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Two years on: Hope in the midst of heartache – Venezuela Crisis Response Report 2019-2020 – Colombia – ReliefWeb

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

Leaders Message

The COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the world physically, emotionally, and economically. And Latin America has been hit particularly hard. Migrant and refugee populations are feeling it the worst especially the children among them. Hunger and hardship reign as living conditions deteriorate for millions of families.

As of November 2020, nearly 5.5 million Venezuelans have ed the country seeking food, work, protection, and a more stable life. And about 7 million people inside Venezuela need humanitarian assistance. A recent World Vision survey of Venezuelan children in seven countries revealed that one in three of them goes to bed hungry. For those living in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Venezuela, a lack of food and basic hygiene supplies, the fear of being evicted, and the absence of education is their everyday reality. We believe that restoring hope to the most vulnerable is the key to reversing this tragic trend of poverty and heartache brought on by societal collapse and a global pandemic.

Our multi-country response to the Venezuela crisis, Hope Without Borders, has brought hope to more than 455,000 Venezuelans and host-community residents since January 2019. Over the past two years, more than 115 World Vision staff and countless partners, community leaders, and volunteers expanded our response from one to six host countries and registered and grew our presence in Venezuela. The global response remains one of the least-funded crises in the world$648 million (U.S.) received of $1.4 billion required. For our part, World Vision has managed to nearly triple our budget from about $12 Million in 2019 to almost $34 million in 2020.

This report is testimony of the effectiveness of collaboration to ease the burden for and bring hope to those suffering most in this crisis. It is also proof of the overwhelming needs still at hand. The backbone of our work in Venezuela is the collaboration with Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs). In the midst of institutional failure, churches and other FBOs act as lifelines close to the needs of the most vulnerable.

Well-intentioned efforts to help struggling families endure this double crisis and break out of the cycle of poverty must be met with serious funding commitments by donors, private and public alike. As you read the following pages highlighting two years of impact by World Visions Venezuela Crisis Response, we hope you will be moved to walk with us to continue to bring hope to the most vulnerable children and families caught up in the Venezuela crisis.

Joao Diniz,Regional Leader World Vision Latin America

Fabiano Franz,Director World Visions Venezuela Migrant and Refugee Crisis Response

Two years on: Hope in the midst of heartache - Venezuela Crisis Response Report 2019-2020 - Colombia - ReliefWeb

Biden Inherits Family Separation Crisis From Trump – The New York Times

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

I can hardly wait for the day when I will wake up from this nightmare, said Xiomara, 34, who spoke on condition that she be identified only by her first name because of security concerns.

One of her last acts of motherhood was to bathe and dress her daughter, after being told by border officials that Briselda, then 8, would be taken away. She said she watched helplessly as officials escorted Briselda to join a line of children, most of them crying, who were waiting to board a van bound for the airport.

For her daughters safety, Xiomara said she had preferred that Briselda remain in the United States with family rather than return to her in El Salvador. They are in regular contact over WhatsApp, she said, but the distance has taken an emotional toll, and Xiomara has battled depression and recently started seeing a therapist.

Others continue to suffer repercussions despite being reunited.

Fifteen days passed before Oscar, an immigrant from Honduras who was locked up in McAllen, Texas, heard from his son, Daniel, then 8, from whom he had been separated.

I felt mad. I was going crazy, recalled Oscar, 35, who spoke on condition that he be identified only by his middle name.

On a tearful call, his son told him he was staying in a shelter in Houston. Father and son were reunited after 33 days, thanks to a judges order, and they moved to Charlotte, N.C.

Since then, Oscar has been grappling with how to help his son, whom he described as not the same boy since we were separated. Daniel runs away whenever he sees someone in police uniform and wakes up screaming at night, Oscar said.

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Biden Inherits Family Separation Crisis From Trump - The New York Times

Britain should welcome Hongkongers, but not the ‘good migrant’ narrative – The Guardian

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

Ministers swell with pride as they speak of profound ties of history and friendship, while polling shows that a substantial majority of Britons are in favour and newspaper headlines are overwhelmingly positive.

Immigration has always been a contentious issue in Britain. So why, as the UK opens a path to citizenship for millions of Hong Kong residents, is it different this time?

Hong Kong Chinese are seen as a model minority, successors to the status of Ugandan Asians: a thrifty, entrepreneurial and family-oriented community who will skimp to send their children to private schools and boost Britains economic fortunes, while quietly demonstrating that other ethnic minorities could be equally successful if they worked a little harder.

Journalists have been briefed that Priti Patel, daughter of Ugandan Asians, sees this as personal, and a headline in the Times made the link explicit: Hong Kong crisis: Ugandan Asians offer golden example.

Britain is doing the right thing. But the good migrant narrative coalescing around the Hong Kong Chinese is risky for them as well as for other British people of colour.

The impulses behind this narrative combine the imperial nostalgia that helped power Brexit, an importing of US conservative politics, and a racialised caricature of why the Asian tiger economies Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea have been so successful.

First, the imperial element. Hong Kongs achievement is seen as an extension of empire, based on the attractions of the English language and rule of law. As the Adam Smith Institute fellow Sam Bowman put it: under British rule, it enjoyed property rights and the rule of law, which made it a magnet for Chinese refugees fleeing the communist regime.

There is a grain of truth in this account, though it ignores the crucial geographic and economic facts that underpin Hong Kongs position today. The territory is the conduit between global capital and Chinas largely closed financial system. This role will continue to fuel Hong Kongs economy even if many of its people leave for Britain, and it is not a business they can export with them.

Both Hong Kong and Singapore adapted elements of their colonial heritage and made them work for their economic benefit. Both places have also deployed colonial laws to repress their people. Last September, the Hong Kong democracy activist Tam Tak-chi, a former radio presenter known as Fast Beat, was charged under a sedition law, the Crimes Ordinance, brought in by the British to curb dissent. If were going to remember imperial history, lets do so in full.

Second, being generous to Hongkongers neatly complements the Conservative partys new obsession, a hawkish attitude to China. The China Research Group, launched last year by a group of Conservative MPs, makes valid criticisms of Chinas human rights abuses and Beijings cavalier attitude to international law. But the launch of this group is also a signal of a pricklier and more combative turn in British conservative attitudes to Beijing, echoing the hostility to China in US Republican circles.

Third, there is a simplified version of the tigers story that emphasises the natural abilities of hardworking people allied to Confucian culture. This is a modern-day version of old-fashioned stereotypes about colonial races.

In 1915, an Australian management consultant who had just toured factories in an Asian country fretted about the quality of its workforce. The workers, he concluded, were a very satisfied easy-going race who reckon time is no object. The country in question was Japan, and the story, told in Ha Joon Changs Bad Samaritans, is a reminder of the fluidity of the cultural narratives we use to explain the world.

The success of places like Hong Kong and Singapore has to do with effective governance and astute economic policy decisions, such as containerising their ports earlier than competitor nations and focusing on export-oriented industrialisation. Harnessing the talent and efforts of their labour force is a part of this story. But this, too, is a consequence of policy rather than innate genius. An exceptional education is part of the answer here: Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea all rank among the highest-performing school systems in the world, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Hongkongers will reshape our societies in ways that we cant predict. Postwar Commonwealth migration, including the arrival of Ugandan Asians, helped bring about a reckoning with race relations that sought to tackle Britains deep-seated racism. More recently, eastern European migration was exploited to drum up anti-EU sentiment.

One of my closest friends is the son of migrants from Hong Kong and Singapore. His Hong Kong Chinese mother fulfilled one part of the immigrant dream by working as a nurse to put her son through the best (private) education she could afford. She was baffled, to put it mildly, when my friend pursued an erratic career as a film-maker and visual artist rather than choose a more secure and lucrative profession.

The point of this anecdote is that people are people, with all of the complex desires and varied talents that this implies. It is risky to assume that an infusion of Hong Kong migration will give Britain an entrepreneurial rocket boost. Worse, a handful of cherrypicked success stories could easily become a stick to beat others with.

