Light News

- Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign is over. And unlike his 2016 run, which surely counted as a kind of moral victory, his 2020 loss is a much more crushing and definitive defeat.
-  I think he would have been a great president, but the fight doesn’t end with him. Progressives won't end with Bernie Sanders. He's influenced Democratic politics through his "failed" presidential runs more than a lot of people have in their entire careers. A generation of people have been pulled a little more left.
- Sanders ignited a movement that rapidly pulled the party further left than was imaginable just four years ago. His ideas are the future. That's Sanders's victory.
- Exit polling consistently indicated voters wanted Sanders's policies but wanted Biden as President
- Democratic Party primary voters picked a party stalwart in former Vice President Joe Biden over a quasi-outsider promising a revolution. But they did so in part because mainstream figures know how to bend with the wind rather than snap. The version of Biden who carried the day was a strikingly more progressive figure than Barack Obama, to say nothing of the historical Joe Biden whom Obama put on the ticket to reassure more conservative elements of the party.
- Layer this on top of the fact that the youngest cohort of Democrats is most attuned to Sanders's message and it's clear that the future of Democratic Party politics is going to look a lot more like what Sanders has stood for over the years than Biden. Bernie Sanders is the future of the Democratic Party because his ideas and the people brought into politics by his movement are the future of the party.
- The left fought the 2020 campaign divided. And Sanders proved unwilling to try to offer meaningful reassurances to those nervous about him or even to acknowledge that the typical Democratic Party primary voter has positive associations with the Democratic Party as an institution.
- At the same time, the party bent significantly in the direction of Sanders's prior critiques.
- Biden's 2020 policy platform is to the left of where Obama stood. The real change is even bigger than the specifics. The direction of change proposed by mainstream Democrats these days is uniformly leftward.
- Everyone in the field agreed that the government role in health care should be more expansive, that education spending should go up, that there should be more income support for the poor, that the welfare state should be extended into matters related to child care and family leave, and that the country needs to be more aggressive about environmental regulation, gun regulation, anti-racism, and LGBTQ rights while taking a less harsh approach to criminals and immigrants.
- The entire argument in modern Democratic Party politics, in other words, is simply over how far left to go on a range of issues, not about which direction to take the country or the party. Sanders can take a bow.
- The current conception of a "moderate Democrat" as one who declines to meet the entire checklist of left-wing activist demands is a sea change from the 1990s conception of the "New Democrat."
- Sanders is responsible for mobilizing a new cohort of young progressive people to get interested in politics - thus substantially accelerating a series of changes that were already underway.
- Much has been made by Sanders's intraparty antagonists of the fact that the critical 2018 winners who flipped previously Republican-held seats rarely practiced his style of politics. That's true. But while marginal members in marginal seats are the difference between majority and minority status, it's the much more numerous safe seat members who set the tone for a political party and set the terms of debate in Congress. And here Sanders-aligned candidates are making clear gains, and the age distribution of the Democratic primary vote makes it clear that gains will continue in the future. These kinds of Sanders-esque progressives aren't poised to hold the pivotal seats in Congress, but that's never how Congress has worked. Moderate members, by definition, are the ones who win the marginal races.
- But the nature of the political center is being redefined by Sanders-inspired forces such that a $15-an-hour minimum wage and an expansive public option for health care now count.
- Unfortunately, one thing the 2020 campaign also proved is that Sanders personally is a lightning rod figure who in some ways has become less than the sum of his agenda. Some people don't like him because they don't like his ideas. But others dislike what they see as a lack of team spirit, a sense that insisting on taking the 2016 primary all the way to the convention was harmful, and dislike his habit of defining himself outside of the Democratic Party and the somewhat paranoid and insular set of media institutions and Twitter personalities who seem mainly interested in using Sanders as a bludgeon with which to hit other Democrats.
- The arguments around these points have become tedious and in many ways painfully meta and second-order to the point where it's hardly possible to say anything intelligible about them. Suffice it to say that Sanders personally has become a point of division; some people who agree with what most of he has to say hate the guy, and others insist on defining true progressive bona fides purely in relationship to one's willingness to swear undying loyalty to the Sanders cause.
- But as he steps back, perhaps into more of an elder statesman role, those Sanders-specific controversies are likely to fade. What will be left is a new, much more aggressively progressive version of the Democratic Party, infused with the energy of millennial activists, pushing a set of ideas that amount to cut-down versions of Sanders proposals rather than a "third way" or a pretense to non-ideological problem-solving.

