theintercept--2020-04-19--Employees Say Smithfield Plant in Wisconsin Concealed Covid-19 Infections, Pressured Them to Work El

Employees Say Smithfield Plant in Wisconsin Concealed Covid-19 Infections, Pressured Them to Work Elbow-to-Elbow Without Protection

the meat industry giant facing mounting questions over its handling of the coronavirus crisis , repeatedly failed to protect its workforce at a Wisconsin plant , according to workers who spoke to The Intercept .
The workers at the Patrick Cudahy factory , in Cudahy , Wisconsin , faced a Covid-19 outbreak weeks ago , but say managers initially concealed the number of infected , pressured employees to avoid quarantine measures , and failed to provide any face masks or dividers .
A recent outbreak at Smithfield ’ s pork processing plant in Sioux Falls , S.D.
, is now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. , with 644 confirmed cases tied to the facility .
The Smithfield outbreak represents nearly half of all confirmed cases in that state .
Now , the Wisconsin plant , which employs more than 1,000 workers , has more than two dozen confirmed cases and closed down on Wednesday for cleaning and sanitation .
Workers at the plant , who spoke to The Intercept under condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal , say much more should have been done .
One plant worker with asthma said that when he asked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ official at the company declined his request because if he was provided one , Smithfield would “ have to do it for everyone else.
” He said that one of his coworkers had brought his own mask and was reprimanded to Smithfield ’ s human resources department , which told him that wearing his own mask would result in a suspension .
After days of back and forth between the plant managers and workers , the Cudahy plant allowed its workforce to bring its own masks .
Some appeared at work with homemade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work without basic safety equipment , such as N95 masks .
“ Eventually they tried to do some social distancing in the cafeteria , but actually , they ’ re working elbow-to-elbow on the line , so there ’ s no social distancing there , ” said the sister of another plant worker .
There are currently no plexiglass dividers between workers , though UFCW Local 1473 , which represents workers at the plant , has called for such safeguards to be installed .
“ There ’ s been people sick at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people I know at work are sick , ” said another worker , who explained that the company first refused to release information about infections at the plant and those who have been in contact with them .
Last week , Fox6 News , a local news affiliate , reported on rising tensions within the Cudahy plant , with many workers expressing fear that the company was not doing enough to prevent an outbreak .
Fox6 News obtained records from the Cudahy Health Department showing at least 28 cases at the facility .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , also told Fox , “ They really trying to hide the number.
” Following the report , Smithfield announced plans to close the plant for cleaning , and said only partial crews would work intermittently .
Wisconsin currently has over 3,555 confirmed cases of coronavirus .
Gov .
Tony Evers has promoted telework and stay-at-home policies for non-essential businesses .
The state ’ s response to the crisis has been the focus of national attention in recent weeks after Republicans on the state Supreme Court ruled that the state must proceed with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public health advocates and the governor .
Smithfield , which is owned by Chinese conglomerate WH Group , did not respond immediately to a request for comment .
The Cudahy plant and the town in which it is located is named after Patrick Cudahy , an industrialist who pioneered mass pork production across Wisconsin in the late 19th century .
The company , which became a subsidiary of Smithfield in 1984 , produces branded bacon and dry sausage at the plant , which is near the Milwaukee airport .
Smithfield , which owns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a long history of worker injuries and fatalities .
The company often uses foreign guest workers , many of whom have reported abusive treatment .
In 2007 , a number of guest workers from Thailand working in Smithfield plants reported slave-like conditions .
The workers later reached a confidential settlement with Smithfield and a recruiting company called Global Horizons .
In response to national attention to the spread of the disease at the South Dakota plant , Smithfield announced last week that it would temporarily close some plants in Missouri and North Carolina @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Smithfield Foods website , Chief Executive Kenneth Sullivan struck a defiant tone .
“ We have a stark choice as a nation : we are either going to produce food or not , even in the face of COVID-19 , ” wrote Sullivan .
The current push to temporarily close plants for cleaning , he added , “ is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply .
”

Smithfield Foods, the meat industry giant facing mounting questions over its handling of the coronavirus crisis, repeatedly failed to protect its workforce at a Wisconsin plant, according to workers who spoke to The Intercept.
The workers at the Patrick Cudahy factory, in Cudahy, Wisconsin, faced a Covid-19 outbreak weeks ago, but say managers initially concealed the number of infections, pressured employees to avoid quarantine measures, and failed to provide any face masks or dividers.
A recent outbreak at Smithfield’s pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is now one of the largest Covid-19 hotspots in the U.S., with 644 confirmed cases tied to the facility. The Smithfield outbreak represents nearly half of all confirmed cases in that state.
Now, the Wisconsin plant, which employs more than 1,000 workers, has more than two dozen confirmed cases and closed down on Wednesday for cleaning and sanitation. Workers at the plant, who spoke to The Intercept under condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, say much more should have been done.
One plant worker with asthma said that when he asked for a mask last month, an official at the company declined his request because if he was provided one, Smithfield would “have to do it for everyone else.”
He said that one of his co-workers had brought his own mask and was reprimanded to Smithfield’s human resources department, which told him that wearing his own mask would result in suspension.
After days of back and forth between the plant managers and workers, the Cudahy plant allowed its workforce to bring its own masks. Some appeared at work with homemade cloth masks, but most continued to work without basic safety equipment, such as N95 masks.
“Eventually they tried to do some social distancing in the cafeteria, but actually, they’re working elbow to elbow on the line, so there’s no social distancing there,” said the sister of another plant worker. There are currently no Plexiglas dividers between workers, though UFCW Local 1473, which represents workers at the plant, has called for such safeguards to be installed.
“There’s been people sick at the plant. I know at least three people I know at work are sick,” said another worker, who explained that the company first refused to release information about infections at the plant and those who have been in contact with them.
Last week, Fox6 News, a local news affiliate, reported on rising tensions within the Cudahy plant, with many workers expressing fear that the company was not doing enough to prevent an outbreak. Fox6 News obtained records from the Cudahy Health Department showing at least 28 cases at the facility. William Garron, a former union representative, also told Fox, “They really trying to hide the number.” Following the report, Smithfield announced plans to close the plant for cleaning and said only partial crews would work intermittently.
Wisconsin currently has over 3,555 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Gov. Tony Evers has promoted telework and stay-at-home policies for nonessential businesses. The state’s response to the crisis has been the focus of national attention in recent weeks after Republicans on the state Supreme Court ruled that the state must proceed with April 7 in-person voting over protests from public health advocates and the governor.
Smithfield, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate WH Group, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The Cudahy plant and the town in which it is located is named after Patrick Cudahy, an industrialist who pioneered mass pork production across Wisconsin in the late 19th century. The company, which became a subsidiary of Smithfield in 1984, produces branded bacon and dry sausage at the plant, which is near the Milwaukee airport.
Smithfield, which owns meat plants across the country, has a long history of worker injuries and fatalities. The company often uses foreign guest workers, many of whom have reported abusive treatment. In 2007, a number of guest workers from Thailand working in Smithfield plants reported slave-like conditions. The workers later reached a confidential settlement with Smithfield and a recruiting company called Global Horizons.
In response to national attention to the spread of the disease at the South Dakota plant, Smithfield announced last week that it would temporarily close some plants in Missouri and North Carolina.
In a statement published on the Smithfield Foods website, CEO Kenneth Sullivan struck a defiant tone.
“We have a stark choice as a nation: we are either going to produce food or not, even in the face of COVID-19,” wrote Sullivan. The current push to temporarily close plants for cleaning, he added, “is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply.”


theintercept--2020-04-19--Journalists Promoted ISIS Coronavirus Propaganda. They Should Stop.

