TRUMP FUEL - The Promotion of Violent Imagery

"Trump employs images of violence as political fuel for reelection fight" by Michael Scherer, The Washington Post 9/8/2020

President Trump has reverted to using graphic depictions of violence as a centerpiece of his reelection campaign strategy, using his Twitter account, his stump speech and even the White House podium as platforms for amplifying domestic conflict.

His 2016 focus on radical Islamist terrorism and undocumented-immigrant crime, which he credited with helping him win the Republican nomination, has been replaced by warnings of new threats as he elevates gruesome images of Black-on-White crime, street fights involving his supporters and police-misconduct unrest nationwide.

The pattern continued over the holiday weekend, when he tweeted video of a melee in Texas between protesters and security officers during an event for a Trump-affiliated group and two celebratory videos of a protester in Portland, Ore., with his feet on fire.  One of the videos was scored to the Kenny Loggins song “Footloose,” and the second featured mocking play-by-play commentary by a mixed-martial-arts announcer.

“These are the Democrats ‘peaceful protests,’?” Trump wrote.  “Sick!”  On Monday, he retweeted a prediction that political unrest “could lead to ‘rise of citizen militias around the country.’?”

The strategy echoes the approach that fueled his climb in politics as he shocked the political world with graphic warnings about “rapists” crossing the border illegally from Mexico, welcomed the families of crime victims to speak at his events and said he favored instructing the military to target the families of Islamist extremists, a probable war crime.  He also repeatedly encouraged assaults on protesters at his events.

In each case, the unprecedented focus on violence by a high-profile American politician allowed Trump to attract attention, turning his rallies into unpredictable and raucous affairs that were widely viewed.  It also set the stage for Trump to establish his political persona as a strongman itching to dominate threats foreign and domestic.

Nearly four years after winning that race, Trump is making the same argument, albeit about different dangers, using the specter of violence amid Black Lives Matter protests to claim superior toughness and promising forceful resolution if given the chance.

“These people only know one thing, and that is strength,” he said Wednesday in Wilmington, N.C., of violent street protests in Oregon and Wisconsin.  “That’s all they know — strength.  And we have strength.”

On Monday, Trump retweeted footage of Black protesters in Pittsburgh screaming at White outdoor diners, drinking from their glasses and knocking over their dishes during a protest over the weekend.

“Disgraceful.  Never seen anything like it.  Thugs!” Trump wrote.  “And because of weak and pathetic Democrat leadership, this thuggery is happening in other Democrat run cities and states.  Must shut them down fast.”

Amid a pandemic that has killed more than 186,000 Americans, the jarring political gambit has shifted the focus of the Presidential campaign, forcing Trump’s Democratic opponent, former vice President Joe Biden, to air an ad, titled “Be Not Afraid,” [video link] focused on his own opposition to the recent violence in Oregon and Wisconsin.

“The President is on offense, and that is always a good thing,” said Roger Stone, a former Trump political adviser who received a presidential commutation after seven felony convictions this summer.  “The law-and-order issue really motivates the President’s base, and it also appeals to independents.”

Although Trump has received no big boosts in polling, he unapologetically promoted a video last week of his supporters attacking protesters in Portland, later arguing at the White House that their firing of paintball guns and pepper spray in city streets from the back of pickup trucks was “defensive.”  On Twitter, he said the conflict was a logical response to provocation by liberals.

“The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected,” Trump wrote in a tweet that included a video of the incident.

He also has returned to using his Twitter account to broadcast falsehoods that perpetuate racial conflict.  For the third time this summer, on Aug. 30 he retweeted a video of a Black man brutally attacking a White person, this time with a caption falsely suggesting that the assailant in a New York subway assault in 2019 was connected to Black Lives Matter or antifa.

The posts echo a 2015 Trump retweet that showed a picture of a Black man with a gun and falsely claimed that Black people commit a majority of homicides against White people, a racist trope for which he never apologized.  The White House argued this month, as Trump did in 2015, that he was not responsible for the accuracy of his retweets.

Politically motivated street fights have become more common during his presidency.  Conflicts at protests have led to injuries in recent weeks in places such as Kalamazoo, Mich.; Bloomington, Ind.; and Weatherford, Tex., as protesters of police misconduct have clashed with counterprotesters who are sometimes dressed in Trump-branded apparel and claim to be helping to keep the peace.  In one case, a gun-wielding Trump supporter in Kenosha, Wis., was charged with murder after allegedly killing two protesters and injuring a third.  (A supporter of a far-right group was fatally shot during a counterprotest by Trump backers in Portland last month.  The suspect, a backer of the far-left antifa movement, was killed by law enforcement Thursday.)

In the face of this violence, Trump has condemned the actions of left-wing rioters but declined to condemn violence by his supporters, even as he falsely claims that Biden is refusing to denounce violence on the left.

“I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point,” Trump said last year in an interview with Breitbart News when asked about fights over free speech on college campuses.  “And then it would be very bad, very bad.”

From his start in politics, Trump has brushed aside the idea that he has a responsibility for any violence that results from his campaign style.  When a reporter asked in 2015 whether he was concerned that his rhetoric against protesters and immigrants might lead to additional violence in American streets, he recoiled at the question.

“People are getting hurt.  People are being decimated by illegal immigrants.  The crime is unbelievable,” he said, an argument belied by statistics.  “Now in my way, I don’t want anybody hurt.  But people are being hurt.  So when you ask that question, it’s very unfair.”

His answer was notable for its zero-sum view: Suffering in the country was inevitable — the question was who suffered more.

Trump’s return to focusing on violent threats and conflict follows summer months in which he appeared politically adrift as the coronavirus pandemic overtook the nation, infecting at least 6.2 million people and dampening the economy.

