It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, May 02, 2020
Opinion: An American perspective on the Swedish coronavirus strategy Sweden's strategy has relied partly on voluntary measures. Photo: Ali Lorestani/TT
How do we measure the human and social costs of our countries' coronavirus strategies, ask Stockholm-based researchers Andrea M Voyer and Jason J Czarnezki.
As Americans living in Sweden, we have found it is impossible not to notice how President Trump, the media, and scientists have criticized Sweden's coronavirus response. Even though we are so early in the Covid-19 crisis, the desire to declare which countries have winning and losing strategies for protecting their citizens appears to be a common and powerful sentiment among experts and laypeople alike.
As American songwriter and Swedish nobel laureate Bob Dylan famously sang, "Don't criticize what you can't understand." These words caution us not to rush to judgment and to instead base our conclusions on careful and detailed analysis.
There remains a fundamental misunderstanding of the Swedish strategy to Covid-19, especially when compared to the United States. Exploring this misunderstanding illustrates why we should be careful in our comparisons of national responses to Covid-19.
Tensta, a suburb north of Stockholm, is one of the areas overrepresented in Sweden's infection statistics. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT
To get it out of the way, the primary misconception is that Sweden is taking an experimental approach by doing nothing and letting the virus spread rapidly in the desire to build immunity. Swedish officials have repeatedly stated that the country is not pursuing a herd immunity strategy. Sweden's goal now, like many other countries, is to flatten the curve (i.e. lowering the rate of infection so that the need for hospital beds and ICU units does not overwhelm the healthcare system).
However, while the goal is the same (again, to flatten the curve), the Swedish method of achieving this goal is clearly different from the countries that rely upon a "lockdown" strategy enforced by police and the military, or that have limited movement to "essential" workers.
Instead, while it has relied on some formal legal tools like bans and closures, Sweden's response has also relied upon voluntary compliance with the Public Health Authority's evolving set of "recommendations" that are not optional and individuals are obligated to follow, despite the lack of punishment or fines for any failure to follow them.
Events over 50 people have been banned. Swedes have been told to work from home if possible, avoid travel, limit their social contacts, and especially avoid having contact with people at greatest risk for coronavirus complications. Restaurants and bars remain open with new requirements to reduce the threat of Covid spread. In contrast to many countries, Sweden's preschools and grade schools also remain open while its high schools and universities have moved to distanced learning. Social distansering (social distancing) is the effective law of the land during this coronatiden (time of the coronavirus).
Two people relaxing on a bench in Stockholm. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT In our corner of busy and well-off central Stockholm, life has slowed to a calm and quiet pace; an endless parade of weekend afternoons. "No, it's not business as usual in Sweden," noted Swedish Health Minister Lena Hallengren.
The evidence shows that social distancing has already led to an early end to this year's flu season, and travel over the Easter holiday decreased significantly as requested by the Swedish Public Health Agency and King Carl XVI Gustaf who, in a prime time speech on the eve of what we Americans call "spring break," noted the significance of the request that people give up their holiday plans:
"For me, and for many people in our country, this is an important celebration and one we look forward to. It is a time when we are keen to travel and perhaps spend time with family and friends. Many go to church. But, this Easter, some of this will not be possible. We have to accept this. We have to rethink, prepare ourselves for staying home."
You cannot use the same approach when fighting a crisis in different landscapes. Under one view, the Swedish corona strategy began in 1946 with the rise of the Swedish social welfare state.
The United States government was built on the idea of separation – protecting private actors and entities from government authority and limiting state power over civil society. In contrast, the Swedish model emphasizes solidarity, commonality, and the construction of a state that encompassed all aspects of civic life–unions, the church, and economic interests were incorporated into the Swedish welfare state, which was dubbed "the people's home".
Expanding participation in the welfare state through employment, paying taxes, and using one's benefits is a stated goal of the Swedish system; a goal perhaps only shared in the US during the New Deal following the Great Depression. In pursuit of this goal, the Swedish welfare state ensures that residents have rights to healthcare, unemployment insurance, paid sick leave, and family leave. Swedes generally see "the economy as an engine of the welfare state". This is not the landscape in the US.
People outside a job centre in the US earlier in April. Photo: AP Photo/Nam Y Huh
That the same virus may have very different impacts in different social landscapes does not come as a surprise. For example, Sweden has a healthier population than the US based on obesity and life expectancy. Despite sharp contrasts, however, in both countries coronavirus is a mirror that reflects social inequalities and injustices by highlighting them with numbers in the form of race, class, and ethnic disparities in death rates, affected neighborhoods, jobless claims, and the ability to limit risk by working from home.
