One Per Minute

The country has reached a grim level in the form of the accelerating rate of deaths from Covid-19.

* One person in the United States dies about every minute from COVID-19 as the national death toll has surpassed 150,000, the highest in the world. (Reuters)

* Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is warning Republicans that his state could go blue during November’s presidential election. Even though Texas hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president since 1976, Joe Biden currently has a 0.7 percentage point edge over Trump, according to the latest FiveThirtyEight polling average. “Texas is in play,” Cruz warned. “The whole country is divided right now and the hard left is angry.” [HuffPost]

* The federal moratorium on evictions expired last Friday, ending protections for nearly 12 million Americans. This Friday, 25 million people will stop receiving an extra $600 in weekly coronavirus relief in their unemployment benefits. And on Saturday, rent is due for millions of Americans who won’t be able to pay. If Congress doesn’t step in, these people could be evicted come September. All lawmakers need to do is take quick and decisive action by extending the moratorium and additional unemployment benefits as the pandemic crisis continues. But that’s yet to happen. [HuffPost]

* The Department of Homeland Security had ‘intelligence reports’ on journalists covering Portland unrest. The agency disseminated three reports on tweets written by two journalists who published leaked, unclassified documents. Current and former officials described it as an alarming use of a system meant to share information about suspected terrorists and violent actors. (Washington Post)

* President Donald Trump suggested the country should delay November's presidential election on Thursday, as polls indicate he currently trails his opponent by double digits.Trump has no authority to delay an election, and the Constitution gives Congress the power to set the date for voting. Senior Republicans, who often refuse to weigh in on President Trump’s controversial tweets, overwhelmingly rejected his idea that the November election be postponed over the risk of fraud. (CNN. Washington Post)

* The co-founder of the conservative Federalist Society said Thursday in a blisteringNew York Times op-ed that President Donald Trump's tweet musing about a delay to November's presidential election is grounds for impeachment. Steven Calabresi, a Northwestern University law professor who has offered broad defenses of the President in recent years, wrote, "I am frankly appalled by the president's recent tweet seeking to postpone the November election. Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats' assertion that President Trump is a fascist. But this latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president's immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate," he said. (CNN)

* Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton eulogized the late civil rights icon John Lewis Thursday. Trump was absent. Obama likened the recent federal push by Trump to use force against protesters to the attitudes fostered by men such as George Wallace, who opposed civil rights for African Americans. (CNN, Washington Post)

* The U.S. economy contracted at a 32.9% annual rate from April through June, its worst drop in history, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Business collapsed during the pandemic lockdown in the spring, as the country plunged into its first recession in 11 years, wiping out five years of economic gains in just a few months. (CNN)

Cycle after cycle, the news channels just keep churning out bad news like these summaries indicate. Because of that, many of us are feeling overwhelmed by it all. This is a strange, strange time.

But that also makes this a good time to reach out to each other. So...

"If there's anything that you want
If there's anything I can do
Just call on me and I'll send it along
With love, from me to you"

-- The Beatles

-30-

Colliding Realities

Here's a synopsis of the top overnight news. It's all over the map., and you can be forgiven for developing a case of whiplash just by scanning through it.

* Armed conservative groups are deploying to the front lines of the culture war Across the country, armed civilians have surged into public view — marching on statehouses, challenging Black Lives Matter protests, chasing Internet rumors — and bringing the threat of lethal force to local politics. (Washington Post)

* Rebellions against the central government of Russia continue, like in the U.S., as protests swell in the city of Khabarovsk, 4,000 miles from Moscow, residents who had never before found a public outlet for anger are becoming activists (New York Times).

.

