#ABOLISHICE
Immigrant in ICE custody dies after testing positive for COVID-19
Camilo Montoya-Galvez,CBS News•May 7, 2020


An immigrant detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in southern California died on Wednesday from coronavirus complications, local health authorities said, confirming the first known death of a detainee in the agency's custody during the pandemic.

The 57-year-old immigrant died Wednesday morning in a San Diego-area hospital after being transferred in April from the privately operated Otay Mesa detention center, the epicenter of coronavirus cases inside the nation's immigration detention system, according to Craig Sturak, a spokesperson for the County of San Diego Health & Human Services Agency.

The man was identified as Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejía by his immigration attorney for nine years, Joan Del Valle. He had lived in the U.S. since the 1980s, including 20 years in Los Angeles, according to Del Valle.

Escobar Mejía had been transferred to the Otay Mesa detention center after being picked up by ICE in January during the arrest of someone he was in a car with, Del Valle said. She stopped representing him after after he was transferred to the detention facility in the San Diego-area, since she's based in Los Angeles. Del Valle said Wednesday night that Escobar Mejía's family in the U.S. was too distraught to discuss his death publicly and authorized her to speak on their behalf.

Del Valle said her longtime client, who had undergone surgeries and suffered from diabetes, was denied bond on April 15 by an immigration judge. "On April 15, he had the opportunity to have many more years of life. On April 15, when they denied him every possibility to be released in the middle of a pandemic, knowing how frail he was, they sentenced him to die," Del Valle told CBS News.

According to Del Valle, Escobar Mejía struggled with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his life, saying he had some substance convictions that date back roughly three decades. A drug-related charge in 2012 was expunged the following year, she added. For the past years, however, Escobar Mejía had turned his life around, Del Valle said.

"Having a record, it depends on you if you want to change your life — and he did. I want people to focus on Carlos, a good person who was fighting an addiction and bad influences and he was successful. Staying nine years clean after being so deep in using drugs is a big advancement," Del Valle said. "He was a good person."

"He was a person who loved his family. He loved life. Who wanted to improve, make things right. I will never forget his voice, his joy, his smile, his desire to press forward," she added.

At least 132 ICE detainees at the San Diego-area prison have tested positive for coronavirus, the most of any detention center used by the agency to hold immigrants it is looking to deport. Across the nation, at least 705 immigrants in ICE custody have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the agency, which reported 31 new cases on Wednesday. More than 48% of the 1,460 detainees who have been screened for the virus have tested positive.

Cases inside the agency's sprawling network of county jails and private prisons have been growing substantially on a consistent basis, with the agency reporting 581 cases in the past three weeks alone. Many of the more than 29,000 immigrants held by ICE have been growing increasingly frustrated, and have said they feel powerless to shield themselves from the contagion while in close quarters.

There have been at least nine instances since President Trump declared a national emergency over coronavirus in March in which protesting ICE detainees have been pepper sprayed. ICE has said the immigrants became confrontational and disruptive, and maintained that the "calculated use of force" mitigates the risk of injuries to both staff and detainees.

Since the pandemic started spreading across the U.S., immigrant advocates and human rights groups have been pressuring ICE to dramatically downsize its detainee population to mitigate the risk of widespread outbreaks.

ICE has so far released more than 900 immigrants who it determined face an increased risk of severe illness if they contract the coronavirus due to their age, underlying health conditions or the fact that they are pregnant. Granting requests in lawsuits filed by advocates across the country, federal judges have also required the agency to release more than 190 at-risk detainees.

But advocates believe the agency has not done enough to protect detainees. Anne Rios, a supervising attorney at Al Otro Lado, a group that has been working to release dozens of detainees from the Otay Mesa detention center, said she is worried about other immigrants dying while in custody.

"This was 100% avoidable. Immigration detention is civil detention — it is discretionary. ICE could've determined that this person who had underlying conditions could and should've been released," she told CBS News. "They had the discretion to do so and yet they chose not to."

ICE officials did not immediately respond to requests to comment on Wednesday's death.

