Category Archives: Republican

Days after announcing a major financial climate initiative, financial leader JPMorgan said it will commit $30 billion over the next five years that will be specifically allocated toward Black and Latino communities.

The funding, which follows Black Lives Matter protests calls for an end to racist socioeconomic redlining, aims to help communities of color financially recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recession induced by the coronavirus pandemic laid bare the persistent racial inequalities present in the U.S. due to its history with slavery.

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A recent report conducted by the U.S. Federal Reserve revealed that despite a slowly closing wealth gap, Black American families average wealth is still less than 15 percent of their white counterparts.

Systemic racism is a tragic part of Americas history, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co, said in prepared remarks. We can do more and do better to break down systems that have propagated racism and widespread economic inequality, especially for Black and Latinx people. Its long past time that society addresses racial inequities in a more tangible, meaningful way.

Some of the key pillars in JPMorgans commitment include improving access to homeownership for Black and Latino families a key component of building wealth.

Refinancing options and other home lending initiatives will be the foundation to making homeownership more accessible, and the bank is allocating about $4 million in capital to fund this venture.

Helping Black- and Latino-owned businesses grow is another component of the initiative, with JPMorgan aiming to improve access to loans and other capital to help businesses survive the COVID-19 economic pinch.

A goal of 1 million new low-cost checking or saving accounts, in addition to financial mentorship to Black and Latino account holders.

Diversifying the JPMorgan workforce is another component of the plan, which includes a new reporting system to hold executives driving these programs accountable for their outcomes.

JPMorgan is the latest large corporation to pledge to overhaul its business practices to make their financial products more accessible to historically underserved communities.

The program is timely; the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted Black, Latino and Native American communities in the U.S., with each group more likely than white people to be hospitalized with a severe infection.

Black businesses have also been more likely to see closures and greater profit loss, largely driven by not having a banking partner that can help them get necessary funding.

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JPMorgan Chase is making massive $30 billion investment in racial equity in the US | TheHill - The Hill

A migrant-inclusive approach to risk mitigation benefits everyone and leads to better development outcomes.

Introduction

People on the move are among the highly vulnerable groups to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis. The disproportionate impact on this group, which includes immigrants and those still crossing borders, shows in the unprecedented, multiple challenges they face in health, livelihood, and additionally for those fleeing war and persecution, in access to protection. These heighten their risk of infection, which has implications on the health of their families and communities.

It is urgent for governments to integrate migrant health and migration policies into their response and recovery efforts. Migrants must have access to COVID-19 health services and be enabled to cope with the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic. Otherwise, their increasing vulnerability could impede efforts to stop the spread of the disease. It is also important to coordinate with governments of host and destination countries on measures targeted at migrants.

Focusing on migrant health and international migration, this brief proposes some policy measures to operationalize an inclusive approach based on the principles of universal health coverage (UHC) and contribute to enhancing public health protection, speeding recovery, and achieving sustainable development. It is based on presentations made at the Policy Actions for COVID-19 Response Dialogues organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Impacts of COVID-19

As of mid-2019, international migrants totaled 272 million, including 164 million workers and 25.9 million refugees (United Nations 2020) but excluding the numerous migrants that are undocumented. While the extent to which COVID-19 impacts migrants varies, depending on their socioeconomic situation, most count among the most severely hit by the crisis and are at greater risk of infection because of preexisting inequities and vulnerabilities. They are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because of the circumstances of their journey and their poor living and working conditions. Impacts bear more heavily on women and children, the elderly, and persons with impairments and/or medical conditions.

Increased health risks. Lockdowns and quarantines have intensified the health risks of refugees and migrant workers living in overcrowded camps, informal settlements, collective shelters, and dormitories, often lacking in water, sanitation, and other basic services. Impacts are greater among irregular migrants, who are forced to move from place to place, stay homeless for prolonged periods, or be confined in cramped detention centers. Rising joblessness, income losses, malnutrition, and food insecurity triggered by the pandemic have also amplified these risks.

Compromised access to health services. Obstacles to migrants access to healthcare have heightened with the surge in COVID-19 caseloads and local transmissions. A glaring manifestation is the rising acts of xenophobia and stigma and discrimination. Along with other obstacles, such as migration status, lack of information, absence of health insurance or inadequate finances, and language and cultural barriers, these incidents have deepened their marginalization. Irregular migrants, who are unable or unwilling to access services for fear of detention, deportation, and other punishments, have been particularly impacted. Migrant workers in the informal economy, who often are without contracts and insurances and excluded from social protection schemes, have also been significantly affected.

Rising unemployment and loss of livelihood. The COVID-19-induced economic crisis has cost migrants their jobs and livelihoods. First to go were workers and refugees in the low-wage informal economy. Recent research from the International Labor Organization shows that nearly 75% of migrant women and 70% of migrant men were working in the informal sector before COVID-19. The prevalent last hired, first fired practice also makes migrant workers in the formal sector more vulnerable to losing their jobs than their native-born counterparts. The unfolding global economic recession, according to ADB, threatens the job security of over 91 million international migrants from Asia and the Pacific.

Declining remittances. Migrants income losses impact their families and countries of origin. The World Bank estimates that remittances will drop by 20% because of the pandemic, causing hardship to more than 800 million people depending on remittances for much of their subsistence. A sudden stop in remittance flow, according to ADB, could plunge many households in developing Asiaparticularly Pacific and Central and West Asian countriesinto poverty. The region has at least 10 countries deriving over 10% of their gross domestic product from remittances and six of the worlds top 10 remittance-recipient countries (ADB 2020).

