Tag: Coronavirus
Trump doesn’t care because the DEAD DON’T VOTE (ODT)
Esteemed medical journal The Lancet on Friday took an unusual step towards calling on American voters to remove President Donald Trump from office in November, condemning the Trump administration’s “incoherent” response to the coronavirus pandemic and expressing shock at the CDC’s inability to cope with the public health crisis.
The journal’s frustration with Trump centered on the president’s downplaying of the pandemic and his refusal to coordinate a robust national effort of social distancing, lockdown orders, and a testing regime to stem the Covid-19 outbreak.
The (American) Fat Lady hasn’t sung yet: Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health, said the virus might have been spreading quietly in humans for years, or even decades, without causing a detectable outbreak.
Why would a medically competent country be investigated by a medically incompetent one? Especially since we know America’s independent investigation SOP: “Current and former staff members of the OPCW have denounced the organization’s IIT report alleging Syrian government sarin use at Ltamenah, criticizing its reliance on rumor, hearsay, “scientifically flawed” claims and the influence of unqualified, secret “experts” aligned with the Western-backed opposition. If we go by demonstrated competence in this field, shouldn’t it be the other way round?”
via Objections to an Independent Investigation of China, by Godfree Roberts – The Unz Review
Trump’s accounting methods like his tax returns are not to be publicly seen (ODT)
Those states — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Delaware — have recorded 35,718 deaths out of a combined population of about 53.6 million. That mortality rate of 66.6 per 100,000 for the region exceeds the current figure for every European country except Belgium, which, unlike the U.S., includes in its count a large number of deaths in nursing homes that are suspected of being virus-related, but have not been confirmed by testing.
“When @realDonaldTrump makes a macabre ranking, by pointing the finger at Belgium to give the impression that all is well in the U.S.A. I find it disgraceful, the basest of politics.”
via Trump Uses Sleight-of-Hand to Hide His Failure to Save Lives
Trump’s predictions are as solid as Swiss Cheese 60k to 70k now 100k and that’s after underquoting the numbers ” I did better than doing nothing” says Trump. Sorry Mr Trump but Ameriricans were left to scramble and they alone have done their best with minimal help from you. You did say “I’m not responsible”. They heve hed more help from China and your declaration “It’s not up to the Fed” proved actions speak louder than ” We are gaunna we have ordered”. false promises. (ODT)
“So, yeah, we’ve lost a lot of people. But if you look at what original projections were — 2.2 million — we’re probably heading to 60,000, 70,000,” Mr Trump said at a press briefing on Monday.
On Wednesday, the number of deaths passed 60,000, eclipsing the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War.
The death toll currently stands at 62,406, according to the latest figures provided by the US Centers for Disease Control.
On her Fox Business show, anchor Maria Bartiromo complained that the PPP provision “doesn’t make any sense to me” because the loan goes “right out the window to its employees, who are at home.”
On America’s Newsroom, Bartiromo complained that there are restaurant owners who feel that the PPP loans aren’t going to “do anything for me once things open again because I have no revenue. Yes, maybe I save those people from being out of a job because I gave my employees the money, but for the viability of my business, that’s questionable.”
On Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Fox Business host Charles Payne about the “75/25” regulation. Payne said that he “reached out to the administration” to discuss the provision, but “they are saying they are not going to change that.”
Fox & Friends hosted the owner of a Crunch gym franchise, who complained that the bill isn’t suitable for health clubs. Kilmeade told him that Congress “can’t tell you how to run your business, you have to tell them what it takes to run your business.” Kilmeade also claimed that “unemployment is so attractive now, a lot of [employees] don’t want their jobs back.”
On Fox & Friends, Kilmeade told Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia that “these restaurant owners can’t live with 75% [of the loan] going to labor” because “many of these people don’t want their part-time jobs back.”
Kilmeade also made this argument on the April 9 edition of Fox & Friends, saying that if the goal is to help small businesses, “don’t make them take 75% of that grant money and put it towards employees, many of which don’t want those jobs back because they’re better off on unemployment.”
![Paramedics taking a patient into an emergency centre at Maimonides Medical Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York, United States [Andrew Kelly/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2020/4/14/4edc9bba279140fa9fd7ea4fff2fd239_18.jpg "US coronavirus deaths set single-day record as total hits 28,300")
Trump blames the WHO now for his mismanagement (ODT)
US deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 25,400 on Tuesday, doubling in one week, according to a Reuters tally, as officials debated how to reopen the economy without reigniting the outbreak.
via Coronavirus death toll tops 25,000 in the US, cases exceed 600,000
The US is heading for having the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world next week. Admittedly the US is a big country and it still won’t have the highest number of cases per capita. But it won’t even be in the running for the country with the fewest per capita. The United States was once the most advanced country in the world. America put a man on the moon. To have Germany and South Korea outflank us in dealing with the disaster is an enormous disgrace.
