Republicans mandatory reading- Flu and COVID medical science supports prevention to stop infectious disease co-mobidity

Co-infection reported in California: Flu and Covid

JAMA- Medical News and Perspectives by Rita Rubin MA:

Do your part! Wear a mask!

At a February 26, press conference, Donald J. Trump said of the novel coronavirus, “This is like a flu,” and expressed surprise that as many as 69 000 people in the US die of influenza every year.

However, the ensuing 5½ months have shown that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is far deadlier and less predictable than seasonal influenza. Unlike influenza, COVID-19 does not appear to be seasonal, given the ever-increasing numbers of US cases this summer.

So,beginning this fall, the US for the first time will have to deal with a flu season wrapped in a global pandemic. 

Or, as the headline on a recent editorial by Edward Belongia, MD, and Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, described it, “a perfect storm.”

Many questions remain about how flu season might affect the pandemic, and vice versa. For example, would coinfection with influenza worsen the course of COVID-19? Experts also aren’t certain whether influenza vaccination could help protect against COVID-19 or whether steps taken to mitigate COVID-19 will reduce the burden of the coming flu season.

Some hints have come from preliminary research conducted in China, where influenza was still widely circulating when the first novel coronavirus infections emerged, and in the southern hemisphere, which is currently in the midst of its flu season.

At least 2 things are clear: Quicker and more widely available testing is needed to distinguish between COVID-19 and influenza, which have similar symptoms, at least at first, but require different treatments. On top of that, a severe influenza season—the result of more virulent strains, inadequate vaccination rates, or a combination of both—coupled with a COVID-19 pandemic that shows no signs of abating, could overwhelm already taxed emergency departments and intensive care units.

As pulmonary and critical care specialist Benjamin Singer, MD, wrote in a recent editorial, influenza and other causes of pneumonia represent the eighth leading cause of US deaths in nonpandemic years.

“We can expect that the new reality of COVID-19 will only complicate the next influenza season,” Singer, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, concluded in his editorial.

Flu-Like but Not Alike

Distinguishing between influenza and COVID-19 “has important prognostic implications,” Singer said in an interview. “In many ways it matters that you find out quickly.”

While the course of influenza is rapid, COVID-19 “kind of limps along a little bit,” he said. Knowing the reason for a patient’s respiratory symptoms “helps inform what you can expect.”

Identifying the cause, of course, helps determine how best to treat respiratory symptoms, Singer noted. Although supportive care for influenza and COVID-19 is similar, drug treatments don’t overlap, he said.

“We have things that we can do for COVID if we know someone’s infected,” he said. “If they have influenza, we can give antivirals targeted against influenza.”

But mistakenly treating patients with influenza as though they have COVID-19, is wasteful and potentially harmful, Singer said.

For example, he noted, randomized controlled trials have found that intravenous remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral that is not approved anywhere in the world for any use, was more effective than a placebo in treating severe and moderate COVID-19. 

Remdesivir has received Emergency Use Authorization to treat COVID-19 from the US Food and Drug Administration and regulatory agencies in a few other countries, but, as an unapproved drug, it has been in short supply. (Maine Writer update: Remdesivir has subsequently been approved, but supplies continue to be less than the need and, therefore, access to treatment is difficult for many, especially in medically underserved areas.)

Meanwhile, although earlier studies found that remdesivir had antiviral activity against influenza A, the drug has not been tested in patients with the flu, so there’s no evidence it’s effective in treating that disease.

Another drug, the corticosteroid dexamethasone, appears to be effective in some patients hospitalized with COVID-19, but it could harm those who instead have influenza. A recent preliminary report found that dexamethasone resulted in a lower 28-day mortality rate among patients hospitalized with COVID-19, who were receiving respiratory support. However, in 2019, clinical practice guidelines, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) specifically advised against using corticosteroids to treat seasonal influenza unless clinically indicated for other reasons, such as asthma. 

Data from randomized controlled trials of corticosteroid treatment of influenza aren’t available, but 2 meta-analyses of observational studies suggested that corticosteroid treatment of patients hospitalized with influenza was associated with increased mortality, according to IDSA.

A retrospective study from Wuhan, China, suggested that lopinavir-ritonavir combination therapy led to faster resolution of pneumonia than standard care alone among patients with both COVID-19 and influenza. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 4, discontinued the lopinavir-ritonavir arm of its Solidarity trial because interim results found the treatment, which is approved for HIV, produced little or no mortality reduction in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

“Although we need more data to confirm the conclusion, we prefer to use the lopinavir-ritonavir to treat all COVID-19 patients with influenza,” coauthor Rui Zeng, MD, PhD, a kidney specialist on the faculty of Wuhan’s Tongji Medical College at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said in an email.

Another reason it’s important to determine whether respiratory symptoms are due to influenza or to COVID-19 (or both) is that mitigation efforts for the former aren’t as strict as for the latter. “We’ve never told people with influenza to isolate themselves from everyone else,” Osterholm, founder and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview.

Without quickly learning which virus they have, some people with COVID-19, during flu season, might mistakenly attribute their symptoms to influenza and not take the necessary precautions to prevent spreading severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is more easily transmitted, he said.

In addition, distinguishing between COVID-19, and influenza will be vital for disease surveillance, the authors of a recently published letter noted. Given the overlap of symptoms, systematic testing for SARS-CoV-2 and influenza will be needed during the upcoming flu season to determine the contributions of each viral illness to the burden of respiratory disease, the authors wrote.

“The chances are more likely that they have one or the other,” Osterholm said, noting that only 3% or 4% of the population have SARS-CoV-2 infection, while 10% to 20% might become infected with influenza virus, so the odds of being infected with both are small.

Early reports from China suggested that coinfection with other respiratory diseases was extremely rare in patients with COVID-19. For example, in a study of 99 patients with COVID-19 admitted to Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital from January 1 to January 20, none tested positive for any of 9 other respiratory pathogens, including influenza A and influenza B.

However, Zeng’s study, conducted at Wuhan’s Tongji Hospital, which the government had designated for treating patients with severe COVID-19, produced a much different finding. Of 544 patients with polymerase chain reaction–confirmed COVID-19 who were admitted from January 28 to February 18, 11.8% were coinfected with influenza A or influenza B. Zeng noted that the influenza infection rate in his study was similar to that reported in the US during the 2018-2019 influenza season.

“Coinfection was a significant risk factor for prolonged hospital stay,” Zeng said. In addition, his study found that COVID-19 patients who were coinfected with influenza shed SARS-CoV-2 longer than other COVID-19 patients (17 days vs 12 days on average). “We don’t know the reason.”

Studies about coinfection in the US have found rates more in line with those at Jinyintan Hospital than at Tongji Hospital.

A recent study in JAMA found that out of 1996, patients hospitalized with COVID-19, in metropolitan New York City, who were tested for other respiratory viruses, only 42 (2.1%) were coinfected, and only 1 was coinfected with influenza. The patients were hospitalized between March 1 and April 4.

Considering Coinfection

Physicians in several countries have reported patients who tested positive for both COVID-19 and seasonal influenza. “We have seen patients with both viruses,” Singer said. “It was early on, in March.”

But such patients have represented a small minority.