Judge dismisses Missouri lawsuit over meat worker safety

JIM SALTER,Associated Press•May 6, 2020




O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of employees at a rural Missouri meatpacking facility, ruling that oversight of how the plant adheres to guidance aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus falls to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, not the courts.

U.S. District Judge Greg Kays issued his 24-page ruling Tuesday in favor of Smithfield Foods. A lawsuit on behalf of workers at Smithfield's pork processing plant in Milan, Missouri, sought an injunction requiring the plant to abide by federal guidelines. The lawsuit accused Virginia-based Smithfield of not doing enough to protect workers from the coronavirus.

“Plaintiffs are naturally concerned for their health and the health of their community in these unprecedented times,” Kays wrote. “The Court takes their concern seriously. Nevertheless, the Court cannot ignore the USDA’s and OSHA’s authority over compliance ... or the significant steps Smithfield has taken to reduce the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak at the Plant.”

The Milan plant has not seen an outbreak of COVID-19. Just one case has been reported in Sullivan County, where the plant is located. But outbreaks have become common at other meat plants across the U.S., infecting thousands of workers, leading to the closure of some plants and prompting meat shortages. Several big grocery chains this week were restricting customer purchases of meat, and Wendy’s was unable to serve hamburgers at some locations.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week requiring meatpacking plants to stay open. The order was widely seen as giving processors protection from liability for workers who become sick on the job, and it came after the Missouri lawsuit against Smithfield Foods.

In Washington, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met Wednesday in the Oval Office with Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in a session that was upbeat about reopening meat plants quickly and safely.

“We think the story will be we’ll see more variety, and more meat cases fully supplied,” Perdue said. “I’d say probably a week to 10 days we’ll be fully back up.”

“We’re going to hopefully prevent what could have been a really sorry situation where we were euthanizing some of our protein supply and really impacting the food supply, not only across the country but throughout the world,” Reynolds said.

On the matter of safety, she said companies “know how important it is to take care of their workforce.”

Perdue said that since Trump’s order, the USDA has worked with OSHA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ensure that meat plants are abiding by federal guidelines.

The attorney for the workers in Milan, David Muraskin, didn't rule out an appeal but said the lawsuit had demonstrated workers' power by prompting several changes at the plant, including better spacing of employees, additional cleaning and sanitizing, and an improved sick leave policy that means workers don’t feel obligated to come to work if they have symptoms of the coronavirus.

Smithfield said it was pleased the court dismissed what it called a “frivolous” lawsuit.

“Importantly, the Court recognized the ‘significant measures’ Smithfield is taking to protect the health and safety of its employees,” the company said in a statement.

Also Wednesday, Trump said he has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations of potential market manipulation and possible price fixing by meatpackers during the pandemic. Attorneys general for 11 Midwestern states this week asked for a federal investigation, and some members of Congress had also asked about the issue.

Separately, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Wednesday that more than 300 federal meatpacking inspectors are either sick from the coronavirus or in self-quarantine after exposure. Citing a USDA spokesman, the newspaper said through Tuesday, 197 inspectors had tested positive; the Food Safety and Inspection Service has about 8,000 employees. The agency said it continues to meet its responsibilities.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.

Another study shows hydroxychloroquine doesn't help coronavirus patients

David Knowles Editor, Yahoo News•May 7, 2020

A new study has found that hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug recommended by President Trump as a possible treatment for the coronavirus, does not help patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

The research, which followed 1,376 patients suffering from symptoms of the coronavirus at New York-Presbyterian and Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan, found that 60 percent of those who were given hydroxychloroquine within 48 hours of being admitted were found to be more severely ill than those who did not take the drug.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health and published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study was not a randomized clinical trial, and its authors noted that while the drug did not appear to help coronavirus patients, it was not observed to harm them either.

The findings, however, come amid mounting evidence that hydroxychloroquine may not be the “game changer” drug that Trump touted at coronavirus task force briefings for much of the month of March.

The president seized on a French study of 26 COVID-19 patients that appeared to show that 10 people who took hydroxychloroquine recovered from the virus faster than those in a control group. One patient who was given the drug died from COVID-19, and three others stopped taking the medication due to side effects.
John Locher/AP

That evidence was all Trump needed to begin championing hydroxychloroquine.

