POLITICS
While Biden Waited to Sign COVID Relief Bill, Nearly 1,500 Americans May Have Died From the Virus
Nearly 1,500 Americans may have died from coronavirus while President Joe Biden waited to sign the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package.
Biden signed the legislation into law on Thursday afternoon, roughly 24 hours after the House approved it on a party-line vote. The president was originally scheduled to sign the bill on Friday, but the ceremony was abruptly moved up without explanation.
According to data compiled by the New York Times, 1,477 Americans died from COVID-19 on Wednesday, March 10. Over the past week, the virus has killed 1,536 Americans per day on average.
The Washington Post reported last week that "nearly 900 Americans may have died from the virus" in the 10 hours and 44 minutes it took the Senate to read the legislation, as requested by Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.). Regrettably, that is less than half the amount of time Biden waited to sign the legislation. The Post‘s calculation would put the total death toll from Biden's delay at closer to 2,000 American lives lost.
"At this moment, on this issue, time can be measured in human lives," wrote Post correspondent Philip Bump. "It's not the case that those lives would have been saved had the bill passed sooner. But it is the case that more immediate assistance for things like vaccines or bolstering people's bank accounts is better than slower relief. Again, the question isn't if the bill passes, it's when. In that context, the argument for an 11-hour delay isn't a robust one."
The Post has yet to calculate the human cost of Biden's 24-hour delay in this same context, let alone the relative robustness of his argument for waiting so long.
Nearly 120,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since Biden took office, the equivalent of two Vietnam Wars.
THE LAWLESS LIFE OF A SHADY LAWYER: THE CASE AGAINST KAMALA HARRIS, SOCIOPATH LAWYER
https://kamala-harris-sociopath.blogspot.com/2020/10/kamala-harris-laws-of-lawless-bribes.html
A known MS-13 Gang member, living illegally in the United
States, was arrested but went unprosecuted by then-San
Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris’ office months
before he murdered a California family.
“However, I would like to encourage my fellow Democrats to
approach Senator Harris with a healthy dose of skepticism. As
a prosecutor and California State Attorney General, Harris
has engaged in blatantly unethical behavior for her profession
and embraced positions that actively hurt her constituents.”
JESSER HOROWITZ
"This is how they will destroy America from within. The leftist billionaires who orchestrate these plans are wealthy. Those tasked with representing us in Congress will never be exposed to the cost of the invasion of millions of migrants. They have nothing but contempt for those of us who must endure the consequences of our communities being intruded upon by gang members, drug dealers and human traffickers. These people have no intention of becoming Americans; like the Democrats who welcome them, they have contempt for us." PATRICIA McCARTHY
Why is Biden releasing thousands of Covid-positive migrants into the country?
The answer to that question may be in his absurd speech on Thursday when he said “we may have to reinstate the lockdown restrictions” if… If what? What if the migrants the Biden Administration is allowing to come across the southern border without being tested, even if showing symptoms, then given bus tickets to any American city they hope to reach, is a grand plan to spread this flu throughout the country again in order to reinstate all the unconstitutional restrictions to which millions of Americans willingly submitted? Chances are that the powers that be never dreamed so many people would give up their freedom to work, shop, eat, go to movies, vacation, have their kids in school, etc. without a fuss… but they did.
The carefully calculated, thoroughly propagandistic fearmongering the media has done over the past year in service of the left was embarrassingly effective. Too many Americans have lost the ability to question authority and have accepted the covid “mandates” as if we are all subjects of a benevolent oligarchy. Nothing could be further from the truth. This past year has been about several things:
(1) defeat Trump by any means necessary, no matter how illegal;
(2) use this flu, a variation of Sars-2 to do it;
(3) convince the citizens of the world that this flu is a death sentence so they will comply with any and all restrictions on their basic freedoms;
(4) proscribe any and all existing effective treatments for this flu – HCQ, Ivermectin, for example, both inexpensive and widely available;
(5) make disobeying any of the mandated restrictions a crime; maskless people and those who choose not to be vaccinated, must be rendered outcasts and/or criminals. That pretty much sums up where we are today.
The left thinks it has won and it seems perhaps they have but as usual they are overstepping. So jubilant at their bare majority in the House and Senate, they seem to think they’ve achieved power in perpetuity. They successfully rigged the 2020 election, blatantly, and got away with it. If they pass their HR-1, the “election reform” bill, they will have cemented vote fraud in stone. That’s their plan.
