What can I do? Contacting representatives doesn’t seem to be doing much. Encouraging people to vote, yes, but that assumes that we will have a fair election or an election at all. How do we stop this? I also don’t have the sense that the Democrats are doing much, or are able to do much. Am I missing something? And I ask the question in all seriousness- what can I and others do to stop what feels like daily takeover of agencies, freedoms, communication, truth and accountability?
You raise a very important question, one that concerns both our nation’s ills and our personal health and well-being.
As an observer, it seems to me the Democrats are doing the right thing politically. Trump is his own worst enemy, self-destructing before the nation’s eyes. By contrast, the Biden campaign is putting out positions and policies they intend to move forward if elected. They are not playing Trump’s game by rising to the foul bait he dangles every day. IMO, it’s the smart move.
And the Democratic House can’t do much at this point beyond passing legislation the Senate will refuse to consider. But Professor Richardson is in a much better position to speak to that issue – perhaps she will address it in a future post of chat.
Personally, I’m taking the advice of a trusted mentor, who is also a respected Psychiatrist. I told him how helpless I was feeling not being able to affect the course of events – not doing enough to push back.
His advice was to focus on my community, to volunteer, get involved, do as much positive work as I could locally. Of course, his advice doesn’t exclude donating money to campaigns or marching/protesting (although the latter is problematic right now as is the former if you have been laid off or worse) but it does focus one on positive goals that are achievable and good for our neighborhoods, towns and counties. And importantly, this work goes a long way towards building and reinforcing a sense of personal empowerment.
I don’t know if this advice is at all helpful, or speaks to your point directly, but I wanted to share it with you because it has helped me, and your post spoke to me – it felt so very familiar.
I agree. We feel like we aren't doing anything, and that nothing is being done. But we are. We are speaking out, and change is occurring all around us. For the better! It's so hard to see. But yes, starting at the local level is most constructive. It's like throwing a pebble in a pond. Thanks for sharing. I woke up feeling bad for myself this morning. You gave me hope!
Working at the local level is not just useful and therapeutic, it's critical. The Republicans have amassed the control that they have by focusing on gaining control over the State Houses and the Electoral College. As soon as they gained majorities in each state government in 2000 & 2010, they set about gerrymandering districts to trend Republican. It was a conscious, deliberate strategy going back to the Reagan and Gingrich eras and it worked. We need to work at the local level. We need to replace the "greed is good" culture that the latter day Greatest Generation preached and a segment of the Boomers bought into, hook, line,and sinker. Working at the local level is the only way we can change this.
FWIW, there are multiple efforts to get out the vote that always welcome more help. I'm writing letters with votefwd.org. A friend of mine sends postcards in connection with Grandmothers in Action - http://www.grandmothersforabrighterfuture.com/ - you don't need to be a grandmother to participate. Any local organizing will improve the odds against the November election results being cancelled - whatever works for you - sewing circle, school board, Black Lives Matter activism. Find what you can actually do.
The democrats won't do much. The problem is depending on private political parties to resolve institutional problems, which both parties exploit to their own benefit. The sooner folks realize that political parties presently exist to yield power and control to an elite few (many of whom are non-elected) the sooner we can come to better solutions.
In the meantime, mobilize, vote and be vocal and be active. If the November election fails to rid the nation of this debacle, then it is time for everyone to take to the streets and shut it down.
That said, I hope everyone "Votes Blue No Matter Who." Which, BTW means Democrat, even if they are not perfect. I have already encountered super lib conscience voters on Twit who won't vote for Biden because he is not behind universal health care. IDK who they plan to vote for but only tRump or Biden will be the next president. THAT IS THE ONLY CHOICE. I choose anyone but tRump.
Argue with them some if you are up to it. Point out that the odds of pushing a Biden administration toward universal health care are infinitely higher than the odds of pushing tRump and company in that direction. Suggest they organize now around doing exactly that, and vote Dem in November to make it possible.
I think the pandemic and economic recession indicate that universal healthcare in the US is long over due and Biden may be well-advised to re-posture and improve his position on the matter. Without such negative feedback, how else will his campaign be apt to change?
And my 86-year-old step-father has announced that he is NOT voting for DT this next time... I thought I would faint when I heard THAT!!! (Jury still out re who my 91-year-old mother is voting for...)
Each night, just when I think I've heard the worst, the next night, it's some new outrageous horror. Buying up all the remdesivir??? One son's wife and the other son's girlfriend being paid $15K/month funneled through his (now ex) campaign manager? Controlling the flow of information about coronavirus infections through HHS instead of CDC? smh....
Thank you, Heather, for keeping us informed. I hope that many others will subscribe to you to become informed as well.
These were my exact thoughts as I read Dr. Richardson’s letter this morning. I realized she has become my most trusted “journalist”, and decided I needed to pay her for her work. I just now subscribed so that I am in someway supporting this important work.
If they are illegally and corruptly funneling campaign contributions to family members, it's that much less they can spend on the campaign, so I'm not losing any sleep over that one. Taking an adversarial stance to the entire rest of the planet over health care is one more reason to boot the jackals out.
It’s like the Russian bounty scandal never happened. It’s buried under 3 weeks of garbage and can’t breathe. I hope someone is still trying to dig it out. 🤞
Please be aware that the following is a passionate statement supporting a specific outcome in this years election.
The vote.
The best that we can do now is get people to the polls.
Yes, there will certainly be on the ground hacking of peoples access to voting, and certainly ehacking as well. I still think that the more people we can get to vote, the better chance there is of succeeding in the two "races" where it counts the most, the presidency, and flipping the senate.
It means encouraging people to not consider Facebook,Twitter, et al as news sources. Use them for socializing, sure, but just don't use them as news sources. There are so many more reliable sources.
There are tens of millions of fellow citizens out there who will be on the edge about voting. There are also tens of millions out there who have the time, who are able to support everyone's right, everyone's access, to voting.
On the ground support
It means having as many legal representatives on the ground to challenge access suppression, it means monitoring mail in voting to make sure that it works as intended, it means on the ground support for those waiting in line, especially in areas where there is active suppression.
Obviously more complex, and more dangerous this year, support for those waiting includes not only water, shade, transportation, child care, and food, but PPE's as well.
It means observers with video and sound, aka shine a light on the process.
Money.
It means for those of us who can that we must support candidates financially more than we ever have before.
There are many of us who can afford (yes, even in this downturn), to give more.
To rehash an old saw, put your money where your mouth is. However much we have will almost certainly be worth less, provide less security, if this is not turned around.
