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Three Years Since Their Genocide Began, the Rohingya Remain Desperate for Help |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=27423"><span class="small">Editorial Board, The Washington Post</span></a>
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Monday, 31 August 2020 12:42 |
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Excerpt: "Using the word 'genocide' won't bring the Rohingya home. But it will serve as a reminder to Aung San Suu Kyi - and to the world - of what happened."
A Rohingya child stands in front of a shanty in Chakmarkul refugee camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Wednesday. (photo: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)
Three Years Since Their Genocide Began, the Rohingya Remain Desperate for Help
By Editorial Board, The Washington Post
31 August 20
  HE STRUGGLE of man against power,” wrote Czech novelist Milan Kundera, “is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” This is precisely where the Rohingya Muslims find themselves today, three years after 750,000 people were terrorized and torched out of their homes by Myanmar’s security forces and forced into miserable camps in Bangladesh. The crimes against the Rohingya — and their ongoing misery — must not be forgotten.
In August 2017, Rohingya militants attacked police posts in northern Rakhine state, killing 12 members of the security forces. Myanmar’s security forces responded starting Aug. 25 with a scorched-earth campaign against the Rohingya population of Rakhine state, in the western part of the country. Thousands of civilians were killed, their villages burned to the ground, and some 750,000 people fled for their lives to Bangladesh. The violence included massacres. On Sept. 2, 10 Rohingya men from the village of Inn Din were roped together and killed. At least two had been hacked to death by Buddhist villagers, and the rest were shot by Myanmar’s security forces, according to Reuters, which interviewed witnesses to the massacre and exposed it. Later, the Myanmar authorities cleared away the Rohingya homes and paved over the Rohingya villages to create new government barracks.
Today, the Rohingya plight remains desperate. There are now about 1 million people living in five refugee camps of bamboo and plastic shelters over an area equivalent to about a third of Manhattan. Children make up about half of them. The refugees fear resettlement in Myanmar would subject them to more deprivation and violence, and efforts to negotiate a return to Rakhine state have failed twice, in 2018 and 2019. The refugees have followed closely as their case was taken up by the International Court of Justice, which ruled in January that Myanmar must implement emergency measures to protect them against violence and preserve evidence of possible genocide. The ruling came after Myanmar’s leader, Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, personally argued before the court in The Hague that the Rohingya exodus had not been mass murder. The Myanmar government has rejected the court’s ruling, which is only the first step in a process that will probably take years.
It is time to call the Rohingya destruction what it is: a crime against humanity, and genocide. The definition of “genocide” in international law is: “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Using the word “genocide” won’t bring the Rohingya home. But it will serve as a reminder to Aung San Suu Kyi — and to the world — of what happened. It will help the struggle of memory not to forget — neither the crime nor the urgent need for redress.
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FOCUS: Wall Street Doesn't Like Ed Markey |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=54307"><span class="small">David Sirota, Jacobin</span></a>
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Monday, 31 August 2020 12:08 |
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Excerpt: "Ed Markey, the Democratic Massachusetts senator facing a tough primary challenge from Joe Kennedy III, is known for the Green New Deal - but he also has a history of drawing the ire of Wall Street."
Senator Ed Markey and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a news conference to unveil their Green New Deal resolution on February 7, 2019 in Washington, DC. (photo: Senate Democrats/Wikimedia Commons)
Wall Street Doesn't Like Ed Markey
By David Sirota, Jacobin
31 August 20
Ed Markey, the Democratic Massachusetts senator facing a tough primary challenge from Joe Kennedy III, is known for the Green New Deal — but he also has a history of drawing the ire of Wall Street.
he Democratic establishment is trying to kick Ed Markey out of the Senate in tomorrow’s Massachusetts primary. It is difficult to overstate how devastating a Markey loss would be. Joe Kennedy III defeating the working-class author of the Green New Deal during a climate crisis would make 2020 an even worse year than it has already been.
Markey, though, is not merely a Johnny-come-lately or a good environmental legislator — you can detect his deeper commitment to economic justice by taking a look back on his career as one of the lawmakers willing to wage the toughest possible fight in Congress: the battle to prevent Wall Street’s takeover of our economy.
This key part of Markey’s career is lost history — but it is the most revelatory, because combating the financial industry is not like any other policy battle for a Democrat. It is not like taking on the fossil fuel industry or the gun industry, which has gone all-in with the Republican Party. Being a Democrat and challenging Wall Street means going up against both the GOP and your own Democratic Party, which has its own deep and lucrative ties to a financial industry that bankrolls the party’s candidates.
