Justice Department proposes internal investigation to cover up state involvement in January 6 coup attempt

Eric London

Information made public in recent days shows there is no longer reasonable doubt that the fascist riot in Washington on January 6 almost resulted in a massacre and was orchestrated with high-level support from the Trump administration and Republican Party.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that the mob entered the Senate chamber less than 60 seconds after Vice President Mike Pence was evacuated. The Post wrote: “The proximity of the Jan. 6 mob to the vice president and the delay in evacuating him from the chamber—which have not been previously reported—raise questions about why the Secret Service did not move him earlier and underscore the jeopardy that top government leaders faced during the siege.”

People shelter in the House gallery during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington [Credit: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik]

Prosecutors in Arizona also reported that those involved in the plot planned to “capture and assassinate elected officials.” This was contradicted by a Trump Justice Department official, who said yesterday, “We don’t have any direct evidence of kill capture teams.” In federal court Tuesday, lawyers for Arizona protestor Jacob Chansley, photographed shirtless with horns and make-up in the capitol, argued that their client was merely following Trump’s orders and requested Trump pardon him.

Police are now investigating a letter from New Jersey Democratic Mikie Sherrill asserting that Republican members of Congress were giving tours of the Capitol to rally participants in the days before the event. Other Republican members of congress, including Texas’ Peter Sessions, met with rally organizers in the days before the event. Fascist rally organizer Ali Alexander said he met personally with Republican representatives Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks and Paul Gosar in the lead-up to the riot.

The outpouring of information showing the involvement of the state apparatus in the events of January 6 has prompted an internal “investigation” headed by the Justice Department. This call has all the earmarks of an official cover-up.

The Post reported yesterday that the review will involve investigators from “the departments of Justice, Defense, Interior and Homeland Security.” The review will likely take years. In a statement announcing the “investigation,” Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his office “is mindful of the sensitive nature of the ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions” and will “take care to ensure that the review does not interfere with these.”

In other words, the most vital information will be withheld from the public on bogus “national security” grounds.  

The response of the Democratic and Republican parties to last Wednesday’s attempted fascist coup in Washington D.C. demonstrates that although the January 6 attempt failed at seizing power, the entire political establishment is now lurching further to the right. While the Republican Party defends Trump’s actions and integrates the extreme right, the Democrats trail after, appealing for “unity.”

By threatening physical violence in the run-up to the January 20 inauguration, the far-right has succeeded in intimidating state legislatures in several states. On Thursday, the Oregon state legislature delayed its 2021 legislative session due to threats from far-right militias. Oregon Senate President Democrat Peter Courtney acknowledged that it was the Oregon State Police, an institution riddled with Trump supporters, that ordered the closure of the session.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Washington Governor Jay Inslee, both Democrats, revealed Thursday that pro-Trump demonstrators stormed their residences on January 6. Walz said the demonstrators forced the evacuation of his children.

Walz added that he had not been briefed by any Trump administration officials about the FBI memo or any potential unrest. “I think they’ve pretty much checked out of the game,” Walz said. “And you would think if there were credible threats after what we saw at the U.S. Capitol, that maybe the governor of Minnesota would get a call from an undersecretary or somebody just to let us know. But no.

According to Politico chief political correspondent Tim Alberta, similar efforts at intimidation also influenced the House impeachment vote. “I know for a fact several members want to impeach but fear casting that vote could get them or their families murdered,” he wrote. “Numerous House Republicans have received death threats in the past week.”

The most right-wing members of the incoming Congress are now emerging as stars of the Republican Party. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a fascist QAnon supporter representing rural Georgia, announced Thursday that she would introduce articles of impeachment against President-elect Joe Biden on January 21, the day after his inauguration.

Despite the fact that Democrats will control both houses of Congress and the executive branch, the Biden administration and Democratic leadership are already announcing their desire to work with their “Republican colleagues.”

On Thursday, Biden announced his “COVID relief” plan would not include $2,000 checks for each individual, as the Democrats had promised during the Senate elections in Georgia. Biden said this would be reduced to $1,400, cynically claiming that Democrats intended the stimulus to total $2,000, and that this included the $600 provided in March.

In a letter to Senate Democrats published yesterday, soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Senate Democrats would prioritize confirming Biden’s nominees for Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of State, Attorney General and Secretary of Treasury.

The Jan. 6 insurrection “showed us we need qualified Senate-confirmed people (not in an acting capacity) in key national security positions,” he wrote. “The economic challenges our nation faces also require having key economic nominees confirmed and on the job ASAP. We will strive to make this important work bipartisan.

In other words, in the name of “unity,” Senate Democrats will concede everything to Republicans in order to ensure the US military, intelligence agencies and Treasury Department are fully staffed to oversee US imperialism’s operations and to ensure Wall Street is provided with an endless flow of money. Biden has also prioritized reopening schools, sacrificing the health of children so that their parents can be forced back into the labor force on behalf of corporate America.

In the spirit of “unity,” the Biden administration has announced it will appoint current Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist, a Trump appointee, to serve as Acting Secretary of Defense pending the confirmation of Biden’s nominee, Retired General Lloyd Austin. Norquist is a Trump appointee who supported Trump’s decision to unlawfully allocate Defense Department resources to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.

Wall Street has responded favorably to this dynamic. David Bianco, Chief Investment Officer for the Americas at DWS mutual fund management told CNBC Thursday, “I think we’ve gotten the Biden stimulus and more priced in. The way I’m describing Bidenomics is spend now, tax later and don’t tax until the bond market objects... The markets are seeing things are better now and we’ll see if there’s payback down the road with higher interest rates.”

Senate Democrats have also recently made clear they will secure Austin’s confirmation despite the fact that he requires a waiver because of his recent military service, a further erosion of the democratic principle of civilian control over the military. Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who will soon become chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Washington Post Wednesday, “We now have a clearly qualified candidate and a declaration by the president-elect that he needs General Austin for the safety and security of the nation.”

Within the military, there is also talk of Biden integrating and maintaining connections to the extreme right. According to a report in the Military Times, incoming Biden officials are considering granting press credentials to far-right publications like OAN News, Newsmaxx and Breitbart.

One former Obama administration official told the Military Times: “My personal view is it would be all too easy to shun these outlets, to rightfully claim that they don’t apply themselves to the same journalistic standards that your outlet does, or the wire services or the daily newspapers, and you could use that critical view against them to limit their access. I personally believe that would be self-defeating.”

Fascist coup in Washington accelerates Spanish army’s coup plotting

Alejandro López

Spain’s conservative Popular Party (PP), the main opposition in parliament to the Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government, is debating whether to come out publicly in defence of sections of the army and fascist Vox’s coup plot conspiracy to impose a dictatorship.

