Do Congressional Republicans Want Your Family To Starve? Probably Not-- But They Just Do Not Care

The House passed a pandemic relief package 4 months ago. There is no doubt it would pass the Senate as well because all the Democrats and several Republicans would vote for it. But McConnell and his GOP cronies have refused to allow it to come to a vote. Is there a solution? Absolutely-- defeat McConnell and every Republican senator running for reelection in November. (Also every Republican candidate running for an open Senate seat.) In fact Merav Ben-David is running for the open Wyoming Senate seat against a complete corporate shill. "Americans need relief now," she told me. "To paraphrase FDR, if your neighbor’s house is on fire, you don’t haggle over the price of a hose. Right now, our country is on fire-- our leaders should not be haggling over the price of putting it out. My opponent has vowed to stand shoulder to shoulder with Donald Trump, to blindly follow his ignorance and malice. We cannot afford to elect someone who so clearly values political convenience over the public good."

Yesterday, reporting for the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Duehren wrote that "A second round of $1,200 stimulus checks to help Americans weather the pandemic once seemed all but ensured, with both Democrats and Republicans supporting the provision in early coronavirus relief negotiations in July. Likewise, many Americans were confident that Congress would approve a new round of federal jobless aid, even if it might be less than the $600 a week that ran out at the end of that month. But with bipartisan talks now stalled, a second direct check is one of several policy proposals left in the lurch. Jobless aid is stuck as well... No deal would mean no new check and no enhanced unemployment benefits from Congress."

In the $2.2 trillion Cares Act passed in March and signed into law by President Trump, Congress approved sending a $1,200 check to many Americans. The payments began phasing out at adjusted gross income above $75,000 for individuals, $112,500 for heads of households (often single parents) and $150,000 for married couples. The bill provided $500 for each dependent as well.

In a bill that passed the House in May, Democrats proposed another $1,200 check for adults and $1,200 for dependents, with a maximum of $6,000 sent to each household. A $1 trillion proposal released by Senate Republicans in July largely replicated the first round of stimulus checks. Both the Republican and Democratic plans had income caps.

But in the abbreviated proposal that Senate Republicans released this week, the party cut out the second round of direct checks. Many Republicans have opposed new major spending efforts, and the party slimmed down its plan to about $300 billion in new spending to unify the party.

Earlier aid helped stabilize the economy. The first stimulus check and the now-expired expanded unemployment aid program caused household incomes to grow rather than decline in the spring, allowing many Americans to continue paying for rent and other essentials even as much of the economy shut down, according to Commerce Department data.

The unemployment rate dropped to 8.4% in August, down from a peak of nearly 15% in April-- but still well above pre-pandemic lows. Most economists in September’s Wall Street Journal monthly survey said they expect the absence of federal jobless benefits to dent consumer spending in the months ahead.

“The recovery remains uneven, interrupted by outbreaks of the virus and now missing stimulus support,” Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University and a former chief economist at Bank of America, said in the survey.

Many Republicans now see the economy recovering on its own without additional stimulus, and they question whether further deficit spending on aid is wise.

“The farther you go on this, as employment re-engages, more people are getting back to work,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK). “I don’t know of anyone that turns away a free check in the mail, but every single check that’s sent out is money taken from your next-door neighbor or from the future.”

Others argued for continued support.

“That is the thing about a crisis like this: If you invest early on, you can mitigate the cost not only to individual people and the economy and to health, but you can also help the recovery happen more quickly,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). “The longer we go in delaying payments to people, the more we push people into desperate crises.”

Whether the federal unemployment supplement that sustained many Americans this spring and summer will continue is uncertain, though both parties have sought to continue it in some form.

This is a key issue in the campaigns of most of the candidates Blue America has endorsed. For example, Audrey Denney, up in the rural northeast corner of California, is running for a seat held by Trump puppet Doug LaMalfa. Yesterday she told me that her "remote-rural district was already one of the poorest places in the state before the pandemic happened. People are struggling trying to paying rent and put food on their families’ tables. Additionally, this week we experienced the fastest moving and 10th worst fire in California history. People are desperate. A second round of stimulus checks would be a great start-- but it is not nearly enough to get people back on their feet."

Far to the south of Audrey's district, in Riverside County, southeast of Los Angeles Liam O'Mara is running for a seat held by another Trumpist puppet. "Calvert," he told me, "has been bragging lately about supporting the CARES act, which brought much-needed funds into the area. But he is mysteriously silent on his votes against oversight in the bill, which allowed Trump cronies and the filthy rich to rob the public again, and mostly silent on his vote against the HEROES act, and continued opposition to additional support for working families. He seems perfectly happy to funnel our cash to big corporations, but does he care that people in the 42nd have lost jobs and homes? Does he care about the bills piling up and the bankruptcies which will ruin so many lives? I can't believe that he does-- not with his voting record and character. Ken shows up when a donor pays him to do it. Other than that, he spends no time in the district and ignores most of his constituents and their concerns. Keeping the real economy afloat means supporting families and small businesses. I see no evidence that he even understands this."

"I know what it's like to be without a job, without healthcare, trying to raise a family through this pandemic, western New York progressive Nate McMurray told me. "My multimillionaire opponent's family fired me, and at the height of the pandemic they fired an additional 96% of their workforce. Everyday American families see the edge of the cliff barreling toward us, while Trump and the GOP have refused to lift a finger to prevent this crisis. I've long supported policies like UBI, Medicare for All, and taxing the ultra wealthy to avoid the systemic inequalities that this pandemic has exacerbated. We need to defeat Chris Jacobs in my district, defeat Trump sycophants like Mitch McConnell across the country, and defeat Trump as the ringleader of this nightmare."

Texan Julie Oliver has a similar situation-- with an ever richer incumbent. "I've been hungry. I know what it's like to go without groceries and not have a place to go home to. Texans who have been financially impacted by COVID-19 through no fault of their own should not have to face the threat of losing their housing or not being able to feed their families. They need that extra $600 in unemployment benefits to help keep families afloat, and keep money flowing through our local communities. It's the right thing to do and makes the best economic sense for this country. There’s no evidence to the claim that the $600 UI extension is slowing the economy, and economists have proven that $600 a week in extra unemployment aid did not deter people from seeking work. Yet 'zero' was the number that Roger Williams said he would support in Congress for struggling Texans, even as he, a multi-millionaire, took $1 - 2 million in bailouts for his personal car dealership.

Georgette Gomez is the president of the San Diego City Council. Her opponent for the open congressional seat is heiress and perennial candidate Sara Jacobs who is benefitting from the companies that are receiving corporate welfare that should be going to working families. She's been endorsed by the Wall Street owned-and-operated New Dem caucus, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Gomez told me that "Emerging from this pandemic and helping families recover demands urgent investments from Congress and leaders with the will to get the job done. I’ve been fighting for working people my whole life-- I'm ready to keep fighting for workers as the Representative for CA-53."

When Should the War Against Biden's Neoliberalism Begin?