Hongkongers seeking a new life in Britain are not economic assets. The reason to welcome them is, simply, because it is just. And their freedom should include the freedom to be a slacker.

Britain should welcome Hongkongers, but not the 'good migrant' narrative - The Guardian

COVID-19 was a big test for UN migration initiatives. Did they succeed? – Open Democracy

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

During the springtime lockdowns in Europe, a poem-turned-video you clap for me now, went viral. Its message was to protect the migrants in the EU, who work to keep home-office populations safe, but who often face discrimination and stigmatization.

Between 13% and a third of essential workers are migrants.

Many are left behind in terms of access to unemployment benefits and spiral into hunger, poverty, isolation, and illness. Out of 250,000 undocumented migrants in Switzerland, 90,000 have not accessed healthcare during the pandemic, for fear of being detected, denounced and deported.

Migrants are at a triple loss by the pandemicnot only are their jobs more precarious, their journeys more perilous, but they also face twice the risk of contracting the virus than non-migrant populations.

At the peak of the refugee crisis in 2015/16, some EU Member States raised the resettlement conflict to the UN in the hopes that sharing responsibility for large population movements would be resolved more evenly at the global level. This led to the formation of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM). The GCM figures as the first UN-led global instrument entirely devoted to international migration, which, even if not legally binding, restates the existing international legal obligations on migration and provides a benchmark of where the protection of migrants human rights currently stands at.

The UN Agenda 2030, is a non-binding UN instrument, adopted in 2015, which commits states to achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Though the Agenda does not have a particular focus on migration, it does address issues that are vital to migrant rights such inequality, labor and education, calling for well-managed migration policies that facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility. Other goals include eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality as well as health, and well being.

In 2020, COVID-19 was a big test for these UN initiatives. But have they proven useful in the response to the global pandemic especially in protecting migrants?

Surprisingly little can be found in the GCMs 23 objectives about mitigating the effects of a public health emergency, including COVID-19 on migrants. Data about how COVID-19 affects the migration lifecycle is still scant. The GCMs objectives are still far from being achieved, especially when it comes to access to basic services, empowering migrants or eliminating discrimination. In its current form, the GCM is more set to strengthen the global governance of migration under the auspices of the International Organisation for Migration rather than allow a deviation from it.

States like Italy, Portugal and Spain, have been experimenting with regularising undocumented migrant populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is no international framework to monitor and review these one-off programs.

They remain subject to potential arbitrariness, fraud by employers or selectiveness.

For instance, in Italy protection only included undocumented migrants who work in the frontlines, leaving out those working in construction or logistics. More global oversight can help avoid such arbitrary or short sighted decisions and to make sure the rights of migrants are protected and health prevention during the pandemic is insured.

In addition to Italy, Portugal also regularised the status of undocumented migrants who were carrying out frontline functions, including harvesting, healthcare and domestic work. Likewise, Spain considers normalising its roughly 430,000 undocumented migrants. It is no coincidence that the pandemic prompted the city councils of Geneva and Zurich to finally implement a city card for the undocumented, allowing them to seek emergency health care and allowing their children to access schools.

Clearly, to regularise status, means improving access of migrants to health, education, food, and shelter. Yet, the EU return directive only justifies case-by-case authorisations of stay for compassionate, humanitarian or other reasons.

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COVID-19 was a big test for UN migration initiatives. Did they succeed? - Open Democracy

Police searched my baby’s nappy’: migrant families on the perilous Balkan route – The Guardian

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

An Afghan girl pulls her baby sister along in a pram through the mud and snow. Saman is six and baby Darya is 10 months old. They and their family have been pushed back into Bosnia 11 times by the Croatian police, who stripped Darya bare to check if the parents had hidden mobile phones or money in her nappy.

They searched her as though she were an adult. I could not believe my eyes, says Daryas mother, Maryam, 40, limping through the mud and clinging to a stick.

The Guardian followed the journey of Darya and that of dozens of other migrant children who, every day, walk, or are carried on their parents backs through the snowy paths that cross the woods around Bosanska Bojna, the last Bosnian village before the Croatian border, in an attempt to reach an increasingly inhospitable central Europe. Few families are successful. Most of them are stopped by Croatian police, searched, allegedly often robbed and, sometimes violently, pushed back into Bosnia, where, for months, thousands of asylum seekers have been stranded in freezing temperatures, without running water or electricity.

In December, fire destroyed a migrant camp in Bosnia, making the situation worse.

Out of a total of about 8,000 migrants in Bosnia, about 2,000 people are basically left to fend for themselves in abandoned buildings, squats, makeshift settlements and in forests, Nicola Bay, the Danish Refugee Councils Bosnia director, says. These people include families, children and unaccompanied minors that have practically no shelter, no access to basic services and no access to proper healthcare.

According to the council, in 2020 more than 800 children were pushed back by the Croatian authorities, including many under the age of six. The number of families living on the border between Croatia and Bosnia has increased considerably in recent months, and thus the number of children.

Most of those in transit have come from Greece, where a new law approved by Athens last year has stymied the administrative procedures for the recognition of refugee status. Tired of waiting, just when they thought their odyssey had ended, it has pushed many to get back on the road and try to reach the heart of the European Union through the Balkans.

Its very difficult to have a complete overview on the motivations pushing people to leave Greece and move north to the Balkan road to reach other destinations in Europe, says Stephan Oberreit, head of mission at Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) in Greece, but its clear that increasing delays in the asylum processes and in family reunification claims, the appalling living conditions, and lack of protection and integration lead people to continue their perilous journeys until they find safety and dignity.

It is a strenuous journey, crossing mountains and snow-covered forests, with virtually no welcoming facilities for migrants. Many of the children of the migrant crisis living in abandoned or destroyed houses in Bosanska Bojna today were born along the route, like Darya, whose name means sea, and who was born in Lesbos before a blaze in September destroyed the Moria camp.

We were tired of waiting for the Greek authorities to consider our asylum application, says Hasan, 52, the father of Darya and her six siblings, who left Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, a year and a half before. Hasan says that if there had been no war in his country, he would never have found himself in these forests, watching Croatian policemen search Daryas nappy the searching of babies being a common practice, according to the watchdog organisation Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN).

Although, in most cases, women and children are not directly subjected to physical violence by the Croatian authorities, they are still subjected to what can be described as psychological violence, abuse and humiliation, a field coordinator for BVMN, says. Women and young girls have reported being searched everywhere by male Croatian police officers. Moreover, there are incidents in which the police have searched childrens clothes or babies nappies, thinking their parents have hidden phones or money.

On 16 October 2019, two Palestinian and Syrian families were stopped near the village of Glina, Croatia, and forced to undress. The children were also searched and the babies diapers had to be removed. They were naked, in the forest, in the middle of the night, one told BVMN. In October, BVMN reported the case of an Afghan mother who described feeling uncomfortable when the male officers touched her body to look for phones and money, and then when an officer stuck his hand into the nappy of her 11-month-old baby boy.

We also have had a significant number of cases of women, some of them underage girls, being forced to strip by the Croatian police, Bay says. Their father is asked to cover them with a blanket. When you listen to their testimonies, they say, Im covering my teenage daughter with a blanket, but theres obviously one part of the blanket where you can see through, because you cant pull it all the way around and theres a policeman standing right there.

Numerous women say they were beaten in front of their children, who were also pushed around.

During the last pushback, my four-year-old son, Milad, asked the police for water, Maryam tells the Guardian. But the Croatians denied him, took him by the shoulder and pushed him away. I tried to react and explain to them that they couldnt do it. Then they kicked me on the back and I rolled to the ground. Today, we will try to cross the border again and inshallah, we hope to make it.

On the road that leads from the Bosanska Bojna valley to the Croatian forest trails, other families leave their shelters and set off again with their entourage of children and strollers. Today, we go for game! yells a smiling six-year-old.

Although there is little fun, the game is what migrants call the crossing from Bosnia into Croatia so that their children see it as a sort of adventure, with the aim of not being caught by the men in black uniforms who hide in the woods. The goal is to reach an elusive place called France, Italy or the UK. In the frost and the mountains, they are encouraged by their parents to play, chasing each other and climbing trees.

