Doja Cat - Say So

Coronavirus Art - Cologne, Germany

Puerto Ricans Suffer From Arrogant Disregard from U.S. Tourists

U.S. tourists from the mainland have been arriving in droves in Puerto Rico—many of them without face masks.  Puerto Ricans see these belligerent tourists as an extension of a long legacy of brutal colonialism-- people who have no regard for the health or well-being of the people born and raised there. 

“I don’t really care about a mask,” said Selena, a 24-year-old resident from Austin, Texas.  “It’s about control,” she said, parroting discredited ideas about the historic pandemic that has infected over 4 million Americans somehow being a man-made phenomenon. “The government—they have something bigger going on. The coronavirus is a conspiracy.”

Selena and her travel partner Roger were adamantly anti-mask despite the U.S. death toll of over 146,000. “Maybe some people did die of coronavirus,” Serena siad. “But a lot of the cases, the numbers, they’re false, and it wasn’t from the coronavirus.”  Roger agreed, despite a widespread expert consensus that if anything, coronavirus deaths are probably being vastly undercounted: “I think a lot of the numbers are made up,” he said.

Conversations with residents and workers in San Juan painted a picture not just of tourists going rogue, but of an ugly atmosphere of willful negligence—all while the island’s COVID-19 trend-lines are heading in the wrong direction.  COVID-19 cases have spiked hard in Puerto Rico in recent weeks even as strict quarantine measures were—briefly—eased. The island loosened regulations, reopening businesses and extending a local curfew from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Officials also rolled out a campaign welcoming back tourists on July 15.

But within 24 hours of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company’s big day, Governor Wanda Vázquez issued an executive order on July 16 introducing additional measures to limit the spread.  Yet, 72 hours later,  there were approximately 496 new people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Puerto Rico—a record for the island, according to San Juan-based epidemiologist Andrea Sánchez, who has worked with the Puerto Rico Department of Health. The total number of confirmed or suspected cases had reached 15,000, and at least 201 people had died.

Airport safety protocols now require passengers to bring proof of a negative COVID-19 test dated within the past 72 hours. Travelers must also provide information so as to be tracked by the Department of Health via texts, calls, or emails inquiring about any appearance of symptoms, the kind of disease surveillance practiced with some success by Hawaii, if not most mainland states.

That face masks are required in all public areas in Puerto Rico is plainly stated alongside these airport protocols: A fine of up to $5,000 can be slapped on anyone who isn’t wearing a covering on their mouth and nose.  But compliance—especially on the part of mainland U.S. tourists—has been a mess, and a source of sometimes violent tension.

On July 15, a man—residents said he was a U.S. expat living on the island—spat in the face of a Rincón grocery store employee as he argued against using a mask. In a video circulating online, the man said a security guard retaliated by hitting him with a golf club. The following day, a woman was reportedly physically struck after refusing to wear a mask in La Perla, the historic neighborhood that runs alongside Old San Juan.    A few weeks ago, a group of women visiting San Juan’s biggest mall allegedly retaliated against a Zara employee’s request that they wear masks by damaging at least $2,000 in merchandise.

A dancer at an Isla Verde strip club told reporters she’s encountered wild hostility from tourists who don’t want to wear masks. Clients are allowed to touch her, the 24-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of professional retaliation, explained. But the club rules state all patrons must wear a mask.   “It sucks because I’m saying it nicely, but they just think that I'm a bitch and they just give the money to some other girl that's letting them touch her without a mask,” she said.
It doesn’t help that club security was not enforcing the mask rule, she added. “[He says] we can’t force them to wear masks. I see the bouncer then, and the bouncer looks at the manager and is like, ‘Oh, we can't let a dollar go to waste.’”

The woman has no authority to kick out patrons, she noted: “Plus, they have money in their hands, and I need it.”

Many Puerto Rican workers, like those elsewhere in the country and the world, are faced with choosing to go back to their jobs or better ensuring their safety by staying at home.   Nayhomy, an 18-year-old hostess at a bustling San Juan restaurant and her coworker Melanie, have said many tourists were irritated by the mandatory touch-less temperature scan and hand sanitation policy.
“They have attitudes when they get here,” Melanie explained. “One said she was going to ‘die of retardation’ for taking her temperature. Another complained about the sanitizer: They said, ‘Ew, what is that?’”

Over in Old San Juan, Daryanie Arreaga Morales, a 20-year-old server at a pizzeria, said some customers argue with her, while others simply leave when she insists they wear a mask, as per the multiple signs posted out front.   “At the door we also have a sign that says please wait to be seated,” she said. “But people don’t read. They enter the restaurant as if everything’s normal.”   Arreaga Morales will even offer masks from the employees’ own supply. Not everyone abides.
“It’s for their health, and it’s also for our health too, because we’re exposing ourselves. We need to work, we need the money,” she said. “I’ve worn a mask for more than 12 hours at a time at work. And I don’t complain. But you get angry about using it for a few minutes?”

Nina Lorenzo, a 34-year-old resident of the historic neighborhood, said that shouting to tourists to please wear their masks, reminding them that they could incur a fine, doesn’t help: “They just laugh it off, like, ‘Who’s going to fine me?’” A representative for the Puerto Rico Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment on current travel regulations.

Because the island is a territory of the United States, Puerto Rico cannot formally shut down or limit flights at the Luis Muñoz Marín Airport on its own accord. Only the Federal Aviation Administration can make that call—another reminder to locals of the bind they find themselves in during a global health crisis.  “What we’re doing now is saying that we’re not ready for you to come here,” said Sánchez, the epidemiologist. “Puerto Rico is seeing a rise in cases…. It’s not a safe place to vacation.”