“What do you have to lose?” Trump said when asked about the drug on April 6. “And a lot of people are saying that, and are taking it. If you’re a doctor or a nurse, a first responder, a medical person going into hospitals, they say taking it before the fact is good.”

The FDA has since issued a warning that hydroxychloroquine may cause fatal heart arrhythmia, and should be used only by doctors conducting supervised clinical trials or in hospitals where patients’ conditions can be monitored.

The Veterans Administration also released the findings of a study showing that the drug was linked to a higher rate of death among patients who received it to treat COVID-19 compared with a control group. That study, which looked at 368 male patients infected with COVID-19 who were treated with hydroxychloroquine, has yet to have a peer review.

While some hospitals continue to prescribe hydroxychloroquine as part of a treatment protocol for COVID-19 patients, most in New York City have stopped altogether.

“We know now it probably doesn’t help much,” Dr. Thomas McGinn, deputy physician in chief at Northwell Health, told Spectrum News. “We’re not recommending it as a baseline therapy anymore. It is only in a treatment protocol in a study that we’re recommending it.”

Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, filed a whistleblower complaint after he said he was reassigned, in part, for his objections to a plan by the Trump administration to “flood” the New York area with hydroxychloroquine tablets.

“I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public,” Bright said in an April 22 statement. “I also resisted efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections.”

Armed activists escort black lawmaker to Michigan's Capitol after coronavirus protest attended by white supremacists


Hunter Walker White House Correspondent, Yahoo News•May 7, 2020

A Michigan lawmaker returned to the state Capitol on Wednesday with an armed security detail following a coronavirus lockdown protest at the building last week attended by white supremacists and militia groups.

Rep. Sarah Anthony, a Democrat whose district is in the capital city, Lansing, told Yahoo News in an interview that her security detail, made up of local black and Latino activists, came together because the armed protesters bearing white supremacist symbols represented a “different level of terror.”

According to Anthony, the April 30 protest was different from prior coronavirus protests that have occurred at the Capitol in recent weeks because many of the demonstrators stormed inside the building and were armed. Anthony also said some of the protesters “had Confederate flags and swastikas,” which she found “extraordinarily triggering for me as an African-American woman.”

Activists prepare to escort Rep. Sarah Anthony into the Michigan state Capitol on Wednesday; Rep. Sarah Anthony. (Courtesy of Michael Lynn Jr.; votesarahanthony.com)

“It was a very intimidating environment,” Anthony said. “I've just never experienced being so frightened and so intimidated in my life.”

Anthony posted a video to Facebook, which she filmed as the protests raged outside. Members of her community responded and, when Anthony returned to the Capitol on Wednesday for the first time since the demonstration, she was escorted by a group of six black and Latino activists who carried their own guns.

Large conservative organizations have helped back the anti-lockdown demonstrations, which have taken place in at least 18 states around the country. Though the demonstrations are focused on pressing to lift coronavirus safety measures in order to boost economic activity, they have also attracted a wide variety of groups dedicated to other causes, including militia members, gun-rights activists and white supremacists.


Even as the White House has issued social distancing guidelines and described the measures as necessary, President Trump has expressed support for the protests, calling the demonstrators “very good people” and urging Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to “make a deal” with them.

Anthony claimed one of her fellow lawmakers wore a bulletproof vest due to their fear of the armed protesters, many of whom streamed into the Capitol and angrily confronted officials. Dayna Polehanki, a Democratic Michigan state senator, similarly claimed that scared colleagues were wearing bulletproof vests in a tweet posted during the protests on April 30.

“Directly above me, men with rifles yelling at us. Some of my colleagues who own bullet proof vests are wearing them,” Polehanki wrote.

For Anthony, the guns and hate symbols weren’t the only dangerous elements of the protests. She said many of the demonstrators ignored the social distancing and mask guidelines, getting extremely close to her and “yelling and screaming” in her face, raising concerns of potential coronavirus spread.

