OPINION - Capehart and Abernathy 5/13/2022

"Capehart and Abernathy on COVID deaths, pandemic funding and Jan. 6 subpoenas" PBS NewsHour 5/13/2022

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart and Washington Post columnist Gary Abernathy join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including the U.S. marks a million deaths from COVID-19, Congress reached an impasse on pandemic funding, and the Jan. 6 committee issued subpoenas for five Republican lawmakers.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  As the United States marks one million deaths from the pandemic, President Biden has asked Congress to approve new money to fight future coronavirus variants.  That spending has been stalled for weeks.

Meanwhile, Congress' January 6 Committee issued subpoenas to five Republican lawmakers.

And that brings us to the analysis of Capehart and Abernathy.  That is Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post, and Gary Abernathy, a Washington Post columnist.  David Brooks is away tonight.

Hello to both of you on this Friday night.

Jonathan Capehart (Washington Post):  Judy.

Gary Abernathy (Washington Post):  Hi, Judy.

Judy Woodruff:  Very good to see you.

The subject is grim, you won't be surprised to know.

But I want — I do want to start, Jonathan, by asking you about where we are on COVID.  Here we are at a million deaths.  We are all incredibly sobered by that.  We're hearing from the experts that there could be another, what, 100 million infections — or — I'm sorry — yes, 100 million infections coming.

And the administration is saying, we need between $10 million and $20 million — billion dollars — to deal with COVID.  Are there good arguments against that?

Jonathan Capehart:  No.  No.

Can we just pause for a moment and understand we have lost one million Americans?  I don't know what the particular folks on Capitol Hill, what other evidence they need to see for why that funding needs to be — needs to be passed.  Think about just how much pain and death and agony the American people have suffered, not just the one million people who died, but their families and loved ones and colleagues.

There's going to be another variant.  For the United States not to be — to do everything possible to be prepared for that moment, to do everything possible to forestall another 100 million infections, that's — that would be dereliction of duty.

In March 2020, we had no vaccines.  We didn't know what this was.  Everything was shut down just to try to stop this virus, this thing from spreading around.  We know so much more two years later.  We have got vaccines.  We have got boosters.

Why on earth would we not do everything possible to ensure that we don't go back to those to those horrible days two years ago?

Judy Woodruff:  Gary, what is the argument?  Republicans are resisting this funding.  What are the good arguments not to give it?

Gary Abernathy:  Well, it's hard to come up with good arguments not to offer a lifesaving vaccine.

But when you talk about what happened two years ago and how it happened, you have got to remember, we took a one-size-fits-all approach to fighting this thing nationwide.  And I know communities that got a tremendous influx of COVID money and couldn't find out — couldn't figure out how to spend it all.

I mean, it was kind of a, let's just throw a lot of money out there.  And this is not a Republican or Democrat criticism.  Donald Trump was a part of this.  Donald Trump was approving these things too.  Republicans and Democrats did this.

And now some people are kind of starting to say, well, wait a minute, where's our priority list?  Where's this on President Biden's list of priorities?  Is it — is it above Ukraine?  Is it above helping more — with more money for Ukraine?  Is it more important than the Build Back Better program?  Is it more important than forgiving student loans?

Maybe.  To me, I think providing these vaccines is.  But, at some point, we get to a point where this money doesn't exist.  We don't have this money to spend really.  And so I think people are asking — are asking the President, hey, come up with priorities.  And I think he does have a plan that says, OK, now we're going to prioritize people.

We're going to provide vaccines maybe to just the most at-risk people, people 60 and over, people with immune issues.

Judy Woodruff:  What about the argument, Jonathan, that some of this money was spent, and it's not clear where it went, or it went in other directions?

Jonathan Capehart:  Sure.  Sure.

But that's not an argument to do nothing.  You do better the next time.  But the idea that, because some money went somewhere it shouldn't — it shouldn't have gone, that we shouldn't prepare and protect against a future variant, I think, is ridiculous.

Also, this idea of more money for Ukraine, I wrote down politics, because folks are playing politics with money for Ukraine.  And it's clear why that money is needed.  Again, it's for Ukraine, but it's really for the fight for democracy.  So the same firefight — some of the same folks who are who are complaining about the COVID money are some of the same people who are complaining or stalling funding for Ukraine.

This — when — to bring it back to COVID funding, the administration and basically Washington [DC] cannot not do anything, cannot not prepare for what's to come.

Judy Woodruff:  Gary, how much of this is politics, and how much of it is based on a real, legitimate argument?

Gary Abernathy:  In Washington, there's politics?

Judy Woodruff:  Hello.

