Thursday, April 16, 2020
'Appalling Betrayal of Global Solidarity': Trump Condemned for Halting US Funding to World Health Organization Amid Pandemic
"President Trump's decision to defund WHO is simply this—a crime against humanity."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/15/appalling-betrayal-global-solidarity-trump-condemned-halting-us-funding-world-health
President Donald Trump drew condemnation from political leaders and health experts across the globe late Tuesday after announcing that he has decided to halt U.S. funding for the World Health Organization in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"President Trump's decision to defund WHO is simply this—a crime against humanity," tweeted Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, a U.K.-based medical journal. "Every scientist, every health worker, every citizen must resist and rebel against this appalling betrayal of global solidarity."
During the press conference, Trump accused the WHO of "severely mismanaging and covering up" the spread of COVID-19 and said the organization "failed to adequately obtain, vet, and share information in a timely and transparent fashion." WHO declared the novel coronavirus a global health emergency on January 30—a time when the U.S. president was still publicly downplaying the severity of the disease and ignoring urgent internal pleas from White House officials to take action.Trump announced the move, which was widely expected, during a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House Tuesday evening. The president said U.S. funding for the WHO would be placed on hold for 60 to 90 days while the administration conducts a review of the organization's response to the coronavirus crisis. The U.S. contributed $400 million to the WHO in 2019, more than any other nation.
In a statement following Trump's announcement, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said now is "not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus."
"The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most dangerous challenges this world has faced in our lifetime. It is above all a human crisis with severe health and socio-economic consequences," said Guterres. "Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences."
Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union Minister for Foreign Affairs, expressed opposition to the U.S. president's move in a tweet Wednesday morning:
Democratic members of Congress accused Trump of attempting to deflect blame from his own failures by scapegoating the WHO and depriving it of crucial funding in a time of crisis.
"With each passing day of this worsening crisis, the president is showing us his political playbook: blame the WHO, blame China, blame his political opponents, blame his predecessors—do whatever it takes to deflect from the fact that his administration mismanaged this crisis and it’s now costing thousands of American lives," Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tweeted that Trump's decision to halt U.S. funding to the WHO "makes America less secure" and "another pandemic more likely."
Trump signaled that he was considering suspending U.S. funding to the WHO during a Coronavirus Task Force briefing earlier this month. "I mean, I'm not saying I'm going to do it, but we are going to look at it," the president said at the time.
Following Trump's remarks, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, urged world leaders to "please quarantine politicizing COVID."
"We will have many body bags in front of us if we don't behave," said Tedros. "The United States and China should come together and fight this dangerous enemy... When there are cracks at national level and global level that's when the virus succeeds. For God's sake, we have lost more than 60,000 citizens of the world."
'Disgusting': Treasury Slows Delivery of 70 Million Covid-19 Stimulus Checks to Put Trump's Name on Them
"Donald Trump is further delaying cash payments to millions of Americans struggling to pay the rent and put food on the table to feed his ego."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
52 Comments
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/15/disgusting-treasury-slows-delivery-70-million-covid-19-stimulus-checks-put-trumps
Millions of Americans are in dire need of money to afford groceries, rent, and other necessities amid the coronavirus-induced economic fallout, but the Treasury Department has officially ordered that President Donald Trump's name appear on the one-time $1,200 stimulus checks set to be mailed to 70 million people, an unprecedented move that could delay delivery of the payments for days.
The decision was finalized late Monday, the Washington Post reported Tuesday night, and it "means that when recipients open the $1,200 paper checks... 'President Donald J. Trump' will appear on the left side of the payment."
Watchdog group Common Cause called the move "a disgusting use of taxpayer dollars to promote the president in an election year.""Trump's insistence that his name appear on the checks is slowing their delivery," tweeted former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. "But he wants Americans to be appreciative—even though it was Congress's idea, it's taxpayer's money, and it's too little, too late."
According to the Post, Trump privately pressured the Treasury Department to allow him to "formally sign the checks," but because the president is not an authorized signer of Treasury Department payments, Trump's name will appear on the memo line.
