Law, Power, and Justice

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  • “it was not the outcome we had anticipated”: afghanistan

    During the past few weeks the corporate news media has been studiously ignoring the disastrous military and humanitarian crisis shaping up in Afghanistan.  They have been doing so, I think, because the crisis makes Biden look feckless, ruthless, and incompetent. 

    For so long, there was almost nothing on the corporate news, but every day it was possible to read about astonishing advances by the Taliban.  Every day estimates of how much of Afghanistan was controlled by the Taliban increased, and estimates of how long it would be until the Taliban took over Kabul decreased.

    I am no foreign policy expert, but even I could see that the Biden withdrawal of forces in Afghanistan was accelerating a Taliban takeover of the country.

    The negotiated “peace plan” was non-existent.  I never understood what was being “negotiated” with the Taliban in the first place either by the Trump or the Biden administration.  One reporter late this week said that the “negotiated” peace process was not only on hold, it was in the basement with the door locked. 

    And who had the bright idea that the Taliban could be negotiated with in the first place?  The group is defined by a suicidal religious refusal to compromise or negotiate with the modern world. 

    Let me be clear, I did not support the invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq but even I acknowledge that once you have invaded and occupied a country you can’t just walk out and leave everyone who has fought with you at the mercy of the enemy.  You cannot just withdraw without considering the implications for the population you are leaving behind.

    But this is precisely what the Biden administration seems to have done.  They either didn’t consider the implications for the population, or they didn’t care.  I’m not sure which is worse.

    Reports today (Friday) are that members of the Biden administration knew that this disaster was coming.  The Joint Chiefs warned them.  But the Biden administration decided that the disaster was inevitable (although they have denied this reality).  One official was quoted by Peter Baker as saying: It’s a tragedy, but it’s not our tragedy.  Who would say something this crass and unfeeling? There is not even much of a pretense of having any empathy with the abandoned population.

    And in an effort to make the chaotic, precipitous, and disastrous withdrawal look better, the Biden administration has blamed everyone in sight – except themselves.

    Evidently, the defense department that costs us trillions every fifteen minutes, just couldn’t manage to plan a withdrawal from a country they had occupied that didn’t create a humanitarian crisis.  How can that be?

    Gen. John Kirby, in a painful press conference today, said the Afghanis had every conceivable advantage in the war.  A reporter asked Kirby how the Afghanis could have every conceivable advantage and still be losing.  Kirby balked at the rudeness of the question, then evaded answering it.  He went on to list all the advantages the Afghanis had (airplanes, an air force, more soldiers, etc.).  So, according to Kirby, the Afghanis have all these advantages and it’s just a great fucking mystery why they are losing.

    The people of this country are told repeatedly that we have the greatest military in the history of the world, but that military just can’t figure out how after twenty years of supplying and training and fighting, to get the Afghanis in a position to hold their own against the opposing force. 

    Earlier this week I listened to a podcast where the panel was pointing out that supply lines were a problem in Afghanistan.  Supply lines?  Twenty years and they haven’t figured out how to secure supply lines?  Even my cat knows not to go further away from the door than he can safely run back should there be a threat.  And they can’t figure out secure supply lines?  I just find this preposterous.  What the bleeding devil have they been doing for twenty years?

    A lot of the feedback on Twitter consists of people arguing that the very fact that we have been in Afghanistan for twenty years legitimates the withdrawal. But, nobody is objecting to the withdrawal, it’s the way the withdrawal is carried out. 

    As Paul Riekhoff said on Nicolle Wallace’s show the other night, this was a “reckless” withdrawal.  Riekhoff’s honesty about the situation made me wonder if the producers on MSNBC knew what he was going to say. (The next night I don’t think Wallace even talked about Afghanistan). Riekhoff lambasted the Biden administration’s withdrawal.  And Riekhoff, like Kevin Baron from Defense One, stated flatly that the administration was not “leveling” with the American people. 

    The refusal to “level” was painfully obvious in the Pentagon presser this afternoon with Gen. John Kirby.  Kirby couldn’t even bullshit with any talent the obfuscation was so blatant.  Kirby stood at the podium and spewed nonsense.  He looked like a man experiencing a severe attack of piles as he fielded questions from reporters. 