Words From a Stable Genius

Barr Continues His Abuse of Federal Power to Promote Trump's Interests

Attorney General William Barr continues to abuse his federal powers and retaliate against Trump's enemies. He has taken it upon itself to sabotage federal investigations, remove investigators and watchdogs, and withhold evidence from Congress.

The Washington Post reports on a new instance, in which Barr ordered the declassification of a document last week that, upon delivery to Senator Lindsey Graham, resulted in the public outing of a secret FBI source.  That source was one who compiled information for the now-infamous "dossier" collecting rumors and leads on Donald Trump's dealings inside Russia, and we can presume the outing of this confidential source is in keeping with Barr's brazenly public campaign of retaliation against those who investigated the connections between Russian election interference, in 2016, and Trump's campaign.  Whether this campaign of Trump-friendly de-classifications results in people getting killed seems immaterial to Barr.

Igor Danchenko was, until last week, a source who used his Russian and Ukrainian contacts to pass information back to former British spy Christopher Steele, information that would be included in what is now known as the "Steele dossier" on Trump-Russia rumors. He spoke to the FBI on condition of secrecy to protect his foreign sources and his family from harm—a reasonable demand given the Putin government's ongoing assassinations of Putin critics, journalists, and suspected spies.
While the FBI did redact Danchenko's name from the material given to Graham, the Barr de-classification of surrounding text provided enough information to swiftly expose both Danchenko and at least one of his own alleged sources.

This seemingly intentional Barr "screw-up", compromising promised anonymity to informants for the sake of discrediting the Robert Mueller investigation, is part of a continued string of actions by an attorney general seemingly far more vested in punishing enemies than protecting national interests. It's not hard to guess how the public identification of once-secret FBI sources will impact the willingness of future sources to come forward, especially if those sources have information about Donald Trump in particular.  Then again, that is almost certainly the intent.

While similar campaigns to publicly discredit and demonize individual federal agents, sources, and investigators have ended numerous careers— the exposure of Russian sources in particular adds a significant additional risk, however.  Barr and Graham's efforts to "investigate" and retaliate against those they believe have wronged Trump may put foreign sources in real danger.

Sinclair Broadcasting Goes One Step Too Far With It's Right-Wing Campaign

Sinclair Broadcasting is the second largest television conglomerate in the nation-- controlling over 190 television stations in over 100 market areas.  Since taking control of those stations, Sinclair has often forced them to run conservative commentary, often embedded into local news programming. Many of those local news programs have also been forced to adopt an editorial viewpoint that mirrors the ultra right wing position of Sinclair’s principal owners.

Among the programs that appears on Sinclair stations is a segment called “America This Week" hosted by frequent Fox News commentator Eric Bolling. In the segment that was scheduled to air this week across the nation, Bolling interviewed discredited researcher Judy Mikovits, the central figure in the conspiracy theory film Plandemic. Mikovits’ woo-filled statements include claims that: The virus behind COVID-19 was man-made; hospitals are being bribed to over-report COVID-19 deaths; wearing a mask “activates your own virus”; and that getting a flu shot not only increases the odds of catching COVID-19, but "If you've ever had a flu vaccine, you were injected with coronaviruses."
 
 Even people who have never seen Mikovits’ original propaganda piece are spouting watered-down versions of Plandemic’s statements that have been widely shared through social media.  As CNN reports, during Bolling’s interview with Mikovits, the ex-researcher insists that the SARS-CoV-2 virus didn’t really originate in China. Instead, she claims that for a decade Dr. Fauci has “manufactured” viruses and shipped them to a lab in Wuhan, China. Attorney Larry Klayman, who appears on the same program, also insists that the “origins of the coronavirus” are in the United States.

Bolling then follows up with Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier, and while the two do express doubt that Fauci cooked up the SARS-CoV-2 virus, they also go on speculate about its origins with repeated references to the virus being "man-made within a laboratory.”

After widespread outrage in media circles, Sinclair backed down, putting out a statement saying, "After further review, we have decided to delay this episode's airing. We will spend the coming days bringing together other viewpoints and provide additional context."  The fact that Sinclair would consider airing such outlandish conspiracy theories represents a real risk that Sinclair is taking the next step in contaminating the airwaves with more right-wing propaganda.

CEO of Dominion Energy Under Scrutiny for Glorification of the Confederacy and Disregard of Black Communities

Dominion Energy's Atlantic Coast Pipeline project was finally torpedoed by a mix of changing economics, accusations of environmental racism and climate recklessness.  In early July, Dominion’s stock price plunged more than 11% after the company announced the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s cancellation. The stock price has yet to fully recover, even as the market rebounds.  The collapse of the pipeline coincides with a national movement against anti-Black racism that has had particular resonance in Virginia, once home to the capital of the Confederacy.   Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell's history of railroading Black communities and glorifying the Confederacy is under new scrutiny after the demise of his controversial pipeline.

Critics of the racial impact of Dominion’s actions under Farrell’s leadership hope that, together with the financial loss from the pipeline project, the current political ferment could finally end his 14-year reign.  Under Farrell, Dominion has become a national symbol of how political corruption and monopoly power can undercut efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline was planned to go right through Buckingham County, a rural, mountainous area roughly 90 minutes west of Richmond. Dominion also planned to erect a compressor station in Union Hill, a historically Black community in Northern Virginia that freed slaves founded in the 1800s before the Civil War.  Compressor stations, which use fuel from the pipeline to run a series of gas-compressing engines that keep fuel flowing through the pipeline, emit air pollutants that cause respiratory and cardiovascular problems. The permit obtained by Dominion still allowed for the release of a cocktail of pollutants, including nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter.  For years, Union Hill residents protested and organized groups against the project.

