The Evening Blues - 6-12-20
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues harmonica player William Clarke. Enjoy!
William Clarke - Let's Celebrate Life
"The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency."
-- W. Somerset Maugham
News and Opinion
The Abrupt, Radical Reversal in How Public Health Experts Now Speak About the Coronavirus and Mass Gatherings
Remember the coronavirus? That was the pandemic which we were told by public health experts since February was so grave — the worst public health threat since the 1918 Spanish Flu — that we could not go outside for any reason, even if it meant a collapse in the global economy, tens or hundreds of millions of people suffering from unemployment, the permanent shuttering of small businesses, sustained mental health damage, and the separation of people from their loved ones and communities, including barring them from visiting dying spouses and parents and children in the hospital or even attending an outdoor burial.
So dogmatic was the dictate that we all stay at home that any attempt to question or even balance it — by, for instance, arguing that the harms of the virus had to be weighed against the suffering from an economic shutdown and a global depression — was deemed immoral. Those who questioned state-mandated lockdown and stay-at-home orders, let alone left their homes to actually protest against them, were condemned as sociopaths who were willing to sacrifice the lives of old people for economic prosperity or the trivial, troglodyte desire to go to Applebees. Oftentimes those protesting lockdowns were vilified as white nationalists or at least driven by white racialist sentiments (sometimes they were that, but often they were not). ...
In sum, all decent people, by definition, accepted and submitted to the imperative of self-isolating and staying at home. No harms from that isolation — whether economic, social, or ones implicating mental and physical health — justified opposing or even questioning that decree. Not just our own health but the lives of others, the social good, concern over the well-being of nurses and doctors, and ongoing respect for science and medicine mandated that we acquiesce to this framework.
Roughly two weeks ago, everything changed. Well, not everything: there’s still no cure for COVID-19, nor any treatment, nor any vaccine against contracting the coronavirus. It is still just as lethal as it was in February and still as contagious. And in many parts of the United States, the infection curve has not plateaued but instead continues to increase. ... What has changed — dramatically, radically and abruptly — is the messaging from public health experts and even public officials about the virus. Beginning roughly two weeks ago, we all watched as mass stay-at-home orders and self-isolation gave way to massive street protests, where tens or hundreds of thousands of people gathered together in the U.S. and around the world, often one on top of the other, chanting, yelling and singing: a virtual laboratory for what we had spent four months hearing was exactly what one must not do in the middle of this pandemic.
And yet, in very stark contrast to the vehement denunciations from public health experts of prior protests or out-of-the-home activities of any kind, virtually no prominent experts have denounced any of this on the ground that it will spread the coronavirus and ultimately kill more people (even though that is highly likely to happen). To the contrary, many infectious disease experts have done the exact opposite: they have endorsed and encouraged these mass street protests, claiming not that their support for them is grounded in their political values but in their health and scientific judgment.
Jimmy Dore: AMC Movie Theaters Open! Is Corona Fear Over? w/Dylan Ratigan
‘Long overdue’: lawmakers declare racism a public health emergency
Long before a white police officer killed George Floyd and sparked nationwide outrage, long before Covid-19 began killing Black people at twice the rate of their white counterparts, doctors and health experts were raising alarms that systematic racism is itself a pervasive, deadly pandemic – one that kills both instantaneously and insidiously, burdens Black and Brown Americans with generational trauma, contributes to higher rates of infant mortality and heart disease, and even speeds up the ageing process.
Now, amid a national reckoning with entrenched inequality, lawmakers are finally hearing those alarms – and officially declaring racism a public health emergency. The city councils of Cleveland, Denver and Indianapolis have voted to acknowledge a crisis. Officials in San Bernardino county, California, and Montgomery county, Maryland, have done the same. State representatives in Ohio and Michigan are looking to follow suit.
These declarations are “long overdue”, said Dr Allison Agwu, an infectious disease specialist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. As a physician on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, Agwu said she had been amazed at how quickly the medical establishment mobilized to develop diagnostic tests, and produce thousands of research papers seeking a treatment and vaccine. If the government can commit the same sorts of resources and funds to addressing issues of systemic racism, Agwu said, “That’s a start.”
The stark health disparities in the cities and counties that have declared emergencies have been clear for decades. In Cleveland, the city where a white officer shot and killed with impunity 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Black infants are nearly three times as likely to die as white infants. Maternal mortality rates for Black women are two to three times greater compared to white women, and neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black have the highest rates of lead poisoning.
“Even as an elected official, when I’m driving, when the police drive up behind me – I feel a sense of nervousness that comes over me, “ said Basheer Jones, a Cleveland council member who introduced legislation declaring racism a health crisis. “The trauma of seeing your children, your sons, your daughters, your wives being killed, in living color – that kind of stress … also plays a part in the ailments that affect our bodies.”
Why Native American communities have worst COVID outbreak in the nation
Worth a full read, here are a couple of excerpts to get you started:
Systemic Racism Poses a Far Greater Public Health Threat Than Protests Against Police Violence
The dangers posed by hundreds of people standing shoulder to shoulder, marching, chanting, and sometimes frantically fleeing police violence together during a pandemic are real. And it may be true, as some public health experts have predicted, that the weeks of protests over police brutality that have swept the country — and the world — in the wake of George Floyd’s murder will be followed by a new wave of coronavirus infections. It hasn’t helped that police have been flouting the requirement to wear masks, not to mention shooting, clubbing, pepper-spraying, tear gassing, beating, and killing protesters.
Yet whatever possible impacts the protests have on Covid-19 infection rates, which should be clear within a matter of weeks, they probably won’t match the massive measurable toll that the virus has already wrought on communities of color. Black people in the U.S. are now dying of Covid-19 at 2.4 times the rate of white people. If the virus had affected them at the lower rate at which it killed white people over the past few months, 13,000 black Americans would still be alive. In New York City, the hardest hit part of the country, Latinos are dying at an even higher rate than African Americans. Nor will any jump in deaths from new coronavirus infections due to the protests come anywhere near 75,000: the most conservative estimate of the number of black people who suffer preventable deaths, or “excess premature deaths,” each year according to a 2014 study. ...
But the coronavirus has hit black and brown people hardest in large part because they were already more likely to be in poor health due to systemic racism, as Jacqueline Patterson, senior director of the environmental and climate justice program of the NAACP, told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday. Racism is “a throughline that imperils us at every turn, not just in extreme circumstance such as disasters, but merely when we are walking in a park, making a purchase in the store, jogging down the street, sleeping in a dorm hallway, sleeping in our own bedroom in our own homes, or just breathing air,” Patterson said at the virtual hearing of the committee, which focused on the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on environmental justice communities. ...
Along with race, income also clearly plays a role, as The Intercept has previously reported. In the six New York City zip codes with the highest death rates from the coronavirus, median household income averages $41,854, less than a fourth of median household income in Battery Park and the Financial District, which have no reported deaths from the virus. And in the zip code with the city’s highest coronavirus death rate, 11239 in Canarsie, median household income is $26,275, less than a fifth of what it is in the zip codes with no coronavirus deaths and less than a tenth of the median income in Battery Park, the zip code with the highest median household income. Yet during the pandemic, efforts to put the risks of the protests in the context of these greater forces that leave people of color more vulnerable to all sorts of health threats — from police violence to the new coronavirus and the underlying health problems that make them more vulnerable to it — have met with fierce backlash.
Uprising & Abolition: Angela Davis on Movement Building, “Defund the Police” & Where We Go from Here
'They don't belong': calls grow to oust police from US labor movement
As protests against police brutality continue across the US, a new tactic is emerging to combat the huge influence of police unions: kicking them out of the American labor movement. Police unions and labor groups, like other unions, usually represent their members in debates over pay and working conditions. But they are controversial for being dominated by white leaders, often deeply conservative and hostile to criticism of police officers or attempts at police reform.
