COVID-19 rages, Trump melts down, and Congress takes a two-week break

• COVID-19 rages, Trump melts down, and Congress takes a two-week break
  
• Millions of Americans are about to find out just how badly they've been screwed by Trump and the GOP
• 
  Robert Reich, writing for The Guardian, weighs in on the fairy tale that our country is somehow “roaring back,” as Donald Trump characterized it when he hawked a report last week based on misleading unemployment statistics, numbers which were already woefully out of date at the time they were released:

  The US economy isn’t roaring back. Just over half of Americans have jobs now, the lowest figure in more than 70 years. What’s roaring back is Covid-19. Until it’s tamed, the American economy doesn’t stand a chance.

  As former Labor Secretary Reich notes, “The uptick in jobs in June was due almost entirely to the hasty reopening, which is now being reversed.”
  Last month, many businesses rehired previously laid-off employees based on cues they received from state governors assuring them the crisis had passed, that it was “time to reopen.”  Those governors and Republicans in their legislatures, in turn, took their cues from a political imperative pushed relentlessly by the White House. But, as most of these governors well knew, that wasn’t the reality at all. It was simply a story spun out of thin air by an administration growing increasingly desperate about its re-election chances; a story to mollify a restless public grown increasingly frustrated at the endless lockdowns;  a story to provide temporary cover for Republicans at the state and federal level who had absolutely no clue how to handle this pandemic.
  But mostly it was a story to satisfy their donors, who were seeing their corporate profits evaporate and taking it out on their paid stooges in Congress and the states.  And the GOP jumped to the task, bailing out businesses as much as they possibly could with hundreds of billions of dollars, without ever telling the American public where those funds were actually going (Hint: it was to their donors). But it wasn’t done out of any concern for American workers. If it had been, the GOP would have come up with a game plan that didn’t simply involve waving some fairy dust at the end of May and  telling people it was now suddenly safe to go back to work.
  In effect this was all an untested medical experiment on a grand scale, collectively embraced by the GOP, with ordinary Americans as its unwitting subjects. The reopening push was not based on any scientific or medical planning to address the pandemic, but on wholly on “feel-good” politics designed to satisfy their donors for a few months. After that charade had done its work--zero.
  So when those June unemployment numbers trumpeted by Trump and his GOP-state media last Thursday were actually compiled, reported Covid-19 cases in this country were averaging 25,000 daily, because all those reopenings in late May were only beginning to register a corresponding spike in infections.  Since that report, cases have now jumped drastically to an average of 55,000 per day or more, forcing many states that had prematurely reopened to reverse themselves, shutting down businesses once again in a desperate attempt to prevent the virus from spiraling out of control and overwhelming their state’s medical capabilities. Last week, NIAID Director Anthony Fauci warned that we were likely to see 100,000 cases of new infections every day, thanks to inadequate efforts to contain the virus, and thanks to these misguided reopenings.
  Republican state legislators from Texas to Arizona, to Wisconsin, where Covid-19 cases are now shooting through the roof, all rode the “reopening” bandwagon for months while pounding their chests on their Facebook pages about their “patriotism,” attending rallies in support of gun-toting Neo-Nazi militias, and bringing frivolous lawsuits to force businesses to reopen. In most Republican-led states (and some Democratic-run ones as well) , the GOP’s blind push and often violent agitation to force accelerated reopenings caused several states to issue blanket, credulous edicts to reopen long before it was safe to do so. In states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where they did not control the governor’s mansion, GOP-controlled legislatures introduced articles of impeachment to try to force their states to reopen, or petitioned like-minded judges to overrule the lockdown measures.
  But in less than a week since those new job numbers were released, instead of a nation “roaring back” we are now witnessing an embarrassing and hasty retreat by the GOP from everything they and Trump had assured us of with such certainty. Meanwhile, as Reich painstakingly points out, the pandemic hasn’t gone anywhere in the last four months. It still hangs around, strong as ever, like a voracious beast, ready to devour anyone foolish enough to try to defy it.
  Now, all of those efforts are proving to be disastrous:

  Arizona’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, initially refused to order masks and even barred local officials from doing so. This week he closed all gyms, bars and movie theaters in the state. The governors of Florida, Texas and California have also reimposed restrictions. Officials in Florida’s Miami-Dade county recently approved the reopening of movie theaters, arcades, casinos, concert halls, bowling halls and adult entertainment venues. They have now re-closed them.

