COVID19 CLASS WAR

Fed Chair Powell says more action may be needed to fend off economic ruin.

BUSINESS INSIDER MAY 13, 2020

The economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic may be a slow one, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a Wednesday event for the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

He added that more fiscal support could be necessary to avoid long-term economic damage.

"While the economic response has been both timely and appropriately large, it may not be the final chapter, given that the path ahead is both highly uncertain and subject to significant downside risks," Powell said.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned on Wednesday that the US economic recovery from the fallout of the coronavirus would likely be slow and require more fiscal stimulus.

The recovery "may take some time to gather momentum, and the passage of time can turn liquidity problems into solvency problems," Powell said in an event for the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

He continued: "Additional fiscal support could be costly but worth it if it helps avoid long-term economic damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery."

Powell's remarks came two months into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. In April, the US economy lost a record 20.5 million jobs and saw the unemployment rate spike to 14.7%.

Long stretches of unemployment can leave families in greater debt, Powell said. And losing thousands of small and medium-sized businesses "would destroy the life's work and family legacy of many business and community leaders and limit the strength of the recovery when it comes," he said.

Powell cheered the actions of the government so far, noting how swiftly different groups had acted to send relief to Americans. The Federal Open Market Committee slashed interest rates to zero in March and has since gone beyond its 2008 playbook with emergency lending and buying programs to support the economy.
Congress has allocated nearly $3 trillion in funding to support small businesses, American households, and more.

Still, there could be more to come. "While the economic response has been both timely and appropriately large, it may not be the final chapter, given that the path ahead is both highly uncertain and subject to significant downside risks," Powell said.

House Democrats on Tuesday proposed an additional $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill. The Fed also took another unprecedented step this week when it began buying corporate bond exchange-traded funds.

When the crisis subsides, the central bank will "put these emergency tools away," Powell said. Still, he reaffirmed the central bank's "whatever it takes" approach to provide support until the crisis has passed and the economic recovery is underway.

Fed Chair Powell just said 40% of households making less than $40,000 a year lost a job in March

BUSINESS INSIDER MAY 12, 2020

Powell said that around 40% of Americans earning less than $40,000 a year lost a job in March, citing a Fed study set to be published on Thursday.

"This reversal of economic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words, as lives are upended amid great uncertainty about the future," he said during a webinar.

Powell also called for further economic relief to shore up a battered economy ravaged by the pandemic.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that a substantial portion of lower-income Americans had been laid off in March.

"A Fed survey being released tomorrow reflects findings similar to many others: Among people who were working in February, almost 40% of those in households making less than $40,000 a year had lost a job in March," Powell said in a webinar at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

"This reversal of economic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words, as lives are upended amid great uncertainty about the future," he said.

The alarming statistic set to be published in Thursday's Fed study underscores the severe pain felt among low-income workers and their families during the pandemic. Many of those jobs are concentrated in the service sector, which are less likely to have benefits like paid sick leave or the ability for employees to work from home.

A survey from the Pew Research Center released in April also found that one in four lower-income adults had any savings to cushion financial shocks caused by job losses or other emergencies.

Powell recognized the scale of the economic damage wrought by the virus. He also called for additional relief measures to further shore up a battered economy.

"Additional fiscal support could be costly, but worth it if it helps avoid long-term economic damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery," he said.

Over 33 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past two months, as scores of businesses shuttered and people stayed home to curb the spread of the virus.

Democrats recently unveiled a $3 trillion spending proposal aiming to extend additional lifelines to states, businesses, and people weathering the pandemic. But Republicans declared it dead-on-arrival in the Senate.

Kickstarter is laying off 18% of its "UNIONIZED" workforce as crowdfunding projects plummet during the pandemic

Tyler Sonnemaker
BUSINESS INSIDER MAY 13, 2020

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has laid off a significant part of its workforce due to COVID-19. Hollis Johnson

Kickstarter has laid off 25 employees, around 18% of its workforce, according to a regulatory notice filed last week. 

CEO Aziz Hasan told employees in April that layoffs were likely as the crowdfunding website saw projects drop 35% from a year prior with "no clear sign of rebound," according to The Verge. 

Employees, who unionized in February, will receive several months' pay and healthcare coverage as well as a chance to reclaim their job if Kickstarter brings it back within a year as part of an earlier severance deal reached with the union. 

The company becomes the lastest venture-backed startup in recent weeks to announce sweeping layoffs. 

Kickstarter is laying off 25 employees, nearly 18% of its 140-person workforce, due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a notice filed with New York's labor department last week.

The notice indicates the layoffs will go into effect starting Friday, citing "unforeseeable business circumstances prompted by COVID-19."

In April, CEO Aziz Hasan told employees in an internal memo that the crowdfunding platform had seen projects drop by 35% from the same time a year earlier and, despite having taken several cost-cutting measures already, that it was considering layoffs, The Verge reported.

As part of a deal reached earlier in May between Kickstarter's union and the company, employees being let go will receive a severance package that includes: four months' pay, four months of healthcare coverage for employees who make more than $110,001 and six months for those making that amount or less, termination of their non-compete agreements, and a chance to reclaim their job (or a similar one) if Kickstarter brings it back within a year.

Kickstarter employees in February became the first full-time tech workers to unionize as more across the industry look to organize, becoming members of the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

DO I NEED TO POINT OUT THAT THIS IS A UNION ADVANTAGE NON UNION WORKERS DO NOT GET...WELL I DID.... 

Kickstarter is the latest in a string of venture-backed startups to announce sweeping layoffs after seeing business slow due to the coronavirus pandemic. Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb have all cut significant amounts of their workforces in recent weeks.

Kickstarter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.

BIG DATA IS BIG BROTHER
Tech used to track NBA players has been repurposed to enforce social distancing in factories and distribution centers. Here's how it works.

Shoshy Ciment

Top players in food and beverage, automotive parts, and global logistics are currently testing SafeZone in their factories. Kinexon

Localization data company Kinexon has repurposed its technology to help workers stay distanced from one another in factories.

The SafeZone solution alerts users when they are standing too close to another person.
Kinexon has used similar technology for tracking the performance of NBA players and in other industries as well.