"The decision to have the paper checks bear Trump's name, in the works for weeks, according to a Treasury official, was announced early Tuesday to the IRS' information technology team," the Post reported. "The team, working from home, is now racing to implement a programming change that two senior IRS officials said will probably lead to a delay in issuing the first batch of paper checks. They are scheduled to be sent Thursday to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service for printing and issuing."
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) joined the chorus of progressives condemning the Treasury Department's decision:
Eligible Americans who have direct deposit information on file with the IRS are set to receive the payments in their bank accounts in the coming days—assuming their banks don't seize them—and will not see the president's name.
Those without the necessary information on file with the government, a group that is disproportionately low-income, will receive a paper check in the mail. The IRS said in an internal draft plan circulated earlier this month that millions of Americans could face significant delays—in some cases up to five months—in receiving their $1,200 checks.
In a briefing earlier this month, Treasury and IRS officials told House Democrats that the stimulus checks will begin flowing steadily by May 4.
As Common Dreams reported, lawmakers and advocacy groups have been raising alarm about the Treasury Department's slow-walking of the checks—Trump signed the CARES Act, which authorized the one-time payments, on March 27. A delay of even just one or two days could have a devastating impact for those on the brink of financial ruin, observers warned.
Erin Hatch, a spokeswoman for House Ways and Means Committee Democrats, said in an interview with the New York Times that members of Congress were not consulted about the Treasury Department's decision to add Trump's name to the checks at the urging of the president.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, ripped the Treasury Department's move in a statement late Tuesday.
"Donald Trump is further delaying cash payments to millions of Americans struggling to pay the rent and put food on the table to feed his ego," Wyden said. "Only this president would try to make a pandemic and economic catastrophe all about him."
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) was more scathing on Twitter.
"Imagine the kind of sad, egotistical person who would turn this awful crisis into an absurd campaign stunt by demanding their name go into the memo field of a check that was approved by Congress," McGovern wrote.
'Catastrophic for Democracy': Experts Warn Trump Assault on Postal Service Threatens November Elections
"All the plans we have for a safe and legitimate general election in November depend heavily upon the ability to expand vote-by-mail. Yet those plans would be completely upended if the United States Postal Service collapses."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/15/catastrophic-democracy-experts-warn-trump-assault-postal-service-threatens-november
As the novel coronavirus pandemic makes in-person voting inherently dangerous in the United States—as demonstrated by the disastrous contests in Wisconsin earlier this month—rights groups and experts are advocating a nationwide vote-by-mail system as the only safe and fair way to conduct the nation's hugely consequential November elections.
But President Donald Trump, who is of course up for reelection, appears hell-bent on killing the beloved government institution that would be essential to implementing universal mail-in voting: the U.S. Postal Service.
The version of the CARES Act Trump signed into law on March 27 ultimately contained a $10 billion loan for USPS, but the funds have yet to be approved by the Treasury Department and fall far short of what the agency says it needs to survive the coronavirus crisis. In addition to feeling the impact of a sharp decline in mail volume, the Postal Service also remains shackled by a 2006 congressional mandate requiring the USPS to prefund its retirees' health benefits through 2056, a law that analysts say is at the root of the agency's financial troubles.As Washington Post reported over the weekend, Trump—an outspoken opponent of mail-in voting for everyone but himself—explicitly threatened to veto the multi-trillion-dollar CARES Act last month if it contained relief for the Postal Service, an independent executive branch agency that would play a central role in ensuring people receive their ballots under a nationwide vote-by-mail system.
In a column for Slate on Tuesday, Richard Hasen, a professor University of California–Irvine School of Law, argued that Trump's refusal to provide necessary relief for the Postal Service should be viewed as "an attack on voting rights."
"All the plans we have for a safe and legitimate general election in November depend heavily upon the ability to expand vote-by-mail," wrote Hasen. "Yet those plans would be completely upended if the United States Postal Service collapses."
