Sunday, September 6, 2020

How Big Of a "Hoax" Is That "Dirty Dossier"?

 In the wake of the Atlantic story by Jeffrey Goldberg about President Trump reportedly referring to the dead Americans lying in the Aisne-Marne Cemetery near Paris as "losers"  and "suckers," along with a lot of other embarrassing things for him, Trump has called Goldberg a "slimeball" and that that this report is another "hoax" like "the dirty dossier" of Steele, along with "Russia, Russia, Russia" also being a "hoax," of course, despite the recent bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report further verifying that there was even more Russian interference in the 2016 election than the Mueller Report verified (105 meetings between Trump campaign officials and various Russians, with several of those officials then lying under oath about their contacts).  

Of course, Trump is on tape calling the late John McCain a "loser" because he was captured by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. I thought when he said that it would be the end of this then primary campaign, but it barely budged him a notch, the first sign of how he could get away with outrageous statements and actions that would do in other politicians.  But his base viewed McCain as a "RINO" traitor to their cause, so it was OK to diss him hard.  But now this new report is hitting Trump hard, especially given the widespread reporting of polls showing active military members supporting Biden over him and reports of retired Marines who has Trump signs in their yards throwing them in the garbage. The dead at Aisne-Marne did not run against Trump in a primary or contest for control of the Republican Party.  They died in a crucial battle that stopped the final German effort to conquer  Paris in the WW I.

So Russia was not a hoax, but what about that infamous Steele dossier?  Of course for those who get all their new from Fox, where Trump is also having a problem with their national security reporter supporting some of the Goldberg article, referring to the Steele dossier as "dirty" is a regular button to push to make the faithful sit up and bark their support.  It is like "Benghazi," something pounded on so often the faithful are fully indoctrinated that there is something there. About every other night Hannity reminds the suckers that it "has been completely discredited" and "was bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton."  

Regarding "being discredited," this has not happened despite various GOP congresspeople repeating this line endlessly in various hearings.  Indeed, well over 70% of it has been verified.  Most of it is true.  It accrurately reported on some of the activities of Trump associates later reported on in the Mueller Report and now the Senate Intelligence Report. But, of course, that some of that material appeared in the "dirty dossier" is supposed to be why we are not supposed to accept either of those reports.  

As it is, a few items in  it have been disproven.  Curiously most of those had to do with Carter Page, exaggerated claims that he was going to get a big payment from Gazprom, although he did in fact meet with their officials as reported in the dossier.  The FBI investigation of Page is indeed the one place where all the hysterical Trumpist conspiracy theorists have something: there were inaccuracies in one of the petitions for renewal of the  FISA application for the FBI to investigate Page, who had been investigated in the past for his activities with Russians.  The biggest blooper, not due to the dossier, was the failure of the FBI to note that Page had been used as a CIA informant, and one low level FBI official has been indicted for this Clinesmith, probably the only person who will be indicted, even though Hannity keeps calling for John Durham to come forth with his report and indictments of all the Obama/Biden people who were "spying on the Trump campaign," something that Trump himself has called "treason."  Barr has made it clear he will dump whatever there is onto us in in October, but as of now it looks like this Clinesmith messing with the FISA app is about all there is. In any case, the Page investigation was a bust and it was briefly supported by some erroneous material in the Steele dossier, but this does not amount to much.

There are other items in the dossier which the truth or falsity of remain unestablished.  The most notorious one is the item that caught initial attention when the dossier was first publicly revealed, the "pee tape" claim about Trump and some prostitutes. This was considered outrageous, but given that we have since learned that Trump has paid off prostitutes to keep quiet, this no longer seems like much of a big deal, and indeed there are apparently a number of observers who claim it probably happened.  So the item that makes the dossier "dirty" is probably true, but now who cares? and it does remain unverified.  But the bottom line remains that over 70% of it has been verified.  The claims that it has been "discredited" are simply false. But what is another lie coming out of Trump anyway?

On the matter of being "bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton," there is some truth to that.  The initial investigation of the possible Trump/Russia connection was initiated by the Jeb Bush primary campaign.  When he withdrew it did eventually come to funded by the DNC and the Clinton campaign.  But, in the end, this becomes a so what?  That in and of itself does not prove that what was reported in the dossier is false. And, indeed, a solid majority of what is in it has been verified, and the fundamental claim that the Trump campaign was operating in a cooperative manner, whatever wording one wants to use, has also clearly been established.  The "dirty dossier" is not a hoax, and "Russia, Russia, Russia" is also not a hoax, with them openly at it again for 2020, with Trump's flunky DNI Chief now refusing to testify before Congress on the matter, and specific allegations of such interference being made, such as Russians being behind a lot of the social media accounts of Biden supposedly suffering from dementia, poor "sleepy Joe," which increasingly looks to be just totally fake news.

So, sorry, Mr. Trump, this line of argument does not remotely get you off the hook for having called US war dead "losers" and "suckers."

Barkley Rosser

46 comments:

Sandwichman said...

Totally bif!

