If Trump Dies, Will His Moron Followers Put On Masks And Stop Getting The Rest Of Us Sick?

 

I live in a nice L.A. neighborhood and if I go out for a walk or to buy groceries I see zero people without masks. Zero. But I talk to friends in other states who tell me it's 50-50 where they live... fully half the people not wearing the masks that can help end the pandemic. They can't be arrested or shot like rabid dogs, even though they are preventing the rest of us from resuming our normal lives and killing hundreds of thousands of us. Worldwide, the pandemic continues raging-- over 35 million cases and over a million deaths. On Saturday there were nearly 300,000 new cases reported. The dozen worst impacted countries (along with cases per million residents):

• India +75,479 (4,733 cases per million residents)
• U.S. +48,925 (22,928 cases per million residents)
• Brazil +24,602 (23,042 cases per million residents)
• France +16,972 (9,288 cases per million residents)
• Argentina +11,129 (17,456 cases per million residents)
• Russia +9,859 (8,253 cases per million residents)
• U.K. +7,070 (7,061 cases per million residents)
• Colombia +6,616 (16,623 cases per million residents)
• Israel +5,523 (28,751 cases per million residents)
• Mexico +4,775 (5,825 cases per million residents)
• Ukraine +4,661 (5,092 cases per million residents)
• Indonesia +4,007 (1,092 cases per million residents)

Israel, Brazil and the U.S., countries with incompetent authoritarian leaders, are doing the worst in the world, by far. In the U.S., Saturday's reports continued seeing new case loads diminishing in California, Texas and Georgia, staying around the same dangerously high levels in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Iowa, Oklahoma, Utah and North Carolina and rapidly increasing into the danger zone in half a dozen states. New cases:

• Missouri +3,023 (22,234 cases per million residents)
• Wisconsin +2,892 (22,464 cases per million residents)
• Illinois +2,442 (23,898 cases per million residents)
• New York +1,720 (25,601 cases per million residents)
• South Carolina +1,706 (29,307 cases per million residents)
• Minnesota +1,421 (18,226 cases per million residents)

Comparing the numbers of cases per million residents in the U.S. states to the number in foreign countries shows clearly how lacking effective America leadership in the pandemic has been. That largely accounts for the current state of presidential polling in the U.S.

Unfit by Chip Proser

Yesterday, NYC mayor Bill de Blasio announced he's re-closing schools and non-essential businesses in 9 Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods where the pandemic is spiking up again. These are neighborhoods filled with religious nuts-- Hasidics in this case but basically with the same primitive mentality as evangelicals or any religious extremists who can't, or refuse to, adapt to a post-bronze age world. The neighborhoods are Borough Park, Midwood, Gravesend, Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn and Far Rockaway and Kew Gardens in Queens.

Did you notice the anger I expressed towards religionists who refuse to wear masks, with their crackpot "God will protect me" bullshit? (There I go again.) I saw a cute Washington Post column, I Was Tempted To Publicly Shame People Who Don't Wear Masks. I tried This Instead, I want to reproduce here as a kind of self-inflicted penance. It was done by Katie Wheeler, who began by noting "It’s so important during this pandemic that we stay open and clear in our communication with loved ones about mask-wearing. But what do we do about strangers out in public? Many have turned to the Internet to shame and 'out' people who don’t follow the guidelines, but is that actually working?"

Tuesday Could Be A Big Day For Progressives In New York-- Maybe Bigger Than Anyone Imagines

Through a Politico prism, the grassroots effort to elect Jamaal Bowman to Congress is a twisted power grab by "the left." Holly Otterbein wrote that "Desperate for victory after watching the presidential nomination slip through their fingers, progressives have found a new cause to rally around. Across the country, they’re channeling their grief, volunteer muscle and small-dollar donations into Jamaal Bowman, a left-wing candidate in New York trying to oust decades-long incumbent Congressman Eliot Engel... [T]heir efforts have also exposed party fissures, spurring Democratic establishment powerhouses such as Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Jim Clyburn to throw their support behind Engel," while Bowman has been endorsed by Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, Ayanna Pressley and virtually every credible progressive political group in America.

Otterbein quoted a local ex-candidate, Andom Ghebreghiorgis, who ran, briefly as a progressive, got no traction, dropped out, and endorsed Bowman: "What is that left phrase? We just need a win. People are investing a lot emotionally in this race because they see it as a down-ballot race where the policies of a Bernie, for example, which weren’t able to achieve victory on a national level, can at least be achieved on a congressional level."

Otterbein: "The clash between heavyweights like Clinton and Sanders has made New York’s 16th District race one of the most-watched primaries of the cycle-- and one of the most telling."

I think Blue America was one of the first national groups to endorse Jamaal and we did it nearly a year ago, long before any of the big name political leaders jumped into the race-- Jamaal Bowman-- The Bronx Could Wind Up With The Most Great Members Of Congress Anywhere In America. Although we noted that "Eliot Engel is a New Dem in a district that is far more progressive than he is," the endorsement post is all about Jamaal, with no further mentions of Engel.

Engel isn't the same kind of corrupt villain that Joe Crowley is, nor the same kind of villain that Dan Lipinski is. The best critique of him is that he's absent and no longer a part of his consistency and that his interests are more conjoined with those of Benjamin Netanyahu than with the struggling working families of Westchester and the Bronx. But the reason for Jamaal's traction-- irregardless of the typical Beltway-centric version-- is all about Jamaal. Engel is rated a gentleman's "C" by progressive punch-- not an "F" or even a "D." But there is no reason that NY-16 shouldn't be represented by someone with an "A," which is exactly what Bowman's platform adds up to. New York has 7 members of Congress (out of 21 Democrats) with "A" scores-- AOC, of course, and members like Jerry Nadler, Adriano Espaillat, Yvette Clarke, Nydia Velazquez, José Serrano, even Hakeem Jeffries! New Yorkers should expect no less... especially not in districts, like NY-16 with a PVI of D+24 and where Trump attracted just 22.5% of the vote.