ago , as the tide of the coronavirus pandemic began crashing down on Western countries , a provocative news story broke through the clamor and went viral in dozens of outlets .
The strange headlines stated that the terrorist group Islamic State had issued a travel warning urging its fighters to avoid going to Europe due to the outbreak of the coronavirus .
Citing a “ full-page infographic ” posted on a newsletter associated with the group , ISIS had allegedly told its members “ to put trust in God and seek refuge in Him from illnesses , ” prudently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stay out of areas where the disease had spread .
Under normal circumstances , even absent a global pandemic , an obscure message published in the foreign-language newsletter of a militant group should be unlikely to gain much traction in a fierce global attention economy .
But ISIS has always been catnip for journalists .
From Politico to The Independent to the New York Daily News , the odd news about ISIS responding to the coronavirus was picked up and amplified across the world .
It would not be hard to imagine that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ story — making it an impressive return on investment for an infographic that likely cost nothing to make .
If you ’ re trying to grow a political movement , or even just keep it alive , attention is your oxygen .
And , for some time now , the media has been acting as a ventilator : amplifying the most obscure and ridiculous ISIS propaganda in what genuinely seems like an attempt to wish it back into prominence .
This hunger for the notoriety the group provided is an advantage that ISIS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on , producing content to keep its public image alive even as most of its members have been killed and its real-world power mostly destroyed .
Writing in The Atlantic as far back as 2017 , Charlie Winter , a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King ’ s College London , noted the group ’ s skill at turning the media ’ s hunger for infamy into a weapon .
“ For ISIS , provided it ’ s on the propagandists ’ terms and conveys @ @ @ @ @ @ @ omnipresence , any coverage is good coverage , ” Winter wrote .
“ In that sense , ISIS terrorism doesn ’ t end when a bomb detonates .
Rather , it continues for hours , days , and weeks after , living on through the media.
” During the period when ISIS actually was setting off bombs and carrying out attacks in Western cities , the group was able to win attention for its cause through what other long-ago terrorists and anarchists called “ propaganda of the deed.
” At its peak , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s novel use of highly produced visuals to promote themselves .
Over the past few years , however , journalists have had to go out of their way to gin up propaganda for the group as its attacks become increasingly pathetic , and its actual organization reduced to an insurgency in the borderlands of Iraq and Syria .
As the actual ISIS has gone further into decline , news outlets in search of clicks — usually , but not always , tabloids — have had to dive deeper and deeper into the online @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group ’ s supporters .
It ’ s not clear what effect distributing ISIS ’ s messages for it is having , but in the past we have seen people take inspiration from published material about the group .
In the summer of 2016 , after killing 49 people in an Orlando nightclub , Florida resident Omar Mateen called 911 and claimed that the attack had been a response to the death of “ Abu Waheeb , ” an ISIS commander who had become famous in the tabloid media after being mocked for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evidence has ever surfaced that Mateen had any actual contact with the group other than reading about it in the press .
Time has apparently not diminished ISIS ’ s media appeal .
Last fall , the British media provided weeks of wall-to-wall coverage to a teenage ISIS captive held in Syria , even publishing exclusive stories providing readers with her opinions on recent negotiations over Brexit .
phenomenon that should be familiar to many Americans : the 2016 election campaign of Donald Trump .
As should be painfully familiar to everyone by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ played any role in politics before his campaign .
His entire campaign , admittedly an entertaining one , was dismissed by many at the time as a publicity stunt .
The news media however could not get enough of him , giving copious airtime to broadcasting Trump ’ s provocations even as they became increasingly serious and making him perhaps the most-discussed person in the country .
In 2016 , ex-CBS executive Les Moonves boasted that Trump ’ s campaign “ may not be good for America , but it ’ s damn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rewarded him well for being such a good showman .
During the course of the election cycle , Trump was estimated to have received a staggering $ 5 billion in free media coverage .
One can not say that the media itself got Trump elected , but , given its role in keeping him front and center before the public for months and months , the media helped Trump achieve one of the most valuable goals of any political movement : keeping people ’ s attention .
Even as president , there is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his daily updates on the coronavirus pandemic should be gifted with live , primetime news coverage .
It ’ s a question worth keeping in mind when considering whose voices to elevate on a subject of global importance , whether we ’ re talking about irresponsible officeholders hawking untested coronavirus cures or supporters of a terrorist group trying to keep its cause alive by telling people to wash their hands .
“ When you have millions of public voices as we have today because of digital connectivity , then attention becomes the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Martin Gurri , a former CIA media analyst and author of “ The Revolt of the Public.
” “ It ’ s even more important than money because , in the end , if you can keep getting attention , you ’ ll probably wind up not just with money but with power as well .
”

Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images
A few weeks ago, as the tide of the coronavirus pandemic began crashing down on Western countries, a provocative news story broke through the clamor and went viral in dozens of outlets. The strange headlines stated that the terrorist group Islamic State had issued a travel warning urging its fighters to avoid going to Europe due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. Citing a “full-page infographic” posted on a newsletter associated with the group, ISIS had allegedly told its members “to put trust in God and seek refuge in Him from illnesses,” prudently advising them to wash their hands and stay out of areas where the disease had spread.
Under normal circumstances, even absent a global pandemic, an obscure message published in the foreign-language newsletter of a militant group should be unlikely to gain much traction in a fierce global attention economy. But ISIS has always been catnip for journalists.
If you’re trying to grow a political movement or even just keep it alive, attention is your oxygen.
From Politico to The Independent to the New York Daily News, the odd news about ISIS responding to the coronavirus was picked up and amplified across the world. It would not be hard to imagine that tens of millions of people saw the story — making it an impressive return on investment for an infographic that likely cost nothing to make.
If you’re trying to grow a political movement, or even just keep it alive, attention is your oxygen. And, for some time now, the media has been acting as a ventilator: amplifying the most obscure and ridiculous ISIS propaganda in what genuinely seems like an attempt to wish it back into prominence. This hunger for the notoriety the group provided is an advantage that ISIS supporters seem to have learned to capitalize on, producing content to keep its public image alive even as most of its members have been killed and its real-world power mostly destroyed.
Writing in The Atlantic as far back as 2017, Charlie Winter, a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, noted the group’s skill at turning the media’s hunger for infamy into a weapon. “For ISIS, provided it’s on the propagandists’ terms and conveys the group’s purported strength and omnipresence, any coverage is good coverage,” Winter wrote. “In that sense, ISIS terrorism doesn’t end when a bomb detonates. Rather, it continues for hours, days, and weeks after, living on through the media.”
During the period when ISIS actually was setting off bombs and carrying out attacks in Western cities, the group was able to win attention for its cause through what other long-ago terrorists and anarchists called “propaganda of the deed.” At its peak, there was genuine newsworthiness in ISIS’s novel use of highly produced visuals to promote themselves. Over the past few years, however, journalists have had to go out of their way to gin up propaganda for the group as its attacks become increasingly pathetic, and its actual organization reduced to an insurgency in the borderlands of Iraq and Syria.
As the actual ISIS has gone further into decline, news outlets in search of clicks — usually, but not always, tabloids — have had to dive deeper and deeper into the online dumpster heap to find provocations from the group’s supporters.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
It’s not clear what effect distributing ISIS’s messages for it is having, but in the past we have seen people take inspiration from published material about the group. In the summer of 2016, after killing 49 people in an Orlando nightclub, Florida resident Omar Mateen called 911 and claimed that the attack had been a response to the death of “Abu Waheeb,” an ISIS commander who had become famous in the tabloid media after being mocked for looking like a rotisserie shawarma. No evidence has ever surfaced that Mateen had any actual contact with the group other than reading about it in the press.
Time has apparently not diminished ISIS’s media appeal. Last fall, the British media provided weeks of wall-to-wall coverage to a teenage ISIS captive held in Syria, even publishing exclusive stories providing readers with her opinions on recent negotiations over Brexit.
There’s a related phenomenon that should be familiar to many Americans: the 2016 election campaign of Donald Trump. As should be painfully familiar to everyone by now, the current president had never played any role in politics before his campaign. His entire campaign, admittedly an entertaining one, was dismissed by many at the time as a publicity stunt. The news media however could not get enough of him, giving copious airtime to broadcasting Trump’s provocations even as they became increasingly serious and making him perhaps the most-discussed person in the country.
In 2016, ex-CBS executive Les Moonves boasted that Trump’s campaign “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” The news media rewarded him well for being such a good showman. During the course of the election cycle, Trump was estimated to have received a staggering $5 billion in free media coverage. One cannot say that the media itself got Trump elected, but, given its role in keeping him front and center before the public for months and months, the media helped Trump achieve one of the most valuable goals of any political movement: keeping people’s attention.
Even as president, there is still a debate raging as to whether his daily updates on the coronavirus pandemic should be gifted with live, primetime news coverage. It’s a question worth keeping in mind when considering whose voices to elevate on a subject of global importance, whether we’re talking about irresponsible officeholders hawking untested coronavirus cures or supporters of a terrorist group trying to keep its cause alive by telling people to wash their hands.
“When you have millions of public voices as we have today because of digital connectivity, then attention becomes the most valuable thing you can garner,” said Martin Gurri, a former CIA media analyst and author of “The Revolt of the Public.” “It’s even more important than money because, in the end, if you can keep getting attention, you’ll probably wind up not just with money but with power as well.”


theintercept--2020-04-19--Senate Finance Committee Democrats Tried to Strike Millionaire Tax Break from Coronavirus Stimulus —