I think our American democracy is hanging by a thread. Lets make sure we make that thread a great stout rope that brings us back from the edge of the cliff where we now teeter.
I just finished "One Person, No Vote" by Carol Anderson (thanks to HCR for the recommend). If there is one takeaway from the book it is as jdhinckley suggests: take actions at the ground level to offset voter suppression. She used the 2017 contest in Alabama between Roy Moore and Doug Jones to illustrate. It's a quick and compelling read.
Starting now the task is to make sure that disenfranchised voters are registered. Then follow though to make sure they get a chance to vote in November. Something as simple as providing transportation for someone who couldn't otherwise get to a poling place can make a difference.
This is why I joined a local democratic group. I didn’t know where to start or what I could do. It’s how I was able to help at the Texas primary on Tuesday. Being involved with like minded people is very therapeutic! Boots on the ground going to marches, registering voters, writing postcards and emails, making phone calls, fundraising for candidates, intelligent discussions. Learning and talking about the issues to others that haven’t heard about them. It’s my therapy! As well as, HCR, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, Seth Meyer. Laughing helps me a lot! And NPR! We can do this! We have too!
A local Democratic group. That's a great idea. Thanks for the suggestion! I will have to look into that, but for right now, I've been hired by the US Census to help with that. Don't know how busy I'll be with that for the time being.
I’m in the Tarrant County Democratic Women’s Group. Which I believe is what your talking about. As well as another women’s group that is helping people at the border with legal assistance and essentials.
And a medical guinea pig as I head back to the classroom. Really can’t be seen as much more at this point. Teaching art these days, I will be rotating among 700 students.
May G-d bless and protect you and all the teachers. It doesn't look like anyone else is going to be much help. My two daughters are going into their senior year of high school. As far as I know, the plan is to get everyone tested for covid before school, which will catch and quarantine 70% of infectious people; keep the windows open; and wear masks most of the time. That is working in Denmark, where the infection rate is very low and the monitoring is very good. Unlike here.
You have it right! Thank you for your plea; there is nothing more needed or more sacred in our political system than the right and the duty to vote and support access to voting for all.
As elections are getting so close and Trump is "shedding his ephemeral sheep's clothing" it is time to stop just "bewailing Trump's evil ways" and ramp up significantly what we are doing about it!
What is to stop the hospitals continuing to report data to the CDC as well as the 2 other private companies? As long as they also obey Trump's directive they won't have a problem receiving any new Covid drugs.
A second line of attack would be for the states to continue to use their existing state-wide health data collections and to set up a collaborative system amongst states to provide a check on eventually Trumpian iniquities with the statistics of infections and deaths. They had already started down this path on the subject of making decisions to "open up" their economies.
A third line of attack would be an avalanche of congressional inquiries into all the different errors made in Trumps neglect of the Covid epidemic and the potential conflicts of interest and corruption......a pre-impeachment move in all but name. What are the Democrats there for otherwise these days?
A fourth line of attack would be through investigative journalists in the national media detailing the collusion and corruption in the non-competitive contracts awarded for private data collection and the potential conflict of interest in eventual filings with the SEC. Does someone in Trump's clan have an investment/interest in the fledgeling operation? A clear statement from the new incoming administration saying that they would look very closely into this matter and prosecute all wrong doing might calm the "raging passions", screw up the public listing and scare away the the crooks and finaciers involved.
And finally on the story of Trump junior's girlfriend etc being paid "off balance sheet".....publicity, publicity, publicity. The firing of Trump's campaign manager, the owner of the company by whom they are paid will probably affect the problem too. If this hits the headlines then the guy won't just be demoted to handling the data analysis but will be out the door. Trump will have to find a new way to hide these campaign expenditures.
I am also wondering if the trump empire is finding ways to “own” or have a controlling interest in the vaccine research, distribution, and availability once approved and ready to market. What federal money given for research, development, and future distribution has strings attached to “business down the road?” Trump is so self-serving that coming up with a phony cure-all prior to the election would not be out of the question...”Remember the Bleach” ought to be our “battle cry!”😂
Of course they are. Consider the covid-19 tests developed by the Abbott company - the ones that give an accurate result in 15 minutes. It looks to me like all of their output is going to the White House, because there is never a sign of it being available in the states. Only some of it is actually being used there. Remember when the White House offered a thousand tests to Congress? Pelosi and McConnell issued a joint statement declining.
No, you’re not the only one. I also feel more ‘concerned’ (aka “terrified”) about going anywhere and I have to go back to work asap due to unemployment running out - and my work requires direct physical contact with people all day. I am truly scared but am backed into a corner at this point.
Your feelings are totally reasonable. I do suggest you get a set of good quality cloth masks (outer layer of quilter's cotton, inner layer something soft like flannel, with a filter pocket) that you can rotate so you start with a clean one every day, and wear a face shield and gloves as well. That is what the hair stylists have been doing. It's been working for them.
While listening to the NPR story this morning about the coronavirus reporting change, I kept yelling at the radio --"OK, but just who owns the company that is providing the new database??" Thank you, Heather for supplying that information. Guess I could have predicted it was a Trump crony. Will we ever get national numbers we can trust, now?
First, thank you again for this newsletter. It is a perfect digest of the important news, and avoids the noisy nonsense of Twitter, about which more below. Dorothy Parker, whenever the doorbell rang, used to say "What fresh hell could this be?" The news has been like this since Nov 2016 (actually Nov 1980), but it's refreshing to get a concise, spirited Reader's Digest version of hell. Many thanks!
With the diversion of COVID-19 resources to the Palantir-made platform, I think we all have to ask ourselves if the Federal government has lost its legitimacy, both because of the obvious conflict of interest here (Thiel being a big Trumpist), and because of the Orwellian-Huxleyan nature of this informational coup d'etat. I am no disciple of Thomas Hobbes, but if your legitimacy test fails by Hobbes's criteria, then your ship of state has sunk. For Hobbes, a government has legitimacy only to the extent that it can preserve the peace and pubic well-being by the sovereign exercise of its power. If we do not get accurate COVID-19 info, or have any reason to doubt it, then the state fails the Hobbesian test. Cutting out the CDC shows, AT BEST, depraved indifference to the well-being of the citizenry. I have Scottish Twitter-friends who have revived the Independence Referendum push because of the indifference of Westminster to their fates, both due to COVID-19 and Brexit, and similar sentiments are surfacing in Wales. I realize this is extreme, and the official constitutional answer is "no", but would the secession of Northeastern, Upper-midwestern, and West-coast states be beyond the pale? No one thought, in 1989, that the Soviet Union was not "forever" and that Ukraine and the Baltics would be sovereign. That I am actually thinking that New York City and environs would be better off if they were like Singapore is very unsettling.