Bernie Sanders and his supporters have changed the dialogue in America. Issues which had been given little attention - or little hope of ever passing - are now at the center of the political debate. Income inequality, universal health care, climate change, free college, relieving students from the crushing debt of student loans. These are just a few of the issues Bernie and his supporters have given life to. And while Bernie and I may not agree on how we might get there, we agree on the ultimate goal for these issues and many more. | It's voices like Bernie's that refuse to allow us to just accept what is - that refuse to accept we can't change what's wrong in our nation - that refuse to accept the health and well-being of our fellow citizens and our planet isn't our responsibility too. Bernie gets a lot of credit for his passionate advocacy for the issues he cares about. But he doesn't get enough credit for being a voice that forces us all to take a hard look in the mirror and ask if we've done enough. | Our first job is to get through the immediate crisis threatening the public health and getting help into the pockets of America's workers. But we also need to take a hard look at what we need to fix and change in this country. Many of the biggest cracks in the social safety net have been laid bare - from health care to paid sick leave to a more extensive and comprehensive system of unemployment benefits. We will need to address these. Just as we need to address rebuilding our nation's infrastructure. And we all know - the clock is ticking - we don't have a moment to waste in combating the climate crisis. As friends, Jill and I want to say to Bernie and Jane, we know how hard this is. You have put the interest of the nation - and the need to defeat Donald Trump - above all else. And for that Jill and I are grateful. But we also want you to know: I'll be reaching out to you. You will be heard by me. As you say: Not me, Us. And to your supporters I make the same commitment: I see you, I hear you, and I understand the urgency of what it is we have to get done in this country. I hope you will join us. You are more than welcome. You're needed. Together we will defeat Donald Trump. And when we do that, we'll not only do the hard work of rebuilding this nation - we'll transform it.
https://medium.com/@JoeBiden/statement-from-vice-president-biden-5de128a935ac

US intelligence warned in November that coronavirus spreading in China could be 'cataclysmic event': report. The military's National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) documented concerns about the initial stages of the pandemic in an intelligence report, two officials familiar with the document told ABC News, which added that the document highlighted how the virus was disrupting life and business and threatened the population in the area. Intelligence was reportedly obtained through wire and computer intercepts along with satellite images showing the new disease was not under control in China. The report highlights that officials had knowledge to begin acting against the coronavirus months before it struck the U.S., ABC News noted.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/intelligence/491712-us-intelligence-warned-in-november-that-virus-spreading
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/politics/us-intelligence-report-china-coronavirus/index.html

I have news articles from mid-November (and December, January, etc) posted on this blog about a flu-like virus spreading in Wuhan, the news spread like wildfire throughout December, but nobody cared because it was restricted to China, but I remember clearly thinking in early December that soon it would hit the US and Europe, thousands of people were/are flying out of China everyday and it's only a matter of time....

Boris Johnson 'responding to treatment' in intensive care
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52208156

