Thousands of animals, including endangered Sumatran tigers and Bornean orangutans, are facing starvation at Indonesia's zoos as the global pandemic pushes shuttered facilities toward collapse, officials say. Some 60 cash-strapped animal parks -- home to roughly 70,000 creatures -- across the Southeast Asian archipelago have been closed since mid-March and most say they have only enough food until the middle of May. "Most zoos relied on ticket sales so when they closed everything collapsed," said Indonesian Zoo Association spokesman Sulhan Syafi'i.
https://www.ibtimes.com/virus-pushes-indonesia-zoo-animals-brink-starvation-2967807
Essential workers in Michigan that are helping on the front lines during the coronavirus pandemic may be given the opportunity to continue their educational pursuits for free, the state's governor said Wednesday. The program, titled "Futures for Frontliners, will be available to essential workers without a college degree, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said. The program will be offered not only to those working in hospitals or nursing homes, but also to grocery store employees, child care workers, sanitation workers and those who deliver supplies. "The Futures for Frontliners program is our way of saying 'thank you' to those who have risked their lives on the front lines of this crisis," Whitmer said in a statement. "I want to assure all of our workers we will never forget those of you who stepped up and sacrificed their own health during this crisis. You're the reason we're going to get through this." Whitmer described the program as "paths to opportunity" for Michigan's essential workers, and likened it to the GI Bill offered to returning soldiers after World War II.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/us/michigan-tuition-free-educational-program-essential-workers-trnd/index.html
The Michigan Court of Claims has said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order does not infringe on the constitutional rights of residents. | "But those liberty interests are, and always have been, subject to society's interests—society being our fellow residents," said Court of Claims Judge Christopher M. Murray. "They—our fellow residents—have an interest to remain unharmed by a highly communicable and deadly virus, and since the state entered the Union in 1837, it has had the broad power to act for the public health of the entire state when faced with a public crisis."
https://www.newsweek.com/michigan-gretchen-whitmer-lawsuit-1501109
The British Museum Just Made 1.9M Stunningly Detailed Images Free Online | While everyone is stuck at home due to Covid-19, the collection allows people to get a better view of some key objects than they would in person.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akw57z/the-british-museum-just-made-19m-stunningly-detailed-images-free-online
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries'
As of Wednesday night, the U.S. Department of Treasury has not released any of the $8 billion allocated to tribes in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds that were to be distributed to American Indian tribes “not later than 30 days” after March 26, 2020. Three days later after the deadline, the tribes are still waiting for the much needed funds and the Treasury Department is not answering why they have not disbursed the money. Tribes across Indian Country are hurting from the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused the shuttering of tribal casinos and huge reduction in revenue from tribal business enterprises. On Wednesday, eight members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to prompt the federal government to fulfill it trust obligations to the tribes by requesting the Treasury Department to immediately disburse the funds to tribal governments. “The Congressional intent behind the CRF is to expedite relief funds to governments, including sovereign tribal governments, as part of the federal government’s larger initiative to provide emergency assistance throughout the country,” the members of Congress wrote. “As you are aware, the CARES Act was passed over a month ago, on March 27,2020, yet this funding has yet to be disbursed to tribal governments, in part due to litigation aimed at ensuring these resources go to the governmental entities that Congress intended.” The litigation refers to lawsuits brought by more than a dozen other federally recognized tribes to declare Alaska Native Corporations ineligible to receive any of the CARES Act’s $8 billion. The case was argued last Friday before U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta in the District of Columbia Court, who ruled in favor the tribes on Monday.
https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/treasury-department-has-not-disbursed-cares-act-funds-to-tribes-stays-mum/
https://nativenewsonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/letter-to-mnuchin.pdf
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has donated a $100,000 prize she won from a Danish foundation to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for use against the COVID-19 pandemic, the world body said Thursday
https://www.france24.com/en/20200430-thunberg-donates-100-000-to-support-children-during-pandemic
Canada set to ban assault-style weapons, including AR-15 and the gun used in Polytechnique massacre
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawas-gun-ban-to-target-ar-15-and-the-weapon-used-during/
US Navy sends second ship into disputed waters after China claims it scrambled jets to expel U.S. destroyer
https://www.newsweek.com/us-navy-ship-sails-disputed-sea-amid-escalating-tensions-china-over-coronavirus-pandemic-1501057
Too little too late: Germany has banned all Iran-backed Hezbollah activity on its soil and designated it a terrorist organisation, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday. Police also conducted early morning raids on mosque associations in four cities across Germany. Security officials believe up to 1,050 people in Germany are part of Hezbollah’s extremist wing.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-lebanon-hezbollah/germany-classifies-hezbollah-as-terrorist-organisation-conducts-raids-idUKKBN22C0JL?il=0
If we must blindly accept every allegation of sexual assault, the #MeToo movement is just a hit squad. And it's too important to be no more than that.
“No one” in Puerto Rico has received stimulus checks, says San Juan mayor; The Treasury Department has sent out more than 88 million payments. Not one of them went to Puerto Rico, a nation of American citizens.
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/30/no-one-in-puerto-rico-has-received-stimulus-checks-says-san-juan-mayor/
On This Day: Adolf Hitler found dead. On April 30, 1945, the burned body of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was found in a bunker in the ruins of Berlin.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2020/04/30/On-This-Day-Adolf-Hitler-found-dead/3091588083144/
Sen. Ron Wyden Oregon has used vote by mail since electing me in 1996. Those who say it can't work are lying. My state has proven that voting by mail is secure and helps more people exercise their rights. Expanding it to more states this year could help save lives. | It seems that everyone voting by mail suddenly makes sense to people outside Oregon after 25 years. After all, if Americans fear going to the polls or working at them because of the risks of COVID-19, voting by mail offers a way for people to cast ballots while maintaining social distancing. So for my friends around the United States interested in our system, here's how it works. After receiving the ballots that go out around three weeks before a primary or general election day, most voters fill them out and mail them back — or drop them off at collection boxes posted at places like the county elections office or a local library. | Since our state went to vote by mail, I have never seen people waiting in lines extending for blocks just to vote. No one must miss a shift at work or find extra child care just to vote. Seniors don't need to risk their health just so they can vote. It's no surprise, then, that Oregon ranks near the top of the country in voter turnout. Nearly 70 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in presidential elections. And 63 percent voted in the 2018 midterms. And it's far cheaper than conventional voting: Counties that vote at home cut their election costs by nearly 40 percent. Oregon taxpayers saved $600,000 in the first all-mail election alone. Trump, who has regularly voted using mailed-in absentee ballots, has claimed that voting by mail is too susceptible to fraud to be allowed. That's a flat-out lie: Oregon aggressively hunts for any election irregularities, and it has never found anything resembling the fantasy scenarios conjured up by Trump and others on the far right. Oregon Republicans agree. Our former secretary of state, the late — and very conservative — Dennis Richardson, wrote to Trump in 2017 that "we are confident that voter fraud in last November's election did not occur in Oregon." Our current Republican secretary of state, Bev Clarno, said, "We've proven that our system is very secure and voters love it." And, by the way, nearly a million members of our armed forces vote by mail all the time. They've been doing it for decades. I know voting by mail works — which is why I wrote a bill with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., to make sure that every American has the right to vote the way we do in Oregon. Our bill doesn't require all-mail elections, of course: If states want to have in-person voting, they can do that, too. The legislation would additionally require that states provide residents with 20 days of early voting, and it has clear rules to make sure that people's ballots don't get thrown out by mistake. Time is running out to prepare for November's election, and if Congress doesn't act in a matter of weeks, I'm afraid many state and local governments won't be ready if, as scientists suggest they will, COVID-19 cases spike in the fall. Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., must drop their partisan roadblocks and give states the guidance and resources they need to help all Americans exercise their constitutional rights as soon as possible. Oregon has shown voting by mail works — no matter your political preferences. It can work for the rest of America, too.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/oregon-has-used-vote-mail-electing-me-1996-those-who-ncna1195646
https://www.sightline.org/2018/12/13/voter-turnout-oregon-tops-charts-2018-midterms/
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2016/03/colorado-voting-reforms-early-results
https://sos.oregon.gov/elections/Documents/statistics/vote-by-mail-timeline.pdf
https://theweek.com/speedreads/907540/trump-who-votes-by-mail-calls-other-mailin-voting-dangerous-corrupt
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1247861952736526336
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/493100-former-oregon-official-touts-states-mail-in-two-decade-voting-record
https://taskandpurpose.com/analysis/us-military-votes-absentee-no-fraud
Republican-led states signal they could strip workers’ unemployment benefits if they don’t return to work,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/30/republican-states-unemployment-benefits/
Biden reaches deal to let Sanders keep hundreds of delegates | Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has agreed to let former primary rival Bernie Sanders keep hundreds of delegates he would otherwise forfeit by dropping out of the presidential race in a deal designed to avoid the bitter feelings that marred the party in 2016 and helped lead to Hillary Clinton’s defeat. Under party rules, Sanders should lose lose about a third of the delegates he’s won in primaries and caucuses as the process moves ahead and states select the people who will attend the Democratic National Convention. The rules say those delegates should be Biden supporters, as he is the only candidate still actively seeking the party’s nomination. | Sanders delegates would also get seats on key convention committees that will enforce convention rules and draft the party’s platform. This would allow Sanders and progressives to maximize their influence on key convention committees this summer and on the convention floor –- whether virtual, because of the coronavirus pandemic, or an in-person gathering as planned in Milwaukee. The deal came out of a series of talks led by Anita Dunn, a senior strategist for Biden, and Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ top political adviser.
https://apnews.com/1250a619e0c8195fad1aa6aea08c63c8
Believe me on this one, the truly organized set of Berniecrats, many of whom plan to go to the DNC, all of whom plan to continue working in politics as career, would have been livid if Biden didn't agree to this after Sanders announced in his concession speech that he was still collecting delegates. Keep in mind there's a difference between "being a former Bernie supporter" and having spent the last four years organizing within the party infrastructure so as to continue to push the leftist agenda.
Esper Illegally Redirects Funds From Counter-Russia Programs for Illegal Border Wall | U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper is illegally directing Pentagon budget planners to defer $545 million worth of construction projects -- many in Europe meant to counter Russian aggression -- to pay for the "wall". Esper does not have the authority to redirect funds because courts nullified the illegal "national emergency! we must build a wall!" declaration.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-28/esper-taps-funds-from-counter-russia-programs-for-border-wall
Declaration illegal and overturned
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Emergency_Concerning_the_Southern_Border_of_the_United_States
A new analysis of financial disclosure documents found that Republican and Democratic members of Congress made nearly 1,500 stock transactions worth up to $158 million between February and April as the coronavirus spread across the U.S., heightening suspicions that elected officials in charge of the federal response to the pandemic have opportunistically cashed in on it. The Campaign Legal Center (CLC), a non-partisan watchdog group, uncovered at least 127 purchases or sales in securities by senators and at least 1,358 transactions by members of the House between February 2 and April 8. "Of those transactions, some members of Congress were strategically buying stocks in companies that might see a boost during the crisis, as well as selling stocks that seemed likely to tank," CLC said. "Public servants made purchases in remote work technologies, telemedicine companies, and car manufacturers that were shifting their production to ventilators. Sales were made in companies in the restaurant and hospitality industries." | "The stock trading was bipartisan—27 Democrats, 21 Republicans, and 1 independent were making trades as the devastation that Covid-19 would exact on the U.S. crystallized," CLC said. "Most congressional members are millionaires and a number have investments in the tens of millions and far more likely to have investments in the markets." Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) had the most transactions of any member of Congress with 366 worth between $2.4 and $10.6 million. Rep. Gilbert Cisneros (D-Calif.) trailed Roe with 219 transactions worth between $1.9 and $6.7 million.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/30/cashing-pandemic-documents-show-lawmakers-made-1500-stock-transactions-worth-158
https://campaignlegal.org/update/congressional-stock-trading-during-pandemic-diminishes-public-trust
Though only a small number of those detained by U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) have been tested for the coronavirus, 60 percent of those tested came up positive for the disease. Recent data from ICE indicates that 425 individuals have tested positive for coronavirus. However, only 705 detainees have received the tests out of approximately 40,000 total individuals. That works out to just over 1 percent of all detainees being tested for coronavirus. However, 60 percent of those tested have tested positive. Cases were reported in detention centers across 16 states including Michigan, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. "One of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) highest priorities is the health and safety of those in our custody," the agency said in an April statement. "Detainees are being monitored and tested for COVID-19 in line with CDC guidance, and in conjunction with the recommendations of state and local health partners." However, because of the threat of community spread coronavirus within the detention centers, advocacy groups have called for the release of certain individuals with underlying health problems or who have not been accused of violent crimes. | In California, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the state government on Friday calling for an end to placing immigrants in detention centers during the coronavirus pandemic. | U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter ruled Thursday for at least 250 ICE detainees to be released from the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center because of the possibility of the spread of coronavirus among the population. According to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, small cells and a lack of personal protective equipment posed a contamination danger to individuals housed inside the center.
https://www.newsweek.com/60-percent-ice-detainees-tested-have-coronavirus-1500817
Congress must stand up to the White House and deliver relief to the Postal Service | On Capitol Hill, leaders on both sides of the aisle supported a postal relief package, but Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin intervened to keep it out of the final $2.3 trillion stimulus deal. Instead, the Postal Service received an offer of $10 billion in additional debt if they agreed to draconian conditions. According to The Post, Trump and Mnuchin are using the crisis as leverage to ram through long-sought hikes in package delivery rates and cuts to labor costs. Lawmakers must stand up to the White House and deliver the relief the Postal Service needs — not only to survive abut also to thrive. The USPS is the quintessential American institution. In fact, it predates the nation by one year: In 1775, Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. After nearly 250 years, it is the most trusted brand in the county, according to a study by Morning Consult. That’s unsurprising, perhaps, as “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” prevent postal workers from doing their jobs. Nor has covid-19. As Americans across the country are following stay-at-home directives, they are relying on the USPS to deliver their prescription drugs, food and other essentials. Tax refunds and stimulus checks arrive through the mail. So do absentee ballots — this year’s presidential election may indeed depend on the Postal Service to facilitate voting by mail. As civil rights leaders caution against efforts that would require voters to pay for postage when mailing in ballots, the USPS has restated its previous policy to deliver every ballot, even those with insufficient postage. Can you imagine UPS or FedEx doing the same? According to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, rural areas, often heavily Republican, would be particularly hard hit if the Postal Service goes bust. No other service has the capacity to deliver to every address in America, no matter how remote. And in 15 states with the largest rural populations, the USPS directly employs more than 75,000 people. Maine’s 3,356 postal workers, for example, exceed the number of the state’s electricians, fast-food cooks, construction workers, child-care workers and truckers. Last year, when the main threat to the USPS was privatization, Danny Glover wrote that a diminished Postal Service “would be devastating for customers and employees of all races — but especially African Americans.” Glover, an actor and the son of two postal workers, explained that black employees make up 28.6 percent of the postal workforce and concluded, “We must protect the Postal Service — and support new innovation to meet 21st century needs.” Today, that innovation is within reach. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) have proposed free Federal Reserve accounts, accessible through local post offices, that would give individual Americans the same higher-than-normal interest rates that big banks enjoy. This builds on postal banking proposals that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and others have put forward that could generate as much as $1.1 billion in annual revenue. | There are other ways the Postal Service could innovate to meet the needs of today and the expectations of tomorrow. Other countries have postal workers check in on the elderly, making it easier for seniors to remain in their own home. Postal trucks could also be equipped with monitors to gather data on everything from potholes to pollution.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/28/congress-must-stand-up-white-house-deliver-relief-postal-service/
https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/pmg-franklin.pdf
https://morningconsult.com/most-trusted-brands/?mod=djemCMOToday
https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/mission-motto.pdf
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/23/working-save-democracy-postal-service-reaffirms-policy-delivering-mail-ballots-even
https://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IPS-policy-brief-on-USPS-and-Rural-America.pdf
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/07/11/danny-glover-postal-service-banking-reform-column/1692850001/
https://theweek.com/articles/905207/need-send-people-money-need-fix-how
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/aoc-bernie-sanders-postal-banking-sean-hannity-john-nichols/
https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2015/rarc-wp-15-011_0.pdf
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/in-france-elder-care-comes-with-the-mail
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Andrew Cuomo remain the most trusted leaders on coronavirus, while Donald Trump and Jared Kushner are the least trusted
https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-cuomo-most-trusted-trump-kushner-least-trusted-on-coronavirus-2020-4
Trump presented with grim internal polling showing him losing to Biden | Trump’s advisers presented him with the results of internal polling last week that showed him falling behind former vice president Joe Biden in key swing states in the presidential race, part of an effort by aides to curtail Trump’s freewheeling daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations. The president spoke with campaign manager Brad Parscale, White House senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, among other officials, in calls and meetings last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, according to the three people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions. One call on Wednesday — with Parscale patched in from his home in Florida and McDaniel from hers in Michigan — was designed to present grim polling data to the president to encourage him to reduce the frequency of coronavirus briefings or to stop taking questions, after seeing his numbers slip for several weeks, officials said. | Aides described Trump as in a particularly foul mood last week because of the polling data and news coverage of his administration’s response to the pandemic, according to two of the people familiar with the discussions. In one call, he berated Parscale over the polling data, the two people said. At one point in that call, Trump said he might sue Parscale, though one of the people with knowledge of the comments said he made the remark in jest. News of Trump’s eruption at Parscale was first reported Wednesday by CNN. Trump told Parscale that he did not believe the polling that had been presented to him, even though it came from the campaign and the RNC. “I’m not losing to Joe Biden,” Trump said at one point, both of these people said, adding that the president used profanities throughout the call.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-presented-with-grim-internal-polling-showing-him-losing-to-biden/2020/04/29/33544208-8a4e-11ea-9759-6d20ba0f2c0e_story.html
A bottled water company has won a key decision in its effort to pump more water from a well in western Michigan. An administrative law judge last week upheld a state permit, which allows Nestle Waters North America to pump 400 gallons a minute from a well near Evart in Osceola County, a 60% increase, MLive.com reported. The water is trucked to an Ice Mountain production facility in Mecosta County. Nestle pulls water from other wells in the area. A local group, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians challenged a permit approved in 2018 by Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration. The critics say increased pumping will harm the environment in the Chippewa Creek watershed.