Unknown said...

Hope from the past, before the transformation of the Republican Party; John Mitchell went to prison.

ilsm said...

Is antifa taking Labor Day off?

I do not believe Goldberg, with his anonymous relaters.

McCain is more a survivor and cooperator than a war hero, I agree with Trump on McCain as would the WW II generation I knew.

I voted for Obama over McCain.

The Dossier, so much hidden in the swamp. No need for dossiers they have antifa rioters.

You should have kept siding with blowing up on campus US assets in the Vietnam 'protests' to yourself.

I will vote for no one who knelt to BLM!

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

ilsm,

One certainly does not have to have supported McCain politically to find Trump's characterization of his a "loser" because his plane got shot down over Vietnam and he was captured. I also doubt WW II vets approve of this characterization either, especially coming from somebody who got out of going to Vietnam on a clearly phoney diagnosis of having a bone spur. After his plane was shot down was McCain supposed to kill himself rather than be captured, or perhaps simply get into a firefight by himself against his would-be captors so that they would kill him instead of capturing him? Again, I doubt many WW II vets would agree with that either.

Regarding the Goldberg article, I do not know what exactly is accurate, but large parts of it have received support from quite a few journalists and public figures. I guess the most controversial and contested part is whether or not Trump called those lying in the WW I graves in Aisne-Marne "losers" or "suckers." There are some people who were with Trump, like John Bolton and Sarah Huckabee Sanders (who has no cred in my book) who claim he did not. But even if he did not he is on tape calling McCain a "loser" for having been captured and on the Howard Stern Show he called those who fought in Vietnam "suckers." Really, he has basically already done it, even if he did not do so in Paris in connection with his unwillingness to go to that cemetery, which he certainly did not visit.

Regarding the bombing, I said I disapproved of it, and that I was glad to see Karl Armstrong publicly apologize for having done it.

As for "kneeling to BLM," do you mean that literally or just metaphorically, as in somebody saying "Black Lives Matter" or "I support the ideas of the BLM movement"? That remark is pretty vague there, ilsm.

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Trump not taking Labor Day off:

... Monday, Mr. Trump abruptly called a White House news conference and then used it to air a range of personal and political grievances. He called his opponents names — Mr. Biden was a “stupid person” and Ms. Harris was “not a competent person.” Yet more notable than his usual partisan insults was his extraordinary attack on the country’s senior military officials.

Defending himself for a fifth straight day following a report in The Atlantic that he ridiculed America’s war dead, Mr. Trump suggested the accusations came from Pentagon leaders, whom he described as war profiteers. ...

“They want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs, that make the planes, that make everything else, stay happy,” Mr. Trump said of the officers he commands, making no mention of his own choice for defense secretary, Mark T. Esper, who was an executive at the defense contractor Raytheon.

The broadside, coming after current and retired officers have been notably quiet about claims that the president described those killed in action as “losers,” only added more fuel to an explosive story line that many Republicans want Mr. Trump to put behind him.

For the purposes of the campaign, Mr. Trump’s preoccupation with the Atlantic article illustrated the limited value of the presidential bully pulpit in the hands of a candidate unwilling to drive a focused message. ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Trump Vents From the White House

Fred C. Dobbs said...

New York can show the path forward: Taxing “multimillionaires and billionaires.”

Tax the Ultrarich? Cuomo Resists, Even With a $14 Billion Budget Gap

NY Times - September 7

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said that there is “no combination of savings, efficiencies, tax increases that could ever come near covering the deficit.”

State Democratic lawmakers are pressuring Gov. Andrew Cuomo to approve a tax on the wealthy, fearing that budget cuts will hurt those most in need.

For years, progressive Democrats in Albany have been pushing a three-word solution to many of New York’s problems: Tax the rich.

Yet year after year, proposals to make the wealthy pay more were blocked by Republicans.

Now, however, their most staunch opponent may well be the state’s third-term governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, a socially progressive Democrat who often boasts of his history of tax cuts.

That approach appeals to most taxpayers, and is easier to understand during a decade of financial growth. But as the coronavirus pandemic has transformed New York’s financial problems from merely troubling to catastrophic, a growing contingent of Democrats in the all-blue Legislature is pushing the governor to reconsider his stance.

They say the state must increase taxes on the wealthy to safeguard services for New York’s neediest, which could be decimated if the state were forced to make broad cuts because of the looming deficit.

“We are playing with fire: These are people’s lives,” said State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, a Democrat representing parts of the Bronx and Westchester County who is co-sponsoring a bill to tax the ultrawealthy. “It is not OK to not act.”

The fiscal hole is daunting: The state faces a $14.5 billion budget gap this fiscal year, according to budget officials.

Mr. Cuomo, however, says the potential benefit of new revenue from taxing the rich would be far outstripped by the negative impact on the state’s highest earners, who already shoulder the bulk of the state’s taxes.

“I don’t care what you increase taxes to, you couldn’t make up that deficit,” Mr. Cuomo said last week upon releasing a letter asking congressional leaders for a whopping $59 billion to cover two years of projected state deficits and more.

