Opinion

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Fired whistleblower physician Dr. Ming Lin, backed by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, filed suit Thursday against former employer PeaceHealth, one of its top administrators and a national medical staffing firm, seeking damages and reinstatement after his March dismissal from a Bellingham hospital.Lin, 58, was fired from PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center after publicly protesting what he called inadequate workplace measures to protect hospital personnel and patients from the COVID-19 disease. He became a global cause célèbre among health care workers w...

Don’t know what it is about warm weather that seems, more so than other seasons, to pull always-present racial tensions to the fore — probably nothing, probably just a perception — but recent high-profile events are conglomerating in such a way as to portend a long, hot summer. “Hot” being a metaphor. And not just in Minneapolis, but across the nation.Start with the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. Arbery, 25, was jogging in a suburban neighborhood near his home and was shot dead after being pursued, for the purpose of interrogation, by two white men who told police they thought he was a bur...

Florida’s senior U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio should make the most of his talents as “Trump whisperer.” He could help elevate the country’s stature in the eyes of a disappointed world.This week, Republican leaders tapped Rubio to be acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of the most powerful committees in Congress.His predecessor, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, is under investigation for recent suspicious stock transactions after being briefed about the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. He has stepped aside.Rubio, the committee’s most influential and knowledgeable member, is th...

There’s a powerful case to be made that the coronavirus crisis — with its mounting evidence that earlier and more aggressive U.S. intervention in March could have saved thousands of lives — isn’t the first or only time that people have died needlessly because of Donald Trump’s unfitness for the presidency. For more than two years, civilians in Yemen — where a humanitarian crisis caused by a ceaseless Saudi Arabian military campaign has killed tens of thousands and exposed millions to the risk of starvation and disease — have successfully convinced top Americans in both political parties that it...

MIAMI — Latinos say they are skeptical of federal authorities’ response to the coronavirus, but they generally support provisions in the new financial stimulus bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, according to a new national poll released by Democratic-leaning organizations Wednesday.The survey, conducted May 10 to May 16 by the research firm Latino Decisions, was commissioned by the nonprofits UnidosUS, SOMOS and the progressive advocacy group MoveOn. Polling in all 50 states — including over-samples in Florida, Arizona, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois and Califor...

Since January, President Donald Trump has alternately minimized the risks of the coronavirus, oversold his administration’s response and exaggerated possible treatments and vaccines, all while lashing out against experts who dare buck the line of the moment.Friday was par for the course, with a Rose Garden announcement of “Operation Warp Speed” — uniting the Departments of Health and Human Services and Defense to produce a vaccine as early as year’s end. Good luck, good scientists, but beware the hypeman’s promises.This press conference came, surely coincidentally, the day after Dr. Rick Brigh...

Historically, times of crisis have brought out the best in U.S. policymaking. The Great Depression ushered in the New Deal. The Cuyahoga River burning due to industrial pollution in 1969 gave us the Environmental Protection Agency. What might the coronavirus-fueled public health and economic emergencies lead to? If we follow another example from history, the answer just might be universal child care.The crisis facing our nation today shines a spotlight on the shortcomings of our health care delivery system, flaws in our democratic process and racial and environmental injustices. Perhaps more t...

Senior advisor to the president and guy who looks like he’s wearing a suit his mom bought him, Jared Kushner, opened his mouth earlier this week and something awful fell out. When asked about the administration’s response to the pandemic, the world-renowned failure claimed victory over the virus that has left more than 60,000 Americans dead and counting. Anybody else feel successful?Jared is just about as detached from reality as you would expect someone who was born rich and spent their life failing upwards to be. Jared and his father in law are a lot alike (insert Ivanka joke here). They bot...

After President Trump set off a wave of calls to emergency poison lines on Thursday by suggesting that people could protect themselves against Covid-19 by drinking disinfectant, something in me snapped. I have a question for the 46 percent of Americans who approve of his job performance: Do you think maybe your standards are a bit too low? Our president’s ramblings on Thursday were the stuff you hear from a slobbering drunk at the dark end of the bar. It was beyond painful to watch his earth-based health advisors stare at their shoes in horror, as he went on and on, deeper into the abyss.After th...

It’s been a generation since the right-wing activist Grover Norquist said his movement’s goal wasn’t to eliminate government, but merely to “shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub.” Since then, the failure of a downsized and disinterested government to respond to crises like Hurricane Katrina seemed to have proved the empty fallacy of those words. And today, you’d think the federal government’s botched-in-every-way response to the coronavirus would be the exclamation point. Instead, we find Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, his clothes soaking wet, and his thumbpri...

We could be all wrong about Donald Trump.Maybe America isn’t in the grips of a madman. There could be a more benign reason for his bizarre and erratic behavior.Perhaps it’s something as simple as this: The president just wants to be loved.Trump uses the “L” word repeatedly during his coronavirus briefings. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere, at a moment we least expect it. Then he moves on to something so ridiculous that we forget that he even said it.He uses the term — love — to describe make-believe relationships with racial and ethnic minorities who don’t particularly care for him. He lumps ...

Some men just want to watch the world burn. That’s the only explanation for Mitch McConnell suggesting that instead of expanding federal aid to states, that they be allowed to file for bankruptcy.First, let’s provide some context. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, state tax revenue is down, way down. Due to the coronavirus pandemic state spending is up, way up. Turns out it’s not entirely cost effective to bid against other states and the federal government for life-saving medical equipment. Who knew? States like New Jersey and New York have thus far taken the brunt of the COVID-19 damage and w...

There are few people less qualified to give medical advice than Donald Trump. He eats fast food because someone told him it has less germs and he doesn’t exercise because he thinks you only have a certain amount of energy available in your lifetime. He is a doofus.Despite his complete and utter lack of medical knowledge, the president insists on giving medical advice and recommending unproven drugs with dangerous side effects to treat COVID-19. Do not take medical advice from a man who thinks a filet 'o fish is a vegetable.The drugs in question are chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which are...