In Northern California, laboratories that simultaneously tested for SARS-CoV-2, and other respiratory pathogens, found a 10-fold higher coinfection rate (20.7%) than the New York study, but only 0.9% of specimens were coinfected with influenza. Moreover, the authors, who reported their findings in a JAMA research letter, studied 1217 specimens, 116 of which had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and 318 for other respiratory pathogens. 

Of the 116 that were positive for SARS-CoV-2, 24 were positive for at least 1 other respiratory pathogen. However, only 1 of the 116 was positive for influenza.

During the pandemic, “the possibility of COVID-19 should be considered regardless of positive findings for other pathogens,” Japanese researchers recommended in a recent case report about a 57-year-old restaurant worker.

COVID-19 Protection From Flu Shots?

A study conducted at Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base during the 2017-2018,flu season recently caught the attention of Luigi Marchionni, MD, PhD, an oncologist and computational biologist at Johns Hopkins University. The study compared the influenza vaccination status of approximately 6000 Department of Defense personnel with their respiratory virus status.

“That paper didn’t find vaccination was making people more likely or less likely to get another infection from another virus,” Marchionni explained. However, it did find that influenza vaccination was associated with a higher risk of non-SARS coronavirus infection, offset by a lower risk of influenza, parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and some other respiratory infections.

Marchionni wondered whether the finding of an association between flu shots and coronavirus infections might bode ill for influenza vaccination in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic. 

So he and his coauthors explored a possible county-level association between influenza vaccination coverage in people aged 65 years or older and the number of COVID-19 deaths.

Their findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, suggest that influenza vaccination in that age group is negatively associated with COVID-19 mortality. Marchionni said he and his coauthors have submitted an expanded version of their paper to a peer-reviewed journal.

“I’m quite confident in the fact that influenza vaccination in the population is associated with less [COVID-19] mortality,” Marchionni said. “There are many plausible biological explanations.”

Another study that has not yet undergone peer review also found that patients with COVID-19, who were immunized against influenza, fared better than those who had not. The authors analyzed data from 92 664 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil and found that recently vaccinated patients had, on average, an 8% lower chance of needing intensive care, an 18% lower chance of requiring invasive respiratory support, and a 17% lower chance of dying.

Can We Curb Flu Along With COVID-19? 

Intuitively, it makes sense that wearing masks, social distancing, working from home, closing schools, and other strategies to minimize the spread of COVID-19 would lessen transmission of other respiratory infectious diseases as well.  That appeared to be the case in Taiwan, researchers concluded in a recent brief report.  They compared 25 weeks of case data for severe influenza, invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae disease, and pneumonia deaths from 2016 to 2020. All 3 trended downward in 2020, compared with the same weeks in previous years, especially after Taiwan implemented COVID-19, prevention strategies. The downward trend does not appear to be a result of negligence in reporting cases, the authors noted, because there were still substantial cases of severe influenza-like illness reported. However, they tested negative for influenza. 
Japanese researchers also observed less influenza activity week by week in 2020, compared with the previous 5 seasons. They speculated that high awareness among the Japanese public of measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission early in the year might explain their finding, according to a recent research letter in JAMA. 

And, researchers in Qatar recently reported a “dramatic decrease” of laboratory-confirmed influenza A, after the state closed schools on March 10, although laboratory-confirmed cases of other respiratory pathogens, including influenza B, barely budged. Seasonal variations likely do not explain the 30-fold drop in laboratory-confirmed influenza A cases between February 13 to March 14 and March 15 to April 11, because a similar decline was not seen between the same periods in 2019, the authors wrote.

In the southern hemisphere,, the situation might provide more clues as to what the northern hemisphere can expect in the upcoming flu season. Or, as Osterholm cautioned, it might not. “We’re seeing an incredibly mild flu season in the southern hemisphere,” he said. “To date, we’ve seen virtually little, little activity…We don’t know what’s going on right now.” And that’s throughout the southern hemisphere, including COVID-19, hotspots such as Brazil, Osterholm noted. “We have to be careful not to assume that’s what’s going to happen in the northern hemisphere.” 

The best-case explanation for the southern hemisphere’s mild flu season is that COVID-19, mitigation strategies are tamping down the spread of other respiratory viruses, said Brendan Flannery, PhD, coauthor of the letter calling for systematic testing for both influenza and COVID-19.  But the worst-case scenario is that COVID-19 has overwhelmed health care systems, so people with the flu are staying home and not being counted; or, they are seeking care but getting lost in the crowd of COVID-19 patients, said Flannery, lead investigator from the US Centers for Disease Control and for the US Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Network. 

“We’re all going to learn a lot,” Osterholm said of the upcoming flu season. “We can speculate until we’re blue in the face, and I don’t think we know yet what’s going to happen.”

Vote Joe Biden: Save the Republic echo "If we can keep it!"

Endorsement: Save our democracy. Vote Joe Biden!

Echo editorial opinion published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

In fact, the Sun Sentinel didn't wait around to see what other media endorsements would join them.  This editorial position was published in August, 2020. 

A republic, Madam, if you can keep it — Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia, 1787, when asked what the Constitutional Convention had proposed.  

Franklin answered the question 233 years ago, and his response overshadows every other issue in the 2020, presidential election. 

It is why we recommend, with enthusiasm and a sense of urgency, that voters elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to be the president and vice president of the United States. In so doing, the American people will answer whether our representative democracy, under the rule of law, is still worth keeping.

But now, as former President Barack Obama declared last week, the main question is whether the presidency will be “the custodian of this democracy” and “defend the freedoms and ideals that so many Americans marched for and went to jail for, fought for and died for.”

Biden and Harris have what it takes to do that. They have the essential integrity, ability, experience and proven dedication to uphold the Constitution, serve the people, remedy our present crises, and regain respect for the government at home and abroad. 

Moreover, the Democratic Party did itself proud in nominating them.

They can be trusted to work intelligently and fairly on the nation’s long agenda of unmet needs, including control of the coronavirus, confronting climate change, restoring voting rights, and other priorities that we will discuss below.

A decent and honorable man

Character matters! Vice-President Joe Biden’s character has never been in question, throughout 46 years of public service, as a senator and as vice president.

Hear this from a Republican, former Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, who wrote last week that he will vote for the Democratic ticket, even though he expects to disagree over policies:

“Biden is fundamentally a decent and honorable man who respects the American tradition, supports the rule of law, embraces America’s friends and allies, and will restore some semblance of normalcy to the functioning of government. That’s all I want — and not too much to ask of a President. 

Vice-President Biden will perform these duties, respectfully and with dignity.”

That cannot be said about Donald Trump.

Regrettably, he has proved himself unfit, untrustworthy and unwilling to uphold the ideals embedded in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, or to take seriously his responsibility for the health and welfare of the American people and the lives of our armed service members overseas.

Heed the warnings, end the chaos

Consider the warning written by Retired Admiral William H. McRaven, who commanded the Navy’s special forces, in a Washington Post op-ed:

“Today, as we struggle with social upheaval, soaring debt, record unemployment, a runaway pandemic, and rising threats from China and Russia, President Trump is actively working to undermine every major institution in this country. He has planted the seeds of doubt in the minds of many Americans that our institutions aren’t functioning properly. And, if the president doesn’t trust the intelligence community, law enforcement, the press, the military, the Supreme Court, the medical professionals, election officials and the postal workers, then why should we? And if Americans stop believing in the system of institutions, then what is left but chaos and who can bring order out of chaos: only Trump. It is the theme of every autocrat who ever seized power or tried to hold onto it.”

