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solarbirdSorry for just a big news dump, Mondays are really busy for me.
----- 1 -----
Trump administration cuts funding for coronavirus researcher, jeopardizing possible COVID-19 cure
An American scientist who collaborates with the Wuhan Institute of Virology had his grant terminated in the wake of unsubstantiated claims that COVID-19 is either manmade or leaked out of a Chinese government lab.
2020 May 10
Correspondent Scott Pelley
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-vaccine-politics-scientific-community-60-minutes-2020-05-10/
Peter Daszak is a scientist whose work is helping in the search for a COVID-19 cure. So why did the president just cancel Daszak's funding? It's the kind of politics which might seem ill-advised in a health crisis. President Trump is blaming China's government for the pandemic. The outbreak was first detected in the city of Wuhan. The administration has said, at times, the virus is man-made or that, if it's natural, it must have leaked out of a Chinese government lab. Both the White House and the Chinese Communist Party have been less than honest. And so, in China, and the U.S., the work of scientists like Peter Daszak is being undercut by pandemic politics.
Peter Daszak is a British-born American Ph.D. who's spent a career discovering dangerous viruses in wildlife, especially bats.
In 2003, in Malaysia, he warned 60 Minutes a pandemic was coming.
Peter Daszak in 2003 interview: What worries me the most is that we are going to miss the next emerging disease, that we're suddenly going to find a SARS virus that moves from one part of the planet to another, wiping out people as it moves along.
In the 17 years since that prophecy, Peter Daszak became president of the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance.
Peter Daszak: We're a nonprofit research organization that focuses on understanding where the pandemics come from, what's the risk of future pandemics and can we get in between this pandemic and the next one and disrupt it and stop it.
In China, EcoHealth has worked for 15 years with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Together they've catalogued hundreds of bat viruses, research that is critical right now.
Peter Daszak: The breakthrough drug, Remdesivir, that seems to have some impact on COVID-19 was actually tested against the viruses we discovered under our NIH research funding.
Scott Pelley: And so that testing would not have been possible--
Peter Daszak: No, it would not.
Scott Pelley: --if it hadn't been for the work that you did with the NIH grant?
Peter Daszak: Correct.
But his funding from the NIH, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, was killed, two weeks ago, by a political disinformation campaign targeting China's Wuhan Institute.
----- 2 -----
Bill Barr Twisted My Words in Dropping the Flynn Case. Here’s the Truth.
The F.B.I.’s interview of Mr. Flynn was constitutional, lawful and for a legitimate counterintelligence purpose.
By Mary B. McCord
Ms. McCord was an acting assistant attorney general for national security at the Justice Department from 2016 to 2017.
May 10, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/opinion/bill-barr-michael-flynn.html
At the direction of Attorney General Bill Barr, the Justice Department last week moved to dismiss a false-statements charge against Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser. The reason stated was that the continued prosecution “would not serve the interests of justice.”
The motion was signed by Timothy Shea, a longtime trusted adviser of Mr. Barr and, since January, the acting U.S. attorney in Washington. In attempting to support its argument, the motion cites more than 25 times the F.B.I.’s report of an interview with me in July 2017, two months after I left a decades-long career at the department (under administrations of both parties) that culminated in my role as the acting assistant attorney general for national security.
That report, commonly referred to as a “302,” is an interesting read. It vividly describes disagreements between leadership of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. about how to handle the information we had learned about Mr. Flynn’s calls with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and, more specifically, Mr. Flynn’s apparent lies about those calls to incoming Vice President Mike Pence.
But the report of my interview is no support for Mr. Barr’s dismissal of the Flynn case. It does not suggest that the F.B.I. had no counterintelligence reason for investigating Mr. Flynn. It does not suggest that the F.B.I.’s interview of Mr. Flynn — which led to the false-statements charge — was unlawful or unjustified. It does not support that Mr. Flynn’s false statements were not material. And it does not support the Justice Department’s assertion that the continued prosecution of the case against Mr. Flynn, who pleaded guilty to knowingly making material false statements to the FBI, “would not serve the interests of justice.”
I can explain why, relying entirely on documents the government has filed in court or released publicly.
----- 3 -----
Wisconsin: 72 Got COVID-19 After Being at Large Event
May 8, 2020
The Associated Press
https://www.fox21online.com/2020/05/08/wisconsin-72-got-covid-19-after-being-at-large-event/
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 70 people who tested positive for the coronavirus since an April 24 rally at the Wisconsin state Capitol indicated they had attended a large gathering, but the state Department of Health Services cant’ say if they were at the rally because it is not tracking specific events.
Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Goodsitt said Friday that when someone tests positive for COVID-19 they are asked if they attended any large gatherings. But the department did not add the April 24 rally, which attracted about 1,500 people, to the list of specific questions.
The department did add a question after the April 7 election to determine if people had been at the polls. As of Thursday, 67 people who were tested positive for COVID-19 had also reported being at the polls. But because many of them had other exposures, health officials have not been able to conclusively determine where they caught the virus.
The rally was organized and attended by people who oppose the state’s “safer at home” order and want to allow more businesses to reopen sooner than would be currently allowed. The order expires on May 26.
----- 4 -----
Salons Involve Prolonged Close Contact. But They Will Reopen Quickly Under Oregon’s Plan.
Not all salon owners think that's a good idea.
By Rachel Monahan
10 May 2020
https://www.wweek.com/news/state/2020/05/10/salons-involve-prolonged-close-contact-but-they-will-reopen-quickly-under-oregons-plan/
Getting a haircut, manicure or massage all requires being within 6 feet of another person.
But Oregon has decided salons can reopen as soon as May 15 in counties that meet the criteria of declining or low cases of COVID-19.
That has some people, even in the salon business, worried about the state's guidance.
"Until you, personally, are comfortable having your face next to five to 10 people's faces for an hour at a time in a day, you are showing us that you value your life over those in the personal service industries," wrote Lillian Huggins, owner of Atomic Hair Studio on Southeast 18th Avenue, in a letter she sent May 9 to Gov. Kate Brown and other officials. "I am begging, please move the reopening of the service industries to Phase Three. Vanity is not worth dying for."
...
The decision to reopen salons is a matter on which West Coast states disagree.
The pact signed by the governors of Washington, California and Oregon to coordinate reopening may include consultation, but it clearly doesn't require following the same rules.
Washington, like Oregon, will reopen salons in the next round of openings. California will not.
California lumps salons in with other higher-risk businesses, including movie theaters and sporting events without live audiences, meaning even when counties start to reopen there, salons won't be among them.
Boyle says each state has to individually determine what will work.
"While the states in the Western States Pact are sharing expertise and have developed a shared approach for reopening, each of our states is different, and our COVID-19 outbreaks and the structure of our stay-home orders are each different as well," says Boyle. "So, while each state has agreed to a shared framework for reopening, our individual plans vary based on the needs and situations in our states."
----- 5 -----
With coronavirus cases set to soar, state coalitions are mostly talk
By Kurt Wagner and Margaret Newkirk
Bloomberg News
10 May 2020
https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/with-coronavirus-cases-set-to-soar-state-coalitions-are-mostly-talk/article_997540cd-0f40-5384-8d50-e2ac5cebb291.html
Born last month to organize a 50-state free-for-all, regional coalitions to combat the coronavirus have so far been more ornamental than operational.
Seven Northeastern states said they will purchase masks, ventilators and sanitizer as a team, but officials provided few details about how the system will work or how goods will be apportioned. Western state officials confer regularly but aren’t organizing supply orders, and states are operating on their own timelines. And in the South, where many politicians resisted restrictions on commerce, governors discussed a coalition but never actually formed one.
Now, as the federal government pushes for an economic reopening despite signs that virus cases could still soar, coalitions are under pressure to present more concrete plans — and fill a void left by a White House ready to move forward whether states are ready or not.
“In the absence of federal leadership, states have been required to step up, not only individually but to coordinate regionally,” said Harry Heiman, a professor of public health at Georgia State University. “I’m not seeing any tangible production coming out of that yet.”
