FIRST THEY CAME

Trump Hugging the Flag

Credit: nymag.com

First, they came for the news media, crying "fake news," promoting "alternative facts" and denying the reality of any unfavorable reports or evidence, and we did nothing.

Then they came for the "aliens" and immigrants, and though concerned, we did nothing.

Then they came for judges whose legal rulings prevented the separation and caging of migrant children at the border, and, though protesting, we did nothing.

Then they came for Homeland Security officials whose warnings of Russian election interference they rejected, and though surprised, we did nothing.

Then they came for the FBI Director who would not pledge complete loyalty, but it was 'complicated', and other concerns were cited, and we did nothing.

Then they came for the Attorney General whose required recusal opened the door for the Mueller Investigation, and who was no Roy Cohn, and, we did nothing.

Then they came for the Investigators themselves, accusing them of being "deep state"agents and labeling the investigation a "total hoax," and we did nothing.

Then they came for the "whistleblowers" who revealed corrupt dealings with a foreign power to undermine a potential political rival, and we, ultimately, did nothing.

Then they came for the Inspectors General in every Federal agency where questions were raised about administrative corruption, and we grumbled, but did nothing.

Then they came for the Public Health experts and officials, charging a "cabal" of scientists with undermining the President by promoting the "hoax" of a pandemic and the wearing of masks, and we've done nothing.

Then they came for peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors, smearing them as "subversives" and "anarchists" bent only on destruction, deserving of "retribution," and threatening to charge them with sedition, and we've done nothing.

Finally, they came for the Electoral System, claiming it to be "rigged," against them, suppressing voting, cutting short the census, shrinking the Postal Service, and undermining public faith in the integrity of the most basic mechanism of a functioning democracy, and so far, we've done..... 

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Les Adler

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This piece was inspired by Martin Niemöller, a prominent Lutheran minister and courageous opponent of Adolf Hitler. Niemöller survived seven years in Nazi concentration camps.

WHERE ARE YOU ON THE BLUE WHALE SCALE?

I just read a report about the 12 richest Americans, whose combined wealth now totals more than $ 1 trillion.

Now I'm trying to get a feeling for what $1,000,000,000,000 means in terms not just of wealth but of power and influence. Here's one approach, my blue-whale-scale.

The median American household is currently worth around $97,300. That means half of US households are worth more and half are worth less. For convenience, let's round that $97,300 up to $100,000. Remember, this is net worth, not income.

The ratio between $1,000,000,000,000 and $100,000 is a factor of 10,000,000.

That means that the twelve richest Americans are worth ten million times as much as the median US household. Or that it would take the combined worth of ten million median households to equal the  wealth of the 12 richest Americans.

Blue Whales can reach a length of 100 feet and weigh up to 330,000 pounds. Why am I bringing this up?

Credit: pikrepo.com

Let's represent the dozen people whose combined worth is a trillion dollars by a blue whale, earth's largest and heaviest animal. A blue whale might weigh in at 100 metric tonnes or 100,000 kg.

Now, picture a table that matches up wealth with weight. That's our blue-whale-scale. At the top is $1,000,000,000,000, the blue whale and 100,000 kg.  We'll keep dividing by ten as the sea creatures get smaller and lighter along with the wealth they represent.

For example, the next step down would be $100,000,000,000. Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are worth more than $100 billion each. On the whale scale, they would weigh in at 10 metric tonnes each and might be represented by one of the smaller whales, say a Minke, "just" 10 meters long.

It takes four divisions by ten to get down to the wealthiest one percent of US households, those worth $10,000,000 and up. On our whale scale they would weigh in at a measly one kilogram, or 2.2 pounds. That's way below whales now; closer, say, to a decent-sized trout.

We need to divide by another 100 to get to the median US household's roughly $100,000 net worth. On our blue-whale-scale, that family would weigh in at just 10 grams, about the same as two nickels. In the fish world, that might be represented by a sardine; you know, the kind you buy packed into a tin, or that swarm by the thousands as shown below.

A school of sardines near Costa Rica

Credit: Wikimedia

As blue whales make their majestic way through the oceans, I doubt that they worry much about, or perhaps even notice, the millions or billions of tiny fish who happen to share the ocean with them. I'm guessing it's the same with the multi-billionaires with whom we happen to share the economic, financial and political systems that we--like fish in the sea--live within.