Implications on migration

The pandemic has brought new challenges to migration management. Current developments indicate that as countries reopen their borders, they will be imposing additional health requirements for travel, which could result in disproportionate health expenditures and drive more people into irregular migration pathways. They could also restrict travel and tourism and limit the potential of migration and human mobility in contributing to development.

Challenges could become much more complex with broader geopolitical and economic contexts coming into play in addition to changes in the evolutionary patterns of the disease. Against this backdrop, rethinking mobility and migration management, as part of COVID-19 response and recovery measures, assumes critical importance.

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Coming Out Stronger from COVID-19: Policy Options on Migrant Health and Immigration - World - ReliefWeb

In Quebec and Ontario, Canadas two most populous provinces, the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading largely out of control. With new national, Quebec and Ontario daily infection records having been set this past week, health authorities acknowledge that they have been overwhelmed by the surge in novel coronavirus cases. Yet the entire political establishment is doubling down on its criminal back-to-work, back-to-school drive.

The crisis is expressed most sharply in Quebec, where the provinces health minister, Christian Dub, felt compelled Tuesday to urge everyone to stay at home except for work-related or other necessary travel. Quebec recorded 1,364 cases that day, the fifth day in a row that new daily infections in the province exceeded 1,000. In Quebec City, infections have exploded, from about 100 per week just a month ago to more than 1,000 per week.

In contrast to the spring, when the virus spread chiefly in Montreal and in long-term care facilities, infections are now occurring throughout the province. According to Dr. Matthew Oughton, a specialist for infectious diseases at Montreals Jewish General Hospital, approximately 6 percent of all coronavirus tests are coming back positive. Generally, any rate above 5 percent is seen as an indicator that the virus is spreading out of control.

This time is totally different, totally different, Dub said of the pandemics second wave. It is very difficult to say where you got it.

In neighbouring Ontario, infections are also rising sharply, and without authorities having a clear idea as to the source of many of the new infections. The seven-day rolling average of infections for the province is currently above 600, compared to less than 100 in early August. Hot spots are emerging in Ottawa and Toronto, with infections especially high in poor, working-class districts.

Canadas health care system, which has been deliberately underfunded by all governments whatever their political stripe for decades, is buckling under the strain. Officials in Ottawa and Toronto admitted this week that contact tracing has largely collapsed, which will result in a further acceleration of transmission. Responding to the Trudeau governments offer to provide a handful of federal officials to support local authorities in their contact tracing efforts, Torontos Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, remarked, To be frank, I expect we could have another 700 people added to the ranks and still not be able to contact trace with the same reach and results as when infection rates were lower. It's an indicator of how serious the spread of infection is.

Labs are also overstretched, resulting in long delays in obtaining test results. According to a CBC report Wednesday, labs in Ontario have a backlog of over 55,000 tests to process. Delays of more than a few days make the tests all but meaningless, since they make contract-tracing all but superfluous.

Painting a dire picture of the situation in Ottawa, the capital citys Public Health Unit declared in a tweet, Our health care system is in crisis. Labs are working beyond capacity, causing dangerous backlogs, which affects our contact tracing & case management. Hospitals are nearing capacity, and were seeing more outbreaks in LTC (long-term care) homes. Our system cant handle much more of this.

The catastrophic state of the health care system in the face of a second wave that all experts knew was inevitable is the responsibility of the entire political establishment. From the initial systematic downplaying of the threat posed by the pandemic by all levels of government to the refusal of the Trudeau Liberal government to take any steps to strengthen hospitals and other medical facilities during the critical months of January and February, the ruling class paved the way for a disastrous loss of life that has now risen above 9,500 people.

Even though the first wave of the pandemic starkly demonstrated the glaring inadequacies of the public health care system, virtually no funds were made available during the spring and summer months to expand and strengthen it in preparation for the pandemics anticipated fall and winter second wave. Instead, the federal Liberal government focussed on rescuing the investments of the financial oligarchy by funneling $650 billion into the financial markets, banks and big business; and then on spearheading a criminal back-to-work drive that is exposing workers and their families to the potentially deadly virus.

If the government has been able to press ahead with this mercenary agenda, it is above all due to the support provided by the trade unions and the social-democratic politicians of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

The unions have worked with the Liberal government and corporate Canada to enforce the back-to-work drive. This began with their endorsement of the state bailout of the big banks and financial oligarchy last March. Then, in a series of closed-door consultations with big business and the government in April and May, the leaders of the Canadian Labour Congress, the Quebec Federation of Labour, Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), Unifor and other unions gave their full support to the ruling classs drive to force workers back on the job, amid the pandemic, so that the process of profit extraction could be resumed.

Whenever worker opposition to this reckless course has emerged, the unions have worked to shut it down. Last month, as anger mounted to the Ontario Conservative governments dangerous reopening of the provinces schools, Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation President Harvey Bischof said that the union would respond with a flat out no to any call for a strike, which he denounced as illegal job action. The OSSTF and other teacher unions then filed a complaint with the pro-employer Ontario Labour Relations Board, telling teachers that this capitalist state institution could be entrusted to uphold workplace health and safety. The OLRB promptly displayed its contempt for the health and lives of teachers and students by refusing to even hear the case.

While the unions have smothered all working-class opposition, the NDP has cemented its de facto partnership with the pro-war Liberal government, by repeatedly providing the minority Trudeau government with the votes it needs to stay in office. Canadas social democrats have thus helped keep in power a government that during its five years in office has massively increased military spending, slashed transfers to the provinces for health care, collaborated with Trump in a vicious crackdown on immigrants and refugees, and further integrated Canada into Washingtons military-strategic offensives against Russia and China.

