Cruz Ain’t Cruisin’

 

Texas Senator Ted Cruz learned a bitter lesson and was criticized by colleagues this week: Even though you can take off for Cancun with your wife and children amid severe weather, power, and water outages, it is probably a bad idea to do so, especially when most of your constituents cannot leave.  Although he tried to pretend he just accommodated his daughters in their request to get away, that excuse did not fly. And returning with a photo-op of him loading bottles of water at a distribution center also did not provide cover as he was noted to be violating the CDC 10 day quarantine regulations after traveling to Mexico. President Biden has now declared several counties in Texas to be a major disaster center which allows Federal funds to be used for relief and recovery in the state.  What was that about not liking the Federal government, Governor Abbott?

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York raised nearly 5 million dollars for disaster relief, flew to Texas, and volunteered at a food distribution center, quietly showing the Senator how to best serve people. Texas is definitely in a difficult situation because the power grid was not ready to deal with extreme winter weather, despite having a similar problem several years ago and not following the advice at that time to weatherize their systems. Texas is the only state in the continental US to not be a part of the national power grid or be subject to Federal regulations. The lack of regulations of the several individual power companies, the absence of interrelated connectivity meant that each company had to stand alone in the face of unprecedented demand and concurrent failure from frozen feeder lines or system adjuncts. When homes remained unheated in below-freezing temperatures, water pipes started to freeze and burst, water supply systems were compromised and havoc resulted. Residents faced a lack of heat, power, and water with no way to provide food, drinking water, or flush toilets. Those who had power on a variable rate payment system suddenly found themselves with bills totaling thousands of dollars.

Although Texas Governor Abbott tried to blame the Green New Deal (which has not yet been passed as a law) for the power failure due to wind turbine shut down; that didn’t make it either as an excuse, since the turbines – which only account for ten percent of the total power source - also were not winterized. (Turbines in North Dakota work well throughout the extreme cold weather there due to proper insulation.)

So where do we go from here? The New York Times has an excellent article today which discusses the lack of readiness across the country to deal with continuing weather extremes prompted by global climate change. Increasing wild-fires, floods, droughts, and severe storms all are taxing the infrastructure which has not been maintained at even a minimum level for generations.  There was a joke during the previous administration about the ‘infrastructure week’ which somehow never got off the ground in four years. Well, this should not be a joke as shorelines are receding, bridges are crumbling and rivers are exceeding flood planes and levees.  Upkeep of power grids and nuclear plants has not been made a priority by the utilities which run them and regulatory authorities have not insisted on this. All of these upgrades and reinforcements cost money and may increase the costs of supplying these resources; is the American public ready to pay more for consistency of services? 

Even though the partisan Senate found excuses to not convict the former president of extreme crimes and misdemeanors, the FBI, according to the Guardian, has not let up in the hunt for the Capitol insurrectionists and has activated field offices across the country in these efforts. More than 250 insurgents have so far been charged according to NPR and more have been identified and are on search lists. It is alarming to note that at least 14 % of those arrested so far have ties to the military; this concern has caused the Pentagon and military officials to take a look at possible ties with former and active military by extreme groups. Some arrests have been made of police officers and legislators who participated. The number of organized groups attending and the arms they carry are also concerning to officials. Several members of the Capitol Hill police force are also under investigation for their actions during the event and six members have been suspended so far. We continue to learn more as the days go by; the extent and membership of these alt-right and anti-government groups seem to be wider than many knew.  When the FBI indicated that domestic terrorists from the right were one of our bigger threats, it faced push-back by the administration on these investigations; QAnon was one of the groups identified in this testimony.

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February is Black History month, so it is dismaying to learn that in this month Georgia is one of many states trying to restrict voter access as it is including proposals for legislation against permitting Sunday voting thus attacking the tradition from black churches for ‘Sunday Souls to the Polls’ in early voting.  The Brennan Center for Justice reports “that more than 33 states have introduced, pre-filed, or carried over 165 restrictive bills this session”. At the same time, 37 states have done the same to expand access to voting.  Some states, such as Mississippi, are extending more voting rights to felons, more than half of whom are black. Florida passed a constitutional amendment permitting felons to vote, but the legislature added a requirement to pay onerous court costs and fines for parolees before registration, making voting difficult. Former NY Mayor Bloomberg’s political organization worked last year to help pay off many of the fines which permitted many felons to vote in 2020.

