War Against Lab Leak Grinds On, Beyond Laughable Now

Fifty-one percent of Americans favori lab leak origins of
SARS-CoV-2 virus, causing Coronavirus disease COVID-19,
Morning Consult

The explanation SARS-CoV-2 virus, (causing Coronavirus disease COVID-19), originated through accidental release from a research laboratory became the majority view of Americans in February 2023, according to polls in Morning Consult.

Democrats lead the nation in believing Covid 19 naturally occurred, instead of spilling over from a virology research laboratory — with only some 42 percent of Democrats favoring lab leak origins, 51 percent of all Americans favoring lab leak origins, and 72 percent of Republicans favoring lab leak origins. Morning Consult

Democrats have been obstinate in their refusal to publicly acknowledge the proposition an engineered lab leak that caused Coronavirus disease COVID-19 as an origins explanation is not only plausible, but now is clear and convincing and climbing.

However, as government leaks continue, it is becoming less politically palatable for Joe Biden and the Democrats to continue the Big Lie that Covid 19 must have not have come from a lab. [For a continuing dose of evidence, reason and facts on SARS-CoV-2 origins, see Alex Washburne @Ayjchan @JamieMetzl, Nicholas Wade, DRASTIC (Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19), and especially all the folks at BiosafetyNow who are embarrassing the deluded and dishonest.

Virologists, clumsy at politics, to this day often sound like dead-enders in the origins debate. And not just virologists.

Writes Justin B. Kinney, Quantitative Biologist. Associate Professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Co-founder, Biosafety Now, http://biosafetynow.org, "Not just virologists—public health experts and biosecurity experts too. Really seems like many in this extended science/policy community reflexively circle the wagons at any mention of a 'lab leak.'"

A recent exchange on social media exemplifies some public pronouncements and an unsettling ideology of many virologists, (noone is sure how many).

Marburg virus of 1967

The exchange concerns the infamous Marburg virus of 1967, one of the most famous lab leak tragedies, in which a deadly virus causing hemorrhagic fever leaked from lab workers to families and caregivers, resulting in 31 deaths.

One Krutika Kuppalli, a reputable bio-health expert, using perverse reasoning, voices her personal view that because a virus can infect human beings from animals, zoonoses, this virus capability disconfirms  possibility that researchers in a lab were studying that virus and that the virus subsequently could have leaked from the laboratory through lab workers, such as what happened in Marburg, Germany.

Writes Kuppalli on March 24, "If we can believe that #Marburg and many other infectious diseases (e.g. Ebola, Plague, Mpox etc) is the result of zoonotic transmission why is it so hard for us to believe that it was the same with COVID-19."

In reply to Kuppalli, Justin B. Kinney, Quantitative Biologist. Associate Professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Co-founder, Biosafety Now (http://biosafetynow.org, @BiosafetyNow) in muted, apparent disgust, writes, "Fun fact: Marburg virus is named after Marburg, Germany—where the virus does not naturally occur—because the first documented outbreak was caused by a lab leak at the Behringwerke industrial plant there. @BiosafetyNow."

In reply to Kinney's simple and, what one would guess, is an uncontroversial narrative of a historical fact of a lab leak comes the following exchange:

This is absolutely false and why on earth would you make that up?

— Gigi Gronvall (@ggronvall) March 26, 2023

The following exchanges take place that ought merit Kinney be given a Nobel Peace Price for his patience in dealing with utter stupidity.

What I wrote is true. I thought you’d know this history.

— Justin B. Kinney (@jbkinney) March 26, 2023

I’m astounded by the disdainful reaction of public health and biosecurity experts to my *accurately* calling the 1967 outbreak of Marburg virus a “lab leak”. Their reaction makes me even less inclined to believe what they say about the origins of SARS-CoV-2. https://t.co/cfC1HdJCgu

— Justin B. Kinney (@jbkinney) March 26, 2023

Lesson going forward is: If an anti-lab leak stooge speaks, he or she is lying.

These state-sponsored propagandists are so transparent & vile.

— Dana Parish (@danaparish) March 26, 2023

Marburg was not a lab leak? It was lab workers infected by monkeys. That's a lab leak. In 2019, a US biolab was shut down because necropsies were performed on monkeys and the door to the room wasn't closed, exposing lab techs outside who weren't wearing respiratory protection.

— Laurence (Larry) Boorstein (@LarryBoorstein) March 26, 2023

It’s more than semantics/insults, the scientific community (of which I am a member) is by and large treating the public like they are stupid children that need to be punished for questioning their authority. I feel it’s the scientific community that needs to be held accountable

— Bryce Nickels (@Bryce_Nickels) March 26, 2023

>

It's troubling how many virologists seem more concerned about the potential for new rules and regulations on their own research than the possibility that the research of their respected colleagues might have sparked the COVID-19 pandemic. https://t.co/KhuBSYFAiq

— Justin B. Kinney (@jbkinney) March 25, 2023

Yes, it is troubling that virologists seem more concerned about the potential for new rules and regulations on their own research than the possibility that the research of their respected colleagues might have sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even more troubling are the facts that the Democrat Party is not concerned that bio-research might have sparked the COVID-19 pandemic, and that Biden and the Democrats continue to block open investigations into the COVID-19 pandemic origins.

The attacks and lies will go on for a very long time.

It may seem subtle for people outside the field, but for anyone who's been paying attention throughout COVID, Dr. Gonsalves has been one of Dr. Fauci's attack dogs.

His attack on Dr. Redfield's far superior virological credentials is a transparently bad-faith defense of Fauci. https://t.co/WzdpWidaWk

— Alex Washburne (@WashburneAlex) March 26, 2023

Where, dolt, did Kinney suggest gain-of-function research was involved in the laboratory accidents with Marburg virus?