Social distancing just got a technological leg-up on some factory floors, thanks to a new solution from localization data company Kinexon.

"We developed an ultra-precise, real-time localization technology of people and objects that can be used in digitizing factories and shop floors in the industrial world," Kinexon CEO Mehdi Bentanfous told Business Insider.
The new solution, called SafeZone, helps workers maintain distance between one another in factories and other large centers. The technology alerts users either visually or audibly in real-time when they are standing too close to another person, thanks to wearable wristband sensors, which use radio frequency waves to provide precise location data on the users to the inch.

Before the pandemic was even a thought, the company had already developed a location-focused technology for its vast portfolio of clients that monitored the distance and movement of people and objects with radio frequency waves. The company boasts an impressive clientele in the automotive and sports industries, ranging from BMW to the New York Knicks.

But with the NBA season canceled for the year and the need for social distancing in certain industries becoming more dire, Kinexon turned to its existing products to find a solution. And SafeZone was born.

Wearable wristband sensors use radio frequency waves to provide precise location data on users. Kinexon

Factories are hotbeds for infection

"The motivation of developing SafeZone has been because of the need that we saw," Bentanfous said. "And the value add that our technology provides."

As the coronavirus pandemic persists in the US, meat processing plants and fulfillment and distribution centers have become hotbeds for illness and infection. Many centers have implemented social distancing guidelines to curb spreading, but in many cases, the need for a more rigorous solution was clear.

To Bentanfous, already having the precise sensor technology that measures distance gave the company a head start on finding a solution. The next step was to modify the goal of the technology to measure the distance between two people as opposed to the location of one individual in real-time.

"The technology is the same," Bentanfous said, regarding SafeZone and the company's previous solutions. "What we calculate out of it, it's different."

Because the bones of the technology were already in place, Kinexon was able to develop, test, and prototype SafeZone within two weeks — all while working entirely from home.

Though the SafeZone technology cannot account for employees wearing masks or running fevers, there are other ways the technology can come in handy. For example, SafeZone does not provide data on an individual's identity but if an employee were to test positive for the virus, companies could be able to determine which other employees were in close proximity with that person by analyzing the movement data of the infected individual.
Kinexon technology is used by 70% of the NBA

The New York Knicks utilize Kinexon technology. Andres Kudacki/AP

A similar technology from Kinexon has been used to track the performance of athletes in a variety of sports. Across Europe and the US, more than 100 sports teams work with Kinexon to measure the movement and performance of athletes on the court or field.

More than 70% of the NBA — or over 20 teams — currently use Kinexon technology for their players, mostly as a means to monitor health and prevent injury.

"It's a very small and light sensor so that the players do not even realize they're wearing a sensor," Bentanfous said of the technology, which is seamlessly integrated into the equipment or uniforms of NFL, NHL, and collegiate athletes.

The SafeZone solution was created from a slight modification of this type of existing technology, made for the new purpose of measuring distance. Though Kinexon could not confirm the names of the companies currently using the technology, a representative said that top players in food and beverage, automotive parts, and global logistics are currently testing the product in their factories and centers.

Bentanfous added that Kinexon is currently in talks with retailers and grocers to possibly implement the technology in stores.

"Technically speaking, it can be used everywhere," Bentanfous said. "So if you are able to implement the sensor and get the persons wearing the sensors, there is no limit for that."

Worker unrest and internal tensions are forcing a dramatic reckoning at McDonald's that could forever change the fast-food icon

McDonald's workers are protesting in unprecedented numbers.

 Samantha Lee/Business Insider

McDonald's is facing unprecedented protests during the coronavirus pandemic, as workers seek higher pay and safety protections. 

"We're willing to go to jail for our children, for justice," said McDonald's worker Terrence Wise. "McDonald's should be fully aware of that." 

Tensions also emerged between executives and franchisees, creating cracks in the McDonald's unified front during the pandemic. 

McDonald's has rolled out nearly 50 new safety measures in recent weeks and is examining long-term changes such as increasing paid sick leave and raising workers' pay. 

"We did it because it was the right thing to do," said McDonald's US vice president of communications David Tovar when discussing new procedures. "Not because ... a handful of employees at nine restaurants that were propped up by the SEIU held a couple of made-for-the-media events." 

Terrence Wise has been fighting McDonald's from the inside for seven years.

The Kansas City-based fast-food worker has led strikes, protests, and even visited the Obama White House to advocate for higher minimum wages and better benefits. Wise often uses his life to explain why workers need a union. He struggles to pay his bills, he hasn't been to a doctor or dentist in 18 years, and he has been homeless twice.

But, Wise says he's never experienced anything like the coronavirus pandemic.

"We see tens of thousands of workers across the country dying," Wise told Business Insider in a recent interview. "I'm talking about the working class dying off."

 

McDonald's worker Terrence Wise has been part of the Fight for 15 movement for seven years. Fight for 15

Conversations with more than a dozen McDonald's workers, franchisees, and progressive organizers in recent weeks reveal a company under fire.

Fears of catching the coronavirus are on the minds of nearly all employees. At the same time, many are facing financial concerns, with cut hours, layoffs, and the economic downturn.

McDonald's has become public enemy No. 1 for many progressive groups during the pandemic, from the Service Employees International Union-backed Fight for 15 movement to the ACLU. As the largest and arguably the most powerful restaurant company in America, McDonald's decisions impact 850,000 workers and set the standard for the rest of the industry.

At the same time, McDonald's corporate office is in uncharted territory, as franchisees and corporate face-off and new executives' leadership is tested.

As the company attempts to balance rebuilding sales, worker safety, and its reputation in the coronavirus era, McDonald's workers' lives could change in an irreversible way.

"Workers across my city are ready to stand up and take action and go on strike whenever that's deemed necessary," Wise said. "We're willing to go to jail for our children, for justice. McDonald's should be fully aware of that. I d

on't want to sound threatening, but it's a dire situation for our families. It's life or death."

The coronavirus pandemic brought waves of strikes, protests, and bad press for McDonald's


 

A Fight for 15 protest outside McDonald's. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

McDonald's started seeing coronavirus-induced backlash even before restaurants across the US shut down their dining rooms.