Many hope that Congress will pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (For the People Act – HR1/S1) which will restore many of the constitutional rights being lost by restrictive legislation.  The Brennan Center also notes that it is imperative for racial justice and our democracy that this bill is passed.  “Racial justice cannot be fully achieved without a system in which all Americans have the means to advocate for themselves and exercise political power.”

This legislation also provides for the modernization of voting and tabulation and restoration of the full provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. (The provisions in that act were devastated by the Supreme Court decision from Shelby County vs. Holder in 2013 and are detailed in the Atlantic Magazine article referenced here. By removing states known to have violated voter rights from the requirements for pre-clearance for voting restriction proposals, the Court gutted much of that law which had not been renewed by Congress.) Many hope that this bill will pass the Democratic Congress.  Its’ designation denotes its’ importance.

But on a more positive note, the Pew Research Center shows that this current Congress is the most diverse in history: 124 members or 23 % currently identify as a minority, – 59 African American, 46 Hispanic, 17 Asian American, and 6 Native American.  83 % of these members are Democrats, 17 % are Republicans.  Women now hold 26% of the seats in Congress: 143 women (135 Democrats and 38 Republicans), and of course, our Vice President Kamala Harris is a Black/South Asian woman!

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The Covid UK or British variant – (B-1.1.7) is spreading widely in the United States and is expected to be the dominant version by next month; the South African variant has also been identified in the US from community spread. Even though cases are currently trending down, we need to still protect against these variants by continuing to mask and social distance. The best way to contain these variants is to decrease the amount of virus in the community, so increasing the number of vaccinations is the most necessary step. Currently, reports indicate that over 67 million patients have been vaccinated; 48.6 have received the first dose and 18.9 have been fully vaccinated with the second dose.  The Biden Administration stated it has secured enough vaccines for more than 300 million Americans to be fully vaccinated by the end of the summer. The US is expected to count 500,000 deaths by the end of this day  - a terrible statistic that could have been lessened if we had addressed the pandemic properly.

COVID stats – NY Times as of Feb 20, 2021.

US total cases: 28,147,800. New Cases: 69,740.

Total US deaths: 498,650. New Deaths: 1,831.

Maryland Statistics: Maryland has now vaccinated at least 12% of its’ population with one dose. For the first time in months, MD had fewer than 1000 cases most days in the last week.

Total MD cases: 375,737. Total new cases: 763.

Total Deaths: 7,697. Total new deaths: 20.

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A personal note – as I watched the news tonight I saw one of my old friends - civil rights activist, WW ll Vet, and all-around good Democrat – 101-year-old Harvey Ziegler receive his Covid vaccination in Silver Spring.  Good for you, Harvey! Stay well!

No live panda cam today – but a really cute photo of Xiao Qi Ji eating some sweet potato.

“Til next week – peace!

 

 

 

 

Guilty as charged, BUT -

 

Washington has seen many rallies and protests over the years. It has never seen one as destructive as the insurrection incited by our former president on January 6^th 2021. As I have mentioned before, and as was clearly shown by the House impeachment team led so ably by my Congressman Jamie Raskin, the impetus for these events were many months in preparation. Seeds were sown even before he was elected, stoked with the parades in Charlottesville, and encouraged by the continuous campaigning of the last four years. Unfortunately, the partisan Senate turned a deaf ear to these forceful arguments and did not remedy the situation with the two-thirds vote of the Senate as needed. Seven Republican Senators did vote to convict and that is an encouraging sign.

After the hearing, both Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell made forceful speeches denouncing the former chief executive and finding him guilty as charged. McConnell, who would not entertain the Impeachment resolution from the House until the date of Biden’s inauguration, then claimed it was not relevant because the offender was no longer in office and was thus ineligible to be impeached.  (Even though the Senate voted to disallow this position in permitting the hearings to proceed, he persisted.) Some may appreciate this circular argument, but I do not and I believe that most Americans also do not agree with this hair-splitting.