The company responded by trying to bribe the community with $5.1 million of investment, vowing to build a community center and fund an expansion of emergency services. The money proved divisive, which some there said was exactly the point.  “Dominion is an expert at the divide-and-conquer tactic,” Rev. Paul Wilson, the preacher at one of Union Hill’s two historically Black churches and a leading opponent of the pipeline. “There’s a group of people who are even moving to get me out as pastor. Once you inject money into the conversation, it becomes a wedge.”

When anti-poverty activist Rev. William Barber II denounced the compressor station as environmental racism in 2019, Dominion started running Facebook ads featuring video from a high school essay contest on civil rights that it had sponsored.  Meanwhile, the company plowed ahead with plans to build the compressor station ― until a federal court intervened in early 2020, overturning the permit because Dominion had failed to resolve questions about how emissions would affect Union Hill.

Redevelopment schemes that Farrell supported as a real estate investor, independent of his work at Dominion, have shown a similar disregard for Black history and communities.

In 2017, Farrell led a group of developers pushing a $1.5 billion project to rebuild a 10-block swath of downtown Richmond into a new arena, hotel, offices and luxury apartments. It was dubbed "Navy Hill" after a Black neighborhood that was razed in the 1960s to make way for highways.  Farrell was careful to ensure the support of Richmond's African American Mayor Levar Stoney in exchange for a $10,000 campaign donation from Dominion during his first year in office.

The project’s wealthy backers promised very little of their own funding, instead planning to largely finance the redevelopment through bond market debt.  In order to gain public support, the backers swore off tax hikes.  But the need to pay off that bond debt without an increase in taxes threatened to divert funding from other city services for decades to come-- risking more budget cuts at a moment when municipal deficits were already triggering increased austerity.

Many also feared the project would gentrify a historically Black area of the city and make the neighborhood unaffordable for its longtime residents.   A November 2019 editorial in the Richmond Free Press, a weekly newspaper serving the city’s Black community, savaged the project. The editorial board called the plan “a travesty” that risked “leaving the taxpayers … stuck with the bill for the rising costs of city services.” Any new municipal revenue from the project would end up going toward paying off the new arena, the newspaper concluded.  “With this latest scheme, our community once again winds up as losers,” the editorial stated. “Only Mr. Farrell and friends are benefiting from this project and the charade being perpetrated to pull it off.”

In February, the Richmond City Council voted for a resolution that effectively killed the project.  African American community members supporting the project at the council meeting later admitted that they were paid $25 to hold up pro-project signs.  The Richmond Free Press said the paltry rate at which Farrell’s group compensated picketers was an insult unto itself. “Sadly, it shows how deep poverty and depression is within Richmond’s African-American community that $25 can get people to show up and hold signs at a City Council meeting,” the editorial read.

Electricity rates are another area where the public interest in Virginia has been increasingly at odds with Farrell’s.  In 2007, Virginia lawmakers who received donations from Dominion introduced and rushed through a law that restricted the State Corporation Commission’s ability to police Dominion's utility rates.  Between 2009 and 2018, the company overcharged Virginians by an average of $234 million per year, according to analysis by the advocacy group Clean Virginia.

Dominion also asked to raise the percentage of its revenues it could keep as profit ― a request that regulators rejected last November. Now the company wants to raise rates by as much as $50 a month to help cover the cost of complying with Virginia’s new renewable energy targets.   That would come on top of the financial tsunami ratepayers already face in the months ahead as unemployment in Virginia sits at roughly 10% and workers struggle to make rent amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“If you look at what’s actually affordable, paying the current bill plus catching up on arrearage that may have been accumulated during COVID, that may be hard to accommodate,” said Dana Wiggins, director of the Center for Community Outreach and Affordable Clean Energy at the Virginia Poverty Law Center. “When you take into account that they have been overcharged over a long period of time, it makes it very difficult.”

Dominion, meanwhile, increased its dividend to shareholders in February and then paid them an equivalent sum in June.   Had the nearly $3 billion Dominion spent on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline gone instead toward solar and wind projects, it would have likely lowered the cost of Virginia’s effort to transition to 100% clean energy by 2045.

Farrell’s efforts as an incompetent historian and amateur movie producer may offer the most damning indication that the executive is out of step with the current moment.  Farrell was the driving force behind a poorly-reviewed Civil War drama which depicted the story of Confederate cadets at the Battle of New Market.  Farrell co-wrote, produced and financed the film (which received a $1 million in public funding) and it was uniformly derided for its historical revisionism.

The script for “Field of Lost Shoes” depicts its Confederate heroes at the Virginia Military Institute as deeply conflicted over slavery.   At one point, a main character suggests as a given that the newly independent Confederacy must abolish slavery after winning the war. Another insists: “This war is not about slavery. It’s about money. It always is.”

For a white person in the Civil War era to express skepticism about slavery, much less outright support for abolition, would “have been an untenable position in Virginia,” said historian Rev. Benjamin Campbell.  “A white person would have been thrown out of the state,” Campbell said. “A newspaper editor who simply questioned slavery was challenged to a duel in 1848 and killed in Virginia.”

Farrell’s role at Dominion Energy should “certainly be questioned” in the wake of the pipeline project, said William Barber, a towering figure of the current civil rights movement.   “A company that would attempt to do all this to communities and put its customers through this kind of fight should be challenged in so many ways,” he said. “Racism is not just about symbolism, it’s about substance.”

Coldplay - Champion of the World

Even If He Loses, Trump is Going to Make Money Off His Donors

During the 2016 campaign, Trump boasted that he was funding his entire campaign himself.  Whether or not that's actually true (he never disclosed his tax returns)-- it's completely the opposite this time around.  Not only has Trump not given a dime to his reelection campaign, he's funding the entire effort from donor's money.  And to make matters worse, Trump is now siphoning off donor contributions to his private coffers.