Leaked Emails Show That While The Veterans Administration Announced It Had Adequate Coronavirus Gear, A Major VA Hospital Was Rationing | Less than 30 minutes after the Veterans Affairs headquarters announced it had adequate equipment, staffers in LA were told to start rationing masks. | The situation had grown so dire, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News, that medical personnel caring for patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 would receive only a single surgical mask per shift rather than the N95 respirators recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those working in parts of the hospital without positive COVID-19 cases would be issued only a single surgical mask each week. The more protective N95s, wrote Dr. Steven R. Simon, chief of staff for the VA's Greater LA Healthcare System, would be "restricted to procedures and settings in which aerosolization is expected" - such as when patients were placed on a ventilator. The use of a single surgical mask to treat COVID-19 patients contradicts guidelines from the CDC and underscores the growing anxiety inside the VA, a sprawling network that is supposed to back up America's hospitals in times of emergency. Publicly, the VA has said it is prepared to handle a wave of overflow COVID-19 patients if public and private hospitals fail. But documents and interviews with half a dozen insiders suggest that the VA is subject to the same scramble to obtain important equipment as other health officials across the country. "What's concerning is that this is happening to the wealthiest institution in the world - the United States government," said one VA worker who asked not to be named for fear of losing their job after the department sent a note in March telling employees not to speak with the press.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/anthonycormier/coronavirus-masks-rationed-at-veterans-hospital

A study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggest that coronavirus can be transmitted through the air from tiny saliva droplets that are expelled when people speak. Speech is also said to produce more droplets than coughing, which may be a more obvious mode of transmission.
https://www.newsweek.com/speaking-can-transmit-coronavirus-due-tiny-droplets-saliva-nih-study-suggests-1496719

At least 120 of Earth's largest and best telescopes have closed due to COVID-19, and astronomers are worried the pandemic's lingering impact could set their field back years.
https://astronomy.com/news/2020/04/covid-19-forces-earths-largest-telescopes-to-close

US government sends naval forces near Venezuela in "anti-drug crackdown" after declaring Venezuela's elected leaders to be "narco-terrorists"
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-venezuela-navy/u-s-to-deploy-navy-ships-closer-to-venezuela-sources-idUSKBN21J6VH

This is insane. Virtually all international travel was being halted or disrupted by March 15th and there were still cruise ships taking off...Passengers to be evacuated from Antarctic cruise ship after almost 60% test positive for coronavirus
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/07/americas/greg-mortimer-cruise-ship-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html

World's Dirtiest Air Gets Cleaner After India's Lockdown -- As India went into the world's biggest lockdown to combat the deadly coronavirus, trains, planes, automobiles and factories came to a halt. And the skies in some of the most polluted cities on the planet turned blue.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-07/world-s-dirtiest-air-gets-cleaner-after-india-s-lockdown

Yeah, let's listen to the guy dying from cancer who said "There is no conclusive proof that nicotine's addictive… And the same thing with cigarettes causing emphysema, lung cancer, heart disease" and now pretend that he's the guy to get advice on who to believe about a dangerous pandemic...(Rush Limbaugh dismissing covid-19 as a hoax)

German courts tell Easter churchgoers, not this year - Legal bids by churchgoers to override Germany-wide pandemic bans on gatherings, Easter included, have been dismissed by two courts. Catholic and Protestant heads are urging congregants to stay 'responsibly' in isolation.
https://www.dw.com/en/german-courts-tell-easter-churchgoers-not-this-year/a-53054674

Biden's platform (the DNC platform) is more progressive than the 2016 DNC platform which in turn was at that time the most progressive party platform in history. Sanders endorsed the 2016 platform as the most liberal progressive platform ever, and by defaulting to Biden today, Sanders has informally endorsed the 2020 DNC platform.

Mark Meadows has tried to persuade a group of holdout GOP governors that they should issue stricter stay-at-home orders to help curb the coronavirus outbreak. Which has not gone over well with the governors.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-08/trump-s-new-chief-of-staff-rattles-white-house-in-crisis-mode

On Wed. 3/17, there were 22 newly-reported deaths in the US
On Wed. 3/24, there were 225, or ~10x as many as on 3/17
On Wed. 3/31, there were 954, or ~4x as many as on 3/24
Today, Wed. 4/8, there were 1,797, or ~2x as many as on 3/31
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1247997998677835787

Reminder: Of the victims whose demographic data was publicly shared by officials -- nearly 3,300 of the nation’s 13,000 deaths thus far — about 42% were black. African Americans account for roughly 21% of the total population in the areas covered the analysis.
https://apnews.com/71d952faad4a2a5d14441534f7230c7c