He initially wavered about whether to focus campaign advertising on touting his pandemic response or on attacking his opponent, before eventually launching attacks on Biden’s ties to China, his mental acuity and his policy positions.  Biden’s polling advantage widened.

When nationwide protests against police misconduct led to violence this summer, Trump’s strategy shifted again.  A July 9 set of talking points distributed around the White House by Stephen Miller, an adviser who wrote Trump’s 2016 nomination speech, previewed the message that Trump would settle on for the final push to the Republican National Convention.

The solution Miller described, which Trump soon incorporated into his rhetoric and advertising, was to portray Biden as a fundamental threat to public safety.  “No one will be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” the document read.  The Democratic nominee, Miller’s document continued, “will surrender America and its citizens to the violent left-wing mob” and “abolish the American Way of Life.”

The shift sought to rehabilitate Trump’s political message of dominance and turn the discussion away from the pandemic, which public polling showed had become a drag on the President’s support.

“You can’t really tell people that there is no COVID crisis, because they are surrounded by it.  The only thing you can do is make something else louder,” said Matthew Baum, a political scientist at Harvard University who studies political persuasion and misinformation.  “You don’t have to persuade people.  All you have to do is say: ‘Don’t look over there.  Look over here.’?”

Biden has argued that Trump is trying to distract Americans from his inability to better address the health, economic and race-relations crises facing the nation.

Trump’s message is, “?‘The whole country is up in flames.  Everything is burning.  Law and order,’ ” Biden said Friday at a news conference in Wilmington, Del., “because he doesn’t want to talk about anything, anything at all, about the job he hasn’t done.”

Biden has mocked Trump’s effort to cast him as responsible for any street violence, no matter the alleged perpetrator.

“Ask yourself: Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?” Biden asked during a speech on Aug. 31 in Pittsburgh.  “I want a safe America — safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops.  Let me be crystal clear — safe from four more years of Donald Trump.”

Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said the President is focused on helping communities affected by the violence.  “These riots are destroying the life’s work of Black, Hispanic and Asian business owners, and they have to stop,” he said.

Expressions advocating violence were central to Trump’s early political endeavors.

“I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you,” Trump said about a protester at an event in Las Vegas.  When a nonviolent Black protester was beaten at a rally in Birmingham, Ala., by a White crowd, Trump responded the next day, “Maybe he should have been roughed up.”

He argued repeatedly at rallies for the extrajudicial abuse or even killing of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had left his post in Afghanistan.  “Thirty years ago, he would have been shot,” Trump said.  At another event, he said of Bergdahl’s capture by the Taliban, “They beat the crap out of him, which is fine.”

Rather than recoil, his crowds embraced the tough talk, and Trump has delivered more as President.  After Greg Gianforte, then a Montana congressional candidate, physically attacked a reporter in 2017, Trump turned the incident into an applause line.  “Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type!” the President said.

When Trump addressed a law enforcement group in 2017 on Long Island he urged incaution in policing.

“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon,” he said, “you just see them thrown in, rough.  I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’?”

The new threat Trump has focused on is depicted as no less ominous than his previous targets — and it is similarly inflated with rhetoric that mixes descriptions of actual events with conspiracy theories for which he offers no evidence.  In recent days, he has described “rioters, anarchists, agitators and looters” who he claimed in a Fox News interview, without evidence, have been traveling the country in commercial planes to create havoc, funded by “people you have never heard of” who operate in “dark shadows.”

He also has tried to adjust the historical record by claiming federal actions he instigated have proved that his solution of physical toughness and law enforcement domination is responsible for clearing streets of violent protesters.  On a visit to Kenosha, he claimed that his push to deploy the National Guard saved the city from further rioting after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man.

“If I didn’t INSIST on having the National Guard activate and go into Kenosha, Wisconsin, there would be no Kenosha right now,” Trump tweeted last week.  Federal officials did work with local law enforcement in quelling the protests, but Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) had ordered the Guard to the city a day before Trump’s public call for their deployment.

Pollsters have noted a shift in polling around the Black Lives Matter movement, which was initially broad and bipartisan in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May.  Support for the movement in Wisconsin, according to a Marquette University Law School poll, fell from 59 percent to 49 percent between June and August.

But national polls continue to show that Biden leads Trump on questions of which candidate would make the country safer.  A recent national Quinnipiac University poll found that 50 percent of likely voters said Trump made them feel less safe, compared with 35 percent who said he made them feel more safe.

By contrast, 42 percent of voters said Biden would make them feel more safe as President, compared with 40 percent who said they would feel less safe.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 8/21/2020

"Shields and Brooks on Biden’s DNC performance, Trump’s RNC approach" PBS NewsHour 8/21/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including reaction to the Democratic National Convention and Joe Biden’s acceptance speech, what to expect from President Trump at the Republican National Convention next week and concerns about delays in U.S. mail service ahead of the election.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  The Democrats spent this week making their case for a Joe Biden presidency.  Next week, it's the Republicans' turn to argue for four more years for President Trump.

But, tonight, it's the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That is syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

It is so good to see both of you.  We have seen you — you have seen us too much for the last four nights, but we're so glad to have you back.

David, the Biden campaign is putting out positive vibes tonight.  They're saying:  We think we did really well.  We raised $70 million over four days.  A lot of people were watching.

How do you think they did?  What stays with you?

David Brooks, New York Times:  What is that Beach Boys song, "Good Vibrations?"

Yes, they have earned them.  They had a convention that vastly exceeded expectations, certainly my expectations.  They had a candidate who delivered an address with a fierce urgency that you can't fake, actually.

And they had Barack Obama, Michelle Obama.  They had a series of remarkable performances that I think, for the first time in this campaign, not only generated opposition to Donald Trump, but generated some general and genuine enthusiasm for Joe Biden.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark, what do you — what's your takeaway?