“There is no combination of savings, efficiencies, tax increases that could ever come near covering the deficit,” he added. “We need the federal government to assist in doing that.”

But supporters have framed the tax increases as an alternative to the steep cuts to local governments and schools that Mr. Cuomo has threatened to implement if Congress fails to approve a federal stimulus package to cover the shortfall.

Raising taxes on the wealthy has long had the backing of the Assembly and its speaker, Carl E. Heastie, and it recently gained the endorsement of the Senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, bestowing the effort renewed political momentum.

In late July, Ms. Stewart-Cousins cited the coronavirus crisis in throwing her support behind taxing “multimillionaires and billionaires to help our state shoulder this extraordinary burden.”

Her statement was an encouraging sign for the left-wing activists, unions and more than 100 Democratic lawmakers who have indicated they support raising taxes on the wealthy to lessen the blow of budget cuts.

“At some point, the waiting game with Washington will run its course,” said Michael N. Gianaris, a state senator from Queens and the deputy majority leader. “And I think we’re just about there.”

While Mr. Cuomo and others have been pleading for help, it seems unlikely that any deal in Washington will make the state completely whole.

The negotiations between Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, and his Democratic counterpart, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, have been slow-moving, with most expecting only a slimmed-down version of an aid package to pass.

Fred C. Dobbs said...

You Want Progressive Policies? You Need Progressive Taxes.

NYT - Joseph Stiglitz & Kitty Richards - September 3

It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s good economics. ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Are you better off now than you were in July?

Paul Krugman - September 7

On the face of it, that shouldn’t even be a question. After all, stocks are up; the economy added more than a million jobs in “August” (I’ll explain the scare quotes in a minute); preliminary estimates suggest that G.D.P. is growing rapidly in the third quarter, which ends this month.

But the stock market isn’t the economy: more than half of all stocks are owned by only 1 percent of Americans, while the bottom half of the population owns only 0.7 percent of the market.

Jobs and G.D.P., by contrast, sort of are the economy. But they aren’t the economy’s point. What some economists and many politicians often forget is that economics isn’t fundamentally about data, it’s about people. I like data as much as, or probably more than, the next guy. But an economy’s success should be judged not by impersonal statistics, but by whether people’s lives are getting better.

And the simple fact is that over the past few weeks the lives of many Americans have gotten much worse.

Obviously this is true for the roughly 30,000 Americans who died of Covid-19 in August — for comparison, only 4,000 people died in the European Union, which has a larger population — plus the unknown but large number of our citizens who suffered long-term health damage. And don’t look now, but the number of new coronavirus cases, which had been declining, seems to have plateaued; between Labor Day and school re-openings, there’s a pretty good chance that the virus situation is about to take another turn for the worse.

But things have already gotten worse for millions of families that lost most of their normal income as a result of the pandemic and still haven’t gotten it back. For the first few months of the pandemic depression many of these Americans were getting by thanks to emergency federal aid. But much of that aid was cut off at the end of July, and despite job gains we’re in the midst of a huge increase in national misery. ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Consider financing huge pension obligations with a wealth tax?

California Might Become the First State With a Wealth Tax

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - AUGUST 14

The proposed legislation would impact nearly 30,400 Californians and raise $7.5 billion for the state’s general fund. The tax would be 0.4 percent of net worth that exceeds $30 million for single and joint filers.

(TNS) — A group of state lawmakers on Thursday proposed a first-in-the-nation state wealth tax that would hit about 30,400 California residents and raise an estimated $7.5 billion for the general fund.

The tax rate would be 0.4 percent of net worth, excluding directly held real estate, that exceeds $30 million for single and joint filers and $15 million for married filing separately.

California is facing a big budget deficit because of the health and economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus, and “we can’t simply rely on austerity measures,” to close it, said Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, lead author of AB2088. “We must consider revenue generation.” ...

People subject to the wealth tax would report it to the Franchise Tax Board along with their income taxes. They would have to report all assets including stock in publicly and privately traded corporations; interests in partnerships, private equity or hedge funds; cash, bonds and savings accounts; mutual funds, futures and options; art and collectibles; offshore financial assets, pension funds, non-mortgage debt, real property and mortgage debt. ...

Real estate would be exempt from the wealth tax because it’s already subject to property tax, at a higher rate, Bonta said. ...

2slugbaits said...

ilsm,
Your first sentence asked about Antifa. Your closing sentence referred to kneeling in support of BLM. Are you suggesting that Antifa and the BLM movement are somehow one and the same thing? As to kneeling, I think the current consensus is that Colin Kaepernick was right all along. The "Star Spangled Banner" is an awful song that is difficult to perform and was written by someone who was a regarded as a rampant racist even in his own time. A lot of folks owe Colin Kaepernick an apology.

