CNN's Jim Acosta expresses concern Trump's 'meltdown' shows he's not 'in control on multiple levels'

April 14, 2020

"I've covered six presidents, but I've never covered any White House briefing quite like the one tonight," USA Today's Susan Page tweeted Monday night, after President Trump's unusual coronavirus press conference. The event, which lasted a record two and a half hours, included infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci carefully walking back comments about how an earlier response would have saved many lives, a White House-produced video mixing praise for Trump's response with criticism of the media, and Trump incorrectly claiming "total" authority over when states lift their various stay-at-home orders.

Reason senior editor Robby Soave also found Trump's press conference extraordinary.

I am far from a knee-jerk critic of Trump, but this press briefing has to be one of the most embarrassing moments of his presidency. Just an utterly unhinged, childish temper tantrum.
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) April 13, 2020

On CNN, which broadcast much of Trump's speech even while contemporaneously describing it as an angry "propaganda session," White House correspondent Jim Acosta seemed concerned about Trump's wellbeing. "I have to tell you, that is the biggest meltdown I have ever seen from a president of the United States in my career," he said. "I don't think a reasonable person could watch what we just saw over the last hour and conclude that the president is in control. He sounds like he is out of control. And he was ranting and raving for the better part of the last hour during that news conference."

Acosta said by "claiming that he has authorities that he doesn't have," Trump is trying to assert control after East Coast and West Coast governors agreed they would decide when their states would open in a coordinated fashion, with advice from Fauci and other federal experts. "To some extent, top public health officials and governors are working around the president for precisely the reason that we just saw unfold in front of our very eyes over the last hour," he said, "and that is: The president doesn't sound like he's in control on multiple levels." 

Watch below.

 Peter Weber

CNN had a field day with its chyrons during Trump's 'meltdown' at his coronavirus briefing

Sonam Sheth,Business Insider•April 13, 2020

President Donald Trump at the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House.

(Reuters) 
CNN had a remarkable string of chyrons — the headline-esque text used to supplement news broadcasts — after President Donald Trump spent most of Monday's coronavirus briefing lashing out at his perceived foes — airing a video that was described as propaganda and claiming he had "total" authority as president.


"Trump melts down in angry response to reports he ignored virus warnings," one chyron said.

Another said: "Angry Trump uses propaganda video, produced by government employees at taxpayers' expense."

"Trump uses task force briefing to try and rewrite history on coronavirus response," another said.


President Donald Trump spent most of Monday's coronavirus briefing lashing out as his perceived enemies — showing a video that many described as political propaganda and claiming he had "total" authority as president.

"That is the biggest meltdown of a president of the United States that I've ever seen in my career," CNN's Jim Acosta said while Trump's briefing was still going. "I don't think a reasonable person could watch what we just saw over the last hour and conclude that the president is in control."

The network also had a field day with its chyrons — the headline-esque text used to supplement news broadcasts — while Trump was airing out his grievances Monday.

A sampling of some of the chyrons:


"Trump melts down in angry response to reports he ignored virus warnings"


"Angry Trump uses propaganda video, produced by government employees at taxpayers' expense"


"Trump uses task force briefing to try and rewrite history on coronavirus response"



—Calvin K Holsclaw (@calvinkholsclaw) April 13, 2020



—Tom Weber (@tweber) April 13, 2020

Trump has drawn sharp criticism for his administration's inaction in the early days of the US coronavirus outbreak. The World Health Organization declared the novel virus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, a pandemic last month.

It originated in China, but the US is now the global epicenter of the outbreak. To date, 2,019,320 infections around the world have been reported, with 119,483 deaths. In the US, there are 682,619 confirmed cases and 23,529 deaths.

The Trump administration has since drawn renewed scrutiny for slashing public-health programs, failing to conduct early rigorous testing to detect and contain the disease's spread, and ignoring multiple warnings from intelligence officials and government agencies of an impending pandemic.

Trump has also failed to maintain a consistent message as the US grapples with the outbreak.

He initially downplayed the risk of the coronavirus, insisting that it was no more dangerous than the flu and that the US was well-prepared to handle it.

As the virus gained a stronger foothold in the country in mid-March, Trump acknowledged the severity of the crisis and claimed he "felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."

He pivoted to focus on the economy late last month and said the US would "be open for business" again "very soon," despite public-health officials saying that preemptively lifting stay-at-home orders would exacerbate the outbreak. But Trump doubled down, saying, "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself."

On Monday, Trump raised eyebrows when he baselessly claimed he had the authority to compel governors to reopen their states' economies as the coronavirus outbreak becomes more manageable.

"When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total," Trump said. "And that's the way it's got to be."

Earlier Monday, the governors of California, Washington, and Oregon said they were working together on a West Coast plan to safely reopen those states, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York unveiled a multistate coalition to coordinate on ways to reopen the region's economy.

Trump and many of his top administration officials have been adamant about rolling back social-distancing measures to fire up the economy as the US faces mounting unemployment and economic distress.

Cuomo and the governors of the western states made their announcement after Trump falsely suggested on Twitter that reopening the country "is the decision of the president." In fact, the decision is up to states.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins pressed Trump during Monday's briefing on his baseless claim that his "authority is total" as president, saying: "That is not true. Who told you that?"

"Yeah, so you know what we're going to do?" Trump replied. "We are going to write up papers on this. It's not going to be necessary because the governors need us one way or the other. Because ultimately it comes with the federal government."

The 10th Amendment delegates "police powers" to the states to regulate behavior during public-health crises.

Still, Trump pressed on, saying, "The federal government has absolute power. As to whether I'll use that power, we'll see."

Read the original article on Business Insider

The rightwing groups behind wave of protests against Covid-19 restrictions

WE HAVE THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO BE IDIOTS

BUT WE DO NOT GET TO BE PLAGUE CARRIERS 

FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD 

COLLECTIVE RIGHTS VS INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Jason Wilson, The Guardian•April 17, 2020

Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters

A wave of planned anti-lockdown demonstrations that have broken out around the country to protest the efforts of state governments to combat the coronavirus pandemic with business closures and stay-at-home orders have included far-right groups as well as more mainstream Republicans.

