Monthly Archives: April 2020

Tuesday's farce of an election forced upon the people of Wisconsin by an alliance between their states gerrymandered Republican legislature and conservative justices on both the state and United States Supreme Court continues to be the crow on the Capitol as we look towards the November election. (Paul Krugman went to town on the subject in Fridays NYT. Hes not wrong, either.) Most of the ratfcking involved the absentee ballot process, which was a complete fiasco, if not an entirely accidental one. From The New York Times:

Now, the election officials in Milwaukee, which (mysteriously) had the most problems with its absentee ballots, want the U.S. Postal Service to investigate, according to WTMJ-TV.

(Of course, the USPS has its own problems at the moment. And the perpetually circling vultures are unusually close to the ground.)

Youd have to be a newborn from Mars to believe that Wisconsin wasnt a bench test for what the Republicans have planned for the general election in the fall. The propaganda drumbeat against vote-by-mail already has started from the very top. The federal courts are largely in position as a backstop, and the only real solutionswamp the pollsactually could be a life-or-death choice for a great number of citizens. Nice little republic we had. Shame that something happened to it.

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You'd Have to Be a Newborn From Mars Not to See Wisconsin Was a Test Run for November - Esquire

Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform committee aredemandinganswers about the World Health Organizations (WHO) relationship with China amid mounting congressional criticism of its response to the coronavirusoutbreak.

In a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the GOP lawmakers raised concerns thatthe United Nations body failed to prevent China from spreading misinformation that could have helped contain the deadly virus.

Despite the WHOs purported mission to operate as an apolitical international institution within the United Nations, recent media reports suggest that the WHO helped Beijing disseminate propaganda, downplayed the extent of the disease, and possibly delayed ordering a public health emergency, thelawmakers wrote.

The members questioned whether WHO officials were acting in the best interest of countries around the world, accusing the organization of failing to hold China accountable andslamming it for relying on false information from the Chinese government.

Given the actions and statements of WHO officials during the past few months, we are concerned that the WHO is no longer serving the needs of the world and is instead taking its cues from China. Throughout the crisis, the WHO has shied away from placing any blame on the Chinese government, which is, in essence, the Communist Party of China, they continued.

You, as leader of the WHO, even went so far as to praise the Chinese governments transparency during the crisis, when, in fact, the regime has consistently lied to the world by underreporting their actual infection and death statistics.

Members of the Trump administration have accused China of covering upits response to the spreading virus, though the president himself in recent days has touted his relationship with his Chinese counterpart anda recently agreed to trade deal between Washington and Beijing.

Trump has floated cutting off funding for the WHO the U.S. is the organization's largest contributor but the WHO has pushed back, withTedros warning in responsethis week: "If you dont want many more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it."

In their letter Friday, the Republicans pointed to several examples where they said theWHO posted what turned out to be inaccurate information from the Chinese government, including a tweet stating [p]reliminary investigations conducted by Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus."

They also pointed to reports that the WHO delayed declaring the virus a global health emergency amid pressure from China and condemned theorganization for not moving sooner on calling for actions like travel restrictions.

On January 31, 2020, President TrumpDonald John TrumpCalifornia governor praises Trump's efforts to help state amid coronavirus crisis Trump threatens to withhold visas for countries that don't quickly repatriate citizens Trump admin looks to cut farmworker pay to help industry during pandemic: report MORE came under intense criticism when he barred travel from China. A certain politician called the order xenophobi[c]. In comparison to the WHOs inaction, the Presidents actions saved lives, they wrote.

They said they feel its critical that American taxpayers money is allocated to organizations that uniformly serve the interests of nations across the globe and not a communist regime.

The lawmakers called for the WHO to provide documents and information on all of its communications with the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government regarding public health from between August 2019 to now; all documentation and communications on the total number of infections and fatalities caused by COVID-19 in China; and all documentation and communications it had with Taiwan between August to the present time.

The Republicans requested the information by April 16.

