Sunday, May 15, 2022

Flood of weapons to Ukraine raises fear of arms smuggling

Vague U.S. assurances spark concern about lost military equipment in Ukraine, a longtime hub of arms trafficking


By John Hudson
Yesterday at 6:00 a.m. EDT























Ukrainian soldiers train with U.S.-supplied Javelin missiles. (AP)


President Biden is expected to sign in the coming days a $40 billion security-assistance package that will supercharge the flow of missiles, rockets, artillery and drones to a war-torn Ukraine.

But what remains unclear is Washington’s ability to keep track of the powerful weapons as they enter one of the largest trafficking hubs in Europe.

Ukraine’s illicit arms market has ballooned since Russia’s initial invasion in 2014, buttressed by a surplus of loose weapons and limited controls on their use.

This uncomfortable reality for the United States and its allies comes amid urgent pleas from President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide artillery needed to counter Russian forces in the country’s east and south. The Ukrainian leader’s appeals are credited with uniting House lawmakers behind the latest funding request in a bipartisan 368-to-57 vote on Tuesday. But the unprecedented influx of arms has prompted fears that some equipment could fall into the hands of Western adversaries or reemerge in faraway conflicts — for decades to come.

“It’s just impossible to keep track of not only where they’re all going and who is using them, but how they are being used,” said Rachel Stohl, an arms-control expert and vice president at the Stimson Center.

A State Department spokesman said the United States has conducted thorough vetting of the Ukrainian units it supplies while forcing Kyiv to sign agreements that “do not allow the retransfer of equipment to third parties without prior U.S. government authorization.”

But the means of enforcing such contracts are relatively weak — and made even weaker by Washington’s own mixed history of compliance, as recently as last month.

On the battlefield with Russia, Afghanistan’s loss is Ukraine’s gain

In mid-April, the United States boosted its involvement in the Ukraine conflict by announcing that it would transfer a fleet of Mi-17 helicopters to Ukraine that it originally purchased from Russia about a decade ago. The initial sale of the aircraft required the United States to sign a contract promising not to transfer the helicopters to any third country “without the approval of the Russian Federation,” according to a copy of the certificate posted on the website of Russia’s Federal Service on Military-Technical Cooperation.

Russia has denounced the transfer, saying it “grossly violates the foundations of international law.”

Arms experts say Russia’s brutal aggression in Ukraine more than justifies U.S. support, but the violation of weapons contracts chips away at the foundations of counter-proliferation efforts.

“Breaking of those end-use agreements is a serious threat to the underlying, but weak, capacity for countries to control how weapons are used,” said Jeff Abramson, an expert on conventional arms transfers at the Arms Control Association.

A Pentagon spokesman dismissed the criticisms, calling Russian charges a distraction and the transfer “permissible under U.S. law and consistent with our national security priorities.”

“Russia’s claims are a disingenuous attempt to distract attention from Russia’s unprovoked invasion and its history of aggressive actions against Ukraine since 2014,” said Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Anton T. Semelroth.




An Mi-17 helicopter over Afghanistan in 2010. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Vladimir Potapenko/U.S. Air Force)


The job of ensuring U.S. weapons are used for their intended purpose — a joint responsibility of the departments of State and Defense — is made all the more difficult by the sheer volume of arms making their way to Ukraine.

The emergency spending bill awaiting approval in the Senate will cement Ukraine’s status as the world’s single largest recipient of U.S. security assistance, receiving more in 2022 than the United States ever provided to Afghanistan, Iraq or Israel in a single year.

Pentagon will buy Ukraine laser-guided rockets, surveillance drones

It will add to the stocks of weapons the U.S. already committed to Ukraine, including 1,400 Stinger antiaircraft systems, 5,500 antitank missiles, 700 Switchblade drones, 90 long-range Howitzers artillery systems, 7,000 small arms, 50,000,000 rounds of ammunition, and numerous other mines, explosives and laser-guided rocket systems.

Shoulder-fired Stinger missiles, capable of downing commercial airliners, are just one of the weapon systems experts worry could slip into the possession of terrorist groups seeking to carry out mass-casualty events.



U.S. Marines in Twentynine Palms, Calif., test Stinger missiles during a training exercise. (Lance Cpl. Rachel Young/Marine Corps Air Ground Combat C)

The Biden administration’s funding request includes $8.7 billion to replenish U.S. stores of weapons shipped to Ukraine, $6 billion to train and equip Ukrainian forces and $3.9 billion for U.S. forces deployed throughout Europe in response to the security crisis that’s been set off by the war.

Other NATO countries have transferred billions of dollars in arms and military equipment since the start of hostilities.

“The assistance exceeds the peak year of U.S. military assistance to Afghan security forces during that 20-year war,” said William Hartung, an arms control expert at the Quincy Institute think tank. “In that case the U.S. had a major presence in-country that created at least the possibility of tracking where weapons were ending up. By comparison, the U.S. government is flying blind in terms of monitoring weapons supplied to civilian militias and the military in Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s history as a hub for arms trafficking dates to the fall of the Soviet Union, when the Soviet military left behind large amounts of small arms and light weapons in Ukraine without adequate record-keeping and inventory control. According to the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based research organization, a portion of the Ukrainian military’s 7.1 million small arms in stock in 1992 “were diverted to conflict areas” underscoring “the risk of leakage to the local black market.”

The problem grew more acute after Russia’s invasion in 2014, which saw combatants looting arms and munition-storage facilities of Ukraine’s Security Service, Interior and Defense ministries. “Irregular fighters on both sides progressively gained access to a wide range of military-grade equipment, including the full spectrum of small arms and light weapons,” according to a report by the Small Arms Survey in 2017. “Officials estimated that at least 300,000 small arms and light weapons were looted or lost between 2013 and 2015,” providing a boon the country’s black market run by Mafia-style groups in Donbas region and other criminal networks.

The U.S. government is well aware of the country’s challenges with weapons proliferation, though it has been vague in describing the precautions it’s taking.

Weeks after Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, a group of interagency officials in the Biden administration met with outside arms-control experts to discuss the risk of small-arms proliferation in the conflict. According to Stohl, who attended one of the meetings, U.S. officials offered assurances about vetting Ukrainian security forces and addressing reports of unauthorized transfer — but scant details on how the vetting or monitoring happens.

