Author: Spocko

Riverside County has the 2nd most COVID cases & deaths in California but its supervisors just voted to rescind public health orders.

A patient is removed from Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Riverside this month after more than three dozen residents tested positive for coronavirus and the nursing staff did not show up for work.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

Here are the details from the Desert Sun. It’s outrageous. It’s should make your blood boil.

Maybe the supervisors forgot about the death of Deputy Terrell Young, 52, a 15-year veteran and the department’s first to die from COVID-19. He leaves behind his wife of 31 years and four children.

Perhaps they need to see the photo of David Werksman, 51, a Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy who was with the department for 22 years. Better yet, the supervisors should hear from his wife and three children who are still alive.

Of course these deaths happened WAY back in April, so I guess they become just another number.

Do the supervisors need to know that this hits more than old people? Here’s the story of 21 year old Valeria Viveros, who worked as a nursing assistant at a skilled nursing facility that had an outbreak.

We can show the supervisors of the communities around Riverside the photos. We can show them the data that it’s not just olds and POC who are getting hit because gasp, *White People* are dying and that seems to make a difference to some.

But the bottom line is that Riverside supervisors voted to rescind the state’s emergency orders. Why? Who are they really listening to? What are those people’s reasons?  And finally, if the people in the community and those around them agree this is a terrible, deadly decision, “What can be done?”

The friend who tipped me off to this story lives in Palm Springs, right next to Riverside County. His question was, “How do I stop my city supervisors from doing what Riverside supervisors did?”

First they should know that lawful Executive Orders have been defied. Public health reopen guidelines in the state of California were ignored.  (See EO N-60-20, and Health and Safety Code sections 120125, 120140, 131080, 120130(c), 120135, 120145, 120175 and 120150, )  PDF Link signed by Sonia Y Angell, MD, MPH, State Public Health Officer & Director California Department of Public Health

The Riverside county supervisors couldn’t meet the reopen guidelines. They know there will be consequences but they don’t care!

From the article:

“Supervisor Jeff Hewitt implored the supervisors to vote to lift all restrictions — including the state’s — immediately.

Regarding the county’s orders, he said he wanted to drop all COVID-related restrictions and trusted residents and businesses to make decisions to secure health and safety.

“Although he understood the state had threatened to withhold disaster funds from counties that have defied Newsom’s staged plan, Hewitt scoffed at his fellow supervisors’ plan to negotiate with Newsom on reopening criteria.”

Hewitt trusts that businesses would make decisions to protect their employees. Without any consequences?  He gives this BS libertarian answer why they would.

“They will do what they need to to attract the most customers,” he said of county businesses. “Even though I feel like I don’t need a mask — I don’t like a mask, that’s my personal choice — I’ll carry one around all the time because there’ll be a lot of businesses I want to go in that’ll require me to wear a mask.”

Well what if they want to attract COVID deniers? There’s lot’s of money in selling to rich idiots, but what about the non-idiots who have to breath the same air?

As I told my friend, these people can’t be convinced with photos of the dead, then need to be sanctioned.

Also, when you listen to Hewitt during the supervisor meeting he reveals that it’s the business owners who are telling him what to do. Will he name them? Could the media talk to them so that the public can know who is putting their profits before people’s lives?

They people won’t hear from the business owners with real power telling the supervisors what to do because they want to be behind the scenes. They don’t want to take the heat from the public. They don’t want to have a conversation with the head of the nursing homes in their community who can ask the family of the dead to call them on the phone.

They aren’t going to voluntarily reveal who they are and face the majority of the people in the community and the ones around Riverside. They expect Hewitt to take the heat, and then see if they should back down.

I have a whole piece coming noting how the anti-lockdown protesters and the “ReOpen” people are using the same tactics and methods as the gun lobby groups. There are ways to beat them, but it’s just insane that people even have do this.

Remember the April 15th “Operation Gridlock?” in Lansing Michigan? In my piece on April 21st I said we needed to start tracking these protesters to show that they will spread the virus to other communities. Well, someone did.