The plague doctor cometh, and he don't cometh cheap.

by Thomas Neuburger

A re-elected Trump will almost certainly be welcomed with a General Strike.
—Yours truly

Cynic that I am, I'm convinced that Biden will betray us the minute he's in office. OK, not the exact minute, but pretty soon thereafter.

His current campaign promises include...

• No ban on fracking.
• No Medicare for All.
• No withdrawal from Afghanistan (or anywhere else we're "at war")
• A "baby steps" Green New Deal that won't hurt his Big Oil donors.
• A return to austerity spending as soon as Covid allows.

...and a host of other travesties, indignities and tortures he plans to force on the plebs from his "practical, centrist" seat at the peak of power.

But the worst of his policies, one that's likely to come the soonest, involves Covid and its soon-to-be-produced vaccine.

In a moral world, the vaccine would be made free to the citizens of any nation with access to it. In a practical world, it would be given to everyone with an arm or hip capable of receiving the needle. How else can the virus be removed from the population, except by universal vaccination? This, for example, was how polio was wiped out — for years, every school child in America of a certain age was vaccinated for free.

The neoliberal world, however — the world of government-protected and government-supplied profit — is not a moral world. It's not even a practical world. Which means that biotech companies will vie with each other to soak the population of as many dollars as they can and withhold the vaccine from any who can't pay.

Gilead Floats a "Deal"

Consider this from Matt Taibbi, in a piece titled, "Big Pharma’s Covid-19 Profiteers: How the race to develop treatments and a vaccine will create a historic windfall for the industry — and everyone else will pay the price."

Daniel O'Day, the CEO of Gilead, makers of remdesivir, an already existing drug with promising Covid treatment possibilities, recently played a one-two game with what it thinks the drug's new pricing ought to be, assuming the approvals come in as expected.

Note the twisted logic he uses to get to his implied price — $48,000 per dose:

In a breezy open letter, Daniel O’Day explained how much his company planned on charging for a course of remdesivir, one of many possible treatments for Covid-19. “In the weeks since we learned of remdesivir’s potential against Covid-19, one topic has attracted more speculation than any other: what price we might set for the medicine,” O’Day wrote, before plunging into a masterpiece of corporate doublespeak.

The CEO noted a study by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health, showing that Covid-19 patients taking remdesivir recovered after 11 days, compared with 15 days for placebo takers. In the U.S., he wrote, “earlier hospital discharge would result in hospital savings of approximately $12,000 per patient.”

The hilarious implication seemed to be that by shortening hospital stays by four days on average, remdesivir was worth $48,000 a dose.

One, Gilead could charge $48,000 for the drug. But two, Gilead was inclined to be generous: "Although 'we can see the value that remdesivir provides' — i.e., we could have charged $48,000 per dose — Day wrote, 'we have decided to price remdesivir well below this value' ... a measly $3,120 per patient."

A great many drugs, new and repurposed, are swirling in the Covid world, some as treatments and some as vaccines. One of the latter, in fact, is Russian (perish the thought!) and according to The Lancet, the premier British medical journal, it may be promising.

If the vaccine proves effective, the Russians, just to piss us off, might even decide to make it available for free. But I don't think any Western-produced vaccine, or treatment, will be offered so generously.

Covid Treatments and Vaccines Should Be Free to the User

Yet it's impossible, on moral or practical grounds, to make the case, that during a global pandemic (a) the price should be a multiple of the cost of manufacture; and (b) any user should spend a single dollar to receive it.

This is a perfect place for government intervention into the "free" market (it's really a captive market) on behalf of the citizens it claims to represent and protect. First, any Covid vaccine or treatment should cost a fraction, not a multiple, above the cost of manufacture — i.e., profits should be kept low. And second, government should be the purchaser of these drugs, not the patient, and should provide them to patients for free.

At least one vaccine of decent effectiveness is likely to come, at latest, sometime next year, perhaps less than six months into Biden's first year in office. Treatments may come sooner than that. (By the way, there's a very promising avenue of treatment — with existing drugs and technology — outlined here.)

What Will a President Biden Do?

With hope in sight, what will a President Biden do? Will he serve his donors and his policy prejudices, as he always has, or serve the people who, however reluctantly, elected him?

Here's one answer. If the former — if he gouges the patient public to enrich drug companies like Gilead — or if he gouges the government and pays "full price" for drugs the government charges patients nothing for — he should be made to feel an amount of pain equivalent to that which he inflicts.

And he should be made to feel this pain even during his so-called "honeymoon," even while he's still celebrating his victory over the monster he replaced, if that's what he deserves.

To be more blunt: If on Day One a President Joe Biden enacts policies that in any way hamper full and complete relief from the suffering this nation has already endured under Trump, he should be welcomed as a second-term Trump will almost certainly be welcomed.

A re-elected Trump will almost certainly be welcomed with a General Strike. A Biden who refuses to heal the public for free should see the same welcome.

When should the war against Biden's neoliberal policies begin? On the first betrayal.
  

Austerity Happens-- Conservatives Make Sure Of It With Every Vote They Take

Unlike the federal government, states can't print money. And many are constitutionally unable to run deficits. You know what they means in the Trump Recession/Depression? Cutbacks inlays that will hurt the already hard-hit working class. And The GOP is doing all it can to make matters worse. It's their thing-- and the media calls it a political deadlock, as Mary Walsh did in a NY Times article yesterday. One of America's biggest statewide socialist programs is in Alaska-- the Permanent Fund (established in 1976), which basically pays every citizen in the state a Basic Income through a divided on oil revenues. In 2015, the dividend was $2,072. Since Trump became president it's been going down-- $1,606 in 2019, $992 this year and is estimated to be going to zero by October. Walsh didn't mention it and wrote that "Alaska chopped resources for public broadcasting. New York City gutted a nascent composting program that could have kept tons of food waste out of landfills. New Jersey postponed property-tax relief payments. Prisoners in Florida will continue to swelter in their cells, because plans to air-condition its prisons are on hold. Many states have already cut planned raises for teachers. And that’s just the start."

I doubt many conservatives are going to lose their seats because Florida prison inmates don't get A/C or because of a composting program or a cutback in public broadcasting. But watch what happens in Alaska when people there figure out they're not getting their dividend checks. And, wrote Walsh. "Across the nation, states and cities have made an array of fiscal maneuvers to stay solvent and are planning more in case Congress can’t agree on a fiscal relief package after the August recess. House Democrats included nearly $1 billion in state and local aid in the relief bill they passed in May, but the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has said he doesn’t want to hand out a 'blank check' to pay for what he considers fiscal mismanagement, including the enormous public-pension obligations some states have accrued. There has been little movement in that stalemate lately.

Economists warn that further state spending reductions could prolong the downturn by shaking the confidence of residents, whose day-to-day lives depend heavily on state and local services.

“People look to government as their backstop when things are completely falling apart,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “If they feel like there’s no support there, they lose faith and they run for the bunker and pull back on everything.”

States and municipalities are also crucial employers and spenders that keep the economy moving. “We run the risk of descending into a dark vicious cycle,” Mr. Zandi said.

