motherjones--2020-07-02--The House Oversight Committee Just Confirmed That Jared Kushner’s Project Airbridge Was a Bust

Earlier this spring , when the country was facing massive shortages of personal protective equipment and other medical supplies needed to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic , the Trump administration announced with great fanfare something called Project Airbridge .
The effort , spearheaded by Trump ’ s son-in-law Jared Kushner , provided taxpayer funded cargo flights from Asia to expedite the delivery of PPE by private companies in the US .
Various administration officials have touted Project Airbridge as an example of the administration ’ s quick response to the supply shortages , but critics complained that despite at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flights for big corporations , it was little more than a PR effort that never made a meaningful dent in the PPE shortage .
New information released today by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform provides a more detailed look at the administration ’ s response to the pandemic-related medical supply shortages .
Over the past several months , the committee interviewed executives at the nation ’ s largest medical supply companies and their trade organization , HIDA , about Project Airbridge and the White House Supply Chain Task Force , largely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out of the administration .
“ Committee staff contacted these companies because the Trump Administration has not been transparent about the actions of the Task Force or Project Airbridge , ” writes Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney ( D-NY ) .
As I reported in May : [ A ] fter many glowing PR hits , the administration decided to put an end to Project Airbridge as members of Congress and the media started demanding answers about how the supplies were being distributed , who received them , and whether the White House was making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public health .
On April 21 , 10 Democratic senators , led by Elizabeth Warren , asked the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate the project .
“ The novelty and complexity of this arrangement demands heightened scrutiny and transparency , ” they wrote in a letter .
“ However , the administration ’ s implementation of Project Airbridge has been completely opaque.
” The Oversight committee ’ s report penetrated some of that opacity with a number of revelations from private industry that show how inadequate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the very beginning of the pandemic .
Among its findings : • Project Airbridge delivered only about 7 percent of the PPE supplies distributed in the country since the beginning of the pandemic .
• The nation ’ s biggest medical supply companies had begged the administration to take a bigger federal role in purchasing PPE as far back as January , as their internal projections showed early on that PPE demand would quickly outpace the available supply .
But the administration inexplicably refused to become the primary purchaser , despite many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intervention .
As Trump said in mid-March , “ We ’ re not a shipping clerk.
” • Supply company executives warned the administration that the country needed to come up with a long-term solution as they projected that the supply chain issues would persist well into the winter flu season .
• Project Airbridge provided at least $ 91 million worth of cargo flights to some of the nation ’ s biggest medical supply companies such as McKesson , Cardinal Health and Henry Schein on the condition that the companies sell 50 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around the country as directed by the administration .
Yet in a briefing with committee staff , FEMA officials confirmed that the Trump administration had no involvement in directing PPE supplies within hotspots .
At the time Project Airbridge got off the ground , states , local hospitals , and governments were bidding against each other and driving up the prices of scarce PPE exponentially .
Despite the urgency , the administration put no meaningful restrictions on the prices private companies could charge for the supplies flown in on subsidized flights , nor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the government what they charged for the goods .
The administration also offered no industry-wide guidance for companies that weren ’ t part of Project Airbridge “ aside from everyone watching the news , ” FEMA officials told the committee .
The administration left companies to figure out where the most urgent needs were on their own .
HIDA representatives told the committee that sometime in March , a Private Sector Supply Chain Coalition “ came out of nowhere ” to try to seize control of the process , and had “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which took over the coordination between the administration and the supply companies , was headed by Dennis Robb , the CEO of HealthTrust Europe , a subsidiary of HCA , the huge American hospital chain .
According to the report , Robb , a volunteer , headed up daily calls with major distributors about procurement issues , and he used his private email to conduct government business .
Attempts by Mother Jones to reach Robb for comment were unsuccessful .
The most intriguing revelation from the report is that the Trump administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working with to buy PPE at inflated prices from a Chinese electric car and battery company called BYD , which stands for Build Your Dreams .
BYD is subsidized by the Chinese government , and the committee noted that last year , Congress banned federal funds from going to electric buses made by state-owned enterprises , including BDY .
Company officials told the House committee that negotiations over the BYD purchase went on for weeks , but ultimately , they refused to sign the deal pressed by the administration .
During the negotiations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tried repeatedly but failed to win certification from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ( NIOSH ) to manufacture N95 respirator masks , which can be used in medical settings .
NIOSH finally approved BYD ’ s application on June 8 this year and is now selling masks in the US to states including California , which has a $ 1 billion contract with the company for 150 million masks .
The committee notes that FEMA still has refused to turn over a single document it has requested as part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic response .
Its investigation is ongoing .
After this story published , a FEMA spokesperson emailed Mother Jones a comment , saying , “ We worked with Governors from every state and territory to provide PPE that otherwise would not have been available in our fight against this disease .
Project Airbridge completed 249 flights and brought in the following supplies from overseas manufacturers to the U.S. and into private sector supply chains to save lives in our nation : Over 5.3 million N95 respirators , 937 million gloves , 122 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2.6 million face/eye shields , 2.4 million thermometers , 1.4 million coveralls , 370,000 oxygen masks and 109,000 stethoscopes .
Every governor was given this data on a weekly basis .
”

Earlier this spring, when the country was facing massive shortages of personal protective equipment and other medical supplies needed to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration announced with great fanfare something called Project Airbridge. The effort, spearheaded by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, provided taxpayer funded cargo flights from Asia to expedite the delivery of PPE by private companies in the US. Various administration officials have touted Project Airbridge as an example of the administration’s quick response to the supply shortages, but critics complained that despite at least $91 million worth of subsidized cargo flights for big corporations, it was little more than a PR effort that never made a meaningful dent in the PPE shortage.
New information released today by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform provides a more detailed look at the administration’s response to the pandemic-related medical supply shortages. Over the past several months, the committee interviewed executives at the nation’s largest medical supply companies and their trade organization, HIDA, about Project Airbridge and the White House Supply Chain Task Force, largely because members could not get any information out of the administration. “Committee staff contacted these companies because the Trump Administration has not been transparent about the actions of the Task Force or Project Airbridge,” writes Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).
As I reported in May:
[A]fter many glowing PR hits, the administration decided to put an end to Project Airbridge as members of Congress and the media started demanding answers about how the supplies were being distributed, who received them, and whether the White House was making distribution decisions based on politics rather than public health. On April 21, 10 Democratic senators, led by Elizabeth Warren, asked the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate the project. “The novelty and complexity of this arrangement demands heightened scrutiny and transparency,” they wrote in a letter. “However, the administration’s implementation of Project Airbridge has been completely opaque.”
The Oversight committee’s report penetrated some of that opacity with a number of revelations from private industry that show how inadequate the administration’s response has been from the very beginning of the pandemic. Among its findings :
Project Airbridge delivered only about 7 percent of the PPE supplies distributed in the country since the beginning of the pandemic.
The nation’s biggest medical supply companies had begged the administration to take a bigger federal role in purchasing PPE as far back as January, as their internal projections showed early on that PPE demand would quickly outpace the available supply. But the administration inexplicably refused to become the primary purchaser, despite many meetings and request s for such a government intervention. As Trump said in mid-March, “We’re not a shipping clerk.”
for such a government intervention. As Trump said in mid-March, “We’re not a shipping clerk.” Supply company executives warned the administration that the country needed to come up with a long-term solution as they projected that the supply chain issues would persist well into the winter flu season.
Project Airbridge provided at least $91 million worth of cargo flights to some of the nation’s biggest medical supply companies such as McKesson, Cardinal Health and Henry Schein on the condition that the companies sell 50 percent of the supplies to virus hotspots around the country as directed by the administration. Yet in a briefing with committee staff, FEMA officials confirmed that the Trump administration had no involvement in directing PPE supplies within hotspots.
At the time Project Airbridge got off the ground, states, local hospitals, and governments were bidding against each other and driving up the prices of scarce PPE exponentially. Despite the urgency, the administration put no meaningful restrictions on the prices private companies could charge for the supplies flown in on subsidized flights, nor did it require them to report back to the government what they charged for the goods. The administration also offered no industry-wide guidance for companies that weren’t part of Project Airbridge “aside from everyone watching the news,” FEMA officials told the committee. The administration left companies to figure out where the most urgent needs were on their own.
A Private Sector Supply Chain Coalition “came out of nowhere” to try to seize control of the process, and had “direct communications with FEMA.”
HIDA representatives told the committee that sometime in March, a Private Sector Supply Chain Coalition “came out of nowhere” to try to seize control of the process, and had “direct communications with FEMA.” The coalition, which took over the coordination between the administration and the supply companies, was headed by Dennis Robb, the CEO of HealthTrust Europe, a subsidiary of HCA, the huge American hospital chain. According to the report, Robb, a volunteer, headed up daily calls with major distributors about procurement issues, and he used his private email to conduct government business. Attempts by Mother Jones to reach Robb for comment were unsuccessful.
The most intriguing revelation from the report is that the Trump administration pressured private medical supply companies it was working with to buy PPE at inflated prices from a Chinese electric car and battery company called BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams. BYD is subsidized by the Chinese government, and the committee noted that last year, Congress banned federal funds from going to electric buses made by state-owned enterprises, including BDY. Company officials told the House committee that negotiations over the BYD purchase went on for weeks, but ultimately, they refused to sign the deal pressed by the administration. During the negotiations, according to the report, BYD tried repeatedly but failed to win certification from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to manufacture N95 respirator masks, which can be used in medical settings. NIOSH finally approved BYD’s application on June 8 this year and is now selling masks in the US to states including California, which has a $1 billion contract with the company for 150 million masks.
The committee notes that FEMA still has refused to turn over a single document it has requested as part of its oversight of the administration’s pandemic response. Its investigation is ongoing.
After this story published, a FEMA spokesperson emailed Mother Jones a comment, saying, “We worked with Governors from every state and territory to provide PPE that otherwise would not have been available in our fight against this disease. Project Airbridge completed 249 flights and brought in the following supplies from overseas manufacturers to the U.S. and into private sector supply chains to save lives in our nation: Over 5.3 million N95 respirators, 937 million gloves, 122 million surgical masks, 63.3 million gowns, 2.6 million face/eye shields, 2.4 million thermometers, 1.4 million coveralls, 370,000 oxygen masks and 109,000 stethoscopes. Every governor was given this data on a weekly basis.”