The people at the Committee to Protect Medicare released data which shows the protesters dispersing to smaller communities across Michigan in the following days. The map above shows that cellphones that were in Lansing on April 15 scattered across the state. (Link)

Rob Davidson, executive director of The Committee to Protect Medicare said on Lawrence O’Donnell on April 30th that they saw a rise of 50-200% in COVID19 cases at the places those cell phones ended up.

Davidson predicts that we will see more of this following the April 30th protests. “If we keep doing the same thing over and over we’re never going to get out of this.”

Protesters without masks, PPE may have spread COVID-19 to North, West Michigan

The data is a “bright red flag” that shows the irresponsible actions of a few hundred people could put medically under-equipped communities at risk of experiencing higher infection rates, according to Dr. Rob Davidson, an emergency physician in West Michigan who ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2018.

“Every public health expert and medical professional has been warning America that people who don’t maintain physical distance could be dispersing a highly contagious, lethal virus into their communities and endangering their neighbors and their loved ones,” Davidson said. “These reckless actions threaten to set back all our efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 and reduce the rate of infections.” (May 4th, Michigan Advance)

Michigan state law enforcement needs to change how they handle protesters.

At the April 30th protest the Michigan state police decided not to enforce the executive order.

This is a not a hoax pandemic. 3,789 people in Michigan have died because of it, and that’s not going to stop if protesters are allowed to violate the lawful emergency orders on social distancing.  But at the April 30th event no one was cited. They could have been  cited for breaking MCL 10.33 & MCL 30.405(3), a misdemeanor.

Here is Michigan State Police First Lt. Darren Green, the state security operation commander for the Capitol, telling the unmasked protesters standing closer than 6 feet apart the police will not be enforcing the social distancing orders.

 

In this interview Michigan State Police First Lt. Darren Green gave several reasons for using “extreme discretion” for social distancing enforcement during stay-at-home protest. (link) Those reasons might have made sense at the time, but we now know how easily this deadly virus spreads.

Also when cops didn’t enforce the law on social distancing at anti-lockdown protesters, COVID-19 spread.
Call your reps. Demand police enforce physical distancing laws at protests. https://t.co/YtYxkwDuZb
@DrRobDavidson https://t.co/ssKdzeqwS5 pic.twitter.com/LELw4ODSWG

— Spocko (@spockosbrain) May 8, 2020

How do we get a change in public health policing?

Elected officials should listen to the doctors who are looking at the evidence and making decisions to limit the spread. Michigan state government needs to tell police to start enforcing Executive Order 2020-11 re: Temporary prohibition on large assemblages and events (PDF Link) The doctors can educate the police why they need to start citing and arresting people who willfully and intentionally break public health orders.

When I last wrote about this people worried about how enforcement can be applied unjustly against POC. They were also concerned about the use of widespread surveillance techniques by government. All valid concerns. If we are going to ask for an increase in policing during the pandemic we should also demand independent oversight to address injustices and ensure that privacy requirements are built into the system.

Who does the public need to call, email or tweet to support health department orders?

I asked my friends who live in Michigan for ideas on who specifically to contact and what to say. They suggested their state representatives. My friend Vicki shared with me this delightful letter she wrote to Senator Mike Shirkey and Representative Lee Chatfield, both Republicans:

I don’t know if either of you are scientists or understand science–it appears that you don’t, after you allowed the protesters with their penis extensions (AKA guns and assault rifles) into the Capitol yesterday–but you both need to be told, apparently, that this virus doesn’t have a political affiliation. It doesn’t care if you are a Democrat, a Republican, or a Pastafarian. It’s an equal opportunity virus, and it will seek you out if you are in crowded spaces with no protection. A sizable majority of constituents in the State of Michigan (I can cite sources, if need be) agree with the Governor, that our safety is more important than politics or opening the economy–even if it is painful for some right now. We all get it, it’s stressful for everyone–we are all in this TOGETHER (or at least we should be).