State and local governments administer most of America’s programs for education, public safety, health care and unemployment insurance. They also provide a wide variety of smaller services, such as outdoor recreational facilities or highway rest stops, that improve the quality of life. The costs of many of these programs have spiraled because of the pandemic, which has at the same time caused an economic slump that has driven down tax revenues.

Collectively, state governments will have budget shortfalls of $312 billion through the summer of 2022, according to a review by Moody’s Analytics. When local governments are factored in, the shortfall rises to $500 billion. That estimate assumes the pandemic doesn’t get worse.

When the lockdowns started in March, state and local governments quickly cut 1.3 million jobs. But then they paused, waiting to see if revenue would continue to fall-- and what Washington might do to replace it.

Lawmakers soon passed the $2 trillion CARES Act, which authorized one-time stimulus payments and temporary supplemental unemployment payments, which buoyed consumer spending and helped states’ sales-tax revenues. The law also allocated about $150 billion to states for expenses directly attributable to the pandemic, in areas ranging from education and health care to the operation of nearly empty airports. But the rules for what expenses that money can cover have kept much of it from being spent, according to the Treasury Department. New York State, for example, has been sent about $2.9 billion that it can’t put toward other uses.

Although states’ budget challenges would be eased if Congress relaxed those rules, that still wouldn’t be enough to fill the gap.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has warned that without further relief New York will cut $8.2 billion in grants to local governments, a blow he said had “no precedent in modern times.” The cuts would hit “nearly every activity funded by state government,” including special education, pediatric health care, substance abuse programs, property-tax relief and mass transit, he said.

No two states have tackled the budget crunch the same way. Several have torn up their annual budgets and are doling out money to programs one or two months at a time. Some have earmarked cuts but not yet carried them out.

Delaware has decided to issue less debt, and a bond issue that was supposed to fund clean-water projects has been shelved. In California, people who go to court without lawyers-- an estimated 4.3 million a year-- will continue to deal with confusion because the state has scrapped plans for “court navigators” to shepherd them through. Nevada said it would forgo the penalties and interest it normally charged tax cheats, hoping to coax them and their unpaid millions up from underground. In Maryland, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will lose a $1.6 million state subsidy.

Some states are trying to save cash on their pension contributions. Kentucky has delayed its payments to the state workers’ pension fund, already one of the most poorly funded in the country. Colorado and Maryland are among the states planning to reduce their contributions. Some, like California and New Jersey, had recently committed to raising their contributions to cover past underpayments-- but now can’t afford to do so.

Without further federal aid, some of the biggest cuts will be to education and health care. California says it will send its school districts $12.5 billion in I.O.U.s if Washington doesn’t step in, and it will be on the schools to figure out how to fund themselves in the meantime. Preschool programs are being cut in many states; so are free-tuition college programs. State university systems are slated to lose billions of dollars in state funding, although some states say the cuts will be quickly reversed if enough federal money arrives.

And many states say they will reduce their outlays for Medicaid. The health care program for low-income people has been growing rapidly in the pandemic as millions have lost their jobs along with their employee health benefits. States are struggling to find a way to pay for all these additional people. Some, like Colorado, are increasing the co-payments that their Medicaid patients must pay for doctor visits, pharmaceuticals and medical transport.

State officials say they have little choice but to keep cutting if more aid doesn’t arrive. All but one state, Vermont, are legally bound to balance their budgets every year, and Vermont does so voluntarily. They can’t borrow their way out of a cash crunch, the way Washington can, because they have laws limiting how much bond debt they can carry. If they veer too close to the limit, lenders will start demanding higher interest rates and the rating agencies will downgrade them.

In May, the Federal Reserve offered to buy states’ bonds if terms in the municipal bond market become onerous. But most states think the Fed loans cost too much and have to be paid back too quickly to be of much help. So far only one state, Illinois, and one state authority, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, have taken the Fed up on its offer. New Jersey and Hawaii are exploring deals, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks the states’ fiscal plans as they develop.

Public pensions have been a central point of contention in discussions over additional federal aid.

In April, with economic activity at low ebb, Illinois lawmakers sent a detailed wish list to their state’s congressional delegation that included $10 billion for the coming year’s pension contribution. They also asked for $9.6 billion for Illinois’s cities, which needed the money to “fund retirement systems for the police, firefighters and other first responders providing emergency services during this Covid-19 outbreak.”

The request drew scorn in Washington.

On a syndicated radio show, Mr. McConnell said Senate Republicans would “certainly insist that anything we’d borrow to send down to the states is not spent on solving problems that they created for themselves over the years with their pension programs.”

Glenn Hubbard, an economic conservative who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, said he agreed that federal money should not be used to prop up failing state pension funds. But he acknowledged that the states’ cash needs were becoming urgent and said there wasn’t time for a complete overhaul of troubled state pension systems.

For the sake of speed, Mr. Hubbard said in an interview, Congress could send the states money with a simple, and probably breakable, rule that it not be used to reduce taxes or bail out pensions. Public pension reform, which would be grueling, could come later.

Or, as Mr. Hubbard said in an online seminar hosted by the Economic Policy Institute last month, “if an overweight person comes to the E.R. with a heart attack, you treat the heart attack before you lecture him or her about weight.”

I spoke with some of the state legislative candidates Blue America has endorsed about how this catastrophe is playing out in their own districts and in their own campaigns. Southwest Milwaukee County challenger Jacob Malinowski, a working class candidate through and through, told me that "In Wisconsin, we’re seeing the direct effects of economic mismanagement for partisan gain. The dark store loophole-- which means mega-corporations avoid paying their fair share in property taxes-- bankrupts municipalities and leads to higher taxes for working people. Wisconsin is now one of only a few states which still hasn’t accepted the free federal Medicaid expansion dollars. This means that all of our healthcare costs go up-- just for some sort of twisted, ideological political victory. And finally, throughout most of 2020, our state legislature hasn’t even shown up for work. No debates, no bills-- but still their full salary. Enough is enough, and I’m running because we need more advocates for working and middle class families-- not wealthy billionaires."

Tulare Democrat Drew Phelps is running for a seat against Devon Mathis, arguably the worst member of the California state legislature. He told this morning that he's thankful that "California didn't have to layoff public employees this year," but was horrified that "most public workers will be seeing a pay cut of 9.23% under agreements made for next year's budget. This would be reversed if the federal government stepped in to help restore the state budget. That 9.23% represents $2.8 billion per year that is being taken away from public employees and will also no doubt represent a reduction in spending by those families that are impacted, further hurting California's economy. It was a necessary step for a state that is bound by the constitution to pass a balanced budget, but incredibly short sighted from a federal government not bound by the same constraints in a time of crisis. Some California lawmakers made written requests that their salary be cut to match the sacrifice being made by so many California state employees, but my opponent Assemblymember Devon Mathis made no such gesture."

