1. Beneath all the talk of national unity, the pandemic has unleashed a ferocious class war. The latest example is Trump deploying the Defense Protection Act to bolster meat packing plants, a major vector of the disease.
2. The meat packing plant is facing a crisis in part because workers (quite rightly) are refusing to go into plants where they could catch the disease. Trump's deployment of DPA is largely for show but he's signalling solidarity with employers against employees.
3. Iowa governor Kim Reynolds is also sending a signal: that employees who don't return to dangerous workplaces will be seen as quitting and thus not eligible for unemployment. The message: work (at the risk of death) or starve.
4. All the current chatter about “disincentives to work" (heard in Canada as well) is part of the class war. The idea is to keep people working at life-threatening jobs for as little money as possible. More thoughts here: thenation.com/article/politi…