I thought the Twitter hack, when it was happening, was a joke. That is wasn't should prompt us to do two things. First: do not trust ANY Social Media. I quit Facebook in January and do not miss it. I stay on Twitter for two reasons -- to publicize my writing on Medium and to keep in touch with the transgender community. That's it. If you are going to use it for other things, then just stick to the cat photos and funny videos. Second: worry, and worry deeply, about how you are going to vote. Make sure there's a paper ballot -- if it is scanned, there is a physical audit trail. If it isn't in your election district, mail in your vote. I do not trust the US electoral system any more, AT ALL, which brings us back full circle to Hobbes. And if we live in a Hobbesian world now in the US, our democracy is truly sick. Maybe terminal.
Whatever the typo/autocorrect gaffe was *I* didn’t notice it and, since I have an ‘eye’ for that sort of thing, likely many others haven’t either. It happens to us all in this digital age, I always feel the same when I can’t discreetly correct. You are most definitely not alone!
I’ve thought more and more about secession as a viable option. Here in New England we could form New Scandinavia, modeled after the social and economic model of Denmark, Finland et al. I think states would need to be contiguous to join, so we might end up with several, newly seceded countries - New Scandinavia, the Left Coast, and maybe the Great Lakes (so hard to tell which direction Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are going). After the (successful) vote to secede here in New Scandi, there would be a relocation period (house swap?) where New England rednecks could swap places with Georgia or Alabama liberals (I think there are some of those, maybe?). Think how much happier we’d all be.
One of the west coast names is Cascadia. It would encompass California, Oregon, Washington & a suggestion that British Columbia might want to join. When this was first floated, some of Arizona & Nevada wanted in. Sadly, I live in Eastern Washington that has a group (&ballot measure) to create a new state with part of Idaho. This is/was being pushed by Matt Shea.
Cascadia would have the revenue to actually exist.
I wish Broward/Miami-Dade/Monroe counties could secede from Floriduh and call ourselves South Florida with our own governor, someone with a sense of reality and not beholden to the insanity coming from the White House.
Back in the old days (2016, actually), we talked on Twitter about creating a blue haven consisting of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
We called it TexMexCaliZona.
The politics would be blue, the food spicy, the people friendly, the weather warm.
Blue Haven.
In lieu of that, I think everyone just knuckled down to make things better in their own backyards, resist the onslaught of racism and white nationalism, and make plans for a better future. The plague was not foreseen, but it does seem in keeping with the times, does it not?
We did not speak of secession, as I recall. This was a new coalition of like-minded forward thinkers who loved tacos.
And no, I don't know where all of the "red" folks might have gone. Perhaps they would have turned blue. Who knows?
Data has been a problem for the Government since someone came up with a way to combine a bunch of ones and zeros in the form of binary data. The need for more data has outpaced development of the systems to collect, analyze, and store it. The government has always, and still does, rely on manual data calls to gather data. There are a few data systems out there, but few are mature. The system that CDC is 15 years old, which is not old enough to be tried and true. During my time in DHS I was a mission support specialist. I was a director and responsible for what is called personal property. Personal property is basically all assets that are not real estate. IT equipment, weapons, motor vehicles, planes, boats, etc.. DHS is made up of 22 separate government agencies. Try gathering detailed information from that many organizations. Some of the smaller organizations simply track their information in simple spreadsheets. A few of the larger organizations have invested in modern, commercial off the shelf (COTS) data systems that simplify tracking. Then there is the human element - some organizations don't make data tracking a priority. The output from 22 desperate tracking methodologies are usually not compatible and can't be aggregated into a single system without being normalized. If you can't normalize the data, you can't compare apples to apples. Why doesn't DHS develop a single tracking system you ask? Because it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to procure those types of systems and during my time there we could never get it in the budget. When we did around 2010, the contract was so big, the procurement was contested 3 times and the courts sent DHS back to square one with directions to break the systems up into several smaller systems so that more companies could be a part of the solution. Kind of defeated what we were trying to do. We eventually gave up and started developing processes to standardize data at the analyst level.
With that in mind, try to imagine what it must be like to gather data from over 6000 hospitals. Gathering, processing, communication, and management are essential to health care delivery, but the health care sector as a whole has historically trailed far behind most other industries in investments in information/ communications technologies. Again, throw in the human element. Within 6000 hospitals, there would be tens of thousands of data entry points and data input at each point is largely dependent on interpretation of the data by the person at the keyboard. The public doesn't understand this, so when they see fluctuations in the numbers over a period of time they lose faith in them.
I really don't understand why the administration is cutting the CDC out of the loop. (Well, I have my suspicions just as everyone else does.) But this I know, there is big money in data collection, analysis, and storage. To develop and standardize a single system robust enough to be deployed to every hospital would likely cost in the billions. As Heather outlined, follow the money and it's apparent, based on the administration's track record, what they are up to. It would also take 10 years to input all the baseline data needed. That's why I can't grasp the reasons why the administration would change reporting systems in the middle of a pandemic.
Someone suggested that the hospitals could simply continue to report to the CDC. Sure, but not likely. 6000 hospitals means 6000 different medical administrators that all have their own opinions about what the administration is doing. Trust me, there are a lot of Trump supporters in the medical community to, so it's not likely that you would even get a majority of the reporting points to continue funneling data to CDC. And if CDC did continue to collect it, Robert Redfield would be out of a job and be replaced by a Trump loyalist, who would likely not even be a medical expert.
I predict we will see the COVID-19 cases peak, plateau, and fall. And if the administration is successful at containing the data, it will occur before the election.
Hmm, I wonder whether this is the October surprise they've been touting. Oh ugh. This means they've been working on this for a while, the nasty little--well, I won't insult the animal.
Unlike some here, I have recently embraced Twitter. As at least one person here said, I use it to find news stories that I might not otherwise see. I also use it to find reliable, trustworthy information from credentialed sources and / or people I have chosen to trust to share reliable information. I originally got on it to follow James Rebanks but that’s another story. The fact that it could be (presumably) so easily hacked is unsettling, especially given that it is used to report emergencies as with the NWS situation yesterday. That incident hasn’t made me abandon the platform but it has made me more aware of the fragility of our communication systems. I don’t have a good solution other that to advise people to be diligent with critical thinking skills and not just take everything at face value.