“It does not inspire much confidence,” said Stohl.


U.S. Marine Corps M777 towed 155 mm howitzers are staged on a flight line in California before being loaded onto aircraft bound for Europe and transfer to Ukrainian forces (U.S. Marines/Via Reuters)


Other arms experts feel similarly in the dark.

“It is unclear what risk mitigation or monitoring steps the U.S. and other countries have taken, or what guarantees they have obtained, to ensure the protection of civilians through these very large transfers,” said Annie Shiel, a senior adviser at the Center for Civilians in Conflict.

Some of the recommended steps include establishing a special investigator as the U.S. government did in Afghanistan, ensuring any weapons transfers contain strong tracking procedures, adding human rights obligations in the terms of sale and including specifics about what units can be authorized to receive such transfers. (In 2018, Congress banned Ukraine’s Azov battalion, a far-right nationalist group associated with neo-Nazism, from receiving U.S. weapons.)

There are additional concerns among watchdog groups about arms proliferation stemming from Moscow amid reports it has enlisted mercenaries from Libya, Syria and Chechnya, as well as the Wagner Group, a Russian contractor.

During a televised meeting of Russia’s Security Council in March, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said 16,000 volunteers in the Middle East stood ready to fight alongside Russian-backed forces in Eastern Ukraine.

In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his approval, saying, “We need to give them what they want and help them get to the conflict zone.”

At the same meeting, Shoigu proposed handing over captured U.S. Javelin and Stinger missiles to pro-Russian separatists in Donbas region. “Please do this,” Putin told Shoigu.

The introduction of foreign fighters to a conflict runs the risks of weapons returning to those individuals’ countries of origin when the fighting in Ukraine ends. There are conflicting reports about the presence of foreign fighters there, however, and it’s unclear precisely how many have in fact traveled to Ukraine.

The lack of information has spurred calls for answers from the administration and attention from Congress.

“Some of the weapons being provided in the conflict in Ukraine are likely to be found years, and possibly decades later,” said Abramson. “Congressional leaders should be asking these questions, in classified briefings if needed, and the public should be better informed.”


Germany accuses Russia of waging 'grain war'

Russia endangering global food security by blocking Ukrainian ports, says German top diplomat after G7 meet

Oliver Towfigh Nia |14.05.2022



BERLIN

Germany on Saturday accused Russia of waging a "grain war," endangering global food security.

Addressing a news conference at the end of the G7 foreign ministers' meeting at the Baltic resort town of Weissenhaus, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Moscow was consciously trying to expand the Ukraine war in the world, particularly in Africa.

Accusing Russia of trying to prevent grain from being exported by blocking ports in Ukraine, she said this was not part of the war's collateral damage.

"We must not be naive," the minister warned, saying Russia is deliberately trying to weaken international unity.

Baerbock said millions of tons of grain are stuck in Ukraine because its seaports are blocked by the Russian military.

The group of leading industrialized nations (G7) is considering alternatives to ship grain from Ukraine to break the Russian blockade in the area, she added.

Following problems with rail transport via Romania due to railways' different track widths, exports via the Baltic ports are being examined, she said, noting that prerequisites would first have to be clarified as to how the ports there could be reached.

The minister pointed out that normally, 5-6 million tons of grain could be shipped from Ukraine by sea per month.

"With a delivery by rail, you get significantly less grain," she said.

But, according to Baerbock, every ton delivered can help a little to get the hunger crisis under control.

So far, a fraction has been exported by rail, mainly via Romania, she said, adding that a bottleneck resulted from Ukraine and Romania having different track widths.

Baerbock warned there would be no perfect solution as long as Russia's bombing of Ukraine continues, with 25 million tons of grain lying in Ukrainian ports.

"This is the grain the world needs so badly," she went on to say.

"It is not just about preventing a famine in a few months. The effects of the blockade are already being felt. Even without the war in Ukraine, there are incredible problems in providing food for everyone and people are already starving to death.

"That's why it's so important that we act together," she emphasized.

Calls grow for Russia to free up Ukrainian ports for grain exports



By Claire Parker
Yesterday 


Russia stepped up missile attacks on Odessa this week, raising fresh concerns about the security of the port. A port in Odessa is seen in March. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations appealed to Russia to free up sea export routes for Ukrainian grain and agricultural products critical to feeding the world, as food prices rise and the World Food Program warns of “catastrophic” consequences if Ukrainian ports remain blocked.

“We must not be naive. Russia has now expanded the war against Ukraine to many states as a war of grain,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said at a news conference Saturday after the G-7 meetings. “It is not collateral damage, it is an instrument in a hybrid war that is intended to weaken cohesion against Russia’s war.”

Baerbock, who hosted the three-day gathering of top diplomats in Weissenhaus, Germany, said the group was searching for alternative routes to transport grain out of Ukraine as the threat of a global hunger crisis mounts.

Up to 50 million people will face hunger in the coming months unless Ukrainian grain is released, Baerbock said, according to the Associated Press. About 28 million tons of grain are stuck in Ukrainian ports blockaded by Russian forces.

As the conflict in Ukraine grinds on, some countries have looked to India as an alternative grain source. But after making moves to expand its agricultural export industry, India on Friday banned wheat exports, citing its own food security concerns.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, it has all but captured the port city of Mariupol, where Russian forces have surrounded the last remaining Ukrainian fighters holed up in the Azovstal steel plant.

Russia has also taken control of the Kherson region on the Black Sea and fired missiles at the major port city of Odessa, which remains under Ukrainian control. Ukraine closed its ports in late February amid the fighting, and Russian warships and floating mines have prevented them from reopening.

Ukraine’s wheat harvest, which feeds the world, can’t leave the country

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that such a halt to port operations had likely not been seen in Ukraine since World War II. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday that Ukraine was willing to take part in talks with Russia to unblock grain supplies but that his government had received “no positive feedback” from officials in Moscow, the AP reported.



David Beasley, head of the United Nations World Food Program, spoke with U.S. lawmakers and Biden administration officials in Washington this week to emphasize the urgency of reopening the ports and addressing the global food crisis.

Ukraine grows enough food to feed 400 million people annually, and 30 percent of the world’s supply of wheat comes from Russia and Ukraine, according to the World Food Program.