    He was fine with questions like that from MSNBC’s Pentagon correspondent.  After a day when every conceivable TV pundit repeated like a parrot: “The administration was not surprised with what happened but at the speed with which it happened” she asked if the administration was surprised at the speed with which the take over had happened.  Seriously?   

    Another reporter doggedly tried to get Kirby to say that Kabul was “isolated.”  “Would you say Kabul was isolated?”  He asked repeatedly.  Kirby verbally danced all over the universe refusing to say that Kabul was “isolated.”  We all fucking know that Kabul is “isolated.”  What is the purpose of a journalist taking up valuable time trying to get Kirby to say the word?  Kirby said everything under the sun else except that Kabul was “isolated.”  What goddamn difference does it make if he uses the word?

    I don’t think I have seen such a blatantly pathetic Pentagon press conference since Vietnam, and even then the brass talked the bullshit with some panache.  Kirby just seemed to be desperate to finish, desperately uncomfortable, resentful of meaningful questions.  John Kirby is a bad liar and bullshitter. If they are going to try to pass off this level of (do you believe me or your lying eyes) bullshit, they need to get another spokesperson.

    And, it seems that we should have learned (with the best military in the history of the world) that the solution to a badly thought-out war is not (or should not be) a badly thought-out withdrawal.  Evidently not.

    But the thing that keeps sticking in my craw and going through my mind for the past few days is why?  How could the Biden administration be so inept as to create this situation?  Who was this precipitous withdrawal designed to please?  I just can’t think of anybody placated or pleased with this hair-brained withdrawal.  Why, after breezing through the deadline in May that the Trump administration had set, did Biden rush headlong into this withdrawal that seems so badly planned.

    I will give just one example.  On another podcast about Afghanistan the commentators were pointing out that the Taliban ratchets up fighting in the Spring and then makes a big push over the summer.  Then, I suppose because of the weather, they retreat to bases in Pakistan in the fall and fighting dies down.  The panel members were pointing out that if Biden had just waited over the summer and pulled out most of the troops in the fall, it would have helped immensely.  So, what was the problem with that small change?

    And there another thing that keeps going through my mind.  This is in response to a comment made on the Majority Report (a great podcast).  The guest was saying that there are many competing factions represented within the Biden administration – progressives (damn few), conservatives, moderates, hawks.  When some policy or appointment comes up that sparks strong opposition among these groups, they fight it out vociferously.  Fine. But when all this fighting and debate occurs, when positions are entrenched, Biden evidently does not step in and make a decision so everybody can go on.  Biden refuses to take make a decision that might alienate somebody and so everybody retreats to their respective corners.  The result is that nothing gets done.  The example that was being talked about was an appointment that had remained vacant for months.

    I can’t keep from wondering if something like that happened here.  There was such strong disagreement about what to do, everybody was fighting and pushing and Biden just walked away (sort of like he’s doing in Afghanistan) and nothing got done. The withdrawal just ticked on without Biden taking control.  It was easier to do nothing than to make a decision.  Now, the administration is facing not only a humanitarian crisis, but a political disaster.

    I have watched Fox News, OANN, and that other channel of Steve Bannon’s in the past two days.  You can bet they are making hay over this situation.  And, to my great discomfort and consternation, I agree with some of the commentary. 

    A final thing that makes me uncomfortable about this situation is how similar it is to the way Democrats are handling the serious threat Republicans pose to the continuation of democracy. 

    Democrats are so engorged with hubris, so convinced that the world is the way they want it to be, they are leading us into disaster at every turn.

    I fear that they are going to do with Republicans exactly what they are doing with the Taliban – negotiate without reason, rely on the good intentions of murderous men determined to assume power at all costs and then when these men pull off a religious based authoritarian take over, wring their hands and say it was not the outcome they had anticipated.  

  • afghanistan: officials are shocked, shocked at the taliban take over of afghanistan

    This is an excellent podcast episode on the current situation in Afghanistan.