https://www.wxyz.com/news/judge-allows-nestle-to-pump-more-water-from-michigan-well
The COVID-19 pandemic is delivering the biggest shock to the global energy system in seven decades, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency. Global energy demand is expected to fall by 6% this year, seven times the decline brought by the financial crisis 10 years ago. IEA projections show oil and gas being hit hard. But demand for coal could fall by an extraordinary 8% — the largest decline since World War II. Not all the drop in demand was because of the coronavirus; in the U.S. especially, a large share was caused by a warmer-than-average winter. The IEA says the lower emissions will reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change by almost 8% this year, which would be the largest annual decrease ever recorded. But the U.N. has said global emissions must be cut that much every year for the next decade in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid its worst impacts. The IEA warns that emissions will rebound when the economy recovers, unless countries focus their economic relief packages on boosting clean energy.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/30/848307092/greenhouse-gas-emissions-predicted-to-fall-nearly-8-largest-decrease-ever
https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2020/global-energy-and-co2-emissions-in-2020
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/23/842807177/pandemic-shutdown-is-speeding-up-the-collapse-of-coal
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/18/803125282/how-warming-winters-are-affecting-everything
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/14/834295861/carbon-emissions-are-falling-but-still-not-enough-scientists-say
Global CO2 emissions are set to fall nearly 8% this year to their lowest level since 2010, the largest drop in history. But this fall, on the back of premature deaths & economic trauma, is nothing to cheer. The 🌍 needs structural emissions reductions driven by better policies. pic.twitter.com/kk9UONUGkN
https://twitter.com/IEABirol/status/1255731651956670464
A U.S. judge Wednesday prohibited an administrative agency for the federal judiciary from barring its 1,100 employees from engaging in virtually all forms of partisan political activity outside the workplace. The judge called the ban an excessive effort to protect courts from “hyper-partisanship” and attacks from members of Congress. | In a 46-page ruling, Cooper called the effort to protect the judiciary from perceptions of political influence “laudable.” But, the judge said, that intent did not justify a new code of conduct barring employees from participating in political activities open to virtually all other federal workers, including expressing views publicly or on social media about political candidates, attending events for political parties or candidates, joining parties or making donations.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-judge-strikes-down-prohibitions-on-political-speech-for-1100-federal-court-workers/2020/04/29/5665d162-8a5d-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html
The second these people show up to "peacefully" protest decked out in their tacticool gear armed to the teeth with loaded assault weapons they immediately become domestic terrorists.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/michigan-armed-protesters-debate-whitmer
https://www.woodtv.com/news/michigan/michigan-state-of-emergency-extension-protests-lansing-thursday/
They claim their right to assemble is being violated as they assemble without being arrested. A bunch of people upset about being told to stay inside fighting to get inside. As I type, Michigan is over 40k cases and approaching 3800 deaths from COVID19. Trump has incited these people on Twitter
Franken was a Democrat, and a very effective Senator that got railroaded for the benefit of Gillibrand's presidential aspirations. If Gillibrand had integrity, she would resign. She is a stain on the party and I don't value her opinion and wish the Democratic party would force her to resign for publically endorsing Biden: Kirsten Gillibrand on Tara Reade allegation: 'I support Vice President Biden' | "So when we say believe women, it's for this explicit intention of making sure there's space for all women to come forward to speak their truth, to be heard. And in this allegation, that is what Tara Reade has done," Gillibrand said. "She has come forward, she has spoken, and they have done an investigation in several outlets. Those investigations, Vice President Biden has called for himself. Vice President Biden has vehemently denied these allegations and I support Vice President Biden." | "Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women. He authored and fought for the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act. He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard -- and heard respectfully," Biden's deputy campaign manager and communications director, Kate Bedingfield said in a statement provided to CNN. "Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press. What is clear about this claim: it is untrue. This absolutely did not happen."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/politics/kirsten-gillibrand-joe-biden-support/index.html
Tara Reade is welcome to testify before congress the way Christine Blasey Ford has. But she didn't even name Biden in her police report, nor did she offer any specifics. And considering how often she's already changed her story, I doubt she'd ever take up that offer to testify.
Scientists Identify 1.9 Million Pieces of Microplastic in Square Meter of Ocean Floor | Researchers writing in Science have reported the highest levels of microplastics observed on the seafloor to date, finding up to 1.9 million fibers and fragments per square meter of ocean bed. For some time, scientists have struggled to find the "missing" 99 percent of plastic that ends up in our oceans—the polyethylene bags and polypropylene straws that accumulate at the surface accounting for a tiny fraction of total waste. Now an international team of scientists say they have identified a mechanism that transports and dumps at least some of the remaining 99 percent onto the seabed. While islands of floating plastic—such as the great Pacific garbage patch, estimated to be twice the size of Texas—have garnered a lot of media attention, researchers have identified what they call "microplastic hotspots," which form in a not-too-dissimilar fashion, only thousands of feet below the sea surface. "Until now we haven't understood where the missing microplastics in the ocean end up and how they are transported," Mike Clare of the National Oceanography Centre told Newsweek. "We know that there are concentrations of plastic on the ocean's surface, but this accounts for less than one percent of the plastic that makes it into the ocean." He added: "Until now, the rest has been assumed to settle slowly out, like rain or snow in the deep sea. We found instead that currents in the deep sea act like conveyor belts—moving plastic around, locally creating hotspots on the seafloor."
https://www.newsweek.com/scientists-identify-1-9-million-pieces-microplastic-square-meter-ocean-floor-1501237
Increase in unemployment from February to March:
🇪🇺 EU: 0.1%
🇩🇰 Denmark: 0.2%
🇩🇪 Germany: 0.7%
🇺🇸 United States: 11.5%
Newly uninsured people:
🇪🇺 0
🇩🇰 0
🇩🇪 0
🇺🇸 12,700,000
Solution: Guarantee paychecks to workers and health care to all: The coronavirus pandemic has dealt Europe an economic wallop on par with that in the United States, but Europe has more successfully managed to shield workers, according to data released Thursday. | The contrast shows the effect of Europe’s starkly different approach to fighting the economy-busting effects of the pandemic, with many governments intervening to subsidize private-sector salaries.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/joblessness-is-rising-far-more-slowly-in-europe-than-in-the-us-during-the-pandemic-new-figures-show/2020/04/30/7a5a050a-8a5a-11ea-80df-d24b35a568ae_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/europe-seeks-to-limit-coronavirus-crisis-with-unprecedented-offers-to-pay-private-sector-salaries/2020/03/24/1f099a5a-6abe-11ea-b199-3a9799c54512_story.html
We are the only major country with millions unemployed and uninsured. It's time to reexamine our society's foundations and fight for a more just nation. This is the moment to make sure everyone has economic security and health care: Another 3.8 million Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total claims since mid-March to more than 30 million
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/economy/unemployment-benefits-coronavirus/index.html
Maybe, just maybe, we should ask ourselves how we got into a situation where millions of Americans are working for starvation wages in the first place: Roughly half of all U.S. workers stand to earn more in unemployment benefits than they did at their jobs before the coronavirus pandemic brought the economy to a standstill.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-relief-often-pays-workers-more-than-work-11588066200
Openly gay woman running for sheriff in Ohio wins primary against Trump-supporting Democrat; gets 70% of vote | An openly gay woman has decisively won a race against her opponent — and former boss — in an election to decide the Democratic candidate who will run for Hamilton County Sheriff in November. Charmaine McGuffey, 62, defeated Hamilton’s County current sheriff, Jim Neil, 61, and will now face Republican Bruce Hoffbauer in the general election. In the stunning victory against a two-time incumbent, McGuffey received about 70% of the votes, according to unofficial results.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-charmaine-mcguffey-hamilton-county-sheriff-ohio-wins-primary-20200430-i3o6eqw5fvhqtcgunzuefiwo6y-story.html
Trump is still blaming Obama for leaving him with "broken tests" for a virus that didn't exist
Opening up his personal senate records would be political malpractice from the Biden campaign. Regardless of the veracity of Reade's claim, there will almost certainly not be a record of it in Biden's records since there isn't a record in the Senate personnel office. All opening up his records would do is give us an endless stream of mildly embarrassing bullshit to drip out over the next 6 months. It's Clinton's emails all over again.
https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-refuses-open-senate-papers-accusers-claims-2020-4
As the government struggles to keep businesses afloat through the pandemic, the Trump administration is sitting on about $43 billion in low-interest loans for clean energy projects, and critics are accusing the Energy Department of partisan opposition to disbursing the funds. | The loans — which would aid renewable power, nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage technology — had some bipartisan support even before the coronavirus pushed 30 million people onto the unemployment rolls. But some supporters of the program said it was being held back by a president who has falsely claimed wind power causes cancer and consistently sought deep cuts to renewable energy spending, including the loan program. | “They haven’t put out any or almost any of these loans since he’s become president,” said Representative Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “There’s an ideological or political aspect to this. The president is not someone who seeks to promote the clean energy sector.” Mr. Pallone said low-carbon technology efforts had created more than 3 million jobs before the pandemic, and said he planned to prioritize finding ways to address the unspent loans in the next stimulus. The last new project approved under the programs came in late 2016, a loan to a carbon capture and storage plant in Louisiana. The Trump administration did approve one follow-up loan for a nuclear reactor project in Georgia, but the process had begun under the Obama administration. Shaylyn Hynes, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, declined to explain why loans are not being disbursed. | The money in question comes from multiple sources, including a $17.7 billion loan program for advanced vehicle technology and a $2 billion loan program for tribal energy projects. The bulk of it, about $24 billion, is in what is known as the Title XVII loan program. That was authorized in 2005 to support the deployment of large projects that avoid, reduce or sequester planet-warming emissions. In 2009, in response to the last financial crisis, Congress temporarily expanded the program. During that time the Obama administration granted a $535 million loan to Solyndra, a California solar company that went bankrupt. | “Republicans have decided they don’t want this money to go out, even though a lot of it could be for things they say they like, like for the oil and gas industry or carbon capture and sequestration or the nuclear industry,” said Peter W. Davidson, who led the loan program under former President Barack Obama and is now chief executive of Aligned Climate Capital, an asset management company.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/climate/clean-energy-loans-coronavirus-trump.html
https://blog.aee.net/at-more-than-3-million-jobs-advanced-energy-is-a-big-and-growing-source-of-employment-in-the-us
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/business/georgia-vogtle-nuclear-reactors.html?searchResultPosition=3
Reminder: Dozens of tribal governments have sued the Treasury Department over the distribution of the $8 billion after the Trump administration said it would give funds to for-profit Native corporations. A federal judge ruled on Monday evening that the Trump administration cannot give the funds to for-profit Native companies, but 574 federally recognized tribes are still waiting for their money, according to HuffPost. | American Indians and Alaska Natives have a disproportionately higher chance of having underlying health complications like diabetes, asthma, and heart disease, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. They're also more likely to live in poverty and be uninsured, the HHS said. | There are more than 3,100 confirmed COVID-19 cases among federally recognized tribes, the Indian Health Service has reported. Navajo Nation, in particular, has been hit especially hard.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tribal-governments-waiting-covid-18-relief-money-2020-4
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tribes-covid-19-federal-relief-treasury-deb-haaland_n_5ea9decac5b633a8544487d9
https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=3&lvlid=62
https://www.ihs.gov/coronavirus/
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-navajo-nations-infection-rate-10-times-higher-than-arizonas-2020-4
A conservative justice who lost his bid for reelection to Wisconsin's Supreme Court reversed his recusal from a major case involving the potential removal of more than 200,000 people from the state's voter rolls. | Justice Daniel Kelly, who cited a potential conflict of interest when he sat out the case during his bid for reelection, said Wednesday he will now participate, potentially making him the deciding vote in whether the high court reviews the case. | "His final act on the court will be continuing the power grab set forth by Wisconsin Republicans in 2018 as he tries to strip hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites, who a vast majority of support Democrats, of their right to vote," Wikler argued.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/politics/wisconsin-daniel-kelly-voter-roll-purge
Speaker Pelosi says Democrats want to undo a provision in coronavirus legislation that bars families with mixed immigration status from receiving stimulus payments from the IRS.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Pelosi-Families-with-some-undocumented-15237736.php
Asked about Biden's call for Trump to lower the White House flag to honor the pandemic dead, Trump says, "I would not mind doing that, I would say not only the White House flag. We could do that. In fact, it's something I will be talking about later," at a meeting.
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1255970727376965633
Secret Service paid billionaire Donald Trump's company tax-payer-funded $33,000 to rent a room at his D.C. hotel for 6 months. Why? Treasury Secretary Mnuchin decided to live in a luxury suite there. Agents had to protect him
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-paid-trumps-dc-hotel-more-than-33000-for-lodging-to-guard-treasury-secretary/2020/04/30/cd38e864-8987-11ea-ac8a-fe9b8088e101_story.html
In 2017, I interviewed @AmbassadorRice on Pod Save the World. Her comments about future pandemics are eerily prescient. You can hear it here at roughly min 25-30:
https://crooked.com/podcast/ambassador-susan-rice/
Trump not holding formal daily briefings, but has been having 2 lengthy press instabilities each day this week.
Texas reported 50 more COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, the most in any one day since the state reported its first deaths in mid-March. The state also reported it had added more than 1,000 new positive cases of COVID-19, the biggest one-day increase in infections since April 10. The numbers came out less than 9 hours before Gov. Greg Abbott is set to lift restrictions on many businesses, allowing mall, movie theaters, retail stores and restaurants to begin operating at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Those types of businesses can only operate at 25 percent of their maximum capacity for the next two weeks under Abbott’s phased re-opening plan. After that, if things are going well, Abbott has said those places can go to 50 percent occupancy. Abbott’s statewide stay-at-home order expires at the end of Thursday.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Texas-reports-most-deaths-in-a-day-from-COVID-19-15238205.php
“The entire Intelligence Community has been consistently providing critical support to U.S. policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China. The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.
“As we do in all crises, the Community’s experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to U.S. national security. The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”
https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/item/2112-intelligence-community-statement-on-origins-of-covid-19
Looking at the covid-19 maps and the demographics of death, there is a clear pattern that the professional class in high GDP, high inequality regions brings the disease in, and then withdraws from social life in a way that ensures the working class and general poor gets slammed.
Florida's budget is expected to take a huge hit from coronavirus. Sales tax, responsible for nearly $4 of every $5 in the state’s roughly $33 billion general revenue fund, has plummeted amid the shutdown. | Adding to the pressure: Florida has never passed a law to effectively collect sales tax on Internet purchases, so the state could lose even more revenue as the coronavirus pandemic prompts consumers, suddenly isolated in their homes, to shift more of their shopping online. Amazon.com Inc. said earlier this month that it plans to hire more than 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers to handle surging demand — yet approximately 60 percent of the Internet giant’s sales go essentially untaxed in Florida.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronavirus/os-ne-coronavirus-florida-finances-20200324-2bhdu3dolvbbjh3ftcgqzycdxu-story.html
As produce rots in the field, one Florida farmer and an army of volunteers combat ‘a feeling of helplessness’ — one cucumber at a time | Scott and the volunteer cucumber pickers were trying to bring some sense to what has emerged as one of the most perverse outcomes of the pandemic: farmers forced to destroy fields full of crops while a growing number of families can't afford enough food. On one end are produce growers who supply restaurants, canning companies and theme parks that have been closed for weeks. Meanwhile, increasing unemployment and a convulsing economy have sent many families to the foodlines. In the most agonizing instances, hungry mouths are just a few miles from rotting crops, separated by economic turmoil and ruptured supply chains. As the gleaners rescue vegetable after vegetable, they are both a final lifeline for desperate families and a sign of just how badly the novel coronavirus has kneecapped the systems that are supposed to keep everyone fed. The Florida Department of Agriculture estimates that produce farmers like Scott have lost $522.5 million through mid-April. And they are not the only ones with a perishable product that will reach the end of its shelf life before it even leaves the farm. Dairy farmers and cooperatives across the country have dumped millions of gallons of milk down drains or onto fields as cheese plants and dairy producers contend with an unmovable surplus. Workers at pork and poultry manufacturing plants have been sickened by the coronavirus and in some cases died, placing a harsh spotlight on their working conditions during the pandemic and putting another kink in the supply chain with no resolution in sight. By the time the country reopens, Scott fears it will be too late to save this season’s cucumber crop. It might also be too late to save his farm, one of the last-remaining family growers in a region that in recent decades has been defined by encroaching suburbs and shrinking agriculture. | On most days, an average of 35 people click on the food-finder button on the Web page of the Orlando-based Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, the state’s largest. In the last month, as the coronavirus has cost central Floridians their jobs, the number of clicks has ballooned to more than 1,200 a day. “I’ve been doing this work 26 years across the country — and through lots of disaster relief. This is as bad as it’s ever been.” said Dave Krepcho, president and CEO of the food bank. “Pre-virus, you had your population that was in poverty and you had this other population of working households that were struggling to pay the rent. They were on the edge. This pandemic has put them over the edge.” Many of the restaurants that used to drop-off regular donations to the collection center on Mercy Drive are closed or struggling. But Second Harvest and other food pantries have been getting more donations from farmers like Scott. While Krepcho’s grateful he can still feed hungry people, he concedes that’s a sign of a bigger problem: there is nowhere else for the farms’ produce to go. “The charitable food system is not equipped to accept all that product even if we can get our hands on it,” Krepcho said. “We’re the largest in Florida, so we have massive coolers and freezers and we can handle a lot of produce. But even with all our capacity, there are times that we can’t accept it.” Adam Putnam, the former Florida commissioner of agriculture who is also a farmer said that with no place to sell or donate their crops, “some farmers just put the product out by the road of their farm and just give it away. It’s just as frustrating for them. They don’t want to plow their crops under. But when it’s going to cost money to harvest it and send it somewhere when they’ve already lost a boatload of money, it’s just not a good business decision.” After news programs showed pictures of Scott’s farm plowing perfectly good crops into the ground, they received a deluge of hate mail from people who chastised them for not giving it to hungry people. Scott’s family responded with a Facebook post that touted their charitable giving — 4 million to 5 million pounds of produce a year — but also spoke about just how difficult and expensive it is to reconfigure a mammoth supply chain that moves truckloads of food at harvest time. “At this point we are struggling to pay our employees, as is everyone, so how can we possibly pay to harvest the crops only to be given away?” the post said. “ . . . Without drastic changes, and if we don’t get the country back to business as usual, we will continue to struggle, and you cannot get mad at the farmer who is forced to have to leave crops to rot in the field.” | Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s office has started a website that directs shoppers to farm stores. She’s also lobbying the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the state’s congressional delegation for policies that would put more cash in the hands of Florida farmers — or at least give them a competitive edge in other markets. Last week, the USDA passed $19 billion in agriculture relief. But Fried, Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat whose agency is independent from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, said the benefit to Florida farmers would be nominal. Of the total, $2.1 billion goes to specialty crops like cucumbers. The program puts a cap of $125,000 per commodity and gives $250,000 for each individual farm or rancher, Fried said. “We are afraid that it is too little too late,” she said. | Scott spent most of last week looking for places to send his ripening crops — buyers preferably, but also charities in need. The largest charities help pay packaging costs for donated food, if he can find a way to get it to them. The large bins he uses to ship cucumbers to pickle producers aren’t feasible for food banks distributing fresh produce to families.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-produce-rots-in-the-field-one-florida-farmer-and-an-army-of-volunteers-combat-a-feeling-of-helplessness--one-cucumber-at-a-time/2020/04/30/6230c3ae-842b-11ea-a3eb-e9fc93160703_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/23/fixing-food-dumping-food-banks/
As part of the Russian interference probe, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with #Russia. Before Flynn's claim was publicly revealed as a lie, however, it was repeated by Pence during an interview with former @FaceTheNation moderator @jdickerson
https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1255979225556963332
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said Thursday that thousands of coronavirus tests obtained by the state from South Korea are currently protected in an undisclosed location by the Maryland National Guard.Asked in a Washington Post Live interview whether he was concerned the federal government would seize the tests, Hogan acknowledged “it was a little bit of a concern.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/495519-maryland-governor-says-coronavirus-tests-acquired-from-south-korea-under
https://twitter.com/postlive/status/1255878355016134656
An EMT who was born in Brooklyn, responded to the 9/11 attacks, and was a voracious reader in his off hours has died of the coronavirus: Mr. Bey, a 27-year veteran of the Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services bureau, died on April 22 at Coney Island Hospital. He was 60. The cause was Covid-19, Daniel A. Nigro, the fire commissioner, wrote in a statement. He is one of nine members of the department to die of the virus so far. | “He was there during 9/11 when those buildings came down,” said Nehemiah Chandler, a close friend. “His ambulance was totally destroyed and many people thought that he and his partner may have died, but he survived and continued to put his life at risk to help as best he could.” The Fire Department said he received a medal for his actions after the attack. | Mr. Bey was a history buff and an avid reader who amassed a library of more than 1,000 books. Friends and family said if he wasn’t at work you could find him browsing the aisles at Barnes & Noble. He was also an observant Muslim who had made the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/obituaries/idris-bey-dead-coronavirus.html
The 40+ immigrant detention centers opened under Trump are among the nation's worst in terms of abuse, medical neglect and access to legal counsel, according to a years-long report on 5 facilities authored by 3 civil liberties groups.