“The ports are critical to food security globally,” Beasley told The Washington Post. “It will be catastrophic if we don’t have those ports opened up and moving food supplies around the world.”

On an average working day, some 3,000 train carloads of grain arrive at Ukrainian ports, where they are stored in silos and, in peacetime, shipped across the Black Sea and through the Bosporus and then around the world, Beasley said. With exports blocked, the silos are full — meaning there is no place to store grain from the next harvest, due to take place in July and August.

The impact of the blockage will be felt in both rich and poor countries, Beasley said, and it is already affecting market volatility. The war has driven prices of wheat, cooking oil and other commodities to record highs, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected global wheat supplies would fall next crop year.

Flatbread at a bakery in Cairo. Egypt gets between 75 and 85 percent of its wheat supply from Ukraine and Russia, according to U.N. statistics. (Nariman El-Mofty/AP)

Countries in the Middle East and Africa are especially reliant on Ukrainian grain. Egypt gets between 75 and 85 percent of its wheat supply from Ukraine and Russia, according to U.N. statistics. More than 60 percent of wheat imported by Lebanon comes from Ukraine. Somalia and Benin depend on Russia and Ukraine for all of their imported wheat.

The U.N. has warned that food insecurity could exacerbate existing conflicts and economic crises in these regions.

Tunisia among countries seeing major economic consequences from war in Ukraine

Operational costs for the World Food Program to assist the same number of people have increased by more than $70 million per month due in part to rising food prices, Beasley said. The program, which provides food aid to 125 million people on any given day, will have to further scale back rations. In Yemen, which has experienced an acute hunger crisis for years, the program has already halved the food rations of 8 million people.

“We’re running out of money, pricing is killing us, we’re billions short and we’re now having to decide which children eat, which children don’t eat, which children live, which children die. It’s not right,” Beasley said.

The World Food Program, which buys half of its wheat from Ukraine, has asked Congress for $5 billion in additional international food assistance. An emergency funding package for Ukraine that contains that aid passed the House on Tuesday night but a vote in the Senate was pushed to next week.

Russia stepped up missile attacks on Odessa this week, raising fresh concerns about the security of the port. In a statement on Saturday, G-7 foreign ministers called on Russia to “cease immediately its attacks on key transport infrastructure in Ukraine, including ports.”

Beasley, who visited Odessa this month as the city came under attack, said it was encouraging that Russian attacks have not targeted actual port infrastructure there so far.

Russia, also a major grain producer and the world’s leading wheat exporter, stands to gain from continuing to disrupt Ukraine’s exports. The G-7 ministers pledged Saturday that sanctions against Russia would not “target essential exports of food and agricultural inputs to developing countries.”

The G-7 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The countries also promised to ramp up their contributions to the World Food Program and other relief organizations.

Ukraine has also accused Russia of intentionally attacking Ukrainian grain facilities and stealing grain from occupied regions for export. A State Department spokesperson confirmed to The Post that Russian attacks had damaged at least six grain storage facilities in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Beasley said he is “calling every friend I know that has any influence with Russia” to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow the resumption of grain shipments from Ukraine.

The G-7 ministers said Saturday they were seeking other options to get Ukrainian grain to countries in need, including the establishment of “agricultural solidarity lanes.” The European Commission laid out a plan on Thursday to create such transport corridors, which would ease ground shipments of Ukrainian grain to Europe.

Trucks and trains can only carry a fraction of the grain that typically ships out of Ukraine’s ports, Beasley said. And Russia continues to attack train lines and transportation infrastructure across Ukraine. But Baerbock said Saturday that “every ton we can get out will help a bit to get to grips with this hunger crisis,” the Financial Times reported.

“In the situation we’re in, every week counts,” Baerbock said.

Victoria Bisset and John Hudson contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON POST


Buffalo shooter's manifesto shows folly of 'lone wolf' theory when there is an 'apparatus of hate': analysis

Bob Brigham
May 14, 2022

Screengrab.

The existence of a racist manifesto reportedly posted online by an 18-year-old white male before killed ten people in a mass shooting rampage in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York shows the limits of a "lone wolf" theory explaining how people are radicalized, a CNN homeland security analyst explained on Saturday.

Juliette Kayyem was interviewed about a 106-page manifesto pushing the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory that was reportedly written by the suspect whose rampage is being investigated as a hate crime.

CNN's Pamela Brown inteviewed Kayyem after the network's Brian Stelter reported the online video company Twitch confirmed the suspect live-streamed the shooting.

"There's two issues going on. So you can say that someone acted alone and that's what we tend to think of as lone wolf, that it's not five people or ten people or orchestrated attack. But the idea of a lone wolf, I think, I've been saying for a couple of years should be put to rest, because in every single up with of these cases, you're seeing an apparatus that essentially supported their hate," she explained.

"Now that might not have been an apparatus that told them to do this on that date, but these are people who are getting radicalized by an ecosystem of hate. this is what the FBI has been documenting for over a decade, it's what we mean in government when we violent extremism," she explained. "Lone wolf makes sound like they woke up one day and just decided to kill a bunch of Black people. That just doesn't happen."

"The reason why the manifesto is relevant is it will show where did that apparatus and the hate come from," she explained. "Lone wolf excuses an apparatus of hate that exists in this country and is the number one terror threat in this country right now."

That apparatus was in full display in 2021 when Fox News personality Tucker Carlson pushed the same "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory. When the Anti-Defamation League called on the network to fire the host, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) called the ADL "a racist organization" and claimed Carlson "is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America."




Watch:
Lone Wolf www.youtube.com

  

Buffalo shooting came 8 months after NY newspaper warned of congresswoman's racist conspiracy theory

Bob Brigham
May 14, 2022

Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) smiles after House Republicans voted for her as their conference chairperson at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on May 14, 2021
.( Mandel Ngan/AFP)

Saturday's mass shooting in New York occurred less than eight months after a local newspaper scolded a Republican congresswoman for pushing the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory.

"A white 18-year-old wearing military gear and live-streaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in Buffalo, killing 10 people and wounding three others Saturday in what authorities described as 'racially motived violent extremism.' The gunman wore body armor and military-style clothing during the attack on mostly Black shoppers and workers at Tops Friendly Market," the Times Union reported Saturday.