The president’s fatal flaw, to the nation’s peril, is his narcissism. For the national interest, Trump can’t see beyond the nearest mirror.

From the outset of the coronavirus tragedy, when he began promising — as he still does — that it would just “go away,” he has treated it as an inconvenience to his re-election. He imagined himself wiser than (expert!) Dr. Anthony Fauci and other scientists.

It has been the most vast and tragic leadership failure in our history. Now, the nation is paying an intolerable price, with more than 170,000 lives and perhaps 50 million jobs lost so far, for his ignorance, incompetence and ego.

Everything is about him. That was glaring again just the other day when he spoke favorably of QAnon, the viral internet conspiracy theory that insanely imagines a cult of pedophiles and cannibals linked to the Democratic Party. The FBI rightly considers such fantasies to be domestic terrorism; it has inspired actual crimes.

“I’ve heard that these are people that love our country,” Trump said. “So I don’t know really anything about it other than that they do supposedly like me.” (Emphasis supplied)

“Why in the world would the President not kick Qanon supporters’ butts? Nut jobs, rascists (sic) haters have no place in either Party,” Jeb Bush, Florida’s former governor, responded on Twitter.

Our better nature

We hope that message is heard by all independents and responsible Republicans, whose votes could determine the outcome of this election. They deserve better than Trump.

A genuine conservative like Bush would have appointed conservative judges, signed tax cuts into law and repealed many — though hardly all — of the environmental regulations that Trump has been discarding wholesale.


But he would have done so while upholding the Constitution, the rule of law and the dignity of the presidency.


Trump is no conservative. He is an illiberal, demagogic populist who appeals to racism and misogyny for a critical mass of votes and is inflaming the divisions in an already polarized nation. Whatever benefits some people see in his economic policies, they are not worth that price.

The president should set an example of personal decency. Trump is vulgar, crass, coarse and vicious toward anyone, even in his own party, who disagrees with him. He cannot admit a mistake for fear that it would make him look weak. When a reporter asked him recently whether he regrets lying to the American people, he couldn’t come up with an answer.

He is shrewd, calculated and cunning, but those traits do not substitute for intelligence, thoughtfulness and curiosity.

Achievements don’t trump abuses

He is not without constructive achievements, although they are few. They include the Israeli-United Arab Emirates peace accord, the new North American trade agreement, and the initiative to import less-expensive prescription drugs from Canada.

But his overall record is of broken promises — such as the border wall that Mexico would pay for and the release of his income tax returns. He has uttered more than 20,000 outright lies or fabrications, damaged relations with Canada and other allies who have helped preserve world peace, decimated civilian agencies, continued to assault and undermine the Affordable Care Act without any plan to replace it, ignored and even aggravated the climate change crisis, snatched immigrant children from their families to be put into cages, prostituted the Departments of Justice and State, fired whistleblowers and inspectors general, wrecked the Environmental Protection Agency, coarsened the domestic political dialogue, kowtowed to the gun lobby, failed to repair our crumbling infrastructure, and deployed troops and tear gas against peaceful protestors.

He has committed gross abuses of power in the Ukraine scandal and in attempting to impede Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s efforts to elect him — efforts with which top campaign aides cooperated, according to the scathing bipartisan report of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The president knew and discussed Democratic e-mails Russia had stolen. The report documents cooperation between his first campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a Russian intelligence officer.

Trump still prefers the sly denials of an enemy, Vladimir Putin, to the considered consensus of our intelligence community. He didn’t bother to ask Putin whether it is true that Russia offered bounties on the lives of American service members in Afghanistan.

No president has ever even hinted at disrespecting the outcome of an election he might lose, but this one has pointedly refused to rule that out. In openly undermining the Postal Service, he is setting up mail voting as the pretext for a coup. He has even spoken aloud about seeking an unconstitutional third term.

The nation cannot afford four more years of Donald Trump!

We need the Vice President Joe Biden & Senator Kamala Harris ticket to make things right!

America’s challenges

Many of our national problems predate Trump and both parties have been responsible for glossing over some and making others worse. It would be as unrealistic to expect the Biden administration to solve them all as to trust Trump to fix any. But we can expect honest, competent efforts from Biden and Harris.

First things first: The coronavirus pandemic needs to be confronted and controlled on the basis of science, rather than instinct. 

Our nation must be better prepared for the next inevitable pandemic. That means rebuilding the Centers for Disease Control and the state departments of public health

That will go a long way to restoring the health of the economy.

Income inequality has grown to be the most glaring among 67 nations studied by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Growing numbers of Americans no longer expect, as their parents did, that their children will have a better life. That sense of alienation unquestionably contributed to Trump’s election, but he has done little for those who felt that way.

The death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer has awakened millions of Americans to the reality of racism in the United States. Biden and Harris are the right people to confront that.

Tragically, the pandemic has exposed unacceptable weaknesses in the health care system that was supposed to be the world’s best. For what it costs — twice what other advanced nations pay — it ought to be the world’s best. But by outcomes, it’s not. Black, Hispanic and Native Americans have suffered and died disproportionately of COVID-19, and not, as some assume, on account of lifestyle. Housing segregation, unequal treatment in health care facilities, and a preponderance of low-paying jobs without health insurance are mainly at fault. Endemic racism has contributed to all of that.

The premise that health insurance should depend on where one works is no longer valid. At least 10 million people lost theirs, at the worst possible time, when the pandemic shuttered offices, schools and factories. Medicare can and should be expanded to be available to anyone who needs it.

Attention!  The Medicare and Social Security trust funds are drawing down their reserves and need to be strengthened for long-term sustainability. This is as important to younger workers, if not more so, because there are some right-wing politicians who would leave them to fend for themselves.

Voting rights have been under attack ever since the Supreme Court eviscerated the noble law that the late Rep. John Lewis had nearly given his life for. There’s no doubting Joe Biden’s commitment to restore it.

There must be a comprehensive immigration reform that saves the Dreamers and creates a path to citizenship for the millions of immigrants upon whom Florida’s and the nation’s agricultural, hospitality and construction industries depend.

Independence must be restored to the Justice Department, the intelligence agencies, the Postal Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, among other departments that the Trump administration has savaged.

For Biden, it’s about you

Biden  reiterated his independence from the National Rifle Association (NRA), which he helped defeat in 1993, with the background check law, and in 1994, with a 10-year ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. 

Sadly, the ban lapsed in 2004, when Republicans controlled the House. The massacres at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland might have been averted. Biden’s 11-page plan includes a renewed assault weapons ban, a buyback program and universal background checks, all of which have broad support across America. A vote for the Biden-Harris ticket honors the 17 lives lost at Parkland.

When such tragedies occur, Americans have expected words of comfort and empathy from their presidents, who never before disappointed them. But, the creature in office now has yet to express any remorse for the victims of those who have suffered with the coronavirus. Sad to say, Trump is incapable.

Compare that to how, in accepting his party’s nomination Thursday night, Biden spoke to those who’ve suffered unimaginable loss during the pandemic.

“I know how it feels to lose someone you love. I know that deep black hole that opens up in your chest. That you feel your whole being is sucked into it. I know how mean and cruel and unfair life can be sometimes. But I’ve learned two things. First, your loved ones may have left this Earth, but they never leave your heart. They will always be with you. And, second, I found the best way through pain and loss and grief, is to find purpose.