motherjones--2020-07-03--How Real Conspiracies Inspired False Rumors About Flooding Black Communities With Fireworks

John Williams had just finished his fourth novel and was trying to figure out how to sell it .
His 1967 book , The Man Who Cried I Am , focused on a CIA plot to stave off an inevitable Black uprising by exterminating all people of African descent .
The existing avenues for promotion weren ’ t particularly receptive to Black fiction-writers like Williams .
So he sought to generate buzz by photocoping sections of the book discussing the plot , which he dubbed the King Alfred Plan , and leaving them on subway seats in Manhattan .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Jet magazine , the marketing gambit didn ’ t help The Man Who Cried I Am sell particularly well .
But it still had an lasting impact : as Herb Boyd , a journalist and New York college professor , wrote in a 2002 issue of Black Issues Book Review , the “ ploy worked so well that soon after , black folks all over New York City were talking about ‘ the plan ’ ” which “ many thought was true.
” It wasn ’ t , but the King Alfred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the government targeting and persecuting Black communities in an era characterized by grossly illegal plots , including the FBI encouraging Martin Luther King Jr. to commit suicide and the assassination of Black Panther activist Fred Hampton .
In the 60 years since Williams dreamed up the King Alfred Plan , the paranoia that helped the conspiracy spread is still embedded in the minds of many Black Americans .
Most recently , that fear has manifested itself in popular explanations for the surge of fireworks that have been popping off in urban areas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nights and wild rumors .
For the last several weeks , city dwellers all over the United States have posted on social media about hearing and seeing unprecedented displays of fireworks .
Reporting has backed up the claims .
One fireworks wholesale retailer told The Atlantic that there were 60 percent more orders than normal , and that those customers were spending up to 40 percent more than usual .
The president of the American Pyrotechnics Association told CNBC that some sellers have seen a 200 to 300 percent sales jump .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suspicious that something unexplained was underway began to crop up .
“ Too many ppl from major cities sayin this , ” rapper Wale tweeted on June 20 .
“ Something is afoot.
” More elaborate stories and conspiracies started popping up soon after his post .
“ We think this is psychological warfare , the first wave before whatever the next stage of the attack is , ” novelist Robert Jones Jr. wrote on June 20 , in a Twitter thread about the fireworks that would go viral .
“ There is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black and Brown people would otherwise have access to these PROFESSIONAL fireworks.
” Jones speculated that “ the government is providing these to neighborhood young people , ” theorizing that the fireworks could be a “ desensitization ” tactic for impending martial law or a method to cause sleep deprivation in minority communities in retaliation for protesting against police in the wake of the killing of George Floyd .
“ They clearly don ’ t understand that they ’ re pawns , ” he wrote , before warning that “ cops may be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Jones ’ s thread got serious attention , receiving around 10,000 likes .
It was even boosted by respected journalists on Twitter , including Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones .
Since these theories took off , reporters have dug into the fireworks and found a simpler explanation .
Legal fireworks sales are up , and the fireworks black market also appears to be thriving .
Resellers have imported fireworks across state lines into areas where they ’ re illegal and sold them on the streets .
Bored kids who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus lockdown without anything to do are taking advantage of readily available fireworks to pass the time .
Despite all the counterfactual evidence to the fireworks as a psyop conspiracy , a lot of people thought that there was something to it .
Two days after Jones ’ s thread , Nigerian-American writer Clarkisha Kent wrote about the theory in another moderately viral thread .
Her points echoed Jones ’ s but also explained why , even in the absence of firm evidence , the theory caught steam .
“ Here ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quick to denounce Black ‘ conspiracy theorists , ' ” Kent wrote .
“ The stuff that has happened to Black people in this country ( and even elsewhere in the world ) IS the stuff of conspiracy theories .
It IS the stuff of science fiction.
” When she wrote the “ stuff that has happened to Black people , ” Kent was referring not only to government backed-suppression of civil rights era black activists , but to older official initiatives like the Tuskegee experiments—in which Black men were unknowingly coerced into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sterilizing large numbers of Black women in North Carolina for almost half a century that jeopardized Black lives or prevented Black births .
Patricia Turner , a professor at the University of California Los Angeles ’ s Department of African American Studies , says the fireworks conspiracies “ reminded me of an adage : ‘ Just because you ’ re paranoid , doesn ’ t mean they ’ re not out to get you.
’ ” While the mantra is usually used by deluded conspiracy theorists , for Black Americans , history has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that fireworks are being intentionally planted into the hands of Black youth as a part of a nationwide law enforcement effort is deeply paranoid .
But is it less outlandish and unbelievable than lying about giving free healthcare to people with syphilis and then letting them die ?
Less outlandish than state-funded medical workers forcibly sterilizing women ?
Less outlandish than sending letters to civil rights leaders urging them to kill themselves ?
None of these are science fiction , novel plots , or conspiracies .
Turner told me that the fireworks conspiracy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stories about crack cocaine being introduced to impoverished black communities by the federal government .
Like drugs , “ fireworks usually aren ’ t manufactured in the community , ” they ’ re manufactured elsewhere and shipped in , she said , noting that “ they both have the potential to be destructive to those using them and those around them.
” As with John Williams ’ s King Alfred Plan theory and the fireworks theory , there was no evidence of a government plot to spread illegal drugs to any segment of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ’ 80s and ’ 90s by the Associated Press and the San Jose Mercury News—later corroborated in key respects by information unearthed in official inquires—revealed that Central American paramilitary forces allied with the CIA had funded operations by selling crack and cocaine in the US with the agency ’ s knowledge .
Given the consistent onslaught of covert attacks on the black community , conspiratorial thinking is arguably a survival tool : a “ productive resource ” as Anthony Cooke , a former professor at Georgia Southern University , once put it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Media and Intellectual Paranoia-as-Politics.
” Published in 2011 in the Journal of Black Studies , Cooke wrote that Black Americans in the 1960s , facing “ segregation , unemployment , and anti-Black terror , ” turned to deep suspicion and often outright conspiracy theories as a means of ensuring “ both physical and psychic survival.
” It ’ s easy to laugh at the fruits of this paranoia when they are incorrect .
But they are sometimes correct .
In the 18 months prior to health officials acknowledging that there was something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Michigan , authorities repeatedly promised the water was fine .
Black people , meanwhile , repeatedly said something was wrong , drawing national attention that ultimately proved the claims right , and giving some the opportunity to obtain alternate sources of water .
The survival tool worked .
There is no single determinant of what kind of person turns to conspiracy theories , and believers sit along a vast spectrum of ideology and intensity .
But being or feeling excluded from having a voice in politics is a consistent trait among many who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Merlan , the author of Republic of Lies : American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power , has observed that one driver of conspiracy ideation is “ rising disenfranchisement , a feeling many people have that they are shut out of systems of power , pounding furiously at iron doors that will never open to admit them.
” Social science research has reached the same finding .
Throughout American history , Black people have waded through both literal and metaphorical disenfranchisement , and been represented by elected leaders who don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on policies that would alleviate suffering in their communities .
It might not be a coincidence that the fictional King Alfred Plan found an audience ready to believe and spread it in 1967 , just a few years after the enactment of the Civil Rights Act .
While Martin Luther King Jr. and allies who pushed for the bill never claimed that it would be a panacea ending racial inequity , by the end of the decade , it was becoming clear that changes in the law weren ’ t doing much to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between Black and white households was more or less as large as it had ever been .
Black incarceration rates were still on the rise .
Even with sweeping civil rights legislation on the books , many things were still atrocious for Black America .
It would not be unreasonable to suspect some conspiracy from “ the man ” launched to thwart promises of progress , even if like-minds disagreed on the specifics .
Today , as establishment Democrats tell Black Americans driven to protest after the George Floyd ’ s killing that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the pursuit of racial justice are off the table , there ’ s been a proliferation of fireworks conspiracies positing a plot targeting Black youth .
As the community ’ s demands have been rebuffed , highlighting their powerlessness , they ’ ve been drawn to a unsubstantiated story that nonetheless correctly identifies where the power is ( in the hands of the police ) and who it targets ( Black youth and communities ) .
What will come out of the protests is unclear , but the fireworks rumors could portend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 60s , gaping holes are left in policies to mitigate systemic racism .
Even as the conspiracy has faded on Twitter , police in Boston , New York , Rhode Island , and elsewhere have promised crackdowns on fireworks .
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio said that the city ’ s ramped up response to fireworks would include “ undercover buys ” and “ sting operations.
” More arrests almost always mean more Black arrests—a very real consequence which the conspiracy theorists saw coming .

