Hassan Nasrallah turned Hezbollah from an Islamist militia into a political force that will outlive him

"Who was Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader assassinated by Israel in Iran?"

By Middle East Correspondent Eric Tlozek, Toby Mann and Basel Hindeleh
2h ago


Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah addresses supporters in Lebanon in 2013. (Reuters: Khalil Hassan)

The death of Hassan Nasrallah is a monumental moment for the Middle East.

The leader of the region's most powerful militia and Iran's strongest ally is gone and Hezbollah, the group he led, has been decimated by intense Israel attacks.

It's a very different outcome to the last time Hezbollah fought Israel.

"Nasrallah wins the war", the Economist magazine declared when Israel and Hezbollah signed a ceasefire after a 34-day war in 2006.

The leader of "The Party of God" had miscalculated, provoking an Israeli invasion when he ordered the kidnapping of soldiers in the Golan Heights, but still claimed victory despite dire Lebanese casualties and infrastructure damage.

Nasrallah's popularity soared, reminiscent of the heights of 2000 when Hezbollah guerilla attacks saw Israel withdraw from Lebanon after 18 years of military occupation.

Nasrallah's standing in the Middle East would rise and fall throughout subsequent conflicts.

"Nasrallah was not just the leader of this movement, but he was a major figure in Lebanon and indeed the Middle East," Mouin Rabbani, a non-resident senior fellow at the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, told the ABC.

"He was an iconic figure, a charismatic figure of regional significance. In that respect, you could compare him to Egypt's [Gamal Abdel] Nasser or [Yasser] Arafat in the Palestinian movement."


Hassan Nasrallah has in a secret location but has managed still to get his message out. (Reuters: Aziz Taher)

Born into a Shia Muslim family, Nasrallah grew up in a camp in the Karantina suburb next to Beirut's port.

The area had long housed poor and displaced people from around the region, but Nasrallah's family would eventually flee the Lebanese civil war and return to their home village near Tyre.

It was there that the 15-year-old Nasrallah joined Amal, a Shia militia.

He spent time in Iraq and then Iran before returning to Lebanon.

Factional battles pushed him into Hezbollah, which split from Amal in 1982, after Israel invaded.

As the two Shia militias fought during the late 1980s, Nasrallah moved his way up Hezbollah's ranks.

When an Israeli helicopter strike killed then-Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi in 1992, Nasrallah was elected secretary general.

He was only 32, but was battled-hardened and had strong ties with Iran.


Hassan Nasrallah became leader of Hezbollah in 1992, at the age of 32. (Reuters: Aziz Taher)

Through the 90s, Nasrallah built Hezbollah from an Islamist militia into a political force, becoming a leader in national politics despite not holding any public office.

Under his leadership, Hezbollah won 12 seats in the first parliamentary elections held after the civil war, and has run candidates in every vote since.

Hezbollah was the only militia that didn't surrender its weapons at the end of Lebanon's civil war.

Nasrallah used them to fight against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon through much of the 90s.

But after the "Divine Victory" of 2006, he became increasingly fearful of an Israeli assassination attempt, and largely vanished from public appearances.

Living in hiding, he had delivered televised speeches from an undisclosed location as Hezbollah continued its decades-long fight with Israel.

VIDEO - A look at the armed Lebanese group. 1m 8s

Loved and loathed

Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah has won support among many Lebanese Shia by doing things usually handled by governments.

In areas it controls, Hezbollah has built up health and education services and has also helped those struggling to secure food and energy.

That popularity is largely limited to Shia Muslims in Lebanon and the region, although many Gazans — whose homes were being flattened by Israeli bombs and bulldozers — expressed admiration at Hezbollah's willingness to fight Israel.

Hezbollah is, however, hated by many Lebanese, "including by those who dream of a nation free from sectarianism and where the rule of law prevails," the AFP news wire reported.

Syrians opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad also hate Hezbollah, which sent thousands of fighters across the border in the Syrian civil war to support the dictator.

In Syria, Hezbollah fighters were implicated in multiple attacks on civilians and allegedly blocked food from being delivered to starving people, earning the enmity of senior Arab and Muslim leaders around the region.

What is Hezbollah and why is it involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict?
Here's what you need to know about Hezbollah and its role in the conflict.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-12/what-is-hezbollah-and-its-role-in-israel-hamas-conflict/102956354

Nasrallah's decision to open a "support front" for Hamas in Gaza after the October 7 attacks dragged Lebanon into a war many Lebanese would have preferred to avoid, no matter what they thought of Israel's actions in Gaza.

Observers said his death was a huge blow to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which relied on Nasrallah's leadership of the so-called "Axis of Resistance" of militias around the Middle East, though it may not mean the end of the war with Israel.

"There are indications there will be an escalation and it will all lead to a regional war on all fronts," Qassem Kassir, a Lebanese political analyst who is close to Hezbollah, told the ABC.

"We have to wait now about who will replace Nasrallah. There are many names, but they are kept secret.

"The war will resume."

Mr Rabbani, from the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, said the killing of Nasrallah would not spell the end of Hezbollah.

"Hezbollah is a very deeply entrenched movement that has developed over decades, to an even greater extent than many of its peers, the capacity to replace its fallen leaders and continue to function coherently.

"I think a particularly painful aspect of this and the other assassinations is that a significant part of Hezbollah's aura, of its reputation, was built not just on its capacity for mass mobilisation, for military effectiveness, but specifically on what were believed to be its very effective counter-intelligence and intelligence capabilities.

"So the fact that it has been penetrated so deeply and so effectively is kind of the equivalent of a knockout blow from which it will have to quickly stand up before the count reaches 10."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-29/how-hassan-nasrallah-grew-hezbollah-into-a-political-force/104393214

5 things to know about the border bill at the heart of GOP shutdown threats

by Saul Elbein - 01/04/24 6:37 PM ET

All links

It’s the border bill that could cause a government shutdown.

Congressional Republicans are threatening to shut down the government if Democrats don’t pass House Resolution — or H.R. 2 — a sweeping bill that would drastically restrict the asylum process while establishing a vast new surveillance system to forcibly freeze regional migration and crack down on the existing undocumented population.

Republicans say that the bill, which passed the GOP-controlled House last year with no Democratic support, is necessary to stop hundreds of thousands of migrants — including thousands of unaccompanied children — from coming across the U.S. southern border.

And they have repeatedly sought to tie its passage to Democratic priorities — such as military aid to Ukraine or, this week, the passage of a federal budget.

“Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and everybody else — they do not want to do the simple job of securing the border, and so now [is] when you have a massive catastrophe which they created,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) told Fox News.

“The answer is simple, follow House Republicans’ H.R. 2. It’s the plan,” he added.

“We can’t lose our values in this thing,” Rep. Greg Meeks (N.Y.), the senior Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said last month.

“We think that we need to deal with certain things on the border. We can work together to get certain things done. But not the draconian moves — a lack of human rights, etc. — that the Republicans want and put forward in H.R. 2. That is a red line.”

Here’s what the bill would do.

Purges the U.S. workforce of undocumented workers

Under H.R. 2, employers would be required to verify — under penalty of prison — that all their workers were documented.

The method for doing so would be the E-Verify system, a voluntary program set up under a 1996 immigration bill passed under then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) that cross-references an employee’s employment paperwork against the social security database.

That program is currently optional under federal law, although 22 states require all employers to use it, and several — including Michigan and Texas — require it for federal contractors.

Data on whether requiring the program successfully forces undocumented immigrants from the labor force is contradictory.

A Southern Economic Journal study suggested that states that used E-Verify saw wages fall for undocumented Mexican men — but more labor force participation by Mexican women, who may have had an easier time entering the informal economy as domestic workers.

The study also suggested that E-Verify meant more employment and higher wages among Mexican-born men who were U.S. citizens — though no significant benefits for white Americans.

And a study in the IZA Journal of Migration found that states with E-Verify laws had fewer “less-educated prime-age immigrants from Mexico and Central America.”

That’s a category the IZA authors correlated with undocumented migrants. But that association is imperfect — as is the assumption that those who fail to pass an E-Verify check are undocumented.

U.S. government records found that about 57,000 citizens .. https://www.e-verify.gov/about-e-verify/e-verify-data/e-verify-performance .. were erroneously flagged as undocumented by the program — a number that the National Immigration Forum argues is a serious undercount, because recording such an error requires employers to know they can contest a false positive.

And a 2019 report by the libertarian Cato Institute found that E-Verify catches fewer than 1 in 6 .. https://www.cato.org/blog/e-verify-let-12-million-illegal-hires-happen-2006-80-beat-system .. undocumented workers.

