All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Attacks on Asian Americans renew criticism that U.S. undercounts hate crimes – The Washington Post

Protesters attend an End the Violence Towards Asians rally in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park on Saturday. Since the start of the pandemic, violence targeting Asian Americans has risen dramatically.

Protesters attend an End the Violence Towards Asians rally in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park on Saturday. Since the start of the pandemic, violence targeting Asian Americans has risen dramatically. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

A spate of high-profile assaults on Asian Americans has renewed long-standing criticism from Democrats and civil rights groups that the U.S. government is vastly undercounting hate crimes, a problem that they say has grown more acute amid rising white nationalism and deepening racial strife.

The attacks — including several in Northern California over the past month that attracted national attention — followed months of warnings from advocates that anti-China rhetoric from former president Donald Trump over the coronavirus pandemic was contributing to a surge in anti-Asian slurs and violence.

Source: Attacks on Asian Americans renew criticism that U.S. undercounts hate crimes – The Washington Post

COVID-19 patients may lose their sense of taste and smell for up to five months

Sad, stressed woman wearing face mask during coronavirus outbreak

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — While the vast majority of COVID-19 patients will return to health within weeks of their infection, a new study reveals some may end up suffering the after-effects for months. Researchers from the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres say patients could lose their sense of taste and smell for up to five months…

The post COVID-19 patients may lose their sense of taste and smell for up to five months appeared first on Study Finds.

Deb Haaland, First Native American Cabinet Pick, Embodies Partisan Chasm

Confirm – now! President Biden’s choice for interior secretary faces her confirmation hearing on Tuesday. No other cabinet nominee has divided the two main parties as sharply as she has.

President Biden’s choice for interior secretary faces her confirmation hearing on Tuesday. No other cabinet nominee has divided the two main parties as sharply as she has.

International Pressure Mounts on Malaysia to Halt Deportation of Myanmar Nationals

The international community and local groups on Monday piled pressure on Malaysia to halt the imminent deportation of 1,200 Myanmar nationals to their home country weeks after a military coup there.

On the eve of the scheduled mass expulsion aboard Myanmar navy ships, Amnesty International and a Malaysian refugee rights group jointly petitioned the High Court to stop the process, saying the deportation would put people’s lives in danger.

The United States, meanwhile, urged Malaysia’s government to allow the Myanmar nationals access to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

The international community and local groups on Monday piled pressure on Malaysia to halt the imminent deportation of 1,200 Myanmar nationals to their home country weeks after a military coup there.

On the eve of the scheduled mass expulsion aboard Myanmar navy ships, Amnesty International and a Malaysian refugee rights group jointly petitioned the High Court to stop the process, saying the deportation would put people’s lives in danger.

The United States, meanwhile, urged Malaysia’s government to allow the Myanmar nationals access to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

“Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia today jointly filed for a judicial review in the Kuala Lumpur High Court to stop the government’s planned deportation of 1,200 individuals back to Myanmar in cooperation with the Myanmar military,” the two groups said in a joint statement.

Malaysia’s assurance last week that no refugees are being sent back is untrue, according to the groups. People who have been registered as refugees with UNHCR as well as more than a dozen minors who would be separated from a parent are among the 1,200 people slated for deportation on Tuesday, Amnesty and Asylum Access said.

“The judicial review aims to obtain a court order to prevent the deportation, and includes the names and details of three UNHCR document holders and 17 minors who have at least one parent still in Malaysia. This information dispels the assurance given by immigration authorities on 15 February that no refugees are among the 1,200 being sent back,” they said.

Officials with the Immigration Department did not immediately respond to requests from BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, for comment on Monday.

Also on Monday, a spokesperson for the American embassy in Kuala Lumpur told BenarNews that it had raised concerns with the government about the people being sent back to Myanmar.

Embassy officials had urged Malaysia to give the detained Myanmar nationals access to UNHCR so that the U.N. agency could determine if any refugees or asylum seekers were among those being sent back, the spokesperson confirmed.