Engel has a huge establishment push working for him now-- and a bipartisan one at that. Republicans know they can't ever win in NY-16 so they're supporting the less progressive contender, Eliot Engel. On Tuesday, Ryan Grim and Akela Lacy reported how Republican money, through a GOP SuperPAC, Americans for Tomorrow’s Future, is flowing into the effort to keep Engel in Congress. The blatantly Republican Americans for Tomorrow’s Future PAC has been funneling money into the Engels campaign through the anti-Bernie/anti-progressive Democratic establishment PAC, Democratic Majority for Israel (an arm of AIPAC). Republicans maxing out to Trump and also putting money through these operations into defeating Bowman. "Engel," wrote Grim and Lacy, "is on the receiving end of nearly $1 million of outside big money and counting, including funding from two other dark-money groups that can’t be traced but who only support anti-progressive candidates.

Despite Engel's big financial advantage-- as of June 3, he raised $1,997,944 to Bowman's $965,857-- the only public polling in the race show's Bowman leading with double digits. Asked this week if they would vote for Bowman or Engel voters picked Bowman over Engel 41-31 with 27% undecided. When the undecided voters were asked who they are leaning towards, Bowman had an even bigger advantage: 40-18%.

East of Scarsdale, north of Rye, north and west of Ardsley and north of Hastings-on-Hudson, you can walk out of Engel's district and into NY-17, where Nita Lowey is retiring and a hot, crowded primary is underway in another sure-thing blue district (D+7), where Trump got 38.4% of the vote in 2016. Seven Democrats are in contention-- including one extreme right Blue Dog-type, state Senator David Carlucci, a bunch of rich people (one of whom, Adam Schleifer, a big PhRMA guy, has self-funded $4 million of his own into the race) and one viable progressive, Mondaire Jones. A new poll of likely primary voters by PPP, released yesterday, shows Mondaire leading significantly:

• Mondaire Jones- 25%
• Adam Schleifer- 14%
• Evelyn Farkas- 14%
• David Carlucci- 11%
• David Buchwald- 8%
• Asha Castleberry-Hernandez- 3%
• Allison Fine-2%

Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones-- not to mention Charles Booker, the Senate candidate in Kentucky-- are the candidates who are getting the most attention in the progressive blogosphere right now and we are feeling increasingly confident about all three. But there's another candidate we're extremely excited about in New York too, Shan Chowdhury, the Democratic Socialist taking on the city's most corrupt politician, Greg Meeks. Meeks has been trying to keep the primary under the radar-- and that could be his downfall. Shan is young, progressive and is being drastically outspent. If he wins, he's going to be Congress' most shake-it-up member. Despite the finance disparity and with just six days left, things have changed for Shan's race. His campaign has worked, for 14 months, to expand the size of the electorate in New York's 5th Congressional district. His campaign has sent over 750,000 texts, made over 100,000 phone calls and is running advertising on almost 10 different platforms in just the last month alone (print and digital). Chowdhury's aggressive strategy to expand the electorate is a problem for Meeks. In NY-05, voter turnout is abysmal. Despite there being over half a million registered voters, Congressional primary turnout in 2016 was only 8,635. That is barely 1% turnout. Meeks has never faced a real primary challenge and as a result his machine has been able to solidify a small base that turns out. That is why expanding the electorate has been an effective strategy for Shan. I just got word that, based upon internal numbers and absentee ballots tracked, Shaniyat is very likely going to upset Rep. Meeks and win next Tuesday.

Despite being widely overlooked, due to a lack of institutional support, his chances of winning are higher than almost any other campaign in New York City. According to the BOE, only 15,000 absentee ballots have been requested in the district. That is lower than any other district in the City. Taking into account Shan's campaign's incredible outreach-- having already seny over a million texts-- and the work his team has done expanding the electorate, this means they are going into election day with better odds of winning then even the incumbent! If their internal numbers reinforce the reality that on June 23rd, they are going to shock the political world-- even louder than Bowman, Jones and Booker will.

Even being so close to election day, contributions are vital to Chowdhury's ability to pull this off. They are going to need a tremendous amount of money in order to properly execute their get out the vote strategy. They plan to distribute 100,000 pieces of literature, flyers and posters between today and election day. They are also going to need the resources to send a broadcast election reminder text to everyone in the district (400,000 people). Let me be clear, contributions today will allow them to secure this victory and change-- perhaps forever-- what is thought possible in electoral politics. The Blue America 2020 congressional thermometer on the right is how you can contribute to Shan Chowdhury, Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones in one fell swoop. And, by the way, those who wonder how last minute money gets to the campaigns on time-- Act Blue wires the contributions daily.

New York City Started Re-Opening Yesterday-- Cautiously

America 2020 by Nancy Ohanian

Yesterday, as states and cities rush to re-open, some carefully, others not, the Washington Post ran a piece by Joel Achenbach, Shutdowns prevented 60 million coronavirus infections in the U.S., study finds. "Shutdown orders," he wrote, "prevented about 60 million novel coronavirus infections in the United States and 285 million in China, according to a research study published Monday that examined how stay-at-home orders and other restrictions limited the spread of the contagion. A separate study from epidemiologists at Imperial College London estimated the shutdowns saved about 3.1 million lives in 11 European countries, including 500,000 in the United Kingdom, and dropped infection rates by an average of 82 percent, sufficient to drive the contagion well below epidemic levels."

The two reports, published Monday in the journal Nature, provide fresh evidence that aggressive and unprecedented shutdowns, which caused massive economic disruptions and job losses, were necessary to halt the exponential spread of the novel coronavirus.