While the Atlantic article used anonymous sources, let's keep in mind that those sources are not anonymous to reporters. At least five major news organizations (including Fox News) have independently confirmed at least parts of the Atlantic article. So there's really no doubt that Trump did in fact refer to US war dead as "losers" and "suckers." That said, there is some doubt about the context of those comments. One possibility is that Trump just said those words out of meanness and spite or perhaps envy for their physical courage. That would be consistent with a lot of what we know about Trump. But there's another possibility. Because Trump always speaks in superlatives and lacks any nuance, it's possible that Trump genuinely did not comprehend how those soldiers could act so selflessly and he was praising them in his own self-centered and perverse way. Now expressing wonder about their selflessness and bravery is a sentiment that many of us can easily understand. But if that's what Trump meant and he simply expressed it in his usual clumsy way, then why deny the story? Why not take the opportunity to publicly explain what he really meant with his ill-chosen words? We know why. Because of Trump's pride and inability to admit any weakness.

Fred C. Dobbs said...

An exciting primary today in ilsm's adopted state...

Will the carpetbaggers endorsed by Trump win or lose?

Tuesday’s New Hampshire state primary could end up being a referendum on Trump’s chances to win NH

The New Hampshire primary provides the starkest New England test of Republican feelings toward President Trump this year. Trump has made himself a titillating subplot in the Republican primaries for Senate and in the First Congressional District, where the winner will take on Pappas.

In June, Trump took to Twitter to endorse Bryant “Corky” Messner to be the Republican nominee for Senate. Trump also endorsed a former Republican operative and State Department official, Matt Mowers, as the candidate to take on Pappas, who is serving his first term in Congress.

Trump’s pair of endorsements gave each primary race definition after months of obscure Zoom campaigning. Beyond the size of their campaign bank accounts, where Messner and Mowers held advantages, there was no real sense of who was actually winning.

The Trump endorsement was the most important moment in the campaign for both of them. Trump’s endorsement in GOP politics is pretty much all-powerful. For most of 2020, Trump had a perfect record of 64-0 in endorsements in a Republican primary; if he endorsed, his candidate won. ...

However, the duo of races he did get involved with are perfectly binary. Each features two major candidates, one Trump backed and one Trump did not. ...

What might really help these candidates aren’t just the tweets, but that Trump has put his Republican National Committee to work on behalf of these candidates, with phone banking and door knocking. This remains a very controversial and possibly unprecedented move, given the party’s tradition of remaining neutral in primaries.

But there are other factors in the contest. For starters, both Mowers and Messner are being accused of carpetbagging. Mowers, a New Jersey native who worked in the New Hampshire to lead Chris Christie’s campaign, only came back to the Granite State in 2018 and announced a run. This is also roughly what Messner did; he has lived in Denver most of his life and even formed his New Hampshire Senate exploratory campaign in Colorado.

If Trump’s candidates lose these races, it could speak to problems within his own campaign for president in this swing state. Trump has trailed in every New Hampshire poll of his reelection since he narrowly lost the state in 2016.
...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

There are about 1M registered voters in NH.

About 30% are GOP, 32% are Dem, 38% are
'undeclared'.

'Undeclared' voters are allowed to vote
with a primary ballot from either party,
which automatically enrolls them in that
party, but they can 're-unenroll' after
voting.

That might make for some interesting
strategic voting, for those willing
to make the effort.

john c. halasz said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm2cfbbIDIo

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Strategic voting?

Trump-backed candidates win in New Hampshire GOP primary

via @BostonGlobe - September 9

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Bryant “Corky” Messner won the Republican primary for US Senate on Tuesday, defeating a fellow veteran and setting up a bid to deny U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen a third term.

Messner, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, defeated Retired Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc and longshot candidates Andy Martin and Gerard Beloin in the GOP primary.

“We’re not going to celebrate, we’re going to unify,” he told supporters at a gathering organized by the Trump campaign. “I’m not celebrating anything, I’m going to work, because we have a big mission ahead of us.”

The 63-year-old Army veteran and attorney cast himself as a political outsider, saying he gained leadership experience in the military and private sector after founding a Denver law firm that has expanded to eight other cities. Bolduc, his main opponent, tried to use that outsider label against him, contrasting his deep roots to New Hampshire with Messner’s relatively recent arrival from Colorado.

After owning a vacation home in Wolfeboro for many years, Messner only made it his permanent residence about two years ago. But he said voters rarely brought that up to him, and that his background and ideas won them over.

Messner poured nearly $3.8 million of his own money into his campaign, making up nearly 90% of the total he raised as of Aug. 19. He had $2.5 million on hand, compared to Shaheen, who had raised $15.6 million by that date and had $7.2 million left. Both are likely to rake in substantial sums raised nationally before the general election, however.

“They better not underestimate me,” Messner said. “We are coming for Jeanne Shaheen.” ...

--

Mowers, Negron win NH GOP primaries, to face Pappas, Kuster

A former official in President Donald Trump’s State Department will take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas in November in a race that will offer stark solutions to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the economic toll it has taken on New Hampshire.

