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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
April 9, 2020
The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
4/08/2020
Random Observations on the End of the Democratic Primaries
1. I gotta be honest with you. I never really got over Elizabeth Warren's drubbing once voting started. She was, to these weary eyes and ears, clearly the best fucking candidate in the field, intellectually head and shoulders above everyone else, with an understanding of how to take apart an opponent and how to make a deal and when those things are appropriate. Yeah, I'm still pissed off that I never got to vote for her. And I'm pissed that I didn't get to vote for Bernie Sanders this time, as I did in 2016, now that Sanders has suspended his campaign. But Warren got a raw ass deal from the media, which erased her repeatedly after her brief momentum slowed. However...
2. My causes, the things I have been fighting for over the decades like universal health care, civil rights for people who have been traditionally oppressed, environmentalism and climate change (seriously, I wrote a letter to Gerald Ford asking him to make recycling into national policy when I was like 8), and so much more, that shit, all of it, do not fade when my preferred candidate is out of the picture. Otherwise, why have beliefs if I'll allow everything I love to be further harmed because I didn't get Jesse Jackson or Jerry Brown or John Edwards ('04, not '08) or Elizabeth Warren or, you know, Bernie Sanders? That's not how it works. Most of the time, you hit the bar and you end up heading home not with Mr. Perfect, but with Mr. Ok, Fine, but that doesn't mean the sex can't be a blast. You just gotta give up the ideal fuck for the fuck you get to have. Or you're just never gonna get laid.
snip//
4. The job of progressives now is to influence Biden as much as possible, to get progressive candidates elected to the House and Senate, to get progressive governors and state legislatures and motherfuckin' school boards into office. You wanna make all this shit happen? Then you have to build it into the political fabric of the nation, not just in the White House. Republicans spent the last forty years making everyone believe that they had to kowtow to the religious right and nutzoid conservatives. That's the narrative that runs the nation: What Republicans and the right want is American; what Democrats and the left want isn't. It's the narrative that has to be overcome every fucking time a Democrat runs for president. Bill Clinton overcame it by taking Republican issues as his own. Obama did it by sheer force of personality and then by being pretty damn good at his job (as well as running against the poisonous W. Bush legacy both times). I've written for years about how Democrats, especially ones that have any progressive inclinations, need to create a new narrative, one that says the United States is the inclusive, liberatory place we've believe it could be, even if it fails sometimes to live up that ideal. You have to get that narrative into the political DNA of the country, and the way you do that is by embedding it at the local level, as well as the national.
5. Look, I could be a dick about this (I have been and I probably will be again, but, hey, this is the mood I'm in now) and say that if you're a Sanders voter who refuses to vote for Biden, you're giving the election to Trump and all that that means, especially when it comes to the Supreme Court. Instead, let me put it another way: Trump and his administration and his voters just fucking suck. They are just fucking terrible human beings who are actively harming people in the USA, who are accelerating climate change, who are savagely anti-immigrant, who want to get rid of women's rights and LGBTQ rights and civil rights, who have no problem with the country becoming a white nationalist Christian theocracy, who love guns and hate things like food inspections, who are corporatists at a level that would make even the most craven corporate teat-sucking Democrat look like an amateur, and who hate you, like hate you for existing and hate everything you stand for and would probably like to arrest you, eject you from the country, send you to a Trump reeducation camp or worse. Don't you wanna fuck up their world? I do. Very, very badly. I want their world shattered. The way to start to do that is to get rid of Trump. That's why I will have no problem voting for Biden. It's a step away from this path of damnation. I'll do it without any hesitation. You should, too. However...
5a. If you're a Sanders voter who now says they'll vote for Trump, you never supported Sanders's causes. You're just a fucking twatcrab who gets off on seeing things fucked up. Fuck off all the way out of here.
The Rude Pundit: Random Observations on the End of the Democratic Primaries
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2020/04/random-observations-on-end-of.htmlThe Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
4/08/2020
Random Observations on the End of the Democratic Primaries
1. I gotta be honest with you. I never really got over Elizabeth Warren's drubbing once voting started. She was, to these weary eyes and ears, clearly the best fucking candidate in the field, intellectually head and shoulders above everyone else, with an understanding of how to take apart an opponent and how to make a deal and when those things are appropriate. Yeah, I'm still pissed off that I never got to vote for her. And I'm pissed that I didn't get to vote for Bernie Sanders this time, as I did in 2016, now that Sanders has suspended his campaign. But Warren got a raw ass deal from the media, which erased her repeatedly after her brief momentum slowed. However...
2. My causes, the things I have been fighting for over the decades like universal health care, civil rights for people who have been traditionally oppressed, environmentalism and climate change (seriously, I wrote a letter to Gerald Ford asking him to make recycling into national policy when I was like 8), and so much more, that shit, all of it, do not fade when my preferred candidate is out of the picture. Otherwise, why have beliefs if I'll allow everything I love to be further harmed because I didn't get Jesse Jackson or Jerry Brown or John Edwards ('04, not '08) or Elizabeth Warren or, you know, Bernie Sanders? That's not how it works. Most of the time, you hit the bar and you end up heading home not with Mr. Perfect, but with Mr. Ok, Fine, but that doesn't mean the sex can't be a blast. You just gotta give up the ideal fuck for the fuck you get to have. Or you're just never gonna get laid.