Senate Finance Committee Democrats Tried to Strike Millionaire Tax Break from Coronavirus Stimulus — Then Failed to Warn Others About It

Eighty-two percent of the benefits of the new tax break will go to real estate and hedge fund investors , and people making $ 1 million or more a year , the Washington Post reported , citing an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation that was requested by Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas .
The estimated 43,000 people who will benefit from the provision will each see their tax liability fall by an average of $ 1.7 million this year — costing the government more than $ 90 billion , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is more than 1,400 times larger than the $ 1,200 stimulus check the federal government issued to individuals with incomes up to $ 99,000 .
In 2017 , when Republicans passed their new tax plan , they put a limit on business losses people can use to reduce the amount they owe in taxes .
The provision was necessary to keep its official “ score ” within the range the party needed to use a 50-vote process in the Senate , bypassing Democratic opposition .
Now that the tax plan is law , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obliterate those limits .
A massive millionaire tax break was tucked into the final version of the coronavirus stimulus package without the knowledge of a number of Democrats , even though their party colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee had fought to block it during earlier negotiations — highlighting , at best , a breakdown in communication within the party and among the two chambers .
The $ 2 trillion Coronavirus Aid , Relief , and Economic Security , or CARES , Act passed by a unanimous vote in the Senate .
At @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — was unaware that the tax breaks were included in the final bill text , which was set less than an hour before the vote , according to his spokesperson Richard Davidson .
“ Further , he only learned of the skewed distribution of the tax cuts after requesting an analysis.
” “ This was a Republican provision that had been included in their bill from the beginning , ” said Ashley Schapitl , spokesperson for Senate Finance Democrats .
“ If you recall , McConnell put out the Republican-only bill the day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( March 20 ) and this was in there .
We were able to knock a few of these things out of the final bill like the transition tax overpayments and downward attribution.
” Democrats on the Finance Committee tried to strike the measure , which appeared in earlier Republican versions of the bill introduced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and were deliberated in the week before its final passage , according to spokespeople for two Democratic Senate Finance Committee members .
Democrats eliminated some provisions , according to a spokesperson for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but failed to strike the millionaire tax break .
The bill then went to the House , where it passed by an unrecorded voice vote on March 27 with many members — including some in leadership — either unaware that the tax break provision even existed , or unwilling to raise it publicly .
The lack of public debate over the extent to which the stimulus was crafted to benefit the rich at the expense of the poor further underscores how scandalous it is that there is no official record of the vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effort to reconstruct a roll call to record how each member voted , Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the only Democrat who has so far said she would have voted against the bill .
Asked if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew about the provision allowing for the millionaire tax break before voting on the bill , spokesperson Henry Connelly did not provide an answer , but said Republicans snuck in the provision as a tax giveaway to a small number of wealthy people .
“ The CARES bill that came out of the Senate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things that we don ’ t .
Democrats secured some absolutely life and death wins for workers and families , but as ever , we have seen how devious the GOP majority in the Senate is about sneaking in tax giveaways to the wealthiest few , ” Connelly said in a statement .
A spokesperson for Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley , a member of the House committees on financial services and oversight , said Republican Senate staffers added the provision at the last second to the final bill text , and that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a heads-up .
California Rep. Ro Khanna , a member of the House committees on oversight and budget , said he found out about the provision after seeing reporting from the Washington Post .
“ Our office just learned about this when it was reported , it was a surprise to see , ” said Heather Purcell , spokesperson for Khanna .
“ These loopholes alone could cost over $ 170 billion .
That ’ s more than we gave hospitals the CARES Act .
The next relief package should work for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , not for the 1 % , ” Khanna tweeted Wednesday , following The Intercept ’ s inquiry .
Two other Democratic members who declined to comment on the record said they were not aware of the provision before voting , and learned of it after reporting and requests for information from the Joint Committee on Taxation .
Doggett , who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee , along with Whitehouse , sent a request to the White House seeking information on the origin of the provisions , citing reporting that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ benefit the president himself , Jared Kushner , and “ real estate investors in President Trump ’ s inner circle.
” “ As both small businesses and workers were running out of options , Republicans insisted on this tax break for those at the very top , ” Doggett said in a statement to The Intercept .
“ Only after the Senate had approved the CARES Act was the cost of this provision revealed—more care to this narrow slice of the top 1 % than for hospitals or state and local governments .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ cost and just how few it cares for , it must be repealed.
” Whitehouse is also calling for its repeal .
“ It ’ s a scandal for Republicans to loot American taxpayers in the midst of an economic and human tragedy , ” Whitehouse told the Post .
“ Congress should repeal this rotten , un-American giveaway and use the revenue to help workers battling through this crisis.
” The stimulus was passed without some critical enforcement mechanisms , and President Donald Trump has already fired the inspector general set to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s funds , setting his sights on a White House lawyer to take over instead .
While the stimulus calls for a five-person panel to oversee disbursement of the relief funds , Congress was slow to populate the committee .
Until Friday , when party leaders named three committee members , Bharat Ramamurti , a former staffer to Sen. Elizabeth Warren , was the lone official on the committee .
Earlier in the week , he took his oversight role to Twitter , where he posted a thread listing questions he ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being moved .
“ Please follow along if you ’ re curious about what ’ s happening to billions of your dollars and who it might be helping ( or not ) , ” Ramamurti wrote .

A massive millionaire tax break was tucked into the final version of the coronavirus stimulus package without the knowledge of a number of Democrats, even though their party colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee had fought to block it during earlier negotiations — highlighting, at best, a breakdown in communication within the party and among the two chambers.
In 2017, when Republicans passed their new tax plan, they put a limit on business losses people can use to reduce the amount they owe in taxes. The provision was necessary to keep its official “score” within the range the party needed to use a 50-vote process in the Senate, bypassing Democratic opposition. Now that the tax plan is law, Republicans used the Covid-19 relief package to obliterate those limits.
Eighty-two percent of the benefits of the new tax break will go to real estate and hedge fund investors, and people making $1 million or more a year, the Washington Post reported, citing an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation that was requested by Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas. The estimated 43,000 people who will benefit from the provision will each see their tax liability fall by an average of $1.7 million this year — costing the government more than $90 billion, according to the estimate. That tax break is more than 1,400 times larger than the $1,200 stimulus check the federal government issued to individuals with incomes up to $99,000.
Democrats on the Finance Committee tried to strike the measure, which appeared in earlier Republican versions of the bill introduced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and were deliberated in the week before its final passage, according to spokespeople for two Democratic Senate Finance Committee members. Democrats eliminated some provisions, according to a spokesperson for ranking member Ron Wyden of Oregon, but failed to strike the millionaire tax break.
“This was a Republican provision that had been included in their bill from the beginning,” said Ashley Schapitl, spokesperson for Senate Finance Democrats. “If you recall, McConnell put out the Republican-only bill the day or two before those weekend negotiations began (March 20) and this was in there. We were able to knock a few of these things out of the final bill like the transition tax overpayments and downward attribution.”
The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act passed by a unanimous vote in the Senate. At least one Finance Committee Democrat — Whitehouse — was unaware that the tax breaks were included in the final bill text, which was set less than an hour before the vote, according to his spokesperson Richard Davidson. “Further, he only learned of the skewed distribution of the tax cuts after requesting an analysis.”
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
The bill then went to the House, where it passed by an unrecorded voice vote on March 27 with many members — including some in leadership — either unaware that the tax break provision even existed, or unwilling to raise it publicly. The lack of public debate over the extent to which the stimulus was crafted to benefit the rich at the expense of the poor further underscores how scandalous it is that there is no official record of the vote. According to The Intercept’s effort to reconstruct a roll call to record how each member voted, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the only Democrat who has so far said she would have voted against the bill.
Asked if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew about the provision allowing for the millionaire tax break before voting on the bill, spokesperson Henry Connelly did not provide an answer, but said Republicans snuck in the provision as a tax giveaway to a small number of wealthy people.
“The CARES bill that came out of the Senate negotiations had things that we like and things that we don’t. Democrats secured some absolutely life and death wins for workers and families, but as ever, we have seen how devious the GOP majority in the Senate is about sneaking in tax giveaways to the wealthiest few,” Connelly said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a member of the House committees on financial services and oversight, said Republican Senate staffers added the provision at the last second to the final bill text, and that relevant leadership and committee staff did not have a heads-up.
California Rep. Ro Khanna, a member of the House committees on oversight and budget, said he found out about the provision after seeing reporting from the Washington Post. “Our office just learned about this when it was reported, it was a surprise to see,” said Heather Purcell, spokesperson for Khanna.
“These loopholes alone could cost over $170 billion. That’s more than we gave hospitals the CARES Act. The next relief package should work for the people who need it the most, not for the 1%,” Khanna tweeted Wednesday, following The Intercept’s inquiry.
Two other Democratic members who declined to comment on the record said they were not aware of the provision before voting, and learned of it after reporting and requests for information from the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Doggett, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, along with Whitehouse, sent a request to the White House seeking information on the origin of the provisions, citing reporting that shows that the tax break will potentially benefit the president himself, Jared Kushner, and “real estate investors in President Trump’s inner circle.”
“As both small businesses and workers were running out of options, Republicans insisted on this tax break for those at the very top,” Doggett said in a statement to The Intercept. “Only after the Senate had approved the CARES Act was the cost of this provision revealed—more care to this narrow slice of the top 1% than for hospitals or state and local governments. Now that we have laid bare the cost and just how few it cares for, it must be repealed.”
Whitehouse is also calling for its repeal. “It’s a scandal for Republicans to loot American taxpayers in the midst of an economic and human tragedy,” Whitehouse told the Post. “Congress should repeal this rotten, un-American giveaway and use the revenue to help workers battling through this crisis.”
The stimulus was passed without some critical enforcement mechanisms, and President Donald Trump has already fired the inspector general set to oversee the distribution of the relief package’s funds, setting his sights on a White House lawyer to take over instead. While the stimulus calls for a five-person panel to oversee disbursement of the relief funds, Congress was slow to populate the committee. Until Friday, when party leaders named three committee members, Bharat Ramamurti, a former staffer to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, was the lone official on the committee. Earlier in the week, he took his oversight role to Twitter, where he posted a thread listing questions he’s asking about how the money is being moved. “Please follow along if you’re curious about what’s happening to billions of your dollars and who it might be helping (or not),” Ramamurti wrote.