(LAUGHTER)

Judy Woodruff:  I know.  I know.  What kind of a question…

Gary Abernathy:  Yes, right.  All of it.

But even on Ukraine, the Associated Press a couple of weeks ago — and PBS highlighted it, I think — talked about there comes — there's coming a point where, how much can we — how much can we give?  I mean, everybody wants to help Ukraine.  It's the most worthy cause, but we're depleting our own resources.

There's real questions now about our ability to defend ourselves against a North Korea or an Iran if something were to happen, because there's only a limited supply of these things.  So, people are starting to now take a look and say, look, we'd love to do it all, but we have to start prioritizing and figuring out, because, really, this is money that just doesn't exist.

Judy Woodruff:  And, of course, Ukraine, we don't know how long that's going to go.

Gary Abernathy:  Right.

Judy Woodruff:  I mean, the predictions are, it could be months, even years, is what we were hearing this week.

The January 6 Committee, they have issued more subpoenas, Jonathan, this time to five House Republicans.  One of them is the minority leader, Kevin McCarthy.  He's indicated he's not particularly excited about going.

(LAUGHTER)

Judy Woodruff:  But what does this lead to, I mean, these high-profile — well, asking for their own membership to come and testify?

Jonathan Capehart:  So, let's keep something in mind here.  When someone is subpoenaed, that's an extraordinary step.  And when that person is a sitting member of Congress in an investigation into an attack on the Capitol, an attack on American democracy, that is a serious step.

But it's not the first step.  The first step was asking House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and some of the others to come in voluntarily and do their duty as a member of Congress, but also as a patriot, to come in and talk about what they know, and to help fill in the gaps, to help that committee and the American people, by extension, to understand what happened on that day as a means of trying to prevent it from happening again.

They refused.  And so the fact that they're being subpoenaed, yes, it's an extraordinary step.  I think it 100 percent should have been done.  It needs to be done.  The attack on the Capitol was an attack on the American people, an attack on our democracy.  And we need answers.

Judy Woodruff:  How do you look on these subpoenas?

Gary Abernathy:  Yes, I agree 100 percent that we need answers, that what happened on January 6 was one of the most horrible things in our nation's history.

And I think we have already had a lot of answers.  I think answers are coming in many ways, including through law enforcement with the people who are charged.  One thing that I know a lot of people are worried about is conflating the peaceful rally that day with the riot.

In other words, there's a lot of talk about, well, who did — did you know, did you help plan this rally?  Did you help?  And planning the rally was perfectly fine, OK?  It's the 100 — a few hundred that broke off and actually invaded the Capitol that are being prosecuted.

But I think the committee does risk some partisan suspicions if it doesn't — it depends on what it finds.  I think that people have already made up their mind about whether this committee is going to uncover anything, without a bombshell revelation.

If this committee comes up with and says, you know what, here's a bombshell revelation about what was really behind this and what the intent was, and it kind of rocks the whole world, both sides of the aisle, that's going to be one thing.

But, short of that, I think people have kind of already settled on their talking points and what they're going to come out with at the end of the day, when this thing eventually wraps up.

Judy Woodruff:  Well, you do have committee members saying there is eye-popping, big information to come from what they have discovered.

Jonathan Capehart:  And I hope it's eye-popping.

But I also hope that the information, even if it's stuff that we already know, even if it's stuff that we have read about, that we have listened to with some of these — these audio — the audio recordings that we have listened to, that we not become numb to the seriousness of the information that we're getting, and that it is important that an investigative body with subpoena power and the ability to write a report, to put on hearings for the American people to see, to bring in witnesses, to show them what people were doing, what people were saying, how this thing got planned.

And, yes, we need to know how the rally got organized, and then how all — how some of these people went to the Capitol and ransacked the Capitol and tried to attack our democracy.  I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that, even if we have read some of this stuff on the front page of The Washington Post, or we have watched news reports here at "PBS NewsHour," that it's not important.

Judy Woodruff:  The fact that it's almost a year and — a year-and-a-half later.

Jonathan Capehart:  Yes.

Gary Abernathy:  Well, here's what we do know.

The rally happened.  And what we know is bad enough.  Donald Trump stood up at a rally and said, if you don't fight for your country, you're not going to have a country, and basically pointed them to the Capitol, where his own vice President was overseeing the count of electoral votes in a constitutional process to certify this election for Joe Biden.

I mean, that's bad enough.  How much more do we need to — how much more bad things do we need to come out to say — for enough people to say, Trump's responsible for what happened?

Jonathan Capehart:  It would be helpful if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy would tell the American people what he told the President in those moments.

