Next Up: police reform for the United States

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In the aftermath of the George Floyd killing a little more than three weeks ago, America has entered a phase of protests against social injustice, not seen since the mid 1960s, and the demand for a change in policing against black Americans, they have crowded the nation’s streets.

Reaching back, we can see that the problem has existed for decades, and in some cities, there has been a brutal legacy, Cmdr. Jon Burge, in Chicago, is but one known example, as he tortured and brutalized hundreds of black men in the 1950s.

George Floyd

Floyd’s name, unfortunately, enters a long litany of black people victimized by the police, their names engraved as the inheritors of racial prejudice in the country, but now, the challenge presents itself: to begin to change wholesale systemic racism, in a new “woke” country, where there are urgent calls to stop the killings, made even more urgent after the shooting of another unarmed black man, this time Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, after a sobriety test.

The most urgent question, among many, is how can there be effective, legal, and race neutral policing in a society that has prided itself on a legacy of freedom? It seems to begin with the surge of young people, black, white and brown, that have taken to the streets to demand change, chanting among others, the elegiac words: “I can’t breathe!”

Can America finally come of age and demand accountability from those tasked to serve and protect? This, of course, is a monumental task, and the fact that both shootings occured in progressive cities; one with a progressive mayor,and the other, headed by a black woman, speaks volumes about the change to long held biased behavior, and where some police departments have become a law unto themselves.

Starting points

In Chicago, where the city’s first black gay female mayor is Lori Lightfoot, who by her own admission, is no stranger to protest, has suggested, among other plans, to have young people of color give tours of their South and West neighborhoods to police, so that they can get to know the places, and people, that they serve, since one of the many charges is that white officers do not have any knowledge of the black communities that they patrol, and often charge in like an occupying force without attempts to understand the residents.

Understandably, this action alone will not by itself create change but in a less than perfect world, the beginning has to have a start, and developing youth leadership is a laudable goal.

Crossing from the earlier hopeful years of the last century, Martini Luther King, John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” can be a starting point to reawaken the legacy of those efforts; but, also needs a rallying point to begin afresh, and this has begun with the murder of Floyd, and now Brooks. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first to take the bull by the horns and had his attorney general, Jackie Lacey, outlaw the choke hold maneuver that was used by Minneapolis police and now those efforts have been galvanized by police associations in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles.

Law enforcement response

“The San Jose Police Officers Association, the San Francisco Police Officers Association and the Los Angeles Police Protective League are announcing this effort with full-page ads in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News,” reported ABC7News.com.

Together they said, “"Our unions are committed to the continuous improvement of policing in America," the statement reads, in part. " We believe that each of our departments has made tremendous strides in strengthening accountability, transparency and adopting policies that reduce the number and severity of uses-of-force.”

Among a host of ideas, these are but a sample of the most salient:: ”a national database of former police officers fired for gross misconduct to help prevent other agencies from hiring them; a national use-of-force standard that emphasizes a reverence for life, de-escalation, a duty to intercede if witnessing excessive force or misconduct,” and “an early warning system to identify officers that may need more training and mentoring; ongoing and frequent crisis intervention and de-escalation training of police officers; and a transparent and publicly accessible use-of-force analysis website that allows the public to monitor when and how force is used.”

Many advocates have also stressed that police misconduct is  a violation of the Fourth Amendment, a fact that is often lost in the plurality of voices in the national and social media.

Taking a look at the recent past

If the past is prologue then there has to be a look at the recent past, and that takes us to the 2017 Chicago Consent Decree that was created in the waning days of the Obama administration, under the direction of then U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, all 164 pages that made a number of succinct observations about both the conduct and the character of much of the Chicago Police Department.

Both its release, and the resulting press conference, delivered a firestorm of reaction, from former Mayor Rahm Emanuel who characterized it as “misguided” and a wholesale disregard by former police superintendent, Garry McCarthy.

Chicago faced a mountain of accusations for its police board and force: “A review by the feds of more than 100 IPRA files revealed a consistent unwillingness to probe or dispute officers’ narratives, according to a source familiar with the DOJ’s findings. The report is also expected to point to specific use-of-force cases that revealed insufficient training in de-escalation techniques,” according to the Chicago Sun Times.

