The Covid Conundrum

2020/05/30

The Covid Conundrum

Covid. Confinement. Economic necessity. Social unrest. End of confinement. Covid. Confinement. Economic necessity. Social unrest. End of confinement. Covid...

It reminds me of that meme which goes "You bomb people. People get angry. People bomb you. You get angry. You bomb people..."

The sheer idiocy of the human species provides free entertainment for millions of extra-terrestrials who come and park their spaceships outside the orbit of our space-junk satellites, tune in and giggle themselves....witless.

As I have said many times, and as I said in the cases of SARS (2002), Influenza A H1N1 (2009), MERS (2012), EVD (2013-2016) and now Covid, and if I were lazy I would just copy and paste what I wrote nearly two decades ago, the sheer idiocy shown by the world health authorities would be risible if it were not so catastrophic. Let me tell you a story...

Horrific virus breaks out of Amazon with 96% mortality rate

In Brazil, the BBB get Amazonlust in their hearts. The BBB are the brigade controlled by the Bói (Bull), Biblia (Bible) and Bala (Bullet) lobbies, those elitists who represent business in Brazil. Under Bolsonaro ("Covid is like getting a little dose of flu, or a cold. You have to face it like a Man, for fuck's sake, not like a kid") and yes he actually said that...under Bolsonaro the BBB is lined up and invading the Amazon rainforest. This doesn't make the international headlines but I have written about it here over and over again, I have published hundreds of stories about what is happening in the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru and Instituto Socioambiental, a Brazilian institution, has plenty of information on its excellent website. Today in Brazil, the indigenous peoples are being exterminated, starting with the kids so that they won't grow up.

It's a land grab, felling trees which have been reservoirs of viruses and bacteria for thousands of years to get land for cattle ranching, to sell wood and to grab the Amazon's huge resources, at the expense of its residents, despised by these elites. ("They're swinging around on trees, for fuck's sake, they should be brought to the cities and educated for their own good").

Patient One

The story starts with Marília, Patient One, a nurse vomiting copious quantities of blood, in violent projectile vomiting, her body racked in pain, before she starts screaming while gurgling blood in her throat, the strangest sound the world has ever heard, then falling to the ground in a strong fit, so strong four men could not hold her down. Her agony lasted twenty-three minutes, the corridor was smothered in blood from floor to ceiling. The autopsy showed that her entire inside had exploded, and her brain as well.

Within a month, everyone in the hospital was dead, patients and staff alike, with manifestations which ranged from suddenly dropping dead while clutching the head, urinating and defecating themselves as they stood bolt-upright with their legs and arms twitching like some kind of break dance, then collapsing, suddenly bleeding torrents of blood from the eyes, nose, anus, ears or else violent projectile vomiting empying their blood vessels within minutes.

AmaViD-25

They called it Amazon Virus 2025.12 because it broke out in December 2025, then changed its name to AmaViD-25 (Amazon Virus December 2025). Mortality rate 96 per cent. The indigenous peoples had co-existed with it for thousands of years and survived by avoiding any contact with a species of a hitherto-undiscovered shrew-like animal which carried the virus and which they kept in a restricted area by feeding the animals, so that they would not need to go astray.

When that part of the forest was felled, the shrew-like creatures, with a prolific reproduction rate, broke out and with it, Patient One's husband, Pedro, who was infectious without symptoms and who cut himself with a saw, was taken to the hospital where Marília worked, infected her, and died the following day with the same symptoms which suddenly came on. He ate lunch normally and by tea-time he was dead.

The local authorities treated the outbreak as some kind of Haemorrhagic Dengue and the alarm was given that something strange was happening when it was far too late. With an incubation period of between five days and 31 days, the main cities of Central Brazil were infected and by the time the World Health Organization had swung into action, fifty million people were dead, rising later to 150 million before the rest of the country enforced isolation with armed gangs roaming the state borders and isolating cities, and parts of cities, in a feudal gang system.

The World Health Organization urged caution and vigilance but did not recommend any restrictive measures on travel or trade. Soon, the outbreak had spread to Paraguay and Bolivia. The World Health Organization urged caution and vigilance but did not recommend any restrictive measures on travel or trade. Argentina and Venezuela were next. The World Health Organization urged caution and vigilance but did not recommend any restrictive measures on travel or trade. Then Colombia and the United States of America. The World Health Organization urged caution and vigilance but did not recommend any restrictive measures on travel or trade. The World Health Organization stated that the outbreak had reached Phase 1, then 2, then 3, then 4. The World Health Organization urged caution and vigilance but did not recommend any restrictive measures on travel or trade. Transatlantic travel brought the virus to London, Paris, Tokyo and Johannesburg. The World Health Organization notified that the virus had reached pandemic phases 5 and 6. The World Health Organization urged caution and vigilance but did not recommend any restrictive measures on travel or trade.

End of story

Extreme, unrealistic? Not really. It is exactly what happens in these cases, lock, stock and barrel. It is almost as if someone was ushering the virus around the world before a pharmaceutical company in the USA comes up with a contract to produce a wizzy medicine which national health systems spend billions on, and end up using just a fraction of the quantities they bought.