Why, dolt, do you limit the definition of "laboratory accident" to include only gain-of-function research?

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) March 26, 2023

“In over 1,000 years of evolutionary time, we see no evidence of a furin cleavage site in any SARS CoV, except for the SARS-CoV that emerged in Wuhan 1.5 years after researchers proposed to insert a furin cleavage site in a SARS CoV in Wuhan.” Mmmm… https://t.co/rz4B1K2JHP

— Frank Visser (@ReusVisser) March 26, 2023

Unsurprisingly, virologists want the public to believe up is down, wet is dry, day is night, and that they care about lab safety. That journalists keep pretending AR and cohorts are experts in anything other than misinformation peddling is a joke. https://t.co/aXLV3Nw5Ar

— Bryce Nickels (@Bryce_Nickels) March 26, 2023

Kuppalli's statement, and similar statements over the last 24 hours by Eckerle, Gronvall, Rasmussen, and Pease are a public declaration of an inability to read, an inability to reason and/or a desire to deceive.

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) March 26, 2023

I want everyone to observe how confidently "science journalist" @Laurie_Garrett states something as epidemiological fact, pointing to her book

And then read @R_H_Ebright, an actual scientist.

If you just read Garrett, your understanding of science would be wrong. https://t.co/4dqu1GfUzs pic.twitter.com/VCoG9RMVQc

— Alex Washburne (@WashburneAlex) March 27, 2023

We Need COVID 19-Origins Hearings, ala Kastenmeier Vietnam War Hearings

Madison, Wisconsin — March 8, 2023, a House Committee held an anticipated hearing on investigating the COVID-19 origins.

But House Democrats performed shamefully, exemplified by Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Maryland), a lightweight non-entity, who launched pathetic ad homium attacks again science writer and hearing witness, Nicholas Wade. 

Wade penned a brilliant piece on COVID-19 origins, reason and thought control, The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?, at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists some two years earlier.

But Wade's COVID-19 origins work never came up under questioning by Mfume.

Instead, Mfume spent his time trying to vilify Wade for writing A Troublesome Inheritance
Genes, Race and Human History (Penguin Random House, 2015) that has absolutely nothing to do with COVID-19 origins, the mission behind the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Mfume's ad homium offered no clarity beyond the fact Mfume did not read and is not equipped to understand Wade's thoughtful work.

Mfume and congressional Democrats wanted to subvert the hearing, and clearly millions dead did not weigh on this Party of liars and sheep.

Mfume does exemplify Democrat refusal among Congress and Joe Biden to probe what is almost certainly a lab leak origin of COVID 19 as the world is over three years into one of the most spectacular mass gas-lighting projects in U.S. history after the most deadly Pandemic in modern history.

In the face of U.S. government lying led by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, (NIAID), U.S. intelligence, censorship across the media,  (see Cleveland. Washburne. Leon. Hibbett and Grim. Taibbi. Greenwald,), it is time for citizens to bypass the media, Congress, Democrats and Biden and hold grassroots hearings on COVID-19 origin.

Robert W. Kastenmeier Vietnam War hearings

This COVID-19 origins hearing can be modeled on the Robert W. Kastenmeier Vietnam War hearings in 1966 when citizens replaced so-called leaders who refused to face facts in the midst of lies and death, and massive government duplicity.

Today, congressional Democrats and @POTUS will never accede to honest probes of #COVID19 origins. This is why we need the #COVID19 origins akin to Kastenmeier's.

Honest scientists, intellectuals and victims could testify. Citizens can offer statements on what lying about Covid 19 means to them.

Concerned folks such as @Ayjchan @JamieMetzl , Nicholas Wade, DRASTIC (Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19), among those burdened only by a commitment to truth, can offer candid summaries of evidence, reason and facts.

Kweisi Mfume and his dependable Party of liars need not attend.

Even as Biden promises to release Covid 19 origins information, these is absolutely no reason to trust this president and his party to begin telling the truth now.

We citizens of the United States and world must lead against Democrats.

Anthony Fauci Lied about COVID 19 Orgins, U.S. House E-mails Reveal

"Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed," wrote the great journalist, I.F. Stone.

I first encountered I.F. Stone's admonition on a large wall poster in a hall some feet away from Erwin Knoll's office at The Progressive Magazine in 1985.

Stone's statement seemed both inspiring and obvious.

This week, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, (NIAID), is revealed as having self-consciously lied about how the Pandemic began. 

Emails released by members of a U.S. House committee reveal Anthony Fauci worked with virologists  and U.S. government officials in early 2020, musing on formulating strategy to examine COVID 19 origins, and the efficacy of ways of countering "voices of conspiracy" asserting the possibility of an accidental Chinese lab leak of the COVID 19 virus.

"Wondering if there is something NIH can do to help put down this very destructive conspiracy, with what seems to be growing momentum," read a Feb. 4, 2020 email from former National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins to Fauci and other NIH officials.

The conspiracy theory is the contention that Chinese government scientists secretly bio-engineered a Coronavirus that subsequently was unintentionally released into the world to catastrophic consequences.

Help put down is the not the same as explain what the science says.

Currently, there are 312,173,462 confirmed cases and 5,501,000 deaths and climbing, according to the World Health Organization.

This is not to assert that public health advice and measures advocated by United States public health officials are not valid. We should, roughly: Get vaccinated and boosted, wear a mask, and get tested.

The emails do reveal Fauci and public health officials disregarding the fact the Chinese government is a hyper-secret State that routinely acts destructively, brokering no dissent as it veers into totalitarianism, emitting routine lies. 

