MARCH 13 THROUGH 25
MARCH
25, 2020
Trump
COVID-19 timeline…
Jan.
22: “We have it totally under control”
Feb. 28: “This is their
new hoax”
Mar. 9: “Last year 37,000 Americans died from the common
Flu. Think about that!”
Mar. 13: “I don’t take responsibility
at all.”
Mar. 16: “You were surprised. We were all surprised.”
March
17: “I’ve felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”
March 18: “It snuck up on us.”
March 20 - 70 cases. March
24 53,000+
Cashing
in on Degrading Public Lands: How Welfare Ranchers Reap a Beef Bonanza From Weeds
They Caused. CounterPunch
Coronavirus:
Hundreds of Asian Americans have been violently attacked over last month because
of ‘China virus’ racism, activists say. ... Incidents increased by ‘leaps
and bounds’ Independent
Why
is the U.S. Bombing Iraq During a Pandemic? ... Even as coronavirus spreads rapidly
across the globe, causing a health crisis of historic proportions, the U.S. military
is engaging in new military attacks in the Middle East. The U.S. must cease all
military interventions and redirect its military budget to combat the pandemic.
Left
Voice
House
members, Senate aides traded stocks in early days of coronavirus. ... Rep. Susan
Davis, a California Democrat, sold shares in Alaska Air and Royal Caribbean cruise
lines on Feb. 11. Politico
Trump
Won’t Order Vital Coronavirus Supplies Because Corporate CEOs Asked Him Not
To. ... They’re worried it could be bad for business. Vanity
Fair
Why
Did Joe Biden Disappear Right as the Coronavirus Pandemic Exploded? Jacobin
Expert:
US sanctions on Iran, Venezuela during pandemic could be genocidal. Intensified
US sanctions on Iran, Venezuela during the COVID-19 pandemic could amount to genocide,
a former UN expert warns. Gray
Zone
Related:
US government threatens families of Int’l Criminal Court staff if they
try Americans for war crimes
The International Criminal Court approved an investigation
into US war crimes in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded by
threatening to punish family members of ICC staff. Gray
Zone
The
Virus and Capitalism. ... The U.S. is in the midst of a full-blown public health
crisis made worse by systemic political dysfunction. The benchmark Imperial College
study suggesting that up to two million people in the U.S. could die from the
coronavirus epidemic assumes that the U.S. has an adequate healthcare system—
that no one dies from not getting treatment. It doesn’t. Without one, expected
deaths are much higher. CountPunch
Coronavirus
Pandemic Reveals Just How Devastating the Greed of For-Profit Insurance Industry
Has Become. ... Remember: For-profit insurers are in the business to make a profit.
Period. Tarbell
Trump:
'We can't let the cure be worse than the problem itself'. The
Hill
The
Virus of Capitalism Has Infected the COVID-19 Fight. TruthOut
Trump’s
Coronavirus Response Will Be His Toxic Legacy. ... There is no moment Trump can
ever rise to, he only sinks to his most base nature.
Rolling
Stone
Richard
Burr Wondering When Profiting Off Mass Suffering Suddenly Became A Crime In This
Country. Onion
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to Top
MARCH
24, 2020
It’s
Not Socialism. It’s Another Mega Wealth Transfer. Craig
Murray
The
Republican Corporate Bailout Is Obscene
Welfare for the rich will do nothing
to assuage the coronavirus crash. ... Over the next year, the United States will
almost certainly go through a depression.
HuffPost
'This
Is a Trap': Progressives Sound Alarm as GOP Attempts Sneak Attack on Social Security
in Coronavirus Stimulus Plan. ... "Senate Republicans are using the coronavirus
crisis as a cynical cover to attack our Social Security system." CommonDreams
Scheer
Intelligence: The Afghanistan War Turned Americans Into ‘Good Germans’ Popular
Resistance
Why
is the U.S. Bombing Iraq During a Pandemic? ... Even as coronavirus spreads rapidly
across the globe, causing a health crisis of historic proportions, the U.S. military
is engaging in new military attacks in the Middle East. The U.S. must cease all
military interventions and redirect its military budget to combat the pandemic.
Left
Voice
It's
morally repulsive how corporations are exploiting this crisis. Workers will suffer.
... Using power and privilege to exploit the weak and vulnerable in the face of
a common threat is morally repugnant. Call it ‘Burring’ after Richard
Burr’s stock sell-off. Guardian
The
Pathogenic Profits System: Beyond Begging, Praying, and Capital. CounterPunch
'Do
F-35s Fight Pandemics?' Amid Covid-19 Outbreak, Lawmakers Pushing For Even More
Useless Pentagon Spending. CommonDreams
Survive
and Revolt. CounterPunch
Republican
Operative in Press Corps Helps Trump Use Briefing on Pandemic to Attack Critics.