This week the Writers Guild of America, East – a trade union of TV writers and digital journalists – called for the removal of the International Union of Police Associations from the AFL-CIO, the labor federation which represents them both. “As long as police unions continue to wield their collective bargaining power as a cudgel, preventing reforms and accountability, no one is safe,” the Guild said in a press release. “Therefore we believe that police unions do not belong in our labor coalition.”
The Writers Guild is the first AFL-CIO affiliate to demand IUPA’s expulsion from the nation’s largest labor federation. That demand reflects a central tension between police unions and the broader labor movement, and points to a gulf that has historically existed between them. In the last few days and weeks, that gulf has seemed to be getting bigger.
Following the police killings of African Americans George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, labor organizations that count police officers among their members are being forced to reckon with their position as a national debate over racism spreads. “There are real questions about being an anti-racist organization if you also represent police,” says David Unger, a CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies staff member.
Trump Threatens to Invade Seattle, Mayor Tells Him to ‘Go Back to Your Bunker’
President Donald Trump issued a threat to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan late Wednesday night, tweeting that if they don’t clear the impromptu anarchist commune that's sprung up in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, “I will.”
The autonomous zone, six blocks of east Seattle that were seized by protesters and set up when the Seattle Police Department abandoned its East Precinct earlier this week, has been described by the New York Times as “part-commune, part-street festival.” This appears to be Trump’s worst nightmare, as he said that these “ugly anarchists must be stooped” (sic), and threatened to intervene if Inslee and Durkan wouldn’t.
Domestic Terrorists have taken over Seattle, run by Radical Left Democrats, of course. LAW & ORDER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2020
After Trump’s second tweet, Durkan responded, telling the president to “go back to your bunker,” a reference to Trump heading underground during the first weekend of protests in May. (Trump has claimed he was just down there for a tiny short time, inspecting it.)
Inslee, on the other hand, basically told Trump to stay out of it.
A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state’s business. “Stoop” tweeting. https://t.co/O6i04qmZ9v
— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) June 11, 2020
Top US military general Mark Milley apologizes for Trump church photo-op
America’s most senior military officer, Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, has publicly apologized for participating in Donald Trump’s photo-op at a famous church in Washington last week, in another sign of tension between the White House and the Pentagon.
“I should not have been there,” Milley told the National Defense University in a pre-recorded video commencement address.
“My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” ...
Milley and Esper were part of a large entourage that walked with Trump from the White House to the church, moments after a press conference in which the president had threatened the exceptional move of unilaterally sending in US troops to put down unrest in cities around the country if their mayors or governors were not able quickly to restore law and order.
Worth a full read:
Time to Sharpen Our Weapons and Wits
The awesome power of massed, militant people in motion has been manifest since the Memorial Day murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Much of the world now knows Floyd’s name; majorities of Americans say they support “Black Lives Matter”; New York City’s mayor pledged to slash his cops’ budget in deference to the Black Lives Matter demand to defund the police; the Minneapolis city council has promised to move towardsdisbanding their police force, in the spirit of outright abolition; and the grassroots demand for community control of police – previously rejected out of hand by most city councils – is now part of the “mainstream” political conversation. So massive and swift has been the swing in popular sentiment against the police – the coercive organs of the State – that “A&E has decided not to run new episodes of ‘Live PD’ this Friday and Saturday, while Paramount Network has delayed the Season 33 launch of ‘Cops,’” according to Variety magazine.
“Movement” politics is how the people flex their power, while electoral politics under a corporate duopoly system is the domain of the moneyed classes. This is a lesson learned in the Sixties -- a period when some years saw as many as 5,000 separate demonstrations. The makeup of the U.S. House and Senate did not change dramatically during that tumultuous decade. Political contributions kept most incumbents in office, year after year, as is the case today. But, for a time, the lawmakers behaved differently -- voting for civil rights and social justice measures they had not previously supported -- when confronted with masses of determined people in motion, who sometimes burned cities. Movement politics was finally quashed in the latter part of the Sixties by a combination of lethal force and political seduction. A national policy of mass Black incarceration, supported by both corporate parties, criminalized Black people as a group, while federal and local police waged a murderous, dirty war to crush Black radicals. On the seduction front, the Democratic Party opened its doors to a hungry cohort of Black politicians and aspiring businessmen who preached that the movement must shift gears “from the streets to the suites” – the beginnings of today’s Black Misleadership Class.
By 1979, after a decade of Black electoral victories in cities abandoned by whites, everyone was singing McFadden & Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” – but the mass movement had long been snuffed out. The Black-white economic gap – which had briefly shrunken as a result of social justice victories in the Sixties -- was beginning to widen, and mass Black incarceration ravaged the Black social fabric. But the Black political class and a small elite of entrepreneurs, professionals and entertainers were doing better than ever – and they were all-in with the Democratic Party, which soon succeeded in subverting virtually every civic organization in Black America. The spoils of a long-dead mass movement of the streets had ultimately accrued to a tiny sliver of Black folks in suites.
For four decades, Black America was stalled in a political dead zone in which the only sustained politics was that which took place in the Democratic Party half of the corporate duopoly. As servants of forces hostile to Black people, Black politicians consistently acted against the interests of their constituents, collaborating in the destruction of public housing and the gentrification of Black neighborhoods. In the ultimate act of betrayal, the Black Misleadership Class lovingly embraced the Mass Black Incarceration Regime. In 2014, just two months before Michael Brown was gunned down by a cop in Ferguson, Missouri, 80 percent of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against a bill that would have halted the Pentagon’s infamous 1033 program that funnels billions of dollars in military weapons and gear to local police departments. The emergence of what came to be called the “Black Lives Matter movement” had no substantive effect on Black members of Congress. In 2018, 75 percent of them supported a bill that makes police a “protected class” and assault on police a “hate crime.” ...
Given the recent phenomenal rise in popularity of “Black Lives Matter,” which is now supported by a majority of Americans and overwhelming numbers of Blacks, the police reforms are likely to pass the House -- and possibly even the Republican-controlled Senate, in some form. But these measures do not empower the oppressed – they are only a response to the power that Blacks and our numerous non-Black allies have shown in the streets: the power to disrupt and shame the ruling order in the United States, and the threat of much more to come. Having not yet won real power over the police – the coercive organs of government that claim a monopoly on the use of force -- this is no time for a lull or a truce. Rather, it is time to sharpen our political instruments and deepen the mass movement’s social penetration. The objective is to seize and exercise people’s power in our communities, and to defend the people’s rights and interests – the opposite of the role played by the police, who defend property rights and white supremacy, whatever the cops’ color or ethnicity. ...
The oligarchs that rule the country and control both of its corporate parties and all of its major media want the people to believe that politics is limited to the electoral process, and that street activism, labor militancy and community organizing are outside the realm of “real” politics. The events of the past ten days have proven the opposite: that massive street actions and unrelenting people-pressure can yield far better results than decades of pulling levers for corporate duopoly candidates.
Social class, capitalism and the murder of George Floyd
The demonstrations have given expression to a powerful desire for fundamental change. Within this movement there are growing numbers of people who recognize that police brutality is a manifestation of deeper social ills, rooted in the economic structure of society and the extreme concentration of wealth within a small segment of the population. This growing awareness, which trends inevitably toward socialism and the explicit rejection of capitalism, frightens the ruling class. It is therefore doing everything it can to divert the mass movement toward politically manageable channels. This is the function of the racial narrative that dominates all official discussion of police brutality and the murder of George Floyd.
