El Magonista | Vol. 10, No. 21 | May 26, 2022

In nearly 700 pages of writings on the Discord messaging app, a person who identified himself as Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old suspect in Saturday’s mass shooting in a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store, described his motivations. He expressed a reluctance to kill people: “What I want right now is something to pass or someone to do something so I don’t have to kill these people.” The attack killed 10 people and injured three; 11 of the victims were Black.

The writer on Discord, according to transcripts of the messages that I reviewed, had been radicalized to believe that white people’s survival depended on eliminating people of color, whom he called “replacers.” He planned to try to shoot victims twice in the head to minimize their pain.

Mental illness didn’t cause his monstrous actions. Mass bloodshed is the logical conclusion of embracing “replacement” theory, a white supremacist and antisemitic fiction espoused by some leading Republicans... READ MORE

Since Anders Breivik killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, mass murders in the name of white replacement theory (WRT) have become prevalent. Many of these killers, including Breivik; Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch shooter; and Payton Gendron, the suspect in the massacre in Buffalo, N.Y., are self-identified as fascists.

And yet, it’s easy to miss or even downplay WRT’s fascist origins and its current manifestations.

It’s not surprising that this resurgence of WRT comes as fascist political tactics — banning books and viewpoints associated with the political left, demonizing and then imprisoning members of the political and minority groups, creating tiers of citizenship between members of the dominant racial group and destroying democratic processes — are on the rise. WRT and its ideological predecessors have been central to fascist movements in Europe, Asia, the United States and elsewhere.

Today we’re seeing an emergent wave of new right-wing populist leaders throughout the world. And as with fascist leaders of the past, much of their political power is derived from questioning reality; endorsing myth, rage, and paranoia; and promoting lies. In this context, WRT is increasingly normalized. From Donald Trump to Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, these fascist ideas are shared at the highest level of so-called illiberal politics... READ MORE

Increasing immigration into the U.S. could potentially fix the country’s growing labor force participation gap, according to a new note from Goldman Sachs.

“The gap between the number of available jobs and the number of available workers has allowed wages to rise at a rate well above the pace of wage growth compatible with the Fed’s inflation goal,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote. “While reduced labor force participation is primarily behind the lower number of available workers, reduced immigration has also played a role... READ MORE

WASHINGTON — A brewing boycott over the invitation list to this year’s Summit of the Americas, a hemispheric gathering held every three to four years and planned for Los Angeles next month, has the Biden administration scrambling to avoid an embarrassment that could erode U.S. influence in the region.

The trouble began when the administration decided initially to exclude antidemocratic leaders from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, drawing the ire of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The Mexican leader said he would not attend the summit unless all countries in the Western Hemisphere were included. Other Latin American leaders quickly echoed the warning. 

The summit comes at a critical time for the administration, which is seeking to counter China’s growing clout in the region, repair relationships damaged during the Trump administration and stem the flow of migrants at the southern U.S. border. 

“This should have been seen as an opportunity, a premier spot to roll out an aspirational vision for a Latin America plan,” said Ryan Berg, a Latin America expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank... READ MORE

Putting out the welcome mat for white Christians—while slamming the door in the faces of other migrants—is an American tradition.

The numbers speak for themselves. 

Two months after the Russian invasion, more than 5 million Ukrainians have fled their nation: 2.8 million to Poland, 757,000 to Romania, 426,000 to Moldova, 471,000 to Hungary, 342,000 to Slovakia. Many have made their way to the other nations in the European Union, which have offered them “visa-free entry.” Others are planning to fly to Canada, which has authorized what it calls a “special, accelerated temporary residence pathway for Ukrainians seeking safe haven.” Under this program, an unlimited number of refugees will be allowed to stay, work, and study in Canada for up to three years.

And the United States? On March 24, 2022, President Joe Biden announcedthat the US would “welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russia’s aggression through the full range of legal pathways, including the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.” Programs would be developed and expanded “with a focus on welcoming Ukrainians who have family members in the United States... READ MORE

During the past month, activists and advocates have gathered at a series of rallies across the state to criticize two of New Hampshire’s Democratic members of Congress, Senator Maggie Hassan and Representative Chris Pappas, for their support of a policy that stops migrants, including asylum seekers, from entering the U.S. to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Citing access to vaccines and other therapeutics to fight Covid-19, the CDC plans on lifting the policy, known as Title 42, on May 23. But Hassan and Pappas are just a handful of Congressional Democrats pushing the Biden administration to extend it for 60 days once the government announces the end of the public health emergency related to Covid-19.