And how easy it will be since they have at least half the population scared to death of a manipulated seasonal flu, ready to cower in self-quarantine to survive. The teachers’ unions have successfully won billions of dollars in “covid relief” without ever having to go back to work. They want to make virtual school the new normal!
And these are the people, like the ever-invidious Nancy Pelosi who are always claiming their every move is “for the children.” Yeah. Right. They could not care less about anyone’s children but their own. They’ve proven that over and over and over again.
At this moment they are importing hundreds of thousands of migrants from all over the world through the now porous southern border that Trump had gained control of, many of them with Covid.
YouTube screengrab
They desperately want to re-impose all the lockdown restrictions. They are drunk with power over our daily lives.
But here’s the thing! Covid is no death sentence. It is preventable and treatable with inexpensive drugs that have been around for decades. The vaccine is unnecessary. They are not even vaccines in the true sense of that word. These vaccines are actually “hacking the software of life.” Masks are unnecessary and actually dangerous. The lockdowns were just a purposeful power grab to punish all the small businesses who the left assumed supported President Trump who had so successfully energized the economy.
They are basking in their success at stealing the election, putting millions of Trump supporters out of business. They’ve further ramped up racial divisions even beyond Obama’s wildest dreams and thoroughly tanked the economies of California and New York.
China, the “man behind the curtain” of all of this, is laughing its way to global domination with the obedient acquiescence of the Biden administration and his party that is clearly willing to sell out the United States for their own personal financial gain.
Biden, or whoever is calling the administration’s shots, is sending migrants into the vast reaches of the American interior on purpose. It’s part of their plan to create a new covid surge so they can then shut us all down again. Will we the people stand for a replay of what was an effective coup d’etat?
As the Democrats plot to disarm those of us who revere the Second Amendment, they may be skating on thin ice, overplaying their ill-gotten hand. But their agenda is obvious. The handwriting is on the wall people. The leftists have a plan and they are sticking to it. Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country.
Coronavirus pandemic resurges throughout the world
As the different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continue to spread, particularly those originating in the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa, reported cases of the coronavirus have again begun to rise.
Since February 20, the number of daily new cases worldwide has increased steadily, from 361,000 cases then, to more than 422,000 cases now, up 17 percent. The increase is being driven in countries across the world. Currently there are more than 22,000 new cases each day in India (an 80 percent increase), just under 25,000 in France (a 24 percent increase), and 22,000 in Italy (an 83 percent increase). The main driver of the new wave is Brazil, where there are at least 66,000 new cases each day (a 36 percent increase) and climbing.
The total number of cases worldwide has now exceeded 120 million, with more than 2,660,000 dead.
Numerous other countries have also seen steady, and in some cases sharp, increases in their case counts, including Chile, the Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Germany, Iran, Paraguay, Poland and the Philippines. And in the United States, where the decline in cases has largely plateaued, there is still an average of more than 55,000 new reported cases each day.
There is every indication that this new wave, if allowed to continue, will be the worst yet. The previous wave was spurred on by relatively limited school and workplace reopenings, driving the number of new cases each day from just under 300,000 at the beginning of October to 745,000 at the beginning of January. Globally, more than 900,000 people died during that three-month period.
The social misery produced by such a state of affairs is staggering. Bloomberg recently reported that 30 million people in Africa were plunged into extreme poverty by the pandemic in 2020, living on less than $1.90 a day, and an estimated 39 million people will be made equally destitute in 2021. The United Nations reports that poverty in Latin America rose in 2020 by 22 million people. The number of “new poor” in East Asia and the Pacific increased by at least 38 million.
Globally, the World Bank estimates that between 119 to 124 million people so far have been impoverished by the coronavirus pandemic.
“After the Second World War, the world has experienced mass trauma, because the Second World War affected many, many lives. And now, even with this COVID pandemic, with bigger magnitude, more lives have been affected,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference Friday. “Almost the whole world is affected, each and every individual on the surface of the world actually has been affected.”
Now, with case numbers higher than they were at the beginning of the last surge, the Biden administration is spearheading an even more complete return to in-person schooling and work. Countries in Europe, South America, Asia and elsewhere are following suit, effectively inducing an even greater expansion of the pandemic. The ongoing reopenings in the United States and around the world are setting the stage for even greater heights of mass death.
The excuse being force-fed to the American and world public is that this is safe because the vaccine rollout is continuing apace.