Swedish newspaper DN on Sunday had nine pages of obituaries, compared to a normal average of four. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT
How do we measure the human and social costs of any particular strategy to Covid-19?
Should it be measured by how fast we start national economies? Should we simply measure the death toll when some countries may be engaged in systematic undercounting of Covid deaths, while others evaluate each death as a potential Covid-19 death? Should we consider the long-term impacts of quarantine, lockdown, and decreased social relations on mental health and quality of life?
How do we value the lost educational attainment of students? What are the secondary effects that could arise as a result of the pandemic such as lack of access to other necessary medical care and increase in non-Covid deaths? What are the health impacts of long-term unemployment and economic decline?
National differences in risk assessment and rebuilding strategies do not just provide insight into how countries will be compared when coronatiden is done; they highlight the unique factors every country is considering in its response to Covid-19. There are no winners here.
Friends and family lose parents and grandparents. School children lose class time and even their teachers. High school and college students lose their final semester and coming-of-age rituals. Businesses lose customers. Workers lose jobs. Parents lose alone time. Healthcare workers lose their sense of security and sometimes their lives.
Again, there is no winning here; only the question of how we will take stock of our losses.
Andrea M Voyer is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Stockholm University.
Jason J Czarnezki is the Olof Palme Visiting Professor at Stockholm University (Sweden) and Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University (New York).
MUTATION TEMPERS ENTHUSIASM FOR A VACCINE Scientists Discover “Significant” Coronavirus Mutation That Could Threaten Vaccine Development
A coronavirus strain isolated in India carried a mutation that could threaten the race to develop a vaccine.
(ZH Opinion) — The prospect that SARS-CoV-2, the “novel” coronavirus responsible for causing the illness COVID-19, might be mutating and evolving as it spreads across the globe has been such a terrifying prospect for the scientific community, that medical experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci seem to avoid even engaging on the topic.
Asked about the possibility of viral mutation during one of the White House’s inaugural task force press briefings, Dr. Fauci assured the public that scientists have found “no evidence” of any concerning mutations, though the prospect that a mutated version of the virus might return during next year’s flu season has kept some virologists up at night with nightmares about needing to start the vaccine clock from zero.
The problem is that vaccines often aren’t as effective against viruses that mutate, like the flu does every season (that’s why you need to keep getting that flu shot year after year). And now, a new scientific paper that – like most of the coronavirus research being cited in the press – has yet to be peer reviewed claims to have identified a mutation in a sample of the virus collected in India that could create serious problems for researchers working on a vaccine.
“Monitoring the mutation dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 is critical for the development of effective approaches to contain the 21 pathogen. By analyzing 106 SARS-CoV-2 and 39 SARS genome sequences, we provided direct genetic evidence that 22 SARS-CoV-2 has a much lower mutation rate than SARS. Minimum Evolution phylogeny analysis revealed the putative original status of SARS-CoV-2 and the early-stage spread history. The discrepant phylogenies for the spike protein and it receptor binding domain proved a previously reported structural rearrangement prior to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. Despite that, we found the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 is particularly more conserved, we identified a mutation that leads to weaker receptor binding capability, which concerns a SARS-CoV-2 sample collected on 27th January 2020 from India. This represents the first report of a significant SARS-CoV-2 mutant, and raises the alarm that the ongoing vaccine development may become futile in future epidemic if more mutations were identified.”
The ominous discovery underscores how the virus’s destructive potential will likely be tied to the vagaries of viral evolution.
Fortunately, the team appeared to confirm an earlier finding by a team of researchers in Italy that the virus “has a much lower mutation rate and genetic diversity” than SARS, which means that a vaccine will likely be able to treat wide swaths of people before becoming ineffective as the virus changes and evolves.
However, this new finding shows that it’s not just the speed of the mutation that matters, but the specific nature of the mutations, when scientists are developing a vaccine.
Experts say that a vaccine could take up to two years to develop, and some city officials have warned that life likely won’t return completely back to normal until a vaccine is ready for mass production. But a mutation could throw a wrench in this process, transforming the process of developing a workable vaccine into a “cat and mouse” game – or at the very least lengthen the time it takes for the initial vaccine to be developed.
2.7 million people apply for Italy's basic income scheme
The Local news@thelocal.it 24 April 2019 A tax centre employee preparing paperwork for citizens income applications.
Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP
Italy's 'citizens' wage' basic income scheme has had fewer applications than expected, and there are smaller payouts than advertised for most.
900,000 families, or a total of 2.7 million people, have so far applied for the government scheme, said the head of Italian pensions and social security agency INPS Pasquale Tridico on Tuesday.
There have been fewer applications than expected, local media reports.
Before the scheme came into force, writes QuiFinanza, many had imagined there would be “a mad rush” to claim the payments. So far, this hasn't materialised.