“As God’s children each of us have a purpose in our lives.”

In this time of collective loss and grief, the American people have a purpose. It is to entrust their highest office to a decent man in whom kindness and empathy are as natural as drawing breath.

As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.”

Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Harris are the right people to set the right example.

The presidency is, as Teddy Roosevelt put it, a “bully pulpit.”

Trump has profaned that pulpit. Joe Biden will fill it with honor.

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Dan Sweeney, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.

Clarion call to #VoteBlue! Reforms needed to cure Trumpziism

Student echo opinion published in The Daily Pennsylvanian, a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation which publishes The Daily Pennsylvanian newspaper, 34th Street Magazine, and Under the Button, as well as three newsletters, Dear Penn, The Weekly Roundup, and The Toast.

Incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in 1984, The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. receives no funding from the University of Pennsylvania and is student-run.

Echo opinion:  In 2016, Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by around 44,000 votes. That’s roughly the size of Temple’s student body. And right now Pennsylvania is the most likely tipping point state in the entire country, which means that it is the most likely state to decide the 2020 election. All of that to say — what you do matters! You get to decide which version of the future we will live in.

Guest Column "We must vote for Joe Biden" - guest opinion in the The Daily Pennsylvanian newspaper authored by 

Joe Biden must be the next president of the United States.

Rather than continuing to read Trump’s disgusting tweets, it would be a better use of our time to explore how the world might differ depending on the outcome of this generation-defining election.

Let’s say on Jan. 20, 2021, Vice President Joe Biden is sworn in as president.

As president, Biden passes a sweeping stimulus bill that puts money in your pocket, saves the café down the road, and reduces the risk of budget cuts to West Philadelphia public schools. Biden creates a national COVID-19 testing strategy, uses his office to advocate for mask-wearing, and helps roll out a safe and effective vaccine in an orderly manner. You can now choose an affordable public option for healthcare no matter where you are. And you can stay on your parents’ health insurance until you’re 26. Your friend from high school who took on crushing student loans has had their federal student loan debt wiped clean. And in 2050, when our economy is entirely powered by clean energy that has created millions of well-paying jobs, you can show your children the forests and oceans and biodiversity of our beautiful planet that you helped preserve.

But let’s say Trump wins. 

Vice-President Joe Biden #VoteBlue

Let's cure Trumpziism!

COVID-19 continues to spread and a lack of planning and effective public health messaging on the federal level causes hundreds of thousands more to die, including someone with whom you are close. A vaccine is doled out in a partisan and haphazard manner, leading to confusion and further delays in returning to normal life. Rather than stay on the margins of society, white nationalism is further emboldened and hate crimes spike. And in 2050, the Schuylkill river trail and low-lying areas of Philadelphia now regularly flood. By the end of the century, the average day in Philadelphia is seven degrees hotter and millions have died around the world from climate change-induced catastrophes.

Obviously, this is all speculation, but it is plausible, and frighteningly likely if our country heads down this dark path.

In 2016, Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by around 44,000 votes. That’s roughly the size of Temple’s student body. And right now Pennsylvania is the most likely tipping point state in the entire country, which means that it is the most likely state to decide the 2020 election. All of that to say — what you do matters. You get to decide which version of the future we will live in.

Electing Joe Biden is absolutely necessary if we are going to make any sort of progress. Because if Trump has taught us anything constructive, it is that our lives and our society are not guaranteed to get better. We need to make that change. And we need to make it now.

FRANCOIS BARRILLEAUX is a College junior. He is the Legislative Director of Penn Democrats.

Donald Trump's actions have caused lasting damage to this country- #VoteJoeBiden

Editorial | Joe Biden for President

By The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board

The Editorial Board of The Daily Pennsylvanian Inc. endorses Joe Biden for the 2020 

Presidential Election. Credit: Son Nguyen

In 2020, the grueling election process produced two candidates with close ties to the University of Pennsylvania: President Donald Trump, a 1968 Wharton graduate, and former Vice President Joe Biden, a former Penn professor.

While both share a bond with Penn, the similarities end there.

In fact, the stakes in this election are higher than ever. The climate, the economy, our health, and our lives are on the line. While we can't reverse the past four years of failed leadership under Trump, we can prevent the next four from resembling them. If that sounds like a noble goal, there is only one way forward: A vote for Joe Biden.

The constant chaos stemming from the White House, the ever-growing division in our nation, and a worsening pandemic are all evidence of Trump's disgraceful first term. As a result, The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board is endorsing Joe Biden for president.

Tens of millions of people, from both Pennsylvania and beyond, have already cast their vote, and tens of millions of people will do the same up through Election Day.

Despite the fact that millions have yet to cast their ballots, only a small fraction of voters remain undecided. The vast majority of Americans feel strongly about Trump, Biden, or both. Although some have their reasons for leaving their vote until the last minute, the last four years should make the choice simple.

Joe Biden deserves your vote, both because of his own merits as a candidate and to prevent another four years of Trump.

As president, Biden will likely pass a giant stimulus bill, resembling the one passed over a decade ago under the leadership of former President Barack Obama. In today's COVID-ravaged economy, this is desperately needed. Biden would also enact an ambitious climate change plan that would get the United States to net-zero emissions by 2050. The plan would also attempt to close racial wealth gaps by encouraging the investing of tens of billions of dollars in communities of color.

Even if voters are not thrilled about Joe Biden, the alternative is far, far worse.

Donald Trump is an affront to American values. He has repeatedly violated legal norms, lied shamelessly tens of thousands of times, and set an abysmal example for the nation's young people. He has granted mainstream credibility to racist conspiracy theories, incited violence, and waged a constant war against the media. These are not the actions befitting of a president.

Donald Trump's actions have caused lasting damage to this country. His blatant disregard for long-standing norms could encourage future presidents to eschew tradition in favor of raw power. His attitudes on race have contributed to a spike in hate crimes, and will likely set race relations back years. And his corruption, coupled with a lack of serious consequences for it, will enable greed in future politicians.

Although Biden may not be the ideal candidate for many Americans, he is the only alternative to the damage done be Donald Trump. Some will argue he is too liberal, or not liberal enough, or too old to be president. But that is the nature of a successful presidential campaign. The best candidates bring together a voting bloc that does not agree on everything, but can agree on overarching principles.

Vice-President Joe Biden will bring back a sense of normalcy to the White House. He is a decent, honest man with the best of intentions. His administration will be far better for this country than four more years of division, chaos, and hatred.

Over eight months ago, we endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in the midst of the Democratic primary season. Now, we urge Penn community members to cast their ballot for Joe Biden in the general election. We must unite to defeat Penn's most infamous export: Donald Trump.

Editorials represent the majority view of members of The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. Editorial Board, which meets regularly to discuss issues relevant to Penn's campus. Participants in these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on related topics.

Vice President Joe Biden honors President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's leadership

Warm Springs Georgia.

Joe Biden:  Hello, hello, hello. What a magnificent setting.  

It’s hard, when you’re driving here, not to think of the circumstances President Roosevelt faced and how he overcame so much for so many. So, good afternoon.