  And so on across America. A vast re-closing is under way, as haphazard as was the reopening. In the biggest public health emergency in US history, in which nearly 130,000 have already lost their lives, still no one is in charge.

  You’d think some Republicans would have the decency to apologize. But none has, to date. Meanwhile, as a result of Republican dithering and inaction, millions of Americans are now finding themselves teetering on the edge of a financial abyss, thanks to the complete lack of a coherent national response to this crisis by this president, and thanks to Republican officials at all levels who abetted him. Reich plainly lays out what is coming in the next few weeks, all Republican “magical thinking” and fantasy-spinning to the contrary:

  Brace yourself. Not only will the virus take many more lives in the months ahead, but millions of Americans are in danger of becoming destitute. Extra unemployment benefits enacted by Congress in March are set to end on 31 July. About one in five people in renter households are at risk of eviction by 30 September. Delinquency rates on mortgages have more than doubled since March.

  An estimated 25 million Americans have lost or will lose employer-provided health insurance. America’s fragile childcare system is in danger of collapse, with the result that hundreds of thousands of working parents will not be able to return to work even if jobs are available.

  The GOP-controlled U.S. Senate has all but abandoned the field in this pandemic, blocking attempts by Democratic lawmakers in the House to provide additional emergency aid to suffering Americans, and instead going on vacation throughout the entire month of June. In this conscious act of cowardice they deliberately left millions of Americans to their fate. Mitch McConnell and his colleagues have long since exhausted their quiver of phony, supply-side, “market-based” solutions and are now willingly leaving millions of American citizens to be crushed by an ongoing economic catastrophe only now beginning to take shape in its full ferocity.
  As the true, stunning magnitude of this crisis finally hits home to Americans, the Republican Party will be offering no solutions, because they have none. Helping Americans in a crisis like this is not in their playbook, and they have no point of reference, even if they had the inclination to do anything. In the end they they will be only too happy to scamper away to whatever gated communities continue to offer them shelter, muttering their worthless platitudes as Americans collapse into economic hardship, hunger, and in many cases, homelessness.
  By late summer all people of voting age in this country are going to be forced to make brutal, existential decisions about their futures and those of their families, and none of Trump’s hysterical babbling about Confederate statues or other race-baiting dog-whistles is going to make one whit of difference. This crisis is about to go into overdrive, far beyond any Republican attempts to “wish it away.” Millions of peoples’ lives are about to come on line with a fierce urgency that may well consign the Republican Party to the sorry trash bin of history, as Americans realize just how badly they’ve been screwed and lied to.
• 
  
• Florida sheriff who vowed to sic gun owners on protesters might be in deep legal doo-doo soon
• A few days ago, the nation got a new contender for “craziest sheriff in America”—Darryl Daniels, sheriff of Clay County, Florida; south of Jacksonville.
  On Tuesday, Daniels released a video (non-paywalled version here) in which he vowed to deputize every gun owner in Clay County in the event it becomes overwhelmed by “lawlessness” caused by protesters. No, this isn’t snark. Watch here.
  Daniels’ opponents in the election later this year condemned this video as a publicity stunt. One of them, former FDLE agent Mike Taylor—who has Jeb Bush’s endorsement—pointed out that if Daniels makes good on his threat, he could expose the county to astronomical liability. Another, former Atlantic Beach police chief Michelle Cook, suggested this stunt was evidence Daniels couldn’t lead.
  Taylor and Cook, like Daniels, are Republicans—as are all of the candidates for sheriff in this crimson-red county. So their criticism is really telling in a race where, on paper, the Republicans should be trying to outwingnut each other. 
  Daniels was ultimately forced to walk back his comments on Thursday, saying that he would never give anyone carte blanche to use deadly force because it would violate both Florida statutes and his duties as sheriff.
  But by then, another shoe had dropped. It turns out that Daniels may be about to be in serious legal trouble. He may be about to face criminal charges for a gross abuse of power. Specifically, using the power of his office to have his former mistress arrested.

  First Coast News has learned from multiple law enforcement sources that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has completed its initial report into misconduct allegations against Clay's top cop. The report is now in the possession of the 4th District State Attorney’s Office, which must review and make recommendations, an FDLE spokesperson confirmed.

  The investigation was sparked in May 2019 after Daniels called 911 on his lover of six years, whom he accused of stalking, and asked his own officers to place her under arrest. Cierra Smith was arrested and detained for 6 hours but not jailed after an assistant state attorney found there was no probable cause to book her.

