Wednesday, July 01, 2020

You learn a lot about people in a crisis

Today marks six months since global health authorities were informed of a disease outbreak in Wuhan, China that would later be named COVID-19.

In this brief period of time, the number of cases has ballooned to 10 million, with half a million people dead. But “the worst is yet to come,” warned World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday. “Globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up.”

Public health experts have watched in despair as governments throughout the world allowed the virus to spread, abandoning basic public health precautions and sacrificing the lives of the elderly and the sick in the cause of expanding corporate profits.

The tone has been set by the United States, where the Trump administration has abandoned efforts to contain the pandemic, effectively embracing the policy of “herd immunity.”

This has produced a catastrophic resurgence of the pandemic throughout the country. On Monday, the United States had over 44,000 new cases, up from 19,000 on June 8. The weekly average of cases has grown to 39,000, up from a low of 21,000. Cases are increasing in 32 states, with hospitals in Arizona, Florida, and Texas near their capacity.

The global upsurge of the pandemic is the predictable and inevitable result of the back-to-work campaign, stemming from the ruling class’s demand to protect profits, not lives, with the claim that “the cure can’t be worse than the disease.”

Andre Damon (WSWS) reports the above.  We're in the midst of a pandemic.  And the only message our leaders want to offer is: Get back to work.

What can we take from this?  That there is no concern or worry over human life.  Members of our government only cared about money.  We should never, ever forget that.

You learn a lot about people in a crisis -- including who they really are.




The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter will assist autoworkers and other workers in establishing rank-and-file safety committees. Email us at autoworkers@wsws.org to learn more .

Just days after Fiat Chrysler (FCA) workers at two Detroit area assembly plants shut down production over concerns about the spread of COVID-19, anger continues to grow over unsafe conditions and the cover-up of new cases by management and the United Auto Workers union.

Workers at Jefferson North and the Sterling Heights assembly plants set up rank-and-file safety committees to protect the lives of workers in the plants and to coordinate action with workers across the auto industry and in other factories and workplaces. In response to this courageous action, the committees have been contacted by workers throughout the US for information on how to set up rank-and-file safety committees in their own plants.

One inquiry came from a Kansas City Ford worker, who wrote that workers at his plant “do not trust the corporation and union right now about these coronavirus issues” and would like to “know how we can form a Rank-and-File Safety Committee in our plant. We haven’t been given updates from Ford and UAW after we heard rumors about employees being sent home due to having this virus. We need this system out here ASAP.”

The Jefferson North and Sterling Heights rank-and-file safety committees issued six demands, including immediate notification of any cases of COVID-19, the closing of the factory for at least 24 hours after a case is confirmed for deep cleaning of the entire plant, social distancing when entering and exiting the plant and during all breaks, and the halting of production for 10 minutes every hour to enable workers to take off their masks, rest and cool off. They also called for regular, universal testing and the right to refuse to work, without retaliation from management or the UAW, if conditions are not safe.

In response to this growing initiative by workers, corporate management and the UAW have launched a campaign to threaten workers with termination if they stop production to protect their lives.


This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Tuesday:


Tuesday, June 30, 2020.   "Weak" is the word (that you heard) when describing Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.



Starting with CURRENCY 365.


"What was all of that two and three weeks ago?"

He is correct.  Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi did announce that he had ordered the salaries released a few weeks back.  He got good press for that.  But nothing happened.  And now he's announcing again that he's ordering the government to release the salaries (to pay the employees).  

"What are you talking about?"  the host asks stunned that the national security forces might be put under the supervision of a puppet of Nouri al-Maliki.  "It's getting bad guys.  Mustafa's done," he observes.  


Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq is riding high after humiliating the Iraqi Prime Minister this week. After 14 of its members were arrested and then released it held a victory party burning images of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi and telling pro-Iranian media that it will never give up the “resistance weapons.” This is similar to the way Hezbollah in Lebanon describes its need to have a massive arsenal of weapons and be a state within a state. The Iranian IRGC model now appears to be moving full steam ahead as groups like Iraqi Hezbollah seek to have a parallel armed force.
Kataib Hezbollah is a group of hard core pro-Iranian cadres who support the Iranian agenda. They are also part of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) a group of militias that have become an official paramilitary force in Iraq. They are accused of extrajudicial killings and running secret prisons. They fought ISIS but instead of disbanding Iran pushed former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to make them an official force. They are now a cross between Lebanese Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran. They have fired dozens of rockets at US forces in Iraq, killing three members of the Coalition earlier this year. The US has carried out airstrikes against them.  


They are burning pictures of him, they are "humiliating the Iraqi Prime Minister."  Get why we've focused for weeks now on how weak Mustafa comes off?  




