For the Planet and Humanity

From Seattle Times

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/fishing-groups-sue-tire-makers-over-toxic-chemical-that-kills-salmon/?mkt_tok=NTI3LUFIUi0yNjUAAAGPZ73NDhGwce4GYBMj6jk-gi8pz–_4jaGNxAl29cDndx57iBhhrbIXJdKGWc_kBs6SS1sNB9Bf05iQDCUaVCdTnDGX3sLvip_2i4XT0szD_g

This finding, article and topic is really quite stunning.

I’d like to pose some questions to consider after reading it.

How many years have coho stocks been dropping and how long has it been known that a chemical in stormwater is  a factor?

The article answers this in basic terms, “Symptoms of acute poisoning among coho salmon have been described in urban streams since the late 1980s.” And it seems that stormwater itself has been identified as contributing to this poisoning since about 2010, according to the article.

Then this particular chemical,6PPD-quinone, a chemical produced by tire manufacturers derived from a preservative that helps tires last longer- was identified as a main cause in 2020.

In fact, “In 2020, researchers revealed that the toxic chemical was the culprit behind the deaths of coho in about 40% of the Puget Sound area. The study found it kills 40% to 90% of coho returning to some urban streams before they spawn…. California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control has linked a 70% decline in coho in the San Francisco Bay Area between the 1960s and 1990s to the use of the chemical in tires.”

And this chemical kills not just coho, but other salmon. A Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources complaint describes “two dozen endangered populations of salmonids along the West Coast that have been impacted by the chemical.”

States and tribes have raised the issue and complained to the EPA , who now has agreed to “review” the chemical’s impact on fish. So up to today, nothing really has been done to limit or stop using this chemical by government agencies responsible for protecting fish.

Fish stocks all along the west coast have been crashing due to chemicals poisoning their waters, habitat destruction, warming waters from climate change and impacts on ocean ecosystems, for decades.

So what does EPA’s “environmental protection” consist of under capitalism in the U.S.? Why haven’t EPA or other government agencies been on top of this, pursuing these dangers and stopping them, on their own and without threat of lawsuit, since “Symptoms of acute poisoning among coho salmon have been described in urban streams since the late 1980s.”?

Another question, how many other chemicals are killing fish, wildlife and ecosystems?

Glen Spain, the executive director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources says, “In urban areas, highly urban areas — California’s Central Valley, the Puget Sound area, et cetera — the urban runoff contains a brew of toxic chemicals.”

Is EPA investigating and moving to prevent use of this whole toxic brew?

Of course there is little to no oversight. Sometimes the companies themselves know the most about any particular issue when they’ve studied it, (like Exxon with fossil fuels impact on causing climate change). Or sometimes they refuse to study it, or put out fake studies to counter other studies revealing the damage, or just lie about it all with greenwash PR.

Another question, how are many of the chemicals developed and used by industry, pesticides etc., developed supposedly to “enhance our lifestyle” or “produce food for people’s needs” contributing to cancer or other illnesses in humans?

The government “protection” agencies, mainly serve to protect the functioning of capital. Worse under someone like Trump, but essentially still the same with an Obama or Biden administration. They err on the side of turning a blind eye, dragging their feet, failing to investigate or really go after capital’s destruction of the natural world except in piecemeal fashion, unless exposure or lawsuit forces them to do something.

And what power do they actually have in this system’s operation to stop industry from killing off species and ecosystems anyway? Especially considering the overall functioning of government to serve and protect the operation of capital’s business as usual? Who has the power and what does that power serve in general? Certainly not power to serve people and their needs and interests or that of ecosystems and fish.

Meanwhile the states  build hatcheries to try to generate more fish to catch but pay little attention to the factors killing them off, and little ability to stop any of it. Salmon are increasingly dying from California to Alaska, especially those that run into the rivers in the summer or early fall by waters too warm or too low for them to spawn in. How are any environmental agencies stopping oil and auto companies from continuing to exploit and burn fossil fuels causing global warming that is killing these fish and threatening their populations?

And if this is just too impossible under the current set-up due to “political considerations”-i.e. fascist Republicans and/or capitalist-loving “moderate” Democrats unable to pass any “meaningful legislation”, what does that say about this system’s illegitamacy, when the stakes are even being able to survive on our planet?

Another example. In the Pacific Northwest, tribes and environmentalists have been fighting for years to pressure government to remove 7 dams on the lower Snake river which prevent salmon from reaching hundreds of miles of spawning habitat, an important factor in the crashing of Chinook salmon runs in the Columbia basin and the resulting starvation of Pacific coast resident orca populations. Yet even Washington Governor Inslee, (who ran for President as a protector of the environment), and other key Democratic officials are still stalling on dam removal, claiming there needs to be “more study”, despite years of studies proving the impact and detailing green alternatives.

While EPA and other environmental “protection” agencies or government agencies in charge of federal or state lands or waters protect the functioning of industry, only limiting them slightly while helping preserve their function, industry itself pushes forward relentlessly without pause, spewing out chemical poisons and death for profit while seeking to justify and cover their tracks.