theintercept--2020-04-20--Trump Bungles Hit on Cuomo and Shatters Own Wrongness Record on “1917” Pandemic

hour at the White House on Sunday , as the president ’ s effort to neutralize criticism of his failure to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic was undermined by his A/V team , and he mistakenly referred to the 1918 flu pandemic as something that happened in 1917 for the 24th time in the past five weeks .
As he did last week , Trump took took time out of what was supposed to be a briefing to update the American people on the public health emergency to screen clips of a political rival , Gov .
Andrew Cuomo of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal response to the crisis .
The aim was not to inform or reassure the public , but to settle a personal score .
When the first clip , of remarks from Cuomo earlier on Sunday , began with the sound turned down , Trump mocked his own tech team from the stage .
“ No sound ?
” Trump asked .
“ Other than that , it ’ s a good clip — he ’ s a nice looking guy , ” he added sarcastically .
Trump was annoyed because the clip @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Twitter by a member of his reelection campaign staff , because it started with Cuomo saying : “ Do I have faith in the president ?
Look , what the federal government did , working with states , as I just said , was a phenomenal accomplishment.
” The president ’ s irritation increased when that clip ended and his team couldn ’ t find the second one he was expecting — of Cuomo saying , two weeks ago , that no one in New York had died because of a shortage of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ left out the good part , ” Trump said .
“ Good job , fellas.
” When the second clip of Cuomo was finally located 40 minutes later , the president again paused the briefing to play it , since , presumably , it looked to him like proof that he had been right to attack Cuomo on Friday for needlessly “ complaining.
” New York , Trump tweeted as he watched Cuomo on television that day , “ didn ’ t need or use ” the thousands of hospital beds the federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ 40 thousand Ventilators ’ , ” Trump added .
“ We gave him a small fraction of that number , and it was plenty.
” While the president seemed to think this cherry-picking from Cuomo ’ s comments over the past two weeks showed that he had been right to not meet all of New York ’ s requests for help , by playing those clips , Trump inadvertently drew attention back to what Cuomo had been criticizing the federal government for on Friday : the ongoing failure to ramp up testing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say is necessary for the lockdowns to end safely .
“ The federal government can not wipe their hands of this and say , ‘ Oh the states are responsible for testing.
’ We can not do it without federal help , ” Cuomo said during his own televised daily briefing on Friday , about 20 minutes before Trump started heckling him on Twitter .
Without federal coordination , Cuomo added , “ we wind up in this bizarre situation that we were in last time : 50 states all competing for these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s testing , and then the federal government comes in and says to those companies , ‘ I want to buy the tests also.
’ This is mayhem.
” When a reporter informed the governor that the president was tweeting insults at him in real time , Cuomo said , “ First of all , if he ’ s sitting at home watching TV , maybe he should get up and go to work , right ?
” The governor then suggested that it was absurd for the president to claim that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beds it did not need , since the projections they relied on had come from Trump ’ s own White House coronavirus task force .
“ The number came from a projection from him — from him , ” Cuomo said .
“ The projections were high ?
They were the president ’ s projections , ” the governor added .
“ So for him to say to anyone , ‘ Well , you relied on projections and the projections were wrong , ’ they ’ re your projections Mr. President .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your projections , Mr. President ?
” As for his supposed ingratitude , the governor said that he had already expressed his thanks on numerous occasions for federal help in converting the Javits Center in Manhattan into an emergency hospital and sending a Navy hospital ship to the city .
“ I don ’ t know , what am I supposed to do , send a bouquet of flowers ?
” he asked .
Cuomo then pivoted away from Trump ’ s backward looking effort to justify his initial failure to prepare the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president ’ s attempt to push responsibility for testing onto the states .
“ The president doesn ’ t want to help on testing , ” Cuomo said .
“ I said the one issue we need help with is testing .
He said 11 times , ‘ I don ’ t want to get involved in testing .
It ’ s too complicated , it ’ s too hard.
’ I know it ’ s too complicated and it ’ s too hard .
That ’ s why we need you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ He wants to say , ‘ Well , I did enough.
’ Cuomo added , of Trump .
“ Yeah , none of us have done enough .
We haven ’ t , because it ’ s not over.
” When Jill Colvin of The Associated Press asked Trump on Sunday about Cuomo ’ s criticism of his failure to boost testing , the president first attacked her for not saying that the governor had said “ we did a phenomenal job.
” In fact , Cuomo did not say that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accomplishment ” of flattening the curve of infection had been achieved by the country ’ s citizens , with the help of federal and state governments .
“ People did it , but government facilitates people ’ s actions , ” Cuomo said in a part of the clip Trump was talking over as it played in the briefing room .
“ Heroic efforts on behalf of people , as facilitated by government — federal and state , ” he added .
In his remarks on Friday , Cuomo had been even more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proved we can control the beast — we can reduce the rate of infection .
We did that by our response to the crisis , ” Cuomo said .
“ Credit to all New Yorkers , all Americans .
They flattened the curve , nobody else — no government agency , no public health expert .
People ’ s actions flattened the curve , ” the governor said .
When Colvin pressed Trump to respond to the pleas from Cuomo and other governors “ that what they need , though , is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , because on supplies they say that they ’ re competing against one another , ” the president blithely dismissed the concern .
“ We ’ re doing great on testing , ” he claimed , even though experts at the Harvard Global Health Institute estimate that the United States needs to do between 500,000 and 600,000 tests a day to adequately track the spread of the virus , about four times the current average of 150,000 .
Earlier in Sunday ’ s briefing , as Trump continued to claim that a failure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no way his fault , he said that “ not since 1917 , more than a hundred years ago , has anything like this happened.
” According to transcripts of his remarks on the White House website , it was the 24th time since March 11 that he has incorrectly referred to the 1918 influenza pandemic as an event that took place in 1917 .
That Trump so frequently makes this mistake is particularly odd given that his own paternal grandfather , Frederick Trump , was among those who died of the flu @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The president ’ s insecure grasp on the most basic fact of the 1918 pandemic does seem to suggest that he is not particularly engaged in studying the history of that contagion for lessons in how to tackle this one .
If Trump were to crack open “ The Great Influenza , ” a history of that pandemic written by John Barry , an adjunct professor at Tulane University ’ s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine , he might be relieved to learn that his predecessor , Woodrow Wilson , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been in response to a virus that killed an estimated 195,000 Americans in October of 1918 alone .
Wilson was so obsessed with winning the war in Europe he had brought the United States into in 1917 that he only responded to the spread of the deadly virus in military camps in the U.S. when it threatened to disrupt the process of getting fresh troops across the Atlantic to the front lines .
Even then , the president allowed his generals , eager for as many troops as possible , to overrule the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ until the epidemic was contained .
“ He never released any statement about influenza whatsoever .
The federal government did next to nothing , ” Barry told WBUR in Boston last month .
“ Of course , we had a different society then .
But everything was up to local leadership , ” he said .
“ Because we were at war , the national public health leaders basically lied to the public , ” Barry added .
“ They said things like , ‘ This is ordinary influenza by another name.
’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fear .
Proper precautions are taken , ’ so forth and so on .
This was echoed by local leaders in many cities , Philadelphia being a prime example .
So they had a big Liberty Loan parade scheduled , which they declined to cancel , although all the medical community urged them to .
And 48 hours later , just out like clockwork , influenza exploded in the city.
” In New York , however , the city ’ s health commissioner , Royal S. Copeland , did take some forward-looking actions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ he eliminated rush hour by staggering the opening times of factories , shops and cinemas.
” Then he set up 150 emergency health centers across the city to identify and care for the sick .
And , most controversially , he kept the schools open , unlike in neighboring states , in an effort to survey and treat the city ’ s children .
With a large impoverished , immigrant population , the children were kept in school in part to make sure they were fed properly and so that they could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to their families .
The gamble paid off , and school-age children in New York that fall were less effected by the pandemic than in other cities .
Copeland , as a city official , was unable to stop the flow of troop ships from the city .
And a lot of his good work was undone in a single day .
On October 12 , 1918 , near the peak of the outbreak ’ s second wave , Copeland was forced to let a massive Liberty Day parade proceed down Fifth Avenue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , attended by an estimated 500,000 people .
It was led by President Wilson .