..these fools (yes, they are fools) put all of our lives in danger with their behavior and their demands. Thankfully, we have a Governor who follows science.

..Follow the science. If you don’t understand it, research it. But follow the science. Opening this state up too soon because some troglodytes are screaming about LIBERTY is a foolish, foolish move.

Sadly some Michigan Republicans are listening to “Dr. Trump” by playing political games and filing lawsuits.

Why aren’t they doing what Robert Gordon, Director of  State Of Michigan, Department Of Health And Human Services says in Emergency Order Pursuant to MCL 333.2253 Regarding Executive Orders 2020-11, 2020-20, and 2020-21?  That order is based on the “advice of scientific and medical experts employed by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. That is the document law enforcement should be following (read it here)

What needs to happen next?

• Call your reps! Demand police change their policies to enforce physical distancing laws at protests.
• The Governor needs the director of DHHS to talk to elected officials and explain how and why policing needs to change.
• The Governor needs to direct the Attorney General, Dana Nessel to tell the director of the Michigan State Police, Col. Joseph Gasper, that he needs to direct his officers to start citing and arresting protesters violating the law.
• The media needs to be informed how protests will be handled going forward. (They can use California as a model since they just arrested 32 anti-lock down protesters. )

• Commanders in the field, like MSP Lt. Darren Green, should explain the new rules at any protests.
• Public Information Officers like Lt. Brian Oleksyk, need to tell local reporters like Kyle Kaminski at City Pulse that “extreme discretion” on protesters is over

We focus on the protesters yelling in these photos. I think we should focus on the police being yelled at. They are being put at risk by protesters who aren’t masked and could be carrying a deadly virus. Police have families too.

Anyone who says they “support our first responders” or tweets “#BlueLivesMatter” should be demanding reckless protesters stop spreading a highly contagious, lethal virus. That means PPE for first responders and enforcement of policies designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In Michigan people have heard the story of 5-year old Skylar Herbert. Her dad is a firefighter, her mom is a police officer. At some point they were exposed to COVID-19, which infected Skylar.  On April 5th Skylar became the youngest person to have died of the virus in Michigan–so far.

We don’t know where all the people at these protests went. So call your state senators (link) and representatives (link) Demand the police stop letting people violate the emergency orders.

Make a call. Save lives.

Cross posted to Spocko’s Brain

VA orders $300,000 of body bags.

The Department of Veterans Affairs ordered nearly $300,000 worth of body bags this month, according to a contracting document reviewed by POLITICO.

By Betsy Woodruff Swan, @woodruffbets Politico 04/30/2020 06:48 PM EDT

In terms Trump would understand the head of the VA, Robert Wilkie, probably had to come up to him with tears in his eyes and say , “Sir, I’m sorry, sir. We don’t have enough body bags.”

(Reference to Trump and his “Sir,we don’t have ammunition” story )

Interesting side note in the story. FEMA paid $51 per bag when they bought 100,000. But you can get them for the low low price of $16.80 each if you get them from the Body Bag Store! Or just ignore social distancing rules and get one for free.

States with tight budgets have an alternative!

Due to extremely high demand for body bags during this COVID-19 pandemic, you may wish to consider our mortuary shrouds as a body bag alternative. From The Body Bag Store  website.

I’m, sure Trump will find a way to get credit. “These are the best body bags. Very strong. Powerful body bags. When I came into office we had a broken body bag system. Now we are the top user of body bags for Covid-19 in the world!”

I read a letter yesterday that made my face go numb. Congress doesn’t know where critical pandemic supplies are going, what the criteria are for sending them, what gets sent to which states and who makes the final life or death decision about the supplies.

Today, April 27th, the House Energy & Commerce Committee‘s Health, Oversight and Investigation subcommittee chairs expects a detailed accounting from HHS and FEMA of the critical supplies the federal government is obtaining and distributing.

These questions are from a letter sent by the House Energy & Commerce Health, Oversight and Investigation subcommittee on April 20th 2020 to Alex Azar of HHS and Peter Gaynor of FEMA.