Matt Mowers, a 31-year-old former Trump official, defeated Matt Mayberry, a 55-year-old Air Force veteran and realtor, on the Republican side in the 1st District. Mowers has praised Trump’s coronavirus response and called production of supplies in the coronavirus fight to be shifted from China to the United States. He also has promised to fight illegal immigration and support congressional term limits.

Fred C. Dobbs said...

An incompetent in the White House

via @BostonGlobe - September 9

The country needs an inquiry to hold the president and his administration
accountable for negligence that led to thousands of deaths.

Yes, we already knew that President Trump misled the public about the deadly threat of the novel coronavirus, even though his own staff had warned him of its dangers way back in January.

Still, there was something freshly nauseating about the tapes released by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward on Wednesday, in which Trump bluntly acknowledges in a February interview that that virus was “deadly stuff," at a time when in public he was insisting it was a flu-like bug that would soon pass.

And then, the next month, admitting he’d misled the American people. “I wanted to always play it down,” he told Woodward.

Playing it down — while chastising state and local leaders who gave COVID-19 the serious response it deserved — set the stage for a preventable catastrophe. Almost 200,000 Americans have died, while countless others have lost jobs and endured major disruptions to life. The United States leads the world in coronavirus deaths, a grim testament to the federal government’s limp response to the virus. Had the president merely told Americans what he told Woodward in February — and, better yet, acted on that information with strict public health measures and vigilant preparation — thousands of victims might still be alive.

In the short term, President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus is certainly on the ballot in November. How much incompetence and dishonesty are Americans willing to tolerate from the president? And how much slack are they prepared to cut his defenders in Congress, who repeatedly put politics ahead of Americans' lives? The president’s campaign strategy is clearly to addle white Americans with fear-laced messages this fall, hoping that will be enough to scare them into accepting his gross incompetence. ...

Trump says he knew coronavirus was deadly even as he played down the threat, audio reveals

Anonymous said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/09/08/bergamo-italy-covid-longterm/

September 8, 2020

Italy’s Bergamo is calling back coronavirus survivors. About half say they haven’t fully recovered.
By Chico Harlan and Stefano Pitrelli

BERGAMO, Italy — The first wave is over, thousands have been buried, and in a city that was once the world’s coronavirus epicenter, the hospital is calling back the survivors. It is drawing their blood, examining their hearts, scanning their lungs, asking them about their lives.

Twenty people per day, it is measuring what the coronavirus has left in its wake.

“How are you feeling?” a doctor recently asked the next patient to walk in, a 54-year-old who still can’t ascend a flight of steps without losing her breath.

“I feel like I’m 80 years old,” the woman said....

Anonymous said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/opinion/united-states-social-progress.html

September 9, 2020

‘We’re No. 28! And Dropping!’
A measure of social progress finds that the quality of life has dropped in America over the last decade, even as it has risen almost everywhere else.
By Nicholas Kristof

This should be a wake-up call: New data suggest that the United States is one of just a few countries worldwide that is slipping backward.

The newest Social Progress Index, * shared with me before its official release Thursday morning, finds that out of 163 countries assessed worldwide, the United States, Brazil and Hungary are the only ones in which people are worse off than when the index began in 2011. And the declines in Brazil and Hungary were smaller than America’s.

“The data paint an alarming picture of the state of our nation, and we hope it will be a call to action,” Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School professor and the chair of the advisory panel for the Social Progress Index, told me. “It’s like we’re a developing country.”

The index, inspired by research of Nobel-winning economists, collects 50 metrics of well-being — nutrition, safety, freedom, the environment, health, education and more — to measure quality of life. Norway comes out on top in the 2020 edition, followed by Denmark, Finland and New Zealand. South Sudan is at the bottom, with Chad, Central African Republic and Eritrea just behind.

The United States, despite its immense wealth, military power and cultural influence, ranks 28th — having slipped from 19th in 2011. The index now puts the United States behind significantly poorer countries, including Estonia, Czech Republic, Cyprus and Greece....

* https://www.socialprogress.org/

Anonymous said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/health/coronavirus-brain.html

September 9, 2020

How the Coronavirus Attacks the Brain
It’s not just the lungs — the pathogen may enter brain cells, causing symptoms like delirium and confusion, scientists reported.
By Apoorva Mandavilli

The coronavirus targets the lungs foremost, but also the kidneys, liver and blood vessels. Still, about half of patients report neurological symptoms, including headaches, confusion and delirium, suggesting the virus may also attack the brain.

A new study * ** offers the first clear evidence that, in some people, the coronavirus invades brain cells, hijacking them to make copies of itself. The virus also seems to suck up all of the oxygen nearby, starving neighboring cells to death....

* https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.25.169946v2

** https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awaa240/5868408

Anonymous said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/world/asia/india-economy-coronavirus.html

September 5, 2020

Coronavirus Crisis Shatters India’s Big Dreams
The country’s ambitions to become a global power, lift its poor and update its military have been set back by a sharp economic plunge, soaring infections and a widening sense of malaise.
By Jeffrey Gettleman

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/world/asia/india-coronavirus-farmer-suicides-lockdown.html

September 8, 2020

‘The Lockdown Killed My Father’: Farmer Suicides Add to India’s Virus Misery
Farm bankruptcies and debts have been the source of misery in India for decades. But experts say the suffering has reached new levels in the pandemic.
Photographs and Text by Karan Deep Singh

Anonymous said...

