President Trump Is Working to Undermine Dr. Fauci Even as Coronavirus Cases Spike--Tsunami of untruths’: Trump has made 20,000 false or misleading claims: My Comment: to tell the truth

https://time.com/5866602/trump-white-house-anthony-fauci/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/13/donald-trump-20000-false-or-misleading-claims

Who does not believe science? Perhaps, someone who is guilty of telling 20,000 lies according to the Washington Post database collection of Trump's lies.  (See link above).  The fact that Trump is impugning the sterling reputation of Dr. Anthony Fauci as one of the world's most preeminent experts in immunology and infectious disease is understatedly shameful and should be criminal insofar as it is a lie against a person who can be the most helpful to the nation as it assumes the dubious distinction of leading the world in the amount of COVID -19  cases and deaths.  Instead of being thankful that this world famous expert in immunology is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since1984 with 40 years experience and is helping this nation and the world find a way out of this viral abyss, he runs roughshod over him.  Trump does not like what Dr. Fauci says not because his assessment is based on evidence but because he thinks Dr. Fauci's assessment will not help the nation's economy and therefore ruin Trump's chances for reelection.  Trump's reelection is the only thing on Trump's mind because this malignant pathological narcissist does not care about human life -- any human life but his own.  It is a lethal reality as the deaths of millions of lives are at stake. 

Clarifying, Dr. Fauci fully admits when something he has said is a mistake but it is only a mistake insofar as the data of this never before seen novel virus was not available in the early stages of the pandemic.  Every scientist was trying to make the most efficacious determination of its nature at the time.  He did not in January think the virus would take on the hue of a pandemic nor that masks were necessary to avoid it.  He has long since abandoned this view when the evidence and data told him to.

If one drives a car, if one has surgery, even if one bakes a cake one is using science to get a result. Science is based on the data of evidence that reveals truth.  Science through testing and retesting tells truths without which humankind could never progress. It changes belief when the evidence and peer review dictates it should. Humankind advances when it takes scientific truth and morphs into practice building buildings, treating disease, or flying to the moon.  Nearly everything one does requires the truths science reveals.

The US has the worst record amounts of the novel Coronavirus and growing because its dastardly leadership and those minority of science deniers who follow that leadership will not do what the science and its accredited science experts demand they do based on evidence. Dr. Anthony Fauci's name and reputation are being dragged through the muck by Trump because Donald Trump is incapable of telling the truth.  If it was solely Trump's life he is endangering that would be one thing. It isn't; it is the lives of  350 million populating our nation and ultimately the 7 billion on the planet whose lives are at risk if we do not get the scientific truth correct. To tell the truth, Mr. Trump, or most importantly to listen to those science experts who do is the most important thing you can do since all of our lives depend upon it including your own.

The most DISGUSTING proof of high Treason of Roger Stone and Trump!  

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/president-trump-commutes-roger-stone-obstruction-sentence_n_5c9cd435e4b072a7f6062624?fbclid=IwAR2TPc83nHl138wtPEbaiNpJisvFQpe0unuiISbGQgMyaHxUBcsRWpMUObs

Brian William's expert  Frank Figliuzzi, Jr. is the former Assistant Director for Counterintelligence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation according to Wiki. says Trump knows that he will lose the election in November and not commuting Stone's case would have sent Trump to jail as Stone "could have dropped the dime on Dump!"

This ladies and gentlemen this is your president! 

Supreme Court Rules Trump Cannot Block Release of Financial Records--Conservative Trump appointees Gorsuch and Kavenaugh concur -- KUDOS TO THE COURT

The two decisions surrounding Trump's submission of his taxes, in my opinion, were a decided defeat for Trump. The first regarding grand jury subpoenas brought by the Southern District of New York and in the second regarding Congressional subpoenas Chief Justice John Roberts who wrote for the majority said “No citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding.” Justices Kavenaugh and Gorsuch, Trump conservative appointees, joined with the majority. While it is true that the cases are being sent back to the district courts for clarification and that it is unlikely the electorate will see Trump's taxes before the election, (except in the Grand Jury of the Southern District of New York case which can move quickly) the Court reaffirmed the democracy saving value that no one is above the law. Moreover, the electorate may not look kindly on a president who, unlike any other president, refuses to release his taxes the electorate has a right to know. What is he trying to hide?

The SCOTUS findings on Trump's taxes is no small thing. If the decision had gone as Trump wished that the executive occupies a unique position in this government and should be held to a different more exceptional insulated standard than anyone else it would have subverted the very essence of the unique balance of power democracy our nation has been since its founding and which has been an example to the world in the panoply of governing. It would have placed him and other succeeding presidencies squarely above the law.

This demonstrates one cannot always predict SCOTUS. Sometimes findings are a true effort of the Court to preserve our founding document, the Constitution, and justices make an effort to enshrine SCOTUS as a non-political third branch of government the Founders intended it to be. The recent SCOTUS decisions reinforce the Constitutional mandate of the balance of power reaffirming the second branch of government, the Executive branch, is not above the law.

Kudos directed to the Court for threading the needle ever so delicately in favor of our American balance of power experiment of democracy and the rule of law hoping too Trump's taxes at least as to the Southern District of New York may appear sooner than expected.

"You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument" -- a brilliant opinion

The opinion written by Caroline Randall Williams titled above and linked below is one of the most heartfelt, beautiful and necessary opinions about which to write.  Thank you, Ms. Williams, for putting to paper your deep and emotive thoughts.  I have long been a student of American history and a northerner who loathed everything about the Confederacy and still do.  Aside from the fact that the Confederacy was a true insurrection against the construct of this nation it was a radical uprising dedicated to tearing the nation apart and it took over 600,000 lives.  Everything about it is noxious to me so I cannot help but be surprised at how little I have thought about those persons of color who look almost white.  I am incredulous at my own lack of perception of this fact that I never sought to analyze the reality of it even though it was right in front of my face.

Ms. Williams has a gift for writing and an even bigger gift for forcing the nation to confront the historical truth that those persons of color who know their ancestry before a certain time is half white also know  they were conceived not in love but in rape.  It is testament to yet another truth that the story of the Confederacy is a story of sex by force and impregnation against one's will. 

