COVID Pandemic Is Expected To Surge In The Lead-Up To The Election And The Inauguration-- And Trump And His Allies Are Making It Worse, Much Worse

 

"...And I Won't Lose One Voter" by Nancy Ohanian

Although the states that have been experiencing the most new cases over the last couple of months-- California, Texas, Florida, Georgia-- have peaked and are on the downtrend (for now), other states have started peaking like mad: Wisconsin, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Utah... On Monday, CNN reported that Twenty-one states are reporting increased Covid-19 cases as experts warn of a fall surge. Madeline Holcombe and Dakin Andone wrote that "As of Sunday, the number of new coronavirus cases has increased by at least 10% or more compared to the week before in 21 states... Cases are rising in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington state, Wisconsin and Wyoming." The conclusion is that "The US could see an explosion of Covid-19 cases in the fall and winter as people exercise less caution and spend more time indoors, where there is a greater likelihood of transmission."

The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) model predicts a "huge surge" expected to take off in October "and accelerate in November and December." By late December the daily death rate will have gone from the current rate of about 765 to 3,000.

Some Trumpist governors seem to be cheerleading for COVID, none more egregiously that Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who prematurely dropped restrictions on bars and restaurants as though he were determined to see Florida's hospital system collapse by winter. CNN reported that "the mayor of Miami warned that the governor's decision to fully reopen such establishments and to limit local governments' ability to enforce their own restrictions could have devastating consequences."

"I think it's going to have a huge impact," Mayor Francis Suarez told CNN Saturday about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' decision to allow restaurants, bars and other businesses to open at full capacity and to suspend fines for all outstanding penalties issued to those who didn't follow Covid-19 restrictions-- such as not wearing a mask in public. "You know, I just don't know how many people are actually going to do it now."

...Mandating mask wearing in public and slowly reopening has helped to keep the coronavirus case count down in Miami, Suarez said. He's concerned the changes in the state are coming as flu season ramps up and schools prepare for in-person learning to begin in mid-October.

"We'll see in the next couple of weeks whether (the governor's) right about his perspective. But if he's wrong about his perspective... it's going to be very, very, very difficult for him and it's going to be a very difficult time, because it's in the middle of flu season," Suarez said.

Over the weekend, Florida surpassed 14,000 COVID deaths and breezed through the 700,000 cases mark, 32,618 cases per million Floridians. The only European country with more cases than Florida is Spain (735,198) and Florida has more than double the cases per million numbers than any European country. In fact, there is no real country in the world with a worse cases per million number.

And it isn't just Trumpist governors like DeSantis, Kristi Noem (R-SD), Billy Lee (R-TN), Mike Parson (R-MO), Brian Kemp (R-GA) Greg Abbott (R-TX), Doug Ducey (R-AZ), Henry McMaster (R-SC) and Kay Ivey (R-AL)-- not to mention the Wisconsin state legislature-- who are driving up the numbers. On Monday morning NBC reported that Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was overheard on an airplane speaking with a colleague and saying that the newest crackpot Trump put on the White House coronavirus task force, Scott Atlas, is pushing out misinformation to the public. "Everything he says is false," complained Redfield. Atlas is a neuroradiologist with no background in infectious diseases or public health but is a political ally of Trump's and is willing to push policies and narratives designed to help Trump's reelection efforts, while killing Americans.

Redfield testified before Congress this month that he suspects that a face covering could protect him from Covid-19 better than any future vaccine. Most public health officials share the view that masks are essential to stop the spread of the virus. Still, Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on how useful wearing them may be.

"If every one of us did it, this pandemic would be over in eight to 12 weeks," Redfield said before offering a stark warning that contradicted the president's assertion that the country is "rounding the corner" on the pandemic.

"We're nowhere near the end," Redfield said.

The Bill Lee Pandemic

Today, Tennessee reported 879 more COVID cases, bringing the state's total to 194,611-- 28,497 cases per million Tennesseans. Bill Lee and Trump have now killed 2,420 Tennesseans so for and there were 31 new deaths reported today, 7th worst in the U.S. But Gov. Lee is far from done. This afternoon, The Tennessean reported that he's done a Big Trumpy-- ending all coronavirus restrictions on all businesses. Public health officials, from Fauci on down have warned governors that this is a prescription for an out-of-control pandemic, likely starting in October and driving up death rates in November and December.

Fortunately, the county health departments in the state's 6 largest cities-- Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Clarksville and Murfreesboro-- will be free to ignore the sociopath and continue to set their own regulations. And speaking of sociopaths, Lee told the GOP-controlled state legislature that "I want the economy to move forward. I don't want any business to have any reason to not function as fully as they possibly can. I'm advocating for that in our big six counties, as well." There are now no limits to sizes of gatherings in bars, restaurants or anywhere else. I would urge all DWT readers to avoid Tennessee like the plague.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

 

by Noah


Rhetorical question of the day: If you were a non-Nazi and you had to vote at the Tennessee polling place shown in tonight's meme, how much confidence would you have that your vote would be counted or that you would even be allowed to vote? In civilized states, they prohibit electioneering in the immediate vicinity of polling places but whoever said Tennessee was civilized?

If there is a sign on the door that says "We reserve the right to refuse voting to you," and it looks like there probably is, I bet it's right above the sign that says "Masks Verboten-No Social Distancing. That's Socialism." If I was being prejudiced towards the people of Tennessee, I'd say something about there also being a sign that reads "People Wearing Shoes Not Welcome" but far be it from me to go there.

Tennessee and the rest of the Confederacy have a well-known long, dark track record of discouraging and even refusing Constitutionally granted voting rights. That's a track record Trump, his party and Tennessee only want to expand upon. Just look at the vast majority of people they elect to represent them; people like Masha Blackburn. Of course, the south doesn't have a total monopoly on that sort of thing, but they have proudly flaunted it and pushed the boundaries of voter intimidation and suppression as long as they have been states. It's in their DNA. Most people in Tennessee wouldn't just shrug if they saw the picture (original picture courtesy of Bradley County Democrats) of this polling place, they'd beam proudly.