Tridico described the number of applications, which can be made in tax offices and through the official website, as a "good result".
The basic income application form. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP
He added that not all of these applications have yet been processed, and the rejection rate stands at 25 percent.
Payments are available to low earners and indiividual jobseekers with an annual household income below €9,360 who sign a form declaring themselves immediately available for work.
The scheme was advertised as offering up to €780 to individual claimants. But in reality only one in five will get that amount.
Tridico said 70 percent of applicants will receive more than €300 euros, and the average payment approved is of €520 euros per family.
Some seven percent of the monthly payments approved so far have been as little as €40-50.
Payments of over €1,000 are available to families, depending on their circumstances, but only around five percent of applicants wiill receive this amount.
Ministers now believe the scheme will cost less than expected, and Tridico said that any savings will be used for other social security measures.
People in the streets of Bari, Puglia, a part of Italy which suffers high levels of poverty and unemployment. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP
Though the name means it's often mistaken for a form of universal basic income, the payment is in fact more like unemployment benefit schemes seen in many other European countries.
Successful applicants must have been in Italy for at least two years if they are Italian citizens, and ten years for foreign nationals.
Politicians had initially insisted the payment would not be available to non-Italian citizens and the anti-immigrant League has amended the policy to make it harder for non-EU citizens to claim.
The measure will help around 1.3 million of Italy's poorest families, according to the Italian statistics institute Istat, particularly in the more impoverished south of the country.
On average, low-income families will end up receiving around 5,000 euros more annually.
The money will be paid into bank accounts which can be accessed using a special debit card, which at the moment can be used only to buy food in certain shops.
In future, the cards can be used to pay for clothes or other necessities, the government said.
Any money left on the cards at the end of the month goes back to the state, an incentive to spend the full amount which M5S leader Luigi di Maio hopes will help boost the economy.
A previous "minimum income" unemployment scheme in Italy offered a far smaller amount of money and little help with finding work.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (L) and Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio punveiled the first basic income payment card in February. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP
UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME #UBI US Lawmakers Propose Monthly Payments of $2,000 Until Economic Crisis Ends
For millions of Americans, it is unclear when they will be able to get back to work.
CANADA HAS DONE THIS ALREADY FOR MOST CANADIANS NOT COLLECTING UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE; PAYMENTS WERE ISSUED FOR THE LAST TWO WEEKS OF MARCH AND INTO APRIL AND MAY (TMU) — Millions of people in the United States are now unemployed as a result of the ongoing pandemic and associated lockdowns, and the $1200 that is being sent out to some U.S. citizens as a part of the recent stimulus package can only go so far.
It is unclear when most people will be able to get back to work, and the stimulus payments were only sent out to workers who paid taxes, meaning that many people will be unable to pay for food and housing in the coming months.
A new plan proposed by two U.S. lawmakers this week in the House of Representatives calls for monthly payments of $2,000 to any U.S. citizen who is over the age of 16 and earns less than $130,000 per year. IT'S YOUR MONEY THEY ARE PAYING YOU AS A UBI YOU PRODUCE IT AS SURPLUS VALUE; ALSO KNOWN AS YOUR "PRODUCTIVITY" PER HOUR
The “Under the Emergency Money for the People Act,” would establish cash payments to a large portion of the country for at least six months. The payments are promised to continue until unemployment falls to pre-pandemic levels. The bill would also allow for payments of $500 per child for families, in addition to the $2,000 paid to adults.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Tim Ryan and Rep. Ro Khanna, and has 17 other cosponsors, all of them Democrats
“As millions of Americans file for unemployment week over week, we have to work quickly to patch the dam—and that means putting cash in the hands of hard-working families,” Ryan said in a press release.
“A one-time, $1,200 check isn’t going to cut it. Americans need sustained cash infusions for the duration of this crisis in order to come out on the other side alive, healthy, and ready to get back to work,” Khanna added.
The unprecedented shut down of the economy has deepened the poverty crisis in the country, and local food banks have seen an overwhelming increase in demand as people begin to worry about where their next meals are going to come from.
The previous stimulus package, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), has been criticized for giving insufficient support to low-wage earners. Some sources have even suggested that the bill was skewed to favor the wealthy.
Former U.S. Presidential candidate Andrew Yang who ran on a platform advocating Universal Basic Income (UBI) has said that a one-time payment is not enough and that people are going to need regular payments to make it through this difficult time. Yang says that the conditions experienced in the current pandemic have only strengthened the case for a UBI policy.