Last week, UNHCR said that Malaysia had denied the agency access to its immigration detention centers since August 2019.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday indicated that more deportations “on [a] humanitarian basis” were planned.

The military government in Naypyidaw gives top priority to repatriate Myanmar nationals stranded abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said.

“In coordination with the authorities concerned of Malaysia, the Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar states that as the first batch, a total of 1,200 Myanmar nationals from respective detention centers of Malaysia will be sent back by naval relief vessels in February 2021,” said the statement posted on Facebook. 

Minorities at risk

Last week, Malaysia’s immigration chief said that no UNHCR cardholders or ethnic Rohingya were among the 1,200 people slated for deportation.

But according to Lilianne Fan, international director of the Geutanyoe Foundation, which works with refugees, asylum seekers who belong to minorities that face state-backed discrimination in Myanmar are among the 1,200.

“Some of them [being sent back] are undocumented while some are asylum seekers and many from ethnic minorities. They are Christian Chin minorities and people from conflict-riven Kachin and Shan states,” she told BenarNews.

“Because of the Malaysian government’s move, now every asylum seeker and refugee from Myanmar is afraid that they might be deported back. And now it is dangerous for everyone.”

At least nine members of the ethnic Chin community who, like Rohingya Muslims, face state-backed discrimination in their country, were among those being sent back, the Kuala Lumpur-based Alliance of Chin Refugees told BenarNews last week.

The U.N. refugee agency said on Saturday that at least six people registered with it were among the 1,200 Myanmar nationals being deported, Reuters reported.

Sending the Myanmar nationals back only weeks after a military coup in their homeland puts them in grave danger, Katrina Jorene Maliamauv, executive director of Amnesty International Malaysia, said in a statement.

“The Myanmar military’s human rights violations against protestors and dissidents has been widely documented. If Malaysia insists on sending back the 1,200 individuals, it would be responsible for putting them at risk of further persecution, violence, and even death,” Maliamauv said.

Over the weekend, riot police in Myanmar shot dead two people and injured two dozen others during protests against the Feb. 1 military coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s civilian leader.

Despite Malaysia’s critical remarks on the coup in Myanmar, working with that country’s military to send back detained migrants legitimizes ongoing human rights violations by the regime, Amnesty International and Asylum Access added.

“As the world condemns the political violence in Myanmar, we are appalled to note that the Malaysian government has instead chosen to send 1,200 individuals to a rapidly deteriorating situation,” the two groups said.

The Malaysian Bar also expressed grave concern Monday about the deportation.

“[T]he act of repatriation is occurring during a period when Myanmar is faced with a tumultuous political landscape, and this violates the customary international law principle of non-refoulement – a key legal principle that prohibits the return of individuals to their home country where they would potentially face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or other irreparable harm,” the group said in a statement. 

“Such actions will be perceived to undermine our commitment to ratify international instruments on human rights.”

Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

On Sunday, 27 Malaysian lawmakers and senators, in a joint letter, urged Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to stop the deportation.

“We, the undersigned elected representatives and senators, jointly call for an immediate halt to the repatriation of the detained Myanmar nationals back to Myanmar, which the government has announced that it will do so by the week of 21 February 2021,” they said in their letter.

“Malaysia must lead in giving protection to these people as we cannot be the country to send them back to a military junta with a long track record of serious human rights violations.”

Malaysia’s immigration chief said last week that the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur had arranged for the repatriation of the country’s citizens, while Reuters reported that the Myanmar military had offered to send navy ships to pick them up.

Three Myanmar-flagged vessels, including a military operations ship, appeared near Malaysia’s Lumut naval base on Saturday, according to Marine Traffic, a ship-tracking website.

The Myanmar nationals will leave from the naval base, a source at the Royal Malaysian Navy told BenarNews on Monday.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Why Neera Tanden’s nomination to be Biden’s budget chief looks doomed

Fake offense while not disowning Trump assault of US Congress is shameful beyond belief – GOP and Yellow Dog sham.