That being said, I am grateful for this newsletter and Heather’s ability to connect the dots in this wildly chaotic time. I knew “we” had bought up the Remdesivir and the world was angry at us (though, honestly, I’d forgotten because the news cycle moves so fast now) but didn’t know about the connection to the private reporting company. I would bet real money that the trump family is somehow financially invested in that company. It’s always the damn money with those people. It now appears that they are literally milking this pandemic for their own personal financial gain. This is such an abhorrent thought that I am having great difficulty believing what the facts point to but, as people have begun to say more and more often, here we are.
I am saddened but not surprised to hear people on this forum bring up discussion of secession. It’s not just a topic for Southern rednecks anymore, apparently. All of the rapidly accelerating negative events happening have brought me to the point where I have begun to shift from fearing for our country to fearing that it is already too late. Too many things are happening too fast: COVID rapidly becoming out of control (per Dr Fauci), government takeover of covid data which will guarantee we will no longer have reliable data and won’t know the truth about what’s going on, bounties on US military by the USSR, Cold War with China, USPS being undermined, VOTING and the upcoming election being undermined, McConnell stonewalling everything except his agenda, forced school openings, EPA rollbacks, grift and corruption at the very highest levels of government, absolute and total lack of national leadership - in fact, malignant and harmful actions towards us and our country by our government. I could continue to go on but I know I am “preaching to the choir” so I will stop. Folks, I fear it’s too late. Worse, it’s now too late to get out - we are banned from traveling to most of the rest of the world. What now?
Twitter is, and always has been, a shoddy, shallow platform. I’m not sure why anyone pays any attention to it. I tried it once, maybe 10 years ago. I set up my new account using a strong password (I’m a techie), subscribed to a few people, and...my account was hacked by some Russian within hours. To rub salt in the wound, Twitter then sent me a nasty email scolding me for sending spam with my account (that would be the Russian who had hacked the notoriously flimsy Twitter security). Irony of ironies, Twitter suspended my account. I’ve not gone back, and have not missed it.
The promise of the Internet was how democratic and open it was, hiving everyone a voice. Look at what Twitter is - a broadcast medium (decidedly undemocratic). There are a few celebs with megaphones, and the rest are just ears, voiceless. The elite tweeters have millions of followers, the followers have? How many millions of nasty, dishonest tweets have been broadcast and consumed. How much has Twitter enabled Trump, Putin (through his digital agents) and other tinpot tyrants? How much of Twitter is pop culture pabulum? I read every week about this or that person who shutdown their Twitter feed, and how much happier it made them.
Some here might defend Twitter, there must be some value. The question is, does the value outweigh the cost?
Does the value [of Twitter] outweigh the cost? I think Bari Weiss suggested an answer to that question in her resignation letter:
"Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor. As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative."
Personally I use Twitter to gather news from a variety of sources. My theory is that I can get a better understanding of events by reading news from a variety of sources. I use media ias websites to help select my sources (https://www.adfontesmedia.com/, https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ ). The Twitter platform is easier to configure than Facebook for that purpose. Broader perspective is that most news organizations are likely curating their output for the social media audiences which continues to make my task more difficult.
I never cared for twitter. I can write an introductory sentence longer than 140 characters, but I get creative in editing back to that limit. The only reason I opened it was to see Michael Stokes fotos that were censored on facebook. However, now I have finally deleted my facebook profile, due to humans abdicating to AI 'bots and allowing them to ban ppl by their interpretation of "Hate Speech" with no recourse to appeal. (My hate speech that got me banned for 3 days was my fear that my black grandson would be targeted by some "white monsters" like Ahmaud Arbery.) So, I am stuck with twitter and just getting used to navigating it. I have under 30 followers now and follow the same number.
More and more I worry about the Nov elections. Certainly this Twitter hacking does little to ease that worry. In George Will's opinion piece today, he mentions that early voting begins in some states in 61 days. Hopefully, the Dems will find a way to better protect the rights of all voters including finding ways to insure that all votes are counted. That leaves the Dems just 61 days before the first votes will be cast.....and hopefully protected. And, to prevent any hacking of voting machines, let's move back to all paper ballots!
I agree that we should return to paper ballots but I don’t have a good solution to the argument that it takes too long and too many people (really, too much money) to manage and count them. Glad TN is doing so. I live in a tiny little town that has always used paper ballots that you feed into the old fashioned hand cranked locked wooden ballot box so I know my vote is (relatively) secure but I worry deeply about the rest of the country.
Texas uses a paper ballot printed on the machine then counted on another computer and ballot saved. But there’s still obvious attempts at voter suppression. Republicans had brand new machines and more of them. Democrats has fewer machines that had problems. But we had more voters. Willing to wait! It was awesome!
I live in a small town, too, with the same system that you describe. Does make me feel a little better about my own vote, but it's the big cities with too few polling places that worries me.
On so many fronts. It shows once again the vulnerability of on-line systems to unauthorized access. It adds fuel to the voter fraud dumpster fire that Trump is stoking to cast doubt on the November election.
While it may be coincidental, the hacked accounts all belong to more liberal politically involved types. If the hack was simply a money-making scheme, why not go for any account with 10M+ followers?
Now that the Trump’s people are in charge of the Covid-19 case count — and making money on it — let’s all watch for the numbers to “magically disappear”. Just as Trump predicted.
I knew #45 was bypassing the CDC because they were telling the truth about COVID, which contradicted his lies, but should have guessed it was also about corruption and making more money off the ppl who pay taxes. Thanx for the behind the scenes story.
I should be getting my paper, mail-in ballot in a couple of days. The news said they were being mailed out today. I have been voting this way for years. The only time I went to my local polling place recently was to campaign for Andrew Gillum who lost narrowly to Ron DeSantis. I think there are more absentee ballots going out this time in Florida.
What can I do? Contacting representatives doesn’t seem to be doing much. Encouraging people to vote, yes, but that assumes that we will have a fair election or an election at all. How do we stop this? I also don’t have the sense that the Democrats are doing much, or are able to do much. Am I missing something? And I ask the question in all seriousness- what can I and others do to stop what feels like daily takeover of agencies, freedoms, communication, truth and accountability?
You raise a very important question, one that concerns both our nation’s ills and our personal health and well-being.
As an observer, it seems to me the Democrats are doing the right thing politically. Trump is his own worst enemy, self-destructing before the nation’s eyes. By contrast, the Biden campaign is putting out positions and policies they intend to move forward if elected. They are not playing Trump’s game by rising to the foul bait he dangles every day. IMO, it’s the smart move.
And the Democratic House can’t do much at this point beyond passing legislation the Senate will refuse to consider. But Professor Richardson is in a much better position to speak to that issue – perhaps she will address it in a future post of chat.