There is nothing, in my opinion, about the Confederacy worth commemorating.  It should be remembered, however, for the brutality, violence and hate that it represented and its cancerous legacy it bestows upon us today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/opinion/confederate-monuments-racism.html

My Comment: Sinning a great sin

White House Was Aware Of Russian Bounties In Early 2019

A blogger said: What do you expect from a guy who stole from veterans, lied about donating to veterans, pardoned someone who committed war crimes, fined for misusing funds from a veteran's charity, falsely claimed he signed Vets' Choice into law, insulted POWs, insulted Gold Star families, called Generals "dopes & babies", falsely accused US service members of stealing funds for Iraqi reconstruction, sided with Putin against all branches of military intelligence, froze pay for all federal agencies via Executive Order - federal workforce is 31% veteran, approx 623k vets, undid regulations on predatory lenders who target military members, diverted billions from the military to pay for a wall he said Mexico would pay for, trivialized troops with traumatic brain injuries from an attack, insulted troops with PTSD, forced West Point cadets to travel back for graduation to give a campaign speech ending with dozens testing positive for the coronavirus, downplayed military sexual assaults against female soldiers, invited the Taliban to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11, told his wife he would disown Tiffany if she joined the military, lied to US troops in Iraq when he told them he gave them their first pay raise in 10 years, ..." or asked Russia to join the G7, took troops out of Germany leaving it open to Russia or threatening to pull the US out of NATO a supreme defender of western Europe leaving it open to Russian aggression.

My  Comment: There are no words to describe the utter incredulity one has about the headlines and links below of reputable news sources. There have been in US history malevolent, treacherous and bumbling presidencies with presidential actions that filled the electorate and historians alike with widespread disbelief at their wrongheaded consequential and even brutal actions of a commander-in-chief but never in all that I have read in my decades of life in this nation or all that I have known about American history has a president's actions and inactions alike been saturated with treasonous and narcissistic self interest especially to the detriment of those that don the uniform of this country putting their own lives at risk and their own family's future in limbo.

We accord the soldiers killed in action the utmost respect and gratitude of a grateful nation and show that respect by accompanying home their flag draped coffin never leaving its side until the destination is complete.  We accord the wounded, who will never again experience the wonders of a strong body they knew when they first signed up for service a special thanks for their service and place of honor is bestowed reflecting appreciation for their efforts which often were given above and beyond the call of duty.  

If all of these reports are true our president has just spit in the face of all those men and women who give of themselves selflessly often to never see the home they left again or never to return to the life they once knew in the same way -- their bodies plagued by disability and/or their minds haunted by the memories of war no one can appreciate who has not fought in war themselves.  The commander-in-chief, the president, owes these courageous men and women his utmost attention to keep them safe.  He owes the families of the dead an answer as to why he abandoned their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers at the time they needed his protection the most.

Donald J. Trump should answer for his action or most importantly his inaction and explain to the American people why on God's earth he owes his allegiance to a hostile power, Russia, and its authoritarian president Putin never pushing back against Russia even once wrapping his arms around Putin but turning his back singularly on the soldiers who fight for this country.  He needs to answer for why he turned his back on the country he says he loves and against the American flag with mendacity he hugs.  He needs to answer as to why he has such little interest in US security but a huge interest in himself.  Donald J. Trump has sinned a great sin either knowing or not knowing Russia was paying the Taliban money to kill US soldiers.  Perhaps, it is the greatest against our nation in all of American history.  He needs to answer for that!

Russia bounty intelligence 'may have been' in Trump brief but wasn't deemed 'actionable,' senior Republican says

Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he's concerned that reports that Russia paid bounties for the killing of Americans may be true.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russia-bounty-intelligence-may-have-been-trump-brief-wasn-t-n1232498

White House Was Aware Of Russian Bounties In Early 2019: Report

Top officials were aware a year earlier than previously reported that Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, according to Associated Press sources.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-house-aware-russian-bounties-2019_n_5efaa7a8c5b6acab284609c9?fbclid=IwAR1z5t23j3X28I_SVQBNYkZQvemDE9qgmcTWe5YFpAxUdbXidMzdGl3HGRk

Busted: Trump engaged in 3-week ‘flurry of communication’ with Putin this year — and the White House hid some of the calls

https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/busted-trump-engaged-in-3-week-flurry-of-communication-with-putin-this-tear-and-the-white-house-hid-some-of-the-calls/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=4884&fbclid=IwAR2L6HirFyBL7ziBnvweUBfy31Np4HiRJVRGWnuFnzalJRjF9nuSCjm3WBI

Pence Cancels Campaign Events In Florida, Arizona As States’ COVID-19 Cases Soar--LIES

"The vice president drops appearances a day after boasting the U.S. is “flattening the curve” in COVID-19 cases."

Here's a man with supposedly religious conviction who lies about a life threatening issue like the COVID virus that has already taken 126,000 lives and counting saying the curve is flattening when it's increasing so dramatically in southern and some western states. Pence is taking his instructions from the always lying mendacious Trump. How can he, Pence,  live with himself? Pence, a religious man, lies to protect the world's greatest conman and fraud guilty of so much because what he is afraid of Trump's rancid mouth or that he, Pence, will lose his job, fame and money?

Again, I quote the New Testament because Pence is supposed to be the world's most observant Christian and a Fundamentalist one at that -- Matthew 4:8 "Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory." Matthew 16:26 "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Perhaps Pence along with the other hypocrites does not really believe in that which he supposedly has built his life? Take instruction from Romans 1:18: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."

 

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pence-covid-spikes-campaign-cancellations_n_5ef7d509c5b6acab28429b09

The Great Nadir

Nadir means the lowest point. Persons of color under reconstruction were gaining many rights such as the right to vote and hold office. It was all taken away because of the close disputed election of 1877 which pitted Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican, (Party of Lincoln or the progressive party) against Samuel Tilden, the Democrat (the antebellum pro slavery Party.) Republicans struck a deal with the Democrats. Hayes offered to pull union troops out of the south. In return the Democrats would give Republicans their electoral votes installing Hayes president.

This era is called the Great Nadir because the state of black rights declined to the lowest point level since the end of slavery. That compromise returned power to whites of the south who now had full rein to begin again the brutalization, denial of rights, segregation and murder of the black man. The legacy of that compromise exists even to this day. The black man has had to fight for incremental human rights through decades of suffering and struggle.

Who knows about this period in our nation? Few perhaps only those found in the institutions of higher learning in black history classes or those well versed in American history. There is a reason for the Black Lives Matter movement. Climbing the stairs of American Democracy was for the black man an arduous and torturous journey spanning centuries. From generation to generation persons of color along with their white allies of progressive politics had to fight for every morsel of human rights taken for granted by whites. The road of American history is paved with the blood and bones of those who stood for what is fair, just and right. Each generation's struggle is predicated on those who came before. It has been a difficult road and is still very much a work in progress. NEVER GIVE UP!

