Solve Internet access

The covid-19 pandemic has highlighted a number of issues that disproportionately affect low-income families, resulting in various government actions to alleviate the problems. As promising as it is to see action being taken, it's important to recognize that many of these problems existed long before this crisis and most will remain long after the pandemic has ended. One such issue is lack of access to reliable Internet for low-income and rural students.

This is not a problem created by the covid-19 pandemic. Low-income and rural students have been disadvantaged by lack of Internet access for as long as Internet access has been integral to the public-school curriculum. This summer, Governor Hutchinson announced that a portion of the money allocated by the CARES Act would be used for Wi-Fi hotspots to ensure Internet access for students, but what happens after the pandemic ends and the CARES Act funding runs out?

If public schools are going to continue to require Internet access to complete assignments, then the state should find a way to continue providing Internet to low-income and rural students. This pandemic has only made Internet access more embedded into our daily lives, no matter where in the state we live or how much money our families make. Overall, it's important that we recognize that many of the problems highlighted by this year will not end with the pandemic unless we do something to fix them.

MARISSA FENNELL

Bentonville

Please ring the buzzer

Those who claim any pretense to objectivity watched the Trump-Biden debate as though staring into an abyss. The only way that this abyss can get deeper, darker and more depressing is if either one of the two contestants wins the election.

Let's face it; one is a narcissistic idiot and the other seems more than slightly confused. In the abyss we not only find Tweedledee and Tweedledum, we find the American voter who has accepted the stupid game-show format of the debate. "Mr. President, you have two minutes to answer the following question, and Mr. Vice President, you will have one minute to respond. Ring the bell if you need a hint, and each of you can make one phone call. The clock is ticking."

By contrast, when Abraham Lincoln debated Stephen Douglas in multiple debates (1858) the format was as follows: Opening speaker had 60 minutes of uninterrupted time, followed by his opponent who had 90 minutes, followed by a 30-minute rebuttal. Does this need more commentary?

Please pass the Prozac.

SCOTT McGEHEE

Little Rock

Thanks for memories

Thanks for the beautiful pictures of the C-47 flyover in last Friday's paper. I was on my way to work Thursday afternoon, and looked up and saw it all. What a thrill. I worked on the C-47s in the early '60s as an airman at the airbase.

Thanks for the memories, and happy 65th anniversary to the airbase.

WAYNE T. JONES

Little Rock

At cross-purposes?

President Trump has said that he would like everyone that gets covid-19 to have the same fetal embryonic cocktails that he has taken to spread up their recovery. With millions of people already sick, how does he plan to provide these if he appoints a Supreme Court justice in hopes of overturning Roe v. Wade?

CHARLES MAYS

Rogers

Democrats' strategy

Jennifer Rubin points out Mitch McConnell's hypocrisy for denying Merrick Garland a hearing in 2016 yet promising to deliver a vote to replace Justice Ginsburg. But after accusing Trump of being "a president bent on burning down the house of democracy to keep power," she opines that Democrats will retaliate once a new president and Senate take office.

Lest I be accused of fear-mongering, let me quote her directly: "Democrats will expand the Supreme Court and change the lifetime tenure of justices," "Democrats will eliminate the legislative filibuster" and "Democrats will admit D.C. and Puerto Rico as states." In other words, Democrats will take actions to ensure they "burn down the house of democracy" by ensuring Democrats keep power for the foreseeable future.

While Ms. Rubin states these threats are reactions to confirming Justice Ginsburg's replacement, they are Democrat Party staples: President Roosevelt advocated court-packing during his administration and Democratic presidential candidates advocated court packing in the last year. The Democrat Party has been discussing D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood for months. These actions are intended to permanently skew both the Senate and electoral college in their favor.

Democrats have long indicated that once in power they will fundamentally change America and American institutions to ensure they have a permanent majority. Ms. Rubin advocates voting a straight ticket for Democrats in 2020. Doing so will subjugate the nation to one-party rule: unhindered, unbalanced and unhinged.

JAMES T. BROCKWAY

Maumelle

Republicans by rote

It's election time again and, right on cue, the Democrat-Gazette heads to the rusted-out and moldy filing cabinet over in the corner, opens it up, blows the dust off, and pulls out endorsements for pretty much every Republican in sight. All it seems is changed year after year is the name. This paper can endorse all the continued incompetence and corruption it pleases; that doesn't mean readers have to follow it.

For example, on Saturday there was an endorsement for Tom Cotton. Within seconds, I swiped to the left, meaning I spent about as much time on the endorsement as it was worth of my time. Once on page 7B, I read a good guest column by Lynn Foster, who points out the incompetent federal response to the pandemic, one that Tom Cotton stands behind. We will not get back to normal until there is a nationwide strategy on the virus, and right now we don't have one and governors are just winging it.

Anyone voting Republican this year is approving of the continued decline of our country.

RICHARD MOORE

Little Rock

Damned either way

Kamala Harris demonstrated a lack of political savvy with the proud statement during the debate that Joe Biden is a practicing Catholic. She lost both ways pointing that out; those who despise or are prejudiced against Catholics, and Catholics who would prefer he quit practicing and do it for real.

TOM ZALOUDEK

Little Rock

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OPINION | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Solve Internet access | Please ring the buzzer | Thanks for memories - Arkansas Online

Prime Day is an avalanche of deals, but frankly most of these so-called hot buys arent such great deals at all, or else are discounts on products you shouldnt buy at any price. Weve filtered through thousands of deals to find the sales that really matter, but ultimately, its our readers who determine whats most compelling. These are the things our readers are buying the most this Prime Day.

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This ones pretty simple: Amazon is giving you an extra $10 in store credit if you buy at least $40 worth of Amazon gift cards. Yep, thats free money, provided youre interested in shopping at Amazon to begin with. You can input a custom amount of exactly $40, or go higher if you want. Just remember to use the code GC20PRIME to get the credit.

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The 20 Most Popular Prime Day Discounts According to Wirecutter Readers - The New York Times

On Friday, October 2, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that he and First Lady Melania Trump had both tested positive for COVID-19. Since then, he has spent three nights in a hospital and the majority of his time quarantined at the White House. President Trump insists that he is well, that he will win the election, and that the recovery of the nations health and economy is imminent. However, many Americans have doubts about their relative safety with COVID-19 and the prospects for the nations future.