  It later emerged that Daniels began his affair with Smith when he was her direct supervisor at the Duval County Jail.

  It turns out that Daniels’ deputies initially balked at arresting Smith, suspecting that they didn’t have probable cause. They called an assistant state attorney for the 4th Circuit, whose jurisdiction covers Jacksonville itself and most of that city’s inner-ring suburbs, including Clay County. The assistant state attorney who handled most Clay County cases agreed they didn’t have probable cause, and suggested they refer the matter to the FDLE.
  Shortly after the FDLE completed its review, the person who would have normally made those recommendations, 4th Circuit State Attorney Melissa Nelson, recused herself. Nelson—like Daniels, a Republican—told Governor Ron DeSantis that she believed several of her prosecutors could potentially be called as witnesses. She believed the only way to resolve this high conflict of interest would be to appoint an independent prosecutor from another circuit.
  Simply put, if there is anything at all to these charges, Daniels is in a world of trouble. Seen in this light, his initial vow to sic his county’s gun owners on protesters looks like a classic case of Republican deflection.
• Become part of the team to kick Trump and his GOP enablers to the curb. Make a $5 monthly donation to the Daily Kos GOTV program through the November elections.
  
• Trump wants to scare suburban white women back into his arms. Wanna guess how that's going?
  
• 'No one among us is immune': Penn State student dies of COVID-19 complications
• 
• A 21-year-old Penn State student has died from complications related to COVID-19, and the university is now working to track down those who have had contact with the student, the school said in a statement Thursday. Juan Garcia was living off-campus when he became sick and decided to travel home June 19 to Allentown, which is about 165 miles east of the university. While home, Garcia was tested for COVID-19 on June 20 and died 10 days later, according to the school.

  “We are profoundly saddened to learn about Juan’s untimely death during this pandemic,” Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Sims said in the statement. “While I did not know Juan personally, we have learned through conversations with those closest to him that this young man had a remarkable spirit and was greatly loved. I know our entire campus community sends our deepest condolences to his family and friends as they grieve this unthinkable loss. It is a poignant reminder that no one among us is immune to the worst consequences of this virus.”
  The university is asking anyone who may have been in contact with Garcia to call the University Health Services 24/7 Advice Nurse at 814-863-4463. “The University is in the process of contact tracing to reach those who may have been in close contact with Garcia while he was contagious,” Penn State officials said.

  Garcia's death happened as the school is preparing to reopen Aug. 24, with double-room residence hall occupancy, The New York Times reported. Campus instruction is, however, planned to end Nov. 20, according to the university. The news has triggered criticism on social media, with many condemning what are believed to be the school’s economic priorities. Penn State accounts for about $128 million annually in Centre County, where the university is located, the Times reported.

  “What I've heard is ‘we simply have to,’ ‘life as we know it will stop’ if we can't send kids back to school, open up our colleges, get people back to work as fast as possible,” Gregg Gonsalves, a public health professor at Yale University said in a Twitter thread Sunday. "What if the price of reopening is death?”

  He also shared a tweet from feminist author Mona Eltahawy, who argues “there is no going back to normal after a pandemic.” “At least 365,000 people have died around the world during this pandemic,” she said in late June. “That’s what normal brought us. F—k normal.”

  WARNING: This video contains profanity which may not be suitable for younger readers.

  Penn State isn’t the only university struggling to balance reopening needs with public health concerns. Nearly all of the country's 4,300 colleges and universities are promising a mix of online and in-person options for students, and presidents at the institutions are hoping multiple testing locations, reenvisioned academic formats, and tight social distancing guidelines will help protect students and staff members, USA Today reported.

  Terry Hartle, senior vice president with the American Council on Education told the newspaper: “At the end of the day, a lot of it is going to depend on young people showing discretion and good sense.” 

  Pennsylvania has seen 6,749 deaths related to COVID-19, including three reported Saturday, The Patriot-News reported. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 634 Saturday, bringing the state's total to 89,375. 

  Still, the statewide counts pale in comparison to epicenters of the virus such as Florida and Texas. Texas is reporting almost 192,000 cases, and more than 190,000 people have been infected with the virus in Florida where Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he won’t shut down businesses again, according to CNBC.

