Part One:
The Coronavirus and the Urgent Need to Redefine National Security by Mel Goodman
The Coronavirus and the Urgent Need to Redefine National Security
bio: Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. and A Whistleblower at the CIA. His most recent book is “American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump” (Opus Publishing), and he is the author of the forthcoming “The Dangerous National Security State” (2020).” Goodman is the national security columnist for counterpunch.org.
We started out with the fact that Google does not now allow criticism of Trump, because it interprets this as political speech. But Trump has a daily coronavirus ‘briefing’ which is nothing more than propaganda, and which he uses to praise himself for his actions regarding the pandemic. He has gone so far as to invite others to do the same during these ‘briefings’. In addition, he has sponsored a ‘petition’ on the Web aimed at the media, to air his press ‘briefings.’ The media a finally starting to cut away from his ‘briefings’ because they contain little accurate information.
Much of the problems with dealing with the corona virus are due to the ineffectiveness of the federal government. I has essentially been hollowed out, by the departure of the professionals, and there is no federal policy any more. There has been an 80% turnover in the White House staff. There are many “acting” directors, without benefit of any vetting of congressional approval, thus allowing Trump to subvert the Constitution, by avoiding the “Advise and Consent” requirement.
This has been coupled with America’s ultranationalism, which has isolated the US, and favored the Defense Department, with, no accountability for its spending, at a time when the US has no real enemies. For example, Russia has two military facilities outside its borders, while China has one. 60% of discretionary spending is on the military, while health care, infrastructure, and other domestic programs suffer.
Trump has aligned himself with authoritarian governments, such as Israel (Netanyahu), and Turkey. The Republicans are no more, it is now Trumpians.
Part Two:
We discuss the effects of the Coronavirus with Perla Trevizo, who is a Mexican-American reporter born in Ciudad Juárez and raised across the border in El Paso, Texas, where she began her journalism career. Trevizo spent more than 10 years covering immigration and border issues in Tennessee and Arizona before joining the Houston Chronicle as an environmental reporter. She has written from nearly a dozen countries, from African refugee camps to remote Guatemalan villages, with the goal of broadening readers’ understanding of the global issues that impact the local communities where she has worked. Her work has earned her national and state awards including the Dori J. Maynard Award for Diversity in Journalism, French-American Foundation Immigration Journalism Award, and a national Edward R. Murrow for a story done in collaboration with Arizona Public Media. She was also honored as the 2019 Arizona Journalist of the Year by the Arizona
Newspaper Association.
The effects of the Coronavirus are worse for people in detention. They are in crowded conditions, without sanitary facilities, such as sufficient bathrooms, soap, or cleaning supplies. Essentially, they are “caged to die”.ICE has acknowledged that there are detainees who are ill, along with personnel who are also ill. However, very little is being done to help. In Texas, some business entities are trying, but to little effect. The federal government is not sending supplies in any organized manner, and those states that have governors who have been ‘friendly’ to Trump get responses to requests, while others do not.
American prisons are also in trouble, and some states’ governors have talked about releasing prisoners to reduce crowding.
As Coronavirus Infections Spread, So Have Clashes Between ICE Detainees and Guards At ICE detention camps across the country, unrest is growing as detainees warn that dirty conditions and a disturbing lack of soap and other supplies could allow coronavirus to run rampant. https://www.propublica.org/article/as-coronavirus-infections-spread-so-have-clashes-between-ice-detainees-and-guards
Here’s why Florida got all the emergency medical supplies it requested while other states did not
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/heres-why-florida-got-all-the-emergency-medical-supplies-it-requested-while-other-states-did-not/