Aside from Lee Carter, also from Virginia, Delegate Patrick Hope is the only one of our state legislative candidates who is an incumbent. He speaks from experience when he tells us that "Trump and McConnell’s failure to lead during the pandemic means that states, such as Virginia, have to cut basic core services in order to balance their budgets. Virginia is projecting a whopping $2.7 billion shortfall over the next two years leaving legislators no other choice but to make deep cuts in Medicaid programs, public education, and infrastructure. That means government support won’t be there for low-income families at a time when they need it the most. What’s just as bad is states are on their own securing virus testing and PPP, just when schools are preparing to open all over the country. The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress have proven themselves to be unreliable when it comes to securing the basic necessities for states to fight the pandemic. At a time when the need for federal financial support to the states is at its greatest, we get nothing but broken promises. And who’s left holding the bag: the people."

Deb Lavender is a member of the Missouri House-- currently running for the state Senate-- so, like Patrick Hope, she speaks from experience about the conservative embrace of austerity-- or at least for austerity for the working class. She told me that "Over the last decade Missouri has cut taxes for large corporations, costing the state $750 million in yearly revenue. This cut in revenue to our state has forced budget cuts at a time when the economy was doing well, from 2015 thru 2019. And this is after austerity measures were taken following the recession in 2008 – 2012. Missouri has the lowest gas tax in the nation so there is no surprise when we have over 900 bridges on the critical and emergency repair list. Last year we borrowed $300 million to fix these bridges during an economic boom because we refused to raise gasoline taxes and continue to cut corporate taxes. Missouri has one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the nation, and we are one of two states that have not capitalized on the Wayfair sales tax. As a state, Missouri has not been investing in our citizens for close to a decade. We fail to fund public education, higher education, and we have not expanded Medicaid expansion so our low-income friends, neighbors and families to have to affordable healthcare. Due to corporate budget cuts we have had austere budgets for the last 5 years and then the coronavirus hit. Since March our Governor has cut over $800 Million from our budget while continuing to mismanage our tax dollars. We have billions of federal dollars from the CARES Act still not being spent, and the latest development from Missouri is our Governor's $829,000 in payments to a Virginia-based consulting company to help us spend our CARES act money. Tens of thousands of Missourians are still unemployed, over 1 million people in the state don’t have access to broadband, schools and hospitals don't have enough PPE, and the state has not taken measures to ensure everyone can safely vote in November, and we are sending our money to Virginia? Whether for good or bad, state government plays a powerful role in the lives of every person living in our state. Missouri needs to start investing in the people of the state to becomes a viable state where people want to live."

Down in Miami-Dade, Bob Lynch, is running hard for a swing district seat currently held by rot-gut Republican Daniel Perez (HD-116). Yesterday, he told me that "One of the things that attracts people like Donald Trump and Kayleigh McEnany to the state of Florida is the fact that we have no state income tax. When the good times roll, this is a big selling point. However, Ron DeSantis has torpedoed our state’s economy due to ignoring the public health component of the pandemic. All he cares about is letting his donors open up their businesses regardless of how unsafe it is. The 2021 State Budget that was jammed through at the last minute will be something that historians will study due to the brazen criminal negligence involved. The revenue assumptions in the budget were pre-COVID, despite it being passed in the middle of the pandemic. I have long since tangled with Moody’s on their rose colored glasses loss estimates, dating back to my time as a Subprime Mortgage trader. They estimate that Florida will have an $8-10 billion dollar budget shortfall. I have, and will always take the over on any Moody’s report. Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, and Marco Rubio have been adamant about the federal government not bailing out reckless states. Florida is the most reckless state. The essential services that will have to be cut simply to balance the budget is something that Paul Ryan and Rand Paul’s wet dreams are made of. This is an impending disaster, which was the intention.  Sabotage the government and then blame the government. I’m getting sick of watching this movie over and over."

Anselm Weber is also running for the state House, but west of where Bob is running, in Lee County. He wrote this morning that "the GOP has been immensely successful for the last 40+ years gaslighting the public into believing policies that directly benefit the public are somehow bad. A lot of their narrative successes could have been avoided if the Democrats put effort into defending our social safety net and policy prescriptions like single-payer healthcare and a living wage. If the Democrats put opposition up in my state of Florida things might actually be better for the working class. Right now millions of Floridians are without healthcare, affordable housing or a living wage. This has only gotten demonstrably worse with the GOP's austerity-driven approach to COVID-19 with a jaw dropping 51% of renters at risk for eviction. On top of that, 1.7 million people still have not had their unemployment claims processed! The need to rebuild our social safety net here is my top priority if elected. No longer should we accept the pay-as-you-go logic of the far right. Not when millions of people are ending up in poverty because of COVID-19 and soon to be climate change. Now is the time to call out the right's trash narrative gatekeeping the public goods we all need."

Joshua Hicks is running for state House clear on the other end of the state-- in Nassau and Duval counties. "State aid is vitally important to Northeast Florida and across the country. My opponent has joined his Republican colleagues in blocking Medicaid expansion in Florida-- funding which would place 800,000 low-income and needy Floridians on healthcare. In times of an economic crisis, like we are going through now due to the pandemic, we need leaders who will place the people and their communities first-- not political talking points or economic policies that only look out for themselves and not the people they represent. We need leaders who will support local communities and who will stand up for our workers, fighting for pay increases and expanded benefits. While Republicans in Washington stand up against supporting states in need, their colleagues in state legislatures are supporting their blockade-- at the cost of hard working Americans. That's simply wrong policy. As a state legislator, I'll fight for our workers, for the low-and-middle class families in need, for our small businesses, and will look for ways to lift up, not put down, our local communities. If we need help from the federal government, I'll happily work to accept it if it helps my district-- regardless of the consequences. That's leadership. The election this November gives us a real chance to change the direction of this nation-- from the bottom on up."

Rich Members Of Congress Make Economic Policy That Assists Their Own Class-- At The Expense Of Normal People

Congress is filled with multimillionaires representing the interests of their own class. This past April, OpenSectrets.org entitled a news piece by Karl Evers-Hillstrom Majority of lawmakers in 116th Congress are millionaires. It skewers policy drastically in favor of the status quo and in favor of the rich and against the working class. And not all the multimillionaires are Republicans-- not by a long-shot. The 3 wealthiest members are all reactionary Republican enemies of working families-- Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX). But the wealthiest Democrat in Congress, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), also represents his class interests and has run-up one of the most conservative voting records of any Democrat in the Senate.

"While some lawmakers are still paying off student loans," wrote Evers-Hillstrom, "others are paying off their third or fourth mortgage. The group of wealthiest members includes career politicians who boosted their portfolios over decades in Congress and recently elected lawmakers." Before Georgia Governor Brian Kemp rewarded top GOP (and Brian Kemp) campaign contributor Kelly Loeffler (with half a billion dollars and crooked as the day is long) with her very own Senate seat, the richest member of the Senate was another egregious crook, Medicare swindler Rick Scott (R-FL).