Personally, I’m taking the advice of a trusted mentor, who is also a respected Psychiatrist. I told him how helpless I was feeling not being able to affect the course of events – not doing enough to push back.
His advice was to focus on my community, to volunteer, get involved, do as much positive work as I could locally. Of course, his advice doesn’t exclude donating money to campaigns or marching/protesting (although the latter is problematic right now as is the former if you have been laid off or worse) but it does focus one on positive goals that are achievable and good for our neighborhoods, towns and counties. And importantly, this work goes a long way towards building and reinforcing a sense of personal empowerment.
I don’t know if this advice is at all helpful, or speaks to your point directly, but I wanted to share it with you because it has helped me, and your post spoke to me – it felt so very familiar.
I agree. We feel like we aren't doing anything, and that nothing is being done. But we are. We are speaking out, and change is occurring all around us. For the better! It's so hard to see. But yes, starting at the local level is most constructive. It's like throwing a pebble in a pond. Thanks for sharing. I woke up feeling bad for myself this morning. You gave me hope!
Working at the local level is not just useful and therapeutic, it's critical. The Republicans have amassed the control that they have by focusing on gaining control over the State Houses and the Electoral College. As soon as they gained majorities in each state government in 2000 & 2010, they set about gerrymandering districts to trend Republican. It was a conscious, deliberate strategy going back to the Reagan and Gingrich eras and it worked. We need to work at the local level. We need to replace the "greed is good" culture that the latter day Greatest Generation preached and a segment of the Boomers bought into, hook, line,and sinker. Working at the local level is the only way we can change this.
It spoke to all of us and your encouragement and common sense does as well. Thank you.
FWIW, there are multiple efforts to get out the vote that always welcome more help. I'm writing letters with votefwd.org. A friend of mine sends postcards in connection with Grandmothers in Action - http://www.grandmothersforabrighterfuture.com/ - you don't need to be a grandmother to participate. Any local organizing will improve the odds against the November election results being cancelled - whatever works for you - sewing circle, school board, Black Lives Matter activism. Find what you can actually do.
I Have letters ready to go out in October for Vote Forward.
The democrats won't do much. The problem is depending on private political parties to resolve institutional problems, which both parties exploit to their own benefit. The sooner folks realize that political parties presently exist to yield power and control to an elite few (many of whom are non-elected) the sooner we can come to better solutions.
In the meantime, mobilize, vote and be vocal and be active. If the November election fails to rid the nation of this debacle, then it is time for everyone to take to the streets and shut it down.
That said, I hope everyone "Votes Blue No Matter Who." Which, BTW means Democrat, even if they are not perfect. I have already encountered super lib conscience voters on Twit who won't vote for Biden because he is not behind universal health care. IDK who they plan to vote for but only tRump or Biden will be the next president. THAT IS THE ONLY CHOICE. I choose anyone but tRump.
Argue with them some if you are up to it. Point out that the odds of pushing a Biden administration toward universal health care are infinitely higher than the odds of pushing tRump and company in that direction. Suggest they organize now around doing exactly that, and vote Dem in November to make it possible.
I think the pandemic and economic recession indicate that universal healthcare in the US is long over due and Biden may be well-advised to re-posture and improve his position on the matter. Without such negative feedback, how else will his campaign be apt to change?
He has also shown that he's willing to listen and modify positions for the benefit of the many.
I have cautioned my kids (who are in their mid-40s) that a vote for anyone but Biden is a vote for 45. I hope, I pray, that they listen to me.
And my 86-year-old step-father has announced that he is NOT voting for DT this next time... I thought I would faint when I heard THAT!!! (Jury still out re who my 91-year-old mother is voting for...)
Each night, just when I think I've heard the worst, the next night, it's some new outrageous horror. Buying up all the remdesivir??? One son's wife and the other son's girlfriend being paid $15K/month funneled through his (now ex) campaign manager? Controlling the flow of information about coronavirus infections through HHS instead of CDC? smh....
Thank you, Heather, for keeping us informed. I hope that many others will subscribe to you to become informed as well.
These were my exact thoughts as I read Dr. Richardson’s letter this morning. I realized she has become my most trusted “journalist”, and decided I needed to pay her for her work. I just now subscribed so that I am in someway supporting this important work.
I just did the same thing. Her letters are so enlightening to me.
If they are illegally and corruptly funneling campaign contributions to family members, it's that much less they can spend on the campaign, so I'm not losing any sleep over that one. Taking an adversarial stance to the entire rest of the planet over health care is one more reason to boot the jackals out.
It’s like the Russian bounty scandal never happened. It’s buried under 3 weeks of garbage and can’t breathe. I hope someone is still trying to dig it out. 🤞
Please be aware that the following is a passionate statement supporting a specific outcome in this years election.
The vote.
The best that we can do now is get people to the polls.
Yes, there will certainly be on the ground hacking of peoples access to voting, and certainly ehacking as well. I still think that the more people we can get to vote, the better chance there is of succeeding in the two "races" where it counts the most, the presidency, and flipping the senate.
It means encouraging people to not consider Facebook,Twitter, et al as news sources. Use them for socializing, sure, but just don't use them as news sources. There are so many more reliable sources.
There are tens of millions of fellow citizens out there who will be on the edge about voting. There are also tens of millions out there who have the time, who are able to support everyone's right, everyone's access, to voting.
On the ground support
It means having as many legal representatives on the ground to challenge access suppression, it means monitoring mail in voting to make sure that it works as intended, it means on the ground support for those waiting in line, especially in areas where there is active suppression.
Obviously more complex, and more dangerous this year, support for those waiting includes not only water, shade, transportation, child care, and food, but PPE's as well.
It means observers with video and sound, aka shine a light on the process.
Money.
It means for those of us who can that we must support candidates financially more than we ever have before.
There are many of us who can afford (yes, even in this downturn), to give more.
To rehash an old saw, put your money where your mouth is. However much we have will almost certainly be worth less, provide less security, if this is not turned around.
I think our American democracy is hanging by a thread. Lets make sure we make that thread a great stout rope that brings us back from the edge of the cliff where we now teeter.
I just finished "One Person, No Vote" by Carol Anderson (thanks to HCR for the recommend). If there is one takeaway from the book it is as jdhinckley suggests: take actions at the ground level to offset voter suppression. She used the 2017 contest in Alabama between Roy Moore and Doug Jones to illustrate. It's a quick and compelling read.
Starting now the task is to make sure that disenfranchised voters are registered. Then follow though to make sure they get a chance to vote in November. Something as simple as providing transportation for someone who couldn't otherwise get to a poling place can make a difference.
Thank you!