While protesters in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and other states claim to speak for ordinary citizens, many are also supported by street-fighting rightwing groups like the Proud Boys, conservative armed militia groups, religious fundamentalists, anti-vaccination groups and other elements of the radical right.

On Wednesday in Lansing, Michigan, a protest put together by two Republican-connected not-for-profits was explicitly devised to cause gridlock in the city, and for a time blocked the entrance to a local hospital.

It was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, which Michigan state corporate filings show has also operated under the name of Michigan Trump Republicans. It was also heavily promoted by the Michigan Freedom Fund, a group linked to Trump cabinet member Betsy DeVos.

Related: Protests against US stay-at-home orders gain support from rightwing figures

But the protest also attracted far right protest groups who have been present at pro-Trump and gun rights rallies in Michigan throughout the Trump presidency.

Placards identified the Michigan Proud Boys as participants in the vehicle convoy. Near the state house, local radio interviewed a man who identified himself as “Phil Odinson”.

In fact the man is Phil Robinson, the prime mover in a group called the Michigan Liberty Militia, whose Facebook page features pictures of firearms, warnings of civil war, celebrations of Norse paganism, and memes ultimately sourced from white nationalist groups like Patriot Front.

The pattern of rightwing not-for-profits promoting public protests while still more radical groups use lockdown resistance as a platform for extreme rightwing causes looks set to continue in events advertised in other states over coming days.

In Idaho on Friday, protesters plan to gather at the capitol building in Boise to protest anti-virus restrictions put in place by the Republican governor, Brad Little.

The protest has been heavily promoted by the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF), which counts among its donors “dark money” funds linked to the Koch brothers such as Donors Capital Fund, and Castle Rock, a foundation seeded with part of the fortune of Adolph Coors, the rightwing beer magnate.

Protesters rally against stay-at-home orders related to the coronavirus

 pandemic outside Capitol Square in Richmond, Virginia. 

Photograph: Ryan M Kelly/AFP via Getty Images

IFF have added their slogan for the event, “Disobey Idaho”, to stickers which they plan to distribute among the crowd.

The event is also being promoted on a website dedicated to attacking Little for his response to Covid-19. That website was set up by the Idaho businessman, pastor, and one time Republican state senate candidate, Diego Rodriguez.

Rodriguez launched the website at an Easter service held in defiance of the governor’s orders on Easter Sunday, which was also addressed by Ammon Bundy, the leader of the militia occupation of the Malheur National wildlife refuge in 2016 that become a rallying point for the anti-government right in the US.

Bundy has been holding similar gatherings for weeks in Emmett, Idaho, where he now lives. On Sunday, he repeated his opposition to the Idaho orders, writing on Facebook: “We all have a duty to defend what is right and to make sure, that what God has given, man does not take away. Especially that great gift of agency, YES freedom!”

Ada county, Idaho, where the capital, Boise, is located, has so far suffered 541 cases of Covid-19 and nine deaths, in a state which has a far worse outbreak than neighboring Oregon, which is 2.4 times more populous.

Nevertheless, the ad for the rally on Rodriguez’s website advises, “We feel that wearing face masks and gloves is counterproductive to the movement, and should be avoided”.

In Washington state, meanwhile, which for now has brought one of the worst outbreaks in the country under a measure of control, a Republican State committeeman, Tyler Miller, has organized a protest at the state capitol on Saturday.

Miller, who is active in the Kitsap county Republican party, was involved in passing a resolution in January in support of representative Matt Shea, who was excluded from the State House’s GOP caucus after a report commissioned by house found that he had participated in domestic terrorism.

Hundreds of Facebook users have indicated that they will be attending his “Hazardous Liberty” rally, and a parallel event in Richland, Washington.

Included in that number are members of the 3% of Washington, a group which has held a series of open carry rallies in Seattle, featuring speeches from the far right protest leader, Joey Gibson.

As for Shea, he is speaking on Saturday at an online “Saving America” conference which will discuss an alleged erosion of rights “that’s been ramped up in unprecedented ways during this Covid-19 crisis”.

He is scheduled to appear alongside the likes of close ally Pastor Ken Peters, who has been holding monthly services outside Spokane’s planned parenthood clinic; the actor, Maga personality and congressional candidate, Mindy Robinson; and the New Zealand-based anti-communist speaker and author, Trevor Loudon.

Other similar events have been advertised for Saturday by an anti-vaccination activist in Oregon, and for Friday by a Boston group with alt-right connections.

Coronavirus may give President Trump a long-sought chance to privatize the Postal Service


Hunter Walker White House Correspondent, Yahoo News•April 12, 2020

WASHINGTON — Amid a cash crunch threatening to put the U.S. Postal Service out of business, the Trump administration is being accused of blocking bipartisan efforts to provide money to the agency as part of a long-sought conservative effort to privatize mail delivery.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a precipitous drop in mail deliveries, worsening a crisis for an already financially troubled service. Last week, Postmaster General Megan Brennan said financial woes exacerbated by the pandemic could cause the agency to run out of money by October.

The $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package passed on March 25 did not provide assistance for the Postal Service, despite bipartisan support for the funding, according to an aide to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Postal Service.

Instead, the legislation only allowed the Postal Service to borrow $10 billion from the Treasury Department.

“There was bipartisan support for direct appropriations to go to the Postal Service,” said a committee aide, who requested anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin “said you can have the loan or you can have nothing.”

Yet in the weeks since the stimulus passed, the Treasury Department has not approved the loan.

A spokesperson for Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, did not respond to a request for comment.

A U.S. Postal Service worker wears a mask and gloves 

on April 9, 2020, in Van Nuys, Calif.

 (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

While the White House will not comment on the reason for the delay, American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein said the administration is using the loan to try to push privatization. He blames administration “idealogues,” including Mnuchin, for using the crisis “to push their privatization agenda.”

A spokesperson for the Treasury Department said Mnuchin and the White House are “supportive” of the loan.

“Treasury, including Secretary Mnuchin, has been in direct contact with the USPS multiple times this week, and we are working closely with the USPS to put the new $10 billion line of credit with the USPS into effect,” the Treasury spokesperson said in an email.