Further, the obvious plausibility of the lab leak hypothesis was acknowledged in the same emails in which Fauci and his colleagues decided to publicly dismiss what likely occurred in China.

Reports Maia Hibbett and Ryan Grim in The Intercept:

The [U.S. House Members] letter, signed by James Comer, R-Ky., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, was followed by pages of notes on emails that were first obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by BuzzFeed News and the Washington Post, but were heavily redacted when published in June 2021. The redacted emails included the agenda for a February 1, 2020, telephone conference between National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci; his then-boss, former National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins; and several of the world’s leading virologists. The communications contained extensive notes summarizing what was said during the call, but their substance was hidden at the time.

Oversight Committee staff were able to view the full emails 'in camera,' which means they could physically look at them and take notes but couldn’t take copies with them. The information released Tuesday for the first time reveals the content of notes taken on the February 1 call.

On that call, virologists Michael Farzan and Robert Garry told Fauci and Collins the virus might have leaked from the Wuhan lab. It might have been genetically engineered, the transcription of Garry’s notes suggests, but this now seems unlikely. Another possibility, put forward by Farzan, was that it could have been evolved in the lab through a process known as serial passage.

Work since Feb. 2020 by independent intellectuals and scientists around the globe on COIVD 19 origins devastates the Chinese-American government public consensus that natural, non-man-made explanations must account for the emergence of the Pandemic. (Vanity Fair; Origins of SARS-CoV-2; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).

To disagree with the consensus is to engage in "conspiracy" talk, an elite U.S. research community now led by Fauci assures us in well-publicized statements in The Lancet (Feb 2020) and Nature (March 2020), an effort referenced in the emails released this week.

A May 5, 2021 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists feature, The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan? by Nicholas Wade, suggests looking closer and considering the evidence, without apology to the moment's consensus, and Fauci's dismissal.

Writes Wade:

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives the world over for more than a year. Its death toll will soon reach three million people. Yet the origin of pandemic remains uncertain: The political agendas of governments and scientists have generated thick clouds of obfuscation, which the mainstream press seems helpless to dispel.

Now, even Fauci tacitly admits publicly that dismissal and dishonest ridicule of the lab leak hypothesis is no longer a sustainable position, as Jack Brewster details in a chronology of Fauci statement in Forbes, published June 16, 2021.

See also Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti in Breaking Points below:

---
The work of DRASTIC (Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19), an independent group of itinerant intellectuals and scientists, instructs as an example of promoting rational examination of hypotheses on the origins of COIVD 19.

An outline follows.
---

SARS-COV-2 Laboratory Leak Hypothesis

Laboratory Hypothesis Leak Overview

Guest Post by Andrew Tuntable, Ph. D. atuntable@gmail.com @atuntable

DRASTIC and other groups have uncovered substantial evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic was caused by the leak of the virus from a laboratory in Wuhan.  This evidence together with many references is described in this paper:

SARS-COV-2 Laboratory Leak Hypothesis

In summary, the evidence is:-

    The bat coronavirus outbreak occurred in Wuhan, home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the world’s leading bat coronaviruses laboratory.  (Not proof, but certainly of interest.)
    Wuhan is over 1000 km from the relevant bats.  The bats were not traded in the Wuhan wet markets.
    The virus arose suddenly, fully functional, with no known human or animal precursors.  This is unlike SARS-1 and MERS.
    The virus is a chimera (a mixture) of two different viruses.  Chimera’s can arise naturally, but are also often engineered in laboratories.
    The virus also contains two different powerful adaptations at the same time, an effective spike protein and a furin cleavage site.  This is why it is the most infectious coronavirus in 100 years.
    The WIV and the Eco Health Alliance proudly published their earlier results on genetically engineering chimeras based on coronaviruses.  They have also submitted grant proposals to add furin cleavage sites to coronaviruses.
    It was discovered that in 2013 six bat guano miners became ill with a SARS-like virus, samples of which were sent to the WIV.  This could have been the precursor to SARS-COV-2.  The WIV had said the miners had a fungal infection.
    The WIV conducted coronavirus research at biosecurity levels 2 and 3, not high security BSL-4.  A US government report had raised concerns about their biosecurity practices in 2017.
    Lab leaks are not uncommon and have happened in many laboratories around the world.
    There is some evidence that workers at the WIV became ill in late 2019.
    More importantly, the Chinese government has removed data and has angrily thwarted any proper investigation.  They refuse to disclose whether the WIV was studying a SARS-COV-2 like virus.
    There does not appear to have been any attempt to trace the contacts of the earliest cases by looking for long lived antibodies.
    The Chinese government has still not found any natural precursor after an extensive search testing over 80,000 samples.
    There are no credible rebuttals.

The weight of this evidence shows that the virus escaped from the WIV beyond reasonable doubt.

This is important because this technology has become much more accessible to laboratories around the world, often with minimal oversight.  Advances in technology could enable future genetically engineered viruses to be far more infectious and virulent than SARS-COV-2.

(Permission to use this cartoon is granted with attribution.)

This is what must not be allowed to happen.  Students from existing laboratories setting up their own laboratories around the world and conducting dangerous Gain of Function research with inadequate safety precautions.

The next engineered virus could be even more infectious, have a longer incubation period, a higher mortality rate and, like HIV, attack the immune system.  It could be far more dangerous than SARS-COV-2.

Full Paper here.

Gov Tony Evers on Defensive Again as He Dithers on Mandatory Masks

A Facebook message speaks for many across Wisconsin.

Madison, Wisconsin — The push against Wisconsin Gov Tony Evers (D) for his refusal to issue executive orders mandating masks in public is mounting.