But the overwhelming majority of people remain susceptible to the virus. Only about 3 percent to 4 percent of people in the countries being studied have been infected to date, said Samir Bhatt, senior author of the Imperial College London study.

“This is just the beginning of the epidemic: we’re very far from herd immunity,” Bhatt said Monday in an email. “The risk of a second wave happening if all interventions and precautions are abandoned is very real.”

The first study, from researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, examined six countries-- China, the United States, France, Italy, Iran and South Korea-- and estimated how 1,717 interventions, such as stay-at-home orders, business closings and travel bans, altered the spread of the virus. The report concluded that those six countries collectively managed to avert 62 million test-confirmed infections. Because most people who are infected never get tested, the actual number of infections that were averted is much higher-- about 530 million in the six countries, the Berkeley researchers estimated.

Timing is crucial, the study found. Small delays in implementing shutdowns can lead to “dramatically different health outcomes.” The report, while reviewing what worked and what made little difference, is clearly aimed at the many countries around the planet that are still early in their battle against the coronavirus.

“Societies around the world are weighing whether the health benefits of anti-contagion policies are worth their social and economic costs,” the Berkeley team wrote. The economic costs of shutdowns are highly visible-- closed stores, huge job losses, empty streets, food lines. The health benefits of the shutdowns, however, are invisible, because they involve people not sickened.

That spurred the researchers to come up with their estimates of infections prevented. The Berkeley team did not produce an estimate of lives saved.

Achenbach is a health-and-politics reporter but J. David Goodman covers lobbying, fund-raising and the influence of money in politics. Interesting that the NY Times assigned him the job of covering the reopening of New York City. But with Cuomo in charge, it was a sensible approach. "Exactly 100 days since its first case of coronavirus was confirmed, New York City, which weathered extensive hardship as an epicenter of the worldwide outbreak, is set to take the first tentative steps toward reopening its doors on Monday," he wrote on Sunday. "Getting here took the sacrifice of millions of New Yorkers who learned to live radically different lives. More than 205,000 have been infected, and nearly 22,000 have died."

As many as 400,000 workers could begin returning to construction jobs, manufacturing sites and retail stores in the city’s first phase of reopening-- a surge of normalcy that seemed almost inconceivable several weeks ago, when the city’s hospitals were at a breaking point and as many as 800 people were dying from Covid-19 on a single day.

Many retail stores, battered by months of closure, are readying to do business again on Monday, starting with curbside and in-store pickup. Construction companies are adding safety features and stockpiling masks and gloves. Manufacturers, whose shop floors have idled since March, are testing machines.

State and city officials said they were optimistic that the city would begin to spring back to life. Testing is robust, reaching 33,000 people on a recent day. And new infections are now down to around 500 a day-- half as many as there were just a few weeks ago.

That is low enough for New York City’s corps of contract tracers, who began work last week, to try to track every close interaction and, officials hope, stop a resurgence of the virus.

New confirmed cases on Sunday and Monday for New York state was 1,018 and 1,064. NYC was 460 and 389:

Brooklyn- 168 and 129
Queens- 114 and 134
Bronx- 98 and 74
Manhattan- 54 and 42
Staten Island- 26 and 10

Suffolk County, a big suburb on Long Island, filled with crackpot Republicans who refused to wear masks or social distance, had 291 new cases on Sunday and 364 on Monday, each day the worst of any county in New York state. Commuters from Suffolk County could well spread the contagion in the city. Cuomo, who is always trying to take credit for NYC's progress, even though thousands became sick because he was so slow to recognize and act on the pandemic early on, said "You want to talk about a turnaround-- this one, my friends, is going to go in the history books."

New York City, like nine other regions in the state, was required to meet seven health-related metrics before beginning reopening. New York City was the last part of the state to do so; much of upstate has already moved on to Phase 2, which allows most stores, offices and hair salons to open, with restrictions on capacity and social distance.

The road back will undoubtedly be challenging. More than 885,000 jobs vanished during the outbreak, and strong gains are not expected for the city until 2022. The city budget hemorrhaged tax revenue and now faces a $9 billion shortfall over the next year.

And the reopening has been complicated by the vast protests for racial justice that have swept the city for more than a week and have forced government officials and business owners to unexpectedly adjust their plans.

Hundreds of stores were burglarized by looters who took advantage of the protests to prey on commercial districts, from Midtown to the Bronx. Shop owners scrambled to cover windows in plywood rather than reaching for welcome banners. Police officers enforced a nightly curfew.

...Even before the protests, some public health officials were privately fretting that the timeline set by Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio was too ambitious. They worried that infections could increase as people returned to work and commuters began to take the subway again.

But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it did not believe that rush hour would meaningfully return on Monday-- or anytime soon. Even when schools and Broadway are allowed to open in the fourth and final phase of the reopening, the authority is projecting ridership will be under 70 percent.

One person briefed on the authority’s planning said officials there expected the trains to be at well below 50 percent capacity at least through Labor Day-- a calculation based on the idea that many office workers would continue to work remotely into the fall.

Many business leaders, particularly those in office-based jobs like technology and finance, are watching the transit system for signs that it is safe. The authority has embarked on large-scale cleanings and required riders to wear masks, but said social distancing may not be possible if subways and buses carry anywhere close to their normal loads.

...Some businesses are taking it slowly and carefully.

Only about a third of textile workers in the city are expected to be back at work on Monday, said Edgar Romney, the secretary-treasurer of their union, Workers United/SEIU. Businesses that are operating have altered their shifts to reduce crowding and installed plastic shields to separate tightly packed sewing machines.

But many, particularly in Midtown Manhattan, have remained closed, he said.

For retailers, the picture is even more complex. Just opening the doors does not guarantee that customers will return. Curbside pickup does not make a lot of sense for many retailers either, particularly in Manhattan.