But in the late evening, when the children return to their wet and crumbling shelters in Bosanska Bojna, after being pushed back once again by Croatian police, it is easy to see that they did not have fun.

Families including children, the elderly, women and young men who experience this brutality will carry the psychological trauma with them for years, says Maham Hashmi, an MSF humanitarian officer. They will always have in mind that Europe brutalised them instead of protecting them and their right to seek asylum.

The most common mental health issues that we observe among children on the move are related to symptoms of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress as a result of the violence they have witnessed and that can potentially leave long-term consequences on their mental health, says Tatiana Olivero, a coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina for Mdecins du Monde (Doctors of the World). These children have been through highly stressful experiences, such as war and persecution in their country of origin, and have witnessed violence during their path towards Europe, including the abusive treatments imposed on their parents during multiple pushbacks. Some are losing hope for the future and see their childhood denied.

Zohra, 33, a Kabul lawyer and mother of four, says her children are struggling: When we get our things ready for the crossing, my children dont want to go. They cry because they are afraid of being pushed back, or being kicked, like last time.

In 2016, a bomb attack during Ramadan killed her seven-year-old son. His twin, Nourin, now 11, was paralysed on one side of her body. Last November alone in Kabul, a series of bomb attacks launched by insurgents left at least 88 people dead and more than 193 injured. But many European countries continue to repatriate asylum seekers to Afghanistan.

During the lastest attempt at crossing, captured on Guardian cameras, Nourin and her siblings remained hidden for almost an hour in a dried-out ditch at the side of a trail, as two Croatian policemen guarded the area from a hill less than 200 metres away. Zohra and her husband, Ibrahim, later decided this was too much of a risk and not a good time to move on. They will try again tomorrow. During their five-month stay in Bosnia, they have been pushed back 37 times, despite informing the border authorities of their request for asylum.

The pushback record in Bosanska Bojna is held by Fariba Azizi and his three children who, at around 7pm on 22 January returned from the Bosanska Bojna woods after their 54th pushback. When they got back, they found their shelter reduced to rubble: Bosnian special forces that week burned all the informal migrant camps in Bosanska Bojna. According to charities, citizens in the area had protested over the presence of migrants in those places. But mostly the inhabitants of the villages around Bosanska Bojna offer food, blankets and clothing to the migrants. Memories of the war are still fresh in many Bosnians minds. They know all too well what it means to be forced out of their homes.

Of at least eight families the Guardian followed over five days last week, only two managed to cross the border into Croatia. On 28 January, Daryas family informed the Guardian they had made it to Zagreb. It is an important step, but not the last. There are many cases of migrants who reach Croatia and are sent back to Bosnia by the authorities there. The same happens in Slovenia and Italy, where, last week, the court of Rome declared more than 700 pushbacks perpetrated by Italian police in Slovenia illegal.

Pushbacks are illegal, whether they are violent or not, it doesnt matter, says Bay. They fundamentally undermine the right to international protection. Croatian pushbacks are a consequence of EU policy aimed at transferring the responsibility for protecting people outside of the EU. It has become a situation in which member states regularly ignore, circumvent or directly violate EU law, and this has [become] a standard way of managing borders.

The perpetrators need to be held accountable. For member states that dont comply with these measures, there have to be real consequences. There have to be sanctions of some form. Up until now, for years, essentially, there has been impunity for violations of European [Union] laws.

The Croatian ministry of the interior told the Guardian said they will thoroughly investigate the incidents, including alleged violence against children. However, a spokesperson said in order to achieve their goal, migrants are willing to use all means necessary, including bringing their own lives and the lives of their family into danger, knowing that if they find themselves in such a dangerous situation that the Croatian police will save their lives. Likewise, if the Croatian police prevents them in their attempt of illegal entry, they are ready to falsely accuse the same Croatian police of violence and obstruction of access to the system of international protection.

We would like to point out that the Croatian police are authorised to check persons and their luggage in order to find items which may be used to escape, attack or inflict self-harm. This is a legal power, which police officers regularly exercise during their work in order to protect themselves and to establish general security, they added.

In the email, the minister announced that a group of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) intended to visit Croatia to observe the Croatian polices anti-immigration practices.

The delegation of Italian MEPs, belonging to the parliamentary group of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), arrived in Zagabria last Saturday. They decided to visit the Bosnian border area that same day to witness migrants as they make their way into Europe. But their plans were immediately thwarted as Croatian police chased and stopped them just as they reached the check-point at the Bosnian border, sparking a row in Italy.

This is a grave act, without precedent, the MEPs told the guards as the Italian newspaper Avvenire filmed the exchange. Whats beyond that border? What do you want to hide from us?.

Bosanska Bojna, with hundreds of children stranded in the snow, lies just on the other side.

Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

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Police searched my baby's nappy': migrant families on the perilous Balkan route - The Guardian

With new suite of immigration Executive Orders, Biden is restoring humanity and competence to Americas asylum system – International Rescue Committee

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

New York, NY, February 2, 2021 The International Rescue Committee (IRC) welcomes the news today that President Joe Biden has signed multiple Executive Orders (EO) outlining a vision for renewed humanitarian focus seeking to reverse Trump-era immigration policies which needlessly criminalized asylum-seekers, separated families and damaged the US long-standing role and bipartisan tradition of providing safe haven for the worlds most vulnerable. The IRC applauds the Biden administrations measures, including:

Hans van de Weerd, Vice President for Resettlement, Asylum and Integration of the International Rescue Committee, said: With 80 million forcibly displaced people worldwide and counting-- the largest number since the Second World War-- restoring a humane and competent asylum system is absolutely indispensable. The past four years of the Trump Administration were a lesson in how not to tackle this crisis humanely and competently, cruelly separating families and penalizing them for fleeing violence and persecution, and strong-arming countries in Central America already in the midst of humanitarian emergencies. The Biden-Harris Administrations latest suite of executive orders are a moral necessity and a return to US traditions -- and a visible example of the values-based domestic and foreign policy to which the Administration has committed itself.

We look forward to continued reform of an unsafe, unfair and broken asylum system which has caused incredible and unnecessary damage to thousands of lives and the US legacy. We equally look forward to an immediate increase in the number of refugees allowed into America this year, an increase to a minimum of 125,000 in FY22, alongside continued policies for diplomacy and development that tackle displacement crises at their source.

About the IRC

The International Rescue Committee responds to the worlds worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 countries and over 20 U.S. citieshelping people to survive, reclaim control of their future, and strengthen their communities.Learn more at http://www.rescue.org and follow the IRC on Twitter & Facebook.

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With new suite of immigration Executive Orders, Biden is restoring humanity and competence to Americas asylum system - International Rescue Committee

55 km/sec by Arati Kadav: An unlikely crisis drama that looks beyond the afflicted and the affluent – The Indian Express

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

The past year did not end as much as it was ending. Steeped in a crisis that continues to rage, it unfolded like pages of a dystopian novel where the paranoia of a climactic collapse overtook luxury of any foreshadowing. Suddenly, everyone across the world was tethered to a reality that seemed incredulously remote and frighteningly close. As if at long last all were equal, if only in their fears. It is this ubiquity of horror and deathly wait for an end that makes Arati Kadavs 55 km/sec a short film anticipating the destruction of the world due to an incoming meteor straight out of the times we are inhabiting.

Art draws from life, adapts it. It also re-frames existence, transforming occurrences into stories and circumstances into plot points. Art then is associated with excess. But when reality is unprecedented and disproportionate, art ceases to be just about representation. Instead, it becomes a site of possibilities. In the last year alone, pandemic and the unique danger it posed, served as a premise for multiple creative outings.