Among the wealthiest members of the House are half a dozen being challenged by working class champions this cycle:

• Mike Siegel vs Michael McCaul (R-TX)- $113 million
• Andy Ruff vs Trey Hollingsworth (R-IN)- $50.1 million
• Julie Oliver vs Roger Williams (R-TX)- $27.7 million
• Shahid Buttar vs Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)- $16.0 million
• Jon Hoadley vs Fred Upton (R-MI)- $11.0 million
• Liam O'Mara vs Crooked Ken Calvert (R-CA)- $8.0 million

Why is this important? Alan Grayson was probably the most effective member of the House when it came to bolstering the interests of the working class, but he was one of the wealthiest members of Congress, although coming from a solid working class background in the Bronx. Same with Ro Khanna and Judy Chu today-- very wealthy but dedicated to the class they came from, not to the donor class. Yesterday, Megan Cassella, writing for Politico noted that "The path toward economic recovery in the U.S. has become sharply divided, with wealthier Americans earning and saving at record levels while the poorest struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table. The result is a splintered economic picture characterized by high highs-- the stock market has hit record levels-- and incongruous low lows: Nearly 30 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits, and the jobless rate stands at 8.4 percent. And that dichotomy, economists fear, could obscure the need for an additional economic stimulus that most say is sorely needed."

Obscure? Sure, in the eyes of people who want that need obscured, like Mitch McConnell, an arch-crook and arch-reactionary worth an estimated $40 million. McConnell has been blocking a package of pandemic assistance for several months because it assists working families too much and too directly without doing enough, in his mind, for very wealthy GOP supporters. "The trend is on track to exacerbate dramatic wealth and income gaps in the U.S., where divides are already wider than any other nation in the G-7, a group of major developed countries," wrote Cassella. "Spiraling inequality can also contribute to political and financial instability, fuel social unrest and extend any economic recession. The growing divide could also have damaging implications for President Donald Trump's reelection bid. Economic downturns historically have been harmful if not fatal for incumbent presidents, and Trump's base of working-class, blue-collar voters in the Midwest are among the demographics hurting the most. The White House has worked to highlight a rapid economic recovery as a primary reason to reelect the president, but his support on the issue is slipping: Nearly 3 in 5 people say the economy is on the wrong track, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found."

"The economic inequities that began before the downturn have only worsened under this failed presidency," Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Friday. "No one thought they'd lose their job for good or see small businesses shut down en masse. But that kind of recovery requires leadership-- leadership we didn't have, and still don't have."

Recent economic data and surveys have laid bare the growing divide. Americans saved a stunning $3.2 trillion in July, the same month that more than 1 in 7 households with children told the U.S. Census Bureau they sometimes or often didn’t have enough food. More than a quarter of adults surveyed have reported paying down debt faster than usual, according to a new AP-NORC poll, while the same proportion said they have been unable to make rent or mortgage payments or pay a bill.

And while the employment rate for high-wage workers has almost entirely recovered-- by mid-July it was down just 1 percent from January-- it remains down 15.4 percent for low-wage workers, according to Harvard’s Opportunity Insights economic tracker.

...Trump and his allies have seized on the strength of the stock market and positive growth in areas like manufacturing and retail sales as evidence of what they have been calling a "V-shaped recovery": a sharp drop-off followed by rapid growth.

But economists say that argument fails to see the larger picture, one where roughly a million laid-off workers are filing for unemployment benefits each week, millions more have seen their pay and hours cut, and permanent job losses are rising. The economy gained 1.4 million jobs in August, the Labor Department reported Friday, but the pace of job growth has slowed at a time when less than half of the jobs lost earlier this year have been recovered.





Some economists have begun to refer to the recovery as "K-shaped," because while some households and communities have mostly recovered, others are continuing to struggle-- or even seeing their situation deteriorate further.

“If you just look at the top of the K, it’s a V-- but you can’t just look at what’s above water,” said Claudia Sahm, director of macroeconomic policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. “There could be a whole iceberg underneath it that you’re going to plow into.”

The burden is falling heavily on the poorest Americans, who are more likely to be out of work and less likely to have savings to lean on to weather the crisis. While recessions are always hardest on the poor, the coronavirus downturn has amplified those effects because shutdowns and widespread closures have wiped out low-wage jobs in industries like leisure and hospitality.

"The burden is falling heavily on the poorest Americans," is a funny way of putting it. Is God making that happen? The luck of the draw? Immutable economic forces? Or is it policy directed by the members of Congress representing their own class? I asked Mike Siegel, a former teacher, union organizer and civil rights attorney, currently running for a central Texas House seat occupied by one of the wealthiest men in Congress, Michael McCaul (who married into a radio broadcasting fortune). "Everyone witnessed McCaul and this administration pull trillions of dollars out of thin air to backstop Wall Street and big corporations while they threw Main Street under the bus, said Mike this morning. "That's because their real constituency is the donors who fund their elections, plus opportunities for self enrichment. The wealthy donor class got their bailout and continue to do quite well while tens of millions of hard-working Americans are on the verge of homelessness with an active eviction crisis. This is not new for McCaul considering over 70% of his campaign is funded by Corporate PACs and special interests, and his personal wealth has increased over 940% while in public office. He voted to deregulate big banks while he had millions invested in companies like CitiGroup, Bank of America, and J.P. Morgan Chase. He refused to increase consumer credit card protections while heavily invested in Visa. He repeatedly worked to deregulate the securities industry, a top campaign donor group that he has millions invested in. We have to stop this kind of corruption by voting them out."

Shahid Buttar is running for a House seat occupied by the only Democrat on the list-- and he's holding her accountable in a way she never had been before. "My opponent in the general election, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi," he told me this morning, "has relentlessly promoted her class interests while abandoning the needs of Americans struggling to put food on the table and stay in their homes. She opposes universal healthcare, rent and mortgage cancellation, the proposed federal jobs guarantee, and a long overdue increase in the minimum wage. Meanwhile, Pelosi outrageously prioritized tax breaks averaging $1.6 million each for over 43,000 tax filers who claim more than $1 million a year in annual income. Our federal spending priorities are backwards. And corporate Democrats-- led by Pelosi-- are a big part of the problem." If you like what Buttar has to say, please consider contributing to his campaign here.

Cops Addicted to Violence: According to Whistleblower, LA Sheriff's Deputy Killed Teen to Join Sheriff Department Murder Gang

Tattoo alleged to identify a murderous band of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who many in the community "see as a criminal gang within law enforcement" (source; photo: Sweeney Firm / Glickman & Glickman)

by Thomas Neuburger

It's not news that a subset of almost every police and sheriff's department in the country is not just racist, but more than that, addicted to violence against the marginalized, the "safely murderable," whichever group of citizens in their jurisdiction happens to fit that description. They murder the "safely murderable."

Yes, black citizens are killed at a greater rate proportionately than any other racial demographic. According to noted scholar Adolph Reed, Jr., "the evidence of gross racial disparity is clear: among victims of homicide by police blacks are represented at twice their rate of the population; whites are killed at somewhat less than theirs," while Hispanics are killed "at a rate roughly equivalent to their incidence in the general population."