Business groups said many retailers were waiting for the next phase to venture out, when outdoor dining is allowed, office workers are permitted to return and shoppers are able to enter and browse around all types of stores, local business groups said.

The earliest that could begin would be late June, based on state mandates that each phase last at least two weeks. But Mayor de Blasio said on Thursday that he did not anticipate the city moving into the next phase until early July.

“Businesses can be ready, but are the consumers ready?” asked Thomas J. Grech, president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce. “I want to demonstrate to the buying public, to the consumers out there, that the businesses are making it safe.”

When more than 100 workers return next week to Newlab, a technology hub in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, they will have the option of wearing a device that buzzes every time two colleagues get too close to each other-- a high-tech way to enforce social distancing.

The devices, made by StrongArm Technologies, a company based in the hub, were already being worn by most of the 80 or so workers deemed essential.

“In the first week, people were getting buzzed all the time,” said Shaun Stewart, the chief executive of Newlab. “It flashes and it vibrates. That alone, that immediately changes your behavior and your perspective on distancing.”

The city’s contact tracing efforts are far less high tech. But for the past week, newly infected New Yorkers have been receiving calls from the new corps of tracers. City Hall did not provide figures for how many people they were able to reach.

“The beginning of any program is challenging,” said Jay Varma, an adviser to Mr. de Blasio on public health. But so far, he said, “people are willing to participate, they’re willing to give information about their health conditions and about their close contacts.”

Still, a jump in cases could overwhelm the system, as happened at the start of the pandemic in New York in March.

Officials are watching barometers of the virus’s spread closely, from new positive tests to emergency room data, for any sign that the newly flattened curve of infection might be arcing upward again.

The work of contact tracing has taken on new urgency because of the public outpouring of anger at the death of George Floyd, a black man killed in Minneapolis on May 25 in a confrontation with four police officers... [which] raised questions about how mass gatherings might spread the virus, with some participants not observing social distancing.

“On the public health side, this has been a really long, arduous nearly 100 days of something none of us had never dealt with before, and then you see that activity, of course you’re concerned,” said Jim Malatras, a close adviser to Mr. Cuomo. “The top blew off. The top blew off across this country.”

Mr. Malatras said he envisioned several possible results of the demonstrations.

People who are asymptomatic could transmit the disease far beyond the ranks of the protesters. Or, if there is no immediate surge of infections, some New Yorkers may begin to doubt strict adherence to social distancing.

The impact of having crowds of at least 20,000 protesters on the streets would not be apparent for as long as two weeks, officials cautioned.

“The mayor is appropriately concerned about the risk of a resurgence due to the mass gatherings that have occurred,” said Mr. Varma, adding that “there is a lot that we don’t know about how people’s behavior will change after June 8.”

He said, however, that because the protests took place outdoors and many demonstrators wore masks, the risks may have been lessened.

The state and the city will not make a decision about moving to the second phase of reopening for at least two weeks, at which point the public health effects of the protests should be more clear, officials said.

A Guide To Pandemic Sex... From The Government

Staten Island comedian Pete Davidson seems to have got the NYC sex guidelines for the pandemic wrong on Saturday Night Live this past weekend. He was right about "sex but no kissing" and wrong about what he called "heiny smoocheroos," which was widely interpreted as an OK for rimming. Rimming however, is not OK.

I guess his main point was that it's hard to imagine that the government of New York City-- not the state-- is offering "some tips for how to enjoy sex and to avoid spreading COVID-19." Obviously, they recommend sex with your regular partner (husband, wife, monogamous boyfriend or girlfriend) but also note that "Masturbation will not spread COVID-19, especially if you 
wash your hands (and any sex toys) with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before and after sex."

Also they are clear that rape is bad. "Having close contact-- including sex-- with only a small circle of people helps prevent spreading COVID-19. Have sex only with consenting partners. (The emphasis was their own.) "You should avoid close contact-- including sex-- with anyone outside your household. If you do have sex with others, have as few partners as possible. If you usually meet your sex partners online or make a living by having sex, consider taking a break from in-person dates. Video dates, sexting or chat rooms may be options for you." It gets steamier:

Take care during sex.

• Kissing can easily pass COVID-19. Avoid kissing anyone who is not part of your small circle 
of close contacts.

• Rimming (mouth on anus) might spread COVID-19. Virus in feces may enter your mouth.

• Condoms and dental dams can reduce contact with saliva or feces, especially during oral 
or anal sex.

• Washing up before and after sex is more important than ever.


o Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
o Wash sex toys with soap and warm water.

o Disinfect keyboards and touch screens that you share with others (for video chat, for watching pornography or for anything else).

There Are Worse Governors Than Andrew Cuomo, But None Who Are Personally Responsible For As Many Coronavirus Deaths

"Better Than Trump" is just not good enough

The media has created a very positive image for New York neo-liberal governor Andrew Cuomo. No one can deny Cuomo looks relatively good compared to Trump in his pandemic response. But no one should deny that with Trump out of the equation, Cuomo was a disaster for New York where there were 180,458 confirmed cases as of yesterday-- more than China, Italy or Spain-- and close to 8,627 deaths (an out-sized 4.7% totality rate). When Mayor Bill DeBlasio tried to shut New York City down-- the way San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose had shut down-- Cuomo went nuts and overrode him. And he just did it again!

While salivating and empty-headed TV talking heads like Rachel Maddow were working to turn Cuomo into a saint, the New York Post reported that the governor again couldn't control his own ego in a battle with de Blasio over school closures. After the mayor declared the schools will remain closed until the fall term, Cuomo dismissed de Blasio's remarks as only "an opinion" and said he himself hasn't made a decision yet. There's blood on Cuomo's hands and there is no doubt far fewer New Yorkers would have been infected had he not prevented de Blasio from shutting down New York City when he wanted to.