The tire manufacturers being sued in this case in typical fashion say, ““Our members continue to research and develop alternative tire materials that ensure tire performance and do not compromise safety, consistent with our industry’s commitment to sustainability and respect for the environment,”

Capitalist industry keeps revving and government in basic terms allows it with minor limitations, often refusing to do anything or dragging their feet. And why? Precisely to protect profitability and ability for U.S. industry to compete internationally, or in”the national interest” (as Biden is fond of saying).  

It’s really disgusting and unacceptable.

For any basic change, power has to be taken by people, led by those who actually care about preserving our planet’s life for future generations with a vision of a completely different world for people and life on earth. We must transform systems and people, to transform our relationship with natural ecosystems so humans can liberate themselves and protect life, for its intrinsic worth, and for us to survive as a species.

https://phys.org/news/2023-11-ecosystems-thwarting-hungry-herbivores.html

Sort of another, (what should be at this point) “duh” realization from a recently published study in Science– restoring conditions ( predators in this case) more closely matching how ecosystems evolved to be  previous to capital’s ecosystem destruction is key way to restore healthy plant environments and combat the climate crisis.

I guess to have a less cynical or jaded take, better to say, there is much human society could actually still do to combat and prevent at least the worst of both the climate and biodiversity crisis that threatens much of planetary life (including our own ) if we had the type of system (actual eco-socialism) that didn’t predispose all economic and political decisions to the service of capital accumulation and imperial interests. That society could study and then implement best practices learned by ecosystem science for restoration/preservation of life.

Added to ecosystem restoration, such a society could move to transform energy production and use to more sustainable and non-polluting forms of energy while severely and step-by-step reducing the amount of industrial animal agriculture on the planet and it’s requisite production of methane gas.

House GOP Efforts to Strip ESA Protections from Grizzly Bears and Wolves. Earthjustice tweeted March 24^th, “The House held a hearing yesterday on bills to delist grizzlies and gray wolves, an attempt to destroy the safety net the Endangered Species Act provides.” An article on wyofile.com  said a Wyoming state Fish and Game official, Brian Nesvik testified in support of a bill sponsored by U.S. Representative and Trump-devotee Harriet Hageman to delist federally protected grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone area. At the hearing in front of a  House Committee on Natural Resources subcommittee Hageman said “environmental litigants have been holding farmers, ranchers and the government hostage to their demands and for the purpose of protecting their own pocketbooks….Wyoming is done waiting on the federal government when the science has said for a long time that it’s time to act.” Meanwhile, Lauren Boebert, another Republican fascist U.S. representative known for spreading lies about Biden’s “stolen election”, hate toward gay people and Black politicians in public comments, spreading anti-Covid vaccine BS, trying to eliminate the separation of church and state, and attacking the Paris agreements to combat climate change, has brought forward HR 764. Boebert has in typical Orwellian doublespeak fashion, deemed this the “Trust the Science Act”. It would reinstate a Trump regime decision delisting  wolves throughout the U.S. Leaving aside for a second that Boebert and other fascists of her ilk wouldn’t recognize, understand or act based on actual science if it bit them on the butt, what is the point of these GOP attacks on endangered species and their eschewal of climate science and efforts to recognize and combat the extinction crisis? Some ask, in  part correctly, “are they just hateful of any living thing unless it’s a Bible toting, gun-loving, Trump-adoring, white supremacist”. Yes, part of the point is to spread hatefulness toward the very things most of the people who have compassion and love in their hearts for others and for the natural world cherish. Yes, part of the picture is to try to generate hate, resentment and a passion for revenge among the fascist base of the GOP and to appeal to and bring in segments of the white population in the west especially -state’s rights thinkers, , anti-government types, hunters and ranchers, right wing Christians, etc. At the same time to advance an agenda aimed at overcoming any efforts to protect the environment and its species. A big part of the reason for this is to defend the interests of,  and fight to attain a society where there are no limits or regulations governing expansion of corporate power and profit-making, and no limits or government regulations restraining unmitigated feasting on earth’s resources. Part of the point is to try to further unleash a gleeful bloodlust toward any forces such as progressives, radicals or environmentalists, or even government officials who would stand in the way of achieving this type of  “human dominion” over nature. More overarchingly, the point is to channel and mobilize this resentment toward achievement of a fascist society where white people are dominant over non-white, immigrants suppressed, women are subservient to men, where “liberal” ideas, thought and movements  such as teaching the history of racial oppression in the U.S. or environmental defense or opposition to white-supremacist/Christian fascist rule, are thoroughly suppressed if not outright crushed. Some may so, “oh, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, etc. are too stupid to have such a thought out agenda”. Their intelligence or lack there-of isn’t the point. They do have a mobilizing passion for such a society and world and are out to try to achieve it in connection with the whole Republi-fascist GOP. People also said Hitler was a buffoon and crazy fool. The full picture of the ACTUAL science and history, and current situation of wolves and grizzly bears and the importance of their role as apex predators in natural ecosystems, is beyond the scope of what I can do here, though I hope to dig more into this in future pieces. Just to say briefly, according to a Montana Public Radio report, grizzly populations declined from 50,000 to 1,000 until they were protected by the ESA in 1975. Their habitat had shrunk to 2% of it’s original extent. For wolves, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, “By the 1960s gray wolves were finally protected under the predecessor law to the Endangered Species Act. They’d been exterminated from all the contiguous United States except Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park and part of Minnesota.” There has been an important and significant comeback of wolves under federal ESA protections in many areas and states. The story of the battle over wolves is long and complex, but the CBD says despite this recovery, “Yet today wolves occupy less than 10% of their historic range and continue to face persecution.” Reinstituting state control over decisions on endangered species has proven a means to unleash a bloodbath wiping out predators. In Wyoming, Utah, and Montana state control over wolf hunts in 2021-22 resulted in slaughter of 500 wolves, including 20% of the wolves that sometimes ranged outside Yellowstone National Park. Allowed to make decisions on these type of decisions, would mean the almost complete, or possibly complete,  extinction of these species which are so wondrous and crucial to functioning natural ecosystems. They would go the same way they were headed, toward elimination, before the ESA stopped it. As Earth Justice’s tweet concludes, “In #ESA50 anniversary, we must restore and strengthen the ESA to confront the extinction crisis.”