Tony 'Mush' Evers will hesitate, dither, wobble, anything but act.

This Evers' failure to act will cost lives.

Evers' tendency to hesitate played out in the run-up to the April 7 elections in which Evers ignored public health officials, local elections officials and the Wisconsin people until he finally bowed to the national ridicule to which the state was subjected.


Just out from The Capital Times:

Gov. Tony Evers has yet to issue a statewide mask order.

The governor says that, in the face of a surge in coronavirus cases, a statewide mask mandate is 'something we’re considering.' To our view, it is time for Evers to stop considering and start acting.

Evers cannot allow himself to be constrained by shortsighted partisans who oppose everything he does. Wisconsin is now the only state in the country with a Democratic governor that does not have a mask mandate. It is time for Evers to call the bluff of Republicans when it comes to matters of public health and safety. The governor has the power to take action to save lives and the economy, and Wisconsinites want him to use it.

Madison, Wisconsin Turnout Rises Past 50 Percent — State Casualty Numbers Expected in Weeks

Wisconsin elections thrust on the people in the middle
of a deadly pandemic may have solved the Milwaukee
turnout problem for a generation. Republicans
don't care how people die as a result of their reckless acts.
Photo: Patricia McKnight of Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Update: "It was just absurd," Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said, referring to the April 7 elections Republicans imposed upon an outraged Wisconsin public. "I mean, first of all, why would you think it's appropriate to hold an election when you have to dress that way as a poll worker? But two, the haves and the have-nots. I guess, if you're the speaker (dressed in personal protective equipment), [Rep Robin Vos (R-Rochester, Wisconsin)] that's what you get. If you're everyone else, you get what you get."(WKOW-TV, (Madison))

Madison, Wisconsin — The Madison city clerk reports turnout surpassed 50 percent at 4:00 Wednesday morning.

That figure is expected to climb.

Considering the risk and massive voter suppression work of the Republicans Party at multiple levels and branches of government, 50-some percent is a miracle.

Local officials expressed outrage at state leaders for not postponing the dangerous elections.

An election casualty list is not expected until two weeks.

Unofficial @CityofMadison turnout numbers (with additional absentees pending until 4/13): 87,552 ballots. 50.3%

Absentees counted today: 61,279

April 2016 turnout: 66%#MadisonVotes2020 #MadisonWI

— Madison WI Clerk (@MadisonWIClerk) April 8, 2020

Outrage at Republicans who thrust Wisconsin citizens into the coronavirus COVID 19 storm may have created a "Vos effect," a determination to vote against Republicans.

Rep Robin Vos (R-Rochester, Wisconsin) is the Speaker of the gerrymandered state assembly who successfully worked to kill efforts to postpone the April 7 elections.

Wisconsin Goes to Polls amid Pandemic; 'Lives at Risk for No Reason,' Says Dane County Clerk

Gov Evers Admin Refuses Stay-at-Home Order to Halt Elections

Long and dangerous lines of people at
Marshall High School in Milwaukee.
Photo: Kristen Clarke

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin is conducting its presidential primary and other elections today to outrage across the state in the middle of a deadly public health crisis, (Schmidt, Vetterkind, Wisconsin State Journal).

Public health professionals, local officials and the public are in a word, incensed.

"Health officials have said in-person voting presents a large risk to public health and creates a situation where the virus will spread."

Across Wisconsin, more than 2,400 cases of coronavirus have been reported as of Monday, with 1,300 in Milwaukee County alone," writes Molly Beck in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Just heard from voter who just voted at Hamilton in Milwaukee that the wait was 1 hour and 40 minutes to vote https://t.co/55K8WbpAnc

— Nick Corasaniti (@NYTnickc) April 7, 2020

Wisconsin Republicans have maneuvered in the Republican-controlled, state and federal courts and the legislature to move the elections forward, no matter the costs.

What a disgrace. Requiring that your residents compromise their health or forego what they see as the most significant act of civic participation available to them is deranged. https://t.co/PkEriZd5R8

— Berny Belvedere (@bernybelvedere) April 7, 2020

Gerrymandering has resulted in a Republican Party so malicious towards the public, the Party is unrecognizable from its predecessors 20 years ago.

In the 2016 Wisconsin presidential primary, 2,976,150 voters cast their ballots.

Fearing for their lives today, many voters will stay home, and will depress turnout numbers far-below 2016.

Absentee ballots have been requested in record numbers, but 1,282,762 absentee applications will see likely 10,000s of ballots never counted, due to staff shortages and poor voter education during the crisis.

The state that pioneered public health systems and zoonotic (virus creation and animal-to human) research 60 years now sees academic and medical professionals' work dismissed.

Protestors driving in cars gathered at the City-County building driving around the block early this morning as a rebuke to legislative Republicans and Gov. Tony Evers (D).

Evers has contorted himself in his evolving positions on halting the elections the last week.

First, Evers claimed there is nothing he can do; then he issued an 11th-hour executive order banning elections, and finally refused a stay-at-home order to halt perhaps the most reckless gamble in this state's history.

In late April, as deaths and infections continue across the state, Wisconsin is likely to pay for Republican malice and the criminal weakness of its Democratic governor.

Republican judges on the Wisconsin Supreme Court are credibly refred to as killers.

This is Wisconsin today.

What Republicans and Gov Evers have accomplished today is unforgivable.

In Milwaukee, amid a #CoronavirusPandemic, only 5 of 180 polling places are open for today.

In Waukesha, only 1 polling place is open.

The lines are already overwhelming.

Wear safety gear. Bring your own ✏️.