"A shutdown of USPS would be catastrophic for democracy," Hasen continued. "Even though many states with vote-by-mail allow ballots to be dropped at polling places, vote centers, or in special state boxes for the return of envelopes, those ballots get to voters via the U.S. mail. Voters also get other election materials, including in many states the form that is used to request a vote-by-mail ballot in the first place."
In a virtual briefing earlier this month, Postmaster General Megan Brennan warned the House Oversight and Reform Committee that USPS will "run out of cash" by the end of September if Congress doesn't provide immediate relief. As Government Executive reported, Brennan called for "access to $75 billion through a combination of cash, grants, and loans to avoid a liquidity crisis."
Trump has publicly dismissed the Postal Service's calls for help, suggesting in a falsehood-filled rant last week that the agency should simply "raise prices."
Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, told Yahoo News over the weekend that he believes Trump administration officials are actively exploiting the coronavirus crisis "to push their privatization agenda," a warning Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) echoed on Sunday.
As of this writing, more than 212,000 people have signed a MoveOn.org petition urging Congress to "fully fund the United States Postal Service in the next stimulus bill.""We cannot allow Donald Trump to use this horrific pandemic as an opportunity to bankrupt and privatize the Postal Service," tweeted Sanders. "Now, more than ever, we need a strong and vibrant postal system to deliver mail 6-days a week. Congress must act now to save it."
"Private companies won't deliver to certain remote areas because it's not profitable to do so," the petition states, "but the Postal Service is obligated to serve all Americans regardless of where they live—and, right now, the Postal Service is delivering lifesaving medications and food, supporting voting by mail in primary states, and helping other services necessary for our nation to continue to operate."
As Quartz senior reporter Ephrat Livni wrote Monday, "the consequences of abandoning the Postal Service now could be disastrous for pandemic-era elections."
"A robust and properly-funded USPS, coupled with a nationwide push for mail-in ballots," Livni argued, "could ensure that citizens don't have to choose between the right to vote and the desire to avoid infection in November."
Five states—Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, Utah, and Washington—already conduct elections entirely by mail, and advocacy groups are urging Congress and state officials to act quickly to ensure that everyone in the U.S. has the option to mail in their ballots come November. As Hasan pointed out last month, Congress has the constitutional authority to pass a law requiring each state to offer a mail-in voting option.
Matthew Harwood, managing director of communications and strategy at the Brennan Center for Justice, wrote in a blog post last week that vote-by-mail is "an essential way for voters to stay safe while exercising their right to choose who governs them."
"To ignore, and even block, a solution that maintains our electoral system would be democratic malpractice," wrote Harwood. "To make sure that vote by mail and other critical capacity-building can be implemented in time for November, we have to start putting new processes in place now."
In a letter to congressional leaders on Monday, a coalition of nearly 50 progressive organizations demanded that the expected fourth coronavirus stimulus package include at least $4 billion to help states expand vote-by-mail, early voting, and online voter registration to "ensure that every American can exercise their right to vote this November."
"We are running out of time," Stand Up America, one of the letter's signatories, tweeted Tuesday. "We need the funding for nationwide vote-by-mail, early voting, and online voter registration. Without it, many people will simply not be able to vote this November."
Trump's OSHA Rebuked for 'Sitting on Its Ass' as Covid-19 Infections and Deaths Surge Among Frontline Workers
"More than 9,000 U.S. healthcare workers have been infected with Covid-19 and 27 have died. The biggest workplace catastrophe ever to hit the nation's healthcare workers."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/15/trumps-osha-rebuked-sitting-its-ass-covid-19-infections-and-deaths-surge-among
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration—an agency overseen by Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia—is under fire for failing to uphold its core responsibility to protect workers as the number of frontline employees infected by the novel coronavirus across the U.S. continues to surge, producing what one observer described as "the biggest workplace catastrophe ever to hit the nation's healthcare workers."
An analysis released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 9,200 healthcare workers have tested positive for Covid-19 and 27 have died as of April 9. "This is likely an underestimation," the CDC acknowledged.
