Trina's Kitchen: COVID and work

Covid numbers continue to increase. Alberto Escalera (WSWS) reports:

The New York City Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee will be holding its weekly meeting on Wednesday, November 18, at 8:00pm EST. We will discuss a strategy to fight for the closure of all schools and nonessential businesses to stop the spread of the pandemic. To register to attend the meeting, click here.

New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo is doubling down on efforts to block any suspension of in-person classes even as the COVID-19 pandemic once again spirals out of control in the state that was the epicenter of the virus last spring. On Tuesday, there were 2,124 people being treated for COVID-19 statewide, the highest number since early June.

Interviewed by MSNBC over the weekend about the anticipated closure of New York City public schools, Cuomo made the fraudulent argument that schools are not a significant factor contributing to the current rise in infections and should remain open with in-person classes. Cuomo stated that the city should rethink the previously set seven-day rolling average positivity rate threshold of three percent to trigger the suspension of in-person classes.

Schools will remain open in the city on Wednesday despite the positivity rate reaching 3.2 percent Tuesday, with the latest data showing a 2.74 percent seven-day rolling average infection rate in the city.

Meanwhile, Jacob Crosse (WSWS) notes:

The worst social catastrophe to befall the US working class since the Great Depression of the 1930s continues to leave millions of people hungry, jobless and facing eviction.

Video taken outside a food distribution site in Dallas, Texas this past weekend by CBS News gives some indication of the widespread hunger facing workers and their families. Saturday’s giveaway hosted by the North Texas Food Bank was the largest ever put together by the organization.

Feeding America, the second-largest food charity in the US estimates that upwards of 54 million people, including 1 in 4 children in the US are facing food insecurity.

Did anyone pay attention to Donald Trump when he was campaigning for re-election? I saw two rallies on TV. In each one, he got a response when he spoke about jobs and Covid. He told the audience that the other side wants to shut down the people's jobs but not their own. And that got a huge response both times. Why? Because so many are out of work and, instead of helping with another stiumulus, the government is hurting workers.

We need another stimulus, we actually need $1,200 a month for every adult.

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

Tuesday, November 17, 2020. We look at the claim that Kamala Harris delivered nothing towards the election of Joe Biden and we look at the way the media is reporting a possible departure of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Starting with RISING.

Krystal Ball makes some interesting arguments. But they amount to nothing in the general election.

Yes, Kamala was not a first choice for a number of people in the primary. We're not talking about the primary. We're talking about the general election.

Krystal's judgments may be right, they may not be. Nothing she said baked up her claims. "Identity politics"?

Did Kamala help the ticket as a bi-racial person?

Show the proof that she didn't. I don't see any proof. A bi-racial woman -- Kamala is Black and Asian -- may have helped the ticket. It's strange that Krystal kept citing African-Americans. Kamala is bi-racial, she's not just Black.

More to the point, Krystal plays "identity politics" when she examines Kamala's support. Why are only African-Americans supposed to be influenced?

Here's the thing, Joe Biden is hugely unpopular with younger African-Americans based upon Bernie Sander's winning their votes and based upon what I heard over and over, even after Joe got the nomination, .from young adults.

Without Kamala on the ticket, can Krystal demonstrate that Joe Biden would have done better, worse or the same? No.

I agree with Krystal that we need to move beyond "Our first!!!!" Whether it's gender, race, what have you. I agree with those points and her large argument. But she's building it on Kamala making no difference to the votes -- that's her argument -- but Kamala may have saved the ticket. At present, no information says she did, no information says she didn't.

Younger people we spoke with who were voting Joe Biden noted repeatedly that Joe wasn't up to the job but would state that Kamala could "step up when needed."

Joe, with his history, probably needed a balance on the ticket and that would be someone of color due to Joe's racist roots. Joe was balance in 2008 for those who feared Barack Obama might come off too inexperienced, or did we forget that? Joe balanced the ticket with his 'experience.'

Let's move over to Glenn Greenwald talking about the three most likely danger areas from a Biden-Harris administration.

I guess I'd take Krystal's argument more seriously if it had facts to back it up or if it wasn't coming from a woman who co-hosts a show that refuses to feature female guests in equal measures. Why do I even have to raise that issue in 2020? I'm tired of it. We should have progressed to the point that we all agree that since women are move than 50% of the population, they should make up at least half the guests. If you can't do that, don't talk to us about 'identity politics.' Too often, that term has been used by people trying to justify their refusal to embrace equality.