By January I was asking if this was the one, and asking whether it was wise to carry on with business as usual, in the same month those in charge of Health Services in certain countries were claiming that the stories about human-to-human transmission were exaggerated. I was asking why there was not a complete travel ban on China and the region where the virus broke out. I was asking whether it would be better in the long run to isolate the region totally and for cases of the outbreak to be isolated with total quarantine at state, region and district levels. "No, what about the aviation industry?" Well, look at it now. "How do you pay for it?" Well, there's money for submarines... NATO countries collectively spend one point two trillion USD per year each and every year on weapons systems. Sorry Dr. Brown, no cash available for your PPE, you'll just have to wear a shopping bag over your head. Someone will say something nice at your funeral. Actually they won't because Dr. Brown will not even have the honor of a proper service.

The world's health authorities, earning much more than me, did nothing except suggest "vigilance".

The solution

So what is the solution? With hindsight it is easy to sit here typing diatribes but in this case I have been saying the same thing for 18 years. In the case of Covid, we need to continue our health hygiene rules and social distancing but it is obvious that this is not enough, because countries breaking out of lockdown are experiencing outbreaks. So what the authorities need to do is to put together a nutrition plan per person per month, put together food packages (like the cesta básica de alimentação, or basic food hamper, in Brazil), organize delivery, and deliver it. It was done in the Soviet Union for decades, so why are countries incapable of doing it today, 30 years later?

And everybody stays at home for a month. Obviously there are exceptions but not the number we have today with thousands of people using public transportation and the numbers of infections rising all the time. With a thirty-day total quarantine, the virus disappears. Period. Then a month later the ecnomy gets back full swing. Using the current system of gradual release from confinement we are just prolonging the agony as we lurch from outbreak to outbreak and second, third and fourth waves.

Hopefully some time soon Humankind will find someone with intelligence to formulate policy. Until then, just look at us...

Photo: By Unknown author - work of the US government: https://ift.tt/3gDd4b5, Public Domain, https://ift.tt/36LQ5WS

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Farewell, School: Russian Prom Girls

2020/05/29

Почти четыре десятка выпускниц разных лет

This year school graduation parties will be held online, poor kids… But let us show you some photos of prom girls who celebrated farewell parties years before.

Почти четыре десятка выпускниц разных лет

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Почти четыре десятка выпускниц разных лет

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US shale oil companies wipe tears away with fists

2020/05/29

The USA has ceased to be a free market country - the market is being regulated depending on political considerations. Shale oil companies serve a vivid example to that.

Shale oil investment cut in half

In 2020, global investment in energy will be cut by $400 billion, which will be the largest annual decline in history, a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) says.

American shale companies will be affected more than others, capital investment in US-based shale oil makers will be decreased twice, the report says.

Hundreds of oil rigs have stopped their work, and since March, oil production in the United States has fallen by nearly two million barrels per day.

Top managers of the shale industry live beyond their means

However, while thousands of shale oil employees are becoming unemployed, the management of those companies continues to receive millions of dollars in salaries, Reuters reports. For example, National Oilwell Varco Inc. CEO, Clay Williams, received $3.3 million in February, despite the fact that company's revenues since 2017 fell by two-thirds.

Chesapeake Energy's management received an award worth $25 million at the end of the quarter, but the company simultaneously announced potential bankruptcy. Whiting Petroleum announced bankruptcy on April 1, but its top managers took care of receiving cash bonuses worth $14.6 million.

Large shale oil makers have the same "problems." According to a new report from the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), four out of the five largest oil companies operating in the shale industry paid investors more dividends than they earned in the first quarter of this year. For example, Chevron made a profit of $1.6 billion, and paid $4 billion in dividend.

What is worse, the company planned to cut from 10 to 15 percent of its workforce in the shale industry in order to meet the projected levels of activity, Reuters says.

This is not a one-time coronavirus-related underlying condition, but the practice of the last ten years, IEEFA analysts write in their report.

"These five companies generated $340 billion in free cash flows from 2010 through 2019, while rewarding their shareholders with $556 billion in share buybacks and dividends-leaving a $216 billion cash flow deficit that these companies covered with other sources, including new borrowing and asset sales," the authors of the report note.

Who dared to destroy USA's new weapon?

This business model, which is not typical of capitalism, suggests that the shale industry in the United States has long been kept afloat by the state through toxic loans for political reasons.

The United States positions itself as the country that has become the largest oil exporter (13 million barrels per day), which supposedly allows it to keep "totalitarian states" - such as Russia and Saudi Arabia - in fear.

Excess supplies and administrative resources allowed the United States to dictate its rules on the oil market by 2020 ("buy our oil"). However, the coronavirus nullified that ambition. This explains why the Donald Trump administration is so outraged by the "Wuhan flu"  - the Americans even ventured to announce a grant in order to prove that "the Russians are underestimating their COVID-19 victims." Was it the Russians and the Chinese who masterfully destroyed the new powerful weapon of the USA?

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Russia’s GDP collapses by 12% in April

2020/05/29

Last month, Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) dropped  by 12 percent in annual terms, the Ministry of Economy reported. The economic decline for January-February was estimated at 1.9 percent.