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  I couldn't disagree more.

No, Judy, it was a…

(LAUGHTER)

It was a very, very positive convention, make no mistake about it.

Barack Obama being the big surprise.  After four years of Democrats waiting for him, his being circumspect and restrained, he arrived with a full-throated indictment of Donald Trump, and Donald Trump's failure to lead, and Donald Trump's failure to protect the country in its great crisis, and basically made the case that Donald Trump did not devote the time, energy, effort, and probably did not have the capacity to be President.

But I think — and I agree with David about Joe Biden.  It was — in many respects, it was a great advantage to have the remote convention, because Joe's tendency often is to win everybody in the room, and which he tries to do and does when he's speaking.

But, here, he had 24 minutes.  It was — he stayed within himself.  He made the case, I thought, compellingly.

But, more than anything else about the convention, to me, I was reminded of the words of the poet Maya Angelou, who said, people will forget what you did, people will forget what you said, but people will not forget how you made them feel.

And the vignettes about Joe Biden from Greg Weaver of Amtrak, who suffered a heart attack, a conductor.  Joe Biden knew his children, his grandchildren.  Joe Biden, as Vice President, reached out and contacted him in a barbershop in New York City to be sure how he was doing, that Joe Biden, the way he treated the elevator operator at The New York Times.

Judy Woodruff:  Right.

Mark Shields:  He didn't get the endorsement of The New York Times.  He got her endorsement.  She nominated him and said that there's more than room in his heart for himself.  There's room for me and so many others.

And, finally, as you commented, Brayden Harrington, the 13-year-old, brave, courageous young man from New Hampshire, who revealed that Joe Biden had told him:  We're in the same club, we're stutterers, and helped him and gave him the courage.

And I think that came through probably more strongly than anything else, and I think to Joe Biden's advantage.

Judy Woodruff:  So, David Brooks, did they do what they needed to do?  And did they miss the mark on anything?

David Brooks:  Yes, they did three-quarters of what they needed to do.

What's impressive about the Biden campaign is that they had a theory about two years ago, and they have stuck with the theory.  The theory is that the country is exhausted and wants a uniter.  And they ignore Twitter.  They ignored a lot of the left-right thing.  They just pursued that theory.

What they did not do is go to the heart of this electorate, which is working-class voters in the Upper Midwest.  It's sort of mind-boggling to me.  In 2016, Hillary Clinton made a colossal error by ignoring those voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and such places.

And if the Democrats lose those states again, the indictment — and a correct indictment — will be that they made the exact same mistake in 2020 as they made in 2016.

And I think it's just because they don't have the vocabulary or the cultural knowledge to know how to talk to those voters.  I just think there are not enough people in the Democratic Party who emerge from those communities and know what concerns them and know how to talk to them.

And it could just be an inherent error and shortage in the party.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark, do you agree?  They failed to reach these voters in the heartland, many of them white working-class voters?

Mark Shields:  Well, I think Joe Biden has an enormous advantage over Hillary Clinton in that respect, just in his natural rapport and his record in dealing with working people and working issues.

But the Democrats have to be wary of becoming a party that — where people shower before work, instead of after work, who don't work by the hour, who don't pack a lunch.  And I think that remains a problem.

But Donald Trump's doing everything he can, as he did with Goodyear, in trying to boycott Goodyear tires in Akron, Ohio, and a great American company, to lose — to win back for Joe Biden and the Democrats this group.

I thought the biggest mistake of the night, Judy, of the entire four week — week was your coming to us when John Legend and Common were singing…

(LAUGHTER)

… and asking us…

(LAUGHTER)

I mean, I have heard nothing but unmitigated criticism of what the hell we were saying, when people wanted to hear them.

And what was David — what was David Brooks' bestselling album, they wanted to know.

Judy Woodruff:  Well, we have heard some of that as well.  And we apologize to anybody who thought we made bad decisions.  But we try our best to get it right.

Mark Shields:  OK.

Judy Woodruff:  But, David, OK, now it's the Republicans' turn.  It's President Trump's turn.

What does he need to do next week?

David Brooks:  Well, first, scare people.

(LAUGHTER)

Show that this is a country in disorder, crime is rising, violence in Portland.

Talk about China, which the Democrats did not do enough.  Talk about the threat and say, hey, I might not be as nice as Joe Biden, but you need me.

And I think that's the key thing.  And the second way Trump will say you need me is, they didn't talk about their policies at their convention.  But what they really stand for is the Green New Deal and opening the border and all that.

I expect the Republican Convention, weirdly, to be weirdly more policy-oriented.

The final odd thing about the Republican Convention this year, which is unprecedented in my lifetime, in all our lifetimes, is that the 2012 nominee would be not welcome there.  Mitt Romney would be not welcome there.  John McCain, if he were alive, would be not welcome there.  George W. Bush, the last Republican President, would be not welcome there.  George H.W. Bush, the previous Republican President, would be not welcome there.

This is a party that's utterly transformed, and the previous nominees will just be not welcome at the party as it currently exists.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark, as you look ahead to what the Republicans need to do next week, what are you thinking?

Mark Shields:  I think it's fair to say, Judy, not only would they not be welcome, but not one of the four would want to be there at that convention, which also speaks volumes about the change in the Republican Party.

I think that they have got a tough, uphill fight.  I mean, Donald Trump has spent 40 — four years concentrating on his base.  And, Judy, this is going to be a different election from 2016.

Forty-six percent, regardless of how acutely it's distributed electorally, is not going to be enough to win the White House back.  And he's got to expand.  And I don't know where he goes to expand.  All he does is drill down on his own side.

And I really feel, if anybody has any extra empathy, they ought to extend some to the people who are trying to put together this Republican Convention, because I think his whims are changing it from hour to hour, and the direction it's going to take, and the message it's going to deliver.