Like he has done to taxpayers over the last several years, Trump is charging his re-election  campaign for things like food, lodging and rent. The result is that $2.2 million of contributions from other people has turned into $2.2 million of revenue for Trump.

Trump's campaign is a reliable tenant in Trump Tower, spending about $38,000 on rent per month. More than three years after Trump became president, those payments now total $1.5 million.  The campaign spent at least another $187,000 renting space from other Trump entities in New York City.

Down the street from the White House, at the Trump International Hotel, the president’s campaign, joint fundraising committees and political party have spent at least $900,000. Across the country, some $16,000 of campaign money flowed into its sister hotel in Las Vegas. An additional $1.7 million went to the president’s New York-based hotel empire, according to a review of Federal Election Commission filings. In all, that adds up to $2.6 million for Trump’s hotels, not counting the money that has gone to his Miami golf resort.   The campaign paid Trump companies for legal consulting, IT expenses, airfare, even office supplies.

And that’s just counting the money flowing directly through the president’s campaign. His reelection apparatus also includes two joint fundraising committees, which work with the Republican Party to raise money for Trump. Since he took office, those entities—named Trump Victory and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee—have funneled another $2.3 million into the president’s private business. 

Then there’s the Republican National Committee, which has spent an additional $2.4 million at Trump properties. Add it all up, and the president, working in concert with the party he leads, has helped push $6.9 million into his businesses since taking office.

Trump Caught (Yet Again) Trying to Use the Presidency For Private Gain

The American ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, told multiple colleagues in February 2018 that Donald Trump had asked him to see if the British government could help steer the world-famous and lucrative British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, according to three people with knowledge of the episode.

The ambassador’s deputy, Lewis A. Lukens, advised him not to do it, warning that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain, these people said. But Johnson apparently felt pressured to try.  A few weeks later, he raised the idea of Turnberry playing host to the Open with the secretary of state for Scotland, David Mundell.

The episode left Lukens and other diplomats deeply unsettled.  Lukens, who served as the acting ambassador before Johnson arrived in November 2017, emailed officials at the State Department to tell them what had happened, colleagues said. A few months later, Johnson forced out Lukens, a career diplomat who had earlier served as ambassador to Senegal, shortly before his term was to end.

The Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts, or “emoluments,” from foreign governments.  It was not the first time the president tried to steer business to one of his properties. Last year, the White House chose the Trump National Doral resort in Miami as the site of a Group of 7 meeting.  Trump backed off after it ignited a political storm, moving the meeting to Camp David before canceling it because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump also urged Vice President Mike Pence to stay at his family’s golf resort in Doonbeg, Ireland, last year during a visit, even though the vice president’s official business was on the other side of the country. That trip generated headlines for the golf club, but also controversy.  Trump has also visited his family-owned golf courses more than 275 times since he took office, bringing reporters with him each time, ensuring that the resorts get ample news coverage and additional revenue from Secret Service agents and other members of the Trump entourage.

The Trump International Hotel in Washington has done a brisk trade in guests, foreign and domestic, who are in town to lobby the federal government. Turnberry itself drew attention when the Pentagon acknowledged it had been sending troops to the resort while they were on overnight layovers at the nearby Glasgow Prestwick Airport.

Trump and his children have struggled for more than a decade to attract professional golf tournaments to the family’s 16 golf courses, knowing those events draw global television audiences and help drive traffic.  The courses generate about a third of the family’s revenue, with tournaments seen as a crucial way to publicize them.  This has been particularly important for the two Trump resorts in Scotland and one in Ireland, which have been losing money under Trump’s ownership.  The losses at the British resorts have come even after the family made costly investments to build or upgrade their courses, including $150 million at Turnberry. The most recent annual report for Turnberry shows it lost nearly $1 million, on $19 million in sales, in 2018.

If you were thinking that Deputy Ambassador Lukens was pushed out because he ratted out Johnson to the State Department, don't worry.  According to colleagues, Johnson forced out Lukens for saying nice things about Barack Obama- Johnson acted to remove Lukens after hearing he gave a speech at a British university in which he told a positive anecdote about a visit Mr. Obama had made to Senegal in 2013, when Lukens was the envoy.

You Don't Say!

Enough Said

Institutional Corruption in Guatemala Persists Long After End of Its Civil War

I read a UN report recently, which outlined systemic corruption that persists in Guatemala's government even today-- almost 25 years after the end of their civil war.  The report, which described the country as “captured” by corruption, was the result of a 12-year UN commission into corruption in the Central American country.  The commission, known as Cicig for its initials in Spanish, said that there is a “mafia coalition” among members of government, the business community and private individuals that is “willing to sacrifice Guatemala’s present and future to guarantee impunity and preserve the status quo”.

The commission chief Iván Velásquez, a Colombian lawyer who has been barred by Morales’ government from entering Guatemala, has said, “We almost got to the nucleus of the structures that have captured the state,” Velásquez said. “This cannot be solved without a profound restructuring of the state.”  The commission began its work in Guatemala in 2007 at the request of then-president Óscar Berger and was given responsibility for dismantling illegality in the wake of the country’s 1960-1996 civil war.  Many observers praised the commission for its work, which resulted in the prosecution of more than 400 people, including the former president Otto Pérez Molina, his vice-president and much of his cabinet. 

“Between 2012 and 2015, an illicit, political-economic network took over the executive (branch), subordinated the legislative, manipulated and interfered in the election of judges to high courts and, in addition to looting the state, promoted laws and policies favoring private companies to the detriment of competition and the citizenry,” the report said.