It would be helpful if Jim Jordan, who wants to become the next — I think Judiciary Committee chair in the House, what he said to the President when he talked to him probably multiple times that day.  That's important for us to know.

This is not a partisan issue.  This should be a patriotism issue.  Our country was under attack.  And it could happen again, which is why that commission, that select committee is in place to do this report.

Judy Woodruff:  And his point is that there's maybe culpability on the part of some of these members.

Gary Abernathy:  Yes.

And, again, there's a fine line.  And, again, you're talking about your fellow members of Congress.  There's a fine line between saying things to try to — we know a lot of those conversations that were happening, through what's been leaked, were to try to get Trump to take action to calm things down, to put an end to this thing.

And who knows what they said to try to appeal to him and his ego to make that happen.  But would it be interesting?  Yes.  I just think that a lot of it's being found out in other ways.  And the committee just needs to be careful when it comes to subpoenaing members of Congress.

Republicans are going to control Congress, very likely, very likely, after November.  And what goes around comes around.  And you just got to be careful how you treat your fellow members of Congress.

Jonathan Capehart:  They have already said that, if they come into power in the House, that there are going to be investigations galore.

Gary Abernathy:  Yes.

Jonathan Capehart:  The White House is already preparing for that moment.

Gary Abernathy:  And that's not — we need to back off from those vendettas.

(LAUGHTER)

Jonathan Capehart:  Gary.

Judy Woodruff:  On this Friday night, all right, we thank you both.

Gary Abernathy:  Yes.

Judy Woodruff:  Jonathan Capehart, Gary Abernathy, thank you very much, both of you.

Jonathan Capehart:  Thanks, Judy.  Thank you.

POLITICS OF COVID - Vaccine, Masks, Health Care, Jobs

"Politics of vaccine, mask mandates complicate return to normal on college campuses" PBS NewsHour 10/5/2021

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SUMMARY:  Millions of students returned to campus this fall for the in-person college experience, as the delta variant continues to impact parts of the U.S.  Some schools have strict mandates for vaccination, testing and masking.  In other places, that’s not an option.  Hari Sreenivasan begins the latest in our “Rethinking College” series at two of America’s flagship universities.

 

 

"New book shows how failure to implement quick, accurate testing compounded COVID’s spread" PBS NewsHour 10/5/2021

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SUMMARY:  The United States has now passed yet another tragic pandemic milestone.  COVID-19 has now claimed the lives of more than 700,000 Americans.  William Brangham talks to Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA Commissioner and author of new book "Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic" about where the U.S. response failed and how it can do better next time.

 

 

"Overwhelmed by COVID patients, Alaska’s health care workers also face harassment" PBS NewsHour 10/7/2021

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SUMMARY:  New COVID-19 cases continue to fall around the United States — down nearly 25% over the past two weeks, with deaths dropping by more than 10%.  But there are still far too many losing their lives, especially in Alaska where just 58% of the population is fully vaccinated and hospitals are implementing “crisis standards of care" because of a shortage of beds and staff.  William Brangham reports.

 

 

"The pandemic pushed millions of U.S. workers to join the ‘Great Resignation.’ Here’s why" PBS NewsHour 10/8/2021

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SUMMARY:  The September jobs report shows that the unemployment rate fell to 4.8% and job openings are at a record high with wages increased again last month, as companies tried to attract new employees.  But more than 25 million people quit their jobs in the first seven months of this year.  And it's now called “the great resignation.”  Business and economics correspondent Paul Solman explains.

OPINION - Brooks and Capehart 9/10/2021

"Brooks and Capehart on the anniversary of 9/11, the politics of vaccinations" PBS NewsHour 9/10/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join John Yang to discuss the week in politics, including the anniversary of 9/11, the politics of vaccinations and California's recall election.

John Yang (NewsHour):  On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the deadliest terror attack in the country, we are in the midst of another calamity, COVID-19.

Here to break down the political aspects of all this, the analysis of Brooks and Capehart.  That's New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Jonathan Capehart, columnist for The Washington Post.

Gentlemen, we just heard Judy lead a discussion about the foreign policy aspects of all of this.  And, certainly I can — looking back on 9/11, I remember how we felt changed from this.  But, looking back, looking backward at it, how did we change?  Are we changed as a people, as a nation, as a political system?

David, what's your take?

David Brooks, New York Times:  Well, as a globe.

I mean, it was the first act of the 21st century.  And so I was a foreign correspondent in the 1990s.  I covered nothing but good news.  I covered the end of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mandela coming an end of apartheid, the Oslo Peace Process.

