In an op-ed column posted on the website of the New York Times Sunday, to be published in the newspaper’s print edition Monday, presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden aligns himself with the campaign by big business and the Trump administration to force workers to go back to work, regardless of the dangers from the coronavirus epidemic.
The headline of the column tells the story: “Joe Biden: My Plan to Safely Reopen America.”
Under conditions where more than 10,000 Americans died last week from the coronavirus, and the infection continues to spread through every state and county, threatening to drive the death toll far higher, Biden does not announce a plan to save lives or protect the population from the deadly virus. Instead, his concern is “how we get our economy back on track,” in other words, how the American capitalist class can resume the process of extracting profit from the labor of workers.
Thus, while Biden makes a few minor criticisms of the Trump administration for its slow and incompetent response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he shares the same political framework: the overriding responsibility of the American government is to save the wealth and profits of the financial aristocracy, not the lives of the people.
Joe Biden can rot in hell and he can take his weak little corrupt son with him as well as his hag wife.
Right now, what Americans need is Medicare For All. Joe will never call for that. Joe will only call for people to return to work before it's safe because he doesn't give a damn about your health or my health -- he only cares about enriching corporations.
Hamilton Nolan (In These Times) explained it last week:
Fantasize for a moment that we could set aside politics and operate based upon common sense. What would the federal government do to best mitigate the devastation that this pandemic will visit upon human beings? It would, first of all, provide free healthcare to everyone. It would distribute medical resources nationally based on the greatest need. Then, to protect people from the necessary economic deep freeze we are all in due to social distancing, the government would pursue measures that would get everyone through this time in one piece: It would subsidize the nation’s payrolls, so that workers could stay in their jobs and businesses could restart easily; it would suspend rent, for people and businesses alike; it would send everyone a monthly basic income to pay for necessities until this is over; and it would avoid allowing small businesses to go bankrupt, because those represent millions of jobs that people need to return to.
Those are all obvious steps to take if your goal was to protect humans. But imagine, instead, if you had an entirely different goal: protecting capital. What would you do then? Well, you would prioritize the health of corporate balance sheets, rather than human bodies. You would keep the healthcare industry, now booming, in private hands; you would stimulate consumer demand via unemployment benefits, rather than by keeping workers on existing payrolls, in order to create an enormous pool of cheap and desperate labor; you would pursue tax cuts for the investor class; you would welcome the opportunity to allow debt to pile up on individuals; and you wouldn’t be too sad about small businesses going bankrupt—they are, after all, just ceding market share to bigger, richer businesses. You would use this crisis to create a greater, not lesser, concentration of wealth. You would emerge on the other side with more, not less, inequality. The truth is, it would be easy.
Now, guess what the U.S. federal government is doing? It is allowing the unemployment rate to skyrocket, as tens of millions of workers are fired; it is allowing countless small businesses to go bankrupt, from incompetence and neglect; it has not even considered a national suspension of rent, nor a strong national policy of paid sick leave, much less a national system of free public healthcare; as millions of needy people struggle with decrepit and broken state unemployment systems and wait weeks or months for their emergency checks to come, and essential workers are forced to agitate or walk out to gain hazard pay, the administration plots a new bill featuring a capital gains tax cut and “a waiver that would clear businesses of liability from employees who contract the coronavirus on the job.”
We are told we’re a nation at war. In real wars, we have higher taxes on the rich. This time, we are giving investors a tax cut.
Whether Americans know it or not, their government is not working for them.
Go read the piece we did at THIRD, "Editorial: We aren't all in this together." And read Ava and C.I.'s "TV: Liars" too.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Monday:
Monday, April 13, 2020. In Iraq, in the US, the war against women continues.
Starting in Iraq, Awrah al-Alawi maintains that an arrest warrant has been issued for members of the family that Malak Hayder al-Zubiedi married into.