A militia group with no political affiliation from Michigan stands in front of the governor's office on April 30 after protesters occupied the state Capitol during a vote to approve the extension of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus outbreak. (Seth Herald/Reuters)More

“I am a woman and, you know, heavy, large men yelling and kind of approaching, it really is frightening,” said Anthony, adding, “As an elected official ... I have pretty thick skin. You kind of have to in this job, but we’re in the middle of a pandemic and I am particularly ... unnerved by it because I have seen the impact up close of this coronavirus.”

Michigan has been a coronavirus hot spot, and Anthony said she knows multiple people in her Lansing district who have died from the outbreak.

Anthony said she was disturbed by the fact that the Michigan State Police did not do more to separate lawmakers from the armed protests. She also claimed some officers were “posing in photos” with the protesters.

A spokesperson for the Michigan State Police did not respond to requests for comment.

The activists who accompanied Anthony on Wednesday included local Lansing firefighter and activist Michael Lynn Jr. along with multiple members of his family. Lynn told Yahoo News that Anthony’s video of the protests inspired him to offer her protection.

“My thing is, you know, we elected her and we elevated her to that level to represent us in that Capitol. I don’t want her going in there with a fear or worry about doing anything. … I don’t think that’s right, that they would try to intimidate her that way,” Lynn said.

He said seeing the armed protesters challenging Anthony “enraged” him and reminded him of the darker days of white supremacist opposition to the civil rights movement.

Protesters trying to enter the Michigan House of Representatives chamber are kept out by Michigan State Police on April 30. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

“It takes a lot to get a black woman elected into the House of Representatives,” Lynn said. “There’s not that many of them, and we did that. We got her elected in there, and we’re going to make sure she’s protected to go do her job.”

Critics and civil rights activists have argued that the protests highlight a double standard, contrasting the response to the armed anti-lockdown protesters with violent crackdowns on black militant groups.

Lynn said he believes African-American protesters would indeed have been treated differently.

“You know, if we did that, we’d be killed,” he said.

Challenging the perceptions of people of color and guns was one of Lynn’s goals in providing security for Anthony.

“Anytime somebody sees a minority with a gun, it’s got a negative connotation to it, and I don’t like that,” said Lynn. “We were able today to provide some sort of protection but also just the feeling of being protected. I think that was great.”

Anthony said she is somewhat sympathetic to the economic concerns raised by protesters who view the lockdowns as driving record job losses and claimed earlier protests in Michigan were focused on this issue. But, she said, the April 30 demonstration had a pronounced white supremacist element. She said she was “very confused” to see Confederate flags and swastikas flying at an event supposedly dedicated to criticizing the coronavirus lockdown.

“How’s that connect to the stay-at-home order?” Anthony asked.

Whitmer has denounced the racist symbols used at the protests and defended stay-at-home orders as a necessary step to prevent deaths from the coronavirus.

“Some of the outrageousness of what happened in our Capitol this week depicted some of the worst racism and awful parts of our history in this country,” Whitmer said in a CNN interview on Sunday. “The Confederate flags and nooses, the swastikas, the behavior that you’ve seen in all of the clips, is not representative of who we are in Michigan. And the fact of the matter is, I mean, we’re in a global pandemic.”

A protester holds a sign with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer depicted as Adolf Hitler at a rally on the steps of the state Capitol in Lansing on April 30. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

Whitmer has also responded to the protest by pushing to change the law to ban guns at Michigan’s state Capitol.

“There are legislators who are wearing bulletproof vests to go to work,” she said in an interview with NBC on Wednesday. “No one should be intimidated by someone who’s bringing in an assault rifle into their workplace. And so there is conversation about changing that law. I think it’s long overdue, and I absolutely support that change.”

Anthony, who is a gun owner, is among the Michigan lawmakers who are working to enact a gun ban for the state Capitol. Ultimately, she said, she doesn’t want to see anyone — whether they support her or are protesting — carrying firearms in the building. “The moment that we are successful in eliminating guns from their state Capitol, they should adhere to that as well,” Anthony said of her supporters.

For now, Lynn said he will come back anytime Anthony asks.

“We will be available whenever there’s going to be opposition up there that she’s going to have to deal with,” he said.