On Tuesday, the New Democrats ensured passage of the Trudeau Liberal governments Sept. 23 Throne Speech, the principal purpose of which was to provide phony progressive political cover for the ruling class drive to force workers back on the job amidst the resurgent pandemic.

The Throne Speech spelled out the governments determination to avert lockdown measures like those imposed last spring. In line with the remarks of Business Council of Canada CEO Goldy Hyder, who recently railed against the catastrophic impact of a further lockdown, the Liberals declared that any future COVID-19 restrictions should be short-term and limited to the local level. In a pre-emptive slap on the wrist to any health care officials considering the prioritization of human lives over corporate profit, the speech declared that local health officials know the devastating economic impact a lockdown order can have.

The Trudeau government and its trade union and NDP backers are thus telling workers: Your lives are worth nothing when weighed against the well-being of corporate Canada.

Under conditions in which the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers are at risk, the pseudo-left organizations of the upper middle class are playing a particularly criminal political role. According to Fightback, which styles itself as a Marxist faction within the NDP, the question of whether the New Democrats voted for the Liberals Throne Speech and facilitated the ruling class back-to-work drive is irrelevant. Writing ahead of last Tuesdays vote, Fightback leader Alex Grant bewailed the fact that all the options in front of the NDP are terrible, before concluding that it really doesnt matter whether they get involved in propping up the Liberals.

While workers across Canada are being forced to put their health and lives on the line by returning to unsafe workplaces as COVID-19 infection rates skyrocket, Fightback tells its readers that it is of no consequence whether the party of which it is a member plays a key role in abetting this murderous policy. Like the Democratic Socialists of Americas Jacobin magazine, which recently lent its support to Trumps pursuit of herd immunity, Fightback shrugs its shoulders with indifference at the prospect of the mass infection of working people.

If this disastrous outcome is to be averted, everything depends on the independent intervention of the working class. Rank-and-file safety committees must be urgently established in every workplace, school and neighbourhood to fight for basic health and safety measures to curb the spread of the virus. These should include the immediate shutdown of all non-essential production, the closure of schools for in-person teaching, and the provision of tens of billions of dollars to strengthen the overstretched health care system. The ill-gotten gains of the super-rich must be seized in order to fund a comprehensive program of financial and social assistance for working people, including full compensation for all those without work or unable to work due to the pandemic.

These necessary demands will only be realized through an unrelenting political struggle against the pro-capitalist unions, the NDP and their pseudo-left backers. Above all, they require the mobilization of the working class as an independent political force in the fight for a workers government and the socialist reorganization of socio-economic life.

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As Canada's COVID-19 cases surge, unions and NDP expand their support for Trudeau's reckless back-to-work campaign - WSWS

Oct. 8, 2020 07:00 UTC

OSLO, Norway--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- NEC OncoImmunity AS (NOI), a subsidiary of NEC Corporation (NEC), and Oslo University Hospital (OUH) are pleased to announce that they have recently been awarded a prestigious grant from the Research Council of Norway (RCN) to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that will enable the rapid design of T-cell diagnostics for emerging or endemic infectious diseases. The project will develop a novel T-cell diagnostic for the current COVID-19 pandemic to complement the current serological tests. This will improve the ability to identify immune responses and acquired immunity, which is desperately needed to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

Current technologies involve extensive trial and error to define exactly which parts of the pathogen induces robust immunity. These so-called immunodominant epitopes need to be identified for the general population. These demanding, work-intensive and time-consuming steps are necessary to develop tests to monitor the T-cell response to viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 (the infectious virus that causes COVID-19).

Reliable diagnostic tests to identify immune individuals are critical to overcome the ever-looming threat of COVID-19. The AI-based diagnostic to be developed in this project will complement antibody tests and enable individuals who are naturally immune to the virus following infection with SARS-CoV-2 or other seasonal coronaviruses, or who have acquired immunity following vaccination, to be identified.

Antibody tests are an important aspect of understanding the immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 infection and will remain a mainstay of its diagnosis. However, protective SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell responses occur in antibody-negative infected individuals who have successfully resolved the infection. In addition, we may already have underlying immunity in the population due to cross reactivity to endemic seasonal human coronaviruses, said Professor Ludvig A. Munthe Ph.D., Head of Research and Group Leader, Department of Immunology, Oslo University Hospital.

Although the technology to develop antibody diagnostics is readily available, this is not the case for T-cell diagnostics, which currently represents a blind spot for the monitoring of immunity to COVID-19 in the worlds population. To address this important gap, NOI and OUH, with the support of RCN, have now committed themselves to develop an AI-designed T-cell diagnostic that monitors the underlying T-cell response to the infection. Developing a reliable T-cell diagnostic comes with specific technological challenges with solutions offered by the NEC Immune Profiler at NOI to cater for the global human population.

T-cells are known to play a central role for initial and long term immunity against viruses. However, T-cell responses are highly variable between different pathogens and genetic groups in the human population, making the prospect of developing reliable universal T-cell diagnostics for COVID-19 challenging. This challenge has inspired the scientists at NOI to use our AI to seek out the T-cell response to infection as a diagnostic signal. In this project we look forward to adapting the NEC Immune Profiler and other AI technologies at NEC Corporation and leveraging them to develop a COVID-19 T-cell diagnostic for the diverse genetic makeup in the global human population, said Trevor Clancy Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, NEC OncoImmunity AS.

The development of such an AI platform will not only help to contact-trace and control transmission against COVID-19. In fact, the platform developed by NOI and NEC in this project will be to a large degree pathogen/disease agnostic and may be used in future emergency settings to rapidly develop novel diagnostics against new emerging pandemics caused by novel dangerous infectious agents.