Many TV commentators noted that some prominent Republican Senators studiously avoided paying attention to the stark video presentation from the House managers, even as others were visibly shocked by the scenes of violence against law enforcement officers. Gasps were noted as it became clear just how dangerous it was to be in the Capitol that day and how close the rioters came to VP Pence, Leader Schumer, and Senator Romney, among others. According to the New York Times, and as we all knew, getting to 67 was a big reach given the political divisions in this closely divided country. The editorial, “Trump is Guilty” stated: ‘that this abdication of duty by the Senate is heartbreaking for the nation….and is a tacit admission that the only constituents these Republican Senators consider worth representing are their most partisan supporters.’  The editorial also noted that holding him accountable is the only way that Republicans can move forward and failure to do so will mean that it can happen again.

I know we are told that Democrats should cheer those Republicans who stepped forward and voted for conviction, okay, but really? They need to also step up and lead their party to a better future and to break it away from its’ cult of personality. Local parties, controlled by MAGA mania in many cases, have moved swiftly to censure these politicians.  But as Senator Cassidy (R-LA) said today - he was just re-elected in 2020 - he has several years to convince his voters of the correctness of his vote and he could not support someone who touted false election landslides, spread lies, and used violence to oppose the peaceful transfer of power. That is what a leader should and must do if we, as a country, are to move forward from these disruptions.

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AL) indicated that Alaskans will understand that she needs to vote for what a president should stand for. “If I can’t say what I believe that our president should stand for, then why should I ask Alaskans to stand with me?” The other Republican Senators voting to convict (all 48 Democratic and 2 Independent Senators voted in favor of conviction) were:  Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Pat Toomey of PA, and Richard Barr of NC.  The last two are retiring and will not be running for re-election.  I do wish that some of the other retiring Senators – Portman and Shelby could also have stepped forward – it was a no-fault choice for them as well. Senators Grassley and Thune were also said to be considering retirement, but all voted to acquit.

I know we have a partisan Congress, but when the issue is the instigation of violence against you and your fellow legislators, your VP, your protectors, and since your president indicated that he did not care if any or all of you died, how could you vote to acquit him when he was so clearly guilty? What will happen if he feels now free to start this all over again? The previous acquittal gave him license to exercise more outlandish behavior and as Congressman Ted Lieu (D- CA-33) indicated he is fearful that he will repeat this incitement if given a chance to do so. A conviction would have led to a vote forbidding him to ever stand for office again – now that is an open issue.  He will try these tactics again because, to his way of thinking, they worked! He will continue to support the fringes who follow him such as Congresswoman Green of Georgia and Congressman Goetz of Florida. Goetz was one of the people who went to Wyoming to rally against Republican Representative Liz Cheney because she voted for impeachment in the House decision to impeach. Other Republicans who voted to impeach have been threatened with similar rallies and future primary opponents.

I must say something about the House Managers. I believe their presentations were factual, earnest, persuasive, and brought out the horrors of that day; a day that I never expected to experience.  If I was horrified from the safety of my living room, what about those who were there with their families to participate in a quadrennial celebration of the transfer of power? The managers also were emotional at times as they spoke about their feelings and the perceived and real dangers to people and to our democracy on that day.

So, to Impeachment leader Jamie Raskin (MD-8) and his fellow advocates, (in alpha order) – Joaquin Castro (TX), David Cicilline (RI), Madeleine Dean (PA) Diana DeGette (CO), Ted Lieu (CA), Joe Neguse (CO), Stacey Plaskett (USVI) and Eric Swalwell (CA) - Kudos to all for a job done well – it is not your fault that your audience refused to listen.  I must also point out a couple things, this group included two members who were children of immigrants, two were African American, one was Asian and one was Hispanic, three were women.  This small but effective group looked like America.  Also, I need to mention what Rep. Plaskett said in retort to the opposing team, that the videos they showed overwhelmingly used women and people of color in negative scenes while trying to make their point that others use the term ‘fight’ in political speech.  Good for her!  At one point I asked if they were running against Congresswoman Maxine Walters of California, as she was shown so many times in the opposition films. I am convinced that this film pleased their client and him only.

So where do we go from here?  I am convinced that until the Republican party can rid itself of its’ MAGA affliction that it cannot grow and govern adequately. I have heard that the more ‘moderate wing’ of the Party (I know – oxymoronic term – but - compared to the tea partiers or MAGA maniacs) such as the Bushes and their circles, along with the never-trumpers are considering forming a new Republican Party to move away from toxic influences as seen now. Do you think this change will happen?  I consider that continuing along the same tortured pathway to hold onto a shrinking number of far-right Republicans is a plan for the eventual demise of the party. But, when your elected officials have sold their souls and principles to a discredited leader, what else can be expected?