Even catching that share could impact industries that rely on undocumented labor, however. That includes the agriculture industry, as about 40 percent of all farmworkers in the U.S. are undocumented, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

According to the USDA, that number is highest in California — and a reason Rep. John Duarte (R) was one of just two Republicans to vote against H.R. 2 in May.

The program “would have been devastating for food producers or would have been devastating for farmworker families,” he said.

Slashes asylum

Under existing law, immigrants who can make a “credible” claim of being refugees can stay in the U.S. while that claim is assessed — and if granted asylum, they are allowed to stay.

Republicans have long argued that this system suffers from rampant abuse, and they have argued that Biden administration asylum policies are tantamount to an open invitation to migrants.

As such, H.R. 2 makes it far harder for migrants to claim asylum and makes the process far more onerous for those able to stay long enough for that claim to be processed.

For example, the bill denies people the ability to claim asylum unless the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer who processes them believes their ultimate case would more likely than not be accepted, adds a $50 fee to make an asylum claim and bars migrants from making an asylum claim anywhere but at an official port of entry.

This last measure represents a paradox, because it is precisely the backups and closures at ports of entry that help push migrants to venture into the desert between official crossings.

The bill also provides for even those who are found to have credible claims to be held in detention for the years while their cases drag on — and requires the Department of Homeland Security to expand detention facilities to hold them.

When the bill passed the House, co-author Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) told reporters it was necessary to stem a tide of horrors.

He pointed to “classrooms packed with non-English speaking students, hospitals flooded with illegals demanding uncompensated care, violent criminal cartels and gangs introduced into our communities … suppressed wages for working Americans, and the collapse of the social safety net that was supposed to take care of Americans in need.”

“These are not asylum-seekers,” he said. “Asylum is not an open invitation to bum rush our borders. But the Democrats have made it precisely that.”

McClintock asserted that under the current system, “you make a fraudulent asylum claim, you are guaranteed to receive immediate admission into our country, you get cash, a range of free goods and services, indefinite residency and indefinite work authorization.”

In fact, under the Biden administration, the asylum system has already been significantly restricted. In August, a three-judge panel upheld the administration’s “asylum ban,” which bars most migrants who have transitioned through a third country from applying for refugee status.

In a blistering dissent, Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote that the Biden administration’s immigration policy was “not meaningfully different” than the Trump administration ban that judges threw out — which representatives including McClintock have portrayed as belonging to a halcyon era of low immigration.

“This new rule looks like the Trump administration’s Port of Entry Rule and Transit Rule got together, had a baby, and then dolled it up in a stylish modern outfit, complete with a phone app,” VanDyke wrote.

A historical example suggests the argument that asylum protections lead to an increase in undocumented immigrants is erroneous, argued David J. Bier of the Cato Institute.

In December, Bier noted that when the Biden administration lifted the COVID-era Title 42 restrictions, which included a ban on asylum applications, Republicans — and even some Democrats — forecast a huge increase in illegal migration.

They were wrong, he wrote. Instead, the number of crossings post-Title 42 fell by 15 percent — and covert crossings fell by half.

“Ending Title 42 shows that security isn’t at odds with accepting immigrants,” Bier wrote in an op-ed for The Hill.

“Politicians create a false choice between a secure and welcoming border. Americans deserve — and can have — both.”

Build a wall while slashing immigrant services

H.R. 2 would require the federal government to wall off at least 900 miles of the U.S.’s roughly 2000-mile border with Mexico, resuming all Trump-era plans that were interrupted by the former president’s electoral defeat in 2020.

To do so, the bill would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to waive all legal requirements — such as environmental review or historical site review — to get the wall built as quickly as possible.

It also would offer $110 million per year to the border forces being set up by states including Texas, often in open defiance of the federal government — with money that would in part be balanced out by defunding any nonprofits that provide services to undocumented immigrants.

And it would require CBP to solicit policy recommendations specifically from those “negatively impacted by illegal immigration.”

The bill would further ban asylum-seekers who do make it out of detention from using their DHS-provided identification to get on a plane.

And it would revive long-ignored language from a 2006 bill that would allow DHS to close the border entirely if it determines doing so is necessary to block undocumented crossings.

In 2006, the George W. Bush administration passed the Secure Fence Act, which gave the DHS a sky-high goal for maintaining “operational control” over the southern border.

According to that act, “control” means “the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband.”

This has never come anywhere close to being accomplished.

Ends protections for migrant children

H.R. 2 would roll back many protections for minors created under the Flores settlement, which resulted from a 1993 court case and has since guided federal immigration law, aside from a brief hiatus under Trump.

It would require DHS to reestablish family detention, and once again allow families with children to be detained indefinitely.

The bill would also make it far harder for unaccompanied migrant children to claim special immigrant juvenile status — something youth can currently claim if they can’t reunite with one or both parents, and which H.R. 2 would restrict to those whose parents have neglected or abandoned them.

It would also fast-track deportations of unaccompanied minors, lengthen the time that children can be held in adult facilities on the border from 3 to 30 days and bar states from creating licensing requirements for those border detention facilities — even in cases where state law should require such oversight.

And in a particularly stark move, H.R. 2 would require the Department of Health and Human Services to provide details on local sponsors of unaccompanied migrant children to DHS — and require DHS to begin deportation proceedings in 30 days if those adults are undocumented.

Doesn’t address legal immigration

Perhaps just as notable as what H.R.2 includes, however, is what it doesn’t: any path for citizenship, bolstering of pathways to legal immigration or alternative means of supporting a U.S. workforce — and particularly food system — that relies on undocumented labor.

In addition to not offering any expansion to the country’s sclerotic and backlogged legal immigration pathways, H.R. 2 wouldn’t provide funding to expand the capacity of official ports of entry — the only place where it would allow asylum claims to be made.

And GOP lawmakers including Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) have pushed to cut DHS’s funds if the Biden administration and the Senate don’t pass H.R. 2.

This lack of action on legal immigration stands out as even key Republican constituencies like the Chamber of Commerce, which is part of a vast array of state and national business groups — from the National Milk Producers Federation and the National Restaurant Association to Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association — call for comprehensive reform .. https://www.callingforliberty.org/about .. of the legal immigration system.

Shortly before H.R. 2 passed the House in May, these groups launched the so-called Legal Immigration and Border Enforcement Reform This Year campaign, which directly linked the wave of undocumented crossings to failures in the legal immigration system.

“Our legal immigration system has been outdated for decades, which has directly contributed to the significant security challenges on our southern border,” the groups wrote Congress.

The groups pushed for “significant” increases to legal immigrations, expanded scopes for essential worker programs and new visa programs — and argued that the math on immigration restrictions simply doesn’t add up.

“Right now, we have over 8.8 million jobs open in the U.S. and 5.8 million unemployed workers,” a Chamber report wrote.

The groups’ push roughly aligns with what President Biden himself proposed in a 2021 House bill that created an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of undocumented migrants, along with increases in visa quotas.

Momentum for such reforms is largely absent from the ongoing border talks in Washington, however. The Senate appears to be negotiating a deal that would accept broad swaths of the far-right Republican platform — like wall construction and drastic rollbacks in asylum rights — in return for aid to Ukraine.

Even given those apparent concessions, a wide array of House Republicans told CNN on Wednesday that it was H.R. 2 or nothing.

“I will not help the Democrats try to improve [Biden’s] dismal approval ratings. I’m not going to do it. Why would I? [Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)] has had H.R. 2 on his desk since July. And he did nothing with it,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) told CNN.

Amid the acrimony, Bier of the Cato Institute wrote that bipartisan consensus has been reached on one key point: Powerful factions in both parties have bought into the idea that the solution to the current border situation is more restrictions.

But in fact, Biers asserted in December, those restrictions are the root of the problem. “Nearly everything that politicians now use to justify immigration restriction can be traced to the restrictionist policies already in force.”

“In other words, immigration restrictionists create the problems and then demand ever more restrictions to fix them,” he added.

“Lather, rinse, repeat.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4390204-5-things-to-know-about-border-bill-hr2-gop-shutdown-threats/

gdog, 5 things to know about the border bill at the heart of GOP shutdown threats

[...]

Yes, There’s a Crisis on the Border. And It’s Trump’s Fault.

[...]