Although Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered bars to close and began requiring people to wear face coverings in public, the state, which was one of the first to lift its stay-at-home order, has only required restaurants to scale back seating capacities. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, whose county is experiencing a "non-linear increase" in COVID-19 related hospitalizations, told ABC’s “This Week” she is pushing for the state to implement a stay-at-home order.

“I'm sure a mask order will make some difference and I’m grateful that that’s happened,” she told the network. “That said, as long as we’re doing as little as possible and hoping for the best, we’re always going to be chasing this thing. We’re always going to be behind and the virus will always outrun us.”

• Before Pence visit, 5 members of megachurch choir had tested positive for COVID-19
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• 
  Only days ago, Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence attended a rally in a Dallas, Texas, megachurch packed with over 2,000 people. A, let's say, "highlight" of the event was the megachurch's mega-choir: over 100 singers who sang unmasked during Pence's event despite 1) the Centers for Disease Control warnings to wear masks, 2) singing being a now-identified especially dangerous activity for COVID-19 transmission due to the deep breaths required for voice projection, and 3) pandemic cases soaring in Texas during Pence's visit.

  Surprise: There's a fourth reason the event was a horrific idea. BuzzFeed News reports at least five members of the choir and orchestra at the venue had tested positive for COVID-19 in June. Also testing positive: one of the choir's music directors.
  While none of those who had tested positive attended the event, the odds that five members of the choir tested positive but that everything was completely fine after that, no further transmissions, no worries are ... low. It also doesn't particularly matter from the White House's standpoint as both Donald Trump and Mike Pence have been at the epicenters of their own persistent disease clusters without, says the most dishonest White House in all of U.S. history, ever testing positive themselves.

  Also on the doesn't-care-so-don't-bother-him side of the scale: hard-right evangelical grifter Robert Jeffress, the devoted Trump ally and Trump "Faith Initiative" member who gave his church over to Pence for the event despite the risks. We'll have to wait a few weeks to determine whether additional COVID-19 cases will be associated with Pence's latest stunt, and whether anyone will die. At some point Republicans are going to start caring, if for no other reason than that too many of their own voters dying off might begin to turn swing states a little less swingy.
• 
  
• Trump's tragic incompetence has cost American lives. Every Republican senator who voted to acquit Trump needs to be held accountable for the crisis they've helped create. Chip in now to end Republican control of the Senate.
  
• Shock doctrine in action: Trump friends, former staff cash in on COVID-19 crisis
  
• Face the Nation says Trump team has denied CDC interviews for 3 months, but toadies remain plentiful
  
• The 3 phases of pandemic response in the United States, and why it keeps getting worse
  
• Sign the petition to U.S. Mayors: Defund the police, invest in communities.
  
• Federal judge orders Dakota Access Pipeline shut down, drained until environmental review completed
  
• NASA renames its headquarters building for 'Hidden Figure' engineer Mary W. Jackson
  
• Voters were already unhappy with Trump's pandemic response, and it's only getting worse
  
• Sign and send the petition: Demand Congress broaden the moratorium on evictions and provide emergency rental assistance so people are able to pay their rent.
  
• 'Just another HOAX?' Trump implies NASCAR's Bubba Wallace is lying even after noose photo released
  
• AT&T argues being misleading about data plans isn't misleading because reporters caught them
  
• Hospitals are getting dangerously full in new coronavirus epicenters of Arizona and Texas
  

ICYMI: Here are the top stories of the week so far:

• Rudy Giuliani releases audio of Biden in Ukraine that shows Biden... was telling the truth all along
  
• Kellyanne Conway's daughter is now attacking Trump, too
  
• Trump 'furious' at Kushner over polling; Republicans giving Trump till Labor Day to right the ship

RSN: Paul Krugman | World War C

02 July 20

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

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Paul Krugman | World War C

Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Krugman writes: "Thinking about the course of the Covid-19 pandemic in America, I found myself remembering Sam Smith's history of the march to war in Iraq, told entirely in official lies."
READ MORE

Amber England, who led the successful campaign for a ballot initiative to give 200,000 more Oklahomans health coverage, talked with supporters online this week. (photo: Sue Ogrocki/AP)

Oklahoma Votes for Medicaid Expansion Over Objections of Republican State Leaders
Jackie Fortier, NPR
Fortier writes: "Voters in Oklahoma narrowly approved a ballot measure Tuesday night to expand Medicaid to eligible adults who need health insurance."
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Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels in October, 2018. (photo: AP)

'You've Been Warned': Florida Sheriff Threatens to Deputize Gun Owners Against Protesters

Andrew Pantazi, The Florida Times-Union

Pantazi writes: "Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels, no stranger to making viral videos appealing to tough-on-crime politics, released a video Tuesday that said he will make 'special deputies of every lawful gun owner in this county' if he feels the county is overwhelmed by protesters."