According to the Ministry of Economy, the non-working period was introduced in Russia to combat the spread of the coronavirus infection in March 30. The lockdown regime was thus implemented against the backdrop of the generally negative external economic situation and lockdown measures in the countries that usually act as trade partners of the Russian Federation.

The demand fell most in the sectors that are primarily focused on consumer demand:

  • The volume of paid services that were provided to the population fell by 37.9 percent%;
  • In March, the same indicator was reported on the level of -5.4 percent;
  • The fall is due to restrictions in the work of companies operating in the field of entertainment and leisure, culture, sports and domestic services, the department noted.

According to preliminary estimates, in the first quarter, Russia's GDP grew by 1.6 percent. According to the Ministry of Economy, economic growth made up 1.8 percent. In the second quarter, the department expects a decline of at least 9.5 percent. The Central Bank predicted a decline of eight percent in GDP in the second quarter of 2020, and by 4-6 percent - by the end of the year. International rating agency Fitch expects Russia's GDP to fall by five percent in 2020.

Russian economy may not be able to restart after pandemic

On Thursday, business ombudsman Boris Titov presented a report to Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that the decline in Russia's GDP may reach 5.5 percent in 2020 compared to last year.

"Russia has faced a double blow to its economy, in addition to the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and restrictive measures. The sharp drop in oil prices and other resources has affected the economy considerably too. As a result of the negative consequences that the spread of the coronavirus infection COVID-19 has shown on the economy, the fall in oil prices, as well as due to the absence of active and large-scale stimulating policies, it is expected that the decline in Russia's GDP in 2020 (-5.5%) will be greater than the global average indicator (-3%)," the report says.

The results of Russia's economic development over the past ten years have led to insignificant growth in GDP and investment in fixed assets, while the real disposable income of the population before the coronavirus crisis was on a low level. "Therefore, despite the fact that the projected decline in GDP to -5.5 percent does not seem so significant, it will be a dramatic decline for the Russian economy," the report from the business ombudsman said.

The Russian economy faced the current crisis after a decade of stagnation, in contrast to the crisis of 2008-2009. Since 2008, Russia's GDP has grown by eleven percent, while the world average cumulatively increased by 45 percent (70 percent - in developing countries).

In addition, in 2013-2016, real disposable income of the population on average was decreasing by 1.2 percent annually and, despite a slight increase in subsequent periods, by the end of 2019 the income of the population was at the level of 2011. At the same time, in most other countries, the growth in real disposable income was 1.5-2 percent on average over the above-mentioned period.

From 2008 to 2014, the share of investments in fixed assets in Russia decreased by 0.6 percentage points, despite the fact that by 2019 this figure increased to 24.3 percent, Russia is still inferior to many developing countries.

The report notes that in order to maintain the potential of the Russian economy and successfully restart it after the pandemic, an active stimulating policy and implementation of a new strategy of growth, unrelated to oil and gas income, as well as expansion in the volume and quality of support for businesses against the backdrop of the pandemic and low oil prices are required.

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Antonov An-178 to replace the good old An-12

2020/05/29

The development of the short-haul transport aircraft Antonov An-178 began in 2010. It should have replaced the legendary An-12, which has been in operation for almost 70 years. The aircraft is being created on the basis of the passenger An-158 airplane.

The An-178 has a length of almost 33 meters and a wingspan of about 29 meters. This is the high-winged aircraft with a T-shaped tail. Its maximum payload is 18 tons (one hundred soldiers, three trucks, or two sea containers).

The aircraft is capable of flying at a speed of 825 km/h over distances of up to 5,500 kilometers; flight altitude can reach up to 12 kilometers.

The airplane is equipped with two D-436-148FM turbofan engines with a thrust of 14 tons each , which will also be installed on board the An-188.

The first prototype, in which the lion's share of Russian equipment was used, was assembled in 2014. Imported parts will be used for serial airplanes. The An-178 took off for its maiden flight in the spring of 2015. By the end of the same year, the works on the second aircraft was underway, but due to lack of funding, it was never completed. Nevertheless, the aircraft was displayed at Farnborough air show in 2018 in the UK and at Le Bourget in France in 2019.

In 2019, the works on the An-178 resumed. There are already has 69 orders for this plane  from China, Peru, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

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Russia works on new MiG LMFS fifth-generation fighter jet

2020/05/29

The development of the multi-purpose stealth fighter MiG LMFS began in 2015. This is going to be the fifth-generation fighter that will execute the functions of MiG-29 and MiG-35 aircraft. The aircraft will be based on the technology used for the development of the Soviet MiG-1.44, which was far ahead of its time.

"MiG-LMFS" is designed with front horizontal stabilizers. They will be placed just above the wing to stabilize air flow in front of it. As it is believed, the aircraft should have a triangular wing and a V-tail. With a takeoff mass of about 15 tons, it will be able to take up to 5 tons of payload, for example, medium-range K-77M missiles.

The airplane will be armed with a 30 mm caliber cannon. The fighter is to be equipped with two VK-10M turbojet units with a total thrust of 20 tons. In the future, a single Product-30 engine with the afterburner power of 18 tons can be used. This engine was developed for the Sukhoi Su-57 fighter and currently undergoes flight tests.

The MiG-LMFS will be able to overcome up to 4,000 kilometers at a speed of 2,500 km/h. All the delivered ordnance will be placed inside the aircraft, which will positively affect its stealthiness.