In fiscal year 2017, the last year of the Obama administration and the first of Trump’s, 303,916 migrants were arrested by the Border Patrol. This was the lowest level in more than three decades. The Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations had worked hard to tackle the problem of illegal migration through substantial increases in border security staffing, improvements in technology, innovations in strategy and improved security coordination and assistance to Mexico. Coupled with improved economic conditions in Mexico, these administrations were hugely successful in deterring and breaking the cycle of illegal crossing: Unlawful Mexican economic immigration, which had historically been the primary immigration enforcement issue at the border, dropped nearly 90 percent between 2000 and 2016.
Is there really a border crisis?
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=173927004]

The party also has a long history of promoting US military intervention in Latin America, which has caused instability and propped up the regimes that fuel the inequality and violence of today. Republicans are busy right now proposing that the US invade Mexico .. https://amerex.substack.com/p/no-america-shouldnt-invade-mexico .. to take out its drug cartels, an action that would contribute to the country’s insecurity and undoubtedly fuel an increase in migration northwards.

[...]

If Republicans wanted to actually help deal with the refugee crisis, there are many things they could do. They could join with Democrats to properly fund the system of refugee centers, in which the number of detainees is already exceeding capacity, and immigration courts, where some refugees have been waiting more than a decade for a hearing. They could try to advance proposals to work constructively with the nations with which the United States shares a hemisphere to tackle common problems like the climate crisis, economic inequality and gun violence. And they could work to expand, rather than contract, legal pathways to citizenship and asylum.

The Biden administration is now working to do just that, announcing plans to set up immigration processing centers throughout Latin America, with the first to open in Guatemala and Colombia in the coming weeks. Eventually, the administration hopes to reduce the need for desperate people to arrive at the border by offering them an opportunity to apply for asylum from elsewhere. This should not only dial down the political heat at home, but much more importantly mean that would-be migrants don’t have to suffer the harrowing journey north, which for many ends in abuse or death.

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174148424

gdog, Bottom line, Trump doesn't want southern border situation eased. Trump
wants that border at constant crisis point so he can use it for political posturing.

Republicans aren’t fixing the migrant border plight. In fact they’re making it worse
[...]

The crash landing of ‘Operation Warp Speed’

"More on Kushner's bumbling - How Kushner’s Volunteer Force Led a Fumbling Hunt for Medical Supplies
"THE INCOMPETENT PRINCELING!" "

Born as a second Manhattan Project, the Trump administration vaccine program actually achieved most of its goals – until distribution problems marred its success.

By Dan Diamond
01/17/2021 07:00 AM EST

As the nation’s Covid-19 response was careening off the rails in March and April 2020, about a dozen top health and defense department officials huddled in antiseptic meeting rooms to devise what they believed would be the Trump administration’s greatest triumph — a vaccine program so fast, so special, so successful that grateful Americans would forgive earlier failures and business schools would teach classes about it for decades.

They dubbed their project “MP2,” for a second Manhattan Project, after the race to create the nuclear weapons that ended World War II. Alex Azar, the Health and Human Services secretary who was often at odds with the White House and his own department, sounded like an Army general rallying his troops: “If we can develop an atomic bomb in 2.5 years and put a man on the moon in seven years, we can do this this year, in 2020,” Azar would declare, according to his deputy chief of staff, Paul Mango, who helped lead the strategy sessions.

“It was just a spirit of optimism,” Mango added.

Now, in the final days of the Trump administration, their “MP2” — later redubbed “Operation Warp Speed” — occupies a peculiar place in the annals of the administration’s ill-fated response to Covid-19: In many ways, it was successful, living up to the highest expectations of its architects. The Trump administration did help deliver a pair of working vaccines in 2020, with more shots on the way. But the officials who expected to be taking a victory lap on distributing tens of millions of vaccine doses are instead being pressed to explain why the initiative appears to be limping to the finish.

Governors say the Warp Speed effort has made promises it didn’t keep, with deliveries of doses falling short and reserve supplies exhausted. Physicians and logistics experts have critiqued the disorderly rollout, arguing that the Trump team should have done a better job of coordinating the nation’s mass vaccination effort. The incoming Biden administration on Friday morning announced they’d even do away with the initiative’s branding, which President Donald Trump has touted for months.

Operation Warp Speed “is the Trump team’s name for their program. We are phasing in a new structure,” tweeted incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki, adding there’s an “urgent need to address failures of the Trump team approach to vaccine distribution.”

[...]

Problems mount

In recent weeks, critics of Operation Warp Speed have increasingly been proven right, as the vaccine rollout has been plagued by a series of well-chronicled problems.

The Trump administration’s decision to punt much of the work of vaccine distribution to the states has left many local health officials overwhelmed, saying that they didn’t receive sufficient funding or resources to handle the work of administering doses. State leaders in December also announced that HHS had steadily lowered the total number of promised doses, prompting a war of words between governors and the Trump administration before Operation Warp Speed’s top logistics official apologized for misleading states and admitted the federal effort had wrongly inflated estimates.

“It was a planning error, and I am responsible,” Army Gen. Gustave Perna said last month. “We’re learning from it. We’re trying to get better.”

Inside the administration, officials insist that some of the operational challenges don’t rest with Operation Warp Speed but separate efforts that fell to the CDC. The Atlanta-based public health agency has been at odds with HHS for much of the pandemic — with Trump appointees seeking to muzzle CDC scientists and change the agency’s reports — and the vaccine rollout prompted new tensions, despite a somewhat different cast of officials involved.

“CDC made it very clear that they owned working with the states on the last mile of getting people vaccinated — that was their turf,” said one HHS official closely involved in the vaccine project. As a result, CDC ended up playing a major role in determining how vaccines should be prioritized, making recommendations that have guided states’ own strategies.

While CDC officials have complained that HHS interference has made it harder to accomplish their mission during Covid-19, department leaders say that they’ve only tried to push the science-focused agency to be more operational.

“In June, they wanted to send out the H1N1 playbook to the states with literally the title changed,” the official added, referring to the years-old guidance that was used to fight a decade-old pandemic. “While there were plenty of good ideas in there, rubber-stamping that was not a good idea.” HHS instead held back the agency’s vaccine-distribution playbook until September for reviews and changes, sparking complaints within CDC that valuable time was lost, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

“The CDC needs to stop treating ‘who’s getting the vaccine next’ like they’re announcing a beauty pageant,” said another HHS official, who pointed to one agency slide session from December about allocating vaccine doses. “Is that clear or is mud clearer?”

Azar himself has grown frustrated with CDC, said a person who’s spoken with him, saying that the health secretary believes the agency’s approach allowed states to be “overly prescriptive” in administering vaccines, slowing the process down.

Amid the clamor to speed up the pace of shots, Azar cloistered himself in recent days at Camp David, revising vaccine plans and dealing with a new, last-minute complication: the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, fueled by Trump’s rhetoric that the presidential election was “stolen.” The crisis prompted fellow Trump appointees like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to resign, and senior officials to weigh the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to take power away from Trump.

“I’m committed — I’ve wrestled with this — I’m committed to see this through in my role as health secretary during a pandemic, to ensure that vaccines and therapeutics get out to the American people and to ensure a smooth hand-off to President Biden’s team,” Azar said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday, pressed over his response to Trump’s comments.

On Jan. 12, the health secretary announced an overhaul of vaccine distribution, saying that the administration would quickly ship more doses instead of keeping some in reserve, expressing confidence that the pace of production had improved. “We are releasing the entire supply we have for order by states, rather than holding second doses in physical reserve,” Azar said.

But that move — initially welcomed by state leaders, who began to plan for a vaccine surge — has only sparked a new round of recriminations, with governors surprised to learn that the federal reserve is effectively exhausted and there aren’t any additional doses to come.

“I am demanding answers from the Trump Administration,” tweeted Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Friday morning. “This is a deception on a national scale. Oregon’s seniors, teachers, all of us, were depending on the promise of Oregon’s share of the federal reserve of vaccines being released to us.”

The health department rushed to clarify its stance, with Azar saying on NBC News on Friday night that “there’s not a reserve stockpile” and that the department was just announcing its updated policy to move more quickly.

Health officials also have said that some of their goals have been mischaracterized in the media, with Azar claiming to NBC on Friday that “we said we would have doses available for 20 million people,” not 20 million people vaccinated.

“Because we didn’t control the shots in the arms, we never had that internal goal,” a person with knowledge of Azar’s thinking said, adding that the internal goal was 20 million available doses. “That became a narrative and a way to attack an incredible sensitive project and that bothers him because that was never the intention.”

However, Azar and other officials expressly promised “20 million vaccinations” by the end of December.

The Trump team’s projections of total doses manufactured and distributed across December and January also were “wildly off-target,” concluded Yale University health policy professor Jason Schwartz.