 

 

 

 

I haven’t written in a while. Wondering frankly, what good will any of it do?

 I’ve been focused on restoration and forest research work. Putting efforts towards being connected with the earth and nature, and trying to give back whatever I can to try to make things better, if not right. To live and experience life in the places I cherish and hold most dear. And it’s been glorious and fulfilling in many ways.

But of course the wheels keep spinning in my brain. Again I’ve started thinking more about what can be done to make any contribution, even if small, to actually meaningful change to the preservation of the natural world, and to humanity.  Which afterall, is basically the whole shooting match.   

The environmental questions confronting us as humans today on earth, are so big, and often overwhelming. Yes, but they are what they are and there’s no good that not paying attention will do.

All kinds of restoration and protection projects all over the globe are being done, with tremendous value. So much good work, effort, sweat and blood, and thought, mountains of time put in to protect and restore nature by so many people across the globe, millions. And I think it matters, tremendously and has accomplished some really crucial things. Things to be proud of. To extol.  And alongside that, a growing awareness and desire is developing among millions, tens of millions, to protect, and not lose life on our planet. To preserve, to protect, to advance natural beauty and wonder. I feel real connection with all those working for this.

And yet up against all of that, is the continual, relentless grinding and rapaciousness of this system of capitalism going about its business…. of exploitation, profit-making, expansion- causing  ruination, destruction of plant life, trees, animals, microbes, habitat. A climate crisis that continues and isn’t abating, and in fact continues to worsen as even now, global emissions continue to rise despite all the blather from the world’s most powerful governments and politicians.  A biodiversity and extinction crisis.

A few clicks of my computer reveal this. 31% of tree species threatened with extinction globally. A die-off of insects that are central components of ecosystems, threatening a collapse of nature , caused by habitat destruction, toxic pesticides, and climate change. Bird populations plummeting- three billion lost  in North America since 1970. A few more clicks would find me more pages of the great elimination being undertaken at the hand of human society as now constituted.

The wiping out of so much natural beauty and amazing wonder, jaw-dropping adaptations, miracles if you will, of evolution over hundreds of millions of years.  How could one exist on a planet where there are no more magnificent Redwood forest trees and ecosystems? Or the elimination of polar bears that hunt the Arctic icelands and can swim tens of miles across ocean water, formerly rich off of Arctic sea life, and now being found starving to death.  Tens of thousands of other species-amphibians, mammals, reptiles, conifers, sharks, cycads, lichens threatened with extinction.

In all this, it’s crucial to understand that no species exist as separate entities, they are connected-independent yet often bound together through rich relationships of feeding, predation, decomposing, nutrient recycling, mutualistic interactions, neutrality or competitive interactions in interwoven ecosystems. All interacting with each other, and with the landscape, climate, geography, soils. Even making, and sometimes remaking each other.

As my Forest Ecosystems textbook by David Perry says, “any specific relationship among organisms within an ecosystem is embedded within and interacts with a hierarchy of interactions that encompass whole communities, landscapes and ultimately most (or perhaps even all) living things on earth.”

Removing especially keystone species, and degrading species presence or populations can impact and subvert whole ecosystems. It can even impact larger ecosystems regionally and globally. Living, healthy natural ecosystems are what provide life and the basis for life, to humans on this planet. Furnishing the oxygen we need to breath, clean water and air,  providing food, shelter, nutrients, and controlling climate, providing a rich cultural life to indigenous populations who are themselves under assault. And natural ecosystems, of all kinds, are a source of inspiration and amazement to all who are open to life.

 Without healthy ecosystems, we as a species, are not long for this planet. Life in some forms will no doubt continue and eventually flourish again, if human society succeeds in wiping much out, (that’s my opinion at least). We may not.

 Will we, or the next generations be the ones to witness the destruction of the natural basis of our lives, and hence human existence? Even our own tremendous works of beauty, of language, poetry and prose, of art, of science, sports, of love and compassion, all of our great accomplishments as human beings left to ruin? Or not.