Intercept
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to Top
MARCH
23, 2020
We
Can’t Let COVID-19 Drive Us Into Authoritarianism. TruthOut/Chomsky
DOJ
seeks new emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic. ... One of the requests
to Congress would allow the department to petition a judge to indefinitely detain
someone during an emergency. Politico
NB:
Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, (is) trying to set up a $500bn slush fund for
the benefit of business, allowing them to ignore restrictions on using federal
funds for stock buybacks and on allowing executives to increase their wages.
Denmark’s
Idea Could Help the World Avoid a Great Depression ... “We are freezing the
economy.”
The
Atlantic
'An
Utter Disgrace': GOP Stimulus Plan Would Cut Taxes for Corporations While Denying
Benefits to Poorest. ... "Senate Republicans are using the COVID-19 pandemic
to cut corporate taxes again and stop you from getting paid sick leave."
CommonDreams
Trump
Disagrees With Top Immunologist Over Untested Drug Treatment for Covid-19. Intercept
Governor
Cuomo Calls For Medicaid Cuts in Midst of Pandemic. ... New York governor Andrew
Cuomo wants to cut the state’s Medicaid spending by $400 million in the next
year. ... he proposed $400 million cut is part of a bigger program to slash the
medicaid budget by $2.5 Billion over several years. Left
Voice
Senators
Cash In on COVID-19 as a Plundered Nation Reels. TruthOut
America’s
Commandos Deployed to 141 Countries and “Criminal Misconduct” Followed.
CounterPunch
After
Buyback Spree, Airlines Look to Record Lobbying to Secure Bailout. ... Airlines
spent more than ever on lobbying and campaign contributions in 2019. The spending
could help grease the skids for a bailout.
Sludge
Joseph
Stiglitz: Trump’s “Trickle-Down” Economic Plans Are Not Enough
to Meet Coronavirus Challenge. DemocracyNow
GOP
Senators Erupt in Laughter After Suggestion to Call Corporate Bailouts "Freedom
Payments" in Closed-Door Meeting With Mnuchin. ... I wonder how many 'freedom
payments' this senator has gotten for his campaign from the corporations they
are about to bail out?" CommonDreams
The
charge of the media brigade. ... an all-pervasive corporate media culture in the
U.S. prepares the way for a permanent state of war. And yet for all the column
inches and broadcast hours filled, the brainwashing is not succeeding. And this,
he suggests, is 'America's greatest virtue'. John
Pilger
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to Top
WEEKEND
OF MARCH 20-22, 2020
Weekend
Read: Giants: The Global Power Elite - by Peter Phillips.
... Who holds the purse strings to the majority of the world’s wealth? There
is a new global elite at the controls of our economic future, and here former
Project Censored director and media monitoring sociologist Peter Phillips unveils
for the general reader just who these players are. The book includes such power
players as Larry Fink, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon, and Warren Buffett
and offers prescriptions for how to create a more just and equitable world.
Project
Censored
Asked
at his news briefing on Thursday about the government's preparedness, Trump responded:
"Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion. Nobody
has ever seen anything like this before." (Oh? Do tell!!) There was considerable
knowledge about the risks of a pandemic and accurately predicted the very types
of problems Trump is now scrambling belatedly to address. "Crimson Contagion"
simulated influenza pandemic, by the Department of Health and Human Services in
a series of exercises that ran from last January to August. Read
more here 
Read
the DHHS report here
COVID-19
coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin. .... "By comparing the available
genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that
SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes, ..... the scientists concluded
it was the result of natural selection and not the product of genetic engineering.
Science
Daily
We
Are Facing Economic Collapse on Top of a Pandemic. What We Do Now Matters. TruthOut
Banks
Pressure Health Care Firms to Raise Prices on Critical Drugs, Medical Supplies
for Coronavirus.
Intercept
'Literally
Weaponizing Coronavirus': Despite One of World's Worst Outbreaks of Deadly Virus,
US Hits Iran With 'Brutal' New Sanctions. ... "As Iranians are ravaged by
the coronavirus, the U.S. is complicit in their death. This is a crime against
humanity." CommonDreams
A
Biden-Trump Election Is a Win-Win for Wall Street and a Loss for Our Democracy.