The AI platform will be applied first to the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, we will design this platform to be future-proof and make it applicable to any future emerging infectious agent that could threaten the global population. This will open up new exciting opportunities in the growing infectious disease diagnostics market for our company, said Richard Stratford Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, NEC OncoImmunity AS.

It has been over a century since the world has encountered a pandemic like COVID-19. The pandemic has taken over one million lives to date, and the spread of COVID-19 around the globe and the associated mortality has been devastating. The pandemic has sparked fears of a chronic worldwide recession. Shut-downs, social distancing and travel restrictions have reduced the capacity of the global workforce and destroyed many jobs and businesses. The NOI and OUH collaboration marks an important initiative to develop a reliable diagnostic test that can identify immune members of the global population following natural infection with SARS-CoV-2 or other seasonal coronaviruses.

A reliable T-cell diagnostic to help alleviate the socio-economic and serious health burden caused by COVID-19 will be important for the world community to overcome this present pandemic crisis. We are proud that NEC's AI technology can contribute to the resolution of the COVID-19 threat. As a company that seeks to enhance the well-being of society, NEC will continue to capitalize on research and development that maximizes the strengths of our AI technology to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and protect the human population against future pandemic threats, said Akira Kitamura, General Manager of the AI Drug Development Division, NEC Corporation.

About NEC OncoImmunity AS

NEC OncoImmunity AS is a bioinformatics company offering proprietary machine learning-based software called the NEC Immune Profiler, which addresses the key knowledge gaps in the prediction of bona fide immunogenic neoantigens for personalized cancer immunotherapy. The NEC Immune Profiler can be used to identify optimal neoantigen targets for truly personalized cancer vaccines & cell therapies in a clinically actionable timeframe, and also facilitate effective patient selection for cancer immunotherapy. For more information, visit NEC OncoImmunity AS at http://www.oncoimmunity.com/.

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation has established itself as a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies while promoting the brand statement of Orchestrating a brighter world. NEC enables businesses and communities to adapt to rapid changes taking place in both society and the market as it provides for the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. For more information, visit NEC at http://www.nec.com. For additional information, please also visit NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH at: http://www.neclab.eu

About Oslo University Hospital

Oslo University Hospital is a part of Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority and an OECI-accredited Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC). Each year, more than 1.2 million patient treatments are carried out at the hospital, which is the largest of its kind in Scandinavia. Oslo University Hospital is owned by the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (HS) and delivers specialist healthcare services to patients all over Norway. Oslo University Hospital is Norways largest hospital with around 20,000 employees and is responsible for a significant proportion of the medical research and the education of medical personnel in the country. More information about Oslo University Hospital can be found at https://oslo-universitetssykehus.no.

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NEC OncoImmunity AS and Oslo University Hospital Team Up to Develop a Diagnostic for COVID-19 Using Artificial Intelligence - BioSpace

Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced they'd tested positive -- just days after attending a White House event where President Donald Trump nominated Barrett. Multiple attendees of that event, including Trump, have tested positive in the week since the ceremony, which featured many people not wearing masks and not observing social distancing protocols.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday renewed demands for Republicans to delay Barrett's confirmation hearings. But Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham told CNN on Friday night he plans to move ahead with confirmation hearings on October 12 and a committee vote later in the month.

Graham said he needs the two senators to be back by October 15, when the committee will begin its debate of the nomination after the hearings are done.

The South Carolina Republican said he expects the members who have tested positive to be back in time for a committee vote on October 22. The concern is if Democrats boycott the commitee vote, the GOP may not have a quorum for that vote if both senators are absent. The committee rules require a majority of members on the panel to be present for a quorum.

But even if they don't have a quorum, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can always advance the nomination to the floor under the rules.

The greater concern for Republicans is the Senate floor vote, for which lawmakers do need to be present to vote and for which the GOP has no margin for error. If Tillis and Lee were to be gone for an extended period, it would threaten the chances of confirming Barrett, given Republicans' 53-47 majority.

Already, two other Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have signaled they are unlikely to vote for Barrett because they think the high court selection should be made by whoever wins the White House on November 3.

If only Lee were out, Barrett could still get confirmed with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Mike Pence. But if one more Republican were unavailable to vote, they wouldn't have the votes to confirm Barrett. So now that Tillis is also entering isolation, the GOP's math gets trickier since it's unknown how long the senators will be out.

Republicans have told CNN the current plan is to vote on the nomination the last week of October.

Lee tweeted on Friday that he took the test Thursday, and would "remain isolated" for 10 days. He said he has "assured" Senate Republican leaders that he will "be back to work" to join the Judiciary panel to advance Barrett's nomination to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.

"Over the last few months, I've been routinely tested for COVID-19, including testing negative last Saturday, but tonight my rapid antigen test came back positive," Tillis said.

"Thankfully, I have no symptoms and I feel well. As we all know, COVID-19 is a very contagious and deadly virus, especially because many carriers are asymptomatic. I encourage all North Carolinians to follow the recommendations of medical experts, including wearing a mask, washing hands, and practicing social distancing."

"I'm wishing @SenThomTillis a quick recovery following his positive COVID-19 test, and am thinking of him and his family," Cunningham said. "Because I was with Senator Tillis recently on the debate stage, I will also get tested."

Tillis staffers who were in contact with him this week will quarantine and get tests in the coming days, and his Charlotte campaign headquarters is closed until further notice.