Estimates of the pandemic’s death toll have surged even as more states reopen at President Donald Trump’s behest. As many as 135,000 could die, according to University of Washington modeling, but the president has said Americans should think of themselves as “warriors.”
...
The Western States Pact isn’t unifying around equipment. Instead, members are mostly communicating about reopening. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis described the pact as a “strong information-sharing platform.”
California’s Gavin Newsom said there are weekly phone calls among governors’ chiefs of staff. Representatives from Oregon and Colorado recently presented plans that would allow rural counties to open more quickly than urban places. Newsom called those drafts “very, very helpful” in creating his own guidelines, some of which will be announced this week. Washington Governor Jay Inslee is also using them as a guide, according to a spokesperson.
But a telltale piece of vague management-speak recurs: A spokesperson for Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said pact members were sharing “best practices.”
The pact “could be more collaborative in the PPE space and sharing best practices on antibody tests,” Newsom said.
----- 6 -----
As deaths mount, Trump tries to convince Americans it’s safe to inch back to normal
By Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker and Yasmeen Abutaleb
May 9, 2020 at 2:38 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-deaths-mount-trump-tries-to-convince-americans-its-safe-to-inch-back-to-normal/2020/05/09/bf024fe6-9149-11ea-a9c0-73b93422d691_story.html
In a week when the novel coronavirus ravaged new communities across the country and the number of dead soared past 78,000, President Trump and his advisers shifted from hour-by-hour crisis management to what they characterize as a long-term strategy aimed at reviving the decimated economy and preparing for additional outbreaks this fall.
But in doing so, the administration is effectively bowing to — and asking Americans to accept — a devastating proposition: that a steady, daily accumulation of lonely deaths is the grim cost of reopening the nation.
Inside the West Wing, some officials talk about the federal government’s mitigation mission as largely accomplished because they believe the nation’s hospitals are now equipped to meet anticipated demand — even as health officials warn the number of coronavirus cases could increase considerably in May and June as more states and localities loosen restrictions, and some mitigation efforts are still recommended as states begin to reopen.
The administration is struggling to expand the scale of testing to what experts say is necessary to reopen businesses safely, and officials have not announced any national plan for contact tracing. Trump and some of his advisers are prioritizing the psychology of the pandemic as much as, if not more than, plans to combat the virus, some aides and outside advisers said — striving to instill confidence that people can comfortably return to daily life despite the rising death toll.
On Friday, as the unemployment rate reached a historically high 14.7 percent, Trump urged Americans to think of this period as a “transition to greatness,” adding during a meeting with Republican members of Congress: “We’re going to do something very fast, and we’re going to have a phenomenal year next year.” The president predicted the virus eventually would disappear even without a vaccine — a prediction at odds with his own science officials.
----- 7 -----
Governor Jay Inslee
twitter.com/GovInslee
11 May 2020
https://twitter.com/GovInslee/status/1259929717731241984
Without federal support, states will be forced to make impossible decisions.
Today, WA, OR, CA, NV, CO and our leg. leaders joined together to ask the federal government for $1 trillion to support our people and recover more quickly from this crisis:
https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/Western%20States%20Letter%20on%20Support%20for%20States%20and%20Cities_5.11.20%201050AM.pdf
----- 8 -----
Blake News
twitter.com/blakehounshell
11 May 2020
https://twitter.com/blakehounshell/status/1259910770080571394
The Federalist: "An image of Donald Trump wearing a protective face mask while performing his duties, behind the Resolute Desk, or in the White House briefing room would be a searing image of weakness."
[LINKS TO: https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/11/the-president-of-the-united-states-should-not-wear-a-mask/ ]
----- 9 -----
Fox News hosts call for “military mindset” to get people to enter public spaces despite COVID-19 threat
Pete Hegseth: “We have to reopen, guys, right now, even in some of the more difficult places”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published 05/11/20
https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-hosts-call-military-mindset-get-people-enter-public-spaces-despite
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Real quick, Pete just your thoughts in 20 seconds, about 78,000 are dead, we understand how many got the virus and will. I get it. But at the same time, can you get the military mindset with the masses of, take on the enemy because we have no choice — sitting on the sideline will destroy the country. How do you get the military mindset for the everyday American?
PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST, Fox & Friends Weekend): The military mindset is a patriotic mindset. It's what forged and founded this country. It is courage. We can be responsible, we can follow guidelines — while also reopening. We have to reopen, guys, right now, even in some of the more difficult places, or the livelihoods of people is going to crush more folks, or as many — I'm not talking in a statistical sense — as the actual virus itself. So, I think we can muster it. We've done it before, guys, and I think this is another chance to rise to that challenge.
----- 10 -----
GOP senators worry Trump, COVID-19 could cost them their majority
By Alexander Bolton - 05/11/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/496898-gop-senators-worry-trump-covid-19-could-cost-them-their-majority
Senate Republicans looking at polls showing GOP incumbents losing ground are concerned that President Trump's handling of the pandemic has put their majority in danger.
The two biggest criticisms of Trump that GOP lawmakers express privately are that his administration took too long to deploy coronavirus tests and that the president’s statements and demeanor have been too cavalier or flippant.
The biggest headwind Republicans face this fall is the faltering national economy, which now has a 14.7 percent unemployment rate, according to a Friday report by the Labor Department.
While Republican senators acknowledge that Trump’s popular support is tough to poll, some are concerned about surveys showing his approval rating below that of all 50 governors and other world leaders.
Compounding their anxiety are recent polls showing Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), a once-safe incumbent, now trailing his Democratic opponent, Gov. Steve Bullock, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who was also seen as cruising to reelection, in a dead heat with Democrat Theresa Greenfield.
Incumbent GOP Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Martha McSally (Ariz.) are well behind in the polls, while Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are in toss-up races.
----- 11 -----
I left the Justice Department after it made a disastrous mistake. It just happened again.
By Jonathan Kravis
May 11, 2020
Jonathan Kravis was a federal prosecutor for 10 years.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/11/i-left-justice-department-after-it-made-disastrous-mistake-it-just-happened-again/
Three months ago, I resigned from the Justice Department after 10 years as a career prosecutor. I left a job I loved because I believed the department had abandoned its responsibility to do justice in one of my cases, United States v. Roger Stone. At the time, I thought that the handling of the Stone case, with senior officials intervening to recommend a lower sentence for a longtime ally of President Trump, was a disastrous mistake that the department would not make again.
I was wrong.
Last week, the department again put political patronage ahead of its commitment to the rule of law, filing a motion to dismiss the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn — notwithstanding Flynn’s sworn guilty plea and a ruling by the court that the plea was sound.
Since my resignation, I have not commented on the Stone sentencing; it is not easy for me to do so now. Prosecutors are trained to make their cases in the courtroom and let the results speak for themselves.
But I feel compelled to write because I believe that the department’s handling of these matters is profoundly misguided, because my colleagues who still serve the department are duty-bound to remain silent and because I am convinced that the department’s conduct in the Stone and Flynn cases will do lasting damage to the institution.
----- 12 -----
Washington candidate filing week arrives, with signature requirement waived because of coronavirus
By Jim Brunner
Seattle Times political reporter
May 11, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-candidate-filing-week-arrives-with-signature-requirement-waived-due-to-coronavirus/
Washington’s 2020 election season kicks off officially this week, as candidates for governor, Congress, the Legislature and other elected offices must file paperwork to get on the Aug. 4 primary ballot.
The candidate-filing period opens Monday morning and runs until 4 p.m. Friday for those filing online with the Secretary of State, and 5 p.m. for anyone filing in person with the office.
...
After a fizzled bid for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, Inslee is seeking to become Washington’s first three-term governor since Republican Dan Evans won a third term in 1972. As he navigates the coronavirus crisis, Inslee has become a nationally known critic of Trump’s response, drawing the president’s public ire.
All of Inslee’s leading Republican rivals have confirmed their support for Trump and have taken part in protests or lawsuits challenging Inslee’s stay-home order.