The initial response to Floyd’s killing was the typical cover-up of every police murder. None of the officers involved were charged or arrested. The video of his death, which went viral on social media, broke through the narrative that this was just another death in police custody and sparked an eruption of anger that had been building just beneath the surface. After the political establishment’s initial shock over the response to Floyd’s murder, with night after night of protests, first on the streets of Minneapolis and then across the country, the ruling class responded with the full force of the state. The police beat and maimed protesters, fired volley after volley of tear gas, smoke grenades, rubber bullets, bean bags and pepper spray. Peaceful protesters were slandered as rioters and looters, and journalists were targeted for assault and arrest. More than ten thousand were arrested—most for violating curfews set by Democratic mayors—hundreds were wounded, and many killed in the course of the onslaught. The National Guard was deployed in dozens of states to aid in the repression.
The apex of the repression occurred in Washington, DC, where President Donald Trump attempted to set into motion a military coup d’état. This plan failed, at least for the time being, not because of opposition from Congress (there was none), but because sections of the military feared that its premature intervention could trigger violent resistance and a civil war for which the Pentagon is not yet adequately prepared.
In this unstable situation, the Democratic Party, mainstream media and large corporations have shifted gears to the co-optation stage, seeking to reframe the issues that motivated young people and workers to turn to the streets in a manner that is more suitable to the ruling class. The role that racism plays in police violence has been amplified to drown out all other social issues. ... The Democrats’ presumptive presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, and political huckster Al Sharpton were both given prominent billing at [Floyd’s funeral] ceremony to frame police violence as fundamentally a racial issue, which can be resolved with mild reforms. Neither had anything to say about the fact that President Trump and a significant section of the state had seized on the protests to prepare a coup to overthrow the Constitution. Sharpton dishonestly claimed that if the victim in Minneapolis had been white and the cops black, there would have been no hesitation to arrest the cops and bring charges. Biden declared that Floyd’s murder was the outcome of “systemic abuse.”
Rejecting calls to “defund” the police, Biden is instead proposing to provide $300 million in additional federal funding to “reinvigorate” the police and help implement limited changes such as more body cameras, a national standard for the use of force and the hiring of more minority cops. He also calls for embedding social service providers with the police when they respond to emergency calls relating to mental health, drug use or the homeless, thereby compelling social workers to operate as an arm of law enforcement. Biden’s former opponent in the Democratic Party primaries, Bernie Sanders, has taken the same position. ...
While it is easy for phrases such as “white supremacy” and “systemic racism” to pass through the lips of these bourgeois politicians, one word is unmentionable: capitalism. There must not be an examination of the deeper social and economic processes, the immense levels of social inequality built up over decades that have created the conditions for the death of Floyd and so many other workers like him. Instead, there are once again calls for empty reforms, which have been heard repeatedly over the last 50 years.
George Galloway l Toppling Statues
Senate panel votes to require Pentagon to rename bases named after Confederates
The Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee has approved an amendment to the annual defense policy bill that would require the Pentagon to rename bases and other assets that are named after Confederate military leaders, a source confirmed to The Hill.
The amendment, offered by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), was approved by voice vote Wednesday during the committee’s closed-door markup of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the source familiar with the situation said. The amendment would give the Pentagon three years to remove the Confederate names.
The news, which was first reported by Roll Call, comes after President Trump said he would “not even consider” renaming Army bases that are named after Confederate officers.
During a briefing Wednesday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany also said Trump would veto the NDAA if the massive policy bill mandated changing the names of the bases.
Trump targets ICC with sanctions after court opens war crimes investigation
The Trump administration is launching an economic and legal offensive on the international criminal court in response to the court’s decision to open an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan carried out by all sides, including the US.
The US will not just sanction ICC officials involved in the investigation of alleged war crimes by the US and its allies, it will also impose visa restrictions on the families of those officials. Additionally, the administration declared on Thursday that it was launching a counter-investigation into the ICC, for alleged corruption.
The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, defence secretary, Mark Esper and attorney general, William Barr, gave a presentation on the decision at the state department, but then left without taking any questions. Barr made clear that this was the beginning of a sustained campaign against the ICC, and that Thursday’s measures were just an “important first step in holding the ICC accountable for exceeding its mandate and violating the sovereignty of the United States”.
'Serious concerns': judge hits out at DoJ over handling of Iran sanctions case
A federal judge in New York has admonished prosecutors involved in a long-running case against an Iranian banker who was convicted on sanctions violations, saying that numerous missteps raised “serious concerns” about the US government’s conduct.
Judge Alison Nathan called on the US attorney’s office in New York, which led the case on behalf of the Department of Justice, to submit detailed information to the court about individual government attorneys – and their supervisors – who had made false statements to the court in the case, and other allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.
The admonition came just days after the chief prosecutor in the case made a rare request to dismiss the case against the convicted banker, Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, citing “disclosure-related” issues that had come up in the case before and after the March 2020 conviction. ...
In her filing, Judge Nathan gave prosecutors an 18 June deadline to respond to various questions, including submitting information about prosecutors who may have misled the court and what, if any, actions the US attorney’s office was taking in response to the handling of the case.
In Landmark Ruling, European Court of Human Rights Sides With BDS Movement Over French Government
In a decision celebrated by international human rights advocates, a European court ruled Thursday that the conviction of 11 activists in France campaigning for a boycott of Israeli goods in solidarity with Palestinians "had no relevant and sufficient grounds" and violated their right to freedom of expression.
"Today's landmark decision sets a significant precedent that should stop the misuse of anti-discrimination laws to target activists campaigning against human rights violations perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians," Marco Perolini, Amnesty International's France researcher, said in a statement.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which is based in the the French city of Strasbourg, ensures that member states of the Council of Europe—including France—abide by the European Convention on Human Rights.
"The recognition by the ECtHR that these convictions violate their right to freedom of expression," said Perolini, "should send a clear message to all European states that they must stop the prosecution of peaceful activists."
The court ordered the French government to pay €101,000 ($115,000) in total damages to the activists, who had handed out leaflets at a hypermarket in the town of Illzach for a pair of events in 2009 and 2010. They were found guilty of incitement to economic discrimination and their convictions were upheld by France's highest court in 2015.
The activists were part of Collectif Palestine 68, a local branch of the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The movement "works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law," according to the Palestinian BDS National Committee, which welcomed the ECtHR ruling with a statement from member Rita Ahmad.
"This momentous court ruling is a decisive victory for freedom of expression, for human rights defenders, and for the BDS movement for Palestinian freedom, justice, and equality," she said. "It confirms a 2016 European Union position defending the right to call for BDS against Israel to achieve Palestinian rights under international law."
Ahmad also framed the court's decision as "a major legal blow to Israel's apartheid regime and its anti-BDS lawfare," explaining that "at Israel's behest, European governments, especially in France and Germany, have fostered an ominous environment of bullying and repression to silence Palestine solidarity activists." ...
Ahmad put the ruling into the context of the current geopolitical moment, which has featured worldwide demonstrations and demands for justice sparked by the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis.
"At a time when European citizens, inspired by the Black Lives Matter uprising in the U.S., are challenging the ugly legacy of European colonialism," she said, "France, Germany, and other E.U. countries must end their racist repression of human rights defenders campaigning for Palestinian human rights and for an end to Israeli apartheid."
Krystal Ball: The American dream is dead, good riddance
'Speaking of Looting...': Trump Admin. Refuses to Disclose Corporate Recipients of $500 Billion in Coronavirus Bailout Funds
Progressive critics and advocacy groups are responding with alarm and anger to the Trump administration's refusal to disclose the names of more than 4.5 million companies that have collectively received over $500 billion in corporate bailout money through a federal program created to provide businesses with relief from the coronavirus pandemic.