لا حول ولا قوة الا بالله ، الله ينتقم منهم بنت مواليد 2000 يحرقونها علشان العادات و التقاليد الي ما تمد بالدِّين بأي صلة ( تخلف )
#ملاك_حيدر_الزبيدي
For two consecutive election cycles, al-Fadhila Party (or Islamic Virtue Party) has led a campaign targeting women and girls, pushing a bill that makes amendments to Iraq’s Personal Status Law, which governs how religious and civil courts settle disputes related to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and custody. Although unlegislated and rejected by parliament vote, it has been dubbed the “Jafari Law” in an alleged attempt to represent Jafari or Shia “values”. It remains in the Iraqi consciousness as an existing threat to women’s and girls’ rights.
Its most contentious component was the attempt to legislate underage marriage. This received widespread outrage from the public, and especially from Najaf’s Shia seminary, for a variety of reasons, primarily the obvious pedophilic as well as sectarian nature of the bill. In a weak attempt to divide women’s united front against the corrupt patriarchy, lawmakers behind this bill claimed it protects Shia women’s rights when in fact it imposed a threat to all women’s rights.
Some male analysts dismissed the objectification of girls and women as mere political pawns in these attempts to amend the Personal Status Law, calling it a “political stunt”. Others argued that legalizing child marriage could help regulate an already common practice. However, regulation cannot heal the trauma arising from years of child molestation. While the bill sanctions pedophilia, it also feminizes poverty more than already is the case. Global studies have demonstrated a direct link between child marriage and high reproductive rates, poverty, female illiteracy, divorce and suicide rates.
According to UNICEF, approximately 40 percent of Iraqis are under 14 years of age, and one in five girls is married by the age of 18. High child marriage rates arise from poverty, conflict, and patriarchal traditions. With the legalization of child marriage, these rates – and rates of reproduction – could fast increase. Iraq’s population is expected to mushroom from 38 to 50 million in 10 years’ time. This is among the world’s fastest population growths, faced by stunted development in most sectors. It will create immense economic strain, increasing the ratio between state resources and the population. According to the Iraqi Economists Network, over 20 percent of the population are widows and orphans, and over 35 percent of Iraq’s population lives in poverty. These numbers have mushroomed since the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham/Syria (ISIS) entered the scene.
Poverty and conflict expose girls to an increased risk of illiteracy. Sixty percent of girls aged 14 and 18 are not enrolled in secondary school. Among those internally displaced, they are 50 percent less likely than boys to get schooling. When girls are denied education, their well-being, future employment prospects, earning potential, and even relationships are jeopardized.
Today, THE NEW YORK TIMES finally reported on the allegations as did NBC NEWS.
Shaun King notes of NYT's report:
The
independently confirmed that Tara Reade told friends and family members that she was sexually assaulted by
.
They also confirmed with Biden interns that she was removed from supervising them right when she reported the assault.
لا حول ولا قوة الا بالله ، الله ينتقم منهم بنت مواليد 2000 يحرقونها علشان العادات و التقاليد الي ما تمد بالدِّين بأي صلة ( تخلف )
#ملاك_حيدر_الزبيدي
Malak Hayder al-Zubiedi is a 19-year-old woman who was burned -- by her
husband? -- and who was not allowed to see her own family for over eight
months.
AL ARABY reports that the burning of Malak became news when her sister posted on FACEBOOK Saturday about what happened.
Smraa Smraa
on Saturday
وين الغياره وين اهل الرحم وين اماره ازبيد هاي شعره شاربكم هذا السوو
بالطفلة وفوكاهاا يهدده تقبلون هيج خلي يجي يشوف بنت زبيد بعد ماتفنن
بتعذيبه حركها ابن العقيد حميد المياحي
Prior to the FACEBOOK post, authorities were saying she had burned
herself. Now, two brothers of her husband have been arrested while
authorities insist that they are trying to locate her husband but he is
on the run. Luay al Yassiry, the Governor of Najaf, states that a
special team of investigators have been tasked with the case.
If we don't publicize this, in one way or another we're actively promoting a culture of silence. Women in Iraq are still fighting for their simplest rights amid a patriarchal society that always favors and lawfully justifies the actions of these criminals.