From the Atlantic Magazine: "Whatever way you look at it, it is impossible to turn this history and its leading figures into a part of American heritage. Founded in an act of treason against the government its leaders had sworn to protect and serve, the Confederate States of America and its white-supremacist government waged a four-year war against the United States of America and the principles Americans value most highly."

"This is the cause that Confederate statues commemorate. This is why white supremacists arrive armed to prevent their removal, as they did in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. And it is why they are a target of Black Lives Matter protesters in their campaign for racial justice and a crucial part of the conversation about the legacy of slavery in American life."

 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/podcasts/1619-slavery-anniversary.html

Unlucky in Birth

The Atlantic Magazine states that the Confederacy was an antidemocratic centralized state repressive in nature and dedicated to the maintenance of white supremacy. To those who lament the loss of the Civil War to the northern union states that is exactly what it was. It was a collection of states that rose up and waged treasonous war against the republic.  It was a violent insurrection, perhaps, the bloodiest war in US history that saw 650,000 and some say as many as 850,000 deaths. The exact number is not known since records were not pristinely kept.  It tore apart the country and I aver that schism is still felt to this day. 

The heritage our know nothing president refers to is bathed in racist sentiment and dedicated to the maintenance of a wholly unjust society cemented in racist thought which was, indeed, reinforced by law.  The original sin of slavery begun 419 years ago is, I fear, indelibly written into the tapestry of this nation.  Slavery was cruel, it was understatedly inhumane and it went against all that was advanced by those nation states that call themselves civilized and beneficiaries of the Enlightenment. It was antithetical to the very tenets of a democratic nation that all men are created equal for which so many American revolutionaries and Founding Fathers dedicated and many patriots gave their lives. 

The Civil War was a true conspiracy of men whose desire was to separate themselves from the republic and, most importantly to keep persons unfree solely defined by the color of skin.   There is not one thing one can say to give positive spin on the southern states' effort to separate from the union though our president today in the unrighteous might of his office tries hard to do so under the veil of "heritage."  He calls those who would take down statues of Confederate Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy and others in memory of it, law breaking anarchists whom he says he will relegate to jail.  Does one find statutes of Hitler, Goebbels or Himmler anywhere in Germany today? The answer is an emphatic no and, in fact, it is against the law to fly a swastika flag.   How easy it is for this white racist Cretan of privilege Trump to feel no empathy, to the extent that he feels empathy at all for anyone but himself, for those persons of color who are descendants of the slave master's lash sentenced to the legacy of slavery through generation after discrimination soaked generation. 

The sins of the Confederacy are many.  From Slavery to Jim Crow, to segregation, to separate drinking fountains, to segregated schools, and second class citizenship up through voter suppression and police brutality in our time it is the monkey on our back accompanied by a presidency now dedicated to the "very fine people" of right wing extremist sentiment and violence.  The Confederates of the Civil War and the Nazis marching with Tiki Torches saying "Jews will not replace us" are favorites of Trump and solely to those whose base he continuously appeals.   There is a reason Black Lives Matter marches are occurring all over the world.  They march because brutalizing persons of color by police or anyone else unjustly while whites are not accorded equal punishments is just plain wrong.  A democratic nation's racist populace must be cited for it and called out, in pertinent part, for the emissaries of hate they are. 

The so called stars and bars flag of the Confederacy is to persons of color what the Nazi flag would be to a Jew. It is emblematic of incalculable, monstrously of unjust suffering and murder.  What was the sole sin of a person of color? He was in that southern culture at that time and to an extent in our time unlucky to be born black. A Jew in Nazi Germany was unlucky enough at that time to be born a Jew.  He or she of an ascribed status was guilty of nothing else but to have been born.  Now we must rectify this wrong post haste.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/confederacy-wasnt-what-you-think/613309/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

William Barr Says U.S. Attorney In Manhattan Is Resigning. U.S. Attorney Says No, He's Not.-inquiring minds want to know

The slug president and his lackey attorney general Barr know no depths of moral depravity to which they will stoop to corrupt the entire justice system including taking the NY US Attorney Berman off the most important cases in SDNY which Berman is prosecuting.  He never even told Berman. Berman had to learn it through news accounts.

This is utterly disgusting. SDNY is investigating Trump's corruption including Deutche Bank, Trump's major lender. There is SO much slimy corruption emanating from the oval office that the staggering weight of it is sinking the White House and our nation into the ground because of it.  Every day there is another corruption outrage. When will it end? 

Why is Barr always willing to jump into the sewer to do Tump's bidding if he cares so much about this nation? Inquiring moral minds want to know. 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/geoffrey-berman-william-barr-us-attorney-southern-district-new-york-trump_n_5eed7619c5b63562b7603756

The Song of the Fiddle

Bolton says in the ABC interview that Putin thinks he can play Trump like a fiddle.  Who did not know that?  Each Bolton revelation about the so-called "president' is disgusting and treasonous. It is not like most with a brain did not think that all along. I think the term the old Communist state used was "useful idiot" in their assessment of Trump. Each authoritarian leader saw and still sees the 30 pieces of silver they used to cultivate Trump all dedicated to taking this nation down. Putin relishes the division sowed in this country. He could not have asked for a better outcome of his calculations.

All these authoritarian leaders, Putin, Turkey's despot Erdogan and the North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un are jumping up and down with glee. They could not have asked for a better so-called president than Trump to perfect the kind of America these despots wanted and could use to advance their cause. 

Treason by any other name is still treason. The song of Putin's fiddle is  treason.  Trump should be held accountable and other articles of impeachment should be drawn.  This time the Senate should convict.  Ah, would the outcome be so sweet?  Trump is a clear and present danger to this nation and our Congress, with haste, should act to save it before there is no nation to save.

The Virus What Went Wrong?

If you want to play this excellent segment of Frontline click on the hyperlink below the pic or go to the Frontline site.  Recommended viewing to find out what went so drastically and desperately wrong in this nation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cases and deaths continue to spike in states that get taken in by Trump's zeal to open the nation up for business by the most mendacious and cruel administration in US history.  Trump cares only about his poll numbers and that's all he cares about.  He cares nothing for you or those you love and thinks nursing home deaths are expendable.  He is a menace to our nation.  Everything he touches fails.  I believe he has stolen hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, the proof of which is his Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin's, refusal to release an accounting of the Small Business Association loans directed to those small businesses which have a desperate need to survive our epidemic related near Great Depression.  His policies are ruinous to this nation. 