.@AndrewYang tells @GZEROMedia how the coronavirus crisis has made his UBI plan more urgent: "It's vital that we don't stop with one payment, because the fact is this $1,200 isn't going to last people very long." pic.twitter.com/zVxTy5p9kE — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 15, 2020
In Spain, officials are now seriously considering the implementation of a UBI program for the country’s poorest citizens. However, similar plans in other regions have not been accessible to the average person, especially undocumented workers and those who make a living in the informal economy.
Last Year, Italy began a very limited Universal Basic Income program, which in reality was more of an unemployment program that included some low wage workers. Unfortunately, many applications were rejected, and the qualifications excluded many of the people who needed it the most.
The US Alerted Israel and NATO to Coronavirus Outbreak in November: Report
The information reportedly came from U.S. intelligence monitoring of internal Chinese communications.
(CD) — An Israeli news report on Thursday revealed that the country was told in November by U.S. intelligence about the potential threat of the coronavirus—warnings that were also made to NATO and to the White House—a clear contradiction of Pentagon claims last week that no such report existed
The information reportedly came from U.S. intelligence monitoring of internal Chinese communications that revealed the potential danger of the outbreak before it was publicly known.
The Times of Israel reported that U.S. intelligence agencies were aware of the disease as early as the second week of November and shared the information with President Donald Trump’s White House, NATO, and Israel.
The U.S. administration did not deem the report “of interest” while Israeli officials discussed the possibility of the threat but ultimately took no action. What NATO’s response was to the report—if any—is thus far unknown.
Reporting on April 8 from ABC News revealed the existence of a November report by the National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) on the potential of a pandemic from the Wuhan outbreak.
According to ABC News:
“The report was the result of analysis of wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images. It raised alarms because an out-of-control disease would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia—forces that depend on the NCMI’s work. And it paints a picture of an American government that could have ramped up mitigation and containment efforts far earlier to prepare for a crisis poised to come home.”
The Pentagon told ABC News on April 8 that no such report from the NCMI existed, but Thursday’s news could appear to contradict that denial—though it is unclear if the two reports were the same or just contemporaneous.
The more powerful the government, the more skillful the wizards.
(CJ Opinion) — Bending reality is as simple as bending people’s perception of reality.
Throughout history, the mythology of civilizations around the world has been full of tales of men and women who mastered a mysterious, esoteric art which enabled them to use language in a way that bends reality to their will. They’ve been called wizards, witches, magicians, sorcerers, warlocks or enchanters, and the utterances they speak have been known as spells, magic, incantations, conjurations or enchantments, but the theme is always more or less the same: a member of a small elite group with the ability to voice special utterances which shape reality according to their will in a way that transcends the mundane mechanics of this world.
People have long held a general intuition that language holds a power far beyond what ordinary mortals use it for, especially since the advent of the written word which was long mysterious to all but the most elite classes in a given society. This intuition has been spot on, though perhaps not exactly in the way that ancient mythologies have envisioned.
When I say “Bending reality is as simple as bending people’s perception of reality,” I’m not making some sort of mystical or otherworldly claim; I’m just making a factual observation about the influence that narrative control has over events big and small which transpire in our world. Many people whose brains lack a healthy empathy center–i.e. sociopaths, psychopaths and other narcissists–already understand this on some level.
Humans are storytelling creatures; everything about our understanding of the world is made up of narratives that are made of language. “My name’s Alice and I was born in Detroit” is a narrative. “The universe is 13.772 billion years old” is a narrative. “If I drink that bottle of bleach I’ll probably die” is a narrative.
Narratives don’t need to be based on any objective fact at all. “I can fly by flapping my arms” is a narrative. “God says you should mail me ten percent of your income” is a narrative. “You live in a free democracy and everything you read in The New York Times is an accurate representation of reality” is a narrative.
Ordinary people use language and narratives to understand and connect with each other, so they tend to favor narratives that are true. People who lack healthy empathy centers have no interest in understanding or connecting beyond the extent to which it can get them what they want, so they’ll happily use lies, half-truths, distortions and lies by omission to obtain power, control, money, sex, or whatever it is they’re after. They have a completely different relationship with language and narrative than people with healthy empathy centers, and they learn to exploit that difference.
Anyone who has escaped from a relationship with a manipulator will have an experiential understanding of what I’m talking about here. You start off under the mistaken impression that the abusive partner uses language the same way you do, so you keep trying to use it to form an understanding and connection, but it’s like your words just get turned around and twisted and used against you in a way you can’t really keep up with. You are fed narratives about yourself which have no bearing on reality: “You’re crazy”, “You’re not remembering things correctly”, “You’re dishonest”, “I’m not abusing you, you’re abusing me”, etc. You are fed narratives about your abuser which have no bearing on reality: “I’m the only one who’ll ever love you”, “I’m too nice, that’s my problem”, “I’m the real victim here”, etc.