There are rumors that the husband's father, a colonel, posed as Malak's father in an effort to distract the police and get the case closed.
For two consecutive election cycles, al-Fadhila Party (or Islamic Virtue Party) has led a campaign targeting women and girls, pushing a bill that makes amendments to Iraq’s Personal Status Law, which governs how religious and civil courts settle disputes related to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and custody. Although unlegislated and rejected by parliament vote, it has been dubbed the “Jafari Law” in an alleged attempt to represent Jafari or Shia “values”. It remains in the Iraqi consciousness as an existing threat to women’s and girls’ rights.
Its most contentious component was the attempt to legislate underage marriage. This received widespread outrage from the public, and especially from Najaf’s Shia seminary, for a variety of reasons, primarily the obvious pedophilic as well as sectarian nature of the bill. In a weak attempt to divide women’s united front against the corrupt patriarchy, lawmakers behind this bill claimed it protects Shia women’s rights when in fact it imposed a threat to all women’s rights.
Some male analysts dismissed the objectification of girls and women as mere political pawns in these attempts to amend the Personal Status Law, calling it a “political stunt”. Others argued that legalizing child marriage could help regulate an already common practice. However, regulation cannot heal the trauma arising from years of child molestation. While the bill sanctions pedophilia, it also feminizes poverty more than already is the case. Global studies have demonstrated a direct link between child marriage and high reproductive rates, poverty, female illiteracy, divorce and suicide rates.
According to UNICEF, approximately 40 percent of Iraqis are under 14 years of age, and one in five girls is married by the age of 18. High child marriage rates arise from poverty, conflict, and patriarchal traditions. With the legalization of child marriage, these rates – and rates of reproduction – could fast increase. Iraq’s population is expected to mushroom from 38 to 50 million in 10 years’ time. This is among the world’s fastest population growths, faced by stunted development in most sectors. It will create immense economic strain, increasing the ratio between state resources and the population. According to the Iraqi Economists Network, over 20 percent of the population are widows and orphans, and over 35 percent of Iraq’s population lives in poverty. These numbers have mushroomed since the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham/Syria (ISIS) entered the scene.
Poverty and conflict expose girls to an increased risk of illiteracy. Sixty percent of girls aged 14 and 18 are not enrolled in secondary school. Among those internally displaced, they are 50 percent less likely than boys to get schooling. When girls are denied education, their well-being, future employment prospects, earning potential, and even relationships are jeopardized.
The violence against women never ends.
Just walking along, shopping for food
Stepping out of the line of fire when people are rude
Cheap stuff made in China, someone calls it a sale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
Beat down in the market, stoned to death in the plaza
Raped on the hillside under the gun from LA to Gaza
A house made of cardboard living close to the rail
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
And I feel the witch in my veins
I feel the mother in my shoe
I feel the scream in my soul
The blood as I sing the ancient blue
They burned in the millions
I still smell the fire in my grandma's hair
The war against women rages on
Beware of the fairytale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
The noise of elections, the promise of change
A grabbing of power at the top, a day at the rifle range
Somebody's in danger, somebody's for sale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
Stepping out of the line of fire when people are rude
Cheap stuff made in China, someone calls it a sale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
Beat down in the market, stoned to death in the plaza
Raped on the hillside under the gun from LA to Gaza
A house made of cardboard living close to the rail
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
And I feel the witch in my veins
I feel the mother in my shoe
I feel the scream in my soul
The blood as I sing the ancient blue
They burned in the millions
I still smell the fire in my grandma's hair
The war against women rages on
Beware of the fairytale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
The noise of elections, the promise of change
A grabbing of power at the top, a day at the rifle range
Somebody's in danger, somebody's for sale
Somebody's mama, somebody's daughter
Somebody's jail
-- "Somebody's Jail," written by Holly Near, first appears on her album SHOW UP.
The war against women rages on. And so many help it. Ken Olin's never
done anything for women -- in fact, his work on thirty-something was
anti-woman. A failed actor, he's turned to producing and directing.
