RSN: Andy Borowitz | Michigan Governor Arrogantly Forcing Residents to Remain Alive

03 May 20

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Andy Borowitz | Michigan Governor Arrogantly Forcing Residents to Remain Alive

Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, is "arrogantly forcing the residents of her state to remain alive," Attorney General William Barr charged on Friday."
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A medical staff member walks past a flower tribute to the late ophthalmologist Li Wenliang at the Houhu Branch of Wuhan Central Hospital in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on February 7, 2020. (photo: Slate/Getty Images/AFP)

The Mental Health Ramifications We Expected for Doctors Are Here Now
Lauren Serino, Slate
Serino writes: "Fear. Fear has become endemic during COVID season. It's not just of the virus. Everything has a patina of fear."

EXCERPT:

The baseline for getting physicians the care they need was low, even before the pandemic, our ER doctor writes.

wo emergency physicians, based at two different hospitals in the New York metropolitan area, are logging their days for Slate. At the end of each shift, they write a response to three questions: What was today like? How did it compare with yesterday? And how do you feel? We have offered them anonymity so that they can write freely about their experiences. Dr. Kelly Keene and Dr. Lauren Serino are pseudonyms. Read Week 1 here, Week 2 here, Week 3 here, and Week 4 here.

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The University of Louisville N95 Decontamination Program will be able to sterilize 7,000 N95 masks per day which can be safely reused by health care workers. (photo: University of Louisville)

Trump Replaces HHS Watchdog Who Found 'Severe Shortages' at Hospitals Combating Coronavirus
Lisa Rein, The Washington Post
Rein writes: "President Trump moved to replace the top watchdog at the Department of Health and Human Services after her office released a report on the shortages in testing and personal protective gear at hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic."

In a Friday night announcement, the White House nominated a permanent inspector general to take the reins from Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general who has run the office since January.

The White House nominated Jason Weida, an assistant United States attorney in Boston, as permanent inspector general. The announcement said Weida was chosen because he has overseen “numerous complex investigations in healthcare and other sectors.” He must be confirmed by the Senate.

Grimm’s removal follows a purge of high-profile federal officials and inspectors general whose work has been critical of the president. Inspectors general at large agencies serve at the pleasure of the president, but they are considered independent monitors for waste, fraud and abuse.

Trump laced into Grimm at a news conference in April, after her staff report found “severe shortages” of testing kits, delays in getting coronavirus results and “widespread shortages” of masks and other equipment at U.S. hospitals.

The president demanded to know who wrote the report, calling the findings “wrong.” He then accused reporters of having withheld that Grimm had worked in the Obama administration.

“Where did he come from, the inspector general? What’s his name? No, what’s his name? What’s his name?” Trump responded on April 6, when asked about the report, which he said was politically biased. He then attacked Grimm on Twitter, writing, “Why didn’t the I.G., who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration (Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died?), want to talk to the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge, before doing her report.”

Grimm is a career investigator and auditor who joined the inspector general’s office, one of the federal government’s largest, in 1999 when Bill Clinton was president. She has served in Republican and Democratic administrations and is not a political appointee.

She took over the inspector general’s office in an acting capacity in January from another acting official, who retired.

A spokeswoman for the IG’s office said Grimm will remain in her current role as principal deputy inspector general. “HHS OIG has for more than 40 years held a deep commitment to serving taxpayers and the beneficiaries of HHS programs,” Tesia Williams said in a statement. “Our professionals have risen to a variety of challenges, including our groundbreaking work fighting the opioid epidemic and health care fraud, as well as oversight of the planning, response, and funding for COVID-19. We will continue to serve the American people by ensuring that their health and welfare are protected.”

A White House spokesman, citing personnel decisions, declined to comment.

Washington Sen. Patty Murray (D) criticized the president’s decision. “We all know the President hasn’t told people the truth about this virus or his Administration’s response, and late last night, he moved to silence an independent government official who did,” she said in a statement. “The President cannot be above oversight, no matter how he denies, attacks, and fights against it.”

Grimm’s report came as Trump was facing widespread criticism for his administration’s response to the pandemic. Its findings were based on a survey of 343 hospitals in 46 states. Auditors did their research during five days at the end of March.

The report said its findings were “not a review of HHS response to the covid-19 pandemic” but were intended “as an aid to HHS as it continues to lead efforts to address the public health emergency.”

But the auditors’ conclusions amounted to the first official critique by the federal government of the health care system’s capacity to cope with the flood of infected patients. And by substantiating complaints about inadequate equipment, the report called into question Trump’s claims that hospitals and state officials were making inaccurate claims about their needs, or being greedy.

In the past few weeks, Trump has fired a prominent inspector general who pushed to investigate a whistleblower complaint that led to his impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in the controversy over aid to Ukraine.

In the past few weeks, Trump has fired a prominent inspector general who pushed to investigate a whistleblower complaint that led to his impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in the controversy over aid to Ukraine.

He nominated a White House lawyer to oversee the massive spending Congress authorized to jumpstart the economy during the pandemic, a decision critics have called a conflict of interest. The president also moved to block a prominent inspector general from assuming the leadership of a panel of federal watchdogs overseeing pandemic spending.

Trump has cleared out other officials he believed were not loyal to him in the months since his impeachment trial ended in an acquittal by the Senate, largely among party lines. Among other nominations the White House announced on Friday was a replacement for Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine. Yovanovitch was forced out a year ago, viewed as an obstacle to White House aides as they tried to pressure the Ukraine government to investigate Trump’s Democratic political rivals.