It was amateur hour at the White House on Sunday, as the president’s effort to neutralize criticism of his failure to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic was undermined by his A/V team, and he mistakenly referred to the 1918 flu pandemic as something that happened in 1917 for the 25th time in the past five weeks.
As he did last week, Trump took took time out of what was supposed to be a briefing to update the American people on the public health emergency to screen clips of a political rival, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, praising aspects of the federal response to the crisis. The aim was not to inform or reassure the public, but to settle a personal score.
When the first clip, of remarks from Cuomo earlier on Sunday, began with the sound turned down, Trump mocked his own tech team from the stage. “No sound?” Trump asked. “Other than that, it’s a good clip — he’s a nice looking guy,” he added sarcastically.
Trump heckling his a/v team for having the sound turned down on a clip his reelection campaign highlighted, of Gov. Andrew Cuomo praising the federal government, and the states, for the "phenomenal accomplishment" of flattening the curve. (via @atrupar) pic.twitter.com/eTEMs2bEAA — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) April 20, 2020
Trump was annoyed because the clip had been selected, and posted on Twitter by a member of his reelection campaign staff, because it started with Cuomo saying: “Do I have faith in the president? Look, what the federal government did, working with states, as I just said, was a phenomenal accomplishment.”
The president’s irritation increased when that clip ended and his team couldn’t find the second one he was expecting — of Cuomo saying, two weeks ago, that no one in New York had died because of a shortage of hospital beds or ventilators. “They left out the good part,” Trump said. “Good job, fellas.”
When the second clip of Cuomo was finally located 40 minutes later, the president again paused the briefing to play it, since, presumably, it looked to him like proof that he had been right to attack Cuomo on Friday for needlessly “complaining.” New York, Trump tweeted as he watched Cuomo on television that day, “didn’t need or use” the thousands of hospital beds the federal government provided. “Cuomo ridiculously wanted ’40 thousand Ventilators’,” Trump added. “We gave him a small fraction of that number, and it was plenty.”
Here's the clip of Cuomo from April 6 Trump wanted to play at Sunday's briefing because he seems to think it proves that his tweets about New York's governor on Friday were correct. pic.twitter.com/rlc0Hssbqw — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) April 20, 2020
While the president seemed to think this cherry-picking from Cuomo’s comments over the past two weeks showed that he had been right to not meet all of New York’s requests for help, by playing those clips, Trump inadvertently drew attention back to what Cuomo had been criticizing the federal government for on Friday: the ongoing failure to ramp up testing for the virus nationwide, which experts say is necessary for the lockdowns to end safely.
“The federal government cannot wipe their hands of this and say, ‘Oh the states are responsible for testing.’ We cannot do it without federal help,” Cuomo said during his own televised daily briefing on Friday, about 20 minutes before Trump started heckling him on Twitter.
Without federal coordination, Cuomo added, “we wind up in this bizarre situation that we were in last time: 50 states all competing for these precious resources, in this case it’s testing, and then the federal government comes in and says to those companies, ‘I want to buy the tests also.’ This is mayhem.”
When a reporter informed the governor that the president was tweeting insults at him in real time, Cuomo said, “First of all, if he’s sitting at home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?”
"If he's sitting at home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?" Gov. Andrew Cuomo responds to Pres. Trump, saying he is grateful for his help, but that "none of us have done enough" because "we're still in the midst of it." https://t.co/ZkeBuma6dG pic.twitter.com/u18PhoCiqP — ABC News (@ABC) April 18, 2020
The governor then suggested that it was absurd for the president to claim that New York had asked for equipment and beds it did not need, since the projections they relied on had come from Trump’s own White House coronavirus task force. “The number came from a projection from him — from him,” Cuomo said. “The projections were high? They were the president’s projections,” the governor added. “So for him to say to anyone, ‘Well, you relied on projections and the projections were wrong,’ they’re your projections Mr. President. So, were we foolish for relying on your projections, Mr. President?”
As for his supposed ingratitude, the governor said that he had already expressed his thanks on numerous occasions for federal help in converting the Javits Center in Manhattan into an emergency hospital and sending a Navy hospital ship to the city. “I don’t know, what am I supposed to do, send a bouquet of flowers?” he asked.
Cuomo then pivoted away from Trump’s backward looking effort to justify his initial failure to prepare the country for the pandemic and returned to the president’s attempt to push responsibility for testing onto the states.
“The president doesn’t want to help on testing,” Cuomo said. “I said the one issue we need help with is testing. He said 11 times, ‘I don’t want to get involved in testing. It’s too complicated, it’s too hard.’ I know it’s too complicated and it’s too hard. That’s why we need you to help,” the governor said.
Cuomo: "I said the one issue we need help with is testing. He said 11 times, 'I don't want to get involved in testing. It's too complicated and it's too hard.' I know it's too complicated and too hard. That's why we need you to help. I can't do an international supply chain." pic.twitter.com/eVSX1B5lkt — CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) April 17, 2020
“He wants to say, ‘Well, I did enough.’ Cuomo added, of Trump. “Yeah, none of us have done enough. We haven’t, because it’s not over.”
At a subsequent briefing on Monday, Trump again took a comment by New York’s governor out of context, carefully omitting the part of Cuomo’s new remarks in which he said that the federal government needed to coordinate the supply of chemical reagents for test kits that states are having a hard time securing on their own.
“I want to draw your attention to Gov. Cuomo’s remarks during his press conference today,” Trump said. “He said, ‘The president is right: The state’s testing is up to the states…. I think the president is right when he says the states should lead.'”
Trump appeared to be citing a clip of that part of Cuomo’s new remarks on Monday posted on Twitter by a right-wing blogger. What Trump’s edit of Cuomo’s comments left out is what he said just eight seconds later: “What the states will run into is when you talk to those labs, the 300 labs, they buy machines and equipment from national manufacturers. And those labs can only run as many tests as the national manufacturers provide them chemicals, reagents, and lab kits. The national manufacturers say they have supply chain issues. I’d like the federal government to help on those supply chain issues.”
“This is a quagmire because it’s not just funding,” Cuomo added. “Because I’ve offered funding to the national manufacturers and I’ve said, ‘I’ll pay. What do I have to pay to get the tests?’ The national manufacturers will say, ‘Well, it’s not that easy. I can’t get the chemicals. The chemicals come from China. I can’t make the vials fast enough. I can’t make the swabs fast enough.’ So I don’t know what’s right or what’s wrong with that national supply chain question. But that’s where the federal government could help.”
Later in Monday’s briefing, Trump claimed that complaints about the lack of a coordinated federal testing strategy to allow states to trace infections, even when voiced by Republican governors, are part of a contrived political attack on him.
This is the explanation for our unfolding national tragedy: the lack of a coordinated federal testing strategy that would allow us to trace infections and live with the virus is explained by the fact that the president thinks every criticism of him is a contrived political attack https://t.co/m3L5wu414e — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) April 20, 2020
When Jill Colvin of The Associated Press asked Trump on Sunday about Cuomo’s criticism of his failure to boost testing, the president first attacked her for not saying that the governor had said “we did a phenomenal job.” In fact, Cuomo did not say that. He said that the “phenomenal accomplishment” of flattening the curve of infection had been achieved by the country’s citizens, with the help of federal and state governments. “People did it, but government facilitates people’s actions,” Cuomo said in a part of the clip Trump was talking over as it played in the briefing room. “Heroic efforts on behalf of people, as facilitated by government — federal and state,” he added.