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COVID19 cases have decreased by 37% over the last two weeks as we move away from the holiday surge.  But experts warn that we are still exceeding the numbers experienced during the summer peaks seen in 2020. Vaccinations are increasing; the US reported that more than 2 million doses were given on Friday. The Biden Administration noted that they have secured a total of 600 million doses to be delivered by midsummer so that every American should be vaccinated by then if vaccination sites continue to increase in number. So far CDC reports that 52,884,356 vaccinations have been administered with more than 14 million second doses completed.

Maryland is currently ranked 42^nd among states in percentages of vaccines administered with just a bit over 745,000 doses given as of Friday 2/12/21.

COVID stats- NY Times 2-13-21:

Total US Cases: 27,682,700. New Cases: 84,727.

Total US deaths: 485,154. Total new deaths: 3,373.

Maryland total cases: 370,136.  New cases: 1,159.

Total deaths: 7,536. New deaths: 33.

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February 14^th is the third anniversary of the shooting at the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. Sadly, mass shootings, school shootings, and gun violence have not ended, despite all of those who spoke out and organized Marches for Our Lives.  Now maybe we can finally work to get background checks and restrictions on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines implemented through a divided but Democratic Congress. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to do something now. Studies have shown that urban violence affects black and brown populations disproportionately. Over the last year, gun purchases have increased across the country, background checks often take more than three days, which allows people to slip through and make a purchase without review as a result of less than timely checks.

So, in this Valentines’ Time – which should promote love, take time to save lives with advocacy for common-sense gun regulations.

‘Til next week – peace!

Anniversaries

 

Anniversaries are quite often celebrations:

•     The baby is now one-year-old        
•   The marriage has lasted fifty years
•    I have survived another trip around the sun!

Sometimes they commemorate or memorialize:

•  One hundred years since the Spanish flu
•  The attack at Pearl Harbor
•  The fall of the Twin Towers and attacks at other places on 9-11.

This weekend is the anniversary of the death of the first known American patient (Patricia Dowd of San Juan, California) to lose her life to the coronovirus and the death of the Chinese physician (Li Wenliang of Wuhan, China) who first raised the alarm about the virus. Li was censored and silenced by the Chinese authorities, even as they were locking down the city of Wuhan and restricting travel throughout the country.  The Washington Post on Sunday had a strong editorial chastising the Chinese for their lack of transparency about the viral outbreak and the work being done by the viral research labs located in Wuhan.

This past week was the anniversary of the Senate acquittal of the former president after his 2020 impeachment trial. These two events are intimately intertwined and, I believe, have set the stage for this last year and the horrific times we have all suffered through. By voting to not convict, the Senate enabled an already out-of-control president to continue not only his non-traditional presidency but also further expand his aberrant behaviors.

The ineptitude of his administration to control or contain the virus has now brought this country to the place where we are approaching 500,000 COVID deaths and over 27 million total cases. The refusal to listen to scientists, the sidelining of the CDC, the battle against closures, and mask-wearing are all administration failures. Fanciful therapies, Hydroxychloroquine, Lysol, and bleach joined a realm of quack cures along with herd immunity claims.

The inability of the government to devise and implement a national COVID-19 policy, the dividing of the mask-wearing campaign into red states against blue states, the lack of any adequate health care stockpile, the absence of a national economic policy to address the significant loss of jobs all lie at the feet of the former president and vice-president. The reaching for quick and easy solutions, the denials (it will be gone by Spring), and false promises, i.e. churches can meet for Easter; all led to false hopes and deepened the spread. To their credit – they did manage to finance the development of several vaccines, some of which are effective and are now being implemented. But it has been a year of devastation to the economy, poverty for many in the working class, and the expansion of hunger across many classes. Oh sure, the stock market after an initial plunge has now reached new heights, but that mostly helps the few who own stocks, not the many who live paycheck to paycheck.

Many hoped that once the president and members of his family became afflicted that more attention would be paid to the scientists, but that did not happen and the White House itself became a super spreader site.  Many afflicted patients hoped that they, too, could receive the experimental therapy the president was treated with, but supplies were limited, so the public was mostly left out.  So, after a year, we have some therapies which help treat, but do not cure and vaccines that can immunize; the length of the immunization effectiveness is still uncertain.