* The vast majority of Californians — 74 percent — believe that people should always wear masks in public to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Two-thirds say they support the Black Lives Matter movement. And 60 percent say that racism is a big problem in the nation today. (Public Policy Institute of California) * Covid-19 can lead to neurological complications like delirium, brain inflammation, stroke and nerve damage. In a University College London study published earlier this month, 10 out of 43 patients had "temporary brain dysfunction" and delirium, while 12 had brain inflammation, eight had strokes and eight had nerve damage. * Vice President Mike Pence and members of his staff met Tuesday with some of the doctors who were featured in a video that was later removed from social media for misinformation. The video, which was shared by President Donald Trump before being removed, featured members of the group America's Frontline Doctors standing on the steps of the Supreme Court claiming that masks aren't necessary to prevent the spread of coronavirus and promoting hydroxychloroquine as a cure. Both claims are contradicted by scientific studies. (CNN) * The Trump administration has reached an agreement with Oregon's Democratic governor to withdraw federal officers from downtown Portland, though the Department of Homeland Security says it will maintain a presence in the city until it believes federal locations there are secure. (CNN) * Trump has reverted to racial code language in an attempt to lure white suburban voters. Promoting his rollback of an Obama-era rule meant to combat segregation, Trump informed "all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood." * A $600 weekly supplement to unemployment benefits is at an end, and Congress is deadlocked over new aid. For some, that means hunger, evictions or bankruptcies. Those who want to end it fear it's an incentive for unemployed workers to stay home rather than return to work. * Biden leads Trump in swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and (by a smaller margin) Arizona in the latest polls. That would provide the Democrat enough electoral votes to win the election. (FiveThirtyEight) * A Republican Congressman, Louie Gohmert from Texas, who refused to wear a mask and who was supposed to accompany Trump on a trip to his home state tested positive for Covid-19 at the White House and so could not go on the trip.

As I said, a case of whiplash can result if you follow these news items. too closely. It's a constant one step forward, one step back these days.

The Trump formula for political success is law and order, thinly disguised racism, and usurping local control of the streets where protests persist. 

The Democratic response is to attack Trump and hope Biden will expel him from the White House while there's still enough of a democracy left to preside over.

That leaves the American people feeling screwed. We don't have leaders, we have TV actors. Speaking of actors, Bill Pullman, who played the President in the movie "Independence Day," gave a much better speech than Biden or Trump ever will be capable of:

"Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind. Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests.

Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!

We will not vanish without a fight!

We're going to live on!

We're going to survive!" 

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!"

Off Course

Loneliness is one of the obvious fellow travelers accompanying the virus as it sloshes over the land. It already was a big problem in American culture, of course, but 2020 is angling to be the loneliest numbered year ever.

“During the beginning of the pandemic, when social distancing and other restrictions were put into place, we found that depression and loneliness were being experienced at considerably heightened rates in the U.S.,” said Molly Rosenberg, lead author of a study in June at Indiana University. “While these restrictions were and continue to be critically important to protecting Americans from the virus, it is clear that the spread and response to the virus has had a tremendous mental health impact on Americans.”

"Many of us feel lonely from time to time and these short-term feelings shouldn’t harm our mental health," says the Mental Health Foundation  "However, the longer the pandemic goes on for, the more these feelings become long-term. Long-term loneliness is associated with an increased risk of certain mental health problems, including depression, anxiety and increased stress.  The impact of long-term loneliness on mental health can be very hard to manage."  

As the months of isolation drag on, some have found ways to cope, but many others have not. It's my impression that social media like Facebook have never been more important in our lives than they are now. Every night, as I write, I hope to be helping relieve some of the isolation all of us feel.

That is my intent.

***

Think about this: Few tasks can be more frustrating than trying to keep the President to stay on message. He seems incapable of doing so.

Once again, he is promoting hydroxychloroquine as a cure for Covid-19, which is a false, dangerous assertion, and he is also promoting conspiracy theories from a doctor who claims DNA from aliens is being used in pharmaceutical production.

Equally disturbing but psychologically revealing is Trump's open jealousy that Dr. Anthony Fauci has much higher approval ratings than he does.

"Nobody likes me," Trump complained at a press briefing yesterday.