While the administration says it is working with the Postal Service, Ronnie Stutts, the president of the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, accused the White House and Treasury Department of blocking postal funding as part of an effort to privatize the agency.

“Everything was going good with this until they got to the White House,” Stutts said.

The Treasury Department and Trump want “to privatize postal service,” he added. “There's no two ways about it. And when it got there, he killed it. They said no. He was not going to give us any money.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin at a daily briefing

 on the coronavirus at the White House on April 2, 2020. 

(Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

While the Postal Service is a quasi government agency, it is in a unique position since it has not been funded by taxpayer dollars since the 1980s. Instead, the post office relies on its own revenue from mail services.

While the Postal Service has made a profit, it has been facing financial woes since 2006, when legislation was passed requiring the Postal Service to pre-fund retirement for its workers. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the Postal Service was already in dire straits with its liabilities and debt vastly outpacing revenue. Last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office described the “overall financial picture” of the Postal Service as “deteriorating and unsustainable.”

The coronavirus has dramatically worsened this situation by causing a large decline in mail volume due to decreased commercial activity. The Postal Service saw a 24.2 percent decline in delivered mail volume during the week of March 29 to April 4 and delivered-mail volume was down over 30 percent for the first three days of last week, according to a presentation made by the Postal Service and distributed to members of Congress last week

The presentation, which was obtained by Yahoo News, predicted that there would be 35 billion fewer pieces of mail in the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends in September. The Postal Service is forecasting the declines to continue through the next fiscal year leading to a $23 billion increase in net losses over the next 18 months.

The presentation said the agency hopes to receive a $25 billion grant to cover losses related to the pandemic. It also said the Postal Service needs a $25 billion modernization grant to “weather the longer term economic impacts” as well as debt relief and additional borrowing authority.

A spokesperson for the Postal Service declined to answer questions and referred Yahoo News to a statement Brennan, the postmaster general, released on Friday describing the agency’s stimulus needs.

Stutts, the National Rural Letter Carriers Association president, said that even if Mnuchin approves the loans authorized by the last stimulus, it will not be enough to solve the Postal Service’s financial problems.

“Right now it’s approximately $11 billion that we’ve defaulted and it’s about 5.5 billion each year to pre-fund retirement. We just don’t have the money,” Stutts said. “It’s not going to be paid back. And if we borrowed $10 billion, it’s just going to put us further in debt.”

President Trump at the coronavirus response daily briefing at the 

White House on Friday. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)

On April 7, during a coronavirus task force press briefing, President Trump dismissed allegations he was essentially trying to end the U.S. Postal Service.

“Oh, I’m the reason the Postal Service — the Postal Service has lost billions of dollars every year for many, many years. So I’m the demise? This is a new one. I’m now the demise of the Postal Service,” Trump said.

Trump went on to blame the situation on “internet companies,” including Amazon, which he has frequently accused of not paying enough for its use of the U.S. Postal Service.

“They lose money every time they deliver a package for Amazon or these other internet companies, these other companies that deliver,” he said. “They drop everything in the Post Office and they say, ‘You deliver it.’”

While the White House and Treasury Department did not respond to questions about whether the president or Mnuchin want to see the Postal Service privatized, they have signaled support for this approach in the past. In 2018, Trump issued an executive order that created a postal task force to identify potential ways to improve the agency’s financial woes. Mnuchin led that task force, and its final report advocated selling off parts of the service to private companies.

One major concern about privatization is that the Postal Service has a universal service obligation that requires it to deliver mail for equal rates anywhere in the country. This includes rural routes that are not necessarily profitable.

Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Workers Union, noted private companies do not have any similar obligation. Other companies, he said, can pick and choose where they want to go.

“The Postal Service can’t, shouldn’t and won’t,” he said.

Yemen Is Fighting The Coronavirus With A Health Care System America Helped Destroy

Akbar Shahid Ahmed HuffPost April 14, 2020

The coronavirus is now spreading in Yemen, which announced its first case on Friday. It’s an extremely alarming development in a country suffering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Thirty million mostly impoverished people have lost at least half their health care facilities since neighboring Saudi Arabia began a punishing military intervention there in 2015 with U.S. support.

The coronavirus news panicked Yemenis and aid groups already fighting mass hunger and a yearslong cholera outbreak. And it highlighted that while world powers like the U.S., Britain and France struggle with the novel coronavirus themselves, they bear significant blame for making places like Yemen especially vulnerable to the new global crisis. Those three countries have given extensive support to the Saudis and allies like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), risking complicity in war crimes, according to United Nations investigators.

“We’ve unfortunately played a role … and have a moral responsibility to assist,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers making the U.S. role in Yemen a top concern in Congress in recent years.

Under two U.S. presidents ― Barack Obama, who originally approved assistance to the Saudi-led campaign, and Donald Trump ― America has helped pummel Yemen’s critical infrastructure even as government experts watched the country collapse and sent hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid there.

The Saudi-led coalition, whose weapons largely come from the U.S. and other Western producers, attacked at least 32 Yemeni health facilities between 2015 and the end of 2018, killing and injuring medical workers and putting units out of commission, per a recent report by Physicians for Human Rights and the Yemen-based group Mwatana for Human Rights. Until November 2018, the coalition’s planes were also receiving U.S. aerial refueling that enabled longer bombing runs.

Workers collect human remains outside a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders after it was hit by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike in the Abs district of Hajja province, Yemen, on August 16, 2016. (Photo: ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD / Reuters)

As the coronavirus spread worldwide and charities warned it could devastate conflict zones, Trump slashed U.S. aid to Yemen on March 27. The U.S. Agency for International Development said it would suspend at least $73 million earmarked for the north of the country, which is controlled by the Houthis, a rebel militia the Saudis and their partners are fighting. Outside assessments suggested the final cut could be as high as $200 million out of a $746 million budget that provided about one-fifth of the world’s humanitarian support for Yemen.

American officials say their new policy will pressure the Houthis to stop interfering with aid deliveries and work. But humanitarian groups view that as a poor and badly timed response to a real problem.

“Putting Yemeni lives in the balance through a premature and unilateral funding suspension will not improve the humanitarian situation,” Scott Paul of Oxfam America said in a press release last month. The U.S. “says it will continue supporting life-saving activities even as it eviscerates Yemen’s first and best defense against the defining health crisis of our time. That is simply impossible to understand.”