And he had a message for anyone who wants to return to the Capitol building with “swastikas and Confederate flags.”

“Don’t,” Lynn said. “It’s as simple as that. Don’t come here with that.”

Turkish officials reportedly ordered children to stop drawing rainbows, claiming it was a ploy to turn them gay

INSIDER•May 6, 2020

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference after cabinet meeting in Istanbul, Turkey on May 4, 2020.

Mustafa Kamaci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Turkish officials reportedly told school principals to forbid students from drawing rainbows and attaching them to windows, claiming the project was a ploy to turn children gay.


The effort, led by the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, was meant to "instill hope" and celebrate the "miracle of nature" amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In a sermon last month, the leader of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate said homosexuality brought "disease and corrupt generations," calling the nation to unite against it.

Turkish schools have been closed since March 12 and will be closed at least until the end of May.

Officials in Turkey reportedly directed school principals to forbid school children from drawing rainbows and displaying them in windows because they feared it was an effort by the LGBT community to turn children gay.

According to Al-Monitor, a US-based news outlet that covers the Middle East, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art on March 28 called on schoolchildren, who were forced out of classrooms due to COVID-19, to draw rainbows and attach them to their windows in order to show the "miracle of nature" and to "instill hope" during the ongoing pandemic, according to the museum.

Egitim-Sen, a teachers' trade union, said local education leaders told school principals to forbid children from participating in the museum's project, arguing that drawing the rainbows was a ploy to turn children gay, according to Al-Monitor.

The incident was the latest in Turkish officials using the ongoing pandemic to continue its anti-LGBT messaging.

During a sermon delivered during the holy month of Ramadan on April 24, Ali Erbas, the leader of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, said that Islam condemns both adultery and homosexuality because they "bring disease and corrupt generations." He added that "hundreds of thousands" of people are exposed to HIV every year as a result of homosexuality and adultery, according to the report.

"Come and let's fight together to protect people from such evil," Erbas said.

According to Human Rights Watch, a prosecutor's office in the nation's capital city of Ankara opened a criminal investigation into the Ankara Bar Association after it filed a complaint against Erbas' anti-LGBT remarks. It claimed the Bar Association had insulted "the religious values adopted by a part of the public" in filing its complaint.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended Erbas' remarks, calling any attacks of Erbas attacks on the state, according to The New York Times.

Turkey has prohibited LGBT events, including the annual Pride Parade in Istanbul, since 2015, according to Human Rights Watch, and students from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara are currently on trial for organizing a campus Pride Parade last year.

There have been at least 129,491 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in Turkey, and at least 3,520 deaths as a result, according to data analyzed by Johns Hopkins University.

Turkish schools have been shuttered since March 12 when the nation reported its first case of COVID-19. At the end of April, Education Minister Ziya Selcuk announced schools would remain closed through the month of May.

Read the original article on Insider

DISTOPIA

Coronavirus: Nigeria's death penalty by Zoom 'inhumane'BBC•May 6, 2020

State governors in Nigeria must approve death sentences before they can be carried out

The sentencing to death of a Nigerian driver via Zoom is "inherently cruel and inhumane", Human Rights Watch has said.

It comes after Nigeria issued a death penalty ruling using the video chat app because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lagos judge Mojisola Dada sentenced Olalekan Hameed to death by hanging for the murder of his employer's mother.

The hearing lasted almost three hours and was virtually attended by lawyers, including the attorney general.

They all participated in Monday's session from different locations as part of efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19.

It was the first day of the easing of lockdown restrictions in Lagos, allowing people to go back to work - although all but urgent court sittings have been suspended.

The judge was in the Lagos High Court in Ikeja, Hameed was at Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, and the lawyers joined from elsewhere.

Hameed had pleaded not guilty to killing 76-year-old Jolasun Okunsanya in December 2018.

"The sentence of this court upon you, Olalekan Hameed, is that you be hanged by the neck until you be pronounced dead and may the Lord have mercy upon your soul. This is the virtual judgment of the court," Justice Dada is quoted as saying.