Other news out of Iraq involves a raid.



AFP reports, "Iraqi security forces arrested more than a dozen pro-Iran fighters overnight, in their first raid against those accused of anti-US rocket attacks, Iraqi officials told AFP early Friday.  Elite fighters from Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service raided a headquarters in southern Baghdad used by Kataeb Hezbollah, a pro-Iran faction also identified as Brigade 45 of the Hashed al-Shaabi military forces." Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) adds:

 Jaber Al Jaberi, an Iraqi member of parliament, told The National that the CTS raid on Kataib Hezbollah was an attempt to exert state authority and a test to see what the reaction might be.

“Indeed the reaction by the so-called axis of resistance was strong, where their armed and hysterical response revealed a lot about them, their capabilities and their non-compliance with the laws of the state,” Mr Al Jaberi said.    



Al Jazeera's Simona Foltyn, reporting from Baghdad, said Iraq's elite Counter Terrorism Service seized at least 10 rockets during the operation, which was "carried out an in effort to pre-empt an impending rocket attack on the Green Zone and Baghdad International Airport, both of which house US troops".

"Subsequently, dozens of armed Kataib Hezbollah fighters arrived in the Green Zone and laid siege to one of the buildings belonging to the Counter Terrorism Service, demanding the release of the detainees, claiming they were arrested illegally without an arrest warrant," she said.


And now some are released.  AP notes, "The officials offered varying accounts of the number of detainees who had been released. A militia official said 11 among the 14 arrested on Thursday were released on bail and three suspects remained in custody. Two government officials did not specify the number and said some were released on bail. One government official said all were released except one prime suspect."  Arabic social media insists that those freed were freed due to former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki.  Yoni Ben Menachem (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) offers:


Iraqi law prohibits local militias from receiving directives from abroad. Since their establishment, pro-Iranian militias in Iraq have committed war crimes, violated Iraqi law, and become a threat to the security of the state and its citizens.

The “Hizbullah Brigades” issued a statement accusing Mustafa al-Kadhimi of cooperating with the United States and that while he served as Iraqi intelligence chief, he helped the United States assassinate Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The brigades promised that they were lying in wait for him for his deeds.

Even before he was appointed prime minister, Kadhimi denied these accusations, and he met with Lebanese Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah in order to receive a “Kosher certification,” which would allow him to be appointed Iraq’s new prime minister.



Let's note a US House Rep who's bought into a whisper campaign ('officials -- unnamed -- say') from THE NEW YORK TIMES.  US House Rep Jackie Speier:

If true, the report that Putin put bounties on US servicemembers' heads is an act of war & demands a proportional response. The fact that POTUS has still NOT been briefed is unbelievable. Remember when 1 US contractor was killed in Iraq? Trump demanded Soleimani’s assassination.


We're not going to run through the loon's conspiracy plagued mind.  We are going to note the last two sentences.  First off, 1 US contractor was killed.  Second, many were injured.  Third, it wasn't one attack.  It was a series of attacks that led to the attack where one died.

What exactly would Jackie Speier have done?  

She clearly thinks Donald Trump was wrong.  So what would she have done?  Probably nothing.  She's so stupid that she doesn't even realize it was a series of escalating attacks.

And those attacks?  They actually qualify as "an act of war."  Does the idiot not get that?

I know, I know, Soleimani peed rainbows and roses grew out his butt.  Because Donald Trump assassinated him, the knee jerk reaction for the left -- faux and otherwise -- was to rush to defend the 'poet.'  He was a terrorist.  Iraq's LGBT community suffered severely because of him.  I'm sorry, Jackie, that you're too damn stupid to do the work required before you rush in to take the opposite of whatever stand Trump takes.  

Soleimani was evil. He terrorized Sunnis in Iraq.  Should he have been killed?  We can debate ethics and international law, if you'd like.  But that was requires brains and education.  Much easier to scream, "Bad Trump! Bad Trump!"

That's not a defense of Donald Trump or a defense of assassination.  While I won't cry that Soleimani is dead, I don't think the rules of engagement were followed and I don't believe international law was either.  (Supporter of Donald would point out -- rightly -- that the US rarely follows international law when engaging in armed conflicts.)

What I'm saying is that the discussion is far too complex for the idiots who've tried to take the lead on it.  And I've been saying that since the fairy tale of Soleimani sprouted in the hours after his death -- you'll note that I pruned the link list on the side and we stopped noting a number of left -- genuine left, not faux left -- people because of their need to spread lies about how amazing Soleimani was.