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/afghanistan-u-s-troop-debacle-with-elliot-ackerman/id1333621434?i=1000531861023

  • opinion: charles blow, voting rights and biden

    It is a sad comment on the state of our politics that Charles Blow feels the necessity to apologize for a mild, but crucial criticism of the Biden Administration.

  • it’s not the job of the government to protect people. It’s the job of the government to make money for people (our people): FDA and aduhelm

    A day after a Fox News anchor, Brian Kilmeade, argued that it was not the job of the government to protect people, the NYT is reporting that the FDA approved the use of a drug, Aducanumab, manufactured by Biogen when there was no conclusive evidence that the drug was effective in treating Alzheimer’s.

    As is noted in the Times, officials from Biogen worked closely with the FDA during the application process to “…jointly assess the data and chart a path forward.” They also participated in a “joint Biogen-FDA presentation to a committee of independent experts.”

    It took a consumer advocacy group filing a complaint and demanding an inspector’s general investigation of the “collaboration” to initiate an internal review. 

  • haiti: some of what we know

    NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 25: President of the Republic of Haiti H.E. Jovenel Moise speaks onstage during the 2018 Concordia Annual Summit – Day 2 at Grand Hyatt New York on September 25, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)

    The corporate media no longer finds it necessary to cover international stories.  We are treated to video after video of Biden boarding a plane to go somewhere, but the assassination of the President of Haiti is barely mentioned.

    The assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moise, was barely covered last week. 

    From what I have read, this is some of what we know.

    During an attack early in the morning of July 7, President Jovenel Moise, was killed and his wife wounded in their private residence on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.  The wife was flown to Miami.

    The attack has been described by the NYT as “well-planned.”  And there were reports that many of the attackers were foreigners who spoke Spanish. 

    A great many questions are left unanswered about how Moise, President of the country, who usually traveled with more than a dozen armored cars and police guards could be so easily targeted.

    The NYT reports that Moise had over 100 officers from the presidential guard around his home.  Nevertheless, Moise was found lying on the floor at the foot of his bed “bathed in blood.”

    There were 12 bullet holes visible in the body according to a Haitian Justice of the Peace, Carl Henry Destin, who was on the scene.

    The house had been ransacked.  The servants had been tied up.

    There are two Americans among the 20 people who have been detained so far.  They were described as Florida residents of Haitian descent.  Other members of the hit squad were described as Colombians.  Mr. Edmond described the men as “well-trained professionals, killers, commandos.”

    The Americans told authorities that they were merely translators and had not been in the room where Moise was killed. 

    Clement Noel, a judge involved in the investigation said that the two Americans had met with other members of the hit squad at a suburban hotel to plan the attack.  They said that the attack had been planned over the course of a month.  The two American men maintained that the goal was not to kill Moise (the body had 12 gunshot wounds), but to bring him to the national palace.

    It has not been reported when the American men entered Haiti, or what connection they had with the other hit men before the assassination. 

    Judge Noel said that it was one of the Americas Solages who can be heard on audio of the attack, yelling out that the attackers were DEA agents.  Solages had previously worked as a security guard at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti and there had been no evidence reported that indicates there was any DEA connection.  Why this particular claim was made aloud at the beginning of the attack is not known.

    Haiti’s interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, put the country under martial law after the assassination.  It is not clear whether he has the legal authority to do so.  In fact, most of what is going on in Haiti at the moment is of dubious legal basis. 

    Days before his death, Moise, had appointed a new prime minister, Ariel Henry.  Henry says he should be in charge of the government.

    There is no clear designation of authority in the executive branch and there is no functioning Parliament in Haiti.  There are only 10 sitting senators out of 30.  The terms of the other 20 have expired.  The entire lower house is no longer sitting because their terms expired last year.  The head of the Supreme Court died of Covid.

    Haitian government officials told the NYT that they had asked the U.S. to provide troops to protect infrastructure. 

    According to a BBC podcast (7/7/21), Moise had become increasingly autocratic during his tenure as president.  He was pushing through a referendum which would have changed the constitution so he would stay in power longer. 