For many, the Presidents diagnosis felt like just another piece of unsettling news in a momentand in the year 2020that has felt like one shock after another. Johns Hopkins Medical Center reports that to date, there have been 214,300 deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States (U.S.) and over 7.7 million confirmed cases. Only 13 states have a rate of transmission below 1.0, meaning that in the remaining 37 states the number of new positive COVID-19 cases is actively climbing. In addition, like advertisements, social media sites, and friends will remind you, the presidential election is less than a month away.

The aftershocks of President Trumps announcement have rippled across the world. Social media and major news outlets are rife with speculation about how sick the President really is. Many are concerned by the skyrocketing number of COVID-19 cases within The White House and the political elite of the U.S. The diagnosis has also raised questions about how the line of succession works. In other words, who will fulfill the Presidents duties if President Trump is unable to if the worse is to come. Interestingly, voters may be swayed one way or the other by the news that President Trump is sick.

And President Trumps Health?

The most immediate concern centers on the Presidents health. Former presidentsnotably President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, when he had polio, and President Ronald Reagan, when he was shot in an assassination attempthave hidden their infirmities while in office. Based on this presidential precedent, some people are concerned that the public will be given the most reassuring spin on the situation possible rather than be given the hard facts of President Trumps health.

Presently, what the public does know at this point is that on October 1, President Trump had a slight cough and felt fatigued. The next day he reported a high fever and flew to Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment. His doctors told the press that over the weekend his oxygen levels dropped several times, but that he got stabilized once oxygen was administered. Thus, he was able to work from inside the hospital. While at Walter Reed, President Trump was treated with commonly used steroid Dexamethasone, an emergency-approved antiviral called Remdesivir, and the experimental immunity booster Regeneron.

On October 5, President Trump tweeted that he felt better than I did 20 years ago! and returned to the White House. He made a public appearance from his balcony on October 10, and later that night, his doctor reported that he had no risk of transmission but declined to elaborate whether he had actually tested positive for COVID-19 or not.

The most recent news coming out of the White House, as of the evening of October 12, is that President Trump has tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days. Whether this means he is well or not contagious has yet to be seen. Notably, there is little public information and discourse about the First Ladys health and condition

COVID-19 infections are known to last weeks, and in some cases, they grow significantly worse after the patient has seemed to be improving. It is highly unlikely that President Trump poses no risk of transmission so soon after having been tested positive for COVID-19 and some significant symptoms. While many are discussing the potential for the President to die of COVID-19, it is much more likely that he will survive the initial illness but have lingering symptoms, and quite possibly, organ damage for the rest of his life.

The White House COVID-19 Hot Spot

In an effort to maintain an image of so-called courage and freedom despite the threat of COVID-19, President Trump and those around him have frequently gone without masks and abandoned social distancing all together. The White Houses strategy has been to rely on expensive and relatively rapid testing to keep them safe from the effects of the virus.

This week, that strategy failed. On September 29, President Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee in a public event at the Rose Garden where a few masks were seen among a group of people. Approximately 30 people who were present at the event have tested positive for COVID-19 leading Dr. Anthony Fauci to call that day a super-spreader event in a recent interview with Steven Portney.

Like dominoes falling, positive tests have been announced almost daily. President Trumps senior counselor Hope Hicks tested positive for COVID-19 on October 1, and ever since, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, campaign manager Bill Stepien, senior advisor for policy Stephen Miller, and his advisor Chris Christie have all tested positive.

The outbreak is now much larger than President Trumps inner circle. Republican National Convention Chair Ronna McDaniel, Republican Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Thom Tillis of South Carolina, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin all developed COVID-19 in the last two weeks. So have Admiral Charles Ray of the Coast Guard and Reverend John I. Jenkins (the President of Notre Dame University). Despite the rapid spread of COVID-19 within and around the Rose Garden, the White House will not coordinate contact tracing or halt in-person tours for potential visitors.

The Presidential Line of Succession

Although it is unlikely that President Trump will die before the election, it is important to understand what would happen in this hypothetical situation. LA Times reporter Sewall Chan took to Twitter in the hours after Trump announced his positive test result to explain the protocol for the death of a candidate to the concerned American people. According to his tweets, If either nominee dies or withdraws before the Nov. 3 election, his party@DNC or @GOPhas to designate the replacement. But whether theres enough time for that nominee to get on the ballot is up to the states. Given that 29 states have already begun mailing ballots to voters, this could be a big legal mess, tied up in state and federal courts. Nevertheless, the vacantSupreme Court seat adds to the nations uncertainty.

There is also the issue of who would retain the powers of the presidency if President Trump were to die before the election, or after the election if he is still in office? The 25th Amendment states that the Vice President becomes the acting president if the President of the U.S. is temporarily incapacitated. The Vice President becomes the President proper if the sitting President dies in office. If the Vice Presidency is vacated for whatever reason, the responsibility falls to members of the Cabinet beginning with the House of Representatives. Presently, Vice President Mike Pence is second in line followed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

The Possible Implications for the 2020 Presidential Election

With voters deeply divided into two main camps that follow wildly different news narratives, it is difficult to see how President Trumps positive test could impact the Presidential Election. By now, many have voted or had already firmly decided who they want in office.

One line of thinking suggests that President Trump will use his illness to empathize with those personally affected by COVID-19. If he can beat the virus, he can continue to downplay the threat to public health and use his own experience to anecdotally claim that COVID-19 is not a frightening or a dangerous illnesspropaganda 101. He may gain sympathetic votes from the sudden spike in nationalism that often accompanies a sick leader. In the U.S., even those who opposed President Ronald Reagan rallied around him after the attempt on his life and allowed many of his failings as a politician to get swept under the rug. More recently, the United Kingdoms Prime Minister Boris Johnson saw an increase in nationalism and nonpartisan support when he was hospitalized with COVID-19.

On the other hand, a SurveyUSA poll shows a swing in Joe Bidens favor. Voters may be persuaded to vote for a candidate who they see as more healthy and capable of leading the country. After seeing the rapid spread of the virus through the highest ranks of the Republican Party, some people may finally be convinced that the mitigation of the virus rather than an emphasis on opening the economy is the best route to keeping the U.S. government and society functioning.

Reactions from the Clark Community

In an Instagram poll I created, I asked Clark University students if they were happier or stressed to learn that the President has COVID-19. Six of the seven students who answered said they were more stressed than happy. In a follow-up poll, seven out of nine students said that they believed that this news would help Biden in the presidential election while the remaining two students said that they thought it would help President Trump. Eliza Humphrey (24), expressed that she was stressed and believed that President Trumps illness would help him gain re-election.

