RSN: Garrison Keillor | One Man's Pandemic Is Another Man's Picnic

02 August 20

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Garrison Keillor | One Man's Pandemic Is Another Man's Picnic

Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Website
Keillor writes: "I love reading columns that snap and crackle and poke powerful people in the kisser and I am bored by columns like this one, which is about the goodness and generosity of life, but what can I say?"
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US ambassador Todd Chapman exits a 2018 meeting in Ecuador. (photo: Dolores Ochoa/AP)

US Ambassador to Brazil Reportedly Asked Brazilian Officials to Help Trump's Reelection
Anya van Wagtendonk, Vox
van Wagtendonk writes: "The Trump administration has been accused of attempting to pressure another foreign country into helping Trump's reelection prospects, according to a letter from the House Foreign Affairs Committee." 

Brazilian news reports say the ambassador asked for a “favor.” Democrats are demanding answers.

he Trump administration has been accused of attempting to pressure another foreign country into helping Trump’s reelection prospects, according to a letter from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

That letter cites Brazilian news articles that report US Ambassador to Brazil Todd Chapman pressured members of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to lower ethanol tariffs in order to support President Donald Trump’s reelection efforts.

In the letter, Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Eliot Engel demands Chapman explain an article in which the ambassador is said to have asked for the tariffs to be lowered as a “favor” from the Brazilian government to the Trump reelection campaign. 

“Iowa is the largest ethanol producer in the United States…and could be a key player in Trump’s election,” an article in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo reads, according to the letter. “Hence the importance – according to Chapman – for the Bolsonaro government to do the U.S. a favor.”

Beyond the report in O Globo, the New York Times notes, another Brazilian outlet, Estadão, published a similar story based on its own reporting, with its journalists finding that Chapman had made the request, and was rebuffed by government officials.

Alceu Moreira, a Brazilian congressman, also told the Times that Chapman “had made repeated references to the electoral calendar during a recent meeting the two had about ethanol.”

Engel has called for Chapman to respond to the reports by August 4, and for him to provide “any and all documents referring or related to any discussions” with Brazilian officials.

If the reports are accurate, the letter states, Chapman’s actions could be in violation of the Hatch Act, which prevents federal employees from engaging in certain political activities, such as partisan campaigning for candidates.

A State Department spokesperson said in a statement that Chapman’s efforts were part of a policy of pushing for lower tariffs in general, not narrowly focused on supporting an incumbent presidential campaign.

“Allegations suggesting that Ambassador Chapman has asked Brazilians to support a specific U.S. candidate are false,” the statement reads. “The United States has long been focused on reducing tariff barriers and will continue do so.”

Foreign interference marred the 2016 election. Requests for interference led to impeachment.

The reports are also of concern because of how closely they echo the request that led to Trump’s impeachment. 

Last July, Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “do us a favor” during a phone call in which he asked the leader to look into the business dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of then-candidate, now presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden. In that call, Trump appeared to condition military aid badly needed by Ukraine on Zelensky’s willingness to search for information that might be used to discredit Biden.

A congressional investigation into that call revealed the ways the Trump administration used traditional diplomatic channels — most notably the office of the US ambassador to the European Union — to forward that goal.

It isn’t clear whether Trump was involved in Chapman’s reported pressure campaign about ethanol, but as Vox’s Zack Beauchamp wrote during 2019’s impeachment hearings, the testimony of another of Trump’s ambassadors — former US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland — showed a willingness on Trump’s part “to use US foreign policy as a tool to cement his own hold on power.”

And that has Trump critics concerned about the Brazilian reports, with Engel warning Chapman in his letter, “Elections in the United States are for the American people and the American people only to decide.”

In delivering that warning, the letter explicitly links Chapman’s reported campaign to the 2016 election, the outcome of which foreign governments repeatedly attempted to sway, according to the results of a Senate investigation.

“Given the events of 2016, it is all the more important for U.S. ambassadors serving our country abroad to not insert themselves into U.S. elections or encourage foreign government officials from any branch of government to do so,” the letter reads.

This warning follows intelligence reports that find Russia has actively worked to disrupt November’s elections — as well as the Democratic presidential primary. But politicians and experts have warned that the US is not as prepared as it ought to be to combat such interference, leaving it vulnerable to meddling attempts not just by adversaries, but by also by Americans who, as Engel writes, “should know better.”

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Bill Barr. (photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Is Trump's Top Cop, Attorney General William Barr, a Danger to Democracy?
David Smith, Guardian UK
Smith writes: "William Barr was hungry. 'Mr Chairman, could we take a five-minute break?' the attorney general asked Jerry Nadler of the House of Representatives' judiciary committee. 'No,' retorted Nadler, his hearing almost done. Barr responded sardonically: 'You're a real class act.'"
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President Trump stops to talk to reporters as he walks to board Marine One and depart from the South Lawn at the White House on July 31. (Jabin Botsford/WP)

Trump Promises Health-Care Overhaul That Never Arrives
Anne Gearan, Amy Goldstein and Seung Min Kim, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "It was a bold claim when President Trump said that he was about to produce an overhaul of the nation's health-care system, at last doing away with the Affordable Care Act, which he has long promised to abolish."
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The intensive care unit at OakBend Medical Center in Richmond, Texas, on July 15. Hospitals are supposed to report data to the federal government each day about the COVID-19 patients they are treating. (photo: Mark Felix/AFP/Getty Images)