... So what can be done at this point? CommonDreams
Italy
has close to 2,000 deaths **in the last 5 days alone**: in a country with
1/5 the population of the U.S. (Today a total of 3400+ deaths) ... Last Sunday
Biden said, Italy had a universal healthcare system and they're struggling with
covid and that's why we don't need one. ... . The next day, US Air Force flew
500,000 virus testing kits from Italy to Memphis. The
Hill
Big
corporations are lining up at the Washington trough for assorted kinds of bailouts.
This is after they blew $7 trillion on unproductive stock buybacks to increase
their executive compensation metrics. - Ralph Nader
A
Pandemic is Declared, but not fo the Starving, the Preventable Sick, the Blockaded,
the Bombed.
John
Pilger
The
IDF Spokesman Announces: Continue to Shoot Palestinian Children Haaretz
“Coronavirus
Capitalism”: Naomi Klein’s Case for Transformative Change Amid Coronavirus
Pandemic. DemocracyNow
Release
Julian Assange from Belmarsh Prison before COVID-19 spreads. Change
Your
Man Finally in the Public Gallery. The Alex Salmond Trial Day 8. Craig
Murray
Refusal
by Pelosi to Consider Universal Cash Payments in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic
'Maddening,' Say Progressives. ... "This is a total failure of Democratic
Party leadership." CommonDreams
Illinois
Used Nearly 50 Facilities for Low-Income Seniors in Chicago as Polling Locations
on Tuesday. Intercept
Bashing
Probe of US War Crimes, Pompeo Threatens Family of ICC Staff With Consequences.
... "If there remained any doubt that the Trump administration's hostility
towards the court is fundamentally punitive and callous in nature, these doubts
have now been dispelled." CommonDreams
Economic
Update with Prof Wolff: Changing Strained Alliances of World Capitalism [March
2020].
YouTube
video (1:15)
Cuba’s
Contribution to Combatting COVID-19. CounterPunch
Amid
coronavirus pandemic, Bolsonaro’s Brazil begs for Cuban doctors – after
expelling them. ... Brazil’s far-right government requested the return of
thousands of Cuban doctors to help fight the coronavirus in rural areas. Not long
ago, President Jair Bolsonaro smeared the doctors as “terrorists” and
expelled them. Gray
Zone
The
Socialist Specter in Present-Day US Politics. CounterPunch
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to Top
MARCH
19, 2020
Pessimism
is the stealth enemy of progressivism. High
Tower
Striking
Truthdig Staffers Respond to the Publisher. CounterPunch
Italy
and UK rely on help from Cuba, China, Venezuela to fight coronavirus – as
US steps up brutal sanctions. ... Italy requested doctors from China, Cuba, and
Venezuela to contain the coronavirus, while Cuba rescued a ship of British citizens.
Meanwhile, US sanctions worsen the toll of the Covid-19 crisis in Iran and Venezuela.
Gray
Zone
Why
America Can't Respond to the Current Crisis ... “The system does not, is
not really geared to what we need right now … It is a failing, let’s
admit it.”
TruthDig
Warrior
cops endanger society. It’s time to get rid of them and start all over again.
New
Domain
12
Ways the U.S. Invasion of Iraq Lives on in Infamy. CounterPunch
Rebecca
Nagle: “Look, I fully support banning travel from Europe to prevent the spread
of infectious disease. I just think it’s 528 years too late.”
Your
Man Finally in the Public Gallery. The Alex Salmond Trial Day 7. Craig
Murray
Is
the DNC Once Again Orchestrating the Defeat of a Socialist Candidate? TruthOut
The
Supreme Court is Set to Strike a Major Blow Against Social and Environmental Protections.
CounterPunch
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to Top
MARCH
18, 2020
'Terrifying'
New Research Warns 2.2 Million Could Die From Coronavirus in US Without Drastic
Action. ... "Only now is the White House coming out of denial and heading
straight into saying it could not have been foreseen." CommonDreams
Impact
of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare
demand. Download
Report
US
ramps up sanctions devastating Venezuela’s health sector as coronavirus spreads.
... Promising to “smash” Venezuela’s government during a “maximum
pressure March,” Trump has imposed crushing sanctions that force Venezuela
to spend three times as much as non-sanctioned countries on coronavirus testing
kits. Gray
Zone GrayZone
Four
Reasons Civilization Won’t Decline: It Will Collapse. CounterPunch
Like
It or Not, Donald Trump Won the Biden-Sanders Debate TruthDig
The
UK Only Realised "In The Last Few Days" That Its Coronavirus Strategy
Would "Likely Result In Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths". ... Scientists
advising the government say an aggressive new approach adopted to attempt to "suppress"
the virus may have to be in place for 18 months. BuzzFeed
The
Unaccountable Nation. ... Exceptionalism, triumphalism, chauvinism. These characteristics
define most empires, including, like it or not, these United States. TruthDig
Coronavirus
Capitalism — and How to Beat It
Intercept
With
Nation Focused on Coronavirus, Rights Groups Warn Senate Against Handing Trump
'Terrifying' Spy Powers. ... "It's unthinkable to extend these spying powers
to the same agencies that have so often sidestepped safeguards and ignored Americans'
fundamental privacy rights." CommonDreams
The
Saudi Royal Family Appear Unaware of the Dangers of Settling Scores Among Themselves.