Pointedly, it also supported U.S. Constitutional violations, and racial disparities.

It reached its zenith of  condemnation by the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in his confirmation hearings said, “"These lawsuits undermine the respect for police officers and create an impression that the entire department is not doing their work consistent with fidelity to law and fairness, and we need to be careful before we do that." 

Jeff Sessions and Pres. Trump

Vanita Gupta, then working under Lynch noted, much later, in a letter of support, that for the city, it was paramount, according to the Chicago SunTimes, who reported that she said,“The city wants this reform,” and “The Chicago Police Department wants this reform. And the community, which has been waiting far too long, wants this reform.”

Sessions later remarked, “Chicago’s violent crime crisis would not be solved through civil litigation, and murders of Chicagoans will not be prevented by subjecting the CPD and its officers to multiple, costly monitors through various settlement agreements and consent decrees.”

Using a less than conciliatory tone, he then added, in a later speech, according to reports, that “he also complained that “lame-duck politicians” wrote the proposed consent decree to control CPD “from their political graves.”

One year later, in the aftermath of the police shooting of black teenager, Laquan McDonald, Emanuel, did a turn about, and with the then State Attorney General Lisa Madigan, at his side, announced a state directed consent decree, with Madigan stating that, ““For decades, Chicago has endured tragedies ... and failed attempts at real police reform. The resulting lack of trust between the public and police is untenable, and exacerbates a complicated violence problem,” Madigan said. “The consent decree gives us a unique opportunity to change that.”

That agreement with input from Black Lives Matter was given a five year period to implement changes.

However it was later revealed that while CPD had implemented some of the decree, others it has not, for others;and, mostly on use of force, with a “met” of only 37 of 50 deadlines, according to the federally appointed monitor Maggie Hickey.

The way ahead

In its response, CPD said in a statement, that “it remains committed to adopting and implementing the meaningful, enforceable police reforms outlined in the consent decree.”

“While we are working diligently to comply with the requirements as quickly as possible, we are placing greater importance on affirming the reforms have undergone the appropriate reviews to ensure we’re working toward a more transparent, accountable and professional Department of which the entire city can be proud. We believe that public safety and reform strategies are mutually reinforcing and can be accomplished simultaneously, and will continue working alongside the Independent Monitoring Team and Office of the Illinois Attorney General to implement change and sustain compliance with the consent decree.”

On Thursday Hickey announced that Chicago had met 25 of 74 items between September of. 2019 and February 29th, of this year, two thirds of its consent decree deadlines, in her second of ten semiannual reports that she and her team will provide over the next five years.

WTTW Chicago reported that “In a joint statement published following the report’s release, Lightfoot and CPD Superintendent David Brown said Hickey’s findings illustrate “how the level of transformational change and reform we are working toward cannot be reached overnight.”

“While we have continued to build on a host of police reform and accountability measures since then, we have been clear that this moment is just the start, not the end of our journey,” they said. “We can do better, and we are redoubling our efforts to meet important milestones mandated by the consent decree.”

Hickey also plans to release a report on the recent protests and civil unrest that roiled the city.

The view from the White House

What most have noted most lacking in the discussion is federal leadership, namely from President Trump, whose recent statements seem to indicate a lack of firmness, and a direction that is focused on playing to his political base, despite last week’s ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, where he read the names of those killed in police action, and mentioned the possibility of banning choke holds, with some exceptions.

The president seemed anxious to change the subject and segue into a discussion of the stock market and retail sales. And, then somewhat bizarrely to both listeners and television viewers, then said that “school choice” was a new course for civil rights; which most Capitol Hill observers attribute to Education Secretary Betsy De Vos’s influence.

Reaction has been tepid, and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi described it as “inadequate.”

Previously the president has referred to peaceful protesters as “thugs” and “terrorists” and in the ceremony noted that he believed that there was a “small number of police officers” involved and “they are very tiny, I use the word tiny.”

In a bill tasked by Sen. Tim Scott, by Trump, it seems to be, in the words of his critics, to nibble around the edges of the problem and offers encouragement for choke hold bans and no knock entries by police, and while it provides anti lynching seems to encourage the study through commissions of the lack of police accountability, which is often seen as the death knell for issues that don’t have political support.