In his remarks on Friday, Cuomo had been even more clear on this point. “We proved we can control the beast — we can reduce the rate of infection. We did that by our response to the crisis,” Cuomo said. “Credit to all New Yorkers, all Americans. They flattened the curve, nobody else — no government agency, no public health expert. People’s actions flattened the curve,” the governor said.
When Colvin pressed Trump to respond to the pleas from Cuomo and other governors “that what they need, though, is a national strategy when it comes to testing, because on supplies they say that they’re competing against one another,” the president blithely dismissed the concern.
“We’re doing great on testing,” he claimed, even though experts at the Harvard Global Health Institute estimate that the United States needs to do between 500,000 and 600,000 tests a day to adequately track the spread of the virus, about four times the current average of 150,000.
AP's Jill Colvin asked Trump about Cuomo's criticism of the lack of a nationwide testing plan, Trump first attacks the reporter, then claims "we're doing great on testing," then lies that "we're in great shape, it's so easy to get" supplies (via @atrupar) pic.twitter.com/u3qP9bRcn1 — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) April 20, 2020
“What about the reagents,” Colvin asked, noting that governors have had difficulty securing the necessary supplies for Covid-19 tests, particularly chemical reagents, which are now in short supply due to an unprecedented, global spike in demand. Trump again acted as if the problem, which is real, did not exist. “We’re in great shape, it’s so easy to get,” Trump said, falsely. “Reagents and swabs are so easy to get.”
Earlier in Sunday’s briefing, as Trump continued to claim that a failure to prepare for the pandemic was in no way his fault, he said that “not since 1917, more than a hundred years ago, has anything like this happened.” According to transcripts of his remarks on the White House website, it was the 25th time since March 11 that he has incorrectly referred to the 1918 influenza pandemic as an event that took place in 1917.
That Trump so frequently makes this mistake is particularly odd given that his own paternal grandfather, Frederick Trump, was among the estimated 675,000 Americans who died of the flu, passing away in the first year of the pandemic. The president’s insecure grasp on the most basic fact of the 1918 pandemic, which killed more than 50 million people worldwide, does seem to suggest that he is not particularly engaged in studying the history of that contagion for lessons in how to tackle this one. (The number of times he has repeated this mistake also seems to suggest that no one who works for Trump is willing to correct him. Then again, since his trade advisor Peter Navarro recently told 60 Minutes, “look, this hasn’t happened since 1917,” there might not be that many people in Trump’s White House who even know he’s wrong.)
Photo: CBS News, via Twitter
If Trump were to crack open “The Great Influenza,” a history of that pandemic written by John Barry, an adjunct professor at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, he might be relieved to learn that his predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, was even more lax than he has been in response to a virus that killed an estimated 195,000 Americans in October of 1918 alone. Wilson was so obsessed with winning the war in Europe he had brought the United States into in 1917 that he only responded to the spread of the deadly virus in military camps in the U.S. when it threatened to disrupt the process of getting fresh troops across the Atlantic to the front lines. Even then, the president allowed his generals, eager for as many troops as possible, to overrule the military doctors who wanted to stop transports until the epidemic was contained.
“He never released any statement about influenza whatsoever. The federal government did next to nothing,” Barry told WBUR in Boston last month. “Of course, we had a different society then. But everything was up to local leadership,” he said.
“Because we were at war, the national public health leaders basically lied to the public,” Barry added. “They said things like, ‘This is ordinary influenza by another name.’ Or, ‘You have nothing to fear. Proper precautions are taken,’ so forth and so on. This was echoed by local leaders in many cities, Philadelphia being a prime example. So they had a big Liberty Loan parade scheduled, which they declined to cancel, although all the medical community urged them to. And 48 hours later, just out like clockwork, influenza exploded in the city.”
“In 1918, the lack of national leadership meant that every city and state pursued its own approach to dealing with the epidemic,” Dr. Jonathan Quick, an adjunct professor at the Duke Global Health Institute, explained in the Wall Street Journal last month. “This created a series of natural experiments that allowed later researchers to assess the effectiveness of different approaches. They found that cities which implemented isolation policies (such as quarantining houses where influenza was present) and ‘social distancing’ measures (such as closing down schools, theaters and churches) saw death rates 50% lower than those that did not. The cities that fared best were the ones that started isolating patients early and continued until the epidemic was unquestionably under control.”
In New York City, which also hosted big Liberty bonds parades that September, the local health commissioner, Royal S. Copeland, did take some forward-looking actions to stop the spread of infection.
First, as Barry wrote, “he eliminated rush hour by staggering the opening times of factories, shops and cinemas.” Then he set up 150 emergency health centers across the city to identify and care for the sick and dispatched doctors and nurses to Grand Central and Penn Station to examine incoming rail passengers who were ill. And, most controversially, he kept the schools open, unlike in neighboring states, in an effort to survey and treat the city’s children. With a large impoverished, immigrant population, the children were kept in school in part to make sure they were fed properly and so that they could be used to communicate public health guidance to their families. The gamble paid off, and school-age children in New York that fall were less affected by the pandemic than in other cities.
Of course Copeland, as a city official, was unable to stop the flow of troop ships from the city. And a lot of his good work was undone in a single day. On October 12, 1918, near the peak of the outbreak’s second wave, Copeland was forced to let a massive Liberty Day parade proceed down Fifth Avenue, from 72nd Street to Washington Square, attended by an estimated 500,000 people. It was led by President Wilson.
Update: April 20, 2:10 p.m. PDT
This article was updated to report Trump’s new comments on Monday, again taking remarks by Gov. Andrew Cuomo out of context, an to add references to Peter Navarro’s recent interview on “60 Minutes,” and Liberty bonds parades in New York City in September, 1918.
Update: May 4, 12:39 p.m. PDT
Since this article was published on April 20, Donald Trump has continued to mistakenly refer to the 1918 influenza pandemic as something that took place in 1917 in public remarks. In an interview with Fox News broadcast from the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, May 3, he made the mistake three more times, bringing the total to at least 38 incorrect references in less than two months.
The final reference of the night was Trump’s claim that he recently transmitted this mistaken history to his son and grandchildren. “I sat down with my son. I sat down with my grandchildren. I said, ‘A terrible thing has happened. It’s a thing that we’ve never experienced.’ I said, ‘I guess, you could go back, over 100 years, and you could go to 1917 and we experienced it, but Europe experienced it much worse. It could have been 100 million people died.'”
Trump’s doggedness in repeating the error has even spawned a host of conspiracy theories among his most ardent supporters who believe that he must be doing so intentionally, as a way of secretly communicating with them in a code they need to decipher.
“Trump is bringing our attention to 1917. What is significant about 1917? The US entered WW1 on April 6, 1917 AND… The British Royal Family changed their name to WINDSOR on July 17, 1917,” a Trump supporter who used the handle Carrie4Truth tweeted on April 7. “Corona means CROWN. We are at war with the House of Windsor. They are being dethroned.”