The U.N. urged other donor countries to continue supporting north Yemen as its agencies and marquee charities like the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children and Islamic Relief prepared to limit operations, the UAE-based outlet The National reported.



The Houthi-run areas affected include Yemen’s capital and biggest city, Sana’a, large refugee camps and regions that have been particularly badly hit by the Saudi-led coalition’s bombing.

Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who chair powerful committees overseeing foreign policy in the House of Representatives, led a letter urging the Trump administration to change course. Administration officials have spoken with congressional staff about programs that might be allowed to continue receiving U.S. funding, but the exemptions they are describing are “very narrow,” a Democratic aide told HuffPost.


America has helped pummel Yemen’s critical infrastructure even as government experts watched the country collapse and sent hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid there.

Now that the coronavirus can definitively be added to the long list of Yemen’s problems, aid workers are even more distressed about the consequences of U.S. policy there.

“For weeks we have feared this, and now it’s happened,” Lise Grande, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator in the country, said in reaction to Friday’s news. “After five years of war, people across the country have some of the lowest levels of immunity and highest levels of acute vulnerability in the world … more people who become infected are likely to become severely ill than anywhere else.”

One immediate way to give Yemenis a fighting chance would be to end the conflict between Saudi-backed forces and the Houthis. Riyadh announced a two-week suspension in its campaign last week, and U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths is speeding up negotiations.

But rebel leaders say other steps are necessary to build goodwill — notably, an end to the U.S.-backed coalition’s embargo of the areas under Houthi control, which has worsened the risk of famine by driving up prices and slowing down vital imports.

Lifting the blockade would be a crucial step, Khanna said. He’s recently discussed Yemen’s plight with conservatives who have worked with him on anti-war measures and have some degree of influence on the president, who could push Saudi Arabia on the restrictions. But he noted that their chief concern at present is their own districts and that Trump could well see the U.S. aid cut as suiting his “America First” thinking.

“America’s moral responsibility in the world has always been premised on the dignity of every human life, and we’ve always prided ourselves on doing all we can within reasonable constraints,” Khanna told HuffPost. Amid a historic pandemic, “backing away from that … is very sad.”

Trump move to end WHO funding would be 'catastrophic' for polio programs, experts warn

Willem Marx,NBC News•April 15, 2020

JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY 1962

If President Donald Trump carries out his threat to pull American funding for the World Health Organization, the impact on polio eradication efforts around the world could be “catastrophic,” experts told NBC News on Wednesday.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Dr. Jack Chow, 59, the former assistant director-general at the WHO, where he was responsible for combating HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

Chow, who previously served as the State Department’s special representative on global HIV/AIDS under Secretary of State Colin Powell, added the move was a "torpedo" that could “potentially sink” the United Nations’ agency responsible for international public health, which was founded in 1948.

Trump announced Tuesday he was halting U.S. funding for the WHO, pending a review of its response to the initial coronavirus outbreak, after officials at the organization criticized his restrictions on travel from China that took effect i early February.

Trump accused the organization of "severely mismanaging and covering up" the coronavirus crisis, specifically the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China, saying: "With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns about whether America's generosity has been put to the best use possible. The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain and share information in a timely and transparent fashion.”


The move was met with severe criticism at home and abroad, with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres saying "now is not the time" for such a drastic move with the globe gripped by the the pandemic.

U.S. contributions to the WHO are divided into the kind of regular subscription payments made by all U.N. members, according to their size and ability to pay, and voluntary payments made to specific programs that combat diseases, like polio — a centuries-old scourge that debilitates the limbs and damages the brains of children.

In 1952, many American parents, terrified of polio’s devastating impact, kept their children indoors for months as more than 3,000 people died that year alone and thousands more were left with mild to disabling paralysis.

Three years later, a vaccine that neutralized polio’s harmful effects was developed by Jonas Salk, a physician and scientist at the University of Pittsburgh, and countries around the world began widescale vaccination efforts. American funding has also financed programs in multiple countries. An oral vaccine was later developed by his fellow researcher, Dr. Albert Sabin.

“The American government and U.S. citizens have been the most ardent supporters of polio eradication, because they still remember the devastation of polio in their own country,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari, the WHO's director for polio eradication in the eastern Mediterranean region.

At pains to point out the bipartisan support for this funding, he added that "people have had relatives, uncles, grandparents who were affected by polio.”

In the 1980s, the CDC teamed up with the WHO to launch an effort to eradicate polio globally, sending epidemiologists into the field in dozens of different countries at a time when the virus still infecting and paralyzing hundreds of children worldwide every day.

But after several decades and hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. funding, that mission is now very nearly accomplished, with just a handful of wild polio outbreaks still surfacing in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and roughly 10 sub-Saharan countries facing sporadic outbreaks of a vaccine-derived version of the disease.

JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY

Jafari, who worked for the CDC for 27 years before joining WHO, is a senior official at the Global Polio Eradication Effort — a collaborative program involving six partner organizations, including the WHO, which costs almost $1 billion a year and relies primarily on voluntary contributions from governments.

Roughly a third of its current funding come from the U.S. and he said he was concerned about the implications of so significant a shortfall.

“The program will lose some ground when we stop vaccinating children, particularly in infected areas,” he said.

Chow added that if he had interpreted Trump’s comments correctly, an extra $215 million for polio eradication efforts could also now be withheld.

He said the implications were dire, not just for young children in Pakistan, but for fragile health care systems across the world ranging from HIV patients in Africa to women’s health in Southeast Asia.

“If you’re the sole provider of a vital service, and then you take it away, that’s catastrophic,” he said.

CORRECTION (April 15, 2020, 6 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the professional affiliation of Hamid Jafari. He is the WHO's director for polio eradication in the eastern Mediterranean region; he is no longer with the CDC.

Doctor: America's for-profit health system 'just does not work' in a pandemic

Adriana Belmonte Associate Editor, Yahoo Finance•April 13, 2020

"For-profit health system just does not work" amid coronavirus pandemic: Expert

Worldwide, the number of cases topping 1 and 1/2 million

The U.S. now has over 550,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and various hospitals across the country have struggled with a surge in patients and deaths.