Watch and you will learn why his administration's response to the pandemic is coming from a man who is unfit to hold the office!

 

 

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-virus-what-went-wrong-mk79yu/

 

LANDMARK: SCOTUS RULES FOR LGBTQ EMPLOYEES

Supreme Court Says LGBTQ Employees Are Protected By Civil Rights Employment Statutes!! 

Big decision  Gorsuch and Roberts with the majority. Thank you Justice Gorsuch and Roberts!!  Kavenaugh, Thomas and Alito Dissent -- No surprise there.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/scotus-lgbtq-transgender-decision_n_5ebefe48c5b6299362046713

Our Country is made greater today!!

Recommend viewing on Amazon Prime

GREAT DOCUMENTARY TO RECOMMEND: JAMES BALDWIN'S NARRATION OF HIS DOCUMENTARY "I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO." This is a wonderful documentary depicting the history of the black man in this nation from the 1950's through the 1960's. Baldwin died in 1987.

This film surrounds the assassination of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King all three of whom were Baldwin's friends. It is a documentary that gives one especially an American an understanding as to what the black man's grievances are against this egregiously flawed nation with respect to its racist past and its most grievous actions against persons of color over the past 419 years. It gives one an understanding as to what all the protesting, screaming and destruction are all about.

The black man in this nation has been, I believe, much sinned against. I understand the rage.  I have it too.

John Bolton Says Reelection Is ‘Only Thing That Mattered’ To Trump

Nice time to tell us now, Mr. Bolton. Maybe your refusal to tell us when it really would have mattered was because you wanted to sell a book. How about telling the nation you claim to love so much when it really might have done some good? This is surely no big revelation. It seems like your calculation that you would make big bucks from your book is almost the same as Trump only wanting to be reelected. Both of you put your nation second. No surprise there either. I say birds of a feather.

Still, better late than never. It will help historians put this presidency in the dump where it belongs and maybe just maybe in November it will work its magic to defeat the worst president in the history of this nation! It's all sickening.

 

 

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/john-bolton-book-trump-reelection_n_5ee3afd7c5b687e411b5112a

My prediction: the abyss

After listening to medical experts in infectious disease and after seeing the numbers of COVID-19 again increase in some southern, some midwestern states and others I predict a second wave of the virus will hit in the fall.  The latest June 11, 2020 map of those states where COVID-19 is on the increase I print from the NYT below.  One must take into account this administration's rabid attempt at denial of science yet again in its zeal to open businesses up so Trump can see the stock market increase on his watch.  His fantasy, of course, is that he will be named the economic wonder boy for the 2020 election.  He will not.

 

A medical expert from Boston University Medical School convinced me this morning when she (and other experts too) said "You cannot have it both ways.  You cannot open up businesses with lightning speed and expect the cases of COVID-19 to go down."    What you will see is cases will go up and a second wave of COVID-19 will come to a state near you in the fall.  As Dr. Fauci and others said, deny science all you want but the virus will do what the virus will do.  It does not care about Donald Trump, it does not care about his rightwing extremist base carrying guns into the Wisconsin state house demanding their their right to open up their businesses, it does not care about you nor about me.  It cares about maintaining and increasing its own biological life. 

Yet again Donald Trump does not care about anyone but himself.  Indeed, he may not even care about his family's exposure to the virus.  He will care when in the fall the second wave will have started and will add significantly to his already weakening poll numbers. 

He said this virus was a war and he is the commander in chief of that war.  Well, Mr. Science Denying Trump, this is a war you will not win. The sad and worrisome thing is he will drag the rest of the nation down with him as we careen off into the abyss.  Crush Trump in November 2020 and install his opposite, Joe Biden to have sanity rule in the oval office again.

 Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

By The New York TimesUpdated June 11, 2020, 8:05 A.M. E.T.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

The Times They are A-Changin

A friend sent me this link of Bob Dylan's famous song below and reminded me it could be sung for our times.  Loved Dylan's song in the 1960's but change did not happen as we suspected then. Fortuitous for our time now? I surely HOPE so. It speaks to the Black Lives Matter movement and all those in the millions who support it and other efforts to perfect humanitarian change.  I pray that it will change our tortuous reality and blast into oblivion the cancer that is Trump and all those who enable this cancer to spread.

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RD90WD_ats6eE&v=90WD_ats6eE&feature=emb_rel_end&fbclid=IwAR2OoFbw3XJEwCmiDuOfAoUN8VTQUlY9RG3Yr4ppaaldqp4f-BJL9k_PVU4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEFUND, DISMANTLE, ABOLISH ARE BAD WORDS.

DEFUND, DISMANTLE, ABOLISH ARE BAD WORDS. THEY PLAY RIGHT INTO TRUMP'S HANDS. MANY WILL THINK THEY ARE FOR ERADICATING THE POLICE AND WILL CLING TO TRUMP AS A SAVIOR. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO, DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN! 

PROTESTORS HAVE A VALID ANGER BUT THEY SHOULD USE THE MORE NEUTRAL WORD OF REFORM. DO NOT ALIENATE TRUMP'S BASE ANY MORE THAN THEY ALREADY ARE SO THEY WILL COME OUT ENMASSE TO SUPPORT HIM AND WORSE ALIENATE OTHERS WHO MIGHT SUPPORT A DEMOCRAT BUT SIT IN TRUMP'S LAP BECAUSE THEY ARE SCARED NOT TO. 

DEMOCRATS WILL BE STEPPING AS USUAL ON THEIR OWN FOOT. SAY WHAT IS POSSIBLE THEN DO WHAT IS NECESSARY.

REFORM IS A BETTER WORD

"In Veto-Proof Majority, Minneapolis City Council Says It Will Dismantle Police Department"

I am a strong Democrat, progressive and always will be. Dismantling the police sounds like eradication of it. There will always be murders, rapists and thieves. To dismantle the police and invest in community led public safety seems arduous if not a pipedream. The left of which I am a part needs to deal with realities. There is violent crime among us.  Let's take what we have in the police departments, get rid of bad apples, make certain actions like chokeholds are forbidden, make the police departments transparent and make them responsible for their illegal and immoral actions!

Dismantling police departments needs a definition of just what "dismantling" means.  If it means reform I can agree with that.  Reform must be done with precision, care and discretion. To say dismantle without any assurance that it will be put back together in some better form simply scares many into opposing the needed changes.  Dismantle is not a good word to use, reform is a better one.