"At least 41 grocery workers have died so far," the Post reported. "They include a Trader Joe's employee in New York, a Safeway worker in Seattle, a pair of Walmart associates near Chicago, and four Kroger employees in Michigan, as well as employees at meatpacking plants and food processing facilities around the country. Thousands more have tested positive for the virus."The Washington Post reported Sunday that grocery store workers—who, like healthcare industry employees, have been deemed essential amid the pandemic—have also been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
One anonymous 50-year-old grocery store employee told the Post that her workplace "feels like a war zone."
As the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on frontline workers becomes clearer by the day, critics—including some of the agency's former employees—have increasingly trained their ire on OSHA for refusing to take action to ensure safe and sanitary job conditions. OSHA is currently headed by Loren Sweatt, an appointee of President Donald Trump.
Jordan Barab, who served as deputy assistant secretary at OSHA from 2009-2017, ripped the agency on Tuesday for "sitting on its ass" as workers continue to be infected and killed by Covid-19.
In an interview on CNN Tuesday night, former OSHA chief David Michaels said he would give the agency an "F" grade for its performance during the coronavirus crisis.
"OSHA is simply missing in action in handling this epidemic," Michaels said. "OSHA has been invisible in this whole response."
In addition to Michaels, frontline workers and some current OSHA employees have pressured the agency to use its authority to force employers to comply with federal social distancing guidelines and provide workers with adequate protective equipment. OSHA, however, has thus far refused to heed those demands—which have faced fierce opposition from deep-pocketed hospital lobbyists.
"The CDC has issued recommendations for the public and businesses to follow practices such as social distancing and sanitizing workstations," the Post reported last Friday. "OSHA could make those guidelines mandatory for all employers or for all essential employees but has not done so."
Under the leadership of Scalia, a former corporate lawyer, "OSHA has also decided against issuing safety requirements to protect hospital and healthcare workers, including rules that would mandate nurses and other providers be given masks and protective gear recommended by the CDC when at risk of exposure," the Post noted.
On Monday, OSHA released new guidance that the agency described as an "interim enforcement response plan for coronavirus." The guidance states that OSHA will prioritize inspections of hospitals and other "high-risk" facilities, but the agency did not say that it would require employers to comply with CDC social distancing guidelines.
"If the Department of Labor leadership thinks that asking politely will result in major changes in workplace conditions, they haven't been watching the mounting number of disease cases in workplaces from farms to meatpacking plants to grocery stores," Michaels told Reuters in response to the new guidance.
Dave Jamieson, labor journalist at HuffPost, noted on Twitter that OSHA's latest guidelines were released precisely one month after Trump declared the coronavirus outbreak a national emergency.
"In that time many workers have gotten sick and died," Jamieson wrote.
Right-Wingers Launch Anti-Lockdown Movement
NATURAL SELECTION IN ACTION...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/15/despite-cdc-warning-significant-risk-lifting-stay-place-orders-right-wingers-launch
Published on
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
by
Common Dreams
Despite CDC Warning of 'Significant Risk' of Lifting Stay-in-Place Orders, Right-Wingers Launch Anti-Lockdown Movement
"These selfish and out-of-touch fringe groups are throwing a temper tantrum at the expense of public safety and health."
by
Andrea Germanos, staff writer
68 Comments
People take part in a protest for "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on April 15, 2020. (Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)
As reporting Wednesday revealed an internal government document warning of "a significant risk of resurgence" of the coronavirus even in a phased reopening scenario, right-wing activists in Michigan staged protests outside the state capitol to boldly defy Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's extended stay-at-home order designed to protect public health.
Dubbed "Operation Gridlock," the event was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and Michigan Freedom Fund. The groups called on people to circle their vehicles around the state capitol building in Lansing in order to create a traffic jam.
That Facebook event call-to-action asks participants to stay in their cars, but videos and photos shared on social media show many people standing outside the building. Those protesters appear to be participating in a simultaneous protest launched by the newly created Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine. Those protesters, many standing on the steps of the capitol, are seen not adhering to social distancing guidelines, openly carrying weapons, holding pro-President Donald Trump flags, and singing chants including "Recall Whitmer."