And the theme of the '90s was convergence.  China was liberalizing.  We were becoming more like each other and more communication with each other.  We thought the Internet was a good thing back then.

And 9/11 happens, and a group of terrorists said, no, we don't want to be like you.  We reject you.

And so that was a shock.  And then you have other shocks.  The Chinese stops liberalizing.  We don't want to be like you.  Russia goes to Putin.  We don't want to be like that.

So the 21st century has been the re-erection of barriers.  And 9/11 was a first shocking foretaste of a much tougher world.

John Yang:  Jonathan, as I recall, you were in New York.  You were working for Michael Bloomberg.

Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post:  Right.  Right.  I was working on his first of three mayoral campaigns in New York City, and it was primary day.

And I remember waking up.  I lived in a high-rise, so I had a perfect view of the city.  It was a crystal-clear day.  I remember walking to the voting place, looking up at the sky and thinking, this is a spectacular day.  And still to this day, that is — I'd never seen a day like that in New York City.

And all hell broke loose later, about 90 minutes later, later that morning.  Lots of things changed that day.  We were in the middle of a mayoral campaign.  The campaign stopped.

At one point while we're watching the coverage on television, someone just asks out loud, has anyone heard from the mayor, meaning Rudy Giuliani at the time, who, on primary day, everyone in New York was looking forward to turning the page from Rudy Giuliani's mayoralty.

And the rest, we know, is history.

I think that, in these 20 years, just to add on to what David was just talking about, we have seen a lot of what I think of as one step — one giant step forward, and then two giant steps back.  One giant step forward was the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, first Black President.

But a huge step back was the election of Donald Trump as President.  Another huge, huge step forward, the election of Joe Biden as President of the United States.  Another huge step forward, marriage equality.  But another huge step back, to my mind, one was the fact that, even though Donald Trump lost the election, he got 15 — 12 million more votes than he did in 2016.  So it just highlights the divisions within the country.

And then the ultimate step back, January 6.  My colleague Carlos Lozada said this morning on television that how ironic it is that, on September 11, there were reports that the plane that went down in Shanksville was headed to the Capitol, headed to crash into the Capitol.  And yet, at almost 20 years later, the Capitol was ransacked by domestic terrorists who lay siege to the U.S. Capitol at a time when the members of — Congress was certifying the last election.

That was, to my mind, the ultimate step back.  And to your point about the world turning away from democracy, we have that issue here at home right now.

John Yang:  So, Jonathan, you see it — what I hear you saying is that other forces have changed politics more since 9/11 than 9/11.

Jonathan Capehart:  Oh, I think so.

I think MAGA and the domestic terror threat is much more worrisome than any foreign threat we could face.

John Yang:  David.

David Brooks:  Yes, I would agree.

I think we had — we thought we had some debates settled.  And the settlement was liberal pluralism, democratic capitalism, and the world is sort of evolving away from some sort of primitivism.  And then, suddenly, 9/11 happens, and Afghanistan and al-Qaida, and then ISIS.

So, apparently, we're not evolving away from that.  And then — and then capitalism, well, 2008, that sort of disillusions that.  And then, oh, we're a more diverse nation, Barack Obama.  2016 disillusions that.

COVID, we can't function as a people.  We have lost faith in each other.  And so it's been a sad epoch of disillusionment, not without good things, as Jonathan said, but the — just look at the dumb figure, do you trust your neighbors?  Do you trust the people around you?

Anyway generation ago, 50, 60 percent.  Now it's 30 percent, 19 percent of millennials.  And this is the world they have known.  And their distrust is an earned distrust.  And so this is the legacy of what we have faced in the past two decades.

John Yang:  And we are in the midst of another calamity, the pandemic.

And as we have been focusing on 9/11 this week, it struck me.  Someone pointed out to me that, every two days this week, with COVID deaths, we have essentially had another 9/11 and also had another 20-year Afghan war in terms of the Americans who've died.

This week — or, yesterday, the President tried, after resisting mandates, has ordered mandates.

David, what do you make of that shift?  And do you think this is going to work?

David Brooks:  First, I'm reminded, in — September 22, 2001, George Bush had a 90 percent approval rating.  We were a unified country.

We're not that anymore.  I — with the Biden mandates, I think the government has an absolute right to do this.  Public health and the air we breathe is a common good.  I nonetheless think it's a mistake.

If you go around, as I did, and we all do as reporters, you go to a town, McCook, Nebraska; Wilkes, North Carolina; and Chicago, you say, who's trusted here, in every neighborhood, people will give you names.  And they're always the same names.  Everybody knows who the nodes of community is in their community.