The suspect was identified by the newspaper as Payton Gendron, of Conklin, New York.

Prior to the shooting, the white 18-year-old reportedly posted a 106-page manifesto citing the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory as motivation.

In September of 2021, the newspaper's editorial board wrote about the conspiracy theory.

"Back in 2017, white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Va., carrying torches and chanting, 'You will not replace us' and 'Jews will not replace us.' Decent Americans recoiled at the undeniable echo of Nazi Germany," began the editorial, which was illustrated with a photo of the notorious Charlottesville tiki torch march.

"That rhetoric has been resonating ever since in the right wing, repackaged lately in what’s known as 'replacement theory,' espoused by conservative media figures like Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. And it has seeped into the mainstream political discourse in the Capital Region, where Rep. Elise Stefanik has adapted this despicable tactic for campaign ads," the editorial board wrote.

Stefanik, the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, is the third-ranking Republican in Congress.


"Ms. Stefanik isn’t so brazen as to use the slogans themselves; rather, she couches the hate in alarmist anti-immigrant rhetoric that’s become standard fare for the party of Donald Trump. And she doesn’t quite attack immigrants directly; instead, she alleges that Democrats are looking to grant citizenship to undocumented immigrants in order to gain a permanent liberal majority, or, as she calls it, a 'permanent election insurrection.' Quite a choice of words, of course, considering that the country is still suffering the aftershocks of the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington by supporters of Mr. Trump who tried to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election," the newspaper wrote.

The editorial board wrote that Stefanik knew what she was doing was wrong.

"The Harvard-educated Ms. Stefanik surely knows the sordid history and context of this. The idea of stoking racial, ethnic, and religious tribalism among voters dates back to this country’s earliest days. At various times, politicians have warned that Catholics, Jews, or Muslims were out to change the “culture,” or that Irish, Italian, Asian or eastern European immigrants would take the jobs — to 'replace' white, Protestant Americans," the editorial board explained. "If there’s anything that needs replacing in this country — and in the Republican party — it’s the hateful rhetoric that Ms. Stefanik and far too many of her colleagues so shamelessly spew."

Stefanik did not mention racism in her statement on the shooting, but did mention National Police Week.

Stefanik is not the only Republican member of Congress with history on the issue.

Also in September of 2021, after the Anti-Defamation League called on the network to fire Tucker Carlson for pushing the racist conspiracy theory, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) declared the ADL "a racist organization" and claimed Carlson "is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America."

OMG A CATHOLIC IS POTUS
Roger Stone elaborates on the 'satanic portal' he claims is visible above the White House

Bob Brigham
May 15, 2022

Roger Stone is due to appear in court in Florida on Friday.
 (AFP/File / SAUL LOEB)

Notorious GOP dirty trickster and longtime Donald Trump advisor Roger Stone believes there is a portal to hell that is visible above the White House.

In April, Right Wing Watch reported, "“Elijah Streams” is a daily program produced by the Elijah List, a website with a mission to “'ind and publish the most credible prophetic words possible.' Generally, the content produced by both the website and the livestream program consists of wild conspiracy theories, often about how God is supposedly working to save the United States through modern-day 'prophets' and former President Donald Trump."

Stone appeared on the program to discuss Satin's entryway.

"Stone asserted that a friend had sent him photos showing a 'satanic portal' appearing over the White House after President Joe Biden took office, and so he reached out to conspiracy theorist and 'prophet' Robin Bullock to arrange an appearance on 'Elijah Streams' so he could share the startling news and photos," the site reported.

In the video clip, Stone says he is not joking about there being a satanic portal over the White House.

"I just thought I was a political warrior. But this is no longer a war in the political realm, and I do know how it comes out because I know how the Bible comes out. I don’t know exactly what the plan is, but I do know that closing this portal is crucial to victory. I want others to talk about it. I want others to see it. … This is not some practical joke. This isn’t some conspiracy theory. I’m absolutely convinced that this is demonic," Stone said. "It is a satanic portal. It is access to this Earth by those who are evil, and only by closing it will we be successful in saving this nation under God.”

In a Friday evening speech in South Carolina, Stone returned to the topic and demanded the satanic portal be closed by prayer.

“Yes, ladies and gentleman, there is a satanic portal above the White House, you can see it day and night," he claimed. "It exists, it is real, and it must be closed, and it will be closed by prayer."


Activists push Louis DeJoy to hand over secret documents

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
May 14, 2022

Post Office Trucks (Shutterstock)

A pair of green groups on Thursday appealed the U.S. Postal Service's rejection of a Freedom of Information Act request seeking to uncover details about the mail agency's contract to purchase more than 160,000 new delivery trucks, 90% of which are expected to be gas-powered.

"As the USPS forges ahead with its ill-conceived and controversial decision to pollute communities across the nation instead of electrifying their delivery trucks, we demand to see the details surrounding the agency's decision," said Elena Saxonhouse, managing attorney with the Sierra Club, which joined Elders Climate Action in filing the administrative appeal.

"As USPS proceeds to implement the Oshkosh contract, it should not keep the proposal leading to that contract secret."

The groups are specifically pressing the Postal Service to release the proposal that Oshkosh Defense, a Wisconsin-based company, submitted before it won the lucrative 10-year deal to manufacture the new mail vehicles.

"The USPS must be more transparent about the Oshkosh proposal and contract," Saxonhouse said.

Spearheaded by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the Postal Service's decision to replace its aging and increasingly hazardous delivery fleet with mostly gas-powered trucks sparked outrage and pushback from climate organizations, Democratic lawmakers, and the Biden administration.

Last month, green groups joined forces with 16 state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit that aims to halt the Postal Service's agreement with Oshkosh, contending that the environmental impact analysis underpinning the deal is so shoddy that it violates the National Environmental Policy Act.

With their filing on Thursday, Sierra Club and Elders Climate Action alleged that the USPS is "improperly withholding records" related to the Oshkosh contract, which is worth billions of dollars.

"As USPS proceeds to implement the Oshkosh contract over the objections of the White House and many others," the filing states, "it should not keep the proposal leading to that contract secret."

Sierra Club and Elders Climate Action filed their initial FOIA request for records surrounding the agreement more than a year ago.

