The Abbreviated Pundit Round-up is a regular feature of Daily Kos.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren at The New York Times writes—Congress Needs a Plan to Confront the Coronavirus. I Have One. Government action is essential to save lives and to rescue our economy. Let’s get back to work:
Congress has passed three coronavirus packages aimed at providing immediate relief to families, workers, hospitals and small businesses, but with more than 12,000 dead and 10 million out of work, the scale of this tragedy demands we do much more — much faster. [...]
As workers lose their jobs, small businesses close and household incomes plummet, we must extend economic relief beyond cash payments to families and individuals. This includes suspending consumer debt collection, enacting a universal national moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, stopping water and utility shut-offs, providing as much broad student loan debt cancellation as possible and finding money to keep child care providers afloat. With older Americans and those with underlying health conditions among the most vulnerable, we must also increase monthly Social Security and disability benefits. [...]
Sustaining our economy also means taking significant steps to keep workers on the payroll even if they need to stay home. Congress has already provided payroll support grants to the airline industry. As big businesses seek federal help, we must condition funding on companies’ keeping workers employed. The small-business payroll program is in dire need of help — cleaning up its confusing rules and bureaucratic administration, ending big-bank shenanigans and ensuring that funding is available for every single small business that qualifies.
To make sure people already struggling with their costs of living aren’t being squeezed by companies out to make a quick buck in a crisis, we need new federal price-gouging laws and stricter enforcement. And we need to ensure that small businesses that want to come back can do so without being forced to sell to giant corporations or predatory private equity funds. That means hitting pause on exploitative corporate takeovers and private equity activity that might help the rich get even richer, but won’t help our economy recover. [...]
Damon Young at The Root writes—What the Coronavirus Is Doing to Black People Ain't a Conspiracy. It's Just America:
[...] The conspiracy theorist is one of the most familiar black American archetypes. If you’re reading this and happen to be black, you can likely list several friends and family members who qualify. Of course, we’re not the only ones who happen to believe in these sort of intentional government machinations. Fox News, the nation’s largest cable news network, downplayed the extent of the coronavirus’s danger for months because of a belief that science is somehow partisan. The most appropriate MAGA hat would be a tinfoil snapback.
What distinguishes the black American conspiracy theorist from them is that their belief in clandestine interference has a valid historical context, as we’ve been uniquely victimized by our government. The Tuskegee experiment did happen. COINTELPRO did happen. Redlining did happen. Gerrymandering is happening. Voter suppression is happening. So even if they’re wrong about some particular, conspiracy-negating facts, they’re right about America.
With this context, the belief that the disproportionate impact the coronavirus is having on our communities is a result of targeted intentionality...makes sense. It just does. It reads right. It sounds right. It feels right. If ambitious, you could even include that the belief that we’re immune from this virus—which, unfortunately, was very popular just six weeks ago—was the result of a misinformation campaign to make us lax.
But, as The Root’s Anne Branigin and ProPublica (and many, many, many other media outlets and journalists and academics and black people on Twitter) noted, we are dying at higher rates, not because of a particular, coronavirus-related conspiracy, but because America has made us uniquely vulnerable to it.
Former Vice President Joe Biden at Medium responds to the suspension of Sen. Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination:
Today, Senator Sanders announced he was suspending his campaign. Bernie has put his heart and soul into not only running for President, but for the causes and issues he has been dedicated to his whole life. So, I know how hard a decision this was for him to make — and how hard it is for the millions of his supporters — especially younger voters — who have been inspired and energized and brought into politics by the progressive agenda he has championed. Bernie has done something rare in politics. He hasn’t just run a political campaign; he’s created a movement. And make no mistake about it, I believe it’s a movement that is as powerful today as it was yesterday. That’s a good thing for our nation and our future.
Senator Sanders and his supporters have changed the dialogue in America. Issues which had been given little attention — or little hope of ever passing — are now at the center of the political debate. Income inequality, universal health care, climate change, free college, relieving students from the crushing debt of student loans. These are just a few of the issues Bernie and his supporters have given life to. And while Bernie and I may not agree on how we might get there, we agree on the ultimate goal for these issues and many more.
But more than any one issue or set of issues, I want to commend Bernie for being a powerful voice for a fairer and more just America. It’s voices like Bernie’s that refuse to allow us to just accept what is — that refuse to accept we can’t change what’s wrong in our nation — that refuse to accept the health and well-being of our fellow citizens and our planet isn’t our responsibility too. Bernie gets a lot of credit for his passionate advocacy for the issues he cares about. But he doesn’t get enough credit for being a voice that forces us all to take a hard look in the mirror and ask if we’ve done enough. [...]
Elizabeth Bruenig at The New York Times writes—Bernie Sanders Was Right:
Bernie Sanders has ended his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, which is a tragedy, because he was right about virtually everything. He was right from the very beginning, when he advocated a total overhaul of the American health care system in the 1970s. He remains right now, as a pandemic stresses the meager resources of millions of citizens to their breaking point, and possibly to their death. He was right when he seemed to be the only alarmist in a political climate of complacency. He is right now that he’s the only politician unsurprised to see drug companies profiteering from a lethal plague with Congress’s help. In politics, as in life, being right isn’t necessarily rewarded. But at least there’s some dignity in it.