Together with Guatemalan prosecutors, the commission took down 70 organized crime networks. Those targeted for prosecution included public officials, lawmakers, judges, business people and other civilians.   The report said illicit political money is “present in the majority of campaigns and parties” and comes from criminal organizations including drug traffickers seeking territorial control and political protection, as well as business people seeking influence.

There-- Fixed It For You!

Breland - My Truck

Coronavirus Art - Bryne, Norway

Wacko Tom Cotton and his China Conspiracy

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton has a long history as a jerk, but he keeps dropping steaming piles of bullshit.  For the past month or so, he keeps pitching the theory that China is looking to “save face" by coming up with a vaccine before the rest of the world, and that that could only happen if China steals it from America. 

"The Chinese Communist Party has been stealing America's intellectual property for decades and they're not going to magically stop in the middle of a pandemic [...] In the middle of a pandemic, what's the most valuable intellectual property in the world? It's the research that our great laboratories and life science companies are doing on prophylactic drugs, therapeutic drugs and ultimately a vaccine. So I have little doubt that the Chinese intelligence services are actively trying to steal America's intellectual property as it relates to the virus they unleashed on the world."

Cotton keeps promoting the narrative that COVID-19 was a deliberate attack on the world, rather than a series of bungling missteps with a disastrous result (sorta like Trump's election).  Cotton contends China wants “credit" for coming up with a vaccine, which it will use as “leverage" against the rest of the world.

"It's a scandal to me that we have trained so many of the Chinese Communist Party's brightest minds to go back to China to compete for our jobs, to take our business, and ultimately to steal our property and design weapons and other devices that can be used against the American people."

Cotton also suggests that if these Chinese spies want to infiltrate American institutions of higher learning, they should only learn useless crap like ... theater and the American system of government.

"If Chinese students want to come here and study Shakespeare and the Federalist Papers, that's what they need to learn from America. They don't need to learn quantum computing."

Shakespeare's Caesar believed that men who “think too much" are dangerous. Republicans like Cotton prove that willful idiocy is an even greater threat.

Wear a Fucking Mask!

GOP War on Mail Voting; Public Health Be Damned

Not content with suppressing voting at the state level, the GOP is mobilizing an effort to suppress voting at the nationwide level.   Republicans are devoting $20 million to fight efforts in any and all states that make it easier to vote in a safe manner. 

Trump has spoken out against mail-in voting, even though he has voted by mail himself. Attorney General Barr has denounced voting by mail even though he has voted by mail in 2012 and 2019.   White House advisor Kellyanne Conway cast her own ballot by mail in the 2018 midterm election, even though she thinks everyone else should have to wait in line, since voting by mail is un-American.  White House  spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany is a vocal opponent of mail-in voting even thought she has voted by mail eleven times in 10 years.  McEnany has even been accused of voter fraud-- having voted from a Florida address where she doesn't live (her parent's house), even though she resided in Washington Dc and held a New Jersey driver's license.

The only problem with voting by mail is that it makes it easy and safe for people to vote-- it's OK for GOP leaders, but not OK for less-privileged voters like you and me.

Coronavirus Art - Bristol, England

Unable to Handle COVID Crisis, Egyptian President Responds by Attacking Doctors and Journalists

As Egyptian authorities fight a coronavirus outbreak growing out of control, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and his security forces are stifling criticism of the handling of the health crisis by launching an outright attack on doctors and journalists.  At least ten doctors and six journalists have been arrested since the virus first hit Egypt, according to rights groups. Other health workers say they have been warned by administrators to keep quiet or face punishment. One foreign correspondent has fled the country, fearing arrest, and another two have been summoned for reprimand over “professional violations.”

Seven years ago, el-Sissi led the military’s removal of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, after his brief rule sparked nationwide protests. In years since, el-Sissi has stamped out dissent, jailing Islamist political opponents, secular activists, journalists, even belly dancers.  These attacks against truth and science are taking place even as coronavirus infections are  threatening to overwhelm hospitals. The Egyptian Health Ministry had recorded 76,253 infections and  3,343 deaths, the highest death toll in the Arab world.

In the face of criticism, el-Sissi has said the virus’s trajectory was “reassuring” and described critics as “enemies of the state.”

In recent weeks, authorities have marshaled medical supplies to prepare for more patients. The military has set up field hospitals and isolation centers with 4,000 beds and delivered masks to citizens, free of charge, at metro stops, squares and other public places.  The government has scaled up testing within all general hospitals and ordered private companies to churn out face masks and gear for front-line health workers. But health personnel are sounding alarm on social media. Doctors say shortages have forced them to purchase surgical masks with their meager salaries. Families plead for intensive care beds. Dentists and pharmacists complain of being forced to handle suspected virus patients with little training.

The pandemic has pushed the Egyptian Medical Syndicate (EMS), a non-political group of professionals, into a striking new role as the country’s sole advocate for doctors’ rights.  Last month, the EMS released a letter to the public prosecutor demanding the release of five doctors detained for expressing their views about the government virus response. More EMS members have been arrested, said one board member, but families have kept quiet.

Doctors’ low morale sank further last week, following the arrest of board member and treasurer Mohamed el-Fawal, who demanded on social media that the prime minister apologize for comments that appeared to blame health workers for a spike in coronavirus deaths.

After the Prime MInister's comments, the union scheduled a press conference raise awareness about doctors’ sacrifices and discuss staff and supply shortages. But before anyone could speak out, security forces surrounded the EMS building and sent members home. A communications officer who promoted the event was detained and interrogated by security agents before being released.