“He didn’t close them, and he can’t open them,” Cuomo said.

A few hours earlier in City Hall, de Blasio said he made the decision after speaking the night before with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious-disease expert on the White House’s coronavirus task force.

“He was so clear about how important keeping the schools closed would be in our overall strategy,” the mayor said. “It will help us to save lives.”

By Saturday evening, de Blasio was digging in his heels.

“My responsibility is not to another elected official,” he said on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation. “My responsibility is to those kids, those parents, those educators.”

“I have to do what I think is right to stop the coronavirus from holding the city in its grip. I have to make sure we get out of this horrible moment in our city’s history and move forward.”

But Cuomo, whose emergency powers trump those of city officials, said it was simply not de Blasio’s call to make.

“It is my legal authority in this situation” via executive order, Cuomo said, quipping that if the mayor wants to close schools, he should do so during a blizzard.

“This is not a snow day,” the governor sniped.

Cuomo first ordered all schools in the state closed on March 18 for two weeks to stem the virus.

He later expanded that executive order to continue through April 29, at which point the shutdown would be re-evaluated.

“It’s not going to be decided in the next few days, because we don’t know,” Cuomo said at his daily briefing in Albany.

“I can’t tell you what June is going to look like. I can’t tell you what May is going to look like. But I can tell you it will be a metropolitan-wide decision.”

City Hall spun the brouhaha as another case in which de Blasio would be proven right, with press secretary Freddi Goldstein noting that Cuomo had dismissed the mayor’s call for a shelter-in-place order in mid-March, but ordered a lockdown three days later.

“We were right then and we’re right now,” Goldstein tweeted.

“Schools will remain closed, just like how we eventually-- days later-- moved to a shelter in place model.”

Cuomo staffers said they got wind of the mayor’s decision only at around 9:25 a.m. in a phone call from de Blasio aides.

They talked about schools staying closed through June, but “they didn’t say they were going to publicly announce this using powers that they don’t have,” said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi.

Five minutes later, de Blasio publicly declared schools closed for the rest of the academic year.

Meanwhile CNN looked into why the pandemic is so much more catastrophic in New York-- especially New York City and its suburbs-- than anywhere else in the country or, for that matter, the word. They didn't blame Trump or Cuomo, who should share the blame. But they did note that "Sadly, the likeliest explanation for the high death rate, though, is the chronically inadequate health care given to minorities and the poor throughout New York City, as in the rest of the country. New York City and New York state have only now released the race distribution of cases and deaths, as well as by zip code, a surrogate for poverty rates. It is clear that severe disease has not been distributed equally by race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic New Yorkers represent 51% of the city's population, yet account for 62% of Covid-19 deaths. They have twice the rate of death compared with whites, when adjusted for age. This likely is due to both a higher proportion of black and Hispanic New Yorkers being diagnosed with severe disease and a higher rate of death among those who are known to be infected."

This disparity likely is the result of several factors. Co-morbid conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, are strongly associated with death from Covid-19 and are more common in black and Hispanic communities. But what causes high rates of poorly controlled hypertension and diabetes? Lack of appropriate health care. People who cannot easily find good health care for reasons of money, time, location, or trust may be more likely to stay at home undiagnosed and spread the virus-- as well as experience potentially fatal delays in diagnosis and treatment.

The explanation is the same for New York City as for Italy, New Orleans and probably Iran: the virus exploits weaknesses in health and health care, be it advanced age or co-morbidity or access to care.

Hopefully, the Covid-19 pandemic will force us to reckon honestly with the many shortfalls that have been exposed and build a fair, forward-thinking approach that allows doctors and nurses to care for people in need. Failure to do this will only further darken the memory of those who have died and the hearts of those who remain.

Odd that CNN chose not to mention how-- in the midst of the pandemic response he botched so badly-- Cuomo just forced through a budget that drastically cuts healthcare funds to the exact people they're referring to. The media is protecting, even celebrating, New York's corrupt, thuggish Governor Cuomo. I wonder why. (I don't really wonder why; I'm certain he's being set up for a bigger job.)





How big a scumbag is Cuomo inside Democratic politics? We know he hates the Congressional Progressive Caucus and everything they stand for. Now, Maggie Moran, Cuomo's top political operative-- the one not currently serving a prison term-- is surreptitiously fund-raising against AOC and soliciting campaign operatives to work against her reelection.

One more thing-- this odd map of states that require, encourage and discourage vote by mail. New York (as well as Connecticut, Delaware and New Hampshire) are in pretty strange company-- the 11 beet-red Trump states that make it difficult to vote by mail. Maybe Cuomo should put some energy behind getting New York off this list instead of working so hard to cut Medicaid funding. Conservatives-- and not just Republican conservatives-- hate expanding the franchise.

Can Carolyn Maloney Be Beaten In A Primary? Meet Lauren Ashcraft

In her introductory video (above), Lauren Ashcraft noted that "in 2018 there was a wave of nominations that changed what we thought was possible. People who were funded entirely by small dollars. They got loud and stood up for their principles against all odds. These are not the people who play it safe. These are the people who are making it safer for us. They were the first wave. I'm part of the next."

Lauren is running in a deep blue district (NY-12) that spans parts of 3 NYC boroughs-- Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. People think of it is the fancy upper east side district-- what was once the "Silk Stocking District." That isn't what it is anymore, even if the incumbent, Carolyn Maloney, doesn't quite get that herself. Until Trump moved to Mar-A-Lago last month, it was his home district. There are still some Republicans on Manhattan's Upper East Side and, in fact, Around 20% of the district's votes went to McCain and Romney when Obama ran. But in 2016, the voters knew exactly what Trump is and Hillary beat him 83.3% to 13.5%. The PVI is D+31.