The truth is quite the opposite. Even in the US, which has one of the highest vaccination rates, only about 10 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, meaning that the majority of the population is still susceptible to the deadly virus.
Moreover, the rollout itself is characterized by “many examples of vaccine nationalism and vaccine hoarding,” according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierres. The Biden administration has openly admitted hoarding doses of the vaccine, including about 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, for which the FDA has yet to give emergency authorization. AstraZeneca itself asked to transfer those doses to Europe, where it can be used. The idea was rejected out of hand, with Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients proclaiming Friday, “We’re rightly focused on getting Americans vaccinated as soon as possible.”
In other words, Biden has fully embraced the “America First” policy of ex-President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed.
Vaccine nationalism has also emerged sharply in Europe. Last week, Italy blocked the export of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia. Tensions between the UK and European Union continued as European Council President Charles Michel accused London of imposing an export ban on COVID-19 vaccines.
As a result, while more than 350 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered internationally, three-quarters of those have been given in just 10 countries, including more than 100 million in the United States alone. In contrast, less than five percent of the population in South America has received even a single dose. In Africa, where the total number of deaths just passed 100,000, less than half of one percent of the population has been vaccinated.
This uneven distribution itself has the potential to drive the pandemic. As Dr. Tedros recently noted, “The inequitable distribution of vaccines remains the biggest threat to ending the pandemic and driving a global recovery,” because “the longer the virus circulates, the higher the chances that variants will emerge that make vaccines less effective.”
In other words, there is nothing “right,” much less at all rational, about hoarding millions of life-saving vaccines in the middle of a pandemic. Every dose that is not used is potentially another infection stopped, another life saved. It is also more opportunity for the virus to mutate, increasing the chances of a variant emerging completely immune to the vaccines, retriggering the entire pandemic. Dr. Tedros rightly condemned this when he noted, “This is putting lives at risk around the world.”
Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Wisconsin, made similar comments in a recent piece entitled, “COVID-19 Variants and the Peril of Vaccine Inequity.” In it, he made clear, “Neither the United States nor any other global power can defeat a pandemic by thinking in national terms. COVID-19 vaccines are now a central component of the United States’ national security and defense. But unlike other spheres of defense, this one involves protecting—not fighting—foreigners. As the poet John Donne noted centuries ago, ‘No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.’ Never has that been truer than during the current worldwide plague. If the bell continues to toll, it will be tolling for us all.”
As has been demonstrated over the past year, however, appeals to the ruling class fall on deaf ears. Neither the Trump nor Biden administrations, or their counterparts internationally, are capable, much less interested, in sharing the vaccine. Stockpiles are viewed as strategic assets to be wielded against geopolitical rivals, not medicine to save lives.
As David North writes in his essay, “Capitalism vs. socialism: The pandemic and the global class struggle”:
The capitalist program promotes a policy of vaccination nationalism, restricting and opposing equitable distribution of vaccines throughout the world. The socialist program, recognizing that the coronavirus can be eradicated only through a scientifically directed international strategy, calls for a globally coordinated inoculation program.
There can be no national solution to the pandemic. The social system bound up with the existence of nation-states, capitalism, must end and be replaced with a socialist society based on the democratic and scientific planning of the world’s resources, where human lives are placed above private profit.
B.1.1.7 variants detected in Florida are approaching dangerous threshold
This Friday, more than 1.357 million travelers took to the air as spring break revelers sought respite and leisure from a long, painful winter. This was the single highest air travel figure since the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
Though these figures are far less than from the same day in 2019, it has alarmed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to a recent travel industry survey, 12 percent of respondents were making travel plans, and Miami expects university students from over 200 colleges to visit over the next few weeks.
Despite their premature guidelines for vaccinated individuals, the CDC continues to recommend against non-essential travel even for fully vaccinated people. Last Monday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, appearing on MSNBC, said, “We know that after mass travel, after vacations, after holidays, we tend to see a surge in cases. We really want to make sure—again with just ten percent of people [fully] vaccinated—that we are limiting travel.”
The United States, with more than 30 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly 550,000 deaths, is in a precarious position. As it manages to fumble along with the most extensive vaccination campaign in its history, it also casts aside nearly every precaution against the pathogen. President Joe Biden is hedging his bet, tantamount to reckless endangerment, that sufficiently enough people have been vaccinated or previously infected to see a blunting of the impact of a spring surge.