It is not clear if Hameed will appeal against the sentence.
'Archaic punishment'

The BBC's Celestina Olulode says under Nigerian law, state governors must approve death sentences before they can be carried out.

The death penalty is not commonly carried out in Nigeria - although courts continue to impose the sentence.

According to Amnesty International, there are still more than 2,000 people on death row and the last three executions took place in 2016.

Human Rights Watch told the BBC the creation of the virtual court during the coronavirus outbreak showed a commitment to accessing justice.

However, the judiciary was moving in the wrong direction by sentencing a person to death by hanging, it said.

"The irreversible punishment is archaic, inherently cruel and inhuman, it should be abolished," Human Rights Watch said.

Nigeria has recorded just under 3,000 coronavirus cases and nearly 100 deaths.

Logan's Run - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Logan's_Run
Logan's Run is a novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Published in 1967, the novel depicts a dystopic ageist future society in which both population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by requiring the death of everyone reaching the ... The story follows the actions of Logan, a Sandman charged with enforcing the ...

OPINION
Republicans literally want to work Americans to death


Illustrated | iStock May 1, 2020 Jeff proSss

The Republican Party represents regular working stiffs, the forgotten men and women of America, who have been left behind by the country's effete liberal elites. Or at least that's the message that President Trump, GOP leadership, and the American right in general have been pushing for years. But while their words are one thing, their actions are another. And the actions of Trump and his fellow Republicans during the coronavirus pandemic suggest they see American workers as nothing but cannon fodder to be sacrificed in the name of a rejuvenated economy.

The most recent example was the president's executive order from earlier this week, telling meatpacking plants to remain open. The industry, which involves thousands of often poorly-paid workers laboring shoulder to shoulder to process and package poultry, pork, and other items, has become a hotspot for COVID-19 outbreaks. Facilities are shutting down, at least 20 workers in meat and food processing have died, and thousands have either been infected or had to self-quarantine. Pork and beef processing has already fallen 25 percent, and the Trump administration was concerned capacity could be cut by as much as 80 percent. The president's decision was no doubt influenced by an ad taken out by the chairman of Tyson Foods this weekend, warning that America's food supply chain "is breaking."


Trump's order comes from his authority under the Defense Production Act (DPA). I've written myself about how Trump needs to put the DPA to much wider use to rationalize the economic production of crucial needs like ventilators, tests, masks and gloves. Food is obviously a crucial need too. (You could debate how crucial meat specifically is, but set that aside for now.) The challenge of the coronavirus pandemic is that going to work is now risky for both individuals and the community, but some work must still be done for society to function. It just has to be done as safely as possible.

That's where Trump's order turns ominous. Reporting suggests vague promises from the White House that the government will provide additional protective gear and safety guidance to the meatpacking industry. But thus far the White House's record on both counts is pretty appalling. Trump's executive efforts to get tests and masks and ventilators to the country at large have amounted to irresponsible and incompetent bedlam. Meanwhile, the executive agency tasked with overseeing workers' well-being, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), has effectively checked out during the coronavirus pandemic.

The agency has received thousands of complaints from Americans about dangerous conditions at their places of work. But thus far OSHA hasn't bothered giving employers hard rules for coronavirus safety — instead releasing purely voluntary guidelines, while leaving enforcement with teeth to under-resourced state governments. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has, of course, lobbied against any actual enforceable regulations. And even though Democrats tried to pass new enforceable safety standards legislatively, Republicans aren't having it. Nor is the Trump administration requiring employers outside of the health sector to track and report COVID-19 cases at their worksites.

This is a picture of an administration and a political party that is simply indifferent to the practical challenges of keeping workers safe during the coronavirus pandemic. But it doesn't end there.

In its announcement of the meatpacking order, the White House also made vague mentions of "liability protections" for employers — which, in plain English, seems to mean preventing workers in the industry from being able to sue their employers over any negative consequences of being made to work in unsafe conditions. If the administration actually did intend to impose substantive safety requirements on the industry, that protection might be understandable. But all the evidence suggests otherwise. Even worse, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) now wants to provide protection from coronavirus-related lawsuits to all employers across the country.

