Covid Revealing a Profound Sickness at the Core of Western Society

An Illusion Of Protection: The Pandemic, The ‘Criminal’ Government And Public Distrust of The Media

by Media Lens

May 18, 2020

Any notion that the UK government actually considers that its primary responsibility is to protect the health and security of the country’s population ought to have been demolished in 2020. The appalling death toll that continues to mount during the coronavirus pandemic is largely rooted, not merely in government ‘incompetence’, but in criminal dereliction of its core duties in a supposedly democratic society.

The UK has the highest death toll in Europe, and the second highest in the world (the US has the highest). On May 12, the death toll from official UK figures exceeded 40,000 for the first time, including almost 10,000 care home residents. A study by academics at the London School of Economics estimates that the actual death toll in care homes is, in fact, double the official figure: more than 22,000.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ingmar Lee, Davide Mastracci, Janine Bandcroft May 21, 2020

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

May 21, 2020

Welcome to Gorilla Radio's continuing efforts, NOT broadcast live from CFUV Radio in the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but emanating live-to-tape via Skype from our home-based ... studios on this date, April 21st, 2020.

Despite floor to ceiling, seven days-a-week coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, little has been said about how those living in the more remote reaches of this country, Canada are coping.

Here in advertised, Super Natural British Columbia, thousands live far from hospitals and other amenities taken, until recently at least, as granted.

How is the extended shutdown of the economy effecting those communities, and what challenges and benefits do rural, and super-rural life present and afford in these weird times?

Ingmar Lee is a long-time BC-based environment defender, who describes himself as a "rotten, belligerent, iconoclastic, ungrateful, unrepentant, and unpleasant treehugger."

Listen. Hear.

Besides these qualities, Lee has spent a life-time investigating truth, questioning accepted wisdom, and making enemies of greedhead political fraudsters, money-grubbing business leaders, spinmeisters and the journalistic hacks at the CBC, CTV, and in the yellow press, who describe his years of dedication and accomplishments as "environmental zealotry", "eco-terrorism", and the deeds of "a raving nutcase."

Ingmar has appeared many, many times on Gorilla Radio over the past nineteen years, covering the issues those same critics chose to sacrifice on the alter of careerism.


Ingmar Lee in the first half.

And; never able to take responsibility for its ineptitude, (or criminality) America is busy today, months into the Covid-19 outbreak, poking an accusatory finger directly in the chest of China. That its blame campaign is transparently false, and the lethal combination of systemic corruption and colossal malfeasance that lay behind the growing death toll in the United States is patently obvious to almost everyone, seems not to matter to either presidential candidates, or to a media content to amplify their bilious indignation; it's an election year, afterall.

Davide Mastracci is managing editor at Passage, the Canadian online publication providing "thoughtful political, economic, and cultural ideas from a left-wing perspective." Mastracci's has previously worked at HuffPost Canada and Vice News, and has been published throughout Canada and overseas too. His recent article, 'Don’t Blame China For Your Government’s COVID-19 Failures' appears at ReadPassage.com.

Davide Mastracci and a new take on an old peril in the second half.

And; long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Ingmar Lee and life on the edges of a crashing society.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Resisting Canada's Security Council Ambitions

Canada does not deserve a seat on the UN Security Council

by ForeignPolicy.ca

May 19, 2020

Despite its peaceful reputation, Canada is not acting as a benevolent player on the international stage. Rather, Canada ranks among the twelve largest arms exporters and its weapons have fueled conflicts across the globe, including the devastating war in Yemen.

In a disappointing move, Canada refused to join 122 countries represented at the 2017 UN Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination. Ottawa has also been an aggressive proponent of the nuclear-armed NATO alliance, and currently leads coalition missions in Latvia and Iraq. 

Covid Brings Out Spain's New Old Normal: A "Minimized" Online Presence, Censorship, Paid Informants, and Far-Right Reactivism

COVID-19: Podemos, social-democrats prepare to send Spanish police against workers’ protests

by Alejandro López  - WSWS

18 May 2020

The misnamed “progressive” Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government is preparing for mass repression as it takes Spain out of lock-down, imposing the unpopular back-to-work policy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez - Document warns of a 

“high probability” of growing social unrest in coming months...

This was revealed in a confidential 22-page document, “Delta Papa Order 21/20: Civil Guard Action in the Framework of the Transition Plan towards a New Normality,” signed by Lieutenant General Fernando Santafé and leaked to El Periódico last Tuesday. Santafé is the Chief of Operations Command of the Civil Guard, Spain’s paramilitary police.