In the lockdown thriller The Gone Game (streaming on Voot), imperative isolation and initial constrictions are weaponised to showcase the ease with which preventive measures, in place to protect us, can be manipulated to fake death if need be. In Unpaused (streaming on Amazon Prime), pandemic-ridden disruption is fleshed out across five segments by different directors. They touch upon a host of issues, all stemming from the present halt we are participants of. One envisions a futuristic world were living with the virus leaks into the way people date, going as far as to suggest virtual meetups as the way out. And more than one emphasises on the parallel reality lockdown inadvertently led to: migrant crisis. But both series identify the pervasive crisis as a hindrance to the way of life, an inconvenience. The creativity then, is reflected in what they make out of that obstacle.

Kadav seemingly roots her film in this territory, choosing her characteristic sci-fi genre as the medium. It is not a virus but a meteor coming towards the earth for 25 days which withholds the possibility of a complete collapse. Its effects are cataclysmic: the shock will kill people and those surviving will perish from the consequences. Even though the threat differs, the results are strikingly similar: equality of dread counterpoised by inequality of access. Those privileged will be staying in space stations, news anchors inform. Government has created bunkers for the common people but there are too few and some are already crumbling. 55 km/sec then is a succinct critique on the present rampant capitalisation of misery, inefficiency of the government and widening chasm between the have(s) and have-not(s).

But the short in its 23-minute runtime also looks where other lockdown dramas failed to. Through it, Kadav trains her lens beyond the affluent and afflicted, to those sitting quietly in their rooms long before the staying in was a necessity. She looks at loners who, so used-to not drawing attention to themselves, were overlooked by those telling stories of the pandemic as well. She represents them.

At the core, 55 km/sec is an uneven love story where an introverted boy (Suraj) finally musters courage to confess his feelings to his erstwhile college mate over a Zoom call. As a final goodbye, a group of ten friends come together to share their last thoughts, seconds before the complete collapse (Kadav, too, makes an appearance). Suraj (Mrinal Dutt) is one of them, so is Srishti (Richa Chadha), the woman he loved and who is now married with a kid. The admission comes out of desperation, of letting her finally know, now since there can be no consequences. But it is their phone conversation later (the meteor collision time was miscalculated) that stayed with me.

When asked if he is scared, Suraj answers he isnt. Being a recluse, he never felt connected with anybody else. Ironically it was the prospect of being confronted with a similar threat, of dying with everybody that gave him a sense of togetherness. And this remains my biggest takeaway from Kadavs short its acknowledgement of perpetual loners who find a sense of acceptance in the unlikeliest of situations. It underlines that despite the hazard it entailed, the common catastrophe enabled some to truly belong, if for the first and last time.

So much of the lockdown has been about the way it curbed mobility and upended possibilities of meetings. So much of its depiction has been about the inconvenience it posed. But for many who have been lonely, this also became a strange time when for once they felt together in their loneliness. In Olivia Laings exquisite The Lonely City where the author viscerally describes urban loneliness with all its shame and embarrassment, the feeling of being alone is captured in a gut-wrenching line: What does it feel to be lonely? she asks, and then answers, It feels like being hungry: like being hungry when everyone around you is readying for a feast. If there is one perverse silver lining to these horrific times it is this: the ravaging hunger is now shared, and for some, this is the closest they have come to feeling satiated.

(55 km/sec is streaming on Disney + Hotstar)

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55 km/sec by Arati Kadav: An unlikely crisis drama that looks beyond the afflicted and the affluent - The Indian Express

Decoding the budget and the economics of welfare – Hindustan Times

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

Covid-19 is a crisis like no other. And, expectedly, it has wreaked havoc on the Government of India (GoI)s financial arithmetic as it struggled to deal with collapsing tax revenues and increased expenditure pressures. Therefore, there are two questions that need to be asked of the FY 2021 budget.

How did the Union government reorient its macro-fiscal position to counteract the economic fallout of the pandemic and what does this reveal about the nature of the policy choices made by the government to respond to the Covid-19-induced economic crisis? Second, what does the budget offer as a policy pathway to nurture the economy back to health in FY 2021-22?

In FY 21, the lockdown-induced freeze on the economy expectedly resulted in a collapse in revenues while expenditure pressures increased. Revenue receipts collapsed from 20.2 lakh crore to 15.5 lakh crore, expenditure increased from 30.4 lakh crore to 34.5 lakh crore, as did the one number that the government has thus far worried about the most the fiscal deficit.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman must be congratulated for breaking with tradition and being transparent about the fiscal deficit numbers while offering a path to fiscal consolidation by FY 2025-26. Importantly, she has discontinued the practice of off-budget borrowing for food subsidy. However, a closer look at the numbers reveals a more complex picture.

First, while tax revenues fell, the real hit to the Centres finances came from a fall in disinvestment receipts and bringing off budget expenditure back on to the budget. The fall in net tax revenue to the Centre is responsible for a mere 1% of the rise in fiscal deficit numbers. Second, most of the increase in expenditure outlays is driven by the food and fertiliser subsidy (around 80%). Increases in health accounted for 3.88%. Third, the share of states in the divisible pool of taxes fell from 32% in the budgeted estimates to 28.9% (Revised Estimates 2020-21).

Three facts emerge about the macro fiscal picture. First, the government has increasingly relied on the assumption that proceeds from disinvestment will fund its expenditure commitments. In good times, this is bad fiscal management. But in times of pandemic, this can be seriously damaging. The governments reluctance to adopt an expansionary fiscal stance in response to the pandemic is a consequence of historical fiscal mismanagement rather than the Covid-19-induced economic shock. The emphasis on disinvestment in this budget, while welcome, risks a similar fate. The government will have to urgently double down in FY 22 to meet these targets.

Second, expenditure increases in FY 21 were limited to subsidies and essential relief through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Overall, in FY 21, expenditure increased from a 13.53% of GDP Budget Estimates (BE) to 17.74% in RE. However, because GDP contracted significantly in FY 21, these numbers overstate the magnitude of increase in expenditure. It is important to note that transfers from centrally-sponsored schemes (including MGNREGS whose allocations increased by 81% over budget estimates) increased by 14%, suggesting significant contraction in expenditure for other schemes in FY 21. Finally, state governments, at the frontlines of the Covid-19 battle, have been forced to rely on market borrowing as their share in the central government taxes fell significantly. The consequences of this on state budgets, that have displayed far greater fiscal discipline than the Centre will be significant, in the long-term.

As this column noted in a pre-budget piece, the post-lockdown economic recovery is showing signs of deepening structural inequality. Economic activity has reached near pre-pandemic levels, but this is largely profit-led. Large listed firms have profited at the cost of small firms and the informal sector. And the scars in the labour market, particularly informal labour, run deep. Reversing this trend is both a moral imperative and good economic sense after all, if purchasing power remains low for the bulk of the economy, demand will collapse.

In this context, the FY 22 budget ought to have increased expenditure for welfare, provided for an inclusive social protection architecture that protects vulnerable groups especially migrant workers, and increased capital expenditure. At first glance, the government has only done the last.

Several important announcements have aimed at reforming what economist Arvind Subramanian has called the software a bad bank, the proposal for a DFI, and bank recapitalisation. All of these are steps in the right direction. However, these increases will not immediately translate into employment and increased wages for the poor.

There are continuing governance challenges, which will not be addressed overnight. In this context, it is a mistake to assume that FY 22 will present space to the government to curtail its welfare expenditures. But the FY 22 budget cuts allocations to food subsidy and MGNREGS. It offers no comfort that the government, in response to the migrant crisis, will address the extreme vulnerabilities faced by Indias informal sector and urban workers. Expenditure in FY 22 will see little planned growth over FY 21.

The pandemic has disproportionately impacted Indias poor and vulnerable. The hope was that this budget would, by adopting an expansionist fiscal stance, respond to their needs while putting the economy back on track. It has not.

Yamini Aiyar is president and chief executive of the Centre for Policy Research

The views expressed are personal

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Decoding the budget and the economics of welfare - Hindustan Times

Toughing out Covid: how Australias social fabric held together during a once-in-a-century crisis – The Guardian

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

Politics, and media coverage of politics, is powered by conflict and spectacle. But the social scientist Andrew Markus wants to focus on something quieter: the resilience and optimism of Australians during a crisis; a country under duress that chose not to fracture.