There were 95,529 new coronavirus cases recorded in India yesterday.  Cases had climbed above 80,000 daily these last couple of weeks.  The distressing point that should be made is just how undeveloped healthcare infrastructure is in India, for all the growth these last couple of decades.  Indian infrastructure in general is poorly developed, as Amartya Sen pointed to in the wake of being awarded a Nobel Prize in economics, but there was little response to Sen from development specialists and even express criticism from Indian economists.  Now, we find India in any day recording about as many or more coronavirus cases as China has recorded in all.

Undeveloped Indian infrastructure has presented daunting problems in national efforts to limit the coronavirus spread.

Fred C. Dobbs said...

How does coronavirus kill?">How does coronavirus kill?

Science - April 17

Clinicians trace a ferocious rampage through the body, from brain to toes

(Covid-19) “can attack almost anything in the body with devastating consequences,” says cardiologist Harlan Krumholz of Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital, who is leading multiple efforts to gather clinical data on COVID-19. “Its ferocity is breathtaking and humbling.”

Understanding the rampage could help the doctors on the front lines treat the fraction of infected people who become desperately and sometimes mysteriously ill. Does a dangerous, newly observed tendency to blood clotting transform some mild cases into life-threatening emergencies? Is an overzealous immune response behind the worst cases, suggesting treatment with immune-suppressing drugs could help? What explains the startlingly low blood oxygen that some physicians are reporting in patients who nonetheless are not gasping for breath? “Taking a systems approach may be beneficial as we start thinking about therapies,” says Nilam Mangalmurti, a pulmonary intensivist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). ...

Despite the more than 1000 papers now spilling into journals and onto preprint servers every week, a clear picture is elusive, as the virus acts like no pathogen humanity has ever seen. Without larger, prospective controlled studies that are only now being launched, scientists must pull information from small studies and case reports, often published at warp speed and not yet peer reviewed. ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

How does coronavirus kill?

Science - April 17

Anonymous said...

September 10, 2020

Coronavirus

US

Cases   ( 6,556,947)
Deaths   ( 195,550)

Anonymous said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/health/coronavirus-mental-health-long-hauler.html

September 7, 2020

For Long-Haulers, Covid-19 Takes a Toll on Mind as Well as Body
“It makes you depressed, anxious that it’s never going to go away.”
By Emma Goldberg

Forty hours after treating her first coronavirus patient, on March 30, Angela Aston came home to her family with a cough. “Gosh, your throat is scratchy,” her husband told her. Right away she knew she had likely been infected with Covid-19. As a nurse practitioner, Ms. Aston, 50, was confident she knew how to handle her symptoms, and disappeared to her bedroom to quarantine and rest.

By day 50 of her illness, that confidence had disappeared....

Anonymous said...

September 10, 2020

Coronavirus

Israel

Cases   ( 144,673)
Deaths   ( 1,075)

Deaths per million   ( 117)

-----------------------------------

July 4, 2020

Coronavirus

Israel

Cases ( 29,170)
Deaths ( 330)

Deaths per million ( 36)

Anonymous said...

Having apparently approached a containment of the coronavirus, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result has been a persistent community infection spread contributing to what are now 144,673 cases in the small country as compared to 85,153 through all of mainland China.

Beyond the mistake of the incautious opening, the need is to look to what is obviously an unanticipated institutional public health or healthcare system weakness in Israel.  Determining how the Israeli healthcare system can be strengthened, can serve as a model.

Anonymous said...

There have been 92,867 new coronavirus cases recorded in India today....

India began the year as the third largest economy, and so far has experienced a fierce recession that because of structural dislocations domestically is likely going to take a considerable time to recover from.  This means an important driver of the international economy has been lost already and could well continue to be lost for a considerable time, and this will make an international recovery that much slower.

Anonymous said...

September 10, 2020

Coronavirus

US

Cases   ( 6,574,585)
Deaths   ( 195,973)

Anonymous said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/opinion/donald-trump-coronavirus.html

September 10, 2020

Trump’s Coronavirus Response Was Beyond Incompetent
He wasn’t oblivious to the danger. He just didn’t care.
By Paul Krugman

Anonymous said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/opinion/donald-trump-coronavirus.html

September 10, 2020

Trump’s Coronavirus Response Was Beyond Incompetent
He wasn’t oblivious to the danger. He just didn’t care.
By Paul Krugman

Most cases in which cars kill pedestrians surely reflect negligence: drivers who were too busy talking on their cellphones or thinking about their golf games to notice the senior citizen crossing the street in front of them. A handful are acts of murder, like when a man killed a woman by plowing his car into counterprotesters at a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va.