And I thought it was public health 101 that you go at the grassroots level to who's trusted in each neighborhood, and you try to get them to influence people to uptake vaccines and do anything else.

Having a top-down, highly partisan process from the part of government that is disliked the most, the politics that is distrusted the most seems to be the wrong way to go.  And it seems to me it's going to create a backlash, where a lot of people that don't like Joe Biden are going to say, hell no, I'm definitely not taking the vaccines now.

And so I think it's — the way we have done it is counterproductive.

John Yang:  Jonathan?

Jonathan Capehart:  I just — I hear you, David, but I just don't think, in this day and age, the grassroots aren't working.  From the bottom up, it's not working.

The President has resisted doing what he did yesterday for the longest time, facing enormous criticism from lots of people, asking, why isn't Washington [DC], why isn't the President doing something, exercising all the power that he has to do something, hoping that neighbors would trust neighbors, people would listen to health professionals?

And it's not happening.  And the anger in the country at the unvaccinated is palpable.  I am one of those people.  Howard Stern is out there cursing at people to get vaccinated because he — quote — "He wants his freedom back."

Millions of Americans, a majority of Americans want their freedom back.  And I think that the President was channeling that anger, and for — on behalf of the majority of the American people who just want their neighbors and friends and co-workers who are resisting getting the vaccine, or even putting on a mask, just do these two simple things, and we would be clear of this faster than then we could imagine.

But folks aren't doing it.  And so if they're not going to do it voluntarily, then the President decided, I'm going to click some levers to make it happen a little more quickly.

I don't think it's going to backfire on him.

John Yang:  But, as David pointed out, I mean, this is generating a huge amount of anger from people who don't like Joe Biden to begin with.

And the Republican governors going to — say they're going to go to court about this.  I mean, are — is this going to be — is it going to backfire?

Jonathan Capehart:  John, it was bound to happen.

Republican governors were bound to be against anything that the President proposed.  And, quite frankly, Republican governors, especially the governor of Texas, don't want to hear anything from him, given that Texas abortion law he signed — bill he signed into law.

David Brooks:  Yes, I would say a government doesn't even know how to do grassroots.  We don't have — in Washington [DC], people think top down.  They think, oh, let's get some celebrities.  That will persuade them.  It's just lame.

But if you — if — in every church, if every pastor, or in softball leagues, if people, if neighbors got together among the avenues of trust that already exist, and say, sorry, you can't play in the softball league unless you get the shots, to me, that's neighbor talking to neighbor.

It's less political.  It's less partisan.  And it doesn't happen on its own.  You — I mean, we're in a sophisticated economy where people know how to create swarms of activity across networks.  And yet government is incapable of thinking that way.

And so we are where we are.

John Yang:  But are the Republicans going to use this as a cudgel against the President, against the Democrats in the midterms and in '24?

David Brooks:  Oh, absolutely.

I mean, they had trouble trying to figure out how to attack Joe Biden.  But now, as a friend of mine e-mailed me today, now they have their line, unconstitutional, incompetent, running your life.  That's a Republican — that's a line Republicans know how to use.

And so I think they will use that.  And I don't want to associate myself with them.  I think they're being crazy.  But we should all be vaccinated.  But that's a pretty politically effective line, I think.

John Yang:  Well, there's another Democratic leader who got into trouble a little bit because of COVID and the reaction to his — what he was doing, Governor Gavin Newsom of California.

There's a recall election coming up.  There are 46 — count them — 46 candidates running to replace him if he is recalled.

What are your thoughts on that, Jonathan?

Jonathan Capehart:  This is insane that the governor of California, who has a high approval rating — his approval rating is a high 50s, low 60s.

And he is facing a recall simply because people don't want to wait until the next election to exact whatever revenge or to hold him accountable.  And so they're going to attempt to get rid of a popular governor.

And then, due to maybe apathy and low turnout, he could get recalled.  And then, yes, there are 46 candidates, but the one leading person, Larry Elder, is somebody who is — I mean, he's from the Trump — the Trump school and Trump wing of the Republican Party.

He is also African American.  And I — I'm almost speechless, because I cannot believe California is in this mess.  And yet, if Democrats don't come out and vote and don't return those ballots — I think the election is next week, if not next week, the week after — Governor Newsom could be history.

But I don't think that's going to happen.  But the fact that we're talking about this just demonstrates how crazy our politics are now.

John Yang:  David?

David Brooks:  The patterns is, in the referendum, the no's tend to rise at the end.  So, if there's going to be momentum, it will probably be on the Newsom side.

But I love democracy, but not direct democracy.

(LAUGHTER)

David Brooks:  And California over does it with the referendum and they overdo it with this.