Markus is the principal researcher on the Scanlon Foundations annual Social Cohesion report a project that has mapped a migrant nation since 2007. The report published on Thursday is a snapshot of a country managing a once-in-a-century crisis.

The research (sample size 3,090 respondents) is normally conducted in July. Given Australia was at that time about to tip into a second wave of coronavirus infections in Victoria, and had slipped into the first recession for 30 years, the Monash University emeritus professor was puzzled when many of the snapshots of community sentiment were positive.

That seemed counterintuitive.

To be certain of the findings, a second survey of 2,793 respondents was conducted in November. In November, we again got very positive data, he says. By positive data, this is what Markus means. Stepping through his findings, a supermajority was on board with Scott Morrisons response to the crisis, and the level of trust in government in Australia hit the highest point in the history of the survey.

People had confidence in the public health response. More than 90% of respondents in the five mainland states said lockdowns to suppress transmission were definitely or probably required. While the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, endured a period of being flogged by the Murdoch media for locking down the state, 78% of respondents backed Andrews, and when they were asked whether the lockdown was required, 87% said yes.

While America and Britain battled resurgent nativism, the inward turn triggered by the global financial crisis of a decade ago, Australians, walled in behind a preemptive international border closure, and marooned periodically behind hard state borders, continued to look to the world.

The survey asked respondents whether globalisation was good or bad. More than 70% of respondents in the two surveys said good. While protectionism was back in vogue, and the global economy convulsed because of a trade war between a real autocrat in Beijing and an aspirational one in Washington, in 2020, Australians looked through the static and continued to believe trade with the world was good for the country.

As governments put businesses into hibernation around the country during the first wave, the economy tanked and consumption stalled, one in four respondents had their jobs impacted jobs lost, hours wound back.

This cohort was more inclined to pessimism about the future than other respondents, and less sanguine about the health of their household balance sheet. But 73% of respondents remained satisfied or very satisfied with their financial outlook a result up almost 10 points on that recorded in mid-2019. Canberra rolled out income support and the household savings ratio notched up a record rise.

Young people bore the brunt of the crisis. Reflecting that reality, Australians under 24 in the survey were less optimistic about the future than people over 24. A couple of indicators bear this out: 58% of respondents aged between 18 and 24 say they are optimistic compared with more than 70% of respondents aged from 25 to 74, and less young respondents agree with the proposition that Australia is a land of economic opportunity where hard work yields a better life (61% compared with 72% of the 25-34-year-old cohort).

But rather than blame outsiders which is a common default during times of high unemployment young Australians remain more positive about immigration, multiculturalism and ethnic diversity than older Australians. Only 18% of people aged between 18 and 24 agree with the idea that immigrants take away jobs from Australians, while 30% of people in older cohorts agree.

Australians continue to support multiculturalism. The idea that multiculturalism has been good for Australia is strongly supported, with 84% of the sample agreeing in 2020, up four points in a year. But while Australians strongly support a diverse society at a time when multiculturalism is regarded as a failed project in some parts of the world, there is a flipside. We profess to support multiculturalism but Australians can also harbour negative sentiment about Africans, Asians and people from the Middle East. The survey terms this a hierarchy of ethnic preference.

With Donald Trump adding the Chinese virus to the lexicon, 59% of Chinese Australians surveyed observed that racism in Australia during the Covid crisis was either a very big problem or a fairly big problem. The Scanlon Foundation also undertook a separate survey between May and June, tapping sentiment from 500 Chinese Australians on WeChat. Asked whether they had experienced discrimination during the crisis, 27% said yes and a further 20% declined to answer the question.

Markus says he has reflected on why many Australians have experienced one of the toughest years of their lives, but have remained largely positive. Australia was not in such a bad position prior to the pandemic when you compare Australia with England and the United States.

Both of those societies were seriously fractured prior to the pandemic. Brexit sharply divided England, as did Donald Trump in the United States, he says.

There have been times when Australia has been much more fractious under the leadership of Tony Abbott as opposed to the leadership of Scott Morrison, and I think Anthony Albanese can struggle to position himself but he is basically a consensus figure.

This made it possible for Australia to respond to the pandemic quickly and in a cohesive way. To me this is the key point: we possibly undervalue the good things about Australia and how Australians will respond in a crisis, Markus says.

This, for me, is a really big takeaway and its important because it is probably not acknowledged. What we get in the media is the cut and thrust of politics rather than the long-term fundamental understanding of what works in Australia and what doesnt work.

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Toughing out Covid: how Australias social fabric held together during a once-in-a-century crisis - The Guardian

Quality in crisis: a systematic review of the quality of health systems in humanitarian settings – World – ReliefWeb

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

Keely Jordan, Todd P. Lewis & Bayard Roberts

Abstract

Background

There is a growing concern that the quality of health systems in humanitarian crises and the care they provide has received little attention. To help better understand current practice and research on health system quality, this paper aimed to examine the evidence on the quality of health systems in humanitarian settings.

Methods

This systematic review was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol. The context of interest was populations affected by humanitarian crisis in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). We included studies where the intervention of interest, health services for populations affected by crisis, was provided by the formal health system. Our outcome of interest was the quality of the health system. We included primary research studies, from a combination of information sources, published in English between January 2000 and January 2019 using quantitative and qualitative methods. We used the High Quality Health Systems Framework to analyze the included studies by quality domain and sub-domain.

Results

We identified 2285 articles through our search, of which 163 were eligible for full-text review, and 55 articles were eligible for inclusion in our systematic review. Poor diagnosis, inadequate patient referrals, and inappropriate treatment of illness were commonly cited barriers to quality care. There was a strong focus placed on the foundations of a health system with emphasis on the workforce and tools, but a limited focus on the health impacts of health systems. The review also suggests some barriers to high quality health systems that are specific to humanitarian settings such as language barriers for refugees in their host country, discontinued care for migrant populations with chronic conditions, and fears around provider safety.

Conclusion

The review highlights a large gap in the measurement of quality both at the point of care and at the health system level. There is a need for further work particularly on health system measurement strategies, accountability mechanisms, and patient-centered approaches in humanitarian settings.

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Quality in crisis: a systematic review of the quality of health systems in humanitarian settings - World - ReliefWeb

How Trumps Focus on Antifa Distracted Attention From the Far-Right Threat – The New York Times

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

All of this was a strain on the counterterrorism section, which has only a few dozen prosecutors and like other parts of the department was reeling from the coronavirus. A top F.B.I. domestic terrorism chief also expressed concern to Justice Department officials over the summer about the diversion of resources.

The counterterrorism section at the time was working with prosecutors and agents around the country on cases involving people affiliated with the Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, other militia members and violent white supremacists. In some parts of the country, agents who had been investigating violent white supremacists pivoted to investigate anarchists and others involved in the rioting, struggling in certain cases to find any conspiracy or other federal charges to bring against them.

Around the same time, the F.B.I. was tracking worrisome threats emanating from the far right. Agents in Michigan monitoring members of a violent antigovernment militia called Wolverine Watchmen received intelligence in June that the men planned to recruit more members and kidnap state governors, according to court documents.

After six members of the group were charged in October with plotting to abduct Ms. Whitmer, one of Mr. Trumps most vocal opponents, the president insulted her and reiterated that the left posed the true threat. She calls me a White Supremacist while Biden and Democrats refuse to condemn Antifa, Anarchists, Looters and Mobs that burn down Democrat run cities, Mr. Trump said on Twitter.

Dozens of F.B.I. employees and senior managers were sent on temporary assignments to Portland including the head of the Tampa field office, who was an expert in Islamic terrorism, according to current and former law enforcement officials where left-leaning protests had intensified since tactical federal teams arrived.

Some F.B.I. agents and Justice Department officials expressed concern that the Portland work was a drain on the bureaus effort to combat what they viewed as the more lethal strains of domestic extremism. The bureau had about 1,000 domestic terrorism cases under investigation at the time, and only several hundred agents in the field assigned to them. The Homeland Security Department even sent agents to Portland who were usually assigned to investigate drug cartels at the border.