----- 13 -----
The Bailout Is Working — for the Rich
The economy is in free fall but Wall Street is thriving, and stocks of big private equity firms are soaring dramatically higher. That tells you who investors think is the real beneficiary of the federal government’s massive rescue efforts.
by Jesse Eisinger
May 10, 2020
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-bailout-is-working-for-the-rich
Ten weeks into the worst crisis in 90 years, the government’s effort to save the economy has been both a spectacular success and a catastrophic failure.
The clearest illustration of that came on Friday, when the government reported that 20.5 million people lost their jobs in April. It marked a period of unfathomable pain across the country not seen since the Great Depression. Also on Friday, the stock market rallied.
The S&P 500 is now up 30% from its lows in mid-March and back to where it was last October, when the outlook for 2020 corporate earnings looked sunshiny. Companies have sold record amounts of debt in recent weeks for investment-grade companies. Junk bonds, historically dodgy during an economic swoon, have roared back.
If you’re looking for investors’ verdict on who has won the bailout, consider these returns: Shares of Apollo Group, the giant private equity firm, have soared 80% from their lows. The stock of Blackstone, another private equity behemoth, has risen 50%.
The reason: Asset holders like Apollo and Blackstone — disproportionately the wealthiest and most influential — have been insured by the world’s most powerful central bank. This largess is boundless and without conditions. “Even if a second wave of outbreaks were to occur,” JPMorgan economists wrote in a celebratory note on Friday, “the Fed has explicitly indicated that there is no dollar limit and no danger of running out of ammunition.”
----- 14 -----
Australia annoyed as U.S. pushes Wuhan lab COVID-19 theory
Kirsty Needham, Colin Packham
8 May 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-australia-china/australia-annoyed-as-u-s-pushes-wuhan-lab-covid-19-theory-idUSKBN22K118
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian officials are frustrated that their push for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus is being undermined by the White House, which has sought to link the outbreak to a Chinese lab, government, diplomatic and intelligence sources told Reuters.
Washington’s attack on China has given Beijing room to argue that Australia’s request for an independent inquiry is part of a U.S.-led agenda to blame it for the coronavirus outbreak, the sources said.
Canberra has been caught in a diplomatic squeeze between Washington, its main security ally, and already strained relations with Beijing, it major trading partner, even as its successful handling of the coronavirus has it planning to reopen the economy.
One government source said that officials were working hard to cast the review as open-minded and global, and that the American approach of “let’s get China” wasn’t helping.
----- 15 -----
Nearly 2K former DOJ officials call for AG Barr to resign over Flynn case
It's not clear how the judge in Flynn's case will react to DOJ's reversal.
By
Alexander Mallin
May 11, 2020
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2000-doj-officials-call-ag-barr-resign-flynn/story?id=70615677
Nearly 2000 former Justice Department officials have signed onto a letter calling for Attorney General William Barr to resign over what they describe as his improper intervention in the criminal case of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Last week, the DOJ moved to drop charges against Flynn who had pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the former Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.
The letter, signed mostly by former career officials in the department, accuses Barr of joining with President Trump in "political interference in the Department’s law enforcement decisions."
"Attorney General Barr’s repeated actions to use the Department as a tool to further President Trump’s personal and political interests have undermined any claim to the deference that courts usually apply to the Department’s decisions about whether or not to prosecute a case," reads the letter, which was organized by the group 'Protect Democracy'.
----- 16 -----
David Barton Says It’s ‘Not the Role of the Federal Government to Handle’ the COVID-19 Pandemic
Kyle MantylaBy Kyle Mantyla | May 11, 2020
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/david-barton-says-it-is-not-the-role-of-the-federal-government-to-handle-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Religious-right psuedo-historian and Republican political activist David Barton heaped praise on President Donald Trump for the largely hands-off approach his administration has taken to the COVID-19 pandemic, declaring that the federal government’s lack of response has been an excellent example of federalism.
Barton, who recently faulted Americans for not having strong enough Christian faith to show courage in the face of the deadly pandemic and praised Trump for “not letting medical professionals” determine the response, told Chad Robichaux of the Mighty Oaks Foundation during a Friday interview that Trump’s refusal to use the power of the federal government to address the crisis was exactly what the Founding Fathers intended.
----- 17 -----
Putin Is Well on His Way to Stealing the Next Election
Story by Franklin Foer
June 2020 Edition
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/putin-american-democracy/610570/
Jack Cable sat down at the desk in his cramped dorm room to become an adult in the eyes of democracy. The rangy teenager, with neatly manicured brown hair and chunky glasses, had recently arrived at Stanford—his first semester of life away from home—and the 2018 midterm elections were less than two months away. Although he wasn’t one for covering his laptop with strident stickers or for taking loud stands, he felt a genuine thrill at the prospect of voting. But before he could cast an absentee ballot, he needed to register with the Board of Elections back home in Chicago.
When Cable tried to complete the digital forms, an error message stared at him from his browser. Clicking back to his initial entry, he realized that he had accidentally typed an extraneous quotation mark into his home address. The fact that a single keystroke had short-circuited his registration filled Cable with a sense of dread.
Despite his youth, Cable already enjoyed a global reputation as a gifted hacker—or, as he is prone to clarify, an “ethical hacker.” As a sophomore in high school, he had started participating in “bug bounties,” contests in which companies such as Google and Uber publicly invite attacks on their digital infrastructure so that they can identify and patch vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them. Cable, who is preternaturally persistent, had a knack for finding these soft spots. He collected enough cash prizes from the bug bounties to cover the costs of four years at Stanford.
Though it wouldn’t have given the average citizen a moment of pause, Cable recognized the error message on the Chicago Board of Elections website as a telltale sign of a gaping hole in its security. It suggested that the site was vulnerable to those with less beneficent intentions than his own, that they could read and perhaps even alter databases listing the names and addresses of voters in the country’s third-largest city. Despite his technical savvy, Cable was at a loss for how to alert the authorities. He began sending urgent warnings about the problem to every official email address he could find. Over the course of the next seven months, he tried to reach the city’s chief information officer, the Illinois governor’s office, and the Department of Homeland Security.
As he waited for someone to take notice of his missives, Cable started to wonder whether the rest of America’s electoral infrastructure was as weak as Chicago’s. He read about how, in 2016, when he was a junior in high school, Russian military intelligence—known by its initials, GRU—had hacked the Illinois State Board of Elections website, transferring the personal data of tens of thousands of voters to Moscow. The GRU had even tunneled into the computers of a small Florida company that sold software to election officials in eight states.
Out of curiosity, Cable checked to see what his home state had done to protect itself in the years since. Within 15 minutes of poking around the Board of Elections website, he discovered that its old weaknesses had not been fully repaired. These were the most basic lapses in cybersecurity—preventable with code learned in an introductory computer-science class—and they remained even though similar gaps had been identified by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, not to mention widely reported in the media. The Russians could have strolled through the same door as they had in 2016.
----- 18 -----
Trump’s latest Twitter meltdown features QAnon, accidental self-owns, and a lot of “OBAMAGATE”
In any previous era, the tweets would be a major national scandal. In Trump’s America, it was Sunday.
By Aaron Rupar
May 11, 2020
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/11/21254398/trump-tweets-mothers-day-obamagate-coronavirus
With the coronavirus continuing to ravage the country both in human and economic terms and his poll numbers sagging, President Donald Trump spent his event-free Mother’s Day posting up a storm — sending the sort of public statements that would have been cause for national concern in any previous era.
When the smoked cleared, the 126 tweets or retweets Trump posted ending up being one of his most prolific posting days in history, falling just 16 short of the single-day posting record he set during his impeachment trial in January. Although the American public has become somewhat numb to Trump’s Twitter diatribes, the quantity was notable — and so was the lack of quality.
The president amplified a number of accounts that have promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory about Democrats being involved in a pedophilia cult, retweeted accounts without avatars and with few followers that he somehow found on the fringes of the internet, and desperately tried to change the topic from the coronavirus by working to settle old scores with his perceived foes in politics and the media.