All eyes are now on Florida, where the B.1.1.7 variant, the variant first detected in the United Kingdom, is approaching a dangerous threshold—50 percent of all new cases subject to genetic testing. Not only is this variant more transmissible, but almost everyone also agrees the virus is more lethal than its predecessor. In December of 2020, the UK saw a dramatic surge in cases leading to a lockdown. At the same time, Manaus, Brazil, despite having had many previous infections, faced a deluge of new cases attributed to the variant first discovered there known as P.1.
However, many state and local officials who have repeatedly called for reopening all businesses and schools throughout the pandemic are now playing down the risks attributed to these variants and instead touting the recent declines and vaccine initiatives as a cause to celebrate.
However, do the numbers bear such optimism?
After a one-day high of over 21,000 cases on New Year’s Day, numbers have been steadily declining in Florida. But more recently, they have been falling at a slower pace and then reached a plateau with approximately 5,000 new COVID-19 cases per day. Since March 6, numbers have been ticking upward and over the weekend, when figures usually are lower, the state posted over 5,000 three days running. Other states, such as New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, have seen numbers plateau or tick upwards.
Already cars are causing traffic congestions throughout Miami as vacationers are flooding restaurants, bars, cafes along strips of white sandy beaches. Daytona Beach has been hosting the 80th edition of its ten-day annual event known as Bike Week. There is virtually no attention to public health measures. With 300,000 people having attended the Florida motorcycle rally, it is reminiscent of the Sturgis motorcycle rally that converged in western South Dakota in August. With weeks, both North and South Dakota were inundated with cases of COVID-19.
Dr. Olveen Carrasquillo, chief of general internal medicine at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal, “It’s a challenge. We see the light at the end of the tunnel, so there’s a lot of complacency. The thing that concerns me is there are much more infectious variants coming around.” Florida has the highest number of B.1.1.7 variants detected, at 690 out of more than 3,000 nationally. They have also reported five cases of the P.1 variant and one case of the B.1.351, the variant first reported from South Africa.
Dr. Carrasquillo added, “We’re almost there, but it’s not a time to relax everything we’ve been doing. The numbers look really, really positive, but an event like this [Bike Event], where people come, gather, and then go back to other parts of the country, has the potential to be really catastrophic.”
Estimates obtained from the COVID Tracking Project noted that by February 21, approximately 28.6 percent of Florida’s population had been infected. According to the Washington post-vaccination tracker, as of March 14, 20.4 percent of Floridians have received at least one jab, while 11 percent have completed their vaccination. Close to 60 percent of the elderly over 65 have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Assuming some level of overlap between those who survived being previously infected and those vaccinated, it is safe to think that probably 40 percent of the population has some protection against the coronavirus. The actual proportion of the population needed for herd immunity has been estimated at 70 percent, but those figures were for the wild-type variants and a higher percentage may be needed for the new strains. Given all precautions have been tossed aside, it remains to be seen how the B.1.1.7 lineage will impact the predicted spring surge with this level of immunity. Yet, such an irresponsible experiment is not settling well with public health officials.
Speaking with Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Dr. Anthony Fauci reminded the host again that his concern is with a plateau in numbers of daily cases being above 60,000. He called that discomforting. Like Sweden, Italy, and Germany, where their epidemiological curves had plateaued, as these countries moved to lift restrictions, it led to a sudden rise in new infections.
Many states like Texas and Mississippi are rapidly rescinding mask mandates, demanding school reopening and lifting local businesses’ restrictions. An emergency room physician from Austin, Texas, Dr. Natasha Kathuria, told ABC, “We fear that opening our economy to 100 percent, just before spring break, is a recipe for disaster. Without a mask requirement, front-line workers are at exceptional risk for a potential confrontation with patients who may be unwilling to wear a mask now that there is no mandate. Texas was the most aggressive state to reopen after our national lockdown, and we became the epicenter for COVID-19 a few months later. We cannot risk that again.”
Approximately 70 million people in the United States have received one or both doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the US, accounting for 21 percent of the population. The seven-day average stands at more than 2.5 million vaccinations per day. With 136 million doses distributed, this is the largest rollout across the globe thus far. However, the rollout has been extremely chaotic and has prioritized speed over eligibility.
Those who are 75 years or older have accounted for 60 percent of all COVID-19 deaths but only account for 23 percent of all first doses. Additionally, more affluent populations in wealthy counties have been disproportionately vaccinated than underserved regions of the country. The implication of these developments means that a possible fourth wave will punish those poorest and most vulnerable.