This is why I joined a local democratic group. I didn’t know where to start or what I could do. It’s how I was able to help at the Texas primary on Tuesday. Being involved with like minded people is very therapeutic! Boots on the ground going to marches, registering voters, writing postcards and emails, making phone calls, fundraising for candidates, intelligent discussions. Learning and talking about the issues to others that haven’t heard about them. It’s my therapy! As well as, HCR, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, Seth Meyer. Laughing helps me a lot! And NPR! We can do this! We have too!
A local Democratic group. That's a great idea. Thanks for the suggestion! I will have to look into that, but for right now, I've been hired by the US Census to help with that. Don't know how busy I'll be with that for the time being.
That’s really important too! Good for you!
You might look into an Indivisible chapter in your area
I’m in the Tarrant County Democratic Women’s Group. Which I believe is what your talking about. As well as another women’s group that is helping people at the border with legal assistance and essentials.
And a medical guinea pig as I head back to the classroom. Really can’t be seen as much more at this point. Teaching art these days, I will be rotating among 700 students.
May G-d bless and protect you and all the teachers. It doesn't look like anyone else is going to be much help. My two daughters are going into their senior year of high school. As far as I know, the plan is to get everyone tested for covid before school, which will catch and quarantine 70% of infectious people; keep the windows open; and wear masks most of the time. That is working in Denmark, where the infection rate is very low and the monitoring is very good. Unlike here.
Looked into it, there’s not one in my area.
Google Payback Project. You can work from your home.
You have it right! Thank you for your plea; there is nothing more needed or more sacred in our political system than the right and the duty to vote and support access to voting for all.
As elections are getting so close and Trump is "shedding his ephemeral sheep's clothing" it is time to stop just "bewailing Trump's evil ways" and ramp up significantly what we are doing about it!
What is to stop the hospitals continuing to report data to the CDC as well as the 2 other private companies? As long as they also obey Trump's directive they won't have a problem receiving any new Covid drugs.
A second line of attack would be for the states to continue to use their existing state-wide health data collections and to set up a collaborative system amongst states to provide a check on eventually Trumpian iniquities with the statistics of infections and deaths. They had already started down this path on the subject of making decisions to "open up" their economies.
A third line of attack would be an avalanche of congressional inquiries into all the different errors made in Trumps neglect of the Covid epidemic and the potential conflicts of interest and corruption......a pre-impeachment move in all but name. What are the Democrats there for otherwise these days?
A fourth line of attack would be through investigative journalists in the national media detailing the collusion and corruption in the non-competitive contracts awarded for private data collection and the potential conflict of interest in eventual filings with the SEC. Does someone in Trump's clan have an investment/interest in the fledgeling operation? A clear statement from the new incoming administration saying that they would look very closely into this matter and prosecute all wrong doing might calm the "raging passions", screw up the public listing and scare away the the crooks and finaciers involved.
And finally on the story of Trump junior's girlfriend etc being paid "off balance sheet".....publicity, publicity, publicity. The firing of Trump's campaign manager, the owner of the company by whom they are paid will probably affect the problem too. If this hits the headlines then the guy won't just be demoted to handling the data analysis but will be out the door. Trump will have to find a new way to hide these campaign expenditures.
We need a new Bernstein/Woodward team on the job.
I am also wondering if the trump empire is finding ways to “own” or have a controlling interest in the vaccine research, distribution, and availability once approved and ready to market. What federal money given for research, development, and future distribution has strings attached to “business down the road?” Trump is so self-serving that coming up with a phony cure-all prior to the election would not be out of the question...”Remember the Bleach” ought to be our “battle cry!”😂
Of course they are. Consider the covid-19 tests developed by the Abbott company - the ones that give an accurate result in 15 minutes. It looks to me like all of their output is going to the White House, because there is never a sign of it being available in the states. Only some of it is actually being used there. Remember when the White House offered a thousand tests to Congress? Pelosi and McConnell issued a joint statement declining.
Am I the only one who feels even MORE compelled to stay home now that I know the WH is covering up (or cooking) the COVID numbers?
Me, too. I wonder what other government numbers they are falsifying.
No, you’re not the only one. I also feel more ‘concerned’ (aka “terrified”) about going anywhere and I have to go back to work asap due to unemployment running out - and my work requires direct physical contact with people all day. I am truly scared but am backed into a corner at this point.
Your feelings are totally reasonable. I do suggest you get a set of good quality cloth masks (outer layer of quilter's cotton, inner layer something soft like flannel, with a filter pocket) that you can rotate so you start with a clean one every day, and wear a face shield and gloves as well. That is what the hair stylists have been doing. It's been working for them.
I am so sorry to read this. I wish you and yours safety and good health.
While listening to the NPR story this morning about the coronavirus reporting change, I kept yelling at the radio --"OK, but just who owns the company that is providing the new database??" Thank you, Heather for supplying that information. Guess I could have predicted it was a Trump crony. Will we ever get national numbers we can trust, now?
First, thank you again for this newsletter. It is a perfect digest of the important news, and avoids the noisy nonsense of Twitter, about which more below. Dorothy Parker, whenever the doorbell rang, used to say "What fresh hell could this be?" The news has been like this since Nov 2016 (actually Nov 1980), but it's refreshing to get a concise, spirited Reader's Digest version of hell. Many thanks!
With the diversion of COVID-19 resources to the Palantir-made platform, I think we all have to ask ourselves if the Federal government has lost its legitimacy, both because of the obvious conflict of interest here (Thiel being a big Trumpist), and because of the Orwellian-Huxleyan nature of this informational coup d'etat. I am no disciple of Thomas Hobbes, but if your legitimacy test fails by Hobbes's criteria, then your ship of state has sunk. For Hobbes, a government has legitimacy only to the extent that it can preserve the peace and pubic well-being by the sovereign exercise of its power. If we do not get accurate COVID-19 info, or have any reason to doubt it, then the state fails the Hobbesian test. Cutting out the CDC shows, AT BEST, depraved indifference to the well-being of the citizenry. I have Scottish Twitter-friends who have revived the Independence Referendum push because of the indifference of Westminster to their fates, both due to COVID-19 and Brexit, and similar sentiments are surfacing in Wales. I realize this is extreme, and the official constitutional answer is "no", but would the secession of Northeastern, Upper-midwestern, and West-coast states be beyond the pale? No one thought, in 1989, that the Soviet Union was not "forever" and that Ukraine and the Baltics would be sovereign. That I am actually thinking that New York City and environs would be better off if they were like Singapore is very unsettling.
