Coronavirus job losses hit these 10 states the hardest

Zack Guzman Senior Writer,Yahoo Finance•April 16, 2020

The number of jobs lost due to the coronavirus shutdown continue to mount, with the latest weekly total of Americans applying for unemployment benefits topping 5.24 million.

The latest swath of applications brings the total amount of jobless claims to 22 million over the last four weeks, more than wiping out the 20 million jobs added over the last decade.

But some states have been feeling the impact of job losses more than others. A Yahoo Finance review of jobless claims data from the U.S. Department of Labor reveals that Michigan and the South has been particularly hard hit since the coronavirus pandemic brought the country’s economy to a grinding halt.

Comparing each state’s average weekly jobless claims totals over the last three weeks to the week before shutdowns started occurring, reveals Michigan, Georgia, and Alabama to be the top states showing the largest percentage spike in citizens applying for unemployment benefits. Each state saw jobless claims spike more than 5,000% versus the week ending March 14.

Averaging out unemployment claims over the last three weeks versus before the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. shows that Michigan, Georgia, and Alabama were hit with the highest spike in people applying for unemployment benefits.

Indiana, New Hampshire, and Virginia also saw sustained jobless claims over the past month, all averaging a more than 4,000% increase to unemployment claims compared to the week ended March 14. If it’s any consolation, all of the top six states that were hit the hardest showed a decline in jobless claims in the latest report compared to the week prior.

North Carolina, Kentucky, and Louisiana rounded out the top 10 states enduring the sharpest percentage spike in jobless claims over the period analyzed.

Economists expect more unemployment claims in weeks to come as businesses remain shuttered. Making maters worse, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that was put in place to help businesses keep employees on their payrolls announced Thursday that it had exhausted the $349 billion it was allocated. Some, including Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran, have critiqued the program for not allocating funds efficiently to businesses in need.

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BACKWARDS TO THE FUTURE

For Asian Americans Like Me, Fighting Racism During The Pandemic Is An Act Of Survival

Marina Fang April 14, 2020 HUFFINGTON POST

I was in fourth grade when my family moved to the suburbs of Pittsburgh, where I would go on to spend my formative years. When my mother and I went to register at my local elementary school, the receptionist beamed when I spoke.

“You speak such good English,” she said, after my mother spoke first, in her accented English, having learned most of it after moving to the U.S. in her mid-30s.

“I was born here,” I replied.

At age 8, I don’t think I considered this interaction racist. I don’t know if I had the vocabulary to describe it or place it. I don’t remember if I turned it over in my head the way I do now as an adult.

The memory comes back to me a lot, most recently this weekend, when I was listening to New Yorker reporter Jiayang Fan describe a similar incident during her childhood with her mother, who was ridiculed at a suburban shopping mall for her accented English. Fan similarly recalls not knowing what to do with it, but feeling humiliated while her mother laughed it off, trying to minimize it.

Inside, I probably felt humiliated, too. But I probably smiled back at the receptionist, as we are so often taught to do as Asians — and especially as an Asian girl. Smile, nod, don’t speak up, don’t make a fuss, don’t create waves, let it go, just work hard.

Today, I understand that this was a microaggression. What do we do with these incidents like when I got ridiculed for my “weird” tea eggs for lunch; or when I got mistaken for other Asian classmates (and these days, other Asian co-workers); or when the fishmonger at my mother’s suburban supermarket pretends to not understand her? It’s not being called a “chink” or a “gook,” or being spit on or assaulted on a bus or stabbed at the store when a global crisis happens to originate in a country where people happen to look like you.

They fall under what writer Cathy Park Hong calls “minor feelings,” in her recent collection of essays of the same name, defining them as:

the racialized range of emotions that are negative, dysphoric, and therefore untelegenic, built from the sediments of everyday racial experience and the irritant of having one’s perception of reality constantly questioned or dismissed. Minor feelings arise, for instance, upon hearing a slight, knowing it’s racial, and being told, Oh, that’s all in your head.

What do we do when these actions aren’t overt racism, but they nevertheless sour and fester into something bigger and more insidious?

The answer isn’t to minimize them or dismiss them as innocent mistakes. “People are just ignorant, but they mean well!” we’re told.

The answer isn’t to smile, nod, and let it go. If we don’t speak up, don’t make a fuss, don’t create waves, we continue to make ourselves invisible. If we just work hard, prove that we’re a “good” immigrant, “show [our] American-ness,” we reinforce the stereotypes that persist about us.