This is why so many Democrats have gone along with schemes to deregulate Wall Street. It probably has something to do with Kennedy refusing to cosponsor legislation to repeal the special “carried interest” tax break for the hedge fund industry whose donors have supported him — until he was called out in the press. And it is why so few Democratic lawmakers question Wall Street’s supremacy.
Markey, though, has often been one of those few. He was one of just a handful of lawmakers who voted against deregulation in the late 1990s and who cosponsored a bill to end the carried interest tax loophole. He also sounded an early-warning alarm about the risky derivatives that were boosting Wall Street profits before they helped blow up the economy during the financial crisis.
Ron Suskind’s classic book Confidence Men — which is about the Obama-era fight over financial reform — tells that forgotten story. Suskind notes that “Markey could bid fair claim to being farther ahead of the curve on the financial crisis than almost any elected official in Washington.”
Back in the early months of Barack Obama’s first term, Markey led the battle to prevent Wall Street firms from using taxpayer bailout money to pay their executives huge bonuses. Here’s the press release from Markey’s office at the time:
“This is complete March madness. You don’t blow the big game and then still get a trophy,” said Markey. “Not one single penny of taxpayer funds should be used to reward the reckless executives whose irresponsible risk-taking has done massive damage to our economy. And this bill will ensure that they are not rewarded.”
The Bonus Recoupment Tax Bill will impose a 90 percent tax on bonuses for those individuals earning more than $250,000 at companies that have received at least $5 billion in government funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
From 1987 to 1995, Rep. Markey was the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance. In that role, Markey held five oversight hearings on the risks financial derivatives posed to the markets. He then introduced The Derivatives Market Reform Act of 1994, a bill which would have regulated derivatives transactions by affiliates of insurance companies like AIG to protect the financial system.
Markey introduced similar legislation in 1995, 1999 and 2008, but it never was adopted due to opposition from the Republican majority and the financial services industry.
Markey led this fight even as President Obama was trying to fight off the bonus tax proposal after having just run a campaign that had raked in more Wall Street money than any previous candidate in the history of presidential campaigns. So it took a lot of guts for Markey to fight the good fight.
In Confidence Men, Markey recounts how he realized Wall Street’s schemes were getting out of control right after the 1987 stock market crash.
“Something very basic, very fundamental, had changed on the Street, and we on the subcommittee couldn’t put a finger on what was different,” Markey said. He recounted how one of the major Wall Street figures convicted of securities fraud in that era would tell lawmakers that finance industry executives “figured out how to turn the investing of other people’s money into a kind of game, where they were constantly changing the rules in a way that was subtly fraudulent, against the basic principles of fairness or fiduciary duty.”
No doubt, Markey hasn’t opposed every bill Wall Street has wanted — he voted for the 2008 emergency bailout, and both he and Kennedy supported the recent CARES Act coronavirus relief legislation that provided a giant bailout to corporate America. But he (and Kennedy) also most recently opposed bipartisan legislation to roll back the modest Dodd-Frank reforms passed in the wake of the financial crisis.
The financial industry has near-complete control of Washington — and its moguls are right now funding both sides of the national election as Wall Street continues growing ever larger and more powerful. In light of that, the Massachusetts race is a proxy battle over the whole issue of plutocracy.
If Democratic voters nominate Kennedy, they will be rewarding a wealthy scion whose closing ad promotes a Game of Thrones–style argument effectively insisting that his lineage makes him the One True King of Massachusetts.
If voters instead choose Markey, they will help keep a crucial Senate seat in the hands of a legislator who has been willing to challenge the most powerful industry on the planet as it tries to swallow our entire economy.
In this age of oligarchy, that would be no small thing.
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FOCUS: 6 Million Stricken With Covid-19: Trump Has Turned the US Into a Sh*thole Country |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=51519"><span class="small">Juan Cole, Informed Comment</span></a>
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Monday, 31 August 2020 10:21 |
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Cole writes: "The US reported its sixth million coronavirus case, and deaths are headed toward 200,000. It is hard to explain just how bad the US death rate under Trump from the novel coronavirus is."