When you escape from such a relationship it’s common to have to spend months or years afterward sorting out fact from fiction, reality from narrative distortion. Depending on the skill of the manipulator and how long you were with them, they may have inserted some very disorienting beliefs deep inside your consciousness in order to control you, and they can take a lot of work to uproot.
Large-scale manipulation of entire populations works more or less the same way small-scale manipulation of individuals does, and unlike abusive partners who have to more or less figure out their infernal art on their own, there’s been a concerted collaborative effort to refine the science of propaganda for well over a century.
Our world is set up in a way that rewards sociopathy with wealth and power, which means adept manipulators tend to rise to the top in business, government, and media. This is no accident: while ordinary healthy people were concerning themselves with learning the truth and forming connections, those in our world with no interest in such things have been engineering power structures to reward a lack of empathy. People who are willing to manipulate narratives toward their advantage without regard for truth or justice rise above those who aren’t in such systems.
We now therefore find ourselves ruled by those who use language not to connect and understand, but to bend reality according to their will. We are ruled, in a sense, by wizards.
Vast troves of treasure are poured into controlling the dominant narratives in our society as they relate to those in power and what they want to achieve. The government is your friend. The news man is trustworthy. You live in a democracy and your countrymen can influence government policy and behavior by voting. That bad guy in that other country needs to be taken out. Those people telling you we’re lying are Russian propaganda and need to be censored.
The spells are cast, and before you know it the bombers are deployed, the sanctions are implemented, the dissident is censored, the journalist is jailed, the political leader has been installed, the consent has been manufactured. Reality has been bent by simply using language to bend people’s perception of reality.
The more powerful the government, the more skillful the wizards. Chomsky once said that “Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the US media.” Narrative spells are cooked up by wizards in opaque intelligence agencies and uncritically regurgitated in anonymously sourced news reports, and before you know it Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, Russia is attacking American democracy and China cooked up the coronavirus in a Wuhan laboratory, and as always please know that the status quo is normal and is totally working great for everyone.
The good news is that this kind of word magic is not only accessible to esoteric masters reciting incantations from the pages of a dusty grimoire (which interestingly has the same etymological root as the word “grammar”). Anyone who understands malleable nature of narrative is capable of fighting back against the enchantments which pull the wool over the eyes of the rank-and-file public day in and day out, and can advance narratives that are based on facts and reality rather than lies and distortions.
You can be a wizard too. You can use language to influence the world by pushing back against the narratives spouted by the establishment spellcasters.
The better you understand the nature of narrative and its all-pervading role in our consciousness and our society, the better a wizard you can be. Pay attention not just to the large-scale narratives believed by masses of people, but the small-scale narratives believed by yourself as well. Find out what subtle stories you’ve been holding onto even in the darkest recesses of your subconscious mind which have been bending your perception of reality in a way which does not benefit you. If you want to master narrative wizardry, you must first attain mastery over its role in your own operating system.
Put truth first always, in all ways. Set the intention to use your healthy empathy center to connect, to understand, and to be honest: with those to whom you speak, and with yourself.
The more lucid you become in this way, the more potent your linguistic magic will grow. Narrative control is too important to be left to the manipulators, propagandists, liars and sociopaths.
See through the illusion. Shine truth on the lies.
(CD) — VICE on Thursday published an “astounding” and “important” exclusive report on how Rick Snyder, a Republican who served as Michigan’s governor from 2011 to 2019, “knew about Flint’s toxic water—and lied about it.”
The report, based on a year-and-a-half investigation, comes almost six years after an emergency manager appointed by Snyder switched Flint’s water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River. Since that move on April 25, 2014, city residents have endured health consequences resulting from a deadly Legionella pneumophila bacterial outbreak and exposure to heavy metals and cancer-causing contaminants.
As Jordan Chariton and Jenn Dize reported Thursday:
Hundreds of confidential pages of documents obtained by VICE, along with emails and interviews, reveal a coordinated, five-year cover-up overseen by Snyder and his top officials to prevent news of Flint’s deadly water from going public—while there was still time to save lives—and then limit the damage after the crisis made global headlines.
All told, the waterborne bacterial disease may have killed at least 115 people in 2014 and 2015, and potentially more whose pneumonia wasn’t officially considered Legionnaires’ disease, the illness caused by Legionella. In addition to the outbreak, Flint’s water supply was contaminated with lead and other heavy metals, harmful bacteria, carcinogens, and other toxic components. This wreaked havoc on Flint residents, leaving them with a laundry list of illnesses, including kidney and liver problems, severe bone and muscle pain, gastrointestinal problems, loss of teeth, autoimmune diseases, neurological deficiencies, miscarriages, Parkinson’s disease, severe fatigue, seizures, and volatile mood disorders.