https://www.courthousenews.com/report-details-abuse-and-medical-neglect-at-immigrant-detention-centers/
A person who opened fire outside the Cuban Embassy in Washington was arrested on charges that included possession of an unregistered firearm and assault with the intent to kill, the authorities said. There were no injuries reported at the scene.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/us/cuban-embassy-shooting.html
Can't get over Trump threatening to sue Brad Parscale over bad poll numbers and then the shitheads on that staff leaking it to like five different outlets. Tells you everything you need to know about them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/us/politics/trump-campaign-reelection-polls.html
Biden Accuser Tare Reade's Allegations Match Scene from Her Dead Father's Novel: The novel, ‘Loss’, listed on Amazon and Google Books contains a scene, which bears uncanny similarity to her allegation against Joe Biden: “After several weeks of flirting with him she spent the night in his room on Bleeker Street next door to the Russian strip joint...” — actually I will stop there as the scene gets pretty adult and would not be appropriate for a diary IMO. You can see the highlighted text at this twitter thread for more info. Major media has practically run away from giving these allegations air time and it’s clear why: every time someone does some digging, her story falls apart. Nevertheless toxic elements in our party have continued to try and breathe life into this disaster of a story. Following the same pattern as the ‘mental decline’ narrative which went from ‘Biden has dementia’, to ‘well maybe not dementia but he’s old/frail/something’s not right’, to ‘people are talking about it, so maybe there’s something there’, to ‘it may not be true but he should just address it’, the Reade narrative is playing out just the same way. It’s like a 12-step program for disinformation, the goal being to keep the narrative in the ether as long as possible even if it’s just to create doubt. Even if under the guise of being pro-active. But just like the mental decline narrative, the Reade story has failed. Instead it’s backfiring on the few who are trying to give it new life. Like a hand grenade being desperately lobbied across the field and blowing up as the needle’s pulled every time. But this isn’t backfiring on Trump and the Republicans. It’s backfiring on *us*. It’s undermining our credibility on the left since ‘the calls are coming from inside the house’. The overwhelming memes and social media posts I see are from those purporting to be left. It’s just another message to the base of our party that the lessons of 2016 were not learned. Reade pilfered her dead father’s work for her allegations against a presidential candidate. That’s about as low as one can get IMO. There’s nothing for Biden or anyone to address, except Reade. Her 15 minutes are done. Those of us who feel compelled to hand wring over this trainwreck should ignore the toxic, dare I say infectious, fumes on social media. Learn the lessons of 2016. The overwhelming majority of America is focused on who can best lead us to a life free of fearing our next day may be our last, not a Ryan Murphy-esque political intrigue best left for a Netflix binge with box wine.
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/30/1941523/-Biden-Accuser-Reade-s-Allegations-Match-Scene-from-Dead-Father-s-Novel
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1452009554/
https://twitter.com/SallyAlbright/status/1255753538518515717/photo/1
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EW1VGdJXQAY0d6y.jpg
As Reade herself said when she was interviewed by pro-Sanders pundit Krystal Ball, Time's Up offered her considerable help when she first reached out to the organization. In its partnership with the National Women's Law Center, Time's Up connected Reade with a number of lawyers who interviewed her to see if she had a case worth pursuing. None of those lawyers took Reade on as a client. It's important to understand here that Time's Up Legal Defense Fund only provides support beyond these referrals — such as PR assistance — if a client obtains a lawyer and moves to take legal action on workplace harassment. But Reade told Salon she wasn't interested in suing Biden. Instead, she was angry "about the smears about being a Russian agent" from Biden supporters and was hoping a lawyer could find a way to stop them. One law firm Reade spoke with confirmed that they would not take a case with the ambiguous goal of trying to shut down people on social media who were speculating about an accuser being a "Russian agent."
https://www.salon.com/2020/03/31/a-woman-accuses-joe-biden-of-sexual-assault-and-all-hell-breaks-loose-online-heres-what-we-know/
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Alyssa Milano On Why She Still Supports Joe Biden & How She Would Advise Him About Tara Reade Allegations
Alyssa Milano On Why She Still Supports Joe Biden & How She Would Advise Him About Tara Reade Allegations
By Alyssa Milano
April 29, 2020 8:32pm
Editors' Note: Actress and activist Alyssa Milano has been a leader of the #MeToo movement, as her 2017 tweet calling on women to share their stories of sexual harassment and assault helped create a national conversation. Milano also endorsed Joe Biden in this year's presidential election, having interviewed him for her podcast last year shortly after he got into the presidential race.
Tara Reade's allegation against Biden, in which she claimed that he pinned her against a wall in a Senate building and sexually assaulted her, has been denied by the Biden campaign as something that "absolutely did not happen." Milano addressed the allegations on Andy Cohen's radio show earlier this month, telling him that "we have to sort of societally change that mindset to believing women, but that does not mean at the expense of not giving men their due process and investigating situations. It's got to be fair in both directions." That drew criticism, including from Reade, while Milano again addressed the accusations after new reports of two women who say that Reade told them about aspects of her claim in the 1990s.
"I'm aware of the new developments in Tara Reade's accusation against Joe Biden," Milano tweeted on Tuesday. "I want Tara, like every other survivor, to have the space to be heard and seen without being used as fodder. I hear and see you, Tara."
In this op ed, which Milano titled Living in the Gray as a Woman, she explains her position on addressing the allegation against Biden — and the pressure it places on women to admonish or absolve perpetrators. – Ted Johnson
***
Living in the Gray as a Woman
When I sent the #MeToo tweet which helped spark a movement by amplifying the work of Tarana Burke in 2017, I didn't know what it would bring. I knew I was in pain. I knew millions of women around the world were in pain. And I knew how lonely that pain was, how isolating the experience of being a victim of sexual assault was, and how bad it was for us as a nation and as a species. But then it took off, and a moment became a movement that had been relegated to the shadows by a patriarchal system and we stepped out into the light together. It was breathtaking, and powerful, and changed the world.
It also changed me.
Isn't it instructive that conversations about gender violence continue to haunt men of power? When we live in a culture whose structures fundamentally thrive upon the objectification and oppression of women, it's not surprising that men who participate in these practices find great success in life. It's forced so many women to make impossible choices between working with the very people who oppress us in order to have a chance at gaining power or not working with them, and staying under their thick, hairy thumbs. This is the game we were all forced to play because the board was rigged. But the rules are changing.
As an activist, it can be very easy to develop a black and white view of the world: things are clearly wrong or clearly right. Harvey Weinstein's decades of rape were clearly wrong. Donald Trump's alleged sexual assaults were clearly wrong. Brett Kavanaugh's actions, told consistently over decades by his victim (and supported by her polygraph results), were clearly wrong. So were Matt Lauer's, Bill Cosby's and so many others. As we started holding politicians and business leaders and celebrities around the world accountable for their actions, it was easy to sort things into their respective buckets: this is wrong, this is right. Holding people accountable for their actions was not only right, it was just.
Except it's not always so easy, and living in the gray areas is something we're trying to figure out in the world of social media. But here's something social media doesn't afford us–nuance.
The world is gray. And as uncomfortable as that makes people, gray is where the real change happens. Black and white is easy. Gray is the place women can come together out of the glare of the election and speak our truths, our doubts, our hopes, our convictions and test them against the light and the dark.
Gray is where the conversations which continue to swirl around powerful men get started. And it's really almost always men, isn't it? As women, we've been gaslit, we've been blamed. We're too shrill or too quiet. We're weak or we're insufferable. We're whores or ice queens. We're baby killers or welfare queens. Women are not afforded the gray. We are not allowed anything but the binary extremes. And then, we are pressured to turn on one another for making impossible choices. It's bullshit.
It's not up to women to admonish or absolve perpetrators, or be regarded as complicit when we don't denounce them. Nothing makes this clearer than the women who are still supporting Joe Biden even with these accusations. Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, Amy Klobuchar, Nancy Pelosi, and Elizabeth Warren have all endorsed Biden and like me, continue to support him. Because it's an impossible choice.
It falls upon women to navigate within the system of men's design to make pragmatic choices that we hope will lead us to a more equal future. I still support Joe Biden because I believe that's the best choice for that future, and again it is not up to women to absolve perpetrators. How do progressive women choose between the pussy grabber in chief who has done so much damage to our country and a man who has allegations made against him? In any black and white world, we'd have a woman to rally behind to replace Trump instead of an electoral college which says white men are the people driving the charge yet again this year.
The allegations against Joe Biden concern me, deeply. He's a man I know, respect, and admire, and who I can't picture doing any of the things of which he's accused. But I've thought that before, and been wrong. And sexual assault is always wrong. This is the shitty position we are in as women but make no mistake: it's not because of women. We have to suss out the one truth between two opposites, and either one puts us in an impossible position.
The Biden campaign's only statement said that he believes every woman should have the right to tell their story, and that the media is obligated to rigorously vet those claims. And of course, I agree. Now, nobody's asked me, but if he did, I'd advise him to face the allegation head-on, answer every question, and admit any wrongdoing, and to be the example for all men who face these kinds of accusations whether founded or not.
As far as his accuser, I want every survivor to have space to tell their story. But I also don't want her to be fodder for the machine. And I honestly don't know what's next. Believing women was never about "Believe all women no matter what they say," it was about changing the culture of NOT believing women by default. It was about ending the patriarchy's dangerous drive for self-preservation at all costs, victims be damned.
It's okay to be confused by the complexities progressive women face at every choice. It's okay to feel like there is no right way out, just the best way available. It's okay to look at evidence and come to your own conclusion. It's okay to vote the way you want. And it's okay to wish it was all so very different, that it didn't feel so hopeless here in the gray.
I want powerful men and women to continue to be held accountable for their bad actions. I want victims to be free to be heard. I want there to be an honest process of proving out accusations one way or the other. And I want to keep having the conversation. I hope you'll meet me in the gray to talk and to help us both find the way out. For women, no one else will.
By Alyssa Milano
April 29, 2020 8:32pm
Editors' Note: Actress and activist Alyssa Milano has been a leader of the #MeToo movement, as her 2017 tweet calling on women to share their stories of sexual harassment and assault helped create a national conversation. Milano also endorsed Joe Biden in this year's presidential election, having interviewed him for her podcast last year shortly after he got into the presidential race.
Tara Reade's allegation against Biden, in which she claimed that he pinned her against a wall in a Senate building and sexually assaulted her, has been denied by the Biden campaign as something that "absolutely did not happen." Milano addressed the allegations on Andy Cohen's radio show earlier this month, telling him that "we have to sort of societally change that mindset to believing women, but that does not mean at the expense of not giving men their due process and investigating situations. It's got to be fair in both directions." That drew criticism, including from Reade, while Milano again addressed the accusations after new reports of two women who say that Reade told them about aspects of her claim in the 1990s.
"I'm aware of the new developments in Tara Reade's accusation against Joe Biden," Milano tweeted on Tuesday. "I want Tara, like every other survivor, to have the space to be heard and seen without being used as fodder. I hear and see you, Tara."
In this op ed, which Milano titled Living in the Gray as a Woman, she explains her position on addressing the allegation against Biden — and the pressure it places on women to admonish or absolve perpetrators. – Ted Johnson
***
Living in the Gray as a Woman
When I sent the #MeToo tweet which helped spark a movement by amplifying the work of Tarana Burke in 2017, I didn't know what it would bring. I knew I was in pain. I knew millions of women around the world were in pain. And I knew how lonely that pain was, how isolating the experience of being a victim of sexual assault was, and how bad it was for us as a nation and as a species. But then it took off, and a moment became a movement that had been relegated to the shadows by a patriarchal system and we stepped out into the light together. It was breathtaking, and powerful, and changed the world.
It also changed me.
Isn't it instructive that conversations about gender violence continue to haunt men of power? When we live in a culture whose structures fundamentally thrive upon the objectification and oppression of women, it's not surprising that men who participate in these practices find great success in life. It's forced so many women to make impossible choices between working with the very people who oppress us in order to have a chance at gaining power or not working with them, and staying under their thick, hairy thumbs. This is the game we were all forced to play because the board was rigged. But the rules are changing.
As an activist, it can be very easy to develop a black and white view of the world: things are clearly wrong or clearly right. Harvey Weinstein's decades of rape were clearly wrong. Donald Trump's alleged sexual assaults were clearly wrong. Brett Kavanaugh's actions, told consistently over decades by his victim (and supported by her polygraph results), were clearly wrong. So were Matt Lauer's, Bill Cosby's and so many others. As we started holding politicians and business leaders and celebrities around the world accountable for their actions, it was easy to sort things into their respective buckets: this is wrong, this is right. Holding people accountable for their actions was not only right, it was just.
Except it's not always so easy, and living in the gray areas is something we're trying to figure out in the world of social media. But here's something social media doesn't afford us–nuance.
The world is gray. And as uncomfortable as that makes people, gray is where the real change happens. Black and white is easy. Gray is the place women can come together out of the glare of the election and speak our truths, our doubts, our hopes, our convictions and test them against the light and the dark.
Gray is where the conversations which continue to swirl around powerful men get started. And it's really almost always men, isn't it? As women, we've been gaslit, we've been blamed. We're too shrill or too quiet. We're weak or we're insufferable. We're whores or ice queens. We're baby killers or welfare queens. Women are not afforded the gray. We are not allowed anything but the binary extremes. And then, we are pressured to turn on one another for making impossible choices. It's bullshit.
It's not up to women to admonish or absolve perpetrators, or be regarded as complicit when we don't denounce them. Nothing makes this clearer than the women who are still supporting Joe Biden even with these accusations. Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, Amy Klobuchar, Nancy Pelosi, and Elizabeth Warren have all endorsed Biden and like me, continue to support him. Because it's an impossible choice.
It falls upon women to navigate within the system of men's design to make pragmatic choices that we hope will lead us to a more equal future. I still support Joe Biden because I believe that's the best choice for that future, and again it is not up to women to absolve perpetrators. How do progressive women choose between the pussy grabber in chief who has done so much damage to our country and a man who has allegations made against him? In any black and white world, we'd have a woman to rally behind to replace Trump instead of an electoral college which says white men are the people driving the charge yet again this year.
The allegations against Joe Biden concern me, deeply. He's a man I know, respect, and admire, and who I can't picture doing any of the things of which he's accused. But I've thought that before, and been wrong. And sexual assault is always wrong. This is the shitty position we are in as women but make no mistake: it's not because of women. We have to suss out the one truth between two opposites, and either one puts us in an impossible position.
The Biden campaign's only statement said that he believes every woman should have the right to tell their story, and that the media is obligated to rigorously vet those claims. And of course, I agree. Now, nobody's asked me, but if he did, I'd advise him to face the allegation head-on, answer every question, and admit any wrongdoing, and to be the example for all men who face these kinds of accusations whether founded or not.
As far as his accuser, I want every survivor to have space to tell their story. But I also don't want her to be fodder for the machine. And I honestly don't know what's next. Believing women was never about "Believe all women no matter what they say," it was about changing the culture of NOT believing women by default. It was about ending the patriarchy's dangerous drive for self-preservation at all costs, victims be damned.
It's okay to be confused by the complexities progressive women face at every choice. It's okay to feel like there is no right way out, just the best way available. It's okay to look at evidence and come to your own conclusion. It's okay to vote the way you want. And it's okay to wish it was all so very different, that it didn't feel so hopeless here in the gray.
I want powerful men and women to continue to be held accountable for their bad actions. I want victims to be free to be heard. I want there to be an honest process of proving out accusations one way or the other. And I want to keep having the conversation. I hope you'll meet me in the gray to talk and to help us both find the way out. For women, no one else will.
Dominion (2018) | https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5773402/
If the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated… what does that say about Australia?
What does it say about New Zealand?
The United States?
Canada?
Mexico?
The United Kingdom?