Mr. Barr also formed a task force run by trusted U.S. attorneys in Texas and New Jersey to prosecute antigovernment extremists. Terrorism prosecutors working on the investigations arising from the summers violence were not told beforehand of Mr. Barrs decision. They questioned the rationale behind the task force because it seemed to duplicate their work and could create confusion, according to two people familiar with their pushback.

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How Trumps Focus on Antifa Distracted Attention From the Far-Right Threat - The New York Times

Trump’s Antifa Obsession Diverted Feds From Right-Wing Threats: Officials – The Daily Beast

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

President Trumps obsession with the bogeyman threat of antifa led law enforcement agencies to direct resources away from right-wing threats and may have affected their ability to anticipate and prepare for the far-right attack on the Capitol, current and former officials told The New York Times. The DOJ pulled some prosecutors and FBI agents away from assignments focused on white supremacists and asked them to instead investigate anarchist groups like antifa over summer, the officials said. One official was concerned enough to go to the agencys independent inspector general.

Officials said efforts to alert colleagues to white supremacist activity were tamped down and mentions of domestic terrorism were discouraged. Requests for funding to track white supremacist activity online were denied. Meanwhile, threats of violence at the Capitol were visible on social media in the days preceding the Jan. 6 attack, an event for which law enforcement agencies have admitted they were unprepared.

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Trump's Antifa Obsession Diverted Feds From Right-Wing Threats: Officials - The Daily Beast

Inside Antifa With Andy Ngo – The Federalist

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, The Post Millenial Editor-at-large Andy Ngo joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to offer insight into the rise of the infamously secret radical group Antifa and discusses his new book, which documents how the left-wing organization uses violence to destroy democracy.

They dont just attack different institutions or state buildings or people affiliated with the state, but law enforcement, politicians, and people who support a particular party, Ngo said. They systematically go after the founding ideals of the U.S. They believe its all linked to fascism, white supremacy, racism.

Radical ideologies and teachings such as critical race theory, Ngo explained, play a large part in motivating Antifas destructive behavior.

I think its really the rational, logical outcome of ideologies that many of them are introduced to, and that could be critical race theory and all that, which is all about deconstructing and dismantling systems of oppression. And they view the United States as a system that enforces oppression, not just here but around the world, Ngo explained. In every way, this is like an anti-government insurrectionary movement, but yet theyre not treated that way.

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Inside Antifa With Andy Ngo - The Federalist

Rudy Giuliani Responds to Lincoln Projects Litigation Threat: Im Writing Them a Letter Back Telling Them I Will Not Respond to Their Letter – Law…

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

Donald Trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday responded to a scathing letter from the Lincoln Projects lawyersin, perhaps, the most amusing way imaginable: with a letter saying he will not respond to their letter.

The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group that madenational headlines over the last few days because its co-founder John Weaver was accused of serially harassing young men online, recently demanded through attorneys that Giuliani preserve all relevant documents regarding alleged false and defamatory statements made against the organization. Giuliani, it turns out, was on the receiving end of at least one other demand letter recently. A billion-dollar lawsuit against him soon followed.

During an appearance on pardoned former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannons War Room podcast, Giuliani explained that he would respond to the Lincoln Project by saying he will not respond.

Well, heres what Im doingIm writing them a letter back telling them that I will not respond to their letter because they make this one rather sketchy, defamatory allegation about a tort that I committedI counted four that they committed in their letter, Giuliani said.

He then ostensibly confirmed that he had already responded to the groups attorneys in writing.

So I wrote back to him, You know son, Ive represented Dow Jones, Barrons, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily NewsI did this for a livingand youve made a classic mistake. At the very end of the letter you claimed that I defamed the Lincoln Project, except in the first seven paragraphs of the letter you defamed me at least four or five times, Giuliani went on.

Law&Crime asked the Lincoln Project whether they had received a letter from Giuliani, but the group has not responded.

The Lincoln Projects demand letter was prompted by the former New York City mayors previous appearance on Bannons podcast last week, during which Giuliani baselessly claimed that the anti-Trump group helped plan the Jan. 6 Capitol riots that led to the former presidents second impeachment.

Asked about the impending Senate trial, Giuliani laid out what he thought was Trumps best legal strategy.

If the case is mainly that he caused thishe caused the insurrectionthen the defense is going to have to show that this thing was planned and that a lot of the people involved in the planningAntifa, and then even some right wing groups who are enemies of hisand that they were doing it in order to hurt him. Including some right-wing groups that operate for the Lincoln Project or have been working with the Lincoln Project at various times, Giuliani said.

Bannon then interjected, asking what groups Giuliani was suggesting were working with the group.

One of the people who organized this is well known to have worked with the Lincoln Project in the past. One of the people involved brought in right-wing groups that opposed Trump, and he brought them in specifically to blow this thing up, Giuliani responded.He had the same motivation the Antifa people had. So it isnt as if all these right-wing groups were all pro-Trump. And the biggest problemsviolent problemswere caused by Antifa. Thats where the shooting took place.

The shooting Giuliani mentioned was of Ashli Babbitt. Babbitt, aTrump supporter, QAnon believerand Air Force veteran, was shot and killed by police while trying to vault through a broken window inside the Capitol. Giuliani claimed Babbitt was surrounded by all Antifa people. That claim about all Antifa peopleis easily debunked.

David Charles Mish, Jr, was also an avid supporter of the former president. Court documents show that Mish wasamong those standing next to Babbittwhen she was killed. Several other Trump supporters wereidentifiedas being within several feet of Babbitt when she was shot, includingChristopher Ray GriderandChad Barrett Jones. Just the other day,Zachary Alam was added to the list.

There he is in a fur hat next to Babbitt just moments before she was fatally shot:

Image via Washington Post screengrab

And here he is, MAGA hat in his hand, smashing a Speakers Lobby window with a helmet.

Giulianis claims regarding the Lincoln Project or Antifa being responsible for orchestrating the Capitol riots is undercut daily by copious amounts of mounting evidence showingthat Trump and Giulianis supporters, believing the lie that the election was stolen, stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. The Justice Department has charged at least 150 people for their involvement in the insurrection, nearly all of whom were unapologetic supporters of the president.The FBI has said publicly that there is no evidenceto support the Antifa just tried to make Trump supporters look bad conspiracy theory.

[image via YouTube screengrab]

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Rudy Giuliani Responds to Lincoln Projects Litigation Threat: Im Writing Them a Letter Back Telling Them I Will Not Respond to Their Letter - Law...

How the Media and Politicians Aided Antifa Rioters in Portland | Opinion – Newsweek

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

The following essay is excerpted from Andy Ngo's forthcoming book Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy, due out from Center Street on February 2.

On July 5, 2020, hundreds of militant Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists returned to again attack federal law enforcement officers outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in downtown Portland. They were masked and dressed in black as they tried to burn down the federal building. They also assaulted construction crews who were working around the clock to replace wooden barriers that were torn down by Antifa rioters the previous night.

Christopher Fellini, 31, was arrested that night and charged with assaulting a federal officer. In his possession, officers found a knife, pepper spray and a powerful laser. For weeks on end, rioters had organized into subdivisions that used laser pointers to blind and injure the eyes of cops. Fellini's name stood out because he was previously charged at another fiery Portland Antifa riot in 2017 (his charge was ultimately dropped).

Another federal arrestee was Andrew Steven Faulkner, 24, who was also charged with assaulting an officer. During his arrest, he was found carrying pipe bomb components and a sheathed machete. He later pleaded guilty but was not given prison time.

For the next four weeks, Antifa's plan of escalating attacks on federal property to provoke a federal response for the cameras produced the exact propaganda they wanted. On any given night, there were dozens who identified as press. At its peak there were probably more than a hundred journalists and live streamers, most of whom were sympathetic to the rioters and protesters. Instinctively, and at the urging or demand of others, their cameras were trained solely on law enforcement to capture their every move. Those who ran afoul of Antifa's rules were forced out or assaulted and robbed. Leftwing live streamer Tristan Taylor was beaten to the ground and had his recording equipment stolen.