So feeling the need to do what I can do-at least write to indict and to impact what is happening in whatever way I can. To speak to the need for us all to wake up, to realize and confront what is rolling out in front of our eyes. We must stop this.  

As these thoughts are crashing and weaving through my brain,  I reflect briefly on the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change 6^th assessment report and a report from CNN on its principal findings.

I quote extensively below from CNN’s Laura Paddison. (all bolded emphases are my own)

“The world is rapidly approaching catastrophic levels of heating with international climate goals set to slip out of reach unless immediate and radical action is taken, according to a new UN-backed report.

‘The climate time-bomb is ticking,’ said António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in a statement to mark the launch of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s synthesis report on Monday. ‘Humanity is on thin ice – and that ice is melting fast,’ he added.

‘This report is the most dire and troubling assessment yet of the spiraling climate impacts we all face if systemic changes are not made now,’ Sara Shaw, program coordinator at Friends of the Earth International, said in a statement.

The impacts of planet-warming pollution are already more severe than expected and we are hurtling towards increasingly dangerous and irreversible consequences, the report says.

While the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels is still possible, the report noted, the pathway to achieving it is rapidly closing as global production of planet-heating pollution continues to increase – emissions grew by nearly 1% last year.

Concentrations of carbon pollution in the atmosphere are at their highest level for more than two million years and the rate of temperature rise over the last half a century is the highest in 2,000 years.

The impacts of the climate crisis continue to fall hardest on poorer, vulnerable countries that have done least to cause it.

Despite the International Energy Agency saying in 2021 that there can now be no new fossil fuel developments if the world is to meet climate commitments, governments are continuing to approve oil, gas and coal projects.

The Biden administration has just greenlit the hugely controversial Willow oil drilling project in Alaska. Once operational, it is projected to produce enough oil to release 9.2 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon pollution a year – equivalent to adding 2 million gas-powered cars to the roads.

Staving off the worst impacts of the climate crisis will require radical shifts across every sector of the economy and society, according to the report.

It called for deep cuts to planet-heating pollution by moving away from fossil fuels and investing in renewable energy. To limit warming to 1.5 degrees, global levels of planet-heating pollution must fall by 60% by 2035 compared with 2019, according to the report.”

“Immediate and radical action”, “radical shifts across every sector of the economy and society”.  These are the words of the world’s best minds on the state of our climate today on planet Earth and what is required to stabilize it. Do we think any of the powers that be on this planet are going to undertake any of this? No chance. And if you think so, stop deluding yourself.

Planetary life faces a yawning gulf. We are at a precipice. A precipice which has been known about for decades, has been researched deeply, documented voluminously, and presented by scientists to every government on earth. No one who is thinking and paying attention is unaware.

 There is a way out, if we act urgently, as human people and civilizations to combat this crisis, it could be done so large portions of life, and ourselves are saved, even at this late date. But those in power of the world’s most powerful capitalist countries especially only continue give lip service while not taking any actually meaningful steps that can truly address the scale of this problem, which is afterall, about whether major parts of life, and ourselves, will continue for very much longer.. Instead, they continue apace to maneuver and battle for power, control, profitability and position over their competitors. New crises, like the war in Ukraine,  are seen as necessities and opportunities for more exploitation of fossil fuels, even as they do develop more “green technology” which is also a sphere for competition.

We can decide to wrest power away from them. No, it’s not easy and would require tremendous sacrifice. By what do we have to lose? What do we have to gain, to save? Think it over.

published first on the Daily Kos community

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/12/1995295/-Trump-s-Attempt-to-Steal-the-Election-is-Serious-and-Dangerous?_=2020-11-12T12:40:54.950-08:00

Trump’s Attempt to Steal the Election is Serious and Dangerous

CurtisJohnson Community 

(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)Thursday November 12, 2020 · 12:40 PM PST Recommend 0  Share  Tweet1 Comment 1 New

We are in a dangerous moment, facing the possibility of a stolen election orchestrated by Donald Trump.

The Election

Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election clearly and convincingly. As of today, Biden has 279 electoral votes to Trump’s 217, with only 270 required to win.* Biden is on track to win 306 electoral votes, with leads of 14,000 in Georgia and 13,000 in Arizona, where more than 98% of the votes have been counted. 306 would be the same number Trump won in 2016, which he called a “massive landlslide”.

Biden won Wisconsin by 20,000 votes, the same margin Trump won by in  2016. Despite this the Trump campaign is demanding a recount. In Pennsylvania, Biden is winning by 54,000 votes, more than Trump’s 2016 totals. In Michigan, Biden won by 150,000 votes, 40,000 more than Trump in 2016.

Biden is also ahead in the popular vote, leading by 5 million votes. Trump famously lost the popular vote in 2016 by almost 3 million.