The result, according to Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former health director of the city of Detroit, shows that “a for-profit health care system does not work when we’re dealing with a global pandemic.”

El-Sayed, appearing on Yahoo Finance’s The Ticker (video above), explained that most hospitals are “run as a business” and make the most money “on elective procedures. When you’re facing a global pandemic, you cancel those elective procedures.”

A doctor wears a protective mask as he walks outside Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., April 1, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid)

And this can cause a problem for hospitals that rely on funding from elective procedures in order to pay staff and maintain day-to-day operations. Some hospitals are already laying off staff even as coronavirus strains hospital systems.

To try to offset the deficit, the $2 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress at the end of March included $100 billion for hospitals to recover some of the lost revenue. But hospitals have reportedly said that it might not be enough.

“Now we have hospitals that are both battling COVID-19 in a fight for their lives and also battling bankruptcy because they don’t know how they’re going to pay their bills tomorrow,” El-Sayed said. 

‘A wake-up call’ for the country

Another issue with the health care system that the coronavirus pandemic highlights, Sayed said, is the fact that 10% of the population, or roughly 28 million people, doesn’t have health insurance at all while another 50% have their health care “behind a paywall because their deductible is so high.”

For those with employer-based health insurance, the major insurance companies have all announced that they would be waiving the costs of coronavirus testing and treatment. Nevertheless, premiums could rise further down the road.

The federal and local governments have taken some steps to address this issue. Eleven states and D.C., which have state-run health care marketplaces, created special enrollment periods to allow residents to sign up for health insurance coverage.

For the remaining 38 states, the Trump administration declined to create a federal special enrollment period, instead opting for promised cash payments to be distributed to hospitals that treat uninsured patients.

A Southeast Ambulance employee arrives with a patient at PruittHealth Grandview nursing home where at least 10 patients who were previously tested presumptive positive for COVID-19 have passed away on Wednesday, April 8, 2020, in Athens. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

El-Sayed asserted it’s “a real problem” because many people would still avoid going to the hospital or seeking medical care because they don't want to get hit with a surprise medical bill.

“That leaves people extremely vulnerable in a moment like this,” he said.

Ultimately, El-Sayed hopes that the COVID-19 pandemic serves as “a wake-up call” for the country.

“If we want a health care system that’s able to rise to the challenges of a pandemic like this, then we have to rebuild it so that we have the ability to guarantee everybody health care, to guarantee access to the basic resources for our frontline staff who are battling this pandemic, and make sure that our hospitals aren’t battling both a pandemic and bankruptcy at the same time,” he said.

Adriana is a reporter and editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.

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TEN YEARS AFTER I'D LOVE TO CHANGE THE WORLD

FULL ALBUM 
 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz6cAheObZci2TTOMyl-TYVAEN0sN2xKI

QUACK 

Dr. Oz says reopening schools is an 'appetizing opportunity' because only 2%-3% will die

Walter Einenkel Daily Kos Staff, Thursday April 16, 2020 · 

From left to right: Conman, egomaniacal conman.


Dr. Mehmet Oz is a television quack. He’s been busted for pushing dietary supplements he was making profits off of as medical “miracles.” They weren’t. He was using his perceived medical expertise to generate profits for himself at the expense of everyone else. Dr. Oz has taken this show on the road to Fox News and the right-wing sulfursphere. Donald Trump has used him to televise a dubious medical health review of the president’s fast-food laden body. Dr. Oz has added whatever passes for credence by pretending he could perform some kind of Twitter-collected scientific study of anecdotal evidence that hydroxychloroquine has any benefits if taken by people who come into contact with COVID-19.

In general, calling Dr. Oz a doctor is like calling me an air force pilot. I mean, I’ve been in a plane before, amiright? On Wednesday, with the Trump administration pushing to “reopen” major cities, the Fox News team set about working on creating propaganda that would try and further smooth over the already-dulled senses of the Fox News viewer. Sean Hannity brought on the scary doctor to discuss how we might get back to business as usual across this great land of ours.

Dr. Oz has released an I’m sorry you were confused by what I said “apology.” It’s some weak sauce that doesn’t explain what he thinks he is supposed to be doing or what he believes his position in the public should mean. But, make no mistake, his logo will be emblazoned behind him, every time you see him speak to you as a guy who plays a doctor on TV. Mostly to confirm the conservative movement’s anti-science and medicine opinions.

The television doctor explained that he sort of read a thing that sounded terrible but he doesn’t understand numbers and so there’s that. Sounding like a true sociopath, Dr. Oz explained how getting our kids back into school so that parents can get back to work might be exactly what this quack doctor thinks needs to be ordered. Hannity gave a nice overwrought throw to Oz, asking the discredited TV doctor to “help us.”

DR. MEHMET OZ: “Well, first, we need our mojo back.”

Oh man.



DR. OZ: “Let’s start with things that are really critical to the nation where we think we might be able to open without getting into a lot of trouble. I tell you, schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3% in terms of total mortality. You know, any life is a life lost, but to get every child back into school where they’re being safely educated, and fed, and making the most out of their lives—with the theoretical risk on the backside—that might be a tradeoff some folks would consider.”

It’s hard to know what Dr. Oz is even talking about. He might be referring to this study that reports that, without any other interventions, just closing schools alone would prevent “2-4% of deaths, much less than other social distancing interventions.” The conclusion of that study is that we need even more social distancing practices, not less.

But, Dr. Oz said his bright idea would only result in 2% to 3% mortality. Let’s take him at his misinformed word and the logic of his own statement. As CNN anchor Jack Tapper pointed out, Dr. Oz’s grasp of numbers is seemingly as bad as his grasp of medicine. “A mortality rate of 2-3% of 328,200,000 Americans is 6,564,000 to 9,846,000 dead Americans.” Yup. And when only 5 million Americans die, Trump and his pals can say they did a great job?

But maybe the comic book Halloween mad scientist doctor means just schoolchildren? According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “about 56.6 million students will attend elementary, middle, and high schools across the United States.” Doing some quick math—carry the one—that would mean Dr. Oz, Trump, and fiends feel that between 1,132,000 and 1,698,000 dead school age kids is “a very appetizing opportunity.”