    Notes:

    • The former Prime Minister is Laurent Lamothe.
    • Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S. Bocchit Edmond.
    • Claude Joseph is Haiti’s interim prime minister.
    • The two American men were identified as Joseph Vincent and James J. Solages.
    • Former President, Michael Martelly, left office in an electoral crisis in 2016.  He was able to use his political power, however, to see his supporter, Moise, elevated to the presidency.  Protestors were in the streets demanding Martelly’s ouster in 2016.  He left office formally giving presidential power to the leader of the National Assembly.
    • Martelly (like Moise) was criticized for not holding elections during his years.  Martelly was accused of surrounding himself with “cronies, some of them criminals.” NYT (2016)
    • When Martelly was elected, the process was said by critics to be riddled with fraud.
    • Former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was ousted in 1986.

    Sources:

    Global News Podcast.  BBC. (7/7/21)

    New York Times (7/8/21)

    Reading:

    New York Times (2016)

  • the buzz of white privilege: ahmaud arbery

    AHMAUD ARBERY

    BLOG #3

    On a Sunday afternoon, February 23, 2020, a retired police investigator, Greg McMichael, 64, sees a young black man, Ahmaud Arbery, 25, jogging down the street past McMichael’s house. As it has been described, McMichael goes on “high alert.”  He calls out to his son Travis McMichael who also lives in the neighborhood, grabs his 357 Magnum and runs to his white pick up truck.  Travis McMichael grabs a 12-gage shotgun and jumps into the driver’s seat. 

    Arbery is jogging down the street with no cell phone, no weapon, wearing jogging clothes.

    The two men, the McMichaels, later claimed that they were on high alert because they recognized the young man.  They (with amazing rapidity) formed a self-appointed posse to hunt the young man down.

    Ahmaud Arbery was a jogger.  He had jogged in the Satilla Shores neighborhood before.  In fact, this was part of the reason the two men (joined by another) pursued him.  The McMichaels claimed that Arbery had been observed on video tape, entering a house in the area which was under construction.

    The owner of the house under construction had set up the video equipment and had also viewed the tapes.  Nothing he saw on the tapes alarmed him.  There was a curious white couple who entered the house, a group of white young people who carted off  pieces of wood.  Arbery has also been filmed wandering around the house and leaving without disturbing anything.  The owner didn’t call 911.  He didn’t even notify the authorities.

    But, evidently, there was a buzz in the neighborhood about trespassers.  I would be willing to bet my bottom dollar this buzz wasn’t about the white couple, or the white kids who stole from the site.  It was about a young black man daring to act like any number of other people fulfilling their curiosity about the new construction. 

    This is the kind of “buzz” that leads to two white men arming themselves in a matter of minutes and hunting down a young black man on the street.  This is the kind of “buzz” that gins up hyper vigilance for men who see themselves as protectors of white privilege.  It makes them feel special, like heros, like warriors.  They love it.

    And, they thought they were perfectly justified in arming themselves, jumping into a truck and pursuing another human being, cutting off his escape and murdering him in the street.

  • ahmaud arbery: No arrests, no charges, no local media coverage

    The date for the trial of the three men who hunted down Ahmaud Arbery and shot him in the street is October 18, 2021 in the Glynn County Courthouse, Brunswick, Georgia.

    For almost three months after Arbery was shot and killed, there were no arrests, no charges brought and almost no local press coverage.  But, one of the men who joined the chase of Arbery as Arbery jogged through a Brunswick, Georgia neighborhood, filmed the chase and the shooting.  When the video went viral, media attention was attracted to the case.  When the GBI took the investigation out of the hands of local officials, charges were brought in days.

    The local prosecutor had recused herself from the case almost immediately because one of the men, Gregory McMichaels, had been a police investigator with her office.  She contacted another local prosecutor, and asked him to give advise the police department about the case. 

    Waycross DA, George E. Barnhill advised the Glynn County Police Department that the three men appeared to have been acting in self defense. 

    The local prosecutor, Jackie Johnson, requested a new prosecutor.  She contacted the state Attorney General who assigned the case to Barnhill.  But, Barnhill’s son, George F. Barnhill, worked as an attorney in the Brunswick DA’s office and the family of Ahmaud Arbery objected to the elder Barnhill’s appointment.  The younger Barnhill had worked with Gregory McMichaels on a case against Ahmaud Arbery years before.