How Many People in the US Are Hospitalized With COVID-19? Who Knows?
Charles Ornstein, ProPublica
Ornstein writes: "In mid-July, the Trump administration instructed hospitals to change the way they reported data on their coronavirus patients, promising the new approach would provide better, more up-to-the-minute information about the virus's toll and allow resources and supplies to be quickly dispatched across the country."
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White supremacists attacked with bats and stones Mapuche community members, Municipality of Victoria, Chile, August 1, 2020. (photo: Twitter/ @DiablaSandi)

Chile: Civilians Violently Attack Hunger-Striking Mapuches With Police Complicity
teleSUR
Excerpt: "A group of civilians, in complicity with the Chilean police (carabineros) and right-wingers, on Saturday night attacked with bats and stones Mapuche community members who were on a hunger strike in front of the Municipality of Victoria, in Chile's Araucania." 

"Chile's ultra-right wing acts like U.S. white supremacists, ignoring the mestizo origin of the our people," TeleSUR's correspondent in Chile Paola Dragnic tweeted.

The Mapuches set out in front of the Municipality of Victoria, in Curacautin, last Monday to demand the release of Mapuches' political prisoners.

On Saturday, Araucania's Ultra-Right Group (APRA) spokeswoman Gloria Naveillan spread an audio message on Twitter urging to act against the Mapuche community members.

"How many are raising their hands to join us tonight in the Plaza? Bring sticks and everything you need to defend yourselves," Naveillan urged.

TeleSUR's correspondent in Chile Paola Dragnic released photographs showing the attack by armed white supremacists against the Mapuche people in Curacautin.

"White supremacists in Chile now attack Municipality of Victoria taken over by Mapuche community members in protest of Mapuche political prisoners and burn Chemamull located in Plazs de Victoria."

"There are people who celebrate this attack in Curacautin. The ultra-right wing acts like the U.S. white supremacists, ignoring the mestizo origin of the Chilean people," Dragnic tweeted.

Dragnic also shared a video of the moment when civilians attacked the Mapuche community members and burned the wooden Mapuche statue Chemamull located in the Plaza de Victoria.

Officers from the militarized Carabineros Police did nothing to stop the armed civilians, not even when they set fire to a truck.

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Thousands of protesters gathered in downtown Portland Saturday, July 25, 2020, for the 59th consecutive night of protests. (photo: Dave Killen/The Oregonian)

'Unprecedented' Use of Tear Gas Against Portland Protesters Prompts State Regulators to Call for Environmental Testing
Andrew Theen, The Oregonian
Theen writes: "Oregon environmental regulators are requiring the city of Portland to test stormwater around the federal courthouse and parts of downtown, citing the 'unprecedented amount of tear gas' used by local and federal law enforcement agencies since May." 

The Department of Environmental Quality sent a letter Thursday to Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Quality outlining its expectations. The city must send a monitoring plan to state officials within the next three weeks describing how it will monitor for specific heavy metals and chemicals that regulators believe are likely associated with CS gas, a strong form of toxic tear gas used against protesters for months.

City officials said they are aware of the letter and are working in conjunction with the state to do more than just monitor for the roughly half dozen metals required by the state. Diane Dulken, a spokesperson for the sewer and stormwater agency, said Portland is working to “prevent the pollutants from getting into the Willamette River.” She said the agency “regularly” tests for contaminants at locations along the river but will now test specifically near the courthouse, two public parks and Justice Center due to the extensive tear gas used there.

But Portland also raised an alarm bell: It doesn’t know much about tear gas or its residue, and it said those materials are likely already in the sewer system. Dulken noted that tear gas residue is in the trees, on the ground and likely throughout the area near the courthouse and justice center, which has been the centerpiece of nightly protests for months.

“Maybe these materials aren’t hazardous, maybe they are,” Dulken said. “We’re researching that. There isn’t a lot of information.”

The letter is just one of many tear gas related developments wafting through political circles, from Salem to Portland to Washington DC.

It landed the same day that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler apologized for the city police bureau’s “indiscriminate” use of tear gas in late May or June during months of racial justice protests and demonstrations. Wheeler oversees both the Police and Bureau of Environmental Services, which operates the city’s’ sewer and stormwater system.

In Salem, lawmakers discussed a bill that would prevent law enforcement agencies across the state from using “chemical incapacitants” like tear gas. The legislation would create an exemption for a single less-noxious gas, pepper spray, under certain circumstances and with sufficient announcements.

And U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer and state Rep. Karin Power, the Milwaukie legislator who chairs the state’s House Energy and Environment Committee, on Thursday sent a letter to state and federal environmental leaders asking a series of health and policy questions related to gases police use for crowd control.

“While we work to stop the use of these gases altogether,” they wrote in a letter to the heads of the state DEQ and federal Environmental Protection Agency, “we are also seeking greater transparency about what chemicals have been deployed to date against protesters in Portland, and potential impacts on human health, wildlife, aquatic life, and local air and water quality.”

