Search Results for 2020 Primary

Trump Was Warned in January and February That Covid-19 Could Kill Millions, Cost Trillions”There is an increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1-2 million souls,” trade adviser Peter Navarro warned in a memo to President Donald Trump way back on February 23. The next morning, Trump told Americans “the coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.” Navarro’s February memo followed up on one from January 29. In the earlier memo, Navarro wrote that the economic cost of doing nothing could be as high as $5.7 trillion and suggested that more than half a million Americans could be killed by COVID-19. A little more than a week after this memo, the Trump administration gave “nearly 18 tons of donated respirator masks, surgical masks, gowns and other medical supplies to China.”…

Bye Bye BernieFor two hours on Sunday night, America took a break from coronavirus news and socially distant Netflix binges to watch what may have been the last Democratic primary debate of the long presidential campaign. After close to 30 candidates, two Super Tuesdays—not to mention Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina—and 10 debates, the 11th faceoff came down to two: Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, each of whom is almost certainly running his last campaign. But only one will get to run against President Donald Trump in November.POLITICO Magazine asked 15 experts, insiders, activists and political professionals to watch and tell us what this debate meant, in particular, for Sanders, who trails Biden in the delegate count and confronts, to put it mildly, an improbable path to the Democratic nomination. The consensus: He was the same old Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist vaulted by voters into the top…

A Failure of Systemic ThinkingMany will be tempted to see the tragic coronavirus pandemic through a solely partisan lens: The Trump administration spectacularly failed in its response, by cutting funding from essential health services and research before the crisis, and later by denying its existence and its severity. Those are both true, but they don’t fully explain the current global crisis that has engulfed countries of varying political persuasions.As it turns out, the reality-based, science-friendly communities and information sources many of us depend on also largely failed. We had time to prepare for this pandemic at the state, local, and household level, even if the government was terribly lagging, but we squandered it because of widespread asystemic thinking: the inability to think about complex systems and their dynamics. We faltered because of our failure to consider risk in its full context, especially when dealing with coupled risk—when multiple things can…

Reflections on a Failed Democratic RevolutionBerniecrats, I know how you are feeling. I know how much that gut punch hurt. I know what it’s like to be convinced you’re about to upend the political order, only to be brutally informed on an election night that the rest of your own party doesn’t share your plans.How could I—a hack political pundit from the corporate media, who has been droning on for months about how the Democratic Party is more moderate than you think—be so empathetic to your plight?Because 16 years ago, at the spry age of 31, I was a wide-eyed liberal blogger who felt that my scribbles on LiberalOasis.com were playing a small part in changing American politics, only to find my mouth agape at the shellacking that my antiwar, anti-Democratic establishment candidate, Howard Dean, took in the Iowa caucuses.The Deaniac left recovered from that disorienting night. We stayed in…

Wisconsin’s Warning for the Pandemic Election“I’m accused of trying to conduct a voter purge in the state of Wisconsin,” Rick Esenberg told me by way of introduction. Esenberg runs the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which is suing to force the state’s election commission to remove hundreds of thousands of “inactive” voters from the rolls.I had called Esenberg to ask about the in-person election that Wisconsin is holding tomorrow even as its citizens are under a statewide directive to stay at home amid the coronavirus outbreak. Democrats, including Governor Tony Evers, want to conduct the election by mail so that Wisconsinites don’t have to risk their health to go to the polls. The Republican-controlled state legislature is rejecting that idea—even though some studies suggest that voting by mail helps Republican candidates more than Democratic ones.Why would Republicans oppose a measure that could make it easier—and safer—for people to vote?…

Wisconsin voters go to the polls in controversial electionPresidential and local elections proceed after governor tried to cancel in-person voting due to coronavirus, and was overruled by state supreme courtWisconsin voters headed to the polls on Tuesday, to cast ballots amid a global pandemic after a stunning 24-hour period in which the state’s governor tried to cancel in-person voting because of the public health risk, only to be overruled by the state supreme court.The US supreme court had weighed in, hours before the polls opened, to tweak election rules in the state. Continue reading… ….. Read More.THE GUARDIAN – General | World News & EventsTue, April 7, 20202 hours ago