snip//
4. The job of progressives now is to influence Biden as much as possible, to get progressive candidates elected to the House and Senate, to get progressive governors and state legislatures and motherfuckin' school boards into office. You wanna make all this shit happen? Then you have to build it into the political fabric of the nation, not just in the White House. Republicans spent the last forty years making everyone believe that they had to kowtow to the religious right and nutzoid conservatives. That's the narrative that runs the nation: What Republicans and the right want is American; what Democrats and the left want isn't. It's the narrative that has to be overcome every fucking time a Democrat runs for president. Bill Clinton overcame it by taking Republican issues as his own. Obama did it by sheer force of personality and then by being pretty damn good at his job (as well as running against the poisonous W. Bush legacy both times). I've written for years about how Democrats, especially ones that have any progressive inclinations, need to create a new narrative, one that says the United States is the inclusive, liberatory place we've believe it could be, even if it fails sometimes to live up that ideal. You have to get that narrative into the political DNA of the country, and the way you do that is by embedding it at the local level, as well as the national.
5. Look, I could be a dick about this (I have been and I probably will be again, but, hey, this is the mood I'm in now) and say that if you're a Sanders voter who refuses to vote for Biden, you're giving the election to Trump and all that that means, especially when it comes to the Supreme Court. Instead, let me put it another way: Trump and his administration and his voters just fucking suck. They are just fucking terrible human beings who are actively harming people in the USA, who are accelerating climate change, who are savagely anti-immigrant, who want to get rid of women's rights and LGBTQ rights and civil rights, who have no problem with the country becoming a white nationalist Christian theocracy, who love guns and hate things like food inspections, who are corporatists at a level that would make even the most craven corporate teat-sucking Democrat look like an amateur, and who hate you, like hate you for existing and hate everything you stand for and would probably like to arrest you, eject you from the country, send you to a Trump reeducation camp or worse. Don't you wanna fuck up their world? I do. Very, very badly. I want their world shattered. The way to start to do that is to get rid of Trump. That's why I will have no problem voting for Biden. It's a step away from this path of damnation. I'll do it without any hesitation. You should, too. However...
5a. If you're a Sanders voter who now says they'll vote for Trump, you never supported Sanders's causes. You're just a fucking twatcrab who gets off on seeing things fucked up. Fuck off all the way out of here.
April 9, 2020
I'm a Doctor Recovering From COVID-19. I Can't Get Over the Government's Callousness for Human Life
By Dr. Laura Mulvey
March 30, 2020
Dr. Laura Mulvey, 33, practices emergency medicine at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. After spending six days receiving treatment in her own hospital, she is now recovering at home from what is presumed to be COVID-19, though her test was inconclusive. What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of her story as told to TIME.
snip//
We realized that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for testing were missing the mark. Early on, when we had people coming in concerned that they had coronavirus, they had to have a fever, and a cough, and have traveled from Wuhan. If you’re testing for that, the likelihood that they have COVID is close to 100%. By those guidelines, we were incapable of testing. Nobody had the tests. You had to call the Department of Health to get permission to send a swab. Early on, you’re crippled by your public health response.
snip//
The virus is impacting a subset of people who are infected, but the aftershocks of this are going to be felt in a lot of different areas. The sort of emotional, psychological toll on health care workers will probably lead to people leaving medicine. This idea that — I can’t really adequately say it — that people are dispensable. The government thinks that we can go to work without proper PPE and put our lives at risk. That’s something you can’t really get over — this kind of callousness for human life. I think they should have been trying harder months ago. And there are going to be people who miss their mammograms and get breast cancer. Or they have chest pain and they don’t want to go to the hospital, because they don’t want to get COVID.
They should have identified this early on as a threat to public health and safety and diverted resources toward this. If that had been done, this would have been far less of an issue. It’s every hospital fending for themselves, because the public health organizations are not providing adequate input and assistance. It’s really the role of public health instead of hospitals to identify and quell threats. Hospitals are great at treating diseases, managing your heart disease and your appendicitis. But we’re not public health organizations and we need them to step up.
— As told to Tara Law
I'm a Doctor Recovering From COVID-19. I Can't Get Over the Government's Callousness for Human Life
https://time.com/5812495/doctor-covid-19-coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR3xrIXe7bAjwItaIPg2RAHOb5xQoxoJ7jfX0eOnqZUle6tcey9F0ZS7BfAI'm a Doctor Recovering From COVID-19. I Can't Get Over the Government's Callousness for Human Life
By Dr. Laura Mulvey
March 30, 2020
Dr. Laura Mulvey, 33, practices emergency medicine at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. After spending six days receiving treatment in her own hospital, she is now recovering at home from what is presumed to be COVID-19, though her test was inconclusive. What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of her story as told to TIME.
snip//
We realized that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for testing were missing the mark. Early on, when we had people coming in concerned that they had coronavirus, they had to have a fever, and a cough, and have traveled from Wuhan. If you’re testing for that, the likelihood that they have COVID is close to 100%. By those guidelines, we were incapable of testing. Nobody had the tests. You had to call the Department of Health to get permission to send a swab. Early on, you’re crippled by your public health response.
snip//
The virus is impacting a subset of people who are infected, but the aftershocks of this are going to be felt in a lot of different areas. The sort of emotional, psychological toll on health care workers will probably lead to people leaving medicine. This idea that — I can’t really adequately say it — that people are dispensable. The government thinks that we can go to work without proper PPE and put our lives at risk. That’s something you can’t really get over — this kind of callousness for human life. I think they should have been trying harder months ago. And there are going to be people who miss their mammograms and get breast cancer. Or they have chest pain and they don’t want to go to the hospital, because they don’t want to get COVID.