"The Postal Service's pass to pollute is reprehensible, and the public outcry around it should be evidence enough," Katherine García, director of Sierra Club's Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement Thursday. "The significance of the harm done to climate and public health by introducing a new fleet of gas-powered trucks for decades to come can't be overstated."

"We will use all lawful means necessary to stop this short-sighted decision," García vowed.

The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), is also pushing the Postal Service to furnish more information about its vehicle purchase, which could have major implications for President Joe Biden's effort to electrify the federal fleet.



In a letter to DeJoy dated Wednesday, Maloney voiced concern that "the Postal Service relied on flawed assumptions to justify the purchase of gas-powered trucks while underestimating the cost savings and environmental benefits from electric vehicles."

Demanding more transparency from the agency, Maloney requested that the Postal Service turn over "all documents and communications, including all analyses, related to the determination of a planned 90/10 split of gas-powered vehicles to electric vehicles."

Earlier this week, the oversight panel approved legislation that would toss out the Postal Service's environmental impact review of the new vehicle agreement and force the agency to conduct a new assessment.

"The Oversight Committee strongly supports the purchase of electric vehicles for the Postal Service's fleet, which will position the Postal Service as an environmental leader," Maloney wrote in her letter Wednesday. "An all-electric Postal Service fleet would reduce costs, increase reliability, and improve the Postal Service's ability to efficiently deliver mail and packages."

"Electrifying the next generation of Postal Service vehicles," the New York Democrat added, "is also essential to achieving the nation's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fighting climate change."
Laboratory mice are usually distressed and overweight, calling into question research findings
The Conversation
May 13, 2022

Mice (AFP Inti Ocon)

Over 120 million laboratory rats and mice are used worldwide each year. Many are used to study distressing conditions like cancer, arthritis and chronic pain, and nearly all spend their lives in small, empty box-like cages: a kind of permanent lockdown.

Our new analysis shows that this restrictive, artificial housing causes rats and mice to be chronically stressed, changing their biology. This raises worrying questions about their welfare — and about how well they represent typical human patients.

We identified this impact of housing by extracting data from over 200 studies that investigated the effects of cage design on health outcomes known to be stress-sensitive in humans, such as mortality rates and the severity of illnesses like cardiovascular disease, cancer and stroke.

The importance of housing

The studies we synthesized all compared conventional “shoeboxes” — the small, barren cages typical in labs — with better-resourced housing containing running wheels, nest boxes, additional space or other items that allow natural behaviours like digging, climbing, exploring and hiding. Across the board, the animals in conventional cages became sicker than ones in better-resourced housing. For example, if given cancer, they developed larger tumours.

Conventionally housed animals were also at greater risk of dying, their average lifespans reduced by about nine per cent. Scientists have known for decades that rats and mice want more comfort, exercise and stimulation than is normally provided, and that conventional cages therefore induce abnormal behaviour and anxiety.

But this is the first evidence that they also cause chronic distress severe enough to compromise animals’ health.


When mice are contained in stimulating environments, they are healthier.
(Aileen MacLellan), Author provided

Stressed-out findings

Our study – like many others before us — also found evidence of methodological problems and poor reporting of experimental details. For example, the rodents used were male-biased, with few studies using female animals.

Furthermore, despite investigating housing effects, two-thirds of the studies in our analysis did not fully describe animals’ living conditions. Our findings support many previous suggestions that rats and mice living in barren cages that lack stimulation may not be suitable models, for several reasons. Research animals are typically male, as well as often overweight, sometimes chronically cold and cognitively impaired.

We suspect that the reliance on “CRAMPED” animals — cold, rotund, abnormal, male-biased, enclosed and distressed — could help explain the current low success rates of biomedical research. There are already examples of research studies generating quite different conclusions depending on how their animals are held, and we now aim to assess the extent to which this occurs.

That housing is critical for rodent biology, yet often poorly described in papers, could also help explain the “replicability crisis”: that at least 50 per cent of preclinical research results cannot be replicated when other scientists re-run a study.


Housing is critical for the well-being of laboratory mice.

(Understanding Animal Research/Wikimedia Commons)


Canadian policies

Only one to two per cent of the world’s research animals live in Canada, so why should Canadians care? For one, because this still means 1.5 million to two million animals are being unintentionally stressed: something that anyone who cares about animals will find concerning. But if animal housing does indeed change research conclusions, then that has financial implications too. Canada spends about $4 billion a year on health research. Following U.S. estimates, if half of that is animal-based, of which only 50 per cent is reproducible, then Canada may be spending around $1 billion a year on non-replicable animal studies.

And even when studies are replicable, well under five per cent of them yield usable medical benefits for humans. This is a huge contrast with the Canadian public’s expectation that approximately 60 per cent of animal work leads to new human drugs.

Canadian standards require that mice be provided with nesting materials that can keep them warm, but is it time to improve them further?

The “shoeboxes” that rats and mice currently live in should stop being ignored as if a neutral backdrop, and instead be seen as a determinant of health: one we can modify, improve and study. Doing so would allow us to better model the diverse social determinants of human health, and improve animal well-being at the same time.

Georgia Mason, Professor, Integrative Biology, University of Guelph and Jessica Cait, Doctoral student, Integrative Biology, University of Guelph

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The sneaky way the right to protest is becoming imperiled


Mia Brett
May 14, 2022

Protest (Wade Jackman / Shutterstock.com)

The right to peaceably assemble and protest is dearly held in the American imagination dating back to the Boston Tea Party.

While the response to peaceful protests by non-white people and women was not always embraced at the time, the narratives of suffrage parades and Civil Rights marches have been embraced in American history as the “right” way to protest free of violence or incitement.

Despite the near-universal praise for peaceful protests of the past, when activists take these historical lessons to heart and protest current injustices, those in power must be reminded anew each time that peaceful protest is vital to American history and a thriving democracy.

And so we are once again left to educate Supreme Court justices and senators on the Bill of Rights and assure them that people holding signs outside their homes are not a threat, but simply exercising one of our most treasured freedoms – the freedom to tell a powerful person they’ve royally screwed up.

This past week protests erupted outside Justices Kavanaugh, Roberts and Alito’s homes to protest the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade after Justice Alito’s draft opinion was leaked for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.