Every use of force by officers, whether it be tear gas, smoke, pepper balls or arrests, was heavily scrutinized. Outofcontext video snippets were released on social media and published by news outlets, generating mass rage and universally negative press for law enforcement and the Trump administration. The officers were called "Trump's gestapo," "storm troopers" and "thugs" by Democratic politicians and the media.

Erin Smith, a conservative trans woman and writer who goes undercover at large Antifa riots on the West Coast, tells me Antifa use a "calibrated level of violence" to provoke reactions by law enforcement for propaganda purposes.

"Antifa seek to force law enforcement into a dilemma action, where there are simply no good responses from a public relations standpoint," Smith said via email. "They either fail to respond to Antifa harassment and look weak, or react in ways likely to be perceived by the casual observer as an overreaction. Both choices undermine the legitimacy of the state and its security forces."

As useful idiots for Antifa, the press predictably published reports that helped provoke more hatred for law enforcement, contributing to more people showing up to the protests-turned-riots.

"Trump sent cops to Portland and they're 'kidnapping people off the streets,'" read a Vice News headline. "'It was like being preyed upon': Portland protesters say federal officers in unmarked vans are detaining them," read another from The Washington Post.

All these stories based on Antifa talking points were meant to create an impression that Trump had literally sent secret police to disappear leftwing opposition. It was false. Using unmarked vehicles to make targeted arrests is neither illegal nor unusual. Every law enforcement agency around the world uses unmarked vehicles. When officers had attempted the usual route of moving in to physically arrest someone at the riots, they were mobbed by rioters who "dearrested" their comrades by surrounding police and pulling them away. Antifa claimed victory online each time this happened.

Accusations of there being "secret police" and "unidentified federal agents" were also false. Every officer wore official uniforms that displayed their federal agency via badges on the shoulders with clear words on the front that read "POLICE." That politicians and journalists did not or pretended not to recognize the uniforms is not an excuse. And no one was ever "disappeared." All those detained were properly processed and read their Miranda rights. Most were released within hours and later had their charges dismissed.

As bad as the riots already were, Portland City Council and local politicians actively worked to undermine the federal government's attempts to protect federal property. In effect, they were acting as cobelligerents with Antifa in their uprising. When ex-acting secretary Chad Wolf of DHS flew to Portland from Washington, D.C., in midJuly to survey the extent of the violence and destruction, local officials preemptively refused to meet with him.

"We're aware that [DHS leadership is] here. We wish they weren't," tweeted Mayor Wheeler. "We haven't been invited to meet with them, and if we were, we would decline."

Oregon Democratic senator Ron Wyden called federal officers an "occupying army."

Oregon governor Kate Brown echoed and amplified the false media headlines. "This is a democracy, not a dictatorship. We cannot have secret police abducting people in unmarked vehicles," Gov. Brown tweeted. By midJuly, the Portland City Council officially banned Portland Police from cooperating in any way with federal law enforcement.

The antipolice and antiTrump echo chamber involving Antifa, the media and local politicians brought Portland into international headlines. With that, protesters from the region and around the country descended on the city, believing they were opposing "fascist" cops. Gatherings in front of the federal courthouse swelled from a couple hundred to more than five thousand by mid-July. Antifa now had the perfect opportunity to carry out attacks they planned using huge numbers of protesters as human shields. It worked incredibly well. When I was undercover on the ground, what I saw was a war zone with armed belligerents. And they were just getting started. Over time, they came better and better prepared with explosives, guns and even power tools to cut into the courthouse's defense barrier.

Andy Ngo is author of the upcoming book Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy. Twitter: @MrAndyNgo

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

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How the Media and Politicians Aided Antifa Rioters in Portland | Opinion - Newsweek

Ohio Man Radicalized by Trump Tried to Blame Riots on Antifa While Admitting He Was in the Capitol. It Didnt Work. – Law & Crime

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

TFW you try to blame Antifa, but only incriminate yourself.

Ohio man Stephen Ayres claimed to have special knowledge that it wasnt Donald Trumps supporters who orchestrated the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. He tried to blame Antifa, but the only thing he ended up accomplishing was implicating himself in criminal offenses.

Ayres was arrested in the Northern District of Ohio on Monday. According to the FBI, Ayres and two unnamed associates took it upon themselves to post a video on social media after the Capitol siege. In that video, Ayres allegedly blamed Antifa for breaking into the Capitol. Dozens of federal criminal cases against Trump supporters show otherwise. In any event, the feds allege that Ayres blamed everyone but Trump supporters for what happened that day. It was just a vast left-wing conspiracy between police and the media against pro-Trump individuals, Ayres suggested while acknowledging that he was inside the Capitol that day:

Male 1 stated that he and AYRES walked right into the Capitol building afterAntifa breached the door so it was left open. Male 1 stated that the police escorted them from one end of the building to the other, and AYRES added, they walked us, yep, yep. AYRES stated that the police basically let everyone walk in. Male 1 stated that it wasnt just all these hostile Proud Boys people and that multiple types of people were there. Male 1 explained that the police marched them down, and AYRES added that the police did a bunch of chanting and then they basically marched them out to go out that door, so everybody walked out the other door. Male 1 said that they just wanted that footage of people inside the Capitol building to make it seem like all the Trump people bum-rushed the Capitol.

Also in the video, Female 1 stated that the police moved the barricades and let people through. The female said she had her picture taken with an individual whom she later learned was a member of Antifa and who was at the Capitol to make us look crazy. Male 1 stated that it was a staged Antifa setup coordinated by the media, police, and the Mayor of Washington, D.C. AYRES agreed that the entire incident was definitely planned out. AYRES said that, at one point during the incident, the police flipped the switch and everyone dispersed from there after the police got what they needed. Female 1 stated that, when it was time to clear everybody, they were like really rough and physical with people, and someone was jabbing [her] with his club.

The affidavit stated that Ayres agreed with Male 1 when he said that the whole point of Jan. 6 was to expose [Mike] Pence as a traitor.

An unnamed tipster who said that they witnessed Ayres Facebook Live video described the defendant as acting like he was at war.

At some point during the streaming video, AYRES stated that the incident at the Capitol was just the beginning because there was more to come next week,' the affidavit said.

The FBI said that Ayres posted on Dec. 27 that he would be heading to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. He allegedly hoped to hear that Trumps enemies would be tried for treasona crime punishable by death. Trump falselysaid on numerous occasions that his political enemies committed treason, but the affidavit indicates those falsehoods were taken very seriously by this defendant:

In another post made on December 27, 2020, AYRES stated that he and a handful of other people are headed to D.C. for the Trump rally on the 6th!! . . . . So hopefully we are going to hear about [how] all the DS are being tried for treason!! In the comment section of the same post, AYRES commented that it was time for us to start standing up to tyranny! History is happening as we speak! . . . Its time for us partiers to stand up and act! Before its too late!!

On Jan. 3, Ayres allegedly posted that all of his and Trumps perceived enemies had committed treason and are being put on notice by We the People.

In a post made on January 3, 2021, AYRES stated: Mainstream media, social media, Democrat party, FISA courts, Chief Justice John Roberts, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, etc.all have committed TREASON against a sitting U.S. president!!! Allare now put on notice by We The People!

The feds said that Ayres posted on Dec. 28 about a Trump tweet that urged supporters to go to D.C. on Jan. 6. That response used language that the then-president would later utter at the rally he held just before the deadly violence broke out at the Capitol.

Where will you be on January 6th? Chilling at home? HOPING this country isnt going to hell in a hand basket? Or are you willing to start fighting for the American Dream! Again!?!? Ayres asked.

On Jan. 6, Trump told his supporters they needed tofight like hell or else they wouldnt have a country anymore.

According to the affidavit, Ayres gleefully posted on Jan. 1 about Speaker Nancy Pelosis home being vandalized and ominously posted about things to come:

d. In the following post made on January 1, 2021, AYRES shared a picture and link to an article that purports to show that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosis home was vandalized. AYRES added a caption to the post that stated, This is just the beginning! The governors, senators, representatives, etc..Really dont have a clue what is coming!!