3 VA health workers have died of COVID-19. 776 have tested positive
https://www.revealnews.org/article/3-va-health-workers-have-died-of-covid-19-776-have-tested-positive/

The federal government will end funding for coronavirus testing sites on Friday. While some sites will transition to being state-managed, others will close as a result. This as criticism continues that not enough testing is available.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/08/829955099/federal-support-for-coronavirus-testing-sites-end-as-peak-nears 

As coronavirus spreads in Texas nursing homes, officials withhold details: Families and advocates for nursing home residents are calling on Texas officials to release the numbers and names of facilities where coronavirus infection has been reported, as other states have done.
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/04/08/coronavirus-spreads-texas-nursing-homes-officials-withhold-details/

Bad Idea.....: The NBA and ESPN plan to televise a HORSE competition is nearing completion and among those expected to participate include Chris Paul, Trae Young and Zach LaVine. Competition will also include a couple of WNBA players and recent NBA alumni.
http://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1247976085649862657

Yeah I'm not cheering the end of Bernie's campaign. I know how his supporters feel. I'm hardcore Hillary and remember the pain of 2008 (and witnessing nutjob Donna Brazile cancel all the Michigan and Florida delegates on purpose to ensure Obama would be the nominee) and the pain of Election Night/Morning 2016. I fully understand their love and worship for him. I want an anti-establishment radical candidate. Bernie is not that and never has been. Give me a candidate who is a lifetime supporter (with a record to back it up) of Earth Liberation Front, PETA, Israel (that's what I said), the UN, RFK, and Egalitarianism, and be under 70 years of age, and be hardcore anti-gun and pro-globalism, and I'll vote for that candidate in an instant. Don't give me a person like Bernie Sanders whom nobody heard of until 2015 and whose life record is that of a standard run-of-the-mill career politician who espouses alt-right and alt-left rhetoric.
______________________________

The Exodus story defines the [Hebrew/Jewish/Israeli] nation. The Passover ritual, which commemorates that story, is the cultic enactment of membership in the nation. The Passover rite confirmed a person's full participation in the community of Israel. The story of the Exodus is not just about a national g-d who liberates his people from brutal enslavement, it is, crucially, the story of the Creator G/d scoring a momentous triumph in His battle with the cosmic forces of evil and chaos.

An Asaph psalm.
G-d, nations have come into Your estate,
they have defiled Your holy temple.

They have turned Jerusalem to ruins.

They have given Your servants' corpses
as food to the fowl of the heavens,
the flesh of Your faithful to the beasts of the earth.

They have spilled their blood like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there is none to bury them.

We have become a disgrace to our neighbors,
scorn and contempt to all round us.

How long, O L-rd, will You rage forever,
Your fury burn like fire?

Pour out Your wrath on the nations
that did not know You
and on the kingdoms
that did not call on Your name.

For they have devoured Jacob
and his habitation laid waste.

Do not call to mind against us our forebears' crimes.

Quickly, may Your mercies overtake us,
For we have sunk very low.

Help us, our rescuing G-d
for Your name's glory,
and save us and atone for our sins
for the sake of Your name.

Why should the nations say, "Where is their G-d?"
Let it be known among the nations before our eyes—
the vengeance for Your servants' spilled blood.

Let the captive's groan come before You,
by Your arm's greatness unbind those marked for death.

And give back to our neighbors sevenfold to their bosom
their insults that they heaped on You, Master.

But we are Your people and the flock that You tend.

We acclaim You forever.

From generation to generation we recount Your praise.
______________________________

Attention all countries normalizing relations with Assad’s Syria. It may mean normalizing images like this...: Syria Used Chemical Weapons 3 Times in One Week | An investigative team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons accused the Syrian government of launching three chemical attacks on one village in 2017. | So the organization established an investigative body, known as the Investigation and Identification Team, that was assigned to determine responsibility for chemical weapons use in Syria. The report on Wednesday was the team’s first, and it pointed the finger at Mr. al-Assad’s forces. The team based its investigation on a range of evidence, including witness testimonies, videos, forensic reports on recovered munitions scraps, medical records and satellite imagery, the report said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/world/middleeast/syria-assad-chemical-weapons.html
https://www.opcw.org/media-centre/news/2020/04/opcw-releases-first-report-investigation-and-identification-team