8 Minutes and 46 seconds -- A Memorial to George Floyd

I stood in my living room, too, as Reverend Al Sharpton asked the congregation to stand in memory of George Floyd.  It was the amount of time, 8 minutes and 46 seconds, it took for George Floyd to die at the hands of the Minneapolis police officers for the sin of allegedly passing a counterfeit 20 dollar bill he, perhaps, never knew was counterfeit.  The American people never got to find out if he knew it was counterfeit or not.  Even if he did know was his life worth merely a 20 dollar bill, for the amount of time it took Officer Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, to give a death press with his knee on the neck of George Floyd, a person of color?  As a metaphor to George Floyd it was an excruciating 8 minutes and 46 seconds but an effective way to memorialize him.  He suffered of that we can be sure.  Derek Chauvin, after 7 days of continuous massive protest of his unjust actions, was finally charged with murder 2 that charge to the previous counts of third-degree murder and manslaughter filed against Chauvin along with three other Minneapolis officers who assisted in the take down. The other three officers at the scene, are charged with unintentional aiding and abetting second-degree murder as well as aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

I am not writing this to give a summary of the fatal police action but to say George Floyd probably knew he was going to die because he said could not breathe but never knew he would stand with with so many others in the 400 year eternity retelling the sad saga of crimes against the humanity of black people in this allegedly Constitutional republic.  He will stand with other persons of color who were killed in an unjust manner.  The situations are different but the victims are all persons of color killed by white cops before they ever got the chance to tell their story.  George Floyd will stand with Eric Garner, he will stand with Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Ahmed Arbury, Breonna Taylor, an EMT (Louisville police officers forced their way inside her apartment and "blindly fired" killing her.)  There are, of course, many other shoes in which George Floyd walked and many more stories to tell.

There are others with whom George Floyd will stand.  He will also stand in the annals of black history with Emmet Till, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, as few examples of many.  I think this will be so because if there was ever a longer period of protest in a pandemic yet and a more massive period of mourning for a more relatable person to so many I do not know of it.  The marches crossed racial lines.  It has been 8 days of marches, across fifty states, an infinite amount of speeches, and 24/7 news coverage.  It goes on and on and rightfully so.  Persons of color in this 450 year national saga have endured the humiliation of slavery, the humiliation of the Jim Crow south, the fury of voter suppression and infinite accounts of police brutality for what crime?  The crime of being black and unlucky in this nation of historical racist pathology.  If I could have met George Floyd at the pearly gates I would tell him how much his life meant.  There may even be a final answer or at least some answer to the never ending question of when will it stop? 

Moreover, the so called "president" of this nation without a doubt the most corrupt, evil, racist, villain who insultingly said blacks just love him when 83% of them say they would not vote for the disgusting slug, besmirching the oval office is an insult to so many Americans.  Nothing touches Trump not even the COVID-19 virus to which he allegedly was exposed and did not act against it in time to stop 104,100 deaths or to soften its blow.  George Floyd along with COVID-19 just may have succeeded in finally stopping the creature from the bottom of the sea from taking the last great hope for democracy down.  I surely hope so.

To the Floyd family I extend my heart felt condolences and hope they know in their hearts the heights to which their son, brother, and father soared.  To the marchers I say keep on marching staying always vigilant that neither a police department nor a corrupt president will ever be placed in positions of huge power where they can take down everything and everyone for which this nation has stood for nearly 250 years.  May George Floyd rest in peace!

The fire this time: In America where some breathe free, others can't breathe at all -- BRILLIANT ARTICLE BY YVONNE ABRAHAM

The article entitled above published in today's Sunday Globe by Yvonne Abraham is brilliant (linked below).  It is one of the best articles on this subject and on our national tragedy I think I have ever read.  I am sending this to my political allies on the humane empathetic part of the political spectrum and sending it to some others who may not be.

I know great writing when I read it and this is great.  She captured it all.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/30/metro/an-america-where-some-breathe-free-some-cant-breathe-all/

Michelle Obama: ‘I’m Exhausted By A Heartbreak That Never Seems To Stop’-- I answer Me Too

Michelle Obama says: "I’m Exhausted By A Heartbreak That Never Seems To Stop"  I answer her and say me too, Michelle, me too. I had so much hope for this nation. Barack Obama gave me so much hope. Now, it is a never ending slaughter of the truth and all that is good, just and kind in this nation. Trump, has shattered this country, divided it to plunder its billions from a taxpayer who supports him, knows nothing of what he does and worse does not care.

Over 400 years African Americans have endured the worst crushing of both body and spirit but over centuries they just kept on going and did not give up even when giving up seemed the only way out of the madness.

When I throw up my hands and want to quit because I cannot take the massive injustice anymore I stop myself and say the fight for justice, truth and fair play must go on no matter how difficult no matter how hard and no matter how many generations it spans. We must hope that one day the forces of good and right will defeat the forces of hate and evil. We must keep on going as the last great hope for democracy on earth must prevail!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michelle-obama-george-floyd-racism_n_5ed1ff98c5b66f36cc350be3

Police Power

Police power does not mean taking a non violent man down, accusing him of a non violent crime, handcuffing him, placing your heavy knee on his neck until he suffocates to death.  Police power should mean defusing the matter taking into account that the man is accused of a non violent crime and unarmed to boot.  Police power means using the power that has been entrusted to you to equitably dispense justice no matter the race or the cultural reality of the alleged perpetrator.  Police power means arresting a person as non violently as possible and if probable cause tried, found guilty and then sentenced by a jury of his/her piers. 

The Minneapolis police did none of of those things but became judge, jury and executioner stepping and crushing a person's right to a fair trial with zero empathy, compassion and because the officers simply did not care enough to stop.

The upending of democracy

The Jewish Democratic Council of America stated "Yesterday, President Trump used Nazi terminology to praise Henry Ford, a known anti-Semite who was awarded the Nazi Party’s Grand Cross of the German Eagle in 1933. Speaking before a group of Ford employees, Trump started his remarks by praising Ford’s “good bloodlines. "This language was used by Hitler to target Jews in the Holocaust. Since then, the theory of “bloodlines” or eugenics, has been used by white nationalists to legitimize anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of bigotry and hatred.  Given his ongoing emboldening of anti-Semitism and white nationalism, we are deeply concerned, but not surprised, that President Trump chose to invoke a Nazi theory to praise an anti-Semite. In response to his vile and dangerous words, we have some words of our own – enough." 