More:

House Republicans call on WHO to explain relationship with China | TheHill - The Hill

As coronavirus continued to spread in America, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a bombshell expose titled, EXCLUSIVE: Public given sparse details on deadly outbreak.

Giant healthcare systems based in Atlanta refuse to say how many coronavirus patients theyre treating at their dozens of Georgia hospitals. They wont reveal how many of their front-line workers have gotten sick or even died from the virus, the newspaper noted. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities arent required to post information about outbreaks, and until Friday the state had not been revealing which homes have the most cases, leaving families and advocates in the dark about the conditions inside homes theyre now barred from visiting.

While the governors of New York and Ohio are giving detailed, daily briefings broadcast live, Georgias governor has only given periodic updates to the public. And while Louisiana details the race and underlying health conditions of victims, Georgia is in the dark about the extent of the coronavirus and who may be most affected, given a massive shortage of tests and limited information it receives on victims, the newspaper noted.

The papers reported that the office of Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) has sometimes provided conflicting messages and his briefings have been less frequent than some other governors.

The paper interviewed Dr. Harry J. Heiman, a clinical associate professor at the Georgia State University School of Public Health.

There seems to be a black box and a lack of transparency about whats going on, Dr. Heiman said.

Melanie McNeil, the states long-term care ombudsman, also offered a sad prognosis.

We absolutely are in the dark, she said.

Read the full report.

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Heres how Georgias Republican governor is keeping the state in the dark about the coronavirus crisis - Raw Story

Republicans in America trust President Donald Trump more than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for medical information pertaining to the coronavirus, according to a new poll.

The poll, which was conducted by CBS News, asked 2,025 U.S. residents whom they trusted for specific medical information about the outbreak. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

According to the survey, 80 percent of Republicans trust Trump for coronavirus information, compared with 74 percent naming the CDC as their trusted source. Among Republicans, "medical professionals" scored the highest percentage of trust, at 85 percent.

Of the remaining Republicans, 20 percent said they don't trust Trump, 26 percent said they don't trust the CDC, and 15 percent said they don't trust medical professionals.

These percentages change drastically for Democrats. According to the poll, only 9 percent of Democrats trust Trump for coronavirus information, while 86 percent named the CDC as their trusted source. As with the Republicans, medical professionals scored highest, with 92 percent of Democrats choosing them as their trusted source for coronavirus information.

Of the remaining Democrats, 91 percent said they do not trust Trump for coronavirus information, 14 percent don't trust the CDC, and only 8 percent don't trust medical professionals.

Among Americans overall, regardless of political party affiliation, 86 percent trust medical professionals, 78 percent trust the CDC, and 37 percent trust Trump. On the other hand, the poll also shows that, among Americans overall, 63 percent don't trust Trump for medical information, 22 percent don't trust the CDC, and 14 percent do not trust medical professionals.

The poll also asked American citizens if they felt that Trump was doing a good or bad job in handling the coronavirus outbreak, while showing how these percentages have changed over the past week.

According to the poll, 47 percent of citizens believe Trump is doing a good job handling the outbreak, a 4 point decrease from 51 percent the previous week.

The poll showed a 3-point increase in those saying that Trump was doing a bad job handling the outbreak, from 49 percent the previous week to 52 percent.

These percentages changed drastically when considering political party affiliation. The poll showed that 15 percent of Democrats believe Trump is doing a good job with the pandemic, while 85 percent said he is doing badly.

By comparison, 87 percent of Republicans believe the president is doing a good job handling the outbreak, while 12 percent answered the opposite. The remaining 1 percent was not reported in the poll.

The novel coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19, continues to spread throughout the U.S., which has become the pandemic's epicenter. According to a Johns Hopkins University tracker, the nation has over 486,900 confirmed cases and at least 18,022 deaths.

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Republicans Trust Donald Trump More Than The CDC for Medical Information, Poll Shows - Newsweek

Thinking back to the beginning of the year, the conventional wisdom was that if President Trump survived impeachment, the GOP would probably be able to ride a good economy through the summer and be competitive in the November elections. That was the old world, pre-pandemic.