Criticism heated up in mid-March when a report by The Shift Project found that, pre-pandemic, more than 500,000 McDonald's workers did not have paid sick leave. Workers began demanding personal protective equipment around the same time. The CDC had not yet recommended people wear masks, and McDonald's discouraged most employees from doing so, despite workers' mounting fears.

Criticism and concerns quickly developed into strikes. Fight for 15, a group back by the SEIU that advocates for a $15 minimum wage and the right to unionize, organized its first protest linking McDonald's workers' rights to the pandemic in Florida on March 12.

In the weeks that followed, protests skyrocketed, with strikes at McDonald's in at least nine cities. Workers demanded paid sick leave, personal protective equipment, and higher pay for working during the pandemic.

"McDonald's should be leading the way in this pandemic," said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry. "But the wealthiest fast-food company in the world has had the poorest response."

The wealthiest fast-food company in the world has had the poorest response.

According to Allynn Umel, the organizing director for Fight for 15, the coronavirus pandemic sparked McDonald's workers' first-ever spontaneous strikes, with workers walking out over lack of cleaning equipment in San Jose.

It also led to the first time Fight for 15 protesters committed to multi-day strikes, such as in Los Angeles, where employees protested for weeks until their store received deep cleaning, PPE, quarantine pay, and hazard pay.

"I think there is also a very different level of both anger and degree of boldness and willingness to take action because workers fundamentally see the impossible choice that a number of them have to make every single day," Umel said.

 

People protest what they say is a lack of personal protective equipment for employees as they close down the drive-thru at McDonald's on April 21 in Oakland, Calif. AP Photo/Ben Margot

McDonald's US vice president of communications David Tovar emphasized to Business Insider that these protests impacted only a small number of the chain's roughly 14,000 stores in the US.

But many workers who are not protesting feel forced to choose between a paycheck and safety. Six of the eight McDonald's workers who spoke with Business Insider since late April — including those who said they felt the company had done a good job responding to the pandemic — said that they had been concerned about catching the coronavirus on the job during the pandemic.

"I am practically bathing in hand sanitizer," a McDonald's worker named Niki said in late March. "I fear that I'm a soldier on the front line, bound to be the first to fall. Over cheeseburgers."

I fear that I'm a soldier on the front line, bound to be the first to fall. Over cheeseburgers.

Niki and the more than 20 workers at McDonald's and other chains who spoke with Business Insider in recent weeks were granted anonymity to speak frankly about their situation, as many said they feared for their safety and the safety of their families.

Tovar said that the company understood the perspective of workers who were worried about coming to work.

"That was a perfectly reasonable thing for all employees, not just at McDonald's, but employees at any employer, to be asking their employer about what are we doing to ensure the safety of employees," Tovar said. "And, we took that very seriously and backed that up with a lot of action."

In addition to safety concerns, some McDonald's workers are also worried about being able to pay their bills during the pandemic. Seven out of the eight McDonald's workers who spoke with Business Insider since late April said that their store had seen layoffs or that workers' hours had been cut, as locations serve limited menus, reduce hours, and close dining rooms.

Jay Shambaugh, an economist and director of the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project, said that low unemployment often makes organizing more difficult. But, he said, visceral safety concerns have convinced workers to organize throughout history.

"Are workers more afraid of McDonald's and [losing] their jobs? Or, are you more afraid for your life and the lives of your children and your loved ones?" Wise said. "That's something that folks have to weigh. … For most, we're more concerned about our families."

Cracks are forming in McDonald's corporate facade

 

\McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski. AP Photo/Richard Drew

Leading McDonald's response to the coronavirus pandemic are two relative newcomers to their roles: CEO Chris Kempczinski and US President Joe Erlinger.

Kempczinski was promoted from US president to CEO in November when Steve Easterbrook was abruptly ousted after a romantic relationship with a coworker. Kempczinski butted heads with American franchisees as president, who saw him as an outsider working with Easterbrook to cull McDonald's independent owner-operators.

Coming into 2020, Kempczinski and Erlinger had won over both franchisees and shareholders, with impressive financials and a growth strategy untouched by the executive shakeup.

Then the pandemic came.

As COVID-19 swept through the country, the restaurant industry went into crisis mode.

McDonald's executives began meeting three times every day to keep up with the rapidly changing situation, according to Tovar. McDonald's leaders met with President Trump and other key politicians, emphasizing the importance of keeping locations open. Franchisees were informed of new safety policies on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.

Sales slumped as states sheltered in place, with same-store sales plummeting by 25% in the second half of March. The burden of slumping sales falls primarily on franchisees, who own 95% of McDonald's locations in the US.

Franchisee groups felt that the corporate office wasn't doing enough to relieve the burden, according to letters obtained by Business Insider. Blake Casper — the president of the independent National Owners Association — wrote a letter to Erlinger on April 7, blasting the company for rejecting franchisees' proposed relief plan. Casper called the decision a "microcosm of a much larger leadership clash that we hope is not inevitable," a far cry from McDonald's "McFamily" relationship with franchisees in decades past.

Casper called the decision a "microcosm of a much larger leadership clash that we hope is not inevitable."

While scrambling to develop a plan to support franchisees and rebuild sales, McDonald's was also dealing with the growing worker strikes and protests. In an internal FAQ document from late March obtained by Business Insider, the chain answered questions about "negative publicity" and concerns that McDonald's was getting a "black eye in the media."

McDonald's response to Casper's letter attempted to address both the negative press and franchisees' anger. Erlinger wrote in an April 9 letter that franchisees' plan failed to "recognize that the company has finite resources." Instead of asking for more from the company, he said franchisee groups needed to support paid sick leave and "hero" raises for workers.

According to Tovar, the back-and-forth took place at the "height of uncertainty" related to the pandemic, noting that debate and discussion helps the system produce better outcomes. "Anytime there's uncertainty and there's high anxiety, I think that's going to raise the level of discussion and emotion that goes into the dialogue that exists within the system," Tovar said.

Tovar said that McDonald's and its franchisees are maintaining a healthy dialogue.

However, McDonald's response did not satisfy owner-operators or organizers who spoke with Business Insider. One franchisee said that with sales down and McDonald's requiring franchisees to cover the costs of new safety features, he and other franchisees can't afford to raise pay.