A film of interest is an HBO production entitled "The Plot Against America" as described in the following synopsis: "Characters live in an alternative history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt was defeated in the U.S. presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh."  It is a film of fiction but presents a narrative that easily could have happened in Depression era America of the 1930's.  The name of Henry Ford, well known in antisemitic circles and by historians of that era and our present one, is included in this too-close-for-comfort work of fiction. It is also very much about the Jewish experience in America during that period. It should chill you as it did me for its eerie similarity to the right wing extremist Trump era of our time.  It can happen here.

A "Study: White Supremacist Groups Are ‘Thriving’ On Facebook, Despite Extremist Ban""With many Americans vulnerable to fascist ideologies during the pandemic, the study warns, Facebook could be fertile ground for recruitment."

The following is a short -- yes, a short -- list of groups on the fanatical right wing fringe: American Nazis, Proud Boys, Aryan Nations, Atomwaffen Division,  The Daily Stormer,National Socialist German Workers Party (Nebraska), White Aryan Resistance,Church of Jesus Christ Christian, American Confederate Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to name but a few. There are many many more.

"Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or related ideologies. Common aspects of modern-day neo-Nazism include hatred or fear of minorities such as blacks, Hispanics, lesbian, gay, and transgender people, non-white immigrants, and sometimes even Christians, but their main hatred is focused on the Jews." To be on the fringe of right wing extremist thought barely registered a historical look but since Trump these noxious hateful groups receive credibility from him.

Trump has also upended the balance of power our Founders Constitutionally expressed creating a division of power between three coequal branches of government -- the legislative (the Founders placed as the first branch), executive and judicial branches.  The Founders' goal was to have power disbursed through these three coequal branches and not entrenched in an all powerful unitary executive or a king.

I believe the Founders would be horrified to see the dismantling of our democracy by Trump and his allies in Congress as well as his group of steadfast supporters he calls his base to which his extremist views are forwarded.  He has done this through numerous executive orders, the firing of numbers of neutral Inspectors General formed after Watergate to supervise agencies against corruption, he has inordinately claimed executive privilege thereby denying Congress its subpoena power, refused to submit his taxes for congressional review through a 1924 law that gives the House Ways and Means Committee authority to demand returns.  He put in power attorney general William Barr who has become the president's lackey and his own personal advocate in the genus of Roy McCarthy-era Cohn.  He rules through bullying and intimidation of his perceived opposition firing many.  He has even placed a chill on physicians and medical experts dumbing them down, silencing the once excellent Centers for Disease Control in the middle of a pandemic, intimidating virologist experts and denying the truth of science.  Internationally he has insulted allies and threatened to undo a relationship with WHO (World Health Organization) whose valued expertise is so needed to confront the COVID-19 pandemic. He has advocated for a dangerous drug in which his family holds stock. He has threatened to withhold aid from states if they vote by mail which he constitutionally cannot do. There are, of course, many more instances of Trump's subversion of democracy.  

Cruelty and stupidity rule the day in Trump world. Yesterday's extremist clap trap is today's viable occupant in the panoply of ideas.   A lady once asked Benjamin Franklin what type of government the Founders created.  He answered "A republic if you can keep it." Keep it we must.   VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN THE TICKET TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY!

COVID-19, obesity and unhealthful eating habits

An interesting article I read (linked below) presented factors I was not too aware of vis a vie the relationship between obesity and COVID-19. In short it compares obesity from the consumption of unhealthful foods in particular and an unhealthful diet in general which leads to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other preexisting conditions.  Obesity and its related diseases are involved in the preponderance of COVID-19 fatalities as the fatalities from it are directly related to preexisting underlying pathologies.  Deaths from the virus are proportional to a diet saturated with processed foods, high in fat and high in sugar content producing a high inflammatory response. The virus itself, the article states, produces a crushing inflammatory response of its own in the body which is what is so lethal.  Add to it other inflammations and it is a recipe for death. 

In my own life I am a fanatically healthful eater some say to the extreme. Since 1988 I hugely reformed my diet and added exercise to my life. I eat zero sugar, no meat (both for health reasons and because I intensely love animals,) consume only fish, whole grains, plant based protein (quinoa and gardein pronounced gardeen,) beans, legumes, vegetables and many varieties of nuts.  It is now ingrained in my cerebral cortex.  I could not revert back to my former unhealthful eating style life even if I wanted to which I don't!  No I am not perfect.  Stress also contributes to inflammation producing cortisol which, I am told, is as deleterious as saturated fat and these Trumpian times creates lots of that.

The average American diet is utterly disgusting. Obesity is raging and fast foods are consumed like water. In certain areas no surprise like the south there is an epidemic of obesity. Will the ones who brandish AK47's change? Fat chance pardon the pun. I venture to say most are even proud of how many Big Macs they eat. Of course one will find zero help from Washington as our morbidly obese president consumes buckets of fried junk. Washington under the obese Trump will never advocate for a healthy diet and Americans have not and probably generally will not do it themselves.   Ah for the days of Michele Obama.  I am sure first on the destruction bucket list of the the present administration was ripping out the vegetable garden she planted at the White House.  Their mantra: hell no we won't grow.  Sad.  Vote blue in November and save the nation's life as well as our own!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/07/opinion/link-between-coronavirus-deaths-those-french-fries/?p1=AMPArticle_Recirculation&fbclid=IwAR3CF2tJD02HT_KpSUCYvy8vMFkFvJY2jMs0ospfbphDTpJC0QYFdFzOF8g

My letter to President Obama

Read or listen to the Full Transcript of Obama’s H.B.C.U. Commencement Speech

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/16/us/obama-hbcu-speech-transcript.html

My Letter to President Obama:

Dear President Obama: After listening to your HBCU Commencement Speech some tears fell on my keyboard. President Obama, I know I speak for millions when I say we miss you and Michelle ever so much. I can only hope and yes, pray, that your vice president, Joe Biden, takes the mantle and torch from your hands, bypassing this current ever so corrupt administration, and walks into the oval office to sweep out the corruption, malicious and mendacious stain that has been left on its once pristine oval office carpet to bring us into a clean, magnificent and just new era of good feeling never forgetting those who have not, through no fault of their own, been lucky and who have seemingly been forgotten these past four years. They are not forgotten though as our muscle memory you talk about knows this nation can and has been so much better.

We hope to see you on the campaign trail with Joe helping him to convey those values you conveyed during your time at bat! I love you, President Obama, and I know millions upon millions of others both here and abroad love and miss you too!