He wasn't.  And I won't abandon the Iraqis who suffered, certainly not Iraq's gay community.  He terrorized them.  

Jackie's only the latest idiot.  I used to expect so much more from her.

But, remember, America, at election time, Jackie Speier is okay with attacks on American forces and American contractors (both were under repeated attack).  That's what her Tweet makes clear.  It also makes clear that she stands with terrorists.  That's what Soleimani was.

Jackie's such an idiot that while she's running for re-election, she Tweets something so stupid that her opponent (Ran Petel) could easily make an issue of.


Idiots?  I love the idiot defending the Turkish invasion of Iraq online who keeps hectoring people that what they don't know is that the PKK started in Iraq and it's a new group and other garbage that flaunts the man's ignorance.  He really needed to stop Tweeting but he (wrongly) felt that he had so much to share.

Here are the basic facts on the PKK as . Aaron Hess (INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW) described them in 2008, "The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these are now at risk." The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq has been a concern to Turkey because they fear that if it ever moves from semi-autonomous to fully independent -- such as if Iraq was to break up into three regions -- then that would encourage the Kurdish population in Turkey. For that reason, Turkey is overly interested in all things Iraq. So much so that they signed an agreement with the US government in 2007 to share intelligence which the Turkish military has been using when launching bomb raids. However, this has not prevented the loss of civilian life in northern Iraq. Aaron Hess noted, "The Turkish establishment sees growing Kurdish power in Iraq as one step down the road to a mass separatist movement of Kurds within Turkey itself, fighting to unify a greater Kurdistan. In late October 2007, Turkey's daily newspaper Hurriyet accused the prime minister of the KRG, Massoud Barzani, of turning the 'Kurdish dream' into a 'Turkish nightmare'."

Turkey is currently bombing Iraq and has sent ground soldiers in --- this is a violation of international law and this is a violation of Iraq's national sovereignty.  Mustafa's inability to call this out has also led to him looking weak in the eyes of the Iraqi people.



it doesnt matter why turkey is in iraq that isnt how a state is suppose to act, turkey invites hamas leaders all the time to turkey should israel invade turkey? its a stupid argument.







 






Congressional pressure is building to reprimand Turkey for its military campaign against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.

The Turkish military is carrying out two offensives—Operation Claw-Eagle and Operation Claw-Tiger—aimed at rooting out Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

The operation has struck rural PKK hideouts as well as populated areas, including the Makhmour Refugee Camp and the Yazidi community of Mount Sinjar.

“I strongly condemn the Turkish air strikes & ground operations near Kurdish & Yazidi civilian areas,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D–N.Y.) announced in a Friday statement. “This type of reckless endangerment of civilian lives is unacceptable, especially for a NATO ally.”

Engel, the outgoing head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called on Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to stop the operation “immediately.”

Rep. Jim Cooper (D–Tenn.) added on Saturday that he was “disturbed” by the operation. Cooper represents Nashville, a city with a large Kurdish community.

The lawmakers’ comments came after a widely-shared video showed an alleged Turkish bomb striking a lake while a family played nearby. Local journalist Jîl Şwanî claims that the video showed his brother and nephew in Kunamasi, a town in Sulaymaniyah Governorate.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, appointed by Congress to investigate human rights worldwide, condemned the offensive for its effects on Yazidi genocide survivors.



In 2020 alone, the country has played host to a cascade of domestic militia rocket attacks, a spike in US-Iran tension that brought the wider region to the brink of war, and economic debilitation caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of global oil prices, in part by long-term state economic mismanagement.

To make matters worse, Turkey launched an air campaign dubbed Operation Claw-Eagle on June 15, striking suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in the Kurdistan Region and disputed territories of northern Iraq. It launched ground invasion Operation Claw-Tiger two days later, putting Turkish commando boots on Iraqi ground.

A day after Turkish airstrikes began, Iran struck areas of the Kurdistan Region close to its border, targeting suspected positions of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) and PKK. Media affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported that the Turkish and Iranian airstrikes were conducted with coordination.

Iraq’s government released a statement last week calling on Turkey to end its operations. Turkish ambassador to Iraq Fatih Yildiz has been summoned twice by Iraq's foreign ministry to answer for his country's air and ground campaigns. The Iraqi government has yet to release a statement condemning the violation of sovereignty by Iranian artillery, though it did summon the Iranian ambassador to answer for the strikes on June 18.

Despite condemnations of foreign operations by the governments of federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, the strikes have the consent of both, Iraqi security analyst Husham al-Hashimi told Rudaw English on Friday.

“Baghdad and Erbil have both given Turkey and Iran the green light to conduct airstrikes,” Hashimi said.


The following sites updated:











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