Sen. Scott

The lack of an explicit ban on the above measures gives credence to "The Senate proposal of studies and reporting without transparency and accountability is inadequate," said Pelosi in a statement. "The Senate's so-called Justice Act is not action."

Meanwhile Scott said that he hoped that his bill would take the same precautions that the Congress took with COVID 19 and according to NPR, added, “"I believe if we take that same consciousness into this process, and we don't make it about bipartisan or partisan politics, we make it about families who have lost loved ones, we make it about restoring trust, about respecting officers ... we'll get to the finish line," Scott said.

The House has its own competing bill and “The proposal, titled the Justice in Policing Act, would prohibit police from using choke-holds, create a national registry to track police misconduct, lower legal standards to pursue criminal and civil penalties for police misconduct, and ban certain no-knock warrants. (You can read a summary of the bill here.),” reported  NPR.

Across the country there has been specific responses that mirror these bills, but in stronger terms, such as New York, which has disbanded the types of plain clothes units such as the one in the Eric Garner case; and, in New Jersey, the Attorney General has ordered the police to disclose the names of police with “severe discipline violations.”

In Chicago, Lightfoot has proposed a “panel of residents, activists and police officers” to review policy and when officers can use force.

The recognition of the magnitude of police reform for black Americans has unified people across the globe, in the United Kingdom, and Japan, to name but two, and has also enjoined the struggle for protective rights towards LGBT people, and all those whose lives have been endangered, even beyond police reform, tilting the demands for human rights.

The Guardian, a UK newspaper and website, perhaps said it best, when they noted, in their coverage, that with the coronavirus, and the subsequent deterioration of the U.S. economy, that “This is a perfect storm killing Black Americans.”

U.S. May Jobs Report gives surprises

We may be one of the few people who don’t like surprise parties, so taking that a bit further, the U.S. Labor Department’s May Jobs Report  gave a real jolt to many economists, and observers, that there was actually a gain in non-farm payroll jobs, to the tune of 2.5 million for that month, as with more than a grain, or two of logic, expected a deep drop after the arrival of the  pandemic COVID-19.

If 13.3 was the unemployment rate, were all asleep at the proverbial wheel? Adding to the confusion was the disclaimer that was put on the report that the numbers may be wrong.

Then the specter of 8.1 million people misclassified? More confusion, then another look revealing that the more accurate figure was 16.4 percent. Adding that figure to the mix, it was still better than 19.5 percent from the April report.

What was expected was also 19.8 unemployment, so taking either the 13.3 or the 16.4 that some say is the real number, gives some satisfaction.

Then again 18 million people were jobless, and in February, 21 million people lost their jobs, a fact that gives support to the now widespread belief that it was the month that the recession began in the United States. Taking an even closer look, we have for purposes of discussion, 129,718 for February and in May, 111,732, down by 17,986.

A payoff of 2,905 jobs? Talk about the brass ring.

From all of the mainstream media reports, we have learned that many of the Labor and Census interviewers, data technicians, and their support staff, were working from home without their customary, in-office tools of support; but, in hindsight we also see that there were revisions for both March and April. But, and this is a big but, those months traditionally are subject to revision.

Another possibility is that respondents answered the questions posed incorrectly, when asked in the household survey, of 60,000, that they were not working, when in fact they might have been on jury duty

If that does not make your head spin, then sitting back for a bit and waiting on the August and September reports will give a clearer picture.

What is evident is that there were two factors, both interrelated that showed a higher number, the Payroll Protection Program, that allowed for some businesses to bring back some employees and hire more accompanied by another caveat, noted by Forbes in their online report, that some companies might not “rebound fast enough to justify all the people that are working, which could lead to a second round of layoffs.”

Putting the May numbers aside for a while, we can see, as Forbes outlined, that “26% of the roughly 18 million previously gained jobs are needed to get back to the February employment level.”

The Federal Reserve concluded its two day meeting on Wednesday, and the expectation that they would not change the interest rate,  keeping it at 0.025 was met, and also that the recovery was indeed in recession, and that the road ahead would be a long and hard slog, with recovery not to be seen till 2022, at best.