And I just — I really think it's an uphill — it's an uphill struggle from here, politically, to make a theme, to develop a theme.

What are you going to run, on sleepy Joe, after Joe Biden just ran — gave a 24-minute speech that was the equal of any given?

Fox News, before the convention, asked, do you think Joe Biden has the mental acuity to be President, in a poll, and 47 percent said yes, and 39 percent no.  They also made the mistake of asking it about Donald Trump, and 51 percent said, no, they didn't think he had the mental acuity.

So, there's two themes that have kind of gone by the board, sleepy and mental acuity.

Judy Woodruff:  Well, one of the things the President has been talking about — and we heard about it earlier in the program and just now from viewers, David — is what's going on with the Postal Service.

The postmaster general went before the Congress, a bunch of senators today, got grilled over that.  He assured them that everything's going to be fine.  But a lot of Democrats are saying, this is something they need to — we need to watch.

How serious an issue is this?  How much do you think it's going to play a role in this election?

David Brooks:  Well, Donald Trump's comments are a serious issue, because they will serve to proactively delegitimize the election if it comes out in the way his followers don't like.

And so they will have an excuse.  And they will say, see, Donald Trump said this all along.  It was those mail-in ballots, a system that we know is honest.

As for what's actually happening in the post office, I think much — vastly too much is being made out of this.  The Postal Service is a service in financial trouble.  The amount of mail is down sharply.  The nature of the mail has shifted from letters to packages.

So, shifting over from some of the sorting machines for letters to other things, and making room for packages processing machinery seems to be just the normal thing you do.  There's no evidence that I have seen that any of this is done with bad motives, other than try to save the Postal Service.

We get 160 million voters maybe or so, probably less.  The Postal Service delivers 430 (sic) pieces of mail every day.  There should be some expectation, as there has been all these centuries, that they can do this job and that they're going to do this job.

And if we — it's worth watching.  But, so far, I don't see any evidence that the Postal Service has become some sort of corrupt and untrustworthy institution.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark Shields, only about 30 seconds on the Postal Service.

Mark Shields:  I don't think — Judy, I don't think that anybody is suggesting the Postal Service is.

We're talking about the leadership.  And the old line, you don't talk to the monkey, when you can talk to the monkey grinder — Donald Trump has made quite clear what his intentions are.  He does not want millions of Americans voting by mail in the middle of a pandemic, in which the United States has paid a greater price in personal lives and suffering than any industrialized nation and many non-industrialized nations in the world.

And this is obviously a priority of his that far exceeds the pandemic itself.  He [Trump] keeps talking about it, and says on the record that, if people vote by mail, the Republicans — if everybody votes by mail, the Republicans will never win another election.

I think we need all the light, all the sunshine, all the antiseptic and dyspeptic we can keep on this story.  And I look forward to the hearings on Monday.

Judy Woodruff:  We will keep covering it.

And we thank you both after really an extraordinary week.

David Brooks, Mark Shields, thank you.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC - Memoriam to Victims

"Remembering 5 more victims of the coronavirus pandemic" PBS NewsHour 8/21/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As we are every Friday during this pandemic, we take a moment to honor individuals lost to the Coronavirus.  Here are stories of five more, including a 22-year-old musician and a 48-year-old Marine Corps reservist.

PANDEMIC - Latest Consequences and Response

"‘No question’ slow federal pandemic response cost lives, Gov. Hogan says" PBS NewsHour 7/20/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  American governors are on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 -- and the economic collapse it prompted.  Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, is chairman of the National Governors Association, and he has spoken out recently about failures in the federal pandemic response.  Hogan joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the crisis, his forthcoming book, “Still Standing” and his political career.

"Can Italian tourism industry survive the pandemic?" PBS NewsHour 7/20/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Italy is emerging from its COVID-19 nightmare into what is usually its busiest season for tourism.  The industry normally brings in 13 percent of the country’s $2 trillion GDP.  But there is no normal this year, and most tourists are not coming -- sparking fears that the pandemic will cause lasting economic damage.  Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Rimini, on Italy’s Adriatic Coast.

"Why the U.S. still doesn’t have control of COVID-19, 6 months after pandemic began" PBS NewsHour 7/20/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  It was just about six months ago that the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the U.S. Since then, the pandemic has exacted an enormous toll in terms of both human lives and economic harm -- with no end in sight.  Amna Nawaz marks the moment with two people focused on solving the pandemic: Dr. Rajiv Shah of the Rockefeller Foundation and John Barry of Tulane University School of Public Health.

"How the pandemic is making a global food crisis worse" PBS NewsHour 7/21/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As the coronavirus pandemic tears across the globe, the toll exacted in lives lost and ruined grows by the day.  But for those already in need, especially the hungry and the starving, COVID-19 is accelerating their nightmares.  David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, joins Amna Nawaz to discuss the pandemic supply chain and how to keep 270 million people fed in a year of crisis.

"Colleges and universities grapple with decision to return to campus" PBS NewsHour 7/21/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  U.S. colleges and universities are scrambling to finalize their fall plans as coronavirus infections continue to rise in much of the country.  While some students, faculty and staff are looking forward to returning to campus, others are raising serious health and safety concerns.  Hari Sreenivasan reports on how schools are approaching the decision, as part of our Rethinking College series.

"U.S. must collect this data in order to contain pandemic, former CDC director says" PBS NewsHour 7/22/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  More than 1,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19 were reported Tuesday.  As many states struggle with outbreaks, Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the country desperately needs improved data collection to understand how the virus is spreading -- and to contain it.  He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss critical metrics and how to obtain and learn from them.