Protect yourself. Protect democracy.pic.twitter.com/S0DnbMGMmO

— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) April 7, 2020

Hello from Madison, Wisconsin. It's Election Day. pic.twitter.com/U7X7AmPzTm

— Shawn Johnson (@SJohnsonWPR) April 7, 2020

From Alex Larson and Amy Thomas in Milwaukee, (Facebook)

An update from the front lines in Milwaukee from my friend Alex Larson: These shots below and right were just shared to a neighborhood group I am in. This is my polling place today at Riverside High School. Polls open at 7 and there’s already huge lines. So now I’m a disenfranchised voter, because no way am I going out there with this much potential exposure, IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

Not only that, but as someone with cerebral palsy, standing on my feet for that long

just isn’t feasible. This wouldn’t have occurred if the election had been delayed and we could have the 180 polling places in Milwaukee like we normally do. Now we just have five! My other option is to drop off my absentee ballot at city hall. The ride there, the ride back, and getting a witness means I’m exposed to 3 people, at the very least. Again, this is IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

Watch for the surge in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks. It’s going to occur. Any flattening of the curve, which Wisconsin was doing a great job of, is going to go out the window. The inaction of our Governor and the complete disregard for health and safety by the Republican Party are responsible for this, and any deaths that come as a result. This is fucking outrageous.

Dane County, Wisconsin County Clerk Wants April 7 Elections Delayed for Safety and Fair Vote

Madison, Wisconsin — The Dane County, (Wisconsin) County Clerk is calling on Gov Tony Evers (D) to halt Wisconsin's April 7 elections.

Scott McDonell has been reportedly been hearing complaints from Dane County citizens and public officials, former public official, and evaluating public health data on the transmission of coronavirus COIVD 19 from public health professionals, (Public Health, Madison and Dane County).

McDonnell wrote last night on Facebook:

I am convinced this election can not be run in a fair and safe manner on April 7. I have asked the County Board to authorize an amicus brief asking for a delay of the April 7 election.

The safety risk of voters and election workers is too great to risk. The chance of errors due to confusion, crowding and over work is great. The likelihood of thousands of ballots being returned after statutory deadline through no fault of the voter or clerk is very high calling into question the legitimacy of the election.

I am grateful that County Executive Parisi agrees with this assessment and that the County Board has scheduled this for Thursday's County Board meeting. I urge voters who agree to share this post and to email the County Board that you support Resolution 582 at county_board_recipients@countyofdane.com 

Gov Evers has the authority to effectively ban Election Day, in-person voting by virtue of his power during this public safety emergency.

Janel Heinrich, Director, Public Health Madison and Dane County sent a memo to the Madison City Attorney and Mayor dated March 30, entitled, "April 7th election and COVID-19: Urgent need to postpone and move to mail-in ballots only, " (Appendix. Public Health, Madison and Dane County memo).

Evers can issue a new, superseding Emergency Order through Health Sec.-designate Palm that bans public-planned, state-sanctioned gatherings that would preclude holding in-person voting on Election Day, as empowered by the Heath Emergency of March 12.

Evers is close to banning such polling place gatherings as will be heal on Election Day, in Palm's subsequent March 17 Emergency Order 5 - Prohibiting Mass Gatherings of Ten People or More.

Wisconsin is in a public health state of emergency, per Executive Order 72, Relating to Declaring a Health Emergency in Response to the COVID-19 Coronavirus​ ​— ​March 12, 2020.

But Evers has been reluctant to buck the Democratic National Committee in a year that sees Wisconsin hosting the Democratic National Convention in July.

Democratic-leaning sources say Evers has come under mounting pressure from the public health community, and is jeopardizing the political support of his base.

Wisconsin citizens on social media have been excoriating Gov Evers:

Christine Headson He should stand up for his constituents and to the citizens of Wisconsin for whom he took an oath to protect ! Have courage Governor Evers ‼️

Li-Lin Cheng

Maybe Governor Evers believes that the best cheese and microbrewery beer have made us Wisconsinites immune to Coronavirus pandemic?

Check out the blog of Mayor of Madison Satya Rhodes-Conway. Never mind what I said about Wisconsin cheese and beer. As someone who was a virologist, I find this unique approach of our Governor Evers very strange and concerning. BTW, nearly 60% of the polling stations do not have enough work force come next Tuesday on Election Day.

Tony C. Saladino You cannot self-quarantine and go to the polls.

Madison, Wisconsin Mayor Hits Gov Decision to Hold April 7 Elections in Column

Madison, Wisconsin — Madison, Wisconsin's mayor posted a column this afternoon saying postponing the April 7 elections is needed to ensure safe and fair elections.

Gov Tony Evers (D) faces mounting criticism for his refusal to delay the elections.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin is the site of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and Evers stands accused among many Wisconsin citizens of making political decisions out of perceived loyalty to the Democratic Party which wants the election to go forward.

On Monday, Madison filed a brief pdf  in federal court "asking the court to postpone the election for at least three weeks, allow all elected officials to remain in office until their successors are elected, and consider ordering a full mail-in ballot election," writes Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway in her column today.

The issue is headed to federal court this week with two cases consolidated before Judge William M. Conley, United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

The case is DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE and DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF WISCONSIN,Plaintiffs,vs.MARGE BOSTELMANN, JULIE M. GLANCEY, ANN S. JACOBS, DEAN KNUDSON, ROBERT F. SPINDELL, JR., and MARK L. THOMSEN, in their official capacities as Wisconsin Elections Commissioners. (Civil Action No. 3:20-cv-249-wmc)

Evers may reverse his decision soon, seven days out from Election Day.