Capitalism is at war with society
The coronavirus pandemic is developing into a social, economic and political crisis on a scale that is without precedent. Yesterday’s drastic fall in global markets and especially in the United States, where Wall Street recorded its greatest one-day loss since 1987, arose from the recognition that the pandemic will massively impact the world economy and profoundly disrupt the existing social order.
Estimates of the probable scale of deaths from the illness are causing growing anxiety. The total number of confirmed infections worldwide is approaching 150,000 and rising exponentially, but this vastly understates reality. Due to the lack of adequate testing and the long latency period before symptoms, the actual number is far higher. The official death toll is now over 5,000, and the lives of countless millions throughout the world are in danger.
Italy is deepening its nationwide lockdown, with virtually all stores closed and streets emptied. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that 60 to 70 percent of the population will become infected, meaning that millions will require intensive care or die. Iran has reportedly begun digging mass graves as the epidemic spirals out of control. France is closing all schools and universities. In the United States, major public sporting and entertainment events have been canceled, and grocery stores have quickly run out of basic necessities.
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the inability of the capitalist system to deal with such a crisis. Governments throughout the world have responded with a staggering level of incompetence and disarray. No preparations have been made for an entirely foreseeable disaster. Health care systems, starved of resources, are overwhelmed.
The complete incapacity of the United States, the richest capitalist country in the world, to respond to this emergency is an indictment of a government and of the entire economic system.
In his national address on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump epitomized the indifference of the capitalist oligarchy to the lives of millions of people. His nationalist diatribe placed blame for the “foreign virus” on China and Europe.
Trump’s speech came after weeks in which the president, focused entirely on the impact of the crisis on the stock market, proclaimed that everything was fine, that coronavirus was not a serious threat. He could not bring himself to express an ounce of sympathy for the masses of people in the United States and internationally who are seeing their lives upended. He announced no measures to address the absence of testing or the extreme shortage of health care facilities.
It is not, however, just a matter of the sociopathic personality of the present occupant of the White House. Trump is the product of American capitalism, of a society dominated by unprecedented levels of inequality, in which vast wealth has been accumulated by the financial elite at the expense of everything else.
The class character of the government response was starkly revealed on Thursday. The Federal Reserve, in a desperate and futile attempt to counteract the selloff on Wall Street, announced that it was allocating $1.5 trillion to buy up stocks and other assets. The US Congress, on the other hand, is haggling over a few billion dollars in assistance to those who are thrown out of work or otherwise impacted—a drop in the bucket compared to what is urgently required.
The outbreak of the pandemic and its consequences can only be understood within the context of the development of global capitalism over the past four decades. These four decades have revealed all the socially reactionary characteristics of a system based on private ownership of the means of production, in which all considerations of social need are subordinated to the drive for profit and vast personal wealth. The motto of the capitalist oligarchy is: “If the accumulation of our billions requires the death of millions, so be it.”
In 1987, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher infamously declared that “There is no such thing as society.” Thatcher’s dictum was the justification for a wholesale attack on social programs and infrastructure and a massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich. For four decades, the ruling elites, above all in the United States, have engaged in social plunder. All policy has been based on the private enrichment of the oligarchs at the expense of society.
Both political parties, Democrat and Republican, have presided over this social arson. For the past three years, as Trump has waged his assault on workers and immigrants, the Democrats proclaimed that the overriding threat to the American people came from Russia. All social opposition to the Trump regime was subordinated to the reactionary agenda of the military and intelligence agencies.
Now we see the consequences. More than any other country, the United States has revealed a level of unpreparedness that is nothing less than criminal. On Thursday, the director of the Ohio Health Department stated that evidence of community spread indicates that one percent of residents in the state are infected, or 117,000 people. Only five individuals have actually tested positive.
The Centers for Disease Control has the capacity to process only 300 to 350 tests a day. In practice it is doing even less. This very week, even as the contagion spread throughout the country, there were only eight tests on Tuesday and none on Wednesday. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, acknowledged in testimony before Congress on Thursday that “the system is not really geared to what we need right now… That is failing.”
As the disease spreads, the health care system in the United States will be quickly overwhelmed. The number of hospital beds and intensive care units is utterly inadequate to meet the expected demand, meaning that tens of thousands of people will simply not be able to get care, vastly increasing the death toll. Health care workers face a shortage of critical supplies, including masks and other essential gear, exposing themselves and their patients to heightened risk.