Jerome Powell

They will continue Quantitative Easing and the buying may help as it did in the Great Recession of 2007 and 2008, but there is some danger in the increase of overall debt, and falls in the stock market, and some are advocating for dealing with an ageing population, and understanding welfare policies, but mostly a greater increase in the handling of the COVID 19 pandemic, and its effect on the country.

“We remain confident that the overall economy will continue to improve dramatically in the third and fourth quarter,” said the Fed Chair,Jay Powell, and that was a more optimistic tone than some expected, yet giving a “doom and gloom” scenario would not have improved matters, and perception is one tenth of the law for most economic forecasters.

In that vein, small businesses will continue to need support, and some have given monies back from the Paycheck Protection Program, partly in fear that they might not be able to afford to hire back workers, and remain open for business with reduced demand and program rules.

Some lawmakers are advocating for increased direct payments, not loan, to them, but as we have seen with the U.S. House voting on another round of stimulus checks, a move that has not been welcomed by Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, this is an area that will require intense support.

For individuals, there is some chatter of reducing unemployment benefits on the Senate side, a move that in a presidential reelection year would prove disastrous for President Trump.

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, there is much talk on Capitol Hill of creating more fiscal policy to help American blacks after decades of neglect and disinvestment in many of their communities.

Some are looking to the May report as signs of an increase, if not outright improvement for them and the figures do show that there was an increase from16.7 to 16.8, with some of the greatest gains in black youths 16 to 19 years of age from 28 percent to 34.9, but why the increase has no rationale as of yet.

In the end run, while numbers will be adjusted, there is also the realization that the 15 percent overall increase is still far below pre COVID 19 levels.

George Floyd murder wreaks havoc on United States

America’s most intractable problem, as we’ve noted before, is race, specifically relations between blacks and whites, and has pocked its history with slavery, violence, and Jim Crow laws leading to the civil rights movement in the 1960s, under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, and now 50 years later, the nation is reeling from the murder of George Floyd, by a white policeman in Minneapolis, Minn. who knelt on the man’s neck until he died.

The fact that the crime occured in a relatively progressive city, that includes a sympathetic mayor and that has two transgendered blacks on the city council speaks volumes, not only for irony, but for the common pattern of police statements saying that Floyd was resisting arrest, but a later video showed that he was not; gives credence to the maxim, that as much as things change they remain the same.

As protests have spread across the nation, with most peaceful, they have been tailgated by those intent on robbing stores, and the sounds of breaking glass that have been accompanied by alarm bells, and police sirens, and fleeing vandals, their arms bulging with stolen mobile phones, athletic shoes, designer handbags, and other merchandise.

These looters have sullied both the message of the protests, sending people into a tailspin of anger, disappointment,and hurt, at the loss of millions of dollars, and the lives behind them, for both employer and employee, as broken as the shards of plate glass that litter the streets of New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles, and Ft. Lauderdale, just some of the more prominent, and notable cities in the United States.

As Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot noted, in an initial speech, asked who comes to a peaceful protest bearing shovels, pick axes, metal pipes, and bottles filled with urine?

Those hell bent on taking advantage of the situation for personal gain.

There is also some evidence, although not all is known, that there were extremists from either the far right, or the left, intent on bending the peaceful demonstrators to their goals of anarchy and lawlessness, what some media reports are calling, “violent radical elements.”

Nevertheless a mob is still a mob.

The pattern of police abuse will linger long after the glass and debris have been swept away, leaving this still gaping hole in the moral fabric of a country that was once referred to as the New Jerusalem, the City on the Hill, but now wearing a tattered suit of racism, dismay, and for some disbelief.

Needing fundamental change in race relations and policing is nothing new, amidst the horror stories of not just unwarranted arrests, but aslo forced confessions, torture, and the whip of cruelty. What is needed, these past decades has not been possible as local lawmakers face a legacy of racism, and the lack of will to make systemic changes in a society that often turns a blind eye to the destruction of individuals and families.

Now, what is desparetly sought is leadership on the federal level, besides to assist with that of local and state lawmakers, but with President Donald Trump in office, nothing is to be gained, and everything is to be lost, as he has shown a pattern of turning a blind eye to the need for both.

His history when dealing with racial tension, and specifically sports players, demonstrating the police brutality, in taking a knee, in protest begun by Colin Kapernick, proved to be a pivotal moment when he said that, and what was most infamously noted, with the white supremacists marching in Charlottesville, in 2017, where a white protestor was killed, and the president later commented that there were good people on both sides.