We elect people for terms for a reason.  And that reason is, sometimes, they have to do unpleasant things that are going to make them unpopular.  And we — if you can be recalled at a moment's notice, it — then they're not going to do those things.

It's not like the ratings on TV, where you cancel the show if it has a bad season.  We have — we go through ups and downs with our politicians, and they should be unpopular.

John Yang:  David Brooks, Jonathan Capehart, thank you very much.

Jonathan Capehart:  Thanks, John.

AMERICA - Our First Dictator Want-to-Be

"How U.S. officials worked to prevent coups, Waco-like sieges in Trump’s final year" PBS NewsHour 7/20/2021

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SUMMARY:  President Donald Trump's last year in office was book-ended by impeachment trials and, marked by a deadly pandemic, economic collapse, racial unrest, and a violent insurrection.  "I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year" authors Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker join Judy Woodruff with new details about the chaos and alarm that rippled across the government during that time.

COVID-19 - Week of 7/29 Roundup

"Dr. Fauci on delta variant, risks to children, breakthrough COVID and booster shots" PBS NewsHour 7/19/2021

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SUMMARY:  COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are rising again in the United States.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] has labeled it a "pandemic of the unvaccinated," warning of the delta variant.  President Joe Biden also warned Monday to beware of misinformation.  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [NIH], joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

 

 

"U.S. officials re-emphasize importance of COVID vaccines, investigating virus’ origins" PBS NewsHour 7/22/2021

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SUMMARY:  The White House is issuing urgent calls to action Thursday in the face of COVID-19's latest assault, especially given the dangerous delta variant of the virus.  The Biden administration's appeals for Americans to get vaccinated come amid talks of re-imposing restrictions.  Amna Nawaz reports.

 

 

"U.S. surgeon general on the ‘most powerful tools’ to combat the delta variant" PBS NewsHour 7/22/2021

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SUMMARY:  Amna Nawaz and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy dive deeper into the Biden administration's efforts to combat the delta variant of the novel coronavirus and surrounding misinformation, public masking requirements and vaccination efforts amid the rise of COVID-19 cases.

 

 

"Rising number of children struggle with COVID’s effects, especially in Black and Latino communities" PBS NewsHour 7/23/2021

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SUMMARY:  Since the pandemic began, children have largely been spared from severe illness and hospitalization.  But nearly a year and a half later, the number of adolescent COVID cases is rising.  While rare, for many it includes debilitating symptoms that can drag on for months.  Black and Latino children have been especially impacted.  Special correspondent Sarah Varney reports.

US HEALTH CARE - A Consequence? Life Expectancy 'Massive' Decline.

"US life expectancy sees ‘massive’ decline, especially in Black and brown communities" PBS NewsHour 6/24/2021

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SUMMARY:  A new study found that between 2018 and 2020, U.S. life expectancy decreased by the biggest margin since World War II.  The pandemic took an outsized toll in America compared to other countries, with life expectancy as a whole dropping by nearly two years.  But for Black and brown Americans, the toll was even worse.  William Brangham discusses the study's findings with lead author Dr. Steven Woolf.

OPINION - Brooks and Capehart 4/23/2021

"Brooks and Capehart on Chauvin verdict, Biden climate plan and Capitol riot investigations" PBS NewsHour 4/23/2021

SUMMARY:  New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including the president's ambitious climate goals.  policing in America, and investigations into the Capitol riot.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  It is a week marked by a moment of reckoning for racial justice, by new calls to hold accountable those behind the January 6 insurrection, and by President Biden's ambitious push to combat climate change.

To help make sense of it all, the analysis of Brooks and Capehart.  That is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, columnist for The Washington Post.

Hello to both of you.  It's so good to see you on this Friday night.

Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post:  Hey, Judy.

Judy Woodruff:  A lot to talk about.

Let's start with the climate summit.

David, President Biden laying out some really ambitious goals, saying the U.S. needs to deeply cut carbon emissions.  Is it realistic, and is life going to have to change in this country to get there?

David Brooks, New York Times:  Well, it's noble and it's the right policy.  I'm not sure how realistic it is.

It's a policy that it's going to introduce a lot of electric vehicles, as we just saw.  We're going to have a new power grid.  If all these things go through, will we really cut emissions by 50 percent?  Well, at the height of COVID, when we were totally shut down, we cut emissions by 21 percent.  So, I'm not totally optimistic.

I think the experts that I have read said you have to do more.  There has to be a price on carbon.  You have to pretty much get rid of natural gas, evolve that out as existence, well as oil-burning cars.  So, that's pretty radical stuff.