Fourth Failure Leaves Guaidó's Rep in the Guano

Botched Infiltration of Venezuela Leaves Guaidó Tainted Beyond Repair

by Leonardo Flores - Common Dreams

via Venezuelanalysis

May 17, 2020

Analyst Leonardo Flores takes a look at the different pieces in the opposition's most recent coup attempt.

People of Chuao, who helped detain one of the armed groups, were 

awarded a symbolic replica of Bolivar's sword. (Vice Presidencia)

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.  

Covid Voices from the Grave: Thucydides' Lessons on the Plague of Our Times

THE THUCYDIDES CLAPTRAP – RUSSIAN LESSONS AT THE PEAK OF THE PANDEMIC, AND JUST AFTER

by John Helmer, Moscow

@bears_with

May 14, 2020

Cardiology doesn’t expire when people die of heart attacks. Just so, no one should expect that when a man dies of the corona virus, or hundreds or thousands of men, the sociology of their pre-existing health, race, ethnicity, income, education, ideology – in short, their class in the old- fashioned meaning of the word — goes belly up at the same time. For understanding and prediction, sociology will always trump epidemiology — the basic reproductive ratio R0 of Covid-19 might run from 3 to 9, but the R0 of class struggle is many times more virulent.

It is therefore surprising that so many pundits, even the Russia-hate specialist Anne Applebaum, think to publish an interpretation of the sociology of the plague of ancient Athens, circa 430 BC; and taking Thucydides as their source, give lectures on how much the European and American societies can learn from him on Covid-19, but have failed to learn to date. At the same time as they depend on Thucydides for their lessons, they ignore the very first of his – that was his dismissal of the source and cause of the plague among the foreign enemies of the ancient Athenians. In other words, Thucydides wouldn’t be blaming China and Russia for Covid-19 now any more than he blamed the Spartans then.

Oglala Sioux Ordered to Allow Possibly Infected Passage

Checkpoint Closure by South Dakota Governor an Attack on Tribal Sovereignty

by TRNN

 

May 16, 2020

South Dakota’s Republican Governor Kristi Noem publicly issued a letter to the Cheyenne River (CRST) and Oglala Sioux Tribes (OST) on May 8 ordering them to remove health checkpoints on roads crossing their reservations but did not directly deliver it to OST—“a sign of “disrespect,” according to OST President Julian Bear Runner.

The letter, which was dated May 8, was never actually received by Bear Runner, he explained during a recorded response to Noem. He learned of Noem’s letter through news reports and social media.

Getting Cold(er) on China: Stage Sets for a Next Long War

Corporate Media Setting Stage for New Cold War With China

by Gregory Shupak - FAIR

May 15, 2020

Corporate media are laying the ideological groundwork for a new cold war with China, presenting the nation as a hostile power that needs to be kept in check. 

The Washington Post (4/23/20) ran an article by Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, the second sentence of which said, “The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that, to a great degree, our very health is in Chinese hands; from medicines to masks, we are at Beijing’s mercy.” 

Rent Systems: Coronavirus Front Lines Capitalist Greed

Landlords: The Front Line of Coronavirus Greed

by Andy Worthington

May 15, 2020

As the coronavirus continues to cripple the economy, it is clear to anyone paying attention — a situation not encouraged by either our political leaders or the mainstream media — that its disastrous effects are extremely unevenly distributed.

End rent now: a protestor in Los Angeles

While some people are working from home on 100% pay, others — the essential workers of the NHS, pharmacists, those in the food industry, postal workers and other delivery people, public transport workers, and many others — have continued to work, often at severe risk to their health, because of the government’s inability to provide proper PPE or a coherent testing system. Other workers, meanwhile, have been furloughed on 80% of pay (up to £2,500 a month), while another huge group of former workers have been summarily laid off, and have been required to apply for Universal Credit, a humiliating process that also involves the requirement to try to survive on less than £100 a week.

Back into the Fray:The Risk/Benefit of Returning to Work

Between a rock and a hard place: Which workers are most vulnerable when their workplaces re-open amid COVID-19?

by David MacDonald - CCPA

May 15, 2020

With the COVID-19 curve flattening in many parts of Canada, provinces are rushing to re-open.

Quebec has already re-opened elementary schools outside of Montreal. B.C., Manitoba, and Alberta have or soon will re-open salons and barbershops. Following the long weekend, many Ontario businesses will be able to open back up.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dave Lindorff, Will Tell, Janine Bandcroft May 14, 2020

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

May 14, 2020

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, where we are still, as yet, NOT broadcasting live from the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but are instead recording live-to-Skype this day, May 10th, 2020.

