 , with multiple high-profile crashes of its 737 MAX-8 airliner , is preparing to lay off ten percent of its staff as airlines predict a long and sustained drop in air travel .
Nevertheless , it is looking to add hundreds of new workers in its defense , intelligence , and cybersecurity departments .
Meanwhile , Lockheed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ actively recruiting for over 4,600 roles , ” in addition to the 2,365 new employees it has taken on since the lockdown started .
The world ’ s largest arms dealer describes itself merely as “ principally engaged in the research , design , development , manufacture , integration , and sustainment of advanced technology systems , products , and services , ” with words like “ weapons , ” “ war , ” or “ bomb ” not appearing on their website .
Why is the military industrial complex booming , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has made it a priority to radically overhaul the military in double quick time , designating weapons manufacturers as “ essential ” services during a pandemic , ensuring they all have enough boots on the ground to continue working through the outbreak .
In February , the Pentagon released its $ 705 billion budget request for 2021 , where it revealed that it would be ramping up for war with China and Russia in the near future .
In its own words , there would be a “ shifting focus from the wars @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emphasis on the types of weapons that could be used to confront nuclear giants like Russia and China.
” It also stated that it was going to acquire “ more advanced high-end weapon systems , which provide increased standoff , enhanced lethality , and autonomous targeting for employment against near-peer threats in a more contested environment.
” Last month , the Air Force commissioned Raytheon to develop and build a new nuclear cruise missile .
On a diplomatic level , the Trump administration is also dangerously escalating the possibility of nuclear war by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ treaties designed to limit the possibility of a terminal conflict .
The president has signaled his intention to remove the United States from the New START Treaty , the final remaining arms control agreement that binds it , something even the American ex-Deputy Secretary General of NATO condemned as “ a chilling sign of how dangerous the world has become.
” The U.S. is also increasing tensions with China and ramping up sanctions and regime change operations in Iran and Venezuela .
The United States spends almost as much on war as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also has suffered by far the highest death toll from COVID-19 .
These two facts are not unrelated .
As Trump was increasing the military budget , he also slashed funding for the Center for Disease Control and for the World Health Organization , perhaps the only international body capable of limiting the spread of the virus .
In contrast to other countries that have handled the pandemic well , the rhetoric emanating from the White House treats the virus as an enemy to be fought , rather than a collective effort that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Instead of purchasing protective equipment and developing test kits like other nations , the government is ordering military flyovers .
The pandemic has led many to question whether the enormous military budget is really making the country safer and whether it be better spent on healthcare , education , and other programs that would have combated the pandemic more effectively .
However , that question appears not to have been debated within the walls of the White House , where it is full steam ahead with weapons production .
Feature photo | President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s seat of Lockeed Martin ’ s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense ( THAAD ) anti-ballistic missile defense system with Marillyn Hewson , chairman , president and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin at far left , during a Made in America showcase on the South Lawn of the White House , Monday , July 15 , 2019 .
Alex Brandon | 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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 economy has crashed. A nationwide pandemic that has (officially) claimed some 84,000 Americans has also resulted in an estimated 36 million filing for unemployment insurance and millions frequenting food banks for the first time. Yet business is booming for one unlikely industry; weapons manufacturers are busier than ever and are even advertising for tens of thousands of more workers.
Northrop Grumman announced that it was planning to hire up to 10,000 more employees this year. Airlines are being hit particularly hard, as the number of people flying on commercial planes has cratered. Raytheon, who supplies parts to civilian aircraft manufacturers, has lost a great deal of business. Yet it is still advertising 2,000 new jobs in the military wing of its business. Boeing, who endured a torrid 2019, with multiple high-profile crashes of its 737 MAX-8 airliner, is preparing to lay off ten percent of its staff as airlines predict a long and sustained drop in air travel. Nevertheless, it is looking to add hundreds of new workers in its defense, intelligence, and cybersecurity departments.
Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin announced on Friday that it is “actively recruiting for over 4,600 roles,” in addition to the 2,365 new employees it has taken on since the lockdown started. The world’s largest arms dealer describes itself merely as “principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services,” with words like “weapons,” “war,” or “bomb” not appearing on their website.
Why is the military industrial complex booming, even as America suffers? Because Washington has made it a priority to radically overhaul the military in double quick time, designating weapons manufacturers as “essential” services during a pandemic, ensuring they all have enough boots on the ground to continue working through the outbreak.
