erronis

erronis's Journal

April 23, 2020

Handcuffed: Black Miami Doctor Who Works with Homeless Says He Was Racially Profiled by Police -

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Democracy Now, 2nd part. The first part was filed at https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100213285914 but was self-deleted by author, not sure why.

April 23, 2020

Marcy Wheeler's follow-up to George Packers: "We are living in a failed state"

https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/04/23/long-overdue-policies-that-look-obvious-in-the-age-of-pandemic/

I’m not usually a fan of George Packer. But I keep coming back to this column, We Are Living in a Failed State. The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed what was already broken, which is something I might have written. It argued that this pandemic, to which the US responded like a corrupt poor country, was actually the third crisis of this century, and our responses to the previous two — 9/11 and the Iraq War, and the Wall Street crisis — simply brought this country to the place where Trump could loot it.

A good read and, as usual, a lot of intelligent conversations below.

April 22, 2020

Special Report: HHS chief Azar had aide, former dog breeder, steer pandemic task force

Source: Reuters

As is now widely known, two agencies Azar oversaw as HHS secretary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, wouldn’t come up with viable tests for five and half weeks, even as other countries and the World Health Organization had already prepared their own.

Shortly after his televised comments, Azar tapped a trusted aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency’s day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had joined the department after running a dog-breeding business for six years. Five sources say some officials in the White House derisively called him “the dog breeder.”

Azar’s optimistic public pronouncement and choice of an inexperienced manager are emblematic of his agency’s oft-troubled response to the crisis. His HHS is a behemoth department, overseeing almost every federal public health agency in the country, with a $1.3 trillion budget that exceeds the gross national product of most countries.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-hhschief-speci/special-report-hhs-chief-azar-had-aide-former-dog-breeder-steer-pandemic-task-force-idUSKCN2243CE

And I thought his dumpy boss didn't even like dogs.

Also from the article:

On January 21, the day the first U.S. case of coronavirus was reported, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services appeared on Fox News to report the latest on the disease as it ravaged China. Alex Azar, a 52-year-old lawyer and former drug industry executive, assured Americans the U.S. government was prepared.

“We developed a diagnostic test at the CDC, so we can confirm if somebody has this,” Azar said. “We will be spreading that diagnostic around the country so that we are able to do rapid testing on site.”

While coronavirus in Wuhan, China, was “potentially serious,” Azar assured viewers in America, it “was one for which we have a playbook.”

Azar’s initial comments misfired on two fronts. Like many U.S. officials, from President Donald Trump on down, he underestimated the pandemic’s severity. He also overestimated his agency’s preparedness.

Azar’s optimistic public pronouncement and choice of an inexperienced manager are emblematic of his agency’s oft-troubled response to the crisis. His HHS is a behemoth department, overseeing almost every federal public health agency in the country, with a $1.3 trillion budget that exceeds the gross national product of most countries.

April 20, 2020

Krebs On Security: Who's Behind the "Reopen" Domain Surge?

Some great analysis by Brian Krebs detailing some of the ownership/control of a large number of new domain registrations made after the dump called on his followers to "Liberate" some of the states.

Whoops: Here's the URL: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/04/whos-behind-the-reopen-domain-surge/

The past few weeks have seen a large number of new domain registrations beginning with the word “reopen” and ending with U.S. city or state names. The largest number of them were created just hours after President Trump sent a series of all-caps tweets urging citizens to “liberate” themselves from new gun control measures and state leaders who’ve enacted strict social distancing restrictions in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s a closer look at who and what appear to be behind these domains.

KrebsOnSecurity began this research after reading a fascinating Reddit thread over the weekend on several “reopen” sites that seemed to be engaged in astroturfing, which involves masking the sponsors of a message or organization to make it appear as thought it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants.

The Reddit discussion focused on a handful of new domains — including reopenmn.com, reopenpa.com, and reopenva.com — that appeared to be tied to various gun rights groups in those states. Their registrations have roughly coincided with contemporaneous demonstrations in Minnesota, California and Tennessee where people showed up to protest quarantine restrictions over the past few days.

Same old (r)epuglicon slime working on behalf of Kochs, Putin, etc.

April 9, 2020

Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, in solitary confinement

Source: Reuters

Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, has been placed in solitary confinement at a federal prison in New York state where he is serving time for violating campaign finance laws, according to his lawyer and two sources familiar with the matter.

Cohen, 53, was transferred on Wednesday to a Special Housing Unit at Otisville Federal Correctional Institution, a disciplinary section of the prison, the sources said.

Until now, Cohen had been housed in a minimum-security camp at Otisville, which is about 70 miles (110 km) northwest of New York City.

One of the sources said Cohen was placed in solitary after another inmate complained about his internet use.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-cohen-exclusive/exclusive-michael-cohen-trumps-former-lawyer-in-solitary-confinement-idUSKCN21R38A

Wonder how long it will be before he is found with his neck broken and all cameras disabled.

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Member since: Tue Feb 5, 2013, 04:27 PM
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