The Democratic politicians said they want to know the number of tear gas cartridges fired, how many were beyond their expiration date and what agency will pay for associated cleanup. They demanded a response by Aug. 6.

Late Wednesday night, on their last night in charge of policing protests at the courthouse, federal law enforcement and border security officials again launched tear gas across a swath of city parks and streets surrounding the downtown Portland federal courthouse. Tear gas clouds stretched across the entirety of Lownsdale Square and enveloped broad sections of Southwest Third and Fourth avenues. Protesters wore gas masks, goggles, helmets and poured milk into the eyes of those in the thickest areas of tear gas clouds. The gas stings, burns and irritates exposed skin. OPB this week documented dozens of instances in which woman exposed to the gas subsequently had irregular menstrual cycles.

Harry Esteve, a spokesperson for the state environment agency, said the city will likely have to wait until it rains to get reliable test results. According to the National Weather Service, Portland’s last measurable rainfall, three-hundredths of an inch, occurred July 7.

The state is asking Portland to collect and analyze stormwater for chromium, hexavalent chromium, lead, zinc, copper, barium and perchlorate. Most of those substances are toxic to humans at even at extremely low levels.

“We’re taking a close look at the situation,” Esteve said.

Following the monitoring request, Portland must submit a report that includes comparisons to previous tests at the same locations. The state called for the monitoring under the stormwater permit it issued to the city.

Portland police have used tear gas on demonstrators for years, although never with the frequency that federal and local officers have deployed it this spring and summer.

Since July 24, the state fielded 160 official complaints about the gas, Esteve said, plus additional outreach through social media. Those complaints center on concerns for health and the environment.

Esteve said that CS gas, a form of which has been used on Portland streets for months, is “not considered a federal hazardous substance.”

He said DEQ won’t analyze the public health effects of recent tear gas apart from looking at its effects on stormwater runoff, which leads to the Willamette River, saying that “is not something that we regulate.” He said the potential public health impacts are a matter for the Oregon Health Authority to address. 

“The thing about tear gas is it dissipates pretty quickly, so it’s not something that we would respond to like a spill or something like that,” Esteve said.

Jonathan Modie, a spokesperson with the Oregon Health Authority, cited the fact that CS gas is considered toxic by the Centers for Disease Control. Modie referred to federal documents, which indicate people exposed to the gas should “as quickly as possible” wash their skin with “large amounts of soap and water” if they are exposed. The CDC states that “long-lasting exposure” to riot control agents like tear gas in closed spaces could lead to blindness or “respiratory failure possibly resulting in death.”

Dulken, the city spokeswoman, said the agency received information that federal officers were hosing down the streets outside the federal courthouse, spraying the residue into storm drains. “That is not allowed,” she said, “but it was done.”

She said her agency is investigating how it can prevent the tear gas residue that’s already in the system from being flushed into the river when rain comes.

Dulken said it’s not unusual for the bureau to sample stormwater and test for five of the metals included in the state letter, but she said the bureau doesn’t test for hexavalent chromium or perchlorate. She did not have immediate information regarding how frequently the bureau samples in general, but said testing occurs more frequently during the rainy season.

On Friday, crews are expected to examine storm drains near the Justice Center. Dulken said crews will try to take advantage of the dry weather to find residue and clean it out.

That residue will likely flush into the sewers and Willamette River when the rain comes.

Portland, Dulken said, is in uncharted territory. No other city has had so much tear gas deployed over an extended period of time.

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: Are kids safe?

BY MYAH WARD

Presented by

ARE THE KIDS ALRIGHT? In today’s coronavirus press conference at the White House, President Donald Trump suggested that science was on the side of in-person schooling this fall, because children are less likely to get sick and die from Covid-19. “They don’t catch it easily,” he said. “They don’t bring it home easily. And if they do catch it, they get better fast.”

That did appear to be one tiny blessing in March as Covid-19 sprawled across the globe. Early reports suggested kids were virtually untouched by the pandemic.

Now it’s July, and some school districts are just weeks away away from opening up classrooms. Like the president, some politicians — and parents — are arguing the risk is low for kids. Is it?

Kids still appear to be less likely to catch and transmit the virus. The leading explanation is that kids make fewer receptors, a protein called ACE2, making it more difficult for the virus to latch on, said Mark R. Schleiss, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota Medical School. As children move into adolescence and become adults, they make more of these receptors, theoretically increasing their chance of contracting the virus. The evidence for this hypothesis is limited, and would require more research.

Other theories suggest children’s smaller lungs, or even their shorter height, play a role in the likelihood of transmission, Schleiss said.

There are 317,711 reported Covid-19 cases in children and teenagers across the U.S., according to the COVKID Project, led by a team of epidemiologists who track cases in children and teens. There have been 77 reported deaths, and 805 intensive care hospitalizations in children 17 and under.

There are at least 342 cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in U.S. children, according to the CDC, and six reported deaths. The Covid-linked illness causes symptoms like rashes, conjunctivitis and stomach problems. While Covid primarily affects the lungs, MIS-C primarily attacks a child’s heart. Most children are developing the illness two to four weeks after being exposed to the virus. But outside of its existence, “we don’t really know what that’s about,” Schleiss said.