To be fair, and I'm always fair, the way the Tennessee polling place depicted in the above meme is decorated doesn't literally say votes for Democrats aren't welcome but it's easy to assume that there's a hand-cranked shredder machine and a dumpster next to the hooch still out back. Not only that, but you'll be lucky if they even have a voter registration book that includes your name if you are of the non-racist, non-Nazi, and/or everything's a hoax, political persuasion. In keeping with the Tennessee habits from previous centuries, I expect there are the traditional southern jars full of jellybeans at the door and you'll be asked to guess exactly how many jellybeans are in the jar. If you guess right, you get a ballot. If not, "No ballot for you!" If you do get a ballot and fill it out, I bet they'll either dramatically whip out a cigarette lighter and burn it right in front of you or just take it to the shredder. You'd best have an escape plan too.

I do have to wonder what this building is in non-election years. Is it a Jim Crow instruction school? Is it a home to the Tennessee Museum Of Lynching? Is it some sort of Civil War Reenactment Center that features battles out front that include no Union soldiers? A Ku Klux Klan meetin' house? All of the above? This place looks exactly like a Nazi bund from the 1930s right down to those modern day blue Nazi flags.

It's Election Day in exactly 6 weeks. Wherever you live, you better have a plan to vote and give yourself the best chance of having that voted counted.

Candidate Alert: Progressive Primary Winner Heidi Campbell In Tennessee

Blue America endorsed one candidate last week in the primaries for the Tennessee state Senate, Heidi Campbell... and she won. Now she's gearing up to face Republican incumbent Steve Dickerson, the last Republican still representing a Nashville district in the state legislature. The largely suburban district wraps around Nashville like a donut with a small bite taken out of it in the southeast and includes small towns like Berry Hill, Forest Hills, Belle Meade, Goodlettsville, Ridgetop, Lakewood and Oak Hill, Campbell having been mayor of for the last 6 years. Before being elected mayor she was in the music business-- and in a band before that. The issues that have motivated her campaign include education, Medicaid expansion, criminal justice reform, LGBTQ, and immigrant rights, Black Lives Matter, Women's rights, animal rights, environmental issues, medical marijuana and legalization, getting money out of politics, and electoral reform.

This seat, SD-20, may be held by a Republican but it backed Hillary against Trump in 2016 and Bredesen against Blackburn in 2018. Because of her success as a mayor in one of the more conservative parts of the district, Campbell commands some purple support. She has already been fighting against scary legislation like the fetal heartbeat bill which illegalized abortion, and instigated a protracted legal battle. Republicans are banking on one of these bills eventually wending its way up to SCOTUS, and we need to fight hard to get Democrats like her elected to run interference. She has also told me that she intends to work hard to flip other seats once she’s elected. This is a census years and redistricting cycle. No one thinks the Tennessee Senate is going to flip from red to blue in November but replacing Dickerson with Heidi Campbell is a step in the right direction-- and will be another strong voice against GOP gerrymandering. Please read her guest post below and consider contributing to her election by clicking on the Blue America 2020 star legislative thermometer on the right and giving what you can.

Precedented Times
-by Heidi Campbell

A friend posted a meme yesterday that said “I miss precedented times”-  and at first I laughed and started to veer into the nostalgia of the Obama days, when life felt more like it was written by Aaron Sorkin than by an illiterate 13-year-old bully, but then I really started to think about what we’ve been through this past few years; the dismantling of our institutions, the bizarro alternative universe of FOX and Breitbart, and the slate-of-hate that somehow doesn’t bother at least a third of our country. I started to think about the “me too” movement, the unforgivable incarceration of immigrant families, and the criminal negligence of the government Covid response, and I realized that we must embrace this unprecedented time for the opportunity it presents.

In precedented times, we were not addressing many of the problems that have pervaded our society since our country was founded. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the systemic racism that plagues every facet of our lives. Education, affordable housing, healthcare, criminal justice, and so many other issues are so much more challenging for our African American community, and we need to say it and own it; Black Lives Matter!

I truly hope that we are in the early stages of a revolution that will bring meaningful change, and that we will elevate the voices of black leaders on this issue, and that we will learn from them about how we can work to become an anti-racist society going forward.

As a Mayor of a quasi-conservative city in a larger progressive city, I interact with people on a regular basis who believe that the statues of confederate generals in our cities are important historical monuments that should be protected. I live in a city that has streets named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Robert. E. Lee. I worked for three years on a multi-modal path down a major artery in my city, and was confronted by a group of angry neighbors who told me that it would bring “the wrong sorts of people” into our city.

As a state senator, I will proudly and full-throatedly add my voice to the rising chorus of people across our nation who are saying that this is not acceptable anymore. We must do all that we can to make sure that this is not a precedented time, and we must fight to get others elected who will do the same.

Out Of The Blue-- The REAL Blue-- Marquita Bradshaw

Tennessee is one of the reddest states in the union. Every statewide elected official is a Republican. The state Senate consists of 28 Republicans and 5 Democrats and the state House has 73 Republicans and 26 Dems. Of the 9 members of Congress, there are 7 Republicans, a Democrat representing strongly blue Memphis and a reactionary Blue Dog so far right in Nashville that the Republicans aren't bothering to even run anyone against him. In 2016, Trump beat Hillary 1,517,402 (61.1%) to 867,110 (34.9%), winning 92 of the state's 95 counties.

Tennessee is the most recent state to cross the 100,000 confirmed COVID cases mark. Thursday, the state reported 2,252 new cases, the 5th worst in the country, behind California, Florida, Texas and Georgia and yesterday the state added another 2,432 new cases, bringing the state total to 118,782 (17,393 cases per Tennessean). Gov, Bill Lee is an anti-mask ideologue and seems determined that thousands of Tennesseans die needlessly. 42 more deaths were reported Thursday and another 20 yesterday, bringing the state total to a rapidly increasing 1,206. How many Tennesseans will have to die before voters there abandon Trump and Lee and knee-jerk, death-cult conservatism?