In the span of a few weeks, more than 13,000 Americans have died from the novel coronavirus and 10 million jobs disappeared. Over the last 12 weeks, what President Trump says and does can no longer be brushed off as Trump being Trump. His reluctance to listen to experts, to honestly relay data, and to attack those who question his wild assertions isnt opera buffa anymore. Its tragedy. People have died because of it. Lives have been ruined.

Yet many incumbent Republicans, seeking to don the political version of PPE, are trying to avoid taking any stances that counter whatever Trump is saying in the momentlet alone criticize him. Instead, they claim that this isnt a time for politics.

If only that was true.

Politicians are managing this crisis, which means that the politics matter now, more than ever. And decrying the existence of politics is, itself, a political gambit. Republicans ought to know this, because the strategy was honed by Senate Majority Leader McConnell.

Podcast April 10 2020

On today's Bulwark Podcast, Windsor Mann joins host Charlie Sykes to discuss the President's response to COVID-19, hypoc...

McConnell, who is up for reelection this year, led the effort when he called on his Democratic opponent, Amy McGrath, to stop running political ads because of the coronavirus. In mid-March McConnells campaign manager said, As Kentuckians adjust their daily lives and schedules to help stem the outbreak, the last thing they need to see on TV is negative political advertising. The McGrath campaign must stop airing all of their advertisements.

McGrath refused, which was sensible, since McConnell has been a silent accomplice in Donald Trumps failure to prepare America for the outbreak. It was also sensible because there was no chance that McConnell wouldnt try to twist the crisis to his own benefit. Which is exactly what he did when he went up with ads depicting himself as being at the center of the battle to rush aid to Americans. The homepage of his campaign website currently features a photo of the senator with the caption Mitch McConnell led the passage of the biggest economic rescue in history.

Is a politician styling himself as the hero of the story and bragging about sending billions of dollars to constituents in an election year every bit as political as another politician criticizing the first guy for standing by while his president created the crisis in the first place?

Lets be on the safe side and say, abso-freaking-lutely. But, maybe now is not the time.

And because McConnell is so relentlessly politicaland dishonest, even by senatorial standardshe blames . . . the Democrats for the pandemic in America. How? Because they distracted him, and the president, with impeachment: He said that concerns about the coronavirus initially came up while we were tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything, every day, was all about impeachment.

Because no one could ever expect the highest levels of American government to walk and chew gum at the same time.

With that, a loose model for navigating the politics of the pandemic was established. And so a trio of the chambers most vulnerable incumbent Republican senatorsMartha McSally, Cory Gardner, and Susan Collinshave followed McConnells strategy. The playbook is simple: (1) Try to shush critics in the name of keeping politics out of this while also (2) Keeping your name in the press with the goodies youre handing out and (3) Blame anybody but Donald Trump for the predicament the country is in.

McSally, who is down in the polls against Democrat Mark Kelly, is following the playbook perfectly. She literally said in a March 20 statement that this is not the time for politics and has said she would stop all political ads and door-to-door campaigning for 30 days. After the $2 trillion stimulus bill passed the Senate, she bragged about pumping billions into the economy and cheered relief is finally on the way!

Which is, of course, totes non-political. Shes just voting to send government money to the citizens of Arizona in an election year.

But when it comes to the question of how America got into this mess? Dont bother asking her about Trump, whom she believes has taken the right steps to protect Americans from the coronavirus.

Also dont ask her about what she said on March 6 about how the coronavirus doesnt mean that everybody needs to stay home, not go to work, not go on spring break, not live their lives. That definitely is too much of a panic reaction that could have negative implications.

Instead, McSally has her sights on China.

She accuses China of a cover-up and blasts the media for parroting Chinese propaganda. Shes even demanded that China pay the United States damages for criminal conduct. Last week she called for the World Health Organization director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to resign because he was too trusting of the figures being reported from China. Ive never trusted a communist, McSally said. And their cover-up of this virus that originated with them has caused unnecessary deaths around America and around the world.

On just about every count, shes right!