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John Williams had just finished his fourth novel and was trying to figure out how to sell it. His 1967 book, The Man Who Cried I Am, focused on a CIA plot to stave off an inevitable Black uprising by exterminating all people of African descent. The existing avenues for promotion weren’t particularly receptive to Black fiction-writers like Williams. So he sought to generate buzz by photocopying sections of the book discussing the plot, which he dubbed the King Alfred Plan, and leaving them on subway seats in Manhattan.
Given the consistent onslaught of covert attacks on the Black community, conspiratorial thinking can be a survival tool.
As Williams admitted himself in a 1971 interview with Jet magazine, the marketing gambit didn’t help The Man Who Cried I Am sell particularly well. But it still had a lasting impact: as Herb Boyd, a journalist and New York college professor, wrote in a 2002 issue of Black Issues Book Review, the “ploy worked so well that soon after, black folks all over New York City were talking about ‘the plan’” which “many thought was true.”
It wasn’t, but the King Alfred Plan tapped into a very real fear of the government targeting and persecuting Black communities in an era characterized by grossly illegal plots, including the FBI encouraging Martin Luther King Jr. to commit suicide and the assassination of Black Panther activist Fred Hampton.
In the 60 years since Williams dreamed up the King Alfred Plan, the paranoia that helped the conspiracy spread is still embedded in the minds of many Black Americans. Most recently, that fear has manifested itself in popular explanations for the surge of fireworks that have been popping off in urban areas across the country, leading to sleepless nights and wild rumors.
For the last several weeks, city dwellers all over the United States have posted on social media about hearing and seeing unprecedented displays of fireworks. Reporting has backed up the claims. One fireworks wholesale retailer told the Atlantic that there were 60 percent more orders than normal, and that those customers were spending up to 40 percent more than usual. The president of the American Pyrotechnics Association told CNBC that some sellers have seen a 200 to 300 percent sales jump.
As posts about the fireworks went viral, suspicions that something unexplained was underway began to crop up. “Too many ppl from major cities sayin this,” rapper Wale tweeted on June 20. “Something is afoot.” More elaborate stories and conspiracies started popping up soon after his post.
“We think this is psychological warfare, the first wave before whatever the next stage of the attack is,” novelist Robert Jones Jr. wrote on June 20, in a Twitter thread about the fireworks that would go viral. “There is NO WAY IN THE WORLD that young Black and Brown people would otherwise have access to these PROFESSIONAL fireworks.”
Jones speculated that “the government is providing these to neighborhood young people,” theorizing that the fireworks could be a “desensitization” tactic for impending martial law or a method to cause sleep deprivation in minority communities in retaliation for protesting against police in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. “They clearly don’t understand that they’re pawns,” he wrote, before warning that “cops may be setting young folks up” for arrest. Jones’s thread got serious attention, receiving around 10,000 likes. It was even boosted by respected journalists on Twitter, including Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones.
It’s easy to laugh at the fruits of this paranoia when they are incorrect. But they are sometimes correct.
Since these theories took off, reporters have dug into the fireworks and found a simpler explanation. Legal fireworks sales are up, and the fireworks black market also appears to be thriving. Resellers have imported fireworks across state lines into areas where they’re illegal and sold them on the streets. Bored kids who had been pent up at home under coronavirus lockdown without anything to do are taking advantage of readily available fireworks to pass the time.
Despite all the counterfactual evidence to the fireworks as a psyop conspiracy, a lot of people thought that there was something to it.
Two days after Jones’s thread, Nigerian American writer Clarkisha Kent wrote about the theory in another moderately viral thread. Her points echoed Jones’s but also explained why, even in the absence of firm evidence, the theory caught steam. “Here’s the reason I’m not so quick to denounce Black ‘conspiracy theorists,'” Kent wrote. “The stuff that has happened to Black people in this country (and even elsewhere in the world) IS the stuff of conspiracy theories. It IS the stuff of science fiction.”
When she wrote the “stuff that has happened to Black people,” Kent was referring not only to government backed-suppression of civil rights era black activists, but to older official initiatives like the Tuskegee experiments—in which Black men were unknowingly coerced into becoming guinea pigs for Syphilis studies—and forcibly sterilizing large numbers of Black women in North Carolina for almost half a century that jeopardized Black lives or prevented Black births.
Patricia Turner, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles’s Department of African American Studies, says the fireworks conspiracies “reminded me of an adage: ‘Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.’”
While the mantra is usually used by deluded conspiracy theorists, for Black Americans, history has proven the advice valid. The idea that fireworks are being intentionally planted into the hands of Black youth as a part of a nationwide law enforcement effort is deeply paranoid. But is it less outlandish and unbelievable than lying about giving free healthcare to people with syphilis and then letting them die? Less outlandish than state-funded medical workers forcibly sterilizing women? Less outlandish than sending letters to civil rights leaders urging them to kill themselves? None of these are science fiction, novel plots, or conspiracies.
Being or feeling excluded from politics is a consistent trait among conspiracy theorists.
Turner told me that the fireworks conspiracy called to mind the enduring power of stories about crack cocaine being introduced to impoverished black communities by the federal government. Like drugs, “fireworks usually aren’t manufactured in the community,” they’re manufactured elsewhere and shipped in, she said, noting that “they both have the potential to be destructive to those using them and those around them.”
As with John Williams’s King Alfred Plan theory and the fireworks theory, there was no evidence of a government plot to spread illegal drugs to any segment of the U.S. population. But reporting in the ’80s and ’90s by the Associated Press and the San Jose Mercury News—later corroborated in key respects by information unearthed in official inquires—revealed that Central American paramilitary forces allied with the CIA had funded operations by selling crack and cocaine in the US with the agency’s knowledge.
Given the consistent onslaught of covert attacks on the black community, conspiratorial thinking is arguably a survival tool: a “productive resource” as Anthony Cooke, a former professor at Georgia Southern University, once put it in an article titled “Black Community, Media and Intellectual Paranoia-as-Politics.” Published in 2011 in the Journal of Black Studies, Cooke wrote that Black Americans in the 1960s, facing “segregation, unemployment, and anti-Black terror,” turned to deep suspicion and often outright conspiracy theories as a means of ensuring “both physical and psychic survival.”
It’s easy to laugh at the fruits of this paranoia when they are incorrect. But they are sometimes correct. In the 18 months prior to health officials acknowledging that there was something wrong with the water in Flint, Michigan, authorities repeatedly promised the water was fine. Black people, meanwhile, repeatedly said something was wrong, drawing national attention that ultimately proved the claims right, and giving some the opportunity to obtain alternate sources of water. The survival tool worked.
There is no single determinant of what kind of person turns to conspiracy theories, and believers sit along a vast spectrum of ideology and intensity. But being or feeling excluded from having a voice in politics is a consistent trait among many who believe in conspiracy theories. Journalist Anna Merlan, the author of Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power, has observed that one driver of conspiracy ideation is “rising disenfranchisement, a feeling many people have that they are shut out of systems of power, pounding furiously at iron doors that will never open to admit them.” Social science research has reached the same finding.
Throughout American history, Black people have waded through both literal and metaphorical disenfranchisement, and been represented by elected leaders who don’t or can’t come through on policies that would alleviate suffering in their communities. It might not be a coincidence that the fictional King Alfred Plan found an audience ready to believe and spread it in 1967, just a few years after the enactment of the Civil Rights Act.
While Martin Luther King Jr. and allies who pushed for the bill never claimed that it would be a panacea ending racial inequity, by the end of the decade, it was becoming clear that changes in the law weren’t doing much to address structural racism. The wealth gap between Black and white households was more or less as large as it had ever been. Black incarceration rates were still on the rise. Even with sweeping civil rights legislation on the books, many things were still atrocious for Black America. It would not be unreasonable to suspect some conspiracy from “the man” launched to thwart promises of progress, even if like-minds disagreed on the specifics.
Today, as establishment Democrats tell Black Americans driven to protest after the George Floyd’s killing that demands of defunding or abolishing the police in the pursuit of racial justice are off the table, there’s been a proliferation of fireworks conspiracies positing a plot targeting Black youth. As the community’s demands have been rebuffed, highlighting their powerlessness, they’ve been drawn to a unsubstantiated story that nonetheless correctly identifies where the power is (in the hands of the police) and who it targets (Black youth and communities).
What will come out of the protests is unclear, but the fireworks rumors could portend larger conspiracies if, like in the 60s, gaping holes are left in policies to mitigate systemic racism. Even as the conspiracy has faded on Twitter, police in Boston, New York, Rhode Island, and elsewhere have promised crackdowns on fireworks. New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio said that the city’s ramped up response to fireworks would include “undercover buys” and “sting operations.” More arrests almost always mean more Black arrests—a very real consequence which the conspiracy theorists saw coming.