It takes place after Trump’s January 6 fascistic coup aimed at toppling the US government and overturning the results of the 2020 election and days before the inauguration on January 20. There are growing signs that far-right elements are planning a second coup attempt. At the same time, the entire political establishment spearheaded by the Democratic Party is engaged in a frenzied effort to cover up the high-level support for the insurrection within the Republican Party and the military-police apparatus.

Members of Military Emergency Unit arrive at Abando train station, in Bilbao, northern Spain earlier this year. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

Yesterday, three online newspapers reported about the PP’s anticipated parliamentary questions to PSOE Defence Minister Margarita Robles. These questions apparently leaked from within the PP to the liberal pro-Podemos Infolibre and right-wing sites, Vozpópuli and El Confidencial Digital.

The PP’s questions reproach Robles’ January 6 speech for condemning the top retired officers who sent letters and a manifesto to King Felipe VI, appealing for him to back them against the PSOE-Podemos government. Some of these officers signed the 2018 pro-Franco manifesto and discussed shooting “26 million” leftist voters.

Robles tried to downplay the letters, stating that they came from an “insignificant minority” and “deserve the most absolute rejection.” She was continuing the efforts of the PSOE-Podemos government, including deputy Prime Minister and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, to downplay the fascist coup threats.

In response, the PP drafted three questions to Robles last Monday, which implicitly endorsed the fascist officers. They have yet to be formally submitted in parliament. They are the following:

· What is the reason for the Minister of Defence to publicly question the right of retired military personnel, as full citizens that they are, to publicly express their point of view on any matter, within the margins of the laws?

· In the opinion of the Minister of Defence, what are the legal precepts that could have been violated by the retired officers when they publicly expressed their points of view?

· Does the Minister of Defence consider that retired officers should have their civil rights restricted as a result of their previous professional career?

The questions have been signed by the PP spokesman in the Defence Commission, former Major General of the Army Fernando Gutiérrez Díaz de Otazu, and another 12 PP lawmakers. Gutiérrez was one of a number of former top military officers who joined the PP and Vox in the 2018 and 2019 elections.

Normally, questions to be submitted in parliament are not leaked to the press, as the answers are more important than the questions. Nor would they merit special press coverage. However, after the January 6 coup in Washington and the far-right conspiracy in Spain code-named Operation Albatross to install a dictatorship under the guise of a PSOE-PP-Vox national unity government, they take on a different light. They also come days after retired Lieutenant General Emilio Pérez Alamán wrote to Robles, condemning her speech and demanding she “change the course” of the PSOE-Podemos government.

Clearly, mounting forces within the PP are preparing to align themselves on the fascist campaign for a “national unity” dictatorship and a fascist coup, amid rising working class opposition to the PSOE-Podemos government’s “herd immunity” policy on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past two years, PP leader Pablo Casado has been shifting its policies to the right to compete with Vox, while at the same time attempting to nominally distance the PP from the fascists. Last October, the PP voted against Vox’s no-confidence motion targeting the PSOE-Podemos government, and Casado made a criticism of Vox widely applauded by the bourgeois press. However, the PP also continued ruling with Vox’s support in the regions of Madrid, Murcia and Andalusia.

In December, Casado condemned the fascist letters, calling them “unacceptable” and “reprehensible.” Others within the PP refused to condemn the letters, however. PP leader in Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the PP’s most visible representative after Casado, applauded them as “concerned citizens.”

By submitting these questions in parliament, sections of the PP are putting Defence Minister Robles on record. This is significant because in Operation Albatross, the officer corps has reportedly chosen Robles as the figurehead of such a national unity government. The questions would force Robles to either publicly disavow the fascist generals’ comments or she would be forced to back pedal her remarks, acknowledging her availability to be such figurehead.

Other candidates for such a role being openly discussed by the bourgeoisie include Josep Borrell, the current High Representative of the European Union; Nadia Calviño, Minister of Economy and widely regarded as the EU’s person in the Spanish cabinet; and José Bono, former Minister of Defence. In the past weeks, Bono has been widely promoted in the press and on television.

Such are the advanced conspiracy plans reflecting mounting desperation and confusion within the top echelons of the government. According to El Confidencial Digital, Pedro Sánchez had to come out in defence of Robles during a cabinet meeting, saying her “loyalty is unquestionable.”

On Wednesday, Podemos’ Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra, widely considered the party’s number two leader after Pablo Iglesias, accused Robles on Twitter of being “the candidate of the right,” accusing her of “aligning herself with the right and the [right-wing] extremists.” “It’s disappointing,” she added.

The truth is that if Vox and the military, now joined with sections of the PP, are continuing the far-right conspiracy, it is precisely because of the bankrupt role of Podemos. They count on Podemos to downplay the fascist danger and to suppress the historically rooted opposition to fascism in the working class.

In December, Iglesias went on prime-time television to brazenly insist nothing important had been revealed in the fascist letters appealing to King Felipe VI. He said, “What these gentlemen say, at their age and already retired, in a chat with a few too many drinks, does not pose any threat.” He aimed to dampen mounting outrage among workers and youth, notably on social media.

Iglesias’ arguments have since been exposed as a fraud. La Marea leaked videos showing soldiers chanting and dancing to neo-Nazi songs while making the fascist salute, and Público leaked soldiers’ fascistic WhatsApp chats. Iglesias has remained silent on these revelations.

Meanwhile, Vox party leader Santiago Abascal is openly defending Trump, denouncing Twitter’s ban on the US president after his coup attempt. Today Abascal will meet in Barcelona to discuss “free speech” with US Republican operatives Grover Norquist and Ted Bromund of the Heritage Foundation think tank; far-right European Trump supporters like Giorgia Meloni of far-right Fratelli d’Italia and Matias Karlson of think tank Oikos; and far-right Chilean politician José Antonio Kas.

The rise of fascistic politics in the United States, the center of world imperialism, is powerfully impacting Europe, where the ruling elite is turning toward authoritarianism and dictatorship. The urgent political imperative is for the working class to intervene on its own programme and perspective.

UK passes 100,000 COVID-19 deaths

Robert Stevens

Deaths from COVID-19 in Britain have passed the 100,000 mark, according to analysis from government and statistical agencies, counting cases where the virus was noted on the death certificate.

The grim milestone was reached with the 1,564 deaths recoded on Wednesday—the highest daily death toll yet during the pandemic—for a total of 101,160. Yesterday another 1,248 deaths and 48,682 new infections were announced. Total infections are now well over 3.2 million in Britain.