The protests outside the Justices' homes, and the terrifying sidewalk chalk incident outside of Senator Collins’ home, have been peaceful. Yet many are clutching their pearls at the idea that someone could face protests at their private home.

It’s not clear why these protests are so offensive to people or why the private home of people questioning a constitutional right to privacy should be off limits.

Some have claimed these protests aren’t fair to their neighbors but the protests in front of Justice Kavanaugh’s home were organized by a neighbor and protestors felt pretty supported by Justice Alito’s neighbors with some even offering wine and cheese to a reporter covering them.

When asked about these protests, Senator Schumer shrugged them off and said such peaceful protests are “the American way.” He would know since he faces protests at his home in Brooklyn multiple times a week (without calling the police as far as I know).

The right of “freedom of assembly” is held in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, which protects freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The Supreme Court has also repeatedly protected this right in the face of government intrusion.

In De Jong v. Oregon in 1937, the Supreme Court said the state could not interfere in De Jong’s right to organize a protest against police brutality. This case was particularly important in that it emphasized a difference between “advocacy” and “incitement” in that advocacy for communist ideas did not necessarily incite violence to overthrow the government.

It struck down Oregon’s “criminal syndicalism” law, which prohibited advocacy of “any unlawful acts or methods as a means of accomplishing or effecting industrial or political change or revolution.”


In Edwards v. South Carolina in 1963, the Supreme Court overturned the convictions of students for supposedly “disturbing the peace” when they were protesting segregation. The majority opinion wrote that the students were exercising their First Amendment rights in the “most pristine form.”

Freedom of assembly clearly has limits with one built right into the language of the First Amendment in that the assembly must be “peaceable.”

Violent action, like speech that incites violence, is not protected.

While this is a reasonable limit, it also provides an unfortunate method of delegitimizing protest – those in power can claim protests are inciting violence or lawlessness.

In Justice Clark’s lone dissent in Edwards v. South Carolina, he employed the threat of violence to justify the police’s actions in arresting the peaceful protestors. Clark claimed the protestors were not engaging in a “passive demonstration” and that the police were preventing a possible riot.

The fear of possible violence supported laws passed after the Nat Turner rebellion in 1831 to prohibit the assembly of free Black people all over the south.

The majority of these assemblies were peaceful and often devoted to schooling or religious worship. But the threat of another rebellion was enough to justify outlawing this basic constitutionally protected freedom. Theodore Dwight Weld said these laws were indicative of “‘the right of peaceably assembling’ violently wrested” in 1836.

At the same time in the north, abolitionists, including free Black people and white women, were taking advantage of this constitutional right to hold meetings, conventions and give speeches.

While these abolitionist tactics set the stage for the suffrage movement and the Civil Rights movement, many at the time criticized an assembly of a mixed gender and interracial group.

The behavior of the abolitionists were criticized while mobs disrupted their meetings and speeches. At an 1835 meeting of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, the mayor burst in with his constables to demand the women go home rather than control the mob of people disrupting the meeting.

Racial justice protests in recent years have been delegitimized with claims of violence and looting even though data shows that 93 percent of such protests were completely peaceful.

While there have been no reports of violence as a result of abortion protests this week, even though Susan Collins called the police about sidewalk chalk, the Senate has still decided to pass a bill to increase security for Supreme Court justices.

While not a big deal on its face (who cares if they have security), the need for the bill implies a threat of violence that there is no evidence for.

Once again completely peaceful protests are being maligned with the mere possibility of future violence which would delegitimize their constitutional protection.

The governors of Maryland and Virginia are trying to stop the protests by demanding that the Department of Justice enforce a federal law that prohibits demonstrations intended to influence judges on decisions.

This is a particularly obnoxious attempt to stop the protests considering justices are clearly influenced by politics and conservative justices regularly give speeches at political gatherings. Clarence Thomas won't even recuse himself from January 6 cases despite his wife’s involvement.

It’s ridiculous to think any of these justices would be swayed by public opinion and enforcing this law to stop the current protests could set a dangerous precedent that limits constitutional rights if protesting anything related to a Supreme Court case.

The real history of protesting in the United States is that those in power are always threatened and seek to find ways to suppress protests, but the public imagination forgets those actions and fondly remembers successful protests as deeply American. Senators and justices concerned with their legacy might want to reread how much our history books love a good protest.

Mia Brett, PhD, is a legal historian. She lives with her gorgeous dog, Tchotchke. You can find her @queenmab87

Republicans want Supreme Court demonstrators arrested. Is that legal?
Jon Skolnik, Salon
May 14, 2022

Sen. Tom Cotton (R) - (Photo by Tasos Katopodis for AFP)

Hundreds of pro-choice demonstrators have gathered outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and John Roberts since a draft decision reversing Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision affirming America's constitutional right to abortion, leaked. The protests – featuring signs, chants, and candle-lit vigils – have remained peaceful demonstrations. But while no threats or acts of violence have been reported in connection to these demonstrations, Republicans are already tarring them as immoral, illegal, and even terroristic, going so far as to call on the Justice Department to prosecute individuals.

On Wednesday, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said that the protesters "should be arrested for protesting in the homes of judges, jurors and prosecutors."


"There is a federal law that prohibits the protesting of judges' homes," Cotton told NBC News. "Anybody protesting a judge's home should be arrested on the spot by federal law enforcement. If [protesters] want to raise a First Amendment defense, they are free to do so."

"The President may choose to characterize protests, riots, and incitements of violence as mere passion," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, echoed in a Wednesday letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. "But these attempts to influence and intimidate members of the federal judiciary are an affront to judicial independence."

The Republican governors of both Virginia and Maryland, where the three justices' homes are located, have also joined the chorus, urging Garland to "provide appropriate resources to safeguard the justices and enforce the law as it is written."

Even some Democrats came forward to condemn the demonstrations, including most notably Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who this week went so far as to call the protests "reprehensible."

"Stay away from the homes and families of elected officials and members of the court," Durbin told CNN. "You can express yourself, exercise your First Amendment rights, but to go after them at their homes, to do anything of a threatening nature, certainly anything violent, is absolutely reprehensible."