The column on the city of Madison, Wisconsin website is reproduced below.
--
Wisconsin is the Only State in the Nation Moving Forward with an Election at this Stage of the Pandemic, Madison is Asking a Federal Court to Postpone the Election, Consider Mail-in Ballot

By Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway

Every state with an election scheduled in the middle of their COVID-19 outbreak has decided to postpone the election – every state except Wisconsin – making our state a national outlier pdf  and not in a good way. 

Last Friday, Governor Evers asked for absentee ballots be sent to all voters. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald called the idea a “complete fantasy.” But it is clearly the right way to go. 

The scientists and specialists at the UW Applied Population Lab share my concern pdf  that an in-person election on April 7th creates a significant risk to our efforts to slow the spread.

“Given the speed of COVID-19’s spread within Madison, Dane County, and the State of Wisconsin at this time, we feel strongly that asking voters to attend in-person voting as usual presents an unreasonable risk to individual voters, poll workers, and the general public.” In addition, “polling places are inherently high-contact settings which involve many individuals coming into close contact and touching the same objects over the course of a day.”

Due to these urgent concerns, the City of Madison filed a brief pdf  in federal court asking the court to postpone the election for at least three weeks, allow all elected officials to remain in office until their successors are elected, and consider ordering a full mail-in ballot election. The issue is headed to federal court this week with two cases consolidated before Judge William M. Conley, United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

With all the evidence in front of me, I can only conclude that the best way – and perhaps the only way – to hold a fair and safe election is to postpone it. 

Election Day Safety: 

In this period of uncertainty, ensuring fair, accessible, and safe elections on April 7th has been one of my top priorities for many weeks now. In an astonishing feat the City Clerk has processed some 70,000 absentee ballots. 

At the same time, City staff have been working hard to prepare for an in-person election and to keep it safe. The plans they’ve created to keep poll workers and voters safe on Election Day are impressive. Staff are searching for and even fabricating plastic face shields and Plexiglas barriers to protect both poll workers and voters from interfacing directly with each other. They’re planning for as much curbside voting as possible, and supplying each polling station with hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray, and gloves. On Election Day they’ll work to maintain at least 6 feet between poll workers and voters.

And yet challenges remain. We need 1,500 poll workers to manage the voting process on April 7th. To date, more than 1,000 volunteer poll workers have cancelled. And I can understand why – many are seniors who we’ve stressed should stay home. We’re working to recruit new volunteers, but admittedly must target folks in their 20s, 30s, and 40s – the age bracket with the highest rates of positive tests for COVID-19. In addition, we’ve received cancellations from several polling locations. We’re down to 66 polling locations, from an original 92. Combining multiple wards into a single location is our only solution at this point, but this will create larger gatherings and challenge our social distancing goals. 

You can stay updated on polling place changes here. 

Absentee Fairness and Access: 

Sending each voter a mail-in ballot is the best option to help slow the spread of COVID-19. But I believe a fair and accessible all-absentee election is impossible to achieve by April 7th. The logistics of managing an all-absentee process require more time to put in place – and further strain a Clerk’s Office workforce that has already been under immense pressure and is beyond exhaustion. 

The Clerk’s Office expected and planned for issuing 6,000-8,000 absentee ballot requests this spring. By now, they have sent out 70,000. They’ve struggled to find enough ballot envelopes and enough mailing labels, and they’ve worked 90-110 hour work weeks to manage the volume of requests, losing sleep and straining their own immune systems in the process. Producing tens of thousands more absentee ballots on the current schedule is not possible.

I also question whether an all-absentee election can be fair under our current rules and timeframe. The Madison Clerk’s Office takes hundreds of phone calls a day from voters who are struggling to navigate the online system or who live alone and cannot get a witness to sign their ballot. 

An all-absentee election, while safer, comes with its own set of logistical and accessibility issues that cannot be solved without more time and resources. Shifting the method of voting without shifting the date does not solve our problems.

With all of these factors in mind, I can only come to one conclusion: we must postpone the April 7th election to keep everybody safe and to keep our elections fair.

Gov Tony Evers' Inaction on Moving Elections Is Unconscionable

Coronavirus imperils Wisconsin as Gov Tony Evers
refuses action on elections to mounting criticism.

Update: Gov Evers' position remains let's hold the April 7 elections for in-person voting, and hope noone shows up at the poll because it's too dangerous.
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Madison365 this weekend features a report from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) that says, "The coronavirus crisis will peak in Wisconsin around May 22, with about 1,350 people in the hospital and 13 people dying every day, and will last well into July."
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One hell of a gamble with the safety of the Wisconsin people that Evers is taking.

But he has his reasons: Evers wants Wisconsin to not postpone elections, in accordance with the wishes of the national Democratic Party trying to shepherd establishment favorite, Joe Biden, as the nominee: "The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is asking states not to postpone their primaries amid the coronavirus pandemic," notes a reports from The Hill this weekend.

Public safety loses when matched against Party loyalty and group-think.
 ---
Madison, Wisconsin — With a flick of the state Health Sec-designee's pen, Gov Tony Evers can ban the dangerous in-person voting scheduled for Election Day, April 7, during this unprecedented state of emergency, (Wisconsin Executive Orders).

But Evers refuses to do so despite mounting criticism. Evers' staff says moving elections would result in a lawsuit, so no public-safety order from the administration, (Schmidt, Wisconsin State Journal).

This widely desired action would have the effect of canceling the elections, in a move many hope would result in rescheduling Wisconsin's Presidential Preference Primary, and other municipal and state elections.

A piece in the New York Times this morning makes the point:

With April elections rapidly approaching in Wisconsin, local officials were issuing stark warnings about holding in-person voting amid the escalating coronavirus outbreak, saying the state was forcing voters to choose between their health and their constitutional right to vote.

