Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
“One could make a libertarian case for government mask mandates during a pandemic, on the grounds that no one has an inherent right to cough deadly pathogens on another person. But that theoretical case has to be weighed against the reality of policing in America, where cops frequently resort to petty and overaggressive enforcement.”
“The ACLU’s complaint, filed on behalf of the Portland Mercury, eight journalists, and two observers working with the ACLU, alleges that federal agents stationed at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse have joined local police in violating those principles. On July 12, for instance, federal officers shot photographer Mathieu Lewis-Rolland 10 times with “impact munitions” that left “severe lacerations, welts, and bruises all over his upper body.” According to the Geneva Guidelines on Less-Lethal Weapons and Related Equipment in Law Enforcement, such projectiles “should generally only be used in direct fire against the lower body of a violent individual when a substantial risk exists of immediate serious injury to either a law enforcement official or a member of the public.”
The complaint alleges many similar abuses by Portland police, including the gratuitous use of tear gas and rubber bullets, unprovoked beatings, unlawful arrests, and other interference with activities protected by the First Amendment. The ACLU says the plaintiffs who have suffered such abuse were clearly identified as journalists or legal observers.
The lawsuit also complains that Portland police have routinely violated Simon’s June 9 order barring them from using tear gas at the protests except when “the lives or safety of the public or the police are at risk.” Simon said tear gas should not be used simply “to disperse crowds where there is no or little risk of injury.” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who is also the police commissioner, got a taste of his own medicine on Wednesday night, when he was gassed by federal officers while vainly trying to show protesters that he was united with them in opposing the Trump administration’s response to the demonstrations.
The protests in Portland have been happening every day since May 28, three days after a Minneapolis police officer suffocated George Floyd. The federal officers, who according to an internal memo have not been trained in controlling riots or mass demonstrations, were deployed by the Trump administration this month, ostensibly to protect the courthouse and other federal property. But as Nancy Rommelman notes, the federal presence seems to have inflamed the situation, provoking the vandalism and assaults on the courthouse that the administration now cites to justify its involvement.”
https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/31/21350072/tiktok-trump-bytedance-sell-us-china-microsoft-ban
“The federal government must play a critical role in providing resources and coordinating amongst states during a public health crisis. The CDC collects and publishes data on outbreaks, the FDA approves vaccines and treatments, the NIH directs and funds scientific research. The feds can allocate supplies, issue guidance for states and cities to follow, and provide money for state and local health departments to perform their vital duties.
What we are seeing from the Trump White House is zero interest in performing any of those roles. As early as April, according to the Times report, the administration was trying to figure out how to shirk its responsibilities, on the false belief that they had already done enough and the pandemic was starting to subside. Now cases, hospitalizations and deaths are rising again and the US has not built up the capacity to contain the virus — by testing and contact tracing — that other countries successfully have.”
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“The sidelining of the CDC is an indisputable fact at this point; the agency was barred for months from holding its own briefings and its guidelines have either been delayed or watered down over political concerns. The FDA has a mixed record in approving tests and treatments: Some are approved too quickly, others too slowly, experts say. And when the Trump administration is not outright blocking its government scientists from speaking to the press or issuing the guidance that state and local governments depend on, White House officials or the president himself have been blatantly undermining the public’s trust in their authority.”
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“Earlier in the crisis, the administration was reluctant to deploy the strategic national stockpile for critical supplies like masks and ventilators. White House adviser Jared Kushner even said the stockpile was not meant for states, as it historically has been understood to be. Instead, the states found themselves competing against each other for scarce supplies during an emergency.”
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“the funding for the CDC has been effectively flat for the last decade. State and local health agencies had to cut more than 50,000 jobs in the Great Recession, and most of those jobs have not been filled since. America’s chronic inability to invest in public health exacerbated the obesity and diabetes epidemics. That shortsightedness made the US more vulnerable to Covid-19, which is particularly hard on people with those chronic conditions.”
“My question was simple. Democrats don’t have a path to 60 seats in the Senate. So how will Biden keep his agenda from dying at the hands of the filibuster? Would he support filibuster reform, or elimination? Biden’s reply was his campaign in miniature, reflecting both the instincts that have made him successful and the caution that has frustrated many on the left.
“I think it’s going to depend on how obstreperous they” — meaning Republicans — “become, and if they become that way,” he replied. “I have not supported the elimination of the filibuster because it has been used as often to protect rights I care about as the other way around. But you’re going to have to take a look at it.”
That answer, which reflected a genuine shift in Biden’s rhetoric on the issue, made some headlines. But it wasn’t the end of Biden’s argument. “I’ll say something outrageous,” he continued. “I think I have a pretty good record of pulling together Democrats and Republicans.” He went on to say many Senate Republicans will feel “a bit liberated” by Trump’s defeat and may be ready to work with Democrats on issues like infrastructure and racial inequality.
“In my career, I have never expected a foreign leader or a member of Congress to appear in the second-edition Profiles in Courage,” Biden said. “But I’m fairly good at understanding the limitations for a senator or leader and helping them navigate around to what they want to do from what they’re having political trouble doing. I have been successful in helping my Republican friends find rationales to help me get what I’m pushing over the top.”
Tucked into this argument is Biden’s view of the Republican Party: He sees it not as a monolith but as a coalition. Some members of that coalition love Trump and will grieve his defeat. They’re not going to work with Biden, and he doesn’t expect to work with them. But some Senate Republicans dislike Trump, regret what their party has become, and are looking for redemption. What they need is a Democrat they can work with — a Democrat who doesn’t antagonize their voters and won’t rub their noses in their loss. What they need, Biden thinks, is Biden.”
“when people like Trump don’t wear masks and make wearing masks a political issue, their supporters are less likely to wear them. When the president says people wear masks as a way of showing their disapproval of him, “that’s a pretty clear signal, not just that he’s not modeling responsible behavior, but that he views it as a sign of disloyalty,” Wiley said. “That does definitely further politicize the decision to wear a mask or not.”
The effects of this politicization can be seen in recent polling on mask use. In a Pew poll conducted June 4 to 10, 76 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters said they wear a mask in stores all or most of the time. Just 53 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters said the same.”
https://www.vox.com/2020/7/23/21334598/israel-netanyahu-protests-coronavirus-economy-trial