Israel?
Spain?
What does it say about us, as a species?
In our entire recorded history, 619 million humans have been killed by war. We kill the same number of animals every 3 days, and this isn’t even including fish and other sea creatures whose deaths are so great they are only measured in tonnes.
But before we kill them, we have to breed them…
Confine and exploit them, for food… entertainment… clothing… and research.
Their entire lives, from birth to death, are controlled by industries who care only for profit. An empire, of suffering and blood.
Paid for by consumers who are told that their treatment was ethical. Free range, local, organic. That their deaths were humane, that cruelty to animals doesn’t happen here in our country, and if it does, our government, our authorities, will find it and stamp it out.
And us, as consumers, have little reason to think otherwise, because to eat and use animals is normal, we’ve done it forever.
Because the products for sale on supermarket shelves are so far removed from the individuals who once existed, some only briefly, some for years without reprieve.
Individuals who share with us and our companion animals we love so dearly, our capacity to feel love.
Happiness. Grief and mourning.
Who share with us, our capacity to suffer. Our desire to live, to be free, to be seen not as objects, not for our utility to others, but for who we are as individuals. Beings in our own right, not units of production. Not stock. He, she, and they, not “it”.
The truth is, there is no humane way to kill someone who wants to live.
It is not a question of treatment, or better ways of doing the wrong thing. Bigger cages, smaller stocking densities, or less painful gas.
We tell ourselves that they have lived good lives, and in the end, they don’t know what’s coming and don’t feel a thing. But they do. In their final hours, minutes and seconds, there is always fear, there is always pain. The smells of blood. The screaming of other members of their species, with whom they have shared their lives. Never a willingness or desire to die, but rather, a desperation to live, a frantic fight to their last breath. And never are they shown mercy or kindness, instead mocked, laughed at, kicked, beaten, tossed like ragdolls, or sent into a mincer because they were born the wrong sex.
We take their children.
We take their freedom.
We take their lives, sending them healthy and whole into a slaughterhouse to come out as packaged pieces on the other side, and we tell ourselves that somehow, along the way, something humane and ethical happened.
And in the process, we harm ourselves.
We destroy our environment, emitting through animal agriculture more greenhouse gases than any other industry, tearing down our forests and slaughtering our native animals to make room for farms.
The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion humans, and yet one in nine humans – 795 million – suffer from chronic undernourishment, and 844 million lack clean water while 1000 litres are used to produce 1 litre of milk and 15,000 litres for one kilogram of beef.
And yet we continue to justify animal agriculture by claiming that it’s normal, necessary and natural. That the animal kingdom, or certain species within it, are inferior to ourselves, because they lack our specific type of intelligence, because they’re weaker and cannot defend themselves. We believe that, in our apparent superiority, we have earned the right to exercise power, authority and dominion over those we perceive to be inferior, for our own short-sighted ends.
It is a justification that has been used before.
By the white man, to enslave the black, or to take their land and their children.
By the Nazis, to murder the Jews.
By men, to silence and oppress women.
Are we doomed to repeat history over and over? Does this superiority complex, this pure selfishness, define who we are as a species? Or are we capable of something more?
What does it say about New Zealand?
The United States?
Canada?
Mexico?
The United Kingdom?
Israel?
Spain?
What does it say about us, as a species?
In our entire recorded history, 619 million humans have been killed by war. We kill the same number of animals every 3 days, and this isn’t even including fish and other sea creatures whose deaths are so great they are only measured in tonnes.
But before we kill them, we have to breed them…
Confine and exploit them, for food… entertainment… clothing… and research.
Their entire lives, from birth to death, are controlled by industries who care only for profit. An empire, of suffering and blood.
Paid for by consumers who are told that their treatment was ethical. Free range, local, organic. That their deaths were humane, that cruelty to animals doesn’t happen here in our country, and if it does, our government, our authorities, will find it and stamp it out.
And us, as consumers, have little reason to think otherwise, because to eat and use animals is normal, we’ve done it forever.
Because the products for sale on supermarket shelves are so far removed from the individuals who once existed, some only briefly, some for years without reprieve.
Individuals who share with us and our companion animals we love so dearly, our capacity to feel love.
Happiness. Grief and mourning.
Who share with us, our capacity to suffer. Our desire to live, to be free, to be seen not as objects, not for our utility to others, but for who we are as individuals. Beings in our own right, not units of production. Not stock. He, she, and they, not “it”.
The truth is, there is no humane way to kill someone who wants to live.
It is not a question of treatment, or better ways of doing the wrong thing. Bigger cages, smaller stocking densities, or less painful gas.
We tell ourselves that they have lived good lives, and in the end, they don’t know what’s coming and don’t feel a thing. But they do. In their final hours, minutes and seconds, there is always fear, there is always pain. The smells of blood. The screaming of other members of their species, with whom they have shared their lives. Never a willingness or desire to die, but rather, a desperation to live, a frantic fight to their last breath. And never are they shown mercy or kindness, instead mocked, laughed at, kicked, beaten, tossed like ragdolls, or sent into a mincer because they were born the wrong sex.
We take their children.
We take their freedom.
We take their lives, sending them healthy and whole into a slaughterhouse to come out as packaged pieces on the other side, and we tell ourselves that somehow, along the way, something humane and ethical happened.
And in the process, we harm ourselves.
We destroy our environment, emitting through animal agriculture more greenhouse gases than any other industry, tearing down our forests and slaughtering our native animals to make room for farms.
The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion humans, and yet one in nine humans – 795 million – suffer from chronic undernourishment, and 844 million lack clean water while 1000 litres are used to produce 1 litre of milk and 15,000 litres for one kilogram of beef.
And yet we continue to justify animal agriculture by claiming that it’s normal, necessary and natural. That the animal kingdom, or certain species within it, are inferior to ourselves, because they lack our specific type of intelligence, because they’re weaker and cannot defend themselves. We believe that, in our apparent superiority, we have earned the right to exercise power, authority and dominion over those we perceive to be inferior, for our own short-sighted ends.
It is a justification that has been used before.
By the white man, to enslave the black, or to take their land and their children.
By the Nazis, to murder the Jews.
By men, to silence and oppress women.
Are we doomed to repeat history over and over? Does this superiority complex, this pure selfishness, define who we are as a species? Or are we capable of something more?
Ex-Prosecutor: Why I'm skeptical about Reade's sexual assault claim against Biden
For the record I'm a female and minority and Democrat and dismiss all the Trump and Kavanaugh as liars
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/29/joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegation-tara-reade-column/3046962001/
Why I'm skeptical about Reade's sexual assault claim against Biden: Ex-prosecutor
Michael J. Stern, Opinion columnist Published 6:37 p.m. ET April 29, 2020 | Updated 6:35 a.m. ET April 30, 2020
If we must blindly accept every allegation of sexual assault, the #MeToo movement is just a hit squad. And it's too important to be no more than that.
During 28 years as a state and federal prosecutor, I prosecuted a lot of sexual assault cases. The vast majority came early in my career, when I was a young attorney at a prosecutor's office outside Detroit.
A year ago, Tara Reade accused former Vice President Joe Biden of touching her shoulder and neck in a way that made her uncomfortable, when she worked for him as a staff assistant in 1993. Then last month, Reade told an interviewer that Biden stuck his hand under her skirt and forcibly penetrated her with his fingers. Biden denies the allegation.
https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/nevada-county-woman-says-joe-biden-inappropriately-touched-her-while-working-in-his-u-s-senate-office/
https://www.axios.com/timeline-tara-reade-joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegations-6b98958f-4a78-4b28-8ca8-783285a5ce9c.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52299468
When women make allegations of sexual assault, my default response is to believe them. But as the news media have investigated Reade's allegations, I've become increasingly skeptical. Here are some of the reasons why:
►Delayed reporting … twice. Reade waited 27 years to publicly report her allegation that Biden sexually assaulted her. I understand that victims of sexual assault often do not come forward immediately because recounting the most violent and degrading experience of their lives, to a bunch of strangers, is the proverbial insult to injury. That so many women were willing to wait in my dreary government office, as I ran to the restroom to pull myself together after listening to their stories, is a testament to their fortitude.
Even so, it is reasonable to consider a 27-year reporting delay when assessing the believability of any criminal allegation. More significant perhaps, is Reade's decision to sit down with a newspaper last year and accuse Biden of touching her in a sexual way that made her uncomfortable — but neglect to mention her claim that he forcibly penetrated her with his fingers.
As a lawyer and victims' rights advocate, Reade was better equipped than most to appreciate that dramatic changes in sexual assault allegations severely undercut an accuser's credibility — especially when the change is from an uncomfortable shoulder touch to vaginal penetration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
►Implausible explanation for changing story. When Reade went public with her sexual assault allegation in March, she said she wanted to do it in an interview with The Union newspaper in California last April. She said the reporter's tone made her feel uncomfortable and "I just really got shut down" and didn't tell the whole story.
https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/nevada-county-woman-says-joe-biden-inappropriately-touched-her-while-working-in-his-u-s-senate-office/
https://soundcloud.com/katie-halper/joe-bidens-accuser-finally-tells-her-full-story
It is hard to believe a reporter would discourage this kind of scoop. Regardless, it's also hard to accept that it took Reade 12 months to find another reporter eager to break that bombshell story. This unlikely explanation damages her credibility.
►People who contradict Reade's claim. After the alleged assault, Reade said she complained about Biden's harassment to Marianne Baker, Biden's executive assistant, as well as to top aides Dennis Toner and Ted Kaufman. All three Biden staffers recently told The New York Times that she made no complaint to them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
And they did not offer the standard, noncommittal "I don't remember any such complaint." The denials were firm. "She did not come to me. If she had, I would have remembered her," Kaufman said. Toner made a similar statement. And from Baker: "I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct (by Biden), period." Baker said such a complaint, had Reade made it, "would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager."
►Missing formal complaint. Reade told The Times she filed a written complaint against Biden with the Senate personnel office. But The Times could not find any complaint. When The Times asked Reade for a copy of the complaint, she said she did not have it. Yet she maintained and provided a copy of her 1993 Senate employment records.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
It is odd that Reade kept a copy of her employment records but did not keep a copy of a complaint documenting criminal conduct by a man whose improprieties changed "the trajectory" of her life. It's equally odd The Times was unable to find a copy of the alleged Senate complaint.
https://www.theunion.com/news/nevada-county-woman-says-joe-biden-inappropriately-touched-her-while-working-in-his-u-s-senate-office/
►Memory lapse. Reade has said that she cannot remember the date, time or exact location of the alleged assault, except that it occurred in a "semiprivate" area in corridors connecting Senate buildings. After I left the Justice Department, I was appointed by the federal court in Los Angeles to represent indigent defendants. The first thing that comes to mind from my defense attorney perspective is that Reade's amnesia about specifics makes it impossible for Biden to go through records and prove he could not have committed the assault, because he was somewhere else at the time.
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/31/tara_reade_joe_biden_sexual_assault
For instance, if Reade alleged Biden assaulted her on the afternoon of June 3, 1993, Biden might be able to prove he was on the Senate floor or at the dentist. Her memory lapses could easily be perceived as bulletproofing a false allegation.
►The lie about losing her job. Reade told The Union that Biden wanted her to serve drinks at an event. After she refused, "she felt pushed out and left Biden's employ," the newspaper said last April. But Reade claimed this month in her Times interview that after she filed a sexual harassment complaint with the Senate personnel office, she faced retaliation and was fired by Biden's chief of staff.
https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/nevada-county-woman-says-joe-biden-inappropriately-touched-her-while-working-in-his-u-s-senate-office/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
Leaving a job after refusing to serve drinks at a Biden fundraiser is vastly different than being fired as retaliation for filing a sexual harassment complaint with the Senate. The disparity raises questions about Reade's credibility and account of events.
►Compliments for Biden. In the 1990s, Biden worked to pass the Violence Against Women Act. In 2017, on multiple occasions, Reade retweeted or "liked" praise for Biden and his work combating sexual assault. In the same year, Reade tweeted other compliments of Biden, including: "My old boss speaks truth. Listen." It is bizarre that Reade would publicly laud Biden for combating the very thing she would later accuse him of doing to her.
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/1is2many/about
https://twitter.com/margaretcho/status/828424119305728001
https://twitter.com/taramccabe94/status/841120222639607808
►Rejecting Biden, embracing Sanders. By this January, Reade was all in for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Her unwavering support was accompanied by an unbridled attack on Biden. In an article on Medium, Reade referred to Biden as "the blue version of Trump." Reade also pushed a Sanders/Elizabeth Warren ticket, while complaining that the Democratic National Committee was trying to "shove" Biden "down Democrat voters throats."
https://medium.com/@AlexandraTaraReade/the-politics-of-standing-in-your-truth-is-joe-biden-the-blue-trump-b70468082841
Despite her effusive 2017 praise for Biden's efforts on behalf of women, after pledging her support to Sanders, Reade turned on Biden and contradicted all she said before. She claimed that her decision to publicly accuse Biden of inappropriately touching her was due to "the hypocrisy that Biden is supposed to be the champion of women's rights."
►Love of Russia and Putin. During 2017 when Reade was praising Biden, she was condemning Russian leader Vladimir Putin's efforts to hijack American democracy in the 2016 election. This changed in November 2018, when Reade trashed the United States as a country of "hypocrisy and imperialism" and "not a democracy at all but a corporate autocracy."
https://web.archive.org/web/20190404043945/https:/medium.com/@shewrites94/why-a-liberal-democrat-supports-vladimir-putin-f54ca2a3a405
Reade's distaste for America closely tracked her new infatuation with Russia and Putin. She referred to Putin as a "genius" with an athletic prowess that "is intoxicating to American women." Then there's this gem: "President Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness. His sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity."
In March 2019, Reade essentially dismissed the idea of Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election as hype. She said she loved Russia and her Russian relatives — and "like most women across the world, I like President Putin … a lot, his shirt on or shirt off."
https://web.archive.org/web/20190404044831/https:/medium.com/@shewrites94/who-let-the-cats-out-461cdf4dfcaf
Pivoting again this month, Reade said that she "did not support Putin, and that her comments were pulled out of context from a novel she was writing," according to The Times. The quotations above, however, are from political opinion pieces she published, and she did not offer any other "context" to The Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
Reade's writings shed light on her political alliance with Sanders, who has a long history of ties to Russia and whose stump speech is focused largely on his position that American inequality is due to a corporate autocracy. But at a very minimum, Reade's wild shifts in political ideology and her sexual infatuation with a brutal dictator of a foreign adversary raise questions about her emotional stability.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/17/bernie-sanders-mystery-soviet-video-revealed-1330347
►Suspect timing. For 27 years, Reade did not publicly accuse Biden of sexually assaulting her. But then Biden's string of March primary victories threw Sanders off his seemingly unstoppable path to the Democratic nomination. On March 25, as Sanders was pondering his political future, Reade finally went public with her claim. The confluence of Reade's support of Sanders, distaste for the traditional American democracy epitomized by Biden, and the timing of her allegation should give pause to even the most strident Biden critics.
https://www.axios.com/timeline-tara-reade-joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegations-6b98958f-4a78-4b28-8ca8-783285a5ce9c.html
►The Larry King call. Last week, new "evidence" surfaced: a recorded call by an anonymous woman to CNN's "Larry King Live" show in 1993. Reade says the caller was her mother, who's now deceased. Assuming Reade is correct, her mother said: "I'm wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/25/politics/tara-reade-mom-larry-king/index.html
As a prosecutor, this would not make me happy. Given that the call was anonymous, Reade's mother should have felt comfortable relaying the worst version of events. When trying to obtain someone's assistance, people typically do not downplay the seriousness of an incident. They exaggerate it. That Reade's mother said nothing about her daughter being sexually assaulted would lead many reasonable people to conclude that sexual assault was not the problem that prompted the call to King.
Reade's mother also said her daughter did not go to the press with her problem "out of respect" for the senator. I've never met a woman who stayed silent out of "respect" for the man who sexually assaulted her. And it is inconceivable that a mother would learn of her daughter's sexual assault and suggest that respect for the assailant is what stands between a life of painful silence and justice.
The "out of respect" explanation sounds more like an office squabble with staff that resulted in leaving the job. Indeed, in last year's interview with The Washington Post, Reade laid the blame on Biden's staff for "bullying" her. She also said, "I want to emphasize: It's not him. It's the people around him."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sexual-assault-allegation-by-former-biden-senate-aide-emerges-in-campaign-draws-denial/2020/04/12/bc070d66-7067-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html
►Statements to others. Reade's brother, Collin Moulton, told The Post recently that he remembers Reade telling him Biden inappropriately touched her neck and shoulders. He said nothing about a sexual assault until a few days later, when he texted The Post that he remembered Reade saying Biden put his hand "under her clothes."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sexual-assault-allegation-by-former-biden-senate-aide-emerges-in-campaign-draws-denial/2020/04/12/bc070d66-7067-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html
That Reade's brother neglected to remember the most important part of her allegation initially could lead people to believe he recounted his Post interview to Reade, was told he left out the most important part, and texted it to The Post to avoid a discussion about why he failed to mention it in the first place.
In interviews with The Times, one friend of Reade's said Reade told her she was sexually assaulted by Biden. Another friend said Reade told her that Biden touched her inappropriately. Both friends insisted that The Times maintain their anonymity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
On Monday, Business Insider published an interview with a friend of Reade's who said that in 1995 or 1996, Reade told her she was assaulted by Biden. Insider called this friend, Lynda LaCasse, the "first person to independently corroborate, in detail and on the record, that Reade had told others about her assault allegations contemporaneously."
https://www.businessinsider.com/former-neighbor-corroborates-joe-bidens-accuser-2020-4
But Reade alleged she was assaulted in 1993. Telling a friend two or three years later is not contemporaneous. Legal references to a contemporaneous recounting typically refer to hours or days — the point being that facts are still fresh in a person's mind and the statement is more likely to be accurate.
The Insider also quoted a colleague of Reade's in the mid-1990s, Lorraine Sanchez, who said Reade told her she had been sexually harassed by a former boss. Reade did not mention Biden by name and did not provide details of the alleged harassment.
https://www.businessinsider.com/former-neighbor-corroborates-joe-bidens-accuser-2020-4
In prior interviews, Reade gave what appeared be an exhaustive list of people she told of the alleged assault. Neither of the women who talked to Business Insider were on that list.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
The problem with statements from friends is that the information they recount is only as good as the information given to them. Let's say Reade left her job because she was angry about being asked to serve drinks or because she was fired for a legitimate reason. If she tried to save face by telling friends that she left because she was sexually assaulted, that's all her friends would know and all they could repeat.