These two questions made the tips of my ear go numb.

• Who are the members of the Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force? 
• Who makes the final decision on where and how many supplies to distribute to a particular area or state?

HHS and FEMA need to deliver the following information by Monday, April 27th.

No later than April 27, 2020 provide daily reports to the House Energy & Commerce Health, Oversight and Investigation subcommittee the following information:
The total number of the following supplies that the federal government has provided directly (including from the SNS) or directed distribution through other means (including through Project Airbridge) to each state, territory, and tribe to date, for each type of supply:
i. Ventilators
ii. N95 respirators
iii. Surgical masks
iv. Face shields
v. Gloves
vi. Gowns
vii. Federal medical station beds

(Full letter in PDF form here )

The whole letter is mind blowing. They might know and want all of it in writing so they can nail them for breaking laws and rules. Or they DON’T know because the White House makes stuff up on the fly. They put Jared and unknown cronies in charge to compete with HHS and FEMA official groups. Whatever the reason, we can’t wait to know what’s happening with supplies and their allocation.

Trump rattles off big general numbers at his Press Rallies. This hides the detailed information that could prove that states he likes are taking priority over states with a greater need. The lack of details also hides what happened to supplies seized in one state. Which state was it sent to? Who decided? Why were supplies meant for the VA  send to “our” National Stockpile. 

The public needs to know this information so we can fix this right now.  We need to use media, political, legal, financial and emotional leverage to make changes.

We need to know what the guidelines are before we can say HHS and FEMA are ignoring them. If life and death decisions are being made based on childish vendettas, political calculations and/or profit motives I want that to stop right now.

Congress investigates to get proof, which is important, but my cynical human side has seen how Trump has evaded responsibility and asks, “So what? They proved it. Now what? How do we stop them and make changes before more people die?”

First make the usual steps: Call your congress people.
The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation is chaired by Diana DeGette (D) Colorado. @RepDianaDeGette 

 The House Subcommittee on Health, is chaired by Anna G. Eshoo (D) CA @RepAnnaEshoo.

Next check to see if people from your state are on these committees.

Maybe a congressperson from your Red state is on the health committee.  If you live in Atlanta you can tweet to Earl L. “Buddy” Carter from Georgia @RepBuddyCarter Tweet to him and ask if his committee is being ignored by HHS and FEMA. 

This strategy is important because of the need to push from multiple directions.

We need to let people in states that are being deprived of supplies know about it so their Republican leaders from that state can make calls to Trump (since he ignores Democrats).

Widen the outrage pool. Get this info to Fox watchers

Imagine  Ainsley Earhardt of Fox and Friends hearing about her friends being punished for living in a state with a Democrat governor. How could she say something that wouldn’t upset Donald and encouraged more supplies for all no matter the party of the Governor? I think it could go like this:

“My friend Lindsey (who owns four of the sandwich chain Chicken Salad Chick) is really looking forward to opening up her stores in Florida but is upset that several states that have stores can’t open up because they don’t have the supplies they need because they happen to live in a state with a Democrat governor.  The sooner every state gets supplies the sooner they can all open up!”

I know that hip urban types like Sam Seder and almost vegans like David Feldman don’t care about Chicken Salad Sandwich stores but many people do. And since Fox and Friends is the most powerful show on TV right now, it’s one way to get a message through.

Without public guidelines the White House, HHS and FEMA can take actions that can be explained away later. (“It was a miscommunication…  What we meant to do was.. We never technically ignored  them.”

We need to see emails and all communications including phone and video calls so we can find out if people were following directives from Jared or a secret members of the Supply Chain Task Force.

We know people take actions based on what they assume Trump wants.  (“Florida is critical to the President’s 2020 re-election. Send them twice what they want.” ) Trump doesn’t have to order people to act on their own initiative, which allows Trump to deny he is responsible. But in the absence of public guidelines and transparency we won’t know what is going where and why.

