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Hardly a day goes by in contemporary America without a mass casualty event produced by capitalist reaction. On Monday evening, a semi-truck trailer filled with bodiessome dead, some still clinging to lifewas discovered a stones throw from a busy interstate highway in San Antonio, Texas.

The truck was carrying undocumented immigrants fleeing desperate economic conditions in Central America and the legacy of over a century of US imperialist exploitation. The immigrants were forced to enter surreptitiously due to the anti-immigrant restrictions imposed by the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden.

So far, the official death toll is 46, but this is expected to rise, as local officials say 16 others were hospitalized at varying stages of illness. This is the deadliest such event in US history. It doubles the death toll of the second highest mass immigrant asphyxiation, when 19 people suffocated in a truck trailer in Victoria, Texas, in 2003.

Earlier Monday, temperatures in San Antonio hit 103 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius). It is difficult to imagine how those who perished in the trailer spent their last moments struggling to escape. One individual who lives near the spot where the trailer was found told the New York Times, Now Im hearing there are kids. Families often make the journey together.

After discovering the trailer, police and Border Patrol reportedly deployed military-grade heat-seeking equipment to search for and detain any immigrants who managed to escape.

This social crime is the responsibility of the Biden administration, which was elected on the basis of mass opposition to the fascist Donald Trump, but whose administration has carried out a ruthless attack on immigrants, arresting more in 2021 than Trump detained in any one year in office. Biden is on pace to arrest some 2 million immigrants this year, a new record. Two days ago, Biden ended all previous restrictions on ICE arrests, ordering agents to arrest immigrants regardless of arrest record or how many years they have been in the United States.

The trailer was discovered in Texas hardly 24 hours after Spanish and Moroccan border police carried out a brutal melee attack on a crowd of African immigrants attempting to cross into the Spanish outpost of Melilla on Africas northern coast. At least 36 immigrants died, some after being beaten by police, some hanging from the barbed wire border fence, some in the stampede that followed the police assault.

Both crimes expose the lie that the US and its NATO allies are waging war against Russia in Ukraine for humanitarian reasons. If these crimes had taken place in Russia, the imperialist governments would have used them as pretenses to justify further escalation of a war which threatens the world with nuclear catastrophe.

It is already clear that the political establishment in the US will respond to the mass death in San Antonio by using the event to justify a further crackdown on immigration. An hour before the bodies were discovered in his district, Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales tweeted that immigration is incentivizing lawlessness and creating absolute chaos at our southern border.

After the event, Gonzales blamed Democrats for being insufficiently iron fisted. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a fascist supporter of Trump, blamed Biden for the deaths, tweeting: They are a result of his deadly open border policies. They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.

The corporate media will alternate between demands for a military-style crackdown on the border and denunciations of whichever criminal was driving and abandoned the trailer in the heat.

But the existence of smugglers is a criminal byproduct of the bipartisan border policies of the US government which are fundamentally to blame.

Deaths like these did not occur prior to the militarization of the US-Mexico border initiated by Democratic President Bill Clinton. In the 1990s, Clinton, with the support of Democrats and Republicans, enacted programs like Operation Gatekeeper and Operation Hold-the-Line, the aim of which was to militarize urban crossing zones and force migrants to cross in the uninhabitable deserts.

In 2006, under the George W. Bush administration, Congress passed the Secure Fences Act, which facilitated the construction of hundreds of miles of border barriers and further militarized the border. Those voting yes for this law included then-Senators Joseph Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain and Charles Schumer.

In 2010, Obama signed legislation that deployed a fleet of drones to the border and 1,500 National Guard soldiers to block or arrest immigrants. In 2018, the Democratic Party caved when Trump illegally redirected congressionally-apportioned money to fund his deployment of the National Guard to the border. The Biden administration kept pandemic-related restrictions on all asylum applicants and kept Trumps Remain In Mexico policy in place, which barred all refugees from entering the US through Mexico.

The trailer was discovered in southwest San Antonio, barely a mile from where nine immigrants were found dead of dehydration and asphyxiation in the back of a semi-truck trailer almost exactly five years ago, on July 17, 2017. At that time, the World Socialist Web Site wrote:

The world is pulsing with people who are forced to flee their homes under the weight of decades of economic exploitation and war. According to a UN report from 2015, there are 65.3 million refugees in the world, more than the population of the United Kingdom, France or Italy.

The refugee crisis is the product of the capitalist system and requires a socialist solution. Never in history has the contradiction between the ease with which capital flows across borders and the difficulty with which human beings flee across national boundaries been so acute. As the world economy becomes increasingly interconnected through the advent of the Internet, mobile phones and integrated global supply lines, the ruling classes of the so-called democratic countries are increasingly protecting themselves, as Leon Trotsky put it, by a customs wall and a hedge of bayonets.

