Anti-Maskers are taking away our freedoms

In February and March of 2020, we had a chance to crush the novel coronavirus and prevent mass death and suffering from COVID-19. Donald Trump, then President of the United States, had been briefed on the horrific transmissibility and lethality of the virus. He told Bob Woodward weeks later he knew it could kill millions.

On February 5, 2020, Sen. Chris Murphy shared his grave concern that the White House was not taking the pandemic seriously enough.

Just left the Administration briefing on Coronavirus. Bottom line: they aren't taking this seriously enough.

Notably, no request for ANY emergency funding, which is a big mistake. Local health systems need supplies, training, screening staff etc. And they need it now.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 5, 2020

Trump’s pathological obsession with denying the severity of the pandemic led millions to side with Trump against science. Even as tens of thousands lost their lives in the worst viral hotspots, politicians aligned with Trump fought against many or sometimes all public health protections.

In New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, and Japan, public health standards were clear and universal. Everyone needed to wear masks in public, respect social distancing guidelines, and avoid indoor gatherings, including restaurants and office spaces. A short but decisive nationally coordinated action, with people acting in solidarity, would crush the curve, stop the spread, contain the virus, and effectively end the outbreak.

In the US, Trump and his anti-science allies worked to confuse the public, conceal science-based public health guidance, and sabotage virus containment measures. Even as deaths skyrocketed, Trump and his allies lied about the data, lied about the known efficacy of containment measures, and “played down” the transmissibility and lethality of the virus.

One year after Sen. Murphy warned the Trumpadministration was not readying the nation to face the known threat, 459,361 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19. We have been losing more than 2,000 people per day for over two months—sometimes more than 4,000 per day. By contrast, the total deaths in four countries that quicklyacted to contain the virus, using masks, social distancing, and temporary shutdowns, are:

Australia: 909 deaths.
Japan: 6,372 deaths.
New Zealand: 25 deaths.
South Korea: 1,464 deaths.

The combined population of these four countries is 208 million people, just under 2/3 the population of the US. Combined, they have lost 8,770 lives to COVID-19. If the US response had been as effective, 13,914 would have died, not 459,361.

Posted by Democracy Witness

Democracy Witness is a non-profit newsroom project, with a mission to report on the health of civic processes and violations of human rights. Our purpose is to ensure that all people enjoy the unalienable right to contribute to the improvement of the world around them and to remain free from oppressive abuses of power. #LiveYourDemocracy DemocracyWitness.org

Tens of Thousands Protest across Russia, Demand Navalny’s Release

The regime of Vladimir Putin ordered the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in a rushed jailhouse hearing after his return to Russia, then “found” it had the right to hold him for at least 30 days. The political crackdown against an anti-corruption campaigner Putin’s security forces attempted to assassinate has sparked outrage across Russia and around the world.

In a defiant show of resistance and independence, more than 100,00 have joined protests in more than 70 cities across Russia, demanding Navalny’s immediate release. Candidates supported by Navalny’s movement have been among the only non-loyalist candidates to win elected office in Russia in recent years. Putin is reportedly so afraid of the influence Navalny has built with the Russian people that he refuses to mention his name.

Navalny has reached people across Russia with his anti-corruption campaign. Anger at his detention is so deep there was even a sizable protest in Yakutsk, where temperatures were -50°C (yes, 50 degrees below zero).

This pro-Navalny protest in Yakutsk in the negative 50C absolutely blows my mind pic.twitter.com/1vnTqxUvtT
— Bakhti Nishanov (@b_nishanov) January 23, 2021

The Washington Post is reporting today that:

Saturday’s demonstrations came after a sweeping national crackdown in which police detained opposition activists and courts locked up Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, and another team member, Georgy Alburov, co-author of a bombshell viral YouTube video “Putin’s Palace — History of the World’s Largest Bribe.” 
The video, posted Tuesday, alleging colossal corruption in the construction of a vast Black Sea palace for Putin, has been viewed more than 68 million times. The Kremlin denies any relationship between Putin and the palace.

Posted by Democracy Witness

Unify through Service

There is no “radical leftist agenda” under consideration anywhere in American politics. This is another variant of the Big Lie that incited terrorists to insurrection.

Tens of millions of people are hungry and out of work. Unity begins with honoring the responsibility to help.

The roots of sustained unity will grow as national policy realigns incentives toward healthy, sustainable, non-polluting innovation and diversification of local economies.

The climate-smart, science-based clean future is how we secure prosperity and prevent future pandemics.