Yet this statistic belies larger realities. For example, according to Dr. Reed, "ninety-five percent of police killings occurred in neighborhoods with median family income of less than $100,00." In addition, "the states with the highest rates of police homicide per million of population are among the whitest in the country: New Mexico averages 6.71 police killings per million; Alaska ... South Dakota ... Arizona ... Wyoming ... and Colorado".

All of this leads writer Benjamin Mateus to conclude (emphasis added):

Police violence is focused overwhelmingly on men lowest on the socio-economic ladder: in rural areas outside the South, predominately white men; in the Southwest, disproportionately Hispanic men; in mid-size and major cities, disproportionately black men. Significantly, in the rural South, where the population is racially mixed, white men and black men are killed by police at nearly identical rates. What unites these victims of police violence is not their race, but their class status (as well as, of course, their gender)

In major cities, cops kill black men; the Southwest, they kill Hispanic men; in the rural Midwest and West, they kill poor white men. The poor, the male, the least-cared-about in a given geographic setting — these are the most easily killed, the "safely murderable" — and these are the victims of most police violence in the U.S.

Andres Guardado, Shot in the Back Five Times by LA Sheriff's Deputy

Consider the case of 18-year-old Andres Guardado, a citizen of Compton, a city south of Los Angeles and policed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD). The Hispanic population of Compton is 65%.

According to local news reports, "Guardado was shot in the back five times by Deputy Miguel Vega on June 18 after authorities say they spotted him with a gun and he ran away. ... Family and others who knew Guardado said the teen was working as a security guard for a nearby auto body shop at the time but the LASD said he was not licensed to work as a security guard, was not wearing an identifiable uniform, and was carrying an unregistered weapon."

As another local report puts it: "Officers allegedly saw him with a gun; Guardado then ran away and officers chased him into an alley in the back of a building where he was killed, Capt. Kent Wegener, head of the homicide bureau, said in a press conference in June. While a 40-caliber semiautomatic pistol that hadn't been fired was found at the scene, authorities are unable to clarify whether Guardado ever aimed the gun at deputies."

 Andres Guardado in 2007 (source)

An LA County sheriff's deputy shot Guardado in the back five times after seeing him run away holding a gun that wasn't aimed at them and wasn't ever fired. He was chased into an alley and shot — I repeat, in the back — and killed by Deputy Miguel Vega, who is presumably also Hispanic.

Clearly Guardado is a person that fits the "safely murderable" profile — poor (he worked as an unregistered security guard in a neighborhood body shop in Compton is not a middle-class job); Hispanic in a majority-Hispanic city; male; and young.

Chasing Ink

So why was Guardado killed? It turns out that this is no ordinary police crime, not some random cop-on-the-loose violence, but a killing that acted, according to the sworn testimony of Sheriff's Department whistleblower Austreberto (Art) Gonzalez, like a gang initiation along the lines of the familiar mafia lines: "Kill someone to show us what you're made of."

This time, however, the gang was a subgroup within the LASD — a subset of sheriff's deputies — who called themselves the "Executioners." Membership in this "gang" (I think it's safe to call them that) even sport a gang tattoo, pictured above. According to this LA Times report, that "clique" that "dominates every aspect of life" at the Compton station.

Spectrum News obtained a copy of Gonzales' sworn testimony on this and other gangs within police departments and wrote this in a report of the Guardado shooting:

The deputy who shot and killed 18-year-old Andres Guardado outside a car shop in Gardena was a prospective member of a violent clique inside the Compton Sheriff’s station, according to the sworn testimony of a whistleblower. ...

More than a dozen deputies have matching tattoos and belong to a violent clique called the Executioners at the station, according to Deputy Art Gonzalez, who filed a whistleblower complaint regarding the Executioners in June.

“I now call them a gang because that’s what gangs do – they beat up other people,” Gonzalez said.

His sworn testimony obtained by Spectrum News is for a separate excessive force case filed against Los Angeles County. The deputies in the lawsuit are accused of “chasing ink” – slang for trying to impress the Executioners to join their group.

“There are parties after shootings. They call them ‘998 parties.’ Some people say it’s to celebrate the deputy is alive. Others say it’s to celebrate that they’re going to be ‘inking’ somebody.”

Gonzalez, testifying for nearly six hours under oath, said the existence of the clique was “common knowledge” at the station and that the gang’s so-called shot caller controlled the work schedule and their actions boosted arrest numbers.

It's pretty clear from the name how you get into a gang of sheriff's deputies called the "Executioners" — you need a killing to your name. Gonzales, from the LA Times report noted above:

“Nearly all the CPT [Compton] Deputies who have been involved in high-profile shootings and out-of-policy beatings at CPT in recent years have been ‘inked’ members of The Executioners,” the claim alleges. “‘Inking’ refers to the act of each newly made member of The Executioners receiving a matching tattoo indicating membership in the organization. …

Members become inked as ‘Executioners’ after executing members of the public, or otherwise committing acts of violence in furtherance of the gang.”

Spectrum News says Gonzalez is now on leave from the department and claims to be, correctly I assume, "in fear for his life." Since Gonzales has testified, two more deputies have come forward with similar information.

The Times report is also filled with allegations of other gangs within other policing departments, groups carrying names like the Vikings, Spartans, Regulators, Grim Reapers and Banditos. "Executioners" is a much more on-the-nose name, But Grim Reapers is close.

There's even this gruesome detail: "A top jail official had described exclusive gangs of deputies in Men’s Central Jail who would “earn their ink” by breaking inmates’ bones."

All this we permit in the name of "keeping the peace." The only peace that's kept is that of the safely "unmurderable" — the affluent, the connected, the well-intergrated into society's higher reaches.

The Tale Behind the Tale

There is clearly a larger story, of course, in the encouragement and celebration of violence within America's police and sheriff's departments, a story that our peace-promoting press doesn't report. It's better, in their minds, to "keep the peace" by keeping the violence one-sided — by not reporting the story in a way that would incite retaliation — than by reporting the whole truth, that there are death squads inside many of our policing agencies that are never punished or brought to heel.

But the tale behind the tale is being told by the few, but buried, reports like those from the LA Times and Spectrum News, and by the evidence of our eyes as we watch citizen videos of appalling acts of violence and murder by police — each one unpunished.

That evidence is clear — police, formed to deliver violence to the unwashed and unruly of the 19th century, deliver that same violence to the unwashed and unruly of ours. The worst among them live and love to do it. It's why they get up in the morning. The best among them ... they let the worst run free.

Will this be the year, in our Covid-destroyed economy, when civil unrest tips itself over the edge, no matter which candidate becomes the (violently contested) president in the end?

Are we seeing the start of a "rolling civil war" between our nation's out-of-control police and a citizenry broken by the rich and their absolute refusal to free us from a destruction we cannot ourselves escape?

Are we seeing the start of an era when the "safely murderable" — not just by police, but by the whole of society as it's currently led and run — will rise and say "no more"?

There are worse bets in the world.
 

Covid, the Constitution, Trump-Russia Again and Epstein — Four Stories Unhinging Our World

Donald Trump announcing executive orders to provide Covid economic relief

by Thomas Neuburger

There's so much going on right now that it's hard to focus in just one place. At least four stories are simultaneously shaking our world.