They should have identified this early on as a threat to public health and safety and diverted resources toward this. If that had been done, this would have been far less of an issue. It’s every hospital fending for themselves, because the public health organizations are not providing adequate input and assistance. It’s really the role of public health instead of hospitals to identify and quell threats. Hospitals are great at treating diseases, managing your heart disease and your appendicitis. But we’re not public health organizations and we need them to step up.
— As told to Tara Law
April 9, 2020
‘Never Seen Anything Like It’: Cars Line Up for Miles at Food Banks
Millions are flooding a charitable system that was never intended to handle a nationwide crisis.
By Nicholas Kulish
April 8, 2020
In Omaha, a food pantry that typically serves as few as 100 people saw 900 show up on a single day. In Jonesboro, Ark., after a powerful tornado struck, a food bank received less than half the donations it expected because nervous families held on to what they had. And in Washington State and Louisiana, the National Guard has been called in to help pack food boxes and ensure that the distributions run smoothly.
Demand for food assistance is rising at an extraordinary rate, just as the nation’s food banks are being struck by shortages of both donated food and volunteer workers.
Uniformed guardsmen help “take the edge off” at increasingly tense distributions of boxes filled with cans of chicken noodle soup, tuna fish, and pork and beans, said Mike Manning, the chief executive at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. “Their presence provides safety for us during distributions.”
Mr. Manning, who has worked at the food bank for 16 years, including through Hurricane Katrina, said that he had never witnessed such a combination of need, scarcity and anxiety. “‘Crazy’ pretty much sums it up,” he said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning research organization in Washington, D.C. She has studied food security for more than a quarter century. “People love the phrase ‘the perfect storm,’” she added, “but nothing is built for this.”
Feeding America, the nation’s largest network of food banks, with more than 200 affiliates, has projected a $1.4 billion shortfall in the next six months alone. Last week, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced that he was donating $100 million to the group — the largest single donation in its history, but still less than a tenth of what it needs.
more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/economy/coronavirus-food-banks.html
'Never Seen Anything Like It': Cars Line Up for Miles at Food Banks
‘Never Seen Anything Like It’: Cars Line Up for Miles at Food Banks
Millions are flooding a charitable system that was never intended to handle a nationwide crisis.
By Nicholas Kulish
April 8, 2020
In Omaha, a food pantry that typically serves as few as 100 people saw 900 show up on a single day. In Jonesboro, Ark., after a powerful tornado struck, a food bank received less than half the donations it expected because nervous families held on to what they had. And in Washington State and Louisiana, the National Guard has been called in to help pack food boxes and ensure that the distributions run smoothly.
Demand for food assistance is rising at an extraordinary rate, just as the nation’s food banks are being struck by shortages of both donated food and volunteer workers.
Uniformed guardsmen help “take the edge off” at increasingly tense distributions of boxes filled with cans of chicken noodle soup, tuna fish, and pork and beans, said Mike Manning, the chief executive at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. “Their presence provides safety for us during distributions.”
Mr. Manning, who has worked at the food bank for 16 years, including through Hurricane Katrina, said that he had never witnessed such a combination of need, scarcity and anxiety. “‘Crazy’ pretty much sums it up,” he said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning research organization in Washington, D.C. She has studied food security for more than a quarter century. “People love the phrase ‘the perfect storm,’” she added, “but nothing is built for this.”
Feeding America, the nation’s largest network of food banks, with more than 200 affiliates, has projected a $1.4 billion shortfall in the next six months alone. Last week, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced that he was donating $100 million to the group — the largest single donation in its history, but still less than a tenth of what it needs.
more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/economy/coronavirus-food-banks.html
April 9, 2020
Surprise! Trump Hotels 'Qualify' For Coronavirus Bailout
4/08/20 12:57pm
Read time: 7 minutes
Surprise! Trump Hotels 'Qualify' For Coronavirus Bailout
The bailout package includes some suspicious language benefitting the grifter-in-chief.
By ProPublica
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
snip//
The president has said it’s not clear to him even how his company could benefit.
“I mean, I just don’t know what the government assistance would be for what I have,” he said in a recent White House briefing.
We had the same question: What are the ways the Trump Organization could benefit from the bailout?
So we’ve dug into it.
First, at least four of Trump’s hotels each seem to qualify for a separate, forgivable loan…
The bailout has a huge loan program to help many businesses with payroll and other costs. While it’s only open to smaller companies, there’s a carveout for hotels: As The New York Times reported, the law says individual hotels can each qualify for separate loans, even if they’re all owned by a single company, so long as the hotel itself has 500 or fewer employees.
The provision was pushed by a hotel industry group, which argued it was needed for 33,000 hotels to qualify for the bailout. The group, of which some Trump hotels are members, organized a meeting between hotel CEOs and Vice President Mike Pence in mid-March to discuss the industry’s struggles and ask for help.
Each small business — and each hotel — can qualify for up to $10 million in loans, depending on payroll costs. The loans can then be forgiven if the money is used to cover payrolls and other ongoing expenses.