The Chinese did cover up the emergence of the coronavirus and their authoritarian duplicity almost certainly did cause the spread to turn into a global pandemic. And the Chinese absolutely should be held to account for their role in this disaster!

But it is a little strange for McSally not to have anything to say about how Donald Trump has trusted and praised the Chinese government from the start and been the most high-profile regurgitator of their propaganda.

If China really is the problem, then doesnt that bother her? Even a little bit?

And then theres the practical side of things: However much China is to blame, its not President Xi whos up for reelection in November. In seven months Americans will have the chance to decide whether or not they believe that our own leadership bears any responsibility for COVID-19.

Given Trumps serial lies and disproven predictionsnot to mention his boosterism of Chinese communists!why does she still trust Trump?

Well never know.

In Maine, Susan Collins is running a more sophisticated variation of the McConnell gambit. She has told the Bangor Daily News that she is not running traditional campaign ads and has replaced them with spots providing constituents with resources for obtaining aid and health care information. Im just not going to engage in political discussions at this point. I dont mean to be difficult, I just dont think its appropriate at a time when we are facing the most serious health crisis since the 1918 Spanish flu. She recently went up with a Thank You ad, in which she expresses her gratitude to healthcare workers, first responders, law-enforcement officials, truck drivers, grocery clerks, and restaurant workers.

Yet when Collins was asked if President Trump bears any responsibility for spreading misinformation, she took credit for advising him to listen to medical experts. This came after cautiously offering that it might be better if Trump would step back and let people such as Dr. Anthony Fauci do the talking at briefings. She said the federal message was inconsistent and I am not satisfied.

And now, she says its all better. On April 2 she said, I think in the beginning, there were times when he was speaking about what he hoped would happen rather than relying on the data and information of his experts. That has changed, and Im glad that it has.

Of course, Trump has not changed.

Since Collinss victory lap, the president advised people to take an untested course of powerful medication in order to treat COVID-19, saying, What do you have to lose?

Also, Trump turned over a large portion of the coronavirus task force to . . . Jared Kushner. One of Kushners first public acts was to declare that the Strategic National Stockpile was the property of the federal government and not intended to be used by states. This was directly at odds with the actual intended use of the Strategic National Stockpile. But Kushner is part of The Family, so the next day the White House had the language describing the purpose of the Strategic National Stockpile on the Department of Health and Human Services website changed to conform to Kushners off-the-cuff mistake.

So maybe Collins is not glad anymore? Tut-tut.

If this whole embarrassing minuet looks familiar, its because back in February Collins claimed that impeachment had taught Trump a pretty big lesson and that because of it he would no longer abuse the Constitution. (Excuse me a moment while I scream into the void.) A few days after voting to acquit Trump, Collins was forced to concede that this belief had been more aspirational than factual.

Perhaps shell make a similar concession should she be defeated in November.

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner actually deserves some praise for how hes handled the situation.

Because unlike McSally, who was downplaying the outbreak in early March, Gardner tried to sound the alarm on COVID-19 early. On January 23you know, back when Mitch McConnell claims that no one could possibly have been expected to pay attention to both impeachment and a potential global pandemicGardner wrote letters to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield inquiring about what efforts were being undertaken to contain the novel coronavirus in China.

He was quiet through the second half of March, but it was for a good reason: He decided to self-quarantine after he met with a constituent who tested positive for COVID-19.

Once he got out, he published an op-ed for Fox News that said, The more we learn about COVID-19 and its origins, the clearer it becomes that much of the death and suffering could have been avoided had the Chinese Communist Party taken this threat more seriously.

But as for those letters he wrote to Pompeo and Dr. Redfield? The Colorado Springs Gazette reportedin a piece that praised Gardner for his foresight on the issuethat he never got a response from the executive branch.

One has to wonder how much death and suffering could have been avoided if the executive branch had taken Gardners warnings more seriously. But one of the strange things about our political moment is that even a guy like Gardner who had his eye on the ball early feels like he cant talk about his foresight, because it might offend Trump.