Keith Dayton, Trump’s nominee to replace Yovanovitch, serves as director of the George Marshall Center in Germany and as a senior U.S. defense adviser to Ukraine. After serving 40 years in the U.S. Army, Dayton retired in 2010 with the rank of Lt. General before accepting his latest assignments.

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Demonstrators protest during a rally to re-open California in San Diego, California. (photo: Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images)

How Trump and the GOP Just Might 'Liberate' You to Death
David R. Lurie, The Daily Beast
Lurie writes: "In the beginning, Donald Trump said 'I alone' can fix everything."

EXCERPT:

But more recently, things took a different turn. Trump has declared that the country must be “liberated” in plenty of time for the fall election season. And if the states don’t agree, Trump is making it plain that he’s prepared to use the full force of the federal government, along with gun-toting militia members, to force governors’ hands, regardless of the danger to Americans’ lives.

If Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and their corporate allies have their way, the pandemic will provide the pretext for an unprecedented campaign of federal interference with state governments, and possibly the wholesale voiding of hard-fought worker and other legal protections, some of which have been in place since the Great Depression.

The first indication of Trump’s scheme to coerce the states came several weeks ago when Attorney General William Barr complained that stay-at-home orders instituted at Trump’s express behest were “draconian” and said that the Department of Justice might intervene in court proceedings to undermine them. That was soon followed by a “statement of interest” by the DOJ in a lawsuit that successfully pressured a Mississippi city to limit the application of its social distancing rules to a church.

On April 27, Barr issued a memorandum to the nation’s United States Attorneys declaring the Justice Department is taking it upon itself to “monitor state and local” emergency public health policies and adjudge whether they’ve appropriately “balance[ed] public safety with the preservation of civil rights.”

As Barr explained it, the DOJ will now determine whether any “state or local ordinance crosses the line from an appropriate exercise of authority to stop the spread [of the virus] into an overbearing infringement of constitutional and statutory protections.” Barr named a U.S. Attorney from Michigan (whose governor has been a focus of Trump’s ire) as cohead of the project.

As The New York Times reported, Barr has also privately been spearheading a wide-ranging campaign, together with a network of Trump donors and religious and other conservative leaders, to force recalcitrant states to “open up.”

Tony Perkins, a right-wing religious leader close to Trump and a participant in the scheme, has declared: “The tolerance level has been reached, so either governors need to start partnering with churches and the private sector, or they’re going to lose control.” Put otherwise, if governors like Gretchen Whitmer, or as Trump has been wont to call her “that woman from Michigan,” don’t toe the line and “open up,” the DOJ may take to the courts in an effort to pry them open.

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Yayesew Shimelis, Solafa Magdy and Azimjon Askarov were included on the coalition's list for May. (photo: Al Jazeera)

World Press Freedom Day: Journalists Under Attack Amid Pandemic
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "To mark World Press Freedom Day on Sunday, the One Free Press Coalition has called for the immediate release of all imprisoned journalists amid increasing threats to press freedom worldwide during the coronavirus pandemic."

EXCERPT: 

Each month, the coalition, which comprises prominent news organisations and publishers, including Al Jazeera Media Network, brings to the public's attention the 10 "most urgent" cases of journalists whose freedoms are being suppressed or whose cases are seeking justice.

Throughout the years, the campaign has highlighted the plight of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who was killed inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in 2018, as well as Mahmoud Hussein, an Al Jazeera journalist who has been held without any formal charges in Egypt since December 2016.

At least half of the journalists on the latest list published on May 1 are currently behind bars and at heightened risk of exposure to the coronavirus.

Here is the full list:

WORTH READING FOR THOSE NATIONS THAT THREATEN TO SILENCE THE TRUTH

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Pearl went missing in Karachi in 2002 while researching extremism. (photo: Getty Images)

Daniel Pearl: Parents of Murdered Journalist Launch Appeal in Pakistan
BBC
Excerpt: "Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded in 2002 while investigating Islamist militants in Karachi, Pakistan."
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'It's a shockingly large hornet,' Todd Murray, Washington State Univeristy Extension entomologist and invasive species specialist, said in a statement. (photo: Nicolas Reusens/Getty Images)

'Murder Hornets' in Washington State Threaten Bees and Whip Up Media Swarm
Amanda Holpuch, Guardian UK
Holpuch writes: "The Asian giant hornet is the world's largest and can kill humans. But it is most dangerous for the European honeybee, which is defenseless in the face of the hornet's spiky mandibles, long stinger and potent venom."

EXCERPT:

Washington state verified four reports of Asian giant hornets in two north-western cities in December. The species becomes more active in April, prompting local officials to invite the public to help beekeepers by creating their own hornet traps.

“It’s a shockingly large hornet,” Todd Murray, Washington State University Extension entomologist and invasive species specialist, said in a statement. “It’s a health hazard, and more importantly, a significant predator of honeybees.”

Murray said it was important for people to learn to recognize the insect now, while the population is small and still new to the region.

“We need to teach people how to recognize and identify this hornet while populations are small,” he said, “so that we can eradicate it while we still have a chance.”

The hornets are about the size of an adult thumb, with a yellow and orange head. They are most destructive in the late summer and early fall. One telltale sign they have visited a hive is the remains of decapitated bees.

Some researchers refer to the insect as a “murder hornet”, according to a New York Times story published on Saturday.

In Japan, up to 50 people a year die after being stung, though the hornet is usually only aggressive to humans if it is disturbed.

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