Posted by Joseph Robertson

Joseph is Executive Director of Citizens' Climate International. He represents Citizens’ Climate in the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, the UNFCCC negotiations, and other UN processes. He is the lead strategist supporting the Acceleration Dialogues (diplomatic climate-solutions roundtables) and Resilience Intel—an effort to move the world to 100% climate-smart finance. He is Senior Advisor Sustainable Finance for the EAT Foundation, where he served as Interim Director for the Food System Economics Commission, during its start-up phase from April through November 2020, and now serves on the Secretariat of the Good Food Finance Network. He is founder of Geoversiv and a lead contributor to the Earth Intelligence podcast. He publishes a free newsletter at LivingFutures.net

The Poetry of Public Service

President Biden lays out the stakes & calls for a grieving, divided nation to work together, saying “My whole soul is in this.”

After four years of chaos, corruption, lies, and ultimately an armed insurrection, people across the United States and around the world have been counting down the hours and minutes until the powers of the US Presidency pass to Joseph R. Biden, Jr., as they did today at 12:00 pm EST.

Joseph R. Biden, Jr., comes to the Presidency at a moment of historic calamity. Multiple converging crises threaten the everyday, health, wellbeing, and security of the American people. During the turbulent and uncertain period of the transition—while the outgoing President fanned the flames of insurrection and refused to acknowledge defeat, and as daily COVID deaths soared above 4,000 per day in the United States—Biden effectively began his presidency by setting a tone of sobriety, care, and faithful service in hard times.

Today, President Biden reminded a divided country that “we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate but of a cause, the cause of democracy,” adding “We’ve learned again that democracy is precious, democracy is fragile, and at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.”

Posted by Joseph Robertson

The Tyrant is Gone

Three hours before his term officially ends, Donald Trump has departed the White House for the last time, spoke briefly to a small crowd at Joint Base Andrews, and now has boarded Air Force One for a final trip as President to his home in Florida.

While he did wish the incoming administration “good luck”, he never mentioned President-elect Biden by name. Trump said he would be back “in some form” and ended his remarks with the famously dismissive phrase “Have a nice life.”

At the same hour, Vice President Mike Pence, along with leaders of both parties in the United States Congress, join President-elect Joe Biden for mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew, a few blocks from the White House.

As Trump the political vandal leaves behind his time in public office, a prayerful lifelong public servant who reads poetry brings solemnity back to the office, at a time of unprecedented national crisis—with more than 400,000 dead in one year, widespread economic hardship and food insecurity.

This transfer of power takes place as we are still coming to grips with the hateful gravity of the terrorist insurrection Trump and his allies orchestrated (to use his own Attorney General’s word).

Democracy has held. The people choose their leaders; their leaders don’t get to determine the outcome of elections. The Constitution provides the structure and sets the boundaries, and at 12:00 pm EST on January 20, all powers of the office pass to the person chosen by the people.

Posted by Joseph Robertson

400,000 American lives lost to COVID in 1 year

The first case of COVID-19 in the United States was confirmed on January 21, 2020. Just 2 days shy of one year later, the virus has now killed 400,000 Americans.

While the development of multiple vaccines in less than one year is a major scientific achievement, the pandemic is still getting worse.

Multiple variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are actively spreading around the world, with one as much as 70% more transmissible—meaning many times more infections and deaths.
Health care systems are reaching capacity, or over capacity. The entire city of Los Angeles has had to begin a triage system for emergency cases.
Vaccine distribution is not moving quickly enough to reach population-wide immunity in the first half of 2021, which means lockdowns are expected to continue and economic hardship will deepen.
Poverty and hunger are spreading worldwide, with acute hunger (near starvation) doubling to more than 250 million. In the US, food banks are projected to be billions of meals short by mid-year.
There are projections the US will see 3,000 and even 4,000 deaths per day in coming weeks, possibly losing 92,000 people in just 3 weeks.

Tonight, on the eve of his inauguration and swearing in as the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden spoke to the nation from the Lincoln Memorial, looking out over the reflecting pool, lined with 400 lights, one for every 1,000 lives lost over the last year. He was joined by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, as well as the First Lady and the nation’s first Second Gentleman.

Pres.-elect Biden during lighting ceremony at COVID-19 memorial in Washington, D.C.: “To heal, we must remember. It’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal. It’s important to do that as a nation.” https://t.co/hZS1xsTE7G pic.twitter.com/TQoVf3jDdP
— ABC News (@ABC) January 19, 2021

Posted by Joseph Robertson

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