The meltdown continued into Monday morning:
----- 19 -----
King County to direct people to wear masks in most public places
By Becca Savransky, SeattlePI
Updated 2:30 pm PDT, Monday, May 11, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/coronavirus/article/king-county-seattle-masks-coronavirus-direction-15262049.php
People in King County will be directed to wear masks in most public settings beginning May 18 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Under the new directive, people are asked to wear face coverings in places including restaurants, grocery stores, retail stores and on public transportation.
Residents don't need to wear masks when walking or exercising outdoors, as long as it is possible to follow social distancing guidelines and remain six feet apart from others.
People are encouraged to use cloth face coverings, as N95 respirators and other medical grade masks should still be reserved for healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic.
----- 20 -----
If 80% of Americans Wore Masks, COVID-19 Infections Would Plummet, New Study Says
There’s compelling evidence that Japan, Hong Kong, and other East Asian locales are doing it right and we should really, truly mask up—fast.
By David Ewing Duncan
May 8, 2020
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/masks-covid-19-infections-would-plummet-new-study-says
It sounds too good to be true. But a compelling new study and computer model provide fresh evidence for a simple solution to help us emerge from this nightmarish lockdown. The formula? Always social distance in public and, most importantly, wear a mask.
If you’re wondering whether to wear or not to wear, consider this. The day before yesterday, 21 people died of COVID-19 in Japan. In the United States, 2,129 died. Comparing overall death rates for the two countries offers an even starker point of comparison with total U.S. deaths now at a staggering 76,032 and Japan’s fatalities at 577. Japan’s population is about 38% of the U.S., but even adjusting for population, the Japanese death rate is a mere 2% of America’s.
This comes despite Japan having no lockdown, still-active subways, and many businesses that have remained open—reportedly including karaoke bars, although Japanese citizens and industries are practicing social distancing where they can. Nor have the Japanese broadly embraced contact tracing, a practice by which health authorities identify someone who has been infected and then attempt to identify everyone that person might have interacted with—and potentially infected. So how does Japan do it?
“One reason is that nearly everyone there is wearing a mask,” said De Kai, an American computer scientist with joint appointments at UC Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute and at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is also the chief architect of an in-depth study, set to be released in the coming days, that suggests that every one of us should be wearing a mask—whether surgical or homemade, scarf or bandana—like they do in Japan and other countries, mostly in East Asia. This formula applies to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence (occasional mask refuseniks) as well as every other official who routinely interacts with people in public settings. Among the findings of their research paper, which the team plans to submit to a major journal: If 80% of a closed population were to don a mask, COVID-19 infection rates would statistically drop to approximately one twelfth the number of infections—compared to a live-virus population in which no one wore masks.
----- 21 -----
It took one question for a reporter to expose Trump’s latest baseless Obama conspiracy theory
Monday’s news conference ended with Trump melting down in response to questions from female reporters.
By Aaron Rupar
May 11, 2020
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/11/21255214/trump-obamagate-philip-rucker-coronavirus-press-conference
On Monday, a reporter exposed President Donald Trump for yet again peddling a nonsensical conspiracy theory about Barack Obama.
Hours after Trump posted a string of tweets and retweets about “Obamagate” — a new conspiracy theory that holds Obama responsible for masterminding the Russia investigation and railroading former Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn into a guilty plea for lying to the FBI (never mind that there’s no evidence of investigatory misconduct) — Philip Rucker of the Washington Post called Trump’s bluff.
“In one of your Mother’s Day tweets, you appeared to accuse President Obama of ‘the biggest political crime in American history, by far’ — those were your words. What crime exactly are you accusing President Obama of committing, and do you believe the Justice Department should prosecute him?” Rucker asked, during a news conference that was ostensibly about the coronavirus.
Trump had nothing.
“Uh, Obamagate. It’s been going on for a long time,” he began. “It’s been going on from before I even got elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened, and if you look at what’s gone on, and if you look at now, all this information that’s being released — and from what I understand, that’s only the beginning — some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again.”
Of course, “Obamagate” does not involve a crime, and there’s no evidence that Obama or his top officials conspired against Trump — quite the opposite. So when Rucker pressed the point by asking what exactly the ostensible crime was, Trump resorted to smears.
“You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours.”
----- 22 -----
'Awful, disturbing, troubling': Educators condemn Chilliwack trustee's transphobic COVID-conspiracy post
by NEWS 1130 Staff
Posted May 10, 2020
https://www.citynews1130.com/2020/05/10/awful-disturbing-troubling-educators-condemn-chilliwack-trustees-transphobic-covid-conspiracy-post/
CHILLIWACK (NEWS 1130) — A social media post by a Chilliwack school trustee that weaponizes transphobia to question the legitimacy of the World Health Organization and Canada’s top doctor is being condemned by educators.
Barry Neufeld has a history of coming under fire for his remarks.
A human rights complaint was filed against him for anti-LGBTQ comments, and he has been harshly criticized and asked to resign by fellow trustees due to his opposition to SOGI 123, a resource for teachers with LGBTQ students who are struggling.
The post implies the WHO can not be trusted to relay accurate information about the coronavirus because it supports gender affirmative healthcare and access to abortion.
Neufeld also suggests –citing Wikipedia as a source– that Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theres Tam is transgender and that if so, her gender identity makes her less credible.
----- 23 -----
Top White House advisers, unlike their boss, increasingly worry stimulus spending is costing too much
Conservatives are eyeing potential policies to reduce long-term budget impact but say Trump probably won’t go along
By Jeff Stein, Josh Dawsey and John Hudson
May 10, 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/10/top-white-house-advisers-unlike-their-boss-increasingly-worry-stimulus-spending-is-costing-too-much/
Senior Trump administration officials are growing increasingly wary of the massive federal spending to combat the economic downturn and are considering ways to limit the impact of future stimulus efforts on the national debt, according to six administration officials and four external advisers familiar with the matter.
...
Senior White House economic officials also are exploring a proposal floated by two conservative scholars that would allow Americans to choose to receive checks of up to $5,000 in exchange for a delay of their Social Security benefits, according to three people familiar with the internal matter. That plan was written by Andrew Biggs of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute and Joshua Rauh of the right-leaning Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Senior administration officials have discussed the “Eagle Plan,” a 29-page memo that called for an overhaul of federal retirement programs in exchange for upfront payments to some workers, but the White House has already rejected it, according to three administration officials. A copy of the plan was obtained by The Washington Post.
The proposal calls for giving Americans $10,000 upfront in exchange for curbing their federal retirement benefits, such as Social Security, the report says. Art Laffer, a conservative economist who is advising the White House on its economic response, said in an interview he reviewed the presentation and supports it.
----- 24 -----
CBS News
twitter.com/CBSNews
11 May 2020
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1260005985332219904
BREAKING: The coronavirus crisis in Navajo Nation has gotten so bad that Doctors Without Borders just sent a team into the United States
[LINKS TO: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctors-without-borders-navajo-nation-coronavirus/ ]
- Trump administration cuts funding for coronavirus researcher, jeopardizing possible COVID-19 cure
- Bill Barr Twisted My Words in Dropping the Flynn Case. Here’s the Truth.
- Wisconsin: 72 Got COVID-19 After Being at Large Event
- Salons Involve Prolonged Close Contact. But They Will Reopen Quickly Under Oregon’s Plan.
- With coronavirus cases set to soar, state coalitions are mostly talk
- As deaths mount, Trump tries to convince Americans it’s safe to inch back to normal
- Western States Pack issues statement on relief funds
- The Federalist: "An image of Donald Trump wearing a protective face mask while performing his duties, behind the Resolute Desk, or in the White House briefing room would be a searing image of weakness."
- Fox News hosts call for “military mindset” to get people to enter public spaces despite COVID-19 threat
- GOP senators worry Trump, COVID-19 could cost them their majority
- I left the Justice Department after it made a disastrous mistake. It just happened again.