The Conservative government only counts fatalities within 28 days of a positive COVID test, but even by this criterion 84,767 lives have been lost. The Guardian reported, “Almost one in every 660 people in the UK have died from Covid or Covid-related causes so far during the pandemic—or about one-in-six of all deaths. The UK has one of the worst coronavirus mortality rates in the world, at 151 per 100,000 people.”

Clinical staff care for a patient with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England, May 5, 2020 [Credit: Neil Hall Pool via AP]

Public Health England confirmed that there have already been more deaths in the second wave of the pandemic than in the first. London and the South East of England have been devastated in recent weeks, with London Mayor Sadiq Khan revealing Thursday that more than 10,000 have succumbed to the deadly disease in the capital.

The staggering loss of life was underscored Wednesday, with the Office for National Statistics confirming that 2020 saw the largest increase in excess deaths since the Second World War. Only the months from January to November 2020 were covered by the ONS data, but in that period 697,000 deaths were recorded—nearly 85,000 more than would be expected based on the average over the last five years.

The numbers hospitalised by the virus have reached record levels. On Monday, 36,489 people were in hospital, up 5,872 on the same day last week, and 3,496 COVID-19 patients were in ventilation beds Tuesday. The hospital admission rate for COVID-19 rose significantly this week to 37.2 per 100,000, compared with 29.5 per 100,000 the previous week.

Yesterday, Sky News reported from the children’s ward at St Mary’s hospital in London which had been cleared of children and was now full of COVID-19 victims with almost all on life support. Of the 13 beds, there were 12 patients under sedation and intubated.

Interviewed by ITV News, UK Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance warned, “I’m afraid we’re in for a period of high death numbers that’s gonna carry on for some weeks. It’s not going to come down quickly, even if the measures that are in place now start to reduce the infection numbers. So we’re in for a pretty grim period I’m afraid.”

According to a report in the Guardian, in a policy that threatens further death and suffering, thousands of hospital patients in England are to be discharged early to hotels or their own homes to free up beds for COVID-19 patients needing critical care. The newspaper cited a senior source in the NHS who said this would create “extra emergency contingency capacity” and prevent parts of the National Health Service (NHS) collapsing.

This scandal was soon outstripped by an even greater threat to life posed by the decision of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to discharge COVID patients from hospitals into care homes without tests. The Guardian reported Thursday that guidance issued by the DHSC declares that COVID-positive patients in England who have been in isolation in hospital for 14 days “are not considered to pose an infection risk” and do not require retesting. If they are not showing new symptoms and are thought not to have had fresh exposure to the virus, they can be moved directly to care homes from hospital.

This was the same murderous policy imposed by the Conservative government in the first wave of the crisis, which turned care homes into killing fields taking the lives of 18,562 people between March 2 and June 12 last year in England.

The vast numbers hospitalised during the pandemic threaten an even greater public health catastrophe. NHS England records show a record almost 4.5 million people were waiting to start hospital treatment in England at the end of November 2020, the worst month for medical backlogs since records began. The number of people having to wait more than 52 weeks to start hospital treatment in England stood at 192,169 in November 2020, the highest number for any calendar month since May 2008 and more than a hundred times the 1,400 in that position a year before.

Tens of thousands of NHS staff are off work, either ill with the virus or on self-isolation, worsening the crisis facing hospitals. NHS England found that over 5,000 patients waited longer than an hour to be handed over from ambulance teams to accident and emergency staff at hospitals in England in the week to January 10.

A series of temporary morgues and makeshift burial sites are being constructed nationwide, including a mortuary at Breakspear crematorium in Hillingdon, north London, with a capacity for 672 bodies that can be expanded to take more if needed.

Only a tiny fraction of the UK population has been vaccinated, with only 2.6 million people (4 percent) having received at least one of the two necessary doses by Tuesday. Vallance told ITV, “we don’t know for sure” if the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines will work on the recently discovered Brazilian and South African mutations of COVID-19.

There are no plans to vaccinate young people, with the Tories’ herd immunity agenda spelled out again by Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at Public Health England, on Wednesday. She told Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee, “We may need to accept, if the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission, that we’re going to protect the people who are really vulnerable and going to die and have serious disease, but we allow the disease to circulate in younger people where it’s not causing much harm.”

As far as the ruling elite are concerned, workers lives are expendable, with the overring goal of all policy that of keeping the capitalist economy afloat and profits rolling in for big business. This week saw millions of people responding with shock and anger as the appalling contents of the “food parcels” being delivered to the families of 1.7 million schoolchildren who receive free school meals.

Despite previous U-turns, the government plans to end ongoing food support for the poorest children during school holidays. Yesterday, it emerged that the Department for Education (DfE) has informed headteachers at schools in England, “Schools do not need to provide lunch parcels or vouchers during the February half-term.”

This was followed by a Trades Union Congress survey of 50,000 women revealing that 71 percent of working mothers who asked to be admitted to the government’s furlough scheme, citing childcare reasons due to the closure of schools in this wave of the pandemic, have been refused. This is a blatant flouting of the rules by employers, since the job retention scheme—under which the state pays 80 percent of workers’ wages up to a maximum of £2,500 a month—permits employers to furlough parents not able to work due to a lack of childcare.

The working class must respond to the public health catastrophe by asserting its independent interests to prevent further mass deaths. The response to the pandemic must be taken out of the hands of the criminal Conservative government and its accomplices in the Labour Party and trade union bureaucracy.

All non-essential workplaces must be closed, with living wages provided to all workers, and full compensation provided to small businesses.

Renzi’s resignation threatens to bring down the Italian government

Alex Lantier

On Wednesday, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s Italy Alive (IV) party resigned from Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government. Yesterday, emergency talks took place at the Senate, where Conte’s Five-Star Movement (M5S)-Democratic Party (PD) coalition may no longer have enough votes to survive a parliamentary challenge after IV’s departure. Conte will speak to the Senate Tuesday morning to avert the fall of his government and new elections.

The Italian government faces collapse amid mounting working class anger at the ruling elite’s murderous “herd immunity” policy on COVID-19, and as political shock waves spread worldwide from the fascist storming of the US Capitol in Washington on January 6.

Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi

Italy was initially the European country worst hit by the virus, but wildcat strikes in Italian auto, steel and engineering forced Conte to adopt a lockdown that slashed the contagion. Since then, the European Union (EU) adopted a “herd immunity” policy of forcing workers back to work and youth back to school that has since led to an explosive regrowth in the virus. In an attempt to let off steam last month, Italy’s trade union federations held a brief, symbolic one-day national strike.