Four Trump hotels appear to qualify: two that Trump owns and two that his company manages.
more...
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/04/surprise-trump-hotels-qualify-coronavirus
April 8, 2020
After US President Donald Trump threatened to cut US funding to the World Health Organization on Tuesday, accusing the agency of being too "China-centric," the agency's director-general responded with an impassioned plea for leaders around the world to "quarantine COVID politics" during this outbreak.
The coronavirus has killed more than 85,000 people worldwide so far, including more than 12,000 in the US, where experts expect this week may be one of the deadliest, and most devastating nationwide.
more...
https://www.businessinsider.com/who-says-quarantine-coronavirus-politics-after-trump-threatens-to-defund-2020-4?amp&fbclid=IwAR2SfWjTtUKgCVidu6Gi87VE3EjgkWIioGFTQOZTI6vgzrAP1GzW7OqMrQI
The WHO tells leaders to stop politicizing the coronavirus pandemic 'if you don't want more body bag
The WHO tells leaders to stop politicizing the coronavirus pandemic 'if you don't want more body bags' after Trump threatened to freeze funds to the agency
Hilary Brueck Apr 8, 2020, 2:16 PM
After US President Donald Trump threatened to cut US funding to the World Health Organization on Tuesday, the agency responded with a plea for leaders around the world to "quarantine COVID politics" during this outbreak.
The US provides the largest share of the WHO's budget.
Trump had accused the agency of a pro-China stance, but in unusually impassioned remarks, the agency's director-general made a plea for more unity during the COVID-19 outbreak.
"The United States and China should come together and fight this dangerous enemy," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "Anything that starts in one place affects the whole world. We can not live in our nation-state boundaries."
The US provides the largest share of the WHO's budget.
Trump had accused the agency of a pro-China stance, but in unusually impassioned remarks, the agency's director-general made a plea for more unity during the COVID-19 outbreak.
"The United States and China should come together and fight this dangerous enemy," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "Anything that starts in one place affects the whole world. We can not live in our nation-state boundaries."
After US President Donald Trump threatened to cut US funding to the World Health Organization on Tuesday, accusing the agency of being too "China-centric," the agency's director-general responded with an impassioned plea for leaders around the world to "quarantine COVID politics" during this outbreak.
"No need to use COVID to score political points, no need," WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a question-and-answer session with reporters on Wednesday. "You have many other ways to prove yourselves. This is not the one to use for politics. It's like playing with fire."
The coronavirus has killed more than 85,000 people worldwide so far, including more than 12,000 in the US, where experts expect this week may be one of the deadliest, and most devastating nationwide.
"The focus of all political parties should be to save their people," Tedros said. "If you don't want many more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it."
more...
https://www.businessinsider.com/who-says-quarantine-coronavirus-politics-after-trump-threatens-to-defund-2020-4?amp&fbclid=IwAR2SfWjTtUKgCVidu6Gi87VE3EjgkWIioGFTQOZTI6vgzrAP1GzW7OqMrQI
April 8, 2020
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2574290199342867&set=a.121865277918717&type=3&theater
Aleixandrea Macias
6 April ·
A nurse in Florida...
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2574290199342867&set=a.121865277918717&type=3&theater
Aleixandrea Macias
6 April ·
I haven't posted a true update in days because I could not find anything positive to say. I tried since Thursday to change my perspective and be a ray of light in this dark time, but I just keep being beat down. I have never seen anything like this before, never taken care of someone that is so healthy but at the same time so deathly sick. I've been working in a makeshift ICU for days now because there were no other nurses to staff the area. There are not enough staff even though we get new people daily, not enough experienced staff (because who on earth can be experienced for this level of sick?!), not enough supplies.
I can't count the times I have heard "well we could try and do this but we don't have this". I'm not an ICU nurse at all, but neither is hardly anyone else working these units now. I've told Julio Macias 2 days in a row that I want to come home. But he talks me back off the edge each time because he knows how much I would regret leaving because at this point anybody at all helps. So I'm still here. Day 11 is done.
Of course we can't share patient info, but being in an ICU setting I am keeping my same patients day after day until they die. No one has left our unit yet except in a body bag. I've struggled to find my purpose being here, but strangely enough Julio knew why before I ever did. I have been translating Spanish for days for these people, in my own broken Spanish because anything is better than them understanding nothing. I've seen patients arrive on our unit not yet sedated or vented but in extreme respiratory distress and beyond frightened. I have explained what COVID is doing to their body, what the risks are of being intubated vs not, and I have listened as these people have called their family members for the very last time prior to being intubated. If I can leave here with anything at all, I can know that I helped give them those last moments with their family.
After they are sedated, their personal belongings are still there. Their phones still ring. That's the worst is listening to the phones ring knowing someone is calling and praying they will answer just one more time. These people are not old. They are young. Many with no medical problems. Strong people, physically fit. One who even worked 5 jobs at a time until Covid ravaged his body. This virus kills people. They all die at some point, it's just been a game of seeing how long we can keep them half alive. I feel like our efforts are futile, but I still try so hard and get so upset because I know that if it were Julio or anyone in my family laying there I would want the same done.