"What we know about the search for a COVID-19 vaccine — and what we don’t" PBS NewsHour 7/22/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The question of when a COVID-19 vaccine might be available is perhaps the most pressing in the world.  There have been a number of recent headlines on this front, including early but encouraging results from trials.  And on Wednesday, the Trump administration awarded a contract to Pfizer and a German biotech firm to potentially deliver doses this year.  Miles O’Brien joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

"Can MLB play ball and still avoid an outbreak?" PBS NewsHour 7/23/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Months after the start of spring training, the first pitch of the 2020 Major League Baseball season will be thrown Thursday night.  Opening Day gets underway with the Washington Nationals hosting the New York Yankees.  But the season will be very unusual, with no fans present at stadiums, and many questions about it remain unanswered.  Amna Nawaz reports and talks to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

"In Alabama, racial disparities in health outcomes predate the pandemic" PBS NewsHour 7/24/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In Alabama, doctors and nurses are seeing record numbers of hospitalizations associated with COVID-19.  The state has reported more than 1,300 deaths since the pandemic began.  But certain regions and populations within the state are faring far worse than others -- and huge health disparities among Black residents are causing even more dire results.  Stephanie Sy reports on a tragic legacy.

"Honoring 5 more victims of the coronavirus pandemic" PBS NewsHour 7/20/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As we have every Friday for the past several months, we take a moment to remember some of the lives lost to the novel coronavirus pandemic, including a high school English teacher and a 39-year-old mother of six.

"How structural racism is magnifying the public health crisis" PBS NewsHour 7/25/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As coronavirus cases disproportionately impact communities of color, several local and state officials have declared racism a public health crisis.  Rhea Boyd, a public health advocate, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the structural racism in America’s healthcare system and how this ongoing pandemic of racial and economic inequality is compounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 SUMMER - Impact and Responses

"A muted Fourth of July as virus shatters infection records" PBS NewsHour 7/6/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Fourth of July celebrations in many parts of the United States were muted this year, overshadowed by a virus spreading with alarming speed.  The national death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 130,000, and hospitals in the South and West particularly are struggling to keep up with the demand for urgent care.  Still, some Americans oppose shutdowns and mask requirements.  William Brangham reports.

"How federal response has failed to address racial disparities in pandemic’s toll" PBS NewsHour 7/6/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  For months, it's been clear that the pandemic is taking a disproportionate toll on people of color.  Now, new data quantifies the disparities, showing that African American and Latinx people are nearly three times as likely to contract COVID-19 as white Americans and twice as likely to die from it.  Amna Nawaz talks to Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo of the University of California, San Francisco.

"‘We need help,’ say Latina workers, hit hard by pandemic job losses" PBS NewsHour 7/6/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  With the U.S. economy in shambles due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Latina workers have suffered the worst job losses, with 19 percent reporting being unemployed in May.  Latinx Americans are also among the groups most likely to contract COVID-19 -- and to die from it.  We spoke to several Latina women, including two undocumented immigrants, about their experiences of the past few months.

"Hong Kong residents challenge government over laws, but fight virus together" PBS NewsHour 7/6/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Recent headlines out of Hong Kong have focused on politics, with the imposition of a controversial new national security law from Beijing.  But on the public health front, Hong Kong has been a coronavirus success story, suffering much less infection and death than was expected considering the semi-autonomous city’s high population density and proximity to China.  Nick Schifrin reports.

"In Britain, fears that reopened pubs will drive more virus spread" PBS NewsHour 7/6/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In Britain, pubs reopened over July 4th weekend after nearly three months of coronavirus lockdowns.  Patrons expressed their desire to get out and socialize after the long period of isolation, and business owners took special precautions to prepare.  But many revelers ignored appeals for social distancing, and police had to disperse drunken crowds.  Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.

Ye Olde Salutation Inn, Britain (700 yrs old)


"More states are seeing ICUs reach capacity as coronavirus spreads" PBS NewsHour 7/7/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Coronavirus infections are on the rise in 42 states, with the national total passing the 3 million mark.  In the hardest-hit areas, including parts of Florida, intensive care units are filled to the brim with patients, and communities are grappling with testing shortages and delays.  But some officials, including President Trump, are downplaying the crisis and pushing to reopen.  John Yang reports.

"Schools face unprecedented pressure as they grapple with reopening" PBS NewsHour 7/7/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Parents across the U.S. are wondering what the next school year will hold for their children.  While reopening decisions will ultimately be up to state and local officials, President Trump said Tuesday he'll pressure governors to resume in-person classes.  Judy Woodruff talks to Noel Candelaria of the Texas State Teachers Association and Elliot Haspel an education policy expert and former teacher.

"Why more renters are being evicted in the middle of the pandemic" PBS NewsHour 7/7/2020

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SUMMARY:  During this coronavirus pandemic, we hear repeatedly from public health officials to stay at home.  But many Americans don’t have stable housing -- and now, a growing number of people are being forced out of where they live because they can’t pay the rent.  William Brangham reports on the causes and consequences of a national rise in evictions.

"In government’s absence, Mexicans turn to cartels for pandemic aid" PBS NewsHour 7/7/2020

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SUMMARY:  President Trump will welcome the president of Mexico to the White House on Wednesday.  The country has more than 215,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the second-highest total in Latin America.  More than 20,000 deaths have been recorded from the pandemic in Mexico -- but its government admits the number is a major undercount.  Nick Schifrin reports on Mexico’s failures to contain the coronavirus.

"Despite virus surge, Trump pressures schools to resume in-person classes this fall" PBS NewsHour 7/8/2020

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SUMMARY:  The summer surge of COVID-19 is raising more and more questions about reopening schools this fall.  That issue was at the forefront today, even as daily deaths nationwide rose to nearly 1,000, the most in weeks.  White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor begins our coverage.