On Wednesday, in his resignation speech, Renzi claimed his party was leaving the government to try to improve Italy’s response to the pandemic. He said: “It’s much more difficult to leave a government post than to cling to the status quo. We are experiencing a great political crisis, we are discussing the dangers associated with the pandemic. Faced with this crisis, the sense of responsibility is to solve problems, not hide them.”

Renzi’s maneuver led to bitter criticisms yesterday from his erstwhile allies in the M5S and PD and calls from the neo-fascist Lega and Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) parties for new elections. The Lega and Fratelli currently stand to win such elections, were they to be held, in an electoral alliance with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party. The Lega would have 23 percent of the vote, ahead of the PD, and the Fratelli 16 percent, ahead of the M5S, and Forza Italia 6 percent.

From the M5S, the leading party in Conte’s coalition, Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio called Renzi’s manoeuvre an “irresponsible gesture” and appealed to European industrialists to work “for the redemption of Italy.” The M5S’s founder, comedian Beppe Grillo, also expressed his support for Conte—a law professor who is not a member of any party, but whom the M5S has repeatedly named for high office.

Leaders of the PD, Renzi’s former party, also denounced his party’s manoeuvre. PD Vice-Secretary Andrea Orlando said: “There are 500 deaths per day and an uncontrolled economic crisis, but Italy Alive has taken upon itself to provoke a crisis that has thrown the country into uncertainty and confusion.”

Former PD Prime Minister Romano Prodi complacently claimed, nearly a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, that he was beginning to be concerned by the situation: “This is the first day I have been really worried. This is impossible, given the problems we have: the Recovery Fund [EU bailout fund], refugees in Bosnia and Libya, and the preparation of the G20 summit. … This is not a simple resignation. It is the country that is resigning.”

Lega leader Matteo Salvini and Fratelli leader Georgia Meloni responded to Renzi’s resignation by demanding that Italy hold new elections, even though this would accelerate the ongoing upsurge of COVID-19 infections. Meloni said, “They are all inventing [reasons] why, yet again, they want to avoid presenting themselves before the Italian people in free elections. It is a lie that we cannot hold a vote. Hold elections immediately!”

Salvini tweeted: “We warned the country that this government would fight over everything and soon go home. Is there still a government?” He added that the political establishment should “trust the Italian people, giving them back their word.”

What is occurring is a vicious faction fight inside the Italian ruling class, in which each faction presents itself to the workers under false pretences. In reality, Renzi is not opposed to EU “herd immunity” policy, which has claimed over 80,000 lives in Italy and 600,000 across Europe, any more than the Italian neo-fascists are dedicated to reflecting the will of the people. Rather, bitter divisions are erupting over how to impose continued “herd immunity” and austerity policies amid an accelerating political breakdown in all the major NATO countries.

On December 17, Renzi published an open letter in the Corriere della Sera laying out his criticisms of Conte’s government. He primarily raised differences on how to spend the €209 billion allocated to Italy in the EU’s €750 billion corporate bailout fund adopted amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and criticisms of the Conte government’s geostrategic orientation.

Renzi began by emphasizing his pessimistic view of the political crisis provoked by the EU’s murderous handling of the pandemic. Implying that official rhetoric falsely blaming workers for the explosive growth of the virus no longer had any credibility, Renzi wrote:

“Those €200 billion are our last chance. As [former European Central Bank head] Mario Draghi astutely notes, ‘The problem is worse than it looks, and the authorities must act urgently.’ The situation is serious, prime minister. We have the most COVID deaths in Europe. It is useless to keep up the ‘Everything is going great’ rhetoric. … We should not guilt-trip citizens who have followed with discipline the government’s instructions, but rather reflect on what has not worked well …”

Calling to spend EU grants on hand-outs to “green jobs” and high-tech industries such as artificial intelligence, robotics and “Internet of Things” connected devices, he said Italian health spending should come from a further “allocation of €36 billion from the European Stability Mechanism.” The Conte government has so far refused this, however, as it would allow the EU to deploy “troika” (EU-ECB-IMF) financial monitors to Italy to take over the state budget, as occurred in Greece after the 2008 economic crash.

Renzi also demanded a greater say on foreign policy, where the Conte government has cultivated ties with Moscow and signed a memorandum of understanding to participate in China’s global Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure projects. He wrote:

“Let us decide together Italy’s place in the new world of Biden’s America and the new Europe. And how we position ourselves on the great challenges of the [US-UAE] Abraham Peace Deal and the Asian century. We go to Africa to create development and cooperation, not with the rhetoric of your first government’s security decrees. And we play a certain role in the Mediterranean, where in recent years our presence has become less palpable, and the impact of Russia and Turkey stronger.”

Renzi himself has little support, IV only has 3 percent of the vote, and it remains unclear what he hopes to accomplish. Some editorialists have speculated that he may simply seek to drive a harder bargain and obtain more influence in a new government agreement with Conte, although M5S officials said last night Renzi is “no longer an interlocutor” they would speak with. There is also the possibility that his manoeuvre could end up in new elections and the coming to power of the neo-fascists.

In the aftermath of the January 6 coup in Washington, there is increasing political activity in far-right circles across Europe. Spain’s fascist Vox party—which is still hailing Trump and applauding Spanish fascist army officers who are calling for a coup and the mass murder of “26 million” people in Spain—is meeting today in Barcelona with Meloni, of Fratelli d’Italia, and US Republican Party anti-tax operative Grover Norquist.

What is evident, however, is that none of these reactionary forces speak for growing opposition to “herd immunity” policies, unsustainable levels of social inequality, and war that exists in the Italian and international working class. The way forward is the construction of a socialist and internationalist movement in the working class and the preparation of political general strikes internationally against “herd immunity” policies and the threat of authoritarian rule.

Germany records highest daily coronavirus death toll as fatalities double in just one month

Marianne Arens

Daily new infections of around 20,000, incidences of over 600 infections per 100,000 inhabitants over the past seven days in some districts, and an R (reproduction) rate that has remained permanently above 1: all of these facts show that the pandemic is raging out of control in Germany. The federal and state governments claim that a tougher lockdown came into force on January 11. However, all of industry, offices, most schools and childcare facilities, and public transport are operating as usual. The coronavirus is running rampant and the deaths are piling up.

On Wednesday, the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s federal agency for infectious diseases, reported a further 1,060 deaths over the previous 24 hours. Yesterday, the RKI registered a new daily record with 1,244 deaths. Around the world, approximately 2 million people have died, including over 600,000 in Europe, if Russia is included. Germany is among the European countries with the highest number of deaths. Since December 12, the number of coronavirus deaths has more than doubled to over 43,500. Many workers have died, including Berlin tram driver Sven B., 49, and Berlin teacher Soldan A., 38.