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Is there such thing as too much information?

2020/05/29

For hundreds of years, we've seen more information as a strictly good thing; educated people make better decisions, live longer, and can feasibly be happier. But is there such a thing as too much information?

In some ways, the distribution of information defines our society. These days, there are many ways of distributing information, from sending out booklets to individuals by mail, to reading news online. In areas of the world with free and uncensored access to information, individuals can get access to as much information as they'd like, instantly learning about world events, delving into esoteric history, or even having a conversation with someone who doesn't speak their language. 

Journalism of assertion 

One unintended side effect is "journalism of assertion," a term coined by Tom Rosenstiel in the book Blur. In conventional journalism, or "journalism of verification," a journalist's primary obligation is to report the truth. Accuracy and context are extremely important, and stories cannot or should not be published without careful vetting. 

But in a world with widespread, instantly available information, priorities change. Newspapers and journalistic institutions find it harder to generate revenue without print, and because anyone with some extra time can build a website, there's more competition than ever before. To survive, media outlets must prioritize immediacy and volume, compromising the careful vetting process that would otherwise be in place. This leads to lower quality of information in favor of higher quality, which could arguably have a net negative effect. 

Social media information overload

It's also worth noting that the sheer volume of information available on social media is harmful-and in many ways. People can see stories shared by their entire network of friends, family members, and colleagues, and in some cases, must deal with instantly posted comments on their own posts. Additionally, individuals are vulnerable to scrutiny by people all over the world, with little room for deep, meaningful interactions. 

These are just some of the reasons why social media is associated with depression and loneliness in moderate to heavy users. 

Algorithms and outrage

On a related note, social media platforms, search engines, and other platforms are increasingly using algorithms to determine which stories and posts to show to which users. These algorithms are understandably driven to keep users as interested and engaged as possible, but this has an unfortunate side effect: it leads algorithms to show users stories and posts which evoke the biggest emotional response, since high emotions are associated with more engagement and higher interest. 

Ultimately, this creates environments where people are selectively shown stories, posts, and other forms of information that make them feel outraged, depressed, or conversely, overjoyed. In the short-term, this exposure can feel exhilarating, but in the long-term, it can be mentally distressing and produce a distorted perception of how the outside world actually functions. 

Echo chambers

Algorithms are one of several factors that lead to the development of strong echo chambers-another byproduct of excessive availability of information. 

Intuitively, it's tempting to think that having access to more information would make people better-rounded and exposed to a diversity of different kinds of thinking. In reality, it can do the opposite. With more information and more channels in which they can discuss it, people are driven to seek out only the sources and communities that universally agree with them. They can easily filter out sources of conflicting information or differing perspectives, and focus exclusively on sources that confirm their beliefs. 

In the long-term, this leads to distorted perceptions, less diversity of thought, and higher levels of political and philosophical polarization. 

Fake news

If the total number of news stories written is increasing, and the percentage of inaccurate or "fake" news stories is remaining the same, it stands to reason that another byproduct of more news stories would be more fake news stories. 

Fake news is a problem worthy of exploration in its own article, but suffice it to say, even a single fake news article can have a massive effect on public perceptions. This is due to not only gullible individuals, but also the nuanced effects of the illusory truth effect on all of us. 

The solutions

Looking at these problems and complications, it seems as though there is such a thing as too much information-that too much information is a bad thing. But this isn't necessarily the case. Instead, we need to treat these as negative, limited side effects of what is otherwise a very good thing: a more educated, better informed general public. 

Unfortunately, easy solutions are hard to come by. Censorship isn't an option, nor is any kind of high-level information restriction. Instead, we need to work collaboratively as individuals, governmental organizations, and companies to devise new ways to mitigate the consequences of the information age.

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Russia starts building first strategic PAK DA flying wing bomber

2020/05/29

Russia proceeded to the construction of the first prototype of strategic stealth bomber aircraft as part of the Advanced Long-Range Aviation Complex. The new aircraft is known for the Russian initials as PAK DA, or Product 80).

Engineers already work on the cockpit of the new aircraft. The works are to be completed in 2021.

In December 2019, Russian Deputy Minister of Defense Alexei Krivoruchko announced that the Tupolev Design Bureau started working on design documentation, as well as parts and components for the prototypes of the PAK DA bomber. In February 2020, the official said that the first engine for the PAK DA would undergo block tests already this year.

The PAK DA strategic bomber is designed as the flying wing. Stealth technologies will be used for the new airplane. The PAK DA will carry existing and prospective strategic cruise missiles, high-precision air bombs, hypersonic weapons, as well as state-of-the-art communications and electronic warfare equipment. The aircraft will be able to develop subsonic speed of flight.

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USA continues war games to learn how to nuke Russia

2020/05/28

It was reported that the USA intends to continue its long-range missions of strategic nuclear bombers. Defense News publication makes a reference to a source in the United States Strategic Command of the US Armed Forces (USSTRATCOM).

First and foremost, it goes about training flights to the borders of Russia and China, as well as "nuclear bombing exercises," to conduct a nuclear attack on the Crimea and Kaliningrad, Murmansk and several territories of the Southern Federal District of the Russian Federation.