When their bodies finally give up fighting, we place them in a body bag. I've seen hundreds of people die as a nurse, but they are usually surrounded with loved ones or we give family time to see them to say their goodbyes. Not with COVID. There is no closure for anyone in this. I can't explain to you how bad this hurts, how real this is, and how afraid I am knowing that it could get like this in my own hometowns. I can't make you guys do anything, but I am literally begging you to listen to us healthcare workers and take this seriously. My heart hurts so bad tonight for these families who have lost people entirely too soon, for those who are sick and absolutely terrified, and for all of us who will surely have some form of PTSD after this is over.
I can't count the times I have heard "well we could try and do this but we don't have this". I'm not an ICU nurse at all, but neither is hardly anyone else working these units now. I've told Julio Macias 2 days in a row that I want to come home. But he talks me back off the edge each time because he knows how much I would regret leaving because at this point anybody at all helps. So I'm still here. Day 11 is done.
Of course we can't share patient info, but being in an ICU setting I am keeping my same patients day after day until they die. No one has left our unit yet except in a body bag. I've struggled to find my purpose being here, but strangely enough Julio knew why before I ever did. I have been translating Spanish for days for these people, in my own broken Spanish because anything is better than them understanding nothing. I've seen patients arrive on our unit not yet sedated or vented but in extreme respiratory distress and beyond frightened. I have explained what COVID is doing to their body, what the risks are of being intubated vs not, and I have listened as these people have called their family members for the very last time prior to being intubated. If I can leave here with anything at all, I can know that I helped give them those last moments with their family.
After they are sedated, their personal belongings are still there. Their phones still ring. That's the worst is listening to the phones ring knowing someone is calling and praying they will answer just one more time. These people are not old. They are young. Many with no medical problems. Strong people, physically fit. One who even worked 5 jobs at a time until Covid ravaged his body. This virus kills people. They all die at some point, it's just been a game of seeing how long we can keep them half alive. I feel like our efforts are futile, but I still try so hard and get so upset because I know that if it were Julio or anyone in my family laying there I would want the same done.
When their bodies finally give up fighting, we place them in a body bag. I've seen hundreds of people die as a nurse, but they are usually surrounded with loved ones or we give family time to see them to say their goodbyes. Not with COVID. There is no closure for anyone in this. I can't explain to you how bad this hurts, how real this is, and how afraid I am knowing that it could get like this in my own hometowns. I can't make you guys do anything, but I am literally begging you to listen to us healthcare workers and take this seriously. My heart hurts so bad tonight for these families who have lost people entirely too soon, for those who are sick and absolutely terrified, and for all of us who will surely have some form of PTSD after this is over.
April 8, 2020
This nurse is treating the sickest coronavirus patients. Trump still wants to deport him.
He’s one of thousands of DACA recipients who could imminently lose their status.
By Nicole Narea@nicolenarea Apr 8, 2020, 8:00am EDT
As a registered nurse treating coronavirus patients in a northern New Jersey ICU, Daniel spends his days working with some of the sickest patients in a coronavirus hot spot. His hospital, like many, doesn’t have enough masks, gloves, and gowns for all of its employees, and his colleagues are getting sick. He’s terrified of infecting his parents, who live with him in a small apartment.
There’s also another constant worry: Depending on how the Supreme Court rules in an immigration case in the coming months, he could lose his ability to work in the United States and become vulnerable to deportation.
Originally from Korea, Daniel, 32, is one of more than 700,000 DREAMers — immigrants who came to the US without authorization as children. The only reason he can contribute to the coronavirus response at all is because of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has protected him from deportation and allowed him to study and work in the US since it was created in 2012.
President Donald Trump, who has claimed that many DACA recipients are “far from angels,” is fighting to dismantle the program before the Supreme Court, which will issue its decision before the term ends in June. If the justices rule in Trump’s favor, the administration has been clear that not only will it end the program, but DACA recipients, once their protections expire, will be eligible for deportation, just like any other unauthorized immigrant. Immigrant rights advocates have consequently pleaded with the justices to at least delay their decision amid the coronavirus crisis.
more...
https://www.vox.com/2020/4/8/21204310/daca-dreamer-coronavirus-immigrant-nurse-new-jersey
This nurse is treating the sickest coronavirus patients. Trump still wants to deport him.
This nurse is treating the sickest coronavirus patients. Trump still wants to deport him.
He’s one of thousands of DACA recipients who could imminently lose their status.
By Nicole Narea@nicolenarea Apr 8, 2020, 8:00am EDT
As a registered nurse treating coronavirus patients in a northern New Jersey ICU, Daniel spends his days working with some of the sickest patients in a coronavirus hot spot. His hospital, like many, doesn’t have enough masks, gloves, and gowns for all of its employees, and his colleagues are getting sick. He’s terrified of infecting his parents, who live with him in a small apartment.
There’s also another constant worry: Depending on how the Supreme Court rules in an immigration case in the coming months, he could lose his ability to work in the United States and become vulnerable to deportation.
Originally from Korea, Daniel, 32, is one of more than 700,000 DREAMers — immigrants who came to the US without authorization as children. The only reason he can contribute to the coronavirus response at all is because of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has protected him from deportation and allowed him to study and work in the US since it was created in 2012.