But that doesn't make the perfect the enemy of the good, or whatever the expression I'm searching for is.  So, it's definitely a step in the right direction.  I think the really hard thing is China.  China's just still burning coal plants.  They're still producing more energy.  John Kerry, our envoy, wants to keep our climate change policy toward China — with China independent of all of our other policies with China.

As our relations get a lot rockier, as I imagine they will, I don't think that'll be possible.  And so how will we create a — really a global accord, when we're really in some sort of cold war with China?

Judy Woodruff:  What do you think, Jonathan?  Are these things that can really happen?

Jonathan Capehart:  I think I'm with David here that I'm not sure whether these goals are — the numbers that have been set are actually attainable.

What I take from the climate summit this week is President Biden, by holding this summit with the 40, 42 nations, is sending a couple of signals.  One, the United States is back in a leadership role in doing something about climate and doing something about climate change, that it wants to lead the global effort, a recognition that, without the United States' participation, China and India will most definitely not participate in any action to do something about climate.

And so, if we're going to do anything, achieve any goal, we need to have the United States, China, India and the world united in at least doing something.  And I think that's what this — that summit was about this week.

Judy Woodruff:  Let me turn both of you to one of the, of course, big developments of the week, and that was the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, accused in the murder of George Floyd.

David, what do you take away from that?  And what effect do you think — we talked about this some last week, but what effect do you think it could have on policing in this country and on relations between the races?

David Brooks:  Well, the most important news event that happened this week is something that didn't happen.

We didn't get an acquittal.  We didn't get civil unrest.  We didn't get another occasion where people would lose faith in the system, and really be disgusted by the system.  That didn't happen.

And so we can look with some satisfaction at a trial where I think most people agree justice was done.  And we can look back on an episode in American life, from the time of George Floyd's killing until the conviction, when race was on the table in a way it hasn't been, in my view, since 19 — mid-1960s.

The problem, the disparities, the injustices have now become a topic of constant conversation and, in my view, a constant gradual truth-bearing.  And this has been an awkward set of circumstances for a lot of people, a lot of hard conversations.  But, to me, it's — in a rough year, it's been an overall positive, really positive development in American life.

Judy Woodruff:  And, Jonathan, do you see these hard conversations leading to something meaningful?

Jonathan Capehart:  I hope so, Judy.

The conviction of Chauvin, what's interesting is that, as wonderful as the conviction is, it is just a drop in the bucket in terms of solving the overall problem.  Just moments, literally, before the verdict came down, there was the shooting in Columbus.

And while we can quibble over the details of that shooting, the main thing that animates African Americans is this question:  Why is it that when law enforcement and African Americans interact, more often than not, African Americans are the ones who are injured, shot or killed?

And that is the overall question that needs to be answered.  And I think these tough conversations that David is talking about that have been reignited over the last year, they must continue.  This conversation cannot end.

The verdict, the Chauvin guilty verdict on all three counts cannot be the end of the conversation.  It has to be the beginning or the continuation of a conversation that has been needed to be had in America for a very long time.

Judy Woodruff:  And, David, do you see it continuing?

David Brooks:  I do.

And I think there's going to be progress on policing.  I'm optimistic that the United States Senate, Tim Scott the Republican, and Cory Booker the Democrat, will reach a deal and that we will actually have a major police reform.

I do think there has to be not just a change in procedures.  There has to be a change in culture.  African Americans need to feel safe.  And that means the police cannot — have to be in the community, working with the community.  And police officers have to feel safe.  And that means the community has to be working with the police officers.

And so it's the relationship between people in the community and people in the police force.  It's community policing in its real form that is the solution, more beyond changing some procedures or some immunities.

Judy Woodruff:  And, Jonathan, again, I know we talked about it last week, but is your sense that, after this, we are going to see change?

Jonathan Capehart:  I do think so.

And I think the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would be a very good step.  I am very optimistic about the bill's chances today, more so than I was a week ago today.

The fact that Senators Cory Booker and Tim Scott and Congresswoman Karen Bass, who is the lead person in the House, are all talking about ways to get this bill done, including a conversation about qualified immunity that is making it possible for people to sue police departments or police officers individually, that's a huge sticking point for Republicans.

But the fact that Senator Scott put out a compromise — that is, well, maybe not the police officers individually, but police departments, let's have that conversation, that was a very good signal that the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act actually stands a chance of passing and becoming law.

Judy Woodruff:  And, David, there was a development this week around the attempt to come up with an independent commission to investigate what happened on January 6, the insurrection at the Capitol.