Prior statements made by a sexual assault victim can carry some weight, but only if the accuser is credible. In Reade's case, the statements coming from her friends are only of value if people believe Reade can be relied on to tell the truth, regardless of the light in which it paints her.
►Lack of other sexual assault allegations. Last year, several women claimed that Biden made them uncomfortable with things like a shoulder touch or a hug. (I wrote a column critical of one such allegation by Lucy Flores.) The Times and Post found no allegation of sexual assault against Biden except Reade's.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/04/joe-biden-allegations-physical-behavior-women
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/441312-living-among-other-people-means-accepting-some-unwanted-touching-and-joe
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sexual-assault-allegation-by-former-biden-senate-aide-emerges-in-campaign-draws-denial/2020/04/12/bc070d66-7067-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html
It is possible that in his 77 years, Biden committed one sexual assault and it was against Reade. But in my experience, men who commit a sexual assault are accused more than once ... like Donald Trump, who has had more than a dozen allegations of sexual assault leveled against him and who was recorded bragging about grabbing women's genitalia.
https://www.businessinsider.com/women-accused-trump-sexual-misconduct-list-2017-12
https://www.vox.com/2016/10/7/13205842/trump-secret-recording-women
►What remains. There are no third-party eyewitnesses or videos to support Tara Reade's allegation that she was assaulted by Joe Biden. No one but Reade and Biden know whether an assault occurred. This is typical of sexual assault allegations. Jurors, in this case the voting public, have to consider the facts and circumstances to assess whether Reade's allegation is credible. To do that, they have to determine whether Reade herself is believable.
I've dreaded writing this piece because I do not want it to be used as a guidebook to dismantling legitimate allegations of sexual assault. But not every claim of sexual assault is legitimate. During almost three decades as a prosecutor, I can remember dismissing two cases because I felt the defendant had not committed the charged crime. One of those cases was a rape charge.
The facts of that case made me question the credibility of the woman who claimed she was raped. In the end, she acknowledged that she fabricated the allegation after her boyfriend caught her with a man with whom she was having an affair.
I know that "Believe Women" is the mantra of the new decade. It is a response to a century of ignoring and excusing men's sexual assaults against women. But men and women alike should not be forced to blindly accept every allegation of sexual assault for fear of being labeled a misogynist or enabler.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/believewomen
We can support the #MeToo movement and not support allegations of sexual assault that do not ring true. If these two positions cannot coexist, the movement is no more than a hit squad. That's not how I see the #MeToo movement. It's too important, for too many victims of sexual assault and their allies, to be no more than that.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/30/me-too-movement-women-sexual-assault-harvey-weinstein-brett-kavanaugh/1966463001/
Michael J. Stern, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, was a federal prosecutor for 25 years in Detroit and Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter: @MichaelJStern1
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/29/joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegation-tara-reade-column/3046962001/
Why I'm skeptical about Reade's sexual assault claim against Biden: Ex-prosecutor
Michael J. Stern, Opinion columnist Published 6:37 p.m. ET April 29, 2020 | Updated 6:35 a.m. ET April 30, 2020
If we must blindly accept every allegation of sexual assault, the #MeToo movement is just a hit squad. And it's too important to be no more than that.
During 28 years as a state and federal prosecutor, I prosecuted a lot of sexual assault cases. The vast majority came early in my career, when I was a young attorney at a prosecutor's office outside Detroit.
A year ago, Tara Reade accused former Vice President Joe Biden of touching her shoulder and neck in a way that made her uncomfortable, when she worked for him as a staff assistant in 1993. Then last month, Reade told an interviewer that Biden stuck his hand under her skirt and forcibly penetrated her with his fingers. Biden denies the allegation.
https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/nevada-county-woman-says-joe-biden-inappropriately-touched-her-while-working-in-his-u-s-senate-office/
https://www.axios.com/timeline-tara-reade-joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegations-6b98958f-4a78-4b28-8ca8-783285a5ce9c.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52299468
When women make allegations of sexual assault, my default response is to believe them. But as the news media have investigated Reade's allegations, I've become increasingly skeptical. Here are some of the reasons why:
►Delayed reporting … twice. Reade waited 27 years to publicly report her allegation that Biden sexually assaulted her. I understand that victims of sexual assault often do not come forward immediately because recounting the most violent and degrading experience of their lives, to a bunch of strangers, is the proverbial insult to injury. That so many women were willing to wait in my dreary government office, as I ran to the restroom to pull myself together after listening to their stories, is a testament to their fortitude.
Even so, it is reasonable to consider a 27-year reporting delay when assessing the believability of any criminal allegation. More significant perhaps, is Reade's decision to sit down with a newspaper last year and accuse Biden of touching her in a sexual way that made her uncomfortable — but neglect to mention her claim that he forcibly penetrated her with his fingers.
As a lawyer and victims' rights advocate, Reade was better equipped than most to appreciate that dramatic changes in sexual assault allegations severely undercut an accuser's credibility — especially when the change is from an uncomfortable shoulder touch to vaginal penetration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
►Implausible explanation for changing story. When Reade went public with her sexual assault allegation in March, she said she wanted to do it in an interview with The Union newspaper in California last April. She said the reporter's tone made her feel uncomfortable and "I just really got shut down" and didn't tell the whole story.
https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/nevada-county-woman-says-joe-biden-inappropriately-touched-her-while-working-in-his-u-s-senate-office/
https://soundcloud.com/katie-halper/joe-bidens-accuser-finally-tells-her-full-story
It is hard to believe a reporter would discourage this kind of scoop. Regardless, it's also hard to accept that it took Reade 12 months to find another reporter eager to break that bombshell story. This unlikely explanation damages her credibility.
►People who contradict Reade's claim. After the alleged assault, Reade said she complained about Biden's harassment to Marianne Baker, Biden's executive assistant, as well as to top aides Dennis Toner and Ted Kaufman. All three Biden staffers recently told The New York Times that she made no complaint to them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
And they did not offer the standard, noncommittal "I don't remember any such complaint." The denials were firm. "She did not come to me. If she had, I would have remembered her," Kaufman said. Toner made a similar statement. And from Baker: "I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct (by Biden), period." Baker said such a complaint, had Reade made it, "would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager."
►Missing formal complaint. Reade told The Times she filed a written complaint against Biden with the Senate personnel office. But The Times could not find any complaint. When The Times asked Reade for a copy of the complaint, she said she did not have it. Yet she maintained and provided a copy of her 1993 Senate employment records.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
It is odd that Reade kept a copy of her employment records but did not keep a copy of a complaint documenting criminal conduct by a man whose improprieties changed "the trajectory" of her life. It's equally odd The Times was unable to find a copy of the alleged Senate complaint.
https://www.theunion.com/news/nevada-county-woman-says-joe-biden-inappropriately-touched-her-while-working-in-his-u-s-senate-office/
►Memory lapse. Reade has said that she cannot remember the date, time or exact location of the alleged assault, except that it occurred in a "semiprivate" area in corridors connecting Senate buildings. After I left the Justice Department, I was appointed by the federal court in Los Angeles to represent indigent defendants. The first thing that comes to mind from my defense attorney perspective is that Reade's amnesia about specifics makes it impossible for Biden to go through records and prove he could not have committed the assault, because he was somewhere else at the time.
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/31/tara_reade_joe_biden_sexual_assault
For instance, if Reade alleged Biden assaulted her on the afternoon of June 3, 1993, Biden might be able to prove he was on the Senate floor or at the dentist. Her memory lapses could easily be perceived as bulletproofing a false allegation.
►The lie about losing her job. Reade told The Union that Biden wanted her to serve drinks at an event. After she refused, "she felt pushed out and left Biden's employ," the newspaper said last April. But Reade claimed this month in her Times interview that after she filed a sexual harassment complaint with the Senate personnel office, she faced retaliation and was fired by Biden's chief of staff.
https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/nevada-county-woman-says-joe-biden-inappropriately-touched-her-while-working-in-his-u-s-senate-office/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
Leaving a job after refusing to serve drinks at a Biden fundraiser is vastly different than being fired as retaliation for filing a sexual harassment complaint with the Senate. The disparity raises questions about Reade's credibility and account of events.
►Compliments for Biden. In the 1990s, Biden worked to pass the Violence Against Women Act. In 2017, on multiple occasions, Reade retweeted or "liked" praise for Biden and his work combating sexual assault. In the same year, Reade tweeted other compliments of Biden, including: "My old boss speaks truth. Listen." It is bizarre that Reade would publicly laud Biden for combating the very thing she would later accuse him of doing to her.
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/1is2many/about
https://twitter.com/margaretcho/status/828424119305728001
https://twitter.com/taramccabe94/status/841120222639607808
►Rejecting Biden, embracing Sanders. By this January, Reade was all in for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Her unwavering support was accompanied by an unbridled attack on Biden. In an article on Medium, Reade referred to Biden as "the blue version of Trump." Reade also pushed a Sanders/Elizabeth Warren ticket, while complaining that the Democratic National Committee was trying to "shove" Biden "down Democrat voters throats."
https://medium.com/@AlexandraTaraReade/the-politics-of-standing-in-your-truth-is-joe-biden-the-blue-trump-b70468082841
Despite her effusive 2017 praise for Biden's efforts on behalf of women, after pledging her support to Sanders, Reade turned on Biden and contradicted all she said before. She claimed that her decision to publicly accuse Biden of inappropriately touching her was due to "the hypocrisy that Biden is supposed to be the champion of women's rights."
►Love of Russia and Putin. During 2017 when Reade was praising Biden, she was condemning Russian leader Vladimir Putin's efforts to hijack American democracy in the 2016 election. This changed in November 2018, when Reade trashed the United States as a country of "hypocrisy and imperialism" and "not a democracy at all but a corporate autocracy."
https://web.archive.org/web/20190404043945/https:/medium.com/@shewrites94/why-a-liberal-democrat-supports-vladimir-putin-f54ca2a3a405
Reade's distaste for America closely tracked her new infatuation with Russia and Putin. She referred to Putin as a "genius" with an athletic prowess that "is intoxicating to American women." Then there's this gem: "President Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness. His sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity."
In March 2019, Reade essentially dismissed the idea of Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election as hype. She said she loved Russia and her Russian relatives — and "like most women across the world, I like President Putin … a lot, his shirt on or shirt off."
https://web.archive.org/web/20190404044831/https:/medium.com/@shewrites94/who-let-the-cats-out-461cdf4dfcaf
Pivoting again this month, Reade said that she "did not support Putin, and that her comments were pulled out of context from a novel she was writing," according to The Times. The quotations above, however, are from political opinion pieces she published, and she did not offer any other "context" to The Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
Reade's writings shed light on her political alliance with Sanders, who has a long history of ties to Russia and whose stump speech is focused largely on his position that American inequality is due to a corporate autocracy. But at a very minimum, Reade's wild shifts in political ideology and her sexual infatuation with a brutal dictator of a foreign adversary raise questions about her emotional stability.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/17/bernie-sanders-mystery-soviet-video-revealed-1330347
►Suspect timing. For 27 years, Reade did not publicly accuse Biden of sexually assaulting her. But then Biden's string of March primary victories threw Sanders off his seemingly unstoppable path to the Democratic nomination. On March 25, as Sanders was pondering his political future, Reade finally went public with her claim. The confluence of Reade's support of Sanders, distaste for the traditional American democracy epitomized by Biden, and the timing of her allegation should give pause to even the most strident Biden critics.
https://www.axios.com/timeline-tara-reade-joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegations-6b98958f-4a78-4b28-8ca8-783285a5ce9c.html
►The Larry King call. Last week, new "evidence" surfaced: a recorded call by an anonymous woman to CNN's "Larry King Live" show in 1993. Reade says the caller was her mother, who's now deceased. Assuming Reade is correct, her mother said: "I'm wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/25/politics/tara-reade-mom-larry-king/index.html
As a prosecutor, this would not make me happy. Given that the call was anonymous, Reade's mother should have felt comfortable relaying the worst version of events. When trying to obtain someone's assistance, people typically do not downplay the seriousness of an incident. They exaggerate it. That Reade's mother said nothing about her daughter being sexually assaulted would lead many reasonable people to conclude that sexual assault was not the problem that prompted the call to King.
Reade's mother also said her daughter did not go to the press with her problem "out of respect" for the senator. I've never met a woman who stayed silent out of "respect" for the man who sexually assaulted her. And it is inconceivable that a mother would learn of her daughter's sexual assault and suggest that respect for the assailant is what stands between a life of painful silence and justice.
The "out of respect" explanation sounds more like an office squabble with staff that resulted in leaving the job. Indeed, in last year's interview with The Washington Post, Reade laid the blame on Biden's staff for "bullying" her. She also said, "I want to emphasize: It's not him. It's the people around him."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sexual-assault-allegation-by-former-biden-senate-aide-emerges-in-campaign-draws-denial/2020/04/12/bc070d66-7067-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html
►Statements to others. Reade's brother, Collin Moulton, told The Post recently that he remembers Reade telling him Biden inappropriately touched her neck and shoulders. He said nothing about a sexual assault until a few days later, when he texted The Post that he remembered Reade saying Biden put his hand "under her clothes."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sexual-assault-allegation-by-former-biden-senate-aide-emerges-in-campaign-draws-denial/2020/04/12/bc070d66-7067-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html
That Reade's brother neglected to remember the most important part of her allegation initially could lead people to believe he recounted his Post interview to Reade, was told he left out the most important part, and texted it to The Post to avoid a discussion about why he failed to mention it in the first place.
In interviews with The Times, one friend of Reade's said Reade told her she was sexually assaulted by Biden. Another friend said Reade told her that Biden touched her inappropriately. Both friends insisted that The Times maintain their anonymity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
On Monday, Business Insider published an interview with a friend of Reade's who said that in 1995 or 1996, Reade told her she was assaulted by Biden. Insider called this friend, Lynda LaCasse, the "first person to independently corroborate, in detail and on the record, that Reade had told others about her assault allegations contemporaneously."
https://www.businessinsider.com/former-neighbor-corroborates-joe-bidens-accuser-2020-4
But Reade alleged she was assaulted in 1993. Telling a friend two or three years later is not contemporaneous. Legal references to a contemporaneous recounting typically refer to hours or days — the point being that facts are still fresh in a person's mind and the statement is more likely to be accurate.
The Insider also quoted a colleague of Reade's in the mid-1990s, Lorraine Sanchez, who said Reade told her she had been sexually harassed by a former boss. Reade did not mention Biden by name and did not provide details of the alleged harassment.
https://www.businessinsider.com/former-neighbor-corroborates-joe-bidens-accuser-2020-4
In prior interviews, Reade gave what appeared be an exhaustive list of people she told of the alleged assault. Neither of the women who talked to Business Insider were on that list.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
The problem with statements from friends is that the information they recount is only as good as the information given to them. Let's say Reade left her job because she was angry about being asked to serve drinks or because she was fired for a legitimate reason. If she tried to save face by telling friends that she left because she was sexually assaulted, that's all her friends would know and all they could repeat.
Prior statements made by a sexual assault victim can carry some weight, but only if the accuser is credible. In Reade's case, the statements coming from her friends are only of value if people believe Reade can be relied on to tell the truth, regardless of the light in which it paints her.
►Lack of other sexual assault allegations. Last year, several women claimed that Biden made them uncomfortable with things like a shoulder touch or a hug. (I wrote a column critical of one such allegation by Lucy Flores.) The Times and Post found no allegation of sexual assault against Biden except Reade's.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/04/joe-biden-allegations-physical-behavior-women
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/441312-living-among-other-people-means-accepting-some-unwanted-touching-and-joe
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sexual-assault-allegation-by-former-biden-senate-aide-emerges-in-campaign-draws-denial/2020/04/12/bc070d66-7067-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html
It is possible that in his 77 years, Biden committed one sexual assault and it was against Reade. But in my experience, men who commit a sexual assault are accused more than once ... like Donald Trump, who has had more than a dozen allegations of sexual assault leveled against him and who was recorded bragging about grabbing women's genitalia.
https://www.businessinsider.com/women-accused-trump-sexual-misconduct-list-2017-12
https://www.vox.com/2016/10/7/13205842/trump-secret-recording-women
►What remains. There are no third-party eyewitnesses or videos to support Tara Reade's allegation that she was assaulted by Joe Biden. No one but Reade and Biden know whether an assault occurred. This is typical of sexual assault allegations. Jurors, in this case the voting public, have to consider the facts and circumstances to assess whether Reade's allegation is credible. To do that, they have to determine whether Reade herself is believable.
I've dreaded writing this piece because I do not want it to be used as a guidebook to dismantling legitimate allegations of sexual assault. But not every claim of sexual assault is legitimate. During almost three decades as a prosecutor, I can remember dismissing two cases because I felt the defendant had not committed the charged crime. One of those cases was a rape charge.
The facts of that case made me question the credibility of the woman who claimed she was raped. In the end, she acknowledged that she fabricated the allegation after her boyfriend caught her with a man with whom she was having an affair.
I know that "Believe Women" is the mantra of the new decade. It is a response to a century of ignoring and excusing men's sexual assaults against women. But men and women alike should not be forced to blindly accept every allegation of sexual assault for fear of being labeled a misogynist or enabler.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/believewomen
We can support the #MeToo movement and not support allegations of sexual assault that do not ring true. If these two positions cannot coexist, the movement is no more than a hit squad. That's not how I see the #MeToo movement. It's too important, for too many victims of sexual assault and their allies, to be no more than that.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/30/me-too-movement-women-sexual-assault-harvey-weinstein-brett-kavanaugh/1966463001/
Michael J. Stern, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, was a federal prosecutor for 25 years in Detroit and Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter: @MichaelJStern1
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Light News Tues And Wed
When the party moves "left", Biden has always followed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/28/progressives-biden-moved-left/
I think Cuomo/NY deserve a lot of credit for explicitly saying what the policy is and attaching concrete benchmarks to it. Note also that there are actually 2 constraints, that pertain to both the growth rate and the level: R must be <1.1 and hospitals/ICUs must be <70% capacity.