Thursday's primaries included a complete shock in the Democratic Senate race. Despite Schumer's handpicked candidate, James Mackler, having raised $2,112,630, the results clearly showed that Tennessee Democrats are moving away from wealthy white establishment conservatives. (In 2018 another open red Senate seat saw Schumer push Mackler out of the primary so another wealthy white establishment conservative, Phil Bredesen could waltz into the nomination. Bredensen spent $19,271,700, only to be defeated by the odious far right extremist Marsha Blackburn, who spent about $3 million less than Bredesen. The DSCC spent just over a million helping Bredesen but the Schumer-controlled Majority Forward PAC spent $10 million, most of it ineffectively smearing Blackburn, their biggest expense of the 2018 cycle. She beat him 54.7% to 43.9%. Mackler then started a scammy PAC, Believe in Service, that benefitted no one but himself:

Thursday, Mackler came in a distant third, two African-American women beating him decisively. The more progressive of the two, and the most under-financed, Marquita Bradshaw, won the nomination and will face far right Bill Hagerty-- Trump's candidate-- in November after his own bitterly vicious and divisive Republican Party primary.

Her platform helps explain why: I support Medicare for All.

As your Senator, I will fight to ensure Tennesseans going bankrupt from seeking needed Medical Care is a thing of the past. Having experienced that in my own life, I know what it's like to have to suffer through our current system.

Medicare For All is a good place to start, and I commit to you I will only advocate for legislation that is patient-centered.

I want our system of healthcare to be guided by the health outcomes and experience of patients, not insurance company profits. Fundamentally changing our healthcare system in Tennessee means:

• Fighting for legislation that guarantees when you go to the doctor, you will not leave with a bill that will bankrupt your family.
• Simplifying our system of healthcare in this country. Working families in Tennessee don't have time to worry about copays, deductibles, insurance premiums, and the never-ending list of things that keep you from getting care.
• Including mental, dental, vision, comprehensive reproductive health and addiction wrap-around services help into every conversation and legislation about healthcare. Tennesseeans are having to choose between paying for their medical needs or their mortgages in many cases. This is not right. I will fight for you & your family as hard as I do my own.

I Support the Right to A Fully Funded High-Quality Public Education

Our society demands that we teach our students lifelong learning and skills that will translate to a modern economy. I am a lifelong proponent of funding our education system the same as we do our military in order to promote generations of meaningful success regardless of background or location in Tennessee.

We need meaningful ingenuity on how we teach and treat our children, Pre-K - 12 and beyond, to ensure Tennessee is the leader in the coming generations. To ensure everyone not only meets but exceeds their right to a quality education we must:

• Relieve current student debt and reinstate protections from predatory for-profit student debt companies and colleges. We cannot invest in our youth if they are burdened with tens of thousands of dollars by the time they graduate. A Tennessee economy with that built into it is not sustainable.
• Provide funding available to under-resourced and low performing local education authorities to implement appropriate wrap-around services to set students up for success
• Provide quality childcare and school wrap-around services that support working families in economically depressed communities.
• Fund universal pre-K education giving children the foundation to be lifelong learners.
• Build towards a free technical, community, HBCU, and public college education;  expand grants and work-study options in areas of focus so students can complete their studies debt-free and gain skills in their field of choice.
• Provide education and job training programs to re-skill workers

I Support the Green New Deal

I Support A Living Wage And Workers' Rights

I Support Community Policing, Restorative Justice And Signed The Justice Guarantee Pledge

I Support Universal Background Checks

Very clear-- very much a set of Democratic Party values, not the values of the corporatist neo-libs who have taken over the party establishment and who make the boundaries between the GOP and the Democratic Party fuzzy. She also supports DACA, LGBTQ rights, automatic voter registration, overturning the Citizens United decision and outlawing gerrymandering.

A single mom, a Berniecrat, a community advocate for environmental justice, she's exactly the kind of woman Schumer doesn't want anywhere near the Senate. She joins Paula Jean Swearengin as one of the two challengers for Senate seats endorsed by Blue America-- but not Chuck Schumer-- for the general election. You want fundamental change? That's what clicking on that thermometer on the right will help give us a chance at in November.

Republicans Are Giving Themselves COVID-19 In Mississippi And Tennessee

The two without masks both contracted COVID-19. One is the Mississippi House Speaker and the other is the Lt. Gov-- and, of course, they're both Trumpists

Tennessee is an overwhelmingly Republican state. All statewide elected officials are Republicans. The state Senate has 28 Republicans and 5 Democrats and the state House has 73 Republicans and 26 Democrats. Both U.S. senators are Republicans-- one a vaguely mainstream conservative and the other a full-on fascist. Only two of their nine members of Congress are Democrats, one representing Nashville and one representing Memphis. The Republicans in the state legislature have drawn up plans to split Nashville up between several red districts and eliminate a safe Democratic seat.

The governor, Bill Lee, is a far right Trumpist and he has refused-- even as Tennessee's pandemic has spiraled out of control-- to issue a statewide mask mandate. 9 of the 10 most populated counties-- Davidson (Nashville), Shelby (Memphis), Knox, Hamilton, Rutherford, Williamson, Montgomery, Sumner and Wilson have mask mandates, as do a handful of smaller counties. 7 crackpot counties where most people marry their siblings have announced there will be no mask mandates. The percentage next to the counties' names is the 2016 Trump win score:

• Cheatham- 71.4%
• Dickson- 71.0%
• Maury- 67.8%
• Putnam- 70.4%
• Hickman- 73.2%
• Marshall- 71.6%

Just sayin'.

Tennessee reported 2,553 new cases yesterday and another 2,555 today bringing the state's total to 99,004. They will likely cross the 100,000 mark tomorrow. There are 14,503 cases per million Tennesseans. The state is expected to see it's 1,000 death this weekend.

Yesterday, The Tennessean reported that in the state legislature there are now 10 members and staffers who have COVID. Kent Calfee, a Kingston Republican, was the first to contract it, about two weeks ago. His wife also has it.

Unlike the legislature, Gov. Bill Lee's administration is refusing to provide positive case totals to the public.

A spokesman for the governor declined to answer The Tennessean's questions about how many employees in the executive branch, including the governor's office, and people working at the state Capitol have tested positive for COVID-19.

