Miriam,
On 9/11 my youngest daughter will turn 46. She's the Black Sheep of
our family, politically and Spiritually speaking. But in spite of our
open conversations and our disagreements on what the USA needs to do,
she has never doubted my love of this nation. Nor has she ever
doubted my love of her...or her 4 children. This is not true of
several list members over on the ACB Chat list.
I have never seen Americans so mentally lazy as we are today.
No questions asked, as long as what we hear is what we want to hear.
Donald Trump tells us that he heard of a group of big men all dressed
in black, boarding a plane and headed for trouble. No one asks him
how he knows that they are headed for trouble. He talks about the
Deep State and the Fake News that the Deep State is spreading. No one
asks who the Deep State is, or where their money comes from, since
Wall Street and the Military/Industrial Complex are all putting money
on his nose. And if we tell folks that we are raising questions and
showing concerns it is because we want a better America for our
children and grand children. Still, in my family, two out of three
isn't too bad. And like I say, our youngest still has open
conversations and still seeks our advice. But in the quiet of my room
I still wonder how a devout Christian woman can possibly vote for an
nonreligious, womanizing, racist, self serving, self indulgent bully.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/1/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
And I just went through this evening's Common Dreams and I thought about
sending more articles. Another black man was shot today, this time, in Los
Angeles. Someone recently appointed to the Post Office Board runs a
McConnell superpack, etc. It's one horror after another. There are more
predictions of a civil war. The other night, my poor TV watching younger
daughter said to me, "You sound like you're pro Russia!"
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, September 1, 2020 5:57 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A House committee released reports showing
that the president's public proclamations about the virus diverged from
findings of White House experts.
Good article. But those folks I try to get to read it have a bucket of
articles supporting what they want to believe.
The thing that really cranks my chain is that to the candidates this is all
a political game, all the name calling. But to so many voters, the
divisiveness creates such a chasm that they will never reunite.
On 9/1/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A House committee released reports showing that the president's public
proclamations about the virus diverged from findings of White House
experts.
White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx at a
roundtable, July 30, 2020, at American Red Cross-National
headquarters in Washington, D.C. (White House, Tia Dufour)
By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams
As President Donald Trump and administration officials have been
publicly downplaying the Covid-19 crisis and even predicting its
imminent disappearance over the past several months, the White House
task force formed to coordinate the federal pandemic response has
simultaneously been issuing dire assessments of the nation's fight
against the pandemic behind the scenes.
Those assessments were kept secret from the public until Monday, when
the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released a
trove of task force reports dated between June 23 and Aug. 9 that
highlight the extent to which Trump's public proclamations about the
Covid-19 crisis have diverged from the findings of experts operating
in the White House.
"The task force reports released today show the White House has known
since June that coronavirus cases were surging across the country and
many states were becoming dangerous 'red zones' where the virus was
spreading fast,"
said Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the subcommittee.
Rep. James Clyburn in 2012. (Lingjing Bao, Talk Media News Photo
Archives, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
"Rather than being straight with the American people and creating a
national plan to fix the problem," Clyburn continued, "the president
and his enablers kept these alarming reports private while publicly
downplaying the threat to millions of Americans."
Each of the eight task force reports released by the subcommittee on
Monday contain analyses and conclusions that run counter to the recent
public statements of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, the chair of
the White House Coronavirus Task Force. The White House sent its
reports privately to states but never made them available to the
public until the subcommittee requested (pdf) that Pence and task
force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx turn them over late last month.
President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, joined by
members of the Coronavirus Task Force at the White House, meet with
representatives from pharmaceutical companies, March 2, 2020. (White
House, Joyce N.
Boghosian)
In a report (pdf) dated July 19 - the same day Trump confidently
predicted that the coronavirus is "going to disappear" even as cases
surged across the country - the White House task force estimated that
20 states were in the "red zone," meaning more than 10 percent of new
Covid-19 tests were positive.