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1255181335737634821
Sweden has closed the country’s last coal-fired power station two years ahead of schedule. It becomes the third European country to exit coal completely after Belgium closed its last coal power station in 2016, and Austria ended its final coal-fired energy operations earlier this month.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-coal-power-sweden-fossil-fuels-stockholm-a9485946.html
It blows me away that Trump continuously abandons and betrays his supporters, yet they still praise him religiously. Reminder: "I can't imagine why": Trump says he takes no responsibility for people ingesting disinfectant despite telling them to
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-ingest-disinfectant-cases-us-white-house-conference-today-a9487106.html
Cult followers dying for their cult leader isn't a new thing. We can see this kind of theme repeated throughout history when it comes to cults. Branch Covidians.
Cult45 = the religion
Branch Covidian = the sect
Covidiot = the title
Covfefe = the communion
Example: Cult45 Covidiots of the Branch Covidians take part in this year's Covfefe ceremony.
Hillary had a pretty accurate name for them as well.
“I would love it if Donald would get on TV and take an injection of Clorox and let’s see if his theory works,” Howard Stern said as he raged about Trump’s suggestion that absorbing disinfectants might cure people of coronavirus.
https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2020/04/howard-stern-id-love-it-if-donald-trump-took-an-injection-of-clorox.html
Chinese officials said there are no coronavirus patients in hospitals across Hubei province, whose capital, Wuhan, was the epicenter of the global pandemic. Many residents and netizens from elsewhere, however, remain skeptical of the government’s claim about Wuhan.
https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/wuhan-residents-skeptical-claim-city-has-zero-hospitalized-covid-19-patients
House leaders on Tuesday reversed course on plans to bring the chamber back into session next week amid fears about whether it is safe to return to the Capitol amid the coronavirus pandemic. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced the change in plans after initially saying the day before that the House would return next Monday, citing discussions with the Capitol physician, who warned that the Washington region has not yet flattened its number of coronavirus cases. "We will not be meeting next week," Hoyer told reporters. "The House physician's view was that there was a risk to members that was one he would not recommend taking."
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/495016-house-reverses-plan-will-not-return-to-washington-next-week
Former CNBC anchor and current congressional candidate Michelle Caruso-Cabrera ripped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for voting against a recent $484 billion coronavirus economic stimulus package, accusing her of being "out of touch" with her New York constituents. “If she really cared, she would’ve come home after that last vote,” Caruso-Cabrera, who is challenging Ocasio-Cortez in the upcoming Democratic primary in New York's 14th Congressional District, told Yahoo News. “If she really cared, she wouldn’t drive away 25,000 jobs like she did," she added, in reference to Amazon's decision not to build a New York City headquarters after Ocasio-Cortez opposed the move. "If she really cared, she wouldn’t be telling the poorest people in her district not to go back to work like she did earlier this week. She’s out of touch to tell people who are desperate for food that they shouldn’t go back to work. How out of touch can you be?” Caruso-Cabrera added.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/494982-caruso-cabrera-rips-ocasio-cortez-for-opposing-covid-stimulus-package-how-out
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/aoc-opponent-coronavirus-stimulus-vote-153403278.html
https://twitter.com/MCaruso_Cabrera
https://michellecc2020.com/
The first person to climb Everest with 100% vegan diet and equipment - really inspiring interview with Kuntal Joisher
https://veggievagabonds.com/kuntal-joisher-interview-ethical-adventure-interview/
Don't forget Atanas Skatov, the first known vegan to ascend Everest. As of October 2019 he is attempting to become the first known vegan to summit the 14 highest summits on Earth and has successfully reached the top of 10 of them: Everest (north and south routes), Manaslu, Annapurna, Makalu, Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Kangchenjunga, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, and Dhaulagiri. I'm not sure if his equipment is vegan but the strength, endurance and dedication shows that diet doesn't effect performance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanas_Skatov
Most people I’ve discussed Tara Reade this with have the same question: How come this didn’t come up during his vetting for VP (because she's a liar, just like Christine Blasey Ford and every single Trump and Epstein and Spacey and Weinstein and Cosby and Clinton accuser.....)? I would imagine that vetting is thorough. Her story has changed too much. No wonder people have doubts. Reade does not come across as very credible. She has changed her story over time. She enhances the allegations the closer we get to November. She does not regret telling her "story" which may be all it is. Biden was the VP of the US from 2009 for 8 years, that was the time to file an official police report, which she currently refuses to do (she did recently filed a report but never named the assaulter).
Mr. Sanders’s 2016 campaign manager and another architect of the 2016 bid are joining together in an effort to rally progressive support for the former vice president ahead of the November election.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/us/politics/bernie-sanders-biden-progressive-super-pac.html
Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector | He ordered his employees to give injections to the pregnant sows, one by one, that would cause them to abort their baby pigs.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-livestock-insight/piglets-aborted-chickens-gassed-as-pandemic-slams-meat-sector-idUSKCN2292YS
Nathan Robinson pushed Reade’s brother to change his story. I guess this explains why he deleted his entire Twitter history.
https://twitter.com/agraybee/status/1255161155816960003
Vice President Mike Pence tours Mayo Clinic without coronavirus mask even though he was told to wear one. Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic Hospital, where he met with a patient who HAS Coronavirus, and was the only person in the room not to wear a mask....Mayo Clinic then tweeted: Mayo Clinic had informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/coronavirus-mike-pence-tours-mayo-clinic-without-mask.html
https://twitter.com/MayoClinic/status/1255199721301442561
https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1255148508044128269
Edna Adams lived through the 1918 flu pandemic, women’s suffrage, the Great Depression and two world wars. She died of covid-19 at the age of 105, the oldest D.C. victim
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/at-105-dcs-oldest-coronavirus-victim-was-a-woman-of-faith-who-lived-alone-until-she-turned-100/2020/04/28/944da662-88cd-11ea-8ac1-bfb250876b7a_story.html
"If he’s going to invoke the DPA now for food production facilities, he absolutely should do so for PPE,” Iowa US Rep. Abby Finkenauer says on Trump’s EO mandating meat processing plants stay open amid coronavirus outbreak. At least 20 meat and food processing workers have died.
https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1255253997528776706
On the cases, though, that data has started to look better. Tests up, cases down, so the percentage of positive tests is down quite a bit. A lot of this is driven by NY state, which is down to just 16% positives in its testing today (19% for NYC) from a peak of 50% (59% for NYC).
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1255253348175003648
52 positive cases tied to Wisconsin election
https://apnews.com/b1503b5591c682530d1005e58ec8c267
Two men in Georgia drank disinfectants in efforts to prevent COVID-19
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/495089-two-men-in-georgia-drank-disinfectants-in-efforts-to-prevent-covid-19
Pelosi mocks Trump: Ice cream in my freezer better than Lysol in your lungs
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/495118-pelosi-mocks-trump-ice-cream-in-my-freezer-better-than-lysol-in-your-lungs
https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/04/28/pelosi-ice-cream-217103
Andrew Yang is suing the New York board of elections over the effectively-canceled state presidential primary, arguing that canceling it disenfranchises voters and could also suppress turnout for downballot races
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/28/andrew-yang-lawsuit-new-york-primary-217349
"the rule was changed after Bernie withdrew" is a lie
Bill passed: April 2nd
Bill signed: April 3rd
Sanders drops out: April 8th
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s7506/amendment/b
Kansas Democrats triple turnout after switch to mail-only presidential primary
https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article242340181.html
Former NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume wins special election for Maryland congressional seat of the late Elijah Cummings.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/maryland-seventh-district-election-results/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/28/us/elections/results-ohio-primary-elections.html
Naval leaders have recommended Capt. Brett Crozier be restored to command of an aircraft carrier. He was removed after complaining that the Navy was not helping his coronavirus-struck crew enough.
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/24/844777609/the-navy-has-decided-to-restore-capt-brett-crozier
Investigators from former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation told a judge that Trump political adviser Roger Stone orchestrated hundreds of fake Facebook accounts and bloggers to run a political influence scheme on social media in 2016, according to court documents from the Mueller investigation unsealed on Tuesday. The disclosure came as the Justice Department on Tuesday made public dozens of search warrants from its investigation into Stone, after CNN and other news organizations sued for access to the files.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/doj-roger-stone-warrants-lawsuit/index.html
Governments should not use taxpayer cash to rescue fossil fuel companies and carbon-intensive industries, but should devote economic rescue packages for the coronavirus crisis to businesses that cut greenhouse gas emissions and create green jobs, the UN secretary general has urgedC
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/28/un-chief-dont-use-taxpayer-money-to-save-polluting-industries
CEO of surveillance firm hired by Utah is former KKK: Damien Patton helped hate group members shoot up a synagogue in 1990: The CEO and founder of a surveillance firm hired by the state of Utah was involved with the KKK during his youth. The bombshell finding, first revealed by OneZero on Tuesday, links Banjo CEO Damien Patton to the shooting of a Tennessee synagogue in 1990. Patton made headlines in March after his company was awarded a five-year, $20.7 million contract by Utah to use its surveillance software to “detect anomalies.” | But it wasn’t those concerns that ultimately led the Utah Attorney General’s Office to suspend its contract with Banjo on Tuesday. It was his involvement with the Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan instead. In its reporting, OneZero says it was able to locate “transcripts of courtroom testimony, sworn statements, and more than 1,000 pages of records produced from a federal hate crime prosecution.” Patton found himself tied up in the legal system due to his involvement in a drive-by shooting at a Nashville synagogue in 1990 at the age of 17.
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/damien-patton-banjo-kkk/
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/04/28/utah-attorney-general/
Utah Attorney General suspends state contract with Banjo in light of founder’s KKK past
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/04/28/utah-attorney-general/
The U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8% pace in Q1 - steepest contraction since 2008
https://www.wsj.com/articles/first-quarter-gdp-us-growth-coronavirus-11588123665
Some states, such as Colorado and Kentucky, have reported fewer new cases in the past week. But no single state has had 14 days of decline.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/guidelines-call-14-day-drop-cases-reopen-no-state-has-n1194191
Americans are drinking bleach because of Trump and still Republicans stand by him
https://www.newstatesman.com/international/us/2020/04/americans-are-drinking-bleach-because-trump-and-still-republicans-stand-him
___________________________
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/opinions/biden-sanders-progressives-weaver/index.html
Jeff Weaver: Why Bernie supporters should back Biden
Updated 11:11 PM ET, Tue April 28, 2020
Jeff Weaver, a long-time aide to Senator Bernie Sanders and campaign manager for Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, is a leader of "Future to Believe In (FTBI) PAC," a new political group to support Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and push for more progressive policies. The opinions expressed here are the writer's own. Read more opinion articles at CNN.
As progressives debate their role in the upcoming general election, they must consider what our movement has accomplished in a very short time and why, at this moment, we must press our advantage and not abandon the people we represent -- working people, middle-income people, the poor and marginalized communities.
Bernie Sanders' millions of volunteers, supporters, donors and voters demonstrated the breadth of our movement that is widening the boundaries of acceptable political debate in this country. As Bernie himself has pointed out, ideas like Medicare for All and jobs for all, that only a few years ago would have been radical, are now supported by the American people. Our work has been so successful that policies such as a $15 minimum hourly wage and free public college tuition have been adopted by the Democratic Party and even by Bernie's primary opponents.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/15/politics/joe-biden-free-public-university-tuition/index.html
We made that happen. We made policies that benefit everyday people important again. We effectively delivered, and will continue to deliver, a new hopeful vision for our country. My good friend Senator Nina Turner uses a quote from the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan that sums up the vision that we offer -- "an America as good as its promise."
The Sanders' candidacy was always about accelerating our path toward that "America as good as its promise" by institutionalizing as much progressive change into law as could be accomplished had he become president. Just as Republicans have spent decades unsuccessfully trying to gut Social Security and Medicare, so they would spend decades trying to undo a President Sanders' plans for college for all, Medicare for All, and the rest.
Now we have come to the place where Bernie is not going to be the president. I wish I could convey how deeply that hurts me to write it. But that's where we are. We can spend a lot of time fixated on the unfairness of the process over the last two primary cycles, the role of big money, the advantages of the establishment and the fecklessness of much of the media. All that is true. But, so what? Who in our movement ever thought that the ruling class was just going to roll over? Progressive politics is not for the faint of heart.
Now we have come to the place where Bernie is not going to be the president. I wish I could convey how deeply that hurts me to write it. But that's where we are. We can spend a lot of time fixated on the unfairness of the process over the last two primary cycles, the role of big money, the advantages of the establishment and the fecklessness of much of the media. All that is true. But, so what? Who in our movement ever thought that the ruling class was just going to roll over? Progressive politics is not for the faint of heart.
Nor is it a debating society. It's not the "holier than thou" Olympics. It is organizing to achieve real and positive change in the lives of the people we represent. It's not about being right. It's about achieving what's right for the right people. The people who are, in Sanders' words, too often "put down and pushed around." That is why so many people worked for, donated to and voted for Bernie's campaign -- to make life better for ordinary people.
As our movement moves the Democratic Party and much of the nation in our direction through our blood, our sweat, and, too often in recent days, our tears, we must be good stewards of the hard-won political influence we earned to benefit the people we care about.
I don't know anyone who thinks Joe Biden will be as far to the left as president as Sanders would have been. But after all the work we progressives have done together, having knocked on all those doors, made all those calls, made all the small donations, the rank and file supporters of our movement deserve to enjoy the success of their efforts so far. Will the changes we see in the short run be incremental? Of course, they will (although it is our mutual responsibility to make them as expansive as possible). But that increment will be an improvement in the lives of real people that springs directly from the organizing we have done.
Does this mean we should support an incremental approach to change? Absolutely not. We will all continue to push forward an agenda of transformative change and we will fight for candidates who will deliver it. I know this position will be controversial to some, as will the decision to use a SuperPAC as the vehicle for this effort. Senator Sanders himself doesn't approve of this vehicle. But a real improvement in people's lives at this moment is possible. So we must all deliver it in the most effective way we are comfortable with.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/28/us/politics/28reuters-usa-election-sanders.html
Otherwise, how can we look in the face the single mother that Bernie and I met in Iowa, who was making $8.00 an hour, if we sit home because we don't want to pull the lever for Joe Biden -- who supports a $15 minimum wage? Why should our ideological sensitivities mean anything to her and her kids if they can't afford housing, or medicine, or food? Where is our moral standing to ask her or anyone like her to stand with us in the next campaign?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/04/29/joe-biden-minimum-wage-2020-campaign-pittsburgh/3622645002/
How do we explain to the 60-year-old service worker who has no health insurance that we could have gotten her access to Medicare (not a buy-in, but access like 65-year-olds get now)? Should she care that we were so committed to Medicare for All that we wouldn't support a candidate who would make Medicare available only to some 40 million additional people over the course of a single term in office? Why should people trust progressives to protect their interests in the future if we fail to deliver when we have the opportunity now?
In this moment, we must work as hard as we can to secure as much as we can for the people whose interests our movement champions: the poor and marginalized, working families and the middle class. That's not to say any of these changes go far enough or that our work is finished. Far from it. We will keep pushing. We will keep organizing. We will keep building. This isn't about Joe, or Bernie, or any one of us. It's about all of us. It's about meeting the needs of people so that together we can create that America as good as its promise. That won't happen by sitting on the sidelines with our arms folded.
___________________________
A study looking at eight Georgia hospitals finds that 80 percent of the COVID-19 patients are black, more than expected. African Americans make up 30 percent of the state's population and more than 50 percent of the deaths.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/more-than-80-percent-of-hospitalized-covid-patients-in-georgia-were-african-american-study-finds/2020/04/29/a71496ea-8993-11ea-8ac1-bfb250876b7a_story.html
Reminder: Coronavirus (red line) is way worse than the flu (yellow line).
https://twitter.com/FrankLuntz/status/1255542590944002048
South Korea now seems to think the so-called "re-infections" it found are actually just false positives. A lot of smart epidemiologists thought this was likely the case all along, so not a huge surprise, but passing this along for people who freaked out earlier.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1266758/tests-in-recovered-patients-in-s-korea-found-false-positives-not-reinfections-experts-say
The coronavirus may have killed more people in the U.S. than is officially known: Total deaths in 7 hard-hit states are nearly 50% above normal, CDC data shows. That's 9,000 more deaths than were reported as of April 11 in official counts.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/28/us/coronavirus-death-toll-total.html
Texas' attorney general intervened in the coronavirus policy of a remote Colorado county. Records reviewed by AP show an exclusive group of Texans stood to benefit, including a Dallas donor and college classmate. | An Associated Press review of county and campaign finance records shows Paxton’s actions stood to benefit an exclusive group of Texans, including a Dallas donor and college classmate who helped Paxton launch his run for attorney general and had spent five days trying to get a waiver to remain in his $4 million lakeside home. Robert McCarter’s neighbors in the wealthy Colorado enclave of Crested Butte are also Paxton campaign contributors, including a Texas oilman who has given Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, more than $252,000.
https://apnews.com/3c992cd29925f80e94c5d75ef82f7fe4
Congressional Black Caucus member Joyce Beatty defeats Justice Democrat Morgan Harper in Ohio. The shellacking Harper received is a big rebuke to the national progressive insurgency.
https://www.businessinsider.com/joyce-beatty-morgan-harper-ohio-dem-primary-live-results-votes-2020-4
500 TSA employees have tested positive for COVID-19
https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/495225-500-tsa-employees-have-tested-positive-for-covid-19
How many elections does the social media mob have to lose before concluding that coalition building beats online vitriol every time?
https://twitter.com/hakeem_jeffries/status/1255340788189462531
Twelve rangers and five other people were killed in Virunga National Park in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was the latest deadly incident in the park, where more than 150 rangers have been killed since 2006.