...Earlier this year, a member of Lee's senior staff had to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19.

The administration's refusal to release such information comes months after state officials initially rejected calls to provide county-level COVID-19 fatality data, citing federal health privacy laws. The administration ultimately reversed course and began releasing the data.

Although Lee has expressed his support for open government and transparency, his administration has frequently rejected requests for public records, citing "deliberative process" and "executive privilege."

The rise in cases in the legislature comes as COVID-19 has reached record levels in Tennessee in recent weeks and as the governor and lawmakers hope to hold a special session, potentially in August, to take up coronavirus liability protections for businesses.

The Tennessean also reported (last night) that Dr. Deborah Birx went to Tennessee yesterday and personally appealed to Gov. Lee to shut the state's bars down. He refused. "It is at this very moment," she said, "where we could change the trajectory of the epidemic before it goes into full… of what we call logarithmic spread, as we’ve seen across the South."

Earlier this month, it was reported that the Mississippi legislature-- where mask-wearing is considered something only Democrats do-- 26 legislators are sick with the coronavirus. the governor, Tate Reeves (R), has warned the public to get tested for coronavirus if they have been in contact with a state lawmaker. Many politicians flouted recommendations to wear a mask inside the Capitol in recent weeks. Now, about one in six of Mississippi state lawmakers have tested positive for the coronavirus."

The leaders of both chambers-- Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann-- have tested positive for coronavirus. On Wednesday, the Enterprise Journal reported that Rep. Sam Mims, R-McComb, had tested positive for coronavirus. Mims chairs the House Public Health Committee.

...Reeves said at a press conference it would be too dangerous for lawmakers to come back to Jackson within the next two week to "that fishbowl of the Mississippi Capitol."

Opposition Research by Nancy Ohanian

Mississippi is worse off than Tennessee, running out of ICU rooms and unable to care for sick people. There are 18,245 cases per million Mississippians, 6th worst in the country. They added 1,342 new cases today bringing the small state's total to 54,299. There is no statewide mask mandate, although several counties have them because, you know, COVID-19 respects borders between counties. The far right loon of a governor says he won't issue a mask mandate statewide because that might discourage people from wearing them. No, he really said that.

Nine hospitals in the state were without any open ICU beds Monday as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter Mississippi, and Reeves has been imploring Mississippians to wear masks while in public.

Reeves has ordered mask mandates in some-- but not all-- counties and has said his executive orders regarding social distancing are difficult to enforce. He has put the responsibility on individual Mississippians to make safe decisions.

"I know a lot of you think we can snap our finger and all of a sudden 100% of the people will comply and everything will be great," Reeves said at a Monday press conference.

But Reeves said the opposite might be true.

"If you live in Tishomingo County and there’s a statewide mask mandate you can’t help but say, 'Well, that’s probably for those folks in Hancock County,'" Reeves said. "If you put a statewide mandate, the folks in Hancock County are going to say, 'That’s for the folks up in Tishomingo County, they can’t possibly be talking about me.'"

...The Mississippi State Medical Association, an organization of nearly 5,000 doctors and medical students, called for a statewide mask mandate two weeks ago, saying early data shows face coverings significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Reeves, too, wants every Mississippian to wear a mask, but said the messaging and reasoning behind his orders is more important than the order itself.

"We have to be very smart about convincing Mississippians that wearing a mask is the right thing to do. Now, keep in mind that back in March, the World Health Organization and a lot of otherwise really smart people said that wearing a mask would do you no good," Reeves said. "And so that being the case, there's a segment of our population that is naturally skeptical that this or any other measure will actually have any effect on the spread of the virus."

Maybe the governor knows his citizens better than anyone else. After all...

Keeda Haynes: "It Is Time For Change And I Am That Change."

Tennessee is spiking really badly right now. An anti-mask governor and legislature have given the state 59,546 COVID cases-- including 1,955 new cases on Friday, 1,460 new cases on Saturday-- and a rapidly rising 8,933 cases per million Tennesseans. The governor, Bill Lee is a clueless Trump fanatic, refuses to mandate masks and the Tennessee General Assembly... well, the state Senate has 5 Democrats and 28 Republicans and the state House has 26 Dems and 73 Republicans-- obviously a full-fledged chapter of the Trump Southern Death Cult.





They're not worried about the pandemic overwhelming Tennessee hospitals; they're worried about maintaining a memorial to savage mass murderer and KKK first Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest in the state capitol where they can all admire it everyday and be infused with its Fort Pillow Massacre inspiration. A friend of mine in the legislature tells me they're also plotting the next state gerrymander. With a very good chance that conservative Blue Dog (and proto-Republican) Jim Cooper is going to be defeated by Keeda Haynes, the Fort Pillow Massacre fans intend to eliminate TN-05 (basically the strongly blue city of Nashville and its suburbs) by dividing it up among several Republican districts, exactly what Tom DeLay did to Austin.





Why would they suddenly do this to Nashville? Look closely-- Keeda is a woman; Keeda is progressive; Keeda is African American... and not likely to celebrate the Fort Pillow Massacre with them... or wink and look the other way as some conservative Southern Democrats do.

"I believe that those of us that are closest to the problem are closest to the solution," Keeda told me recently. "I understand and have personal experience with a lot of these issues that we are now demanding be changed in the criminal justice system. Experiencing and seeing these disparities first hand, I personally wrote Jim Cooper a letter regarding the various issues and volunteered to work with him and other members of Congress to address these issues. He met with me but did nothing about these issues. That was over 4 years ago, when he had the opportunity to be on the forefront of criminal justice reform and to fight for our community and our issues and not when it became 'popular' to do so. Nashville deserves better than this. We need a leader who understands the issues the community is facing and will actually lead when it comes to those issues."