President Donald Trump, who has claimed that many DACA recipients are “far from angels,” is fighting to dismantle the program before the Supreme Court, which will issue its decision before the term ends in June. If the justices rule in Trump’s favor, the administration has been clear that not only will it end the program, but DACA recipients, once their protections expire, will be eligible for deportation, just like any other unauthorized immigrant. Immigrant rights advocates have consequently pleaded with the justices to at least delay their decision amid the coronavirus crisis.
more...
https://www.vox.com/2020/4/8/21204310/daca-dreamer-coronavirus-immigrant-nurse-new-jersey
April 8, 2020
America last: Rep. Porter has receipts showing Trump chose a quick buck over American lives
Walter Einenkel
Daily Kos Staff
Wednesday April 08, 2020 · 12:04 PM EDT
Rep. Katie Porter has been all business since being elected to office. Today, Rep. Porter released a report showing that in spite of growing concerns and warnings about the potential oncoming pandemic threat of the COVID-19 virus from top officials and experts, Donald Trump not only did nothing about it, he allowed ramped up exportation of much-needed medical supplies. The report, titled “EVERYONE BUT US,” charges Donald Trump with misapplying and mismanaging our nation’s medical supplies in the months leading up to our current crisis.
Rep. Porter, like many Democratic officials, has long pleaded with Trump to use the powers afforded him under the Defense Production Act (DPA) to ramp up production and supply chains for much-needed medical supplies. These essential medical supplies were needed weeks ago at the front lines of the battle to save lives. Trump has instead been stingy in his application of the DPA, trying to gaslight away the death count under his watch.
But while Trump’s incompetence and criminal negligence has been well covered, Porter’s team has analyzed “previously unreported government trade data” that paints an even darker picture of how complicit in our country’s misery Donald Trump is. According to the report, the United States was not simply ill-prepared for the coming pandemic—they were actively making big money depleting our medical resources, making us even less prepared: “The value of U.S. ventilator exports jumped 22.7% percent from January to February.”
And it wasn’t only ventilators. Porter says her team “found that in February 2020, the value of U.S. mask exports to China was 1,094% higher than the 2019 monthly average.” Think about that every time you read a pick-me-up story of some designer creating PPE masks for ER staff, or some grade-school kid donating their mask. And to be clear, during this same time the U.S. imported fewer PPE and cleaning supplies, as well as fewer ventilators.
It is clear that one of the fundamental tragic flaws of conservatism in America is how shortsighted its greed for money and power is. By not being more serious in January and February, and even in March, the Trump administration and the Republican power apparatus in general has worsened the economic problems we now face, and will continue to face in the not so distant future. What this report shows is that this short-sightedness is pathological in nature, like a fish with a seven-second memory, wondering why it keeps getting hooked in the mouth every time a worm miraculously appears from the sky.
America last: Rep. Porter has receipts showing Trump chose a quick buck over American lives
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/8/1935508/-America-last-Rep-Porter-has-receipts-showing-Trump-chose-a-quick-buck-over-American-livesAmerica last: Rep. Porter has receipts showing Trump chose a quick buck over American lives
Walter Einenkel
Daily Kos Staff
Wednesday April 08, 2020 · 12:04 PM EDT
Rep. Katie Porter has been all business since being elected to office. Today, Rep. Porter released a report showing that in spite of growing concerns and warnings about the potential oncoming pandemic threat of the COVID-19 virus from top officials and experts, Donald Trump not only did nothing about it, he allowed ramped up exportation of much-needed medical supplies. The report, titled “EVERYONE BUT US,” charges Donald Trump with misapplying and mismanaging our nation’s medical supplies in the months leading up to our current crisis.
Rep. Porter, like many Democratic officials, has long pleaded with Trump to use the powers afforded him under the Defense Production Act (DPA) to ramp up production and supply chains for much-needed medical supplies. These essential medical supplies were needed weeks ago at the front lines of the battle to save lives. Trump has instead been stingy in his application of the DPA, trying to gaslight away the death count under his watch.
But while Trump’s incompetence and criminal negligence has been well covered, Porter’s team has analyzed “previously unreported government trade data” that paints an even darker picture of how complicit in our country’s misery Donald Trump is. According to the report, the United States was not simply ill-prepared for the coming pandemic—they were actively making big money depleting our medical resources, making us even less prepared: “The value of U.S. ventilator exports jumped 22.7% percent from January to February.”
And it wasn’t only ventilators. Porter says her team “found that in February 2020, the value of U.S. mask exports to China was 1,094% higher than the 2019 monthly average.” Think about that every time you read a pick-me-up story of some designer creating PPE masks for ER staff, or some grade-school kid donating their mask. And to be clear, during this same time the U.S. imported fewer PPE and cleaning supplies, as well as fewer ventilators.
It is clear that one of the fundamental tragic flaws of conservatism in America is how shortsighted its greed for money and power is. By not being more serious in January and February, and even in March, the Trump administration and the Republican power apparatus in general has worsened the economic problems we now face, and will continue to face in the not so distant future. What this report shows is that this short-sightedness is pathological in nature, like a fish with a seven-second memory, wondering why it keeps getting hooked in the mouth every time a worm miraculously appears from the sky.
April 8, 2020
Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources
"Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event," a source says.
By Josh Margolin and James Gordon Meek
April 8, 2020, 4:01 AM
As far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population, according to four sources briefed on the secret reporting.
Concerns about what is now known to be the novel coronavirus pandemic were detailed in a November intelligence report by the military's National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), according to two officials familiar with the document’s contents.