Carolyn Maloney is what many Democratic voters think is all they can expect from their member of Congress. She's moderately liberal, serves the interests of the wealthy people of her district and takes immense sums of money from specula interests, particularly from Wall Street. In fact, since being elected to Congress in 1992, Maloney has taken $6,884,871 from bankster-related sectors, more than anyone else serving in the House besides two notorious crooks who should both be rotting in prison-- Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy ($9,472,747) and Democratic majority leader Steny Hoyer ($7,355,624). Maloney-- chair of the Financial Service Committee's subcommittee on Capital Markets-- is #3. Last year, the anti-Trump electorate in NY-12 dutifully marched to the polls and reelected Maloney against a Republican, Eliot Rabin, 217,430 (86.4%) to 30,446 (12.1%). This is how the 3 boroughs performed for her:

• Manhattan (from the Upper East Side, Yorkville, Lenox Hill and Midtown to Kips Bay, Alphabet City and the Lower East Side)- D+72
• Queens (Astoria, Long Island City and Sunnyside) D+80
• Brooklyn (Greenpoint and Williamsburg)- D+85

The Republicans know Maloney is the best they can do in this district and so far this cycle, they're not even fielding a candidate. Maloney, though, may be in for the challenge of her life. She has 4 Democrats challenging her in the primary, Lauren Ashcraft, Peter Harrison, Suraj Patel (who took 40.4% of the primary vote in 2018) and Erica Vladimer. So far Ashcraft has managed to raise the most of the primary challengers. She's spending it all on grassroots organizing-- and while Maloney works strictly for the Upper East Side, Ashcraft's campaign is everywhere in the district, especially in the outer boroughs and in the southern Manhattan parts of the district where no one even knows Carolyn Maloney represents them in Congress. She told me on the phone that her campaign is all about prioritizing people over profit by fighting for urgent changes.

Like many of the people in the district, she worked in the financial sector and she is well-aware that trickle-down economics do not work no matter how much our representatives keep trying! "The Trump tax cuts," she told me, "resulted in record CEO bonuses, senior executive raises, and stock buybacks, but not in decreased layoffs or increased hiring or wages for average workers." She said she realizes that "we cannot expect CEOs to stand up for what is right, so we must elect representatives who stop trying old tricks to direct money to their corporate donors." She also told me she wants "to reinstate a modern Glass-Steagall Act. We bailed out the big banks ten years ago and we’re heading down a dangerous path where once again, the people will carry the burden to help big banks. Banks shouldn’t be allowed to gamble with our savings, much less take on massively risky behavior, but then ask for government bailouts. [She] wants to utilize her experience working in the financial services industry to sit on the Financial Services Committee and improve regulations which should hold banks accountable to the people, not the other way around."

She is campaigning on making corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of taxes, and on removing corporate influence from our politics. Like almost all Democrats, she said "we need to Get Big Money Out Of Politics!  We need to end Citizens United and also introduce a Federal Tax Credit which can be used to donate to federal campaigns rejecting Corporate and Super PAC money." Her ultimate goal is public financing of federal elections. (Right now, though, you can contribute to her campaign here.)

She told me she "fully supports the Green New Deal because it recognizes urgent action is key" and calls for "a ban on single-use plastic by 2030 (and subsidizing compostable 'plastics')... and knows that we need to end subsidies to factory farms and the fossil fuel industry immediately and increase funding to research that will save our planet."

While Maloney is prepared to compromise on Medicare For All, Lauren "will specifically advocate for Single-Payer Medicare For All with immediate forgiveness of all medical debt. Nobody should be in debt for life because they got sick. Let’s remove the for-profit nature of our healthcare system completely."

I asked her to write a guest post introducing herself by talking specifically about her district and Wall Street and how her campaign is threading that needle.

What A Democratic Socialist Learned Working At JP Morgan Chase
-by Lauren Ashcraft

In my Congressional district of NY-12, 14.5% of folx are employed by the financial services industry, and over 70% of folx are employed in the private sector. My district possesses a deep understanding of what it means to work at a place that does not necessarily ideologically align with us in order to pay the bills. I am writing this blog entry from Long Island City, the former future home of Amazon HQ2, and also as a former employee of the financial services industry.

Until yesterday, I was employed by JPMorgan Chase & Co as a project manager who helped monitor banking regulation compliance. Working for multiple financial institutions since moving to New York has strengthened my already democratic socialist leanings, because I continued to see how the entire industry has been allowed [by representatives] to place its risks and burdens on the American people. That’s why I am a democratic socialist who seeks to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act and break up big banks.

Let’s look at the Trump Tax cuts as an example of why I feel this way. This legislation added $3.7 billion to JPMorgan’s profits, hence Jamie Dimon’s praise of the cuts. Dimon received $24.5 million of restricted stock tied to performance, an annual base salary of $1.5 million and a $5 million cash bonus for a 5.1% bump in pay thereafter. And the most important question: did these tax cuts trickle down to the average employee in the industry?

In addition to some hefty layoffs, according to a recent article in Bloomberg, JPMorgan Chase & Co along with much of the banking industry is considering shifting jobs out of New York City. This is despite the fact that our city is the headquarters for most big banks. In other words, even with tax incentives paid for by the people, the 14.5% of the district relying on paychecks from the banking industry are probably all too familiar with “relocation” talks at their companies. Because of at-will employment in our society, if one does not accept the relocated job they may be ineligible for severance, as it is not technically a layoff. So, despite handing these banks billions of dollars in incentives, my district will be hit hard by corporate greed.

Yes, we can rightfully feel anger toward the CEOs and senior executives of large corporations, but we cannot let those in government avoid blame. Our representatives have had the power to protect the people of their districts against corporate greed, but they have lacked the will. These same representatives have accepted money from these very CEOs and senior executives who have praised Trump’s corporate tax cuts. They represent corporations, and not people.

But there is so much hope in this progressive movement building around all of us. Community leaders across the entire country are coming together with their life experience and passion for change and are rejecting all corporate PAC influence while they run for office. I feel the call to utilize my experience in the private sector to replace my current representative and sit in the Financial Services Committee. I will hold the entire industry accountable to the people, not the other way around.


 

Which Is Sillier? What Trumpanzee, Jr. Wants Or What Kris Kobach Wants?

Two silly propositions: Mayor Trumpanzee, Jr. or King Kobach. Let's start with Fredo. According to Cindy Adams, Junior is telling acquaintances he wants to run for mayor. Staten Island doesn't have a mayor. Neither does the part of south Brooklyn from Brighton Beach east which is lousy with Russian immigrants. Junior could probably win in either of those places. His father did. But, basically, New York City was not Trump country in 2016. This was his Papa Trump's borough breakdown:

• Bronx- 9.6%
• Brooklyn- 17.9%
• Manhattan- 10.0%
• Queens- 22.1%
• Staten Island- 57.2%

Donald Trump Jr. by Nancy Ohanian

How about this NY Times headline? A Would-Be Trump Aide's Demands: A Jet On Call, A Future Cabinet Post And More? Both Trumpanzees, Sr. and Jr., will soon be insisting Maggie Haberman's report is fake news. Republicans are desperate to keep the colossally unpopular former-- as in defeated-- Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (missing a "K"), from running for the Senate. He could probably win a primary for Pat Robert's open Senate seat and would almost definitely lose a general election, where Democrats, independents and mainstream Republicans would team up to defeat him, like they did last year when he ran for governor and was beaten by Democrat Laura Kelly, 506,727 (48.0%) to 453,645 (43.0%). Remember, Kansas is one of the reddest state's in the Union. The PVI is R+13 and Hillary only managed to take 36% of the vote, winning just two of the state's 105 counties.

McConnell asked Trump to give him a job so that he doesn't run for the Senate and imperil the Republican majority. But not a job that has to be confirmed, because most senators don't want to go on record confirming a highly visible confirmed racist zealot. So Trump offered him a made up position, "immigration czar," he thought would appeal to Kobach's desire to end immigration into the U.S. from anywhere other than Scandinavia. Haberman reported that he demanded "access to a government jet 24 hours a day; an office in the West Wing, plus guaranteed weekends off for family time. And an assurance of being made secretary of homeland security by November."

Those were among a list of 10 conditions that Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, has given to the White House if he is to become the administration’s “immigration czar,” a job President Trump has been looking to create to coordinate immigration policy across government agencies. The list was described by three people familiar with it.

Mr. Kobach, who once served as an adviser to the hard-line immigration Sheriff Joe Arpaio and helped write an Arizona law requiring local officials to verify the citizenship of anyone they had “reasonable suspicion” to believe was an unauthorized immigrant, said he would need to be the main television spokesman for the Trump administration on immigration policy. And he said he wanted a guarantee that cabinet secretaries whose portfolios relate to immigration would defer to him, with the president mediating disputes if need be.

The list was submitted by Mr. Kobach in recent weeks as he discussed his interest in the job. Other conditions included having a staff of seven reporting to him, “walk in” privileges to the Oval Office, a security detail if deemed necessary and the title of assistant to the president.

He would need access to the jet, he said, for weekly visits to the border and travel back to Kansas on the weekends. The existence of the list has become known among officials in the Trump administration, some of whom were taken aback by what they regard as its presumptuousness.

...While [serving as Kansas Secretary of State] he was picked by Mr. Trump to lead a voter fraud commission after the president insisted that the 2016 election was marred by millions of illegal votes.

The commission was disbanded in 2018, with one expert on election law, Richard L. Hasen, describing its chairman as “a leader nationally in making irresponsible claims that voter fraud is a major problem in this country.”

The same year, Mr. Kobach, a former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, also ran for governor, losing to a Democrat, Laura Kelly. He lost a race for the House in 2004.

The list underscores the clout Mr. Kobach hopes to have in a job that would not require Senate confirmation, but could drive Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda. One of its main objectives was to minimize the influence of cabinet officials, who have at times been targets of Mr. Trump’s ire, or have jostled for his ear.

After Kirstjen Nielsen, the former homeland security secretary, resigned in April, Mr. Trump met with Mr. Kobach about the possibility of succeeding her. Mr. Kobach, according to people familiar with the meeting, brought with him a detailed and plan to crack down on asylum seekers entering the country. He told Mr. Trump that the only way for him to complete the mission was to be able to fly down to the border at a moment’s notice.

Apparently having grown fed up with Kobach and his absurd demands, the NY Times reported this afternoon that Trump game the job to another xenophobic maniac, Ken Cuccinelli, a failed Virginia Republican extremist. I wish I could report that McTurtle was so distraught that he committed suicide but, so far, not reports about how he's taking the potentially disastrous news.

Why Did The Working Families Party Push Anti-Choice, Anti-LGBTQ, AIPAC-Supported Jumaane Williams On Progressives?

by Patty Murphy


Jumaane Williams, the NYC Councilman with a checkered progressive record is running for his third office this year and appears to have cut a deal with WFP to get there.

You may recall, no electeds were willing to challenge Gov. Cuomo, out of fear of retribution this year. After considerable pushback from its progressive base, some of whom felt the party betrayed them over the years, the Working Families Party split from Cuomo and lost almost all its union funding. WFP backed Cynthia Nixon and Jumaane Williams, even though pro-choice activist and self-described queer, Cynthia Nixon, resisted endorsing Williams until a few weeks before the election (which many speculate is because of his bad record on LGBTQ and choice issues, unaired personal issues, as well as conflicts between the campaigns).