On Monday, the president had a peaceful protest broken up with the assistance of United States Park Police, and the Secret Service who used tear gas and rubber bullets, so that he could walk to historic St. John’s Episcopal church, for a photo op, in front of the church, which had suffered minor damage from a basement fire, standing outside in front of the church, holding a Bible.

Trump never entered the church, nor did he notify, with customary professional courtesy, that he was coming to the local bishop, The Rt. Rev. Marianne Budde, (who ironically was a rector in Minneapolis for eighteen years), which is normally done, when a sitting president visits.

Using the church for the photo was, as most agree, a play to his political base, as his poll ratings have plunged to below 34 percent. But Budd, along with Presiding American Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry, expressed their profound displeasure, with Curry citing biblical injunctions.

With racial justice and legalities, now brought to the forefront, is perhaps no more succinctly seen than in the lack of will to enforce the consent agreement formed in the waning days of the Obama administration, for Chicago’s police department which found huge holes in how black people were treated, mostly worse, than white citizens, ironically by those sworn to protect and serve; in behavior, more akin to that of an occupying force.

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Taking a rearview look in the mirror, we can see Rodney King, in Los Angeles and the dragging of the black man in Texas, James Byrd, behind a pickup truck, as sad historical antecedents, among many others, giving the nation a sad legacy of brutality.

The financial cost of the damage done by looters, and vandals, are in the millions, but what cannot be calculated is the range of emotions, in the aftermath of of the outrage and anger in the genocide of black Americans.

Updated 8 June, 2020 CSDT

Post COVID 19: A new U.S. Economy

With the recent and debilitating April Jobs Report released by the US Labor Department the figures gave a jolt, but one not entirely unexpected, by most economists, but nevertheless ultimately shocking the nation with the worst unemployment record, reaching back to nearly 65 plus years ago

Despite the bad news, it’s safe to assume that most people know that this was the fault of the pandemic of Covid 19 and its deleterious effect on the American economy, now mostly shuttered, as a result of shelterin place orders by state leaders..

While most have dwelled on the 20.5 million people who have lost jobs in April, many others are also unaware that the marquee rate as well call it, or the banner unemployment rate, as many see it, of 15 percent, is actually less than the household survey rate, called the U6 rate that has shown a whopping 20 percent unemployment rate.

Conjoined to this bad news is that many state governments are still under the stay at home orders, by their governors, and as reported earlier, some GOP governors have given orders to reopen some businesses, but others have not, and there are indeed many, such as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who have stayed the course, out of an abundance of caution, and have said that they will let the data speak for themselves before going further.

They have, in turn, faced intense opposition and noisy demonstrations, and some state officials, as in Michigan, have had to deal  with armed protestors facing down the legislators in the state capital of Lansing. A recent death threat against Whitmer has generated even more concern.

Some protestors are saying that these governors are anti constitutionalists, and have over extended their authority while still others, have shown  a hidden political agenda of strongly  anti Democrat stance , a move detailed by the Chicago Tribune, recently; and one that shows the not quite unseen hand of the GOP.

Despite these alarming trends, what seems to be left unsaid, in many instances, is what will America look like, even if the stay at home orders were suddenly lifted tomorrow? 

For most observers, us included, it will be a changed landscape with far less independent and small businesses, and one where many office workers, and others, will still be working from home, either in the family den, or at the dining room table.

Some may even prefer it that way as a road to lead a less stressful life in America’s largest cities: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, has become increasingly unaffordable and with increasingly high rents, many younger workers are wondering whether to relocate to less urban areas.

Federal leadership has waffled between assembling a task force, and then announcing plans to disband it, only to have it stay, and many are bemoaning the lack of a consistent approach to fighting the pandemic, from the White House. 

Adding to this is the fact that President Trump recently recommended that people inject themselves with Lysol to rid themselves of the virus, a dangerous recommendation, that was later retracted..

With testing and contact tracing at lower levels across the nation, those states that do reopen parks, restaurants, and the like will have reduced attendance, coupled with stringent adherence to social distancing, and in some cases, masked servers, leading to the further demise of independent restaurants,  and even more applications for unemployment.