In its latest statement, the syndicate said the accelerating detentions have caused “widespread anxiety” among health workers.  Last week, Dr. Ahmed Safwat, an intensive care doctor and member of the EMS board, disappeared.  A lawyer representing several detained doctors confirmed that he had been taken by state security and accused of terrorism activities. His last social media post criticized the prime minister, saying, “The government says that everything is fine and under control, but you enter hospitals and find the opposite.”

In another case, security agents burst into the home of Hany Bakr, an ophthalmologist north of Cairo, after he criticized the government for sending coronavirus aid to Italy and China while its own doctors were desperately short of protective equipment. He remains in detention on terrorism charges.  In March, public prosecutors accused 26-year-old Alaa Shaaban Hamida of “joining a terrorist group” and “misusing social media” after she allowed a colleague to call the Health Ministry’s coronavirus hotline from her phone instead of first reporting the case to her managers. Three months pregnant, she remains in pretrial detention.

Doctors in three different provinces say their administrators have threatened to report them to the National Security Agency if they publicly complained about working conditions, walked off the job or called in sick.  In one of several voice recordings obtained by The Associated Press, a government health official can be heard telling workers, “Even if a doctor is dying, he must keep working … or be subjected to the most severe punishment.”  A hospital director in the same province describes those who fail to show up to work as “traitors,” adding, “this will be treated as a national security matter ... and you know how that goes in Egypt.”

A doctor in Cairo shared text messages from his manager, advising staff that their attendance sheets were being monitored by state security.  He said two of his colleagues received a pay cut when administrators discovered their complaints on social media. In two other hospitals in the capital, workers retracted letters of collective resignation over working conditions for fear of reprisals.

The suppression of criticism in Egypt is hardly unusual, analysts say, but the government has become even more jittery as the pandemic tests its capabilities and slows the economy.  Those who spread “false news” online about the coronavirus could face up to five years imprisonment and steep fines, Egypt’s top prosecutor warned earlier this year.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights voiced concern in late March that 15 individuals had been arrested for broadcasting alleged false news about the pandemic. Four Egyptian journalists who reported on the outbreak remain in prison, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which has labeled Egypt one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, along with Turkey and China.

Security forces have also taken aggressive action against foreign reporters. In March, Egypt expelled a reporter for The Guardian who cited a scientific report disputing the official virus count. Egypt’s state information body has summoned The Washington Post and New York Times correspondents over their critical coverage during the pandemic.

Despite growing human rights abuses, the international community counts on Egypt as a bulwark against regional instability, said a Middle East-focused rights advocate at the U.N., speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss policy matters.  “There is no appetite,” the advocate said, “to address what is going on in Egypt, let alone sanction them in any way for what the government is doing to their own people.”

Chiiild - Pirouette

Stay the Fuck Away From Wild Animals

A 72-year-old California woman was gored by a bison in Yellowstone National Park.  The woman approached the bison to take a picture and got within 10 feet of it multiple times before it gored her, according to reports.  She sustained multiple goring wounds and was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center for further treatment.

"The series of events that led to the goring suggest the bison was threatened by being repeatedly approached to within 10 feet," Yellowstone's senior bison biologist Chris Geremia said.  "Bison are wild animals that respond to threats by displaying aggressive behaviors like pawing the ground, snorting, bobbing their head, bellowing, and raising their tail. If that doesn't make the threat move away, a threatened bison may charge," Geremia added.

Wildlife officials advise that to be safe around bison, people should stay at least 25 yards away and move away if they approach.  The recent attack serves as a reminder that wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are wild.  If you want to have a meaningful vacation, interact with human beings, not wild animals-- they couldn't care less whether you are there or not.

Tucker Carlson Openly Courting White Supremacists

Tucker Carlson is facing increased criticism for an on-screen graphic that echoes a key white supremacist talking point.  With an image on the screen of Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Tammy Duckworth― both women of color born overseas ― Carlson’s text warned that “we have to fight to preserve our nation & heritage.”  Critics said the phrase looked like an homage to the infamous “14 words,” or the white supremacist slogan “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

Tucker’s racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric has caused major sponsors such as Disney, T-Mobile, Papa John’s and others to pull their spots from the show due to public outrage.  An advertising data firm estimates that a whopping 37.8% of the advertising revenue for Tucker's show now comes from the company MyPillow, which is owned by right-wing stalwart Mike Lindell.

Coronavirus Art - Berlin

Danny Snyder Continues to Drag His Feet Over Racist Team Name

250 years ago, the first know appearance of the term "redskin" appeared in the papers of Sir William Johnson.  The Oxford English Dictionary says the word is "frequently considered offensive."  Efforts to re-examine and change Indian-based nicknames for sports teams begin in the late 60's  The movement gained pace in the 90's, and even the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office invalidated the trademark on the team's name as disparaging.  Danny Snyder fought his way through the courts in order to hang onto the team name-- even as the voices against the offensive term grew louder.  Schools and sports teams across the nation phase out Indian-related nicknames and many newspapers and reporters publicly refused to speak the name out loud.

Such obstinance is a team tradition, unfortunately.  Original team owner George Preston Marshall stubbornly refused to integrate the team and was the last team in the NFL to hire African American players.  Little Danny Snyder is refusing to acknowledge the growing sentiment of the sports fans and in the face of recent protests against bigotry said nothing on the issue until FedEx publicly asked to have the team name changed.  Pepsi followed suit and even Nike dropped the teams' merchandise from its website-- but Snyder would still only say that the team is "undergoing a thorough review of the team name"  This should come as no surprise, as Snyder is the tone-deaf owner who said just five years ago, ”We’ll never change the name.  It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use all caps.”  Snyder has long been known as incompetent and despicable during the 21 years he has owned the Washington team.

in 2000, Snyder told ESPN that Norv Turner, who had just coached the Redskins to an NFC East title, would be with the team for "a long time.”  Danny fired Turner with three games left in the season, despite the Redskins’ winning record.