I know RISING is trying to do better. I know Katie Halper (on her own show) is trying to do better. And I do appreciate that. But if you don't like being singled out, if you think that's just so off putting, imagine for one moment having to be the one to single you out? To call you out? There are a ton of people with platforms larger than this who could call you out and want to call you out but don't. I hear from the constantly -- most of the time over the phone because I know them personally.

Why can't you clean up your own mess and not make be Mommy telling you no X-Box until you've cleaned up your mess?

It's like James Jeffrey, that discussion we've been having. Friends who are Constitutional Law attorneys can't stop calling, "Right on! That's the call to make!" Well, why don't you make it? I'm out on the limb here all alone. I can handle it, I've been here before and will be again. But if you really agree that the conspiracy that Jeffrey took part in and bragged about to the press was wrong and was treason, then why don't you say so publicly? Many of you write op-eds. Why can't you write it?

And don't think I don't toss that back to them on the phone.

FOX BUSINESS discusses, with US House Rep August Pfluger, the talk that Donald Trump may withdraw US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

NPR's Dustin Jones types:

The White House will bring home 2,500 troops from Afghanistan and Iraq by the end of the year against the guidance of top military officials, a drawdown order that reduces the American presence by about a third, from 4,500 to 2,500 in Afghanistan and 3,000 to 2,500 in Iraq, according to a U.S. official.

NPR's Tom Bowman reported the move is opposed by senior military leaders, given Afghanistan's fragile state. Peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have seemingly stalled, and violent attacks have risen 50% in recent months. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, have advised the troop reduction be pushed to the spring, Bowman reported.

Do military officials and leaders tell Tom Bowman that, Dusty?

Well what do the others say, Dusty?

Where's the balance?

Cindy Sheehan has dedicated her life to peace. What's her reaction, Dusty? What's US House Rep Tulsi Gabbard's reaction? How about the reaction from people who were members of the Out of Iraq caucus? Where's Senator Russ Feingold's reaction? Where's the reaction from Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh and other veterans who spoke out against the US being in Iraq? Where's Mike Gravel?

Where's that, Dusty?

Why do the American people not matter? Why does the defense industry matter so much to you? Because of who pays the bills, Dusty?

Eric Schmitt, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Charlie Savage and Helene Cooper (NEW YORK TIMES) offer:

President Trump is expected to order the U.S. military to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia by the time he leaves office in January, using the end of his time in power to significantly pull back American forces from far-flung conflicts around the world.

Under a draft order circulating at the Pentagon on Monday, the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan would be halved from the current deployment of 4,500 troops, officials said.

In Iraq, the Pentagon would trim force levels slightly below the 3,000 troops that commanders had previously announced. And in Somalia, virtually all of the more than 700 troops conducting training and counterterrorism missions would leave.

Taken together, the cuts reflect Mr. Trump’s longstanding desire to stop shouldering the cost of long-running military engagements against Islamist insurgencies in failed and fragile countries in Africa and the Middle East, a grinding mission that has spread since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Here's CBS NEWS reporting on the developments:

At WSWS, nothing on this development. But Ray Coleman and Nick Barrickman did examine the team Joe Biden is building:

Last week, President-elect Joe Biden named key members of his Department of Defense transition team. Eight of Biden’s 23 team members are from pro-military think tanks. Kathleen Hicks, senior vice-president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington D.C. think tank with close ties to the US military and intelligence agencies, will head Biden’s Pentagon transition team. Hicks is also “Henry A. Kissinger chair” and director of the International Security Program at the CSIS.

The CSIS gets significant funding from war contractors such as General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. According to Hicks’ profile on the CSIS website, her areas of specialization include Asia, climate change, counterterrorism and homeland security, the defense industry, defense strategy and capabilities, NATO and weapons of mass destruction proliferation.

She is a member of the board of trustees of the Aerospace Corporation and sits on the board of directors of the US Naval Institute. She has received distinguished service awards from three secretaries of defense and a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Hicks was a high-ranking Pentagon official in the administration of President Barack Obama during the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. She served as principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy in the Defense Department. She also held the post of deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans and forces.

The CSIS has supplied several other individuals chosen for Biden’s Pentagon transition team. Melissa Dalton was a Pentagon official from 2007 to 2014, a period that spanned the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Her focus is the Middle East.

Another member of Biden’s defense transition team is Andrew Hunter, who served in the Pentagon from 2011 to 2014.

“The DC think tank scene is well represented” on Biden’s military transition team, states Defense News.

Jimmy Dore covered the issue of possible withdrawals last night.