To make their case, Republican pundits and politicians have for the most part hung their hat on an esoteric legal statute, first enacted in 1950, that makes it illegal to picket or parade "in or near a building or residence occupied or used by [a] judge, juror, witness, or court officer" with "the intent of influencing [that] judge." The statute, 18 U.S. Code § 1507, is seemingly designed to protect members of the judiciary from protests that might obstruct justice through fear or intimidation and was first enacted as part of the "Internal Security Act of 1950," a McCarthy-era law that sought to address fears that communism was creeping into the judiciary.

Historically, the courts have hewed closely to laws that protect juries and justices from any outside political influences, as Law & Crime noted. Still, the legality of the protests remains something of an open question.

Alvin B. Tillery, Jr., an associate professor of political science at Northwestern University, told Salon that it's unlikely this week's demonstrations would be ruled illegal under 18 U.S. Code § 1507.

"I always have read [that statute] as 'impeding the officers ability to get to the court, or from the court to take part in proceedings' ... or terrorizing them with loudspeakers in front of their houses," he explained in an interview. "There's really no interpretation by which one could say that [the protests are] untoward or illegal in my understanding of the law and the Constitution and the history of protest in our country."

Anuj C. Desai, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin, expressed a little more doubt, arguing that the statute could be applied. But still, he added, very little case law in the U.S. has actually ventured into the territory of the situation at hand.

"I think if [the protesters] did get prosecuted, there would be reasonable arguments about the interpretation of the statute that have not played out in the courts."

One pertinent legal case, Desai said, is Cox v. Louisiana, a 1965 case in which the Supreme Court affirmed a state law that made picketing before a courthouse illegal. The case specifically centered on Benjamin Elton Cox, a civil rights activist who was convicted of disturbing the peace after organizing a thousands-strong march outside of a Baton Rouge courthouse. The facts around Cox v. Louisiana "were relatively sympathetic" for the protestors, DeSai said, "and the Supreme Court still said [Louisiana's statute] is carefully drawn."

Another past case that stands out, as The Washington Post notes, is Frisby v. Schultz, which stems from a 1988 picket organized in Brookfield, Wisconsin by two anti-abortion activists outside the home of an abortion doctor. Both activists claimed that a town ordinance banning the demonstration violated their First Amendment rights. Citing "a special benefit of the privacy all citizens enjoy within their own walls," the Supreme Court ultimately upheld the ordinance, arguing goals of the protests could be achieved through other means of communication.

"I do not believe that picketing for the sole purpose of imposing psychological harm on a family in the shelter of their home is constitutionally protected," wrote then-Justice John Paul Stevens, adding that there is "little justification for allowing them to remain in front of his home and repeat it over and over again simply to harm the doctor and his family."

Apart from local ordinances, like Wisconsin's, a judge might also consider state codes. This strategy could prove especially successful in Virginia and Maryland, both of whose criminal statutes put a strong emphasis on the preservation of the home as a place of tranquility.

"The practice of picketing before or about residences and dwelling places causes emotional disturbance and distress to the occupants," states the Maryland criminal code. "The purpose of this practice is to harass the occupants of the residences and dwelling places."

Virginia statutory law imposes a similar restriction: "Any person who shall engage in picketing before or about the residence or dwelling place of any individual, or who shall assemble with another person or persons in a manner which disrupts or threatens to disrupt any individual's right to tranquility in his home, shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor."


All a prosecutor would need to do, then, under Virginia or Maryland law is establish that the demonstrations disrupted the tranquility within Alito, Kavanaugh, or Roberts' homes.

But if prosecutors were to argue that the demonstrations violated 18 U.S. Code § 1507, they would have to establish that the protesters intended to distress these three justices – a task which would likely require a lot of heavy lifting, suggested Sheila Bedi, a clinical professor of law at Northwestern University.

"A prosecutor could look at things like notices of the protest, if there's any social media posts, but again, I think it's highly unlikely that anybody out there protesting really believes that Justice Alito is going to change his opinion as a result of the protests. And because of that, I think anybody who was charged under the statute would have a strong defense," Bedi said. "I think the reality is that the movement has known that this was a possibility for a long time because of the organizing that happened on the right. And this is about harnessing the political moment far more than it is about trying to influence the judges."


Desai likewise said that prosecutors would be bedeviled with "proof problems" relating to mens rea, or the state of mind protesters were in during the demonstrations. "This one just looks like it would be that aspect of it that would be hard to prove," Desai said.

Thus far, the Justice Department has not signaled that it will be pursuing legal action against any of the demonstrators, and there have been no arrests at this point. Department spokesperson Anthony Coley on Wednesday said that the agency "continues to be briefed on security matters related to the Supreme Court and Supreme Court justices.
Rick Scott's Medicare messiness
Joe Conason
May 14, 2022

Governor Rick Scott (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

In Washington, acrimonious public disagreements among congressional leaders of the same party are unusual, which was why reporters took note not long ago when Sen. Mitch McConnell publicly spanked Sen. Rick Scott for what he considered an act of monumental stupidity.

What infuriated the Senate minority leader, who yearns above all to become the majority leader again, was Scott's unveiling of a 60-page "plan" describing what the Republicans will do if and when their party regains the majority. As chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Scott's job is to ensure victory in the November midterm by doling out tens of millions to candidates. But McConnell saw Scott's plan as the equivalent of a loud emission of noxious gas: unpleasant, unhelpful and very much to be avoided. McConnell has steadfastly refused to state what Republicans would do if they win the Senate; now, the lunkhead Rick Scott has let the cat out of the bag.

Especially irksome to McConnell were two aspects of Scott's blueprint. "Let me tell you what would not be part of our agenda," snapped McConnell. "We will not have, as part of our agenda, a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years. That will not be part of the Republican Senate majority agenda."

Of course, McConnell just doesn't want to tell voters what his party will do, because their ideas are deeply unpopular and always get them in trouble, like when Newt Gingrich proposed privatizing Medicare and former President George W. Bush proposed privatizing Social Security.

Scott's scheme to raise income taxes on most households struck McConnell as politically insane, and so did the plan's endorsement of allowing "all federal legislation," including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, to simply expire within five years.

Scott, for his part, has portrayed himself as a "bold" visionary victimized by conventional thinkers. Polling, however, indicates that the Scott scheme is profoundly unpopular among all voters, including Republicans, with majorities north of 65% rejecting it. No more than 15% like it.

So, the Florida senator has simply lied since then. "No one that I know of wants to sunset Medicare or Social Security," he insists, although that's exactly what his plan urges.