- Washington candidate filing week arrives, with signature requirement waived because of coronavirus
- The Bailout Is Working — for the Rich
- Australia annoyed as U.S. pushes Wuhan lab COVID-19 theory
- Nearly 2K former DOJ officials call for AG Barr to resign over Flynn case
- David Barton Says It’s ‘Not the Role of the Federal Government to Handle’ the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Putin Is Well on His Way to Stealing the Next Election
- Trump’s latest Twitter meltdown features QAnon, accidental self-owns, and a lot of “OBAMAGATE”
- King County to direct people to wear masks in most public places
- If 80% of Americans Wore Masks, COVID-19 Infections Would Plummet, New Study Says
- It took one question for a reporter to expose Trump’s latest baseless Obama conspiracy theory
- 'Awful, disturbing, troubling': Educators condemn Chilliwack trustee's transphobic COVID-conspiracy post
- Top White House advisers, unlike their boss, increasingly worry stimulus spending is costing too much
- Doctors Without Borders just sent a team into the United States
----- 1 -----
Trump administration cuts funding for coronavirus researcher, jeopardizing possible COVID-19 cure
An American scientist who collaborates with the Wuhan Institute of Virology had his grant terminated in the wake of unsubstantiated claims that COVID-19 is either manmade or leaked out of a Chinese government lab.
2020 May 10
Correspondent Scott Pelley
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-vaccine-politics-scientific-community-60-minutes-2020-05-10/
Peter Daszak is a scientist whose work is helping in the search for a COVID-19 cure. So why did the president just cancel Daszak's funding? It's the kind of politics which might seem ill-advised in a health crisis. President Trump is blaming China's government for the pandemic. The outbreak was first detected in the city of Wuhan. The administration has said, at times, the virus is man-made or that, if it's natural, it must have leaked out of a Chinese government lab. Both the White House and the Chinese Communist Party have been less than honest. And so, in China, and the U.S., the work of scientists like Peter Daszak is being undercut by pandemic politics.
Peter Daszak is a British-born American Ph.D. who's spent a career discovering dangerous viruses in wildlife, especially bats.
In 2003, in Malaysia, he warned 60 Minutes a pandemic was coming.
Peter Daszak in 2003 interview: What worries me the most is that we are going to miss the next emerging disease, that we're suddenly going to find a SARS virus that moves from one part of the planet to another, wiping out people as it moves along.
In the 17 years since that prophecy, Peter Daszak became president of the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance.
Peter Daszak: We're a nonprofit research organization that focuses on understanding where the pandemics come from, what's the risk of future pandemics and can we get in between this pandemic and the next one and disrupt it and stop it.
In China, EcoHealth has worked for 15 years with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Together they've catalogued hundreds of bat viruses, research that is critical right now.
Peter Daszak: The breakthrough drug, Remdesivir, that seems to have some impact on COVID-19 was actually tested against the viruses we discovered under our NIH research funding.
Scott Pelley: And so that testing would not have been possible--
Peter Daszak: No, it would not.
Scott Pelley: --if it hadn't been for the work that you did with the NIH grant?
Peter Daszak: Correct.
But his funding from the NIH, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, was killed, two weeks ago, by a political disinformation campaign targeting China's Wuhan Institute.
----- 2 -----
Bill Barr Twisted My Words in Dropping the Flynn Case. Here’s the Truth.
The F.B.I.’s interview of Mr. Flynn was constitutional, lawful and for a legitimate counterintelligence purpose.
By Mary B. McCord
Ms. McCord was an acting assistant attorney general for national security at the Justice Department from 2016 to 2017.
May 10, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/opinion/bill-barr-michael-flynn.html
At the direction of Attorney General Bill Barr, the Justice Department last week moved to dismiss a false-statements charge against Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser. The reason stated was that the continued prosecution “would not serve the interests of justice.”
The motion was signed by Timothy Shea, a longtime trusted adviser of Mr. Barr and, since January, the acting U.S. attorney in Washington. In attempting to support its argument, the motion cites more than 25 times the F.B.I.’s report of an interview with me in July 2017, two months after I left a decades-long career at the department (under administrations of both parties) that culminated in my role as the acting assistant attorney general for national security.
That report, commonly referred to as a “302,” is an interesting read. It vividly describes disagreements between leadership of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. about how to handle the information we had learned about Mr. Flynn’s calls with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and, more specifically, Mr. Flynn’s apparent lies about those calls to incoming Vice President Mike Pence.
But the report of my interview is no support for Mr. Barr’s dismissal of the Flynn case. It does not suggest that the F.B.I. had no counterintelligence reason for investigating Mr. Flynn. It does not suggest that the F.B.I.’s interview of Mr. Flynn — which led to the false-statements charge — was unlawful or unjustified. It does not support that Mr. Flynn’s false statements were not material. And it does not support the Justice Department’s assertion that the continued prosecution of the case against Mr. Flynn, who pleaded guilty to knowingly making material false statements to the FBI, “would not serve the interests of justice.”
I can explain why, relying entirely on documents the government has filed in court or released publicly.
----- 3 -----
Wisconsin: 72 Got COVID-19 After Being at Large Event
May 8, 2020
The Associated Press
https://www.fox21online.com/2020/05/08/wisconsin-72-got-covid-19-after-being-at-large-event/
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 70 people who tested positive for the coronavirus since an April 24 rally at the Wisconsin state Capitol indicated they had attended a large gathering, but the state Department of Health Services cant’ say if they were at the rally because it is not tracking specific events.
Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Goodsitt said Friday that when someone tests positive for COVID-19 they are asked if they attended any large gatherings. But the department did not add the April 24 rally, which attracted about 1,500 people, to the list of specific questions.
The department did add a question after the April 7 election to determine if people had been at the polls. As of Thursday, 67 people who were tested positive for COVID-19 had also reported being at the polls. But because many of them had other exposures, health officials have not been able to conclusively determine where they caught the virus.
The rally was organized and attended by people who oppose the state’s “safer at home” order and want to allow more businesses to reopen sooner than would be currently allowed. The order expires on May 26.
----- 4 -----
Salons Involve Prolonged Close Contact. But They Will Reopen Quickly Under Oregon’s Plan.
Not all salon owners think that's a good idea.
By Rachel Monahan
10 May 2020
https://www.wweek.com/news/state/2020/05/10/salons-involve-prolonged-close-contact-but-they-will-reopen-quickly-under-oregons-plan/
Getting a haircut, manicure or massage all requires being within 6 feet of another person.
But Oregon has decided salons can reopen as soon as May 15 in counties that meet the criteria of declining or low cases of COVID-19.
That has some people, even in the salon business, worried about the state's guidance.
"Until you, personally, are comfortable having your face next to five to 10 people's faces for an hour at a time in a day, you are showing us that you value your life over those in the personal service industries," wrote Lillian Huggins, owner of Atomic Hair Studio on Southeast 18th Avenue, in a letter she sent May 9 to Gov. Kate Brown and other officials. "I am begging, please move the reopening of the service industries to Phase Three. Vanity is not worth dying for."
...
The decision to reopen salons is a matter on which West Coast states disagree.
The pact signed by the governors of Washington, California and Oregon to coordinate reopening may include consultation, but it clearly doesn't require following the same rules.
Washington, like Oregon, will reopen salons in the next round of openings. California will not.
California lumps salons in with other higher-risk businesses, including movie theaters and sporting events without live audiences, meaning even when counties start to reopen there, salons won't be among them.
Boyle says each state has to individually determine what will work.
"While the states in the Western States Pact are sharing expertise and have developed a shared approach for reopening, each of our states is different, and our COVID-19 outbreaks and the structure of our stay-home orders are each different as well," says Boyle. "So, while each state has agreed to a shared framework for reopening, our individual plans vary based on the needs and situations in our states."