Organizers, meanwhile, saw McDonald's pressure on franchisees as dodging responsibility. While Fight for 15 and franchisees are often at odds, Umel says that workers and owner-operators may have a common opponent during the pandemic.


"Franchisees are seeing, in this moment, that the company is not looking out for them," Umel said. "And the workers feel it as well."

America has already changed. Will McDonald's follow suit?
 

What comes next for McDonald's? REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

The battle between franchisees and McDonald's has quieted since early April.

McDonald's and franchisees rolled out nearly 50 new safety measures at all locations, including providing masks to all employees. Last week, McDonald's announced all workers in company-owned stores will receive a bonus, equal to 10% of pay earned in May, crediting franchisees as inspiration.

"We did it because it was the right thing to do," Tovar said. "Not because ... a handful of employees at nine restaurants that were propped up by the SEIU held a couple of made-for-the-media events at our restaurants."

New safety standards, as well as company-owned locations' two weeks of sick leave and heroes' raises, are supposed to be temporary changes during a pandemic. But, with internal cracks and workers under unprecedented strain, the seeds for permanent change may have already been sown.

Tovar said McDonald's is closely examining longer-term changes, including making two weeks of paid sick leave permanent and raising workers' pay, as the "new normal" sets in. All employers, including McDonald's, are going to have to look at "what are the expectations of employees or the expectations of the regulatory environment."
People stand in line for their order at a McDonald's restaurant in the Brooklyn borough of New York in March. AP Photo/Wong Maye-E

Public perceptions of fast-food workers have evolved into heroic essential employees. Hazard pay is gaining bipartisan support, with Senate Democrats introducing a plan to pay $25,000 out of a "Heroes Fund" to essential employees and Sen. Mitt Romney proposing a "Patriot Pay" plan that would boost workers' pay by $12 per hour.

Both the "Heroes Fund" and "Patriot Pay" are intended to be temporary. Progressive organizers want fundamental change.

On May Day, the ACLU launched a campaign against McDonald's — the ACLU's first public campaign to address paid sick leave. In late March, CtW Investment Group launched a campaign to vote out board members it considered responsible for delivering ex-CEO Easterbrook's $44 million payout.

"Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, it was clear that McDonald's needed more accountability at the top," Dieter Waizenegger, CtW's executive director, said in a statement. "Strong board oversight of management has become even more critical for the company to successfully navigate the pandemic."

With unemployment reaching all-time highs and hundreds of thousands of restaurants closing across the US, the American restaurant industry has been irreversibly changed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Shambaugh, the economist, says that it is too early to definitively say what comes next, but that organizing is a learned behavior. Safety concerns during the pandemic have already forced many workers to learn how to collectively advocate for themselves.

"With their backs up against the wall, if workers feel like they need to band together, that may change their behavior — even if we were to eradicate the virus quickly and working conditions were safe," Shambaugh said.

Joshua Specht, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, similarly believes it is too early to say if a "short-term outrage can become part of a long-term movement."

"It's up to workers, their advocates, and their allies, to push for meaningful political change," Specht said "But that won't be easy, in any crisis, there will be a push to say, 'we have immediate problems we need to address, no time to think about long-term solutions.'"


As businesses reopen, some McDonald's workers are continuing to protest. Last week, Florida fast-food workers with Fight for 15 organized a walkout across the state to highlight safety concerns linked to dining rooms reopening. For Wise, seven years of fast-food protests and surviving the coronavirus pandemic are just the beginning.



"The working class as a whole is awakening from top to bottom, and realizing that we get more together than we do apart," Wise said.


US federal agencies warn that Chinese hackers are targeting COVID-19 research on vaccines and treatments. 

A hurricane or wildfire will likely hit while the US is still fighting the coronavirus, compounding both disasters. Officials are preparing now.

SHOCK & AWE GEE 

Why Trump Is Peddling Extra-Strength Conspiracy Theories

The president is doubling his dose of outrageous claims because he worries his audience isn’t responding like it used to.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

By JACK SHAFER 05/12/2020
Jack Shafer is Politico’s senior media writer.

Who knows these days precisely what reaction President Donald Trump expects from the world when he opens his mouth?

Always a prolific tweeter, over the past three days he’s gone off like a pack of Mentos dropped in a Diet Coke, tweeting up a foam about “Obamagate,” Joe Scarborough, Meet the Press’ mistake, the opening of his golf courses, his picks in congressional races and more. He’s even retweeted QAnon-related accounts. On Monday afternoon, Trump brought his magnifying mania to his press conference in the Rose Garden. Staged against a backdrop of four U.S. flags and a pair of posters, the event looked more like a campaign rally than a presser. “America Leads the World in Testing,” the twin posters stated, and each featured a printed U.S. flag for heraldic emphasis. It would not have been out of place had an official entered from the wings and placed a gold medal around Trump’s neck and a laurel wreath on his blondish mop.

Trump’s opening comments did not match the celebratory theatrics of the set design. Except for a single calculated line, “We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” the remarks were the usual barge-full of sloshing Trumpspeak. Not even a fireworks display could have given the moment the elevation Trump appeared to seek. When the time finally came for reporters to grill him, Trump did not field—and could not possibly have expected to have fielded—the “congratulations, great job“ queries he has said in the past that he deserves. Instead, reporters asked, as they frequently do, and should do, direct questions about making testing available to all Americans on demand, not just White House staffers.

Trump could not possibly have been surprised, either, when CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang asked a pointed question about why Trump was trying to frame the testing as some sort global competition. Instead of giving a coherent answer, the president told her twice she should direct her question to “China,” which many have interpreted as a shot at Jiang’s ethnicity. In the interchange that ensued, Trump labeled her question “nasty” twice—his typical putdown for a question he doesn’t like—and then, after calling on CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and then uncalling on her, he abruptly shut the presser down by saying, “OK, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much,” and marched away from the podium

And this wasn’t even the weirdest part of the presser! When a reporter asked about his recent “Obamagate“ tweets and wanted to know exactly what crime he was accusing his predecessor of, Trump avoided answering, shooting back at the reporter, “You know what the crime is, the crime is very obvious to everybody.” And it’s not the only crime Trump is bird-dogging. Recent Trump’s tweets have reprised his old and completely baseless accusation that MSNBC’s Scarborough was culpable in the death, 19 years ago, of a staffer. (For what it’s worth, Senate Republicans seem to want no part of Trump’s Obamagate-mongering, according to POLITICO.)