People are ordered to wear mandatory face masks due to the coronavirus pandemic at a shopping street in Cologne, Germany, October 22, 2020 [Credit: AP Photo/Martin Meissner]

Last week, a 44-year-old childcare worker in the Westphalian town of Kamen died after becoming infected in the largest recorded outbreak in a childcare facility to date. The St. Marien childcare centre was closed on December 16 after mass infections. Of the 12 staff and 65 children, 41 tested positive for the virus. According to the RKI, five teachers have died from coronavirus since December and at least 503 teachers and childcare workers are currently so sick that they are being treated in intensive care.

At the same time, the new variant of the virus, B.1.1.7, which led to the collapse of parts of the health care system in London, is now spreading in Germany. It is approximately one and a half times more infectious than the previous strain. In Ireland, the new variant has caused the seven-day incidence to explode from 41 per 100,000 inhabitants before Christmas to more than 940 today.

Another feature of the new and extremely infectious variant of coronavirus is that it spreads with particular rapidity among children. A large-scale British study revealed that children in the 11 to 16 age group were at higher risk of infection and were more likely to pass it on to family members, friends and acquaintances than before. This makes the complete shutdown of schools and childcare facilities all the more urgent.

This was the demand made by more than 1,000 scientists, who called in mid-December for a coordinated Europe-wide lockdown to bring infection rates to a level that would allow health agencies to trace and isolate each case. However, politicians of all governing parties refused to conduct this struggle against the virus. This is why the WSWS and Socialist Equality Party have long been calling for the establishment of action committees in every workplace and educational institution with the aim of preparing a national and European political general strike in order to seize control of the struggle to contain the virus.

Support for this among workers is growing rapidly. New initiatives by students, parents and childcare workers show they are not prepared to become the victims of politicians who see the growing number of corpses as a price worth paying. A petition on change.org last week opposing the reopening of schools obtained 50,000 signatures in a short period of time.

In Berlin, childcare workers addressed a sharply worded letter on Tuesday to Education Senator Sandra Scheeres (Social Democratic Party, SPD). They have an inadequate number of FFP2 masks and test opportunities in childcare centres, never mind air filtering systems. In addition, they demanded to be given higher priority for vaccines. Childcare workers, who are among the groups with the highest infection rate, are effectively being sent to the slaughter during the pandemic. The state Senate even called on parents in writing to avoid a loss of earnings from their jobs by sending their children to the emergency care provided by childcare centres.

Educational institutions must be kept open so that the economy keeps running and profits flow uninterrupted. This is why workplace outbreaks are being ignored, even though many are taking place. One example is the outbreaks in meatpacking plants, which are barely mentioned anymore by the media. At the Vion meat packing plant in Kreilsheim, Baden-Württemberg, 23 workers have tested positive for COVID-19, but the local health authority agreed to let the plant continue operating. During November and December, there were mass outbreaks in the plants in Vilshofen (100 infected) and Landshut (43 infected).

Hardly anything about working conditions or the coronavirus situation in the auto or auto parts industries is being reported. The government refuses in principle to expand lockdown measures to production sites, restricting itself instead to “urgent appeals” directed by Labour Minister Hubertus Heil to big business. “The assembly lines are running, and that’s how it should remain as long as possible,” he told the DPA.

This makes it easy for businesses simply to ignore such “urgent appeals” or dismiss them arrogantly. Nobody has invented welding from home, said Siegfried Russwurm, the new president of the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI). Russwurm was formerly an executive at Siemens and is on the advisory board of meatpacking operator Tönnies. Federal Employers Association (BDA) head of business affairs, Stefan Kampeter, described the government’s appeals as “unnecessary” and “useless” in an interview on public broadcaster ARD’s “Morgenmagazin” on Tuesday. He roundly condemned a legal right for employees to work from home, and claimed, despite knowing better, that such a measure would not reduce the number of infections.

State politicians are coming up with ever more cynical justifications to reopen schools and childcare facilities. One example of this is the new president of the Conference of Education Ministers (KMK), Britta Ernst (SPD). Claiming that the states “don’t want automatism,” she rejected nationwide regulations in comments on the “Tagesthemen” show. With unmatched cynicism, Ernst added, “We have made an exception for classes in their final year so that students don’t have to bear the biggest burden during the pandemic.”

The minister is well acquainted with cynical justifications. Ernst did not have a years-long career as a teacher or childcare worker to qualify for her current post. No, the former property sales agent with a diploma in economics can look back over a 30-year party career in the SPD’s “Hamburg clique.” She is the wife of Olaf Scholz, who served as mayor of Hamburg for several years and is now federal finance minister. Scholz has compensated the banks and big business with billions from his “bazooka,” while the self-employed and artists have received a few crumbs and thousands of workers have been laid off.

Ernst will of course know Ties Rabe from Hamburg, the city state’s education senator, who shamelessly lied about virus outbreaks in Hamburg’s schools. The vice presidents of the KMK are the already-mentioned Scheeres from Berlin and Stefanie Hubig, the education minister in Rhineland-Palatinate. The third vice president is Karin Prien (Christian Democratic Union, CDU), the education minister in Schleswig-Holstein, who recently argued for the reopening of schools with the cynical remark, “You’ll find more fresh air in a school building than any office in Germany.”

In a bid to silence the mounting criticism and calls for the closure of schools and workplaces from the working class, politicians, television moderators and the media have unleashed a barrage of propaganda against an effective lockdown.

The starting gun was sounded by a discussion organised by the right-wing Bild newspaper with politicians, which gave the Green Party’s mayor of Thübingen, Boris Palmer, the opportunity to rail against the coronavirus restrictions. “It’s enough now,” complained the notorious right-winger Palmer. “At the beginning of February we must reopen in a controlled way.” He added, “We have to live too,” a remark that obviously doesn’t apply to industrial workers, care workers or childcare professionals. Neither SPD politician Karl Lauterbach nor any another participant were willing to challenge these right-wing tirades, and the Bild moderator denounced the government’s inadequate lockdown measures in the style of the AfD.

A similar development occurred on ARD’s “Hard but fair” show on Monday evening. Susanne Gaschke, a journalist with Die Welt, and economics professor Michael Hüther ridiculed leading scientists Janssens, Drosten, Priesemann, Eckerle and Brinkmann. Their demand for a lockdown to bring infections below an incidence of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was like burying society under a slab of concrete, they said. It is clear that due to the weather in winter, the incidence cannot drop below 100, they claimed. Gaschke asserted that it is “simply impossible” to reduce the virus to zero. Hüther added, “We will have to deal with the virus permanently. We will permanently have coronavirus deaths, so we cannot allow the economy to be shut down. We should be happy that the supply chains are running and the economy is stable.”