The over $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act signed by President Donald Trump in March established the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) with $349 billion in funding for forgivable loans. After the initial capital ran out in just 13 days, lawmakers approved $310 billion more—though over $130 billion of that amount was still left as of Tuesday.
Although, as the Washington Post reported, the Small Business Administration (SBA) "typically discloses names of borrowers from the loan program" on which the PPP is based, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testified to the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship that he won't be following that model for the Covid-19 program, despite concerns about which companies are benefiting from it.
As Mnuchin told the Senate committee Wednesday: "We believe that that's proprietary information, and in many cases for sole proprietors and small businesses, it is confidential information." The secretary's comments provoked a barrage of condemnation, particularly among individuals and groups that had previously expressed concern about the PPP.
"Making sure trillions in aid goes to workers, not profiteers, begins with knowing where the aid goes," Bartlett Naylor, Public Citizen's financial policy advocate, told Common Dreams of the federal government's Covid-19 bailout efforts. "Zero transparency is red carpet for hucksters, schemers, and battlefield scavengers."
Public Citizen tweeted Thursday about Mnuchin's remarks, blasting his refusal to disclose businesses getting PPP funds as "unconscionable, jaw-dropping corruption."
Progressives swiftly echoed the group's critique in their own tweets—including Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout, who wrote: "This is outrageous AND exactly what was obviously going to happen AND exactly why many of us opposed CARES as written."
Oh shit. Looting has broken out in Washington. https://t.co/SljiyqCwN6
— David Simon (@AoDespair) June 11, 2020
This is absolutely unreal. Last time: no strings attached bail out money. This time: the public doesn't even get to know which multinational, multibillion dollar companies got its money. Looting with masks on. https://t.co/Zdcg25l8vJ
— Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) June 11, 2020
Stock markets tumble as another 1.5m Americans file for unemployment
Stock markets tumbled in the US and Europe on Thursday amid growing fears over the long-term economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The sell off started after the US labor department announced another 1.5 million people had filed for unemployment benefits and the number of coronavirus infections passed 2m even as states across the US continued to relax their quarantine measures.
Stock markets have rallied – some to record highs – in recent weeks as investors have bet that economies would reopen without a surge infections and that the short, sharp shock of quarantine would be followed by a swift economic reversal.
As traders weighed the morning news for signs about how long the pandemic will sap global growth the major markets all turned negative, with the Dow Jones closing down over 1,800 points (7%) the S&P down 6% and the Nasdaq – which recently hit a record high – also losing 5%. In Europe all the markets closed down with the FTSE 100 in London losing 4%.
‘Paw Patrol’ Writers Defend Episode Where German Shepherd Cop Shoots Unarmed Black Lab 17 Times In Back https://t.co/mNtcl1u5Zh pic.twitter.com/fFtBvGAmsa
— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 10, 2020
Far more details here than can be fairly covered. Here is an excerpt, click the link for more.
Police Attacks on Protesters with “Less Than Lethal” Weapons Result in Life-Threatening Injuries
Less-lethal kinetic and chemical weapons rose to prominence during the drug war. And that these munitions regularly cause serious and sometimes fatal injuries is nothing new. Studies have found that both pepper spray and tear gas can cause serious eye injuries and respiratory problems — an issue intensified amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Beanbag rounds have been associated with “significant” abdominal and chest injuries and death. Kinetic projectiles have long caused permanent injury or death, particularly when fired at the head or neck. Tasers have long been identified as lethal — even as proponents have worked overtime to deny that. As the protests intensified, shares of Axon, the company that makes the weapon, spiked.
People demonstrating on the streets, or following along online, don’t need studies to know that less-lethal weaponry isn’t safe — particularly in crowds. In Austin, a pregnant woman named Saraneka “Nemo” Martin was shot in the abdomen and back. So far, her husband has reported, she’s not lost the pregnancy. Another demonstrator, Samuel Kirsch, called into a special Austin City Council meeting to say that he’d been shot in the face while running away from tear gas. The impact broke five bones supporting his eye, which will take complicated surgery to fix.
Amid the protests, head injuries have become shockingly common. In Dallas, Brandon Saenz lost his left eye and seven teeth after police fired a rubber bullet into the crowd; journalist Linda Tirado lost her eye to a police-fired projectile while covering protests in Minneapolis; in Los Angeles, police reportedly shot out the eye of a homeless man with disabilities who protesters have said was not involved in their demonstration — a brutal incident cited in a federal lawsuit filed against the LAPD over its actions amid the protests. Protesters in Denver won a temporary restraining order against police, barring their use of less-lethal munitions. “Some of the behaviors of what I hope and believe to be a minority of the police officers in Denver and the nation during recent days (and before), not only vis-à-vis persons of color but against peaceful protesters of all backgrounds, have been disgusting,” U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote.
South Secedes From NASCAR Following Confederate Flag Ban https://t.co/AQbAcP28Tt pic.twitter.com/foG1h4K5JA
— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 11, 2020
8:46 - Dave Chappelle
Jesse Ventura Talks Third Party Presidential Run
Every horrible thing that police do is just another reason to give the police more money for Joe Biden and too many other Democrat morons.
As Calls to Defund the Police Grow Louder, Joe Biden Wants to Give Them More Money
As tens of thousands of Americans have descended into streets for nearly two weeks to protest police violence, they have articulated a clear demand among the calls for justice and accountability: defund the police.
In a matter of days, the demand some groups had been raising for years — that officials reallocate resources from police terrorizing communities to invest in initiatives and social services that keep those communities safe — became a rallying cry that pushed city councils to reevaluate their budget proposals and forced some mayors who had at first disdained the idea to give in. For the most part, campaigns to defund police have been aimed at local governments, which control police departments and their budgets — some $100 billion annually nationwide.
But on Wednesday, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, in a striking rejection of the growing movement demanding better use of public dollars, reminded Americans that there is also plenty of money for police coming from the federal government when he called for an additional $300 million in federal incentives “to reinvigorate community policing in our country.”
“I do not support defunding police,” Biden wrote in an op-ed for USA Today. “The better answer is to give police departments the resources they need to implement meaningful reforms, and to condition other federal dollars on completing those reforms. … Every single police department should have the money they need to institute real reforms.”
Controversial Photos Of Dem Leaders Wearing Kente Cloth Resurface From 3 Days Ago https://t.co/1TRfgUQcwO pic.twitter.com/M3iITjutQ0
— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 11, 2020
Angela Davis: Dems & GOP Tied to Corporate Capitalism, But We Must Vote So Trump Is “Forever Ousted”
Biden predicts military will intervene if Trump refuses to accept election loss
Joe Biden has predicted the military will escort Donald Trump from the White House should the president lose November’s election but refuse to leave office.
Biden, speaking to the Daily Show’s Trevor Noah, said that his single greatest concern is that the president will “try to steal this election”.
The Democratic presidential nominee cited Trump’s baseless linking of mail-in ballots to voter fraud, even though he has used this method of voting himself, and his accusations, without evidence, that Democrats are trying to rig the election. ...
Biden told Noah that he has thought about a scenario where Trump would refuse to relinquish power after losing the election but said he was confident top military figures would intervene. “I am absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch,” Biden said.
David Sirota: The real reason Biden is HIDING his economic advisors
Kentucky's Largest Newspaper Endorses Progressive Charles Booker in Senate Race, Rejecting Corporate Democrats' Preferred Centrist
Kentucky's highest-circulation newspaper, the Courier-Journal, on Wednesday endorsed state legislator Charles Booker in the Democratic primary for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's long-held seat, saying Booker has the "vision" his more moderate opponent lacks.