Covid is taking us all down the garden path, us Americans of course, thanks to our failed-state government, a government that simply cannot govern, at least with respect to the virus. Bottom line: Absent a miracle, we will never be free of the Covid emergency until we are free of the current government. That means next year at the earliest.

Is this the Republicans' fault? Of course it is; they're monsters, at least at the leadership level, beasts who worship no god but power and control. Modern Republican leaders are the exact analog to the old Southerners against whom Lincoln railed in his Cooper Union speech: "Your purpose, then ... is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please.... You will rule or ruin in all events."

Rule or ruin.

But Democrats share a good share of the blame for not sweeping the Republican pieces from the board at every opportunity given them — and Republicans gave them many opportunities.

The 2000 election result, a constitutional coup by the Republican-corrupted Supreme Court, should have rejected by Congress, yet not a single Democratic senator would stand with House members to challenge it. All it would have taken was one. Had they had in their hearts courage instead of the illusion of comity, Bush and Cheney — our own mass murders — would not have been president, and Iraq would not have been ravaged raped for years by our wars, our governors and our mercenaries.

Later, when Bush left office, he should have been tried for war crimes, not the least for his torture regime, yet Barack Obama and Democratic leaders like Pelosi chose to "look forward, not backward" and in effect, sanction his criminality.

The list goes on. Republicans have been enabled at every turn by Democratic leaders — against the strong wishes of much of the Democratic base — the most recent instance by allowing Trump to keep American troops in Afghanistan instead of committing to a withdrawal schedule. They give him more power every time he asks for it.

As for the current Post Office flap, which Democrats are so rightly exercised about, recall that it was Democrats like Henry Waxman who co-sponsored and enacted the 2006 "Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act," the lawthat's killing it. That bill passed the House 410-20 and the Senate by unanimous consent. Even Bernie Sanders, then a House member, voted yes on that bill.

The list of Democrats enabling Republicans' evil deed would fill many pages, perhaps a dozen a year. Remember when Chuck Schumer gave Trump the gift of expediting "a whole much of ... lifetime judicial appointments" in the middle of the Brett Kavanaugh fight?

But that's just one mess we're in. A paper that's circulating lately outlines the hell we're headed for if Trump and the Republicans decide to play "constitutional hardball" at the end of the current election — which all on its own, thanks to Covid and Republican tactics, is a guaranteed three-ring circus of horrors, an E-ticket ride to the devil's ninth ring. Claims of "invalid election" are sure to come from whichever side seems to lose (unless Trump seems to win by theft and Democrats acquiesce, again).

Will Trump and Republican leaders play hardball with this election? They obviously have in the past, though it's unclear to me what today's Republican leaders want most — to support Trump to the greatest extent, or be rid of him for good and return their party to "rule by the Chamber of Commerce." 

If Trump goes hard to the end though, will Democrats go hard against him? Al Gore surrendered to Bush and the Supreme Court in 2000; Bernie Sanders (bless him for all his good work) surrendered to Barack Obama in 2020; and even today, Democrats seem about to surrender on Trump's "Covid" executive orders instead of taking him straight to court as they ought to do, and as the Constitution demands.

And that doesn't begin to touch on the other two massive stories of recent note.

Consider Matt Taibbi's publication of, and comment on, the revelations of Steven Schrage, who casts much light on the Trump-Russia origin story (Taibbi's subscriber-only piece is here; Schrage's public piece is here). These are must-read pieces for anyone who thinks that a political tale can have more than one villain, and that the U.S. security state can be one of them.

Finally, the Trump-Russia narrative starts to make sense for those who try to ground their sense in the facts. Schrage's story and on-tape conversations with Trump-Russia originator Stephan Halper may play a deciding role in the August 11 rehearing on the Justice Department's decision to drop the case against Michael Flynn.

No mainstream outlet will cover it honestly though, or cover it at all, so be prepared for partisan silence and spin. Read Taibbi only if you want the Jack Webb ("just the facts") version of this nightmare tale. As I said, any story can have more than one villain.

Finally, recall the release of the latest Epstein documents, which come ever so close to unveiling in full what looks for all the world like a monumental, global, sex-and-blackmail scheme — one involving the wealthy, the powerful, and several foreign security shops — a story that no one of consequence in the world wants to see revealed. We may yet see more accidental suicides come from that one, rather than be allowed by our betters to face head on what all of us know without really wanting to know.

If each of these tales were a novel, they would fill together the summer with great delight. We could stack them on top of each other and work though the pile, reading each in turn, the next treat following the last in serial pleasure. Unfortunately, this is like reading all four novel at once, each played out simultaneously in front of us, a cacophony of complex stories that bump and rub against each other, all claiming attention, each hard to accept and difficult to hear ... and none of them fiction.
 

If The GOP Continues To Block Aid, States Like Florida Will Start Going Bankrupt

NPR issued a depressing report yesterday: States Are Broke And Many Are Eyeing Massive Cuts. One of the sticking points in coming to an agreement over the pandemic rescue package is that the already passed House bill, the $3 trillion HEROES Act, contains around a trillion dollars for state and local governments. The Republicans would like to see that come down a bit-- to zero.

NPR noted that the "pandemic could swipe roughly $200 billion from state coffers by June of next year... Record-high unemployment has wreaked havoc on personal income taxes and sales taxes, two of the biggest sources of revenue for states. Hawaii's and Nevada's tourism industries have crashed, and states like Alaska, Oklahoma and Wyoming have been hit by the collapse of oil markets. From March through May of this year, 34 states experienced at least a 20% drop in revenue compared with the same period last year.

With dwindling cash, cuts to education, health care and other areas are inevitable in many places. State leaders have described the situation as "unprecedented," "horrifying" and "devastating." Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, compared his state's budget cuts to the Red Wedding scene in HBO's Game of Thrones.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said, "Responding to this crisis has created a multiyear budget crisis unlike anything the state has ever faced before, more than three times worse than the Great Recession."

For example, so far that state has cut nearly $190 million from higher education. Programs designed to reduce crime in Baltimore also took a hit, as did foster care providers and public defenders.

And state leaders everywhere are getting nervous as the economy shows little signs of a swift recovery.

In March, Congress worked quickly to pass an aid package worth $2 trillion-- called the CARES Act-- which offered relief to state and local governments, individuals, small and large businesses, and hospitals affected by the coronavirus crisis.

But language in the law requires that funds go to expenses related to COVID-19 and not to plug holes in budgets, with few exceptions (though some state leaders have used creative accounting to make the money work the way they want it to).

Republicans and Democrats in states such as Maryland, California, Michigan, Iowa, Georgia, New York and Illinois have asked Congress for additional funds that they say are critical to stay afloat.

Others don't agree. Last week, more than 200 state lawmakers signed onto a letter from the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization of conservative lawmakers, opposing further federal money for states. The letter reads, "The American people are being forced to make difficult but fiscally responsible decisions during the pandemic, and states need to do the same."