, Im worried about him infecting more people and also using it as a way to get sympathy, Humphrey said. People naturally feel kinda bad when others are hurt.She cited the fact that the Biden campaign strategically pulled its advertisements off the air while President Trump was in the hospital as evidence.

Humphrey concluded, Im not one to wish harm upon others, but being sick doesnt mean that Trump shouldnt be held accountableOf course, as should be stated in all such discussions, f*** Trump.

Read the original:
COVID-19 Strikes the White House The Scarlet - The Scarlet

Time and again we hear that liberalism is the last bulwark against fascism. It represents a defense of the rule of law and democracy in the face of aberrant, malevolent demagogues who are intent on destroying a perfectly good system for their own gain. This apparent opposition has been deeply engrained in contemporary so-called Western liberal democracies through their shared origin myth. As every school child in the U.S. learns, for instance, liberalism defeated fascism in World War II, beating back the Nazi beast in order to establish a new international order that -- for all of its potential faults and misdeedswas built upon key democratic principles that are antithetical to fascism.

This framing of the relationship between liberalism and fascism not only presents them as complete opposites, but it also defines the very essence of the fight against fascism as the struggle for liberalism. In so doing, it forges an ideological false antagonism. For what fascism and liberalism share is their undying devotion to the capitalist world order. Although one prefers the velvet glove of hegemonic and consensual rule, and the other relies more readily on the iron fist of repressive violence, they are both intent on maintaining and developing capitalist social relations, and they have worked together throughout modern history in order to do so.

What this apparent conflict masks -- and this is its true ideological power -- is that the real, fundamental dividing line is not between two different modes of capitalist governance, but between capitalists and anti-capitalists. The long psychological warfare campaign waged under the deceptive banner of totalitarianism has done much to further dissimulate this line of demarcation by disingenuously presenting communism as a form of fascism. AsDomenico Losurdoand others have explained with great historical precision and detail, this is pure ideological pap.

Given the ways in which the current public debate on fascism tends to be framed in relationship to purported liberal resistance, there could scarcely be a timelier task than that of scrupulously re-examining the historical record of actually existing liberalism and fascism. As we shall see even in this brief overview, far from being enemies, they have been -- sometimes subtle, sometimes forthright -- partners in capitalist crime. For the sake of argument and concision, I will here focus primarily on a conjunctural account of the non-controversial cases of Italy and Germany. However, it is worth stating at the outset that the Nazi racial police state and colonial rampage -- which far surpassed Italys capabilities -- weremodeled on the United States.

Liberal Collaboration in the Rise of European Fascism

It is of the utmost importance that Western European fascism emergedwithinparliamentary democracies rather than conquering them from the outside. The fascists rose to power in Italy at a moment of severe political and economic crisis on the heels of WWI, and then later the Great Depression. This was also a time when the world had just witnessed the first successful anti-capitalist revolution in the U.S.S.R. Mussolini, who had cut his teethworking for MI5to break up the Italian peace movement during WWI, was later backed by big industrial capitalists and bankers for his anti-worker, pro-capitalist political orientation. His tactic was to work within the parliamentary system, by mobilizing powerful financial supporters to bankroll his expansive propaganda campaign while his black shirts rode roughshod over picket lines and working-class organizations. In October of 1922, magnates in the Confederation of Industry and major bank leaders provided him with the millions necessary for the March on Rome as a spectacular show of force. However, he did not seize power.

Instead, as Daniel Gurin explained in his masterful studyFascism and Big Business, Mussolini was summoned by the king on October 29and was, according to parliamentary norms, entrusted with forming a cabinet. The capitalist state turned itself over without a fight, but Mussolini was intent on forming an absolute majority in parliament with the help of the liberals. They supported his new electoral law in July 1923 and then made a joint slate with the fascists for the election on April 6, 1924. The fascists, who had only had 35 seats in parliament, gained 286 seats with the help of the liberals.

The Nazis rose to power in much the same way, by working within the parliamentary system and courting the favor of big industrial magnates and bankers. The latter provided the financial support necessary to grow the Nazi party and eventually secure the electoral victory of September 1930. Hitler would later reminisce, in a speech on October 19, 1935, on what it meant to have the material resources necessary to support 1,000 Nazi orators with their own cars, who could hold some 100,000 public meetings in the course of a year.

In the December 1932 election, the Social Democrat leaders, who were far to the left of contemporary liberals but shared their reformist agenda, refused to form an eleventh-hour coalition with the communists against Nazism. As in many other countries past and present, so in Germany,wrote Michael Parenti, the Social Democrats would sooner ally themselves with the reactionary Right than make common cause with the Reds. Prior to the election, the Communist Party candidate Ernst Thaelmann had argued that a vote for the conservative Field Marshal von Hindenburg amounted to a vote for Hitler and for war. Only weeks after Hindenburgs election, he invited Hitler to become chancellor.

Fascism in both cases came to power through bourgeois parliamentary democracy, in which big capital bankrolled the candidates who would do its bidding while also creating a populist spectacle -- a false revolution -- that marshaled or suggested mass appeal. Its conquest of power took place within this legal and constitutional framework, which secured its apparent legitimacy on the home front, as well as within the international community of bourgeois democracies.

Leon Trotsky understood this perfectly anddiagnosed what was going on at the timewith remarkable insight:

The results are at hand: bourgeois democracy transforms itself legally, pacifically, into a fascist dictatorship. The secret is simple enough: bourgeois democracy and fascist dictatorship are the instruments of one and the same class, the exploiters. It is absolutely impossible to prevent the replacement of one instrument by the other by appealing to the Constitution, the Supreme Court at Leipzig, new elections, etc. What is necessary is to mobilize the revolutionary forces of the proletariat. Constitutional fetishism brings the best aid to fascism.

Once its power was secure, however, fascism revealed its authoritarian face, transforming itself into what Trotsky referred to as a military-bureaucratic dictatorship of the Bonapartist type. It unflinchingly set aboutat a rather different pace in Italy than in Germanycompleting the task it had been hired to accomplish by crushing organized labor, eradicating opposition parties, destroying independent publications, putting a halt to elections, scapegoating and eliminating racialized underclasses, privatizing public assets, launching projects of colonial expansion and investing heavily in a war economy beneficial to its industrial supporters. In establishing the direct dictatorship of big capital, it even destroyed some of the more plebeian and populist elements in its own ranks, while crushing many confused liberals under the juggernaut of repressive class warfare.