Despite these facts on the ground, Trump has refused to concede.  Instead he is leading the GOP in a naked attempt to undermine and delegitimize the election. It has to be said, though couched in terms of “challenging the election” and investigating election fraud”, that’s not what is taking place. What is taking place is an attempt to create and spread disinformation alleging election fraud in order to lay the groundwork for Trump to steal the election. At the very least, this campaign is  spreading distrust and building resentment among millions of Trump’s supporters, thus fueling fascist interests going forward.

How far this will go and get is hard to predict. What the ultimate goals behind it are only partly revealed. But it must be said that this attempted steal has gained momentum since the declaration of Biden’s win and is further building. Whether it succeeds or not, and it could,  it’s is an extremely dangerous move to undermine democracy and boost the position and strength of fascism/authoritarianism.  

The Pretext

Donald Trump has been saying since 2016 that the only legitimate election is one where he’s elected. Remember when he alleged without a shred of evidence, that Hillary Clinton’s popular vote win in 2016 was the result of votes by millions of “illegal immigrants”? He even launched an investigation that turned up nothing, of course, and was disbanded.  

For months before the 2020 election Trump repeatedly declared he would refuse to accept the results of the vote if he wasn’t the winner, and that the only way he could lose an election would be if it was rigged. He waged a relentless campaign to de-legitimize mail-in ballots as fraudulent, despite election officials debunking this. Trump knew that especially in a time of the global coronavirus pandemic, those who vote Democratic would vote disproportionately by mail. It was also basically guaranteed that Republican voters wouldn’t, believing Trump’s lies.  

Thus Trump created a pretext for claiming a fraud if he lost by attacking mail-in voting,  even though it is completely legal and has been widely used since the Civil War, though expanded in recent years. Then Trump’s toady postmaster General Louis DeJoy orchestrated a slow down of the mail, which disproportionately impacted ballot delivery especially in  large urban centers like Philadelphia and Detroit that would be key to turning out Democratic vote in “battleground states”. These GOP obstructions added  to other tried and true methods of voter suppression-removing polling places particularly in Black and brown population centers, removing voting drop boxes such as was done in Texas, etc.

The Steal

As the votes were still coming in but counts far from finished, Trump agitated via Twitter that he had “won” and “claimed” states into his column, etc. Then as the mail-in votes continued to come in and turn the tide against him he tweeted “Stop the count”. We were then treated to the charade of Trump supporters trying to burst into a Detroit polling center chanting “Stop the count” where mail-in votes were pushing Biden past Trump. But on the other hand  in Maricopa County Arizona where mail-in ballots were helping Trump catch up to Biden, his supporters chanted “Count the votes”. Trump’s base had the message clear-“only votes for me or the Republicans are legitimate and should be counted”.

As Biden’s victory became almost inevitable, Trump held a press conference that was such a string of lies about Democratic voter fraud and false claims about his wonderful victory, that MSNBC chose to stop the broadcast because of the dangerous falsehoods it spread. More clever heads in the GOP got to Trump apparently to advise him his strategy of “stopping the count” and alleging a Democratic conspiracy were too obviously anti-democracy and should be situated within the context of “protecting election integrity”. So GOP strategy switched to claims of some amorphous  “election fraud” and saying only  “legal votes should be counted not illegal ones”, which of course is what the election process already does.  This has all been presented without a shred of evidence of illegal votes, either by Trump or any of his mouthpieces. Instead, what exists is actually overwhelming evidence of an election carried out within the regulations outlined by states with transparency and overseen by representatives from both parties. And in fact the lawsuits brought by Trump’s campaign, up to this point at least, have been almost entirely dismissed as without merit or have achieved nothing to change the election outcome.

Trump’s steal has been joined by top GOP leaders. Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell have backed Trump casting doubt on the election results, McConnell saying Trump is “within his rights” to legally contest the vote. Graham let the mask slip however when he admitted, ““If Republicans don’t challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again. President Trump should not concede.” What Graham is arguing for is even a much more thorough disenfranchisement and suppression of Democratic voters-especially  of Black people, Latinos, and young people. The attack on Biden’s victory in general drips with racism. Trump in his rant on national TV after the election said, “Philadelphia and Detroit” couldn’t be allowed to decide the election.

The administrator of the General Services Administration, a Trump appointee Emily Murphy , has refused to ascertain the Biden victory, preventing funds, services and government building access to Biden’s transition team. The GSA decision also means Biden’s team cannot interface with other government institutions to begin setting in place a new administration or be apprised of crucial information. After meeting with McConnell, Attorney General Bill Barr has also given new power to a steal attempt. A memo from Barr told federal prosecutors they can investigate “substantial” claims of voter fraud. This violates previous DOJ policy that the department should not enter into investigations which could taint an active election. The Barr announcement caused the head of the election crimes division at DOJ  to resign in protest.

It’s not clear if such “investigations” would lead to much, if anything. But some legal experts have pointed out Barr’s memo can be used by prosecutors supportive of Trump to search for “irregularities”. The Barr memo fits with the fanning of disinformation created by Trump and his GOP abettors, where now phony and often already discredited “revelations of fraud” are setting fire to right wing news and social media. 