Perhaps McConnell was too polite to mention the other utterly politically crazy aspect of the Scott proposal: namely, the likelihood that attacking Medicare and Medicaid will remind America about the massive health care fraud underlying Rick Scott's enormous personal fortune, estimated at $300 million.

Beginning in 1987, Scott founded and built Columbia/HCA, a hospital chain that included hundreds of health care providers across multiple states and engorged itself on billions in Medicare and Medicaid fees. Unfortunately, this lucrative business involved truly gigantic levels of fraud, which by early 1997 drew the attention of federal investigators. Columbia/HCA illegally scammed billions of dollars intended for patient care, perpetrating what remains the biggest fraud on government ever by any health care institution.

The company's board forced Scott to resign within months after the federal investigation became public. He pleaded ignorance, barely escaped indictment and walked away with vast wealth. He claims to have accepted "responsibility," although he consistently blamed others, adding piously that the experience "made me a better leader."

Somehow, Florida's voters narrowly elected him governor in 2010 and then to the U.S. Senate in 2018. The words of his 2010 primary opponent Bill McCollum, a former Navy prosecutor and Florida attorney general, still ring true. During the campaign McCollum denounced Scott as "the disgraced former CEO of Columbia/HCA who is inseparably associated with one of the most massive Medicare fraud schemes in American history."

Scott's sordid narrative raises an obvious question. How did this come to pass? We know that Florida voters have a habit of electing some truly awful politicians, and that Scott spent $60 million to win his first election. We know that Republican leaders in Washington have no problem with fraud or corruption, so long as it accrues to their own power. Just ask "Moscow Mitch," who was in the tank with Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch with Kentucky investments. We know that the Republican concern for ensuring the fairness and stability of our health care system is nil, given their long war against Medicare and, more recently, the Affordable Care Act. Now, they won't even act to reduce the cost of lifesaving insulin.

Voters should be aware that this corporate malefactor is in charge of handing out the big campaign bucks from the Senate Republican campaign — and that he aims to destroy the nation's most successful and popular domestic programs. Somebody better tell them before November. Buyer beware.

To find out more about Joe Conason and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com
WE HAVE SEX BY OURSELVES
‘Having sex with women is gay’: White nationalist praises involuntary celibacy

Bob Brigham
May 14, 2022

William Edwards/AFP.

White nationalist livestreamer Nick Fuentes leaned on his homophobia as an excuse for why the young man is apparently having difficulty attracting women.

Fuentes discussed being an incel, or involuntary celibate, on his video podcast.

Fuentes complained about "people calling me gay because I've never had a girlfriend."

"I think if anything — if anything — it makes me less gay. If anything, it makes me not gay — as opposed to less gay, not that there's any gay, but it makes me not gay," he argued.

Fuentes went on to describe how he has never been in a romantic relationship or had sex with a woman, but is "more heterosexual than anybody."

"If we're really being honest, never having a girlfriend, never having sex with a woman, really makes you more heterosexual, because honestly, dating women is gay," he claimed. "And if you want to know the truth, the only really straight, heterosexual position is to be an asexual incel."

The incel movement came to prominence in 2014 when Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others in a rampage in Isla Vista, California before committing suicide.

In 2018, Alek Minassian praised Rodger before allegedly murdering ten people in Toronto.

"The Incel Rebellion has already begun!" Minassian posted to Facebook. "All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!"

The movement was described by The New York Times in 2018 as "an online community of men who lament being 'involuntarily celibate' and dream of a social order granting them access to the women of their choice."

"Although attacks like the one in Toronto that killed 10 people are rare, the hate being spread online is leading increasingly to threats and calls for violence. More often than not, the threats target women," the newspaper explained. "The incel movement tells its adherents that society’s rules are engineered to unfairly deprive them of sex. That worldview lets them see themselves as both victims, made lonely by a vast conspiracy, and as superior, for their unique understanding of the truth."

There are political ramifications of the incel movement beyond violence.

"The alt-right, right-wing populism, men’s rights groups and a renewed white supremacist movement have capitalized on many white men’s feeling of loss in recent years. The groups vary in how they diagnose society’s ills and whom they blame, but they provide a sense of meaning and place for their followers," The Times explained. "And as different extremist groups connect online, they draw on one another’s membership bases, tactics and worldviews, allowing membership in one group to become a gateway to other extremist ideologies as well."

Watch the segment below or at this link.






SEE 
Watch Jim Acosta grill Deborah Birx over why she put up with Trump's 'bonkers' pandemic disinformation

Bob Brigham
May 14, 2022

Screengrab.

Former Trump administration coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx was the subject of an intense interview by CNN's Jim Acosta on Saturday about her new book Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It's Too Late.

Acosta played a clip of Trump's infamous statement suggesting injecting disinfectants into humans to kill the virus.

"I have to ask, what was going through your head there when you were listening to this?" Acosta asked. "And I know you're saying I got out on the road and talked to people and I was trying to do as much I could with all of these other experts, but at the end of the day you hear something that bonkers coming from the president of the United States, how could you have any faith in him whatsoever?"

"I talked to Trump advisers, people close to the then president at the time who thought it was bananas for him to talk about injecting yourself with disinfectant, and didn't you think what's wrong with this guy?"

Birx noted Trump's comments originated with a DHS study on sunlight as a disinfectant on surfaces to re-open playgrounds.

"Frankly, I was so taken aback in that moment," Birx said. "Obviously at the end of that, I said, not a treatment, contacted the CDC, FDA and got them to post that and within seconds of leaving the press briefing, made sure the senior advisers knew they needed to get to the president and tell him that this, as you said, was bonkers."

Acosta followed-up.

"But I have to come back to this question because to me, it puzzles me to this day. How could anybody in their right mind working with the president that the time think he was dealing with reality? If you were to go up to any person on the street and somebody was rambling about injecting themselves with disinfectant, you would question what is going on in their heads and here he's going to be the president for months and months and months dealing with pandemic," Acosta said.


"That's why I come back to this question and i don't mean to go off on you, I don't understand why you or some of the others in the administration didn't get out in front of the camera and say he's not dealing with reality anymore. He's lost it. This is bonkers," Acosta said.

Watch:
Dr Deborah Birx