It was not only within Italy and Germany that bourgeois democracy allowed for the rise of fascism. This was also true internationally. Capitalist states refused to form an antifascist coalition with the U.S.S.R., a country that fourteen of them had invaded and occupied from 1918 to 1920 in a failed attempt to destroy the worlds first workers republic. During the Spanish Civil War, which historians like Eric Hobsbawm have characterized as a miniature version of the great mid-century war between fascism and communism, Western liberal democracies did not officially support the left-leaning government that had been elected. Instead, they stood idly by while the Axis powers provided massive support to General Francisco Franco as he oversaw a military coup dtat.

It is highly revealing that Franco, aself-declared fascistwho is often sidelined in discussions of European fascism,understood with remarkable claritywhy the epiphenomenal characteristics of fascism would differ considerably based on the precise conjuncture: Fascism, since that is the word that is used, fascism presents, wherever it manifests itself, characteristics which are varied to the extent that countries and national temperaments vary. It was the U.S.S.R. that came to the aid of the Republicans battling fascism in Spain, sending both soldiers and materials. Franco would later return the favor, so to speak, by deploying a volunteer military force to fight godless communism alongside the Nazis. Franco would also, of course, become one of the great postwar allies of the United States in its fight against the Red Menace.

In 1934, the United Kingdom, France and Italy signed the Munich Agreement, in which they agreed to allow Hitler to invade and colonize the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The sheer reluctance of Western governments to enter into effective negotiations with the Red state,wrote Eric Hobsbawm, even in 1938-39 when the urgency of an anti-Hitler alliance was no longer denied by anyone, is only too patent. Indeed, it was the fear of being left to confront Hitler alone which eventually drove Stalin, since 1934 the unswerving champion of an alliance with the West against him, into the Stalin-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, by which he hoped to keep the U.S.S.R. out of the war. This non-aggression pact was then disingenuously presented in the Western media as an undeniable indication that the Nazis and communists were somehow allies.

International Capitalism and Fascism

It was not only large industrialists and bankers, as well as landowners, within Italy and Germany that supported and profited from the fascist rise to power. This was equally true of many of the major corporations and banks whose headquarters were in Western bourgeois democracies. Henry Ford was perhaps the most notorious example since in 1938 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle, which was the highest honor that could be bestowed upon any non-German (Mussolini had received one earlier the same year). Ford had not only funneled ample funding into the Nazi Party, he had provided it with much of its anti-Semitic and anti-Bolshevik ideology. Fords conviction that Communism was a completely Jewish creation, toquote James and Suzanne Pool, was shared by Hitler, and some have suggested that the latter was so close ideologically to Ford that certain passages fromMein Kampfwere directly copied from Fords anti-Semitic publication,The International Jew.

Ford was only one of the American companies invested in Germany, and many other U.S. banks, firms and investors profited handsomely from Aryanizations (the expulsion of Jews from business life and the forced transfer of their property into Aryan hands), as well as from the German rearmament program. According to Christopher Simpsonsmasterful study, a half-dozen key U.S. companies -- International Harvester, Ford, General Motors, Standard Oil of New Jersey, and du Pont -- had become deeply involved in German weapons production.

In fact, American investment in Germany sharply increased after Hitler came to power. Commerce Department reports show,writes Simpson, that U.S. investment in Germany increased some 48.5 percent between 1929 and 1940, while declining sharply everywhere else in continental Europe. The German subsidiaries of U.S. companies like Ford and General Motors, as well as several oil companies, made wide use of forced labor in concentration camps. Buchenwald, for instance, provided concentration camp labor for GMs enormous Russelsheim plant, as well as for the Ford truck plant located in Cologne, and Fords German managers made extensive use of Russian POWs for war production work (a war crime according to the Geneva Conventions).

John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who would later respectively become the Secretary of State and the head of the CIA, ran Sullivan & Cromwell, which some consider to have been the largest Wall Street law firm at the time. They played a very important role in overseeing, advising and managing global investment in Germany, which had become one of the most important international marketsparticularly for American investorsduring the second half of the 1920s. Sullivan & Cromwell worked with nearly all of the major U.S. banks, and they oversaw investments in Germany in excess of a billion dollars. They also worked with dozens of companies and governments all over the world, but John Foster Dulles,according to Simpson, clearly emphasized projects for Germany, for the military junta in Poland, and for Mussolinis fascist state in Italy. In the postwar era, Allen Dulles worked tirelessly to protect his business partners, and he was remarkably successful in securing their assets and helping them avoid prosecution.

Whereas most liberal accounts of fascism focus on its political theater and epiphenomenal eccentricities, thereby avoiding a systemic and radical analysis, it is essential to recognize that if liberalism allowed for the growth of European fascism, it is capitalism that drove this growth.

Who Defeated Fascism?

It is not surprising that the bourgeois democracies of the West were extremely slow to open the Western front, allowing their erstwhile enemy, the U.S.S.R., to be bled by the pro-capitalist Nazi war machine (whichreceived ample funding from White Russians). In fact, the day after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union,Harry Truman flatly declared: If we see that Germany is winning, we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning, we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I dont want to see Hitler victorious in any circumstances. After the U.S. entered the war, powerful officials like Allen Dulles worked behind the scenes to try and broker a peace deal with Germany that would allow the Nazis to focus all of their attention on eradicating the U.S.S.R.

The widespread idea, at least within the U.S., that fascism was ultimately defeated by liberalism in WWII, due primarily to the U.S. intervention in the war, is a baseless canard. AsPeter Kuznick, Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton reminded listeners in a recent discussion, 80% of the Nazis who died in the war were killed on the Eastern Front with the U.S.S.R., where Germany had deployed 200 divisions (versus only 10 in the West). 27 million Soviets gave their lives fighting fascism, whereas 400,000 American soldiers died in the war (which amounts to approximately 1.5% of the Soviet death toll). It was, above all, the Red Army that defeated fascism in WWII, and it is communismnot liberalismthat constitutes the last bulwark against fascism. The historical lesson should be clear: one cannot be truly antifascist without being anti-capitalist.

The Ideology of False Antagonisms

The ideological construction of false antagonisms, in the case of liberalism and fascism, serves multiple purposes:

+ It establishes the primary front of struggle as one between rival positionswithinthe capitalist camp.

+ It channels peoples energy into fighting over the best methods for managing capitalist rule rather than abolishing it.

+ It eradicates the true lines of demarcation of global class struggle.