CounterPunch
'Corporate
Socialists' Denounced as Trump Considers Fracking Industry Bailout Amid Coronavirus
Outbreak. ... "Using a worldwide public health crisis to bail out the fracking
industry now would be a disgraceful waste of taxpayer dollars, and would spell
further climate calamity." CommonDreams
Polar
ice caps melting six times faster than in 1990s Guardian
India
Lobbies to Stifle Criticism, Control Messaging in U.S. Congress Amid Rising Anti-Muslim
Violence
Intercept
Democratic
Socialism Is About Freedom. Jacobin
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to Top
MARCH
17, 2020
“Something
Is Wrong in America”: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor & Michael Eric Dyson Debate
Sanders v Biden. DemocracyNow
High
Temperature and High Humidity Reduce the Transmission of COVID-19. SSRN
Why
outgreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to "flatten the
curve" WaPo
Who
Could Have Gotten Deserters from Trump’s Three Armies . . . and from Mine?
CounterPunch
Noam
Chomsky: “Bernie Sanders Has Inspired a Mass Popular Movement” Jacobin
Download
Large Venn Diagram
A
Case Study Of Corporate Media Disinformation.
Popular
Resistance
Team
Trump Tried to Bully the ICC Into Dropping War Crimes Probe But Failed. TruthOut
Government
to introduce 5-year limit on prosecuting armed forces for human rights abuses.
... Bill halves timeframe for litigation as critics claim confusion over definition
of ‘vexatious litigation’ is being used to block legitimate attempts
at investigations.
Independent
Elite
Media Dismiss Voter Suppression on Grounds That It’s “Complicated”
TruthOut
The
End Of The Corporation? Popular
Resistance
Super-rich
jet off to disaster bunkers amid coronavirus outbreak. ... ‘Self isolate’
for some of world’s richest means Covid-19 tests abroad, personal medics
and subterranean hideouts. Guardian
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to Top
MARCH
16, 2020
Description
of the Six Pandemic Intervals. CDC
Call
out for Israeli Apartheid Week- March 16-21
Under the theme, “United against
Racism,” advocating for Palestinian rights in the context of global struggles
against racial oppression. Popular
Resistance
Status
of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions: Interactive Map. KFF
Sick
Leave Loopholes: 'There’s a Giant Hole in Pelosi’s Coronavirus Bill'
... "In fact, the bill guarantees sick leave only to about 20 percent of
workers."
CommonDreams
South
Korea’s coronavirus response is the opposite of China and Italy – and
it’s working ... Seoul’s handling of the outbreak emphasises transparency
and relies heavily on public cooperation in place of hardline measures such as
lockdowns. ... While uncertainties remain, it is increasingly viewed by public
health experts as a model to emulate for authorities desperate to keep Covid-19
in check. SCMP
CORONAVIRUS
IN AMERICA
Just Say'n 'No,
I Don't Take Responsibility At All,' Says Trump, About Coronavirus Testing Lag.
Trump
Moves to Take Food Stamps From Over a Million People Trump
Blocks States From Expanding Medicaid in Response to Coronavirus. Federal
Government Delivers a Fraction of New Jersey’s Requests for Medical Equipment
— and No Ventilators, Remember
Susan Collins' Insistence Pandemic Flu Funding Be Cut From 2009 Stimulus Package
... "Collins went out of her way to stop funds from going to pandemic preparedness
in Maine. Whole
Foods Wants Workers to Pay for Colleagues' Sick Leave During Coronavirus Pandemic.
..."Absolute bullshit. With the amount Jeff Bezos makes in one day, he could
shut stores down and pay employees to stay safe." 'Corporate
Socialists' Denounced as Trump Considers Fracking Industry Bailout Amid Coronavirus
Outbreak "Using
a worldwide public health crisis to bail out the fracking industry now would be
a disgraceful waste of taxpayer dollars, and would spell further climate calamity." At
'Shock Doctrine Press Conference,' Trump Bails Out Oil Industry, Not US Families,
as Coronavirus Crisis Intensifies. ... "Trump has once again put the interests
of oil and gas executives ahead of the interests of people and communities." NBA
Managed To Get 58 Tests Despite Massive Shortage. As
of March 11, at total of 11,000 people have been tested in the US. North Korea
tests 10,000 per day. New
Trump Rule Would Deny Disability Benefits To People Who Can’t Work Full Time.