----- 5 -----
With coronavirus cases set to soar, state coalitions are mostly talk
By Kurt Wagner and Margaret Newkirk
Bloomberg News
10 May 2020
https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/with-coronavirus-cases-set-to-soar-state-coalitions-are-mostly-talk/article_997540cd-0f40-5384-8d50-e2ac5cebb291.html
Born last month to organize a 50-state free-for-all, regional coalitions to combat the coronavirus have so far been more ornamental than operational.
Seven Northeastern states said they will purchase masks, ventilators and sanitizer as a team, but officials provided few details about how the system will work or how goods will be apportioned. Western state officials confer regularly but aren’t organizing supply orders, and states are operating on their own timelines. And in the South, where many politicians resisted restrictions on commerce, governors discussed a coalition but never actually formed one.
Now, as the federal government pushes for an economic reopening despite signs that virus cases could still soar, coalitions are under pressure to present more concrete plans — and fill a void left by a White House ready to move forward whether states are ready or not.
“In the absence of federal leadership, states have been required to step up, not only individually but to coordinate regionally,” said Harry Heiman, a professor of public health at Georgia State University. “I’m not seeing any tangible production coming out of that yet.”
Estimates of the pandemic’s death toll have surged even as more states reopen at President Donald Trump’s behest. As many as 135,000 could die, according to University of Washington modeling, but the president has said Americans should think of themselves as “warriors.”
...
The Western States Pact isn’t unifying around equipment. Instead, members are mostly communicating about reopening. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis described the pact as a “strong information-sharing platform.”
California’s Gavin Newsom said there are weekly phone calls among governors’ chiefs of staff. Representatives from Oregon and Colorado recently presented plans that would allow rural counties to open more quickly than urban places. Newsom called those drafts “very, very helpful” in creating his own guidelines, some of which will be announced this week. Washington Governor Jay Inslee is also using them as a guide, according to a spokesperson.
But a telltale piece of vague management-speak recurs: A spokesperson for Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said pact members were sharing “best practices.”
The pact “could be more collaborative in the PPE space and sharing best practices on antibody tests,” Newsom said.
----- 6 -----
As deaths mount, Trump tries to convince Americans it’s safe to inch back to normal
By Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker and Yasmeen Abutaleb
May 9, 2020 at 2:38 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-deaths-mount-trump-tries-to-convince-americans-its-safe-to-inch-back-to-normal/2020/05/09/bf024fe6-9149-11ea-a9c0-73b93422d691_story.html
In a week when the novel coronavirus ravaged new communities across the country and the number of dead soared past 78,000, President Trump and his advisers shifted from hour-by-hour crisis management to what they characterize as a long-term strategy aimed at reviving the decimated economy and preparing for additional outbreaks this fall.
But in doing so, the administration is effectively bowing to — and asking Americans to accept — a devastating proposition: that a steady, daily accumulation of lonely deaths is the grim cost of reopening the nation.
Inside the West Wing, some officials talk about the federal government’s mitigation mission as largely accomplished because they believe the nation’s hospitals are now equipped to meet anticipated demand — even as health officials warn the number of coronavirus cases could increase considerably in May and June as more states and localities loosen restrictions, and some mitigation efforts are still recommended as states begin to reopen.
The administration is struggling to expand the scale of testing to what experts say is necessary to reopen businesses safely, and officials have not announced any national plan for contact tracing. Trump and some of his advisers are prioritizing the psychology of the pandemic as much as, if not more than, plans to combat the virus, some aides and outside advisers said — striving to instill confidence that people can comfortably return to daily life despite the rising death toll.
On Friday, as the unemployment rate reached a historically high 14.7 percent, Trump urged Americans to think of this period as a “transition to greatness,” adding during a meeting with Republican members of Congress: “We’re going to do something very fast, and we’re going to have a phenomenal year next year.” The president predicted the virus eventually would disappear even without a vaccine — a prediction at odds with his own science officials.
----- 7 -----
Governor Jay Inslee
twitter.com/GovInslee
11 May 2020
https://twitter.com/GovInslee/status/1259929717731241984
Without federal support, states will be forced to make impossible decisions.
Today, WA, OR, CA, NV, CO and our leg. leaders joined together to ask the federal government for $1 trillion to support our people and recover more quickly from this crisis:
https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/Western%20States%20Letter%20on%20Support%20for%20States%20and%20Cities_5.11.20%201050AM.pdf
----- 8 -----
Blake News
twitter.com/blakehounshell
11 May 2020
https://twitter.com/blakehounshell/status/1259910770080571394
The Federalist: "An image of Donald Trump wearing a protective face mask while performing his duties, behind the Resolute Desk, or in the White House briefing room would be a searing image of weakness."
[LINKS TO: https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/11/the-president-of-the-united-states-should-not-wear-a-mask/ ]
----- 9 -----
Fox News hosts call for “military mindset” to get people to enter public spaces despite COVID-19 threat
Pete Hegseth: “We have to reopen, guys, right now, even in some of the more difficult places”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published 05/11/20
https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-hosts-call-military-mindset-get-people-enter-public-spaces-despite
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Real quick, Pete just your thoughts in 20 seconds, about 78,000 are dead, we understand how many got the virus and will. I get it. But at the same time, can you get the military mindset with the masses of, take on the enemy because we have no choice — sitting on the sideline will destroy the country. How do you get the military mindset for the everyday American?
PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST, Fox & Friends Weekend): The military mindset is a patriotic mindset. It's what forged and founded this country. It is courage. We can be responsible, we can follow guidelines — while also reopening. We have to reopen, guys, right now, even in some of the more difficult places, or the livelihoods of people is going to crush more folks, or as many — I'm not talking in a statistical sense — as the actual virus itself. So, I think we can muster it. We've done it before, guys, and I think this is another chance to rise to that challenge.
----- 10 -----
GOP senators worry Trump, COVID-19 could cost them their majority
By Alexander Bolton - 05/11/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/496898-gop-senators-worry-trump-covid-19-could-cost-them-their-majority
Senate Republicans looking at polls showing GOP incumbents losing ground are concerned that President Trump's handling of the pandemic has put their majority in danger.
The two biggest criticisms of Trump that GOP lawmakers express privately are that his administration took too long to deploy coronavirus tests and that the president’s statements and demeanor have been too cavalier or flippant.
The biggest headwind Republicans face this fall is the faltering national economy, which now has a 14.7 percent unemployment rate, according to a Friday report by the Labor Department.
While Republican senators acknowledge that Trump’s popular support is tough to poll, some are concerned about surveys showing his approval rating below that of all 50 governors and other world leaders.
Compounding their anxiety are recent polls showing Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), a once-safe incumbent, now trailing his Democratic opponent, Gov. Steve Bullock, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who was also seen as cruising to reelection, in a dead heat with Democrat Theresa Greenfield.
Incumbent GOP Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Martha McSally (Ariz.) are well behind in the polls, while Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are in toss-up races.
----- 11 -----
I left the Justice Department after it made a disastrous mistake. It just happened again.
By Jonathan Kravis
May 11, 2020
Jonathan Kravis was a federal prosecutor for 10 years.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/11/i-left-justice-department-after-it-made-disastrous-mistake-it-just-happened-again/
Three months ago, I resigned from the Justice Department after 10 years as a career prosecutor. I left a job I loved because I believed the department had abandoned its responsibility to do justice in one of my cases, United States v. Roger Stone. At the time, I thought that the handling of the Stone case, with senior officials intervening to recommend a lower sentence for a longtime ally of President Trump, was a disastrous mistake that the department would not make again.
I was wrong.
Last week, the department again put political patronage ahead of its commitment to the rule of law, filing a motion to dismiss the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn — notwithstanding Flynn’s sworn guilty plea and a ruling by the court that the plea was sound.
Since my resignation, I have not commented on the Stone sentencing; it is not easy for me to do so now. Prosecutors are trained to make their cases in the courtroom and let the results speak for themselves.
But I feel compelled to write because I believe that the department’s handling of these matters is profoundly misguided, because my colleagues who still serve the department are duty-bound to remain silent and because I am convinced that the department’s conduct in the Stone and Flynn cases will do lasting damage to the institution.