President Biden has a national COVID policy and has hit the ground with an ambitious plan.  He has noted that the transition team had not been informed that there was no stockpile of vaccines, nor were there any coherent administration policies in place. He wanted 100 million vaccinations given within 100 days.  He asked for a national mask-wearing policy for the same 100 days and by executive order has required mask-wearing in all Federal buildings, in addition to social distancing.  He also instituted a mask policy for all transportation entities, buses, metros, planes, trains, and rideshares. Scientists have indicated that this short period of mask-wearing could save 80,000 lives.

The lack of mask-wearing at the insurrection at the Capitol has led to many members of local law enforcement testing positive for the coronovirus; the return of these domestic terrorists across the country to their home states has, undoubtedly, caused many more exposures. Several Democratic lawmakers have also tested positive, quite possibly from Republican members who refused to wear a mask when they were congregated in hiding. Biden cannot require states to follow his mask mandate, however, and Iowa’s Republican governor (Kim Reynolds) has just this week indicated that she will lift the limited mask requirements the state had in place. Health care providers, such as Dr. Fauci and others have worried about the Super Bowl being played in Florida this weekend as that activity brings many people to a state with few limits on gatherings and mask-wearing. The game itself did require mask-wearing and social distancing, but TV interviews demonstrated many fans partying without masks.  The aftergame partying in the streets sadly showed no social distancing and few masks being worn. (In case you hadn’t noticed, Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9.)

This week most national numbers are trending down and providers think we have passed the winter and post-holiday peaks. This is not the time to let one’s guard down as it is assumed, that by March, the UK variant will dominate the virus outbreaks in the US. Currently, the nation is now contending with two previously untracked variants, both of which are considered more easily transmitted, the UK variant and the South African variant.  The two RNA vaccinations are effective for these two but less so than the original configuration.  South Africa has determined that the Astra Zeneca vaccine is not adequate protection against their variant. One of the problems in the US is that there was no national genome sequencing program established to identify variants.  To date the US has sequenced only 0.3% of its cases; the UK has done 5%, Denmark has reviewed 12%, while Australia has examined over 60% of its cases. Most studies here are done by independent labs or academic centers that are not linked by data collections. An organization called SPHERES (SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing for Public Health Emergency Response, Epidemiology, and Surveillance) was launched in May by the CDC to track sequencing, but it was never nationally formally implemented into a vital collection database.

Vaccinations are proceeding at a faster pace and just this week mass vaccination centers are being set up across the country. Recently, the National Football league has offered its’ stadiums across the country as additional mass vaccination sites. The administration is also sending 1 million doses of vaccines to commercial pharmacies across the country to speed up vaccinations. Many states are reporting under vaccinations in communities of color and efforts are being made to overcome the clinic deficiencies in poor neighborhoods as well as vaccine resistance by this population. The incidence of Covid diseases in communities of black and brown supportive workers has been substantially higher than in comparable white workers. Additionally, it has been documented that many nursing home employees have refused the vaccines, even though they have seen high levels of deaths in their work environments.

Currently, approximately 30 million residents have been vaccinated in the US. Vaccination rates vary across the country. Since total vaccination requires 2 doses, only 2.5% of the necessary dosing has been given thus far. It is obvious that we need, as a country, to step up this pace. West Virginia ranks among the highest percentages with over 12% vaccinated, while Iowa is the lowest on the lists with only about 7.5% vaccinated.

Maryland currently is at 8.6%, which is too low. Vaccination registration has been confusing and implementation has been spotty as distribution rates are not yet stabilized. The state did open up two mass vaccination sites this week which should help increase the totals.

So much news, so little time to look at the upcoming Impeachment in the Senate, the troubled and divided Republicans in the House, or the antics of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia. No time to discuss other issues such as the necessary return to education in the classrooms, the 1.9 trillion dollars requested by the President to aid the economy, families, and COVID relief - and Black History Month.  Hopefully, next week!

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COVID stats – NY Times: 2/7/21

Total US cases: 27,041,000. Total new cases: 105,027.

Total deaths: 463,237.  Total new deaths: 2,613.

Maryland Cases: 362,084. New cases:1,500. Total deaths: 7,329. New deaths: 42.

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“Til next week – peace.