DR OZ: "Schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3%, in terms of total mortality. Any, you know, any life is a life lost, but ... that might be a tradeoff some folks would consider."  pic.twitter.com/aifMeKTsIv— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 16, 2020

                       MOLOCH

And here’s Dr. Oz’s non-apology … apology.
I've realized my comments on risks around opening schools have confused and upset people, which was never my intention. I misspoke. pic.twitter.com/Kq1utwiCjR— Dr. Mehmet Oz (@DrOz) April 16, 2020

Fringe right closes down Michigan capital with 'gridlock' protest against coronavirus measures


David Neiwert for Daily Kos
Daily Kos Staff
Thursday April 16, 2020


People take part in a protest at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, on April 15. The group is upset with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's expanded stay-at-home order to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

A huge phalanx of cars, reportedly numbering in the thousands, flooded the streets of downtown Lansing, Michigan, on Wednesday, driven by people—mostly conservative Republicans, but featuring a healthy contingent of gun-wielding far-right extremists—protesting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdown orders for the Great Lakes State, issued last week amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Called “Operation Gridlock,” the protest—organized primarily by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, a group with connections both to far-right extremists and to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—successfully shut down all traffic in and around Lansing. That included traffic to and from Sparrow Hospital, the city’s main coronavirus treatment center, as well as in and out of the Capitol building, whose entrance at one point was blocked by a truck bearing a large sign for the Michigan Proud Boys.

Most of the vehicles were pickup trucks, many of them adorned with signs and flags. Ordinary American flags, yellow “Don’t Tread On Me” Gadsden flags, and deep blue Trump flags dominated the scene. A couple of Confederate flags—including one modified to feature an AR-15 silhouette—were also in the crowd. The Michigan Militia also was present.

The majority of protesters remained in their cars. However, about 150 of them parked and got out to carry protest signs, along with guns, up the steps of the state Capitol building. According to some reports, those protesters generally maintained social distancing rules, but not all of them. At least one group of protesters that gathered on the steps for a video was clustered fairly closely.

"I think every single person here is probably going to get coronavirus, we're all within six feet of each other," protester Nick Somber told WILX-FM.

Proud Boys stopped at a green light to block traffic in front of Sparrow Hospital pic.twitter.com/tIGBcSESPe— Joshua Pugh (@JPughMI) April 15, 2020

Multiple photos posted on social media showed an ambulance stuck in the middle of the gridlocked traffic around the hospital. Another photo showed a pickup with a large “Michigan Proud Boys” banner blocking the entrance. Yet another photo showed a doctor out in the middle of the stopped traffic, pleading with drivers to clear a path for the ambulance.

The Michigan Nurses Association issued a statement pleading for consideration:

While everyone has a right to gather and express their opinions, today's protest sends exactly the opposite message that nurses and healthcare professionals are trying to get across: we are begging people, please stay home. The protest was irresponsible, impeding ambulances and traffic to Sparrow Hospital, where frontline healthcare workers are risking their lives taking care of patients suffering from COVID-19. Lives are being saved because of the stay-home order. We ask everyone to protect themselves, their families and us by doing what's best for the greater good.

The protest’s organizers later claimed that the hospital entrance had not been blocked.

The Michigan Proud Boys also put in an appearance with Republican congressional candidate Mike Detmer of Howell, who posted a selfie of himself with a cluster of protesters, and the large truck with the Michigan Proud Boys sign in the back. One Proud Boy wearing a mask near the rear of the group flashed a white-nationalist “OK” sign. Detmer later claimed he had been photobombed and removed the shot from his Facebook page.

Michigan has been hit particularly hard by the novel coronavirus, with more than 27,000 cases confirmed in the state and at least 1,700 deaths. A Johns Hopkins University tracker indicated that in Wayne County, home to Detroit, 820 people have died—more than any county in the U.S. outside of New York state.

There have been protests elsewhere. On Easter Sunday, “Patriot” movement figure Ammon Bundy organized a protest gathering in Emmett, Idaho. On Monday, about 100 protesters urging Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to reopen the state gathered outside the statehouse in Columbus. And in Raleigh, North Carolina, more than 100 protesters gathered to demonstrate against Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper's stay-at-home order.

The Michigan Conservative Coalition has a history of dalliances with extremists—epitomized, perhaps, by its Facebook post featuring a cartoon attacking the lockdown orders as a nefarious social control scheme drawn by a noted neo-Nazi artist. Its Facebook page has regularly featured white nationalist “Pepe the Frog” and Islamophobic memes, and the group recently hosted provocateur Michelle Malkin, who herself has become closely aligned with the right’s white nationalist contingent.

It also claimed that “Operation Gridlock” was co-hosted by the Michigan Freedom Fund, an organization overseen by the DeVos family. When Gov. Whitmer pointed out the connection last week, Betsy DeVos responded that she wasn’t affiliated with the event.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel penned a defense of Whitmer’s lockdown orders on Facebook.

“These people may even choose to take it out on the Governor later,” she wrote. “Her numbers in the polls might diminish. She may not even win a second term. But if people all around our state do not have their lives cut short and instead go on to rebuild their future in the aftermath of this terrible time, then Governor Whitmer will have done her job. Even if the people she has saved and the lives she’s touched don’t recognize it or appreciate it. And that’s what leadership looks like.”

PROLOGUE

Did Michigan governor go 'too far' with stay-home order? Protesters plan in-vehicle rally

Kara Berg, Lansing State Journal, USA TODAY•April 14, 2020

Governor: Michigan can't yet get back to work

LANSING, Mich. – Critics of Michigan's expanded stay-home order are planning an in-vehicle protest to tell the governor they believe she has gone too far.

The Michigan Conservative Coalition and Michigan Freedom Fund asked for protesters to surround the state Capitol in their vehicles at noon Wednesday to display flags and signs, make noise and be disruptive about Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's "erratic, unilateral orders that threaten Michiganders' economic existence," according to a news release. They warned protesters to come ready for a potentially major traffic jam.

The protest would come several days after Whitmer extended her order through April 30 and took the requirements of staying home a step further, banning crossing the street to visit with neighbors or driving to see friends, among other things.