Because these microaggressions eventually sour and fester into being called a “chink” or a “gook,” or being spit on or assaulted on a bus or stabbed at the store when a global crisis happens to originate in a country where people look like you. They eventually sour and fester into racist and nativist rhetoric and policies from the highest levels, the biggest megaphones.

Before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that everyone wear masks outdoors to protect against COVID-19, my mother repeatedly recommended that I wear a mask. I was afraid to do so, afraid it would make me a target, given the growing number of racist attacks against Asian Americans — but I was also afraid to tell her, afraid of whether or not she’d understand.

I don’t know what the best answer is to deal with everyday racism or the anticipation of it. Yes, we tell ourselves to call out racism the next time it happens. Yes, it’s vital to have allies, especially in heightened times like this — and in turn, for Asian Americans to be allies for other people of color in fighting institutionalized racism and white supremacy.

Jessica Wong, of Fall River, Mass., front left, Jenny Chiang, of Medford, Mass., center, and Sheila Vo, of Boston, from the state's Asian American Commission, stand together during a protest, March 12, on the steps of the Statehouse in Boston. Asian American leaders in Massachusetts condemned what they say is racism, fear-mongering and misinformation aimed at Asian communities amid the widening coronavirus pandemic that originated in China. (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

But sometimes, it’s difficult to call out racism in the moment. Sometimes, I still find myself freezing up when it happens, or not immediately recognizing it as racism, or questioning whether it is — and then berating myself after, when it’s too late to do anything.

I thought about all of this again while watching Netflix’s “Tigertail,” the new film from “Master of None” co-creator Alan Yang, who poignantly explored intergenerational trauma between Asian immigrant parents and their children. The gorgeously shot “Tigertail” expands on the pain of what goes unspoken between parents and their children. Some of that pain can stem from the pressures the former put on the latter, often subconsciously projecting onto us their pains and struggles, having been hardened by the experience of cobbling together a new existence in a new country.

Tzi Ma, who gave a similarly soulful performance in last year’s “The Farewell,” plays Pin-Jui, who immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan as a young man. In one scene, after his daughter Angela performs a mortifying piano recital, Pin-Jui berates her for crying about it in the car.

“Crying never solves anything,” he tells Angela, echoing a scene at the beginning of the film, when Pin-Jui is a kid in Taiwan. His grandmother scolds him for crying, lecturing him to “be strong” and “never let anyone see you cry.”

Adult Angela (Christine Ko) becomes estranged from him, and a taciturn Pin-Jui struggles with not knowing how to talk to her and connect with her emotionally, despite sharing some of the same struggles. In one scene, he invites her to lunch, but they eat in silence.

As a teenager, I harbored a lot of anger toward my parents for not having the emotional vocabulary to recognize and comprehend racism, for telling me to not make a big deal out of it. But now I think they were doing the best they could with what they had, having had to reinvent themselves in a new country with a culture they couldn’t understand. It’s also a country with a history of racism toward generations of Asian Americans that rarely gets taught in school — including the insidious model minority trope that reinforces these stereotypes: Smile, nod, don’t speak up, don’t make a fuss, don’t create waves, let it go, and just work hard. It’s the same impulse, the same social conditioning that made them caution me to not become a journalist and to choose something less risky and uncertain and more stable and routine.

For my parents’ generation, minimizing pain and avoiding tension was a mechanism for survival. For their kids who grew up in America — as difficult and as draining as it is, especially in these unnerving times — calling out racism, documenting it, processing it and making art about it is our mechanism for survival.

Just 27% of Americans think the US is doing better than other countries at containing the coronavirus

John Haltiwanger,Business Insider•April 13, 2020

FILE - In this Friday, April 10, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump answers questions during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington. More people have died of COVID-19 in the United States than any other country in the world. And the nation is not yet at the pandemic's peak. Presidential politics are a long way from getting back to normal, but the steps that Trump takes in the coming weeks will define his reelection and much more. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Associated Press

Only about 27% of Americans said they think the US is doing a better job at containing coronavirus than other developed countries, a new Insider poll found.


And about 46% of Americans think the US is doing worse than other countries in fighting the virus.


The US is currently the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with the most reported cases and fatalities from the virus in the world.
Americans do not appear to be overwhelmingly confident in how their country has handled the coronavirus pandemic compared to the rest of the globe.