The shifting expectations and patchwork policies have unsettled public health experts, and the incoming Biden administration has pledged to be more aggressive on vaccinations than the last.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/17/crash-landing-of-operation-warp-speed-459892

The crash landing of ‘Operation Warp Speed’

"DrHarleyboy, Better to start with Trump's dismantling of protections Obama left him."

Born as a second Manhattan Project, the Trump administration vaccine program actually achieved most of its goals – until distribution problems marred its success.

By Dan Diamond
01/17/2021 07:00 AM EST

As the nation’s Covid-19 response was careening off the rails in March and April 2020, about a dozen top health and defense department officials huddled in antiseptic meeting rooms to devise what they believed would be the Trump administration’s greatest triumph — a vaccine program so fast, so special, so successful that grateful Americans would forgive earlier failures and business schools would teach classes about it for decades.

They dubbed their project “MP2,” for a second Manhattan Project, after the race to create the nuclear weapons that ended World War II. Alex Azar, the Health and Human Services secretary who was often at odds with the White House and his own department, sounded like an Army general rallying his troops: “If we can develop an atomic bomb in 2.5 years and put a man on the moon in seven years, we can do this this year, in 2020,” Azar would declare, according to his deputy chief of staff, Paul Mango, who helped lead the strategy sessions.

“It was just a spirit of optimism,” Mango added.

Now, in the final days of the Trump administration, their “MP2” — later redubbed “Operation Warp Speed” — occupies a peculiar place in the annals of the administration’s ill-fated response to Covid-19: In many ways, it was successful, living up to the highest expectations of its architects. The Trump administration did help deliver a pair of working vaccines in 2020, with more shots on the way. But the officials who expected to be taking a victory lap on distributing tens of millions of vaccine doses are instead being pressed to explain why the initiative appears to be limping to the finish.

Governors say the Warp Speed effort has made promises it didn’t keep, with deliveries of doses falling short and reserve supplies exhausted. Physicians and logistics experts have critiqued the disorderly rollout, arguing that the Trump team should have done a better job of coordinating the nation’s mass vaccination effort. The incoming Biden administration on Friday morning announced they’d even do away with the initiative’s branding, which President Donald Trump has touted for months.

Operation Warp Speed “is the Trump team’s name for their program. We are phasing in a new structure,” tweeted incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki, adding there’s an “urgent need to address failures of the Trump team approach to vaccine distribution.”

[...]

Problems mount

In recent weeks, critics of Operation Warp Speed have increasingly been proven right, as the vaccine rollout has been plagued by a series of well-chronicled problems.

The Trump administration’s decision to punt much of the work of vaccine distribution to the states has left many local health officials overwhelmed, saying that they didn’t receive sufficient funding or resources to handle the work of administering doses. State leaders in December also announced that HHS had steadily lowered the total number of promised doses, prompting a war of words between governors and the Trump administration before Operation Warp Speed’s top logistics official apologized for misleading states and admitted the federal effort had wrongly inflated estimates.

“It was a planning error, and I am responsible,” Army Gen. Gustave Perna said last month. “We’re learning from it. We’re trying to get better.”

Inside the administration, officials insist that some of the operational challenges don’t rest with Operation Warp Speed but separate efforts that fell to the CDC. The Atlanta-based public health agency has been at odds with HHS for much of the pandemic — with Trump appointees seeking to muzzle CDC scientists and change the agency’s reports — and the vaccine rollout prompted new tensions, despite a somewhat different cast of officials involved.

“CDC made it very clear that they owned working with the states on the last mile of getting people vaccinated — that was their turf,” said one HHS official closely involved in the vaccine project. As a result, CDC ended up playing a major role in determining how vaccines should be prioritized, making recommendations that have guided states’ own strategies.

While CDC officials have complained that HHS interference has made it harder to accomplish their mission during Covid-19, department leaders say that they’ve only tried to push the science-focused agency to be more operational.

“In June, they wanted to send out the H1N1 playbook to the states with literally the title changed,” the official added, referring to the years-old guidance that was used to fight a decade-old pandemic. “While there were plenty of good ideas in there, rubber-stamping that was not a good idea.” HHS instead held back the agency’s vaccine-distribution playbook until September for reviews and changes, sparking complaints within CDC that valuable time was lost, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

“The CDC needs to stop treating ‘who’s getting the vaccine next’ like they’re announcing a beauty pageant,” said another HHS official, who pointed to one agency slide session from December about allocating vaccine doses. “Is that clear or is mud clearer?”

Azar himself has grown frustrated with CDC, said a person who’s spoken with him, saying that the health secretary believes the agency’s approach allowed states to be “overly prescriptive” in administering vaccines, slowing the process down.

Amid the clamor to speed up the pace of shots, Azar cloistered himself in recent days at Camp David, revising vaccine plans and dealing with a new, last-minute complication: the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, fueled by Trump’s rhetoric that the presidential election was “stolen.” The crisis prompted fellow Trump appointees like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to resign, and senior officials to weigh the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to take power away from Trump.

“I’m committed — I’ve wrestled with this — I’m committed to see this through in my role as health secretary during a pandemic, to ensure that vaccines and therapeutics get out to the American people and to ensure a smooth hand-off to President Biden’s team,” Azar said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday, pressed over his response to Trump’s comments.

On Jan. 12, the health secretary announced an overhaul of vaccine distribution, saying that the administration would quickly ship more doses instead of keeping some in reserve, expressing confidence that the pace of production had improved. “We are releasing the entire supply we have for order by states, rather than holding second doses in physical reserve,” Azar said.

But that move — initially welcomed by state leaders, who began to plan for a vaccine surge — has only sparked a new round of recriminations, with governors surprised to learn that the federal reserve is effectively exhausted and there aren’t any additional doses to come.

“I am demanding answers from the Trump Administration,” tweeted Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Friday morning. “This is a deception on a national scale. Oregon’s seniors, teachers, all of us, were depending on the promise of Oregon’s share of the federal reserve of vaccines being released to us.”

The health department rushed to clarify its stance, with Azar saying on NBC News on Friday night that “there’s not a reserve stockpile” and that the department was just announcing its updated policy to move more quickly.

Health officials also have said that some of their goals have been mischaracterized in the media, with Azar claiming to NBC on Friday that “we said we would have doses available for 20 million people,” not 20 million people vaccinated.

“Because we didn’t control the shots in the arms, we never had that internal goal,” a person with knowledge of Azar’s thinking said, adding that the internal goal was 20 million available doses. “That became a narrative and a way to attack an incredible sensitive project and that bothers him because that was never the intention.”

However, Azar and other officials expressly promised “20 million vaccinations” by the end of December.

The Trump team’s projections of total doses manufactured and distributed across December and January also were “wildly off-target,” concluded Yale University health policy professor Jason Schwartz.

The shifting expectations and patchwork policies have unsettled public health experts, and the incoming Biden administration has pledged to be more aggressive on vaccinations than the last.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/17/crash-landing-of-operation-warp-speed-459892

It's a place we'd rather not be, for sure.

Trump is a waste. Seems same old now - To put it in perspective, the polling analysis website 538, also known as Five Thirty Eight, gave Harris a 2.9-point advantage on Friday morning, smaller than the Guardian’s advantage but within range. The site translated that into Harris having a 58% chance of winning November’s election, against 42% for Trump.

The caveat is that these figures relate to national polls, while the election outcome is almost certain to be decided by who wins certain key swing states under America’s electoral college system.

Nevertheless, the fact that Harris’s national poll lead may be increasing – even by small margins – may turn out to be significant.

Polling suggests that Harris is likely to win the popular vote – Democratic candidates have done so in five out of the past six presidential elections in the 21st century, yet Republicans eked out a victory in two of those contests.

The first was in 2000, when George W Bush edged out Al Gore – despite losing the nationwide tally by around 540,000 votes – after a weeks-long court battle to decide who had won Florida, where thousands of ballots were disputed.

More recently, Trump triumphed in the electoral college in 2016 thanks to wafer-thin victory margins in the three blue-wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin despite gaining about 2.7m fewer votes than Hillary Clinton across the nation.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/28/harris-stretches-lead-over-trump

Kamala by 9 million am sticking to. I'm getting now Michigan key, eh.

Yep saw that. 89 a darn good innings

"King Charles described her as "a national treasure", while Sir Keir Starmer said she was "beloved by so many for her great talent".
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe fondly remembered her "fierce intellect" and "gloriously sharp tongue"."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgk7375ngkxo

Maybe in 100 years longevity will be higher.

Seems the thing you still can't accept is that some governments perform better than others.

As expected blood all good, good shape for 82, he said, so rock on. Too big a day after that, 10h at pub, being physically paid for still. An interesting fun time with some new young guys i was introduced by a young guy who used to work there. School mates the six were, all about 22 now. Fun, but moan, getting too old for it. Am looking forward to reading your more i didn't get to yesterday.