Embracing mania … engaging in pageantry … fight-picking … conspiracy theorizing … throwing a public tizzy. While none of these batty Trump behaviors are new, their current intensity invites us to ask once more why he still goes on like this.

Above all, as Rob Long put it in the May Commentary, Trump likes to be watched. “The camera is always your friend,” is his guiding principle, Long writes. “The more you let people see—even the nasty stuff—the safer you are.” The greater his antics, the greater his exposure, the greater the commentary, and the larger the feedback loop. See, I’m writing about him and you’re reading about him. Almost 3½ years into his presidency, he’s learned that there’s little political blowback from his followers for whatever lunacy the camera records. In fact, as we’ve seen from his rallies, the more he lies and blusters, the more they like it.
For the same reason, Trump loves it when we yell back at him about his Obamagate B.S. or his charges against Scarborough or his snit-fits. Making him the subject of our conversations is almost as good to Trump as making him the video camera’s focal point. All those op-ed commentaries denouncing him? Obviously, he’d like it better if the commentariat praised him, but if they’re going to criticize him, he’s content to annotate the insults and censures and repurpose them as offensive weapons. Remember what he did when Hillary Clinton called some of his supporters “deplorables”? He turned it into a badge of honor.

Trump has long loved stirring the pot with charges of conspiracy. This week the perpetrators of conspiracy are China, Obama, Scarborough and the ravings of QAnon. During the campaign, it was the alleged criminal hijinks of Hillary Clinton and his attacks on the question of Barack Obama’s citizenship. Baseless charges like these are the perfect refuge of a rhetorical arsonist like Trump, who scorches the earth with controversy and confusion so nobody knows where to find the truth.


MOST READ

With Obamagate, Trump returns to a favorite distraction tactic

“Conspiracy is a ‘self-sealing’ narrative—it can never be disproven,” says Jennifer Mercieca, the author of the forthcoming Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump. “The logics of conspiracy cover up the lack of proof (they are hiding the proof) or disconfirming proof (they can’t be trusted to tell the truth). He who wields conspiracy is very powerful because he can point suspicion in any direction he likes.”

Has Trump really turned up the heat or have we just been sitting in his saucepan so long it just feels that way? My intuition tells me that both his supporters and critics have grown numb to his previous rhetorical excesses and need for him cross new boundaries, violate new taboos, and break fresh panes of glass in order remain engaged. Then there’s the matter of his Trump’s recent dip in the polls, reportedly putting him in a “foul mood.” He knows he can’t charm his way back to better numbers, so he’s trying furiously to stay in the public eye by displaying more ferocity. And don’t forget the Biden problem. “Sleepy Joe,” as Trump often taunts him, has been hiding like a possum in his basement where Trump can’t get to him, and that’s got to frustrate him.

So he keeps harping on China as the responsible party for the 80,000-plus coronavirus deaths in the United States. While offering absolutely no proof for the charge, Trump obscures his own neglect of the pandemic and misdirects culpability to a foreign country. These techniques might not work on you, but that doesn’t bother Trump. His hardcore supporters are the target of the tweets, speeches, pressers and conspiracy theories. The more he does to make himself look persecuted and reviled by the “elites” and the press, the more heroic he appears to his base.
As the presidential campaign progresses, look for more of the same from Trump, with an emphasis on Biden, of course. His goal is a permanent schism in American society, a cold civil war, with lots of finger-pointing and yelling and demagoguery. Even if he loses in November, his audience will endure, and he’ll do whatever he needs to make sure we never take our eyes off of him.

******

I’ll be writing more about Jennifer Mercieca’s Demagogue for President when it’s published in early summer. (Highly recommended.) Send book recommendations to Shafer.Politico@gmail.com. My email alerts blame my Twitter feed for losing China. My RSS feed is a prisoner of rational argument.

Conspiracy theorists, far-right extremists around the world seize on the pandemic

Civil rights advocates have warned for months that the coronavirus could aid recruiting for the most extreme white-supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.

POLITICO Illustration/AP


By MARK SCOTT and STEVEN OVERLY
Updated: 05/13/2020


The coronavirus is providing a global rallying cry for conspiracy theorists and far-right extremists on both sides of the Atlantic.

People seizing on the pandemic range from white supremacists and anti-vaxxers in the U.S. to fascist and anti-refugee groups across Europe, according to a POLITICO review of thousands social media posts and interviews with misinformation experts tracking their online activities. They also include far-right populists on both continents who had previously tried to coordinate their efforts after the 2016 American presidential election.

Not all online groups peddling messages on the pandemic have links to the far right, but those extremists have become especially vocal in using the outbreak to push their political agenda at a time of deepening public uncertainty and economic trauma. They are piggybacking on social media to promote coronavirus-related themes drawn from multiple sources — among them, Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns, the Trump administration’s musings about the coronavirus’ origins and anti-Muslim themes from India’s nationalist ruling party.




Online platforms like Telegram have become havens for rumors about the pandemic, such as claims that the U.S. is heading to martial law or that the virus is more benign than the flu.

“Honestly, it’s a dream come true for any and every hate group, snake oil salesman and everything in between,” said Tijana Cvjetićanin, a fact-checker in the Balkans who has watched ultranationalist groups promoting hate-filled messages on social media about the coronavirus, often against Jewish communities.

Civil rights advocates have warned for months that the coronavirus could aid recruiting for the most extreme white-supremacist and neo-Nazi groups — those actively rooting for society’s collapse. Some online researchers say they also worry about the barrage of false messages from extremist groups feeding what the U.N. has dubbed an “infodemic” that makes it hard to separate fact from fiction.

Opponents of government lockdown orders have used online platforms to organize protests across the U.S., including rallies where activists displayed guns inside Michigan’s state capitol. In Europe, rumors linking the coronavirus to 5G wireless technology have led to dozens of arson attacks on telecommunications masts — a phenomenon that now appears to have spread to Canada.