"What the U.S. coronavirus response says about American exceptionalism" PBS NewsHour 7/8/2020

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SUMMARY:  Coronavirus cases in Florida, Arizona and South Carolina are increasing faster than in any other country in the world, reigniting the debate over American exceptionalism.  Nick Schifrin talks to former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda, former Hungarian ambassador to the U.S. Réka Szemerkényi, and Maina Kiai a human rights and anti-corruption lawyer previously with the United Nations.

"Why is the U.S. still struggling to test everyone who needs it?" PBS NewsHour 7/8/2020

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SUMMARY:  Since the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic, public health experts have emphasized that having an efficient system for wide-scale testing was key to bringing the COVID-19 outbreak under control.  But in reality, virus testing in the United States has consistently missed the mark.  William Brangham talks to Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

"Top U.S. health officials say states should pause reopening efforts" PBS NewsHour 7/9/2020

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SUMMARY:  The rising number of coronavirus infections in the U.S. proves the pandemic is far from abating.  New cases are setting single-day records in several states and declining in only two.  While the nation’s top medical officials say states should pause reopening in order to control virus spread, the Trump administration insists schools should resume as normal this fall.  Yamiche Alcindor reports.

"This Maryland nursing home has had no coronavirus cases.  How did they do it?" PBS NewsHour 7/9/2020

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SUMMARY:  Of the nation’s roughly 130,000 coronavirus deaths, more than 40,000 have occurred in nursing homes.  But one facility in Maryland has had zero COVID-19 cases so far -- despite serving one of the most at-risk populations.  Rev.  Derrick DeWitt, director of the Maryland Baptist Aged Home, joins Amna Nawaz to discuss his facility’s proactive approach, systemic racism and a lack of federal leadership.

"Remembering 5 people lost to coronavirus" PBS NewsHour 7/10/2020

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SUMMARY:  The coronavirus pandemic is exacting a devastating toll on families and communities across the United States.  Each week, we want to remember some of the tens of thousands of lives we have lost.  Judy Woodruff shares five more stories.

"More states return to containment measures as virus sets new records" PBS NewsHour 7/10/2020

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SUMMARY:  The U.S. has set another record for daily new coronavirus infections -- as it has on six out of the past 10 days.  Texas logged 10,000 new cases Thursday, and hospitals in Florida are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.  With no signs of improvement in infection rates, more states are again implementing restrictions such as mask requirements and business shutdowns.  Lisa Desjardins reports.

AMERICAN POLITICS - Trump vs Fauci Update

"Fauci is sidelined by the White House as he steps up blunt talk on pandemic" by Yasmeen Abutaleb, Josh Dawsey, Laurie McGinley; The Washington Post 7/11/2020

For months, Anthony S. Fauci has played a lead role in America’s coronavirus pandemic, as a diminutive, Brooklyn-accented narrator who has assessed the risk and issued increasingly blunt warnings as the nation’s response has gone badly awry.

But as the Trump Administration has strayed from the advice of many of its scientists and public health experts, the White House has moved to sideline Fauci, scuttled some of his planned TV appearances and largely kept him out of the Oval Office for more than a month even as coronavirus infections surge in large swaths of the country.

In recent days, the 79-year-old scientist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has found himself directly in the president’s crosshairs.  During a Fox News interview Thursday with Sean Hannity, Trump said Fauci “is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes.”  And when Greta Van Susteren asked him last week about Fauci’s assessment that the country was not in a good place, Trump said flatly: “I disagree with him.”

Fauci no longer briefs Trump and is “never in the Oval [Office] anymore,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.  Fauci last spoke to the president during the first week of June, according to a person with knowledge of Trump’s calendar.

For some administration officials, such developments have been an early sign their job was on the line.  But Trump cannot directly fire Fauci, a career civil servant with more than 50 years in government service who enjoys strong bipartisan support in Congress.  In any case, the President has no plans to get rid of him, said the official.

As for Fauci himself, although he is frustrated by the turmoil and the state of the outbreak, friends say he has no plans to abandon his post, which includes a critical role in the development of a coronavirus vaccine and treatments.

Fauci has found other ways to get his message out, from online Facebook chats to podcasts and print media interviews.  And in recent days, with coronavirus cases slamming hospitals in the South and West, he has been frankly critical of the U.S. response — and implicitly, of the President.

“As a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great.  I mean, we’re just not,” Fauci said in a podcast interview with FiveThirtyEight last week.

Fauci did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story.

A White House official released a statement saying that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things” and included a lengthy list of the scientist’s comments from early in the outbreak.  Those included his early doubt that people with no symptoms could play a significant role in spreading the virus — a notion based on earlier outbreaks that the novel coronavirus would turn on its head.  They also point to public reassurances Fauci made in late February, around the time of the first U.S. case of community transmission, that “at this moment, there is no need to change anything that you’re doing on a day-by-day basis.”

Fauci’s supporters acknowledge those early mistakes, attributing them to the challenges posed by a new, largely unknown pathogen.  They agree he downplayed the possibility of the virus spreading from person to person in January and early February even as it quietly seeded itself in communities on the East and West coasts.  And, like several other public health officials, he initially said the public shouldn’t wear masks, but now strongly recommends it, especially when individuals can’t maintain distances of at least six feet from other people.

Fauci has said he was worried early in the outbreak about a shortage of masks and wanted to reserve them for health care workers.  And he has said from the start that scientists’ knowledge of a brand new virus would evolve and recommendations could change based on new information.

The tension between the White House and Fauci was on full display last Sunday, when CBS host Margaret Brennan told millions of viewers that “Face the Nation” had tried for three months to interview him.

White House communications officials, who must approve television appearances related to the coronavirus, responded by allowing Fauci spots this week on PBS NewsHour, a CNN Town Hall with Sanjay Gupta, and NBC’s “Meet the Press” during the prime Sunday morning slot, according to one person familiar with the situation.