Snyder exploited the 9/11 attacks for profit, quickly adding a $4 "security surcharge' to ticket prices soon after the 2001 attacks occurred.

In 2005, Snyder began issuing the "Redskins Extra Points Mastercards" and informed fans that it would be the only credit card he would accept for season tickets  He withdrew the entire scheme after ticketholders threatened to revolt and MasterCard unilaterally cancelled the program.

Snyder's company was fined $3 million dollar by the City of New Orleans for breaking the lease on its Six Flags property after Katrina.

Conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute summed up Snyder’s football operation as a “leading exemplar of this tendency toward irrationality” in a 2006 report. Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies at AEI, cited Snyder for running a “seriously mismanaged” operation.

in 2006, Snyder was caught selling one-year-old expired peanuts from a bankrupt airline in order to save money. 

For two years, Snyder tried to flout Maryland laws banning indoor smoking in the stadium.  The state was able to obtain the evidence they needed to win in court from promotional videos filmed by the Redskins themselves.

Snyder was forced to make restitution to a former nanny in 2006 and ticket office employees in 2008 for failing to follow labor laws and pay them what he owed them.

After the real estate crash in 2008, a 72-year-old grandmother (who was a long-time season ticket holder) requested to be let out of her season ticket contract.  Snyder responded by suing her for $66,000.  She could not afford a lawyer, and Snyder won the judgment by default.  He was lambasted by fans and sportswriters alike.

In 2009, the team denied that beer was being sold inside the stadium bathrooms.  It wasn't too long until videos of the  unsanitary practice began popping up on Youtube.

Snyder was tossed off the board of directors of Six Flags, after his disastrous marketing effort saw the company's shares tank and one of the company's institutional investors sued to have Snyder removed from the company for fiduciary irresponsibility.  In 2009, Snyder's theme park operations filed for bankruptcy.

For years, Snyder claimed to have "more than 200,000" names on the waiting list for Redskins tickets.  Snyder was caught in a lie after the team was reduced to putting tickets ads on the side of local buses and the sight of large swaths of empty seats began appearing on TV broadcasts of games.

For years, Snyder-- who was mocked for the low-tech replay screens at FedEx field--  tried to claim that the stadium was wired for analog and wouldn't accommodate digital screens.  In 2009, Snyder was finally caught in another lie, when Paul McCartney and U2 both performed concerts at stadium, bringing their hi-def screens that somehow worked when plugged in.

Snyder got bamboozled by Broncos owner Pay Bowlen  into hiring Mike Shanahan after Bowlen gave Syder a "ringing endorsement" of Shanahan after they parted ways.  It was later disclosed that Bowlen fired Shanahan and that Bowlen got off the hook for $7 million after Shanahan was hired by the Redskins.

In 2010 when there was no salary cap in effect, Snyder tried to manipulated a few contracts while no one was looking.  It's a bit ridiculous for anyone to think that an operation on the scale of the NFL would ever not be looking-- and unfortunately for Snyder, they were.  The NFL responded by penalizing the team a total of $36 million in salary cap space. The team — already crippled by a lack of draft picks — suffered further as a result.

Snyder was accused of improper influence of senior U.S. Park Service officials after the Park Service violated its own policies and approved Snyder's request to clear-cut 50,000 square feet of mature trees in the C&O Canal national park that were obstructing views of the Potomac River from Snyder's residence.  Snyder screwed up yet again, though-- he forgot to pay off someone in Montgomery County, which later fined him $37,000 and forced him to replant the trees.

Snyder also badly misplayed all his contract negotiations with Kirk Cousins, failing to either commit fully to Cousins and secure his services for the long term, or to acquire a veteran or drafted quarterback to replace him. Eventually, the clock ran out after two franchise tags, and Cousins left in free agency, feeling unwanted by the team.

In 2018, reports surfaced that Redskin officials had coerced Redskin cheerleaders into posing topless for a calendar shoot in Costa Rica in front of a paid audience of sponsors and stadium suite-holders and later being required to accompany strange men to fraternity party-like bacchanals.

In terms of football, Danny Snyder has been an abject failure.  Every coach hired by Snyder has left the organization without a winning record.  Jay Gruden was fired during the 2019 season after posting a 6-year tally of 35 wins and 49 losses. Bill Callahan could only manage 3 wins and 8 losses.   Mike Shanahan left after a cumulative record of 28-52. Jim Zorn was 12-20. Joe Gibbs was 30-34.  Steve Spurrier went 12-20.  Marty Schottenheimer finished 8-8 in his only season on the job.

Even as he tried to usher in a new era last year, Snyder wasted no time in demonstrating why he is regarded as one of, if not the most clueless owners in the NFL when he began the January press conference to introduce Ron Rivera by wishing the gathered press corps a “Happy Thanksgiving.”  As he stood at the podium prepared to instroduce himself the franchise’s head coach, Rivera was surprised to find there was no jersey up there with him.  Just about every press conference announcing a new head coach in the NFL features a custom jersey, but Snyder didn't deliver on this one.

Now come reports that three people representing 40% ownership of the team are tired of Little Danny Snyder's dragging his feet and dragging the team down with him-- and are now trying to sell their share of the team.   The new head coach, Ron Rivera, tells sources that team officials settled on two new names several weeks ago-- despite Snyder's claim that he is only studying the issue.  So yes-- little Danny knows no shame or embarrassment and stubbornly persists in the bigoted tradition of George Preston Marshall..

Vintage Clothing Store Owner Keeps It Real

Outrage Over Rampant Misogyny in India's Judiciary System

An Indian judge is under pressure over comments that questioned the behavior of a woman who alleged she was raped.