The report was the result of analysis of wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images. It raised alarms because an out-of-control disease would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia -- forces that depend on the NCMI’s work. And it paints a picture of an American government that could have ramped up mitigation and containment efforts far earlier to prepare for a crisis poised to come home.
From that warning in November, the sources described repeated briefings through December for policy-makers and decision-makers across the federal government as well as the National Security Council at the White House. All of that culminated with a detailed explanation of the problem that appeared in the President’s Daily Brief of intelligence matters in early January, the sources said. For something to have appeared in the PDB, it would have had to go through weeks of vetting and analysis, according to people who have worked on presidential briefings in both Republican and Democratic administrations.
more...
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/intelligence-report-warned-coronavirus-crisis-early-november-sources/story?id=70031273&fbclid=IwAR2R_0qvMse9ilJB2yH7Nn7F2Bt0NmfvcGVt6NKn064mDB1sXgz5Tl6VMP0
Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources
Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources
"Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event," a source says.
By Josh Margolin and James Gordon Meek
April 8, 2020, 4:01 AM
As far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population, according to four sources briefed on the secret reporting.
Concerns about what is now known to be the novel coronavirus pandemic were detailed in a November intelligence report by the military's National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), according to two officials familiar with the document’s contents.
The report was the result of analysis of wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images. It raised alarms because an out-of-control disease would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia -- forces that depend on the NCMI’s work. And it paints a picture of an American government that could have ramped up mitigation and containment efforts far earlier to prepare for a crisis poised to come home.
"Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event," one of the sources said of the NCMI’s report. "It was then briefed multiple times to" the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the White House.
From that warning in November, the sources described repeated briefings through December for policy-makers and decision-makers across the federal government as well as the National Security Council at the White House. All of that culminated with a detailed explanation of the problem that appeared in the President’s Daily Brief of intelligence matters in early January, the sources said. For something to have appeared in the PDB, it would have had to go through weeks of vetting and analysis, according to people who have worked on presidential briefings in both Republican and Democratic administrations.
"The timeline of the intel side of this may be further back than we’re discussing," the source said of preliminary reports from Wuhan. "But this was definitely being briefed beginning at the end of November as something the military needed to take a posture on."
more...
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/intelligence-report-warned-coronavirus-crisis-early-november-sources/story?id=70031273&fbclid=IwAR2R_0qvMse9ilJB2yH7Nn7F2Bt0NmfvcGVt6NKn064mDB1sXgz5Tl6VMP0
April 8, 2020
Will Trump and His Enablers Ever Face Accountability for the Coronavirus Massacre?
The Iraq War is not a good precedent.
David Corn
Washington, DC, Bureau ChiefBio | Follow
snip//
There has been an endless series of profound errors committed by Trump and his administration prior to and during this horrific crisis. Then–national security adviser John Bolton shut down the White House’s global health security office in 2018; the Trump team ignored a pandemic playbook left for it by the Obama administration. And Trump, the malignant narcissist, has, to no one’s surprise, explicitly rejected all responsibility for the glaring missteps and deadly miscalculations. Instead, he has boasted about the ratings for his daily press briefings.
Trump and adoring sidekick Mike Pence will face a moment of judgment in November, when voters will render a verdict. But what of all the others who helped make this moment of mass-death possible? The Dear Leader crowd that supports Trump no matter what has echoed, protected, defended, and bolstered him as he has guided the nation into a nightmare of economic calamity and rampant death. You know who they are. (If not, watch this.) White House advisers Kellyanne Conway and Larry Kudlow—who each will likely look for remunerative gigs after their time with Trump—both claimed the coronavirus was “contained.” Trump’s newly acquired press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, proclaimed in February, “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here..and isn’t it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama.” Rush Limbaugh told his millions of Dittohead listeners that the coronavirus was no worse than the “common cold.” (Should he give back the Medal of Freedom Trump awarded him in February?) Numerous Fox-heads, including Hannity and Laura Ingraham, misled the public, reinforcing Trump’s insistence that the threat was a hoax and discounting the seriousness of this virus. Only Trish Regan was booted by Fox after she derided what she called the “coronavirus impeachment scam.” The others have remained in place.
Then there is the Republican Party. None of its leaders have dared to challenge Trump, as he misrepresented the threat and lied about his administration’s response. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) encouraged his constituents to ignore calls for social distancing and to go to restaurants. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) mocked concerns about the virus by wearing a gas mask on the House floor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) never publicly questioned Trump’s multiple blunders, and they continued to lead their party in a cultlike manner of total obeisance to Trump. Many others share the blame. Conservative and right-wing evangelical leaders, including Jerry Falwell Jr. of Liberty University and Matt Schlapp of the American Conservative Union, reinforced the no-big-deal theme that was pushed by Trump’s White House and have considered Trump faultless.
So with thousands of Americans dying in part because of Trump’s feckless and reckless response, who will be held responsible? Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who prosecuted the impeachment case against Trump, has proposed creating a coronavirus commission like the 9/11 commission that investigated all the mistakes and misconceptions that preceded that horrible attack. The 9/11 commission produced a detailed and elegantly written report that offered a stunning indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration and the US intelligence community. (Still, Bush and Cheney were reelected.) But one can expect Trump, the Republicans, and their amen choir to rabidly oppose Schiff’s idea (as Bush opposed establishing the 9/11 commission).