Days after the state's second-largest newspaper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, endorsed Booker, the Courier-Journal's editorial board wrote that the state representative—whose platform includes Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and universal basic income—understands "the challenges of our times" and is "willing to put forth bold ideas and fight for everyday people."
"Our informed choice is clear: Charles Booker is the kind of political leader and change agent that our commonwealth needs," wrote the editors. "We believe he is worthy of the Democratic nomination."
The newspaper highlighted Booker's advocacy for gun control, labor protections, and lowering insulin prices—an issue which he brings personal experience to as one of the state's 449,000 adults living with diabetes—along with his personal background.
Booker grew up in one of the poorest zip codes in Kentucky, a state with one of the highest poverty rates in the country.
"He knows what it means to go hungry, to be homeless, to struggle," the editorial reads. "Ending poverty is at the core of his mission. He's passionate about it because he's lived the struggle....Booker's message resonates."
The paper also praised Booker's enthusiastic participation in community activism alongside his neighbors and voters throughout the state, appearing at numerous Black Lives Matter rallies in recent weeks and traveling to Harlan County last summer to support coal miners at Blackjewel LLC after the company went bankrupt without paying its workers.
"Booker consistently appears as a community member rather than a campaigning politician," the editorial board wrote, contrasting the candidate with his main opponent, Amy McGrath.
The national Democratic Party, the editors wrote, "was too quick to offer its full support and fundraising apparatus" to McGrath, who has positioned herself as able to win over Trump supporters in Kentucky with a campaign and agenda the Courier-Journal deemed "overly moderate," "unimaginative, and uninspiring."
"Frankly, it's time to shake up the establishment," wrote the editorial board.
In his first campaign video, released in January, Booker suggested he is prepared to take on McConnell with the message that the six-term Republican senator has been disconnected from and dismissive of his constituents during his 36 years in office.
"He doesn't see you in the hospital bed or the checkout line or in the safety drills in your classroom. He doesn't see you at all," Booker told voters in the video that launched his campaign. "And this man knows more than anybody how to work the system in Washington... But he's done nothing for Kentucky. Because he's not your neighbor. He's not your brother. He ain't from here."
"Voters in Kentucky and around the country deserve the chance to consider candidates who have strident beliefs and the courage to go beyond scripted, milquetoast politics," the Courier-Journal wrote of Booker.
Interior to push drilling in Florida waters after November election
The Trump administration is preparing to open the door to oil and gas drilling off Florida’s coast — but will wait until after the November election to avoid blowback in a swing state whose waters both parties have long considered sacrosanct, according to four people familiar with the plan.
Drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico would fulfill a long-sought goal of energy companies, giving them access to potentially billions of barrels of oil that have been off-limits since the federal government withdrew leases it had sold in 1985. But even the possibility of drilling is a politically explosive topic for Floridians, who worry that oil spills would devastate their tourism-based economy in a reprise of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
President Donald Trump, who has set “energy dominance” as a key national goal, has eased regulations on offshore drilling put in place by the Obama administration. Interior has spent years working on a proposed drilling plan that would expand oil companies‘ access to waters around the country's coastline, including a draft plan issued in 2018 by the Trump administration that considered opening the federal waters off both of Florida's coasts.
That plan also included an expansion of offshore drilling in California, a move that would escalate the ongoing battles between the state and the administration over environmental issues since Trump took office. The people did not know whether the final proposal will include that section of coastline as well.
“Whatever is decided is expected to come out within two to three weeks of the election,” said one person who has had recent discussions with Interior officials about the issue and who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity. The eastern Gulf is the “golden trophy” for the industry because it could be producing oil within 10 years using existing infrastructure from the Gulf’s western portion, the person said.
Canadian conservation officer fired for refusing to kill bear cubs wins legal battle
A conservation officer in Canada who was fired for refusing to kill two black bear cubs has won a protracted legal battle over his termination. ... Bryce Casavant was dispatched in 2015 to a mobile home park near the British Columbia town of Port Hardy, where a female black bear was rummaging through a freezer of meat and salmon.
Under the province’s policy, Casavant shot and killed the mother, but decided not to harm the cubs, who residents told him hadn’t been spotted eating food or garbage. “Instead of complying with the kill order, he took the cubs to a veterinarian who assessed them and transferred them to the North Island Recovery Centre,” the court documents read. The two cubs were eventually released back into the wild.
But because of his refusal to follow orders, Casavant was suspended and then fired. While the judgment does not reinstate him as a conservation officer, Casavant said that the decision was a “vindication” of his costly legal battle, which pit him against two provincial governments and his own union. ...
“[British Columbia] isn’t a shooting gallery for government employees,” Casavant wrote in the report. “It’s unreasonable to believe that, including juvenile bear cubs, over 4,000 black bears were killed ‘as a last resort’.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
New Report Details How Tear Gas Used to 'Crush Peaceful Protests' Around the World
Media Acknowledge Drive to Defund Police—but Seek to Blunt Its Radical Edge
wynton Marsalis: The US is still segregated – but is our democracy up to the challenge?
When Tearing Down Statues Isn’t Vandalism
US Propaganda Outlets Omit Black Lives Matter Protests
Bernie Sanders Calls on Congress to 'Ban Facial Recognition Technology for All Policing'
Rand Paul stalls bill that would make lynching a federal hate crime
Tennessee Just Voted to Keep a Racist Statue of a KKK 'Grand Wizard'
Coronavirus - How A German City Proved That Wearing Masks Works
Jimmy Dore: Cops Applaud Cops Who Assaulted 75 Year Old On Camera
Jimmy Dore: Americans Overwhelmingly Support George Floyd Protests
Krystal and Saagar REACT: The Seattle Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
A Little Night Music
William Clarke - Lollipop Mama
William Clarke - She's Gone
William Clarke And The NightOwls - 52 Cards In A Deck
William Clarke - Five Card Hand
William Clarke - Tribute to George Smith
William Clarke - The Boss
William Clarke - Drinkin' Beer
William Clarke - Ice Cream Man
William Clarke - Daddy Pinnochio
William Clarke - Live in New Mexico
Comments
Just when I thought the apogee of absurdity
had finally crested, here comes Donald Trump vs. Jay Inslee via Twittersvere. Not sure what had me more befuddled, that we have anarchists in Seattle, that our Commander in Chief doesn’t proofread his own tweets, or that Washington State’s governor is publicly correcting the President’s grammar.
Wow. I should really be keeping a journal for that time capsule no one will find after all intelligent life ceases to exist.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
evening anja...
i have a sneaking suspicion that by november a wave of stupid like we've never seen before will have inundated us, leaving us up to our ears in jabbering, nattering, slack-jawed ninnies.
get your earplugs now, while they're cheap.
Well, that’s what the popcorn is for
Both for eating and putting in your ears. Heh, heh.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Email to my Swamp Dweller, er, CongressLiar
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
evening gls...
thanks for pressuring your congressworm! we all should do that.
well, either that, or invest in ice floe futures.
To the Future is it!
As always thank you, Mr. Shikspack, for posting EB each day.
I probably shouldn't do this. Makin' my fbi file too fat. Sent to all three worms.
Edit:
I wrote "To the Future is it!"
I meant "To the Future it is!" My dyslexia playing with me.
As written it's better so leaving as is.
Funny how the universe unfolds....