Socialists reject attempts to reconcile left-wing slogans with nationalist poison. Figures like Jeremy Corbyn in the UK and Bernie Sanders in the US expose their pro-capitalist outlook when they talk about reasonable management of migration (Corbyns Labour Party manifesto) and denounce open borders as a right-wing proposal that would make everybody in America poorer (Sanders interview withVox, July 18, 2015).

Socialists oppose the division of the world into nation-states and call for bringing the geographical organization of the world into harmony with the international character of the global economy.

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At least 46 undocumented immigrants found dead in truck trailer in sweltering Texas heat - WSWS

If you follow Fox News, the big story of the week wasn't about the former American president who urged his supporters to murder his vice president so that he could stay in office after being voted out of it. It was that President Joe Biden who, according to a wingnut-driven narrative was elected by election machines manipulated by Martians, fell off a bicycle. This was really significant for acolytes of a certain former leader who let's put it this way is not exactly notable for his athleticism, and it was just the evidence Biden's detractors were looking for that he "is not up to the job." It seemed a wee bit like wishful thinking by supporters of someone who encouraged his countrymen to self-inject cleaning fluid to avoid contracting COVID-19, but there you are.

Americans suffer from short memories, which works decidedly to Biden's disadvantage. When he took office, the country was in economic, social and political free fall. A pandemic that Biden's predecessor had brilliantly dismissed as a "hoax" had ravaged Americans, leaving millions of them suddenly out of work. Instead of pulling together in a crisis, Americans targeted one another. And a former president who legitimately qualified as a fascist had undermined the institutions on which American democracy rests.

Biden began by managing to persuade Americans to vaccinate themselves and their families against COVID-19, overcoming the right-wing influencers who belittled the vaccine while making sure that they received it. Over 67% of us are now fully vaccinated, to huge beneficial effect.

The aid packages orchestrated by Biden did what they were intended to do. The first year of Biden's presidency saw record economic growth and record job creation. Unemployment, which stood at 6.7%, now stands at 3.6%.

Biden's critics blame him for our high inflation rate. This makes no sense. Michael Klein, professor of international economic affairs at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and founder of the economic analysis website Econofact, puts it succinctly: "Inflation is a problem all over the world." A recent Deutsche Bank report shows that America's year over year inflation rate is near the median among the 111 countries surveyed. Our 8.6% rate is lower than that of the United Kingdom (9.1%), the Netherlands (8.8%) and Spain (8.7%), and only slightly higher than that of the Eurozone as a whole (8.1%).

Biden has nothing to do with the problem. Asked what role a president has in inflation, Klein replies, "Virtually none." And to the extent that COVID-19 aid packages so vital to our recovery contributed to inflation at the margins, Klein makes the necessary point with an analogy. "During COVID," he says, "we were on the precipice of an abyss. It's very hard when you're putting out a fire to avoid water damage."

Then there's the little matter of Ukraine, a country that people of conscience understand needs to be defended against Russia, a country that people of conscience understand needs to be defeated. The spikes in energy and food prices caused by Russian aggression should be laid not at Biden's feet but those of Vladimir Putin, whom the not-so-Grand Old Party coddled for four long, humiliating years.

The Left's carping at Biden makes no more sense than that of the Right. If the president does not cancel all student debt upon the demand of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, he is denounced by the same crowd who helped hand the country over to former President Donald Trump in the first place. They seem prepared to do it again. The Squad gets to tweet. Biden has to run the country and lead what is left of the free world.

Bulletin: tweeting is easier.

With Roe v. Wade demolished, we remember the geniuses who refused to support Hillary Clinton because there wasn't much difference between Clinton and Trump. We have them to thank for three Supreme Court justices and an end to constitutional protection of women's right to choose.

Thanks, guys. Job well done.

Jeff Robbins, a former assistant United States attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment, he is a longtime columnist for the Boston Herald, writing on politics, national security, human rights and the Mideast.

Photo credit: tiburi at Pixabay

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Bum Rap: Slimed by the Right, Sniped at by the Left, Joe Biden Presses On, by Jeff Robbins - Creators Syndicate

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Paul Morigi/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton in a recent interview with the Financial Times ruled out a 2024 presidential bid.

"No, out of the question," she told the newspaper, pointing to Biden's desire to run for reelection.

A recent NYT report detailed how some Democrats are weighing whether to back Biden in 2024.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview published on Friday ruled out a 2024 presidential campaign, saying that her entry into the race is "out of the question."

While speaking with the Financial Times, the former first lady and US senator said that she expected President Joe Biden to stand for reelection in two years. When asked if she could view herself launching a campaign after unsuccessfully challenging Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2008 and losing the general election to Donald Trump in 2016 Clinton quickly waved off such a proposition.

"No, out of the question," she said.

She continued: "First of all, I expect Biden to run. He certainly intends to run. It would be very disruptive to challenge that."

Biden has said publicly and privately said that he intends to run for reelection in 2024.

However, a recent New York Times report detailed that some Democrats have expressed concerns about Biden's standing among the general public as his approval ratings continue to sag and the party faces a difficult midterm climate where Republicans are set to make major gains in Congress.