And just as Covid-19 is disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic adults, MIS-C is striking Black and Hispanic children, who make up about 70 percent of reported cases.

Skewed data doesn’t help. Undercounts are likely because kids often don’t show symptoms, tests are scarce, results lag and data collection and reporting is sporadic across the country. Jason Salemi, a professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida, is working with the COVKID project to help provide nationwide data on how the virus is affecting children. “We’re only as good as the data. Currently, with few exceptions, it’s in a pretty woeful state, which precludes our ability to focus on geographic differences, temporal trends, race/ethnic disparities and differences in age within the pediatric population,” he said.

Poor data collection is just one example of how “kids always get the short end of the stick,” Schleiss said. Whether it’s contact tracing, screening for infections or clinical trials for a new drug, children often don’t get the resources and attention they should, he said.

The risk of children dying or becoming critically ill is low, Schleiss said, but that doesn’t mean parents shouldn’t be concerned. He used chicken pox as an example, a virus that killed 100 to 150 people a year before a vaccine was licensed in the U.S. “If you’re that family going through the unspeakable agony and heartbreak of that happening, then it’s pretty damned important,” he said.

“The history of pediatric medicine is peppered with many examples of rare diseases that we took very seriously because we could do something about them. The same thing is true here. We could do something about this — social distancing, face masks, appropriate precautions. We can decrease the likelihood that children will get Covid-19.”

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition. Renu is on the move, but her inbox is still right here. Reach out rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @renurayasam.

A message from Emergent BioSolutions:

Our global team is going full speed to develop potential therapies that may help treat COVID-19. At the same time, we’re collaborating on innovative vaccine candidates that can be made by the millions. Discover what we’re doing right now.

FIRST IN NIGHTLY

TRUMP HOPES FOR OCTOBER SURPRISE — The president’s bet that a proven-effective coronavirus vaccine will be the October surprise to catapult him into a second term is facing increasingly long odds. But that doesn’t mean he won’t find just enough reason to declare victory anyway.

While the race to find an effective vaccine for Covid-19 has crucial implications for nations around the world, it also carries political ramifications in the United States — with Trump banking heavily on finding a vaccine to quell both the pandemic and mounting unhappiness over his handling of the coronavirus response, health care reporter Adam Cancryn writes.

Buoyed by a series of encouraging early trial results, the administration is laying the groundwork for a high-profile rollout of initial coronavirus vaccines in as little as three months. It’s a best-case timetable that also tracks with the final weeks before the Nov. 3 election. The White House’s Operation Warp Speed has poured billions of dollars into developing a vaccine in record time, funding several efforts in parallel and buying up doses of the experimental shots in a wager that one will ultimately pay off. “We’ll end up with a cure,” Trump asserted on Tuesday. “We’re very close to the vaccine — I think we’re going to have some very good results."

DON'T MISS - POLITICO'S NEW "FUTURE PULSE" NEWSLETTER: The coronavirus pandemic accelerated long-simmering trends in health care technology and one thing is certain: The health care system that emerges from this crisis will be fundamentally different than the one that entered. From Congress and the White House, to state legislatures and Silicon Valley, Future Pulse spotlights the politics, policies, and technologies driving long-term change on the most personal issue for voters: Our health. SUBSCRIBE NOW.

FROM THE HEALTH DESK

WHO GETS IT? Executive health editor Joanne Kenen emails us:

The Trump administration announced its latest deal, this one worth close to $2 billion, today to buy millions of doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine, jump-starting production so people can start getting immunized quickly if and when the shots are approved. It’s one pandemic response approach where the White House has a clear national strategy, not a handoff to states. The preemptive stockpiling is one of the few aspects of the Trump coronavirus response that health experts broadly support.

The same can’t be said of the White House’s approach to the profoundly complicated challenges of how to allocate the vaccine — both within the U.S. and to 7 billion people across the globe. Who gets it? Who decides who gets it? Is the decision-making clear and transparent enough to build public trust, particularly given how much vaccine skepticism already exists?

The National Academy of Sciences announced this week that the CDC and the NIH asked it to form an ad hoc committee to “develop an overarching framework for vaccine allocation to assist policymakers in the domestic and global health communities in planning for equitable allocation of vaccines.” The first meeting is Friday.

The Academy is respected; its report will have moral weight, although it’s not clear how specific its recommendations will be or how closely they will be followed by the White House.

But the Academy is not a presidential commission. And Donald Trump is the first president since Gerald Ford to not appoint a presidential bioethics advisory board or commission — either an issue-specific one to address an emerging bioethical quandary, or, as recent presidents have done, a standing panel that’s at the ready when a crisis arises.

“The last several commissions were there to give general advice on science, ethics, bioethics, technology before you even knew there was going to be an urgent question — and there was always an urgent question,” said Lisa Lee, who was the executive director of the Obama administration commission and now helps oversee scholarly integrity and research at Virginia Tech.

Past commissions have covered a lot of bioethical ground: from the horrors of the then-newly disclosed Tuskegee syphilis experiments to choices surrounding end of life care to Dolly, the cloned sheep.