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
another think on your future presnit
never mind, can not cross post
just a biden blooper put out on some nytimes twitter
that is now taken down
you may be able to see it on naked capitalism
if interested in mental torture
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/06/200pm-water-cooler-6-12-2020.html
evening qms...
i checked, the tweet is there, but the media won't play. bummer, i can't annoy myself.
have a great evening!
tis better to enjoy oneselves
in neither, nor the out cropping
btw, do enjoy your stuff...
;-
Thanks for the tunes JS!
Great stuff JS! What a great blower.
In a quick drive-by I saw you did Johnny Copeland a few days ago, he was a great player, pure, simple, and right-on.
Love that George Galloway. His biting style nails it so often ... great takes always.
So glad to hear of the NASCAR decision, soooo long overdue, that flag should be illegal as a nazi flag. If you believe in that shat, you should only be allowed to fly the last flag they flew, the white surrender flag.
I was hoping Nancy and Chucky couldn't get back up... for some kabuki karma.
Here is something completely different in blues... I thought a neat sound, very creative.
Have a good one!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
evening dystopian...
yep, clarke was (imo) one of the best chromatic players of his time. he learned a lot from harmonica george smith (as did rod piazza) and did a nice job of mixing blues and jazz.
it may be his accent, but when galloway gets on his soapbox, he's really an incisive and convincing speaker.
as abhorrent as i find what the confederate battle flag stands for, i would just as soon it not be made illegal for individuals to display on their own property. if individuals want to put up a flag to warn people that they are within sight distance of a knuckle-dragging moron, perhaps that's a public service. on the other hand, i see no reason to tolerate the flag of traitorous losers on government or public property.
thanks for the tune, interesting use of reverberating space.
have a great weekend!
Good afternoon everybody & Happy Friday!
The guys at The Grayzone have more to say about Wikipedia: Meet Wikipedia’s Ayn Rand-loving founder and Wikimedia Foundation’s regime-change operative CEO
How the virus got to the Navajo Nation: azcentral
Also in Tucson: Bighorn Fire near Tucson passes 7,000 acres, only 10 percent contained
I can the smoke plume from my back window as I type this.
Have a nice weekend.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening azazello...
i hope that the folks at grayzone manage to beat back the randian/neoliberal morons at wikimedia. they've certainly got their work cut out for them.
glad to hear about the progress the navajo nation is making with the pandemic. sorry to hear about the bighorn fire.
i hope that you're able to stay safe and secure at home. take care!
We were never in any danger.
The evacuation order has been lifted. No houses are threatened but I can watch as the fire travels west to east through the mountains. Here's a little vid. You'll see Finger Rock clearly, it looks like a fist with the index finger sticking up. We live a few miles due south of Finger Rock. That's where the fire was yesterday, now it looks like it's about 4 or 5 miles east of that and moving fast.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hC_qSOpVIg width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
glad to hear...
that you guys are safe.
have a great weekend!
Hola! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Joe,
for the Greenwald video. Mr M and I are going to listen to it now, as we do some work on one of our projects.
I'm particularly interested in hearing what Mr Neoliberal Technocrat Adam Gaffney has to say--he's in the same league as Larry Levitt (Kaiser), and one of O's guys, Andy Slavitt. (IMO) All those dudes are 'managed care' advocates, who attempt to put a progressive veneer on their policy prescriptions. They're all quite clever, and, mostly succeed in hiding that fact that containing costs thru UM (utilization management) and capitation fees/global budgeting is their primary mission, or goal. Could easily throw Don Berwick and Zeke Emanuel into that pot. Of course, they're even scarier--with their 'open' embrace of rationing of medical services. To their credit, Gaffney, Levitt and Slavitt are, at least, slicker in their presentations. But, guess that's a topic for another day.
BTW, I did listen to the video for about 5-8 minutes, while Mr M ran to drop off a library book.
And, I also share Greenwald's bewilderment at the turnabout of some public health experts. Makes me feel like I've been punk'd. For sure, Mr M and I (among tens and tens of millions of other folks) have drastically rearranged lives.
And, for what reason? Obviously, a virus makes no differentiation between a righteous and urgent cause (the Floyd protests), and a bunch of RW nuts wanting to buck a 'lockdown' mandate in MI. IOW, IMO--the science either still holds, and the danger is still as great--or, the *ssholes have been lying to the public all along. (which would not surprise me, really)
Hope to catch up with you Guys, again, later this evening. I'll post the projections (2 sets) that I've heard this week--of number of COVID-related cases/death stemming from recent protests--next week. I'm still trying to figure out a way to determine the name of the study, so that I can check the figures the two cable news reports cited. Don't really trust anyone, unless, I read/see the backup material, itself.
Just in case I get derailed, hope Everyone has a nice and safe weekend!
Mollie
“Revolution is not a one time event.”
~~Audre Lorde
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening mollie...
i was able to listen to part of greenwald's video while i did other stuff, but i got distracted before gaffney came on and didn't get a chance to listen as closely as i would have liked. let me know what you think.
personally, i don't particularly feel punked. it seems to me that isolating/social distancing and particularly the use of masks is the best way to mitigate risk. as time has gone on, the information about how to mitigate risk has gotten a little better, though it's still not really nailed down to certainties, yet. it seems to me that one of the problems is that it is improbable that science can deliver conclusive information about a new virus early in studying it. sadly, science takes time and i think that some slack should probably be given to scientists working at this for their early pronouncements.
anyway, have a great weekend!
Joe--looks like we're in the same boat,
in that no matter how hard I've tried all afternoon, something has popped up, and delayed our listening to Glenn's video. But, we'll definitely watch it over the weekend
.
And, I totally agree with you, that,
As a matter of fact, we're 'isolating/social distancing' to the absolute max. Heck, I even talked Mr M into stopping a once-a-week run for a 'no-contact' grocery pickup, several weeks ago.
Instead, we purchased a home delivery plan, and, now, everything--and I mean everything--is delivered to our doorsteps. (Did same with our Sam's Club membership, and Amazon Prime, regarding online purchases and deliveries--for the purpose of being able to fully function without having to make in-person store purchases.)
Hey, Mr M just said that I shouldn't let all this garbage bother me. So, maybe I'll take his advice, and try adopting the attitude of one of my favorite cast of characters on SNL--the Coneheads--and, "maintain low tones."
Have a nice weekend!
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Agree with this:
But that was the reason why elevating 'the science' or 'tech' to resolve this was the first major mistake and has contributed to more mistakes. Human transmission was confirmed on 20 January and that's when all countries should have activated well known pandemic mitigation/suppression public health measures. A major component of that is informing the public of what they and their communities can do to help.
While it remains too soon to tell, it appears as if Vietnam was one of the few that by necessity took a public health policy approach. 24 January - "The first confirmed incidence of human-to-human transmission outside of China was documented by the WHO in Vietnam."
Hola Joe. Thanks for the evening blues.
This is a very perceptive paragraph:
The same hollow empty phrases and proposals that, if enacted, would solve little or nothing anyway. But this is what spews from electoral politics, which is why it cannot be the only politics afoot, as noted in this paragraph:
I haven't listened to Krystal yet, but the American Dream is dead and justifiably so. It was a horror show and a clown show inextricably intertwined. So much of what is wrong today can be laid at the feet of such "successes" as it manifested. From anomie and alienation down to the zero tolerance embedded in hyper conformity. Pick any societal ill and it was inherent in the achieved American Dream, an infinitude of unintended consequences that generated far, far too many festering pustules for even Zappa to lance.
great music, as usual, thanks.
be well and have a good one, followed by a fabulous weekend.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
yep, i am hoping that the people in the streets keep the pressure on the system, because the system has not yet begun to fight.
have a great weekend!
the american scheme seems made more of
delusion than dream
maybe even nightmare
some awoken know the depth of shit
our collective mind will be dragged thru
in the next episode of fantasy tv
thanks for bringing that up el
makes one think of alternatives that
may be better
Glenn Greenwald's update
on public health experts advocating outdoor protesting, but only against Floyd's murder but NOT against the lockdown, is exhaustive and exhausting. I agree with most of what he says. He's a gem.