Cihan Çelik, a lung doctor who leads a coronavirus isolation ward, and participated in the programme, described the grizzly consequences of such views. He was himself infected with COVID-19. The 34-year-old, who was in good shape and had no previous health issues, noticed he had a sore throat and was in intensive care 24 hours later. “Within a few hours, I only had one lung I could breathe through properly,” reported the doctor, who also spoke about 13-hour shifts and staff shortages in the hospitals. Summing up, he said, “You don’t meet any coronavirus deniers in the hospital.”

Ford shuts down operations in Brazil, destroying tens of thousands of jobs

Brunna Machado & Tomas Castanheira

Ford announced on January 11 that it will end its production of cars in Brazil, shutting down its three plants in the cities of Camaçari, in the state Bahia; Taubaté, in the state of São Paulo; and Horizonte, in the state of Ceará. According to Ford, 5,000 workers will be laid off in Brazil. But tens of thousands more jobs are directly associated with its production chain, and a wave of dismissals is expected.

In a statement to its Brazilian customers, Ford declared: “As you know, the global automotive industry is undergoing a transformation process driven by new and emerging technologies in connected services, electrification and autonomous vehicles, with consumer demands and regulatory items reshaping the market.”

Brazilian Ford workers outside the plant in Taubate, Brazil, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, the day after Ford Motor Co. announced it will close three plants in Brazil and stop producing automobiles in the South American country where it has been operating since 1919. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

This restructuring of production is, in other words, a massive destruction of jobs and wage cuts globally being enacted by Ford and the entire auto industry. The latest wave of job and cost cuts began several years ago, escalating in 2018 and 2019 with a major downturn in the auto industry already then on the horizon.

In 2018, Ford announced a worldwide restructuring aimed at a multibillion-dollar reduction in costs. “The goal is to streamline the organization. It’s a cascading process. It will mean a reduction in workforce,” explained Mark Truby, the company’s vice president of global communications. The following year, the company fired 7,000 white-collar workers and laid off 12,000 workers as it closed five European plants.

In Brazil, Ford closed one of its main facilities, a truck factory in São Bernardo do Campo, in the São Paulo metropolitan area, in October 2019. On that occasion, 3,000 direct employees and 1,500 outsourced workers were laid off, not to mention the approximately 20,000 workers at the related auto parts plants.

The slashing of jobs being promoted now by Ford follows thousands of other layoffs in Brazil’s auto industry that occurred last year.

Last December, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would shut down its car production in Brazil, firing the 370 workers at its luxury vehicle plant. Renault-Nissan slashed more than 1,000 jobs in 2020, and Volkswagen announced that it would cut one third of its workforce, having opened on Monday a voluntary layoff program for this purpose.

Ford’s announcement of the closure of its plants was answered by workers with protests. On Tuesday, contract and outsourced workers from the Ford Northeast Industrial Complex in Camaçari demonstrated at the factory gates demanding to keep their jobs. A new protest was held the next day in front of the Legislative Assembly of Bahia (Alba), where representatives of the Camaçari Metalworkers Union met with Alba President Nelson Leal.

In Taubaté, where Ford produces engines and transmissions, a demonstration was held on Tuesday. Workers voted to set a vigil to block both people and materials from entering and exiting the factory for an indefinite period.

The unions are, in turn, already preparing a betrayal of the workers’ resistance to job cuts and the closure of plants.

The Camaçari Metalworkers Union, linked to the CTB union federation and the Maoist Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), already takes Ford’s closures for granted. According to the president of the union and PCdoB activist, Júlio Bonfim: “[The] way out so that thousands of workers don’t lose their jobs ... [is] the construction of an auto parts industrial park ... or either the arrival of another automaker [that] can guarantee jobs, investments and, consequently, the intense flow in the economy of the Metropolitan Region [of Salvador].”

This corporatist vision is the same advocated by the governor of Bahia, Rui Costa of the Workers Party (PT), whom Bonfim is joining in a “working group,” which, according to the union itself, “is looking for companies interested in investing in the industrial park where Ford Camaçari’s headquarters used to be, considered the largest automotive plant in South America.”

The Metalworkers Union of Taubaté and Region (Sindmetau), linked to the CUT union federation and the PT, is working to divert the Ford workers’ struggle through empty demands to the state. To fulfill these treacherous purposes, the main leaders of the CUT, including the CUT’s president, Sérgio Nobre, were mobilized to participate in a meeting held Wednesday on Sindmetau.

The main measure adopted at this meeting was “the holding of a public hearing in the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo,” advocated by PT state congressman Teonilio Barba, who declared that “the intention is to seek greater involvement of the state government.” The CUT’s president also declared: “All pressure is needed at this time. The country is deindustrializing because the government is encouraging deindustrialization.”

The unions and parties like the PT and PCdoB, as they work to divert workers’ opposition into safe channels within the bourgeois state, seek to establish an opposition to the administration of Brazil’s fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro’s that is based on the reactionary interests of Brazilian national capitalism.

Speaking to his supporters outside the government palace on Tuesday, Bolsonaro said, “I’m sorry for 5,000 jobs lost,” but “Ford has failed to tell the truth.” According to him, “They want subsidies.” “Do you want to keep giving them 20 billion [reais], as you have done in recent years?” he said in reference to the incentives paid by the Brazilian government to Ford since 1999 (equivalent to US$ 3.85 billion).

In response to Bolsonaro, the president of the National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea), Luiz Carlos Moraes, declared that these subsidies would have functioned as “a way to correct the distortions of the Brazilian tax system,” according to O Globo. “We have been pointing for years to measures that need to be taken to improve competitiveness in Brazil,” said Moraes. This consists mainly of a pro-capitalist tax reform.

Anfavea’s arguments are not in any way different from those of unions and bourgeois nationalist parties like the PT and PCdoB. The CUT and other union federations for years have advanced as their fundamental program the creation of tax incentives for companies, especially in the auto industry. They criticize the governments that succeeded the PT in power for not having an “auto program” to stimulate competitiveness for production in Brazil.

Defending the same perspective as Anfavea, of reducing taxes to the capitalists, the PT’s Governor Rui Costa declared in a note on Ford’s closure: “Unfortunately, there are hundreds of industries that are closing, week after week, since we have a country that does not take care of its economy, does not guarantee institutional security to its investors and does not make the necessary reforms—including the tax [reform] that we need so badly.”