But Trump didn’t go that route, and now it would take too much time to set up an official presidential body. That makes the Academy a good fallback because it can be transparent, accountable and “broadly engage and educate the public,” said Amy Gutmann, the president of the University of Pennsylvania and the chair of Obama’s bioethics panel. (Guttman spoke to Politico before the Academy panel was named.)

After Sept. 11, Brian Strom, chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, led a National Academy group that advised the George W. Bush administration on a smallpox vaccination program to protect against a feared bioterror attack. That was more about safety and risk management than broad allocation of a scarce vaccine, but he recognizes the complexity -– and how some of the choices might appear quite provocative.

“One could easily argue that the vaccine should be given early on to people who are homeless,” he said, as they cannot safely take shelter, telecommute and social distance. “Or what about someone who wants to attend indoor political rallies? Should they go first?”

BIG DATA — A Trump administration change in the way hospitals report coronavirus data is bringing confusion and more work to medical centers and states as cases explode across the country. And hospitals that don’t get it right every day could end up receiving fewer critical drugs like remdesivir, health care reporters Darius Tahir and Rachel Roubein write.

The Trump administration uses data on coronavirus hospitalizations, drug supplies and ICU beds to allocate scarce Covid-19 treatments, as well as supplies of plasma and protective gear. But last week, the Department of Health and Human Services abruptly changed the reporting process, bypassing a long-used CDC system with an alternative designed to more quickly help track the virus’ spread.

The move marked the latest flashpoint in a power struggle between the Washington-based federal health department and the nation’s premier public health agency, located in Atlanta. And now the changeover could result in collateral damage for hospitals whose supplies are in danger and are scrambling to make quick software and staffing changes, according to health industry officials.

LISTEN — The CDC is deploying teams across the country to address racial disparities during the coronavirus pandemic. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, health care reporter Alice Miranda Ollstein explains why the deep and deadly problem can't be fixed without a dramatic shift in federal policy.

Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast

ON THE ECONOMY

CLIFF DIVING — A dysfunctional Congress is about to go careening off yet another fiscal cliff — but this will hurt a hell of a lot more than most, Sarah Ferris and Andrew Desiderio write. Tens of million unemployed Americans are about to lose their economic lifeline during the worst recession in 80 years, with eviction protections set to expire at the same time. As the final unemployment checks are set to be processed this weekend, Capitol Hill has begun to feel some urgency. Still, it’s likely too late.

WHAT CRASH? The U.S. housing market, the epicenter of the nation’s last economic meltdown, is thriving — and that's helping to keep the country afloat during the latest crisis, even as other industries struggle to survive, financial services reporter Katy O’Donnell writes.

While the $34 trillion market faltered at the start of the pandemic, its rebound has far outperformed expectations, with existing home sales surging more than 20 percent in June, according to data released today. Some areas of housing are actually doing better than they were before the coronavirus began sweeping the U.S.

White-collar employees — many of whom are able to work from home and keep getting paychecks — are buying. And analysts believe the pandemic has prompted some millennials, now reaching the prime age for buying first homes, to pull up stakes in crowded cities and head for the suburbs. Securing a home loan, meanwhile, is cheaper than ever, with mortgage rates hitting historic lows thanks to the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policy.

A message from Emergent BioSolutions:

 

ON THE HILL

INSIDE THE GOP BILL (SORT OF) — Senate Republicans started unveiling pieces of their new coronavirus relief bill today, but negotiators remain undecided on several key issues. Republican leadership briefed Senate GOP aides on the proposed legislation this afternoon, Marianne LeVine and John Bresnahan write. The Republican initiative is expected to include a temporary flat payment for unemployment insurance for two months, although the exact amount of the federal contribution wasn’t finalized, according to sources on the call. Beefed-up $600 federal unemployment payments begin expiring at the end of this week, a deadline that has spurred GOP leaders into action.

But Republican leaders also didn't reveal whether their proposal will include a payroll tax cut, a top priority for President Donald Trump. Several GOP sources said the payroll tax cut "was out," but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to confirm that as he walked out of the Capitol tonight.

ASK THE AUDIENCE

Nightly asks you: Have you gotten tested for Covid-19? Do you want to get tested but are unable to? Tell us your testing experience. Send us your story with our form and we’ll include some of the responses in Friday’s Nightly.

A man browses some of the books available in the main area of the Barbican Library following its reopening in London. The United Kingdom has the world’s highest Covid-19 mortality rate at about 68 deaths per 100,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. | Getty Images

THE GLOBAL FIGHT

IT COULD BE WORSE — The U.S. is subject to its share of global Covid-shaming. But at least we’re not Bolivia, Ryan Heath writes. Police there recovered more than 400 bodies from streets, cars and homes over the last week, nearly all of them Covid-19 deaths. In the capital, La Paz, alone, 141 bodies were recovered.

Bolivians are getting desperate: Despite pleas by health officials, lawmakers are encouraging bleach as a coronavirus treatment, and people are lining up to buy it. Political problems are escalating too. The country is scheduled to hold elections in September after living with a temporary government after protests forced out long-time leader Evo Morales in November 2019. But with hospitals now full and the caretaker president, Jeanine Áñez, testing positive for coronavirus two weeks ago, the election is starting to look doubtful.