theintercept--2020-04-20--Mehdi Hasan and Arundhati Roy on India, Narendra Modi, and the Coronavirus

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The Intercept’s Mehdi Hasan spoke with acclaimed writer Arundhati Roy about India’s response to the novel coronavirus. Is the far-right government of Narendra Modi exploiting the crisis to target Muslims and the media? And might this global pandemic, as Roy has written, force “humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew”?


theintercept--2020-04-20--Milwaukee Documents Seven Coronavirus Cases Linked to In-Person Voting

Milwaukee has identified seven positive coronavirus cases linked to in-person voting on April 7 , according to a city health official .
Six people who voted in person in Milwaukee tested positive , as did one poll worker , Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik told The Intercept .
Tuesday marks the two-week incubation period since the election .
The city ’ s health department is still missing a significant amount of data from ongoing investigations into the spread of the virus following the election , she said , but they expect a more complete picture by Friday .
“ Right now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tied to in-person voting .
And one election worker was also positive , ” Kowalik said .
“ There are a lot of missing data through the investigations and contact tracing , so we ’ re waiting for 70 percent of the fields to be populated.
” The election-linked infections were identified through the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System , an existing statewide program for reporting communicable diseases , and a version of which exists in every state .
After the election , state officials added a field to the system , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a voluntary questionnaire for people with illnesses , to ask whether respondents had either worked or voted in person on Election Day , where they worked or voted , when they developed symptoms , and if they had gotten positive test results .
“ That would be a flag for us , so that ’ s how we found out that there ’ s seven , ” Kowalik said .
The Wisconsin Department of Health Secretary Andrea Palm on Monday said state health officials had not yet seen evidence that in-person voting contributed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment .
Milwaukee opened only five polling locations on Election Day , down from its usual 180 .
An estimated 19,000 people voted in person in the city , meaning there was an average of 3,800 people at each location .
The state Board of Elections has not yet released certified data on voter turnout , but initial results show that 1.55 million people voted , including close to 1.1 million absentee votes .
Turnout was lower than in the 2016 primary , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 34 percent of the electorate .
Absentee ballots account for around 80 percent of all votes , a drastic spike from 2016 , expected given the ongoing pandemic .
In response to public pressure , Democratic Gov .
Tony Evers made a late attempt to postpone the election and to make absentee ballots available to all voters .
His efforts were first blocked by Republicans in the Wisconsin state legislature , and later by the state and U.S. supreme courts .
The battle went to the U.S. Supreme Court , which eventually blocked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ struck down an executive order Evers issued to postpone the election and also partially blocked an order from a lower court order extending the deadline for absentee ballots .
Other states that held elections in the middle of the pandemic have also documented cases of coronavirus related to in-person voting .
In Illinois , which held its March 17 election against warnings from public health officials , a poll worker in Chicago died of Covid-19 on April 1 .
“ Although the Board took every precaution possible by supplying poll workers with hand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wiping down the equipment , the fact remains that an individual who has now tested positive was likely present while you were voting , ” officials from the Chicago Board of Elections wrote in a letter .
In Florida , two poll workers at locations in Broward County tested positive for coronavirus following the state ’ s March 17 primary .
Another person who was working polls in Duval County also tested positive .

The city of Milwaukee has identified seven positive coronavirus cases linked to in-person voting on April 7, according to a city health official.
Six people who voted in person in Milwaukee tested positive, as did one poll worker, Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik told The Intercept. Tuesday marks the two-week incubation period since the election. The city’s health department is still missing a significant amount of data from ongoing investigations into the spread of the virus following the election, she said, but they expect a more complete picture by Friday.
“Right now we have identified six cases that were tied to in-person voting. And one election worker was also positive,” Kowalik said. “There are a lot of missing data through the investigations and contact tracing, so we’re waiting for 70 percent of the fields to be populated.”
The election-linked infections were identified through the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System, an existing statewide program for reporting communicable diseases, and a version of which exists in every state. After the election, state officials added a field to the system, which is used by health officials and includes a voluntary questionnaire for people with illnesses, to ask whether respondents had either worked or voted in person on Election Day, where they worked or voted, when they developed symptoms, and if they had gotten positive test results. “That would be a flag for us, so that’s how we found out that there’s seven,” Kowalik said.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Secretary Andrea Palm on Monday said state health officials had not yet seen evidence that in-person voting contributed to an increase in coronavirus cases. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Milwaukee opened only five polling locations on Election Day, down from its usual 180. An estimated 19,000 people voted in person in the city, meaning there was an average of 3,800 people at each location. The state Board of Elections has not yet released certified data on voter turnout, but initial results show that 1.55 million people voted, including close to 1.1 million absentee votes. Turnout was lower than in the 2016 primary, but similar to other primary years, around 34 percent of the electorate. Absentee ballots account for around 80 percent of all votes, a drastic spike from 2016, expected given the ongoing pandemic.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
In response to public pressure, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers made a late attempt to postpone the election and to make absentee ballots available to all voters. His efforts were first blocked by Republicans in the Wisconsin state legislature, and later by the state and U.S. supreme courts. The battle went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which eventually blocked the effort. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down an executive order Evers issued to postpone the election and also partially blocked an order from a lower court order extending the deadline for absentee ballots.
Other states that held elections in the middle of the pandemic have also documented cases of coronavirus related to in-person voting. In Illinois, which held its March 17 election against warnings from public health officials, a poll worker in Chicago died of Covid-19 on April 1. “Although the Board took every precaution possible by supplying poll workers with hand sanitizers, gloves, and instructions for wiping down the equipment, the fact remains that an individual who has now tested positive was likely present while you were voting,” officials from the Chicago Board of Elections wrote in a letter.
In Florida, two poll workers at locations in Broward County tested positive for coronavirus following the state’s March 17 primary. Another person who was working polls in Duval County also tested positive.


theintercept--2020-04-20--As Democrats Push Vote-by-Mail Measures, Local Governments Are Leading the Charge on Safe Voting

, jurisdictions in two pivotal swing states are set to approve new vote-by-mail measures to help ensure citizens can safely cast ballots amid the global coronavirus pandemic .
The initiatives — which come in spite of the Republican-held state legislatures in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that have refused to cancel in-person voting — can serve as a road map for other progressive cities and counties looking to take quick action as the November election nears .
Ensuring people don ’ t have to choose between their health and voting has become a top priority for leaders seeking to reduce the spread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Democrats also see the expansion of vote-by-mail as necessary to beat Donald Trump , where they believe higher voter turnout will redound to their benefit .
Wisconsin and Pennsylvania , along with Michigan , are key to that strategy , as those are the states that delivered the 2016 election to Trump .
The president , too , seems to understand the potency of vote-by-mail , as he has recently been spreading lies about it , despite himself having voted absentee this past March and in the 2018 midterms .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ states implement vote-by-mail in advance of upcoming elections and they must get adequate federal funds to do so , ” said Sarah Johnson , director of Local Progress , a national network of progressive municipal elected officials .
In Milwaukee , the largest city in Wisconsin , nearly 19,000 people voted in-person in the state ’ s infamous April 7 primary , with some having to wait hours in line to do so , a situation that was all but guaranteed to contribute to the spread of coronavirus .
Now , a winner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for safe voting in the city during primary elections in August , as well as the November general election .
Marina Dimitrijevic , a former county supervisor and the former state director of the Wisconsin Working Families Party , was elected as an alderman on Milwaukee ’ s Common Council .
On Tuesday night , at the first meeting of the council ’ s new term , Dimitrijevic will be introducing legislation to mail absentee ballot applications to the city ’ s roughly 300,000 registered voters , along with a prepaid postage envelope @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The legislation , which is already supported by 13 of Milwaukee ’ s 15 aldermen , also has the endorsement of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Gov .
Tony Evers , whose efforts to postpone the April primary were blocked by the Republican legislature and the courts .
Dimitrijevic ’ s idea is modeled off a successful program deployed by two small and wealthier Milwaukee suburbs , Whitefish Bay and Bayside , which mailed absentee voter applications to all their registered voters ahead of the April 7 primary .
According to state data @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voters cast absentee ballots for that election , more than any other city in the state .
While Milwaukee voters will have to pay for postage for their actual ballots , Dimitrijevic plans to push for an expansion of secure lockboxes around the city where voters could drop off ballots if they didn ’ t have stamps , a number of which were already in place for the April 7 election .
( The bill gives city leaders 30 days to hash out details for the program . )
According to Dimitrijevic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 100,000 and $ 150,000 — primarily the cost of postage — which the aldermen and mayor hope federal stimulus money could help cover .
“ This will protect the lives of the 300,000 registered voters in Milwaukee and undercuts the Republican assault on Wisconsin ’ s democracy , ” Dimitrijevic , who started working on the bill within 24 hours of her April 13 victory , told The Intercept .
Priscilla Bort , a Wisconsin Working Families Party organizer , said she expects to see other localities follow suit throughout the state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that already is planning similar legislation .
“ We see this as a critical pathway to win in November , ” she said .
In Pennsylvania , council members in Allegheny County , the second most populous county in the state , are also set to vote Tuesday night to send absentee ballot applications and prepaid postage to all registered voters .
The applications would be to vote in Pennsylvania ’ s upcoming primary on June 2 .
The legislation would require all mail-in ballot applications to be sent to registered voters by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deadline to return them by May 26 .
Voters who return the applications would receive ballots in the mail along with prepaid postage .
The ordinance , drafted by Allegheny County Councilperson Bethany Hallam , has the support of Allegheny ’ s influential County Executive Rich Fitzgerald .
The council is composed of 12 Democrats and three Republicans , and the Democratic majority almost always passes measures that have Fitzgerald ’ s backing .
Republicans in Pennsylvania ’ s state legislature recently rejected a provision , proposed by a Democratic state representative from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ absentee ballot applications .
Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state by a 5-4 margin , and Trump won the state narrowly by 0.72 percentage points .
Meanwhile , the Republican National Committee has been mailing Pennsylvania Republican voters absentee ballot applications , and despite Trump ’ s denouncements , has been calling vote-by-mail “ easy , convenient , and secure.
” While Hallam ’ s ordinance would only apply to the primary on June 2 , she told The Intercept her hope is that it will eventually be extended to the general election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ permanent fixture for Allegheny County .
“ I think it ’ s on us as elected officials to make it as easy as possible and I think this is something we need to do every single election , ” she said .
There are roughly 894,000 registered voters in Allegheny County , and Hallam said about 360,000 voted in the 2016 primary .
In terms of ballpark cost , she said they ’ re estimating bulk mail rates of 30-33 cents a person .
With prepaid postage , she noted , the government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or ballot is actually sent back in .
similar measures will expand across the United States .
In Broward County , the second-most populous county in Florida , officials have also recently committed to sending vote-by-mail request forms with prepaid postage to registered voters who haven ’ t already asked for them .
Like Wisconsin , Florida held its presidential primary in-person on March 17 , over the objections of public health officials who urged state officials to postpone it ; two poll workers in Broward County later tested positive for coronavirus .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ be for Florida ’ s August primary , which includes school board and judicial races , and the November presidential election .
According to the Sun Sentinel , other Florida counties like Palm Beach and Miami-Dade are considering similar measures .
Maurice Mitchell , the national director of the Working Families Party , said his group is talking to leaders all over the country about expanding vote-by-mail initiatives .
“ From a national standpoint we ’ re attempting to ensure that Congress put aside at least $ 4 billion in a new stimulus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he said .
“ But where we ’ re able to pull those levers like in Milwaukee , we will.
” The political pressure is so high that even in New Hampshire — a state that has both downplayed the risks of coronavirus and long fought efforts to make voting easier — Republican Gov .
Chris Sununu recently announced that voters would be able to do mail-in voting for November ’ s election .
Last year Sununu vetoed a bill that would have allowed no-excuse absentee voting in New Hampshire , something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New Hampshire election officials have agreed to allow concerns about Covid-19 to qualify as a “ disability ” under the state ’ s authorized excuses this year .
In 2016 , Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in New Hampshire by a margin of just 0.4 percentage points .