Then Fauci joined a Facebook Live event on Tuesday with Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), disputing Trump’s assertions that a lower death rate showed the country’s progress against the pandemic.  Fauci called it “a false narrative” and warned, “Don’t get yourself into false complacency.”

Fauci did not end up making any of the scheduled appearances.  The White House canceled them after his Tuesday remarks, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relate behind-the-scenes conversations.

The episode underscores the deteriorating relationship between a scientist and a President who once bonded over their shared New York City roots and love of sports, but whose rapport has long since disintegrated over their differences on face mask policy, state reopening strategies and the use of antimalarial drugs to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations, said the White House has asked Fauci to do certain media appearances but is not approving all of his requests.

“Our bigger issue with Fauci is stop critiquing the task force .?.?. and try to fix it,” the official said.

But that may be an impossible order given his strong differences with the White House over how the federal government should respond to the accelerating infection rate that’s pushing up the death toll after months of decline.

Fauci has argued that parts of the country experiencing surges should shut down, “but there is no buy-in for that,” said an official with direct knowledge of the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Four months ahead of Election Day, Trump wants to “reopen and move on,” said another senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations.  Those who disagree with that approach are out of favor, the official said.

Fauci has also expressed concern about the administration’s plan to reopen schools, but White House officials see keeping children home as having even more deleterious effects.  Fauci has also called on state and local officials to mandate that people wear masks in public.

Even though his suggestions have been largely ignored, Fauci has not complained that he does not get in to see the President, according to one of the officials.

Trump is also galled by Fauci’s approval ratings.  A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed that 67 percent of voters trusted Fauci for information on the coronavirus, compared with 26 percent who trusted Trump.

The internal turmoil and troubled national response have taken a toll on Fauci, those close to him say.  He is exasperated that states and individuals are not following the recommendations of experts, such as social distancing and wearing face coverings, said David Barr, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist who has known Fauci for 30 years.

Three or four weeks ago, Barr said, he and Fauci spoke about the troubling signs they were seeing as cases began to tick upward.

“You could just feel from Tony .?.?. how unsettled it made him,” Barr said.  “He didn’t know what to do to change that, to stop it, but if the leadership isn’t there, and it’s clearly not there, then it’s really difficult to set the tone for the country.”

“What he cares most about is not his influence, but what’s happening — that things are going so badly and it’s going to cause so much disease and death,” Barr added.

People who are close to Fauci say the public undermining of scientists and public health experts has frustrated and saddened him because it adds to the chaos the country is already experiencing from the pandemic.

Despite the repeated pushback from Trump and the White House, however, Fauci has told those close to him that has no plans to do anything differently.

“For somebody like Tony, who tries to deal with people honestly and in a very open and generous way — that’s how he’s tried to approach his personal interactions with the president — it’s immensely frustrating and depressing.  And there’s not much he can do about it,” said Peter Staley, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist who has known Fauci for more than 30 years.

“He’s going to continue being himself, which is always talking honestly about a public health crisis and a new infectious disease,” Staley added.  “If things are looking more in conflict, it’s because this administration is going further and further adrift from a pro-science approach.”

White House communications officials say they have told government scientists and doctors that their job is to educate the public by talking about best practices to contain the virus and what the administration is doing to help the states.

Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo, a longtime Trump ally, approves Fauci’s television appearances, with input from the White House, said one of the senior administration officials.  Several White House aides view Fauci’s interviews as unhelpful and say they’re frustrated he has expressed interest in appearing on programs such as MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” which are hostile to the administration.  That one was rejected.

“The speculation game doesn’t serve the public in any particular way,” the same official said.  “When it gets to handicapping and what’s going to happen next, get a cable news gig.  We’ve conveyed that down to all the doctors.”

White House officials generally favor White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx, one of the senior administration officials said.  Both Birx and Fauci have expressed frustration that their concerns have not gotten to the president, although Birx is working with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, to ensure better communication, the official said.

The administration also plans to have Brett Giroir, an assistant HHS secretary, and FEMA Administrator Peter T. Gaynor do more appearances related to coronavirus.

Among those crusading against Fauci internally is Peter Navarro, the President’s trade adviser, who has clashed with Fauci over his opposition to adopting the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, to treat COVID-19 before its effectiveness had been proved.

When Trump and Navarro repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for coronavirus, Fauci pushed back both internally and at task force briefings, arguing there was only anecdotal evidence about the drug’s efficacy.  The Food and Drug Administration eventually revoked its temporary authorization after evidence showed it was not effective against COVID-19 and could be dangerous for some patients.

“Dr. Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public but he has been wrong about everything I have ever interacted with him on,” Navarro said.  “Now Fauci is saying that a falling mortality rate doesn’t matter when it is the single most important statistic to help guide the pace of our economic reopening.  So when you ask me if I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is only with caution.”

Friends and allies say Fauci doesn’t quit because he loves his job and also feels a great sense of responsibility about helping to develop coronavirus vaccines and treatments — the biggest challenge of his career and the only way the country can truly begin to move past the pandemic.  He has long said he does not want to retire before there is an AIDS vaccine.

“He recognizes if he doesn’t intercede, things could fall apart very quickly — even more so than they have already,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.  “He does it because he cares about the country and realizes he is uniquely positioned to help in this.”

Although his message is regularly at odds with the President, Fauci is naturally conflict-averse and has sought to establish a personal relationship with the six Presidents he has served over his career.

“He’ll try to be accommodating except for principles that are truly not something he can compromise on,” said one former senior administration official who has worked closely with Fauci for years.  “He will try to really accommodate and fulfill your reality, but he’s bound by the laws of science.”