Joe Biden:  A few weeks ago, I spoke at Gettysburg about the need to unite our nation, and today I’m here at Warm Springs because I want to talk about how we’re going to heal our nation. Over these past few months, there’s been so much pain, and so much suffering, and so much loss in America. Over 225,000 people have lost their lives to a virus. Many of those lives lost the cruelest way possible: alone. Alone in a hospital room, alone in a nursing home, no family, no friends, no loved ones beside them in those final moments, and it haunts so many of the surviving families, families who were never given a chance to say goodbye. I, and many of you know, what loss feels like when you lose someone you love, you feel that deep black hole opening up on your chest and you feel like you’re being swallowed into it.

Joe Biden:  The tragic truth of our time is that COVID has left a deep and lasting wound in this country. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and we see the empty storefronts and the shuttered businesses, the visible signs of lost hopes and broken dreams. But what we don’t see is all those parents staring at the ceiling late at night wondering, how am I going to pay the mortgage? How am I going to pay for our rent? What are they going to do if one of my kids get sick, now that I’ve lost my health insurance. Growing up, like many of you, I watched my father struggle to find work. He made what I call the longest walk any parent can make, up a short flight of stairs to his children’s bedroom to tell a child you can’t play in that little league team anymore, you can’t go back to the same school.

Joe Biden:  We can’t stay here, Joey. We can’t stay in Scranton anymore. We have to move. There are good jobs in Delaware. When I get one, I’ll come back for you, your sister, your brother, and your mom. It’s only 157 miles away, Joey. My father came home every weekend for that year or more, but he always said, when we finally got settled in Delaware, he used to say, “Joey, a job’s”, and all my friends would hear it as well, “A job’s about a lot more than a paycheck.” My sister heard it as well, Valerie. He said, “It’s about your dignity, a job. It’s about respect. It’s about your place in the community.” And right now, on this autumn afternoon, millions of Americans all across this country feel they’ve lost all that.

Joe Biden:  A season of protest has broken out all across the nation. Some of it is just senseless burning and looting and violence that can’t be tolerated and won’t, but much of it is a cry for justice from a community that’s long had a knee of injustice on their neck. The names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake. They’ll not soon be forgotten, not by me, not by us, and not by this country. They’re going to inspire a new wave of justice in America. These are historic, painful crises. The insidious virus, the economic anguish, the systematic discrimination, and one of them could have rocked the nation, any one of them. Yet, we’ve been hit by all three at once. But if we’re honest with ourselves, the pain striking at the heart of our country goes back not months but years. Our politics for too long hae been mean and bitter and divisive, you can hear it now in the distance. We’ve stopped seeing dignity in one another. We’ve stopped showing each other respect.

Joe Biden:  Too many among us spend more time shouting than listening, more time fighting than working together, more time demonizing and denigrating others than lifting them up. The divisions in our nation are getting wider. Angry people are upset, anger and suspicion are growing, and our wounds are getting deeper. It may, and many wonder, has it gone too far? Have we passed the point of no return? Has the heart of this nation turned to stone? I don’t think so. I refuse to believe it. I know this country, I know our people, and I know we can unite and heal this nation. Warm Springs is a good place to talk about hope and healing. So Franklin Roosevelt came, “To use the therapeutic waters to rebuild himself.” Stricken by polio, the polio virus in 1921, he suffered from paralysis. Like many other Americans in those pre-vaccine decades, FDR longed to live an independent life, a life that wasn’t defined by his illness. To him, and to so many others facing physical challenges, Warm Springs offered therapy for the body, and I might add, and the soul, but it offered something else as well.

Joe Biden:  FDR came looking for a cure, but it was the lessons he learned here that he used to lift a nation. Humility, empathy, courage, optimism. This place represented a way forward. A way of restoration, of resilience, of healing. In the years that followed, FDR would come back to Warm Springs often to think about how to heal the nation and the world, and that’s exactly what he did. Lifting us out of a great depression, defeating tyranny, saving democracy. Then it was here on April 12th, 1945, that President Roosevelt died. A casualty of war as surely as any who fell in combat, and the free world mourned. American leaders wept. Maybe even more important was the reaction of the American people. Naval Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson, a black man, cried as he played his accordion in tribute to FDR, not far from here.

Joe Biden: And the story is told that when Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s procession went by, a man collapsed in grief. The neighbor asked him, “Did you know the president?” The response was “No,” the man said, “but he knew me.” He knew me. Few words better describe the kind of president our nation needs right now. A President who is not in it for himself, but for others. A President who doesn’t divide us, but unites us. A President who appeals not to the worst in us, but to the best. A President who cares less about his TV ratings and more about the American people. A President who looks not to settle scores, but to find solutions. A President guided not by wishful thinking, but by science, reason, and fact. That’s the kind of President I hope to be.

Joe Biden: 
I’m running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American President. I’ll work with Democrats and Republicans. I’ll work as hard for those who don’t support me as for those who do. That’s the job of a President, a duty of care for everyone. This place, Warm Springs, is a reminder that though broken, each of us can be healed. That as a people and a country, we can overcome this devastating virus. That we can heal a suffering world. And yes, we can restore our soul and save our country.

Joe Biden:  In his last hours, President Roosevelt was at work on a speech to be delivered the next day. In it he was to say, “Today, we must cultivate the science of human relationships, the ability of all people, of all kinds, to live together and work together in the same world at peace.” To live together and work together. That’s how I see America. That’s how I see the presidency. And that’s how I see the future. I tell you this from my heart. I believe America and American hope, not fear. Unity, not division. Love, not hate. The presidency though, is only one part of the American chorus. History isn’t only a story of the great and the famous. No, our history is a story of we, the people, of all of us together.

Joe Biden:  I’ve long said the story of America is a story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Change in our country comes when the voices of the powerless reach the ears of the powerful. When those whose names we’ll never know, but will risk their lives to, in the words of Dr. King, “Bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice.” Bending that arc is the work of our time, but it’ll take all of us. Red states, blue states, Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, and Liberals. And I believe from the bottom of my heart, we can do it.

Joe Biden:  People ask me, why are you so confident Joe? Because we are the United States of America. There’s nothing, nothing the American people can’t do and been unable to do if we put our minds to it. When news of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death went out on the wires, an editor in Chicago, turned to his colleague and said “Clear the decks for action.” So I say to you today, if you’re giving me the honor of serving as your President, clear the decks for action.

Joe Biden: For we will act, we will act on the first day of my presidency to get COVID under control. We’ll act to pass my economic plan that will finally reward work, not wealth in this country. We’ll act to pass my health care plan to provide affordable, accessible healthcare for every American, and drug prices that are dramatically lowered. We’ll act to pass the Biden climate plan, meeting the challenges of a climate crisis while creating millions of good paying, high paying, labor jobs. We’ll act to address systemic racism in our country, and we’ll act to give working people a fair shot again in this country. And we’ll act to restore our faith in democracy and our faith in one another.

Joe Biden: Today, we’re facing a public health crisis of historic proportions. And with winter at hand, it’s getting worse. Just last Friday, 83,000 new cases in one day. Saturday, another 83,000 cases. Nearly 1000 people a day are dying. Another 200,000 deaths are expected over the next several months, and the President keeps telling us not to worry. He keeps telling us we’re turning the corner is his quote. He’s as removed from reality, and as offensive as when they told us the virus affects virtually nobody, just the elderly with heart conditions. Virtually nobody, just the elderly with heart conditions, as if they don’t matter.