Take for example, restaurants in Hammond, Ind, south of Chicago, where diners are at 50 percent capacity, with tables spaced well apart, not exactly a recipe for an increase in profits.

Recalling that some in the restaurant associations had predicted that only one third will survive, mainly the big players, with corporate backing, for many areas, but especially urban areas, will see one of the more salient aspects of city living, operating well below previous levels.

Small businesses in America account for 61 percent of employers in the food service sector, along with hotels, according to the 2017 Census Bureau; and that also creates a void for single mothers, college students, and people of color.

That occurrence alone adds to the near 4,000 unemployment claims in recent weeks. And, as is now well known, the Paycheck Protection Program was swiftly drained in its first inception, in mid April, and now some are also warning that the recent addition of $310 billion may also not be enough.

Mired in well intentioned actions by Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, the initial conduit through banks, and vague rules, allowed some large corporations, with close ties to banks to receive money that they did not need, causing Mnuchin to threaten legal action, if they don’t surrender the funds.

Pritizker in Illinois has planned a five part phase in for reopenings, amidst the clamor of noisy oppositions, and some feel that the state is fighting with one hand tied behind its back, without proper help from the federal government; and, there are some who predict, even with restrictions, and especially without a vaccine that the economy, there might not be a fully functioning US economy till the beginning of 2021.

In fact there are now predictions that there will be at least an increase of 130,000 cases across the country by August, and possibly further.

On Wednesday for a partly virtual address to a Senate Panel that haste would make waste of many lives if reopening was enacted too soon, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,  who said, “if we do not respond in an adequate way when the fall comes, given that it is without a doubt that there will be infections that will be in the community, then we run the risk of having a resurgence.”

Concerns as we have noted before, along with others in the media, are suffering an intense debate on which business will survive, and which won’t, and on the corporate scale, nationally, there are some large retail giants filing for bankruptcy such as J. Crew, and Gold’s Gym, who have seen both sales and memberships drain to unsustainable levels.

Yet, In another vein, albeit ironic, there has been an increased sales revenue from Amazon, that “rose 26 % from a year earlier to $75.5 billion in the three months through March,” reported the Wall Street Journal, in a not too surprising move with most retailers closed, that are deemed nonessential.

In a darker move many companies have used the virus to lay off workers that were contemplating, and in some instances, voting to unionize, and as The New York Times has reported, this has happened with Trader Joe’s, despite a company denial, and also truck drivers with Cort Furniture Rental, not surprising considering the anti labor movement that has spread, all the way, in recent months, to the United States Supreme Court.

These moves have also spread to white collar workers such as journalists at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who were peeled off weeks ago, and replaced with content from the non unionized labor from cleveland.com, a move also denied by management who said they merely wanted to expand coverage to suburban areas.

It seems  a safe bet, that when the American economy comes back from its public health exile, that we will be seeing a much smaller, non unionized workforce, that will still retain much of the flavor of present times, but in a dramatically different form.

Can the US economy be saved?

Sec'y Mnuchin

Success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan, is a classic quote often attributed to President John F. Kennedy, and with the current COVID-19 pandemic and its effect  on the US economy, it might be coparenting with the desire by President Trump to lift the shelter-in-place mandate, and open closed non-essential businesses, despite dire warnings of a second wave that might hit the country, if done wholesale.

Politics plays a role in the decisions made in the upcoming presidential election, and one where the bully pulpit of the White House reigns supreme, with the once robust economy a strong plank in Trump’s reelection platform, now only a distant memory.

Tagging along are Republican governors in some southern states where who are opening selected businesses, beginning this past Wednesday. Brian Kemp in Georgia has led the herd, but the president, in a somewhat disingenuous statement, said that he was against that move as unsafe.

Amazingly enough he also stated that self-injections with Lysol might rid someone of the virus, only to backtrack on Thursday, saying that he was being sarcastic, which quickly brought him condemnation from leading scientists.

Meanwhile doctors and epidemiologists have urged caution in making any hasty decisions for even a wholesale opening that might later result in a second wave of the virus, this fall; and, combined with the annual flu season would prove doubly dangerous to the public..And by some accounts, that could be 150 deaths per day.