Health care workers treating a COVID-19 patient. (photo: John Moore/Getty Images)
6 Million Stricken With Covid-19: Trump Has Turned the US Into a Sh*thole Country
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment
31 August 20
he US reported its sixth million coronavirus case, and deaths are headed toward 200,000. It is hard to explain just how bad the US death rate under Trump from the novel coronavirus is.
It isn’t only that it is worse than other industrialized democracies. It certainly is that. In South Korea, 324 persons have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The US is a little over six times more populous than South Korea, so that would be like 2,070 Americans dying.
As of Sunday, Johns Hopkins reported US deaths as 183,057.
So Americans under Trump are dropping dead at 88 times the rate of South Korea.
From South Korea’s competent point of view, they are now having an alarming spike of new cases in Seoul, with about 300 cases reported yesterday. So they have decided to close back down some entertainment venues such as karaoke bars and fitness gyms, and to further limit restaurant seating. The thing that strikes you about a news report like the one below is that the South Korean government authorities come across as highly competent, as watching the pandemic like a hawk, and as prepared to take efficient measures to deal with outbreaks. They have an excellent rapid testing and contact tracing system.
In contrast, Trump wants all businesses open all the time and sent the Michigan Militia after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because she was in his view too cautious.
The US has had 6 million coronavirus cases. South Korea? 19,947, the equivalent of about 130,000 US deaths.
As a result of the South Korean government’s competence, South Korean manufacturing has bounced back.
Germany has had 9,300 coronavirus deaths, the equivalent of 37,400 US deaths. The US death rate is nearly five times that of Germany.
Canada has had 9,164 pandemic deaths, the equivalent of about 82,000 US deaths given the difference in population of the two countries. .
Canada is five times better on cases and over two times better on deaths, even though the population of Canada and that of the United States are of similar backgrounds, their governmental systems are both rooted in the British, and they both have national health apparatuses. Canada is better.
The big difference between the two? Trump.
Out of 194 countries in the world, only 10 have had a worst per capita death rate than the United States. Some are also in thrall to right wing business classes, like the United Kingdom. Others are populist/fascist and also lack a proper national health system, like Brazil. Others just don’t have strong governance systems, like Italy and Spain.
It could be that the US has better health statistics tracking than some of the countries that appear to be doing better. That is not true of South Korea and Germany, which put us to shame. But even if some countries are not capturing some proportion of deaths because many old people are dying at home and country physicians are not reporting the deaths as from Covid-19, there are few countries where you can hide 180,000 corpses from the public. Statistics do not explain it.
What explains it is that Trump is bad at his job.
What do we make of the failures of the US in comparison with less developed nations?
Argentina has had 8,457 deaths, the equivalent of 62,000 or so US deaths. The United States under Trump has had three times as many deaths as Argentina under Alberto Fernández. Argentina has had 408,000 cases. That is the equivalent of about 3 million cases, or half as many as the US has had. Argentina’s statistics may be under-counting a little. But by a factor of three with regard to deaths?
Turkey has reported 6,326 deaths, the equivalent of about 25,000 US deaths. Turkey has a sophisticated government bureaucracy and health system, and while it may not be counting all the deaths, is it really off by a factor of 7?
That the US is doing so much worse than South Korea, Germany and Canada is galling enough. But there is a real possibility that it is doing worse than Argentina and Turkey.
Remember, too, that US testing capacity has been hobbled by Trump’s inaction or incompetence or malignant intentions, so a lot of old people are dying in bed uncounted in this country, too.
Trump’s casual racism in dismissing countries beyond the US and Europe as sh*thole countries looks more and more like unwarranted hubris. Trump has managed to turn the US into the sh*thole country.
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Joe Biden |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=15102"><span class="small">Bernie Sanders, Reader Supported News</span></a>
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Monday, 31 August 2020 08:43 |
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Sanders writes: "Yes. These are crazy times. We're dealing with a pandemic, an economic meltdown, the struggle for racial justice and we're seeing the destruction caused by climate change in Iowa, California, Louisiana and Texas. But, in the midst of all of this, we have got to remain focused, focused, focused."
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Joe Biden
By Bernie Sanders, Reader Supported News
31 August 20
 es. These are crazy times. We're dealing with a pandemic, an economic meltdown, the struggle for racial justice and we're seeing the destruction caused by climate change in Iowa, California, Louisiana and Texas.