On Tuesday night , jurisdictions in two pivotal swing states are set to approve new vote-by-mail measures to help ensure citizens can safely cast ballots amid the global coronavirus pandemic. The initiatives — which come in spite of the Republican-held state legislatures in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that have refused to cancel in-person voting — can serve as a road map for other progressive cities and counties looking to take quick action as the November election nears.
Ensuring people don’t have to choose between their health and voting has become a top priority for leaders seeking to reduce the spread of Covid-19. From a political standpoint, Democrats also see the expansion of vote-by-mail as necessary to beat Donald Trump, where they believe higher voter turnout will redound to their benefit. Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, along with Michigan, are key to that strategy, as those are the states that delivered the 2016 election to Trump. The president, too, seems to understand the potency of vote-by-mail, as he has recently been spreading lies about it, despite himself having voted absentee this past March and in the 2018 midterms.
“It is critical and time-sensitive that localities and states implement vote-by-mail in advance of upcoming elections and they must get adequate federal funds to do so,” said Sarah Johnson, director of Local Progress, a national network of progressive municipal elected officials.
In Milwaukee, the largest city in Wisconsin, nearly 19,000 people voted in-person in the state’s infamous April 7 primary, with some having to wait hours in line to do so, a situation that was all but guaranteed to contribute to the spread of coronavirus. Now, a winner of that election is leading the charge for safe voting in the city during primary elections in August, as well as the November general election.
Marina Dimitrijevic, a former county supervisor and the former state director of the Wisconsin Working Families Party, was elected as an alderman on Milwaukee’s Common Council. On Tuesday night, at the first meeting of the council’s new term, Dimitrijevic will be introducing legislation to mail absentee ballot applications to the city’s roughly 300,000 registered voters, along with a prepaid postage envelope to mail the applications back in. The legislation, which is already supported by 13 of Milwaukee’s 15 aldermen, also has the endorsement of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Gov. Tony Evers, whose efforts to postpone the April primary were blocked by the Republican legislature and the courts.
Dimitrijevic’s idea is modeled off a successful program deployed by two small and wealthier Milwaukee suburbs, Whitefish Bay and Bayside, which mailed absentee voter applications to all their registered voters ahead of the April 7 primary. According to state data, roughly 60 percent of Whitefish Bay voters cast absentee ballots for that election, more than any other city in the state.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
While Milwaukee voters will have to pay for postage for their actual ballots, Dimitrijevic plans to push for an expansion of secure lockboxes around the city where voters could drop off ballots if they didn’t have stamps, a number of which were already in place for the April 7 election. (The bill gives city leaders 30 days to hash out details for the program.)
According to Dimitrijevic, the safe-voting measure will cost Milwaukee between $100,000 and $150,000 — primarily the cost of postage — which the aldermen and mayor hope federal stimulus money could help cover.
“This will protect the lives of the 300,000 registered voters in Milwaukee and undercuts the Republican assault on Wisconsin’s democracy,” Dimitrijevic, who started working on the bill within 24 hours of her April 13 victory, told The Intercept.
Priscilla Bort, a Wisconsin Working Families Party organizer, said she expects to see other localities follow suit throughout the state, pointing to Madison as one city that already is planning similar legislation. “We see this as a critical pathway to win in November,” she said.
In Pennsylvania, council members in Allegheny County, the second most populous county in the state, are also set to vote Tuesday night to send absentee ballot applications and prepaid postage to all registered voters.
The applications would be to vote in Pennsylvania’s upcoming primary on June 2. The legislation would require all mail-in ballot applications to be sent to registered voters by May 8, and would have a deadline to return them by May 26. Voters who return the applications would receive ballots in the mail along with prepaid postage.
The ordinance, drafted by Allegheny County Councilperson Bethany Hallam, has the support of Allegheny’s influential County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. The council is composed of 12 Democrats and three Republicans, and the Democratic majority almost always passes measures that have Fitzgerald’s backing.
Republicans in Pennsylvania’s state legislature recently rejected a provision, proposed by a Democratic state representative from Philadelphia, to mail all registered voters absentee ballot applications. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state by a 5-4 margin, and Trump won the state narrowly by 0.72 percentage points. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee has been mailing Pennsylvania Republican voters absentee ballot applications, and despite Trump’s denouncements, has been calling vote-by-mail “easy, convenient, and secure.”
Here’s the RNC sending mailers to voters in Pennsylvania urging them to request a mail-in ballot, in part “to protect yourself from large crowds on Election Day” pic.twitter.com/Fc3Byz4yZj — Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) April 10, 2020
While Hallam’s ordinance would only apply to the primary on June 2, she told The Intercept her hope is that it will eventually be extended to the general election, and that it would become a permanent fixture for Allegheny County.
“I think it’s on us as elected officials to make it as easy as possible and I think this is something we need to do every single election,” she said.
There are roughly 894,000 registered voters in Allegheny County, and Hallam said about 360,000 voted in the 2016 primary. In terms of ballpark cost, she said they’re estimating bulk mail rates of 30-33 cents a person. With prepaid postage, she noted, the government only pays the cost if the application or ballot is actually sent back in.
There are signs similar measures will expand across the United States. In Broward County, the second-most populous county in Florida, officials have also recently committed to sending vote-by-mail request forms with prepaid postage to registered voters who haven’t already asked for them. Like Wisconsin, Florida held its presidential primary in-person on March 17, over the objections of public health officials who urged state officials to postpone it; two poll workers in Broward County later tested positive for coronavirus. The Broward County absentee request forms would be for Florida’s August primary, which includes school board and judicial races, and the November presidential election. According to the Sun Sentinel, other Florida counties like Palm Beach and Miami-Dade are considering similar measures.
Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party, said his group is talking to leaders all over the country about expanding vote-by-mail initiatives. “From a national standpoint we’re attempting to ensure that Congress put aside at least $4 billion in a new stimulus package for a robust vote-from-home program,” he said. “But where we’re able to pull those levers like in Milwaukee, we will.”
The political pressure is so high that even in New Hampshire — a state that has both downplayed the risks of coronavirus and long fought efforts to make voting easier — Republican Gov. Chris Sununu recently announced that voters would be able to do mail-in voting for November’s election.
Last year Sununu vetoed a bill that would have allowed no-excuse absentee voting in New Hampshire, something permitted in two-thirds of all states. New Hampshire election officials have agreed to allow concerns about Covid-19 to qualify as a “disability” under the state’s authorized excuses this year. In 2016, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in New Hampshire by a margin of just 0.4 percentage points.