motherjones--2020-07-04--The Cleveland Indians Are Considering a Name Change

Major League Baseball ’ s Cleveland Indians said Friday night that the team was considering a name change , after the National Football League ’ s Washington Redskins announced the same thing earlier in the day .
“ The recent social unrest in our community and our country has only underscored the need for us to keep improving as an organization on issues of social justice , ” the Indians said in a statement released Friday night .
“ With that in mind , we are committed to engaging our community and appropriate stakeholders to determine the best path forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Indians have repeatedly faced scrutiny on the matter in recent years , particularly because of their mascot , “ Chief Wahoo , ” a racist cartoon of a Native American person .
The team relegated Wahoo to be its secondary logo in 2014 but still retained him as an official Indians graphic .
Last year , it finally removed Wahoo from jerseys but still continued to sell official team merchandise bearing his image .
The moves come as institutions across industries are being forced to reckon with longtime racist practices and iconography @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Indians , companies like Quaker Oats and B & G Foods have said that they will reconsider their Aunt Jemima and Cream of Wheat branding , which feature antiquated depictions of African Americans , from which white business owners profit .

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians said Friday night that the team was considering a name change, after the National Football League’s Washington Redskins announced the same thing earlier in the day.
“The recent social unrest in our community and our country has only underscored the need for us to keep improving as an organization on issues of social justice,” the Indians said in a statement released Friday night. “With that in mind, we are committed to engaging our community and appropriate stakeholders to determine the best path forward with regard to our team name.”
The Indians have repeatedly faced scrutiny on the matter in recent years, particularly because of their mascot, “Chief Wahoo,” a racist cartoon of a Native American person. The team relegated Wahoo to be its secondary logo in 2014 but still retained him as an official Indians graphic. Last year, it finally removed Wahoo from jerseys but still continued to sell official team merchandise bearing his image.
The moves come as institutions across industries are being forced to reckon with longtime racist practices and iconography. In addition to the Redskins and Indians, companies like Quaker Oats and B&G Foods have said that they will reconsider their Aunt Jemima and Cream of Wheat branding, which feature antiquated depictions of African Americans, from which white business owners profit.


motherjones--2020-07-04--The Five Most Outrageous Things Trump Said at Mt. Rushmore

On Friday night , the eve of July 4th , President Trump used another one of his incendiary campaign rallies to stoke the flames of a culture war .
In his remarks at the foot of Mount Rushmore , Trump bashed a so-called “ left-wing cultural revolution ” and “ new far-left fascism ” while delivering lines that would have been virtually indistinguishable from a script for Tucker Carlson ’ s Fox News show .
Here ’ s are some the most absurd , explosive , and outrageous things he said during the speech : There is a “ new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Trump claimed , “ In our schools , newsrooms , even our corporate boardrooms , there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance .
If you do not speak its language performed rituals recite its mantras and follow its commandments , then you will be censored , banished , blacklisted , persecuted , and punished.
” Corporate America , of course , has relentlessly pursued tax cuts and backed Republicans to get them .
He wants 10-year prison minimums for anyone who defaces statues .
Trump said that under an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ damage or deface ” statues will receive “ a minimum of 10 years in prison.
” This seems to be a misinterpretation of his own order , which didn ’ t create new penalties but instead directed the attorney general to prioritize prosecuting cases of vandalism using pre-existing laws that allow for up to 10 years of punishment for damaging federal property .
Regardless of the accuracy of Trump ’ s claim , its fear-mongering seems aimed at chilling civil disobedience by threatening protesters .
Numerous presidents have led ruthless and abhorrent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extrajudicial drone strike killings , the institution of slavery , Jim Crow .
But Andrew Jackson is one of the only ones to have carried out an explicit campaign of ethnic cleansing .
He literally signed a bill into law called the Indian Removal Act .
Jackson was the linchpin in the Trail of Tears , in which 60,000 Native Americans were forced out of their homes .
Other presidents have hidden behind the “ realities of governing ” and other such phrases that obfuscate their moral culpability in the country ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t one of them .
He called for the removal of Native Americans for 10 years prior to taking office .
Historians have written that it was his top priority going into office .
During his speech , Trump called Jackson “ great ” as he proudly announced that police had arrested the “ suspected ringleader ” of protestors who tried to tear a D.C. statue of the ethnic cleansing president down .
He stoked the culture war by railing against a “ left-wing cultural revolution.
” “ Angry mobs are trying to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deface our most sacred memorials , and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities , ” Trump said .
“ They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive .
Make no mistake , this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American revolution.
” While Trump didn ’ t address it directly , his rhetoric is playing into a growing—and misplaced—fear of outside Antifa agitators coming into suburbs and wreaking havoc .
This hasn ’ t happened , but people across the county have been overwhelming police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the group .
He didn ’ t even mention the coronavirus .
Trump didn ’ t mention the disease once , even to deride it , even as the US death toll has surpassed 130,000 .
Instead , he spoke once again to a tightly packed , mostly maskless crowd .
On Thursday , he praised his administration ’ s response to the virus , despite the fact that the United States the worst outbreak in the world , and described the new surge in cases as “ temporary hot spots , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of downplaying the deadly pandemic .

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On Friday night, the eve of July 4th, President Trump used another one of his incendiary campaign rallies to stoke the flames of a culture war. In his remarks at the foot of Mount Rushmore, Trump bashed a so-called “left-wing cultural revolution” and “new far-left fascism” while delivering lines that would have been virtually indistinguishable from a script for Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show.
Here’s are some the most absurd, explosive, and outrageous things he said during the speech:
There is a “new far-left fascism” in “corporate boardrooms.”
Trump claimed, “In our schools, newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language performed rituals recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished.”
Corporate America, of course, has relentlessly pursued tax cuts and backed Republicans to get them.
He wants 10-year prison minimums for anyone who defaces statues.
Trump said that under an executive order he signed, people who “damage or deface” statues will receive “a minimum of 10 years in prison.” This seems to be a misinterpretation of his own order, which didn’t create new penalties but instead directed the attorney general to prioritize prosecuting cases of vandalism using pre-existing laws that allow for up to 10 years of punishment for damaging federal property. Regardless of the accuracy of Trump’s claim, its fear-mongering seems aimed at chilling civil disobedience by threatening protesters.
“The great Andrew Jackson.”
Numerous presidents have led ruthless and abhorrent travesties of justice against oppressed groups: extrajudicial drone strike killings, the institution of slavery, Jim Crow. But Andrew Jackson is one of the only ones to have carried out an explicit campaign of ethnic cleansing. He literally signed a bill into law called the Indian Removal Act. Jackson was the linchpin in the Trail of Tears, in which 60,000 Native Americans were forced out of their homes.
Other presidents have hidden behind the “realities of governing” and other such phrases that obfuscate their moral culpability in the country’s most tragic antagonisms. Jackson wasn’t one of them. He called for the removal of Native Americans for 10 years prior to taking office. Historians have written that it was his top priority going into office.
During his speech, Trump called Jackson “great” as he proudly announced that police had arrested the “suspected ringleader” of protestors who tried to tear a D.C. statue of the ethnic cleansing president down.
He stoked the culture war by railing against a “left-wing cultural revolution.”
“Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities,” Trump said. “They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive. Make no mistake, this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American revolution.”
While Trump didn’t address it directly, his rhetoric is playing into a growing—and misplaced—fear of outside Antifa agitators coming into suburbs and wreaking havoc. This hasn’t happened, but people across the county have been overwhelming police departments with complaints stemming from baseless fears of the group.
He didn’t even mention the coronavirus.
Trump didn’t mention the disease once, even to deride it, even as the US death toll has surpassed 130,000. Instead, he spoke once again to a tightly packed, mostly maskless crowd. On Thursday, he praised his administration’s response to the virus, despite the fact that the United States the worst outbreak in the world, and described the new surge in cases as “temporary hot spots,” in line with his continued rhetoric of downplaying the deadly pandemic.