Officially, the US command conducts such events as part of activities to ensure the protection of NATO allies and contain potential adversaries. Noteworthy, the USA has been increasing the number of such flights lately.

Back in 1949, the US command developed the Operation Dropshot in case of war with the USSR. Starting from the second half of the 1950s, B-52 strategic bombers, which were used to transport nuclear missiles and bombs, would make regular long-distance flights over the borders of the Soviet Union.

The USA still follows Cold War traditions today. Not that long ago, it became known that at the end of Barack Obama's presidential term high-ranking military officials held war games, which suggested a global war with Russia.

USA wants to nuke Belarus first

As part of the games, American strategists came to conclusion that one of the first nuclear strikes needs to be carried out against Belarus, just to be on the safe side.

In 2019, B-52s were spotted in airspace over the Baltic waters close to the Kaliningrad region, and then near the Crimea. The purpose was nothing but 'training flights.'

Today, the USA intends to exist the Open Skies Treaty and simultaneously terminate the strategic offensive arms reduction treaty commonly referred to as START-3.

The USA is extremely concerned about Russia's new hypersonic weapons. Moreover, the USA wants Russia to destroy those new weapons. Moscow, however, has no intention to bid farewell to those arms.

As many experts believe, the USA will start a new arms race when it exists the START-3 treaty. No wonder, given the fact that this race has been in full swing lately anyway. International treaties restrain this process at a minimum level.

It was also reported that the USA can arrange live nuclear tests within a few months, at the request of the president.

US nuclear doctrine does not exclude offensive strike

The nuclear doctrine, which the United States amended a couple of years ago, currently admits a possibility of the nuclear strike to change the situation on the battlefield in USA's favor as quickly as possible. For the time being, however, the USA and Russia still preserve nuclear parity.

Russian strategic bombers retaliate regularly

Russian strategic bombers Tu-160 and Tu-95MS fly close to the borders of the United States too, just to say hi. Reportedly, the bombers fly towards the USA every year on July 4, to "congratulate" our American partners on Independence Day.

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Former governor sues Putin for dismissing him due to loss of trust

2020/05/28

The former head of Chuvashia, Mikhail Ignatiev, filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court of Russia, in which he disputed the decree, which Vladimir Putin had signed to dismiss Ignatiev from his post.

The news became a bombshell, because Ignatiev became the first ex-governor, who disputed Putin's decree on his dismissal by filing a lawsuit at the Supreme Court. There was a time, when governors sued president, but that was a very long time ago.

Putin's decree on Ignatiev's resignation due to the loss of trust was made public on January 29, 2020. It is not very often, when Putin uses the 'loss of trust' formulation in his decrees that dismiss regional heads from power.

In January 2020, Mikhail Ignatiev appeared in the news twice. At first, he stated that one needs to crackdown on journalists and bloggers from other regions who come to Chuvashia and then "start writing things". Ignatiev then apologized for his words, having said that his words had been misinterpreted.

A few days later, a video appeared on the Internet, in which Mikhail Ignatiev, the Governor of Chuvashia, makes an EMERCOM officer jump up to grab a key from new fire fighting vehicles as the governor was holding the key up above the officer's head. Soon afterwards, Ignatiev was expelled from the party and then dismissed from his post.

Out of the blue: Governor sues Putin

The former head of Chuvashia filed the lawsuit at the Supreme Court almost four months after his resignation. The news about the lawsuit was released by the press service of the court. Neither Mikhail Ignatiev, nor anyone from his representatives released any comments on the topic yet.

It was said that the court will consider the suit on June 30th. Vladimir Putin appears as administrative defendant in the case. The court returned the statement regarding requirements of the rights to additional social guarantees to the plaintiff ("due to non-cognizability to this court"). The lawsuit was accepted in the part, in which the former governor disputed the president's decree on the early termination of his powers.

Many say that Mikhail Ignatiev became the first former head of the region to have disputed his resignation in court. This is not quite true. In 1992, the sacked head of the Lipetsk region, Gennady Kuptsov, filed a lawsuit against then-president Boris Yeltsin. In 1993, the head of the Bryansk region, Yuri Lodkin, took the same path. Kuptsov won the case, and the Moscow City Court overturned the president's decision. However, the story took place in 1994, when the Lipetsk administration was headed by Mikhail Narolin, who had won the election in 1993. Therefore, Gennady Kuptsov simply could not return to his post.

Former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who was dismissed for the same reason in 2010, also threatened to file a lawsuit against then-President Dmitry Medvedev. However, Luzhkov had never said that in person - he never filed a lawsuit against Medvedev.

Mikhail Ignatiev, the former Governor of the Republic of Chuvashia, can hardly be recognized as one of the famous Russian governors. In fact, no one has ever heard of him before the above-mentioned scandals in January.

It was reported the other day that Mikhail Ignatiev was hospitalized in St. Petersburg. The former head of Chuvashia was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia. He remains in serious condition and has his lungs seriously deteriorated due to coronavirus infection.