Is it the decision of the president? Who decides when and how America reopens from its coronavirus shutdown?

“Michigan has the third-highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country, and we’re still on the upswing," Whitmer said last week. "We must continue to do everything we can to slow the spread and protect our families. Data shows that most Michiganders are doing their part by staying home and staying safe. That’s good, but we must keep it up."

The extension was expected, and tracks with President Donald Trump's extension with federal social distancing guidelines and actions in other Midwest states.

During a press conference Monday, Whitmer said the Michigan Freedom Fund is funded in-part by the family of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, something she called "inappropriate."

Nick Wasmiller, a spokesperson for the DeVos family, said the family has not spent any money on the protest, nor has it offered prior support to organizers.

"The DeVos family, however, understands the frustration of fellow Michiganders as elements of the governor’s top-down approach appear to go beyond public safety," Wasmiller said in the statement. "Michigan deserves competent governance, not baseless attacks.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a live update on Thursday, April 9, 2020.

Whitmer's new order has been blasted for its inconsistencies, as it allows the sale of lottery tickets at stores larger than 50,000 square feet, but not paint or gardening tools, and lets non-Michigan residents travel to their cottages in the northern part of the state, but not Michigan residents.

“Michigan’s typical small business owners obey laws, but they may not notice the progressive agenda being pushed by our radical leftist Governor Whitmer,” Rosanne Ponkowski, president of the Michigan Conservative Coalition, said in a news release. “Governor Whitmer will put you out of business before allowing mere citizens to be responsible for their own behavior. That is madness.”

More than 13,000 people said they were interested in the protest on Facebook as of Monday morning, and 2,800 had RSVP'd.

The Michigan Conservative Coalition's sentiments are echoed by many people in the Facebook group "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine," which as of Monday, its fifth day in existence, had nearly 270,000 members.

Kristi Greulich See, of Plymouth, west of Detroit, said she agreed with Whitmer that the first three weeks of the stay-home order were needed to allow government and medical officials to learn about the virus and plan a proper response.

But now it seems excessive, she said. Her understanding of the science behind the stay-home order was that self-isolating and social distancing would slow the spread of the virus so hospitals weren't flooded with cases, not to eradicate the virus.

"This is going to be coming in waves for awhile, it isn't going away," Greulich See said. "We could lock ourselves in the house and crash the economy for a year, and it won't be any different."

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan's chief medical executive, however, has warned against loosening restrictions.

"If we loosen up too soon, more people will die, and hospitals will become overwhelmed," Khaldun said at a Thursday news conference with Whitmer.

Survey says: Americans say the economy is getting worse in much larger numbers than weeks ago

Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan, said groups like the Michigan Conservative Coalition and Michigan Freedom Fund have one goal: to attack Whitmer any way they can.

"While hundreds of Michiganders die every day because of COVID-19 and essential workers are doing their best to keep our communities healthy and functioning, these selfish and out-of-touch fringe groups are throwing a temper tantrum at the expense of public safety and health," Scott said in a news release.

Several legislators, including U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, I-Mich., joined the critics in opposing Whitmer's order. He asked her to "immediately reassess" in a series of tweets Saturday.

"As a federal official, I do my best to stay out of state politics," tweeted Amash. "But I have a constitutional duty to ensure states don’t trample on the rights of the people. @GovWhitmer’s latest order goes too far and will erode confidence in her leadership. She should immediately reassess it."

Follow reporter Kara Berg on Twitter @karaberg95.


This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Coronavirus: Michigan groups to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's order

I Was A Member Of The John Birch Society


heretofore (AUTHOR)
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Tuesday May 31, 2016 

(and why you should listen to my confession)

I have never confessed this, and as I am not adding my name, it remains, I hope, a secret; and also why this is an early post, a matter that only my sister keeps needling me about since that ONE PERIOD in the 1970s, when I also burned my Black Sabbath albums, which she caught me at, but she also caught me at growing Mary Jane on the roof top. (Mercy, sister, must you always bring this shit up?)

I was a Liberal, a hippie type, in the early ‘70s, as a kid. In 1972, some of us boys in the 5th grade actually staged a sit-in to protest the Vietnam War. It was after Kent State. When parents in a small town see politics reach all the way to their not-even-teen-aged children, well, it made an impact. I guess. That’s all I ever did for the Nam, that’s all we tykes could do. Also, fellow kid Richard M. rigged the sprinkler system to blow … because at that time me and Ross H. couldn’t do better; we were still working on explosives, having gained no experience beyond soda-and-vinegar kaboom.

Kids. (In our defense, we later graduated to mercury fulminate, inspired the 1950s book and 1960s film “Mister Roberts” which led me to a dangerous garage distillation involving nitric acid, mercury, and home-brewed methanol — because they sold all that except booze to kids in the day).


This diary is about the importance of young boys and girls, before they become young voters, and how the far Right has taken over at the local level. You all didn’t see this shit coming since it spread its wings. Let me tell you about the John Birch Society, something that you probably never heard. (You commie rats. – that was snark). This is NOT a CP diary. It is an observation based on my experience. I hope it educates someone.

-------—


So back in the mid-1970s, when the Oil Crisis was going on, I happened upon a JBS book by Gary Allan, “None Dare Call It Conspiracy.” As a teen, I was intrigued by the idea that a “cabal” of rich white men (or others), could somehow conspire to fuck up the world. What I did not know then, and know now, is that the best LIE is couched in truth. (The “truth,” as my Liberal high school teacher said, is that oil companies can and do conspire, but a world-wide conspiracy it does not make). It wasn’t until I got to college and university that my young mind realized the utter nonsense I had been feeding my mind with, and quickly returned to my Liberal roots.

That aside, let me tell you how, back then, the JBS worked, from my experience as an accolade up to, well, a trusted fellow. Yeah, I met Robert Welch (founder of the JBS, named after a missionary killed in 1945) and Gary Allen (the former in a signing of the “Blue Book,” and the later when fat Gary was taking a shit at the Ambassador in Los Angeles when I was afforded into whatever the bastards had planned for me … to be fair, they did say that I might turn into a Liberal if I went and up got educated).