Speaker Pelosi has now made at least two sets of proposals, concessions, if you will, compromises to Republicans.  So far, there's no agreement.  How important is it that there being an independent investigation of what happened?

David Brooks:  Yes, this was a classic Republican moment.  Nancy Pelosi said she made these two concessions, then sent a little over to the Republicans.  And the Republicans said, we got no letter.  Where's the letter?  We — it was like, we're pretending to talk.  We're not really talking.

I think we should have a commission.  It was, (A) a major event in American life.  But, (B) — and here, I side a little with the Republicans who want to broaden the scope — I think we should not just investigate this as a one-day crime that happened.

I think we have a problem, an ongoing problem and a growing problem of violent extremism in this country, mostly on the right, mostly characterized by things like January 6, but also a bit on the left.  I think we need a commission that would say, what is the map of violent extremism in this country?  How do these people communicate?

Is there outside help?  There are all sorts of fundamental questions that, if you broaden the scope of the thing, would help us deal with whatever the — whatever future Charlottesville or Portland is coming down the road.

And I think that is the core problem we're facing here.

Judy Woodruff:  Jonathan, do you think the scope should be broadened, as Republicans are saying they want?

Jonathan Capehart:  Absolutely not.

There is no comparison between the people, the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol to subvert the will of the American people, there's no comparison between them and the loosely affiliated folks who are under the umbrella of so-called Antifa.

What happened on January 6 needs to be investigated.  The people who were involved in the planning, the people who just unleashed violence on the U.S. Capitol, but on American democracy, we need to know what happened, why it happened, and how we can prevent that from happening.

And what happened on the 6th is part of a larger problem in the country of the rise of far right extremism.  And we should spend our time focused on that.

Judy Woodruff:  Well, someone in connection with all this, David, your column today in The New York Times, you carry, frankly, a sobering warning about what's happened to Republicans since President Trump left office.

Spell out a little of what you're seeing and what your concern is.

David Brooks:  Yes, well, some of us had hopes that, when Trump was not spewing hate from the Oval Office, life would calm down.

In fact, the Republican Party has grown more radical, more radical in a specific way.  It's become more catastrophically pessimistic.  In one poll, people were asked, do you think politics is for policies or do you think it's for national survival?  More than 50 percent of Trump voters think it's about national survival.  Only 19 percent think government is about policies.

In another survey question, people said, which of these two comments do more agree with, [1] it's a big beautiful world filled with people who are mostly good, or [2] our lives are threatened by criminals, terrorists and illegal aliens, immigrants?  Seventy-five percent of Biden voters supported big beautiful world, 66 percent of Trump voters supported our lives are at threat.

And so here's a group of people who feel the very existence of the country they know is threatened and they have to armor up.  They have to get violent.  They have to prepare for the coming conflagration.

And that's just a horribly pessimistic mentality in a country where democracy depends on us having faith in each other and having some sense of psychic security.  And so that deep, deep pessimism is, I'm afraid, radicalizing the party, and ongoing.

Judy Woodruff:  Jonathan, thoughts on that?

Jonathan Capehart:  Well, I read David's column, and I thought it was terrific.

And it is a sobering warning for the rest of the country.  What has happened to the Republican Party, it's terrible for governance, but it's also terrible for the direction that the country is going in, especially a country that is changing demographically as quickly as the United States.

We are not going to be able to hold the enterprise that is America together as long as one of the two major parties in this country, (one) doesn't govern, and, (two) gives voice to and gives cover for domestic terrorists, racism, and the perpetuation of white supremacy.

We will not survive if that is the way the Republican Party will remain.

Judy Woodruff:  Sobering ending to this conversation.

David, we thank you.  And, Jonathan, we thank you.

Jonathan Capehart:  Thanks, Judy.

David Brooks:  Thank you, too, Judy.

INDIA - Highest Global Single-Day COVID-19

"Modi punts responsibility to states as India records highest global single day infections" PBS NewsHour 4/22/2021

aka 'The Pointing Finger game' (it's not my fault)

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  This week, India set grim and global new high records Thursday with 315,000 cases in just 24 hours and another 2,100 deaths — the highest one day number of new COVID-19 infections of any nation since the pandemic began.  The country's already stressed health care system is overwhelmed.  Amna Nawaz speaks to epidemiologist Ramanan Laxminarayan about the situation and the Indian government's response.

PANDEMIC - Teenagers' Reflections

"Teenagers reflect on how their worlds changed during the pandemic" PBS NewsHour 3/11/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  For teenagers, this year of quarantine and remote school forced an unprecedented experiment in learning and coping.  We asked our network of student journalists to reflect on how their worlds changed and what they're looking forward to once the pandemic is over.