    Georgia Attorney General, Chris Carr, then assigned case to Tom Durden, Atlantic Judicial Circuit in Hinesville.  He announced plans in early May to ask a grand jury to consider criminal charges.

    Carr made a statement last year that the elder Barnhill did not mention potential conflicts when he was asked to take over the case, nor that he had already offered the police department an “initial opinion.”

    The case was later transferred to the Cobb County DA.  That is where it remains.

    The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported in June of 2021 that a grand jury had been convened to investigate the actions of DA Jackie Johnson in the Ahmaud Arbery case.

  • essential podasts: ahmaud arbery. “I just need to know what he was doing wrong.”

    https://www.wabe.org/shows/buried-truths/

    On a Sunday afternoon, February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery jogged through a neighborhood in Glynn County, Georgia.  He had jogged in the neighborhood before.

    But, this jog ended with a retired police investigator and his son, Greg and Travis McMichaels, jumping into their pick up truck and pursuing Arbery.  They shot Arbery in the street and killed him.

    For nearly three months, the police, prosecutors, and press DID NOTHING.  Only when a video of the killing surfaced on social media was national attention focused on the case and the total lack of action about the murder. 

    Another man in the Satilla shores neighborhood phoned 911 about Arbery jogging.  After a few seconds, the caller said: “He’s running now” referring to Arbery.  The 911 operator asked:    “What is he doing?”  Then, she asked: “I just need to know what he was doing wrong.” 

    Every citizen of this country needs to listen to the podcast about the murder of Ahmaud Arbery based on an investigation conducted by members of Emory University.

    “I just need to know what he was doing wrong.” 

  • ESSENTIAL PODCASTS: CORPORATE MEDIA IS A WASTE OF TIME: A discussion of cults

    JONESTOWN, GUYANA – NOVEMBER 18: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) Dead bodies lie around the compound of the People’s Temple cult November 18, 1978 after the over 900 members of the cult, led by Reverend Jim Jones, died from drinking cyanide-laced Kool Aid; they were victims of the largest mass suicide in modern history. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

    The corporate media has become such a vast wasteland it is impossible to watch. If you just lump together the nightly news on MSNBC alone, it is a collection of celebrity worship, quoting of rap lyrics as if they were great literature, political gossip, endless discussions of things that MIGHT happen on Capital Hill. Added to that are long winging narratives designed to demonstrate that the Republicans are hypocrites (we would have never guessed) and (I’m sure that will stop them). There is also the moaning and hand-wringing about how the Repubicans can be the authoritarians they are. In case you haven’t noticed, a great proportion of the nightly news is also composed of “breaking news” about investigations, or potential investigations. Then, after a few days, these investigations are dropped like hot potatoes and we never hear of them again.

    I could go on for hundreds of words, but…podcasts are the only answer for those of us who are intensely interested in politics and see the corporate news for what it is – a means of “cooling out the mark.” The mark is us.

    Heather Cox Richardson co-hosts a really good podcast covering various interesting subjects. The podcast is called “Now and Then.”

    If you would like to listen to a discussion of the history of cults in the U.S. and the implications for the current cult we see developing, this podcast is really good.

    QAnon, Cults and Cutlery

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/qanon-cults-and-cutlery/id1567665859?i=1000526367018

    Now and Then Homepage

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/now-then/id1567665859

  • “We’ll be back…” Benjamin Netanyahu

  • “We’ll be back…” Benjamin Netanyahu

    For many people, having Netanyahu out of power was a relief.  In fact, there were those who worried that (like Trump) Netanyahu would refuse to relinquish power even though he was defeated in a national election.  But, Netanhahu’s replacement (at least for the time being), Bennett, is not much better.

    According to Sarah Kenzior at Gaslight Nation (an essential podcast):

    • Netanyahu’s replacement, Bennett, is “incredibly dangerous in his own right.”  Naftali Bennett is an ultranationalist, has represented the violent Jewish settlement movement, has bragged openly about killing Arab people, opposes any Palestinian state within Israel, and has recently criticized Netanyahu for not boing violent enough with Gaza. 
    • Bennett is only one leader among the coalition of leaders taking over from Netanyahu, but he is among the most conservative.  His position as Prime Minister is supposed to be temporary and he is supposed to step down after a certain period of time to be replaced by one of the other members of the coalition.