I thought the Twitter hack, when it was happening, was a joke. That is wasn't should prompt us to do two things. First: do not trust ANY Social Media. I quit Facebook in January and do not miss it. I stay on Twitter for two reasons -- to publicize my writing on Medium and to keep in touch with the transgender community. That's it. If you are going to use it for other things, then just stick to the cat photos and funny videos. Second: worry, and worry deeply, about how you are going to vote. Make sure there's a paper ballot -- if it is scanned, there is a physical audit trail. If it isn't in your election district, mail in your vote. I do not trust the US electoral system any more, AT ALL, which brings us back full circle to Hobbes. And if we live in a Hobbesian world now in the US, our democracy is truly sick. Maybe terminal.
OMG I meant "public" above! Emarassed! My bad!
Freudian? :)
Whatever the typo/autocorrect gaffe was *I* didn’t notice it and, since I have an ‘eye’ for that sort of thing, likely many others haven’t either. It happens to us all in this digital age, I always feel the same when I can’t discreetly correct. You are most definitely not alone!
I’ve thought more and more about secession as a viable option. Here in New England we could form New Scandinavia, modeled after the social and economic model of Denmark, Finland et al. I think states would need to be contiguous to join, so we might end up with several, newly seceded countries - New Scandinavia, the Left Coast, and maybe the Great Lakes (so hard to tell which direction Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are going). After the (successful) vote to secede here in New Scandi, there would be a relocation period (house swap?) where New England rednecks could swap places with Georgia or Alabama liberals (I think there are some of those, maybe?). Think how much happier we’d all be.
One of the west coast names is Cascadia. It would encompass California, Oregon, Washington & a suggestion that British Columbia might want to join. When this was first floated, some of Arizona & Nevada wanted in. Sadly, I live in Eastern Washington that has a group (&ballot measure) to create a new state with part of Idaho. This is/was being pushed by Matt Shea.
Cascadia would have the revenue to actually exist.
I wish Broward/Miami-Dade/Monroe counties could secede from Floriduh and call ourselves South Florida with our own governor, someone with a sense of reality and not beholden to the insanity coming from the White House.
Back in the old days (2016, actually), we talked on Twitter about creating a blue haven consisting of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
We called it TexMexCaliZona.
The politics would be blue, the food spicy, the people friendly, the weather warm.
Blue Haven.
In lieu of that, I think everyone just knuckled down to make things better in their own backyards, resist the onslaught of racism and white nationalism, and make plans for a better future. The plague was not foreseen, but it does seem in keeping with the times, does it not?
We did not speak of secession, as I recall. This was a new coalition of like-minded forward thinkers who loved tacos.
And no, I don't know where all of the "red" folks might have gone. Perhaps they would have turned blue. Who knows?
As Dana Milbank said, the next worst thing to happen to Trump will be in tomorrow's news.
Agree totally. I'm sure some of that "executive time" that dominates Trumps daily schedule is spent pondering how he'll top yesterday's news.
Data has been a problem for the Government since someone came up with a way to combine a bunch of ones and zeros in the form of binary data. The need for more data has outpaced development of the systems to collect, analyze, and store it. The government has always, and still does, rely on manual data calls to gather data. There are a few data systems out there, but few are mature. The system that CDC is 15 years old, which is not old enough to be tried and true. During my time in DHS I was a mission support specialist. I was a director and responsible for what is called personal property. Personal property is basically all assets that are not real estate. IT equipment, weapons, motor vehicles, planes, boats, etc.. DHS is made up of 22 separate government agencies. Try gathering detailed information from that many organizations. Some of the smaller organizations simply track their information in simple spreadsheets. A few of the larger organizations have invested in modern, commercial off the shelf (COTS) data systems that simplify tracking. Then there is the human element - some organizations don't make data tracking a priority. The output from 22 desperate tracking methodologies are usually not compatible and can't be aggregated into a single system without being normalized. If you can't normalize the data, you can't compare apples to apples. Why doesn't DHS develop a single tracking system you ask? Because it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to procure those types of systems and during my time there we could never get it in the budget. When we did around 2010, the contract was so big, the procurement was contested 3 times and the courts sent DHS back to square one with directions to break the systems up into several smaller systems so that more companies could be a part of the solution. Kind of defeated what we were trying to do. We eventually gave up and started developing processes to standardize data at the analyst level.
With that in mind, try to imagine what it must be like to gather data from over 6000 hospitals. Gathering, processing, communication, and management are essential to health care delivery, but the health care sector as a whole has historically trailed far behind most other industries in investments in information/ communications technologies. Again, throw in the human element. Within 6000 hospitals, there would be tens of thousands of data entry points and data input at each point is largely dependent on interpretation of the data by the person at the keyboard. The public doesn't understand this, so when they see fluctuations in the numbers over a period of time they lose faith in them.
I really don't understand why the administration is cutting the CDC out of the loop. (Well, I have my suspicions just as everyone else does.) But this I know, there is big money in data collection, analysis, and storage. To develop and standardize a single system robust enough to be deployed to every hospital would likely cost in the billions. As Heather outlined, follow the money and it's apparent, based on the administration's track record, what they are up to. It would also take 10 years to input all the baseline data needed. That's why I can't grasp the reasons why the administration would change reporting systems in the middle of a pandemic.
Someone suggested that the hospitals could simply continue to report to the CDC. Sure, but not likely. 6000 hospitals means 6000 different medical administrators that all have their own opinions about what the administration is doing. Trust me, there are a lot of Trump supporters in the medical community to, so it's not likely that you would even get a majority of the reporting points to continue funneling data to CDC. And if CDC did continue to collect it, Robert Redfield would be out of a job and be replaced by a Trump loyalist, who would likely not even be a medical expert.
I predict we will see the COVID-19 cases peak, plateau, and fall. And if the administration is successful at containing the data, it will occur before the election.
Hmm, I wonder whether this is the October surprise they've been touting. Oh ugh. This means they've been working on this for a while, the nasty little--well, I won't insult the animal.
type: was supposed to say "output from 22 disparate tracking methodologies"
Unlike some here, I have recently embraced Twitter. As at least one person here said, I use it to find news stories that I might not otherwise see. I also use it to find reliable, trustworthy information from credentialed sources and / or people I have chosen to trust to share reliable information. I originally got on it to follow James Rebanks but that’s another story. The fact that it could be (presumably) so easily hacked is unsettling, especially given that it is used to report emergencies as with the NWS situation yesterday. That incident hasn’t made me abandon the platform but it has made me more aware of the fragility of our communication systems. I don’t have a good solution other that to advise people to be diligent with critical thinking skills and not just take everything at face value.