Local officials and members of the public fear for their health and very lives, and are urging Evers to act. See also 'How can I be positive?' La Crosse County nurse shares her experience with COVID-19.

Wisconsin State Rep. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee), who tested positive for COVID 19 this week, said at a press conference, "There is no safe way to be able to have this election," (Becker, The Capital Times).

But for Tony Evers, the Democratic Party needs justify his gamble that noone shows up and votes in-person on Election Day — what Evers has been urging for days.

And state Republicans are no better.

Write Nick Corasaniti and Stephanie Saul in the Times:

Even as other states have postponed their presidential primaries, Evers has remained adamant the election will proceed as planned on April 7 — a decision that (State Sen) Fitzgerald (R) and (State Rep) Vos (R) have supported. All three have strongly encouraged residents to vote absentee.

The decision to hold the election at a time when nonessential travel and mass gatherings are banned in hopes of mitigating the respiratory disease’s spread has drawn strong criticism from poll workers, clerks and members of the public who argue doing so puts voters and poll workers at risk of infection.

Madison’s city clerk has said roughly half of poll workers scheduled to work the election have canceled. In Middleton, 25 of the city’s 72 poll workers, including two chief inspectors, will not staff election day. 

So what's with Evers and state Republican legislative leaders?

Republicans want elections to proceed as they game public health to retain a rightwing state Supreme Court justice in a depressed-turnout election.

And Evers wants the elections to proceed in defiance of the clear public health danger, to further the nomination of Joe Biden.

Unconscionable.

Wisconsin Should Postpone April 7 Elections, Presidential Primary

Holding elections during COVID 19 health crisis is like sailing in a hurricane

Update II: What's Gov Tony Evers (D) going to say the family of the first person who contracts COVID 19 on Election Day? 'Oh, I did send a ''message?'''

Update: See U.S. Vote Foundation for remedies.

Madison, Wisconsin — Ask yourself a question: Would you feel safe bringing your child to the polling place on April 7, Election Day?

I think we know the answer. No way in hell would I bring a child near the polling place.

We need to postpone the Spring General elections.

COVID 19 is too dangerous.

I think Gov Tony Evers (D) will ultimately decide to postpone Wisconsin's April 7 Spring 2020 Election and Presidential Preference Primary.

In Dane County, election officials are doing their best to ensure both a healthy and franchised electorate.

Still, the monster in the room looms large: COVID 19 on Election Day,

Municipalities are cutting back early voting as too dangerous for municipal bureaucrats and poll workers.

But surely, the danger on Election Day is equally hazardous for the public.

Wisconsin State Rep. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee), who tested positive for COVID 19 this week, said at a press conference, "There is no safe way to be able to have this election," (Becker, The Capital Times).

Rep. Bowen is right.

Evers is reportedly evaluating a mail-in-only election.

Changing the rules in the middle of the Election to henceforth ban in-person voting is a safer public health option.

But even during a state of emergency, declaring a major Election rules change is not going to pass Constitutional muster.

Evers is equivocating, emitting nonsense that "the message is still stay at home, vote by mail," (Becker, The Capital Times).

We don't and should not administer elections by "message" and public health advice.

"Pennsylvania lawmakers voted Wednesday to delay the state’s April 28 primary election by five weeks to June 2," joining 10 other states that are delaying elections, reads this morning's headline in Harrisburg.

Wisconsin should follow suit in canceling the April 7 elections, but wait to see if the public health situation clarifies before declaring another Election Day date.

Bernie Sanders on Covid 19 Crisis — A Time for Us

Bernie Sanders has convened round-tables and launched majer addresses offering a comprehensive, unprecedented response to this unprecedented crisis.

Small business, families and single Americans should count as the foundation that must be secured as we build up to protect our nation from this economic and health catastrophe,

Massive unemployment, unprecedented business failure, markets plummeting come with a wide expectation that this crisis will become much worse before it gets better.

This is an unprecedented moment and we have got to think in an unprecedented way. Join our livestream on the coronavirus response with @aoc, @IlhanMN, and @RashidaTlaib, featuring musical guests including @grandson. https://t.co/8Dec4SEd20

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 22, 2020

Some of my Republican colleagues are calling for a $1,000, one-time check to Americans.

Really?

That'll last you two or three weeks. What happens after that?

We need to give every person in this country $2,000 a month for the duration of this crisis.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 23, 2020

Schumer, Pelosi and Trump — they're basically the same and Schumer and Pelosi are as hostile to Bernie's New Deal as they are of anything coming from the administration.

Never have we had a a people's activist front-and-center, ideally prepared for this moment in history.

Suspend the rules of capitalism. 30% unemployment isn't a situation you can bootstrap or free market your way out of. #rising Full here: https://t.co/QU27IRxuhy pic.twitter.com/Jhlr5jN1hJ

— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) March 23, 2020

Roubini: Work for a U-shaped Recovery, Embrace Universal Stimulus

Economic and Political Disaster in Offing

Update: Congressional Dems Are to the Right of the GOP. The party’s leadership is failing the test posed by the coronavirus.
---Madison, Wisconsin — Professional-service office buildings, malls, and many streets made this area look like a ghost town this morning as policy governing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is implemented.

Folks are working from home, shopping malls are temporarily closed, in accordance with Gov. Evers' order prohibiting mass gatherings of 10 or more people, effective March 17​, 2020. [Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Executive Orders]

Much business is coming to a halt, and small business owners across the nation are looking to an uncertain future as the speed and scope of the economic crisis creates fear and uncertainty.