On June 29, just days after Pence declared that "all 50 states are
opening up safely and responsibly," the task force issued a private
assessement
(pdf) warning that "Mississippi reported an 117% increase in new cases
in the week ending June 26, resulting from increased community
transmission in multiple counties attributed to reduced social
distancing."
Chuck Idelson, communications senior strategist for National Nurses
United, tweeted that the newly released task force reports are
evidence of a "White House cover-up" and yet "another indication of
how Donald Trump could care less how many people die due to his
malfeasance on protecting lives from the
Covid-19 pandemic."
In a press release, the House coronavirus subcommittee listed several
other examples of the internal reports contradicting Trump's public
pronouncements on the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected more than
six million people in the U.S. and killed at least 183,000:
June 23 Report. On June 16, Pence claimed in an op-ed that "panic"
over a resurgence of coronavirus infections was "overblown." But on
June 23, the White House task force concluded that seven states were in
the "red zone,"
indicating the highest risk of coronavirus spread. The task force
found new cases were up 70 percent in Arizona, 72 percent in Texas, 87
percent in Florida, 93 percent in Oklahoma, and 134 percent in Idaho.
July 14 Report. On July 14, Trump stated, "No other country tests like
us.
In fact, I could say it's working too much. It's working too well.
We're doing testing and we're finding thousands and thousands of
cases." The same day, the task force concluded 19 states were in the
"red zone" and recommended they increase testing. The report noted,
"Disease trends are moving in the wrong direction in Georgia with
record numbers of new cases occurring in urban, suburban, and rural
areas. Testing positivity continues to increase. The number of tests
has increased, but more testing is needed."
July 26 Report.On July 21, Trump tweeted: "You will never hear this on
the Fake News concerning the China Virus, but by comparison to most
other countries, who are suffering greatly, we are doing very well -
and we have done things that few other countries could have done!" On
July 26, the task force reported 22 states were in the "red zone," and
stated: "Georgia is experiencing widespread community spread without
evidence of improvement.
Improvement will require much more aggressive mitigation efforts to
change the trajectory of the pandemic in Georgia."
2 Report.In a July 28 interview, Trump stated: "They are dying, that's
true.
And you have - it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing
everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it."
On Aug. 2, the task force concluded 23 states were in the "red zone."
The report noted, "Widespread transmission continues to occur from
rural to urban areas" in Louisiana; "Aggressive continuation of
mitigation efforts will be required" in South Carolina due to
"widespread community spread throughout the state in urban, periurban,
and rural areas"; and, "The virus is spreading deeper into the rural
areas" of Oklahoma.
9 Report.On Aug. 3, Trump tweeted: "Cases up because of BIG Testing!
Much of our Country is doing very well. Open the Schools!" On Aug. 9,
the task force reported that 48 states and the District of Columbia
were in either red or yellow zones. In Indiana, the Task Force warned:
"Cases continue at a high plateau in Indianapolis and mitigation
efforts, testing, and contact tracing need to be aggressively
implemented. Covid-19 is widespread throughout the state and
mitigation efforts should be statewide."
The subcommittee went on to warn that despite the continued spread of
Covid-19 around the U.S., the Trump administration has refused to
support private task force recommendations aimed at stemming the
pandemic.
"The task force reports released today recommend that state and local
governments implement heightened public health measures to combat the
spread of the virus - including requiring face masks in public,
closing bars and gyms, and strictly limiting gatherings on a statewide
basis in certain states," the subcommittee said. "Yet the Trump
administration has failed to publicly support most of the task force's
recommendations. For example, President Trump has refused to call for
a nationwide mask mandate."
In a statement, Clyburn said that "as a result of the president's
failures, more than 58,000 additional Americans have died since the
task force first started issuing private warnings."
"It is long past time that the administration finally implement a
national plan to contain this crisis, which is still killing hundreds
of Americans each day," Clyburn added.
This article is from Common Dreams.