Trump also has fired Mark Esper, Defense Secretary by tweet, furthering fears of either attempts to involve the military in a coup attempt or some dangerous military attacks in the world. Other DOD officials have also quit and are being rapidly replaced by Trump acolytes.  There are rumors that Trump may also fire the heads of the FBI and CIA. Now, none of these figures are on the side of justice or the people. CIA head Haspel for example, was a prime figure in the CIA’s torture and rendition program.  But nonetheless Trump’s moves could be part of an escalating attempt to hold onto power by removing those he considers not pliant enough to his demands. To explain these firings as preparation for a coup can’t be rejected out of hand, and in fact might provide the most reasonable explanation .

On Tuesday 11/10, Secretary of State Pompeo then said at a CSPAN news conference when asked about acceding to a smooth transition to a Biden administration that, “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration”. It was also reported that the White House has told federal agencies to go ahead with plans for Trump’s February budget, signaling they may be planning to succeed in staying in power. Election officials, even Republican ones, have come under attack from Republican senators and right wing nuts, basically for not delivering the election to Trump. Dangerously, there is increasing pressure on state and local election officials by the most powerful GOP officials to come up with something to invalidate the election.

The Endgame

All kinds of arguments are being made from various perspectives  to explain  what is going on with this whole situation. Debates continue over whether this represents a serious attempt at a coup or not. Some are arguing these moves, even if real, are bound to fail because the election was so clearly won by Biden and/ or that the law won’t allow this. Some commentators are saying that GOP backing from Trump is simply to assuage his bottomless ego and give him time to come to an acceptance of his loss. Some are saying Republicans in Congress are quietly congratulating them on the Biden win but can’t speak out. There are reports that White House officials recognize the foolhardiness of Trump’s legal case and are trying to influence him to realize Biden’s win. Some are saying Trump’s refusal to accept the results is dangerous to democracy, but Trump is merely using the election fraud ruse to keep his rabid social base or fundraise. Others who know him personally are saying he is desperate like a caged animal, that he is attempting to burn down the house with him because he’s incapable of accepting being a loser.

There may be some truth in several of these arguments. But some of the arguments seem to dispute out of hand the possibility that Trump, who has spent four years tearing up norms and the rule of law and clearly considers himself the only legitimate president, would try to launch a coup to steal the election to maintain power. Given the evidence and the momentum being generated by all of Trump’s machinations, it would be a mistake to dismiss the possibility of an actual coup or serious election steal, despite having an uphill battle. Such efforts include trying to fabricate legal justifications to try to make something stick, to generate public opinion including developing more massive protest and assault by the fascist right on “enemies”, pressuring officials, etc. It’s also not beyond the realm of belief that recounts could be used to fabricate or change vote totals.

At the very least, Trump and the GOP are creating and spreading an entirely false narrative of Trump as the “victim” of a stolen election. This is likely to fuel rabid opposition to Biden and democracy itself among millions of Trumps “true believers”, and give more power to a violent fascist movement for years to come.

The moment is dangerous and it’s crucial that right now we are extremely vigilant. It’s also very important that election officials, officeholders, the media, opinion makers and masses of ordinary people, speak up and resist these dangers, including with mass nonviolent protest in public spaces. We poured out in celebration after the announcement of Trump’s loss. That energy is greatly needed to continue.

* It’s important to make the point that the electoral college is a completely undemocratic way to elect a president, as opposed to direct popular vote. It preserves the shameful white supremacist legacy where slave states were apportioned a greater share of the electors based on counting Black slaves as 3/5 of a person. Though obviously the form through which the Presidential election is carried out, it’s important to say that this shameful legacy remains at the heart of the Presidential election.

 

Around the world people are suffering and dying in the tens of thousands from in the SARS-CoV-2 virus global pandemic. This virus is novel, meaning it’s never been experienced before by humans and therefore humans don’t have any developed immunity to it. It is transmitted via droplets from coughing or sneezing and perhaps aerosols, and quite likely via surface contamination from person to person. The disease it causes has been named Covid 19. A pandemic like this hasn’t been seen in the world since the 1918 so-called “Spanish flu” pandemic that killed approximately 50 million people.

As I write this April 4th , the worldwide number of confirmed Covid 19 cases stands at 1.2 million according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus dashboard . 65,000  people have died, 15,000 of them in Italy where hospitals have been overrun and 11,000 in Spain. By tomorrow these numbers will be out of date. The increase in new confirmed cases yesterday, April 3^rd, was the largest increase of any day, over 100,000.

The U.S. is now the global epicenter of the disease and the main driver of increases worldwide.  Confirmed cases in the U.S. have skyrocketed to over 312,000, now approaching twice as many as the country with the second highest number, Spain. The largest increases of confirmed cases daily of any country to date are now occurring in the U.S., 33,000 on April 3^rd. Over 8500 are dead in the U.S.

Trump’s Debacle

After downplaying the danger for two months, the White House on March 31st announced their “best case” scenario was that 100-240,000 people will die in the U.S. from Covid 19. Just weeks ago, Donald Trump, the person most singly responsible for this magnitude of this crisis, repeatedly dismissed the danger, telling people that it was no worse than the flu, that the virus would “disappear”, that the numbers would soon “drop to zero”. The virus didn’t care though about Trump’s lies or attempts to cover up the truth. Now, confronted with an exploding caseload and massive deaths, Trump who just a  a little more than a week ago chortled about how the U.S would be “open and raring to go” by Easter with “churches full”,  has been forced by circumstances to partially admit the level of disaster, though not his responsibility.