It's lovely, DD. Congrats to both of you. Can only imagine how many there are. OT, am off now to collect
6 mthly blood test results. No biggie, of course, the results will be as good as your family's jewelry is.

Enjoy.

And silence. Secrecy seems important to our trolls.

louieforpar, You are right in that the vaccine would not have been there without the decades of research that came before. More here:

dropdeadfred, Fearmongering, disinformation and misinformation about mRMA vaccines. Basically that is all you have given us. And thus far you remain regrettably unrepentant.

[...]

A Comprehensive Review of mRNA Vaccines

[...]

We are currently in the era of mRNA vaccinations, because the groundwork research has already been laid more than three decades ago [4,5]. Although the early efforts in the 1990s to produce an effective in vitro transcribed (IVT) mRNA vaccine in animal models’ epitope presentation were effective [6,7], mRNA vaccines and therapeutics were not developed, as they were not validated until the late 1900s. Over the past decade, key technological innovations and extensive research in improving overall mRNA quality by (i) improving its stability by introducing capping, tailing, point mutations, and effective purification techniques, (ii) improving mRNA delivery by introducing lipid nanoparticles, and (iii) reducing its immunogenicity by introducing modified nucleotides, has resulted in its widespread use as a vaccine. mRNA vaccines have several important advantages as compared to the traditional vaccines including live and attenuated pathogens, subunit-based, and DNA-based vaccines. These include (i) safety, as mRNA does not integrate with the host DNA and is non-infectious; (ii) efficacy, as modifications in the mRNA structure can make the vaccine more stable and effective, with reduced immunogenicity; and (iii) manufacturing and scaleup efficiency, as mRNA vaccines are produced in a cell-free environment, hence allowing rapid, scalable, and cost-effective production. For example, a 5 L bioreactor can produce a million doses of mRNA vaccine in a single reaction [8]. Additionally, mRNA vaccines have the provision to code for multiple antigens, thus strengthening the immune response against some resilient pathogens [9].

The efficacy of this vaccine technology was realized when mRNA vaccines were developed and approved by Pfizer–BioNTech for the COVID-19 pandemic. These vaccines were developed in a record-breaking time of less than a year after the world was gripped with the SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, causing hospitalizations and death.

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172751669

Yep, Trump's forcing himself on women cost him more ..
https://www.courthousenews.com/donald-trump-loses-civil-rape-trial-ordered-to-pay-5-million/ .

You're right, Trump's rollout warped -- Democrats demand plan from Trump to fix ‘failed’ vaccine rollout

The U.S. cannot “continue to be hindered by the lack of planning, communication, and leadership we have seen so far,” Democrats wrote.


The Trump administration had set a goal of inoculating 20 million people by the end of last month, but only 9 million have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to the CDC. | Craig Ruttle/AP Photo

By Dan Diamond
01/11/2021 01:50 PM EST
Updated: 01/11/2021 03:27 PM EST

The Trump administration must urgently provide states with new resources and guidance to correct “significant failures” in the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, according to a new letter .. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000176-f2c2-d367-a17e-feeac7b00000 .. from Senate Democrats shared with POLITICO.

The United States “cannot afford for this vaccination campaign to continue to be hindered by the lack of planning, communication, and leadership we have seen so far,” Democrats wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, citing data that just over one-third of distributed vaccines have been administered. “The metric that matters, and where we are clearly moving too slowly, is vaccines in arms.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate HELP ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) led the letter, which was signed by 44 other Democrats.

POLITICO Dispatch: https://www.politico.com/podcasts/dispatch .. January 12
With the Trump administration’s vaccination efforts hitting roadblocks and falling behind schedule,
Joe Biden’s goal of 100 million vaccinations in 100 days is looking more out of reach by the day.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Subscribe on Google Podcasts

Vaccination efforts are well behind schedule after the Trump administration last month authorized a pair of Covid-19 vaccines that were developed in record time. Trump administration officials set a goal of inoculating 20 million Americans by the end of December, but only 9 million have received their first dose and nearly 25.5 million doses have been distributed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

President Donald Trump and some of his health officials said states must work faster to administer available doses, but Senate Democrats on Monday said the Trump administration’s failure to deliver a “long-overdue national plan” — with instructions on use of personal protective equipment, best practices on administering the vaccine and other tactics — has hampered the vaccine rollout.

[Insert: Remember, Trump blamed the states.]

“Federal responsibility does not end with delivery of vaccines to states, as you have suggested,” the Democrats wrote. “Vaccine administration must be a close partnership between the federal government and state, Tribal, and local governments, with the federal government stepping up to ensure that all needs are met.”

A spokesperson for HHS countered that the federal government has increasingly provided resources and guidance for states, citing $3 billion in new funding for states .. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/states-to-receive-initial-3-billion-infusion-for-vaccines .. and data showing progress with vaccinations.

The Vaccine Race
The world is waiting on a coronavirus vaccine. We're tracking the global competition,
the research and development, the rollout plan and how effective the vaccine will be.
Full coverage » https://www.politico.com/coronavirus-vaccine-update-and-latest-developments

“2.3 million vaccinations have been reported to the CDC since Friday morning, as we continue to see the vaccination effort pick up momentum,” the spokesperson added. “The federal government through the CDC provided a playbook to states in September and has been working with them ever since on vaccination plans.”

The letter comes as President-elect Joe Biden and his advisers grow concerned that the Trump administration’s vaccine response is “chaotic” and will potentially undermine Biden’s goal to deliver 100 million vaccinations within his administration’s first 100 days. Biden, after receiving his second dose of Pfizer’s coronavirus shot on Monday, said he’ll release a sweeping vaccine distribution plan on Thursday that will help meet that goal.

“It’s going to be hard,” Biden said. “It’s not going to be easy, but we can get it done.”

Hospitals and health care providers have also complained that the Trump administration has offered insufficient guidance and support for local vaccination efforts. Their latest criticism is that the federal government is providing syringes that are forcing them to waste potential doses .. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/10/hospitals-syringes-vaccine-waste-doses-457017 .. of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/11/democrats-trump-vaccine-rollout-457607

Remember Kushner was heavily involved in the botched rollout. Biden's team fixed it. More here:

gdog, I don't know if you are interested in getting a fairer and more in-depth picture of Trump's mishandling of the coronavirus debacle in America. You only have to accept the one fact that America suffered the most deaths of any country in the world to understand that Trump stuffed it all up big time. See:

shurtha2000, Cute. You got the wrong administration is all.

New Revelations Emerge on How Donald Trump Killed 400,000 (or More) Americans
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174995688

RobH1312, #2, The polls contradict your lame-ass uncorroborated claims.

Poll: Newly popular Harris builds momentum, challenging Trump for the mantle of change
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=175149706

There were some present fact for you. How many views do you need before you find a rational reply.

RobH1312, You obviously just post to help you feel better, we don't.

Shucks and all, that was very good work. Having fun being a bonus. Plaudits you deserve. Sleep well. Gone now.

Congratulations for all the scams you had a part in ending.

LOL Exactly. They preach freedom and practice the restriction of it.

Former Marley Coffee exec settles with US authorities for over US$2m
Published:Tuesday | April 18, 2017 | 12:00 AMSteven Jackson
Shane Whittle, one of several individuals implicated in a 2015 United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged pump-and-dump scheme surrounding the Jammin Java stock, which traded as Marley Coffee, has reached a voluntary settlement to repay $1.8 million, plus a US$250,000 fine.
Whittle, former chief executive officer, settled without any admission of wrongdoing.
https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20170421/former-marley-coffee-exec-settles-us-authorities-over-us2m

*

Jammin’ Java settles allegations with SEC for $700,000

Jammin’ Java must pay within 90 days of the final judgment, which is expected to be approved by the court by Monday

By Tracy M. Cook | tcook@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
UPDATED: July 14, 2016 at 12:10 p.m.

Denver-based Jammin’ Java Corp. will pay $700,000 to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve allegations of a “pump-and-dump scheme” raised by the agency last year.

In November, the SEC filed a complaint against the company alleging former CEO Shane Whittle had led an illegal securities offering and took part in a stock scheme “that generated at least $78 million in illicit profits.”

Jammin’ Java must pay within 90 days of the final judgment, which is expected to be approved by the court by Monday.

The company, which does business as Marley Coffee, has a market value of $11.1 million, according to Yahoo Finance.