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'Trump's One Saving Grace is That He Makes People Laugh': Kuznick

2020/05/28

'Trump's One Saving Grace is That He Makes People Laugh': Kuznick  

 

"People look at the U.S. as a failed state led by a clown, and either laugh at American citizens or pity them," regrets the American Historian Peter Kuznick, in another exclusive conversation with Pravda.ru, as the new coronavirus is spreading more and more in the United States, leaving a death toll not seen even in times of US wars.

"At least the notion of 'American exceptionalism' has finally been put to rest," points out the director of the Institute for Nuclear Studies at American University, in Washington D.C., as he scares the fact that his country leads the number of infections and deaths due to COVID-19, the worldwide epicenter of the pandemic since March 26. "That's not the kind of exceptionalism anyone wanted or imagined possible."

Up to May 21, the number of those infected in the US were 1,601,393, and now over 100,000 deaths since the first case of infection was found in the North American country, last 20 January.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump pressures for lifting the lockdown instead of focusing on increasing tests, which are dramatically insufficient, and providing more medical supplies like respirators and ventilators which are scarce at the center of global capitalism, as well as even face masks and tests.

According to Doctor Kuznick, the scarcity is due to the fact that capitalists profit exactly from it, not having surplus products or capacities. "They don't plan for crises or disasters when, if necessary, they have extra stocks and supplies." Nothing could best illustrate the capitalist system, like recent Ricardo Barros's words, former Brazil's Minister of Health: "Hospitals are almost breaking [in Brazil]. They have lost their normal movement, from elective surgery, traffic accidents fell a lot, which was a reason for hospital billing. We're breaking our entire hospital system financially because they can't do their normal work, and also have no COVID clients to occupy the beds."

Such words underline Doctor Kuznick's observations: "The health industry profits from human illness. The shortage of ventilators, masks, and tests around the world is an immediate example." He also points out that food and health are fundamental rights: "Global security starts with food and health," adds the expert. "One of the factors contributing to the skyrocketing death rate in the U.S. is the poor nutrition habits and lack of healthy, affordable food in many communities and resulting obesity epidemic throughout the country."   


In four months since the first coronavirus infection first infected a citizen in America, there are now more than 30 million unemployed in the country. And it is expected that, in the near future, 43 million citizens will be without health insurance, linked to employment in the North American country. "Most people's health insurance is irrationally tied to their jobs", says the historian. 


In a system that favors and encourages profit maximization, transforming everything into the business including basic rights such as education and health, hospital chaos has been a huge problem in the United States since mid-March as well as in practically the entire world, due to the number of patients hospitalized by COVID-19. 

"Charlotte Perkins Gilman described capitalism as a system that throws food away, while children are hungry," recalls the universitarian professor, who grants interviews to news media all over the world, day by day. "The super-rich and powerful are using the crisis to grab an even bigger share of the world's wealth" warns the world-renowned analyst, author of several books and co-author with filmmaker Oliver Stone of The Untold History of the United States, in this interview from his home in Bethesda (Maryland) to the Brazilian Journalist Edu Montesanti.


To combat the coronavirus, Trump has so far approved four economic aid packages, "disappointing and even scandalous" for the professor at the American University, who resonates with the vast majority of progressive sectors in the United States. "Once again, a disproportionate share was earmarked for large corporations and the rich", evaluates the researcher, who considers that humanity faces a deeply critical moment, "among the threats of nuclear war, climate change, pandemics, and generalized impoverishment".

"What kind of monster do we create? The dominant elites, supported by their public and private armies, have waged war against the earth's poor for centuries", observes Doctor Kuznick in the following conversation, who still comments on the global chaos of the food chain, and the frightening increase of hunger in the face of the pandemic. "Some form of democratic socialism must emerge from this catastrophe," he adds.


In the following lines, the full text of another exclusive Pravda.ru conversation with Professor Doctor Peter Kuznick, one of the world's most important contemporary analysts.

Edu Montesanti: World-renowned Historian, Professor Doctor Peter Kuznick, thank you so very much for once again joining our discussions, especially in the current too hard time to mankind.

Since we talked for the last time in late-March about the pandemic when the United States had just become the worldwide epicenter of the novel coronavirus, the virus has been spreading throughout in the U.S. even more dramatically. And there are now more than 26 million unemployed in the country. 


When you granted Pravda.ru 
that interview two months ago, you strongly criticized President Trump's response to the pandemic. Among other observations, you said: "His performance has been disgraceful". 


How do you evaluate Donald Trump's performance since then, and why the virus just grows vertiginously in America?

Professor Doctor Peter Kuznick: We have a problem in the United States describing Donald Trump's performance in the current crisis. We have simply run out of negative adjectives. What was "disgraceful" in March is now a combination of catastrophic, moronic, cringeworthy, appalling, and lethal. 

Perhaps the word "Trumpian" will enter the American lexicon and it will be defined as the most craven, tone-deaf, self-congratulatory, unempathetic, ignorant, dishonest, and totally incompetent behavior imaginable. 

The problem is not simply that Trump wasted two months fiddling while Rome burned when he could have been taking steps to limit the impact of the pandemic, the problem is that he hasn't learned from his mistakes and corrected his initial missteps and inactions. 

He has not, to the surprise of many who expected the autocratic president to seize as much power as possible in the face of the crisis, exercised the emergency powers he does have to command the economy and order production of the tests, equipment, and PPE the country desperately needs. 