EXCERPT:

The three-minute video shows Daniels standing in front of 18 deputies as he derides civil rights protesters as godless disruptors and tells them to stay out of Clay County, a suburb of Jacksonville.

"If we can’t handle you, I’ll exercise the power and authority as the sheriff, and I’ll make special deputies of every lawful gun owner in this county and I’ll deputize them for this one purpose to stand in the gap between lawlessness and civility," he said.

"That’s what we’re sworn to do. That’s what we’re going to do. You’ve been warned."

Daniels, the county’s first Black sheriff, is himself under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement related to an affair he had with a fellow officer when he was at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and a subsequent false arrest of that officer.

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Armed protesters provide security for a protest demanding reopening in Lansing, Michigan, on 30 April. Members of the 'boogaloo' movement wear Hawaiian shirts paired with body armor and a military-style rifle. (photo: Jeff Kowalsky/Getty)

Facebook Has Been Profiting From Boogaloo Ads Promoting Civil War And Unrest
Ryan Mac and Caroline Haskins, BuzzFeed News
Excerpt: "On Sunday, the @docscustomknives Instagram account placed an ad on the popular photo-sharing social network advocating that people 'join the militia, fight the state.'"
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Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near New Salem, North Dakota. (photo: Tony Webster/Flickr)

North Dakota Governor's Pro-Pipeline Letter Ghostwritten by Fossil Fuel Company

Will Parrish, Guardian UK

Parrish writes: "This March, North Dakota's governor, Doug Burgum, sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) emphatically supporting the North Bakken Expansion Project, a 61.9-mile natural gas pipeline that has angered environmentalists and Native American nations alike."

EXCERPT: 

In that case, indigenous people and their allies, who were attempting to stop the pipeline’s construction, were met with oft-ruthless repression by police officers working at the behest of elected state officials.

“After what happened to us at Standing Rock, this almost doesn’t surprise me – almost,” White says.

North Dakota is the US’s second-largest oil-producing state behind Texas owing to the productiveness of the Bakken Shale formation. Executives for the oil and gas industry gave over $100,000 to Burgum’s 2016 election campaign, according to North Dakota secretary of state data.

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Demonstrators wear masks of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz as they protest the plan to annex the West Bank. (photo: Amir Levy/Getty)

Bernie Sanders Drafts Legislation That Would Cut US Aid to Israel if Netanyahu Goes Forward With Annexation

Ryan Grim and Maryam Saleh, The Intercept

Excerpt: "More than 1,000 former and current members of J Street U, the youth wing of the liberal, pro-Israel organization J Street, are calling on the group's leadership to get behind a legislative effort to condition funding of the state of Israel if it goes forward with illegally annexing Palestinian territory, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to do."

The J Street U members, along with former staff, have signed on to a letter to the group’s leadership which describes the response to Israel’s impending annexation as “a decisive test for the progressive movement.” The alumni who signed the letter include 28 former J Street U staffers, over a dozen rabbis and rabbinical students, former Obama White House staffers, and congressional and campaign staffers.

“Israel’s leaders are proceeding with annexation because they expect no real consequence for doing so,” the letter reads. “Now, as they threaten to make that control permanent, most American leaders and institutions have expressed outrage, but few have indicated that moving forward will result in material consequences: a tangible erosion of American monetary support.”

“We ask J Street to stand in strong support of any legislation that will reduce American assistance to Israel if it decides, once and for all, to annex the West Bank,” it concludes.

Netanyahu has said he would begin to annex one third of the already occupied West Bank as early as Wednesday of this week — a move that would be in line with President Donald Trump’s one-sided plan for the region. The threat drew pushback in Congress in the form of a letter signed last week by 191 Democrats, expressing opposition to annexation but promising no specific consequences. A subsequent letter, spearheaded by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., pushes further, saying that lawmakers should “pursue legislation that conditions the $3.8 billion in U.S. military funding to Israel to ensure that U.S. taxpayers are not supporting annexation in any way.” Ocasio-Cortez won a resounding reelection victory in her Democratic primary last week, just as New York Rep. Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lost decisively to principal Jamaal Bowman, despite millions spent by pro-Israel big-money groups.