Barrett tested negative for coronavirus on Friday, according to White House spokesperson Judd Deere, and CNN reported earlier Friday that she was diagnosed with coronavirus late this summer but has recovered, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Trump disclosed that he contracted the virus hours before Lee's announcement.

Lee said he experienced symptoms "consistent with longtime allergies" on Thursday morning and took the test "out of an abundance of caution." He said he also took the test "just a few days ago" when he visited the White House for the announcement of Barrett's nomination.

"Like so many other Utahns, I will now spend part of 2020 working from home," said Lee in his statement.

CORRECTION: The graphic in this story has been updated to correctly identify Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins.

CNN's Jim Acosta and Pam Brown contributed to this report.

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Two GOP senators test positive for Covid-19, potentially jeopardizing Barrett confirmation vote - CNN

These incidents, coming faster than anyone can absorb, are all expressions of raw, undemocratic powerof might making right. They signify that Trump and his enablers will trample on any rules, and finally majority rule. Senator Lee made a constitutional case on Twitter for what President Trump will try to do by chin-jutting fiat. What Lee calls rank democracy, Trump calls a rigged election. Later, Lee explained that hes concerned about the protection of minority rights from a coercive majority. That sounds like a hedge against an election blowout.

Lees contortions recall the antidemocratic arguments of Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, whose theory of nullification by concurrent majorities claimed constitutional grounds for the slave states to defy federal authority. History rendered a negative verdict on Calhouns theories and the evil system he defended to his last breath. Like the antebellum South, todays Republican Party is composed of a demographically and economically weakening population. It appeals ever harder to an ever-shrinking base of older, white, male, rural, less-educated Americans. And, like the antebellum South, the Republican Party holds on to power by exploiting the Constitutions unrepresentative featuresthe Senate, the Electoral College, and unelected justices with lifetime appointments. These institutions have concentrated outsize power in a minority party that doesnt hesitate to break the rules for maximum advantage. Its skill in drawing inside straights and turning weak hands into political domination has been impressive. But next months election seems poised to begin the return of majority rule.

If so, then Republicans who trashed checks and balances for four years in order to consolidate conservative power will suddenly rediscover them. Not to constrain presidential abuses, but to thwart the popular willfirst by trying to send the election to legislatures and courts and then, failing that, by blocking every move of a Democratic president and Congress. Well hear a lot of talk about the rights of minorities, the importance of separation of powers, and how America isnt really a democracy. Last night Senator Ben Sasse released a statement warning that Biden intends to effectively kill two of our three branches of government by abolishing the Senate and packing the Supreme Court. Sasse was referring to the prospect of newly empowered Democrats ending the legislative filibuster and adding justices to the court.

Both of those possibilities deserve to be debated, before the election as well as after. Biden and his vice-presidential nominee, Senator Kamala Harris, should remind voters that Republicans, not Democrats, have turned the Senate into a body that produces no legislation but simply functions as a conveyor belt to cram every level of the judiciary with partisan conservative judges, filling seats that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell forced President Obama to leave empty. The goal of this strategy is to seize control of the third, unelected branch of government and use it to prevent the elected branches, if they ever return to majority rule, from governing. What were hearing now from these latter-day Calhouns is fear of representative democracy.

Having chained their party to Trump, Republicans will follow him in his frantic effort to delegitimize the coming election. But I dont think it will work. The vote remains too powerful an idea in the minds of Americans. They are already standing in long lines to cast the ballots that Trump claims are fraudulent. The word democracy might not be found in the Constitution, but Senator Lee is right to be frightened by it.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

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Republicans Are Suddenly Afraid of Democracy - The Atlantic

A group of longtime Republican political operatives trying to unseat the president say they are willing to forgo a future in Republican politics to oust a leader they believe has driven the party of Lincoln into the ground. Lesley Stahl reports on the anti-Trump Super PAC the "Lincoln Project," whose lifelong Republican founders include former John McCain strategists Steve Schmidt and John Weaver, on the next edition of 60 Minutes, Sunday, October 11 at 7:30 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. PT on CBS.

Schmidt and seven co-founders launched the Lincoln Project last December in hopes of reaching out to other Republicans they believed were also unhappy with President Trump. "What we thought we could do is talk to those voters in the language and the iconography that they understand, connect with them, and persuade them, many of them, to vote for the Democratic nominee for the first time in their lives," says Schmidt.

Other co-founders of the Lincoln Project include Republican media consultant and author Rick Wilson; George W. Bush campaign veteran Reed Galen; and George Conway, Trump critic and husband of former White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway. "None of us will ever work in Republican politics again," Schmidt tells Stahl. "We joke that-- like some of the explorers who came to the new world, they were incentivized by the captain when he burned the ships" Asked whether his actions have cost him friends, he replies, "For sure. Of course."

The Lincoln Project made a name for itself with its numerous attack ads, released almost every day on social media. The ads go for the jugular. They have accused the president of being a draft dodger, disrespecting veterans, and failing in his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics charge the negative attack ads are right out of the playbook used by President Trump. That's the plan, says Wilson, who is in charge of the advertising. "There's always a reflexive sort of, do-gooder instinct to say, 'Oh, I hate negative ads.' People do hate negative ads, but negative ads work," he says.

Wilson and the Lincoln Project hope their messaging will persuade life-long Republicans like themselves to do the unthinkable. They have raised more than $60 million so far and believe if just four percent of Republicans can be convinced to vote for Biden, they can oust President Trump. "So those independent-leaning men, those college-educated Republicans, the suburban Republican women. We understand where those voters are, we understand who they are and how they think," says Wilson. "It's a game of small numbers. I mean, Donald Trump won this election by 77,000 votes in three states."