My response, after hearing him, but not having listened yet to the other speaker, is that we aren't able to support our whole population through this because we never planned to. We're not a social democracy with a sovereign fund like Norway's or a dictatorship with a plan like China's. Wuhan shut down completely, including transportation, airports, train travel, highways. We still haven't done that. We still wobble between lockdown and blowing it off. We don't want anybody telling us what to do. And we don't want anybody bailing everybody out. We're still arguing over it.
And we still have no plan for supporting everyone if this or any future virus outbreak requires it. We knew this was a possibility, given the mutation rate of viruses, almost inevitable. It's been like living on the San Andreas Fault. Not a matter of if, but when. A pandemic like this, or even worse, was always possible. But we had no economic plan. So we assert that we can't lock down our economy. But of course we can. If we can afford war we can afford anything.
evening linda...
it may turn out that there is no use in half-fighting a viral pandemic like the one we are engaged in currently. half-assed measures do appear to "suppress the curve," but over the long run, it may turn out that it doesn't suppress overall deaths. we may still be fighting this after the rest of the world has successfully put it down, while waiting for a silver bullet vaccine.
the way i see it, we have a primary infection of capitalism that allows an opportunistic viral infection to wreak havoc. we may get through this current pandemic suffering greater damage than other nations with varying degrees of capitalism infections, but another will come along in time. if we don't mitigate the capitalism infection, we will be screwed again.
Agree with most of what you said,
but not so much in this instance about Greenwald. It is like vintage Greenwald -- back when he began blogging -- he would go on and on, not getting any piece exactly wrong, but ignoring the forest (generally because it conflicted with his libertarian leanings). In this instance, he ignored the fact that US public health professionals were asleep at the wheel from the beginning. China had no option but to implement a draconian lockdown because they had no time to figure out what they were dealing with before it was out of control. The US can't make the same claim.
Nobody should appreciate public health officials giving a seal of approval to one group of protestors over another. However, from the images of the anti-lockdown protestors, very few wore masks and they stood still next to each other. That was a much higher public health risk than what we've seen among the anti-police violence protestors. Still, public health officials should have done more to inform the protestors on measures to reduce their risk; such as carry signs instead of speaking and no speaking without masks.
There's another aspect to Greenwald's critique that was weak. He views the anti-lockdown protestors as a collection of working people being hurt by the lockdowns. Doubt there was more than a small aount of truth in his assessment. For the most part they were Trumpsters, teabaggers, etc. People well known to public health officials who over many years have had many battles with this segment of the public. Anti-national health care and anti-gun control; so, they first politicized public health, and therefore, it's not completely out of line for public health officials to push back at these people.
Hi, Marie. It's so late, I'll wait until
next week to elaborate very much, but, the protesters who participated in the largest of the anti-lockdown protests (Lansing, MI), at least, from all that I've read, went out of their way to implement social distancing measures--they even protested from their vehicles in a convoy.
Here's a link to my comment from yesterday, which shows a photo of the Lansing MI convoy, with a sign displayed from one of the vehicles. Got several more photos, if anyone would like to see them.
And, the blurb below is what was posted on the convoy organizer's Facebook page,
It's from a MI newspaper. Also, got another blurb about their social distancing compliance from the head of the MI state police, if anyone would like me to post it. (next week)
I think there's been a lot of misinformation about that rally. And, I think it (partly) stems from the fact that there were second amendment protesters who stood on the steps of the state house with their guns--the same day of the convoy. I could be wrong, but, if anyone in the mainstream media had done their homework, they should have been able to decipher, from the convoy organizer's Facebook page, that those folks were probably opportunists/interlopers. (or, maybe renegade members of the convoy--the point being, they were a handful of people, compared to the 3,000-4,000 participating in the convoy)
BTW, we Demexited in 2004--so, Mr M and I detest both legacy parties. IOW, we don't have a dog in this fight (election). We'll either vote third party, or, not at all.
My primary problem about the policy about-face is that we've knocked ourselves out to comply with CDC directives. Which was/is fine (with us), if it's for a sound, or valid medical reason. Don't care for anyone 'playing politics' with my life. Period.
Full disclosure: I like Greenwald, and, still haven't had a chance to listen to more than a few minutes of his video. Will do so, this weekend. But, who knows? After I do, I may have to look you up, and eat some crow.
Have a good one! And stay safe.
Mollie
“Revolution is not a one time event.”
~~Audre Lorde
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Mollie -- you won't be eating any crow
-- Greenwald says nothing particularly objectionable. He merely belabors all his points and from his civil liberties and libertarian perspective views the anti-lockdown and anti-police killing protestors as equivalent and therefore, the public statements from public health officials should have been the same for both. IMO his thesis is too narrow and fails to acknowledge that public health has always been political. It's collectivist not libertarian. Social science; both components are rarely perfect and require weighting and judgements on which people will disagree. That in this instance PH came down on different sides with regard to two different protest groups isn't as inconsistent as Greenwald claims because there were far more public health variables and considerations to evaluate the anti-police violence protests. Maybe they got it wrong in this instance, but if so, on which protest?
Greenwald may be smarting a bit because he supports the lockdown which is contrary to his basis political orientation. However, he isn't educated enough in science or medicine to offer an alternative that would have kept more people safe. Due to government and public health (including the CDC) failings in the first eight weeks, the options were reduced and limited to a draconian lockdown or let COVID-19 rip. We can argue endlessly as to which option would do the least harm but will never be able to answer that question. The primary value of the lockdown, which should have been clear to all, was that it would better preserve the overpriced and dysfunctional US healthcare system. That's in line with what a majority of Americans want and what DC has been propping up for decades, and I have no doubt it has overwhelming support among the anti-lockdown folks.
Appreciate your reply, Marie. I suppose
I view the role of the public health professionals a bit differently than many (here). Partly, due to my own background in a social science - spent 4/5's of my federal career as a forensic social worker, doing some counseling, but, a lot of advising, testifying for, and consulting with two military units--the Army CID, and Air Force OSI. (Best analogy, they're military versions of the FBI, not the military branch 'policing' units.)
Yes, there are many variables that the PH officials need to weigh. But, 'how' the COVID virus spreads, and the severity of it, has little to do with the righteousness or urgency of the various protests. (IMO) And I simply can't see how the actual 'science' changes, depending upon the goals or mission of the protesters. I think it would have been smarter to have left it up to mental health professionals, social workers, etc., to make that sort of argument. (BTW, the PH officials I'm referring to come mostly from the field of virology, etc.)
It could be that the about-face galls me more than some, because Mr M and I are such 'news hounds.' As background noise, we consume hours and hours of Cable TV News (via XM)--mostly CNN, approximately 3 hours of MSDNC, and 2 hours of Fox (there so-called hard news programs), daily. Having done so, we've heard thousands of hours of near hysterical reporting, that words can barely describe--for months.
BTW, we're also in a (once purple, but, mostly red) state that's solidly in DT's camp, or was, in 2016. So, Mr M and I have had to fight the perception by the masses here, that COVID-19 was even a valid concern, in the first place. And, it hasn't been pleasant, I assure you.