... If someone can work 30 hours per week, the proposed regulation says, then
they aren’t disabled enough for benefits. |
Corporate
Media Condone Destruction of Venezuela’s Voting Machines. ... Venezuela is
the only country in the world that does an on-the-spot citizens’ audit after
voting centers close, in which the electronic tallies of 53% of randomly selected
voting machines are compared to the physical receipts printed by those machines
and deposited by voters in a sealed box. FAIR
The
Boy I Love is [Not] in the Gallery – The Alex Salmond Trial Day 4. Craig
Murray
Naomi
Klein and Alicia Garza Discuss Calls to Shut Down Primaries and Debates. TruthOut
US
House rams through Nicaragua regime-change bill with zero opposition. ... Not
one member of the House of Representatives spoke up against a bipartisan bill
sponsored by hardliners that ramps up US economic warfare and regime-change measures
against Nicaragua’s elected government. Gray
Zone
Dear
Berners: Dementia Joe is How Much “Your” Party HATES You. CounterPunch
The
Grayzone and CODEPINK demand emergency OAS election observers in 2020 Democratic
presidential primary. ...(OAS) to provide emergency international election observers
in the US Democratic presidential primary, after many more irregularities than
alleged in Bolivia. Gray
Zone
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to Top
WEEKEND
OF MARCH 13-15, 2020
Weekend
Read: United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And
What We Can Do About It) - by Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff. Written
in the spirit of resistance and hope, United States of Distraction offers a clear,
concise appraisal of our current situation, and presents readers with action items
for how to improve it. “Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon emphasize what we can
do today,” says Ralph Nader in the foreword, “to restore the power of
facts, truth, and fair, inclusive journalism as tools for people to keep political
and corporate power subordinate to the engaged citizenry and the common good.”
Project
Censored
Chelsea
Manning Ordered Free From Prison — but Will Still Have to Pay Massive Fines.
Intercept
Related:
Chelsea Manning Needs Legal Funds to Resist a Grand Jury Subpoena.
Action
Network
REPORTERS
WITHOUT BORDERS
ANNUAL REPORT RSF
unveils 20/2020 list of press freedom’s digital predators. RSF unveils
20/2020 list of press freedom’s digital predators. Reporters
Without Borders Unprecedented
violence targets journalists - Press freedom has continued to decline in the second
year of President Donald Trump’s presidency. Rhetorical attacks from the
government and private individuals alike grew increasingly hostile... USA
rating List
of world's worst 'digital predators' stretches from India and Brazil to US. ...
Freedom of expression group names and shames alleged offenders on online censorship
and orchestrated repression.
Guardian |
Your
Man Kept Oot the Gallery: The Alex Salmond Trial Day 3. Craig
Murray
The
End Of The Corporation? Popular
Resistance
Jeremy
Scahill Makes the Definitive Case Against Joe Biden TruthDig
Biden
Wins, Sanders Lags: Naomi Klein & Alicia Garza on Calls to Shut Down Primaries
& Debates. DemocracyNow
Yanis
Varoufakis: “Syriza Was a Bigger Blow to the Left Than Thatcher” ...
Former Greek finance minister (is) publishing his secret recordings of the critical
Eurogroup meetings of 2015 -- and why the Left around Europe is struggling to
overcome Syriza’s disastrous legacy. Jacobin
The
Absurdity Of Trump’s Bid To Bail Out The Oil And Gas Industry. ... As the
Trump administration considers aid for companies hurt by the coronavirus pandemic,
it’ll be difficult to defend including oil drillers and gas frackers. HuffPost
“Let
Dairy Die” Activists May Face Jail Time, Sex Offender List for Protesting
Bernie Sanders.
Intercept
The
One-Choice Election TruthDig
The
Organization of American States Is Eroding Faith in Democracy. CounterPunch
Lockerbie
bomber conviction 'may have been miscarriage of justice'. ... Criminal cases review
commission approves fresh appeal over 1988 atrocity. Guardian
Alabama
bill may lift yoga ban in public schools but prohibit 'namaste' greeting. ...
Lawmakers move to lift decades-old ban, but the bill would continue to prohibit
chanting, mantras and the greeting. Guardian
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to Top