Since the Trump administration first implemented Title 42 in March 2020, the federal government has expelled migrants more than 1.8 million times.

Local Latino advocates and other activists - many who voted for Hassan and Pappas in the past - see this as an anti-immigrant and racist policy. They say the support for it is just the latest example of the friction between them and New Hampshire's federal delegation when it comes to being heard and represented... READ MORE

With sold out “Help Wanted” signs and businesses resorting to greater incentives to recruit and retain employees, it is clear that California’s labor shortage is real. Less acknowledged is that the labor shortage is not just a function of the pandemic: for the first time in its history, California has experienced population decline, which raises concerns about meeting labor demand across the long haul.

One of the ways that California has historically maintained a growing workforce has been through immigration. However, the share of the foreign-born in the state has also been on a steady decline, with the fall most stark in the Los Angeles and San Francisco counties. Part of what is driving immigrants away is what is affecting all Californians: a lack of quality jobs and the skyrocketing costs of housing... READ MORE

Mexico has reached the tragic figure of 100,000 disappeared and missing people since records have been kept; that is, today these 100,000 people’s whereabouts remain unknown. What does this moment mean for the country and what are some of the steps authorities should take to achieve truth, justice, and an end to disappearances?

For years now, relatives of Mexico’s disappearance victims – led especially by women – have been walking the streets and scouring the countryside daily in search of the tens of thousands of people who have been disappeared at the hands of private individuals, state agents, or people acting in collusion with authorities.

Families turn to one institution after another and even conduct their own investigations to track down and search for their loved ones alive, devoting time and resources to a search that can be as dangerous as it is difficult and exhausting. Grouped in the many collectives that have sprung up across the country, families have also led the forensic search. Working with picks and shovels, they have discovered clandestine graves and extermination sites, facing risks, lack of resources, and extreme conditions. Groups of Central American families have arrived to search for their missing migrant relatives who have been disappeared in Mexican territory... READ MORE

No additional restrictions are required, but health officials encourage mask use as graduation season begins.

After residents enjoyed weeks of relaxed masking and the return of large in-person events such as music festivals, Los Angeles County on Thursday, May 19, moved from a “low” community transmission level to a “medium” level as defined by federal public health authorities.

The move, while not unexpected under the criteria set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was accompanied by ramped up urging from public health officials to wear masks indoors and to heed calls to get vaccinated.

The L.A. county coronavirus case rate has increased by 15% over the last week to 202 cases per 100,000 people, crossing the 200-mark threshold set by the CDC on one metric for moving the county into the medium level. The CDC measures three metrics every seven days and updates information on Thursdays... READ MORE

According to early research findings, people of color are the likeliest to develop long COVID, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute director Dr. Gary Gibbons said on Tuesday.

“We’re seeing trends toward who’s most affected, and again, it’s identifying people of color – African Americans, Latinos as a high prevalence group developing long COVID,” Gibbons said during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Gibbons said there were indications that the severity of a case of COVID also affected the likelihood of the chances of getting long COVID.
He added that there were also signs that vaccination increased the chance of avoiding long COVID.

“It’s already starting to show preliminary evidence that’s suggestive of potentially the ability of vaccination to prevent the development of long COVID,” Gibbons said.

According to the National Institute of Health, long COVID is marked by “wide-ranging symptoms, including shortness of breath, fatigue, fever, headaches, “brain fog” and other neurological problems.”

Symptoms of long COVID can last for months after the first COVID-19 diagnosis... READ MORE

The findings also revealed that Latino families reported fewer acts of compassion from medical staffers. Experts believe kindness may act as a protective layer against stress.

Latino family members of Covid-19 ICU patients face a higher risk of developing PTSD symptoms than other groups, according to a study published Monday by JAMA Network.

The findings reveal that Latino families of Covid-19 patients in the ICU are more likely to experience symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. Hispanic family members accounted for nearly 30 percent of the participants in the study. The findings were collected during the onset of the pandemic in 2020 when many family members were barred from visiting patients due to the protocols in place.

At that time, many families relied on health care providers to feel connected to sick relatives due to Covid-19 restrictions in hospitals. However, the study found Latino families often lacked this kind of support. Fewer Latinos — 11.8 percent — reported “above-and-beyond” acts of compassion from medical staff compared to nearly 35 percent of non-Latinos... READ MORE