“It's like hitting conspiracy bingo,” said Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab, which is tracking coronavirus misinformation.
From 4chan to Facebook

As the world economy craters and the coronavirus’ global death toll ticks past 280,000 people, extremist messages are finding fertile ground on fringe online platforms like 4chan, Telegram and a gamer hangout called Discord. From there, such harmful content can make its way to mainstream sites like Facebook and Google-owned YouTube — each boasting roughly 2 billion users apiece — despite the companies’ attempts to weed out violent or dangerous content.

Facebook said last week that one collection of fake accounts and pages it removed in April — tied to two anti-immigrant websites in the U.S. — had drawn more than 200,000 followers with messages including the hashtag “#ChinaVirus” and a false claim that the coronavirus mainly kills white people. Twitter announced Monday that it would begin more aggressively labeling tweets that contain misleading or harmful coronavirus information.

But plenty of other fake coronavirus content continues to thrive online. That includes a slickly produced online video, called “Plandemic,” that garnered millions of views across YouTube, Twitter and Facebook over the weekend by promoting bogus medical cures and other conspiracy theories tied to the coronavirus. The video remains in wide circulation.

One coronavirus-related term, “Coronachan,” has also exploded on social media, first emerging in January and drawing more than 120,000 shares on Twitter in one week in late April, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank that tracks extremist groups. (The term is a play on the name of 4chan, a message board that is a favorite gathering spot for the global far right.) In Germany, Telegram groups where influential extremists and far-right activists attack vulnerable groups have doubled their number of followers, to more than 100,000 participants since February, according to a review by POLITICO of those accounts.

The themes of far-right posts include long-standing grievances, including allegations that migrants spread disease, support for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, antagonism toward the EU or opposition to gun control. One online rumor, accusing Microsoft founder Bill Gates of creating the coronavirus, echoes centuries-old conspiracy theories and Anti-Semitic tropes about global elites pulling the world’s strings.



Why Trump Is Peddling Extra-Strength Conspiracy Theories

“These aren’t new lines they are spinning,” said Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. “They will use anything they can, whether it’s coronavirus or something else, to bring people into their radical world.”

Public figures helping stoke the fires include French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen, whose Facebook account has more than 1.5 million followers, and Trump, who has defended his use of the term “Chinese virus” and pushed the theory that the disease may have come from a lab in China, despite pushback from his intelligence and defense agencies.


I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the “borders” from China - against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2020

Some online extremists groups have echoed the rhetoric of political leaders like President Donald Trump, including his attacks on China.

Extremist groups on the two continents have tried before to coordinate their messaging, with middling success.

After Trump’s surprise victory in 2016, far-right online communities sprouted up across the U.S. and Europe, at first using online platforms like Facebook and Google before shifting their focus to smaller, less-regulated networks to share conspiracy theories or organize protests.

Americans like Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief strategist, also tried to export U.S.-style online tactics in hopes of uniting European right-wing groups like Italy’s Northern League party and Le Pen’s National Rally in France, though, as POLITICO reported last year, he struggled to win over movements on the Continent.

Now, as the coronavirus gives the far right a new impetus to find audiences, many European activists are wielding the same U.S.-style tactics they have spent years learning to emulate, including the creation of online “meme banks” of photos designed to spread widely. That leaves them less in need of outside help, according to researchers tracking their movements.

“Europe’s far-right no longer needs additional resources from its transatlantic supporters,” said Chloe Colliver, who heads the digital research unit at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
Blaming minorities

It does not take much digging through the online platforms to find far-right messages on the health crisis.

In Italy, extremist news outlets have flooded social media with reports blaming that country’s devastating coronavirus outbreak on migrants, including an online attack that singled out a Pakistani employee at a Chinese restaurant in a northern Italian town.

In France, activists called for sending non-white populations back to their “home” countries, while Le Pen, the far-right leader, alleged on Facebook that mosques had have “taken advantage of the confinement orders” by blaring “the muezzin's call to Islamic prayer” on loudspeakers.

Tommy Robinson, the British anti-immigration activist, has promoted the “#GermJihad” hashtag and reposted online messages from members of India’s ruling nationalist BJP party to his more than 36,000 followers on Telegram, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s review of his posts.

Others, on sites like Facebook and Reddit, have alleged that the Chinese created the coronavirus as a bioweapon to attack the U.S. economy, and will reap the windfall if they are not stopped. “China will become even more brazen and take down western economies with more filth in the future,” one Reddit user wrote.


Tommy Robinson, a British anti-immigration activist with more than 36,000 Telegram followers, has promoted hashtags like “#GermJihad” and reposted calls for a “lockdown rebellion.”

Those claims go much further than the recent speculation by Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the coronavirus originated in a government lab in Wuhan, China. (The president said this month that he thinks the Chinese “made a horrible mistake and they didn’t want to admit it.”)

While some online far-right users have jumped on Trump’s messages, others had already been promoting anti-China rhetoric before senior U.S. politicians began railing on Beijing, according to a review of social media posts from early February.
Attacking governments

Extremists are also using the coronavirus to call for resistance against their governments.

In Telegram channels with tens of thousands of followers, users mostly in the U.S. urged people to take up arms to protest the lockdowns and protect their civil liberties, sometimes posting photos of themselves dressed in biohazard suits and carrying automatic weapons, according to research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

European far-right groups also have called for national governments to reclaim their power from the EU — a message primarily focused on countries like Greece, Spain and Italy where some people remain bitter about how the bloc treated them during the 2008 financial crisis. Those countries similarly have seen a spike in Russian disinformation campaigns, mostly through Kremlin-backed media outlets, aimed at sowing doubt about Europe’s response to the coronavirus, according to a recent review conducted by EU disinformation officials obtained by POLITICO.



A woman holds up a placard at a coronavirus anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine, anti-5G and pro-freedom protest near Scotland Yard in London on May 2. | Matt Dunham/AP Photo

A far more extreme incident occurred in the U.S. in March, when the FBI shot and killed a Missouri man who agents said had been plotting to blow up a hospital to call attention to his white supremacist beliefs. The man, who had posted anti-Semitic remarks on Telegram hours before being killed, had chosen the target because of "media attention on the health sector" during the pandemic, the bureau said in a statement quoted by NBC News.