Stahl spoke to the Lincoln Project in their first group television interview. They express sadness and anger over the turn their former party has taken. When Lesley asks Weaver how painful it is to repudiate his decades of work for the Republican Party, he replies, "There are moments of melancholy about it. No doubt."

But Wilson tells Stahl the Lincoln Project is bigger than partisan politics. "In all politics, you can look back on things with honor or regret or what have you. I'll think I'll look back on this, I think all of us will look back on this, as something we did in the cause of the country."

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Longtime Republican strategists behind the Lincoln Project mounting rogue offensive against Donald Trump - 60 Minutes - CBS News

This weeks vice presidential debate was a face off not only between Vice President President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris, but a head-to-head matchup of two ways of understanding the United States COVID-19 pandemic. As Pence framed it, the Donald Trump Administration had been dealt a bad hand, but has risen to the challenge in a way Harris and her running mate, former Vice President Joe Biden, could not have. Meanwhile, Harris declared the Trump Administrations response as the greatest failure of any presidential administration, pointing to the 210,000-plus deaths and more than 7.5 million infections in the U.S. so far as evidence.

These divergent narratives underscore just how far apart Americans overall have become in their interpretation of the pandemicand the idea that people are increasingly rejecting reality for their own preferred set of facts. As an Oct. 8 poll of 9,220 Americans conducted by the Pew Research Center between Aug. 31 and Sept. 7 by reveals, Democrats and Republicans are sharply divided on how well the U.S. has done in fighting COVID-19. Theyre also split on whether the outbreak was as big of a deal as it has been made out to be. Moreover, theyre paying less attention to the crisis overall, even as it shows signs of worsening once again.

While a majority of Americans overall (61%) agreed that the U.S. hasnt controlled the outbreak as well as it could have, that belief breaks down starkly along party lines: 88% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning Americans agreed, compared to just 30% of Republicans or those who lean Republican. Republicans and Republican-leaning Americans were also far more likely (66%) than all U.S. adults (39%) to say that the coronavirus outbreak has been blown out of proportion, as President Trump has repeatedly suggested.

That Republicans may not be taking the coronavirus outbreak as seriously as Democrats could help explain a past poll by Gallup, which found that Republicans are less likely to follow the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions guidance and wear a face mask to slow the spread of the virus. That survey, conducted in June and July, found that 94% of Democrats always or very often wore a face mask, compared to only 46% of Republicans.

The new Pew survey found that Republicans are not a monolith, however. Republicans and Republican-leaning Americans who named only Fox News or talk radio as their major source for political news were more likely to say the U.S. has done what it could to control the virus spread (90%), compared to others who watched those stations in addition to other mainstream sources (62%).

Broadly speaking, Republicans and the Republican-leaning were also less likely (26%) than Democrats and the Democrat-leaning (44%) to say that theyre paying very close attention to coronavirus news in the recent poll. Americans overall have been paying less attention to COVID-19 news lately51% were keeping a very close eye on things back in March, while only 35% were doing the same by September. That may speak to the phenomenon of pandemic fatigue, suggesting people are tiring not only of the outbreak-related headlines, but also of measures like wearing masks, social distancing and so ona potentially dangerous sign as we head into what increasingly looks to be another wave of COVID-19 in the fall and winter.

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Democrats and Republicans Arent Watching the Same Pandemic - TIME

In a statement, Bost said he experienced "a mild cough and a rapid loss of both taste and smell" and quickly got tested.

Congressional staffers he has been in close contact with are quarantining while they await their own test results, he said. He also indicated that some of his constituents may have been exposed, saying he is beginning to reach out to individuals he has met with recently.

"I am postponing my public event schedule but will continue conducting virtual meetings as I isolate at home. We are taking this situation seriously and will continue to serve the people of Southern Illinois while doing our best to ensure their health and safety," he said. "I will provide additional updates in the days ahead and am anxious to get back to work as soon as I make a full recovery."

House Democratic leaders have taken some precautions to prevent the spread of the virus during the pandemic, including establishing a form of remote voting, separating members into smaller groups for votes, and requiring lawmakers to wear masks on the floor and during committee meetings. But some members argue it isn't enough, calling for a more robust testing regimen on Capitol Hill to identify cases. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly pushed back on that concept, saying existing resources already meet the needs at the Capitol.

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Illinois Republican congressman announces he tested positive for coronavirus - CNN

About two-thirds of Republicans say the U.S. has controlled the outbreak as much as it could have; 88% of Democrats disagree

How we did this

Pew Research Centers American News Pathways project conducted this study to understand how Americans are engaging with and perceiving news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For this analysis, we surveyed 9,220 U.S. adults between Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 2020. Everyone who completed the survey is a member of Pew Research Centers American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATPs methodology.

See here to read more about the questions used for this report and the reports methodology.

Visit our interactive data tool to access the questions included in this report, as well as content about the coronavirus outbreak and the 2020 presidential election.

Six months into a pandemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the United States and profoundly impacted daily life and before President Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus about six-in-ten Americans say the country has not controlled the coronavirus outbreak as much as it could have. At the same time, about four-in-ten also believe that the outbreak has been made into a bigger deal than it really is.

On these two issues, there is deep disagreement between Democrats and Republicans. And within the GOP, opinions vary considerably based on where people get their political and election news, according to a survey of 9,220 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 2020 (prior to the first presidential debate and Trumps subsequent positive test for the virus) as part of Pew Research Centers American News Pathways project.

For example, Republicans and those who lean toward the GOP are much more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to say the U.S. coronavirus outbreak has been controlled as much it could have and that it has been overblown. And among Republicans, those who cited Fox News and/or talk radio as their only major sources among eight sources asked about are far more likely than others to take these positions.