Joe Biden:  And when he said in response to the number of deaths reaching a thousand, he said, “It is what it is.” Well, it is what it is because he is who he is. In the spring, the President declared, in his voice as Commander-in-Chief, says Commander-in Chief. He was going to wage war on the virus. Instead he shrugged, he swaggered, and he surrendered. Then his Chief of Staff just last week made a stunning admission, an admission that I believe, but never thought he’d say. Saying, “We’re not going to control the pandemic.” End of quote. We’re not going to control the pandemic. It’s a capitulation. It’s a waving of a white flag. It’s a window into the shocking truth about this White House that they’ve never really tried.

Joe Biden:  Think about all the frontline health professionals who’ve risked and some given their lives for the last nine months in this pandemic. Think about all the first responders. Think about all the grocery store clerks, the drivers, the delivery drivers of the trucks, teachers, parents, the kids home from school. Think about all those who have lost their jobs. Think about all those have been infected by the virus. Think about all those who have died. They were giving their all while their President was giving up. Well, I’m here to tell you: we can, and we will control this virus. As President, I will never wave the white flag of surrender. Just imagine where we’d be today if the President had embraced wearing masks instead of mocking it. Imagine where we’d be today if the president had practiced social distancing, instead of holding super spreader events. Imagine where we’d be with a comprehensive system of testing and tracing.

Joe Biden: (19:29)
I first put forward a detailed plan on how to deal with this virus back in March, this administration ignored it. Then I released several more detailed plans in the months that followed, the most recent just last week. This administration has yet to offer a single plan. Yes, one of the reasons why the most one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, the New England Journal of Medicine, called the President “Dangerously incompetent.” Went on to say, “The President turned a crisis into a tragedy.”

Joe Biden:  I’m ready to act. I know what to do. Starting on day one of my presidency, we will do it. I’ve talked about the battle for the soul of America since the very beginning of this campaign, and I want to be very clear in these closing days about what I mean, and about what I intend to do in that battle. To assure that our better angels prevail over our worst instincts. I believe this election is about who we are as a nation, what we believe, and maybe most importantly, who we want to be. It’s about our essence. It’s about what makes us Americans. It’s that fundamental. Time and again, throughout our history, we’ve seen charlatans, the con men, the phony populist, who sought the play on our fears, appeal to our worst appetites, and pick at the oldest scabs we have for their own political gain.

Joe Biden:  They appear when the nation’s been hit the hardest and we’re at our most vulnerable, never to solve anything, but only the benefit themselves. In a recent encyclical, Pope Francis warns us against this phony populism, that appeals to “The basest and most selfish instincts.” He goes on to say, “Politics is something more noble than posturing, marketing, and media spin. These sow nothing but division, conflict, and a bleak cynicism.” He said, “For those who seek to lead, we do well to ask ourselves, why am I doing this? Why? What is my real aim?” Pope Francis asked questions that anyone who seeks to lead this great nation should be able to answer. And my answer is this: I run to unite this nation and to heal this nation. I’ve said that from the beginning. It is badly necessary.

Joe Biden:  The Bible tells us there’s a time to break down, and a time to build up, a time to heal. This is that time. God and history have called us to this moment, and to this mission. With our voices and our votes, we must free ourselves from the forces of darkness, from the forces of division, and the forces of yesterday, and the forces that pull us apart, hold us down, and hold us back. And if we do so, we’ll once more become one nation under God, indivisible, a nation united, a nation strengthened, a nation healed. That is my goal. That is why I’m running. That is what we must do.

Joe Biden:  Thank you all for being here, and may God bless America, and may God protect our troops. Stay safe and wear your mask! 

Donald Trump campaign leaves red hats stranded in the Omaha Nebraska cold- WWTT?

MaineWriter- Clearly, the Trump campaign wasted time trying to make a political impression on Nebraska's CD2 (Second District)!  IMO, Trump would have done much better had he stayed home and just sent in a TV media ad.

Trumpziism's Red Hat Cult Supporters Left Stranded At Freezing Omaha, Nebraska Airport.

Donald Trump left several thousand of his supporters stranded at Eppley Airfield after his event in Omaha Tuesday night.

After the Trump boarded Air Force One and departed the state, many of the attendees, some of whom waited more than four hours to listen to him speak, stood in the freezing temperatures on a private road in the middle of the airport.

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported “thousands” of people were stuck in the cold more than an hour after Trump took off from the airport.

According to a Twitter account named “Omaha Scanner,” police officers located two groups of elderly Trump supporters shortly after the event ended who were struggling in the cold. One group was reportedly frozen in the cold and unable to move.

Another complaint included a call for a medic to assist a 68 year-old man who complained of hypothermia and possibly had an altered mental status.

The event itself seemed poorly planned from the beginning.

Trump’s campaign told his rally-goers to arrive at the Eppley airport at 4:30 p.m. By then, cars were lined up for miles trying to get into the airport, and the security team was directing people in circles.

At one point, security said the South Economy parking lot where the cars were being directed to was full, and pointed people toward the north lot. Security at the north lot then directed the cars of people, who had already waited in line once, back to the South Economy lot.

The security team then told people who started parking in a cell phone lot across the street from the South Economy lot that they may be towed.

Most ignored the warning and proceeded into the South Economy lot, where they found thousands of people standing in four separate lines to get onto charter buses.

A group of people in the cell phone lot gave up their place in the long line to go offer to move their cars somewhere else so they wouldn’t be towed, but the security team then said their cars wouldn’t be towed out of the nearby lot.

People were directed to stand in the long lines to get on charter buses that would drive them to the event. It took well over two hours to get through the line.

While thousands of people stood in the lines, the flow of buses was not at all constant.

At about 6:45 p.m. (the Trump event was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.) YouTubers Camille & Haley showed up to sing songs like “Back the Blue” and “Vote Trump 2020” for the people still the lines in the South Economy lot.

Once on the buses, people were transported more than 3.5 miles down a private road to another part of the airport. It took more than half-an-hour for the buses to get from the South Economy lot to the place where they could be unloaded.

Once at the event, people walked a few blocks toward tents where volunteers took everyone’s temperatures.

Attendees were led through another one- to two-hour long queue to get inside the event.

Trump landed at the airport and began speaking while thousands of people were still waiting in the queue to get in the event.

Some started shouting for the line to move faster, and some began saying they needed to use the restroom and threatened to relieve themselves while waiting in line.

While Trump left the event quickly in Air Force One, attendees were stuck for hours outside in freezing cold temperatures in the dark.

Trump was visiting Nebraska to secure his standing in the state’s 2nd congressional district (largely Omaha-based), which could flip to Joe Biden next week as Nebraska awards some of its electoral votes per congressional districts.

Some Iowa politicians were on hand for the rally, which was right over the Iowa border. Senator Joni Ernst, however, did not get a chance to speak to the crowd despite being locked in a very tight reelection race. By Paige Godden published in the Iowa Starting Line news.

Remove Holocaust deniers from all social media: Facebook and Twitter lead

Echo opinion published in The Palm Beach Post, a Florida newspaper: Never Again Act*

Anti-Semitism’s lengthy history is built on ignorance and the perpetuation of lies by people who hate Jews. 

In fact, it’s a disease far more incurable than a pandemic.

Over the centuries, despots disliked a people whose theology introduced a code of morality and justice that flipped civilizations. From pharaohs to Hitler and too many others to name, rulers responded with force and power, mostly sentencing Jews to slavery, ghettos and death.