Only 27% of Americans said they think the US is doing a better job at containing coronavirus than other developed countries, a new Insider poll found, and about one in five said the US is "much worse" at containing coronavirus than other developed countries.

Overall, about 46% of Americans think the US is doing worse than other developed countries in fighting the virus.

The US is currently the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with the most reported cases in the world.

Poll participants were asked: How would you describe the US coronavirus response compared to that of other developed countries?

Just 11% said they think the US is "much better at containing coronavirus than other countries," while 16% said the US is "somewhat better."

Here's a full breakdown of how Americans responded when asked to characterize the US's handling of the coronavirus pandemic compared to the rest of the developed world:

11% said they think the US is much better at containing coronavirus than other countries.

16% said they think the US is somewhat better at containing coronavirus than other countries.

0% said they think the US is containing coronavirus about the same as other countries.

26% said they think the US is somewhat worse at containing coronavirus than other countries.

20% said they think the US is much worse at containing coronavirus than other countries.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the US especially hard — it has the highest number of reported fatalities from the virus in the world. As of Monday afternoon, there were over 572,000 reported cases of the virus in the US, and more than 23,000 confirmed deaths.

The US government has been widely criticized over its handling of the pandemic, particularly in terms of its struggles to set up a robust system of testing for it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out faulty testing kits for coronavirus in February, and the US has been behind the curve ever since. Testing capacity has improved, but the US still does not have a comprehensive picture of the scale of the outbreak within its borders.

Comparatively, South Korea, which saw its first reported case of coronavirus the same day as the US in January, set up a strong testing system early on and has seen far fewer confirmed cases of the virus (10,537) and reported deaths (217). While the US was initially performing fewer than 100 tests daily on average, South Korea and other countries were conducting tens of thousands of tests per day.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has faced broad criticism over his approach to the pandemic, particularly given he downplayed the threat of the virus for weeks.

SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weigh its sample based on race or income. A total of 1,107 respondents were collected on April 10-11 with a margin of error plus or minus 3 percentage points and a 95% confidence level.


Read the original article on Business Insider

GRIFTER NATION
White House staff reportedly had access to thousands of masks before reversing its policy for the general public
Tim O'Donnell,The Week•April 15, 2020

Before the Trump administration reversed its official stance on wearing facemasks in public during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, a top National Security Council deputy, Matt Pottinger, secured a deal in mid-March with Taiwan to receive shipments of masks, fearing that both the White House and the country at large didn't have an adequate supply. Taiwan agreed and soon sent 500,000 masks to Washington. Most of those went toward the national stockpile, but a portion was set aside for White House staff, The Washington Post reports.

The NSC kept 1,800 for its own employees, while another 1,800 went to other personnel in the White House. That reportedly made some U.S. officials uncomfortable since civilians were still being told not to wear masks (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's reversal came on April 3) and health care workers across the country had to resort to measures like crafting homemade gear. But other White House officials reportedly noted that the vast majority of Taiwan-shipped equipment were prioritized for medical staff and first responders.

Pottinger has emerged as one of the figures within the White House who warned early on that China's initial coronavirus outbreak could become a major issue for the U.S. He'd been communicating regularly with his contacts in places throughout Asia, like Taiwan and Hong Kong, about how they successfully mitigated the spread, determining masks played a role. Read more at The Washington Post.

Opinion: Elizabeth Warren just told progressives what they need to hear about Joe Biden

Jon Healey, Los Angeles Times Opinion•April 15, 2020

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden came with none of the fanfare that accompanied Sen. Bernie Sanders' move Monday to do the same. Nor were there any pledges by the two candidates to craft policy together, as Biden will do with Sanders.

When your campaign stumbles as badly as Warren's did — she even finished third in her home state primary behind Biden and Sanders — you don't have much negotiating leverage.

Yet the video Warren tweeted on Wednesday may prove more helpful to Biden than the 12-minute endorsement video that President Obama delivered Tuesday. Not just because it's shorter, but because it's emotional and affecting, and it puts the focus where it needs to be.

In this moment of crisis, it’s more important than ever that the next president restores Americans’ faith in good, effective government—and I’ve seen Joe Biden help our nation rebuild. Today, I’m proud to endorse @JoeBiden as President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/VrfBtJvFee
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 15, 2020

Sanders and Warren attracted the support of progressives in part because they advocated dramatic change in the country's policies, priorities and direction. But Warren's campaign, much more than Sanders', was also about governing. She had detailed plans for everything she proposed because she was just as concerned about the implementation as about the ideas.