Bernie Sanders was also the one candidate that aggressively challenged Saudi Arabia over Jamal Khashoggi's murder, and pushed to end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's brutal war in Yemen. For that, I am grateful.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/opinion/bernie-sanders-saudi-arabia-war-yemen.html

Really good point by Dr. Vin Gupta on MSNBC that the IHME model showing lower death total assumes full social distancing through May. Meanwhile pressure will build based on the numbers to relax restrictions BEFORE that.

Dear Wisconsin voters, "3 large tubs" of absentee ballots you requested and never received have apparently just been located – a day after the state held one of the most dangerous elections in U.S. history: I learned today that the WEC received a call from a postal service worker informing them 3 large tubs of absentee ballots from Oshkosh and Appleton, were just located. I understand your frustration and am working hard to try to remedy the situation.
https://twitter.com/SenDanFeyen/status/1247943644327206913

But you knew that people did not receive the absentee ballots they requested before today. There were many opportunities for lawmakers to extend voting before yesterday’s election. Your party decided to oppose all of them.
https://twitter.com/pcjennie11/status/1247945293749985290

Donald Trump suggests he might have been right about Easter because the number of Coronavirus cases and deaths will be dropping by then. And yes, the numbers are flatting and slowly dropping. And yes he is absolutely obsessed with the idea he was right. About everything. Always.

The United Nations goes missing: It took 3 months, 87,000 dead, cases in over 180 countries, repeated pleas, and a growing sense of shame among senior diplomats - but UN Security Council is finally going to meet to discuss coronavirus Thursday. Expect little.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/08/united-nations-coronavirus-176187