----- 12 -----
Washington candidate filing week arrives, with signature requirement waived because of coronavirus
By Jim Brunner
Seattle Times political reporter
May 11, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-candidate-filing-week-arrives-with-signature-requirement-waived-due-to-coronavirus/
Washington’s 2020 election season kicks off officially this week, as candidates for governor, Congress, the Legislature and other elected offices must file paperwork to get on the Aug. 4 primary ballot.
The candidate-filing period opens Monday morning and runs until 4 p.m. Friday for those filing online with the Secretary of State, and 5 p.m. for anyone filing in person with the office.
...
After a fizzled bid for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, Inslee is seeking to become Washington’s first three-term governor since Republican Dan Evans won a third term in 1972. As he navigates the coronavirus crisis, Inslee has become a nationally known critic of Trump’s response, drawing the president’s public ire.
All of Inslee’s leading Republican rivals have confirmed their support for Trump and have taken part in protests or lawsuits challenging Inslee’s stay-home order.
----- 13 -----
The Bailout Is Working — for the Rich
The economy is in free fall but Wall Street is thriving, and stocks of big private equity firms are soaring dramatically higher. That tells you who investors think is the real beneficiary of the federal government’s massive rescue efforts.
by Jesse Eisinger
May 10, 2020
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-bailout-is-working-for-the-rich
Ten weeks into the worst crisis in 90 years, the government’s effort to save the economy has been both a spectacular success and a catastrophic failure.
The clearest illustration of that came on Friday, when the government reported that 20.5 million people lost their jobs in April. It marked a period of unfathomable pain across the country not seen since the Great Depression. Also on Friday, the stock market rallied.
The S&P 500 is now up 30% from its lows in mid-March and back to where it was last October, when the outlook for 2020 corporate earnings looked sunshiny. Companies have sold record amounts of debt in recent weeks for investment-grade companies. Junk bonds, historically dodgy during an economic swoon, have roared back.
If you’re looking for investors’ verdict on who has won the bailout, consider these returns: Shares of Apollo Group, the giant private equity firm, have soared 80% from their lows. The stock of Blackstone, another private equity behemoth, has risen 50%.
The reason: Asset holders like Apollo and Blackstone — disproportionately the wealthiest and most influential — have been insured by the world’s most powerful central bank. This largess is boundless and without conditions. “Even if a second wave of outbreaks were to occur,” JPMorgan economists wrote in a celebratory note on Friday, “the Fed has explicitly indicated that there is no dollar limit and no danger of running out of ammunition.”
----- 14 -----
Australia annoyed as U.S. pushes Wuhan lab COVID-19 theory
Kirsty Needham, Colin Packham
8 May 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-australia-china/australia-annoyed-as-u-s-pushes-wuhan-lab-covid-19-theory-idUSKBN22K118
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian officials are frustrated that their push for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus is being undermined by the White House, which has sought to link the outbreak to a Chinese lab, government, diplomatic and intelligence sources told Reuters.
Washington’s attack on China has given Beijing room to argue that Australia’s request for an independent inquiry is part of a U.S.-led agenda to blame it for the coronavirus outbreak, the sources said.
Canberra has been caught in a diplomatic squeeze between Washington, its main security ally, and already strained relations with Beijing, it major trading partner, even as its successful handling of the coronavirus has it planning to reopen the economy.
One government source said that officials were working hard to cast the review as open-minded and global, and that the American approach of “let’s get China” wasn’t helping.
----- 15 -----
Nearly 2K former DOJ officials call for AG Barr to resign over Flynn case
It's not clear how the judge in Flynn's case will react to DOJ's reversal.
By
Alexander Mallin
May 11, 2020
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2000-doj-officials-call-ag-barr-resign-flynn/story?id=70615677
Nearly 2000 former Justice Department officials have signed onto a letter calling for Attorney General William Barr to resign over what they describe as his improper intervention in the criminal case of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Last week, the DOJ moved to drop charges against Flynn who had pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the former Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.
The letter, signed mostly by former career officials in the department, accuses Barr of joining with President Trump in "political interference in the Department’s law enforcement decisions."
"Attorney General Barr’s repeated actions to use the Department as a tool to further President Trump’s personal and political interests have undermined any claim to the deference that courts usually apply to the Department’s decisions about whether or not to prosecute a case," reads the letter, which was organized by the group 'Protect Democracy'.
----- 16 -----
David Barton Says It’s ‘Not the Role of the Federal Government to Handle’ the COVID-19 Pandemic
Kyle MantylaBy Kyle Mantyla | May 11, 2020
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/david-barton-says-it-is-not-the-role-of-the-federal-government-to-handle-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Religious-right psuedo-historian and Republican political activist David Barton heaped praise on President Donald Trump for the largely hands-off approach his administration has taken to the COVID-19 pandemic, declaring that the federal government’s lack of response has been an excellent example of federalism.
Barton, who recently faulted Americans for not having strong enough Christian faith to show courage in the face of the deadly pandemic and praised Trump for “not letting medical professionals” determine the response, told Chad Robichaux of the Mighty Oaks Foundation during a Friday interview that Trump’s refusal to use the power of the federal government to address the crisis was exactly what the Founding Fathers intended.
----- 17 -----
Putin Is Well on His Way to Stealing the Next Election
Story by Franklin Foer
June 2020 Edition
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/putin-american-democracy/610570/
Jack Cable sat down at the desk in his cramped dorm room to become an adult in the eyes of democracy. The rangy teenager, with neatly manicured brown hair and chunky glasses, had recently arrived at Stanford—his first semester of life away from home—and the 2018 midterm elections were less than two months away. Although he wasn’t one for covering his laptop with strident stickers or for taking loud stands, he felt a genuine thrill at the prospect of voting. But before he could cast an absentee ballot, he needed to register with the Board of Elections back home in Chicago.
When Cable tried to complete the digital forms, an error message stared at him from his browser. Clicking back to his initial entry, he realized that he had accidentally typed an extraneous quotation mark into his home address. The fact that a single keystroke had short-circuited his registration filled Cable with a sense of dread.
Despite his youth, Cable already enjoyed a global reputation as a gifted hacker—or, as he is prone to clarify, an “ethical hacker.” As a sophomore in high school, he had started participating in “bug bounties,” contests in which companies such as Google and Uber publicly invite attacks on their digital infrastructure so that they can identify and patch vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them. Cable, who is preternaturally persistent, had a knack for finding these soft spots. He collected enough cash prizes from the bug bounties to cover the costs of four years at Stanford.
Though it wouldn’t have given the average citizen a moment of pause, Cable recognized the error message on the Chicago Board of Elections website as a telltale sign of a gaping hole in its security. It suggested that the site was vulnerable to those with less beneficent intentions than his own, that they could read and perhaps even alter databases listing the names and addresses of voters in the country’s third-largest city. Despite his technical savvy, Cable was at a loss for how to alert the authorities. He began sending urgent warnings about the problem to every official email address he could find. Over the course of the next seven months, he tried to reach the city’s chief information officer, the Illinois governor’s office, and the Department of Homeland Security.
As he waited for someone to take notice of his missives, Cable started to wonder whether the rest of America’s electoral infrastructure was as weak as Chicago’s. He read about how, in 2016, when he was a junior in high school, Russian military intelligence—known by its initials, GRU—had hacked the Illinois State Board of Elections website, transferring the personal data of tens of thousands of voters to Moscow. The GRU had even tunneled into the computers of a small Florida company that sold software to election officials in eight states.
Out of curiosity, Cable checked to see what his home state had done to protect itself in the years since. Within 15 minutes of poking around the Board of Elections website, he discovered that its old weaknesses had not been fully repaired. These were the most basic lapses in cybersecurity—preventable with code learned in an introductory computer-science class—and they remained even though similar gaps had been identified by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, not to mention widely reported in the media. The Russians could have strolled through the same door as they had in 2016.