In fact, both of Mr. Sanders’s presidential campaigns, beginning with his announcement in 2015 and ending here, were about dignity. Not only broad human dignity — Mr. Sanders’s relentless focus on the grim lives of the American poor, sick and disenfranchised is perhaps the greatest paean to the notion in modern political memory — but also the daily, personal sort we grant one another each time we tell the truth. Mr. Sanders is not and has never been a liar. His remarkable consistency over time, his notorious bluntness and his open disdain for sycophantic politics are all simply manifestations of that one critical fact. It made him an awkward fit for Washington, and it built him a movement.
Walter Shapiro at The New Republic writes—Bernie Sanders’s Gift to the Democratic Party. The political establishment dismissed him, but his tireless fight for struggling workers has altered the course of American liberalism:
When I first interviewed Sanders in his small mayoral office in Burlington in 1985, I noticed two separate memorials to Eugene Debs, the five-time socialist presidential candidate, on the walls. Even in his mid-forties, Sanders was as irascible then as he is today, snarling, “I am not now, nor have I ever been, a liberal Democrat.”
But Sanders, as a student of history, also knew that Debs needed liberal Democrats to translate his left-wing vision into reality. Although Debs died a despondent and broken man in 1926 (never regaining his health after being imprisoned during World War I), his ideas played a role in the dramatic expansion of governmental protections for the poor, the working class, and labor unions during Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Now Sanders—who over his career won about eight times more presidential votes than Debs ever did—is in a similar position with Joe Biden. In a world where the personal is political, it matters that these two ancient mariners like each other from their days in the Senate, despite their differences in temperament and outlook.
There are many Bernie true believers who thought that Sanders should stay in the race through the June primaries, scrapping for every delegate in an effort to put his imprint on the party platform. But bludgeoning the Biden forces into grudging compromises in a likely-to-be-ignored party platform is not shrewd politics in normal times. And these are decidedly not normal times.
Covid-19 will force a dramatic rethinking of the role of government. The crisis has already scrambled traditional political ideologies to the extent that Mitt Romney was one of the first people in Congress to call for cash payments to help Americans weather the economic collapse. This, in short, is as much a Eugene Debs moment as 1933 was, when FDR took office.
Miles Kamff-Lassin at In These Times writes—The Future Belongs to the Movement Sparked by Bernie Sanders:
[...] Sanders called for a different way of organizing our economic and political lives. By refusing to disavow the label of democratic socialist—despite the worry expressed by political strategists—he helped popularize the concept among a new generation of young people who now view socialism more positively than capitalism. They’re also flooding organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America which fight for the policies pushed by Sanders—and will persist long after the campaign.
But the most consequential impacts of Sanders’ run in the short term will likely be how he brought bold, redistributive policies to the fore of our political mainstream. Medicare for All is now far more than a broadly popular proposal, it’s a benchmark for candidates to show whether they believe healthcare is a human right. As COVID-19 wreaks havoc on the population and stretches thin an already feeble market-based healthcare system, the wisdom of a universal, free and publicly-operated alternative is becoming clearer by the day. Just look at polls showing the idea gaining in popularity in the past month.
The same goes for Sanders’ other signature policies, from a $15 an hour minimum wage to free public college, massive tax increases on the rich, expanded labor rights and a Green New Deal. These ideas are increasingly becoming the standard for progressive candidates, and enjoy mass support from the general public. What’s more, a number of states and municipalities across the country are now working to implement them in various ways.
Bernie Sanders did not invent these ideas—they were born of demands from social movements. His campaign simply served as a vehicle to push them forward. And there can be no doubt he accomplished that feat. Just look at the debate throughout the 2020 Democratic primary, which was shaped to its core by Sanders’ left-wing agenda.
An Obituary: John Prine Was One of the Great American Songwriters. He Was Also All of Us.
Dr. Michael L. Barnett is an assistant professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a primary care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. At The Washington Post, he writes—A second, hidden pandemic will follow covid-19. We need to plan for it:
Primary care physicians worry about covid-19. But we’re also concerned about all the other ways Americans’ health may deteriorate during the fight against the pandemic. The intensive care units in which doctors make desperate efforts to save covid-19 patients may be the stuff of your nightmares. But what keeps me awake at night are the calm hallways and empty doctors’ schedules outside emergency rooms and ICU wards.
A second, hidden pandemic will follow covid-19. The question isn’t so much whether it will happen, but how bad it will be. Many diets will slump. Expecting the typical American to keep up with regular exercise under the circumstances is probably a joke. Patients will avoid filling their prescriptions, out of fear of pharmacies or financial desperation. And mental-health issues will flare as the economy worsens and people are stuck at home for weeks.
Unnerving anecdotal reports suggest that the problem could go even deeper. Cardiologists have observed that hospital volumes for the most severe type of heart attack, known as a STEMI, are mysteriously low. Neurologists are also reporting fewer strokes. While it is possible that social distancing is somehow lowering the risk of acute problems such as stroke and heart attack, I fear this is a sign that people are avoiding hospitals — even in extreme circumstances.