While fighting for the competitiveness of Brazilian capitalism, the unions are employing against Ford workers today the same methods they used to suppress resistance to the closing of the São Bernardo do Campo plant in 2019.

On that occasion, the ABC Metalworkers Union, also linked to the CUT, did everything to wear out a 42-day strike, isolating the workers locally and preventing independent actions. It ended up signing an agreement that accepted the closing of the plant. The union then acted in practice as the representative of a business group interested in buying the plant, negotiating bank loans for the group and offering low wages to attract its investments. Despite this, the negotiations failed.

As COVID cases surge: Sharp rise in new US unemployment claims

Shannon Jones

In the first full week of 2021 new claims for unemployment benefits increased sharply amid the rising toll of the pandemic, with adjusted first-time unemployment claims reached 965,000 for the week ending January 9.

That is the highest weekly number since last August and it was the largest week over week gain in new filings since March. The raw number of new claims surged 231,335 to reach 1.151 million last week. Economists tend to place more confidence in the unadjusted numbers, since the disruptions caused by the pandemic has made the adjusted figure, based on seasonal fluctuations, less reliable.

City workers and volunteers gather fruit to load into cars at a food distribution site, Wednesday, Jan 13, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

New weekly claims for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program also rose last week, increasing by 100,000 to 284,470. The PUA provides benefits to the self-employed and “gig workers” who are not typically covered by regular unemployment benefits. This follows reports that the US lost 140,000 jobs in December, the first such monthly decline since March.

In addition, the number of continuing claims for unemployment benefits rose to 5.3 million from 5.1 million, indicating a rise in the long-term jobless. It was the first time that the number had risen since November, having declined through the summer and into fall.

The Economic Policy Institute said the actual situation is even worse than indicated by official figures, estimating that 26.8 million workers have lost their jobs or seen their hours cut due to the pandemic.

These numbers continue to be historically without precedent and point to immense economic instability and the increasingly dire conditions facing wide sectors of the population. This week the US Federal Reserve reported that an estimated 20 percent of workers in the bottom one-quarter of income earners are currently without work. Workers in this category tend to be in the leisure and hospitality industry, such as restaurants and bars, that have been hard hit by the pandemic.

In typically understated language, Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard spoke of the “uneven” nature of the so-called recovery. “The damage from COVID-19 is concentrated among already challenged groups,” she said. Obliquely noting that stimulus measures have served mainly to enrich billionaires, she added, “The K-shaped recovery remains highly uneven, with certain sectors and groups experiencing substantial hardship.”

An economic analyst quoted by the Wall Street Journal remarked, “What we’re seeing in unemployment claims is a reminder that we’re likely to lose more jobs before we get to the end of this crisis.” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, a large accounting and advisory firm, added, “the rising unemployment class combined with the job losses in December pointed to a further deterioration in the economic picture.”

Another analyst cited by the New York Times said, “We’re in a deep economic hole, and we’re digging in the wrong direction.” The economist, Daniel Zhao, with the career site Glassdoor, noted, “The report obviously shows that the rise in claims is worse than expected, and there is reason to think that things are going to get worse before they are going to get better.”

Consumer spending, another measure of economic well-being, declined in November, the first decrease in seven months. Household income fell as well.

In a further attack on the poorest sections of the working class, the Federal Reserve has said it may allow inflation to rise above the current rate of 2 percent annually, presenting it as the only alternative to a further rise in joblessness. In fact, the inflation rate on basic necessities such as food is already much higher. The official Consumer Price Index showed an overall 3.9 percent increase in food prices in 2020. Meat, poultry and fish prices were up 4.6 percent and dairy 4.4 percent. According to a report in Bloomberg, global food prices reached a six-year high in December and are likely to keep increasing.

It has not escaped the notice of workers that throughout the pandemic the fortunes of the world’s super-wealthy have soared even as devastation is visited on the mass of the world’s population. Even the attack last week on Congress by a mob of fascists or the surge in COVID-19 deaths to over 4,000 a day could not halt the upward trend in the financial markets. The worse-than-expected unemployment figures had the same effect. The market welcomed the rise in economic hardship, calculating it makes further economic stimulus measures more likely.

The response of the US government to the economic meltdown has been to shovel more money into the coffers of big business through the purchase of corporate assets, holding interest rates near zero and providing other forms of welfare for the super-rich. This policy will be continued and indeed expanded under a Biden administration.

While the Democrats and Republicans squabbled for months over a paltry rise in unemployment benefits, they voted unanimously for a massive bailout for the rich. Rarely has the urgent need for a socialist reorganization of society been posed so starkly. The continuation of the economic and political domination of the class of billionaires promises only further and greater catastrophes both social and economic.

Meanwhile, many workers have still not received the paltry $300 weekly supplement to state unemployment benefits enacted by Congress with much fanfare in December after lengthy delays. The program will end March 14. About half of US states have not yet issued the payments. The state of Ohio, for example, says it doesn’t expect that most claimants will receive payments until the end of the month. Some 293,000 Georgia residents who exhausted PUA benefits will not get their extensions processed until near the end of January.

According to the Labor Department at least 18.4 million were on unemployment benefits on all programs combined, in late December. Only a little more than half of the 22 million jobs lost in March have been regained in the nine-month interval.

Millions are behind on their rent and could face eviction in coming months. The pandemic assistance passed by Congress in December only extended the federal moratorium on evictions until January 31. In addition, the federal relief bill only offered a minuscule $1.3 billion in rent relief for renters facing eviction, a fraction of the arrears owed.

With the deadline approaching, housing advocates are raising alarms. The New York-based Care For the Homeless (CFH) warned that the end of the moratorium will not only lead to a rise in homelessness, but further the spread of COVID-19 as families are forced into unsafe accommodations.

CFH notes, “A nationwide study published by the Journal of Urban Health shows the correlation between housing stability and public health. They looked at data from 44 states between the months of April and September 2020 and found that lifting eviction moratoriums led to increased COVID-19 incidences and mortality rates in the United States.”

It cited statistics to show that states such as Kentucky and Pennsylvania that imposed longer eviction moratoriums experience lower COVID-19 mortality rates while states like Texas, which lifted the statewide ban early, had a much higher mortality rate.

FBI reveals “dozens” of neo-Nazis and white supremacists on Terror Watch List traveled to D.C. for January 6 coup

Jacob Crosse

On Thursday the Washington Post reported that “dozens” of people who are currently on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database were in Washington D.C. to participate in the January 6 coup. An unnamed source told the Post that many are suspected white supremacists who had previously been entered into the database following prior interactions with state agents or informants.