Acting President Trump Ousts Another Inspector General In Apparent Act Of 'Retaliation'

"President Donald Trump is removing State Department Inspector General Steve Linick from his position in what Rep. Eliot Engel is calling a potential act of “retaliation” for opening an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.The probe involved possible misuse of a political appointee’s time by Pompeo and his wife for personal tasks.

Linick, a Justice Department veteran appointed in 2013, is the latest of a number of watchdogs ejected recently as Trump seeks to purge anyone from the government he believes has not been loyal to him. Ambassador Stephen Akard, a State Department appointee who worked for Vice President Mike Pence when he was governor of Indiana, has been tapped as Linick’s interim replacement. Akard was Pence’s chief of staff for the Indiana Economic Development Corp. A State Department representative told Politico that Akard, a former foreign service officer, “will now lead the Office of the Inspector General at the State Department” in an “acting” role.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) called the “Friday night attack” by Trump “shameful.” He added in a tweet: “At this point, the President’s paralyzing fear of any oversight is undeniable.” Shaub accused Trump of “tearing down the fabric of our republic” with his vendetta against inspectors general. He pointed out that the law requiring Trump to give Congress 30 days notice of Linick’s removal gives lawmakers time to fight his decision.

Just weeks ago Trump removed Christi Grimm as principal deputy inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services after her office criticized his administration’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Last month, Trump booted intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who forwarded the whistleblower complaint that led to the president’s impeachment.

Trump also forced out acting Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine, who had been chosen as chairman of the federal panel Congress created to oversee management of the government’s $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package." SHAMEFUL -- OUR DEMOCRACY IS ON LIFE SUPPORT. VOTE BLUE IN NOVEMBER TO GIVE IT A VENTILATOR AND SAVE ITS LIFE!!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-linick-inspector-general-out-state-department_n_5ebf4e05c5b6aa71af11aae6

Art Of The Deal’ Co-Author Spells Out Why Coronavirus Deaths ‘Don’t Matter’ To Trump “The deaths, I know this is extreme, the deaths don’t matter to him,” Tony Schwartz told MSNBC’s Ari Melber.

Tony Schwartz who ghost wrote "The Art of the Deal" and knows Trump well says the answer is Trump does not care about those he condemns to death, has no conscience and cares only about winning. It is why Corona deaths ticking upward around the country and will do more so as people are prodded in a frenzy by Trump go back to work.  Many will not adhere to CDC guidelines by wearing a mask, keeping distance mandates, washing hands and many other requirements for staying safe in a pandemic.  Those deaths in nursing homes and otherwise do not matter to him. The stock market and the economy matter to Trump more even though if the deaths from Corona increase the economy will sink. One is inversely proportional to the other.  If it comes to saving himself or saving others there is no doubt that he will save himself. What a sickening choice for a president who lords over life and death matters and whose policies dictate it. The entirety of Trump makes sense when you think of it like that. The nation and all of us are doomed if we keep him in office.

This explains to me why I loathe this unconscionable man so much.  I am the opposite of him.  It explains my politics as well.  I care about what happens to people especially for those who were not born lucky.  It is one thing to want to survive as most people want that but it is quite another thing if you are in a position of power and the decisions you make spell life or death to others. 

It is why the humanitarian aspects of Christianity appeal to me.  Matthew 25:40 "Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’" Too bad Trump who calls himself a Christian does not know the first thing about it, never asks for forgiveness and cannot answer any questions about the faith or any other faith for that matter.  He is ignorant.  He knows only how to use religion to solidify his power.  Many in his base swallow it and succumb to the con.  If he needed to believe in the tooth fairy to gain power he would.  Nothing matters to Trump except Trump. 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tony-schwartz-donald-trump-coronavirus_n_5ebf85dfc5b64d3dbf40ee28

DR. RICHARD BRIGHT'S WHISTLE BLOWER TESTIMONY A FATAL BLOW

DR. RICHARD BRIGHT'S TESTIMONY TODAY WAS DEVASTATING TO THE INEPT ALMOST CRIMINAL INACTION OF THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. I URGE EVERYONE TO REVIEW HIS TESTIMONY IF YOU CAN. IT WAS, IN MY OPINION, A FATAL BLOW TO A DASTARDLY SICKENING POLITICAL ENTERPRISE OF THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AS THEY DISCOUNT SCIENCE AND RATIONAL THINKING IN FAVOR OF CRONY CAPITALISM AND CONSPIRATORIAL MENDACIOUS FICTION MAKING SURE THEIR FRIENDS PROFIT FROM THE COVID-19 VIRUS WHILE DENYING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE EFFECTIVE TREATMENT TO SAVE LIVES. 

Coronavirus Testimony: Whistleblower Dr. Richard Bright Says Administration Has No Pandemic Strategy

https://www.ibtimes.com/coronavirus-testimony-whistleblower-dr-richard-bright-says-administration-has-no-2976315

Judge in Flynn case takes unusual step of allowing 3rd party briefs Sullivan's order signals his interest in hearing from parties outside the Justice Department and Flynn’s attorneys before making a decision in the case.

It ain't over til it's over! 

 

Judge in Flynn case takes unusual step of allowing 3rd party briefs

Sullivan's order signals his interest in hearing from parties outside the Justice Department and Flynn’s attorneys before making a decision in the case.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-flynn-case-takes-unusual-step-allowing-3rd-party-briefs-n1205811

WHISTLE BLOWER BRIGHT's COMPLAINT COULD PROVE THAT TRUMP FAILED MISERABLY TO ACT ON THE CORONA VIRUS -- + opening too soon hazard!

It's long but revelatory and lives are at stake as putting people back to work too soon shows the disease increasing:
Whistle-blower ties interagency hostility to pandemic response - 

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Sharon LaFraniere, Michael D. Shear, and and Ben Protess, New York Times

WASHINGTON — The call in early February from the White House Situation Room came as a surprise to Rick Bright: Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, wanted him to come present his ideas for fighting the coronavirus, alone. 

Bright, whose tiny federal research agency was pursuing a coronavirus vaccine, had long been at odds with his boss at the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Kadlec. His White House visits, twice in a single weekend, only exacerbated those tensions. “Weekend at Peter’s,’’ Kadlec quipped in the subject line of an e-mail that expressed his displeasure. 

The hostility between these two key officials in the government’s response to a pandemic that has claimed more than 80,000 American lives and counting burst into public view  when Bright — who was abruptly dismissed last month as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority — filed a formal whistleblower complaint. 