Misinformation experts at the Oxford Internet Institute documented Facebook groups across 33 states aimed at instigating opposition to quarantine measures that rob people of their freedoms and ability to earn a living, according to Aliaksandr Herasimenka, a postdoctoral researcher. Some had fewer than 10,000 members, while others had grown much larger.

“The similarity and design of their Facebook groups suggests that many of these protests across individual states are related to each other,” said Herasimenka. It “might be directed, not necessarily managed, but directed or inspired by some centralized lobby groups that we don't know exactly what they are.”

Facebook has removed some of the protests from its network after determining they had violated state orders by encouraging people to take actions that could spread the coronavirus. But the policy hasn’t applied consistently across the social network, and Facebook has been adamant that it is not policing people’s political opinions. The company has often left it to a global network of independent fact-checkers to debunk the worst online offenders or counter misinformation by pointing people to credible sources.

Several of the recently created U.S. Facebook groups have been spearheaded by the Dorr family, brothers who manage a series of aggressively U.S. pro-gun organizations, The Washington Post reported last month. One Dorr-connected private group called Wisconsinites Against Excessive Quarantine attracted 118,000 members; its Pennsylvania affiliate counts 89,000, according to a review of these Facebook groups. The Dorrs did not respond to requests for comment through their advocacy organizations.

“The audience for this stuff isn't the average American news consumer and I'm not even sure the audience is the average person stuck at home sheltering in place,” said Philip Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute. “It’s people who are reluctant to take any advice or instructions from the government at any time, whether it's about guidelines on what kinds of guns you can have or whether it's health-related instructions to stay at home.”
'There's only one conversation'

The anti-vaccine movement on both continents has also latched onto the coronavirus pandemic.

Media Matters for America, a liberal media watchdog, found posts within U.S. Facebook groups claiming the pandemic is an effort to force people into accepting vaccines and, perhaps, even a surreptitious plot to inject people with microchips. Similar messages appeared in WhatsApp messages shared widely in Italy, which has a long-standing anti-vaxxer community, while groups in France have called for a boycott of any government-backed coronavirus vaccine program.



Top: Protesters Heidi Munoz Gleisner, center left, and Tara Thornton are removed from a demonstration against California Gov. Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home order. Bottom: Protesters at Scotland Yard. | AP Photo, The Sacramento Bee

U.S. anti-vaccine groups also organized an anti-lockdown rally this month outside California’s state capitol and have taken part in protests in New York, Colorado and Texas, using their opposition to state-ordered shutdowns as part of a broader message about personal “freedom,” The New York Times reported.

Other coronavirus themes emerging online include long-running conspiracy theories blaming the “global elites” for much of the world’s ills, particularly focusing on George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire who has long been a target for right-wing and anti-Semitic groups.

Since late January, attacks against Soros and his fellow billionaire Gates have shifted to accusing the men of either spreading the coronavirus or capitalizing on it to push a pro-vaccine agenda. Some Facebook users in private online groups seen by POLITICO also questioned whether Gates was also Jewish. Gates, who has made global public health a priority of his philanthropic efforts, has drawn their attention because of a 2015 video in which he discussed the dangers of a future global pandemic.

“Diseases have long been used to promote disinformation,” said Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at Graphika, the social media analysis firm, who has tracked the spread of coronavirus extremist content.

“But right now, there’s only one conversation that everyone is having, and that’s about the coronavirus,” he added. “The disinformation actors know that as well, and they are trying to take advantage.”

Cristiano Lima contributed to this report.

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez joins Joe Biden’s climate crisis task force


Published May 13, 2020 By Common Dreams


“I commend Joe Biden for working together with my campaign to assemble a group of leading thinkers and activists who can and will unify our party in a transformational and progressive direction,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said.

Following her call for former Vice President Joe Biden to reach out to progressives in order to win the 2020 general election against President Donald Trump, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accepted an invitation to co-chair the Biden campaign’s newly-formed “unity task force” on the climate.

Ocasio-Cortez will join former Secretary of State John Kerry in leading the task force, which also counts among its members Sunrise Movement co-founder Varshini Prakash and Poor People’s Campaign leader Catherine Flowers.

Both Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who suspended his presidential campaign last month, and Biden nominated members of their campaigns to join the panels.

A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez, Lauren Hitt, said in a statement that the congresswoman “will be fully accountable to” members of the climate justice community while serving on the task force.

“She believes the movement will only be successful if we continue to apply pressure both inside and outside the system,” Hitt said. “This is just one element of the broader fight for just policies.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s appointment to the panel comes a month after she said in a New York Times interview that she intends to support Biden in the general election, but that he must work closely with and listen to progressives to win over the vast majority of Democratic voters who support bold policy proposals like the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and economic reforms focused on working people.

“If Biden is only doing things he’s comfortable with, then it’s not enough,” Ocasio-Cortez said last month, adding that Biden’s campaign had not yet reached out to her. Days before her interview, Sanders had suspended his campaign, urging Biden to bring both of their teams together to “work out real solutions to these very, very important problems.”

“I commend Joe Biden for working together with my campaign to assemble a group of leading thinkers and activists who can and will unify our party in a transformational and progressive direction,” Sanders said Wednesday.

Justice Democrats Waleed Shahid wrote that Ocasio-Cortez’s appointment to the climate task force is in line with what progressive groups demanded when they called on Biden to “Earn Our Vote” last month.

Appointing @AOC to this role is in the spirit of the #EarnOurVote letter organized by progressive groups calling on Joe Biden to appoint personnel to his campaign from the progressive movement.https://t.co/eCuD9S5NVl https://t.co/h6jyahgf2W
— “Ideas That Are Lying Around” (@_waleedshahid) May 13, 2020

>@AOC spox on her decision to join, as a co-chair, the Biden-Sanders task force on climate: “She believes the movement will only be successful if we continue to apply pressure both inside and outside the system.” pic.twitter.com/H9FL25hrLr
— Greg Krieg (@GregJKrieg) May 13, 2020


Other progressives and former Sanders surrogates and advisers who are joining Biden’s new committees include:

Labor leader Sara Nelson, co-chair of the economy task force.