The Democratic-led U.S. House passed a bill to inject more money into states, but many Republican lawmakers say any new money has to be for items directly related to the virus, not to pay down deficits in the states.

California has gone as far as preparing a contingency budget: If additional federal money does not come through, the state will have to furlough state workers and slash funding for state universities and courts. It would also mean that K-12 school districts and community colleges won't receive nearly $12 billion in upfront state payments at a time when costs could be at an all-time high.

"The federal government has a moral, ethical and economic obligation to help support the states," said California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

Florida was one of the states hit hardest-- from the coronavirus itself-- and by the economic and financial side-effects. Sometime this week, Florida will cross the half million cases mark, something only California-- which has a much bigger population-- has done. Florida has 23,156 cases per million residents, worse than New York and New Jersey. The only states worse off are Louisiana and Arizona, although Mississippi is catching up. Florida reported 245 more deaths today, bringing the state total to a rapidly increasing 7,402.

In a state that depends on tourists, what happens when there are few to none? After months of stalling and insisting that lawmakers would not need to return to Tallahassee to balance the budget, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recently approved the largest financial vetoes in Florida history, canceling out more than $1 billion in spending for the upcoming fiscal year.

The state's revenue shortfall has ballooned to nearly $2.1 billion since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Unemployment in the state has soared to Depression-era levels and Medicaid rolls have swelled. Only some of the cuts are being supplanted by federal relief funds.

Florida initially avoided worst-case scenarios but is now seeing a surge in coronavirus infections, mere weeks after attempting to reopen shuttered businesses. Democrats, locked out of decision-making, have railed against DeSantis. "Just lead, damn it. Just lead," said state Democratic Rep. Janet Cruz.

Despite calls to roll back reopenings, DeSantis is holding firm, saying, "When you have a virus that disproportionally impacts one segment of society, to suppress a lot of working-age people at this point, I don't think would be very effective."

Florida progressive Katherine Norman

The Republican controlled state legislature is hoping voters don't notice that they aren't doing anything to help mitigate the catastrophe. I asked some of the sharpest Democrats running to replace them in November, like Katherine Norman, who is running for the state Senate seat currently held by Joe Gruters, co-chair of Trump's reelection campaign and chairman of the Florida Republican Party. "Florida's elected officials and long time Trump sycophants are banking on our complacency," she told me this morning. In my race in Sarasota and Charlotte County most people I speak to don't even know who our State Senator is. Little do they know. While the Florida GOP leaders operate to advance this administration on single voter issues to the detriment and neglect of constituents in District 23 and all Floridians, they also drive us toward the complete devastation of this entire nation, toward the existential crises of climate change and the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. While we hold moments of silence for the over 7,100 Floridians dead from COVID-19, Joe Gruters goes door-knocking. Taking group photos maskless, fistbumping volunteers building a red army in Tampa. How could any responsible leader in a COVID epicenter go door knocking while interacting in a group maskless? What could possibly motivate an elected official to risk the literal lives of citizens? Joe Gruters' entire career centers around his total and complete idealization of Trump."

"When we choose to endorse an individual versus ideals, policies, and vision, it is a dangerous slippery slope." Norman continued. "We must hold individuals and especially elected officials accountable for their actions. We cannot decide to endorse an individual that fails to live up to the standards they purport to represent. If elected officials do not live up to their promises, even within one's own party, they should be held accountable. This should be a normalized, accepted, and even promoted part of the political process. Our local leaders should be loyal to our districts, our counties, our communities. They should represent our values. This has been part of my experience in the Democratic Party as a candidate for the Florida Legislature. At the sometimes detriment of unity, the Democratic Party is inclusive, allowing for everyone to have am equal voice. This means we judge and evaluate the morals of many different perspectives which can lead to more diverse opinions within our party. I am incredibly proud of this facet of the Democratic Party. Democrats seek to be the party that strives for ideal human rights-- for one, for all. We do not strive for blind loyalty. We are the party of the people. Unfortunately, when Gruters sold out in late 2014, he decided to choose blind loyalty either because he is completely and utterly selfish, happy to exploit the political process to his financial gain, or because he is too completely ethically vacant and inept that he doesn't actually realize how devastating this administration's actions are. Either way this is a dangerous individual happy to claim to represent constituents' values while not fit to be representing the interests of constituents anywhere. How can he represent Sarasota and Charlotte County when he is forced to represent Trump?"

Jared West, also a progressive Democrat running against an entrenched Trumpist incumbent, told me that morning that "According to Rep. Sam Killebrew (HD41), he’s proud of the state budget and Florida is in a good place. But then again, he also voted against having a special session to fix unemployment, expand Medicaid, and auto enroll Floridians in vote by mail. He also spent 80+ days during this crisis ignoring his constituents and hiding in his multi-million dollar home and not speaking about or helping at all. He left paper unemployment applications outside of his locked district office-- that’s the extent of what he’s done to help during this crisis. And he won’t do anything else, because he’s so deep in bed with businesses. He’s raised over $50,000.00 and only one donation of $250.00 is from a person, but he does have over 6 donations of $1000 from Walt Disney World, and donations from predatory companies like Amscot. He doesn’t care about the people of Florida, and as his constituents lose homes and 25% (pre coronavirus) are food insecure, he hasn’t done a damn thing to fix it."

Anselm Weber is running strong for an open red-leaning district in southwest Florida. He told me that whichever of the two Republicans who will face him after their primary "has made his whole campaign about supporting the Trump agenda without any attention given to Floridians facing eviction, low wages, or who have lost health insurance. They chickened out of a League of Women Voters' forum with me, probably because they knew I would give massive pushback against their ludicrous 'plans.' They would rather us go back to work while putting the working class through massive health hazards than do basic relief measures. It is desperation mode in the sunshine state, yet the state and the GOP would rather do socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for low income residents."

Progressive Democrat Joshua Hicks is running in a northeast Florida state House district that includes all of Nassau County and part of Duval. He told me that "Earlier this year, when the coronavirus was starting to impact Florida, my opponent, Cord Byrd, had an opportunity to place people over politics. He had an opportunity to support a special Legislative Session that would have addressed the ongoing crisis going on in Florida. With so many Floridians struggling right now, especially small businesses and those who lost their jobs at no fault of their own, he had an opportunity to place the district first. He failed. My opponent voted against a special session to expand Medicaid, address Florida's broken unemployment system, and protect the right to vote during the pandemic. This was just the latest example of Cord Byrd’s failed leadership in District 11. He pays lip service to constituents, but when it comes to working on concrete solutions which provides the people immediate relief, he says no. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It’s about helping families who are struggling at no fault of their own. We have an economy that’s devastated. Unemployed workers and small businesses still need relief. We’re in the middle of a global health crisis and uninsured Floridians need healthcare. Sadly, my opponent only cares about what's best for him, not the people he represents. That's why I'm running to beat him this November. We need someone in Tallahassee who will place the people first and address the issues that matter most. It's time we 'cut the cord' on Cord Byrd in Northeast Florida."