While millions breathe sighs of relief as jurisdiction around the World take the first tentative steps towards reopening after the unprecedented Covid shut-downs, others dare not venture out, or allow potentially infected people cross their thresholds. From the start, this pandemic has been Janus-headed, experienced very differently depending on ones health, income, area code, and most vitally, age. For elders, especially those in care home, Covid has been more plague than pandemic.

Dave Lindorff is an independent, award-winning journalist, author, and founding editor of the news website, ThisCantBeHappening.net. Among the ‘Izzy’ Award for ‘Outstanding Independent Journalism” recipient’s four books, the most cogent in this moment is his 1992, ‘Marketplace Medicine: The Rise of the For-Profit Hospital Chains’.

Listen. Hear.

Dave’s recent article, published under a joint agreement between Tarbell.org and ThisCantBeHappening!, is ‘The Nursing Home Coronavirus Pandemic’.

Dave Lindorff in the first half.

And; as bad as this pandemic gets here in the West, in the Global South, where care homes, and state supported healthcare are not an option for the majority, things are by orders of magnitude more desperate. Worse still is the situation in those countries where governments embrace neoliberal economic doctrine and care little for those at the bottom of the class and economic spectrum. In India, after more than six weeks of rigidly enforced lockdown, food and medicine supplies, and the ability for internally displaced migrant workers to get home, are priority concerns; as is getting in this year’s crops.

Will Tell is an expat living in rural southern India, where lockdown measures have been eased somewhat, but says, “Migrant workers (literally millions of them) got stranded in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore (the major cities, that attract them) when the lockdown occurred.” Adding, “…[B]orders have been closed for nearly a month now, and it looks like a lot longer before they open.”

Will Tell and the pandemic over there in the second half.

And; long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with this week’s Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Dave Lindorff and Covid-19’s expendables.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

FT: All the Fit News to Print

ROULA KHALAF’S FINANCIAL TIMES HIDES THE VEILS

by John Helmer, Moscow

@bears_with

Roula Khalaf (lead image, right) is the only editor of a major London newspaper about whom next to nothing important is obvious, not even her name. She was appointed last year by Tsuneo Kita (front row), chairman of Nikkei, the Japanese media group and owner of the paper, to succeed Lionel Barber as editor. 

On January 20 of this year, Kita assigned Khalaf a seat on the board of Financial Times Limited, the entity through which the Japanese run their marginally profitable London property. The UK company registration reveals that Khalaf is a maiden name, and that her legal name is Roula Khalaf Razzouk.

Spain Cracks Whip on Covid "Deconfinement" While Admitting Second Wave Outbreak Coming

Podemos pushes “back to work” as Spanish army expects new COVID-19 outbreak

by Alejandro López  - WSWS

11 May 2020

Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government continues to lift confinement measures, even as internal Spanish army documents forecast this will provoke new outbreaks of the disease. The state is placing the lives of millions of workers going back to work in danger, putting corporate profits above workers’ lives.

Spanish PM, Pedro Sanchez

Today, over half Spain’s population will move to the so-called Phase 1 of the government’s deconfinement plan. Those living in harder-hit areas still in Phase 0 will have stricter restrictions on their movements, as under the previous confinement policy. But those in Phase 1 will be able to visit family members, attend funerals, go shopping, go to restaurants, hold meetings of up to 10 people, and open hotels, tourist accommodations and places of worship.

"Prison Should Not Be A Death Sentence:" Covid Death and Infectious Outbreak in Quebec Prison

Noise Demonstrations Take Place Outside Montreal-Area Prisons Following Prisoner Death, Hunger Strike

by Anti-Carceral Group

May 10, 2020

At 2pm today, a caravan of over 30 vehicles visited the Federal Training Centre prison in Laval and the Bordeaux jail in Montreal, demanding the immediate release of all prisoners in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vehicles, decorated with slogans such as, ‘Prison Should Not Be A Death Sentence,’ & ‘Free All Prisoners,’ honked their horns, made noise, and held banners in solidarity with those inside.

“We’re here today to show people inside these prisons that they’re not forgotten and that we’re out here working for their release,” said Ellie Santon, a participant in the demonstration.

Sri Lanka Becoming World's First Covid Coup Government

Tamil National Alliance backs Sri Lanka’s Rajapakse regime on COVID-19

by Athiyan Silva - WSWS

9 May 2020

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has come out in open support of Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse as he strengthens the presidency’s autocratic powers and relies ever more directly on the military amid the COVID-19 pandemic. TNA spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran made this unmistakably clear in his public statements, coming amid mounting working-class anger at the government’s handling of the lockdown.

Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse

The TNA held a closed-door meeting on Monday with Mahinda Rajapakse, the former president, current prime minister and brother of the current president. He is despised for overseeing the massacre of defenceless Tamil civilians and defeated fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the final days of the 1983-2009 Sri Lankan Civil War.

Biden Campaign Sidesteps Democracy, Press Shrugs

Democracy; NYT and WaPo Shrug

by Julie Hollar - FAIR

May 9, 2020

Blaming health risks due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the New York State Board of Elections announced last week that the state would simply cancel its Democratic presidential primary, leaving former Vice President Joe Biden to be proclaimed the victor without a vote. The response from the country’s two most prominent newspapers? Meh.

Under the headline “New York State Cancels Its Primary, Angering Sanders Camp,” the Washington Post‘s Sean Sullivan (4/27/20) framed the story as simply a battle between the Sanders campaign (and its allies) and state election officials, offering back-and-forth quotes from both sides.

Experiences of Israel's Apartheid Crime Scene

‘Apartheid is a Crime’: Former Swedish Diplomat Speaks about His Experiences in Occupied Palestine (VIDEO)

by Ramzy Baroud - PalestineChronicle.com

May 8, 2020

Mats Svensson is a former Swedish diplomat, an author and a photographer. His books include “Crimes, Victims and Witnesses – Apartheid in Palestine.” His latest volume, “Apartheid is a Crime – Portraits of Israeli Occupation,” was just released by Cunepress in Seattle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NDSCD-wh5c&t=1646s

Svensson joined me and my co-host Romana Rubeo on “Palestine Chronicle TV”, on May 6, to discuss his fascinating experiences in Palestine and the balancing act of being a diplomat and a conscientious human being who cares deeply about the principles of justice and equality.

Lockdown a Prison for India's Migrant Workers

Indian migrant workers in Chennai speak to WSWS about coronavirus pandemic

by Sasi Kumar and Moses Rajkumar - WSWS

8 May 2020

World Socialist Web Site reporters recently spoke with migrant workers and homeless people in Chennai about the worsening social conditions they now confront because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Chennai, India April 2020 image: NDTV

Tens of thousands of workers from various Indian states, including Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, are living in Chennai, the capital of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. These low-paid migrant workers are employed in construction and global production plants located in nearby industrial hubs, such as Sriperumbudur and Oragadam.

Media Finding Racist Purchase for Blame China Pandemic Narrative

Why It’s Wrong (and Racist) to Blame Covid-19 on Chinese ‘Wet Markets’

by Joshua Cho - FAIR

May 7, 2020

The stigmatization of Asian people and their culture as “inferior” or “exotic” isn’t a new phenomenon. What is considered acceptable or “strange” meat is often the result of arbitrary cultural norms, and Chinese food has often suffered from hypocritical cultural appropriation once it became popular, before being stigmatized again by racist and propagandistic news coverage following the Covid-19 outbreak (FAIR.org, 3/6/20, 3/24/20).

New York Times depiction (1/25/20) of a wet market in Shenzhen, 

which is 680 miles from Wuhan (photo: Lam Yik Fei/New York Times).

Alongside a spike in hate crimes against Asian people are reports of Asian restaurants and other businesses—especially those owned and run by Chinese people—struggling to survive because of resurging racist stereotypes about “dirty” Chinese eating habits.

Anatomy of Extractive Exploitation: Guatemala's Xinka and Canada's Pan American Silver

Xinka people of Guatemala and thousands of international supporters demand answers from Pan American Silver 

by MiningWatch Canada

May 6, 2020

Canadian mining company Pan American Silver is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) today in Vancouver, with a small group of company insiders in the room and limited phone access for others. But despite the challenges of being heard, Guatemalan communities are raising serious questions about the company's acquisition of the Escobal mine with its 2019 purchase of Tahoe Resources and about social division the company is sowing by intervening in communities during the global health pandemic.

November rally in Vancouver in solidarity with the Xinka people, 

in front of Ross Beaty's Biodiversity Museum at UBC 

(Source: Students for Mining Justice)

The peaceful resistance to the Escobal mine is asking (among other questions) why Pan American, after saying it is different than Tahoe Resources, is using the same tactics—like taking advantage of moments of crisis, such as COVID-19—to collect signatures and ID numbers from local community members who receive company donations. Will this information be used later to suggest Pan American has support for the mine?