Beyond this, the long-term effects of heavy-metal poisoning takes years to develop, meaning many ill residents’ conditions are worsening as the years go on. Many have said they still rely on bottled water to avoid using the water that comes through their pipes and into their homes, schools, and businesses.
The report detailed actions of local and state officials both leading up to and during the public health crisis, which continues today. It is based on interviews and documents from a criminal investigation of Snyder’s administration that was led by special prosecutor Todd Flood from 2016 until last year, when newly elected state Attorney General Dana Nessel fired Flood and others.
The prosecution team led by Flood charged 15 Flint and Michigan officials with various crimes; seven of those cases were resolved with plea agreements. In January 2019, Nessel appointed Fadwa Hammoud as the state’s solicitor general and assigned her to take over the Flint criminal cases.
In June, the state’s prosecution team dismissed all pending criminal charges against the eight remaining defendants and launched a new probe based on concerns about the initial one. That decision, as Common Dreams reported, “elicited fresh concerns and demands for justice.”
VICE noted that with Flint about to enter its sixth year of the water crisis, “the clock for justice is also ticking.” Unless the Republican-controlled state legislature intervenes, the statute of limitations for filing new felony misconduct-in-office charges will run out next week. Chariton highlighted that detail in a series of tweets about the reporting Thursday.
the statute of limitations to press new felony misconduct in office charges related to the #FlintWaterCrisis runs out in 9 days (4/25/14 to 4/25/20). Some lawmakers have called to extend it from 6 years to 10 years…so far unsuccessfully. — Jordan (@JordanChariton) April 16, 2020
In August, a pair of state legislators from Flint proposed legislation to extend the statute of limitations from six years to 10. Karen Weaver, then-mayor of Flint, expressed support for the proposal, declaring at the time that “there is no time limit that can be put on the amount of suffering that we have faced, nor the amount of pain as a result of the loss of life.”
Weaver told VICE that the governor’s office repeatedly dangled “a pot of money for different things” and pressured her to publicly claim that the city’s water was safe. The outlet reported that “after repeated attempts by the Snyder administration to get Mayor Weaver to cooperate proved unsuccessful, the promised funding suddenly became unavailable.”
The outlet added:
Weaver was even pressed to say the water in Flint’s schools was safe to drink, according to former city government officials familiar with the administration’s overtures to Weaver. Weaver didn’t, and soon after, the remaining free water-bottle stations Flint residents relied on were prematurely shut down.
When the stations were shuttered, Weaver attempted to reopen them by turning to the $48.8 million rainy-day fund that was allocated to Flint from the state’s 2017-2018 budget. But when Weaver looked, the money was gone. The Snyder administration had been using these funds—meant to be under Flint’s control—to pay for the water stations.
In addition to detailing interactions between Weaver and the Snyder administration from the mayor’s perspective, the report highlighted a few findings from the Flint criminal investigation documents: Snyder was warned about the dangers of using the Flint River as a water source a year before the water switch even occurred. Snyder had knowledge of the Legionella outbreak in Flint as early as October 2014, six months after the water switch—and 16 months earlier than he claimed to have learned of the deadly outbreak in testimony under oath before Congress. Communication among Snyder, his top officials, and the state health department spiked in October 2014 around the same time state environmental and health officials traded emails and calls about the Legionella outbreak in Flint.
Snyder and his attorneys did not respond to VICE‘s requests for comment. Several other officials named in the exhaustive report also declined to respond or comment, with some of them citing the ongoing criminal investigation.
The reporting provoked a fresh wave of criticism directed at government officials involved in the crisis and was published as the international community contends with a global pandemic that has infected more than two million people since late last year.
Sharing Chariton and Dize’s Flint piece on Twitter Thursday, VICE senior editor Maxwell Strachan wrote that “coronavirus is the biggest story in the country, and rightfully so. But today, this enormous, exclusive, and damning story should be a very, very close second.”
Stay informed about our latest news and videos!
Subscribe to our newsletter: http://bit.ly/1x9CAfJ
We invite you to watch and enjoy another Song Around The World from our PFC 3 album, "Guantanamera". We started the song with Carlos Varela in Havana and it features over 75 Cuban musicians around the world, from Havana and Santiago to Miami, Barcelona and Tokyo. We recorded and produced this track with Jackson Browne, who explains that "traveling with Playing For Change across Cuba was one of the most rewarding and inspiring musical experiences of my life."
Download this song/video here: http://bit.ly/2mjYv0s
JOIN THE MOVEMENT
Join us as a YouTube Member here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn25...