Economist Stephanie Kelton, member of the economy task force.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chair of the healthcare task force.

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights president Vanita Gupta, member of the criminal justice task force.

“The work of the task forces will be essential to identifying ways to build on our progress and not simply turn the clock back to a time before Donald Trump, but transform our country,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday.

That comment from Biden echoed Ocasio-Cortez’s words in her interview last month, when she said, “I just don’t know if this message of ‘We’re going to go back to the way things were’ is going to work for the people for who the way things were was really bad.”

On Twitter, Prakash shared why, “after much deliberation,” she had accepted the invitation to join the climate task force.

When our movement endorsed @BernieSanders in Jan, we said we’d keep fighting for a #GreenNewDeal no matter what.

I was proud to endorse him then, and I’m grateful to receive his endorsement to carry on the fight for our shared agenda in this task force. 2/
— Varshini Prakash

 

(@VarshPrakash) May 13, 2020


Biden’s been on the wrong side of issues like NAFTA, mass incarceration, record deportations and the Iraq War.
And we cannot ignore the ongoing sexual assault allegation from Tara Reade and a long history of him pushing the boundaries of consent with women’s space and bodies 4/
— Varshini Prakash 

 

(@VarshPrakash) May 13, 2020

But the stakes of this election are clear. We cannot afford another 4yrs of Trump pushing us backwards.

This election is about saying no to fascism and white supremacy.

And I believe in our movement’s ability to begin winning a #GreenNewDeal under a President Biden. 6/

— Varshini Prakash

 

(@VarshPrakash) May 13, 2020


“What I do on a task force is much less important than what we do collectively as a movement this year,” Prakash wrote. “Our political power exists because of our people power.”

“As I step onto this task force,” she added, “I’m taking each and every member of our movement with me. I will fight as hard as I can for a platform that will do the most good for the most people.”

Japan regulators approve nuclear plant capable of extracting plutonium

FUKUSHIMA REACTOR #1
Japan's nuclear regulators have agreed work may resume on a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant amid the coronavirus pandemic. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

FUKUSHIMA REACTOR #3 STEAM EXPLOSION


May 13 (UPI) -- Nuclear regulators in Japan have approved a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant capable of extracting plutonium.

The plant located in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, takes spent fuel from reactors and extracts uranium as well as plutonium that can be reused, Kyodo News reported Wednesday.

Once in operation, the plant will be able to process as much as 800 tons of spent fuel annually and extract about 8 tons of plutonium, used to produce mixed oxide, or MOX, according to the report. The project is estimated to cost about $130 billion.

Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited is expected to complete work on a new reprocessing plant at Rokkasho by the first half of 2021, with the goal of restarting the plant by January 2022. A review is expected to take a year and may delay completion, however.

On Wednesday, protesters gathered in Tokyo to voice their opposition to the reopening of the Rokkasho plant, according to Kyodo.

Construction has started and stopped on the plant since 1993. It was slated for completion by 1997. Work on the plant has been delayed 24 times.

Japan Nuclear Fuel came under fire in 2017 for failing to carry out inspections in one area of the plant for 14 years, leading to a ton of rainwater pouring into a structure storing an emergency diesel generator.

Japan has about 46 tons of plutonium reserves, capable of manufacturing 6,000 nuclear weapons. Large-scale plutonium production is allowed in Japan because it is reused as MOX fuel aimed at closing the gap in Japan's nuclear fuel cycle, according to Nippon.com.

The Cold War was another reason for stockpiling, according to the report.

THIRD WORLD USA

Doctors Without Borders sends teams to New Mexico to assist Native Americans

Doctors Without Borders has deployed two teams to New Mexico to assist Native American communities including the Pueblos and the Navajo Nation to combat the spread of COVID-19. Photo by Ron Cogswell/Flickr

May 12 (UPI) -- At least two teams with Doctors Without Borders have traveled to New Mexico to help Native American communities combat the spread of COVID-19.

Jean Stowell, who heads the COVID-19 response team for the group known in French as Medicins Sans Frontiers, told CNN one team arrived north of Albuquerque in early April to assist the Pueblos and another team arrived in Gallup later that month to work with the Navajo Nation.

Both teams are expected to remain in the state until June.

"At the moment, MSF is focusing on providing technical guidance to healthcare facilities and communities with infection prevention and control. We are also actively engaged with community leaders and other actors to increase access for communities to health promotion and practical education," said Stowell.

Governor of the Traditional O'odham Leaders Verlon Jose said funding from federal or state governments has "not been a reality."

"Not all Tribal Nations are receiving the necessary support that they need to address this pandemic. The grassroots-driven donations of supplies are crucial for communities like ours to mitigate the crisis and lack of federal and state assistance in this matter," Jose said.

Stowell added the organization has assisted in epidemics throughout the world to provide support to people "who have been excluded from health care and emergency response."

"Historically, the Navajo Nation has not received the same attention and resources as other communities in the U.S. and that has made it particularly difficult for them to respond to this unprecedented epidemic," said Stow

Doctors Without Borders sends team to Navajo Nation as coronavirus explodes in Native communities

May 11, 2020 By Matthew Chapman THE RAW STORY


On Monday, CBS News reported that Doctors Without Borders has dispatched a team to the Navajo Nation, as Native American communities see an explosion of COVID-19 cases.

“Doctors Without Borders is best known for sending medical professionals into international conflict zones in the midst of medical crises,” reported Christina Capatides. “The organization has teams in Afghanistan, Iran, Sierra Leone, Venezuela and 66 other countries. It did not, however, have a medical presence in the United States – until now.”

“Jean Stowell, head of the organization’s U.S. COVID-19 Response Team, told CBS News that Doctors Without Borders has dispatched a team of nine to the hard-hit Navajo Nation in the southwest United States because of the crisis unfolding there,” continued the report. “The team consists of two physicians, three nurse/midwives, a water sanitation specialist, two logisticians and a health promoter who specializes in community health education.”

A number of Native American communities are gravely threatened by COVID-19, due in part to limited access to medical resources. In recent weeks, as a safety precaution, the Cheyenne River Sioux and Oglala Lakota Sioux have set up road checkpoints — which Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) is now demanding they remove.