Perhaps he is more afraid of showing that the government can actually help solve problems than he is of the possibility that tens of thousands will needlessly die as the result of his inaction. The U.S. is still only doing a fraction of the testing that all experts agree is necessary to control the virus and get people back to work and school even though Trump declared more than two months ago that everybody who needs a test can get a test. So his lies about testing and his gloating about the great job his administration is doing become more desperate and hyperbolic by the day. 

On top of that, he dispenses the most dangerous advice--take hydroxychloroquine to expedite healing--and offers the most chillingly absurd nostrums like drinking bleach to kill the virus. No wonder all the polls, including his own party's internal ones, show him trailing Joe "Let Me Out of Witness Protection" Biden by a substantial margin. The Republicans are worried that they'll lose the Senate too thanks to Trump's heartlessness and incompetence. 

I'm reminded of the fate of the president who oversaw the start of the last U.S. depression--Herbert Hoover. Unlike Trump, Hoover had at least been a highly competent and intelligent international mining engineer and wartime relief provider--the word "Hooverize" entered the lexicon after his massive WWI-era relief efforts meaning to economize for a noble purpose--who attempted unsuccessfully to steady the economy. But Hoover was viewed as being cold and aloof in the face of suffering and desperation. 

And he was thrashed at the polls by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Trump, on the other hand, is the least competent and intelligent man to occupy the Oval Office in more than a century and he compounds that by being totally callous in the face of human misery. 

His one saving grace is that he makes people laugh. He has become the object of scorn and derision around the world.  People look at the U.S. as a failed state led by a clown and either laugh at American citizens or pity them. At least the notion of "American exceptionalism" has finally been put to rest. 

The United States has sadly proven itself the world leader in one area--the number of cases of COVID-19 and the number of resulting deaths. That's not the kind of exceptionalism anyone wanted or imagined possible.

President Trump has signed up to now four coronavirus relief bills, totalizing an unprecedented US$ 3 trillion as a response to a crisis. However, there have been strong criticisms about those bills.  

Especially Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) deeply criticized the US$484 billion relief bill, passed on April 23. She voted against it, suggesting that the Republican Party lawmakers are not doing anything other than serving the wealthy and corporate interests of large companies, while, she has said, they continue to fight against substantial economic proposals that would meet to the needs of working-class families, low-income people, small businesses, and all those who are paying the highest price to the pandemic.

Various progressive groups sent a letter to Democratic lawmakers, urging them to vote against Republicans' bills, as it fails, according to them, to put the needs of people, families, and Main Street businesses ahead of corporate interests.

What are your thoughts on those bills, Doctor Kuznick?

From a progressive standpoint, the bills that have thus far passed are disappointing, even scandalous. The Republicans have learned something from Obama's bailout of the banks in 2009. They at least make it appear as if they're spreading the bailout money to help the unemployed and small businesses. But, once again, a disproportionate share has gone to the corporations and the wealthy. 

The Republicans, led by Trump, have fought against transparency and accountability. The corporate or centrist Democrats have been willing to go along. The progressive Democrats have offered more resistance. The response has been totally inadequate thus far and has done little to ease the suffering of working people. Unemployment has skyrocketed to 1930s levels, which is particularly devastating in the U.S. where most people's health insurance is irrationally tied to their jobs. 

There is a battle brewing over the next round of bailouts and how much to provide to the state and local governments that have borne the brunt of the expenses in combating the pandemic but can't simply print money or run huge deficits the way the federal government can. 

Now the Republicans, who gave a trillion-dollar tax break to the wealthiest Americans, are suddenly worried about deficits and are using that as an excuse for inaction. But further relief measures are inevitable. The question is who gets bailed out.

How neoliberalism and the capitalist system as a whole, can be blamed for the chaotic situation across the world nowadays before the pandemic? 

Many are blaming neoliberalism: do you see a structural problem of capitalism or a reformed one can solve the world's problems, and specifically related to the coronavirus?

The great American feminist thinker of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Charlotte Perkins Gilman described capitalism as a system that throws food away while children starve. She also condemned the vast inequality of wealth that characterized the period of the robber barons and plutocrats. 

But even she couldn't envision a world in which the richest 8 people have more wealth than the poorest 3.8 billion as we have now, one in which the richest one percent have twice the wealth of the bottom 90 percent. The problem has grown to unimaginable proportions and this has been by design. 

It is the result of four decades of the worst form of neoliberal predatory capitalism that began with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and has largely persisted to today. It is based on the belief that nothing should drive corporate behavior except maximizing profit. 

So the energy companies accrue vast fortunes by destroying the environment and the climate and are rewarded not punished. The defense contractors and military manufacturers profit off of war and killing. The health industry profits from human illness. Greed knows no bounds. 

What kind of a monster have we created? The ruling elites, backed by their public and private armies, have waged war against the poor of the earth for centuries. Rebellions and resistance have been crushed. Corporations have encroached upon nature, plundering the natural wealth of our planet. 

What the vile Brazilian Trump whisperer Bolsonaro is doing now to the Amazon is just the latest example. The destruction of natural habitats combined with the effects of global warming have brought people in closer contact with wild animals, further increasing the risk of diseases like COVID-19. 