We know how the Trump White House works. They will hide, stall and get Barr to weasel word the law to cover for Trump. Individuals will lawyer up and hide. But the people who can be pressured with this don’t have to be at the very top like Trump. Pressure needs to start three steps below him first. Those people have lots of communications that are incriminating. And they aren’t happy being patsies for mass death.

The good news about incriminating emails is that my new favorite group, American Oversight, is on the case!  @weareoversight.  They have filed multiple FOIA requests for emails related to coronavirus testing.

They are also looking into what Jared is doing! They have filed FOIA requests with the DoD and DHS seeking emails with or about private individuals employed by firms enlisted in the coronavirus response by Jared Kushner.

If we can prove people are making corrupt deals there can be changes right now. We know that Trump will throw everyone under the bus before he is touched. There should be consequences for them later but hopefully we can get some information out of them before their bus arrives.

Trump wants to measure how he’s doing on this pandemic based on the numbers he chooses. To counter this we must use metrics that come from doctors not Nielsen. Then we frame Trump’s chosen numbers with numbers that show his failures.

Trump has always picked the numbers he wants to measure his success. First he wanted it to be inauguration attendees. The media pushed back Sean Spicer so hard he had to go on Dancing With The Stars for not being a good enough liar. Next Trump used numbers the media couldn’t deny, like the electoral college vote. When the stock market was up it was tweet, tweet, tweet! When unemployment was down? He bragged about it in every rally, especially in a category that he was weak in–African American support.

Thursday he picked a number he believes shows he is winning the fight against the coronavirus. TV ratings. I’m not going to let him, so I’ve physically–and linguistically–started framed the metric he chose with one the people care about.

1. Picking a number you are a leader in is a classic technique used by marketing and PR people for decades.
2. Find a category you are winning in.
3. Show how your product is winning–as compared to others that YOU select.
4. Find an organization/company that shows that your product is winning in that category. If you can’t find a company that shows your product leading the category you picked, commission a company to prove it.(Some market research
5. firms are good for this, especially those that let you pick the questions & audience.)
6. Get those winning numbers to the media so THEY repeat them. “Research Group says, Product T is the winner in X, Y & Z!!”
7. Repeat the headline from media stories that use Research Group numbers–because most people only read headlines.

Trump regularly uses this technique and changes his metric when it suits him. Friday he was bragging about the market going up again.

So how do we combat this?

1. Determine what SHOULD be the measurement of success or failure from people and institutions we trust. .
2. For example go to CDC to count the spread and the dead. Back it up with supporting data as it comes in. Use data that people need to know now and in the future. What’s the percent tested in a community vs. total numbers?
3.  Get those numbers to the media. Use them regularly and consistantly. Keep updating charts and graphs.
4. Break out what the numbers mean and give context. Because Trump will claim credit for what was done by others it’s important to show who did what when, both good and bad.
5. Detail what Trump’s failures and successes mean. For example, he’s always bragging about the travel restrictions from China. It started January 31 but It was ONLY for Chinese nationals. He says it so often with out caveats people think it was great.

To remind everyone how weak those restrictions were we must keep inserting numbers that put his brag numbers in context. For example, every time he brags about the China travel ban a pop up should say:

40,000 Americans and other authorized travelers came IN FROM CHINA following the travel restrictions.

• Most passengers arrived in January at airports in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Newark, Chicago and Detroit.
• “Thousands of them flew directly from Wuhan,” the original epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak”If passengers are screened and show no symptoms they will be re-booked to their final destination and asked to “self-quarantine” inside their home, DHS says. “Once back in the U.S., it’s imperative that individuals honor self-quarantine directives to help protect the American public,” DHS acting Secretary Chad Wolf  said in a statement. NY Times

Why did the death rates not go up as quickly in California as other locations? How much of that was because of the actions of city mayors and Governor Newsom?  What else is a factor? These all need to be measured to compare with other states and put into a national context. What’s the number of dead vs alive because of Trump? We can figure out those numbers.