+ It attempts to simply take the communist option off the table (by removing it entirely from the field of struggle, or disingenuously presenting it as a form of totalitarianism).

Not unlike sporting events, which are very important ideological rituals in the contemporary world, the logic of false antagonisms amps up and overinflates all of the idiosyncratic differences and personal rivalries between two opposing teams to such an extent that the frenzied fans come to forget that they are ultimately playing the same game.

In the reactionary political culture of the U.S., which has attempted to redefine the Left as liberal, it is of the utmost importance to recognize that the primary opposition that has structured, and continues to organize, the modern world is the one between capitalism -- which is imposed and maintained through liberal ideology and institutions, as well as fascist repression, depending on the time, place and population in question -- and socialism. By replacing this opposition by the one between liberalism and fascism, the ideology of false antagonisms aims at making the fight of the century into a capitalist spectacle rather than a communist revolution.

(Gabriel Rockhillis a Franco-American philosopher, cultural critic and activist. He the founding Director of theCritical Theory Workshopand Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University. In addition to scholarly work, he has been actively engaged in extra-academic activities in the art and activist worlds, as well as a regular contributor to public intellectual debate.Follow on twitter:@GabrielRockhill). This piece was posted on CounterPumch.org.)

[[[ https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/liberalism-and-fascism-partners-in-crime/ ]]] Art by Nick Roney. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

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Liberalism and Fascism: Partners in Crime - City Watch

Joe Biden started spouting nonsense about his background again this week. Trying to sound all man of the people, he told a rally in Ohio that he would be the first president in 80 or 90 years who did not attend one of those fancy Ivy League schools. Well no, Joe Reagan didnt go to an Ivy, nor did Carter, Nixon, Johnson, Eisenhower, Truman or Hoover. Joe also likes to claim that he is the first in his family to go to college. Its a line he famously pilfered in 1987 from a Neil Kinnock speech. It also happens to be untrue.

Three decades ago, people cared when Biden lied. Now nobody cares. Its hard to oppose, let alone revile, a man who no longer seems to have any idea of what he is saying. Biden lost contact with reality years ago; maybe we did too. On Monday, he forgot the name of Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 the senator who was a Mormon, the governor, OK? Later he declared, for the second time this year, that he was a proud Democrat running for the Senate. Pssst, Joe, its the presidency youre after the Senate was in 1973. Biden makes similar or worse gaffes almost every day on the campaign trail. Never mind hes still going to be the 46th President of the United States, unless those polls are wildly wrong again.

Americans will vote for Biden, were told, because they crave a return to normalcy after four mad years under President Donald J. Trump. But whats normal or sane about giving a somewhat demented 77-year-old the most powerful job on the planet? Leading the free world shouldnt be a retirement activity, yet nobody who has been paying attention can expect Biden to serve even one full term. Its more likely that he will end up delegating his more arduous tasks to his vice president Kamala Harris. Republican talking heads like to make out that the Kamala and the radical left will depose their frail leader as soon as possible. In July, former New Hampshire senator Judd Gregg wrote that within a few months of assuming the presidency, Biden will find himself being the next statue toppled as the socialist/progressive movement moves closer to power. The woke devils, Gregg suggested, would oust Biden by triggering the 25th Amendment, through which an incapacitated president can be removed. It will be a coup, he said.

That may be hysterical. Yet its easy to imagine Harris gradually taking over a Biden White House, as the ailing Commander-in-Chief plods about the East Wing in his slippers telling anyone wholl listen that he used to be Barack Obamas vice president back in the day. Almost nobody expects Biden, who will be 82 by inauguration day in 2025, to attempt a second term. Whats striking is quite how many Americans seem to be happy to elect such a figure so long as it means four fewer years of Donald Trump.

But Biden isnt just winning this election because people despise Trump. Hes winning because he isnt all that left-wing and hes more likable than Hillary Clinton. Lots of Americans were willing to believe that Mrs Clinton had a secret plan to turn their great country into a socialist hellhole. They just dont think Biden will do that at least not on purpose. Again, his age helps here: when he intones radical pieties about transforming America or dismantling white privilege, he sounds like a priest talking about grime music. People think he cant really mean it.

Bidens moderate instincts finely honed over four decades in Washington usually prevent him from sounding too dangerously progressive. He took too long to condemn the violent riots that began as Black Lives Matter protests, but he didnt go along with the electorally suicidal Defund the Police slogan that many in his party took as gospel over the summer. He sounds very open-minded about transgendered people, but hes skeptical about cannabis legalization. Hes a centrist granddad. Biden plans to spend an additional seven trillion dollars to address the COVID crisis. At the same time, he promises he wont raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year. Nobody quite believes his sums add up, and polls suggest Americans believe Trump would handle the economy better. Still, more than 50 percent of Americans now seem to want Biden in charge.

The idea that, under Biden, America might revert to normalcy such an odd word is not based on any faith in his leadership. Its more an assumption that, in terms of governance, Bidens America would default to its pre-Trump settings and everything might calm down. It will be back to business as usual for better and worse, is how one experienced Democratic operative put it to me this week.

Biden 2020 is in many ways the Obama restoration project. Obama-era figures are likely to dominate his future cabinet: Susan Rice, the former ambassador to the United Nations, is tipped to be his secretary of state. That aristocratic dinosaur John Kerry, who served as Obamas secretary of state, is expected to be given some big advisory role. Michle Flournoy, formerly the under secretary of defense, could be promoted to secretary of defense.

As soon as Trump became Commander-in-Chief, he gleefully set about undoing Barack Obamas proudest international achievements. Team Obama must now be salivating at the prospect of their imminent revenge. Expect the Iran Deal, which Trump tore up, to be stitched back together. A Biden-Harris administration would also, amid much fanfare, reenter the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and shove America back into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, now renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Trumps more disruptive America First policies will be taken out back and strangled.

It wont just be cocktail hour at Davos, though. Unlike most machine Democrats, Team Biden has been shrewd enough to accept some of Trumps political victories and to understand that a winning presidential candidate must speak to families in rust-belt states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Thats why Bidens Build Back Better manifesto a slogan pinched from Boris Johnson includes a buy American pledge to expand federal commitments to procure goods made only in the USA. Its also why Biden has conceded that Trumps United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement is better than Bill Clintons North American Free Trade Agreement, which he supported in 1993. Trumps replacement deal includes more provisions to protect American workers and unions. Maybe old Joe isnt as dotty as he looks.