One thing he'll never turn against? Hating women. Which is why he wants you to know he doesn't believe Tara Reade.
Tara Reade has stated that, while she worked for then-Senator Joe Biden, he assaulted her. Katie Halper recaps:
1) #TaraReade accused joe Biden of sexual assault & harassment
2) Biden has not denied it
3) his campaign has
4) but it’s been confirmed that Reade was abruptly demoted
5) and campaign has not said why
6) neither the nor asked Biden campaign why
2) Biden has not denied it
3) his campaign has
4) but it’s been confirmed that Reade was abruptly demoted
5) and campaign has not said why
6) neither the nor asked Biden campaign why
Katie Halper was the first to do a broadcast interview with Tara. On Tara's actions, Matt Walsh explains:
Tara Reade:
-Told people about the alleged assault when it happened. They corroborate.
-Other aspects of story corroborated by witnesses
-Remembers every detail
-Is accusing a man with a known and recent history of inappropriate physical behavior towards women
-Told people about the alleged assault when it happened. They corroborate.
-Other aspects of story corroborated by witnesses
-Remembers every detail
-Is accusing a man with a known and recent history of inappropriate physical behavior towards women
As Ava and I noted in "TV: Liars:"
Today, THE NEW YORK TIMES finally reported on the allegations as did NBC NEWS.
Shaun King notes of NYT's report:
The
independently confirmed that Tara Reade told friends and family members that she was sexually assaulted by
.
They also confirmed with Biden interns that she was removed from supervising them right when she reported the assault.
The NYT adds an important bit of reporting: Tara Reade said that in retaliation for her complaint, she was moved off of managing interns. The Times found the interns, and they confirmed she suddenly stopped overseeing them.
Of the NBC NEWS report, Winifred notes:
It was a very straight forward segment. Ali Vitali spoke to 5 of Tara Reade's former colleagues and friends. 2 went on record and corroborated her story. Kasie ended clip with : Important to remember that Trump also denies allegations of rape against him.
A fourth person, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity, said Reade told her about the alleged assault
at the time. That person, who asked that her name be withheld by NBC
News for fear of negatively affecting her business, said she remembers
Reade's telling her that she spoke with superiors in Biden's office
about harassment but not the assault. She also recalled that Reade told
her she filed a formal written complaint with a Senate personnel office
at the time.
A fifth person, who also spoke
with NBC News anonymously, recalled that Reade told her in the mid-2000s
that Biden had been inappropriate and touched her when she worked in
his office but that she didn't detail the alleged assault. Reade said
that she also told her mother, who has since died, and her brother, who
has told The Intercept that he remembers having been told about an incident at the time.
Last night, THE WASHINGTON POST posted an article by , ,
Last
spring, as Biden was preparing to formally enter the presidential race,
about a half dozen women came forward with stories of unwanted touching
or displays of affection. None alleged sexual assault.
Among them was Lucy Flores, who said that in 2014 the then-vice president touched and kissed the back of her head during her campaign for Nevada’s lieutenant governor.
Biden pledged to be “more respectful of people’s personal space.” But he joked about the criticism two days later, and he has remained physically affectionate during campaign events, where some supporters ask for hugs.
Flores’s story inspired Reade to offer her own account
to her local newspaper, the Union, in Nevada County, Calif, Reade said.
The details in that article matched the narrative Reade gave The Post
the next day in a telephone interview.
[. . .]
The friend
who Reade said she told about the incident at the time had interned on
Capitol Hill and was in college in Virginia at the time of the alleged
assault.
“I
still remember that she handed off the gym bag and then she was pinned
up against the wall,” Reade’s friend said, speaking on the condition of
anonymity because she feared online harassment and professional
consequences. “His hands went under her skirt. . . . He pushed his
fingers into her, not at her invitation. Not at her request. She was
confused about why he thought it was okay to do that.”
Reade’s younger brother, Moulton, said she had told him parts of her experience with Biden but not the alleged sexual assault.