While Cynthia Nixon was tirelessly campaigning across the state-- leaving no communities out of her strategy-- Jumaane Williams never made it to the 2nd largest African American region in NYC (South East Queens), and as a result lost it to a conservative white woman named Kathy Hochul, from Buffalo. Williams is touting his “success” in the LGs race-- a very different race-- as a qualifier for NYC Public Advocate. But the politics are different. Williams was a protest vote. The Public Advocate’s race is made up of at least 7 qualified candidates from NYC, many from his borough of Brooklyn and many who have a much more progressive record than Williams. Furthermore, Williams needs to reach a fundraising threshold in NYC to receive matching funds, and has shown to be a bad fundraiser and takes special interest and corporate money. With actual competition, this makes him a weak candidate. But let's discuss how he’s bad on issues.

Williams is known for showing up in photo opps and at protests when press arrives, but just how progressive is he? And why would WFP put its reputation on the line with a candidate who is verifiably not progressive?

The Deal: WFP cut a deal to support Jumaane Williams in Public Advocate's race in exchange for their own institutional interests. Williams would not get off the WFP line in November, but WFP had made a deal with Governor Cuomo to give him the line for the general election. The only way Williams would get off the line after losing the primary was to have WFPs support in the Public Advocate’s race just a couple weeks later. This is inherently corrupt and undemocratic.

Furthermore, WFP-- a membership organization-- had absolutely no process for candidates. WFP didn't send a questionnaire, they didn't interview, they never told candidates (many who they have worked closely with) when and how they were voting-- despite requests by candidates. They endorsed just over a week after the general election, all behind closed doors with political leadership who have separate motives. Given the issues with Jumaane’s record, it's pretty shocking that they would put themselves out there with such a vulnerable and non-progressive candidate who has a tough race. it is a crowded left field, with at least three African American candidates as of now, 2-3 from Brooklyn alone and unions will either stay out or will be split.

But, more importantly-- this is an Independent nonpartisan special election where parties cannot get involved. If progressives only follow the rules when it doesn’t serve their self interests then we will never be able to build a stronger democracy. It is very clearly against the rules stated in the charter for a political party to work with candidates in this race. And the Campaign Finance Board of NYC is very strict.

WFP has also latched onto progressive groups to use them for field and petitioning, as their funding and own field efforts have suffered severely in recent years. So forced affiliate groups like NYPAN to undemocratically endorse. These groups are being called out for bias and may lose other progressive support.

AIPAC: Just last week, Jumaane Williams went to an AIPAC event, taking pictures with its political director. When called out, Williams’ message was about meeting with everyone. In the photos, he wore a “stay woke” button with his AIPAC badge, against the AIPAC backdrop, with its leadership. At a recent DSA endorsement meeting, his response over AIPAC was stating he has debated Mort Zuckerman on TV.

REAL ESTATE MONEY: Despite promising to not take real estate money in his LGs race, to receive DSA endorsement, Williams not only took over $30,000 from a major real estate developer family, he won’t give it back. When pressed, he says “he doesn’t know who the donors are.” The Ratners are one of the most well known political donors in NYC and developed the Barclays center and pushed for rezoning for major development in the area of Brooklyn. Bruce Ranter is known as a paid-to-play real estate developer. This is a controversial issue-- and a family that has an entire political office devoted to giving donations to politicians in exchange for favors. It’s highly unlikely the Ratners gave money to an anti-Cuomo candidate without cutting a deal with him for something in advance. Which is probably why Jumaane has resisted giving the donations back.

CHOICE & LGBTQ issues: Williams’ personal opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion lost him his first run for City Council Speaker in 2013 and again this year when he ran for Speaker. Receiving LGBTQ groups push back, Williams abstained from a bill in 2014 to allow transgender people to change sex on their birth certificate. In progressive New York City, it is unheard of-- even with Republicans-- to be anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ (whether personal or not).

IRRESPONSIBLE-- 27 SCHOOL ZONE SPEEDING TICKETS IN 5 YEARS: Williams earned 27 speeding tickets in school zones in 5 years, 18 tickets of which were in the last 2 years. He was the only Democrat to vote AGAINST lowering the speed limit in NYC. (As a side note: this is one of the biggest reasons why Republican Sen. Marty Golden lost his Senate seat to Andrew Gounardes-- winning the Democrats control of the NYS Senate.)

CORRUPTION: Williams hired his friend, rapper, Kristofer Bain to work on his council campaign, then in his office. Soon after, Williams sent $60,000 in city funds to a nonprofit Bain left to work for. Bain and Williams also were investors in a restaurant that went under, where taxes are still owed.

BAD LANDLORD, BUT CLAIMS TO BE TENANTS RIGHTS ACTIVIST? Williams claims to be a tenants rights activist but also has evicted many of his tenants for being late on rent or short $300, further unleashing lawyers on the tenants demanding they also pay late fees and legal fees.

URGED AMAZON TO MAKE NYC DEAL: Williams signed a letter inviting Amazon to NYC, but now that he is being called out, he claims it was to "open a conversation” with Amazon. The letter’s language was very clear-- it urged Amazon to move to NYC. Furthermore, beyond his defense, any progressive would understand what Amazon represents and their history of these tax deals in other communities. They’ve driven up homelessness, exploited workers and killed small businesses. Progressives understand this, tax deal or not.

With a record like this, it's baffling why the WFP would line up for Jumaane Williams if it weren't for the political deal they made. If they indeed believed in Jumaane Williams, they wouldn't be lining up the political machine-- including the Brooklyn County Boss, Frank Seddio-- and would be open to having debates and sharing questionnaires.

We regret being duped by the WFP, who attempted to re-invent Jumaane Williams as a progressive when he is just another self-serving politician.

Independent progressives actually have a real choice in Nomiki Konst who has distinguished herself as an advocate for party reform and has taken on special interests and corporations as an investigative reporter. She has the intellectual capacity and the fierce independence from the political machines to truly use the office as a powerful vehicle for progressive change.