Well, at least he got that one right.

I've often written about the danger of conspiracy theories. As opposed to what journalists do -- gather facts, confirm them, and communicate fact-based reports -- the imaginary worlds conjured by conspiracy theorists are complete fantasies.

That we have ended up with a President who endorses such nonsense is a national tragedy. Surrounded by every conceivable expert on any subject that interests him, instead he chooses quackery. What is dangerous about this is there are millions of people who believe him when he speaks.

And that is enough to make a normally sane, reasonable person feel lonely indeed.

So, the following song is dedicated to all lonely people, but most especially Donald Trump:

One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
Two can be as bad as one
It's the loneliest number since the number one

No is the saddest experience you'll ever know
Yes, it's the saddest experience you'll ever know

'Cause one is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
One is the loneliest number, whoa-oh, worse than two

It's just no good anymore since you went away
Now I spend my time just making rhymes of yesterday

One is the loneliest number
One is the loneliest number
One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

--Three Dog Night

-30-

Front Line Heroes

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, I visited the Gulf Coast where some 1,833 people had died. My assignment was to cover the tragedy for Salon.com, but once there, I got involved with relief efforts by the grassroots groups that had gathered to help survivors.

Handing out food and blankets to people, I got into conversations with newly homeless residents of East Biloxi and Gulfport.  These were people who were poor before the big storm struck and destroyed what few possessions they once had had.

Now one of the few things many of them had left was their faith. So I found myself praying with people -- an activity that was unfamiliar to me -- often standing in a circle and holding hands.

As part of my reporting, I noticed that the large, well-known relief organizations, such as the Red Cross and United Way, were no longer on the scene. This was four to five months after the storm and they had exited once their initial relief efforts had concluded.

In their place, small organizations with limited resources took on the work of helping local people rebuild and gain access to the insurance and government benefits they were entitled to. Most residents had no access to the Internet, which is how they could apply for aid; many could not read or write well anyway and needed basic help with their applications.

Church groups, often from distant congregations, came to their rescue. It was one of the most impressive and heart-warming examples of people helping people I had ever witnessed.

One day, as I was helping a man who'd lost everything but his truck, where he now lived, he thanked me and said he knew we would switch roles someday in the future.

"You live out there in California, where they have those big earthquakes. When that big one hits, I'll be coming there and I'll look you up and make sure you're okay."

When I got back home to the Bay Area I filed my story, which I titled "Everything's Broken," after a Bob Dylan song. A few old friends contacted me about the situation down south and asked what they could do for the people I'd met there. One Stanford friend, Perla Ni, decided she was going to form an organization that would provide guidance to anyone who wished to support the types of non-profits I'd witnessed at work on the Gulf Coast.

The organization she created, GreatNonprofits. org, is alive today, providing information on thousands of non-profits that is difficult to get elsewhere. One feature allows volunteers, donors, beneficiaries, employees and board members to rate each organization.

Maybe check it out one of these days.

***

I've been thinking about the post-Katrina devastation lately in the context of the pandemic. As awful as the impacts from that monster storm were, they were small and localized compared to Covid-19, with over 16 million cases and more than 646,000 deaths worldwide.

Roughly a quarter of those cases and deaths have occurred in the U.S.

The scope is overwhelming our ability as individuals to comprehend what we are witnessing. How can we organize ourselves to help one another when we *all* are at risk?

What our front-line workers are doing is to fight this battle in the only way possible -- patient by patient. They have no other choice. They wear masks and gloves and protective clothing as they reach those who need immediate medical assistance and they transport them to hospitals where other workers take over in the effort to save lives, one life at a time.

To do this work they are living examples of the faith that every life is worth saving. Each human being is inherently valuable. And we are all in this together.

All for one and one for all.

It doesn't matter which faith you practice as long as you accept that fundamental principle.

Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken

Broken bottles, broken plates,
Broken switches, broken gates,
Broken dishes, broken parts,
Streets are filled with broken hearts
Broken words never meant to be spoken,
Everything is broken

              -- Bob Dylan

-30-

Who Changes the World

A recently published survey of students at the University of Michigan in the 1960s found that only two-to-three percent were active politically. To those of us who were in that slice of the student body, it felt much bigger at the time.

What started out as small protests grew into large, raucous demonstrations that shut down traffic and brought out police in riot gear. We assumed we were changing the world. To the extent that we did, maybe it started because we changed the hearts and minds of the 97 to 98 percent of students who did not choose to participate in the movement.

Although we didn't know it, well beyond the campuses we were also affecting a broad shift in public opinion to oppose the war in Vietnam and support the civil rights of African Americans.

At the time, the book "A Prophetic Minority" by journalist Jack Newfield chronicled the events in real time. He also made a profound observation about socially conscious journalists: "The point is not to confuse objectivity with truth."

In 2020, large crowds have once again filled the streets of our cities, calling for social justice and an end to police brutality and institutionalized racism. No doubt when the history of this era is written, it will have been another small minority who have led the way.

What starts out as a trickle can eventually swell into a mighty river that sweeps the old world away before our eyes. What's difficult to perceive in the moment is whether we are still in the trickle phase or the river phase -- or, has the river already crested and is now subsiding.

In that context, the federal suppression of the rebellions in Portland and Seattle and the sympathy protests in Oakland overnight must seem like war reports from distant provinces not under central government control.

They may represent a new phase in the movements to challenge federal authority.

So often in the past, what happens on the left coast has swept across the country west to east.

Overnight rebellions in Louisville, Austin, and Aurora, CO, suggest that that trend has already begun. The trickle may be broadening.

***

From the collective to the personal, I certainly picked a hell of a time to try and write my life story. Rather than living out a peaceful epilogue, retired from the bustle of everyday responsibilities, I'm caught up like everybody else in an unprecedented disruption of our routines.

We didn't even have time to develop new routines before Covid-19 hit and suspended our efforts in a time that now seems long gone.

As I reread the words of my memoir written before the pandemic took over, they seem almost childishly naive. Who is that guy who took freedom of movement for granted so casually?

My former life reads more like a novel now. And on the verge of the biggest story of my time, I stepped aside.

***

The point of all this is that none of us can really know yet what is going on here. The virus has proved far more resilient and dangerous than we'd hoped and that certain leaders assumed it would be.

Outbreaks flare up like fireworks shows, first here, then there, eventually pretty much everywhere.

As the numbers of the dead pile up in refrigerated trucks, our health-care workers are getting overwhelmed in key parts of the country. They are at great risk of infection, yet they work long hours day after day.

When people are exhausted, mistakes will be made. Is it even safe to go to the doctor's office anymore?

At the national level, we have a leader who is panicking that he will lose his re-election bid. His poll numbers are in the gutter, including in my original home state, Michigan, which may swing the election. Trump's behind by double digits there.

A sense of gloom has settled over the land, lifted only by the silent cheers of cardboard cutouts swaying in the wind at baseball parks where no actual human attendees risk to venture.

Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say?
And can't you feel the fears I'm feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there's no running away,
There'll be no one to save with the world in a grave,
Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy,
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

-- Barry McGuire

-30-

Quiet Award Remembered

The pandemic canceled out the ceremony for this one...

SAN FRANCISCO — The James Madison Freedom of Information Awards recognize Northern California individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to advancing freedom of information and/or expression in the spirit of James Madison, the creative force behind the First Amendment. SPJ NorCal presents the awards near Madison’s birthday (March 16) and National Sunshine Week.

David Weir wins the Norwin S. Yoffie Career Achievement award. For 50 years, Weir has been a force for public interest journalism. He inspired a culture of investigative reporting at Rolling Stone and in 1974 broke “The Inside Story of the Patty Hearst Kidnapping,” still considered one of the magazine’s biggest scoops. He co-founded the Emeryville-based Center for Investigative Reporting and launched a diversity-in-journalism fund at San Francisco State University, named for his old friend Raul Ramirez.