    NPR (6/13/21)

    • The new coalition government is made up of eight parties who have agreed to “hold off on major decisions surrounding controversial issues, like the future of the occupied West Bank.”
    • “Over the last 12 years, he (Netanyahu) has used his time in office to allow the growth of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, frustrated Palestinian aspirations for statehood and aligned Israel with right-wing leaders internationally.”
    • “…the former prime minister also faces corruption charges including bribery, fraud and breach of trust — allegations Netanyahu denies. A trial is already underway.”
    • Bennett is Netanyahu’s former chief of staff.
    • He is to serve two years before handing off to Lapid for the second half of a 4-year term.  Lapid holds more than double the seats of the “centrist” Yesh Atid party led by Bennett, but an agreement was made to allow Bennett to take the first term to “maintain political solidarity.”  I have no idea what that means.
    • This coalition includes a party representing Arab citizens.
    • Netanyahu called the coalition “…the scam of the century.”

    In a speech shortly after handing over power, Netanyahu said: “We’ll be back – and faster than you think.” (NPR)

    Sources

    NPR (6/13/21)

    https://www.npr.org/2021/06/13/1005724415/netanyahu-is-out-naftali-bennett-will-be-installed-as-israels-new-prime-minister

  • Don’t bother, you don’t need to know. After all, it’s uncle joe

    ISRAEL

    The Biden administration is taking on the same elitist “we’ll handle this you don’t need to bother” attitude that characterized the Obama administration.  And, the result will probably be the same. 

    When there was clear evidence that the Russians had hacked into the election infrastructure in 2016, Obama, fearful of appearing partisan, refused to make the information public.  Harry Reid all but announced the information, but the corporate media ignored him.  But, Obama, remained silent.

    According to staffers, Obama was so confident that Hillary was going to win, he figured she would take care of the issue after she was elected.  “We’ll handle this.”  Right.

    Well, it didn’t turn out that way and we wound up with a Russian puppet in the White House for four years.  We will never know the extent of the devastation of that four years.

    Obama cared more about his legacy than he did about the American people and the damage is incalculable.

    Biden is issuing the same patronizing kinds of statements about the recent outbreak of conflict in Israel.  The administration is  doing “quiet diplomacy.”  That’s the story.  “We’ll handle this you don’t need to bother.”  It’s behind the scenes because really cool guys (like Biden) with experience (like Biden) know that it’s better to move behind the scenes than come out publicly and (in this case) demand a ceasefire.

    In fact, not that you would know it from watching corporate news (celebrity gossip, agent driven interviews about new books, rap lyric quotes, hand wringing about the hypocrisy of the Republicans, the creation of Liz Cheney as a super-star) but the U.S. government has blocked a UN Security Council call for a ceasefire three times since this conflict began. 

    Why, why would the U.S. block a call for a ceasefire?  What possible purpose would that serve unless you wanted to signal to Netanyahu that we support driving the Palestinians into the sea?

    But, there is not a peep about this on the corporate news, or at least not that I have seen.  It’s all reassuring elitist head patting.  “We’ve got this under control.”  “Don’t worry.”  “You don’t have to know what’s going on.  Just trust us.”  “After all, it’s uncle Joe and his son died.”

    When Barak Obama decided he knew better than the American people what to do about the Russian hacking, we wound up with the disaster of Trump, three Supreme Court justices not to mention a legion of federal court judges who comprise a ticking time bomb.  Biden adopting the same “trust me” attitude is not comforting. 

    The corporate news by and large is promoting its usual “both sides” analysis.  Well, the Israelis are launching some missiles and Hamas is launching some missiles.  But, as was pointed out on Christine Amanpour’s show on 17 May 2021, there is no symmetry in the destructive power of the two entities. 

    And, as Ehaled Elgindy, former advisor to the Palestinian authority commented on Amanpour’s program, the Israelis are essentially asking that Hamas stop firing on Israel in exchange for the Israelis stopping firing at some time in the future as yet undetermined. 