Meanwhile, Americans attention to coronavirus news has declined, from a high of 57% following that news very closely in late March to 35% who say the same in September. And the degree of attention that Americans are paying to news about the coronavirus also reveals partisan differences, with substantially fewer Republicans now following that coverage closely than Democrats.

While those partisan differences were small in previous months, that gap has since grown significantly. As of early September, 44% of Democrats are following news of the outbreak very closely, compared with 26% of Republicans.

Overall, 61% of adults say the U.S. has not controlled the COVID-19 outbreak as much as it could have, compared with 37% who say it has. Inside those numbers is a stark partisan divide: About two-thirds of Republicans and independents who lean Republican (68%) say the U.S. has done about as much as it could in controlling the outbreak. That view is held by only about one-in-ten Democrats, including independents who lean Democratic (11%).

But even as most Americans say the outbreak has not been controlled to the extent it could have been, a plurality (39%) believes the pandemic has been made into a bigger deal than it really is. That compares with 26% of Americans who say it has gotten less attention than it should, and 33% who say it has received about the right amount of attention.

Those numbers have not changed much since June. But in April, when the outbreak was still in its early weeks in the U.S., a plurality (42%) said that it had been approached about right, while roughly equal shares thought it had been exaggerated (29%) or underplayed (27%).

On this question, too, there is a major difference by party affiliation, with Republicans much more likely than Democrats 66% vs. 15% to say the outbreak has been overblown. Conversely, 43% of Democrats say the pandemic has been made into a smaller deal than it really is, compared with only 9% of Republicans. Another 41% of Democrats say it has been approached about right, compared with 23% of Republicans. These same patterns existed when Americans were surveyed on the subject earlier this year.

Among Republicans, there also are major differences based on media diet.

The survey asked respondents whether each of eight news providers was a major source of political and election news for them. Researchers then grouped these responses based on the political composition of the outlets audiences. For example, Republicans were analyzed based on the degree to which they get political news from the outlets with conservative-leaning audiences (specifically, Fox News and talk radio), and Democrats were categorized based on the degree to which they get news from the outlets with liberal-leaning audiences CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times and The Washington Post. (The eighth source, national network TV such as ABC, NBC or CBS, has an audience that does not lean strongly in either direction; see Appendix and the box below for more details about how respondents were grouped by their major news sources.)

Partisans major news sources

The categories in this analysis come from research on the major sources Republicans and Democrats use for political and election news.

Respondents indicated whether they use eight prominent news sources as a major source, a minor source or not a source for political and election news. The sources are Fox News cable channel, CNN, MSNBC, national network TV (ABC, CBS or NBC asked together), NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and talk radio (examples of Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh were given).

Respondents major news sources are grouped according to the political composition of their audiences defined here as the respondents who say it is a major source for political and election news. A source is considered to have a left-leaning audience if the portion of those who say it is a major source who are liberal Democrats (including leaners) is at least two-thirds greater than the portion who identify as conservative Republicans (including leaners); if the reverse is true, the source is classified as having a right-leaning audience, and if neither is true, the source is classified as having a more mixed audience.

Using this method, two of the eight news sources analyzed have audiences who lean to the right politically (Fox News and talk radio); five have audiences who lean left (CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times and The Washington Post); and one group has a mixed audience (national network TV, such as ABC, CBS and NBC). (Previous research has found that Republicans and Republican-leaning independents generally use fewer news sources than Democrats and Democratic leaners.)

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (Dem/Lean Dem) and Republicans and Republican leaners (Rep/Lean Rep) are each divided into four groups based on which news sources they turned to as major sources for political and election news. The classifications within each party also include a group for those who do not use any of the eight sources asked about. The portion of partisans in each group is shown in the table. See Appendix for more details.

Fully 90% of those Republicans who only indicated Fox News and/or talk radio two platforms with conservative-leaning audiences as major sources of political news say the country has controlled the outbreak as much as it could. But among Republicans who rely on neither Fox News nor talk radio but rely on at least one of the other major news providers mentioned in the survey, about half as many (46%) say the U.S. controlled the outbreak as well as it could.

There are far smaller differences among Democrats with different media diets; large majorities in all cases say that the U.S. could have done more to control the outbreak. But unlike other groups, Democrats whose major sources are only those with liberal-leaning audiences MSNBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times and The Washington Post are almost unanimous in saying that the U.S. has not controlled the outbreak as much as it could have (97%).

There are similar patterns on the question about whether the pandemic has been overblown. As of early September, among Republicans with only Fox News and/or talk radio as major news sources, 78% say the coronavirus has been made a bigger deal than it really is. That falls to 54% among Republicans who use a mix of major sources, and 47% for those who name some major sources, but not Fox News or talk radio.

These patterns do not necessarily prove that Republicans are taking their cues directly from their news sources. Other factors beyond media diet may impact peoples assessments of how the U.S. has reacted to the outbreak. And the relationship can go in either direction: People can either pick their media sources to fit their existing political views, or have their views shaped by those sources (or both at the same time). Still, the data shows a clear connection between news diet within the GOP and views on the pandemic.

These within-party differences hold true even when accounting for ideology. For example, conservative Republicans who only rely on Fox News or talk radio are more likely than conservative Republicans who also rely on other major sources to say that the U.S. has controlled the outbreak as much as it could have.