But sometimes drivers end up killing other people because they were engaging in clearly dangerous behavior, like driving well above the speed limit and running multiple red lights. The resulting deaths aren’t considered murder. But they might be considered manslaughter, which is when you didn’t specifically intend to kill someone but your irresponsible actions killed them all the same.

Until this week I thought that Donald Trump’s disastrous mishandling of Covid-19 was basically negligence, even if that negligence was willful — that is, that he failed to understand the gravity of the threat because he didn’t want to hear about it and refused to take actions that could have saved thousands of American lives because actually doing effective policy isn’t his kind of thing.

But I was wrong. According to Bob Woodward’s new book, “Rage,” Trump wasn’t oblivious; he knew by early February that Covid-19 was both deadly and airborne. And this isn’t a case of conflicting recollections: Woodward has Trump on tape. Yet Trump continued to hold large indoor rallies, disparage precautionary measures and pressure states to reopen business despite the risk of infection.

And he’s still doing the same things, even now....

Anonymous said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/magazine/displaced-war-on-terror.html

September 8, 2020

At Least 37 Million People Have Been Displaced by America’s War on Terror
A new report calculates the number of people who fled because of wars fought by the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.
By John Ismay

At least 37 million people have been displaced as a direct result of the wars fought by the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, according to a new report * from Brown University’s Costs of War project. That figure exceeds those displaced by conflict since 1900, the authors say, with the exception of World War II.

* https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2020/Displacement_Vine%20et%20al_Costs%20of%20War%202020%2009%2008.pdf

Fred C. Dobbs said...

A day with lessons for protecting American lives

Boston Globe - editorial - September 11

This was the day a nation promised never to forget. And so even in the midst of a pandemic, the memorials to those nearly 3,000 lives lost 19 years ago will go on — changed, adapted for these perilous times, but still a time to remember.

In New York City, at what for years after Sept. 11 was still called Ground Zero, families will no longer be the ones to read aloud the names of the loved ones lost on that day. The ceremony will be socially distanced; a recorded reading of the names will assure its brevity.

It will be a day of wreath-laying and solemn remembrance as it always is. But if the deaths of some 3,000 human beings on American soil can continue to tug at our consciences, how then to acknowledge, mark, remember the more recent deaths on these shores that today approach 200,000?

Where is their memorial? And, as this editorial page asked Thursday, where is the special commission that will eventually assign blame for all of the failures of leadership and political will that brought us to this day?

The roots of these very different tragedies share more than our political leaders would ever want to acknowledge. In both cases, opportunities to protect Americans were wasted.

As the 9/11 Commission Report, issued in 2004, put it, “The 9/11 attacks were a shock, but they should not have come as a surprise.”

Going back to the 1993 truck bombing at the World Trade Center, this nation remained in denial of its vulnerabilities. “During the spring and summer of 2001, US intelligence agencies received a stream of warnings” the report said, or as Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet put it, “The system was blinking red.”

The term “stovepiping” became part of the American phrase book — a way to describe how each of the nation’s intelligence-gathering agencies went its own way, rarely sharing information.

Among the reforms to come out of that report was the creation of an all-seeing Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to whom 16 intelligence agencies now report. Of course, the post is now held by former Republican congressman John Ratcliffe, a man so lacking in intelligence experience he felt compelled to inflate his resume in his quest for the job.

The global pandemic that is now the nation’s newest and most formidable enemy didn’t bring down buildings, but it has cost lives, produced untold suffering, and devastated the US economy in ways terrorists could not have dreamed possible.

As it did before 9/11, the government took its eye off the ball. The Trump administration reduced funding for global public health security, dissolved a pandemic task force in 2018, and scaled back the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s overseas public health work.

Still, intelligence officials — along with public health officials — did manage to send up early warning signs, but they had little impact. There is some evidence that US intelligence gathering out of Wuhan, China, found the first signs of what would become the pandemic as early as last November. ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Of course, the parallels break down when the warnings reached the Oval Office. There is simply no president who has ever been as cavalier about his responsibilities, and indifferent to the lives of the American people, as Donald Trump. The president was briefed about the virus, and even told journalist Bob Woodward in February that it was “deadly stuff,” but chose to actively mislead the American people instead of organizing a response.

Yes, the devastation caused by COVID-19 is certainly a “shock,” but it too “should not have come as a surprise.”

Not when the president of the United States repeatedly lies to the American people, insisting that a virus will “just go away” — and life will return to normal — maybe by Easter. Remember that? Or maybe by September and kids will be back in school. Or maybe by Election Day, when surely there will be a vaccine, no?

When the president waits until there is a full-blown crisis in much needed medical supplies to invoke the Defense Production Act, he has failed to protect the public.

When he bends trusted public health institutions to his will to promote phony “cures” or ineffective treatments, he is endangering the people of this country. And when he fails to promote common-sense protections like wearing masks, he fails in the most basic role of a leader.

When one day this nation is on the other side of this pandemic, there needs to be a way to memorialize those who lost their lives in a tragedy made worse by failures of leadership.

But there is one more lesson from the 9/11 Commission Report that should not be lost on a nation now sorely divided among the mask-wearers versus non-mask-wearers, believers versus deniers.