Can we force the White House to do this? The media will always first deal with the White House’s chosen number (that’s if the White House puts out numbers at all).But we can’t just wait for the White House to put out the numbers the people want to know and care about.

On Friday Rachel Maddow talked about the numbers the administration wasn’t counting and put out some some of their own charts and graphs. It’s a good start.

But we need more. There needs to be simple charts and ways to show the data that reaches everyone, and that’s difficult, especially people who are in the Fox News media bubble. We need to get through to the people in the 8 states who don’t have state-wide stay at home orders (shown in white).

Trump makes up some numbers and willfully misinterprets others. We know this and have been dealing with this, but the President also has people whose JOB it is to support misleading numbers. He has an entire media arm that will create a narrative to support his bogus numbers and downplay the important ones.

But some numbers are very powerful. Who died and who lived? Who is responsible? These might even get through to Fox News. But they get through to the rest of us. We need to help get the message out.

I can’t believe I have to say this, but the reality is we have to make it clear to the right wing media and the GOP that all human lives matter. Even theirs.

.

Soon we will have data on states that did NOT keep people apart and did NOT issue stay at home orders. I will share that data with a plea for people to act appropriately. Here’s what I will do and not do when it comes:

I WILL NOT gloat that Fox News watchers died. The network they followed featured Trump’s “hunches” instead of pandemic experts.

I WILL NOT cheer when people in Red States get sick. Even those who voted for Trump and kept supporting him.

What will I do? Keep pleading for them to listen to healthcare experts.

I want them to change their actions in order to save their lives. If they don’t, they might get sick and die. Part of that change is for them to understand that what Trump is saying and doing has made the situation worse.

Will they stop supporting him and change? Yes. Some will. I will welcome them to a community who believes in science. But some won’t.

If I’m wrong and they are right how will they respond? By mocking me. “See? I told you it wasn’t that big of a deal. I didn’t social distance and I’m fine! You lot destroyed the economy for nothing!”

I’m not sorry I tried to save their lives. I’m glad that they were lucky because of their remoteness or other circumstances that prevented them from getting sick. Maybe the actions that I took in my city and state early prevented them in their location from getting sick. That’s the prevention paradox.

If they are wrong and I’m right they will expect me to act the same way towards them as they they would. But I won’t. Why? Because I don’t care about “winning” the argument they set up. I care about saving lives. I can logically prove I was right but it’s a hollow victory, especially if the people who I’m arguing with are no longer alive to concede.  My human side knows the sadness of being right on this topic.

There’s no joy in saying, “I told you so” to a corpse.

On Tuesday March 24th in a Fox News Townhall, Trump said, “I’d love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” Perhaps Pence suggested Easter to symbolize America’s rebirth. No doubt Trump envisions himself coming out of the Tomb as our Messiah. He expects to resurrect the stock market–and his reelection chances.

Trump will taint Easter with his love of money over human life. It’s par for his course, just like his closed down golf courses.

I didn’t realize until today how corona closures have hit @realdonaldtrump’s biggest revenue generators. Six out of the top seven. (And the one that’s open is doing pretty bad, too). pic.twitter.com/9i6Sn97udm

— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) March 24, 2020

Trump ignores experts whose conclusions aren’t what he wants and so he finds different experts. On the Rachel Maddow Show, New York Times health and science reporter Donald McNeil Jr. uses an apt simile.

What he’s [Trump] talking about “15 days and the doors are open”is like having a lead lined room next to the Chernobyl power plant and you fling open the doors and say. “Hey the flowers are still sprouting out there, it’s a sunny day I think it’s okay to go out.” It’s not okay to go out.

There are things you haven’t seen yet because so many people are getting infected but they’re not going to be hospitalized for on average another 10 days after they show symptoms.

What would it take for Trump to change his views?

It’s only going to be forced home in the same way that AIDS was forced home to Ronald Reagan after 4 years of not mentioning it by the death of his friend Rock Hudson. Something is going to have to wake the President up to the realization that this is a very serious danger including to him and his family.