Loss of health-care access is a well-known cause of further death and illness after natural disasters.
Aaron Thomas at The Guardian writes—I'm a black man in America. Entering a shop with a face mask might get me killed:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took a 180-degree turn last week and is now recommending that people wear face masks in public. The guidelines say medical-grade masks should be reserved for health professionals, who are facing a shortage of supplies, and suggest that Americans use T-shirts, scarves, handkerchiefs or any other spare fabric to make homemade masks to cover their noses and mouths.
On Saturday I thought about the errands I need to run this week, including a trip to the grocery store. I thought I could use one of my old bandannas as a mask. But then my voice of self-protection reminded me that I, a black man, cannot walk into a store with a bandanna covering the greater part of my face if I also expect to walk out of that store. The situation isn’t safe and could lead to unintended attention, and ultimately a life-or-death situation. For me, the fear of being mistaken for an armed robber or assailant is greater than the fear of contracting Covid-19.
These are the fears that black Americans have to constantly face. Where we can go, how we can show up, what we can wear, what we can say – it never ends.
David Corn at Mother Jones writes—Will Trump and His Enablers Ever Face Accountability for the Coronavirus Massacre?
They misrepresented the threat. They disregarded experts. They did not prepare adequately. And thousands of Americans died.
And they got away with it.
The implementers, cheerleaders, and enablers of the catastrophic Iraq War were never punished for their actions. It’s not too early to wonder if Donald Trump and those who joined him in discounting and downplaying the coronavirus threat or who were part of his lethal mismanagement of the crisis or who echoed his false statements and absurd claims of winning will ever pay a price for conduct that has led to a current death toll of 12,000, which could end up a magnitude of order greater.
Kate Aronoff at The New Republic writes—Does Big Oil Need Big Government to Survive?
One hot morning in 1931, rural townspeople awoke to the sound of an invading army: The government had sent some 800 mounted troops to impose martial law and enforce state-mandated production orders. This wasn’t some Stalinist horror show. It was East Texas, where the Texas Railroad Commission was pioneering a model that—in different forms—would keep the world’s oil industry running for nearly a century. Today, members of that same three-member, currently GOP-controlled body are considering a return to its roots—not imposing martial law, but again curtailing oil production to bring the market under control. It may be one of the few things that can save America’s oil and gas producers, and potentially the world itself, from catastrophe.
Since the oil price crash in March, outgoing Republican TRC Commissioner Ryan Sitton has been mulling the possibility of prorating oil: i.e., placing limits on its supply with the ultimate aim of bringing prices back up. Last month, OPEC and Russia (a shaky collaboration known as “OPEC+”) failed to agree on a supply cut to stabilize prices. A dip in prices, even under normal conditions, can spell disaster for U.S.-based producers sensitive to even modest price swings. But in this case, the problem was exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. [...]
Like the virus itself, collapsing demand for oil has spread fast.
David Cole at The Washington Monthly writes—Can Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Survive a Second Trump Term? It’s a proposition better left untested.
Can civil rights and civil liberties withstand a second term of President Donald Trump? They have already taken a major hit. Playing to his base, Trump has unremittingly targeted the most vulnerable among us. [...]
But there’s hope. With the exception of his judicial appointments, most of what Trump has done can be undone. All of his initiatives targeting immigrants, restricting reproductive freedom, and countering racial and LGBTQ equality were accomplished through unilateral executive action. As a result, they can all be reversed through unilateral executive action. This doesn’t diminish the harms these actions have already inflicted on hundreds of thousands of people, but it does mean that the damage can be cut short. If he is defeated.
But if Trump manages to win, then what? The next president will almost certainly have the opportunity to appoint one or more Supreme Court justices. The Court is already more conservative than it has been in nearly a century. If Trump gets to replace a liberal justice and create a 6–3 conservative-liberal split, the number of 5–4 decisions splitting in a liberal way, already relatively rare, will likely be erased altogether. We would then need not one but two “swing” justices to swing in the progressive direction for the liberal view to prevail.
Robert Kuttner at The American Prospect writes—How Long?
[T]he idea of a quick economic recovery is a fantasy. Financial markets are functioning again only because the Fed has advanced them trillions of dollars of life support.
But the aid for ordinary Americans in the CARES legislation is bottled up. The SBA Paycheck Protection Program is a fiasco.
McConnell and Pelosi are already talking about raising the total amount of small-business aid from $349 billion to maybe twice that. But the real problem is the way the program is run—through reluctant private banks. Government needs to put this money out directly.
Similarly, the unemployment compensation system is not equipped to handle anything like the new volume of applications. I’ve urged that government hire enough new people from the ranks of the newly unemployed to staff up these agencies.
In the meantime, total economic output keeps collapsing as people lose jobs and businesses shut down. Only a few weeks ago, chief economists of the largest banks were projecting a short recession that could be over by summer. These people are paid several times my salary to be idiots.
Recovery will take a long time—and a lot longer if government doesn’t get its act together.