In the previous five presidential administrations, Fauci has almost always played a key role in public health emergencies and infectious-disease responses by advising the president and serving as a chief spokesman for both Republican and Democratic administrations.

In many ways, he was shaped by the HIV/AIDS crisis that emerged during his first years as NIAID director when the Reagan administration remained largely silent about a disease afflicting mostly gay men.

Amid fear of the virus and the stigma associated with having the infection, Fauci learned the importance of communicating with the public about new diseases that were little understood.  He found out it was critical to speak honestly about the risks, and help people differentiate between valid concerns and unfounded fears, according to several people who have worked with him.

As the face of the HIV/AIDS response, Fauci also developed a thick skin, experiencing the ire of activists who felt an uncaring federal government was not doing enough to make treatments available for dying patients.  But over the years, he forged friendships with some of those who had begun as adversaries, activists said.

The lessons learned from the HIV/AIDS outbreak have had an impact on how he has handled almost every public health crisis since.  During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the Obama administration made Fauci its chief spokesperson to explain to people the actual risk of the virus.

Fauci briefed Obama about three times a week and had unlimited access to him if something came up, said Ron Klain, the Obama administration’s Ebola czar and now an adviser to the Biden campaign.

But in the coronavirus pandemic, Klain said Fauci is facing a new challenge: He’s the only member of the administration willing or able to speak plainly about the threat of the virus, in Klain’s view.

Fauci “respects the public,” Klain said.  “He has this view that the public can handle the truth, whether it’s good news or bad news and the most important thing is to give people the best information he has at the time.  Tony is left being the one person having to carry the weight of speaking honestly about all this stuff.”

COMMENT:  I absolutely believe in Dr. Fauci (who IS willing to admit when he's wrong) over Trump who is only concerned about himself and his re-election, and hates any news he thinks as bad.

PANDEMIC - World Wide and U.S. Response

"Where the coronavirus is spreading worldwide — and why" PBS NewsHour 6/22/2020

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SUMMARY:  The World Health Organization says Sunday marked the largest global daily surge in new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began: 183,000.  In the U.S., daily fatalities from the disease have dropped since the initial peak this spring, but more than 600 people are still dying each day.  Amna Nawaz reports and talks to Stephen Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Why Gov. Asa Hutchinson says reopening Arkansas isn’t to blame for rising COVID-19 cases" PBS NewsHour 6/22/2020

As to Confederate monuments: The Confederacy conducted a war against the United States of America, killed American soldiers, and committed treason against the union they had they had signed a contract (Constitution of the United States) to support.  The Confederacy should never be celebrated.

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SUMMARY:  As states continue to lift pandemic restrictions and allow economic activity to resume, many are seeing new surges in coronavirus cases.  Arkansas has documented more than 3,500 new positive tests since it began the second phase of its reopening.  Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson joins Judy Woodruff to discuss where the increase in cases is coming from and his thoughts on moving Confederate monuments.

"Past pandemics have reshaped society.  Will coronavirus do the same?" PBS NewsHour 6/22/2020

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SUMMARY:  Although the coronavirus pandemic presents unprecedented challenges for people living through it, humans have endured similar health ordeals in the past.  Jeffrey Brown speaks to two historians, Frank Snowden of Yale University and Nancy Bristow of the University of Puget Sound, about how previous pandemics have shaped societies.  It’s part of our ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas.

"Fauci tells Congress more testing needed to combat ‘disturbing surge’ in virus" PBS NewsHour 6/23/2020

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SUMMARY:  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before Congress Tuesday, referring to the spread of COVID-19 in a dozen U.S. states as “a disturbing surge.”  Fauci and other top health experts reiterated the need for more testing, even as President Trump claimed that “testing is a double-edged sword” in the pandemic fight.  Lisa Desjardins reports.

"As COVID-19 spreads in Texas, an ER doctor begs residents to stay home" PBS NewsHour 6/23/2020

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SUMMARY:  Texas is taking a particularly hard hit from COVID-19.  For about a week, the state has been reporting roughly 4,000 new cases per day.  In the Houston region alone, there are nearly 32,000 cases.  For a report from the front lines of the fight against the disease, Amna Nawaz turns to Dr. Hilary Fairbrother, who works in emergency medicine at the Texas Medical Center.

"Are professional sports ready to resume play amid the pandemic?" PBS NewsHour 6/24/2020

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SUMMARY:  The pandemic halted Major League Baseball's spring training in mid-March.  Now, the league has announced it will start a shortened regular season in July.  The plan to play 60 games comes after 40 players and staff tested positive for coronavirus in recent days.  Amna Nawaz talks to author and sportswriter John Feinstein about the pandemic’s challenges for professional sports.

"Stories of 5 Americans killed by the coronavirus" PBS NewsHour 6/26/2020

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SUMMARY:  As the United States approaches another coronavirus milestone, with nearly 125,000 deaths from the disease, we look back at the lives of a few of those lost.  Judy Woodruff shares their stories.

"Florida shuts bars and beaches as COVID-19 cases surge" PBS NewsHour 6/27/2020

aka "Florida regrets reopening"

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SUMMARY:  At least six states have reported a record increase in COVID-19 cases as the total number of cases in the U.S. nears 2.5 million.  Some states, like Florida, which saw more than 9,500 new cases Saturday morning, are rolling back some of the reopening including shutting beaches, parks and some bars.  Ben Conarck, who covers healthcare for the Miami Herald, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the state’s response.

"Why the race for a COVID-19 vaccine is complicated" PBS NewsHour 6/27/2020

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SUMMARY:  Pharmaceutical companies and governments around the world are chasing a coronavirus vaccine, fast tracking the usually years-long vaccine development procedure to a few months.  ProPublica reporter Caroline Chen joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the ambitious timeline and the unpredictability of the clinical trials.