"Half protest, half Trump rally is how I would characterize #OperationGridlock in Michigan," MLive reporter Malachi Barrett said on Twitter.
The action came in for criticism from advocacy group Progress Michigan.
According to Lonnie Scott, executive director of the progressive organization, "These fringe groups have one goal: attack Gov. Whitmer for anything, even if it means sending a dangerous message about the importance of social distancing during a global pandemic."
The Michigan Freedom Fund, said Progress Michigan, is "a DeVos-backed corporate front group," referring to Trump's billionaire Education Secretary and Michigan native Betsy DeVos.
"Normally we wouldn't give these childish games the time of day," added Scott, "but we think it's important that the people of Michigan know who these people really are and the fact that a group supported by one of Trump's cabinet members, Betsy DeVos, is at the helm of this dangerous ship."
The action in Michigan Wednesday came the same day the Washington Post published a leaked draft of an internal planning document by the CDC and FEMA in which government officials warned of a "significant risk of resurgence" of the infectious disease even with a controlled reopening of schools, businesses, and other public activity.
According to the Post, the draft strategy document "warns of a 'large rebound curve' of novel coronavirus cases if mitigation efforts are relaxed too quickly before vaccines are developed and distributed or broad community immunity is achieved."
As of this writing, there are over 601,472 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States and over 24,429 deaths. Michigan is the state with the fourth highest number of confirmed cases—27,001. There have been 1,768 Covid-19-related deaths in the state.
"These selfish and out-of-touch fringe groups are throwing a temper tantrum at the expense of public safety and health."
by
Andrea Germanos, staff writer
68 Comments
People take part in a protest for "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on April 15, 2020. (Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)
As reporting Wednesday revealed an internal government document warning of "a significant risk of resurgence" of the coronavirus even in a phased reopening scenario, right-wing activists in Michigan staged protests outside the state capitol to boldly defy Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's extended stay-at-home order designed to protect public health.
Dubbed "Operation Gridlock," the event was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and Michigan Freedom Fund. The groups called on people to circle their vehicles around the state capitol building in Lansing in order to create a traffic jam.
That Facebook event call-to-action asks participants to stay in their cars, but videos and photos shared on social media show many people standing outside the building. Those protesters appear to be participating in a simultaneous protest launched by the newly created Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine. Those protesters, many standing on the steps of the capitol, are seen not adhering to social distancing guidelines, openly carrying weapons, holding pro-President Donald Trump flags, and singing chants including "Recall Whitmer."
"Half protest, half Trump rally is how I would characterize #OperationGridlock in Michigan," MLive reporter Malachi Barrett said on Twitter.
The action came in for criticism from advocacy group Progress Michigan.
According to Lonnie Scott, executive director of the progressive organization, "These fringe groups have one goal: attack Gov. Whitmer for anything, even if it means sending a dangerous message about the importance of social distancing during a global pandemic."
The Michigan Freedom Fund, said Progress Michigan, is "a DeVos-backed corporate front group," referring to Trump's billionaire Education Secretary and Michigan native Betsy DeVos.
"Normally we wouldn't give these childish games the time of day," added Scott, "but we think it's important that the people of Michigan know who these people really are and the fact that a group supported by one of Trump's cabinet members, Betsy DeVos, is at the helm of this dangerous ship."
The action in Michigan Wednesday came the same day the Washington Post published a leaked draft of an internal planning document by the CDC and FEMA in which government officials warned of a "significant risk of resurgence" of the infectious disease even with a controlled reopening of schools, businesses, and other public activity.
According to the Post, the draft strategy document "warns of a 'large rebound curve' of novel coronavirus cases if mitigation efforts are relaxed too quickly before vaccines are developed and distributed or broad community immunity is achieved."
As of this writing, there are over 601,472 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States and over 24,429 deaths. Michigan is the state with the fourth highest number of confirmed cases—27,001. There have been 1,768 Covid-19-related deaths in the state.
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