More recently, Weir has mentored and inspired the next generation of investigative reporters as KQED’s senior editor for digital news. At KQED, Weir pushed to sue public agencies who preferred to conduct the people’s business in the shadows, resulting in a successful lawsuit against the city of Hayward that exposed questionable contracts funneled to the former police chief’s husband. Weir is not a boisterous advocate, but rather a soft-spoken editor who leads by example and whose work has had an outsized impact on local journalism. His award is named in memory of Norwin Yoffie, a former publisher of the Marin Independent Journal and co-founder of SPJ NorCal’s Freedom of Information Committee.

David Weir. (Photo by Laila Comolli)

A New Muse

An update on the intersection between non-profits and journalism. I first heard this parable about non-profit work years ago from the great Malaysian activist Anwar Fazal:

The story, as I recall it, goes like this. You are standing next to a river, when you notice a drowning baby being swept by the current, so you step in, grab her, dry her off, and place her safely on the ground next to you.

Just then, out of the corner of your eye, you spot another drowning baby. You save him, and then, you spot yet another...

The point of this story is that you can spend a lifetime saving drowning babies without ever getting the chance to move up-river and find out who the hell is throwing these kids into the river in the first place.

The duty of a journalist is to make it up-river and expose the culprit. This work is hard, and even when you do it well, you are more likely to make new enemies than friends.

***

From time to time during this pandemic my wandering mind has turned to love and I'm not sure why. It's not like I'm in the market for something like that, as far as I know. And even if I were, it would be like marketing one of those antique cars on Craigslist.

"Original parts in good working order. Lifetime guarantee or two years, whichever comes first."

That seems like a well-written entry for those dating sites, right? I've been reliably informed that 40 percent of all new relationships start online nowadays, and why not? We do just about everything else that way.

***

But first a review of the news:

* Sinclair Media Group has canceled its ridiculous conspiracy theory report claiming that Dr. Fauci created the coronavirus. It had been scheduled to appear this weekend.

* Trump Officials Push U.S.-China Relations Toward Point of No Return (The Times).

* Lucky Brand, Brooks Brothers, Muji and Sur La Table are among 21 major brands that have filed for bankruptcy this year. In 2019, 20 such bankruptcies occurred for the entire year.

* Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. have topped 1,000 four days in a row.

* As the pandemic assails Brazil, the virus is taking an exceptionally high toll on the Amazon region. (The Times)

* In a letter to the Justice and Homeland Security departments, four Oregon members of Congress likened the Trump administration's crackdown in Portland, involving officers pushing protesters into unmarked SUVs to tactics used in authoritarian countries.

* Seattle protesters threw large rocks, bottles, fireworks and other explosives at officers Saturday, and others set fire to a portable trailer and a construction site, police said.

* Millions of jobless Americans are anxiously waiting for Congress to decide whether to extend the $600 weekly boost to unemployment benefits that's been a key economic lifeline through the pandemic shutdowns. (CNN)

* Empty Towers, No Power Lunches: Ghostly Midtown Is Omen for N.Y.C. (The Times)

***

The lyrics playing in my head overnight are from a sweet love song about loving someone as they try to get over a lost love. That is one of those delicate shades of love fraught with peril for the parties involved. We all know that breaking up is hard to do; loving somebody trying to heal a broken heart is hard too.

To all the broken hearted people and those who love them:

I'm not Lisa, my name is Julie
Lisa left you years ago
My eyes are not blue
But mine won't leave you
'Til the sunlight has touched your face

She was your morning light
Her smile told of no night
Your love for her grew
With each rising sun

And then one winter day
His hand led hers away
She left you here drowning in your tears, here
Where you've stayed for years
Crying Lisa 
Lisa...

-- Jessi Colter