Sickeningly, in his March 31st press conference Trump said “many people” in his ruling class circles were counseling to just “ride it out”, in other words, do nothing to shut down business and just let people die in the millions. The cold debates in the Trump inner circles have been over what’s best for Trump and the economy-do nothing and hope despite millions dying the economy can still function, or put in place some measures to “limit” the deaths to up to 240,000 because that would ultimately be less disruptive. Trump then lauded himself for choosing against doing nothing. Now he tries to present the absolutely horrific prediction of as many as 240,000 deaths that his regime is largely responsible for, as amazingly good, a “job well done”.

From the start, the Trump regime’s response to the Covid danger has been disastrous. It’s been completely framed by Trump’s personal interests vis a vis maintaining power and the elections, and relatedly, trying to keep the stock market afloat and economy spinning. It’s also stamped by Trump’s particular brand of disregard of reality.  The federal agencies responsible for medically dealing with the disease-the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Health and Human Services (HHA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were sluggish and flat-footed in rolling out testing. Early and massive testing, as was done in South Korea and Singapore for example, helped track the disease so people could be quarantined to help squelch the virus. Instead in the U.S., more than a month was lost, the virus exploded. With the horse already out of the barn, the U.S. has now finally ramped up testing which is beginning to track closer to the actual case numbers. Undoubtedly though, these are still way short of actual numbers as little or no effort has been aimed to track people who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. Data from China indicates both are able to transmit the virus. Even now many are still having difficulty getting tests in a timely manner, despite Trump’s lie that “everyone who wants a test gets a test”.

Tens of millions of Trump’s backers, including governors in many of the “red states” have refused, and some even continue to refuse, to engage reality, as Trump has modelled. Schools, businesses, sporting events, bars, churches and gathering places continued to operate as the virus was allowed to infect more people and spread. In Florida, Governor DeSantis, a Trump acolyte, refused to shut down spring break and beaches, allowing thousands of youth to gather, exposing each other to the virus, and likely spreading to others. Religious fanatic and Trump devotee Jerry Falwell Jr. re-opened Liberty University  in late March.

Each day this crisis brings deeper sadness at the suffering and death worldwide, and anger over the disaster of the U.S. federal government’s response.  Healthcare workers battle this disease without enough essential protective gear, having to disinfect masks they use day after day. Exhausted and strained, they plead online for gloves, masks and ventilators. Medical workers, particularly in New York City, are getting sick. Some have died. One nurse who along with his partner has contracted Covid 19 told the New York Times, “I feel like we’re all just being sent to slaughter”. Protests of nurses are spreading across the country, as are beautiful balcony outpourings of support for health workers.  Sirens sound repeatedly all day and night in New York City where there’s been an explosion of tens of thousands of cases and more than 2300 deaths.   Bodies stack up in hospitals and are loaded into fleets of refrigerated trucks to be taken away.

Heartbreaking stories fill social media of previously healthy people, particularly elderly, but not only, developing symptoms, ending up in ICU’s gasping for breath and dying separated from loved ones. People are losing the dearest people in their lives, decades stolen from their lives, and sometimes not even being able to say goodbye. Nationwide hospital beds, trained ICU staff, supplies, and ventilators, are running out. The strains on hospitals are just beginning. Millions are unemployed as the virus shut down the economy. Tens of millions are under social distancing and stay at home orders. Trump has refused to do what other countries have, put in place a national stay-at home order.

Governors in states like Washington, California and New York and Michigan have forged emergency responses-stay-at home orders, shutting businesses, mandating social distancing. Many of these efforts are crucial and may in certain cases at least, be playing a role in at least slowing the spread of disease States have had to battle the Trump regime for necessary equipment and materials. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake, yet Trump has states in a market-driven bidding war with each other to pay the most for life-saving supplies. Trump said he told Mike Pence, head of the coronavirus task force to not even call Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, because they haven’t expressed enough appreciation of what a great job he’s doing. Thousands are dying, people are suffering and scared, ventilators, hospital beds and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are running out. Instead of setting up a nationally coordinated effort to allocate and rush supplies to hotspots, Trump demands fealty and lets states fight over them.

He then had the unmitigated audacity to accuse healthcare workers, who are risking their lives, at times without basic equipment, of misusing or stealing masks. Trump’s daily press conferences are a mix of lies, misstatements and half-truths, and primarily about making it appear as if things are under control, and to further the laughable claim that he and his government’s efforts are so amazing they’ve “never been seen before”. He’s trying to turn a national debacle into a bouquet of flowers. When reporters even just read back his own words to him to point out his actual statements, he interrupts them, accuses them of being hostile and tries to shut them down.