Justice Krishna Dixit of the Karnataka High Court wrote that he found a woman's statement alleging rape "a bit difficult to believe".  Dixit asked why the woman had gone "to her office at night - at 11pm"; why had she "not objected to consuming drinks with him"; and why she had allowed him "to stay with her till morning".

"The explanation offered by her that after the perpetration of the act she was tired and fell asleep is unbecoming of an Indian woman," the judge said, adding that it was "not the way our women react when they are ravished".

His remarks set off a storm of protest. Outraged Indians asked if there was a "rulebook" or a "guide" to being a rape victim. An illustration was widely shared online which, drawing on several recent court rulings, mocked up "An Indian judge's guide to being the ideal rape survivor".

Aparna Bhat, a senior Delhi-based lawyer, wrote an open letter to the chief justice of India and the three female judges of the Supreme Court in response to the ruling.  "Is there a protocol for rape victims to follow post the incident which is written in the law that I am not aware of?" she wrote. "Are 'Indian women' an exclusive class who have unmatched standards post being violated?"  Bhat added that the judge's remarks showed "misogyny at its worst."

Madhu Bhushan, a women's rights activist in Bangalore, where the Karnataka high court is located, described the language used by the judge as "shocking" and absolutely uncalled for.  "His comments are objectionable at several levels," she told the BBC. "What does he mean by 'our women'? And 'ravished'? It's so Victorian, so outdated, it takes away from the seriousness of the issue, which is violence against women.  It's preposterous to say women don't behave like this. It has nothing to do with law, it's judging her behaviour," she said.

Bhushan is among dozens of civil liberties activists, writers, actors, singers and journalists who wrote an open letter to Justice Dixit saying his ruling had "deeply disturbed and disappointed" activists and demanding that he expunge the comments.  "Women who make decisions to live independently and make choices regarding their own lives, including their intimate/ sexual lives are still viewed as women with loose morals and character," the letter said.

Rape and sexual crimes have been in the spotlight in India since 2012, when the brutal gang rape - and the subsequent death - of a young woman on a bus in Delhi sparked days of protests and made global headlines.  According to government data, thousands of rapes take place every year in the country and the numbers have been rising over the years.  Recent figures from the National Crime Records Bureau show police registered 33,977 cases of rape in 2018 - an average of a rape every 15 minutes.  And campaigners say the actual number is much higher, because cases of sexual violence are grossly under reported.

This is not the first time the Indian judiciary has been criticized of being patriarchal and misogynistic.  In a a 2017 ruling, judges castigated a gang-rape victim for drinking beer, smoking, taking drugs and keeping condoms in her room, and called her "promiscuous". At the time, Supreme Court lawyer Karuna Nundy said the ruling implied the woman "had no right not to be raped".

And in a 2016 case, a woman who had alleged abduction and gang-rape was questioned about her "noticeably unusual conduct" and her movements after the assault.  "Instead of hurrying back home in a distressed, humiliated and a devastated state, she stayed back in and around the place of occurrence," the judge in the case said, adding that the fact that "she was accustomed to sexual intercourse… before the incident also has its own implication".  These are just two examples from a long list of cases over the decades where the Indian judiciary has shamed the victims of rape and sexual assault.

In 1983, the parliament amended the rape law, shifting the burden of proof from the victim to the accused and stating that the past sexual history of the victim should not be a factor.  But 40 years later, the comments of Justice Dixit and other judges finding fault with the behavior of victims show that the past sexual history of a woman is still a factor in many courts adjudicating rape cases.

Trump Risks Lives in Order To Stoke a Culture War

In a jaw-dropping speech that amounted to a culture war bonfire, Trump used the backdrop of Mount Rushmore to characterize BLM protesters as a nefarious left-wing mob that intends to "end America." Those opponents, he argued, are engaged in a "merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children."

With nary a face mask in the crowded audience, Trump minimized the dangers of the pandemic but instead expressed more concern for the safety of statues than of the American people."Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities," Trump said.

“This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore,” Trump said.

“We will not be terrorized, we will not be demeaned, and we will not be intimidated by bad, evil people,” Trump added. “It will not happen.”

Repeatedly using vague pronouns like "they" and "them," Trump sought to play on the fears of a minority -- that appears to be shrinking, according to polls -- who view the rise of Black Lives Matter as a threat to the historical dominance of White people. He described the goals of protesters who are attempting to right the wrongs of history as "alien to our culture, and to our values."

"We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation's children, end this radical assault and preserve our beloved American way of life," Trump said. He mysteriously described those who would tear down statues of racist leaders from the past as "a new far left fascism that demands absolute allegiance." "Make no mistake. This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution," he added.

 

But even Trump’s brutally dark and divisive speech was an also ran to what was happening down the road. That’s where National Guard forces were threatening a group of Lakota protesters. In the process, they committed an act recognized as a war crime around the world.

 

As Indian Country Today reports, more than 100 “treaty defenders” were among the protesters along the road leading up to the Rushmore carvings. For much of the afternoon, police held them aside to allow Trump supporters to climb the mountain. That allowed the epic sight of Trump’s white followers shouting “go home” at Native American leaders as they protested Trump’s presence on their sacred land, the desecration of the mountain, and the breach of the treaty that awarded the area to the Lakota “forever.”

 

The National Guard personnel arrived via Red Cross-marked vehicle to join the blockade of the protesters.  The use of medical vehicles to disguise the movement of troops is a violation of the Geneva convention.  As was obvious during last month's DC protests,  American citizens are not being awarded the rights that enemies get during war.  Meanwhile, right up the hill, Trump was claiming there is a “merciless campaign to wipe out our history.” And he should know, because he’s leading that campaign.