Neera Tanden, nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), testifies at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee on February 10, 2021. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Tanden looks like she’ll be the first cabinet nominee sunk by old tweets.

It’s increasingly hard to see how Neera Tanden will survive her Senate confirmation process.

Tanden is President Joe Biden’s nomination to lead the United States Office of Management and Budget, an office tasked with planning and overseeing the implementation of the federal budget once Congress passes it. Tanden, the president of the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress, looks to be Biden’s first cabinet pick to not be confirmed by a narrow Democratic-led Senate. Her old tweets are a big part of the reason.

Biden’s administration has emphasized the historic nature of Tanden’s nomination; if confirmed, she’d be the first woman of color and first Asian American woman to lead OMB. She also spent part of her childhood on public assistance, an unusual background for someone in that position. But much of Tanden’s resume is being overshadowed by her online posting — at least 1,000 tweets raking both Republicans and Bernie Sanders-wing Democrats over the coals — that Tanden quietly started deleting in November 2020.

Moderate Republicans and at least one crucial moderate Democrat whose votes Tanden needs to be confirmed aren’t taking kindly to her rhetoric. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a key Senate swing vote, said on Friday he’d oppose Tanden’s confirmation. Manchin’s statement looked to be the beginning of the end for Tanden, who needs 51 votes to be confirmed in a Senate that’s split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans.

“I believe her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget,” Manchin said. His statement was followed by moderate Republican Sens. Susan Collins (ME) and Mitt Romney (UT) opposing Tanden on Monday.

“Sen. Romney has been critical of extreme rhetoric from prior nominees, and this is consistent with that position,” a Romney spokesperson told Vox. “He believes it’s hard to return to comity and respect with a nominee who has issued a thousand mean tweets.”

So far, the White House is sticking by its nominee, mounting an outreach campaign to senators of both parties to try and get them on board. All of Biden’s other cabinet picks so far have passed their Senate confirmations; many with support from both parties.

“We have been working the phones, in touch with Democrats and Republicans and their offices through the course of the weekend,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday, adding that the White House still sees a path for Tanden.

But the extremely tight math here means that unless one Senate Republican decides to vote yes for Tanden, her nomination can’t proceed. And with Collins and Romney already down as noes, it could be especially difficult to persuade fellow moderates like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to buck their party. There’s an obvious irony to Senate Republicans being so up in arms about Tanden’s tweets. After all, many spent the last four years defending an endless barrage of insulting tweets by President Donald Trump.

Tanden’s current dilemma illustrates a lot of the complex dynamics between the progressives and establishment wings in the Democratic party. It also shows the tricky math of an evenly split Senate and the power of individual senators to blow up pieces of Biden’s agenda. Even though Tanden has done plenty to anger the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party, moderates are the ones now poised to sink her.

Ironically, Tanden is largely seen as the OMB pick who would be friendliest to progressive priorities because she doesn’t seem overly concerned with deficit spending. If her nomination goes down, her replacement could wind up being more fiscally hawkish, and likely less historic.

The controversy around Tanden, explained

The controversy Tanden finds herself in underscores some age-old wisdom: Never tweet.

Tanden has been a prolific Twitter poster since the 2016 election. A close ally of Hillary Clinton, she sparred with the Sanders campaign during the 2016 primary and beyond. In a 2018 tweet that is still up, Tanden said, “Russia did a lot more to help Bernie than the DNC’s random internal emails did to help Hillary.” Unlike the friendlier 2020 presidential primary between Sanders and Biden, the 2016 primary left a bitter and longstanding rift between the Sanders and Clinton camps.

In addition to her tweets about Sanders and the left, Tanden has also been unsparing in her criticism of Republicans. She once called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “Voldemort” and tweeted that Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was “the worst.” Manchin was never personally targeted by Tanden’s tweets, but he is close with Collins.

“I said them, I feel badly about them, I deleted tweets over a long period of time,” Tanden told senators during her confirmation hearing, adding, “I’d say the discourse over the last four years on all sides has been incredibly polarizing.”