In February, the Pentagon released its $705 billion budget request for 2021, where it revealed that it would be ramping up for war with China and Russia in the near future. In its own words, there would be a “shifting focus from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a greater emphasis on the types of weapons that could be used to confront nuclear giants like Russia and China.” It also stated that it was going to acquire “more advanced high-end weapon systems, which provide increased standoff, enhanced lethality, and autonomous targeting for employment against near-peer threats in a more contested environment.” Last month, the Air Force commissioned Raytheon to develop and build a new nuclear cruise missile.
On a diplomatic level, the Trump administration is also dangerously escalating the possibility of nuclear war by pulling out of a number of international treaties designed to limit the possibility of a terminal conflict. The president has signaled his intention to remove the United States from the New START Treaty, the final remaining arms control agreement that binds it, something even the American ex-Deputy Secretary General of NATO condemned as “a chilling sign of how dangerous the world has become.” The U.S. is also increasing tensions with China and ramping up sanctions and regime change operations in Iran and Venezuela.
The United States spends almost as much on war as the rest of the world combined. It also has suffered by far the highest death toll from COVID-19. These two facts are not unrelated. As Trump was increasing the military budget, he also slashed funding for the Center for Disease Control and for the World Health Organization, perhaps the only international body capable of limiting the spread of the virus. In contrast to other countries that have handled the pandemic well, the rhetoric emanating from the White House treats the virus as an enemy to be fought, rather than a collective effort that everyone in society must engage in. Instead of purchasing protective equipment and developing test kits like other nations, the government is ordering military flyovers.
The pandemic has led many to question whether the enormous military budget is really making the country safer and whether it be better spent on healthcare, education, and other programs that would have combated the pandemic more effectively. However, that question appears not to have been debated within the walls of the White House, where it is full steam ahead with weapons production.
Feature photo | President Donald Trump sits in the driver’s seat of Lockeed Martin’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile defense system with Marillyn Hewson, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin at far left, during a Made in America showcase on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, July 15, 2019. Alex Brandon | 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--2020-05-13--Wall Street Will Likely Be the Only Winners in the Pandemic Housing Crisis

The coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown it has precipitated is having a profound effect on the economy of the United States and the rest of the world .
Roberto Azevedo , Director-General of the World Trade Organization warned that his projections predict an economic downturn and job losses more severe than those of the great financial crash of 2008 .
Renters , those with mortgages , and even many landlords face ruin in this unprecedented catastrophe .
An estimated 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance in the previous few months , with millions more losing their employer-based healthcare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country have seen record levels of users and are struggling to keep up with demand , even as fresh produce rots in farmyards as supply lines have been cut .
The Trump administration lept into action to shore up the liabilities of the super-wealthy , pumping $ 1.5 trillion into the stock market , resulting in only a 15-minute rally .
Meanwhile , a recent study of the CARES Act found that 82 percent of the financial benefits from the bill go to the 43,000 Americans who earn over $ 1 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ percent going to those making less than $ 100,000 .
Unlike in other countries , renters in the United States have been offered precious little government assistance .
The median rent in the U.S. is $ 1,000 , meaning that most of the country ’ s one-time $ 1,200 check was theoretically spent before it was even received .
However , around a third of American renters did not pay rent at the beginning of the month , meaning there is an ongoing , de facto rent strike taking place .
This leaves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 50 states have differing laws on the matter .
Eviction Lab , a team of researchers on housing , has produced a scorecard for every state with regards to how well or poorly it treats its tenants , based on dozens of laws and indicators .
Six states : Oklahoma , Arkansas , Idaho , Missouri , North and South Dakota , and Wyoming scored zero .
Eviction Lab also found that landlords in poor neighborhoods make considerably more profit than those in middle class or even affluent ones , with many not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nevertheless , smaller landlords , those with only one or two properties , will likely be the worst affected by the drought in income .
Online renting site Airbnb is facing a crisis as the flow of vacation rentals dwindled to a trickle .
Last week the company announced it was laying off nearly 1,900 employees – around 25 percent of its staff .
The result , if nothing changes , could be that many less well-off landlords will default on their mortgages .
Thus , just as the poorest and most vulnerable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 , it will be that smaller businesses of all kinds will go under first , leaving the larger ones to profit .
While few renters will shed tears for their landlords ’ losses , the upshot of the virus will be that the rich will get richer , the poor poorer and the middle will be squeezed , with Wall Street banks retaking possession of houses and businesses , something that is unlikely to help renters in the long run .