That being said, I am grateful for this newsletter and Heather’s ability to connect the dots in this wildly chaotic time. I knew “we” had bought up the Remdesivir and the world was angry at us (though, honestly, I’d forgotten because the news cycle moves so fast now) but didn’t know about the connection to the private reporting company. I would bet real money that the trump family is somehow financially invested in that company. It’s always the damn money with those people. It now appears that they are literally milking this pandemic for their own personal financial gain. This is such an abhorrent thought that I am having great difficulty believing what the facts point to but, as people have begun to say more and more often, here we are.
I am saddened but not surprised to hear people on this forum bring up discussion of secession. It’s not just a topic for Southern rednecks anymore, apparently. All of the rapidly accelerating negative events happening have brought me to the point where I have begun to shift from fearing for our country to fearing that it is already too late. Too many things are happening too fast: COVID rapidly becoming out of control (per Dr Fauci), government takeover of covid data which will guarantee we will no longer have reliable data and won’t know the truth about what’s going on, bounties on US military by the USSR, Cold War with China, USPS being undermined, VOTING and the upcoming election being undermined, McConnell stonewalling everything except his agenda, forced school openings, EPA rollbacks, grift and corruption at the very highest levels of government, absolute and total lack of national leadership - in fact, malignant and harmful actions towards us and our country by our government. I could continue to go on but I know I am “preaching to the choir” so I will stop. Folks, I fear it’s too late. Worse, it’s now too late to get out - we are banned from traveling to most of the rest of the world. What now?
I follow James Rebanks on Instagram.
Twitter is, and always has been, a shoddy, shallow platform. I’m not sure why anyone pays any attention to it. I tried it once, maybe 10 years ago. I set up my new account using a strong password (I’m a techie), subscribed to a few people, and...my account was hacked by some Russian within hours. To rub salt in the wound, Twitter then sent me a nasty email scolding me for sending spam with my account (that would be the Russian who had hacked the notoriously flimsy Twitter security). Irony of ironies, Twitter suspended my account. I’ve not gone back, and have not missed it.
The promise of the Internet was how democratic and open it was, hiving everyone a voice. Look at what Twitter is - a broadcast medium (decidedly undemocratic). There are a few celebs with megaphones, and the rest are just ears, voiceless. The elite tweeters have millions of followers, the followers have? How many millions of nasty, dishonest tweets have been broadcast and consumed. How much has Twitter enabled Trump, Putin (through his digital agents) and other tinpot tyrants? How much of Twitter is pop culture pabulum? I read every week about this or that person who shutdown their Twitter feed, and how much happier it made them.
Some here might defend Twitter, there must be some value. The question is, does the value outweigh the cost?
“giving everyone a voice” I wish there was an “edit” option for posts.
I actually “have” to have it for work. Well very strongly encouraged. But when Steve Martin liked and shared my joke, I was in heaven!
Does the value [of Twitter] outweigh the cost? I think Bari Weiss suggested an answer to that question in her resignation letter:
"Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor. As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative."
https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter
Personally I use Twitter to gather news from a variety of sources. My theory is that I can get a better understanding of events by reading news from a variety of sources. I use media ias websites to help select my sources (https://www.adfontesmedia.com/, https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ ). The Twitter platform is easier to configure than Facebook for that purpose. Broader perspective is that most news organizations are likely curating their output for the social media audiences which continues to make my task more difficult.
I don't flock with twits.
I never cared for twitter. I can write an introductory sentence longer than 140 characters, but I get creative in editing back to that limit. The only reason I opened it was to see Michael Stokes fotos that were censored on facebook. However, now I have finally deleted my facebook profile, due to humans abdicating to AI 'bots and allowing them to ban ppl by their interpretation of "Hate Speech" with no recourse to appeal. (My hate speech that got me banned for 3 days was my fear that my black grandson would be targeted by some "white monsters" like Ahmaud Arbery.) So, I am stuck with twitter and just getting used to navigating it. I have under 30 followers now and follow the same number.
More and more I worry about the Nov elections. Certainly this Twitter hacking does little to ease that worry. In George Will's opinion piece today, he mentions that early voting begins in some states in 61 days. Hopefully, the Dems will find a way to better protect the rights of all voters including finding ways to insure that all votes are counted. That leaves the Dems just 61 days before the first votes will be cast.....and hopefully protected. And, to prevent any hacking of voting machines, let's move back to all paper ballots!
TN is implementing paper ballots in the primary Aug 6
I agree that we should return to paper ballots but I don’t have a good solution to the argument that it takes too long and too many people (really, too much money) to manage and count them. Glad TN is doing so. I live in a tiny little town that has always used paper ballots that you feed into the old fashioned hand cranked locked wooden ballot box so I know my vote is (relatively) secure but I worry deeply about the rest of the country.
Texas uses a paper ballot printed on the machine then counted on another computer and ballot saved. But there’s still obvious attempts at voter suppression. Republicans had brand new machines and more of them. Democrats has fewer machines that had problems. But we had more voters. Willing to wait! It was awesome!
I live in a small town, too, with the same system that you describe. Does make me feel a little better about my own vote, but it's the big cities with too few polling places that worries me.
If Twitter Verified users can get hacked, it does not bode well for elections.
Not only our elections, but our whole system of communication.
Takes a little wind out of the "mail voter fraud" sails perhaps.
On so many fronts. It shows once again the vulnerability of on-line systems to unauthorized access. It adds fuel to the voter fraud dumpster fire that Trump is stoking to cast doubt on the November election.
While it may be coincidental, the hacked accounts all belong to more liberal politically involved types. If the hack was simply a money-making scheme, why not go for any account with 10M+ followers?
Now that the Trump’s people are in charge of the Covid-19 case count — and making money on it — let’s all watch for the numbers to “magically disappear”. Just as Trump predicted.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/16/us-coronavirus-data-has-already-disappeared-after-trump-administration-shifted-control-from-cdc-to-hhs.html?__source=sharebar|twitter&par=sharebar
"Suddenly, like a miracle, the virus simply disappeared." I guess less testing really does mean fewer cases. <extreme sarcasm>.
I knew #45 was bypassing the CDC because they were telling the truth about COVID, which contradicted his lies, but should have guessed it was also about corruption and making more money off the ppl who pay taxes. Thanx for the behind the scenes story.
I should be getting my paper, mail-in ballot in a couple of days. The news said they were being mailed out today. I have been voting this way for years. The only time I went to my local polling place recently was to campaign for Andrew Gillum who lost narrowly to Ron DeSantis. I think there are more absentee ballots going out this time in Florida.