Here is how the JBS worked then, and maybe works now. As an aside, you might wonder why I would be a member of the JBS if I were so anti-war Liberal. Well, back then, the JBS hated Nixon. Hell, they hated Eisenhower. They hated GW Bush, too. But they evolved, though not without their tactics. I see it. So let’s get back to how the JBS won the ground, over the decades, without mentioning the Koch brothers’ influence.

The John Birch Society patterned its local structure according to what it learned from Communism. This is not a conspiracy theory. Read the JBS “Blue Book” by Welch if you are not sure on the point. The reason the JBS established “cells” is because that is how “the commies” succeeded. And by way of emulation, so could the far Right do better. Ah, yes, the JBS introduced me to Sun Tsu’s “Art of War.” How very clever of them. Saruman, indeed.

Anyway, I got into the JBS smack hard, about 1975, and abandoned my long-haired ways. I was taken in, and soon became a small-time speaker at one of their camps for young people. They didn’t press me, they just asked what I wanted to talk about. By this time, all I wanted to talk about was logic. So that’s what they let me do, as long as I hewed to the party line.

As a trusted young-un in the JBS, I was afforded some latitude. Except when I got kissing with a young girl from North Hollywood, whose family were really rich compared to my middle class, and she went missing for a couple of hours, and they (a couple of ex Green Berets name Mahoney and that other short fuck) put the screws to me, ah, but it turns out she was scared by a raccoon or whatever and bolted into the woods, and like that’s my fault. Again, I digress. Oh wait. The year after in Big Bear, there was this upper JBS adult man, who was perving on the young teens. Dude had major film equipment. I still have a couple of photos (don’t ask). Long story short: so I’m 17 trying for a kiss, and this 34-year-old dude is buying really skimpy bathing suits for two teens, then goes all cinema on me … so then the dude’s wife later comes up to me in my room, being as she can see I’m not happy about him horning in, but I don’t know wtf with these people or if this 30-year-old cutie is making a play on me because she is so over her husband, but turns out she’s pissed at him and not going cougar, so I just say “it’s not fair.” As in, it’s not fair to this 17-year-old that a 34-year-old man jumps into my attempt at romance ... when in fact she was simply pissed off because her husband was a fucking pervert. I wanted to punch the fucker, out of principle alone. And then later this 40-year-old JBS hardcase woman gets wind of the shit, and tries to break me on the situation … and I’m thinking, Jesus, I’m fucking 17 and all I want is to get laid in this bullshit juke joint, and even Nurse Ratched is fucking my shit up. Her name was McGowen, as I recall, and the whole clan of them came out the JBS SoCal headquarters in San Marino, CA, a pretty rich enclave to this day. At the center was Joe Merten, a pretty slick dude, perhaps even my handler. Whatever.

I should also mention the “exorcism” of a young boy that happened. I wasn’t there at the scene, but it was later explained to me. See, there was this pig-pen kid, all dirty and smelly, and his fellow campers were complaining about his body odor. Well, the fucking Berets decided to take the boy, strip him naked, and shove him into a hot shower. The boy wasn’t having any of it, and Arnie M., a firefighter, shouted sternly at the boy. As the short Beret told me, Arnie’s “jaw shot out five inches” and then the boy blanched and took his shower. I was told later that the boy was right as rain when turned over to his parents, a happy camper. In hindsight, I suspect something else. It was a tight ship, alright. Later in the ‘80s, after I bolted from the farm, I came across Arnie M. during a refinery fire in Paramount, where I was attempting journalism. “Hey, Arnie.” Straight off, he says to me: “You know, the Russians got us.” He was referring to the KAL 007 flight indeed shot down by the USSR, which happened to have aboard the successor to JBS founder Robert Welch. Fucking commies. (Please know that I grew under the umbrella of the Southern Calif. defense industry, which might explain why I was encouraged to access dangerous chemicals in order to build better rockets against the commies. But by then I wasn’t having any of his shit, and simply plied my trade to get better access to the Paramount Refinery fuckup … good luck googling it, because it was before the internet, but I have some beautiful photos in stock.)

Other than the other JBS camp photos I have from those days, you might wonder why I so vividly recall such memories. Well, one year on the way down from the Big Bear camp (it was a Presbyterian site leased by the JBS, as I recall), I nearly cooked the engine on my 1965 Mercury Comet, because the valve circulating the water cooling shut fast, and all I could do was to keep feeding oil as it boiled away, until I arrived home exhausted. When I woke up, I was told that my engine smoked for six hours. And the enormous heat didn’t crack the engine block. They don’t build ‘em like that anymore.

So what the JBS did, and does so now, is establish a human “cell” system based on the old Soviet model, which they found to be effective. They established a long-term goal, starting not only by garnering the support of Big Business (see, Koch Brothers), but also in recruiting future voters all the way down to 9-year-old children. I was there. They had me on lifeguard duty, because I was Red Cross certified, and at the mountain camp I made sure the kids didn’t drown. That was R&R, according to the Green Beret dudes. The camp was tight.

I made out with JBS girls, sure, almost got hitched to another when I was a cook in Tahoe, before I woke the fuck up (and proceeded with more adventures befitting my early 20s, as in I’ve seen a lot more shit since even that one time, which was off the rails). (Yeah, she tracked me down on the internet ten years’ back, an boy was that just five ways away from Sunday.)

So I know the how and why of the far Right wing. Them fuckers were organized a long ass time ago, and they get ‘em young, they get ‘em stupid (see Tea Party) …

And SOME in the Democratic Party have the vapors whenever we Liberals even mention taking out the hammer and tongs. The far Right had those long knives out before you were born. Thus the top image from dear old Driftglass, a blogger who deserves a lot more credit than he’s gotten.

I have sinned. I was once a bit too deep in the iniquity of the far Right. As a teenager, as a provocateur in high school in the school’s newspaper, influencing my friends, who turned out to be Republicans as I now know from Facebook … to my shame. I was an idiot with a vial full of mercury fulminate.

I done fucked up. I am sorry.

* As a side note to any young people reading this, do not worry about making mistakes. From such you learn a lot. To be perfect is an illusion. To learn from our failures is the beginning of wisdom. (Old man advise done. Peace out.)

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