As a former public defender, Keeda has fought against all of these racist laws, policies and procedures in the criminal justice system from the wealth based detention-- known as money bail-- to sentencing laws that disproportionately impact black and brown communities. She told that when police officers strip searched her client on the side of the road, when they kicked her client in the face and lied about it; when they profiled her Black and Hispanic clients just to make traffic stops, she filed grievances and complaints against police offers to ensure police accountability, and she has advocated with the community and voted for the police oversight board in Nashville. Fighting systemic racism isn’t new to Keeda. For her this is personal. "Accountability and Justice," she has been saying for a very long time, "are long overdue." Here's what she said Saturday:

None of us can deny that a shift is happening in our country right now. And to move our country and the conversations forward, we need someone who has always been fighting to dismantle systemic racism in every area and that brings passion and determination to that fight.

To see the change that we want to see, we must acknowledge that our current leadership, as nice and as respected as he may be, doesn’t fit this moment and can’t help move our community and country forward.

For the past 57 years in this district, we have been represented by 5 wealthy white men… Richard Fulton, Clifford Allen, Bill Boner, Bob Clement to our current representative Jim Cooper, who has been in this seat since 2003. This can no longer work for us.

This election allows us the opportunity to actually have someone that is more representative of who we in this district, someone that will actually be a leader and passionately fight for our issues and that will make sure that our voices are heard and that we have a seat at the table.

It is time that we had a Black person representing us in this district, it is time that we had a female U.S. Representative from the state of TN and it is time that we had someone elected to Congress with a felony on their record.

It is time for change and I am that change.

There are a lot of reasons to support Keeda-- the issues she's running on; her strength of character; to combat systemic racism; to combat gerrymandering-- and believe me, if the Fort Pillow Massacre legislature tries getting rid of her, this will be a case that will wind up in the Supreme Court. Please consider turning that support into a financial contribution. Early voting is just getting started in her race and she has a lot of ground to cover when it comes to getting her message out. The Blue America "Primary A Blue Dog" thermometer on the right will take you to a page where you can watch her campaign video and, if you want to, contribute to that campaign.

New Blue America Congressional Endorsement-- In Nashville, Tennessee

People seem surprised when they find out that Nashville is a Democratic city and that Tennessee's 5th congressional district is safely blue. Obama won the district both times he ran. In 2016 Trump took just 38.2% of the vote- and in Davidson County (Nashville), he only got 34.3%). In 2018, Davidson County backed Democrats in both the gubernatorial race and the U.S. Senate race-- and performed at a D+43 level to reelect longtime incumbent Jim Cooper 177,923 (67.8%) to 84,317 (32.2%). Virtually all of Nashville's elected officials are Democrats including the mayor (John Cooper-- Jim Cooper's brother and their father was a former Tennessee governor) and the 10 state Reps.

TN-05 has a solid PVI of D+7, but Cooper is a Blue Dog, best known for his conservative politics. When he was first elected, in 1982, Nashville wasn't part of his rural district but he gave up that district to run, unsuccessfully, for the U.S. Senate and when the Nashville district opened up, he spent nearly a million dollars of his family's money to buy the seat. He's never had a serious challenger since then. Republicans are happy with his conservative politics and Democrats have been afraid to challenge him in a primary.

Until now! Meet Keeda Haynes, a top-notch progressive reformer who vigorously backs Medicare-For-All, the Green New Deal, a $15 living wage, a national cap on rent and home price increases, top to bottom student loan reform, H.R. 40 (Sheila Jackson Lee's bill to set up a reparations commission), marijuana legalization, a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented individuals currently living in the U.S., competitive prescription drug costs and a whole platform built on solid progressive positions. This week, Blue America has endorsed Keeda and I asked her to introduce herself with a guest post-- and the brand new video directly below-- in the hope that everyone else would be as impressed as I was when I've been speaking with her by phone over the last couple of weeks. Please consider contributing to her campaign by clicking on the 2020 Blue America Primary-A-Blue-Dog thermometer on the right. This is a very special candidate who would make an extraordinary member of Congress. Please dig as deep as you feel comfortable digging!





I Am That Change
-by Keeda Haynes

Many Americans recently have recoiled in horror at the filmed slaying of 25-year-old, African-American Ahmaud Arbery by two vigilantes in Glynn County, Georgia. Another tragedy of epic proportions also occurred in Louisville when police officers-- without knocking and announcing their presence-- fatally shot 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, an emergency room tech, to death. Sadly, the cases of Ahmaud Armery and Breonna Taylor are not isolated incidents in the United States of America. They are pristine examples of a criminal justice system that too often disrespects and devalues the lives of African-Americans and other persons of color.

But, beyond these high-profile killings of African-Americans, countless millions languish away in prison, shackled by a criminal justice system that locks them away and throws away the key. It’s what Michelle Alexander has called the New Jim Crow-- the systematic oppression of entire groups of people. The human toll of mass incarceration takes on many shapes and forms and no longer can we turn a blind eye to it.

Many care little for our prisoners, assuming a person is in prison because of their criminal conduct. But a prison sentence should not be a death sentence…but that is what it has turned into for the hundreds of inmates that have died in custody due to the coronavirus. They were someone’s father, mother, sister, brother, daughter or son and their lives had value. Our prison population is one of the most vulnerable and they deserve to be protected.

When I sat on the top bunk of my 3x8 prison cubicle in Alderson, West Virginia, looking back over the range at 100 other women, recently sentenced to seven years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit, I thought to myself” what if I die here.” The possibility of that happened back in 2003 wasn’t nearly as possible as it is today. Having served nearly four years in federal prison for a crime I did not commit, I know that fear, confusion and frustration that many incarcerated individuals are feeling right now. Only through my faith did I persevere and emerge from prison an even stronger individual, hell-bent on devoting my life to public service and fighting for those in need.

After my release in 2006, I went to law school, passed the bar exam, and became a public defender in Nashville, Tennessee. I advocated in the trenches for those society has considered the least of these amongst us. Every day in the courtroom, I knew the difficulties my clients faced because I had sat in their shoes and felt those same feelings of desperation.

Now, my public service has taken a different direction after working as a public defender for the past six and a half years, but my fight, passion and determination remain. I am running for Congress in TN-05 and I will take the same level of passion and determination to Washington to advocate on behalf of the community of District 5. I will stand alongside the community, fighting daily for access to quality health care, affordable housing and criminal justice reform. I will provide them with equitable access in government decision making and will make sure their voices are heard.