“We call on the American people,” the commission wrote in 2004, “to remember how we all felt on 9/11, to remember not only the unspeakable horror but how we came together as a nation — one nation.”

In remembering those lost on that day, and in remembering those lost in these past painful months, it would be a fitting tribute that we at least reach toward that seemingly elusive goal.

Fred C. Dobbs said...

It's quite an oversight on the part
of the Boston Globe to have passed
over the entire BLM matter that has
also been so compelling during this
horrible, no-good year.

Anonymous said...

Still, intelligence officials — along with public health officials — did manage to send up early warning signs, but they had little impact. There is some evidence that US intelligence gathering out of...

[ This has been declared incorrect by military intelligence, * and given the denial from the Office of the Joint Chiefs that this is here repeated is either irresponsible or malicious.

* https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s-spy-agencies-collected-raw-intel-hinting-public-health-n1180646 ]

Anonymous said...

It's quite an oversight on the part
of the Boston Globe to have passed
over the entire BLM matter that has
also been so compelling during this
horrible, no-good year.

[ Good grief.

Thank you. ]

Anonymous said...

Again, there have been 97,654 new coronavirus cases recorded in India today or more cases in the day than there have been on the Chinese mainland in all. How distressing. The health and economic effects to come for India, look to be daunting.

September 11, 2020

Coronavirus

India

Cases   ( 4,657,379)
Deaths   ( 77,506)

Anonymous said...

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-09-11/Hundreds-of-thousands-have-been-given-Chinese-COVID-19-vaccines-THnoo6BcFG/index.html

September 11, 2020

Hundreds of thousands have been given Chinese COVID-19 vaccines without a single infection

Hundreds of thousands of people have been given two Chinese COVID-19 vaccine candidates as part of an emergency program, without a single case of infection or adverse effects, a senior official of a state-owned vaccine developer has said.

The two vaccines, developed by China National Biotec Group (CNBG), are expected to enter the market as soon as this December, and two shots will cost less than 1,000 yuan (about 146 U.S. dollars), said Zhou Song, the company's general legal counsel....

Anonymous said...

There are 4 distinct Chinese created coronavirus vaccines well into in stage 3 trials. Each vaccine uses a different approach. Production of doses is already underway, should any of the vaccines be finally approved. These vaccines will be treated as public goods and distributed in different countries at minimal cost.

Also, Chinese health officials are recommending flu shots right now.

Anonymous said...

https://cepr.net/prices-2020-09/

September 11, 2020

Overall and Core CPI Both Rise 0.4 Percent in August Driven by Reversals from Earlier Price Declines
By DEAN BAKER

Rental inflation continues to slow in high-priced areas.

The overall Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4 percent in August, bringing its increase over the last year to 1.3 percent. The core index also rose by 0.4 percent, bringing its increase over the last year to 1.7 percent....

Anonymous said...

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1200653.shtml

September 12, 2020

China’s CDC warns of dual risks of influenza and novel coronavirus in autumn and winter
By Liu Caiyu and Chen Shasha

Beijing and Shenzhen --
________________________________

As concerns linger that humans may face dual risks of influenza and novel coronavirus in autumn and winter, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called for wider populations at risk of having respiratory diseases to have influenza vaccinations in a new-issued guideline....

Anonymous said...

https://cepr.net/the-u-s-china-and-the-new-cold-warriors/

September 7, 2020

The U.S., China, and the New Cold Warriors
By Dean Baker

On the days when he is not celebrating his friendship and trade deals with China’s president Xi Jinping, Donald Trump has sought to hype China as the United States’ major enemy in the world. This has meant not only absurd allegations about the pandemic (top Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro has claimed that China deliberately sent infected people to the U.S. to spread the virus and damage the U.S. economy), but also sanctions, tariffs, and hints of military confrontations. While much of this silliness will go away if Donald Trump is defeated, the idea that the United States is involved in an intense global rivalry with China has gained serious credence among elite types. This is both wrong and dangerous....

Anonymous said...

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-09/10/c_139356487.htm

September 10, 2020

Xi stresses building modern logistics system as support for new development pattern

BEIJING -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday stressed coordinated efforts to advance the construction of a modern logistics system to provide strong support for a new development pattern....

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-09/12/c_139361891.htm

September 12, 2020

Xi stresses development of science, technology to meet significant national needs

BEIJING -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday stressed continuing to advance the development of science and technology to a deeper and broader level....

Anonymous said...

September 12, 2020

Coronavirus

US

Cases   ( 6,646,432)
Deaths   ( 197,641)

Anonymous said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/world/asia/china-schools-reopening.html

September 12, 2020

How China Brought Nearly 200 Million Students Back to School
China says the reopening of classrooms proves that its top-down system is superior. To overwhelmed teachers and students stuck on campuses, its restrictions can feel like overkill.
By Javier C. Hernández

[ New York Times reporters are all propaganda all the time in reporting on China. Shameful.

No matter though, Chinese students are happily back in school... ]