On Monday, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee tweeted its opposition to the letter Ocasio-Cortez was circulating, which had also been signed by Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Betty McCollum, and Pramila Jayapal. By Tuesday morning, Reps. Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Raul Grijalva, André Carson, Nydia Velázquez, Bobby Rush, Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, and Danny Davis had signed on, as had Sen. Bernie Sanders, Politico reported.

Tlaib, in a statement, said Israel’s planned annexation would “formalize an apartheid system” funded by U.S. tax dollars. “The implementation of that system would mean our tax dollars — instead of being used to fund health care or replace lead water pipes — would be used to perpetuate and entrench human rights violations in Palestine, including limitations on freedom of movement, further expansion of illegal land theft, home demolitions, and cutting off access to critical resources like clean water. We are coming together as progressive lawmakers today to clearly say: enough is enough.”

Though just 13 members of Congress have so far signed the letter, compared to the 191 who expressed opposition to annexation, there could potentially be many more willing to come forward. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, signed the larger letter but did not join Ocasio-Cortez’s. “If PM Netanyahu continues down the path of planned unilateral annexation on July 1 — breaking international law and violating human rights of Palestinians — Congress must put conditions on U.S. funding to Israel to demonstrate opposition to annexation and the violation of Palestinian human rights,” Pocan said in a statement provided Tuesday to The Intercept.

Sanders is drafting legislation that ties Israel’s ongoing annexation activity to funding, sources familiar with his effort said. A companion House measure is also being drafted.

A congressional aide involved in the effort said that the Ocasio-Cortez letter and the legislation do not hinge on an upcoming Knesset vote on legal annexation, but tie aid to the ongoing annexation activity of the Israeli government. “It’s important to note that de jure annexation isn’t the only trigger for conditioning aid,” said the aide, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, given the early nature of the conversations. “As the letter states, there are also the policies and practices that have been laying the groundwork for de facto annexation for years: land expropriation, the expulsion of Palestinian families, the demolition of people’s homes, and the building of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and throughout the Palestinian territories. American taxpayers shouldn’t be enabling violations of human rights anywhere, and Israel should be no exception.”

Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian American analyst, told The Intercept, “I think anybody who claims to oppose annexation, Israeli settlement building, or other Israeli violations of human rights and International law, but refuses to support holding them accountable when they do those things, actually doesn’t oppose them at all and is just being an apologist for them.”

Whether the legislation moves beyond that small group and becomes a mainstream public Democratic position has much to do with the decision J Street, and particularly its founder Jeremy Ben-Ami, is now confronted with. Ben-Ami founded J Street in 2008, creating a liberal counterpoint to AIPAC — giving cover to Democrats to buck Israel on policy issues, most notably former President Barack Obama’s Iran deal. The effort to condition aid based on annexation gives J Street another opportunity to wield its influence on Capitol Hill, though one its founder is reluctant to take. If it remains on the sidelines while issuing sternly worded statements, the effort is unlikely to gain enough momentum to change the reality on the ground in Israel. If J Street gives its blessing and puts its formidable lobbying operation to work, however, a sizable majority of the Democratic caucus could get on board.

Last week, J Street applauded a letter signed by the majority of the House Democratic Caucus opposing the forthcoming unilateral Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank. Neither J Street’s statement, nor the underlying congressional letter, however, had much teeth. If Israel were to move forward with its plans, they stated, it would harm the U.S.-Israel relationship, as well as negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians — but did not tie their opposition to any political consequences.

On a leadership conference call Monday, Ben-Ami talked briefly about the protest from J Street U members, arguing that it was a reflection of the younger, more idealistic activists who make up that organization. He said that J Street as an organization needed to “calibrate more finely than activists who just want to stand for principle,” according to notes of his remarks shared with The Intercept. (Many of those alumni are now well into their 30s, and include former staff, who are older still.)

The issue of conditioning U.S. aid to Israel has long divided J Street and J Street U, which is known to support policies well to the left of those supported by its parent organization. In early 2019, nearly three dozen current and former members of J Street U’s board presented a letter to Ben-Ami and the J Street board, calling on the organization to take “bold action … that responds appropriately to this political moment” by “imposing actual, tangible costs” for Israel’s occupation policies. The signatories argued that J Street could afford to take a more leftward stance on the U.S.-Israel alliance without alienating supporters, as the Democratic electorate has moved left on the issue in recent years.