Beijing Biden as Trumpists call him will probably take a softer approach towards China than Trump, who incurred the wrath of Wall Street by demanding a more reciprocal trading relationship between America and the worlds number two superpower. After the pandemic, however, mistrust of China has spread far and wide. Future US administrations will have to stand up to Beijing far more than vice president Biden did in the first half of the 2010s. There will be no going back to the global order before Trump.

***Get a print and digital subscription toThe Spectator.Try a month free, then just $7.99 a month***

On the domestic front, if the Democrats keep the House (likely) and win the Senate (possible) on November 3, Biden could indeed be pulled hard left by the activist wing of his party. But that seems unlikely. The Democratic establishment still has enough clout and financial backing to keep the insurgents at bay.

Without the binding force of shared Trump hatred, however, a Biden-Harris administration might very quickly start to resemble the tail end of the Obama-Biden years. This week @realDonaldTrump summed up the election nicely on Twitter, as he often does. Remember, he tweeted, I wouldnt be president now had Obama and Biden properly done their job. The fact is, they were TERRIBLE!!! The trouble for the President, it seems, is that most Americans do remember. Still, they want Trump gone.

Presidential elections arent meant to be referendums on the man in the White House. The successful challenger ought to have his or her own vision for America. The last three one-term presidents were replaced by politicians with bold agendas; Hoover lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt; Carter to Reagan; and George H.W. Bush to Bill Clinton. Biden offers little beyond a geriatric rerun of the Obama administration with memory lapses instead of pretty speeches. You dont need an Ivy League degree to see thats a recipe for failure.

This article was originally published inThe Spectators UK magazine.Subscribe to the US edition here.

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If Biden wins, who will govern? - The Spectator USA

Jordans King Abdullah swore in an interim government on Monday that takes office facing historic levels of unemployment and a coronavirus pandemic that its predecessor failed to contain.

Bisher Al Khasawneh, the replacement for prime minister Omar Razzaz, is a longtime diplomat who is new to governance. He formed an administration made mostly of Cabinet veterans, former ministers and ambassadors.

Sources at the prime minister's office and those close to the Royal Court said the safe hands were selected to guide Jordan through the biggest economic crisis and wave of public discontent in modern history.

At a socially-distanced swearing-in ceremony in front of the king at the Husseini Palace on Monday, Mr Al Khasawneh said the government will give the pandemic file special importance.

He vowed to enhance health services, improve the co-ordination between partners in the health sector, and develop a new epidemiological monitoring and investigation strategy to cope with the communal transmission phase of the virus and better contact tracing.

For interior minister, Mr Al Khasawneh replaced Salamah Hamad with Gen Tawfiq Al Halalmeh, the first director of Jordans gendarmerie, who helped develop the service into an elite internal security and counter-terrorism force. Gen Al Halalmeh is an influential voice in Jordans security sector.

Ali Al Ayad, a former minister and ambassador to Israel, returned to the post of minister of media affairs and government spokesman, nine years since he last served in the post.

For the post of deputy prime minister and minister of state for economic affairs, Mr Al Khasawneh called on Umayya Toukan, a former finance minister and longtime governor of the Central Bank of Jordan.

Nayef Al Fayez is another former minister returned to an old post, serving again as minister of tourism to address a critical sector that accounts for 14 per cent of the kingdoms GDP and has been badly hit by the pandemic.

Mr Al Fayez has served as tourism minister three times over the past decade, most recently in 2016.

Most notably, the new government replaced Saad Al Jaber, the health minister who relied heavily on his casual and personable media presence to convince Jordanians of the seriousness of the coronavirus and the need for a costly three-month lockdown.

Mr Al Jabers sometimes flippant and often quotable approach made him a polarising figure. His claims that coronavirus had dried up and died in Jordan in June after a three-month lockdown was emblematic of the governments squandering of its hard-earned gains against the virus.

Replacing Mr Al Jaber is Dr Nathir Obeidat, spokesman for Jordans Covid-19 taskforce whose measured, sober and facts-based discussion on the pandemic with media throws Mr Al Jaber's approach into sharp relief.

The post of foreign minister was one of the few left unchanged, with Ayman Safadi retaining the post as the kingdoms top diplomat, a position he has held since 2017. Minister of Education Tayseer Naimi also kept his role.

King Abdullah selected Mr Al Khasawneh, who served as Jordans ambassador to Egypt, France and the Arab League, as prime minister on Wednesday, noting in his letter of designation that the new government arrived at an exceptional time.

Although constitutionally the king-appointed prime minister forms a government independently, former ministers and royal court officials told The National that the palace and security services have great sway over Cabinet selections.

The interim government has several tall tasks at hand, the most immediate of which is the coronavirus.

Despite crushing the curve in the spring and pushing cases down to zero for weeks, mismanagement at the countrys borders with Syria and Saudi Arabia allowed infected lorry drivers and border staff to take the virus into Jordanian communities.

Since then, the Razzaz government struggled to find a balance between reviving the economy and stopping the spread of Covid-19, following a strategy of localised lockdowns and weekend curfews that did little to prevent the infections jumping to more than 1,000 new cases and 10 to 15 deaths a day.

Health experts are speaking of a potential collapse of the health system, after dozens of nurses and doctors caught the virus and hospital beds became scarce.

The economic crisis is just as immediate and, for Jordan, with longer-term implications. Jordans economy has struggled to recover from the three-month coronavirus lockdown imposed in March.

Its debt crisis has widened to more than 100 per cent of GDP, exacerbated by a drop in tax revenue and costly social measures designed to keep citizens afloat.

Jordans unemployment is at a historic high of 23 per cent, according to official statistics, but independent researchers and think tanks put that at close to 40 per cent.

The vast majority of Jordanians still in work receive 50 per cent to 75 per cent of their normal monthly salaries.

Compounding the challenges facing the government is the uncertainty surrounding its shelf-life and its constitutional mandate.

The countrys constitution mandates that once parliament is dissolved upon completion of its ordinary session to pave way for elections, government must also resign to prevent a prime minister running the government without the constitutional check of the legislative body.

King Abdullah instructed Mr Al Khasawnehs interim government to serve until parliamentary elections scheduled for November 10 are complete and a new government is sworn in.

But the countrys Independent High Electoral Commission hinted several times this month that elections may be postponed should Jordans coronavirus case numbers continue to climb.

Hanging over the elections, as with everything else in Jordan, is the prospect of a second national lockdown.

To prevent a collapse of the health system, experts in the Covid-19 taskforce have pushed the government to impose a two or three-week national lockdown to slow transmission.