Trump keeps calling coronavirus the invisible enemy. In the miniseries Chernobyl one of the scientists had to explain that the reactor core was shooting out three million billion trillion invisible bullets in the air that will kill people.

Opening up America too soon is like walking out of a lead-lined rooms outside the Chernobyl power plant thinking that the invisible bullets have stopped and refusing to use a Geiger counter to test the radiation.

Experts have been pointing out the need to keep the social distancing measures in place. From Axios, Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said in a Twitter thread to drop all the measures in place would be to accept that coronavirus patients “will get sick in extraordinary numbers all over the country, far beyond what the U.S. health care system could bear.”

Anyone advising the end of social distancing now, needs to fully understand what the country will look like if we do that. COVID would spread widely, rapidly, terribly, could kill potentially millions in the yr ahead with huge social and economic impact across the country. 15/x

— Tom Inglesby (@T_Inglesby) March 23, 2020

Inglesby went on: “To drop all these measures now would be to accept that COVID pts [patients] will get sick in extraordinary numbers all over the country, far beyond what the US health care system could bear.”

Trump playing God will kill people in his quest to resurrect “the economy” which he sees as a reflection of his will.

But as my friend Anat Shenker-Osorio explains, the economy is not an ungovernable force of nature. It’s not an entity to worship and sacrifice lives to. It is a system made by humans and we can make changes to that system to reflect our priorities.

If large numbers of people have to die in order for the economy to work, the economy doesn’t work.

— Anat Shenker-Osorio (@anatosaurus) March 24, 2020

“Trump’s economic advisers, including Steven Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow, channeled the views they were receiving from the business community that keeping the country shut down wasn’t worth the economic pain.”  Kevin Liptak, CNN, March 24, 2020

Trump’s economic advisers want to kill people rather than modify a system. To paraphrase Charleston Heston, The economy is people. We can build our economy and help our people. The economy takes second place to a body count.

Trump is calling #COVID19 the Chinese Virus. To understand why he’s doing it and how best to react read Kurt Eichenwald’s great Twitter thread and Amanda Marcotte’s excellent article at Salon.  Here are my thoughts for activists on what we can do about it.

Make Trump’s Racist Comments Unprofitable For Him.

Trump’s behavior changes when he knows it will impact him positively or negatively financially. Instead of hoping he will suddenly care about that Americans are endangered by his comments let’s use our understanding of his psyche and focus on what he cares about–money–then come up with multiple legal methods to take it away from him. The goal:

Make Trump’s businesses lose millions in revenue whenever he makes statements that reasonable people consider racist. 

As Eichenwald points out, we know how Trump and the right plays the game of “trolling the Libs” then following it up with bad faith arguments and definitions.

2…the purpose was SPECIFICALLY (according to the political consultant’s strategy”) to lead non-scumbags to react “That’s racist!” Then they would sneer to their rabid supporters “Democrats bringing out the racism card! They cant even call it its real name just for politics!…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) March 18, 2020

So how do we take away Trump’s money? The New York Times did a piece on how much this crisis is costing Trump. They point out that he is not personally invested as heavily in the stock market as others.  “Trump Is Losing Money in the Markets, Too”  March 14, 2020 by David Enrich. 

Trump’s Finances Must Be Impacted Personally 

1) Tank the value of his real estate. Trump’s money is in real estate. Who buys over-priced real estate? Rich people and money launderers. When you make money for rich people they let you do what you want–but with the crash they are pissed at him. They can direct their anger at him by reducing his income in the area where his personal fortune lies–real estate.

2) Target Trump’s Revenue Streams
Trump loves his golf courses. He is invested heavily in golf courses. Do any rich Chinese-Americans golf? Might they pause their memberships at his courses briefly to send a message? What about that course in Scotland that he turned into a overpriced gas station and mandatory rest stop for the military? Can we claw back some of the previous over priced gas? Stop current revenue? Ban future revenue?