This past week #TrumpGenocide began trending on twitter. In fact this is not hyperbole in the least. Trump is furthering a catastrophe that is still unrolling. No-one knows where it ends.  Further, there is great responsibility of all countries to stop the spread of the disease, in particular because of the possible impact on the poor countries in the global south where health care systems and supplies are often much less available than in the rich countries. Nowhere is this reality of possible mass death more acute than in detention centers where immigrants are locked and packed into unsanitary conditions without basic sanitation. As of April 6th, there are at least 8 documented positive Covid 19 cases reported in immigrant detention facilities. Immigrant women in detention in Lousiana made a protest video detailing the lack of protection they are receiving and their fear. Covid is already spreading as well in jails. In Rikers Island in New York City as well as Cook County jail, hundreds of inmates are already sick with the coronavirus.

Capitalism and the Trump “Logic”

There is a link between the emergence of pathogens in wild animals, as is likely with Covid, and the functioning of capitalist industrial production and its destruction of the natural world. Further, the spread and devastation caused by this pandemic is also intimately linked up with the workings of capitalism in other ways-the lack of planning and preparation for such disasters, inequities in health care systems in almost every country, as well as the disparity between rich and poor. Capitalism as a system is incapable of preparing ahead for such eventualities due to its short term horizons and its demand to focus on immediate profit-making and winning out vis a vis competitors. Health care, to capitalism, is another market-driven, profit-producing operation.  This is a subject beyond the scope of this article, but sets the context for what we’re seeing.

No one could have exactly predicted this pandemic, but actually many epidemiologists and others have warned of such a situation of this kind for years.

In fact previous administrations and the Trump administration itself studied the dangers of an emerging pandemic, (despite Trump’s lie that no-one could have predicted this.) Yet little or nothing was done to prepare. No stockpiling supplies like PPE and ventilators, no plans for training millions of back up healthcare workers that would be needed, no actual game-planning for extreme scenarios. Few new weapons systems or war materiel are left unexplored or developed in America, but when it comes to PPE, life-saving medical equipment and staff, forget it.

The Covid 19 disaster is a capitalist disaster. But on top of this it’s in particular a disaster of Trumpian fascism. Many reporters and news agencies have rightly skewered Trump for the debacle of a response. And yet most still don’t understand how it’s entirely rooted in who Trump is, has always been and always will be, in his worldview, what he values, and what he’s out to do. So after not only this but everything horrific Trump has done-caging children, unleashing violent racism, eviscerating the rule of law, his sexual predation, destruction of the environment and bone-deep corruption-they say the federal government must “get its act together”. “The White House must take charge, why such a confused response?” they say. Or “it’s time for government to speak with one clear voice”.

The truth is Trump’s response has a twisted and sick logic and he and his regime are incapable of the type of response needed.

Trump’s project and outlook is a fascist one that is all about gaining and maintaining power, worship of money and advancement of profit-making without normal rules. It’s about xenophobia and racism-eg. Trump calling Sars Co-V2 the “Chinese virus”. It’s why his inclinations are to shut down travel to other countries, and even quarantine states despite there being no medical reason justifying this. And most deeply, fascism’s and Trump’s logic is all about power. Truth isn’t something that exists objectively, it’s whatever the fascist leader says it is at any one moment, and that can change literally from moment to moment. Fascism eschews (abstains from) truth and evidence. (This is one reason it so neatly fits with right wing Christian fundamentalism.) In fact, it defines truth as whatever is in the interests of the leader. This is why Trump constantly and repeatedly was incapable of accepting basic facts about the virus’ spread in the U.S.

Fascism demands obedience from the masses and suppresses and even crushes political opponents. Yes, it gives out sops- hospital ships to LA and New York, certain PPE and ventilators though nowhere near what’s needed. But its essential heartbeat is consolidating power, maximizing profit-making and vicious nationalism. This is why the stock market’s performance and its centrality to Trump’s re-election has been much more vital than a few hundred thousand deaths to him.

And in this crisis too, the fascists in the ruling class are employing the logic of not letting “any serious crisis go to waste”. So they are seizing on it to ram through draconian new rules and laws, outlawing abortion as “non-essential” in three states so far, suspending enforcement of environmental rules by the EPA, and dangerous new charges in certain Republican led states to be leveled in the event of protest vs. fossil fuel projects, now defined as “essential infrastructure.”

As days pass, Trump’s press conferences increasingly play a role of gleefully trying to crush people’s hopes and humanity with the spectre of massive death allowed by increasing dictatorial power. Trump is now using this crisis to bludgeon the political terrain in the best possible terms for consolidating fascist power through the November elections. The situation is very dangerous and getting more so.

It’s crucial now that all who care about creating a better world find all possible means to stand up, to expose this regime, to spread massive outrage at the criminal mass murder this regime is responsible for.  Walls physically and virtually could be established that become living monuments to the people who have died from Covid and to condemn this regime that is responsible.  Protests incorporating social distancing ethos must build and spread.  It’s critical that people speak out together to demand support for health care workers, an end to immigrant detention and of jailing people in dangerous conditions, for needed medical supplies and equipment, and to join all these efforts to demand Trump, the fascist at the center of this crisis, to resign now.