Incoming health minister Dr Obeidat, in his capacity as Covid-19 taskforce spokesman, said last week that weekend and local lockdowns as enacted by the previous government were ineffective at this stage and that a two or three-week lockdown would be needed to curb communal transmission.

It is unclear how a national lockdown would delay an election campaign season that is already in full swing, and whether the Khasawneh government will serve past its interim period.

Updated: October 13, 2020 09:30 AM

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Jordan's King Abdullah swears in new government of old faces - The National

Wellingtons fern orb returns to public view stronger than ever after a long hiatus.

Neil Dawsons Ferns 2 was initially taken down May 2019 because of metal fatigue but had seen delays in its return to Te Ngkau Civic Square.

Wellington City Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said lockdown played a role in this delay, as did the pieces redesign to make it less fragile.

The hope was fewer alterations would be needed going forward.

READ MORE:* Civic Square fern orb turns up in industrial depot after being hidden for years * Len Lye's former assistant says artist would have been 'deeply hurt' by broken sculpture* New Ferns 'orb' sculpture to be raised in Wellington's Civic Square

MONIQUE FORD/Stuff

Ferns 2 has been redesigned to prevent it from being taken down again.

Ferns 2 was already a replacement for the original commission, Ferns, that sustained significant wind damage and had to be removed permanently. The original Ferns sculpture was last seen in an industrial zone in Grenada North.

Weve had to do serious thinking about redesigning the piece to the situation of pulling it down repeatedly, said MacLean.

The replacement and reinstallation was covered by insurance.

MONIQUE FORD/Stuff

Neil Dawsons fern sculpture has been reinstalled after it was repeatedly taken down for repairs.

It took three cranes and a cherry picker to secure the orb in position at 10am on Tuesday.

Wellington Sculpture Trust chair Sue Elliot said it has been a highly anticipated return.

Elliot was thrilled to see the sculpture back, especially at the start of summer, when Wellingtonians could make the most of its presence.

Wellington City Council/Stuff

Te Ngkau Civic Squares fern orb has been restored after metal fatigue degradation.

We originally raised all the money for the commission. The Trust has its heart and soul in this piece.

Len Lyes Water Whirler sculpture would also be returning to the waterfront on Thursday, October 15.

Stuff

The broken Len Lye Water Whirler, worth an estimated $300,000, sits next to its base on Wellingtons waterfront in 2018.

The work was vandalised in 2018, and returned in June 2019, however the replacement did not function correctly and was taken down once more last summer for further repairs.

The piece was originally commissioned for $300,000 and its replacement was not covered by insurance, yet Elliot could not say how much the overall cost was.

Ross Giblin

Len Lye's waterfront sculpture, Waterwhirler, has been repaired twice after it was vandalised.

I dont like to use the word iconic but these sculptures are iconic and have come from two of the best public sculptors that have ever existed.

The council had put up signs to deter anyone tempted to touch the sculpture.

We are depending on people behaving themselves, MacLean said.

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Wellington's fern orb returns to Te Ngkau Civic Square after more than a year - Stuff.co.nz

Commentary: I fear the unfortunate timing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgs death may break the U.S. Senate.

It is, perhaps, the inevitable culmination of a battle between Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid that started years ago, where every time the majority changed, so did the rules. About the only thing left protecting the minority party is the filibuster rule, and its days may be numbered.

With his term as majority leader in danger, McConnell is rushing to get Amy Coney Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court before the election.

To do so, he has changed the rules established four years ago in declining to consider the nomination of Merrick Garland. Back then it was critical that voters had a voice. Now it is critical that they dont.

Republicans in the Senate can confirm Coney Barrett with a single-vote majority because McConnell changed the rules in 2018 to remove the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, ensuring confirmation at that time for Neil Gorsuch.

Democrats changed the rules in 2013, when Reid eliminated the filibuster on lower court and cabinet nominees, which were being systematically blocked by McConnell.

Everytime the rules were changed, it took away from the protections of the minority party and made it easier for those in power to avoid compromise.

If Democrats win both the White House and the Senate this year, which appears to be possible, more rule changes are likely. And for good reason.

Because of the electoral college, we are likely to end up with a Supreme Court in which five of the nine justices were appointed by a president who lost the popular vote. A court with a solid 6-3 conservative majority for the next two decades would be wildly out of step with the nation as a whole, and would be in danger of losing its legitimacy.

Sen. Chuck Schumer has said that all options are on the table if Democrats win, including adding new seats to the court. To do so, they would have to get rid of the filibuster entirely.

And that would break the Senate, at least the version that our founders envisioned. No more cooling saucer. It would become the House, but with longer terms.

There has always been a random nature to Supreme Court vacancies, just as there is to any lifetime position. To bring some order to the process, justices often step down when their party is in power to ensure a like-minded replacement.

Ginsburg will rightly be remembered as a champion for equality and a pioneer for women of all professions; and she was widely praised for her grit and toughness. But, she was urged to step down when Barack Obama was in power. In declining, she gambled twice - first that Hillary Clinton would win; and second, that she would survive for at least four years if Clintpn lost.

Only the party in power can stop the constant ratcheting up of partisan advantages. Thats clearly not going to happen in the next few weeks.

If Democrats win, instead of adding seats to the court, they should apply term limits to the position of Supreme Court justice. That would give each president a more equal opportunity to appoint justices, and would make for a more orderly transition.

To do so may require Democrats to end the filibuster. Then, after taking that one vote, they should do the unthinkable - give back all of the powers that have been stripped from the minority during the past decade and start working together to find compromise.

Walter Rubel can be reached at waltrubel@gmail.com.

Original post:
A plan to avoid breaking the U.S. Senate - KRWG

The provincial government's decision to put the brakes on its proposed revamp of the way oil and gas operations are assessed for taxation is being applauded by the head of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta.

Earlier this year, the province laid out four possible new taxation models aimed at providing relief to Alberta's struggling oil and gas companies by reforming the assessment process for their wells and other operations.

The current system evaluates them on replacement cost not market value a practice industry and government officials say overvalues industry assets and inflates tax bills.

But the RMA reacted with alarm and says 69 counties and municipal districts could lose up to 40 per cent of their tax base.

"There's no doubt about it, it's created some tremendous angst among my member municipalities, the proposals that they've had," said RMA president Al Kemmere.

But Tracy Allard, newly installed as minister of municipal affairs in a summer cabinet shuffle, says no decision has been made on a new assessment model and consultations will continue.