American society does not do accountability well. The instigators of the Iraq War did not suffer. Nor did the bankers who crashed the US economy in 2008. We do have elections, and Trump, Pence, and their Republican handmaids will be on the ballot in seven months. But what of the Fox barkers, the conservative movement that has become no more than a promotion vehicle for Trumpjackery, and the entire right-wing noise machine? With their obsessive devotion to Trump, they all have helped pave the way to a national massacre. Will they be able to wash the blood off their hands? Can a large and deplorable slice of the national political media apparatus be judged guilty of murderous culpability and locked up (metaphorically)?
“Nations should have memories,” Frederick Douglass once said. But Gore Vidal frequently referred to the “United States of Amnesia.” And the past is not a good prelude for accountability. Too often the culprits who contributed to death and destruction end up skating along, even experiencing personal benefit. At this moment, the priority for the nation is to rise above Trump’s incompetence and contend with a killer virus that is robbing us of our friends, neighbors, and loved ones and causing severe economic and societal dislocation. But there ought to come a time for a tallying: who did what when, during a life-and-death national crisis. And it is not too early to be collecting receipts. None of this should be forgotten.
David Corn: Will Trump and His Enablers Ever Face Accountability for the Coronavirus Massacre?
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/04/will-trump-and-his-enablers-ever-face-accountability-for-the-coronavirus-massacre/Will Trump and His Enablers Ever Face Accountability for the Coronavirus Massacre?
The Iraq War is not a good precedent.
David Corn
Washington, DC, Bureau ChiefBio | Follow
snip//
There has been an endless series of profound errors committed by Trump and his administration prior to and during this horrific crisis. Then–national security adviser John Bolton shut down the White House’s global health security office in 2018; the Trump team ignored a pandemic playbook left for it by the Obama administration. And Trump, the malignant narcissist, has, to no one’s surprise, explicitly rejected all responsibility for the glaring missteps and deadly miscalculations. Instead, he has boasted about the ratings for his daily press briefings.
Trump and adoring sidekick Mike Pence will face a moment of judgment in November, when voters will render a verdict. But what of all the others who helped make this moment of mass-death possible? The Dear Leader crowd that supports Trump no matter what has echoed, protected, defended, and bolstered him as he has guided the nation into a nightmare of economic calamity and rampant death. You know who they are. (If not, watch this.) White House advisers Kellyanne Conway and Larry Kudlow—who each will likely look for remunerative gigs after their time with Trump—both claimed the coronavirus was “contained.” Trump’s newly acquired press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, proclaimed in February, “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here..and isn’t it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama.” Rush Limbaugh told his millions of Dittohead listeners that the coronavirus was no worse than the “common cold.” (Should he give back the Medal of Freedom Trump awarded him in February?) Numerous Fox-heads, including Hannity and Laura Ingraham, misled the public, reinforcing Trump’s insistence that the threat was a hoax and discounting the seriousness of this virus. Only Trish Regan was booted by Fox after she derided what she called the “coronavirus impeachment scam.” The others have remained in place.
Then there is the Republican Party. None of its leaders have dared to challenge Trump, as he misrepresented the threat and lied about his administration’s response. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) encouraged his constituents to ignore calls for social distancing and to go to restaurants. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) mocked concerns about the virus by wearing a gas mask on the House floor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) never publicly questioned Trump’s multiple blunders, and they continued to lead their party in a cultlike manner of total obeisance to Trump. Many others share the blame. Conservative and right-wing evangelical leaders, including Jerry Falwell Jr. of Liberty University and Matt Schlapp of the American Conservative Union, reinforced the no-big-deal theme that was pushed by Trump’s White House and have considered Trump faultless.
So with thousands of Americans dying in part because of Trump’s feckless and reckless response, who will be held responsible? Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who prosecuted the impeachment case against Trump, has proposed creating a coronavirus commission like the 9/11 commission that investigated all the mistakes and misconceptions that preceded that horrible attack. The 9/11 commission produced a detailed and elegantly written report that offered a stunning indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration and the US intelligence community. (Still, Bush and Cheney were reelected.) But one can expect Trump, the Republicans, and their amen choir to rabidly oppose Schiff’s idea (as Bush opposed establishing the 9/11 commission).
American society does not do accountability well. The instigators of the Iraq War did not suffer. Nor did the bankers who crashed the US economy in 2008. We do have elections, and Trump, Pence, and their Republican handmaids will be on the ballot in seven months. But what of the Fox barkers, the conservative movement that has become no more than a promotion vehicle for Trumpjackery, and the entire right-wing noise machine? With their obsessive devotion to Trump, they all have helped pave the way to a national massacre. Will they be able to wash the blood off their hands? Can a large and deplorable slice of the national political media apparatus be judged guilty of murderous culpability and locked up (metaphorically)?
“Nations should have memories,” Frederick Douglass once said. But Gore Vidal frequently referred to the “United States of Amnesia.” And the past is not a good prelude for accountability. Too often the culprits who contributed to death and destruction end up skating along, even experiencing personal benefit. At this moment, the priority for the nation is to rise above Trump’s incompetence and contend with a killer virus that is robbing us of our friends, neighbors, and loved ones and causing severe economic and societal dislocation. But there ought to come a time for a tallying: who did what when, during a life-and-death national crisis. And it is not too early to be collecting receipts. None of this should be forgotten.
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