Of course, if you're below the wealth median--for example in the 25 percent of US families whose net worth is $10,000 or less-you're not represented by a sardine on the whale scale, but by a guppy or a minnow.

And if you're in the 20 percent of American families whose net worth is close to (or below) zero--the best you can hope for is to be represented by krill--the swarms of minute sea creatures on whom--go figure--those huge blue whales feed.

Krill

Credit: wikimedia commons

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For Robert Reich's take on this issue, click here.

REA

A SOURCE FOR ACCURATE AND UP-TO-THE-MINUTE CORONAVIRUS/COVID-19 STATISTICS

 If you want to keep track of how many Covid-19 cases and deaths have occurred worldwide, country-by-country or state-by-state in the US, the best source I've found is https://ncov2019.live/.

Credit: Avi Schiffmann

The site was created and is maintained by a remarkable high-school student named Avi Schiffmann. It's updated in real time, and provides an accurate, detailed basis for understanding how the pandemic is progressing and changing worldwide.

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REA

DON'T TELL THE ANTI-VAXERS--AFRICA HAS NOW BEEN DECLARED WILD POLIO FREE

In a celebration-worthy achievement, the wild polio virus has now been eradicated across the entire African continent. The August, 2020 victory declaration follows four years without a single case of the deadly paralytic disease caused by the wild polio virus anywhere in Africa.

This represents an enormous success for the decades long worldwide program, led by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund and the Rotary Foundation, to eradicate polio worldwide.

Child receiving oral polio vaccine--Credit: UNICEF 

There are three types of wild polio virus. Of these, two have been eliminated worldwide, and now exist only in laboratories. The remaining virus, Type 1, survives in just two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where it has sickened 105 people, mostly children, so far this year.

When the global polio eradication initiative kicked off in 1988, an estimated 350,000 people were paralyzed or killed by poliomyelitis every year. In the United States alone, in 1952, there were more than 57,000 cases, more than 21,000 leading to paralysis, and more than 3,000 deaths. 

While the current near-eradication of polio represents one of humanity's greatest successes in disease control, much more work remains. The oral polio vaccine that has been the core of the eradication program relies on live, but weakened rather than inactivated poliovirus. Very rarely, the weakened virus can accumulate mutations that allow it to cause disease outbreaks again. In recent years there have been as many or more vaccine-derived polio cases than those caused by the wild virus. 

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REA

The end game--finally eradicating the wild virus everywhere while concurrently stopping the transmission of vaccine-derived cases is complicated but within reach.

In the meantime, for the first time in human history, people on six of Earth's continents--more than 90 percent of the world's population--are free from this deadly disease.

 

COVID-19 IN THE US--WHEN CAN WE STOP BEING EXCEPTIONAL?

The following statistics come from ncov2019.live/,  a great source for up-to-the-minute covid-19 data.

I'm just going to present some of the numbers as of September 4, 2020. You can come to your own conclusions.

The US represents 4.3 percent of the world population.

We've had 24 percent of the recorded Covid-19 cases in the world. 

We've had 2.2 million more cases than India, the next most impacted country, India's population is more than four times that of the US.

We've suffered 22 percent of the world's Covid-19 deaths; 191,221 as of 9/4/20.

Credit: Pixabay

Covid-19 deaths per million population as of 9/4/20


Peru                                            890
Belgium                                      853
Spain                                          629
United Kingdom                        611
Chile                                            600
Italy                                             588
Brazil                                           587

UNITED STATES                      578     

Sweden                                        577
...      
                                    
Japan                                           471
France                                         470
...

Netherlands                                364
Ireland                                         359
...

Norway                                        264
Canada                                        243
South Africa                                245
Switzerland                                 232
Argentina                                    209
...

Russia                                           121
Germany                                      112
Denmark                                      108


WORLD                                        113

...

India                                                 50
Norway                                             49
Australia                                           29
Hong Kong                                       13
Singapore                                           5
China                                                  3
Iceland                                                0

To save you the calculations, the US has suffered 5.12 times as many deaths per million than the world as a whole.

Given that we've lost 191,388 people to Covid-19 as of today, if we had managed to just be mediocre, to keep our death rate down to the global average, we would have saved nearly 150,000 lives. Wouldn't it be great just to be average?

In comparison, here are some statistics about US war casualties:

Persian Gulf War       2,586

Korean War               36,574

Vietnam                      58,220

World War I             116,516

World War II           405,399

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And I'll add 9/11         2,977     
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REA