"While we of course want our oil and gas businesses to be strong and viable so they can invest, create jobs, and pay taxes in our municipalities, we must also carefully consider the impact a reduction in assessment would have on the municipalities these employers operate in," said press secretary Justin Marshall in an emailed statement.

'We're encouraged'

Kemmere says the RMA in encouraged by that statement.

"She definitely has a desire to hear from all those affected, and then come up with a solution that the industry can live with, that the municipalities can live with and that the province can live with."

The reeve of Ponoka County agrees that some fundamental changes need to be made, but he's not convinced that just changing the way oil and gas operations are taxed is the right approach.

Emilio Avalos/Radio-Canada

For Ponoka, the reforms as proposed would result in an increase in residents' taxes varying from 150 to 200 per cent to maintain the same level of services.

"We need to look at it as a system. It's extremely complex. There's multiple components of it and multiple categories, and you can't just look at one and make modifications to that," said Paul McLauchlin.

The difficulties that the energy sector has been facing for the past five years are affecting the county's bottom line, too, he says.

"We've actually had to write down about $3 million in taxes, which represents roughly 20 per cent of our taxes over the course of the last three or four years," he said.

But according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, some businesses are not going to be able to survive unless the province gets on with its changes.

"We still strongly recommend that the government proceed with a decision on reforming the assessment system this year. There will really never be a better time to do it," said CAPP's vice president of oilsands and fiscal policy, Ben Brunnen.

"This is a difficult choice in the best of circumstances."

Brunnen says CAPP's own analysis found that, under the proposed changes, the vast majority of municipalities could get by without a deficit by drawing on their reserves. In some areas even, counties would win, he said.

That's because oil and gas firms will be better able to boost investment in existing operations if they feel they're being taxed under a fairer assessment model, he said.

Story continues

McLauchlin says it's important to realize that in rural areas like his, there's lots of overlap between the energy business and the farmers who let companies operate on their land.

"A lot of folks around here actually support their farming habit with being oil and gas operators or working in the industry," he said.

"So we're very aware of the stress on the industry and the stress that's occurred for a few years now. And so I think the tension might be falsely created by some advocacy by some groups."

McLauchlin also noted that the taxes paid by oil and gas companies largely gets reinvested to maintain and improve the infrastructure used disproportionately by those firms.

"I think most people don't understand the wear and tear the oil and gas industry has on our assets, on our roads," he said.

See more here:
Pause on tax reform for oil and gas firms welcomed by rural leaders - Yahoo News Canada

From nobody really knowing what time it is to ransacking businesses, from a big bang in Homer Hill to marching on Washington, heres a look back on the week that was 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago on this edition of Turning Back the Clock.

Oct. 14 Oleans failure to keep pace with the other cities in this part of the state robbed the Kiwanis Club of its speaker today. Frank Mott, of Jamestown, was scheduled to be the speaker today but was unaware that Olean was still traveling on state time, so he missed his train. While other municipalities shifted off of Daylight Savings Time early, Olean leaders chose to stick with the state schedule of the end of the month. Today, all states except Arizona and Hawaii have uniform adoptions of DST to avoid such confusions.

Oct. 16 A full moon was reported in Olean last night, police said. M.D. Moon, 56, of Bolivar, was registered in the police station after being arrested on a charge of intoxication a much rarer sight during Prohibition, but hardly out of the ordinary. He furnished bonds in the sum of $10 for his appearance in police court this morning, but he forfeited the money by non-appearance.

Oct. 12 After 20 months of worrying, a Portville family finally has closure on the loss of their son. First Lt. Don Hurlburt, son of Mr. and Mrs. R.C. Hurlburt, was officially declared dead. A 1938 Portville graduate and former Olean Times Herald employee, he joined the U.S. Army months before Pearl Harbor. He later earned his flight wings and was attached to the Eighth Air Force in Great Britain, flying Supermarine Spitfires and Republic P-47 Thunderbolts. In his P-47, Buffalo Barb, he chalked up 64 missions before being shot down while returning from a bomber escort mission Feb. 22, 1944.

Oct. 18 Police are investigating the ransacking of the Olean Glove Co. and Rickersons Olean Bakery on West Sullivan Street. At the glove factory, managers say nothing appears to have been taken, although gloves and leather had been strewn about. The $2,500 in pigskin hides were left untouched. At the bakery, the office had been broken into and a cabinet pried open, with between $12 and $15 missing Mr. Rickerson had taken $535 out earlier in the evening.

Oct. 13 Move over, Route 219. State officials are eyeing Route 16 for a possible north-south expressway corridor in addition to the plans almost a decade old for Route 219. In 1969, Route 16 proponents began campaigning for a switch to the more heavily populated and faster growing Corridor 16 area, with service from the end of the 400 in South Wales to Holland, Arcade, Delevan, Franklinville and Olean. You opened our eyes to a need, said regional NYSDOT Director Donald Ketchum, noting the plan is now receiving at least equal consideration to a Route 219 expansion.

Oct. 14 Almost 10,000 pounds of explosives detonated in the Homer Hill area of Olean to provide fill for the Southern Tier Expressway. Gelmite and fertilizer ammonium nitrate were used to blast more than 15,000 cubic yards of hillside in the first of several planned explosions in the borrow pit owned by Felmont Oil Corp. The remains of the hillside can still be seen on Homer Street and Interstate 86, with the floor carved out used by several industrial and commercial firms including KA-BAR.

Oct. 12 The alarms at Friendship Central School sounded Wednesday and the school evacuated but not for a planned evacuation drill. While officials had already prepared for a drill, and students and staff were aware school would be letting out early, a nearby water line replacement crew struck a gas main, forcing the school to close about 15 minutes earlier than expected. It was amazing that this happened during Fire Prevention Week and the school was preparing for an evacuation, said Friendship Fire Chief Ted Whitcher. No one got sick, and thats because the school is pretty well set up on what to do in case of an emergency.

Oct. 15 Several area Black men will participate in the Million Man March on Washington, hoping the message will transcend the controversial messenger, Louis Farrakhan, whose anti-Semitic remarks leading up to the event have drawn condemnation. Theres a lot that Louis Farrakhan says that I dont believe in, either, said Orman Clemons of Olean. But for me, Im going down for what I can get from it as an African-American male Personally, Ill take what I can take and leave the rest alone. Burlin Bridges, who also disagrees with Farrakhan, said we have to show unity and solidarity in the community.

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State & Union: Turning back the clock on Olean - Olean Times Herald