Workplaces are not equipped to ensure safety, with many workers reporting unsanitary conditions, a lack of soap and even hot water. On Thursday, an autoworker at a Fiat Chrysler plant in Indiana tested positive for the disease, but the plant, a critical bottleneck for FCA production, is being kept open. Service workers, most of whom have no paid sick leave, are dangerously exposed.
As schools and colleges are being closed, hundreds of thousands of students face eviction from their dormitories with no plans in place for alternative housing. Parents are being forced to take unpaid time off work or find childcare with nothing in place to assist them.
The same story is repeated in every country. Governments are floundering to safeguard the profits of corporations as millions face the consequences with no assistance. There is no coordination or plan to address the pandemic. The World Health Organization, which supposedly exists to coordinate responses to health emergencies, is powerless, and its guidelines and regulations are being universally ignored.
Precious time was wasted as the global pandemic gathered fatal momentum. When the pandemic first manifested itself in Wuhan, Washington was interested in the development only from the standpoint of how the crisis in China might be exploited to the geopolitical advantage of the United States. The media paid only limited attention to the threat and issued no calls for urgent and globally coordinated action.
In contrast, basing itself on an international socialist perspective that prioritizes the common universal interests of the working class, the International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality parties recognized the danger and sounded the alarm. The World Socialist Web Site warned this past January 28: “The outbreak has exposed the enormous vulnerability of contemporary society to new strains of infectious disease, dangers for which no capitalist government has adequately prepared.” The WSWS wrote that the urgent need for internationally coordinated action to fight the pandemic was undermined by national conflicts:
At a time when rational planning across national borders is critical to combat the global spread of a virulent disease, the United States and China are locked in a growing trade conflict in what has been called a new “cold war.” Even as new pathogens require the scientific resources of every continent to combat, the countries of the world are building metaphorical and literal walls.
The defense of human civilization against the threat of global pandemics, just like climate change and the growing threat of ecological disasters, requires a level of planning and global cooperation of which capitalism is incapable. Society has outgrown the capitalist system and the arbitrary divisions it imposes on the world. The provision of the most existential social needs requires rational planning. That is, it requires socialism.
Six critical weeks have been wasted by the ruling oligarchs and the global threat has grown exponentially. Action must be taken.
The essential principle that must guide the response to the crisis is that the needs of the working people of the world must take absolute and unconditional priority over all considerations of corporate profit and private capitalist wealth.
The Socialist Equality Party and the International Committee of the Fourth International demand a massive, internationally coordinated mobilization of social resources to combat the coronavirus, including the allocation of trillions of dollars to ensure access to testing and the highest-quality medical care for all those infected. The class-based and profit-driven system of health care must be abolished, replaced with equal and universal coverage. A massive public works program must be initiated to produce desperately needed medical equipment.
Immediate measures must be taken to safeguard the health of workers. Workplaces where there is a danger of the spread of the virus must be shut down, with full income to those affected. Where schools are closed, parents must be given paid time off. College students forced out of dormitories must be provided safe housing. There must be a moratorium on evictions and utility shutoffs, combined with a moratorium on rent payments and other forms of emergency assistance.
All those who claim, like Bernie Sanders, that anything can be done without a frontal assault on the capitalist system itself are peddling lies. In a speech on Thursday, Sanders declared that as many as 400,000 could die from the coronavirus, and that the crisis “is on a scale of a major war.” Sanders, however, repeated his claim that measures to address the crisis can be achieved through the actions of both the Democratic and Republican parties.
In fact, what the crisis proves is the urgent necessity of a mass political movement of the working class in the United States and internationally against capitalism and for the socialist reorganization of world economy. What we are witnessing is the consequence of a society organized on the basis of profit. A society in which three individuals own more than half the population is incapable of resolving any of the great problems confronting mankind.
The giant banks and corporations must be placed under public ownership and democratic control. The vast fortunes of the rich must be expropriated to make funds available to ensure universal access to health care, housing, utilities and other social needs. All of economic life must be reorganized on the basis of a global, planned economy, removing the obstacle of private property and the profit motive. The last consideration on anyone’s minds should be the impact on corporate profits and Wall Street share values.