Armaud Arbery shouldn’t have been killed while jogging. Breonna Stewart shouldn’t have been killed in her sleep. Hundreds should not have died in jails and prisons. I shouldn’t have served nearly four years in prison for a crime I did not commit.

It is time that we in TN-05 have someone in Congress that understands that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world; that mass incarceration disproportionally affects black, brown and low- income communities; and, that we need to address the racist policies and procedures that have caused this large disparity.

It is time for change in Congress. I am that change.

Will Governor Gavin Newsom Drag California Off The Same Corona Cliff That Bill Lee Is Dragging Tennessee Off?

Clueless Tennessee Trumpist, Governor Bill Lee, was eager for his state to lead the way... to mass graves. So just as his lax policies on social distancing started a steepening of the curve, he decided to... open up for business! Tennessee had 11,891 confirmed cases on Friday, up 1,156 new cases since Thursday. On Thursday there were 1,614 cases per million. One day later that had changed to 1,788. That is exactly what a steepening of the curve means. And it means that even if Tennessee's Republican Party wasn't forcing new infections by opening up too fast, it would mean an increasing number of deaths in June and July. Tennessee-- along with Florida, Georgia, Iowa, the Dakotas, Indiana, Mississippi and Nebraska will be the center of the contagion this summer.

Politico reported that, worse yet, "States like Georgia, Texas and Colorado have begun lifting stay-at-home orders without a robust army of public health workers to quickly identify people who’ve come into contact with coronavirus patients, worrying health experts that they could be at heightened risk for a new wave of infections." These moron governors are "erasing weeks of progress made in slowing the virus" because they're opening despite their states not having an extensive system for identifying patients and tracing their contacts. "The number of contact tracers states need depends on factors like infection rates, testing availability and population density. But those moving to relax restrictions have far fewer contact tracers per capita than many of those remaining locked down for at least a few more weeks... The governors in states with sparser contact tracing programs said dire unemployment numbers have left them little choice, but to begin gradually sending people back to work while case counts still grow, even if it means reopening before they can fully bolster public health measures. They say weeks of unprecedented shutdowns have ensured their health care systems won’t be overrun if coronavirus cases creep upward, and they can move swiftly to reimpose lockdown orders should new hot spots emerge."

That would be more true of states that had real-- or at least quasi-real-- lockdowns like New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. The states we have to worry about are the ones like Tennessee. Fox News reported that the verifiably insane U.S. senator, Marsha Blackburn "says she thinks her state is 'doing very well with the reopening,' despite those who say businesses should remain closed. 'We have heard from so many people that say, We were ready for this. We wanted to go back to work. Our businesses are being incredibly careful,' Blackburn told Fox News. 'I have been very impressed with how the business owners are talking about having PPE [personal protective equipment] that is necessary for their employees.' Even with less than satisfactory COVID-19 numbers, the senator still believes that people will continue to do all that they can to ensure their own safety." She's a sociopath and an ignoramus. And many people will not do the right thing-- and will then spread it through the community.

Some medical experts are predicting a “second wave” of the coronavirus and say states that reopen too soon could possibly be the force behind that wave. When asked whether or not Tennessee would shut down again if new waves broke out, Blackburn said she believes her state will not have to.

“I think that my state is going to be one of those that does not have to revisit this. We have done a very good job of working through the quarantines. People have followed the CDC recommendations, they are taking so many precautions to reopen places of business,” Blackburn told Fox News.

To those who criticize Tennessee’s reopening, Blackburn had this to say:

“You've got a choice. You can bet on hope or you can get bet on fear. And I think this is one where the American people are willing to bet on hope and they are going to find a way to make this work. We overcome obstacles. We are innovators, and we are going to find a way to live and work and prosper and to deal with a coronavirus.”

To be honest, though, I'm more worried about California than I am about Tennessee. The governor, Gavin Newsom, is a full-on neoliberal corporate whore. He takes a lot of credit that he doesn't deserve for shutting down the state. Like Cuomo, Newsom resisted calls to shut down and, in fact, the 6 Bay Area counties told him to go fuck off and shut down before he acted. When he saw how much better they were doing that the rest of the state, he followed. Same with L.A.'s mayor, Eric Garcetti.

Friday, the neo-lib governor said state officials are "very, very close to making some announcements" that will be very meaningful to people in the retail and hospitality industries, including restaurants, although modifications will be in place. He said "it will be days, not weeks" before California joins Tennessee on the highway to hell. Newsom is buckling to pressure from corporate powers who want to economy up and running. He's all hot air and no guts/no brains.

California has come through this fairly well, although lately the worst indicator has been ticking up every day-- the number cases per million. A week or so ago it was less than a thousand; today it it rapidly approaching 1,400. This is no time to open up. All Californians' good work will be wasted. Newsom is playing dangerous game.

Gov. Bill Lee Embraces Death For Tennessee

As Señor Trumpanzee spent Monday morning frustrated at being shut out of his own pandemic briefings and rage-tweeting instead, people were reading accounts of more Trumpists demanding their rights to steepen the curve and kill the rest of us. Covering the dangerous sociopaths in Wisconsin, Holly Bailey wrote that "Like other protests here and in other states in recent days, attendees defied the advice of health-care professionals, who have urged social distancing. They stood shoulder to shoulder, many without masks or face coverings that officials say could prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The rally highlighted the growing political rift over how and when states should reopen businesses in the wake of the coronavirus and covid-19, the disease it causes, a contagion that has infected more than 950,000 Americans and killed over 54,000."

Wisconsin has 6,081 confirmed cases, which should be read as 1,052 cases per million, a number than has been steadily creeping up since the Republicans in the state legislature forced in-person voting on the state earlier this month. Tennessee is worse off-- 9,918 confirmed cases or 1,491 cases per million. But Tennessee has a crackpot governor, Bill Lee (R), who has decided-- with the acquiescence of the Republican-controlled state legislature-- to reopen the state's restaurants yesterday. Sunday's jump in new cases-- 478-- is "the highest number of new cases recorded in one day so far in the state... The increase marks the fifth consecutive day where the day-over-day rate increase has been more than 5%." Retail stores will be allowed to open tomorrow.

Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville will ignore the crackpot governor and set their own timetables for reopening businesses based on local conditions rather than right-wing ideology.

Under the state's plan, restaurants are asked to require employees to wear gloves and masks, use disposable menus, have a maximum of six people per table and limit overall occupancy to 50% capacity.

The state has asked restaurants not to have live music and to keep their bar areas closed. Restaurants are also asked to clean all front-of-house surfaces every two hours and halt any buffets, shared condiments or beverage stations.

The plan encourages restaurants to screen customers with "basic questions" about COVID-19 symptoms. 

No live music? That's actually a good idea. A report last week by T.A. Frank in Vanity Fair noted that singing is a way to infect people. "Enclosed spaces in which people raise their voices together have time and again proven to be the sites of major outbreaks," he wrote. "In Daegu, South Korea, members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus crowd together, embrace, and shout 'Amen' throughout an hours-long service, and one person is believed to have infected hundreds of others that way. A funeral in Albany, Georgia, at which people embraced and 'belted out hymns,' according to Ellen Barry in the New York Times, infected dozens. Hundreds of cases are believed to have emanated from an après-ski restaurant and bar in Ischgl, a resort town in Austria... Why is singing significant? One 2019 study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports found that 'the rate of particle emission during normal human speech is positively correlated with the loudness (amplitude) of vocalization.' It also found that 'a small fraction of individuals behaves as speech superemitters, consistently releasing an order of magnitude more particles than their peers.' In its review of the literature, it also offered wild (at least to this author) facts like this: Saying 'aah' for 30 seconds releases more micron-scale particles than does 30 seconds of coughing. That may be why weddings and funerals and birthday parties and church services of all sorts have been central to outbreak anecdotes. As for drinking establishments, a quiet pub with a bit of space between customers probably isn’t going to see a lot of people infected at once. But a rowdy spot in the Alps? A lot of infections. Shared vocalization is a magical thing in normal times, but these are coronavirus times. Even a cough-along is looking safer than a sing-along."





As long as we're talking about that Vanity Fair report and leaving Tennessee to its own devices, turns out you have to work hard to catch COVID-19 out of doors. "Coronavirus transmission is an indoor phenomenon that works in mysterious ways," wrote Frank. "Outdoor transmission, on the other hand, is a rarity. One impressive Chinese study, still in the preprint phase, examined 320 cities in China for every outbreak affecting three or more people. Not one was found to have occurred outdoors. Had the authors delved into two-person outbreaks, it still wouldn’t have changed much. Only one of out of the 7,324 cases fit the bill. In a village in Henan province, note the authors, a '27-year-old man had a conversation outdoors with an individual who had returned from Wuhan on 25 January and had the onset of symptoms on 1 February.' Even in that case, the people in question may have touched, shaken hands, or gotten very close for a long time... Based on the evidence we have so far, you’re less likely to get the coronavirus outside than you are to die inside from falling, poisoning yourself, or choking, all of which start to look tempting amid all the mindless restrictions on fresh-air activity. Absent compelling evidence for the benefits of joyless outdoor life, let people stroll (even sit!) on the beach, play some tennis, or throw a Frisbee back and forth. They’ll kill no one."

Georgia, South Carolina And Tennessee vs Argentina

Yesterday afternoon, three gubernatorial fools-- gubers for short-- announced that they're prematurely opening their states up for the pandemic-- although none of their states were very closed down to begin with. The 3 imbeciles are Brian Kemp (R-GA), Bill Lee (R-TN) and Henry McMaster (R-SC). Let's start by looking at some numbers-- total cases and cases per million.

• Georgia- 18,947 (1,840 per million)
• Tennessee- 7,238 (1,088 per million)
• South Carolina- 4,377 (883 per million)

Remember those numbers, because by Memorial Day weekend they're all going to be much higher. On Good Morning America yesterday, Dr. Fauci made it clear that this is a big mistake that will steepen the curve and cause the nation's efforts to banish the pandemic to slow down. He said that "this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics, from the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus... unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not gonna happen. So what you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re gonna set yourself back... it’s gonna backfire. That’s the problem."




Wire Train was a band on my indie label, 415 Records. The original drummer, was Federico Gil-Sola, a kid from Argentina, who has since moved back there. Last night he suggested I read a piece in The Nation by Jacob Sugarman about how Argentina is handling the pandemic, Argentina Is Showing the World What a Humane Covid-19 Response Looks Like. "In December of 2019," wrote Sugarman, "the Peronist-progressive coalition party Frente de Todos (Everyone’s Front) swept into power after four years of neoliberal mismanagement. Now that it had begun enacting a social democratic agenda, against the backdrop of an unprecedented public health crisis, the forces of reaction were making their voices heard. Indeed, their demonstration began shortly after Minister of Labor Claudio Moroni ordered the country’s largest steel manufacturer, Techint, to pause the firing of 1,450 temporary workers. (President Alberto Fernández has since issued an emergency decree banning layoffs for a period of two months.) “Muchachos, les tocó la hora de ganar menos,” Fernández told the country’s business leaders at the time. “Boys, it’s time for you to earn less.”

Herein lies the challenge not just for Argentina but also for countless other liberal democracies across the West. While the outlines of our global crisis are only beginning to emerge, it is clear that Covid-19 demands that these nations reimagine the role of the state after decades of free-market hegemony. New possibilities have presented themselves that seemed unimaginable as recently as February. Even the editorial board of the Financial Times recently conceded that more radical reforms like a wealth tax and a universal basic income will have to be put on the table. Fernández, whose conservative predecessor, Mauricio Macri, reduced the Minister of Health to a non-cabinet position, understands this intuitively, implementing a pandemic response that, if not offering an exemplar for the Americas, stands in stark contrast to the region’s more overtly authoritarian regimes.

“I was concerned that the Argentine state apparatus wouldn’t be up to the task, but the response [has been] good,” says Marcelo Leiras, a political scientist and adviser to Argentina’s minister of the interior, Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro. “The Minister of Health [Ginés González García], at the beginning, thought that this epidemic would not strongly effect Argentina. For good reasons, I think. We didn’t know how contagious this thing was. The president was wise enough to widen his circle of advisers and heed the most prudent, conservative advice. He was [also] bold in choosing a strong quarantine policy, which in economic terms was incredibly risky.”