GET SOCIAL
https://www.facebook.com/PlayingForCh...https://twitter.com/playing4changehttp://instagram.com/playing4change
Playing For Change (PFC) is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. The primary focus of PFC is to record and film musicians performing in their natural environments and combine their talents and cultural power in innovative videos called Songs Around The World. Creating these videos motivated PFC to form the Playing For Change Band—a tangible, traveling representation of its mission, featuring musicians met along their journey; and establish the Playing For Change Foundation—a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to building music and art schools for children around the world. Through these efforts, Playing For Change aims to create hope and inspiration for the future of our planet.
To learn more about the work of the PFC Foundation, visit http://www.playingforchange.org
As South Africa Stays Indoors Due to Lockdown, Lions Relax and Take Naps in the Roads
The big cats are normally only seen on the road by park rangers at night.
Photo credit: Section Ranger Richard Sowry, Kruger National Park
(TMU) — All over the world we’ve seen animals taking back their own habitats, from crocodiles on the beaches of southern Mexico to bobcats in Yosemite National Park, while humans shack up indoors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
And with people laying low and the animal kingdom enjoying a bit of a revival, it was only a matter of time before lions in South Africa had their day in the sun—literally, in this case.
In a new set of photos from South Africa’s Kruger National Park, a pride of lions can be seen peacefully lounging outside in the sun and shade on a road with seemingly no care in the world.
The uncanny photos were taken by park ranger Richard Sowry, who was out on routine patrol Wednesday before stumbling on the strange sight.
The big cats are normally only seen on the road by rangers at night, according to BBC.
Kruger visitors that tourists do not normally see. #SALockdown This lion pride are usually resident on Kempiana Contractual Park, an area Kruger tourists do not see. This afternoon they were lying on the tar road just outside of Orpen Rest Camp. 📸Section Ranger Richard Sowry pic.twitter.com/jFUBAWvmsA — Kruger National Park (@SANParksKNP) April 15, 2020
“This lion pride are usually resident on Kempiana Contractual Park, an area Kruger tourists do not see.
This afternoon they were lying on the tar road just outside of Orpen Rest Camp.”
Typically, the park would be abuzz with tourists taking self-guided tours, enjoying picnics, and enjoying attractions ranging from museums to wildlife safaris, and even golf.
“Lying on the road during the daytime is unusual because under normal circumstances there would be traffic and that pushes them into the bush.”
Yet the animals’ behavior isn’t necessarily abnormal despite the striking nature of the photos. Phaahla added:
“They just occupy places that they would normally shun when there are tourists.
People should remember that KNP is still a largely wild area and in the absence of humans, wildlife is more active.”
Earlier this week, similar shots of hyenas and lions hanging out at the Skukuza golf club located within the park were taken by the captain of the golf club, Jean Rossouw. The photos show lionesses drinking from the golf course’s ponds and chasing hyenas across the green.
Park officials also captured video of wild dogs playing in the area a week before. pic.twitter.com/hZSlUjMsgx — Kruger National Park (@SANParksKNP) April 10, 2020
The park has been closed to the public since March 25 as part of South Africa’s nationwide lockdown meant to curb the novel coronavirus pandemic.
In the meantime, various activities ranging from food delivery to fuel provision, security and emergency services, and wildlife crime operations are continuing, according to South African National Parks (SANParks).
In a statement, SANParks CEO Fundisile Mketeni said:
“We would like to thank the public for their on-going support in line with government’s strategy to mitigate the impact of COVID 19, we all have an obligation to flatten the curve.”
And while the park’s seeming conversion back into a land belonging to its creatures may seem idyllic, things haven’t been quite so wonderful for other parks in South Africa.
In the Northwest Province bordering Botswana, nine rhinos were poached from the period spanning just before the start of the lockdown on March 23 to April 8, reports the New York Times. The move came as wildlife conservation groups expressed fears that their funding would shrivel up due to the precipitous drop in tourism.
However, four suspected rhino poachers were arrested at Kruger National Park on March 21, right before the lockdown came into effect.
The country’s count of confirmed coronavirus cases has reached at least 2,500 with at least 34 people dying of CoViD-19, according to health authorities.
Attorney General Barr Blocks Release of 9/11 Documents Despite Promises to Victims’ Families
In a last minute court filing, U.S. officials demanded a federal judge block the release of files detailing Saudi connections to the 9/11 attacks.
Photo credit: Office of Public
(TMU) — On Monday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, and other senior officials called on a federal judge to prevent the disclosure of files related to the role of the government of Saudi Arabia in the September 11 attacks. The officials told the judge in the civil case that the release of the files would endanger national security.