“In recent years, J Street has increasingly played a role of working to prevent a critical mass for accountability from forming among liberals and progressives, which only ends up carrying water for AIPAC, whether they want to acknowledge it or not,” said Munayyer.

When The Intercept asked Ben-Ami about that internal debate last year, he pointed to comments he made last April, after Netanyahu promised to annex Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. “What I said is that Israel going down the road of annexation puts all aspects of the U.S.-Israel relationship on the table and opens up a really serious discussion about what should happen,” Ben-Ami said in an interview. “That includes the question of to what purposes is the aid that the United States provides to the state of Israel put, and that is a really important conversation.”

In subsequent statements, Ben-Ami distanced himself and the organization from the policy, even as Democratic presidential candidates took a range of positions to the left of J Street’s.

In a statement accompanying their letter, the J Street U alumni acknowledged that J Street has “willingly” disagreed with the Israeli position on annexation, but noted that the organization “has stopped short of advocating for or supporting legislation that would reduce aid to Israel — which relies on U.S. taxpayer money for military assistance — should its government move forward with annexation.”

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African bush elephants i

In 'Conservation Disaster,' Hundreds of Botswana's Elephants Are Dying From Mysterious Cause
Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
Rosane writes: "More than 350 elephants have died in Botswana since May, and no one knows why." 

 Poaching has been ruled out, because no tusks have been removed from the elephants' bodies, but it is possible the animals are dying of a disease that could spread to the human population.

"Yes, it is a conservation disaster — but it also has the potential to be a public health crisis," National Park Rescue Director of Conservation Dr. Niall McCann told BBC News.

Botswana's tourism ministry first said that it was investigating the deaths in mid-May, when 12 dead elephants were found over two weekends in the country's Okavango Delta, Phys.org reported at the time.

By the end of May, 169 elephants had died, and that number had more than doubled by mid-June, The Guardian reported.

"This is totally unprecedented in terms of numbers of elephants dying in a single event unrelated to drought," McCann told BBC News.

But despite the scale of the deaths, the government has not yet completed testing of the animals to determine the cause, earning the criticism of conservation groups.

"There is real concern regarding the delay in getting the samples to an accredited laboratory for testing in order to identify the problem — and then take measures to mitigate it," Environmental Investigation Agency Executive Director Mary Rice told The Guardian. "The lack of urgency is of real concern and does not reflect the actions of a responsible custodian. There have been repeated offers of help from private stakeholders to facilitate urgent testing which appear to have fallen on deaf ears … and the increasing numbers are, frankly, shocking."

The government, meanwhile, attributed the delay to the coronavirus pandemic.

"We have sent [samples] off for testing and we are expecting the results over the next couple of weeks or so," Dr. Cyril Taolo, acting director for Botswana's department of wildlife and national parks, told The Guardian. "The Covid-19 restrictions have not helped in the transportation of samples in the region and around the world. We're now beginning to emerge from that and that is why we are now in a position to send the samples to other laboratories."

Taolo said the government had confirmed 280 out of 350 reported deaths and is working to confirm the rest.

Local reports indicate that animals of all ages and sexes are dying, with some spotted wandering in circles, a sign of neurological damage. The cause is likely a poison or disease, but experts are not sure which.

More than 100 elephants died in October 2019 in a suspected anthrax outbreak, Phys.org reported, but McCann told BBC News he had tentatively ruled out anthrax as the cause of the most recent deaths. Cyanide poisoning used by poachers is another possibility, but scavengers are not dying after eating the carcasses, The Guardian pointed out.

"It is only elephants that are dying and nothing else," McCann told BBC News. "If it was cyanide used by poachers, you would expect to see other deaths."

Botswana hosts the world's largest elephant population at more than 135,000 animals, about a third of all the elephants in Africa, Phys.org pointed out. The Okavango Delta, meanwhile, is home to 10 percent of Botswana's total population, or around 15,000 animals. African elephants are considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. Botswana was considered one of the safest countries for elephants until recently, Science Alert pointed out. But the government made a controversial decision to lift its elephant hunting ban in May of 2019, and poaching is on the rise. An Elephants Without Borders study published in Current Biology last year found that new elephant carcasses in northern Botswana had increased by 593 percent between 2014 and 2018 and that at least 385 elephants had been poached between 2017 and 2018.

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