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Trump’s latest Twitter meltdown features QAnon, accidental self-owns, and a lot of “OBAMAGATE”
In any previous era, the tweets would be a major national scandal. In Trump’s America, it was Sunday.
By Aaron Rupar
May 11, 2020
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/11/21254398/trump-tweets-mothers-day-obamagate-coronavirus
With the coronavirus continuing to ravage the country both in human and economic terms and his poll numbers sagging, President Donald Trump spent his event-free Mother’s Day posting up a storm — sending the sort of public statements that would have been cause for national concern in any previous era.
When the smoked cleared, the 126 tweets or retweets Trump posted ending up being one of his most prolific posting days in history, falling just 16 short of the single-day posting record he set during his impeachment trial in January. Although the American public has become somewhat numb to Trump’s Twitter diatribes, the quantity was notable — and so was the lack of quality.
The president amplified a number of accounts that have promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory about Democrats being involved in a pedophilia cult, retweeted accounts without avatars and with few followers that he somehow found on the fringes of the internet, and desperately tried to change the topic from the coronavirus by working to settle old scores with his perceived foes in politics and the media.
The meltdown continued into Monday morning:
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King County to direct people to wear masks in most public places
By Becca Savransky, SeattlePI
Updated 2:30 pm PDT, Monday, May 11, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/coronavirus/article/king-county-seattle-masks-coronavirus-direction-15262049.php
People in King County will be directed to wear masks in most public settings beginning May 18 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Under the new directive, people are asked to wear face coverings in places including restaurants, grocery stores, retail stores and on public transportation.
Residents don't need to wear masks when walking or exercising outdoors, as long as it is possible to follow social distancing guidelines and remain six feet apart from others.
People are encouraged to use cloth face coverings, as N95 respirators and other medical grade masks should still be reserved for healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic.
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If 80% of Americans Wore Masks, COVID-19 Infections Would Plummet, New Study Says
There’s compelling evidence that Japan, Hong Kong, and other East Asian locales are doing it right and we should really, truly mask up—fast.
By David Ewing Duncan
May 8, 2020
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/masks-covid-19-infections-would-plummet-new-study-says
It sounds too good to be true. But a compelling new study and computer model provide fresh evidence for a simple solution to help us emerge from this nightmarish lockdown. The formula? Always social distance in public and, most importantly, wear a mask.
If you’re wondering whether to wear or not to wear, consider this. The day before yesterday, 21 people died of COVID-19 in Japan. In the United States, 2,129 died. Comparing overall death rates for the two countries offers an even starker point of comparison with total U.S. deaths now at a staggering 76,032 and Japan’s fatalities at 577. Japan’s population is about 38% of the U.S., but even adjusting for population, the Japanese death rate is a mere 2% of America’s.
This comes despite Japan having no lockdown, still-active subways, and many businesses that have remained open—reportedly including karaoke bars, although Japanese citizens and industries are practicing social distancing where they can. Nor have the Japanese broadly embraced contact tracing, a practice by which health authorities identify someone who has been infected and then attempt to identify everyone that person might have interacted with—and potentially infected. So how does Japan do it?
“One reason is that nearly everyone there is wearing a mask,” said De Kai, an American computer scientist with joint appointments at UC Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute and at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is also the chief architect of an in-depth study, set to be released in the coming days, that suggests that every one of us should be wearing a mask—whether surgical or homemade, scarf or bandana—like they do in Japan and other countries, mostly in East Asia. This formula applies to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence (occasional mask refuseniks) as well as every other official who routinely interacts with people in public settings. Among the findings of their research paper, which the team plans to submit to a major journal: If 80% of a closed population were to don a mask, COVID-19 infection rates would statistically drop to approximately one twelfth the number of infections—compared to a live-virus population in which no one wore masks.
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It took one question for a reporter to expose Trump’s latest baseless Obama conspiracy theory
Monday’s news conference ended with Trump melting down in response to questions from female reporters.
By Aaron Rupar
May 11, 2020
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/11/21255214/trump-obamagate-philip-rucker-coronavirus-press-conference
On Monday, a reporter exposed President Donald Trump for yet again peddling a nonsensical conspiracy theory about Barack Obama.
Hours after Trump posted a string of tweets and retweets about “Obamagate” — a new conspiracy theory that holds Obama responsible for masterminding the Russia investigation and railroading former Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn into a guilty plea for lying to the FBI (never mind that there’s no evidence of investigatory misconduct) — Philip Rucker of the Washington Post called Trump’s bluff.
“In one of your Mother’s Day tweets, you appeared to accuse President Obama of ‘the biggest political crime in American history, by far’ — those were your words. What crime exactly are you accusing President Obama of committing, and do you believe the Justice Department should prosecute him?” Rucker asked, during a news conference that was ostensibly about the coronavirus.
Trump had nothing.
“Uh, Obamagate. It’s been going on for a long time,” he began. “It’s been going on from before I even got elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened, and if you look at what’s gone on, and if you look at now, all this information that’s being released — and from what I understand, that’s only the beginning — some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again.”
Of course, “Obamagate” does not involve a crime, and there’s no evidence that Obama or his top officials conspired against Trump — quite the opposite. So when Rucker pressed the point by asking what exactly the ostensible crime was, Trump resorted to smears.
“You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours.”
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'Awful, disturbing, troubling': Educators condemn Chilliwack trustee's transphobic COVID-conspiracy post
by NEWS 1130 Staff
Posted May 10, 2020
https://www.citynews1130.com/2020/05/10/awful-disturbing-troubling-educators-condemn-chilliwack-trustees-transphobic-covid-conspiracy-post/
CHILLIWACK (NEWS 1130) — A social media post by a Chilliwack school trustee that weaponizes transphobia to question the legitimacy of the World Health Organization and Canada’s top doctor is being condemned by educators.
Barry Neufeld has a history of coming under fire for his remarks.
A human rights complaint was filed against him for anti-LGBTQ comments, and he has been harshly criticized and asked to resign by fellow trustees due to his opposition to SOGI 123, a resource for teachers with LGBTQ students who are struggling.
The post implies the WHO can not be trusted to relay accurate information about the coronavirus because it supports gender affirmative healthcare and access to abortion.
Neufeld also suggests –citing Wikipedia as a source– that Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theres Tam is transgender and that if so, her gender identity makes her less credible.
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Top White House advisers, unlike their boss, increasingly worry stimulus spending is costing too much
Conservatives are eyeing potential policies to reduce long-term budget impact but say Trump probably won’t go along
By Jeff Stein, Josh Dawsey and John Hudson
May 10, 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/10/top-white-house-advisers-unlike-their-boss-increasingly-worry-stimulus-spending-is-costing-too-much/
Senior Trump administration officials are growing increasingly wary of the massive federal spending to combat the economic downturn and are considering ways to limit the impact of future stimulus efforts on the national debt, according to six administration officials and four external advisers familiar with the matter.
...
Senior White House economic officials also are exploring a proposal floated by two conservative scholars that would allow Americans to choose to receive checks of up to $5,000 in exchange for a delay of their Social Security benefits, according to three people familiar with the internal matter. That plan was written by Andrew Biggs of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute and Joshua Rauh of the right-leaning Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Senior administration officials have discussed the “Eagle Plan,” a 29-page memo that called for an overhaul of federal retirement programs in exchange for upfront payments to some workers, but the White House has already rejected it, according to three administration officials. A copy of the plan was obtained by The Washington Post.
The proposal calls for giving Americans $10,000 upfront in exchange for curbing their federal retirement benefits, such as Social Security, the report says. Art Laffer, a conservative economist who is advising the White House on its economic response, said in an interview he reviewed the presentation and supports it.
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CBS News
twitter.com/CBSNews
11 May 2020
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1260005985332219904
BREAKING: The coronavirus crisis in Navajo Nation has gotten so bad that Doctors Without Borders just sent a team into the United States
[LINKS TO: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctors-without-borders-navajo-nation-coronavirus/ ]