Black voters are also ‘suburban’ voters | There are words and phrases used as shorthand in politics and journalism that are meant to paint an enormous picture in the mind of readers and voters. “Urban voters” is synonymous with African Americans. “Working-class voters,” “blue-collar voters,” “upper-middle-class voters” and “suburban voters” all conjure up the image of white Americans. And they are all wrong in 2020 America. Actually, they have been wrong for decades, and blacks like me have long chafed at the designations for almost as long. Yes, we are an “urban” people thanks to the Great Migration that saw 6 million African Americans flee domestic terrorism in the South for cities in the North, the Midwest and the West. But we have always been, generally speaking, a “working-class” and “blue-collar” people considering our enslaved ancestors worked for free for nearly 250 years and then their progeny were forced into jobs that didn’t match their potential for another century. | Both parties know that the path to the White House is paved through the suburbs. What they don’t recognize fully, especially some Democrats, is that those suburbs are no longer synonymous with white upper-middle-class voters. They look more like America. Therefore, it is imperative that Democrats stop thinking of voters of color, particularly African Americans, solely as “urban” voters, especially if they want to win. | Decrying the voices within the party floating names meant to appeal to Democrats who voted for President Trump in 2016, Greer wrote: “Dems need to stop chasing this mysterious white working-class suburban voter. Black folks and POC are in the suburbs now [because] we got kicked out of cities.” That last sentence about African Americans and people of color in the suburbs had me nodding vigorously in agreement. A December 2019 memo reporting on a series of focus groups with African Americans conducted by the center-left think tank Third Way and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies pointed out that “just 45 percent in the survey live in cities. A majority live in suburbs, small towns, or rural areas.” Then I came across another Third Way report heralding a “new suburban majority” that puts even more data behind Greer’s and my assertion. Third Way’s Ryan Pougiales points out: “Forty-eight percent of all voters nationwide came from suburban counties in the last presidential election. By comparison, 28% of voters came from urban counties and 24% from small-town and rural counties.” Urban, suburban and rural county designations are based on the National Center for Health Statistics’ urban-rural classification system. Pougiales also highlighted that “According to an analysis from the progressive data firm Catalist, more than half of voters of color live in suburban areas." | A deeper dive into the data first presented in Catalist’s analysis, written by Yair Ghitza, shows that “suburban non-white” voters made up 13 percent of the electorate in the 2018 midterm elections while “urban non-white” voters were just nine percent. What’s even more interesting is the Democratic vote margin with “suburban non-white” voters during midterm election years. Compared with presidential election years, Democratic voter participation notoriously plummets like a barrel over Niagara Falls during the midterms. For instance, Democrats’ winning margin among “suburban non-white” voters shrank from 64 percentage points in 2012 to 47 points in 2014. But in the 2018 midterms, Democrats maintained a winning margin of 61 percentage points, compared with 63 points in 2016. Sure, this is less than the margin among “urban non-white” voters, but the latter group is a smaller piece of the electorate. But both urban and suburban non-white voters were motivated by the Trump presidency to go to the polls at presidential-election-year levels. | “I’m not sure I agree with your friend about giving up on white suburban voters (especially women) as they contributed to the 2018 wins in a big way (i.e. the Catalist analysis showed more than 89% of the change in favor of Dems from 2016 to 2018 was from voters that flipped, not additional turnout),” Erickson wrote in an email. The flip was from Trump for president in 2016 to Democrats for congressional seats in 2018. “When we say (and it’s true) that the suburbs are key to Dems winning, that’s not synonymous with white people. And conversely, when others argue that black voters are the real key, but then assume that is synonymous with urban turnout, those folks are wrong as well,” Erickson continued in her response. “The suburbs are key. Black people are key. And those two statements are not in opposition to each other: More people of color now vote in the suburbs than in urban areas. It’s lazy and wrong both for the folks who use suburbs to mean ‘white suburbs’ and those who use people of color to mean ‘urban voters.’ And we’ve gotta be smarter than both those old tropes to beat Trump.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/08/black-voters-are-also-suburban-voters/
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129827444
https://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/020/
https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/
https://www.thirdway.org/memo/a-nuanced-picture-of-what-black-americans-want-in-2020
https://www.thirdway.org/polling/poll-toplines-third-way-and-joint-center-for-political-and-economic-studies-national-survey-of-black-americans
https://www.thirdway.org/memo/the-10-must-know-facts-defining-americas-new-suburban-majority
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/urban_rural.htm
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UwC_GapbE3vF6-n1THVbwcXoU_zFvO8jJQL99ouX3Rw/edit?ts=5beae6d4#gid=433702266
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-midterm-election-turnout-shifts/

Speaking at a virtual town hall, Joe Biden says future spending bills should include expanded unemployment payments and subsidies for Obamacare, and calls for the federal government to cover COBRA payments.
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1248039365663694848

Lawmakers are demanding answers about Jared Kushner's role in directing and redirecting the flow of life-saving medical equipment among private companies, various levels of government and hospitals in need. | Chairs of two key House panels sent a letter to FEMA demanding information in a week on efforts by the president's senior adviser and son-in-law. | They're also requesting documentation of contacts between FEMA employees and private sector firms who are working on the coronavirus response on a voluntary basis, information on flights FEMA has arranged for private companies to bring medical equipment into the U.S. for sale, and an explanation of the practices and protocols the agency uses to determine and track the need for PPE and other items. Lawmakers are taking a keen interest in Kushner's involvement in Project Airbridge, a new program under which the federal government lines up and pays for flights to bring medical equipment into the U.S. from overseas for private companies. The federal government gets to determine where 50 percent of the goods are distributed — potentially redirecting shipments bound for one area of need in favor of another — but the company still gets paid for supplying them.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/lawmakers-demand-answers-kushner-supply-chain-influence-n1179071?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np

Good, shut them down permanently. GO VEGAN: Across the country, major meat processors are starting to shut down plants as employees are getting infected by coronavirus. All the cows and pigs and chickens are happy, so am I. GO. VEGAN. This is good news for the planet (and animals), at least. Animal agriculture is devastating to the environment -- a main contributor to global warming (which increases chances of viral pandemics). #Cowspiracy.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/business/meat-plant-closures-coronavirus/index.html