“We have to keep in mind how inarticulate the international response has been to the [coronavirus],” he adds. “It’s reflective of the political disarray of the West in domestic and international terms. I think the president sensed that and reacted very quickly and consistently.”

Whereas U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have abdicated responsibility for their nations’ pandemic responses, with each openly flouting epidemiologists and sniping at the governors of their respective states and provinces, Fernández issued a nationwide shelter-in-place order on March 20. At the time, Argentina had only 128 official cases nationwide, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. As with the Argentinian president’s prior decisions to close the country’s borders and place visitors from global hot spots in a two-week quarantine, the aim was simple: to flatten the curve before a swell in cases could overwhelm the country’s latticework of trade union clinics, public hospitals, and private health care providers. It is far too early to call the measures a success, but early returns suggest that they are working. Infections have come in well below initial projections, and as of April 12, Argentina’s death rate stood at two per 1 million habitants. Chile’s, by contrast, was four, and Brazil’s was five. The United States’ was 62.

“Argentina has acted very quickly in comparison with other countries,” says Rodrigo Quiroga, a bioinformatician at Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council. “[That includes] the rapid closure of the border, the mandatory isolation of those who came from countries with high rates of infections and the closing of schools. These measures, along with the quarantine, have reduced the number of cases in this first stage of the pandemic.”

Fernández’s economic actions have been no less audacious, especially when considering that his administration inherited a $311 billion debt that includes a record $57 billion loan in 2018 from the International Monetary Fund-- the institution that imposed punishing austerity measures after the country’s crash in 2002. Argentina has invested as much as 2 percent of its gross domestic product in an economic and social relief package-- among the highest within the G20-- while an executive order issued last month has ensured that no essential services be cut for retirees, social welfare recipients and households earning less than a combined 33,750 pesos (about $520) due to a lack of payment. These services include electricity, gas, water, mobile, and fixed landlines, as well as Internet and cable television. The Fernández administration has also suspended evictions and frozen all rent hikes through September, in addition to absolving “monotributistas,” the country’s bottom tax bracket, of penalties for failing to make their March tax payments.

More significantly, the president has created via executive order a 10,000-peso (about $150) Ingreso Familiar de Emergencia (Emergency Family Income) for domestic workers and other low-income earners, giving first priority to those who qualify for Asignación Universal por Hijo (Universal Child Allowance) and Asignación para Embarazadas (Allowance for Pregnant Women). Nearly 8 million Argentines will receive subsidies beginning April 21. The administration has further made every employer, regardless of trade and size, eligible for a Programa de Asistencia de Emergencia al Trabajao y la Producción (Emergency Assistance Program for Work and Production), postponing or reducing the tax commitments of small businesses by up to 95 percent and paying out between 50 and 100 percent of a monthly minimum wage salary for each of their employees. Meanwhile, the federal government has compelled banks to extend hundreds of millions of dollars in loans at a reduced interest rate in an effort to keep the economy afloat.

Although Argentina has declined to nationalize its private hospitals as Spain has done, it has secured their cooperation during the crisis so that its health care system doesn’t face a shortage of hospital beds. Fernández has likewise activated the armed services to build a number of triage centers in the event of a surge in cases. Taken together, these actions amount to a mass mobilization of the Argentinian state.

...Fernández has investigated relaxing quarantine restrictions in order to stimulate the economy, but the challenges will be immense. While the government maintains that its testing of Covid-19 is proportionate to the country’s low rate of infection (2,142 official cases as of April 12), it had administered just 19,758 tests-- 437 per million habitants-- two weeks before quarantine was tentatively set to end April 26. As the country attempts to ramp up the numbers of ventilators and test kits after years of funding cuts to the Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud “Dr. Carlos Malbrán” (the Malbrán Institute), and amid supply chain disruptions that have hampered much of Latin America, it may be all but impossible to control the virus’s spread in the more impoverished suburbs of Buenos Aires, where population density is high, access to quality health care is limited, and few enjoy the luxury to self-isolate. At the same time, a 2019 poll from Argentina’s Catholic University finds that nearly half of the country’s labor force (49.3 percent) works off the books, with 81.7 percent of that segment in low-quality jobs.

“The response has ultimately been reflective of the strengths and weaknesses of the Argentinian state,” says Leiras. “The Argentinian state is strong in dialogue and politics but bad in terms of infrastructure, in its ability to go to places and do things, to reach people with health services [for example]. In that respect, it’s like an octopus with very short tentacles.”

Yet, despite its deficiencies, Argentina has thus far managed to avoid the kinds of catastrophes emerging in countries like Ecuador, where bodies have piled up in the streets of Guayaquil, and Brazil, whose president now faces impeachment calls for his homicidal denialism. More recently, Fernández has encouraged the congress to pass a tax on the country’s biggest fortunes-- a response to his political opposition’s calls for government officials to reduce their salaries by 30 percent. The tax, which targets, among others, those who were granted immunity by the prior administration for hiding their wealth overseas, signals the president’s desire to fundamentally reorder Argentinian society as much as it aims to ameliorate the worst economic effects of the crisis. Fernandez grasps what many of his counterparts on the world stage have not: that our fates are intrinsically bound together, and that the historical epoch we’ve been thrust into demands a new social contract.

“For many years, Argentinians have been led to believe that politicians and union leaders were the source of all their problems,” the president mused in late March. “The real problem is those who believe that there are too many people, that this [isn’t] a country where we all have a place…. After the pandemic, everything will be different. We’ll live in another world. I believe that ours is a time of reflection, in which we can recover something that postmodernity has robbed of us.”

“Postmodernity has led us to believe that individualism was the secret and that success meant earning money,” he continued. “[We’ve seen] a microscopic bug lay waste to vast fortunes and destroy accumulated wealth. Microscopic. This same bug can kill [the rich] as easily as it can kill any one of us. What was the purpose then of accumulating so much?”