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/twelve-rangers-killed-in-latest-virunga-park-incident/
If a single unfactual gossip-based Ronan Farrow story can sink you, then five deep-dive investigations by the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, AP, and Salon that find nothing - not one shred of evidence - clears you. I dismiss all the accusers of Trump, B. Clinton, Kavanaugh, Cosby, Biden, Weinstein, Franken, etc, as liars. I am a female and a minority and I am telling you, 99% of females dismiss the accusers as liars. Real sexual assault, real sexual harassment, real sexual misconduct, is serious, not the lies these females are selling for personal profit.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will grant an emergency use authorization for remdesivir after early results from a clinical trial showed the drug’s promise in treating COVID-19 patients, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The move would allow doctors to use remdesivir to treat coronavirus patients, even though it has not formally been approved to treat the deadly disease.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/495292-fda-to-authorize-emergency-use-of-new-coronavirus-treatment-nyt
Judge blocks Trump from giving coronavirus relief for Native American communities to corporations
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/29/judge-blocks-trump-from-giving-coronavirus-relief-for-native-american-communities-to-corporations/
Florida officials have reportedly withheld medical examiners’ data on coronavirus deaths in the state for over a week, with the policy changing shortly after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners were counting 10 percent more deaths than the state. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, told the Tampa Bay Times that the state health department intervened and told him it planned to remove causes of death and case descriptions from mortality data. Nelson told the newspaper the data is meaningless without that information, and the entirety of the list should be considered public information. “This is no different than any other public record we deal with,” he said. “It’s paid for by taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers have a right to know.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/495295-florida-ordered-coroners-to-stop-releasing-coronavirus-death-data-report
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/04/29/florida-medical-examiners-were-releasing-coronavirus-death-data-the-state-made-them-stop/
A federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday that Kansas can’t require voters to show proof of citizenship when they register, dealing a blow to efforts by Republicans in several states who have pursued restrictive voting laws as a way of combating voter fraud. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Salt Lake City upheld a federal judge’s injunction nearly two years ago that prohibited Kansas from enforcing the requirement, which took effect in 2013. The appeals court, in a ruling that consolidated two appeals, found the statute former Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law violates the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as the “motor-voter law.” Many experts say voter fraud is extremely rare, and critics contend the Republican-led efforts are actually meant to suppress turnout from groups who tend to back Democrats, including racial minorities and college students. The law was championed by former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who led Trump’s now-defunct voter fraud commission. Kobach was a leading source for Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally may have voted in the 2016 election. Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project, said the ruling doesn’t immediately affect other states because Kansas’s law was unique in requiring people to show a physical document such as a birth certificate or passport when applying to register to vote. However, Ho said the ruling is grounded in a broader constitutional principle that when a state significantly burdens the right to vote, it has to justify it. “Kansas wasn’t able to muster evidence that the law in question here was necessary to prevent voter fraud, and I think that broader principle could have reverberations beyond the specific context of this case in a wide range of disputes over voting access between now and November,” Ho said. The decision is binding in states covered by the 10th Circuit, which also covers Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, plus those portions of the Yellowstone National Park extending into Montana and Idaho.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/court-says-kansas-cant-require-voters-to-show-citizenship-proof
Jameis Winston’s one-year contract with the Saints carries a base value of $1.1M, per source. He got a $148,000 signing bonus, a base salary of $952,000 and $3.4M is available in incentives. Jameis prioritized the chance to learn and grow as a player. (twitter.com)
https://twitter.com/fieldyates/status/1255499799316619269
.@realDonaldTrump has eschewed a daily coronavirus briefing for lengthy Q&A sessions at @WhiteHouse events. However, unlike the briefing, none of the cable networks are taking today's full Q&A live.
https://twitter.com/johnrobertsFox/status/1255610423287611395
DOJ must pay attorney fees in sanctuary city case | In a written opinion, U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber awarded the United States Conference of Mayors more than $97,000 in attorney fees it incurred battling the federal government’s attempt to withhold public safety funds from sanctuary cities. Leinenweber held the conference established it is entitled to the fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act.
https://www.chicagolawbulletin.com/getdoc/2b6072db-77ea-4a67-9afb-c5cbd5080017/feds-ordered-to-pay-$97k-in-sanctuary-city-case
Ron DeSantis announced that Florida will start lifting stay-at-home orders starting Monday. The orders won’t apply to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, however, where the epidemic has hit hardest.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article242368531.html
"Hopefully in the not too distant future we'll have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other. I can't imagine a rally where you have every 4th seat full, every six seats are empty for every one you have full. That wouldn't look too good."
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1255609621919731714
Nearly 400 workers in Georgia’s prized poultry industry have tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus, and one has died from his illness, according to Georgia Department of Public Health statistics obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. | Nationwide, at least 20 meatpacking workers have died from COVID-19 and more than 5,000 have been hospitalized for it or are showing symptoms of the disease, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Meanwhile, 22 meatpacking plants have closed during the last two months, resulting in a 25% reduction in pork slaughter capacity and a 10% percent drop in beef slaughter capacity, the union said.
https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-news/hundreds-georgia-poultry-workers-have-tested-positive-for-covid/K0vGYEGTSbvAYIeU3I6qtM/
http://www.ufcw.org/press/
CLOSE DOWN ANIMAL EXPLOITATION INDUSTRY. STOP. BREEDING. THESE. TORTURED. CREATURES. RELOCATE THEM TO SANCTUARY FARMS. PROBLEM SOLVED. RETOOL SLAUGHTERHOUSE INTO VEGAN MEAT/DAIRY FACTORIES.
While you‘ve been desperately trying to apply for #unemployment through #Florida DEO’s debacle, @SenRickScott says you are “today’s welfare queens, out to game the system & cheat the taxpayer”
https://twitter.com/Annette_Taddeo/status/1255611991928057857
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-edit-coronavirus-florida-unemployment-rick-scott-20200429-uzvhqrk3kngq3bqmhse72zrfam-story.html
Sen. Coons (D-Del.) defends former VP Joe Biden against allegations of sexual misconduct. "I know Joe, I know his life, his character, his record" #MTPDaily @ChrisCoons: "He and his campaign urged that these allegations be fully investigated. They have been."
https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1255611061165871104
Trump says one death is too many, but "if we lose 65,000 people," that's horrible but we could've lost 1 or 2 million if we didn't do what we did. (Again, nine days ago, he said we could finish between 50,000 and 60,000 deaths. He keeps revising the success number upward.)
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1255611435775922178
Last Wednesday, two days before Trump lashed out at Parscale, his campaign manager and several other top political advisers briefed him on internal campaign and Republican National Committee data showing the President was heading for defeat in key battleground states. Parscale, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and other advisers urged him to scale back his daily, combative news conferences and pointed to data showing that the briefings were hurting him with critical swing voters in those states.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/politics/donald-trump-brad-parscale-campaign-coronavirus/index.html
No, the Media Isn’t Burying the Biden Allegations
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/29/no-the-media-isnt-burying-the-biden-allegations-221920
When holding the press to account, whether TV or not, it’s also worth noting the difficulty of confirming another outlet’s findings. The Wednesday Washington Post repeats the nut of the new Business Insider story on Page One, but has trouble advancing it very far because Reade’s two acquaintances did not respond to the Post’s requests for comment.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/29/no-the-media-isnt-burying-the-biden-allegations-221920
^I'm glad the author brought this point up. Something I've noticed about the media outlets that rushed to publish articles on the story always did so in a really sloppy way. It looks really bad when these stories are done not following standard journalistic practices. Too often these independent media outlets are just quoting each other as their sources.
YEP: .@NYCMayor - we strongly support social-distancing and agree the time for warnings has passed. We also know what happens when any one community is scapegoated or referred to in generalizations, especially when threatening arrest & as anti-Semitism is on the rise. Words matter.
https://twitter.com/HalieSoifer/status/1255551816567226369
It is worth noting we are still adding about 25,000 cases and over 2,000 deaths a day, and have already blown through the University of Washington estimate for how many deaths would occur through the end of May. And that assumed continuation of distancing that's now being unwound.
Dozens of Decomposing Bodies Found in Trucks at Brooklyn Funeral Home. Neighbors complained of a foul odor coming from trucks parked outside the home, which had a broken freezer, a law enforcement official said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/nyregion/bodies-brooklyn-funeral-home-coronavirus.html
Kentucky Gov. Beshear thought it was a joke when a man named Tupac Shakur filed for unemployment and has since apologized.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tupac-shakur-filed-unemployment-kentucky-governor-could-hardly-believe-it-n1195011
Michael Fleming died in federal prison on April 19th. The first word his family received from the BOP that he was even ill with coronavirus came after he died. A prison chaplain called to ask if his body should be cremated & where the ashes could be sent. | Over 70% of tested inmates in federal prisons have COVID-19
https://apnews.com/fb43e3ebc447355a4f71e3563dbdca4f
It's fascinating how much staying power the Tara Reade allegation has had compared to the allegations against Trump. Dismiss ALL accusers as LIARS and tell them "go to the police and tell them you want to file an official account with the perpetrator's name and want them to investigate the report, and include the names and contact information of each and every witness. Refusal means nothing happened and you're a liar."
After One Tweet To President Trump, This Man Received $69 Million From New York For Ventilators | The Silicon Valley engineer, who had no background in medical supplies but was recommended by the White House, never delivered the ventilators.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/after-one-tweet-to-president-trump-this-man-got-69-million
He could already picture the virus spreading as players moved from table to table, passing cards from hand to hand, seeding an invisible course of infection. | A bridge club was a social draw for scores of older Coloradans. Now, with four members dead from the virus, its future is unclear.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/us/coronavirus-bridge-colorado-springs.html
Another NYT article that missed out on saying he is Biden his time: Joe Biden Is Not Hiding. He’s Lurking. Never get in the way of an incumbent who is digging his own grave.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/opinion/joe-biden-campaign.html
Just Biden My Time Til The Revolution
https://helloresistance.com/collections/just-biden-my-time-til-the-revolution
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0064/2826/2518/products/mockup-20b89666_2048x.jpg
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/28/progressives-biden-moved-left/
I think Cuomo/NY deserve a lot of credit for explicitly saying what the policy is and attaching concrete benchmarks to it. Note also that there are actually 2 constraints, that pertain to both the growth rate and the level: R must be <1.1 and hospitals/ICUs must be <70% capacity.
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1255181335737634821
Sweden has closed the country’s last coal-fired power station two years ahead of schedule. It becomes the third European country to exit coal completely after Belgium closed its last coal power station in 2016, and Austria ended its final coal-fired energy operations earlier this month.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-coal-power-sweden-fossil-fuels-stockholm-a9485946.html
It blows me away that Trump continuously abandons and betrays his supporters, yet they still praise him religiously. Reminder: "I can't imagine why": Trump says he takes no responsibility for people ingesting disinfectant despite telling them to
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-ingest-disinfectant-cases-us-white-house-conference-today-a9487106.html
Cult followers dying for their cult leader isn't a new thing. We can see this kind of theme repeated throughout history when it comes to cults. Branch Covidians.
Cult45 = the religion
Branch Covidian = the sect
Covidiot = the title
Covfefe = the communion
Example: Cult45 Covidiots of the Branch Covidians take part in this year's Covfefe ceremony.
Hillary had a pretty accurate name for them as well.
“I would love it if Donald would get on TV and take an injection of Clorox and let’s see if his theory works,” Howard Stern said as he raged about Trump’s suggestion that absorbing disinfectants might cure people of coronavirus.
https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2020/04/howard-stern-id-love-it-if-donald-trump-took-an-injection-of-clorox.html
Chinese officials said there are no coronavirus patients in hospitals across Hubei province, whose capital, Wuhan, was the epicenter of the global pandemic. Many residents and netizens from elsewhere, however, remain skeptical of the government’s claim about Wuhan.
https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/wuhan-residents-skeptical-claim-city-has-zero-hospitalized-covid-19-patients
House leaders on Tuesday reversed course on plans to bring the chamber back into session next week amid fears about whether it is safe to return to the Capitol amid the coronavirus pandemic. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced the change in plans after initially saying the day before that the House would return next Monday, citing discussions with the Capitol physician, who warned that the Washington region has not yet flattened its number of coronavirus cases. "We will not be meeting next week," Hoyer told reporters. "The House physician's view was that there was a risk to members that was one he would not recommend taking."
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/495016-house-reverses-plan-will-not-return-to-washington-next-week
Former CNBC anchor and current congressional candidate Michelle Caruso-Cabrera ripped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for voting against a recent $484 billion coronavirus economic stimulus package, accusing her of being "out of touch" with her New York constituents. “If she really cared, she would’ve come home after that last vote,” Caruso-Cabrera, who is challenging Ocasio-Cortez in the upcoming Democratic primary in New York's 14th Congressional District, told Yahoo News. “If she really cared, she wouldn’t drive away 25,000 jobs like she did," she added, in reference to Amazon's decision not to build a New York City headquarters after Ocasio-Cortez opposed the move. "If she really cared, she wouldn’t be telling the poorest people in her district not to go back to work like she did earlier this week. She’s out of touch to tell people who are desperate for food that they shouldn’t go back to work. How out of touch can you be?” Caruso-Cabrera added.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/494982-caruso-cabrera-rips-ocasio-cortez-for-opposing-covid-stimulus-package-how-out
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/aoc-opponent-coronavirus-stimulus-vote-153403278.html
https://twitter.com/MCaruso_Cabrera
https://michellecc2020.com/
The first person to climb Everest with 100% vegan diet and equipment - really inspiring interview with Kuntal Joisher
https://veggievagabonds.com/kuntal-joisher-interview-ethical-adventure-interview/
Don't forget Atanas Skatov, the first known vegan to ascend Everest. As of October 2019 he is attempting to become the first known vegan to summit the 14 highest summits on Earth and has successfully reached the top of 10 of them: Everest (north and south routes), Manaslu, Annapurna, Makalu, Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Kangchenjunga, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, and Dhaulagiri. I'm not sure if his equipment is vegan but the strength, endurance and dedication shows that diet doesn't effect performance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanas_Skatov
Most people I’ve discussed Tara Reade this with have the same question: How come this didn’t come up during his vetting for VP (because she's a liar, just like Christine Blasey Ford and every single Trump and Epstein and Spacey and Weinstein and Cosby and Clinton accuser.....)? I would imagine that vetting is thorough. Her story has changed too much. No wonder people have doubts. Reade does not come across as very credible. She has changed her story over time. She enhances the allegations the closer we get to November. She does not regret telling her "story" which may be all it is. Biden was the VP of the US from 2009 for 8 years, that was the time to file an official police report, which she currently refuses to do (she did recently filed a report but never named the assaulter).
Mr. Sanders’s 2016 campaign manager and another architect of the 2016 bid are joining together in an effort to rally progressive support for the former vice president ahead of the November election.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/us/politics/bernie-sanders-biden-progressive-super-pac.html
Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector | He ordered his employees to give injections to the pregnant sows, one by one, that would cause them to abort their baby pigs.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-livestock-insight/piglets-aborted-chickens-gassed-as-pandemic-slams-meat-sector-idUSKCN2292YS
Nathan Robinson pushed Reade’s brother to change his story. I guess this explains why he deleted his entire Twitter history.
https://twitter.com/agraybee/status/1255161155816960003
Vice President Mike Pence tours Mayo Clinic without coronavirus mask even though he was told to wear one. Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic Hospital, where he met with a patient who HAS Coronavirus, and was the only person in the room not to wear a mask....Mayo Clinic then tweeted: Mayo Clinic had informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/coronavirus-mike-pence-tours-mayo-clinic-without-mask.html
https://twitter.com/MayoClinic/status/1255199721301442561
https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1255148508044128269
Edna Adams lived through the 1918 flu pandemic, women’s suffrage, the Great Depression and two world wars. She died of covid-19 at the age of 105, the oldest D.C. victim
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/at-105-dcs-oldest-coronavirus-victim-was-a-woman-of-faith-who-lived-alone-until-she-turned-100/2020/04/28/944da662-88cd-11ea-8ac1-bfb250876b7a_story.html
"If he’s going to invoke the DPA now for food production facilities, he absolutely should do so for PPE,” Iowa US Rep. Abby Finkenauer says on Trump’s EO mandating meat processing plants stay open amid coronavirus outbreak. At least 20 meat and food processing workers have died.
https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1255253997528776706
On the cases, though, that data has started to look better. Tests up, cases down, so the percentage of positive tests is down quite a bit. A lot of this is driven by NY state, which is down to just 16% positives in its testing today (19% for NYC) from a peak of 50% (59% for NYC).
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1255253348175003648
52 positive cases tied to Wisconsin election
https://apnews.com/b1503b5591c682530d1005e58ec8c267
Two men in Georgia drank disinfectants in efforts to prevent COVID-19
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/495089-two-men-in-georgia-drank-disinfectants-in-efforts-to-prevent-covid-19
Pelosi mocks Trump: Ice cream in my freezer better than Lysol in your lungs
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/495118-pelosi-mocks-trump-ice-cream-in-my-freezer-better-than-lysol-in-your-lungs
https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/04/28/pelosi-ice-cream-217103
Andrew Yang is suing the New York board of elections over the effectively-canceled state presidential primary, arguing that canceling it disenfranchises voters and could also suppress turnout for downballot races
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/28/andrew-yang-lawsuit-new-york-primary-217349
"the rule was changed after Bernie withdrew" is a lie
Bill passed: April 2nd
Bill signed: April 3rd
Sanders drops out: April 8th
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s7506/amendment/b
Kansas Democrats triple turnout after switch to mail-only presidential primary
https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article242340181.html
Former NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume wins special election for Maryland congressional seat of the late Elijah Cummings.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/maryland-seventh-district-election-results/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/28/us/elections/results-ohio-primary-elections.html
Naval leaders have recommended Capt. Brett Crozier be restored to command of an aircraft carrier. He was removed after complaining that the Navy was not helping his coronavirus-struck crew enough.
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/24/844777609/the-navy-has-decided-to-restore-capt-brett-crozier
Investigators from former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation told a judge that Trump political adviser Roger Stone orchestrated hundreds of fake Facebook accounts and bloggers to run a political influence scheme on social media in 2016, according to court documents from the Mueller investigation unsealed on Tuesday. The disclosure came as the Justice Department on Tuesday made public dozens of search warrants from its investigation into Stone, after CNN and other news organizations sued for access to the files.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/doj-roger-stone-warrants-lawsuit/index.html
Governments should not use taxpayer cash to rescue fossil fuel companies and carbon-intensive industries, but should devote economic rescue packages for the coronavirus crisis to businesses that cut greenhouse gas emissions and create green jobs, the UN secretary general has urgedC
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/28/un-chief-dont-use-taxpayer-money-to-save-polluting-industries
CEO of surveillance firm hired by Utah is former KKK: Damien Patton helped hate group members shoot up a synagogue in 1990: The CEO and founder of a surveillance firm hired by the state of Utah was involved with the KKK during his youth. The bombshell finding, first revealed by OneZero on Tuesday, links Banjo CEO Damien Patton to the shooting of a Tennessee synagogue in 1990. Patton made headlines in March after his company was awarded a five-year, $20.7 million contract by Utah to use its surveillance software to “detect anomalies.” | But it wasn’t those concerns that ultimately led the Utah Attorney General’s Office to suspend its contract with Banjo on Tuesday. It was his involvement with the Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan instead. In its reporting, OneZero says it was able to locate “transcripts of courtroom testimony, sworn statements, and more than 1,000 pages of records produced from a federal hate crime prosecution.” Patton found himself tied up in the legal system due to his involvement in a drive-by shooting at a Nashville synagogue in 1990 at the age of 17.