The pandemic has laid bare the inescapable necessity of a fundamental restructuring of society. This is not the first time in history that a great crisis has demonstrated that human progress is inseparable from the struggle against inequality. In an important new book, The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century, historian Walter Scheidel writes: “Throughout recorded history, the most powerful leveling invariably resulted from the most powerful shocks. Four different kinds of violent ruptures have flattened inequality: mass mobilization warfare, transformative revolution, state failure, and lethal pandemics. I call these the Four Horsemen of Leveling.” Each of these Horsemen is now visible.
The future of humanity is at stake. Capitalism is at war with society. The working class, under the banner of international socialism, must wage war against capitalism.
llegal Alien Charged with 4 Murders Looks to Evade Death Penalty with ‘Intellectually Disabled’ Label
An illegal alien charged with murdering four Americans is looking to evade the death penalty by classifying himself as “intellectually disabled.”
Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, a 20-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador, was charged with murdering 56-year-old Connie Koontz, 74-year-old Sophia Renken, 81-year-old Gerald David, and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon David, in January 2019 when prosecutors said he was attempting to steal money from his victims to buy more meth.
Now, Martinez-Guzman’s attorneys seek to classify him as “intellectually disabled” so he can evade the death penalty. The attorneys have appealed their case to Nevada’s Supreme Court, claiming that they need more time to gather evidence that their client is intellectually disabled.
The Associated Press reports:
Nevada’s Supreme Court wants to hear directly from lawyers on both sides in a death penalty dispute over how much more time public defenders should have to try to prove a Salvadoran immigrant is intellectually disabled and can’t be executed if convicted of four 2019 Nevada killings. [Emphasis added]
…
Deputy Defender John Reese Petty said in their most recent Supreme Court filings the motion hasn’t been filed yet because they’ve been unable to gather necessary evidence in Guzman’s native El Salvador due largely to COVID-19 travel restrictions. [Emphasis added]
…
A clinical psychologist concluded in an evaluation that’s been sealed in district court that Martinez-Guzman’s general intellectual and cognitive test scores fell well below levels needed to satisfy key elements of Nevada’s execution exemption, the defense said. [Emphasis added]
Previously, a Nevada judge said Martinez-Guzman’s attorneys had until April 20 to prove he is intellectually disabled. They claim they need more time to travel to El Salvador and gather evidence to prove their case.
Among those allegedly murdered by Martinez-Guzman was Connie Koontz, a mother, whose mother’s 80th birthday was the following day. Koontz, herself, was set to turn 57 five days after her murder.
Also allegedly murdered was 74-year-old Sophia Renken, as well as Gerald and Sharon David, who were both beloved members of the South Reno community. Gerald was president of the Reno Rodeo Association in 2006, and Sharon was a member of the group.
Martinez-Guzman’s trial is set to begin on September 20.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
EXCLUSIVE: Leaked Numbers Show Migrant ‘Got-Aways’ Soar as Border Apprehensions Hit 15-Year High
A U.S. Border Patrol source reports the number of migrant “got-away’s” tallied by the agency surpassed 118,000 for this fiscal year. In less than six months, the “got-away” number is nearly double that for all of Fiscal Year 2020. Last year, 69,000 illegal immigrants managed to avoid apprehension by the Border Patrol. Sources report the sharpest increase began in January as President Joe Biden took office.
This particular metric is usually not released by Department of Homeland Security officials. The numbers are achieved by counting illegal immigrants who ultimately escape Border Patrol apprehension after being observed by aircraft platforms and camera systems. In addition, Border Patrol agents using traditional “sign-cutting” techniques identify footprints crossing the border and count those that elude apprehension.
“That’s where it gets tricky,” says a Border Patrol agent with knowledge of the data who is not authorized to speak in the issue. “On a small trail, dozens can walk all over each other’s footprints, so you just do your best. Often, they’ll glue carpet to the soles of their shoes making detection even harder.”
The source reports that for these reasons, the got-away count is usually lower than reality. How much so is debatable as the latter method of counting is not scientific.
The spike in got-aways comes as U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials reported the highest number of migrant apprehension totals since 2006.
Despite the current administration’s refusal to call the immigration situation on the border a crisis, the recent surges are concerning. Many believe the impetus for the surges in illegal entries is being fueled by the promise of amnesty legislation. The administration’s new policies regarding lax interior enforcement and a reduction in removals are also believed to be contributing to the surge in activity along the border.