“I
heard that there was a gym bag incident . . . and that he was
inappropriate,” Moulton said. “I remember her telling me he said she was
nothing to him.”
A
few days after that interview, Moulton sent the text saying he wanted
to clarify his remarks. He wrote that he recalled Reade telling him in
the early 1990s that Biden had cornered her and put his hands under her
clothes.
Another
friend of Reade’s said that in 2006 or 2007 Reade told her Biden had
touched her arm and behaved inappropriately. She had no other details,
she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of concern she
might face online attacks.
Claire Lampen (THE CUT) looks at NYT's article and notes:
Many women have accused Biden of inappropriate behavior.
Eight women, including Reade, have recalled instances where Biden inappropriately kissed, hugged, and touched them. In an essay for the Cut last year, attorney Lucy Flores wrote that, when she was running for Nevada’s lieutenant governor in 2014, Biden came up behind her at a campaign rally and smelled her hair before kissing her on the head. Biden then acknowledged that “social norms are changing,” that he needs to “hear what [women] are saying, [and] understand it,” and that he needs to be “more mindful about respecting personal space in the future.”
Eight women, including Reade, have recalled instances where Biden inappropriately kissed, hugged, and touched them. In an essay for the Cut last year, attorney Lucy Flores wrote that, when she was running for Nevada’s lieutenant governor in 2014, Biden came up behind her at a campaign rally and smelled her hair before kissing her on the head. Biden then acknowledged that “social norms are changing,” that he needs to “hear what [women] are saying, [and] understand it,” and that he needs to be “more mindful about respecting personal space in the future.”
Speaking to the Times,
Flores noted that “Biden is not just a hugger. Biden very clearly was
invading women’s spaces without their consent in a way that made them
feel uncomfortable. Does he potentially have the capacity to go beyond
that? That’s the answer everyone is trying to get at.”
Some in independent media have led on the Tara Reade story -- some.
Others have ignored it. Outside of independent media, it has been
college newspapers that have provided coverage of the accusations while
corporate media ignored the story for weeks. Jake McGowan (THE DAILY TARGUM) notes:
The issue with Biden’s claim is that the former Vice President is a
neoliberal, the breed of politician that most acceptable mainstream
sources love. The New York Times, The Washington Post and similar
outlets all clamor for their Democratic establishment figures. See how
they treated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) campaign for an
example of how they act when somebody messes with their mundane status
quo.
So the media will not hold Biden accountable for his actions at any point throughout this election, I can guarantee you that. The New York Times has already gone as far as to “investigate” Reade’s claim against Biden — and promptly dismiss it like the hacks they are.
“No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by (Biden),” The New York Times said, outlined in the previously cited article.
And that is where my concern comes in. All candidates, regardless of party, need to be held accountable for their misconduct. If the Democratic Party truly wants to portray itself as champions of women, it would replace Biden as its candidate.
But that change also stems from voters. Do your due diligence and vote for candidates that uphold your personal ethical standards.
So the media will not hold Biden accountable for his actions at any point throughout this election, I can guarantee you that. The New York Times has already gone as far as to “investigate” Reade’s claim against Biden — and promptly dismiss it like the hacks they are.
“No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by (Biden),” The New York Times said, outlined in the previously cited article.
And that is where my concern comes in. All candidates, regardless of party, need to be held accountable for their misconduct. If the Democratic Party truly wants to portray itself as champions of women, it would replace Biden as its candidate.
But that change also stems from voters. Do your due diligence and vote for candidates that uphold your personal ethical standards.
New content at THIRD:
- Truest statement of the week
- Truest statement of the week II
- A note to our readers
- Editorial: We aren't all in this together
- TV: Liars
- Oh, boo hoo
- Music video for self-isolation
- New York Times Publishes SHAMEFUL Story on Tara Re...
- Stop persecuting Julian Assange
- Krystal and Saagar: Trump's DEVASTATING new ad on ...
- This edition's playlist
- Malak Hayder al-Zubiedi
- 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗧𝗼 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗱...