“The lawsuit really challenged our ability to raise capital, which is the fuel necessary to continue our fast pace of growth, but now that this matter is behind us, we believe that it will alleviate some of the concerns of our funding sources and our partners.” Marley Coffee CEO Brent Toevs said in a statement Thursday.

The company’s stock price rose from 17 cents a share in December 2010 to a high of $6.35 on May 12, 2011. Within that week, it dropped as low as 92 cents a share. By the end of 2011, the share price had leveled out around 30 cents. Thursday, Jammin’ Java’s stock price hovered around 8 cents a share.

https://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/07/jammin-java-sec-for-700000/

There must have been some satisfaction in that good work of yours. Also, guess some disappointment in some results.

Super good, man. Smartmatic and Newsmax settle defamation case involving 2020 election

The two parties reached a “confidential” agreement just before a trial was to start.


A Newsmax crew member steam irons a backdrop during the Conservative Political Action
Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 24. (Tom Brenner for The Washington Post)

By Jeremy Barr
Updated September 26, 2024 at 4:37 p.m. EDT
|Published September 26, 2024 at 4:09 p.m. EDT

With links

Voting technology company Smartmatic and conservative cable channel Newsmax have reached a settlement, averting a defamation trial that would have begun Monday over allegations that Newsmax personalities and guests spread lies about the 2020 election and Smartmatic’s role in it.

Details of the “confidential” settlement were not released. The settlement came as the process of picking a jury was underway, with the trial expected to kick off next week.

“Newsmax is pleased to announce it has resolved the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement,” said a Newsmax spokesperson.

Smartmatic settled a similar lawsuit against far-right One America News in April, also for an undisclosed sum. The company still has an ongoing lawsuit against Fox News, which could reach trial next year.

“We are very pleased to have secured the completion of the case against Newsmax,” a spokesperson for Smartmatic said. “We are now looking forward to our court day against Fox Corp and Fox News for their disinformation campaign. Lying to the American people has consequences. Smartmatic will not stop until the perpetrators are held accountable.” (In response, a spokesperson for Fox News said that “Smartmatic unsurprisingly chose to settle its case with Newsmax on the eve of trial after a series of major setbacks devastated its case,” adding, “Smartmatic’s claims against Fox are similarly impaired, unsupported by the facts and intended to chill First Amendment freedoms. We look forward to defending this case when it goes to trial."

Next week’s trial would have marked the first time a jury was seated to consider whether a cable news network made defamatory comments about a voting technology company related to the 2020 election. In April 2023, Fox News settled a lawsuit filed by the voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems for a whopping $787.5 million, a figure that made headlines around the world.

Had the Newsmax case gone to trial, Smartmatic would have needed to convince a jury that the channel’s executives and hosts knew that on-air claims were false but allowed them anyway, which would meet the legal standard (“actual malice”) of defamation.

Smartmatic homed in on 24 specific claims that were made on Newsmax that it viewed as defamatory, with some made by network employees and some made by pro-Donald Trump guests. Smartmatic has emphasized that it was only active in Los Angeles County during the 2020 election, and therefore could not have been part of a nationwide conspiracy to swing the election in President Joe Biden’s favor.

All along, Newsmax has maintained that it was simply covering newsworthy allegations made by figures close to the Trump campaign, and hoped to rely on a statute in Florida law — where Newsmax is based — that allows media entities to report on judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings as long as they do so in a fair and impartial manner.

This week, the judge in the case prevented Smartmatic from arguing that it deserved “punitive damages” in the case, after deciding that Newsmax did not seem to be trying to intentionally harm the voting technology company. That decision substantially reduced the amount of money that Smartmatic could have received from the jury, and probably increased the chances of a settlement.

Unlike the Fox case, Smartmatic’s evidence — internal emails and text messages between Newsmax employees — has largely been hidden from view, limiting headlines and disclosures that could embarrass the network.

Newsmax is still facing a defamation lawsuit in Delaware from Dominion, though that case is not close to the trial stage.

This story was updated to include a statement from Fox News.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/09/26/smartmatic-newsmax-settlement-defamation-2020-election-voting/

Me neither.

Say no more, Bob, "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery."

See - livefree_ordie, Why not try to concentrate on a couple of simple facts.
[...]
If you start with those two facts you may better understand the situation as seen
from any ordinary family loving and peace loving Palestinian's point of view.

Only then could you free yourself from much inner conflict, and from most of the philosophical balderdash of your post.

PS: And you really should consider the wisdom of a highly prominent and respected Israeli:

... Road to Redemption
How Israel's War Against Hamas Turned Into a Springboard for Jewish Settlement in Gaza
[...]
Israel, added Barak, a former army chief of staff, is “risking a multifront war that would include Iran and its proxies. And all this is happening while in the background the judicial coup continues, with its goal of establishing a racist, ultranationalist, messianic and benighted religious dictatorship.” https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174765317

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery."

Good point. I think you are suggesting the motivating reason for Trump ending up doing what he eventually did, to stem the American covid death toll, would have been his desire to look good in the eyes of the American public, so to boost his reelection chances. In light of his initial approach to it, that could very well be true. I agree. Add to that the success his administration did subsequently have, like the Warp Speed effort, was much more thanks to others in his administration rather than to Trump's credit.

"His whole thing for doing it was needing to be reelected and his perceived
narcissistic personality equated being safe with a mask to making him look weak.
There are no words for his kind of evil and self survival brutality."

On all appearances it looks like Trump had no more concern for American
lives than Netanyahu and his far-right mates have for Palestinian lives.

Psychopathic, i think goes some way to describing the two.

Agree. A huge force multiplier for many unnecessary American deaths. The fact the worst death states were Trump friendly states is the plug in the bottle containing the reasons why Trump, in a perfect world, could even have been seen to be criminally negligent in his bungled pandemic stupidity.

Sure was, and what a tragically unnecessary death -- Tragic Death of Bob Marley from Toe-Nail Melanoma

February 29, 2024

Released on Valentine’s Day 2024, the movie One Love received mixed reviews from critics. But, on its opening day in the U.S., the film about Bob Marley’s life broke records by earning more than $14 million at the box office. The film follows the making, release and tour of Marley’s ninth studio album produced with his Jamaican reggae band the Wailers.

The movie’s title was taken from a popular song “One Love” written by Bob Marley and recorded by his group in 1965 for their eponymous debut studio album “The Wailing Wailers.” A reworked version titled “One Love/People Get Ready” was included on the group’s historic 1977 album Exodus and became Marley’s anthem calling for universal love, respect and unity.

Time Magazine later declared Exodus to be “the Best Album of the 20th century” and a masterpiece of spiritual exploration. The revamped medley included Curtis Mayfield’s legendary lyrics about social awareness. Forty years after Marley’s death from a rare form of melanoma skin cancer, the king of reggae is still widely regarded as one of the most influential and iconic musicians of all time.

Prior to his diagnosis of skin cancer...

On December 3, 1976, just days before a concert was planned in support to help quell local violence, seven armed-men raided Marley’s Kingston residence in a botched assassination attempt. Although there were no fatalities, the politically-progressive musician was shot in the chest and arm while his wife, his manager and a band employee were also injured by gunfire.

Six months after Bob Marley came within inches of losing his life to the politically-motivated gunmen, he was surprised by a doctor’s diagnosis of a rare form of melanoma skin cancer. Unfortunately, a dark lesion under a toenail on his right foot was initially misdiagnosed as a bruise from a soccer injury. Bob Marley died four years later at age 36 from acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM).

Hidden Dangers of ALM

“Bob Marley’s premature death should serve as a reminder...

https://www.dermorlando.com/blog/tragic-death-of-bob-marley-from-toe-nail-melanoma

The piece is also obviously an advertisement, still am accepting the info is true, for now.

OMOLIVES, No honestly objective reader would take zab's as meaning Trump nonchalant negligence and gross incompetence relating to covid caused every single one of America's covid deaths. Obviously whoever was in charge some would have died from it. However just as obviously Trump's nonchalant negligence and gross incompetence relating to covid caused many of Americans to die unnecessarily.

"? ummmm. Not sure where that nonsense started...."

It's all well documented. For some of that:

spartex, Your recall is extra-selective. How about Trump's playing the danger down, and his disinfectant solution. How about the fact the first vaccine out was not a result of Warp Speed. And the fact Trump had very little to do with Warp Speed except giving the go-ahead.

"[...]Remember Warp Speed program; Regeneron antibiotic cocktail that saved lives... "

On the cocktail - Trump Overstates Status of COVID-19 Antibody Drugs
By Jessica McDonald Posted on October 8, 2020
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/trump-overstates-status-of-covid-19-antibody-drugs/

How about all the Trump negligence outlined in the insert below:

Climate change is deadly. Exactly how deadly?

