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15 May 20
Eugene Robinson | The United States Is a Country to Be Pitied
Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post
Robinson writes: "Only a handful of nations on Earth have arguably done a worse job of handling the coronavirus pandemic than the United States. What has happened to us? How did we become so dysfunctional? When did we become so incompetent?"
Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post
Robinson writes: "Only a handful of nations on Earth have arguably done a worse job of handling the coronavirus pandemic than the United States. What has happened to us? How did we become so dysfunctional? When did we become so incompetent?"
EXCERPT:
Thanks to Trump, we have no coherent national plan to survive the pandemic. But also thanks to the federal government — and I include Congress as well as the president — we lack the kind of sturdy economic safety net that protects unemployed workers and shut-down business owners in some of the hardest-hit European countries — nations that once looked up to the United States as a model. In the Netherlands, for example, the government is granting employers up to 90 percent of their payroll costs so they can keep paying their workers rather than resort to furloughs or layoffs. That kind of continuity ought to speed recovery when reopening becomes safe.
Here, nearly 40 million workers have filed for unemployment.
The European Union is working with the World Health Organization and other wealthy nations such as Japan and Saudi Arabia in a crash program to develop a covid-19 vaccine, with initial funding of $8 billion. The United States has decided to go it alone with its own vaccine program, “Operation Warp Speed.” In the past, one might have bet on U.S. ingenuity and drive to win the race. But given our failure in testing, would you still make that bet now? And why is there a race at all, rather than a U.S.-led global effort?
The covid-19 pandemic has exposed the depth of America’s fall from greatness. Ridding ourselves of Trump and his cronies in November will be just the beginning of our work to restore it.
A barbershop operating 'illicitly' in the city of Kingston, NY, located about 100 miles north of New York City, had an employee test positive this week. (photo: iStock)
A New York Barber Who Defied Lockdown and 'Illicitly' Cut Hair Tests Positive for the Coronavirus
Allyson Chiu, The Washington Post
Chiu writes: "A barber in New York who spent weeks giving haircuts in defiance of the state's lockdown order recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to health officials."
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Allyson Chiu, The Washington Post
Chiu writes: "A barber in New York who spent weeks giving haircuts in defiance of the state's lockdown order recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to health officials."
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A couple wearing protective masks and gloves walk along the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk in Hollywood, Florida. (photo: Lynne Sladky/AP)
In Key Swing State of Florida, Trump Begins to Stumble Among Senior Voters
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "United States President Donald Trump's path to re-election runs through places like Sun City Center, a former cow pasture south of Tampa, Florida, that is now home to a booming retirement community. But some residents in this conservative swath of America's premier political battleground are growing restless."
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Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "United States President Donald Trump's path to re-election runs through places like Sun City Center, a former cow pasture south of Tampa, Florida, that is now home to a booming retirement community. But some residents in this conservative swath of America's premier political battleground are growing restless."
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'Using the justice department in this way undermines the integrity and professionalism of the lawyers and prosecutor who work there.' (photo: Susan Walsh/AP)
Does the Justice Department Work for the Trump Campaign Now? Barr Thinks So
Austin Sarat and Dennis Aftergut, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Other presidents have neither expected nor asked their attorneys general to use the vast investigatory and prosecutorial power of the justice department itself to intervene in criminal cases to help cronies, to buy the silence of those who might threaten him, or to discredit political adversaries."
Austin Sarat and Dennis Aftergut, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Other presidents have neither expected nor asked their attorneys general to use the vast investigatory and prosecutorial power of the justice department itself to intervene in criminal cases to help cronies, to buy the silence of those who might threaten him, or to discredit political adversaries."
EXCERPT:
Other presidents have neither expected nor asked their attorneys general to use the vast investigatory and prosecutorial power of the justice department itself to intervene in criminal cases to help cronies, to buy the silence of those who might threaten him, or to discredit political adversaries. That is a new and dangerous ballgame.
Using the justice department in this way undermines the integrity and professionalism of the lawyers and prosecutors who work there. It turns law into an arena for gaining partisan advantage and settling political grudges.