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/damien-patton-banjo-kkk/
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/04/28/utah-attorney-general/
Utah Attorney General suspends state contract with Banjo in light of founder’s KKK past
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/04/28/utah-attorney-general/
The U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8% pace in Q1 - steepest contraction since 2008
https://www.wsj.com/articles/first-quarter-gdp-us-growth-coronavirus-11588123665
Some states, such as Colorado and Kentucky, have reported fewer new cases in the past week. But no single state has had 14 days of decline.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/guidelines-call-14-day-drop-cases-reopen-no-state-has-n1194191
Americans are drinking bleach because of Trump and still Republicans stand by him
https://www.newstatesman.com/international/us/2020/04/americans-are-drinking-bleach-because-trump-and-still-republicans-stand-him
___________________________
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/opinions/biden-sanders-progressives-weaver/index.html
Jeff Weaver: Why Bernie supporters should back Biden
Updated 11:11 PM ET, Tue April 28, 2020
Jeff Weaver, a long-time aide to Senator Bernie Sanders and campaign manager for Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, is a leader of "Future to Believe In (FTBI) PAC," a new political group to support Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and push for more progressive policies. The opinions expressed here are the writer's own. Read more opinion articles at CNN.
As progressives debate their role in the upcoming general election, they must consider what our movement has accomplished in a very short time and why, at this moment, we must press our advantage and not abandon the people we represent -- working people, middle-income people, the poor and marginalized communities.
Bernie Sanders' millions of volunteers, supporters, donors and voters demonstrated the breadth of our movement that is widening the boundaries of acceptable political debate in this country. As Bernie himself has pointed out, ideas like Medicare for All and jobs for all, that only a few years ago would have been radical, are now supported by the American people. Our work has been so successful that policies such as a $15 minimum hourly wage and free public college tuition have been adopted by the Democratic Party and even by Bernie's primary opponents.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/15/politics/joe-biden-free-public-university-tuition/index.html
We made that happen. We made policies that benefit everyday people important again. We effectively delivered, and will continue to deliver, a new hopeful vision for our country. My good friend Senator Nina Turner uses a quote from the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan that sums up the vision that we offer -- "an America as good as its promise."
The Sanders' candidacy was always about accelerating our path toward that "America as good as its promise" by institutionalizing as much progressive change into law as could be accomplished had he become president. Just as Republicans have spent decades unsuccessfully trying to gut Social Security and Medicare, so they would spend decades trying to undo a President Sanders' plans for college for all, Medicare for All, and the rest.
Now we have come to the place where Bernie is not going to be the president. I wish I could convey how deeply that hurts me to write it. But that's where we are. We can spend a lot of time fixated on the unfairness of the process over the last two primary cycles, the role of big money, the advantages of the establishment and the fecklessness of much of the media. All that is true. But, so what? Who in our movement ever thought that the ruling class was just going to roll over? Progressive politics is not for the faint of heart.
Now we have come to the place where Bernie is not going to be the president. I wish I could convey how deeply that hurts me to write it. But that's where we are. We can spend a lot of time fixated on the unfairness of the process over the last two primary cycles, the role of big money, the advantages of the establishment and the fecklessness of much of the media. All that is true. But, so what? Who in our movement ever thought that the ruling class was just going to roll over? Progressive politics is not for the faint of heart.
Nor is it a debating society. It's not the "holier than thou" Olympics. It is organizing to achieve real and positive change in the lives of the people we represent. It's not about being right. It's about achieving what's right for the right people. The people who are, in Sanders' words, too often "put down and pushed around." That is why so many people worked for, donated to and voted for Bernie's campaign -- to make life better for ordinary people.
As our movement moves the Democratic Party and much of the nation in our direction through our blood, our sweat, and, too often in recent days, our tears, we must be good stewards of the hard-won political influence we earned to benefit the people we care about.
I don't know anyone who thinks Joe Biden will be as far to the left as president as Sanders would have been. But after all the work we progressives have done together, having knocked on all those doors, made all those calls, made all the small donations, the rank and file supporters of our movement deserve to enjoy the success of their efforts so far. Will the changes we see in the short run be incremental? Of course, they will (although it is our mutual responsibility to make them as expansive as possible). But that increment will be an improvement in the lives of real people that springs directly from the organizing we have done.
Does this mean we should support an incremental approach to change? Absolutely not. We will all continue to push forward an agenda of transformative change and we will fight for candidates who will deliver it. I know this position will be controversial to some, as will the decision to use a SuperPAC as the vehicle for this effort. Senator Sanders himself doesn't approve of this vehicle. But a real improvement in people's lives at this moment is possible. So we must all deliver it in the most effective way we are comfortable with.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/28/us/politics/28reuters-usa-election-sanders.html
Otherwise, how can we look in the face the single mother that Bernie and I met in Iowa, who was making $8.00 an hour, if we sit home because we don't want to pull the lever for Joe Biden -- who supports a $15 minimum wage? Why should our ideological sensitivities mean anything to her and her kids if they can't afford housing, or medicine, or food? Where is our moral standing to ask her or anyone like her to stand with us in the next campaign?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/04/29/joe-biden-minimum-wage-2020-campaign-pittsburgh/3622645002/
How do we explain to the 60-year-old service worker who has no health insurance that we could have gotten her access to Medicare (not a buy-in, but access like 65-year-olds get now)? Should she care that we were so committed to Medicare for All that we wouldn't support a candidate who would make Medicare available only to some 40 million additional people over the course of a single term in office? Why should people trust progressives to protect their interests in the future if we fail to deliver when we have the opportunity now?
In this moment, we must work as hard as we can to secure as much as we can for the people whose interests our movement champions: the poor and marginalized, working families and the middle class. That's not to say any of these changes go far enough or that our work is finished. Far from it. We will keep pushing. We will keep organizing. We will keep building. This isn't about Joe, or Bernie, or any one of us. It's about all of us. It's about meeting the needs of people so that together we can create that America as good as its promise. That won't happen by sitting on the sidelines with our arms folded.
___________________________
A study looking at eight Georgia hospitals finds that 80 percent of the COVID-19 patients are black, more than expected. African Americans make up 30 percent of the state's population and more than 50 percent of the deaths.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/more-than-80-percent-of-hospitalized-covid-patients-in-georgia-were-african-american-study-finds/2020/04/29/a71496ea-8993-11ea-8ac1-bfb250876b7a_story.html
Reminder: Coronavirus (red line) is way worse than the flu (yellow line).
https://twitter.com/FrankLuntz/status/1255542590944002048
South Korea now seems to think the so-called "re-infections" it found are actually just false positives. A lot of smart epidemiologists thought this was likely the case all along, so not a huge surprise, but passing this along for people who freaked out earlier.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1266758/tests-in-recovered-patients-in-s-korea-found-false-positives-not-reinfections-experts-say
The coronavirus may have killed more people in the U.S. than is officially known: Total deaths in 7 hard-hit states are nearly 50% above normal, CDC data shows. That's 9,000 more deaths than were reported as of April 11 in official counts.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/28/us/coronavirus-death-toll-total.html
Texas' attorney general intervened in the coronavirus policy of a remote Colorado county. Records reviewed by AP show an exclusive group of Texans stood to benefit, including a Dallas donor and college classmate. | An Associated Press review of county and campaign finance records shows Paxton’s actions stood to benefit an exclusive group of Texans, including a Dallas donor and college classmate who helped Paxton launch his run for attorney general and had spent five days trying to get a waiver to remain in his $4 million lakeside home. Robert McCarter’s neighbors in the wealthy Colorado enclave of Crested Butte are also Paxton campaign contributors, including a Texas oilman who has given Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, more than $252,000.
https://apnews.com/3c992cd29925f80e94c5d75ef82f7fe4
Congressional Black Caucus member Joyce Beatty defeats Justice Democrat Morgan Harper in Ohio. The shellacking Harper received is a big rebuke to the national progressive insurgency.
https://www.businessinsider.com/joyce-beatty-morgan-harper-ohio-dem-primary-live-results-votes-2020-4
500 TSA employees have tested positive for COVID-19
https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/495225-500-tsa-employees-have-tested-positive-for-covid-19
How many elections does the social media mob have to lose before concluding that coalition building beats online vitriol every time?
https://twitter.com/hakeem_jeffries/status/1255340788189462531
Twelve rangers and five other people were killed in Virunga National Park in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was the latest deadly incident in the park, where more than 150 rangers have been killed since 2006.
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/twelve-rangers-killed-in-latest-virunga-park-incident/
If a single unfactual gossip-based Ronan Farrow story can sink you, then five deep-dive investigations by the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, AP, and Salon that find nothing - not one shred of evidence - clears you. I dismiss all the accusers of Trump, B. Clinton, Kavanaugh, Cosby, Biden, Weinstein, Franken, etc, as liars. I am a female and a minority and I am telling you, 99% of females dismiss the accusers as liars. Real sexual assault, real sexual harassment, real sexual misconduct, is serious, not the lies these females are selling for personal profit.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will grant an emergency use authorization for remdesivir after early results from a clinical trial showed the drug’s promise in treating COVID-19 patients, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The move would allow doctors to use remdesivir to treat coronavirus patients, even though it has not formally been approved to treat the deadly disease.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/495292-fda-to-authorize-emergency-use-of-new-coronavirus-treatment-nyt
Judge blocks Trump from giving coronavirus relief for Native American communities to corporations
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/29/judge-blocks-trump-from-giving-coronavirus-relief-for-native-american-communities-to-corporations/
Florida officials have reportedly withheld medical examiners’ data on coronavirus deaths in the state for over a week, with the policy changing shortly after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners were counting 10 percent more deaths than the state. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, told the Tampa Bay Times that the state health department intervened and told him it planned to remove causes of death and case descriptions from mortality data. Nelson told the newspaper the data is meaningless without that information, and the entirety of the list should be considered public information. “This is no different than any other public record we deal with,” he said. “It’s paid for by taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers have a right to know.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/495295-florida-ordered-coroners-to-stop-releasing-coronavirus-death-data-report
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/04/29/florida-medical-examiners-were-releasing-coronavirus-death-data-the-state-made-them-stop/
A federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday that Kansas can’t require voters to show proof of citizenship when they register, dealing a blow to efforts by Republicans in several states who have pursued restrictive voting laws as a way of combating voter fraud. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Salt Lake City upheld a federal judge’s injunction nearly two years ago that prohibited Kansas from enforcing the requirement, which took effect in 2013. The appeals court, in a ruling that consolidated two appeals, found the statute former Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law violates the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as the “motor-voter law.” Many experts say voter fraud is extremely rare, and critics contend the Republican-led efforts are actually meant to suppress turnout from groups who tend to back Democrats, including racial minorities and college students. The law was championed by former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who led Trump’s now-defunct voter fraud commission. Kobach was a leading source for Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally may have voted in the 2016 election. Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project, said the ruling doesn’t immediately affect other states because Kansas’s law was unique in requiring people to show a physical document such as a birth certificate or passport when applying to register to vote. However, Ho said the ruling is grounded in a broader constitutional principle that when a state significantly burdens the right to vote, it has to justify it. “Kansas wasn’t able to muster evidence that the law in question here was necessary to prevent voter fraud, and I think that broader principle could have reverberations beyond the specific context of this case in a wide range of disputes over voting access between now and November,” Ho said. The decision is binding in states covered by the 10th Circuit, which also covers Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, plus those portions of the Yellowstone National Park extending into Montana and Idaho.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/court-says-kansas-cant-require-voters-to-show-citizenship-proof
Jameis Winston’s one-year contract with the Saints carries a base value of $1.1M, per source. He got a $148,000 signing bonus, a base salary of $952,000 and $3.4M is available in incentives. Jameis prioritized the chance to learn and grow as a player. (twitter.com)
https://twitter.com/fieldyates/status/1255499799316619269
.@realDonaldTrump has eschewed a daily coronavirus briefing for lengthy Q&A sessions at @WhiteHouse events. However, unlike the briefing, none of the cable networks are taking today's full Q&A live.
https://twitter.com/johnrobertsFox/status/1255610423287611395
DOJ must pay attorney fees in sanctuary city case | In a written opinion, U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber awarded the United States Conference of Mayors more than $97,000 in attorney fees it incurred battling the federal government’s attempt to withhold public safety funds from sanctuary cities. Leinenweber held the conference established it is entitled to the fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act.
https://www.chicagolawbulletin.com/getdoc/2b6072db-77ea-4a67-9afb-c5cbd5080017/feds-ordered-to-pay-$97k-in-sanctuary-city-case
Ron DeSantis announced that Florida will start lifting stay-at-home orders starting Monday. The orders won’t apply to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, however, where the epidemic has hit hardest.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article242368531.html
"Hopefully in the not too distant future we'll have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other. I can't imagine a rally where you have every 4th seat full, every six seats are empty for every one you have full. That wouldn't look too good."
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1255609621919731714
Nearly 400 workers in Georgia’s prized poultry industry have tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus, and one has died from his illness, according to Georgia Department of Public Health statistics obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. | Nationwide, at least 20 meatpacking workers have died from COVID-19 and more than 5,000 have been hospitalized for it or are showing symptoms of the disease, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Meanwhile, 22 meatpacking plants have closed during the last two months, resulting in a 25% reduction in pork slaughter capacity and a 10% percent drop in beef slaughter capacity, the union said.
https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-news/hundreds-georgia-poultry-workers-have-tested-positive-for-covid/K0vGYEGTSbvAYIeU3I6qtM/
http://www.ufcw.org/press/
CLOSE DOWN ANIMAL EXPLOITATION INDUSTRY. STOP. BREEDING. THESE. TORTURED. CREATURES. RELOCATE THEM TO SANCTUARY FARMS. PROBLEM SOLVED. RETOOL SLAUGHTERHOUSE INTO VEGAN MEAT/DAIRY FACTORIES.
While you‘ve been desperately trying to apply for #unemployment through #Florida DEO’s debacle, @SenRickScott says you are “today’s welfare queens, out to game the system & cheat the taxpayer”
https://twitter.com/Annette_Taddeo/status/1255611991928057857
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-edit-coronavirus-florida-unemployment-rick-scott-20200429-uzvhqrk3kngq3bqmhse72zrfam-story.html
Sen. Coons (D-Del.) defends former VP Joe Biden against allegations of sexual misconduct. "I know Joe, I know his life, his character, his record" #MTPDaily @ChrisCoons: "He and his campaign urged that these allegations be fully investigated. They have been."
https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1255611061165871104
Trump says one death is too many, but "if we lose 65,000 people," that's horrible but we could've lost 1 or 2 million if we didn't do what we did. (Again, nine days ago, he said we could finish between 50,000 and 60,000 deaths. He keeps revising the success number upward.)
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1255611435775922178
Last Wednesday, two days before Trump lashed out at Parscale, his campaign manager and several other top political advisers briefed him on internal campaign and Republican National Committee data showing the President was heading for defeat in key battleground states. Parscale, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and other advisers urged him to scale back his daily, combative news conferences and pointed to data showing that the briefings were hurting him with critical swing voters in those states.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/politics/donald-trump-brad-parscale-campaign-coronavirus/index.html
No, the Media Isn’t Burying the Biden Allegations
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/29/no-the-media-isnt-burying-the-biden-allegations-221920
When holding the press to account, whether TV or not, it’s also worth noting the difficulty of confirming another outlet’s findings. The Wednesday Washington Post repeats the nut of the new Business Insider story on Page One, but has trouble advancing it very far because Reade’s two acquaintances did not respond to the Post’s requests for comment.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/29/no-the-media-isnt-burying-the-biden-allegations-221920
^I'm glad the author brought this point up. Something I've noticed about the media outlets that rushed to publish articles on the story always did so in a really sloppy way. It looks really bad when these stories are done not following standard journalistic practices. Too often these independent media outlets are just quoting each other as their sources.
YEP: .@NYCMayor - we strongly support social-distancing and agree the time for warnings has passed. We also know what happens when any one community is scapegoated or referred to in generalizations, especially when threatening arrest & as anti-Semitism is on the rise. Words matter.
https://twitter.com/HalieSoifer/status/1255551816567226369
It is worth noting we are still adding about 25,000 cases and over 2,000 deaths a day, and have already blown through the University of Washington estimate for how many deaths would occur through the end of May. And that assumed continuation of distancing that's now being unwound.
Dozens of Decomposing Bodies Found in Trucks at Brooklyn Funeral Home. Neighbors complained of a foul odor coming from trucks parked outside the home, which had a broken freezer, a law enforcement official said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/nyregion/bodies-brooklyn-funeral-home-coronavirus.html
Kentucky Gov. Beshear thought it was a joke when a man named Tupac Shakur filed for unemployment and has since apologized.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tupac-shakur-filed-unemployment-kentucky-governor-could-hardly-believe-it-n1195011
Michael Fleming died in federal prison on April 19th. The first word his family received from the BOP that he was even ill with coronavirus came after he died. A prison chaplain called to ask if his body should be cremated & where the ashes could be sent. | Over 70% of tested inmates in federal prisons have COVID-19
https://apnews.com/fb43e3ebc447355a4f71e3563dbdca4f
It's fascinating how much staying power the Tara Reade allegation has had compared to the allegations against Trump. Dismiss ALL accusers as LIARS and tell them "go to the police and tell them you want to file an official account with the perpetrator's name and want them to investigate the report, and include the names and contact information of each and every witness. Refusal means nothing happened and you're a liar."
After One Tweet To President Trump, This Man Received $69 Million From New York For Ventilators | The Silicon Valley engineer, who had no background in medical supplies but was recommended by the White House, never delivered the ventilators.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/after-one-tweet-to-president-trump-this-man-got-69-million
He could already picture the virus spreading as players moved from table to table, passing cards from hand to hand, seeding an invisible course of infection. | A bridge club was a social draw for scores of older Coloradans. Now, with four members dead from the virus, its future is unclear.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/us/coronavirus-bridge-colorado-springs.html
Another NYT article that missed out on saying he is Biden his time: Joe Biden Is Not Hiding. He’s Lurking. Never get in the way of an incumbent who is digging his own grave.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/opinion/joe-biden-campaign.html
Just Biden My Time Til The Revolution
https://helloresistance.com/collections/just-biden-my-time-til-the-revolution
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0064/2826/2518/products/mockup-20b89666_2048x.jpg
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