"Special Series - The Undercount: The invisible death toll from climate change"

[...]

Start drift --------------------
[Insert: Remember Trump cuts to major agencies caring for the health of American citizens. One unarguable
point arising from the information around that is that Trump has never cared for the care or welfare
of one American more than he has cared for his own political interests. See again:

Trump's cult is a death cult. At least, on the best evidence available, it is accurate, fair and just to say Trump's
cult, energized by Fox News, was a death cult. And it has cost both American families and the GOP big time.
Excerpt: The states with the highest COVID death rates in 2021:
1. Oklahoma 2. Alabama 3. W. Virginia 4. Arizona 5. Kentucky
6. Mississippi 7. Wyoming 8. Florida 9. Georgia 10. S. Carolina
Source: Johns Hopkins; U.S. Census; CDC
Trump carried 8 out of 10 of these states. None of them are blue states.
[...]
"In May 2018, Trump ordered the NSC’s entire global health security unit shut down, calling for reassignment of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer and dissolution of his team inside the agency. The month before, then-White House National Security Advisor John Bolton pressured Ziemer’s DHS counterpart, Tom Bossert, to resign along with his team. Neither the NSC nor DHS epidemic teams have been replaced. The global health section of the CDC was so drastically cut in 2018 that much of its staff was laid off and the number of countries it was working in was reduced from 49 to merely 10. Meanwhile, throughout 2018, the U.S. Agency for International Development and its director, Mark Green, came repeatedly under fire from both the White House and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And though Congress has so far managed to block Trump administration plans to cut the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps by 40 percent, the disease-fighting cadres have steadily eroded as retiring officers go unreplaced...."
March, 2023 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=171446036]
-------------------- end drift

More - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174722438

The Right’s Raid on Libraries Is So Extreme, Even the Dictionary Is Under Fire

"Republicans will do anything to ban books, even saying they cause porn addiction
"ATT; B402, The Republican Party has become the very cancel culture it pretends to rail against""

The right to read is under attack. During National Banned Books Week, we fight back.

By Jesse Hagopian , Truthout
Published September 26, 2024

All links

A person looks at the free banned books during the MoveOn Banned Bookmobile Tour stop outside of Sandmeyer's Bookstore in the South Loop on July 13, 2023, in Chicago, Illinois. Eileen T. Meslar / Chicago Tribune / Tribune News Service via Getty Images

It may have started off as an ordinary fall school day at a high school in the Wentzville School District of Missouri in 2022, but when a police officer entered the school library, the day took an unsettling turn. The school librarian didn’t know why the officer was there until he approached her and explained that he was investigating a complaint — she had been accused of distributing pornography to students.

The librarian listened as the officer told her that certain books in her collection, like The Handmaid’s Tale and Gender Queer: A Memoir, had triggered the accusations he had come to investigate. She was dumbfounded. These books were not pornography as someone had charged; they were award-winning works of literature and personal memoirs that explored themes of identity, gender and social control. Yet here she was, being interrogated by police for simply doing her job.

“It felt surreal,” she later told .. https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-09-23/school-librarian-recalls-surreal-police-visits-over-books-months-before-new-missouri-law .. reporters, declining to be identified for fear of her safety. “I was scared to have a police officer questioning me over books. It didn’t seem real.”

In the Wentzville School District, more than 200 books were banned as part of the wave of censorship sweeping through Missouri and the nation. Tom Bastian, the ACLU’s deputy director of communications, explained to the Columbia Missourian, “It is unconstitutional for Missouri’s lawmakers to threaten teachers and librarians with criminal offenses for observing students’ First Amendment rights.” But despite legal challenges and public outcry, bans have continued to grow around the country, turning school libraries into battlegrounds and pushing educators and librarians into the crosshairs.

In 2023 alone, the American Library Association reported 4,240 unique book titles being targeted for censorship — a 65 percent increase from 2022. Almost half of these attacks in 2023 were aimed at books representing the voices and experiences of LGBTQIA+ and Black, Indigenous and other communities of color.

Related Story
News Analysis | LGBTQ Rights
Queer Youth Are Derailing the Controversial Kids Online Safety Act
Worries over censorship and LGBTQ content has lawmakers in both parties casting doubt on the bill.
By Mike Ludwig, Truthout August 13, 2024
https://truthout.org/articles/controversial-kids-online-safety-act-is-getting-derailed-by-queer-youth-online/

Florida passed a law making it a third-degree felony .. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/book-bans-florida-public-schools/ .. for teachers to allow students to access banned books — many of which deal with issues of race, gender or sexuality — carrying with it up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

In Tennessee, a school district banned the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, which tells the story of the Holocaust, while the right-wing parent group Moms for Liberty (MFL) demanded the removal of a book about Martin Luther King Jr.

In Pennsylvania, Brand New School, Brave New Ruby and The Story of Ruby Bridges — which tells the story of a courageous 6-year-old Black girl who was the first to integrate a white Southern elementary school — were also banned. Idaho passed a law that could lead to the prosecution of librarians who check out books deemed harmful to minors.

In a suburban district near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide by Kathy Belge and This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson were removed from shelves, and students’ library borrowing records were sent to parents on a weekly basis.

Even the dictionary is now too subversive because it does,
after all, contain the words “racism,” “sex” and “transgender.”

In Wyoming, a public library board fired .. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/librarian-fired-wyoming-books_n_64da5ab9e4b08e55c4cd8325 .. head librarian Terri Lesley in July 2023 after she refused to pull certain titles.

The Escambia school district in Florida even issued a ban “pending investigation” of — wait for it — Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary. Even the dictionary is now too subversive because it does, after all, contain the words “racism,” “sex” and “transgender.” The satirical Seattle newspaper the Needling ran the headline “Florida Bans ‘LGBTQ’ from Alphabet” .. https://theneedling.com/2022/05/04/florida-bans-lgbtq-from-alphabet/ — an absurdity rivaled only by the actual policy of banning the dictionary.

Beyond the books that have been explicitly banned, teachers have also reported the phenomenon of “shadow banning.” In some districts, books quietly disappear from shelves without any formal public process. A teacher from Texas told the Zinn Education Project: “Leaders in the district are quietly pulling books from shelves so that there’s no record of banning. This shadow banning is removing access to books as we increasingly focus on school culture and policy that polices students, forces assimilation, and dehumanizes our children.” Shadow bans not only strip students of their right to access information but do so covertly, without public scrutiny or accountability.

It’s also quite telling which books are not being banned. As the historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote in the book he recently co-edited, Our History Has Always Been Contraband, “For example, there are no calls to ban Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, which asserts frequently that Black people are innately inferior to whites—physically, intellectually, and even in terms of imagination.” The book banners aren’t trying to remove books like Master George’s People: George Washington, His Slaves, and His Revolutionary Transformation that gloss over the brutality of slavery. Instead, the targets of censorship are books that challenge white supremacy and heteronormativity. Books that glorify the framers’ enslavement of Africans or sanitize the U.S.’s violent history remain safely shelved.

The banning of books is not just an attempt to suppress information but also an attempt to maintain inequitable power distributions. Yet, as Oscar Wilde wrote, “The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.”

What is it, then, that the U.S. has to be ashamed of today? Structural racism, transphobia, homophobia, the widening wealth gap and the continued exploitation of the most vulnerable, to begin. These are the issues that young people have a right to read about and discuss.

“My school library has been entirely cleared out and locked in a closet,” a 15-year-old student in Ohio told the Books Unbanned campaign for their “In Their Own Words” .. https://booksunbanned.com/documents/Books%20Unbanned%20Teen%20Testimonials.pdf .. report. “And the only public libraries nearby are outright removing every piece of LGBT … media [they] possibly can. I just want to read.”

The supreme irony of book banning is that the same right-wing voices bemoaning “cancel culture” are themselves engaging in the most tyrannical form of cancellation — using the power of the state — to censor any books, ideas or stories they disagree with. Consider Donald Trump’s denunciation of canceling when he said, “The goal of cancel culture is to make decent Americans live in fear of being fired, expelled, shamed, humiliated and driven from society as we know it.” And then consider that Trump also led the charge to ban any discussion of race in the government, writing on X, “I BANNED efforts to indoctrinate government employees with divisive and harmful sex and race-based ideologies. Today, I’ve expanded that ban to people and companies that do business with our Country, the United States Military, Government Contractors, and Grantees. Americans should be taught to take PRIDE in our Great Country, and if you don’t, there’s nothing in it for you!”