Having gotten away with doing the same in his dealings with Ukraine, the president has an attorney general who is only too happy to go beyond merely politicizing the DoJ. He seems determined to turn it into a full-fledged arm of the Trump campaign.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, a vocal opponent of curtailing the government's surveillance powers, got his way again. (photo: Alex Wong/Getty)
The Senate Voted to Let the Government Keep Surveilling Your Online Life Without a Warrant
Sara Morrison, Vox
Excerpt: "Many senators wanted to forbid the government from secretly collecting information about your internet habits, but an amendment failed by just one vote."
Sara Morrison, Vox
Excerpt: "Many senators wanted to forbid the government from secretly collecting information about your internet habits, but an amendment failed by just one vote."
EXCERPT:
In his impassioned speech, Wyden brought up the pandemic, and Americans’ increased use of the internet because of it.
“Is it right, when millions of law-abiding Americans are at home, for their government to be able to spy on their internet searches and their web browsing without a warrant?” the senator asked, noting that the internet has become many people’s only connection to the outside world. “We are more vulnerable to abusive surveillance than ever before.”
It seems that enough senators thought it was, in fact, right. One of the “no” votes came from Sen. Mitch McConnell, whose love of the Patriot Act and all of its privacy-invading provisions is enduring and well-known. McConnell was even close to proposing his own amendment to counter the one from Wyden and Daines. McConnell’s amendment would have deliberately included internet search history and web browsing data in a list of records that the government can request through FISA courts. This was already allowed, so McConnell’s amendment wouldn’t have changed anything except codifying it into law. But that amendment never came to the floor, likely because McConnell knew the Wyden-Daines amendment wouldn’t get enough votes.
“At the end of the day, this is about protecting privacy,” Daines said on the Senate floor, ahead of the amendment vote. But at the end of the day, the Senate didn’t want to do that.
Update, May 14: The Patriot Act reauthorization bill passed the Senate on Thursday, without the Wyden-Daines amendment (but with an amendment from Sens. Leahy and Lee that added some independent oversight to the FISA court). The vote was 80-16. Murray, now back in DC, was among the no votes.
Farm laborers from Fresh Harvest working with an H-2A visa maintain a safe distance as a machine is moved on April 27, 2020, in Greenfield, California. (photo: Brent Stirton/Getty)
Being an "Essential Worker" Won't Save You From Deportation
Maurizio Guerrero, In These Times
Guerrero writes: "Legions of undocumented immigrants in the United States carry letters signed by their employers stating that President Donald Trump's administration considers them essential workers amid the pandemic. While these letters exempt them from being arrested by local agents for violating stay-at-home orders, these workers could still be detained and deported by federal authorities."
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Maurizio Guerrero, In These Times
Guerrero writes: "Legions of undocumented immigrants in the United States carry letters signed by their employers stating that President Donald Trump's administration considers them essential workers amid the pandemic. While these letters exempt them from being arrested by local agents for violating stay-at-home orders, these workers could still be detained and deported by federal authorities."
READ MORE
The Barry Arm Glacier on Prince William Sound. (photo: John Schwieder/Alamy)
Catastrophic Tsunami Threat to Alaska Looms as Enormous Glacier Collapse Could Happen at Any Time
Henry Fountain, The New York Times
Fountain writes: "Climate change has increased the risk of a huge landslide in an Alaskan fjord that could cause a catastrophic tsunami, scientists said Thursday."
Henry Fountain, The New York Times
Fountain writes: "Climate change has increased the risk of a huge landslide in an Alaskan fjord that could cause a catastrophic tsunami, scientists said Thursday."
Warming temperatures have caused the retreat of a glacier that helps support a steep, mile-long slope along one flank of a fjord in Prince William Sound, about 60 miles east of Anchorage. With only a third of the slope now supported by ice, the scientists said, a landslide could be triggered by an earthquake, prolonged heavy rain or even a heat wave that could cause extensive melting of surface snow.
While the slope has been moving for decades, the researchers estimated that a sudden, huge collapse was possible within a year and likely within two decades. “It could happen anytime, but the risk just goes way up as this glacier recedes,” said Anna Liljedahl, an Alaska-based hydrologist with the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, who was part of the team.
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