During a recent press engagement, Texas Governor Greg Abbott elaborated on his views about the border surge, “Because of the volume of people coming across the border, the Border Patrol that makes the arrest, they have to engage quite literally in babysitting. And while they’re doing babysitting, that provides an opportunity for the cartels to be able to bring other people across the border illegally.”.
Recent reports concerning the reduced patrols being conducted by the Border Patrol are likely contributing to the surge in the got-away count. The humanitarian needs of thousands of unaccompanied children crossing the border have impacted the Border Patrol’s ability to cover many remote areas. This situation is likely to worsen as the crisis develops.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas Sector.
64K Migrants Apprehended in Texas-Based Border Sectors in Feb. — Up 27 Percent from Jan.
Border Patrol agents assigned to the five Texas-based sectors apprehended nearly 64,000 migrants in February. This represents an increase of more than 27 percent from the previous month.
Agents assigned to the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Del Rio, Big Bend, and El Paso Sectors apprehended 63,734 migrants in February, according to the Southwest Border Land Encounters Report released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Wednesday. This represents an increase of 13,619 migrants over the January report. Note: The El Paso Sector includes apprehensions in New Mexico.
100K Migrants Apprehended Last Month — Highest Feb. Total Since 2006
Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 100,000 migrants in February who illegally crossed the Mexico-U.S. Border between ports of entry. The apprehensions reveal a jump of 26 percent from January and 170 percent from one year ago.
Border Patrol agents apprehended 98,974 migrants in February who illegally crossed the border in February, according to the Southwest Land Border Encounters Report released on Wednesday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. This represents a massive increase from the 78,323 apprehended in January and an even larger jump from February 2020 when agents apprehended only 36,687. The February 2021 apprehensions are the largest February report since 2006 when agents apprehended 125,046.
These apprehensions occurred during President Joe Biden’s first full month in office and follows his cancellation of border wall systems construction and many of the Trump-era policies that ended catch and release.
“The border is not open,” CBP Senior Officials Performing the Duties of the Commissioner Troy Miller said in his opening remarks in Wednesday’s unveiling of the Southwest Border Encounters report for February. He said their administration is building an “orderly process” and that people should not believe the human smugglers who are encouraging the current spike in illegal border crossings.
“The United States is continuing to strictly enforce our existing immigration laws and border security measures,” Mr. Miller continued. “Those who attempt to cross the border without going through ports of entry should understand that they are putting themselves and their families in danger, especially during the pandemic.”
Most concerning in these apprehend is the number of Unaccompanied Alien Children smuggled across the border and apprehended by Border Patrol agents. In January, agents apprehended 5,871 unaccompanied minors, official reports indicate. In February, that number climbed to 9,297, the CBP report states. This represents a single-month increase of 58 percent and a 166 percent jump from last February’s 3,490.
Miller said more than 3,000 of the unaccompanied minors are under the age of 12. The remaining minors are between 13 and 17 years of age.
The apprehension of 18,945 Family Unit Aliens in February also jumped from the previous month’s total of 7,490 and the 7,117 apprehended in February 2020.
The increased apprehensions in February represent the tenth straight month of increases in apprehensions. The previous low point came in April 2020 when apprehensions fell to 17,104.
More information regarding articles about the CBP’s previous Southwest Border reports can be found by clicking here.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Face
The Texas sectors account for 65 percent of all migrant border apprehensions, the report indicates.
The Rio Grande Valley Sector is clearly the epicenter of the current border crisis with nearly 28,000 migrants (nearly 29 percent) being apprehended out of the total apprehensions of 96,974. The apprehensions in the RGV Sector jumped 63,7 percent from January’s 17,056.
The El Paso Sector is next with 13,181 apprehensions — up 24 percent from January. The Big Bend Sector experienced an increase of 16 percent over the previous month. The Del Rio and Laredo Sectors both reported a slight decrease in apprehensions — 0.7 and 1.7 percent respectively.
By demographic category, the five Texas-based sectors apprehended 41,467 single adults, 7,056 unaccompanied alien children, and 15,211 family unit aliens.
In the Rio Grande Valley Sector alone, Border Patrol agents apprehended 10,489 unaccompanied minors representing more than 55 percent of the 18,945 minors apprehended in all nine southwest border sectors.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Troy Miller, senior official performing the duties of the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 3,000 of the unaccompanied minors apprehended nationally are under the age of 12. The remaining minors are between 13 and 17 years of age.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Face
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