    Elgindy noted that what was needed was the “robust” involvement of Biden in the situation, not the passive approach he is taking at the moment.  Elgindy argued that Biden was essentially saying to Netanyahu, go ahead, we’ll run diplomatic interference for you until you get what you want.  Biden should be calling for an immediate cease fire.  Because he is not, Biden is “greenlighting” the process. 

    Elgindy continued that the policy in Washingon is basically that we have to “hug Israel” to get them to do anything.  Through 54 years of occupation, expulsions, and blockades, all Washington is willing to come up with are “positive inducements.”  The U.S. has “enabled” the situation for decades.

    This week on the horrible Morning Joe (home for all middle of the road has beens who have nothing, and I mean nothing,to say) David Ignatius claimed that there wasn’t really anything the U.S. could do about the situation. 

    Meanwhile, Washington approved $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel.  The Democrats were largely silent.

    Sources

    U.S. Today

    https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-05-17/biden-administration-approved-735-million-arms-sale-to-israel-sources

    Christine Amanpour (5/17/21)

  • michael lewis’ “the premonition.”

    Michal Lewis’ new book “The Premonition” couldn’t be more newsworthy.  Through the stories of three individuals who worked in the public health system, Lewis makes plain just how we ended up with a dysfunctional CDC at a time of a global pandemic.

    In an interview with Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC (5/12/21) Lewis notes that we should question whether any of our government is best run by political appointees.  The CDC went from an institution run by experts to a home for those who needed to be politically rewarded.

    Lewis also notes that there are characteristics of our economic system that made us unable to respond adequately to a crisis, in this case the pandemic, but the problems would be there in any crisis.   

    Lewis notes that the for-profit system is so entrenched in the society that we are unable to avail ourselves of solutions even when they present themselves unless they exist within the for-profit world. 

    He tells a story of a non-profit testing lab. When the owners of the lab saw that the CDC was not going to be able to adequately test people for COVID, it developed its own test and tried to give it away for free.  But, accepting a free testing service was problematic for some.  In one case, the agency approached could not use the free testing because its computer system could not accept any entry that had a $0 for the price. 

    The testing lab went to San Quentin prison and warned them that if no testing was done in such a confined institution, the result was likely to be a disaster.  Those in charge initially accepted the testing but then quickly backed out.  When asked why, those in charge explained that they already had established contracts with big testing labs and they were afraid that accepting another test would infringe on their contracts or at the very least, make the big testing firms angry.

    The testing provided by the big labs was more cumbersome and took more time.  The result, prisoners were transferred into the facility with COVID and twenty people died.  Twenty people died needlessly because the big labs needed to make money off their monopoly control over testing at San Quentin. 

    As Lewis points out there are risks in the social environment that only the government can manage.  If we hollow out the ability of the state to manage these risks we do so at our own peril.  People like Ted Cruz may be able to fly off to another country and stay in a sealed community, but the rest of us can’t. 

    Lewis also notes that the entire structure of incentives for health care is defective.  There are, for example, no incentives for preventive medicine. 

  • amanpour interview with michael lewis about his new book

  • amanpour interview with michael lewis about his new book

    Christina Amanpour interviews author Michael Lewis May 6, 2021 about his new book “The Premonition.” 

    In his book, Michael Lewis followed three characters involved in the public health system and tells their stories.  The stories carry lessons for pandemic response in the past and the future.

    As Amanpour notes, Lewis had already written about the hollowing out of creative professionals in the ranks of government.  This hollowing out left a bureaucracy afraid of creativity and afraid of risk.  When COVID hit, the CDC which should have been the leader, was afraid to act. 

    As Ezra Klein noted in his article about  Lewis’ book in the New York Times (May 2021), the CDC was “too passive, too unwilling to act on uncertain information, too afraid of making  mistakes, too interested in its public image.”

    According to Lewis, the hollowing out of the CDC, the loss of their reputation, happened long before Trump.  I was interested to hear this since during the COVID crisis I kept wondering how Trump could eviscerate the CDC so rapidly.  Turns out he didn’t. 