Today, people continue to foment hate fueled by ignorance and lies, and still targeting Jews. The weapon of choice for ignorance and lies is a platform of recklessness called social media. Oh sure, when used responsibly, social media is a very productive tool. Such responsible behavior is not common these days.

But on Oct. 12, Facebook, with its users representing one-third of the world’s 7.8 billion people, decided to do something really bold about this recklessness by simply acting responsibly — the social media platform decided not to allow people to lie about the Holocaust.

Days later, Twitter announced its “hateful conduct policy” issued its own prohibition of “attempts to deny or diminish” violent events, including the Holocaust. Twitter has taken aim primarily at white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

Facebook’s Monika Bickert announced in a blog a hate speech policy update, specifically “to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.”

The company’s decision was prompted by the recent rise in anti-Semitism, not just vandalism or insults, but shootings and physical attacks, and an “alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust.” Bickert noted a recent survey that showed that one in four American adults between ages 18 and 39 believed the Holocaust is a myth.

One might wonder how on earth is this ignorance possible in the United States?

For decades, survivors have made presentations. Newsreel footage starkly shows the horrifying, shocking images. Books on the subject fill libraries. Two-thirds (34) of the states in the U.S. mandate some form of Holocaust or genocide education.

About the same number of states have impressive museums, mostly in major population centers, or monuments seen by many others. The 16 U.S. states without such mandates have less population cumulatively than California.

There are 43 countries in the world with Holocaust museums or memorials. In Europe, Germany boasts 22 memorials and museums. France has 13 Holocaust memorials or museums. Greece has 10 museums and monuments. Those numbers don’t include memorials and displays in synagogues and temples.

Yad Vashem — The World Holocaust Remembrance Center — makes available “ready to print” exhibitions. Auschwitz-Birkenau is widely visited, but the solemnity of this hallowed earth is lost with eye-catching signage that welcomes tour buses.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has exhibitions ready for travel. Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation has created captivating holographic interviews of survivors that will give life to eyewitness accounts long after survivors take their final breaths.

The United Nations and its agencies, notably UNESCO (the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization), with all of its flaws, embraces Holocaust education with permanent displays of art and various publications.

In May, the latest Holocaust-related legislation passed in Congress was the Never Again Education Act. More than 30 countries have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.

Despite all of the access to information, what has the world learned? It has learned that ancient hate thrives in the modern world.

So, Facebook’s banning of Holocaust denial is an important, courageous act of media leadership.

It’s been a long time coming and B’nai B’rith International has long advocated such a move. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is to be commended, though the company admits that enforcing the policy, policing the platform, will be quite a challenge.

Twitter’s announcement is equally welcome. But if the bright Facebook and Twitter coders can write algorithms and direct users with hashtags and other tools, they should be able to identify keywords that will curb the volume of hate posts before they hit the digital universe.

Germans worked hard to keep the Holocaust secret.

Rumors swirled as work camps becoming death camps — Dachau, Chelmo, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Auschwitz — were shockingly real. But the Nazi’s own record-keeping carefully lays out the horrific truth of the Holocaust.

Nazis even documented mass shootings, starvations, experimental surgeries, the crematoria, the piles of skeletal bodies. Thousands of camps dotted Nazi-controlled European countries. Eleven million people, more than six million Jews, were systematically murdered.

Of course anti-Semitism didn’t begin, or end, with the Holocaust, and rulers have been complicit in Jew hatred for thousands of years.

With the modern Jewish State of Israel maturing nicely at 72, the lies that generated anti-Semitism continue today from across the political spectrum, from extreme Islamists and with U.N. resolutions denying any ancient Jewish connection to the Western Wall, not to mention any Jewish roots there in general.

The United Nations could and should learn from the example of Facebook. Resolutions that deny undeniable Jewish history insult the U.N. mission. As for other media — all media — they should learn from the Facebook and Twitter examples.

For a media platform that could never police itself adequately from lies, rage baiting and hate — all things wrong — Facebook got this one right. And Twitter followed.

Charles O. Kaufman is president of B’nai B’rith International. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

*This bill (1) expands U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum education programming. The bill also (2) requires the museum to develop and nationally disseminate accurate, relevant, and accessible resources to improve awareness and understanding of the Holocaust. And, (3)
also authorizes various Holocaust education program activities to engage prospective and current teachers and educational leaders.

A political earthquake in the Republican party: New Hampshire's first time ever Joe Biden endorsement!

Echo editorial opinion published in the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper.

This year’s general election ballot presents the voter with a dilemma. We have wrestled with this year’s choices, as we imagine many voters have. Up and down the ticket we are faced with choices in political ideologies, personalities, backgrounds and governing styles.

Some choices are easy. We can wholeheartedly recommend Chris Sununu be elected to another term as governor. He has proven himself a capable leader when faced with an extreme and occasionally hostile legislature. 

During the COVID-19 crisis, he has deftly handled a situation that left many leaders flustered and swinging from one extreme reaction to the next.

In the race that has dominated political discourse for the past four years the choice is murkier. There is no love lost between this newspaper and President Donald J. Trump. The Union Leader was very quickly dismissed by then-candidate Trump after we failed to bestow on him our endorsement in the Republican primary four years ago.

We were hopeful with Trump’s win that he might change, that the weight and responsibility of the Oval Office might mold a more respectful and presidential man. We have watched with the rest of the world as the mantle of the presidency has done very little to change Trump while the country and world have changed significantly.

President Trump is not always 100 percent wrong, but he is 100 percent wrong for America. Trump has many admirable accomplishments from his first term in office. We can find much common ground with Trump supporters, including judicial appointments, tax policy, support for gun rights, even inroads to Middle East peace. Trump has been able to accomplish this despite many in the media and Congress working to stop him at every opportunity.

Since Trump took over, the national debt has exploded by more than 7 TRILLION dollars. While the last several trillion was in response to the COVID-19 economic crisis, at least the first three trillion was on the books well before the pandemic, while Trump was presiding over “...the best economy we’ve ever had in the history of our country.” (Trump’s words.)


The layman would expect that the best economy in history would be a time to get the fiscal house in order, pay down debt and prepare for a rainy day (or perhaps a worldwide pandemic). The real tragedy of this scenario is that the runaway spending under the Trump administration has flashed dollar signs in the eyes of Capitol Hill Democrats. Trillions in unchecked spending has them clamoring to birth the social programs of their dreams.

Federal spending is on an unsustainable path. The fact that it has continued under an allegedly conservative president is unbelievable.

Mr. Trump rightly points out that the COVID-19 crisis isn’t his fault, but a true leader must own any situation that happens on their watch. We may be turning a corner with this virus, but the corner we turned is down a dark alley of record infections and deaths. Mr. Trump is a self-proclaimed expert on a wide variety of topics, but when pushed on basic topics he doesn’t want to discuss, he very quickly feigns ignorance.

Donald Trump did not create the social-media-driven political landscape we now live in, but he has weaponized it. He is a consummate linguistic takedown artist, ripping apart all comers to the delight of his fanbase but at the expense of the nation. America faces many challenges and needs a president to build this country up. This appears to be outside of Mr. Trump’s skill set.

