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?

China's Year of The (Corona) Goat: "They Are Going to Be Held Accountable for It"

US ramps up COVID-19 propaganda war against China

by Peter Symonds  - WSWS

6 May 2020

Confronting widespread public anger over its criminal negligence in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration is intensifying its campaign of unsubstantiated allegations and lies to shift the blame onto China.

Former TV Financial Analyst and Trump Administration Director of the
United States National Economic Council, Larry Kudrow,
Promises "China Will Pay."

As reported by CNN, Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and other top officials have in recent weeks spoken to many foreign allies in an effort to enlist them in the campaign of denunciations directed against China for allegedly concealing the dangers of the virus.

Playing the Plague Tambourine: Camus and Russia's Covid Response

PLAYING THE TAMBOURINE AT THE PLAGUE – RUSSIAN REFLECTIONS ON COVID-19 AND CAMUS’S LA PESTE

by John Helmer, Moscow

@bears_with

May 5, 2020

After the episode of the sermon by the Jesuit priest, blaming the plague on the sinfulness of his congregation – “a calamity has befallen you, my brethren; you have deserved it…no earthly power – not even, note this well , vain human science – can shield you from His hand as it reaches out to you”; and after the journalist’s attempt at bribing the militia to arrange his escape from the plague city; and after the municipal administrator’s acknowledgement that “luckily, I have my work”; the visitor from Paris explained to himself in his diary that regarding the old Chinese custom of “playing the tambourine in front of the genie of the plague…it was quite impossible in reality to know whether the tambourine was more effective than other preventive health measures.”

So it seemed to the leading citizens of a town consumed by a pandemic imagined by the French writer Albert Camus seventy-five years ago.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Mordecai Ogada, Peter Ewart, Janine Bandcroft May 7, 2020

This Week on GR

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

May 7, 2020

We are as yet still NOT broadcasting live from the CFUV studios in the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but are instead recording live-to-tape via Skype this day, April 16th, 2020.

The “Big Lie” concept is certainly not new, but in today’s “post truth” World, that once cynical tool of despots has become a condition of life, (like water for fish) so ubiquitous it is largely invisible for we immersed in it.

Nowhere is reality less evident than in the field of nature conservancy, where the comfortable certitude of unassailable good will being met by equally good deeds in truth bears little scrutiny.

Dr. Mordecai Ogada is a scientist, educator, author, and Executive Director of the Nanyuki, Kenya-based, Conservation Solutions Afrika.

Listen. Hear.

Ogada's book, ‘The Big Conservation Lie’, co-authored with Kenyan journalist, John Mbaria, is an unblinkered examination of the conservation industry in Africa, and searing indictment against the detrimental effects its malpractice visits against the environment and Africans, both human and non-human.

Dr. Mordecai Ogada in the first half.

And; is it too soon to wonder, just what happens after the sirens stop ringing? As it stands now, the global economy has for millions stopped: no work, no money, and no idea when they can pick up their lives and begin again providing for themselves and their families. We’re more fortunate than most in this country, Canada, but even so, that’s cold comfort to those living on the margins of our not entirely inclusive society. So, what next?

Peter Ewart is a Prince George-based writer whose latest, ‘Foxes in the henhouse – Who decides where bailout money goes?’ informs, Canada like our southern neighbour will rely on the expertise of BlackRock, the trans-national asset management colossus, (intricately implicated in the financial meltdown of 2008) to determine the country’s financial path out of the current financial disaster. What could go righter than that?

Peter Ewart and the Trudeau government inviting the fox into the treasury in the second half.

And; long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s good to do in and around our town in the coming week; but first, Mordecai Ogada and discerning the Big (conservation) Lie.

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/

Pre-emptive Attack: Blaming China Now for the Expected Covid Deaths to Come

Scapegoating China for US administration’s failures: Trump and Pompeo’s “big lie”

by Andre Damon - WSWS

4 May 2020

In a modern-day version of the “big lie,” the Trump administration is claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic is the product of the deliberate actions of the Chinese government.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump at Osan Air Base, 

Korea in 2019. (Image Credit: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)  

On Sunday, President Donald Trump, in a “town hall” with Fox News, accused China of taking actions specifically intended to infect millions of Europeans and Americans.

Coronavirus Changing the World Irrevocably, Plus Guantánamo and WikiLeaks with Chris Cook on Gorilla Radio

Radio: I Discuss the Coronavirus Changing the World Irrevocably, Plus Guantánamo and WikiLeaks, with Chris Cook on Gorilla Radio

by Andy Worthington

4.5.20

Last Tuesday, I was delighted to speak to Chris Cook, for his radio show Gorilla Radio, beaming out to the world from Vancouver Island, in western Canada. Our full interview — an hour in total — can be found on Chris’s website. It’s also available here as an MP3, and I hope you have time to listen to it. A shorter version — about 25 minutes in total — will be broadcast in a few weeks’ time.

Andy Worthington calling for closure of Guantánamo outside the White House 

on January 11, 2020, the 18th anniversary of the prison’s opening 

(Photo: Witness Against Torture).

Chris began by playing an excerpt from the new release by my band The Four Fathers, ‘This Time We Win’, an eco-anthem inspired by the campaigning work of Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion.