via Stop Saying more have died from Coronavirus than in Vietnam: US War Killed a Million There
Category: Uncategorized
Apparently we need more defence than green new energy
The president erupted at his top advisers when they showed him polling data indicating eroding support in key states due to his bungled coronavirus response.
via Trump Erupts At Campaign Team As His Poll Numbers Slide | HuffPost
We have been subjected to much nonsensical disinformation that Sweden has kept its economy open and is faring no worse in infections than countries with closed economies and without the economic consequences of closed-downed economies. The fact of the matter is that de facto Sweden’s economy is closed and is doing no better than anyone’s else’s, and its infection rate is still rising.
Sweden closed universities and high schools, banned gatherings of large groups, asked people to avoid non-essential travel, and advised those ill and over 70 to stay at home. Sweden did not require restaurants, bars, and gyms to close, but business is down by 70% as people have avoided the risk. That decline could be larger than in the US where restaurants are permitted to provide takeouts. In Sweden the hotel occupancy rate has dropped from 60% to 10%. Sweden’s economy is “open” only in words.
via In Effect Sweden’s Economy Is Also Closed, by Paul Craig Roberts – The Unz Review
Where one stands on the closedown depends on where one stands on other issues. If you are a libertarian, you oppose the closedown because it interferes with your freedom and keeps useless old people alive who cost you payroll tax dollars. It you are a Trump-hater like the New York Times you blame trump for understating the threat and not closing down soon enough. If you are a Trump supporter you blame China and expect China to pay for it by forfeiting their trillion dollar holding of US government bonds.
Those decrying the closedown are unaware of the mischief they are making. They have set it up for the elites, who have taken us for another “bailout the one percent ride,” to blame the resulting economic depression on the closedown. The US economy has been in a long-term recession. Growth in income and wealth has accrued to the top few percent who own the majority of stocks and bonds driven up in price by the Fed’s money printing. The rest of the population has been hurt by the offshoring of their jobs and by the financialization of the economy that leaves them little or no discretionary income after they pay their rent or mortgage, car payment, credit card payment and student debt.
via The Real Economic Problem Is Not The Closedown, by Paul Craig Roberts – The Unz Review
Fossil Fuels Losing the War (ODT
via Even German Conservatives, Corporations make Green New Deal, Climate “Top Priority” after Pandemic
In the depths of global disaster, it’s way too early to make detailed predictions about the energy landscape of future decades. Nonetheless, it does appear that the present still-raging pandemic is forcing dramatic shifts in the way we consume energy and that many of these changes are likely to persist in some fashion long after the virus has been tamed. Given the already extreme nature of the heating of this planet, such shifts are likely to prove catastrophic for the oil and coal industries but beneficial for the environment — and so for the rest of us. Deadly, disruptive, and economically devastating as Covid-19 has proved to be, in retrospect it may turn out to have had at least this one silver lining.
via The Beginning of the End for Oil? Energy in a Post-Pandemic World
Always a great Reminder (ODT)
Barack Obama’s team watched Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech whenever they were “really annoyed” with Tony Abbott, one of the president’s senior advisers has revealed.
He’s already teed off with pending legislation to further erode workers’ rights, flagging the slashing of “red tape” to let loose the environmental vandals and tax breaks to non-tax paying corporations – all so predictable and all so self-defeating; a return to a “normal” that collapsed when faced with a stress test. When the next virus hits, perhaps just as virulent but more deadly, when the climate fights back even harder we will all be truly fucked. Despite Orange Donny’s advice, sticking a bug-zapper up your arse and sucking on your washing machine’s drain hose will be of no use, nor will Scotty’s god be getting us to the other side.
* * * * *
Tories stand by their convictions. Stupid, ignorant, world-destroying convictions based on disproven economic fantasies and ancient books full of primitive morality and magic people. But convictions, nonetheless. (Paraphrasing Bill Maher).
via Watchin’ Scotty Grow – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The pandemic is putting America’s deepening class divide into stark relief. Four classes are emerging.
The five places in the U.S. with the highest daily growth rate of Covid-19 cases are all linked to meatpacking plants with active outbreaks. Requiring meat plants to stay open would likely not only put workers at risk, but surrounding communities, too.
Public Good what’s Public Good? (ODT)
So will the COVID-19 vaccines also sell like the flu vaccine for $20 a shot—bankrupting poorer countries to protect their people? Or will we follow what Salk said about the polio vaccine—that it belongs to the people? The U.S. position is clear: vaccines belong to companies even if their research was publicly funded. And if other countries wish to compulsorily license a successful vaccine using the pandemic exception of WTO/TRIPS rules, the U.S. can still use USTR Special 301 and Super 301 sanctions against them as they are threatening to do with India. And as we know from the history of U.S. sanctions, the U.S. believes that it has a right to sanction any country in the world, even if such sanctions violate international humanitarian law.
via Public Health and Private Profits Under COVID-19 Pandemic – CounterPunch.org
Is this the “work” News Corp is demanding workers to go back to? I doubt it. They don’t seem to define what jobs they calling for a return to 60 News Corp papers without advertisers? (ODT)
via Coronavirus Australia: A retail property apocalypse is unfolding – and it’s going to be unpleasant
Though trust in the government may not be especially high right now, almost across the board, the experts I spoke to said the government needs to be part of any meaningful solutions to our broken employment system: from equalizing pay to establishing comprehensive wellness protections and weaving a social safety net strong enough to catch workers when they fall.
EmploymentSchawbel is incredulous that companies will, for instance, expand paid leave on their own — or at all. “It’s bigger than corporations. Governments have to promote it and force companies to do it. But companies own our government, so they won’t.”
Orkin, too, has doubts, but they’re laced with optimism. “My hope — I speak from a place of hope but not entire confidence that this will all happen — is that companies will pay ever more attention to these essential workers and be ever more thoughtful about designing policies to support them. And it goes well beyond financial support (though that’s a good place to start). It goes deep into health, wellness and creating environments and workplaces that are nurturing, and creating space for creativity, for personal connection — the things that make us human.”
There’s one thing she is sure of. “Many of our clients are [asking], ‘Who are we going to be on the other side of this?’ It will not be who we were going in.”
via The Coronavirus Reveals Everything That’s Wrong With Work In America | HuffPost Australia
Fox News has fired a Fox Business contributor and now a couple of FoxNation contributors, but the real sources of misinformation remain: The entire primetime lineup. Every single one of them from Tucker Carlson to Sean Hannity is guilty of spreading misinformation about Donald Trump, COVID-19, Republicans and more. Maybe the only honest person left there is Chris Wallace, whom Trump is desperate for Fox to fire.
Until Fox News cleans up their primetime act, firings like this are just intended to pretend they actually give a damn about misinformation
via Fox News Fires Diamond And Silk But Keeps Hannity, Ingraham And Carlson | Crooks and Liars
In the week ending April 17, 22,351 people died in England and Wales – double the five-year average for that time of year and the highest weekly death toll since comparable records began in 1993.
Of the 11,854 deaths above the five-year average, 8758 were related to coronavirus. This leaves 3096 unexplained ‘excess’ deaths. Experts warned these deaths could be the result of people being reluctant to seek treatment in hospital for conditions unrelated to COVID-19.
Coronavirus: Britain’s true death toll 40 per cent higher than official figures
Is America, in lockdown, with 26 million unemployed and entering a new depression, up for a confrontation and Cold War with China?
For that appears to be where the GOP wishes to lead us.
The Rupert Murdoch owned The Wall Street Journal ran back-to-back editorials last week urging a more confrontational stance toward Beijing and endorsing GOP plans for new defense spending on U.S. air and naval forces in the Western Pacific.
Up for a New Cold War — With China?, by Pat Buchanan – The Unz Review
“There’s pretty much nothing to get scared of. It’s not the Spanish Flu that killed 15 million people just after the First World War … I’m 80, I should be really scared. Guess what? I’m not really scared.”
Mr Harvey was pleased to note revenue across his national chain of electronics stores up sharply amid huge consumer demand in recent weeks.
“You know, this is an opportunity,” he said.
“Our sales are up in Harvey Norman in Australia by nine per cent on last year. Our sales in freezers are up 300 per cent. And what about air purifiers? Up 100 per cent.”