motherjones--2020-07-05--To Celebrate the Fourth, Michael Flynn Posts a Pledge to Conspiracy Group QAnon

Donald Trump ’ s former national security advisor , Michael Flynn , posted a video on Independence Day in which he recites an oath for QAnon conspiracy theorists along with five others .
Flynn had been circling the QAnon world for months , but this takes his flirtation with the group a step further .
As the QAnon conspiracy theory goes , powerful liberal politicos are running an underground child sex trafficking operation but will ultimately be exposed and charged for their crimes after “ The Storm.
” There is , of course , no evidence that such a scheme @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the QAnon slogan “ where we go one , we go all , ” refers to “ an oath to become ‘ digital soldiers ’ to defend the Constitution , ” explains the Daily Beast ‘ s Will Sommer .
In the last month , following other cryptic messages of support for the QAnon conspiracy , Flynn added # TakeTheOath to his Twitter bio .
As Sommer reports : Flynn plays a large role in QAnon mythos , where his guilty plea for lying to the FBI about his discussions with Russian officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ persecuted victim of the deep state—or even , in some cases , as the mysterious “ Q ” himself .
Many QAnon fans have added three star-emojis to their Twitter handles , in a nod to Flynn ’ s status as a retired three-star general .
Pictures of books supposedly signed by Flynn with the QAnon slogan “ Where we go one , we go all ” are seen in the QAnon community as powerful “ proof ” that QAnon is real , although their authenticity hasn ’ t been proven .
Through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ silent on QAnon and his role in the conspiracy theory , while his son told QAnon believers to stop claiming his father was involved in their worldview .
But sometime in the last month , Flynn edited his Twitter bio to add a QAnon hashtag : # TakeTheOath .
…Flynn himself actually coined the term “ digital soldiers ” years ago , in reference to United States cyberwar capabilities .
But QAnon believers have recently become fixated on it , convincing themselves that Flynn was actually referring to them .
The oath craze @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Saturday , QAnon believer and Republican Senate nominee Jo Rae Perkins posted a video of herself taking the oath to become a “ digital soldier.
” Flynn ’ s message , though alarming , falls into a larger trend : QAnon online activity has been on the rise since the start of the pandemic .
As my colleagues Ali Breland and Sinduja Rangarajan reported last month , Google Trends shows that QAnon search terms like “ WWG1WGA ” ( where we go one , we go all ) spiked in March as US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s QAnon page saw a surge in pageviews in March and April .
Mentions of QAnon on Twitter have also increased : A Mother Jones analysis of nearly 500,000 tweets posted across one week in April found that the average number of tweets per day using the hashtag # QAnon increased by 160 percent as compared to the averages compiled over six months of 2019 by the Twitter user @ conspirator0 ( Twitter later limited searches of posts on its platform , making other comparisons difficult . )
The highest daily number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2019 was 75,349 .
After the onset of the US ’ s coronavirus crisis , that figure nearly doubled , reaching a high of 147 , 748 tweets on April 4 , 2020 .
Anecdotal examples bolster what the data shows .
Internet communities that hadn ’ t previously done so are now associating with far-right conspiracies like QAnon , impending mass arrests of elites for running pedophile rings , and liberal megadonor George Soros ’ s supposed plots .
Across Instagram , pseudoscience wellness influencers , lifestyle influencers , anti-vaxxers , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Goop site , and other seemingly unrelated groups have all pivoted to spreading versions of these conspiracies that emerged on the far right .

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Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, posted a video on Independence Day in which he recites an oath for QAnon conspiracy theorists along with five others.
The man Trump appointed to the most sensitive national security position in US government and a current martyr/hero of the Trumpist right just posted a video of himself taking the QAnon oath. https://t.co/w5dyHCUEwz — Radley Balko (@radleybalko) July 5, 2020
Flynn had been circling the QAnon world for months, but this takes his flirtation with the group a step further. As the QAnon conspiracy theory goes, powerful liberal politicos are running an underground child sex trafficking operation but will ultimately be exposed and charged for their crimes after “The Storm.” There is, of course, no evidence that such a scheme exists. The oath, which includes the QAnon slogan “Where we go one, we go all,” refers to “an oath to become ‘digital soldiers’ to defend the Constitution,” explains the Daily Beast‘s Will Sommer. In the last month, following other cryptic messages of support for the QAnon conspiracy, Flynn added #TakeTheOath to his Twitter bio. As Sommer reports:
Flynn plays a large role in QAnon mythos, where his guilty plea for lying to the FBI about his discussions with Russian officials has been spun to make him a persecuted victim of the deep state—or even, in some cases, as the mysterious “Q” himself. Many QAnon fans have added three star-emojis to their Twitter handles, in a nod to Flynn’s status as a retired three-star general. Pictures of books supposedly signed by Flynn with the QAnon slogan “Where we go one, we go all” are seen in the QAnon community as powerful “proof” that QAnon is real, although their authenticity hasn’t been proven. Through it all, Flynn had publicly stayed silent on QAnon and his role in the conspiracy theory, while his son told QAnon believers to stop claiming his father was involved in their worldview. But sometime in the last month, Flynn edited his Twitter bio to add a QAnon hashtag: #TakeTheOath. …Flynn himself actually coined the term “digital soldiers” years ago, in reference to United States cyberwar capabilities. But QAnon believers have recently become fixated on it, convincing themselves that Flynn was actually referring to them. The oath craze has gone so far that, on Saturday, QAnon believer and Republican Senate nominee Jo Rae Perkins posted a video of herself taking the oath to become a “digital soldier.”
Flynn’s message, though alarming, falls into a larger trend: QAnon online activity has been on the rise since the start of the pandemic. As my colleagues Ali Breland and Sinduja Rangarajan reported last month, Google Trends shows that QAnon search terms like “WWG1WGA” (where we go one, we go all) spiked in March as US businesses started to close. Wikipedia’s QAnon page saw a surge in pageviews in March and April. Mentions of QAnon on Twitter have also increased:


motherjones--2020-07-05--CNN Asked the FDA Commissioner to Correct Trump’s Lies. He Wouldn’t Do It.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn had at least two chances Sunday morning to correct the president ’ s claim that 99 percent of coronavirus cases “ are totally harmless ; ” he declined both .
“ Now we have tested almost 40 million people , by so doing we show cases—99 percent of which are totally harmless , ” President Trump said in his Fourth of July speech at the White House .
When CNN ’ s Dana Bash asked Hahn to respond to the assertion , he repeatedly dodged the question .
“ I ’ m not going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who ’ s wrong , ” he said .
“ What I ’ m gon na say , Dana , is what I ’ ve said before , which is that it ’ s a serious problem that we have .
We ’ ve seen this surge in cases .
We must do something to stem the tide.
” Similarly , when ABC ’ s Martha Raddatz pushed Hahn to address the claim , asking , “ How many cases would you say are harmless ?
” he responded by saying that “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know , any case , we don ’ t want to have in this country , ” Hahn said .
“ This is a very rapidly-moving epidemic , rapidly-moving pandemic .
And any death , any case is tragic .
And we want to do everything we can to prevent that.
” As Bash pointed out on CNN this morning , there is no evidence that 99 percent of cases are “ harmless.
” “ No health expert that we have found can back that up , ” she said .
The CDC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic , but said that estimate is subject to change as scientists gather more information about the virus .
Meanwhile , the US still leads the world in coronavirus infections , and cases in Texas , Florida , and Arizona continued to surge this weekend .
Florida saw a record-breaking spike of 11,458 cases Saturday , Politico reported , just shy of New York ’ s single-day record in April of 11,571 new cases .
On Saturday , Texas reported 8,258 new cases , and Arizona reported 2,695 new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president got his 99 percent number .
Politico has a guess : The president may have been referring to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistic this week that 102.5 per 100,000 recorded cases warrant hospitalization .
But the long-term health ramifications of coronavirus are unknown , and mortality rates continue to vary greatly for reasons that are not immediately clear .
There are now more than 2.8 million diagnosed cases in the United States and more than 129,000 deaths .
Trump has been making lofty claims about the coronavirus since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Mother Jones built a timeline of the first 100 days of Trump ’ s coronavirus denial .
View it here .

FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn had at least two chances Sunday morning to correct the president’s claim that 99 percent of coronavirus cases “are totally harmless;” he declined both.
“Now we have tested almost 40 million people, by so doing we show cases—99 percent of which are totally harmless,” President Trump said in his Fourth of July speech at the White House.
When CNN’s Dana Bash asked Hahn to respond to the assertion, he repeatedly dodged the question. “I’m not going to get into who’s right and who’s wrong,” he said. “What I’m gonna say, Dana, is what I’ve said before, which is that it’s a serious problem that we have. We’ve seen this surge in cases. We must do something to stem the tide.”
“I’m not going to get into who’s right and who is wrong,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn says when pressed about the misleading claim President Trump made — that 99% of coronavirus cases in America are "totally harmless." https://t.co/W6TLmb2Uvs #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/WpJmQRdGVQ — State of the Union (@CNNSotu) July 5, 2020
Similarly, when ABC’s Martha Raddatz pushed Hahn to address the claim, asking, “How many cases would you say are harmless?” he responded by saying that “any case is tragic.”
“You know, any case, we don’t want to have in this country,” Hahn said. “This is a very rapidly-moving epidemic, rapidly-moving pandemic. And any death, any case is tragic. And we want to do everything we can to prevent that.”
As Bash pointed out on CNN this morning, there is no evidence that 99 percent of cases are “harmless.” “No health expert that we have found can back that up,” she said. The CDC estimated in May that about a third of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic, but said that estimate is subject to change as scientists gather more information about the virus.
Meanwhile, the US still leads the world in coronavirus infections, and cases in Texas, Florida, and Arizona continued to surge this weekend. Florida saw a record-breaking spike of 11,458 cases Saturday, Politico reported, just shy of New York’s single-day record in April of 11,571 new cases. On Saturday, Texas reported 8,258 new cases, and Arizona reported 2,695 new cases.
It’s unclear where the president got his 99 percent number. Politico has a guess:
The president may have been referring to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistic this week that 102.5 per 100,000 recorded cases warrant hospitalization. But the long-term health ramifications of coronavirus are unknown, and mortality rates continue to vary greatly for reasons that are not immediately clear. There are now more than 2.8 million diagnosed cases in the United States and more than 129,000 deaths.
Trump has been making lofty claims about the coronavirus since the pandemic took hold of the country. Mother Jones built a timeline of the first 100 days of Trump’s coronavirus denial. View it here.


motherjones--2020-07-04--The 5 Most Outrageous Things Trump Said at Mt. Rushmore


motherjones--2020-07-06--How to Protect America’s Public Health System From Leaders Like Trump

As the world grapples with the devastation of the coronavirus , one thing is clear : The United States simply wasn ’ t prepared .
Despite repeated warnings from infectious disease experts over the years , we lacked essential beds , equipment , and medication ; public health advice was confusing , and our leadership offered no clear direction while sidelining credible health professionals and institutions .
Infectious disease experts agree that it ’ s only a matter of time before the next pandemic hits , and that could be even more deadly .
So how do we fix what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this Mother Jones series , we ’ re asking experts from a wide range of disciplines one question : What are the most important steps we can take to make sure we ’ re better prepared next time around ?
Ashish Jha is the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute .
Even before the coronavirus pandemic , he was preoccupied with our ailing health care system , writing extensively on quality improvement , cost efficiency , and the impact of policies on patient outcomes .
Since the start of the pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in all aspects of the delivery of care at the hospital , local , and national level .
He was one of the first public health experts to call for a national quarantine .
Jha thinks a lot about the problem of infectious disease ; in fact he teaches a course called Lessons From Ebola : Preventing the Next Pandemic .
I caught up with him while he was sheltering in his home in Massachusetts .
On Trump-proofing our infectious disease infrastructure : About a year-and-a-half ago , there was a report by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assessed every country ’ s preparedness .
If I remember , America was in the top three .
So it ’ s kind of interesting to think that we were identified as one of the most prepared in the world .
And I will argue that among high income countries , certainly , our response may be the very worst in the world .
That contrast is interesting—it ’ s making me think , why did things go so badly ?
When we say we were one of the most prepared , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aren ’ t lots of things we should be doing better .
But part of the failure here really was political .
No matter what level of data infrastructure , lab capacity , and testing and tracing infrastructure you put in , if there is a top-down failure from the federal government , it ’ s very hard for a country to recover .
Political incompetence can undermine always .
I think it raises a question : Could you build an infrastructure that could be Trump-proof ?
You could have a future leader @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could you build a system that would survive poor political leadership ?
I just think of it like , wow , the whole system , which was among the best in the world , kind of completely collapsed .
And that to me is very scary .
On what we need to invest in : Let ’ s get rid of the political angle for a second and just talk about the kinds of things that would be important .
I think one area that really hurt us , especially on the issues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of high-quality data on what was happening in the pandemic .
There ’ s a bunch of reasons why that data infrastructure didn ’ t exist , but mostly because public health agencies have terrible data systems .
One area I would certainly make a lot of investment in is improving the data capacity of public health agencies across America—because we couldn ’ t track number of hospitalizations , number of deaths , let alone do it by race and ethnicity and income .
That would have signaled much earlier on that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the African American community .
It took us way too long to sort that out .
We made a very massive investment through the High Tech Act to get doctors and hospitals wired up on electronic health records , and I ’ ve generally been pretty supportive of that investment .
But if none of that data flows into public health agencies , then it ’ s a huge problem during a public health crisis .
Second , I think I ’ ve heard Robert Redfield [ director of the Centers for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we had contact tracing , like 6000 contact tracers .
That ’ s massively inadequate .
We need much more of a public health workforce that can be quickly called up , people who ’ ve been trained .
Then you have to think about how you use them .
It ’ s almost like the reserves in the military : People who get training on regular jobs , do the regular stuff .
And then , in the middle of a public health crisis , they get called up and can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or workforce .
I would really build up a public health reserve corps .
The third idea : It ’ s interesting to me that of the billions of dollars that NIH gives out overall , infectious diseases in general has been a pretty small part .
People make the argument , and rightly so , that cancer kills more people , heart disease kills more people .
Well , one of the few things that can kill millions of people in short order is a pandemic from a virus .
And it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among the least .
I would put a lot more money into research on viruses and antiviral therapies .
The key is , you don ’ t know which virus is coming next .
We ’ ve always assumed that the next big pandemic was going to be the influenza pandemic .
We did not think there would be a Coronavirus pandemic .
I don ’ t know what the next viral pandemic will be ; I just know that there will be one .
I would largely focus on funding much more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understanding of viruses much more so than specific areas of drug development .
We ’ ve gotten lucky with this virus because we did actually have a reasonable amount of research from the SARS virus .
This allowed us to move much , much faster .
If this had been a true novel virus that we hadn ’ t encountered and hadn ’ t done that research , it would have been much , much harder and we would have been much further behind .
On the CDC : I still think it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the world .
When I look at the scientists—where they are and the quality of the work they do—it ’ s still very impressive .
To me , the biggest failures came from the White House interfering with the CDC .
There are areas where the CDC needs more investments .
It needs to update its own data infrastructure .
I ’ m sure it needs more resources into its labs .
Those are important .
But do I think it was lack of those investments that led to the CDC not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A normal CDC under normal conditions would have been just dramatically better .
And it was just undermined .
On why the CDC must reclaim its position as a global leader : I always remind people that when China created its public health agency , they called it the China CDC .
It ’ s the Korea CDC .
It ’ s the Africa CDC .
There ’ s a reason they are using the term CDC , it ’ s because the US CDC is the gold standard .
And what typically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ countries around the world calls our CDC for help .
They say , “ Okay , we have an outbreak here .
What should we do ?
” And what I have been hearing from people around the world is basically in this pandemic , the CDC is not calling back .
That ’ s part of that broader pattern of not engaging with the global community , and it ’ s incredibly short-sighted .
It ’ s harmful for the world , but it ’ s also incredibly short-sighted for America because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ America used to gain both soft power and effectiveness by engaging with the world and helping the world do a better job .
And we ’ re not getting that this time round .
I would like to see the international work of the CDC expanded .
But my sense is , we can ’ t even get resources to keep the domestic-focused CDC effective .
This interview has been edited for length and clarity .