The files are being sought by families of the 9/11 victims who have spent the last two decades attempting to uncover the truth about the attacks. The families filed a lawsuit in federal district court in New York in 2017 as part of their effort to uncover the role of the Saudi government. What is publicly known is that the alleged 9/11 hijackers had a relationship with Saudi government officials. As Pro Public reported, at the 2019 White House September 11 memorial, U.S. President Donald Trump promised the families he would help them uncover the truth about 9/11. He made similar promises while he was campaigning for president.
“He looked us in the eye on 9/11, he shook our hands in the White House and said, ‘I’m going to help you—it’s done’,” Brett Eagleson, a banker whose father was killed in the World Trade Center, told Pro Publica. “I think the 9/11 families have lost all hope that the president is going to step up and do the right thing. He’s too beholden to the Saudis.”
The Trump Administration stated that the national security threat was so great that even sharing the reasoning behind the request for secrecy could cause harm. According to Pro Publica, AG Barr told the court that public discussion of the issue “would reveal information that could cause the very harms my assertion of the state secrets privilege is intended to prevent.”
Pro Publica notes that four statements from FBI and Justice Department officials were also under seal and can not be seen by the public. Another five statements from FBI, Justice Department, and CIA officials were only seen by the judge and could not even be shared with the families’ lawyers. Steven Pounian, a lawyer for the families also suggested that “there must be some deep, dark secret that they’re still trying very hard to hide after almost 20 year,” and that it “might be a Saudi government secret.”
“But how can these be secrets that still need to be kept from the American people after all this time?” — Steven Pounian, attorney for the 9/11 victims families
The call for secrecy was questioned by three Senators who asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate why the FBI has refused to release information about Saudi connections. The information is being sought as part of a subpoena filed by the 9/11 families in 2018. Senators Charles Grassley of Iowa, Charles Schumer of New York, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut questioned the FBI’s decision to keep the files classified.
“The September 11 attacks represent a singular and defining tragedy in the history of our Nation. Nearly 20 years later, the 9/11 families and the American public still have not received the full and transparent accounting of the potential sources of support for those attacks to which they are entitled,” the senators wrote to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
Barr stated that Justice Department guidelines set down by the Obama administration in 2009 prevented the government from asserting a state secrets claim as a method of concealing illegal behavior or embarrassing actions. Barr told the judge that he believed these guidelines had been met. Unfortunately, in the absence of any further information the American public is resigned to trusting Barr, Trump, and anonymous FBI and CIA agents.
Unfortunately, William Barr does not have a record of trustworthy actions. As far back as 1989 Barr discussed his belief that the FBI could legally abduct people in foreign countries without the consent of the foreign government. The opinion was revealed in a leaked legal memo authored by Barr while he was serving as the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Barr chose to withhold the full memo and asked the public to trust his conclusion.
In the weeks after 9/11, when the U.S. government began to seize powers to roundup foreign citizens, spy on Americans, and torture anyone accused of terrorism, Newsweek noted that Barr had played a role in paving the way for such actions:
“Now the Bush administration and Congress seemed primed to do just about anything to foil future attacks. Justice Department lawyers have been told to take a fresh look at “everything,” one official said. Perhaps the most startling idea under examination would be a new presidential order authorizing secret military tribunals to try accused terrorists. The idea first occurred to former attorney general William Barr after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Barr, at the time chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, got the idea after learning that his office was used during World War II to try—in secret—German saboteurs who were later hanged. The idea was rejected, but it’s being revived on the theory that terrorists are de facto military “combatants” who don’t deserve the full run of constitutional rights.”
More recently, Barr has been involved in perpetuating the myth that encryption is a tool that only terrorists and dangerous criminals use and launching an “orwellian pre-crime program.” In October 2019, MintPress News reported that Barr had recently laid the groundwork for this new program:
“Indeed, since becoming Attorney General under President Trump, Barr has spearheaded numerous efforts to this end, including pushing for a government backdoor into consumer apps or devices that utilize encryption and for a dramatic increase of long-standing yet controversial warrantless electronic surveillance programs.
On July 23rd, Barr gave the keynote address at the 2019 International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) and mainly focused on the need for consumer electronic products and applications that use encryption to offer a “backdoor” for the government, specifically law enforcement, in order to obtain access to encrypted communications as a matter of public safety.”
Barr would go on to issue a memorandum to all U.S. attorneys, law enforcement agencies, and high level Justice Department officials calling for the implementation of a new “national disruption and early engagement program” aimed at detecting potential mass shooters before they commit any crime. This memo called for the DOJ and FBI to “refine our ability to identify, assess and engage potential mass shooters before they strike.” Barr called for the pre-crime program to be implemented in early 2020.
The blocking of state secrets related to the September 11 attacks is just the latest in a long line of cover ups and corrupt practices by Attorney General William Barr.