JOIN TOMORROW AT 1:30 p.m. EDT – A GLOBAL RALLYING CRY: The Black Lives Matter movement has gone global with anti-racism protests sweeping cities around the world. What does the racial reckoning look like abroad? Join Global Translations author Ryan Heath for a conversation with Dominique Day, a human rights lawyer and vice chair of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, on how the fight for equality has become a worldwide rallying cry following the killing of George Floyd. REGISTER HERE.

NIGHTLY NUMBER

$1.95 billion The amount the U.S. government will pay Pfizer for 100 million doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine if the shot proves safe and effective.

PARTING WORDS

LAST RITES FOR THE LOST CAUSE? The House voted overwhelmingly today to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol, the latest effort by Congress to respond to the nationwide protests over systemic racism and injustice, Heather Caygle writes.

The bill would remove the bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney from the old Supreme Court chamber, located in the Capitol. Taney authored the controversial and later widely panned Dred Scott decision in 1857, which declared African Americans weren’t citizens. The Taney bust would be replaced with a statue of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice.

Despite overwhelming support for the bill in the House, it’s unclear whether the GOP-controlled Senate will take up the legislation. It’s also unclear whether President Donald Trump would sign the bill.

The legislation would also remove three statues of Americans who promoted slavery and white supremacy — Charles Aycock, John C. Calhoun, and James Paul Clarke — and require states to reclaim and replace their Confederate statues in the Capitol. Currently, there are 12 Confederate statues in the Capitol collection.

A message from Emergent BioSolutions:

We go after public health threats. In the fight against COVID-19, we are going full speed to develop potential new therapies and vaccine candidates.
We go for critical innovations. We are developing two potential hyperimmune treatments for severe hospitalized COVID-19 patients and individuals at risk. Based on proven technology, the research and testing are underway.
We go in partnership with others. We are working with industry innovators to bring COVID-19 vaccine candidates to market. We have the capacity to manufacture vaccines in the tens to hundreds of millions, and we are propelling development forward.
We go. And go. From fighting anthrax to helping prevent smallpox and developing vaccine candidates, we go all in. Because public health threats will never stop. And neither will we.

See how we go all in.

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Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam

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RSN: Juan Cole | Biden: Muslim Americans Took Full Brunt of Vile Trump Hatred of Minorities; Pledges to Reverse Muslim Ban

22 July 20

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21 July 20

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Juan Cole | Biden: Muslim Americans Took Full Brunt of Vile Trump Hatred of Minorities; Pledges to Reverse Muslim Ban

Juan Cole, Informed Comment

Cole writes: "Joe Biden addressed the Million Muslim Votes organization on Monday. In the context of the extreme hatred for Muslims of the Trump administration and the wider Trump movement, his remarks were crucially significant but probably won't be noticed on cable news." 

Biden said in part,

“I wish we taught more in our schools about the Islamic faith. I wish we talked about all of the great confessional faiths– it is one of the great confessional faiths. And what people don’t realize–and one of my avocations is theology — is that we all come from the same root here in terms of our fundamental basic beliefs.

You’re doing what has never been done before– you’re registering turning out one million Muslim voters this November. It matters. Your vote is your voice. Muslim American voices matter to our communities, to our country. But we all know that your voice hasn’t always been recognized or represented or gotten the recognition it deserves. And that’s your right as a citizen. What you’re doing is making a real difference.

[Eulogizes the late Rep. John Lewis and advocacy for voting rights for all.] “It was no surprise that when Trump announced the Muslim ban in his first week in office, John went directly to Hartsfield Int’l Airport in his home district in Atlanta to demand answers of immigration officials. They wouldn’t tell him how many people were being detained. Know what his answer was simply? We don’t we just sit down and stay awhile.”

[Urged new legislation for restoration of Voting Right Act.] Muslim communities were the first to feel Donald Trump’s assault on black and brown communities in this country with his vile Muslim ban. That fight was the opening barrage in what has been nearly four years of constant pressure and insults and attacks against Muslim American communities […and other minorities … ]. Donald Trump has fanned the flames of hate in this country across the board… under this administration we have seen an unconscionable rise of Islamic-phobia, and incidents including kids being bullied in school and hate crimes in our communities. He’s named people with a history of open Islamic-phobia — open, straightforward, who have no business serving in high positions in our government, to key leadership roles in our Department of Defense and the Agency for International Development. It is not only an insult to our values, it weakens our standing in the rest of the world . . . he is making a mockery of what we stand for.

I want to work in partnership with you, make sure your voices are included in the decision-making process.”

Biden in essence gave a lay homily or sermon about tolerance and hate in today’s America. He began by urging that something about Islam be taught in American schools. Of course, US public schools seldom touch religion, including the History of Religions, because of the separation of religion and state. But there has been a lively movement for the teaching of World History, and the history of Muslims is the history of one fifth of humankind, so that would be a good rubric for it. Alas, it is often an elective, and I don’t know how widely it is offered. I took such a class when I was in High School and it obviously made a big impact on me. 