As the world grapples with the devastation of the coronavirus, one thing is clear: The United States simply wasn’t prepared. Despite repeated warnings from infectious disease experts over the years, we lacked essential beds, equipment, and medication; public health advice was confusing, and our leadership offered no clear direction while sidelining credible health professionals and institutions. Infectious disease experts agree that it’s only a matter of time before the next pandemic hits, and that could be even deadlier. So how do we fix what COVID has shown was broken? In this Mother Jones series, we’re asking experts from a wide range of disciplines one question: What are the most important steps we can take to make sure we’re better prepared next time around?
Ashish Jha is the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, he was preoccupied with our ailing health care system, writing extensively on quality improvement, cost efficiency, and the impact of policies on patient outcomes. Since the start of the pandemic, Jha has emerged as a policy leader in all aspects of the delivery of care at the hospital, local, and national level. He was one of the first public health experts to call for a national quarantine. Jha thinks a lot about the problem of infectious disease; in fact he teaches a course called Lessons From Ebola: Preventing the Next Pandemic. I caught up with him while he was sheltering in his home in Massachusetts.
On Trump-proofing our infectious disease infrastructure: About a year and a half ago, there was a report by the global pandemic monitoring board, which assessed every country’s preparedness. If I remember, America was in the top three. So it’s kind of interesting to think that we were identified as one of the most prepared in the world. And I will argue that among high income countries, certainly, our response may be the very worst in the world. That contrast is interesting—it’s making me think, why did things go so badly? When we say we were one of the most prepared, it doesn’t actually mean that there aren’t lots of things we should be doing better. But part of the failure here really was political. No matter what level of data infrastructure, lab capacity, and testing and tracing infrastructure you put in, if there is a top-down failure from the federal government, it’s very hard for a country to recover. Political incompetence can undermine always.
Political incompetence can undermine always.
I think it raises a question: Could you build an infrastructure that could be Trump-proof? You could have a future leader who is just as incompetent, so could you build a system that would survive poor political leadership? I just think of it like, wow, the whole system, which was among the best in the world, kind of completely collapsed. And that to me is very scary.
On what we need to invest in: Let’s get rid of the political angle for a second and just talk about the kinds of things that would be important. I think one area that really hurt us, especially on the issues around health equity, is the lack of high-quality data on what was happening in the pandemic. There’s a bunch of reasons why that data infrastructure didn’t exist, but mostly because public health agencies have terrible data systems. One area I would certainly make a lot of investment in is improving the data capacity of public health agencies across America—because we couldn’t track number of hospitalizations, number of deaths, let alone do it by race and ethnicity and income. That would have signaled much earlier on that we were seeing this very large disproportionate effect on the African American community. It took us way too long to sort that out. We made a very massive investment through the High Tech Act to get doctors and hospitals wired up on electronic health records, and I’ve generally been pretty supportive of that investment. But if none of that data flows into public health agencies, then it’s a huge problem during a public health crisis.
Second, I think I’ve heard Robert Redfield [director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] say, we had contact tracing, like 6000 contact tracers. That’s massively inadequate. We need much more of a public health workforce that can be quickly called up, people who’ve been trained. Then you have to think about how you use them. It’s almost like the reserves in the military: People who get training on regular jobs, do the regular stuff. And then, in the middle of a public health crisis, they get called up and can be part of a large public health army or workforce. I would really build up a public health reserve corps.
The third idea: It’s interesting to me that of the billions of dollars that NIH gives out overall, infectious diseases in general has been a pretty small part. People make the argument, and rightly so, that cancer kills more people, heart disease kills more people. Well, one of the few things that can kill millions of people in short order is a pandemic from a virus. And it’s the area where we invest among the least. I would put a lot more money into research on viruses and antiviral therapies. The key is, you don’t know which virus is coming next. We’ve always assumed that the next big pandemic was going to be the influenza pandemic. We did not think there would be a Coronavirus pandemic. I don’t know what the next viral pandemic will be; I just know that there will be one.
I would largely focus on funding much more of the basic science and the basic understanding of viruses much more so than specific areas of drug development. We’ve gotten lucky with this virus because we did actually have a reasonable amount of research from the SARS virus. This allowed us to move much, much faster. If this had been a true novel virus that we hadn’t encountered and hadn’t done that research, it would have been much, much harder and we would have been much further behind.
To me, the biggest failures came from the White House interfering with the CDC.
On the CDC: I still think it’s the best public health agency in the world. When I look at the scientists—where they are and the quality of the work they do—it’s still very impressive. To me, the biggest failures came from the White House interfering with the CDC. There are areas where the CDC needs more investments. It needs to update its own data infrastructure. I’m sure it needs more resources into its labs. Those are important. But do I think it was lack of those investments that led to the CDC not being an effective agency? No. A normal CDC under normal conditions would have been just dramatically better. And it was just undermined.
On why the CDC must reclaim its position as a global leader: I always remind people that when China created its public health agency, they called it the China CDC. It’s the Korea CDC. It’s the Africa CDC. There’s a reason they are using the term CDC, it’s because the US CDC is the gold standard. And what typically happens in situations like this is those countries around the world calls our CDC for help. They say, “Okay, we have an outbreak here. What should we do?” And what I have been hearing from people around the world is basically in this pandemic, the CDC is not calling back. That’s part of that broader pattern of not engaging with the global community, and it’s incredibly short-sighted. It’s harmful for the world, but it’s also incredibly short-sighted for America because it’s a global pandemic.
America used to gain both soft power and effectiveness by engaging with the world and helping the world do a better job. And we’re not getting that this time round. I would like to see the international work of the CDC expanded. But my sense is, we can’t even get resources to keep the domestic-focused CDC effective.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.


motherjones--2020-07-06--ICE Tells Foreign Students to Leave the Country if Their Schools Are Going Online-Only

The Trump administration is giving a draconian choice to foreign students at schools that plan to offer only online courses @ @ @ @ @ to a school with in-person classes or leave the country .
The new policy announced @ @ @ @ @ Customs Enforcement comes as colleges debate how to safely reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic .
@ @ @ @ @ courses ; others are adopting hybrid models that combine in-person and online courses ; and @ @ @ @ @ .
With classes set to begin in September , it ’ s not clear how @ @ @ @ @ transfer to a new university in time to stay in the United States .
That @ @ @ @ @ After failing to get Congress to cut legal immigration , the White House has succeeded @ @ @ @ @ an excuse to shut off nearly all ways for people to come to the United @ @ @ @ @ s extending that crackdown to some students who are already in the country .

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motherjones--2020-07-07--Donald Trump Listens to His Gut. And It’s the Gut of a Racist.