Thats one of the larger corruptions of Trumpism: Even the people who were right have to pretend not to have been, when Trump is wrong.

There is more than enough blame to go around for this disaster. The Chinese government failed to contain the outbreak. But our officials had the opportunity to protect our citizens. You can blame both the Chinese government and Americas executive branch. Including our president.

The guy came to power promising to build walls, deport millions, and travel ban his way into putting America First. Instead, the worst outbreak in a century happened on his watch, with thousands dead, millions unemployed, and every single one of our lives disrupted in unprecedented ways.

No one needs a playbook to figure out the politics of that argument. The truth is really darn easy for people to figure out.

The rest is here:

The Republican Pandemic Playbook - The Bulwark

In the federal system, which holds roughly 174,000 people across the country, at least 481 inmates and prison workers have tested positive for the virus, according to New York Times tracking data, and at least nine federal inmates have died, mainly in Louisiana. The Times has spoken with dozens of workers and inmates who say the federal Bureau of Prisons was ill-prepared for the outbreak.

On Friday, the director of the federal prison system defended his agencys response in an interview on CNN, saying the pandemic was an overwhelming challenge that no one expected. I dont think anybody was ready for this Covid, so were dealing with it just as well as anybody else, and Id be proud to say were doing pretty good, said Michael Carvajal, who took over as the head of the Bureau of Prisons less than two months ago.

Six of the federal prisoners who died were being held in Oakdale, La., where nearly 1,000 people are incarcerated, and where there have been reports of a revolt among inmates.

Attorney General William P. Barr last week ordered the Bureau of Prisons to release more people from federal custody and to focus on three prisons that have been hardest hit by the coronavirus, including the Federal Correctional Institution Oakdale.

State prisons and jails, which hold the vast majority of the people incarcerated in America, have also faced unrest in recent days. More than 100 men at a Washington State prison demonstrated in response to positive tests at the facility. Police officers fired pepper spray and sting balls, which eject rubber pellets, to quell the demonstration. In Kansas, inmates at the Lansing Correctional Facility, where at least 28 people have tested positive, set small fires and broke windows in a demonstration that lasted for nearly 12 hours. Two inmates suffered injuries.

And in Pennsylvania, families of inmates at the Franklin County jail told The PA Post, a local news website, that the inmates were staging a hunger strike.

Immigrants held at the Otay Mesa detention center in San Diego, Calif., said in phone calls recorded by their lawyers that guards had pepper-sprayed them on Friday after they demanded masks and began to make their own out of clothing and plastic bags. They also said they were asked to sign liability waivers absolving CoreCivic, the private prison company that operates the facility, from responsibility for any coronavirus-related illnesses.

Excerpt from:

Coronavirus Live Updates: U.S. Surpasses Italy in Total Number of Confirmed Deaths - The New York Times

Gearing up for this falls elections, the Republican Party of Florida raised $2.467 million in cash during the first three months of the year, according to a newly filed finance report.

Fundraising appeared to slow in March as the novel coronavirus hammered the state, with the party pulling in about $364,000 during the month.

Large contributions during the quarter included $175,000 from Duke Energy; $100,000 from Leon Medical Centers in Miami-Dade County; $100,000 from the road-building firm Anderson Columbia Co., Inc.; $50,000 from the tobacco company RAI Services Co.; and $50,000 from the Anheuser-Busch beer company.

In addition to the cash contributions, the party also received a $122,000 in-kind contribution of lodging, food and beverages from Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, the filing shows. All state political candidates, committees and parties face a Friday night deadline for filing reports showing finance activity through March 31.

The Florida Democratic Partys report had not been posted to the state Division of Elections website as of Friday morning.

_Please follow CDC guidelines and Orange County advisories to stay safe, and please support this free publication. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you news on how coronavirus is affecting Central Florida. Please consider making a one-time or monthly donation. Every little bit helps.

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Florida Republicans raised nearly $2.5 million so far this year, thanks to Duke Energy, Anheuser-Busch and Disney - Orlando Weekly