Workers and customers are apparently beginning to sue companies for not taking the proper safety precautions, thus putting people at risk of infection. The business community has quietly pushed lawmakers to crack down on the trend, and McConnell just told Fox News that he wants to make any federal aid to state budgets conditional on state governments also protecting employers from lawsuits. The logic here is straightforwardly coldblooded: The coronavirus pandemic remains a real threat to workers, vast majorities of Americans approve of the continued lockdowns and are afraid to resume normal social activity, so if the economy is to reopen — as Trump and his supporters want — then workers must be stripped of any power to hold their employers accountable. The measures needed to make work safe during the coronavirus pandemic are costly, after all, and will eat into profits.

Indeed, workers must be effectively forced to return to the job, which brings us to unemployment insurance. One of the most important parts of the CARES Act was a major boost to unemployment benefits, to keep individuals and families financially whole as the state-wide shutdowns eliminated jobs. The catch is, to be eligible for unemployment benefits, a person must have lost their job involuntarily. In other words, once a state ends its stay-at-home orders, workers who decide to remain away from their jobs for fear of the coronavirus will not be eligible for unemployment insurance

A number of states have either already commenced partial reopenings of their economies, or their stay-at-home orders end this month. Not all of these governors are Republicans, and some of these states have said they will adjust the rules for their unemployment systems. But Republican-dominated states like Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina are known for having pretty stingy and ruthless unemployment systems to begin with. And at least some GOP governors have explicitly said that, yes, Americans must go back to work once the lockdowns end. "If you're an employer and you offer to bring your employee back to work and they decide not to, that's a voluntary quit," Iowa's Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said. "Therefore, they would not be eligible for the unemployment money."

So let's add all this up. In the meatpacking industry, President Trump is ordering Americans back to dangerous work sites, with no evidence they'll be given adequate protection. Meanwhile, Republicans and their big-business constituents want to reopen the economy, and use the threat of financial destitution to coerce people into returning to work, whether they think it's safe or not. Lastly, not only is the GOP uninterested in using the government's power to force employers to take proper precautions, they want to stop the courts from forcing employers to do so as well. "Work under the shadow of coronavirus, or starve" seems to be the order the Republican Party wants to give the country, with no guarantee of safety other than the cost-benefit analysis of employers' consciences.

OPINION
Trump was the disaster we should have seen coming
Joel Mathis

Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock May 4, 20

This disaster was foreseen.

You probably think I'm talking about the coronavirus pandemic — and if so, well, you're half-right. Each week brings us new evidence that President Trump failed to heed warnings that the COVID-19 virus could bring disaster, missing an opportunity to prepare for an outbreak that has claimed nearly 70,000 American lives.

But I'm also referring to the president's botched leadership in this crisis. Long before he won his shocking Electoral College victory in 2016, it was obvious that Trump would falter disastrously when faced with an emergency. "Just imagine Donald Trump in the Oval Office facing a real crisis," Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent in that election, tweeted in August of that year. "We can't afford that kind of risk." She was right.


Looking back to such forecasts is more than a matter of saying "I told you so." The president and his allies are already busy rewriting history with a mix of happy talk and scapegoating: Everything Trump has done has been a spectacular success, we're to believe, except for all the stuff that is the fault of China, or the responsibility of governors, or caused by the shortcomings of former President Obama. The battle for the historical narrative is under way. We have to act now to preserve the real history — of what went wrong and how it could have been avoided — so that future generations can look at us and hopefully learn from our mistakes.

The first mistake was electing Trump.

It's important to remember that one of the most influential pieces of pro-Trump punditry during the 2016 campaign conceded up front that his election could well end in a disaster for the country. But Michael Anton, the author of "The Flight 93 Election" essay, asserted that Clinton's triumph would somehow be worse.

These are the first two paragraphs of that piece:

2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die. You may die anyway. You — or the leader of your party — may make it into the cockpit and not know how to fly or land the plane. There are no guarantees.