The revelation that the domestic intelligence agencies knew that neo-Nazis and fascists were going to be in D.C. further exposes the lying claims of figures such as Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, who stated the day after the coup that “no intelligence” suggested a threat to the Capitol. There is no doubt that hundreds of people within the sprawling military-intelligence apparatus were aware of who was going to be at the rally and what their intentions were.

US Capitol Police at The Supreme Court (Lorie Shaull/Wikimedia Commons)

Another unnamed official told the Post that some of the individuals suspected of having taken part in the coup were current and former police and military members as well as “senior business executives and middle-aged business owners.”

The leaking of the investigation to the Post points to the raging conflict within the state, substantial sections of which knowingly withheld intelligence information and additional security resources in order to facilitate President Donald Trump’s attempted putsch. So far the Justice Department and the FBI have announced charges against at least 70 individuals and have identified 170 people, a fraction of the thousands who descended on the Capitol in the hopes of overturning the election.

The crowd included members of the fascist Oath Keepers, III Percenters and Proud Boys. In a video showing an Arizona chapter of the group, members are seen without their easily identifiable black and yellow polos. Instead, in an apparent attempt to hide themselves the group donned blaze orange knit caps as they filmed themselves preparing to “take the f—ing Capitol.”

In addition to substantial support from high levels of the state, starting from the White House, research conducted by Chainanalysis revealed that over $500,000 in bitcoin digital currency was distributed to 22 fascist and far-right linked online accounts on December 8, 2020. These accounts included the Nazi website Daily Stormer, and anti-immigrant hate group VDARE, as well as America First neo-Nazi, Nick Fuentes.

According to Chainanalysis, the deposits seemed to have emanated from a now-deceased French blogger who lamented online on the “decline” of Western civilization due to the “rejection of our ancestors and our heritage,” phrases popular with fascist right.

It should be noted that one of the recipients of the digital currency, VDARE, also receives substantial funding from billionaire hedge fund manager Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah Mercer. The Mercer’s have, unsurprisingly, generously donated to the Republican Party, including $1.5 million to political action committees affiliated with Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward. Ward, along with Arizona representatives Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar have ardently supported Trump’s ongoing coup attempt, including by organizing “Stop the Steal” rallies in Arizona and in D.C.

Rebekah Mercer is a close associate of Steve Bannon, the founder of Breitbart News, in which she is a principal investor. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Bannon has spoken repeatedly to Trump, with the latter seeking Bannon’s advice on how to overturn his re-election defeat.

As Trump, sections of the police, military-intelligence complex and his billionaire conspirators continue to plot their next putsch attempt, further arrests point to the intimate involvement of current and former police and military members in the storming of the Capitol.

After being identified on video outside the Capitol last Wednesday, Philadelphia prosecutors asked for bail to be revoked for Navy veteran and founder of “Vets for Trump” Joshua Macias, age 42. Macias was arrested on November 5 for multiple felony and misdemeanor weapons offenses after the FBI was tipped off that he and an accomplice, Antonio LaMotta, were driving up to the city from their residence in Virginia in order to “straighten things out” as vote counting continued following the presidential election.

Following the election, Macias has made several joint appearances at “Stop the Steal” rallies with Virginia state senator and prospective 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase. An ardent supporter of the fascist QAnon conspiracy theory, Macias appeared on Facebook live-stream with Chase the day before the rally. Chase introduced Macias as an organizer of the rally, who proceeded to spread fascist conspiracy theories warning, “the enemy is here, it’s not just at the gate, it’s within, we see it everywhere.”

Two police officers from Rocky Mount, Virginia have also been arrested. Thomas Robertson and Jacob Fracker were both inside the Capitol and took a picture together. Robertson shared a statement with WFXR on Monday January 11th, claiming that he was a patriot, adding, “I was let in by Capitol Police, who gave me a bottle of water and told us to stay within the roped areas.” Robertson claimed to be a wounded veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kevin and Hunter Seefried, father and son, were arrested Thursday in Delaware, after Kevin was identified as the man walking inside the Capitol with the Confederate battle flag. According to police who spoke with the New York Times, Hunter bragged to a co-worker that he and his father were inside the Capitol on January 6.

Recently retired Pennsylvania firefighter Robert Lee Sanford, 55 of Chester, Pennsylvania was charged on Thursday with impending officers, civil disorder, trespassing and violent conduct with a dangerous weapon on the restricted grounds of the Capitol for throwing a fire extinguisher at police as the mob of Trump supporters were descending on the Capitol.

Retired Air Force officer Lt. Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr., who was photographed in the Senate Chamber wearing body armor and carrying zip ties, was also arrested this past Sunday. During a Thursday court appearance, Assistant US Attorney Jay Weimer alleged that Brock Jr. intended “to take hostages. He means to kidnap, restrain, perhaps try, perhaps execute members of the US government.”

Another recent retiree arrested this week for his role in the attempted coup was 45-year-old Adam Newbold from Lisbon, Ohio. The Navy has confirmed that Newbold is a retired reserve SEAL special warfare operator. Newbold’s new profession is training civilians and police in “tactical shooting.” In a since-deleted Facebook live stream following after the events last Wednesday, Newbold boasted that he was “proud” of his actions that day, adding that he hoped it would overturn the election and that those inside the Capitol should, “think twice about what they’re doing.”

Newbold’s action mirrors the words spoken by incoming North Carolina Republican representative Madison Cawthorn, who was carrying a weapon with him inside the Capitol the day of the insurrection. Cawthorn, who previously claimed that visiting Adolf Hitler’s Eagles Nest retreat in the Bavarian mountains was on his “bucket list for a while,” spoke the morning of the coup attempt, remarking that, “this crowd has some fight in it...The Republicans hiding and not fighting, they are trying to silence your voice.”

Cawthorn also spoke at a Turning Point USA event in December in which he urged attendees to “lightly threaten” lawmakers if they failed to support Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud.

Another notable arrest was of Robert Keith Packer, the fascist who was wearing a sweatshirt with a skull and crossbones that read “Camp Auschwitz.”The bottom of Packer’s shirt read “Work brings freedom,” a rough translation of “Arbeit macht frei,” the German phrase that greeted the 1.1 million Jewish people who were killed at the concentration camp during World War II.

The US Army is still “investigating” the activity of 30-year-old Captain Emily Rainey. Rainey admitted to organizing and leading 100 members of the “Moore County Citizens for Freedom” to D.C. on the 6th, however, she claims she didn’t enter the Capitol. Rainey is assigned to the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, according to a spokesman for the 1st Special Forces Command. Rainey gained a substantial online following after posting videos on social media in May showing herself ripping caution tape off of a playground set that had been closed due to COVID-19 health restrictions.