We have seen social services, including health care, gutted around the world in the name of free enterprise and debt collection. Hospitals, too, are run on a profit-maximizing basis. They are businesses driven by the same motives as any other businesses. In normal times, having the kind of excess capacity that is so obviously needed in a crisis cuts into the profit margin. 

Now we are suffering the consequences. I don't see this system being reformed. We need to build on the base constructed by millions of workers over centuries and run this economy based on addressing societal needs and maximizing social good not on the basis of private greed and wealth accumulation. 

Some form of democratic socialism must emerge from this catastrophe.

Experts all over the globe have been differing in predicting which new world will emerge from this chaos, caused by the pandemic. In five months since the coronavirus has hit China, the world is facing an economic crisis comparable, for many, to the 1929 Great Depression. 

What do you expect to the world in the near future, Professor Doctor Kuznick?

Humanity is truly at a crossroads. Between the threats of nuclear war, climate change, pandemics, and widespread immiseration, the existential crisis has reached epic proportions. 

When former vice president Henry Wallace was driven from Truman's Cabinet in September 1946, removing the last hope of preventing the Cold War and nuclear arms race, he gave a national radio address explaining the stakes for humanity at that crucial juncture. 

He said, "Winning the peace is more important than high office...The success or failure of our foreign policy will mean the difference between life and death for our children and our grandchildren. It will mean the difference between life and death of our civilization. It may mean the difference between the existence and the extinction of man and of the world." 

Wallace was right. We lost the peace to the warmongers and have been lucky to survive as long as we have. But our destructive behavior has wreaked havoc upon our small, increasingly fragile planet. Humanity faces a choice today similar to the one Wallace outlined 74 years ago. 

That is why some of us have been circulating the COVID-19 Global Solidarity Manifesto. We're trying to rally people around the world to fight for the kind of peaceful, shared world that enables everyone to reach their creative potential--not one that plunders and exploits the masses to enrich the few. Which world we end up with is up to us. 

The "leaders" have all revealed themselves to be not up to the task. They are each jockeying to use this to enhance their own stature and national prestige and power. What we need is leaders who speak for the planet or for the people of the earth to take matters into their own hands. 

The future will either be utopian or dystopian. If we continue down the same path we were heading before this latest crisis, the future will be bleak. But if enough people wake up to the insanity that characterized pre-COVID-19 business as usual, there is still hope. 

Super-rich and powerful

The super-rich and powerful are using the crisis to grab an even bigger share of the world's wealth. They are devising new means of repression to make this possible. We must not let them succeed. It is time for all nations to work together to ensure a different kind of future. 

In 1942, in the midst of the Second World War, President Roosevelt laid out a postwar vision of four "policemen"--the U.S., the Soviet Union, Britain, and China--maintaining peace and security in the postwar world. We don't need policemen, but we do need collaborative leadership on a global scale. 

What we have now is instead a dog-eat-dog competition with new cold wars emerging between the U.S. and China and the U.S. and Russia and a looming hot war between the U.S. and Japan. World leaders are applying a 20th-century concept of geopolitics and national security to a 21st-century world in which the threats are of a fundamentally different nature. 

Trump is certainly the main instigator, but he has plenty of accomplices.

The UN predicts 2020 will end with 130 million more people starving, so we will have almost one billion people hungry in the world then. In what way the measures to contain the spread of the virus, have underlined the extreme vulnerability of the global food supply chain? Edu--please check these figures. I think they may be too high based on the UN figures I've seen.

The current pandemic has not only brought the vulnerability of the global food supply chain into the light of day, but it has also made clear the vulnerability of the entire global supply chain across the board, including food, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and health care. 

Capitalists profit from scarcity and not having surplus products or capacities. They don't plan for crises or disasters when if is necessary to have stockpiled extra supplies and provisions. The shortage of ventilators, masks, and tests around the world is an immediate example. Global security begins with food and health. 

Henry Wallace understood this better than anybody. He came from a great Iowa farm family. His father was Secretary of Agriculture in the 1920s. Henry was Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture during the New Deal. He restored American farm production. He also worked as a plant geneticist. It was his hybrid corn that would eventually feed the world. He understood the intimate connection between food and peace better than anyone. 

Agricultural production disrupted

But now agricultural production is being disrupted as are the global supply chains that distribute the food. There is little protection for agricultural workers against the disease. Many are falling ill. Others have stopped working due to fear of contracting the disease or because of lockdown. 

The main problem right now, however, seems to be food distribution and not food supply. The situation is especially dire in conflict zones, countries suffering from climate change, and countries already suffering from extreme poverty. But even in more prosperous places there are alarming signs as farmers slaughter their own pigs as meat processing plants close down or dump milk and other products because of sharply reduced demand from restaurants. 

What we really need to be doing is learning the lesson of the need for improved nutrition during this pandemic. One of the factors contributing to the skyrocketing death rate in the U.S. is the poor nutrition habits and lack of healthy, affordable food in many communities and the resulting obesity epidemic throughout the country. 

So once again we have an opportunity to take advantage of this crisis to do some good. Trump declares "mission accomplished," but the struggle is really just beginning.

Photo: By Kevin Wong - Self-photographed, Public Domain, https://ift.tt/3gyfvvo

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