Some have raised questions about Biden's age he is currently 79 years old and would be 86 at the end of his second term if he wins reelection in expressing doubt in whether he will go through with a campaign.

If Biden doesn't run, Vice President Kamala Harris would be a natural successor, but after her 2020 presidential campaign fizzled before the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, some Democrats might look elsewhere for a candidate.

After a rocky first year in office, Harris' political teamsought a reset; several aides have departed the vice president's office in recent months and she brought on longtime Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons to serve as her communications director.

Story continues

Politicians who could potentially be in the mix in the event that Biden chooses not to run in 2024 include Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Bernie Sanders of Vermont; and Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois.

Clinton later in the interview said she feels Trump will run for president again if he is up for a third White House bid.

"I think if he can he's going to run again," she told the Financial Times. "Follow the money with Trump he's raised about $130 million sitting in his bank account that he used to travel around, to fund organising against elections ... I don't know who will challenge him in the Republican primary."

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Hillary Clinton says a 2024 presidential campaign is 'out of the ...

Hillary Clinton is adamant shes not running for president again. But thats not stopping her from worrying about her fellow Democrats and their choice of hills to die on.

In an extensive interview with the Financial Times, the former presidential candidate said Democrats should be careful on their platforms.

We are standing on the precipice of losing our democracy, and everything that everybody else cares about then goes out the window, Clinton responded. Look, the most important thing is to win the next election. The alternative is so frightening that whatever does not help you win should not be a priority.

Defunding the police is one such issue.

You need accountable measures. But you also need policing. It doesnt even pass the common-sense politics test not to believe that. Some positions are so extreme on both the right and the left that they retreat to their corners...Politics should be the art of addition not subtraction.

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Hillary Clinton To Democrats: Dont Focus On Unpopular Issues - Deadline

Hillary Clinton has hit out at Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and warned that many rights are at risk if Roe v Wade is overturned.

The former Secretary of State spoke out about the impending threat to abortion rights in America in an interview with the Financial Times, as the nations highest court is on the cusp of striking down the landmark ruling.

The level of insidious rulemaking to further oppress women almost knows no end, she said.

Ms Clinton blasted Justice Alito, who authored the Supreme Courts leaked draft majority opinion overturning Roe, as one of those self-righteous types who has long railed against lettting women into the eating clubs.

I found Alito was the kind of young man who when he was at Princeton railed against coeducation, railed against letting women into the eating clubs, and that was all in the background that I read, she said.

He honestly struck me as one of those very self-righteous types seeking to remake society.

Ms Clinton, who lost the 2016 White House race to Donald Trump, was a New York senator during Justice Alitos 2006 confirmation hearings.

She voted against his confirmation but he was appointed to the bench anyway by a vote of 58 to 42, going on to become one of its most conservative justices.

Ms Clinton described The Handmaids Tale author Margaret Atwood as a prophet of the situation now playing out in America as the efforts to oppress women knows no end.

You look at this and how could you not but think that Margaret Atwood was a prophet? she asked.

Shes not just a brilliant writer, she was a prophet.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking in New York in 2022

(REUTERS)

Without abortion being protected as a constitutional right, Ms Clinton warned that some states will ban abortion even in the case of rape and incest, prosecute women who travel to states where it is legal for the procedure and that one state and this is hard even to speak about would only allow abortion for rape victims if they get consent from their rapist.

Beyond the threat to abortion access itself, she also warned that other rights are also at risk in the ruling.

If you go down the rabbit hole of far right intellectuals, you see that birth control, gay marriage all of it is at risk, she said.

Many fear that the overturning of Roe could spell the beginning of the end for other rights including same-sex marriage, civil rights and access to birth control.

Roe was based on the 14th Amendment right to privacy a constitutional right that appears to have been dismantled in Justice Alitos draft opinion.

On 2 May, Politico released a draft majority opinion from the Supreme Court which revealed that the nations highest court had decided to strike down Roe.

It revealed that Justice Alito and four other conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett had voted to overturn the ruling.

Pro-choice demonstrators outside the house of US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in Alexandria, Virginia, on 9 May 2022

(AFP via Getty Images)

Liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented while it is unclear how Chief Justice John Roberts planned to vote.

In the opinion, the majority said that the ruling had been wrongly decided in the past and that decisions around abortion access should be decided by politicians, not by the courts.

Justice Alito writes that the right to abortion is not deeply rooted in this Nations history and tradition and was entirely unknown in American law ... until the latter part of the 20th century something that also applies to LGBT+ rights which were established in the country even later than abortion rights.

However, he writes that the same reasoning would not apply to other rulings around intimate sexual relations, contraception and marriage because abortion rights are fundamentally different in that it destroys life.

The final ruling could come as soon as Tuesday as it is expected by the end of June before the summer recess.

If the final draft is released as it stands it will backpedal on abortion rights and access to reproductive health for millions of women across America.

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Hillary Clinton hits out at self-righteous Alito and warns many rights are at risk with Roe v Wade ruling - The Independent