Before Mr M quit going into any public places, he was looked at'like he had 4 eyes' for wearing a facemask. And, at last count, '4' retails clerks have remarked to him that the entire COVID episode is a sham. And, that included one female AA Walmart clerk, when he was doing a Walmart grocery pickup--she told him that the entire thing (COVID) was concocted. (he thought she looked to be about 20-22 years old)
And, the fact that some of us (including me) weren't wanting to see a premature end to lockdowns, doesn't change the fact the somewhere between 40 and 45 percent of the nation probably looked at the the PH folks' prognostications with great skepticism from the git-go. And, that's important, because if you lose almost half the population, how the heck are we ever going to get this pandemic under control.
I continue to believe that their almost overnight reversal, and proclamations that "it's okay to throw social distancing guidelines out the window, if it's a cause I (some PH officials) support," has done more to harm public health, than to help it. But, maybe I'm wrong. I hope so.
For the most part, Mr M and I will continue to look to the recommendations of the various federal, state, and local government PH officials, since, like both of us were, they're usually much more constrained when it comes to weighing into politics (in carrying out their public jobs).
In fairness, the PH experts that I'm referring to on Cable teevee, mostly come from academia, or the private sector. So, I suppose they operate under different standards than PH officials serving in public/taxpayer-funded positions.
(Regarding Greenwald's views, I do share some of his concern about protecting our civil liberties. There's been a strong push on part of Dem politicians, lately, to censor speech. Worrisome, if not alarming, to me.)
Hey, have a nice weekend.
Mollie
“Revolution is not a one time event.”
~~Audre Lorde
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator
Again, just my two cents.
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
One good thing about Biden
Dude is consistent. If there’s something he’s advocating, choose the opposite and you’ll be on the correct side!
$300 Million more for the cops for what?!? What’s next? Is he going to tell us there were good people on both sides of this issue and maybe they should have kneeled on George Floyd chest, rather than his neck?
Edit to add: it’s also really interesting to me that him talking about this is the closest I’ve heard to a plan for anything out of his mouth aside from take forces and BS like that. Of course, it’s exactly the wrong plan and is incredibly tone deaf. But it’s also interesting that nothing else seems to rouse him but give him a law and order issue to be wrong on and he’s all over it. Sigh.
And the Trump refusing to leave office thing is a liberal boogyman fever dream. At least Trump leaves the conspiracy theories for his tweets.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
as long as the power players milk this
kneel down on somebodies neck
for 8 and some change minutes
wtf does that prove?
we are governed by torturers
who no longer try to fake it
evening dr jc...
when i first saw biden's proposal, i couldn't believe how stupid it was. it is political malpractice of the highest order, demonstrating that biden will have to be dragged along kicking and screaming to make any reasonable change.
it kind of worries me that biden might actually stumble into the white house and people will let up because he's not the bogeyman they are used to. that would be a mistake, pressure needs to continue and escalate before, during and after the election.
re: trump being escorted out of the white house by the military after refusing to accept defeat - biden is just giving voice to a democrat hobgoblin that has been going on for a while and is just using it to dirty up trump before the election and solidify dem opposition.
I think that’s the plan.
They can install Biden and all back to “normal” so everyone can relax. Meanwhile, nothing changes and things continue as they were. But we got old Uncle Joe and his “stutter” and a woman VP so it’s all good.
Also, if like to ask Bernie how he thinks Joe can be pressured to do anything if he takes a look at all going on now and doesn't back down an inch on law and order and even suggests more money for the cops? If what’s going on now won’t influence him, nothing will.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Hey, joe!
I am a huge Galloway fan.
He can reduce huge problems to a few sentences. He can offer his suggestions or solutions quickly and succinctly.
He seems to understand the huge problem in our world of short attention span.
I am on board with selecting those statues of the glorified-until- they-were-outed people to be put in some park for children to study and remember. And not ever repeat the atrocities.
Back in the '80's, I took my Mom on a tour around the US. One of the stops I planned to make was Wounded Knee. I was turned away by either a highway patrolman or some kind of park ranger. I was told I could not go there.
Thinking back, our government has hidden our slavery and genocide behind black out curtains for decades to keep the youth from tv viewing times and internet times from learning about our atrocities.
Anyway, I hadn't thought about how furious I was at that bastard wearing a badge on that day, and that place, for a very long time.
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" was required reading for one of my senior level history classes at college. 15 years after I graduated, finally got the chance to go there, my opportunity to bear witness got buried at Wounded Knee.
Thank you for all you do, joe.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
galloway is a gifted orator, i always enjoy his discussions, too.
heh, i remember reading bury my heart at wounded knee in high school as required reading. i remember a couple of the kids parents making a big fuss about it and pulling their kids out of the class. that made the book even more interesting to the rest of us.
i've been near wounded knee a couple of times, but i've never visited it. i'd like to sometime, though.
One day, by gawd,
I will get there.
Funny how I can walk around Custer's Last Stand and museum, how brave but stupid (and crooked) Custer came to his end, but not Wounded Knee.
Hmmm...
One of my closest friends was Native American. Billy E. Lee. The lawyer on the government (losing) side of Brown vs. Board of Education. I still use old books he gave me before I even got my law license.
I went to Oklahoma City with him to watch an opera. We traveled around to operas here and there, his wife would pack his bag! I am such a threat to marital harmony! Lol!
He took me around NA cemeteries, described his childhood on the reservation, and when he joined the Marines for Korea, it was his first time to be called an apple. Red on the outside, white on the inside, a shameful, hurtful stigma.
Billy was a sniper scout. He made his own bullets. I saw the room in his home dedicated to all thing guns and bullets.
When he had a massive stroke, he got to a pistol, shot himself.
He lived on the reservation, went into the military, worked for government his entire legal career, did what he was told to do. He said, "yes, sir!"
The only chance he had to do what he wanted to do, was put that bullet into his temple and stop the misery.
We had a profound effect on each other's lives. I would not be who I am without his influence.
Cherokees are fucking all that.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
heh...
heh, not only can you get there, if you have $3-4million - you can buy the place. the 40 acre plot that used to hold the wounded knee trading post as well as the massacre site has been for sale for ages by some non-native fellow who wants his pound of flesh for it.
i would imagine that you were turned away from the site because it is private property.
There were some protests and
I was told it would be unsafe, blah blah.
FUCKERS.
I should go there as a potential buyer! Lol! I got the diamonds, I can dress the part! Lol! (My late husband was a jeweler, easy peasy to laden on the diamonds and gold!
I have seen everything I ever wanted to see in the US except Wounded Knee.
Not only have I not cried today, I think TLOML is coming here to stay.
In the meantime, I'm so lonesome, I could die. There's a song to that effect, isn't there?
I am able to turn my attention away from myself and toward the misery of others.
My brother gets asked, "How is Sis?"
He answers, "She is saving the world, one client at a time."
I must get to Wounded Knee before it becomes a golf course.
aay ya haay ya
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
heh...
Seems like I two-stepped to that. A lot.
I had not remembered to "cry" or "die".
I am at the age where "die" is the option! Lol!
My parents loved him, and Artie Shaw.
They would get out on a dance floor, and clear it. Mom had a birth defect, one leg of 4 inches shorter the the other. (I married a paraplegic. Go figure!). Dad had been shot to absolute shit in D-Day. (one lung, one kidney, on intestine, one eye, part of a liver, part of a spleen, I could go on...) They were MAGNIFICENT!
Anyway, I think in a couple of weeks my lonesomeness will forever, and ever, end.
We shall see!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Somewhat following your TLOML narratives, and I wish
you both all the luck in the world.*air_kiss*
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
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Thank you!
I need all the luck I can get!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
This photo I got through Oglala College
in 2011, but I dont remember details anymore. You probably have seen those.
Unfortunately I didn't label them to the point I would know exactly at whom I looked at.