Never let a chance go by – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Ignoring the warnings of scientists and public health experts, President Trump threatens to disastrously extend his coronavirus chronology from hell into an increasingly painful future by “reopening” the country too soon. By so doing, he will only accelerate the day when the World Leadership Trophy, held by America since 1946, is handed to the People’s Republic of China.
How did Japan get to this point? The country had initially been held up as having one of the more effective responses to the coronavirus in the early days of the pandemic. Yet, its curve has not even started to flatten like those of its neighbours, South Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
My thought for the day
The Office of the American President was once viewed by its people as an office of prestige and importance. Trump has reduced it to one of ridicule and contempt.
via A very unstable genius – » The Australian Independent Media Network
“Precarious” labour is not Casual. Are these untenured workers “self- employed” How will they be defined by the JobSeeker program? (ODT)
AN INTRIGUING development in Australia’s media landscape this year is that it appears ABC’s Insiders, a substantial television program paid for by taxpayers, has become a vehicle for the rehabilitation and promotion of Rupert Murdoch’s tawdry media empire.
“There’s just no transparency or accountability around this,” Steggall told Guardian Australia. “We’ve seen what happened with sport rorts. We’re talking about commonwealth money at a time when we know the economy has taken a hit due to coronavirus, and I think it should be properly investigated.”
AdvertisementThe Australia Institute analysis is based in part on a legal opinion by barristers Fiona McLeod SC and Lindy Barrett, which said Taylor does not have constitutional authority over electricity or legislative authority to fund projects as proposed under the Ungi scheme.
The bipartisan China bashing is one more indication of the decline of the US empire. China has quickly grown to be the world’s second largest economy and is now pulling through the pandemic in far better shape than the United States.
As of April 22, China had more than 82,000 coronavirus cases and more than 4,600 deaths, and had gone six consecutive days without a COVID-19 death. The United States, a country with about one-fourth China’s population, had nearly 850,000 cases and more than 47,000 deaths. (While China has been accused of undercounting its casualties, so are most countries in the world, including the United States, according to a survey in The New York Times.)
via Trump trots out Blaming China for his own Pitiful Covid-19 Failures
Well, now we have more possible evidence that Trump wasn’t hyping the drug for personal profit:
A top Health and Human Services official who said he was transferred from his post for pushing back on “efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections” felt pressured to rush access to chloroquine treatments for the coronavirus after President Donald Trump had a conversation about it with a mega-rich donor, a source close to the doctor told NBC News.
Dr. Rick Bright said he was instructed to implement a national program aimed at expanding access to the drug without proper controls and despite the lack of peer-reviewed clinical data on the drug’s effectiveness following a conversation Trump had with Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, the source said.
Ellison, one of the president’s top supporters in the tech industry, is a member of the White House economic recovery task force. He hosted a big-money fundraiser for Trump at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, in February.
via Trump Sold America A Malaria Drug Bill Of Goods To Please His Big Donor | Crooks and Liars
Washington, DC, chef and emergency-food activist José Andrés proposed an elegant solution to two looming problems: Have the federal government pay idled restaurants to produce food for hungry people—”supporting millions of jobs while also feeding millions of people in desperate need.”
via California Is Going to Pay Restaurants to Deliver Meals to At-Risk Seniors – Mother Jones
Dems call for postal voting in November and guess what(ODT)
. “Debt servitude”This is far from ancient history. Ask the college graduate or potential college student today about the toxic cloud of debt hovering above them, and wonder at a political and economic system that makes bankruptcy or “forgiveness” of college debt all but illegal.
The Morrison Government’s JobKeeper scheme is in trouble. By privatising the administration of JobKeeper to businesses and privatising its funding to the banks, millions of workers are in limbo. Millennial industrials relations lawyer Daniel Anstey reports.
Michael WestJobReaper: flaws in JobKeeper Scheme leave businesses and workers high and dry – Michael West
Currently, less than 1% of Defence’s budget goes into its innovation funds. There’s no point investing billions in military capability if it doesn’t support Australia’s needs.
The ADF are a highly-skilled, well trained, well-resourced, mobile workforce who are being wasted on war games.
Forty-one Australian soldiers died in Afghanistan. Eighty Australians have died in the last couple of months from the coronavirus.
Perhaps old generals are not the best people to equip us for the world of the future.
via Time to rethink the purpose of the ADF – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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