Republicans also are less likely than Democrats to be highly engaged with news coverage of the pandemic. As of early September, about a quarter of Republicans (26%) say they are following news about the outbreak very closely, down substantially from the early days of the pandemic in the U.S., when more than half (56%) were highly engaged in late March. At that time, there were minimal differences between the parties on this measure; now, Democrats are 18 percentage points more likely than Republicans to say they are following news about the outbreak very closely (44% vs. 26%). Among all U.S. adults, the percentage following coronavirus news dropped from 57% in late March to 35% in September.

Overall, interest in news about the outbreak has waned slightly, but remains high. In the September survey, 82% of U.S. adults say they are following coronavirus news either very closely (35%) or fairly closely (46%). That is down modestly from late March, when 92% were following very closely (57%) or fairly closely (35%).

When it comes to COVID-19 coverage, some Americans seem to be trying to avoid the news: About three-in-ten (31%) say they try to tune out news about the coronavirus outbreak, with Republicans (43%) about twice as likely as Democrats (20%) to do this. But on the whole, most Americans (68%) say they are trying to stay tuned into news about the pandemic.

Partisan gaps in attention are also evident when Americans are asked about several specific topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the eight topics asked about in early September, Democrats are paying more attention than Republicans to seven of them often by significant margins. The only topic on which there is no partisan gap concerns the outbreaks economic impact.

For example, Democrats are about twice as likely as Republicans (38% vs. 18%) to say they are following the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths very closely. On the topic of the quality and availability of testing, 27% of Democrats are following very closely, compared with 14% of Republicans. And when it comes to general public health guidelines about the virus, a majority of Democrats (57%) say they are following very closely; just about a third of Republicans (32%) say the same.

Aside from partisan differences, there are also differences within each party based on media diets.

In this report, Republicans are divided into a few groups: those whose major news sources consist only of outlets with right-leaning audiences (Fox News and talk radio); those who use a mix of sources with right-leaning audiences and other major sources; and those who rely on at least one of the eight sources, but not Fox News or talk radio. For Democrats, the groups include those who use only the major sources with left-leaning audiences (i.e., MSNBC, CNN, NPR, New York Times and Washington Post); those who use a mix of these and other major sources; and those who name only sources without left-leaning audiences as a major source for political news. In both parties, there is a final group that says none of the eight sources for political and election news are major sources; this group is far less engaged overall. (See Appendix for more details about this methodology.)

In each party, those who use a mix of major sources ones with ideologically similar audiences and ones without are most likely to say that they are following coronavirus news very closely. Among Republicans, 45% of those who use a mix of major sources are following pandemic news very closely as of early September, compared with 33% who only rely on sources with a right-leaning audience and 27% of those whose major sources dont include any with a right-leaning audience. Among Democrats, 59% of those who rely on a mix of sources are following very closely, compared with 49% who turn only to sources with a left-leaning audience and 40% in the group whose major sources dont include any with a left-leaning audience.

The same pattern holds across most of the eight specific topics related to coronavirus news. For example, the percentage of Republicans who turn to a mix of sources who are following news about COVID-19 cases and deaths very closely (37%) is substantially larger than the portion among those who rely on only sources with right-leaning audiences (21%) or only sources without a right-leaning audience (19%). And about half of Democrats who use a mix of sources (55%) are following the confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths very closely, vs. 41% of Democrats who rely on only major sources with left-leaning audiences and 31% who rely on only major sources without left-leaning audiences.

On the subject of the outbreaks impact on schools, 49% of Republicans with a mix of major sources are following very closely, compared with 37% who rely on only major sources that have a right-leaning audience and 33% of those who rely on only major sources without right-leaning audiences. Among Democrats, 62% with a mixed media diet are following that topic closely, compared with 48% using only major sources with a left-leaning audience and 47% who only turn to major sources without a left-leaning audience.

Americans overall are about evenly split over whether it has become harder or easier to distinguish truth from falsehoods about the coronavirus outbreak since the early days of the pandemic. While 38% of U.S. adults say that as of early September they are finding it harder to identify what is true and what is false, an almost identical share (36%) say they are finding it easier. The remainder (26%) say it hasnt changed much in either direction.

Again, there are differences between the two major parties on this question.

Nearly half of Republicans (49%) say it is harder to determine what is true compared with the first weeks of the outbreak. That is substantially more than the 29% of Republicans who say it is easier and the 22% who say there has been no change.

But Democrats are more likely to say it has become easier (42%) rather than harder (30%) to discern the truth about the outbreak. Another 28% say there has been no change.

One specific area of disagreement is how susceptible young people (under the age of 18) are to becoming infected with the virus, a debate that often surfaces in discussions over whether and when to reopen schools for in-classroom learning.

There is no strong evidence that younger people are less likely than adults to be infected with the virus, though there are differences by age in likelihood of death and severity of symptoms.

Overall, half of U.S. adults say that people under 18 are about as susceptible as their elders to becoming infected with the coronavirus, while 29% say that minors are far less susceptible. Just 9% say that young people are far more susceptible, while 11% say they are not sure.

A majority of Democrats (61%) say that those under 18 are about as susceptible as adults, with 17% saying they are far less susceptible and 11% saying they are far more susceptible. In contrast, a plurality of Republicans (44%) say young people are far less susceptible than adults, modestly more than the 38% who say they are about as susceptible.

There are only small differences in responses to this question among Democrats who use different major sources for political news. But among Republicans who use only Fox News and/or talk radio as their major sources, a majority (60%) say that minors under 18 are far less susceptible, compared with far fewer among Republicans who use a mixed media diet (32%) or only major sources without conservative-leaning audiences (30%).

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Republicans' Attention to COVID-19 News Had Declined Before Trump Tested Positive - Pew Research Center's Journalism Project