Except one: if you don't try, death is certain. To compound the metaphor: a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances. [Michael Anton, The Flight 93 Election]

Even in hindsight, it is shocking to remember how utterly and nakedly cynical, even suicidal, the pro-Trump position was even before he became president.
MORE PERSPECTIVES
"The Trump crisis playbook tends to have three, overlapping tactics," The Atlantic's David Graham wrote in September 2016. "First, he doubles down on anything he said that's getting heat. Second, he insists that he actually was right and/or victorious. Third, he blames a rigged game for any troubles he encounters."

Graham was writing about a political crisis — but it is obvious that Trump sees the pandemic not as a human disaster, but primarily as a political problem for himself and his re-election. And Trump's crisis playbook has been in full effect in recent days.

Doubling down? Trump refused last week to acknowledge the error he made in late February when he said the coronavirus would be quickly contained. "You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero," he said then. Tuesday, he absurdly wouldn't back down from that assessment. "Well, it will go down to zero, ultimately," he said. Ridiculous.

Insisting he is right, even when the facts suggest he's wrong? The president declares on a near-daily basis that American testing for the coronavirus is exemplary. "We've tested more than every country combined," he said. But that's not true — and in any case, scientific experts say much more testing is needed to track the disease and safely reopen the country for business.

Blaming others for his troubles? "They always said nobody got treated worse than Lincoln," he told Fox News Sunday night. "I believe I am treated worse." In a moment of great crisis for his countrymen, Trump reserves his greatest pity for himself.

So while Americans deal with sickness, death, and the loss of income, the president spends his days obsessing about his poll numbers and insulting rivals. There is little evidence he understands the pandemic's human toll, except in terms of how it affects him and his future.

We can't say we weren't warned. We have another chance in November to heed those warnings. Let's hope we've learned from our 2016 mistakes

Conservative Constitutional scholar argues Trump should be impeached over Dr. Bright whistleblower complaint

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

After Dr. Rick Bright's whistleblower complaint, one law professor is arguing for impeaching President Trump a second time.

Bright was recently removed as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority while leading vaccine development, a move he alleged was taken because he wouldn't put "politics and cronyism" above science, insisting congressional funding not go toward "drugs, vaccines, and other technologies that lack scientific merit" and limiting the "broad use" of the Trump-touted hydroxychloroquine. He filed an official whistleblower complaint this week alleging "cronyism" at HHS.

Kim Wehle, a constitutional scholar and professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, on Thursday wrote in a piece for The Bulwark that Bright's story must "not be treated as just another Trump administration scandal," arguing it's evidence of Trump's "unabashed corruption" and is a "good reason to once again impeach the president."

Wehle acknowledges that the Republican-controlled Senate again wouldn't remove Trump from office after acquitting him in the Ukraine scandal but argues that "the pandemic creates new reasons to remove the president" and "at least the effort again to remove this singularly unfit president would be a worthy historical act of devotion to the Constitution."

Asked to comment on Bright's complaint this week, Trump dismissed him as "a disgruntled employee that’s trying to help the Democrats win an election." Read Wehle's full piece at The Bulwark. Brendan Morrow

Tesla preparing to partially reopen Fremont factory: report

Published: May 6, 2020 By Mike Murphy

Tesla Inc. TSLA, -0.32% is preparing to resume some car production at its Fremont, Calif., factory within the next week, potentially in violation of local coronavirus rules, the San Francisco Chronicle reported late Wednesday. Citing an anonymous source familiar with factory operations, the Chronicle said a small number of employees returned to the plant Wednesday to start preparations to reopen some production lines between now and next week. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said some manufacturing plants may soon reopen, but it was unclear if Tesla's operations would be included. Alameda County authorities declared Tesla's factory a non-essential business in March, shuttering it along with most other businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has been an outspoken critic of stay-at-home rules to stem the spread of the coronavirus, and Tesla defied the rules for about a week until the county sheriff intervened. The plant, which employs about 10,000 workers, has reportedly been staffed by a small number of "essential workers" since mid-March. Tesla reported first-quarter earnings last week, posting a surprising profit and saying its goal of selling 500,000 vehicles this year remains on track. Tesla shares are up 87% year to date, compared to the S&P 500's SPX, +1.15% 12% decline.