Building this country up sits squarely within the skill set of Joseph Biden. We have found Mr. Biden to be a caring, compassionate and professional public servant. He has repeatedly expressed his desire to be a president for all of America, and we take him at his word. Joe Biden may not be the president we want, but in 2020 he is the president we desperately need. He will be a president to bring people together and right the ship of state.

Biden is not perfect. We are not satisfied with his responses about his son Hunter’s foreign business dealings. His understanding of gun rights leaves a lot to be desired (Joe says we only need shotguns). He suggests cops faced with a deadly threat should “shoot them in the leg.” He also seems to be copying more pages out of the “Green New Deal” than we would like.

Our policy disagreements with Joe Biden are significant. Despite our endorsement of his candidacy, we expect to spend a significant portion of the next four years disagreeing with the Biden administration on our editorial pages.

Biden was among the most moderate in the crowded 2020 Democratic primary field, proposing some of the lowest new spending among that increasingly left-leaning group. We are hopeful that this is a sign of the thoughtful and pragmatic public servant President Joe Biden will be. Sadly, President Trump has proven himself to be the antithesis of thoughtful and pragmatic; he has failed to earn a second term.

Our endorsement for President of these United States goes to Joe Biden.

* While Joe Biden is the clear choice for president, it would be a disservice to the country to send him to the White House without a backstop. We suggest splitting the ballot and electing a healthy dose of GOP senators and representatives. The best governance often comes through compromise. The civility of the Biden administration will help foster such compromise, but a blue wave would be nearly as disastrous for this country as four more years of Trump. It would result in a quagmire of big government programs that will take decades to overcome.

Maine Writer Post Script!  Political earthquake!

Donald Trump is a swamp enabler - echo opinion

Echo opinion letter published in the Bozeman Montana, in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle: 

Donald Trump knew about the dangers of Covid and lied to the American people to protect the stock market, leading to the deaths of over 225,000 Americans.

He called military personnel and veterans “suckers” and “losers.” He’s a tax cheat and owes hundreds of millions to unknown entities. He’s trying to steal another term by making us doubt our election process. He’s a liar. He’s a fraud. He’s a racist. He belongs in jail, not in the White House.

Trump and all of his swamp enablers must go, including all the GOP incumbents who supported his illegal, racist administration, like Steve Daines and Greg Gianforte.  (Add Senator Susan Collins to this GOP mix.)

Let’s put an end to this nonsense once and for all. Vote Biden, Bullock, Cooney and Williams.  Cara Wilder, from Bozeman, Montana

Donald Trump and his family are out of touch with COVID suffering Americans

Echo article published in The Guardian 

#VoteBlue  #VoteBidenHarris2020

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump threaten to sue Lincoln Project

A billboard in New York City's Times Square, by The Lincoln Project, depicts Ivanka Trump presenting the number of New Yorkers and Americans who have died of COVID-19 and Jared Kushner next to a Vanity Fair quote.

Anti-Trump Republicans’ Times Square billboards accuse advisers of showing ‘indifference’ to Americans suffering amid pandemic

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have threatened to sue the Lincoln Project, if the anti-Trump Republicans do not remove two huge billboards from Times Square in New York City, in which they accuse the senior White House advisers of showing “indifference” to Americans suffering and dying under Covid-19.

Saying the billboards would stay up, the group called Kushner and Trump “entitled, out-of-touch bullies, who have never given the slightest indication they have any regard for the American people”.

More than 8.4m cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University, with a record high of 83,757 on Friday. As the virus surges, with the presidential election only 10 days away, the death toll has passed 223,000.

Last month, the virus reached the White House, infecting Donald Trump, his wife Melania Trump, their son Barron and senior members of staff. The president spent time in hospital. Kushner and Ivanka Trump did not announce positive tests.

The Lincoln Project is staffed by Republican operatives who are supporting Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee. It announced itself in February at Cooper Union in New York, where Abraham Lincoln gave a famous speech in 1860. Then, group member Rick Wilson cited “the great political philosopher Liam Neeson” when he said those on stage had “a particular set of skills, skills that make us a nightmare for people like Donald Trump”.

In August, Sarah Lenti, executive director of the Lincoln Project, told the Guardian a key aim was simply to distract the president.

“Some of these ads have an audience of one,” she said.

“That’s always been part of the strategy. Because every time he gets off message, spewing grievances, he’s not campaigning. The idea is to get him off message again and again and again.”

With 10 days to go until the election, Trump is staging rallies at which coronavirus mitigation measures are not observed, and claiming the US is “rounding the turn” in containing the surging pandemic.

But with its billboards in Times Square, a stone’s throw from Trump Tower, it seems the Lincoln Project may have succeeded in distracting the president’s daughter and son-in-law. On Friday, the Project posted to Twitter a letter from Marc Kasowitz, an attorney who has represented Donald Trump in cases involving allegations of fraud and sexual assault, in which he spelled out the billboards’ message.

“I am writing concerning the false, malicious and defamatory ads that the Lincoln Project is displaying on billboards in Times Square,” Kasowitz wrote. “Those ads show Ms Trump smiling and gesturing toward a death count of Americans and New Yorkers, and attribute to Mr Kushner the statement that ‘[New Yorkers] are going to suffer and that’s their problem’ … with body bags underneath.”

In September, Vanity Fair reported that at a meeting on 20 March, as the pandemic accelerated and with New York reeling, Kushner railed against New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, and said: “His people are going to suffer and that’s their problem.”

Ivanka Trump'’s gesture on the billboard appears to be taken from a controversial picture, tweeted in July, in which she promoted Goya black beans.

Kasowitz wrote: “Of course, Mr Kushner never made any such statement, Ms Trump never made any such gesture, and the Lincoln Project’s representation that they did are an outrageous and shameful libel. If these billboard ads are not immediately removed, we will sue you for what will doubtless be enormous compensatory and punitive damages.”

The Lincoln Project’s response was typically pugnacious.

“The level of indignant outrage Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump have shown towards the Lincoln Project for exposing their indifference for the more than 223,000 people who have lost their lives due to the reckless mismanagement of Covid-19 is comical,” a statement said.

“While we truly enjoy living rent-free in their heads, their empty threats will not be taken any more seriously than we take Ivanka and Jared. It is unsurprising that an administration that has never had any regard or understanding of our constitution would try to trample on our first amendment rights. But we fully intend on making this civics lesson as painful as possible.

“Jared and Ivanka have always been entitled, out-of-touch bullies, who have never given the slightest indication they have any regard for the American people. We plan on showing them the same level of respect. The billboards will stay up. We consider it important that in Times Square, the crossroads of the world, people are continuously reminded of the cruelty or density and staggering lack of empathy the Trumps and the Kushners have displayed towards the American people.”

America faces an epic choice ...

... in the coming weeks, and the results will define the country for a generation. These are perilous times. Over the last four years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth.



The country is at a crossroads. The Supreme Court hangs in the balance – and with it, the future of abortion and voting rights, healthcare, climate policy and much more. Science is in a battle with conjecture and instinct to determine policy in the middle of a pandemic. At the same time, the US is reckoning with centuries of racial injustice – as the White House stokes division along racial lines. At a time like this, an independent news organization that fights for truth and holds power to account is not just optional. It is essential.

Like many news organizations, the Guardian has been significantly impacted by the pandemic. We rely to an ever greater extent on our readers, both for the moral force to continue doing journalism at a time like this and for the financial strength to facilitate that reporting.