People on my social media feeds have wondered what Biden meant by calling Islam one of the great confessional religions. My guess is that this is terminology he imbibed from his Catholic upbringing and reading in theology. He probably meant by it a distinctive set of beliefs that adherents must acknowledge. This Swiss site talks about Protestants and Catholics as “confessions” and says such confessions were seen in 19th century German thought to be instrumentalized for political solidarity. Muslims “confess” that there is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet. This European sense of confession overlaps with what Americans would just call a denomination. Because of its French colonial heritage, Lebanon is a country of such “confessions” (Christian, Sunni, Shiite, Druze), and confessional identity shapes politics there.

He underlined the common Abrahamic origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, though he did not use the term “Abrahamic.” As a liberal Irish Catholic, Biden is probably influenced by Vatican II and its religious tolerance (it admitted that some of the light that shines in Christianity is also present in Islam). American Catholics can go either way when the contemplate the increasing hatred of Muslims. They can identify with the Muslims, having themselves been victims of Protestant intolerance. Or they can pile on, like Steve Bannon, and use right wing Catholicism as a stick to beat Muslims with. Biden is among the former.

Biden’s remarks incorporated Muslim-Americans as one thread into the national fabric. He depicts them as the first to feel the full force of Trumpian hatred and prejudice, which, however, is also aimed at other minorities. The Muslim Americans, he said, were in the vanguard of feeling the discrimination that would lead to their children being constantly bullied, and to hate crimes against their communities (under Trump, many mosques have been burned down).

For Biden, all Americans are suffering under Trump, and Muslim-Americans are exemplary in being his first and most exploited victims, via the “vile” Muslim Ban, which Biden vows to undo.

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Which side are these guys on again? (photo: John Rudoff/Sipa USA)

Trump Is Now Deploying Unidentified ICE Agents to Arrest Protesters in Democratic-Run Cities

Elliot Hannon, Slate

Hannon writes: "Protests in Portland have been punctuated by horror stories of unidentified federal agents in military garb snatching protesters off the streets in Oregon."

The goal of the agents’ presence and the authority under which they are operating has been unclear, other than it serves the president’s authoritarian taste for strongman bullying and his need to do something, anything, to revive his reelection hopes. Having conceded defeat to the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump needs a straw man enemy to prop up and spar with over the next several months in hopes of scaring Americans into thinking there is a greater threat to their safety and prosperity than the actual president himself. Stirring up a hornets’ nest is what Trump’s after, and in the Portland protests he clearly senses an opportunity to cause disorder, which he can use to contrive a national response. As such, Trump said he is planning to send similar federal agents into multiple American cities, all under Democratic leadership.

“I’m going to do something—that, I can tell you,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Because we’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these—Oakland is a mess. We’re not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.” The rhetoric harkens back to Trump’s 2016 run, where he spun tales of American carnage—real and imagined—and claimed that amid the disorder, he alone could fix it. “This is worse than anything anyone’s ever seen,” Trump continued Monday. “And you know what? If Biden got in, that would be true for the country. The whole country would go to hell.” An expected 150 agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations division are reportedly being sent to Chicago, where, the New York Times reports, they are “expected to be in the city for at least 60 days to help combat violence and would be under the direction of the Justice Department.”

The generalized increase of blunt force in response to nothing in particular is part of a wider ratcheting up of the government’s response to sporadic protests lingering after weeks of powerful nationwide demonstrations. In addition, “the Department of Homeland Security has authorized its personnel to collect information on protesters who threaten to damage or destroy public memorials and statues, regardless of whether they are on federal property, a significant expansion of authorities that have historically been used to protect landmarks from terrorist attacks,” the Washington Post reports. “The new guidance was issued as department personnel have been dispatched to police and detain people protesting police violence, itself an untraditional role for a department set up to secure borders and transportation systems.”

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Members of the Illinois National Guard work at the COVID-19 test site at South Suburban College in South Holland, July 2, 2020. (photo: Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)

'Flying Blind': US Failure to Report Vital COVID-19 Data Is Hobbling Response
Ed Pilkington, Guardian UK
Pilkington writes: "The United States is failing to report vital information on Covid-19 that could help track the spread of the disease and prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, according to the first comprehensive review of the nation's coronavirus data."
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Mothers raise their fists as they support a protest against racial inequality in Portland, Oregon, on Monday. (photo: Daily Mail)

'Wall of Moms' Stand Between Portland Black Lives Matter Protesters and Federal Police

Linda Givetash, NBC News

Givetash writes: "Dozens of women wearing yellow linked arms to form a protective 'wall of moms' around Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday as the protesters clashed with federal law enforcement."

“Feds stay clear, moms are here!" protesters chanted outside the federal courthouse in Portland on Sunday.

Video from the scene showed crowds chanting “Feds stay clear, moms are here!" and "Feds go home!" before protesters toppled a fence erected around the federal courthouse. Federal agents fired back with what appeared to be tear gas and flash bangs, the video showed.

Hundreds of people had gathered for the demonstrations, blocking roads, Portland police said in a statement early Monday. They said dozens of others "tampered" with the courthouse fence.

“The crowd was very celebratory when the fence first came down,” freelance journalist Garrison Davis told NBC News by phone after reporting from the rally. “There was a lot of cheering.”