But, in the midst of all of this, we have got to remain focused, focused, focused. In 65 days the most important election in modern American history will be taking place and we have got to defeat Donald Trump. We have got to defeat him not only because he is a pathological liar, because he rejects science and because he is a racist and a xenophobe. We have got to defeat him because he is undermining American democracy and is rapidly moving this country into an authoritarian type of society, something we may never recover from.
In terms of defeating Trump, one of the issues that has not gotten the attention that it deserves is the real contrast that exists between Trump's economic agenda and the economic proposals being supported by Joe Biden. At a time when our country is struggling with the worst economic meltdown since the great depression, this is an issue of enormous consequence for tens of millions of working class families.
Let me be clear. Biden's economic agenda is not mine and does not go as far as I, and many of you, wish it would. But, on the other hand, at a time of massive and growing income and wealth inequality there is no question but that his proposals are strong and will go a long, long way toward improving life for working families.
Yesterday, I made an important speech about this issue on our social media channels. Let me summarize here what I said about Joe's plans for the economy.
Minimum Wage
When Joe Biden is president, he will increase the federal minimum wage from a starvation wage of $7.25 an hour to a living wage of $15 an hour. And let’s be clear: When we increase that minimum wage to $15 an hour we will be raising the wages of more than 40 million workers.
Unions
Joe Biden also knows that if we are going to expand the middle class in this country, we must make it easier for workers to join unions, engage in collective bargaining and end the heavy-handed corporate tactics that make it hard for workers to unionize in America.
Infrastructure
And here's something else that Joe Biden understands. And that is that, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes, we need to create millions of good-paying jobs through a massive investment in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure — our roads, bridges, sidewalks, schools, water systems and affordable housing.
Paid Family and Medical Leave
Like most of us, Joe Biden is embarrassed that the United States is the only major nation on earth not to guarantee paid medical and family leave. That’s why Joe has proposed at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for working families.
Childcare
And when we talk about babies and young children, we all know that our current childcare system is totally inadequate. Our children and their parents deserve high-quality, reliable and affordable childcare. That’s why Joe has proposed universal pre-K education for every 3- and 4-year-old in the country.
Colleges
And when we talk about making sure that we have the best educated workforce in the world, Joe understands that we need to make public colleges, universities and trade schools tuition-free for working families.
Prescription Drugs
As some of you may recall, last year I traveled to Canada with a group of diabetics to buy insulin, a life and death drug for more than 30 million Americans. And here's what we found. You can buy insulin in Canada, a few miles from our border, for 1/10th the price that it is sold here. No. You didn't mishear me. The same product, made by the same company, is sold for 1/10th the price that it's sold here. But it's not just Canada and it’s not just insulin. While the drug companies, through their collusion, price fixing and greed, make obscene profits, we pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Joe Biden understands that we must take on the pharmaceutical industry and significantly lower drug prices in this country.
Health Care
As many of you know the United States is the only major country not to guarantee health care for all people. Meanwhile, despite paying almost twice as much per capita for health care as the people of other countries, over 90 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and over half a million Americans go bankrupt because they cannot afford to pay their medical bills.
While Joe and I disagree on the best path to get to universal coverage, his proposal will greatly expand access to health care and make it more affordable for tens of millions across this country.
My friends, of course many of us wish our campaign would have won the Democratic primary. But now our first priority must be to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history.
Then, on Day 1 of the Biden administration, we will mobilize the working families of this country to demand a government that represents all of us and not just the few.
So I am asking you today to do something important — because Donald Trump and the Republican Party would love nothing more than to divide our supporters up as people start to vote. And the truth is, the corporate media would love nothing more than to write stories about how we are not united in the fight to beat Trump.
So I am asking:
Add your name: help me send a message that you are committed to voting to defeat Donald Trump this November. This is important. <https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/defeating-trump/?source=em200830-1-15&refcode2=8299.369448.Wbzhia&akid=8299%2E369448%2EWbzhia>
We live in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, but that reality means very little because almost all of that wealth is controlled by a tiny handful of individuals.
This November we take the first step to turn that around and to create a government that works for all of us, and not just the 1 percent.
In solidarity, Bernie Sanders
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resident Trump was having a normal one on Sunday morning, tweeting and retweeting 89 times over the course of three and a half hours. Many of them were tweets of polling numbers from obscure firms showing him in the lead after the Republican convention. But most of the tweets and retweets were incitement to violence among his true believers and complaints about "Democrat cities," an ongoing mantra which he seems to think is a slam dunk to get him re-elected.