No one is arguing that America is not in a recession, but the junction of politics and public health  is creating a dangerous mix that might further endanger the nation’s financial welfare, which in turn that might, in the future, create economic damage in the trillions of dollars.,

Six weeks of lockdowns are making many Americans restless, and while some miss shopping, and going to restaurants, others are worried about how to pay bills; and despite the arrival of the first deposits from the CARES bill recently passed by Congress, many business owners ,especially small business owners, are also worried about remaining open, but last Tuesday, Congress made strides to add another $400 billion, or so, to the Paycheck Protection Program that will fund them, after the first $380 billion was drained almost as soon as it was issued..

This is all against a backdrop of noisy demonstrations in Chicago, Miami, and other states, accompanied by honking automobile horns outside their state government offices, with demonstrators arguing that they don’t have the virus and want to get back to work, while still others say that the coronavirus pandemic as a hoax, stating uncategorically, “This is just the flu,” while still more say that the government’s efforts to prevent illness, and death, is only a ruse by a godless group of bureaucrats.

In Illinois, Gov, JB Pritzker demurred about making any changes beyond the deadline of May 1, but on Wednesday announced that his state’s lockdown would continue till the end of May, with only a few exceptions.

Pritzker said that some retail business would open with curbside deliveries, and also opened some golf courses, but most importantly hospitals would be allowed to perform some elected surgeries, adding much needed revenue to their balance sheets.

Financial Times columnist Edward Luce wrote recently, that for the US, the “learning curve remains flatter than its infection rate. It should be the other way round.”

Overall  many questions remain: how many peoplpe are infected, and as he noted, only 1 percent, 3.2 million, have been tested, despite Vice-President Pence’s earlier statements that 4 million, or more, would be.

The country is well below the level of testing needed by scientists to track the trajectory of “the pandemics reach,” in fact ten times the above amount is recommended.

Luce also pointed out that had the shutdowns occur two weeks earlier than they did, 90 percent of US deaths might have been prevented.

Of course, all of this leads to the development of a vaccine, and without it Americans could see their economy free fall into a tailspin, with a “hit to US wealth . .. of $5 trillion over 30 years, it strignent measures are not taken,” he added.

With the nation’s public health consigned to the states, and the lack of a federally managed program, economists and academics are worried that the economy would indeed meet Luce’s predictions.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi managed to add more than $100 billion for America’s hospitals to the recent negotiations, and an increase for the food stamp program, known as SNAP, to further limit the damage on families and individuals, giving a lifeline, should states extend their shelter-in-place orders; plus $150 billion for state and local governments to continue their fight against the pandemic.

Additionally, unemployment benefits have increased roughly to $985 per week, and together with the $1,200 stimulus checks, can help, even temporarily, keep many Americans afloat, while scientists and doctors labor for a vaccine.

Unfortunately the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Act which adds extended benefits has created a series of massive delays said The New York Times on Thursday, and that only 17 percent of eligible people have received them, amidst the state benefits websites crashing.

Many people are worried about paying rent, mortgages, credit card bills, and groceries, and the concerns are mounting, with the latest figures showing that one in six Americans have lost jobs due to the pandemic.

Stepping into the fray the Federal Reserve has taken an active role in buying up municipal and corporate bonds, as a shelter against a stock market meltdown.

Stabilizing Treasuries to prevent an even deeper recession is also  goal that Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are coordinating, giving fresh input to some in Washington who initially that that the former, when first appointed, might have been a milquetoast.

For major companies, such as Southwest Airlines, the moves are even further precarious and its president noted that he wants to avoid furloughs and layoffs, a feat that some economists might be tricky, if not impossible.

Finally, a nearly half trillion bill was passed by both houses of Congress on Thursday to give not only $500 billion to refill the Paycheck Protection Program, but also as Pelosi pointed out, the added $100 billion to hospitals across the country to aid in its fight against the virus is desperately needed.

There was controversy with the first payouts with many business - especially small ones -  saying that the application process was onerous, and that some larger corporations,even colleges, were unfairly afforded funds such as Steak n’ Shake, Harvard University and Ruth Chris’s Steakhouse; all of which have now given back the money awarded to them.

As a safeguard against future problems, the Government Accounting Office is now tasked with oversight to prevent abuses, and to provide greater efficiency.