One of the central messages of her Biden endorsement is that this election is about governing. Unlike President Trump, who was uniquely unprepared among American presidents for the crisis he now confronts, Biden has a lifetime of experience in public service and specific experience helping to steer the United States out of a deep recession: the 2008-09 meltdown triggered by the subprime mortgage collapse.

"I saw him up close, doing the work, getting in the weeds," says Warren, who helped the Obama administration design and set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during that period, and can you imagine anyone describing the current, white-paper-averse occupant of the White House as "getting in the weeds"? Or depicting Trump, as Warren said of Biden, as someone "never forgetting who we were all there to serve"?

The other central message, conveyed more subtly, is that the specifics of policy — the details that animate Warren — don't matter in the general election.

She offered some assurance to her supporters that Biden, who's considerably more moderate in his politics than Warren, isn't rigid or ideological, saying, "he's shown throughout this campaign that when you come up with new facts or a good argument, he's not too afraid or too proud to be persuaded." She didn't mention it, but a case in point is how he has come around to Warren's view that federal bankruptcy law is too hostile to ordinary debtors and needs to be changed.

But really, the election in November won't be a referendum on Trumpism vs. whatever platform Biden puts forward, despite the manifest and crucial policy differences between the two. It will be about character. Americans are seeing the president's character on display every day in his coronavirus briefings, and it's not a pretty sight.

That's why Warren emphasized Biden's long track record of service and his old-school ability to relate to people in hardship, born out of the tragedies in Biden's own family. This is the point that needs to be heard by the #BernieOrBust crowd and the progressives who claim to see no difference between Trump and Biden. The former vice president has his flaws, as my friend Melissa Batchelor Warnke catalogued despairingly recently. But they pale in comparison to those of our current chief executive, who asserts "total authority" over monumental decisions while denying any responsibility.

The president crystallized the character gap on Tuesday with one unprecedented and breathtakingly self-serving act. No one can argue that there's no difference between a politician famous for his empathy and one who holds up relief checks the Treasury is sending to struggling Americans so his name can be printed on them.

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Skechers’ Animal Welfare Movement Has Raised $5.45 Million
CARING CAPITALISM ONE MORE STEP TOWARDS SOCIALISM

Business Wire•April 15, 2020

The Company Has Helped Save and Support More Than One Million Shelter Dogs and Cats, Providing Aid for More Adoptions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Skechers continues to provide much needed funds to care for shelter animals across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic with a donation of more than $509,000 to the Petco Foundation, bringing the Company’s total contribution to over $5.45 million for animal welfare agencies. Through sales of its BOBS from Skechers collection, the Company’s donations have helped save and support more than one million dogs and cats and is aiding shelters and agencies closed due to the coronavirus crisis.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200415005175/en/


Skechers has donated more than $5.45 million to animal welfare — funds that have helped save and support more than one million shelter dogs and cats since 2016. Shown, @kikythehusky and BOBS Beach Bingo — Rovers Rally. (Photo: Business Wire)

"Many in the country are working from home or are under stay-at-home orders and are feeling isolated. Adopting an animal can make the difference," said Michael Greenberg, president of Skechers. "Consumers love the comfortable styles and give-back message of BOBS from Skechers. We’re grateful that through their purchases, we’ve been able to donate $509,000 already in 2020, help thousands of animal welfare agencies during this challenging time and enable them to offer companionship to all of those people who are sheltering in place across our nation."

"Skechers is truly making a difference," added Susanne Kogut, president of Petco Foundation. "Animal welfare organizations across the country have been forced to innovate and operate in new ways, including mobilizing record numbers of foster homes to care for pets to support social distancing measures while saving animal lives. Thanks to BOBS, many of our organizations can continue their lifesaving work and connect their shelter pets with those who would like to adopt them."

Since 2016, Skechers has helped save the lives of more than 661,000 dogs, cats and other animals through pet adoptions, and supported the care of more than 371,000 additional animals at nurseries, sanctuaries and medical care facilities in the United States. Through its iconic, animal-spirited footwear collections and growing apparel and accessory offering, the Company continues to raise lifesaving funds. For every BOBS from Skechers item purchased in the U.S., a donation is made to the Foundation to help save and support animals in its 4,000+ shelter and pet adoption network.* BOBS also launched its lifesaving movement in Canada in January 2020; for every purchase made in the country, a donation is made to help save and support Canada’s shelter dogs and cats.**

The BOBS from Skechers collection of slip-ons, sport styles, sandals, boots, slippers, apparel and accessories is available at Skechers.com, Petco.com, Skechers and Petco stores and select department and specialty locations in the United States. To learn more, follow BOBS from Skechers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, or visit BOBSfromSkechers.com.