The document accuses Kadlec and other top administration officials of corruption, “cronyism,’’ and putting politics ahead of science. Whether the charges are ultimately proven, the 89-page complaint along with other documents and interviews expose troubling infighting at the Health and Human Services Department, the sprawling agency that includes BARDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and other arms of government, as officials there struggled to combat the worst public health crisis in a century. 

“BARDA is the front edge of the global response, in terms of organizing the financing, laying down the bets on what’s coming forward as the options on vaccines and therapies,’’ said J. Stephen Morrison, a global health expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that the infighting had consequences. “They need to move with incredible skill and judgment and speed.’’
The infighting extends beyond Bright and Kadlec. Fierce battles have erupted between Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, and Seema Verma, the Medicare and Medicaid administrator. 

Azar has also clashed with a senior White House policymaker, Joe Grogan. But the consequences of such clashes were brought to life by Bright’s complaint. 

E-mail messages show that, as early as January, when Trump was saying the outbreak was “totally under control,’’ Bright was pressing for the government to stock up on masks and drugs and to commence a “Manhattan Project’’ effort to develop a vaccine. 

But Bright was largely sidelined by personal disputes with Kadlec and his aides, some of which long predated the coronavirus, the documents suggest. By the time the pandemic arrived in force, the relationship between them had become toxic, with Bright increasingly left out of key decisions. His ideas about battling the threat “were met with skepticism,’’ the complaint says, “and were clearly not welcome.’’


On Friday, lawyers for Bright said the federal watchdog agency handling his complaint, the Office of Special Counsel, had notified them that it had found “reasonable grounds’’ to believe he was retaliated against and was seeking his reinstatement while it investigated. 

Azar must now decide whether to reinstate Bright. An HHS spokeswoman, Caitlin Oakley, declined to comment on a “personnel matter.’’ But, she said, the agency “strongly disagrees with the allegations and characterizations in the complaint from Bright.’’ 

With a $1.6 billion annual budget, BARDA was created in the aftermath of the Sept, 11, 2001, attacks to partner with industry to develop drugs, vaccines, and other “medical countermeasures’’ that could be stockpiled to combat a bioterror attack or pandemic threat. Bright had been in charge for less than a year when Kadlec was confirmed by the Senate as assistant secretary for preparedness and response in 2017. 

The two men came from different worlds. Kadlec spent 20 years in the Air Force and helped write the legislation that created BARDA. He advised President George W. Bush on biodefense. Bright, who grew up poor in small-town Kansas, began his career at the CDC. An influenza expert, he considered a pandemic to be the nation’s biggest threat. 

Bright’s allies say he was viewed with suspicion in the Trump administration as an “Obama holdover.’’ One of his earliest clashes with Kadlec centered on a long-running contract BARDA had with a small biotechnology company that Bright believed was tied to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. 

The company, Aeolus Pharmaceuticals, was developing a drug to treat the effects of radiation from a potential nuclear attack when BARDA employees decided not to extend the contract in early 2017. John McManus, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview that the decision was based on a deeply flawed process, and appealed it directly to Bright. 

In August 2017, Bright’s complaint says, John Clerici, a consultant and Aeolus board member who is close to Kadlec, pleaded the company’s case to Bright over coffee and emphasized that McManus was “friends with Jared’’ and “has Hollywood connections.’’ 

McManus said he does not know Kushner or anyone in his family, and he disputed nearly all of Bright’s claims about Aeolus. Clerici said the “conversation never happened.’’ 

A review of corporate, political, and nonprofit records shows only a distant and indirect connection between Aeolus and the Kushner family. Some of Kushner’s relatives have donated to National Jewish Health, a hospital that co-owned several patents licensed by Aeolus, and Kushner’s father and sister sit on the hospital’s council of national trustees. Bright, though, said “the political pressure’’ from Kadlec and his underlings “became undeniable,’’ and “had no place in a system designed to award funding based on scientific merit.’’ In the end, he stood by BARDA’s decision to not extend the contact with Aeolus. The company folded within months. McManus lost his job. 

In the fall of 2019, with Aeolus bankrupt, McManus landed at Partner Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based company represented by Clerici that also appears in Bright’s complaint.
 
Bright said that in September 2019, before McManus arrived, Kadlec handed out a $55 million, no-bid contract to the company (Partner Therapeutics) to prevent it from going out of business. Partner Therapeutics, with 200 employees, produces and sells one drug, Leukine, that can be used to treat excessive exposure to radiation. 

In 2018, the federal government decided to buy more anti-radiation drugs for the Strategic National Stockpile. Bright’s division, following the recommendation of a panel of experts, had chosen California pharmaceutical giant Amgen, which produces two similar drugs. 

Bright was so alarmed about what he claimed were “inappropriate and possibly illegal communications’’ between Clerici, Kadlec, and other HHS officials, the complaint says, that he called for an inspector general to “inspect their phone records.’’ After that, he says, he was cut out of meetings about the contract. 

There is no evidence that an inspector general investigation was ever conducted and allies of Kadlec say he did some things Bright wanted, including putting the contracting team under BARDA’s jurisdiction. But the request for the investigation added to the bitterness between them. 

Eventually, Kadlec overruled him, Bright says, and awarded the sole-source contract to Partner Therapeutics, “on the basis of industrial mobilization’’ — the interest of the federal government to keep more than one supplier of an important type of drug in business.

The consequences of a pandemic response of opening up too soon:
Meanwhile these countries either defied it or opened up too soon, causing outbreaks, and that's what could happen here. Belarus, which has not locked down despite increasing case numbers, saw tens of thousands of people turn out to mark Victory Day, the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in 1945. That was in contrast to Russia, which skipped the usual grand military parade in Red Square. Worldwide, 4 million people have been confirmed infected by the virus, and more than 275,000 have died, including over 78,000 in the United States, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. ...Seoul shut down nightclubs, hostess bars, and discos after dozens of infections were linked to people who went out last weekend as the country relaxed its social-distancing guidelines. Many of the infections were connected to a 29-year-old man who visited three nightclubs before testing positive. Mayor Park Won-soon said health workers were trying to contact some 1,940 people who had been at the three clubs and other places nearby. The mayor said gains made against the virus are now threatened “because of a few careless people.’’ Health officials in Germany faced outbreaks at three slaughterhouses in what was seen as a test of the government’s strategy for dealing with any resurgence of the virus during the easing of the restrictions. At one slaughterhouse, in Coesfeld, 180 workers tested positive.