Tanden’s February 9 Senate Budget Committee confirmation hearing — chaired by Sanders — yielded perhaps one of the most memorable lines in confirmation hearing history, from the colorful Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA).

“I have to tell you, I’m very disturbed about your personal comments about people,” Kennedy told Tanden. “It wasn’t just about Republicans. And I don’t mind disagreements on policy, I think that’s great; I love the dialectic, but the comments were personal. I mean, you called Sen. Sanders everything but ‘an ignorant slut.’”

“That is not true, senator,” Tanden responded. Even so, she was very apologetic, repeatedly saying she regretted what she had written.

CLIP: Exchange between Senator Kennedy and OMB nominee Neera Tanden.@SenJohnKennedy: “You called Senator Sanders everything but an ‘ignorant slut.'”

Full video here: https://t.co/vjUdxHtPdu pic.twitter.com/OtXAAz7c8B

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 10, 2021

Though Sanders was more polite to Tanden than Kennedy, he also raised not just her personal attacks against him, but also concerns over the millions in corporate donations the Center for American Progress has accepted under her tenure.

“At a time when the wealthy and large corporations have extraordinary influence over the economic and political life of this country, I must tell you that I am concerned about the level of corporate donations that the Center for American Progress has received under your leadership,” Sanders said during the confirmation hearing. (Sanders appears generally supportive of Tanden’s nomination, though he hasn’t yet said exactly how he’ll vote.)

Tanden is certainly not the only one who has tweeted a lot of things they regret. But tweeting mean things about the very people who are tasked with confirming you to a consequential government position doesn’t necessarily set you up for success. In her statement opposing Tanden’s nomination, Collins said her “past actions have demonstrated exactly the kind of animosity that President Biden has pledged to transcend.”

Tanden’s tweets were always expected to be her weak spot in her confirmation hearings in a closely divided Senate. But all it took was one Democrat to sink her, and Republicans are looking unlikely to come to her aid.

What’s next for Tanden in the confirmation process

For now, the Biden administration is pressing forward with Tanden’s confirmation, which will have a committee vote this week.

“The president would not have nominated her if he did not think she would be an excellent OMB director,” Psaki said. “He nominated her because she’s qualified, she’s someone with a proven experience and record of working with different groups and organizations with different political beliefs.”

The director of the Office of Management and Budget has a big hand in elevating certain priorities in the president’s budget and it’s a position that works closely with the White House. Having the head of OMB in place is especially critical to Biden right now; the president and congressional Democrats are currently working to pass a budget reconciliation bill to advance Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan through Congress and get it passed. If and when the House and Senate do pass the budget reconciliation bill, it will be up to the federal government — including OMB — to actually implement and execute the budget.

Right now, Senate Democrats and Biden’s White House are trying to lock down any possible Republican votes for Tanden before they weigh whether to pull her nomination. White House officials have pointed to conservative groups like the Chamber of Commerce supporting Tanden, as well as Republican names like former Sen. Jeff Flake and conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt.

“I think it’s too soon to make that decision,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) told reporters on Monday. “However, we need to measure what support she may have among other Republicans.” Durbin added he thought it was likely too late to change Manchin’s mind.

If they can’t, Biden is left with a few tough options. The most likely one is starting the nomination process all over again with a new nominee. Politico’s Tyler Pager recently reported that two contenders include Gene Sperling, a former top economic adviser to former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and former California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff Ann O’Leary. Earlier in the year, progressives raised alarm bells that Biden might nominate his now deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed to the position because of Reed’s long record as a deficit hawk.

The less likely possibility is if Biden uses a recess appointment to put Tanden in the OMB position — appointing her when the House and Senate are both in recess. Theoretically, this option could save Biden some time looking for a replacement and allow him to get his first choice at OMB. But it could hit procedural snags in the Senate and anger Manchin and moderate Republicans at the same time. Biden, a Senate institutionalist, may not want to go there.

In the meantime, his and Tanden’s remaining options are looking ever slimmer.