Once the fence was down, police said dozens of people carrying shields, helmets, gas masks, umbrellas, bats and hockey sticks approached the doors of the courthouse before federal law enforcement dispersed the crowd shortly before midnight.

Portland police said none of their officers were present, nor did they engage with the crowds or deploy gas.

The Department of Homeland Security couldn't be immediately reached for comment about the involvement of federal agents in Sunday's events.

In an earlier statement regarding Saturday's protests, the department described the demonstrators as "violent anarchists" who were "assaulting federal officers and damaging federal property."

Portland has seen sustained protests following the killing of George Floyd, the Black man whose death in custody in Minneapolis triggered global demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism.

Tensions have escalated in recent weeks, particularly after one protester was critically injured when an officer with the U.S. Marshals Service fired a less-lethal round at his head on July 11.

Sunday's protests began with a rally by a group called Moms Against Police Brutality, said Davis, the freelance journalist. Some members of the group, who are self-described as the Wall of Moms on social media, had been out at protests the previous night as well.

Some of the women were there because their children had been tear-gassed in earlier protests over recent weeks, Davis said.

“There’s definitely some parents and teens out there together,” he said.

The clashes on Sunday followed comments by the city's mayor blaming federal police for "escalating the situation."

"Their presence here is actually leading to more violence and more vandalism," Mayor Ted Wheeler said on CNN. "They're not wanted here. We haven't asked them here. In fact, we want them to leave."

The dispute over the presence of the federal agencies is set to play out in the courts.

On Friday, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. She alleged that federal law enforcement officers sent to Portland to suppress protests violated the Constitution by unlawfully detaining and arresting demonstrators without probable cause.

In the lawsuit, Rosenblum has asked for a restraining order to prevent agents with Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Protection Service from making any further arrests.

President Donald Trump defended his administration in a tweet on Sunday saying the government is "trying to help Portland, not hurt it." He also blamed local leadership for having "lost control of the anarchists and agitators."

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Staff of the House of Representatives review Illinois' Electoral College vote report in January 2017. (photo: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

A Definitive Case Against the Electoral College
Sean Illing, Vox
Illing writes: "One of the biggest problems with American democracy is that it's not democratic."
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Protesters hold a sign that reads 'The longer you stay, the more devastation to the country, please resign' as they take part in an anti-government demonstration in Bangkok. (photo: Aiden Jones/AFP)

Thailand Sees Largest Anti-Government Protests Since 2014 Military Coup
Sammy Westfall, VICE
Westfall writes: "The youth-led protests appear to have taken a page from Hong Kong's highly decentralized pro-democracy movement last year, one expert said."
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A polar bear stands on sea ice on the North Pole. (photo: Arterra/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Polar Bears Could Be Nearly Gone by 2100, Study Finds
Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
Rosane writes: "If world governments don't act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, most polar bear populations will not survive the century, a new study has found."

Polar bears, who rely on Arctic sea ice to hunt for seals, have long been a symbol of the impacts of the climate crisis. As the ice melts, they lose the ability to sustain themselves.

"Polar bears are already sitting at the top of the world; if the ice goes, they have no place to go," lead study author and University of Toronto Scarborough biologist Péter Molnár told BBC News.

But the study, published in Nature Climate Change Monday, is the first to predict when and where Arctic warming will threaten the bears' survival, The Guardian reported.

"It's been clear for some time that polar bears are going to suffer under climate change," Molnár told The Guardian. "But what was not fully clear was when we would expect major declines in the survival and reproduction of polar bears that could ultimately lead to their extirpation."

To answer this question, scientists looked at two emissions scenarios: business as usual and a more moderate option in which emissions peak in 2040 before starting to fall, according to The New York Times. Under the business-as-usual model, all populations of polar bears would be wiped out by 2100, except for the bears living in Canada's northernmost Queen Elizabeth Islands, The Guardian reported. But even under the moderate scenario, most populations were likely to suffer reproductive failure by 2080, the study found.

"The study shows clearly that polar bears are going to do better with less warming," University of Alberta polar bear expert Andrew Derocher, who was not involved with the study, told The New York Times. "But no matter which scenario you look at, there are serious concerns about conservation of the species."

Polar bears can fast for months at a time when sea ice melts in the spring and summer. The researchers made their predictions based on how long male bears could reasonably fast and survive and how long females could reasonably fast and raise their young compared with how long different parts of the Arctic are projected to be ice free through 2100.

They assessed 13 of 19 polar bear populations, or around 80 percent of the roughly 25,000 bears remaining. Bears in Canada's Archipelago ecoregion were not assessed because it is hard to estimate future sea ice in the area's islands and channels, according to The Guardian.

If nothing is done to reduce emissions, bears in Canada's southern Hudson Bay and Davis Strait could fail to reproduce by 2040 while most bears in Alaska and Russia could be at risk by 2080. The polar bear population in western Hudson Bay has already shrunk around 30 percent since 1987.

"Showing how imminent the threat is for different polar bear populations is another reminder that we must act now to head off the worst of future problems faced by us all," study coauthor and chief scientist of Polar Bears International Dr. Steven Amstrup told BBC News. "The trajectory we're on now is not a good one, but if society gets its act together, we have time to save polar bears. And if we do, we will benefit the rest of life on Earth, including ourselves."

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