A similar phenomenon occurred during the 2008 financial crash , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unable to continue paying their sub-prime mortgages .
Americans were told to suck it up and cope , bearing the brunt of the crisis .
At the same time , Wall Street , who was in no small part responsible for the crisis in the first place , was given bailouts of historic proportions , leading to a situation where they are even bigger now than they were before the collapse .
The enforced shutdown essentially allows the government to pick and choose who will be rescued and who will go under , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and society to their preferences .
Wall Street , which funds both parties to the tune of millions every year , appears to likely come out of this crisis stronger than ever .
They will be laughing all the way to ( their own ) bank .
As of today , 1,417,398 Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 , and there have been 83,980 confirmed deaths .
Feature photo | A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads “ Rent Strike , ” April 1 , 2020 , in Seattle ’ s Capitol Hill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out of work and rent due at the first of the month , some tenants in the U.S. are vowing to go on a rent strike until the new coronavirus pandemic subsides .
Ted S. Warren | 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 .

The coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown it has precipitated is having a profound effect on the economy of the United States and the rest of the world. Roberto Azevedo, Director-General of the World Trade Organization warned that his projections predict an economic downturn and job losses more severe than those of the great financial crash of 2008. Renters, those with mortgages, and even many landlords face ruin in this unprecedented catastrophe. An estimated 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance in the previous few months, with millions more losing their employer-based healthcare as a result. Food banks across the country have seen record levels of users and are struggling to keep up with demand, even as fresh produce rots in farmyards as supply lines have been cut.
The Trump administration lept into action to shore up the liabilities of the super-wealthy, pumping $1.5 trillion into the stock market, resulting in only a 15-minute rally. Meanwhile, a recent study of the CARES Act found that 82 percent of the financial benefits from the bill go to the 43,000 Americans who earn over $1 million per year, with less than three percent going to those making less than $100,000.
Unlike in other countries, renters in the United States have been offered precious little government assistance. The median rent in the U.S. is $1,000, meaning that most of the country’s one-time $1,200 check was theoretically spent before it was even received. However, around a third of American renters did not pay rent at the beginning of the month, meaning there is an ongoing, de facto rent strike taking place. This leaves tenants on shaky legal ground as all 50 states have differing laws on the matter. Eviction Lab, a team of researchers on housing, has produced a scorecard for every state with regards to how well or poorly it treats its tenants, based on dozens of laws and indicators. Six states: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, North and South Dakota, and Wyoming scored zero.
Eviction Lab also found that landlords in poor neighborhoods make considerably more profit than those in middle class or even affluent ones, with many not needing rent to pay off mortgages. Nevertheless, smaller landlords, those with only one or two properties, will likely be the worst affected by the drought in income.
Online renting site Airbnb is facing a crisis as the flow of vacation rentals dwindled to a trickle. Last week the company announced it was laying off nearly 1,900 employees – around 25 percent of its staff. The result, if nothing changes, could be that many less well-off landlords will default on their mortgages. Thus, just as the poorest and most vulnerable people in society are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, it will be that smaller businesses of all kinds will go under first, leaving the larger ones to profit. While few renters will shed tears for their landlords’ losses, the upshot of the virus will be that the rich will get richer, the poor poorer and the middle will be squeezed, with Wall Street banks retaking possession of houses and businesses, something that is unlikely to help renters in the long run.
A similar phenomenon occurred during the 2008 financial crash, where millions of Americans lost their homes, unable to continue paying their sub-prime mortgages. Americans were told to suck it up and cope, bearing the brunt of the crisis. At the same time, Wall Street, who was in no small part responsible for the crisis in the first place, was given bailouts of historic proportions, leading to a situation where they are even bigger now than they were before the collapse.
The enforced shutdown essentially allows the government to pick and choose who will be rescued and who will go under, allowing them to reshape both the economy and society to their preferences. Wall Street, which funds both parties to the tune of millions every year, appears to likely come out of this crisis stronger than ever. They will be laughing all the way to (their own) bank.
As of today, 1,417,398 Americans have tested positive for COVID-19, and there have been 83,980 confirmed deaths.
Feature photo | A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads “Rent Strike,” April 1, 2020, in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. With millions of people suddenly out of work and rent due at the first of the month, some tenants in the U.S. are vowing to go on a rent strike until the new coronavirus pandemic subsides. Ted S. Warren | 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.