“My school library has been entirely cleared out and locked in a closet,”
a 15-year-old student in Ohio told the Books Unbanned campaign.

They’re not just banning free speech and removing books from shelves; they are intimidating educators, threatening librarians and enforcing their will with the force of law.

Thanks to a movement of librarians, educators, students, parents and writers — including an open letter signed by 27 authors and illustrators calling on Missouri school boards and districts to end book bans — the Missouri school district of Wentzville reshelved most of the over 200 books they had banned. And yet, 17 books — including The Handmaid’s Tale – The Graphic Novel by Margaret Atwood, Renee Nault (illustrator) and Slaughterhouse-Five: The Graphic Novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Ryan North, Albert Monteys (illustrator) — have been permanently banned.

A 16-year-old student from Georgia summed up .. https://booksunbanned.com/documents/Books%20Unbanned%20Teen%20Testimonials.pdf .. well the stakes of this struggle:

The freedom to read is the freedom to explore and uncover worlds that were previously unknown. It is the ability to understand the important conversations being discussed around you, and the decisions that are being made on the Congress floor. To have the freedom to read taken away is equivalent to taking away the ability to see, to talk, to listen, to understand, to be compassionate, and to be informed. How can one learn if they are restricted to a certain selection of books?”

The voices of young people, educators and librarians are clear: Censorship erodes our freedom and the ability to question, learn and grow. During this year’s National Banned Books Week .. https://bannedbooksweek.org/ .. (September 22-28) and beyond, let us commit to defending access to anti-racist ideas and stories that lift up LGBTQIA+ people, for without them, we close the book on our history — and with it, our humanity.

Jesse Hagopian is a Seattle educator, an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, a founding steering committee member of Black Lives Matter at School and serves as the director of the Teaching for Black Lives Campaign for the Zinn Education Project. Jesse is the author of the forthcoming book from Haymarket Books, Teach Truth: The Attack on Critical Race Theory and the Struggle for Antiracist Education, editor of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing, and the co-editor of the books, Teaching for Black Lives, Black Lives Matter at School and Teachers Unions and Social Justice. You can connect with Jesse on IG @jessehagopian or via his website, www.IAmAnEductor.com.

https://truthout.org/articles/the-rights-raid-on-libraries-is-so-extreme-even-the-dictionary-is-under-fire/

That's what i was thinking, weird timing, but then thought guess Bragg is in charge and at least Bragg indicting Adams will damper Trump et al claims that he was being targeted unfairly. Not that that guff means anything much anymore to many anyway.

RobH1312, A Sport you certainly are not. Like Trump you are a font of misinformation, disinformation and lies. Your blaming Biden for inflation is wrongheaded and dumb. And why else do the millions who feel they were better off during the arrival and spread of covid and other insult/lie-ridden Trump times say they were better off then. Most all would say it because of inflation, and those, as you, would ignorantly blame Biden for the inflation.

Sports argue facts and are honest in communication. You definitely have not been a Sport in your time here.

And if you haven't been told before, gratuitous insult is not appreciated here. That's uncalled for, undeserved insult. Now you know, Sport.

RobH1312, Grow up. July 15, 2024 What Explains Global Inflation

What Explains Global Inflation -- cover

Context. After staying mostly dormant for the prior decade, global inflation has been on a rollercoaster ride over the past three years. Global inflation declined sharply in the early stages of the pandemic amid a collapse in demand and oil prices. In mid-2020, however, it started to pick up as demand bounced back, supply disruptions deepened, and oil prices rebounded. In July 2022, global inflation reached its highest level since the mid-1990s. It then began to subside but it remains significantly above the pre-pandemic average. These developments have pushed the sources of global inflation movements to the center of policy debates.

New analysis. Against this background, this study presents the first systematic empirical analysis of the drivers of global inflation over the period of 1970-2022. It quantifies the roles played by a wide range of shocks, including shocks to global demand, global supply, oil prices, and global interest rates, in driving global inflation.

Drivers of global inflation. Oil price shocks were the main drivers of variation in global inflation with a contribution of over 38 percent, followed by global demand shocks with a contribution of about 28 percent over the past five decades, and much smaller contributions of global supply shocks and interest rate shocks. Impulse responses also suggest a more significant role for oil prices and global demand shocks. For instance, following a positive oil price shock of around 10 percent, global inflation increases by 0.35 percentage point within a year, and 0.55 percentage point within three years.

In addition, oil price and global demand shocks were the main drivers of movements in global inflation around every global recession since 1970 (1975, 1982, 1991, 2009, and 2020). For example, in the early months of the COVID19-induced global recession of 2020, demand shocks severely depressed global inflation. Oil price and global demand shocks led the surge in global inflation between mid-2020 and mid-2022, as well as the disinflation since mid-2022.

Evolution of the drivers of global inflation. Over time, the role of global demand shocks and oil price shocks has grown and that of global supply shocks has receded. During 2001-22, oil price and global demand shocks accounted for 65 percent of total inflation variation, up from 56 percent in the two earlier periods of 1970-85 and 1986-2000 the study examines. The contribution of global supply shocks, on the other hand, decreased to 13 percent in 2001-22, from 25 percent in the earlier periods. The importance of global interest rate shocks in driving global inflation was broadly stable at around 19-22 percent.

Drivers of different measures of global inflation. The importance of shocks varied depending on the underlying measure of global inflation. For example, oil price shocks accounted for only 7 percent of the variation in global core CPI inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices. Global supply shocks explained 41 percent of global core CPI inflation variation, and global demand and interest rate shocks split the rest of the core CPI inflation variation. For global producer price index (PPI) inflation variation, the importance of oil price and global interest rate shocks was similar in magnitude to that in global CPI inflation variation. However, global supply shocks explained a slightly larger share of PPI inflation variation than CPI inflation.

Robustness. These results are robust to a wide range of sensitivity exercises, including alternative definitions of global variables, different samples of countries, alternative sub-periods, and additional identification restrictions for shocks.

Citation

Ha, J., M. A. Kose, F. Ohnsorge, and H. Yilmazkuday. "What Explains Global Inflation." IMF Economic Review (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41308-024-00255-w

Disclaimer

The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/brief/global-inflation

Even Lime Time had the clues to not blame inflation on Biden:

Lime time, you are sorely wrong on the border, the pipeline, the war. And on Harris re Biden.
[...]
Since he left Office, we have sky high inflation. Granted, I believe whoever would've been in office we would've had this inflation.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=175134098

RobH1312, What valid reason have you got for being a bitch in calling Harris sluttypants.

"The more Americans find out the truth about Sluttypants the more they hate her."

And you couldn't get anything more backwardly screwed-up than you got that.

Too many only get charged up over guns and Trump's waste.

Not tun to watch but an interesting battle royal in which one's best defense seems to be to lay
flat .. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4611921272216475 .. to avoid the horns, i guess.

I haven't watched the end, yet.

Thanks. You and others are main reason i post full articles.

They are hooked up, still nothing.



Maybe irreparably hooked on doubt and mistrust.

Yep. This the only add i've seen:

Mr. Watts said a security camera captured the moments leading up to gunshots in Judge Mullins’s chambers. But Mr. Watts added that he has not watched the recording himself and declined to discuss what the footage depicted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/25/us/kentucky-sheriff-judge-shooting.html

Can you read the link. Nothing new in it, just wondered if you have access.

dbergh, Every interested American knows long before now that Trump owes a swag of money. And more. See

‘Guilty on all counts’: how the world’s media reacted to the Trump trial’s historic verdict
[...]
In an opinion piece, published after the verdict, the paper’s editorial board .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/30/opinion/trump-trial-guilty-felony.html .. offered the blunt assessment that “The jury’s decision, and the facts presented at the trial, offer yet another reminder — perhaps the starkest to date — of the many reasons Donald Trump is unfit for office.

“The greatest good to come out of this sordid case is the proof that the rule of law binds everyone, even former presidents.”

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174524678

And in reply

Why the ludicrous Republican response to Trump’s conviction matters
"‘Guilty on all counts’: how the world’s media reacted to the Trump trial’s historic verdict"
[...]
But Democrats didn’t convict Trump; a jury of 12 ordinary Americans did. The Biden administration played no role in prosecuting the case; the indictment came from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and was issued after federal prosecutors declined to go after Trump on similar charges .. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/why-did-federal-prosecutors-drop-trump's-hush-money-case .

Johnson knows all that, but it doesn’t matter. His goal is to support Trump’s narrative that the entire American political and legal system is controlled by Biden and Democrats: a banana republic, not a democracy worthy of its name ..

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174524897

Simple question, to clarify: Do you still intend to vote for Trump?