3) Expose Who has Financial Leverage Over Trump 
Are you a Chinese-American who has insider knowledge of Trump’s finances or where his revenue comes from? You could go to the media as a whistleblower but that takes time. Or you could do what he does.

• Contact him directly and tell him what you know.
• Ask him to stop calling it the Chinese Virus.  If he does, nobody needs to know. If he doesn’t, well then you go the whistleblower route.

4) Levy Fines, Penalties and File Lawsuits On His Properties
There are multiple methods to reduce Trump’s revenue. Impose new fines and penalties. Are you a mayor in Miami who needs properties to house the sick?  They were going to hold the G7 at Trump National Doral golf resort.

Why build hospitals when you have those lovely bungalows ready? Eminent domain is a thing in many states. Those golf course would be perfect! The point is to use multiple methods in multiple areas to reduce his revenues.  You never know whose Fox News watching mother is going to die or just died because of something Trump’s said.  Give those people a perfectly legal outlet for their anger.

5) Withhold Money 
We know that Trump uses his properties to get cash from people who want favors from him. What if a wealthy Chinese person wants Trump to stop blaming the Chinese for his own mistakes? This person could just hint that a change in language would ensure Trump keeps getting millions in bribes re-election contributions.

Worried this might be illegal? To quote Mick Mulvaney, “This happens all the time! Get over it!” Also, if Trump ends up getting the money he won’t complain. It’s not like congress allocated the rich person’s money and by law couldn’t hold it up.

Do It Publicly 
I say do all this publicly. I say use all legal methods. But that’s because I believe in the rule of law and I don’t have an army of lawyers, daddy’s money and my own personal AG to get me out of a jam.

However…rich and powerful people like to use their leverage privately. Prior to being President Trump did a LOT of private threatening of lawsuits and forced NDAs. so he knows how it works, but smart phones record everything and he shouts a lot on the phone. If Trump doesn’t stop making racist statements those tapes are released.

Some of these suggestions are for rich and powerful people. Why? Because I pay attention to WHO my target listens to and WHAT makes them change their behavior. Trump listens to rich people who have financial leverage over him because he cares about money.

Financially Hurt Trump the Person, not Trump the President
If there is a move to reduce Trump’s personal finances he will whine and respond as if America is being attacked. To counter this it should be made clear that the actions are focused on reducing Trump the individual’s profits. Concurrently there should be humanitarian outreach to all Americans. The message is:

“Trump makes racist comments. We don’t want to punish the American people for this, so here are some good things for all of you. However, the financial pain on Trump personally and his businesses will continue until he stops with his racist comments.”

People are angry at Trump. They want to do something. This is an opportunity. Share this with your friends. Do you know any rich Chinese-American golfers? Multi-millionaires who can use their real estate holdings to punish Trump?

Be legal. Be polite. Be persistent
If you are successful expect to be attacked. Prepare for the threats coming back. He brags about hitting back and punching down. Note the violent words he uses.  Record the threats. Bring them to the media when they happen. There are lots of smart people who will help you.

Also, I want to STRONGLY condemn any suggestions of violence toward Trump or any members of his family. No jokes about violence either. Those who know me knowI’ve been fighting violent rhetoric from the right-wing media since 2005. De-funding them because of their violent rhetoric is a method that I have successfully used and it has made an impact on the entire industry. Act legally, non-violently and persistently. This is not Rwanda.

It will be hard to know if any of these financial pressures on Trump will stop him from making racist comments. The goal is to change his language because of the consequences to the rest of America. But even it they don’t change his language, if they cost him money that is a success, because that will hurt him.

If you really want to hurt Trump take away what he cares about most, his money.

Cross posted to spockosbrain 

 

How did Trump greet people during the March 13th #CoronavirusPressConference? Mr. Sulu, what is the proper way? @GeorgeTakei #SocialDistancing #COVID pic.twitter.com/lSjKEUKIDI

— Spocko (@spockosbrain) March 14, 2020