With the coronavirus pandemic surging—and deaths and hospitalizations once again increasing—President Trump chose to start this week by attacking a race-car driver .
Why would he do that ?
Simply , because the man is Black .
Trump has a track record of demonizing Black sports figure , and with this assault , Trump was opening yet another front in the racist culture war that he is waging to solidify his shrinking electoral base and to distract from the killer virus that he has miserably failed to thwart .
On Monday , Trump called on Bubba Wallace , the only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the recent episode in which a noose was found in a garage Wallace used .
Trump accused Wallace of perpetuating a “ hoax.
” But there was none .
A noose had been found , but an FBI investigation determined that it had been placed in this garage prior to Wallace using this facility and that there was no hate crime directed at the driver .
End of story .
But Trump decided to pour gasoline and light a match .
And to further inflame , he linked this controversy to NASCAR @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flag from its events .
So in one tweet—which came days after Trump gave speeches that equated preserving the so-called Confederate heritage with celebrating American greatness—Trump both called on a Black man to bend a knee ( before his white colleagues ) and unabashedly defended the Confederate flag .
This was hardly new territory for Trump .
He has often targeted his white wrath on Black athletes .
He derided NBA superstar LeBron James as dumb .
He denounced NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick , who kneeled to protest police violence , saying Kaepernick @ @ @ @ @ @ @ referring to protesters who took a knee as a “ a son of a bitch.
” And , of course , Trump has a long history of racism and bigotry .
His family real estate business discriminated against Black renters .
He led a racist campaign against the Central Park Five .
He became a darling of the conservative movement by advancing the racist birther conspiracy theory that claimed President Barack Obama was born in Kenya .
During the last presidential campaign , he proposed “ a total and complete shutdown of Muslims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s representatives can figure out what is going on.
” It goes on and on : refusing to disavow David Duke , referring to Mexicans as “ rapists , ” insisting there were “ very fine people ” at the racist and anti-Semitic Charlottesville protest .
Last month , Trump retweeted a video showing a supporter of his shouting “ white power.
” ( After that made headlines , Trump deleted the tweet but refused to apologize or disavow the original video . )
Trump ’ s baseless and fact-free slam on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sticking with his effort to change the channel from pandemic deaths and economic calamity to a race-driven political civil war .
In recent weeks , as he has given up on leading the nation through the coronavirus crisis , Trump has increasingly amped up the demagoguery , depicting Black Lives Matter protests and the destruction of Confederate ( and other ) monuments as the No .
1 threat to the United States .
And his strike on Wallace , while heavy-handed , blunt , and inaccurate , also had a twist to it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his extremist base—apparently believing that is his only chance of victory in November—Trump realizes that his Confederate flag–waving loyalists and other of his supporters resent being called racists .
In fact , much of the conservative movement for decades has sucked at the teat of anti-anti-racism , insisting that liberals and many Black critics have been too quick to hurl the charge of discrimination .
With his blast on Wallace and his untrue depiction of the noose incident as a “ hoax ” that Wallace somehow cooked up—as if this episode was similar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ McEnany actually said , to the Jussie Smollett case—Trump was signaling to his devotees that , yes , you see , all these charges of racism are phony-baloney .
That is , racism is not the problem ; the real threat to the nation is false accusations of racism .
So when you are called a racist , well , that ’ s just another hoax .
Trump does try to have it both ways .
He constantly asserts he has done more for Black Americans than any president since Abraham Lincoln .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump held his first post-pandemic campaign rally at a Tulsa arena , his campaign flew in two dozen members of its Black Voices for Trump group and displayed them prominently at the event .
( Herman Cain , the 74-year-old co-chair of this outfit who attended the rally without wearing a mask , was subsequently hospitalized for COVID-19 . )
And Trumpworld does push back whenever Trump ’ s racism arises as an issue .
As reporters at the Washington Post were examining Trump ’ s recent attempts at “ amplifying racism and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out to Armstrong Williams , a Black conservative and Trump supporter , who defended Trump with this curious statement : “ President Trump has been more exposed to black people , black leaders and black culture than most previous presidents .
He doesn ’ t see the implications of his tweets in the way that his critics do .
He just loves his supporters.
” So the president doesn ’ t understand what it means to tweet out a video of a supporter yelling “ white power ” ?
Williams then deployed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who spoke at length on the phone to Don King on election night—I was with Trump when he took the call .
This is someone who welcomed Kanye West at the White House .
That ’ s who Trump is.
” Williams was scraping the bottom of the barrel .
Trump ’ s latest weaponizing of racism is an audacious move : he is embracing white supremacy ( or its most powerful symbols ) and absolving racists of being racists .
Most political strategists would tell a candidate slipping in the polls because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ less divisive and more competent .
But as Jared Kushner , Trump ’ s son-in-law and adviser , recently remarked , “ He ’ s really the campaign manager at the end of the day.
” At the start of this week , Trump ’ s White House was prepping to promote talking points hailing the economy .
But Trump had another plan .
He blew that up with one racist tweet .
His fans , advisers , and apologists often say Trump follows his own instincts and calls his own shots .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Americans continue to die in the pandemic and as tens of millions remain out of work—Trump is holding on to what he knows best : demagoguery and hate .
He is indeed listening to his gut , and it ’ s a cauldron of racist bile .

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With the coronavirus pandemic surging—and deaths and hospitalizations once again increasing—President Trump chose to start this week by attacking a race-car driver. Why would he do that? Simply, because the man is Black. Trump has a track record of demonizing Black sports figures, and with this assault, Trump was opening yet another front in the racist culture war that he is waging to solidify his shrinking electoral base and to distract from the killer virus that he has miserably failed to thwart.
On Monday, Trump called on Bubba Wallace, the only Black full-time NASCAR driver, to apologize for the recent episode in which a noose was found in a garage Wallace used.
Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2020
Trump accused Wallace of perpetuating a “hoax.” But there was none. A noose had been found, but an FBI investigation determined that it had been placed in this garage prior to Wallace using this facility and that there was no hate crime directed at the driver. End of story. But Trump decided to pour gasoline and light a match. And to further inflame, he linked this controversy to NASCAR’s decision to ban the Confederate flag from its events. So in one tweet—which came days after Trump gave speeches that equated preserving the so-called Confederate heritage with celebrating American greatness—Trump both called on a Black man to bend a knee (before his white colleagues) and unabashedly defended the Confederate flag.
This was hardly new territory for Trump. He has often targeted his white wrath on Black athletes. He derided NBA superstar LeBron James as dumb. He denounced NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled to protest police violence, saying Kaepernick ought to leave the United States and referring to protesters who took a knee as a “a son of a bitch.” And, of course, Trump has a long history of racism and bigotry. His family real estate business discriminated against Black renters. He led a racist campaign against the Central Park Five. He became a darling of the conservative movement by advancing the racist birther conspiracy theory that claimed President Barack Obama was born in Kenya. During the last presidential campaign, he proposed “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” It goes on and on: refusing to disavow David Duke, referring to Mexicans as “rapists,” insisting there were “very fine people” at the racist and anti-Semitic Charlottesville protest. Last month, Trump retweeted a video showing a supporter of his shouting “white power.” (After that made headlines, Trump deleted the tweet but refused to apologize or disavow the original video.)
Trump’s baseless and fact-free slam on Wallace was not shocking. He was sticking with his effort to change the channel from pandemic deaths and economic calamity to a race-driven political civil war. In recent weeks, as he has given up on leading the nation through the coronavirus crisis, Trump has increasingly amped up the demagoguery, depicting Black Lives Matter protests and the destruction of Confederate (and other) monuments as the No. 1 threat to the United States. And his strike on Wallace, while heavy-handed, blunt, and inaccurate, also had a twist to it.
As he aims to whip up his extremist base—apparently believing that is his only chance of victory in November—Trump realizes that his Confederate flag–waving loyalists and other of his supporters resent being called racists. In fact, much of the conservative movement for decades has sucked at the teat of anti-anti-racism, insisting that liberals and many Black critics have been too quick to hurl the charge of discrimination. With his blast on Wallace and his untrue depiction of the noose incident as a “hoax” that Wallace somehow cooked up—as if this episode was similar, as White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany actually said, to the Jussie Smollett case—Trump was signaling to his devotees that, yes, you see, all these charges of racism are phony-baloney. That is, racism is not the problem; the real threat to the nation is false accusations of racism. So when you are called a racist, well, that’s just another hoax.
Trump does try to have it both ways. He constantly asserts he has done more for Black Americans than any president since Abraham Lincoln. (Fact-check: LOL.) When Trump held his first post-pandemic campaign rally at a Tulsa arena, his campaign flew in two dozen members of its Black Voices for Trump group and displayed them prominently at the event. (Herman Cain, the 74-year-old co-chair of this outfit who attended the rally without wearing a mask, was subsequently hospitalized for COVID-19.) And Trumpworld does push back whenever Trump’s racism arises as an issue. As reporters at the Washington Post were examining Trump’s recent attempts at “amplifying racism and stoking culture wars,” they reached out to Armstrong Williams, a Black conservative and Trump supporter, who defended Trump with this curious statement: “President Trump has been more exposed to black people, black leaders and black culture than most previous presidents. He doesn’t see the implications of his tweets in the way that his critics do. He just loves his supporters.” So the president doesn’t understand what it means to tweet out a video of a supporter yelling “white power”? Williams then deployed the some-of-his-best-friends defense: “This is someone who spoke at length on the phone to Don King on election night—I was with Trump when he took the call. This is someone who welcomed Kanye West at the White House. That’s who Trump is.” Williams was scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Trump’s latest weaponizing of racism is an audacious move: he is embracing white supremacy (or its most powerful symbols) and absolving racists of being racists. Most political strategists would tell a candidate slipping in the polls because of his divisiveness and incompetence to be less divisive and more competent. But as Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, recently remarked, “He’s really the campaign manager at the end of the day.”
At the start of this week, Trump’s White House was prepping to promote talking points hailing the economy. But Trump had another plan. He blew that up with one racist tweet. His fans, advisers, and apologists often say Trump follows his own instincts and calls his own shots. As his presidency heads toward bankruptcy—as thousands of Americans continue to die in the pandemic and as tens of millions remain out of work—Trump is holding on to what he knows best: demagoguery and hate. He is indeed listening to his gut, and it’s a cauldron of racist bile.