The defendant was apparently a reader of The Gateway Pundit; the FBI said he shared an article on social media on Jan. 4 claiming Joe Bidens Inaugural parade was in doubt, reinforcing his baseless belief that the election was rigged!!!

Interestingly, the FBI also said Ayres posted on Facebook derisively about Fox News at 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 6: Made it on Faux News!! Front and center!! [Male 1] on the left and me on the right!

The charges against Ayres are as follows:

Willfully and knowingly utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress.

[Image via FBI]

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Ohio Man Radicalized by Trump Tried to Blame Riots on Antifa While Admitting He Was in the Capitol. It Didnt Work. - Law & Crime

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 Amends Bankruptcy Code – Part 3: Congress Gives Suppliers and Landlords a Shiny New Arrow in their Quiver to…

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

As discussed in previous posts, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (the Act) was signed into law on December 27, 2020, largely to address the harsh economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. For bankruptcy litigators or any business which has been frustrated to receive a demand letter after one of its customers filed bankruptcy one particular amendment stands out in the sprawling 5,593-page bill. The Act amended Section 547 of the Bankruptcy Code to provide suppliers and landlords with an additional potential challenge to actions brought to claw back payments made by a debtor in the 90 days preceding bankruptcy.

Generally speaking, Section 547 of the Bankruptcy Code enables a bankruptcy trustee (or debtor-in-possession) to claw back certain payments made by a debtor to its creditors in the 90 days preceding a bankruptcy case, unless the creditor can establish one of the statutory defenses, including: (1) the payment was made at the same time as the creditor provided goods or services to the debtor (i.e., a contemporaneous exchange); (2) the payment was made in the ordinary course of business (i.e., in the same manner as payments were made before the debtor experienced financial distress) or according to ordinary business terms; or (3) the creditor provided additional goods and services to the debtor on credit after receiving the payment. The purpose of Section 547 is to prevent creditors from racing to dismantle a financially distressed company, and more importantly, to ensure certain creditors are not receiving preferential treatment by the company while others are left holding the bag.

The Act added a new subsection 547(j) to the Bankruptcy Code, generally providing that a trustee (or debtor-in-possession) may not avoid and recover as a preferential transfer:

This new provision, which sunsets on December 27, 2022, is subject to certain limitations, including:

The policy objectives underlying new Section 547(j) seem apparent: (i) ensuring landlords and suppliers are not penalized for accepting deferred payments (out of the ordinary course) under arrangements they have entered into with businesses hit hard by the global pandemic, and (ii) incentivizing landlords and suppliers to explore financial accommodations with their distressed counterparties going forward, instead of exercising default and termination rights under existing agreements. While salutary, these policy objectives are, to some extent, in conflict with Section 547s general purpose of ensuring equal distributions for all creditors of businesses in distress. Notably, the statute does not protect certain types of creditors such as lenders even though an agreement by any creditor to accept a deferred payment would, presumably, benefit a distressed business just as much as a suppliers or landlords agreement to do so.

In any event, the actual language adopted by Congress leaves plenty of room for interpretation. For instance, a payment to a supplier must be made pursuant to an executory contract. But it is unclear whether the contract need still be executory on the petition date. If the supplier accepts an otherwise exempt deferred payment and then terminates the contract prior to bankruptcy, does the supplier still have the benefit of Section 547(j)?

In addition, it is likely the courts will face questions regarding what constitutes a deferral agreement or arrangement for purposes of the statute, and whether such agreement or arrangement qualifies for protection if deferring or postponing payment of arrearages is part of a larger agreement to restructure the parties business relationship involving various forms of consideration. Finally, the language of the statute may leave room for parties to potentially game the system. For instance, Section 547(j) is an exception from the avoidance power under 547(b), not a defense, meaning payments to insider landlords and suppliers during the year preceding the bankruptcy appear to also be subject to the exemption. Thus, affiliated companies with intercompany debts may be incentivized to enter into friendly agreements to defer payments for the purpose of ensuring catch-up payments are exempted from avoidance.

Only time (and the courts) will tell whether this new provision will accomplish the intended Congressional objectives, and what avenues parties may exploit to take advantage of this otherwise well-intentioned response to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. In the meantime, landlords and suppliers who have deferred payments during the pandemic should ensure they document these deferrals and avoid charging interest or penalties prohibited by statute in order to take advantage of Section 547(j) should their tenant or customer file bankruptcy.

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Bankruptcy filings continue their record lows in New Hampshire – New Hampshire Business Review

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

This year started where 2020 finished, with another bankruptcy record.

Some 56 New Hampshire individuals and businesses filed for bankruptcy in January, the lowest number seen in any January indeed, any month since January 1988. The total was 11 fewer than December 2020 and four fewer than November 2020.

The low number of bankruptcies persists despite the resurgence of the pandemic in December and January and the states relatively high unemployment, particularly in the hospitality industry, with some restaurants and hotels going into hibernation following a muted Christmas.

Bankruptcy filings in the state have been in the double digits for 10 straight months, dropping in April just after the pandemic first struck and after a generation of monthly bankruptcy filings in the hundreds.

For months, bankruptcy attorneys have predicted an increase in filings, but that hasnt happened. Businesses and individuals, bolstered by federal and state aid and sheltered from most evictions and foreclosures, have managed to hang on, with the hope of future assistance or an easing of the pandemic as the vaccine rollout continues. Others particularly brick-and-motor retailers might have been hanging on at least until Christmas before making any decision.

But Christmas is long gone, and most businesses and individuals are not throwing in the towel.

Januarys total is less than a sixth of the 381 that were filed in January 2010, in the midst of the last recession. It was less than half of the 121 filed in January of 2020, a 54% decrease.

In all of total there was a total of 1,054 filings, or an average of 88 a month. In 2019, the total was 1,774, for a monthly average of 148. In 2010 the yearly total was 5,507, or 459 a month. You have to go back to 1988 in the midst of a booming economy to get a lower annual total 835, or 70 a month.

In January there were three bankruptcy filings with business-related debt, but only one was filed by the business directly, and it is conjunction with a sale free and clear of all liens:

Parrillo Designs LLC, dba Derailed Boutique, Kingston, filed Jan. 15, Chapter 7. Assets: $37,405. Liabilities: $82,201.

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Bankruptcy filings continue their record lows in New Hampshire - New Hampshire Business Review

Chesapeake Energy cuts 15% of workers as it emerges from bankruptcy – Reuters

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Danzig

(Reuters) - U.S. shale oil and gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp plans to cut 15% of its workforce, an email sent to employees revealed, as it closes on new financing that will allow it to emerge from bankruptcy court protection next week.

Once the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer, Chesapeake was felled by a long slide in gas prices. The company is resetting our business to emerge a stronger and more competitive enterprise, according to the email to employees by Chief Executive Doug Lawler dated Tuesday, and reviewed by Reuters.

Most of the 220 layoffs will happen at the Oklahoma City headquarters, the email said.

Chesapeake on Tuesday said it planned to raise $1 billion in notes to complete its bankruptcy exit.

The companys bankruptcy plan was approved by a U.S. judge last month, giving lenders control of the firm and ending a contentious trial.

Chesapeake filed for court protection in June, reeling from overspending on assets and from a sudden decline in demand and prices spurred by the coronavirus pandemic.

As we prepare to conclude our restructuring, we continue to prudently manage our business and staffing levels to adapt to challenging market conditions and position Chesapeake for sustainable success, company spokesman Gordon Pennoyer said by email, when asked about the planned layoffs.

People losing their jobs will be given severance packages and career assistance, according to Lawlers email. The companys headquarters was closed on Wednesday and workers were notified by phone about layoffs because of the current health concerns known to all, the email said.

Reporting by Jennifer Hiller; editing by Richard Pullin and Marguerita Choy

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Chesapeake Energy cuts 15% of workers as it emerges from bankruptcy - Reuters