* Skechers U.S.A., Inc., 228 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, 310-318-3100. Petco Foundation, 654 Richland Hills Drive, San Antonio, TX 78245, 858-453-7845. During the promotion, twenty-five cents USD will be donated to the Petco Foundation per item of specially marked BOBS from Skechers footwear, apparel and accessories sold in the U.S., to help save the lives of dogs, cats and other pets in America’s shelters. The promotion runs January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2021.

** Skechers USA Canada Inc., 5055 Satellite Drive, Unit Number 6, Mississauga, ON L4W 5K7 Canada, 877-644-4414. Petco Foundation, 654 Richland Hills Drive, San Antonio, TX 78245, 858-453-7845. During the promotion, twenty-five cents CAD will be donated to the Petco Foundation per item of specially marked BOBS from Skechers footwear, apparel and accessories sold in Canada, to help save the lives of dogs, cats and other pets in Canada’s shelters. The promotion runs January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021.

Skechers USA Canada, Inc., 5055 Satellite Drive, Unit Number 6, Mississauga, ON L4W 5K7 Canada, (877) 644-4414. Petco Foundation, 654 Richland Hills Drive, San Antonio, TX 78245, (858) 453-7845. Pendant la promotion, 25 cents canadiens seront versés à la Petco Foundation à chaque vente de chaussures, vêtements et accessoires portant la marque BOBS de Skechers au Canada afin d’aider à sauver la vie des chiens, des chats et d’autres animaux des refuges canadiens. La promotion est en vigueur du 1er janvier 2020 au 31 décembre 2021.

About SKECHERS USA, Inc.

Based in Manhattan Beach, California, Skechers (NYSE: SKX) designs, develops and markets a diverse range of lifestyle footwear for men, women and children, as well as performance footwear for men and women. Skechers footwear is available in the United States and over 170 countries and territories worldwide via department and specialty stores, more than 3,550 Skechers Company-owned and third-party-owned retail stores, and the Company’s e-commerce websites. The Company manages its international business through a network of global distributors, joint venture partners in Asia, Israel and Mexico, and wholly-owned subsidiaries in Canada, Japan, India, and throughout Europe and Latin America. For more information, please visit about.skechers.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

About the Petco Foundation

At the Petco Foundation, we believe that every animal deserves to live its best life. Since 1999, we’ve invested more than $260 million in lifesaving animal welfare work to make that happen. With our more than 4,000 animal welfare partners, we inspire and empower communities to make a difference by investing in adoption and medical care programs, spay and neuter services, pet cancer research, service and therapy animals, and numerous other lifesaving initiatives. Through our Think Adoption First program, we partner with Petco stores and animal welfare organizations across the country to increase pet adoptions. So far, we’ve helped more than 6 million pets find their new loving families, and we’re just getting started. Visit petcofoundation.org to learn more about how you can get involved.

Reference in this press release to "Sales" refers to Skechers’ net sales reported under generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. This announcement also contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, Skechers’ future domestic and international growth, financial results and operations including expected net sales and earnings, its development of new products, future demand for its products, its planned domestic and international expansion, opening of new stores and additional expenditures, and advertising and marketing initiatives. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking language such as "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "project," "will be," "will continue," "will result," "could," "may," "might," or any variations of such words with similar meanings. Any such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to such differences include international economic, political and market conditions including the challenging consumer retail markets in the United States; the disruption of business and operations due to the coronavirus; sustaining, managing and forecasting costs and proper inventory levels; losing any significant customers; decreased demand by industry retailers and cancellation of order commitments due to the lack of popularity of particular designs and/or categories of products; maintaining brand image and intense competition among sellers of footwear for consumers, especially in the highly competitive performance footwear market; anticipating, identifying, interpreting or forecasting changes in fashion trends, consumer demand for the products and the various market factors described above; sales levels during the spring, back-to-school and holiday selling seasons; and other factors referenced or incorporated by reference in Skechers’ annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. The risks included here are not exhaustive. Skechers operates in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time and we cannot predict all such risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of all such risk factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. Moreover, reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200415005175/en/

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.