    According to Lewis, by 2012 the CDC had become an academic institution reluctant to take on any action aside from studying problems.  It had, according to Lewis, become a “disease observation and reporting” institution, not a disease control center.

    Lewis tells the stories of several people involved in the public health system and their experiences dealing with the CDC. One, Charity Dean, was a public health official on the ground, locally.  When she tried to get assistance from the CDC for public health problems, she found none.  In fact, she found active hostility.  When she called on the CDC to help her they actually obstructed her investigations. 

    Lewis commented that if the three people whose stories he told were asked whether the CDC would act as the battlefield commander in the event of a pandemic, they would have answer no.  The Centers for Disease Control had ceased to function to control disease.

    It was obvious to some people, people who were actively trying to develop strategies for a future pandemic, that a battlefield commander was going to be needed.  But, the CDC wasn’t listening.

    As Lewis tells tells the story, after 9/11 and Katrina, George Bush was primed to be concerned about any unexpected threat.  Sometime in 2005, he was handed the book “The Great Influenza.”  He supposedly read it and asked about the plan for dealing with a future pandemic.  The answer was that there wasn’t any.

    Surprisingly, the Bush administration acted quickly and within weeks had Congress appropriate money to study the issue and devise a strategy.  Lewis notes how this back story illustrates just what can be done quickly when the President focuses on an issue and decides to get something done.

    And, also surprisingly, the individuals brought in from various federal agencies were nominated because of their reputation for creative thinking.  That in-and-of itself is extraordinary.  In a country that spends untold amounts of money creating commissions and investigations filled with dignitaries and political donors, this body was staffed by people who were creative.  Go figure.

    These folks Bush appointed to the commission, created a testing, tracking and social distancing strategy and convinced the rest of the world that it could be effective.  This strategy was designed to decrease mortality during the period between the onset of a pandemic and the development of vaccines.

    The kicker was that after convincing a skeptical world that this public health strategy could work, the country that developed it failed to adequately put it into effect when a read pandemic occurred.

    Lewis noted that this was because the strategy was widely considered to be a theoretical idea not an implementable public health measure.   Similarly, a pandemic was considered to be a theoretical threat, not a real possibility.

    But, people on the ground, people like Charity Dean, one of the people in Lewis’ book, were looking at factors like the increasing worldwide transmission of viruses from animals to humans.  What they were looking at wasn’t a theoretical possibility.  When they looked at the evidence, the outbreak of a dangerous pandemic was a matter of when not if.

    But, as Charity Dean told Lewis, people like her felt like Moses, building the ark.  Everyone around them accused them of lunacy.  So, there were people who knew a dangerous pandemic was coming.  When Trump went on national TV and claimed that the COVID virus outbreak was a total shock to the world, he was (as usual) lying.

    By 2011 people like Charity Dean, people on the local level of public health, knew not only that a pandemic was coming, but that the country was unprepared.  The population, however, (as usual) was being told that we were the most prepared country in the world. 

    Studies ranking preparedness, listed the U.K. an the U.S. as the most prepared countries in the world.  They were wrong.  They made people feel good.  They made people complacent, but they were wrong. 

    As Lewis noted, the U.S. with 4% of population would up with 20% of the deaths.  Somehow, sometime, Americans are going to have to stop creating and repeating and believing their own propaganda. 

    Crisis response is not about having the most resources or the most labs or the most prestigious boards at the CDC.  Lewis detailed some of the problems that are part of the structure of the society, features that make crisis response (whether it’s to a war or a pandemic) almost impossible.

    Lewis and doctors at the WHO, talked about the endemic fear of failure.  As one of the doctors at the WHO put it, in March of 2020, fear of failure, fear of making a mistake has become paralyzing. “If you need to be right before you move, you will never win.”

    Lewis noted that the culture has been primed to punish viciously crimes of commission, but to forget crimes of omission.  It doesn’t take much to predict which crimes will be the most prevalent. 

    Many of the researchers who understood and warned about the coming pandemic believe that this is not the serious pandemic they are concerned about.  They believe that this is only a dry run.  The real pandemic has yet to happen.  We all need to put that in our pipes and smoke.   

    TOMORROW: How the For-Profit Health Care System Crippled the pandemic Response.