Proposed emergency paid sick leave, emergency Family and Medical Leave and payroll tax credits don't appear to approach even half-measures as the staggering unemployment claims nationwide signal economic catastrophe.

Famed economist Nouriel Roubini joins Bernie Sanders and the Trump administration in advocating that Congress give $1,000 to "every single U.S. resident" fast to stave off a depression, for a start, (Yahoo Finance).

The world will have a severe recession. What Congress does will determine how long this recession will last.

Why Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are playing games is mystifying, but it does reveal how out-of-touch the Democratic Party is. What are these two waiting for?

Nothing, not even a global economic crisis, can induce neo-liberals to act in the national interest.

2 conditions 4 economy & markets 2 stop free falling & start a U-shape recovery (forget V delusions):1. Control radically pandemics contagion. 2. Massive fiscal stimulus that is monetized. EU & US woefully behind the curve on 1. & 2 is only talk 4 now! So expect more crash today!

— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) March 18, 2020

Consider this: An U-shaped recession is an optimistic scenario.

See also Michael Brooks on Rising, below.

Sanders, Trump Are Pushing $1,000-plus Cash Payments to People; Biden, Pelosi, Schumer Are Opposed or Silent

Democratic Leadership Mired in Total Failure

Update: Congressional Dems Are to the Right of the GOP. The party’s leadership is failing the test posed by the coronavirus.
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Want more evidence Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer do not give care about you?

Democratic leader Schumer criticizes Trump's call for $1,000 checks https://t.co/mVQvz85f69

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 19, 2020

I truly don't know how to describe how maddening it is that Republicans and Trump officials are to the left of Congressional Dem leadership on this issue. Absolutely fucking maddening. pic.twitter.com/qz55vvyzih

— jordan (@JordanUhl) March 18, 2020

Joe Biden is asleep at the switch, finding a Joe Biden quote, any position, on the Trump and Sanders-proposed $1,000-plus payments to Americans is impossible.

Nothing.

From Saagar Enjeti and Krystal Ball at Rising:



Reports the Los Angeles Times: "On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said the federal government was looking into 'sending checks to Americans immediately' as part of a $1-trillion stimulus proposal from the Trump administration to combat the negative impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the economy."

And it's the Democratic Party establishment that are holding up relief during this crisis.

From CommonDreams:

'Nancy Pelosi is officially to the right of Tom Cotton on economic support for American families,' HuffPost reporter Zach Carter tweeted on Sunday. 'This is a total failure of Democratic Party leadership.'

Pelosi's deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill on Twitter Tuesday emphasized that any aid 'MUST be targeted' for the Speaker to approve it, drawing further anger from the left. 'Why?' asked New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. 'If we agree that the crisis is stark and immediate, and we know that precise targeting takes time and administrative effort, why make that a requirement when you can simply disburse the funds *now* and collect from high-income recipients *later*?'

New Consensus president Saikat Chakrabarti was flabbergasted at Pelosi's resistance to payments for all Americans.

'This crazy obsession in Dem leadership with looking 'reasonable' by not 'doing too much' is about as impractical and insane as you can get in the face of a pandemic,' Chakrabarti tweeted.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has proposed a $2 trillion package including direct payments to Americans.

Journalist Walker Bragman on Wednesday noted the absurdity of Trump being closer to Sanders on relief than Democratic leadership. 

Democrats do not care about you, and never have. How can we doubt it now?

"We must provide direct, emergency $2,000 cash payments to every person in America every month for the duration of the crisis. We are likely already in a recession. Workers are losing income while their bills pile up. We must begin issuing cash payments of $2,000 a month for every person in America to provide households with the assistance they need to pay their bills and take care of their families," writes Bernie Sanders today in an email.

Emergency $2,000 cash payments to every person?

No, says the Democratic Party.

Sanders and Trump Admin Call for Cash Payments Amid Biden Silence and Primary Wins

VIX fear-volatility remains near record-high.

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — Following Joe Biden's sweep of last night's primary elections, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Sen. Bernie Sanders are issuing urgent calls for direct cash payments for Americans.

"We need to provide a direct emergency $2,000 cash payment to every household in America every month for the duration of the crisis to provide them with the assistance they need to pay their bills and take care of their families," Sanders said, (Newsweek).

Mnuchin and Bernie Sanders are singing the same song on a massive federal governmental response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the unofficial U.S. recession, both of which are unpredictable in their severity and duration.

Joe Biden's views on the stimulus are unclear to this point.

We are likely already in a recession.

Workers are losing income while their bills pile up.

We need to provide direct, emergency $2,000 cash payments to every person in America every month for the duration of the crisis.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 18, 2020

Yet, Biden is racking up win after win on the campaign trail.

Personally, I would not trust anything Joe Biden has to say on the global economic crisis anymore than I trusted Biden on the secret weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the moral imperative for mass incarceration and marijuana criminalization, cutting Social Security and the moral primacy of banks over people.

On the campaign front, the presidential race is shaping up as Bernie Sanders and the Trump administration v. Joe Biden and the neo-libs whose 40-year project brought us this outcome.

And on policy, the Trump administration and Bernie Sanders are leading the fight for working families.

Meanwhile, the markets are in for another volatile session today.

So, Biden has been running on parables and lies, not-on-point.

VIX

The VIX index measures fear and expected volatility of investors, offering an educated guess on the next 30-day period of the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) and S and P 500 Index.

The VIX functions as a red flag revealing market psychology and pathology.

The higher the VIX, the more the volatility and fear.

The VIX is at trading at $75.91 on March 18, 2020, 10:10 Eastern Time.
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On October 24, 2008, the nightmare of 2008, the VIX reached a day-high record of 89.53.