We’ve seen an impressive level of federal-state co-operation where the two tiers of government have each contributed, led and even persuaded each other. The federal government led on shutting borders, for example, while the states pushed the feds to accelerate shutdowns of restaurants, cafes and especially schools. We’ve seen a federal government that has consistently described fiscal stimulus for a flagging economy as reckless, embrace it at unprecedented levels; a government that flatly refused to increase the Newstart allowance suddenly double it; a Liberal-led government introduce a wage subsidy.
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via Coronavirus Australia: For a moment, at least, our politicians are behaving like grown-ups
The Intercept’s Mehdi Hasan speaks with Senior Correspondent Naomi Klein about coronavirus capitalism and the selective use of emergency measures to offload risks onto workers and families, while the people who are relatively more secure get no-strings-attached bailouts.
via Live: Mehdi Hasan and Naomi Klein on Coronavirus Capitalism
As Fauci Pleads For Americans To Keep Distance, Trump Talks Of Opening Country
Despite saying that the worst was yet to come, President Trump talked of opening things back up: “We don’t want to be doing this for months and months.”
headshot
By Carla Herreria Russo
via As Fauci Pleads For Americans To Keep Distance, Trump Talks Of Opening Country | HuffPost
Will the conservatives when they have done with the philosophical ideals of the left once again take on the mantle of the capitalistic rights of the individual over the collective?
The way I see it at the moment is that all they are doing is governing for the common good and I have to salute that.
The philosophical arguments will come later.
My thought for the day
It’s difficult to caste yourself in a new light when you’re coming out of the darkness.
Addressing the employment crisis by ensuring workers remain employed and paid as well as providing social services for everyone in the country, regardless of citizenship or immigration status
Guaranteeing a free at point of service Medicare for All single payer healthcaer system for everyone in the country
Immediately using the Defense Production Act to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and other needed healthcare equipment for frontline workers dealing with the pandemic
Providing food for everyone in the country for the duration of the crisis
$600 billion in aid to states and cities
An immediate suspension of collections of rent, mortgage payments, medical debt, and consumer debt for four months and a suspension of student loan payments through the duration of the pandemic
Trump wilfully ignored the briefings given him in February (ODT
“The Intelligence Community has warned about the threat from highly pathogenic influenza viruses for two decades at least. They have warned about coronaviruses for at least five years,” adding:
“There have been recent pronouncements that the coronavirus pandemic represents an intelligence failure…It’s letting people who ignored intelligence warnings off the hook.”
The Pentagon predicted large-scale outbreaks and shortages of critical personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical staff and the public.
The Pentagon report states the following:
“Competition for, and scarcity of resources will include…non-pharmaceutical MCM (Medical Countermeasures) (e.g., ventilators, devices, personal protective equipment such as face masks and gloves), medical equipment, and logistical support. This will have a significant impact on the availability of the global workforce.”
via US Knew of Novel Coronavirus Threat, Failed to Prepare – Stephen Lendman
The White House coronavirus task force still won’t call for a national stay-at-home order, despite calls from medical professionals and researchers to do so to curb the spread of the virus in places.
As Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx explained during Tuesday night’s task force update that the total number of deaths in the U.S. could rise to 100,000 to 240,000, President Donald Trump avoided explaining why the administration hasn’t imposed a stay-at-home order yet.
Instead, Trump talked about how the death toll would have reached up to 2 million people if he had done nothing at all.
via Trump’s Task Force Still Won’t Call For A National Stay-At-Home Order | HuffPost Australia
Hope in the time of corona lies in rebuilding the role of government, supporting the institutions that support people and dispensing with the proven lunacy that insists fattening corporations and “the market” delivers “healthier, wealthier, more motivated and productive workers”.
Because it doesn’t. As the times reveal; it never did.
via Hope in the time of coronavirus lies in rebuilding the state | Van Badham | Opinion | The Guardian
Keeping people at work seems counterintuitive if there is no work to keep them there for. Give the money to the workers not the businesses alone. The record of wage theft has been clear and evident. (ODT)
The most striking reversal of LNP ideology though was the government’s decision to double the Newstart allowance and extend it to others. Hoping that voters would not see that as tacit acceptance of the repeated advice of countless social advocates, as well as hard-nosed economists, they ditched the name ‘Newstart’ in favour of the more benign-sounding ‘Jobseeker Allowance’. It was obvious to all that the LNP was devoted to the belief that Newstart recipients were bludgers, ‘leaners’ rather than ‘lifters’, people who ought to be out getting a job. It must have been a hard pill to swallow to accept that increasing Newstart would have large economic benefits, as so many have been telling them for months.
Morrison and Frydenberg have been given praise for their package, bordering on lavish from their media set. But we have to ask why it took a crisis the magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic to bring about their awakening.
via The great awakening – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Its a rigged system go to Robert Reich’s explanation on Youtube (ODT
But the need for large stockpiles of masks, like the need for ventilators, has been no secret.
via Trump’s Claim That Ventilator Shortage Was “Unforeseen” Is False
While President Donald Trump fantasizes of wrapping up the virus in time for Easter church services, people are getting sick and dying, hospitals are overwhelmed, medical workers are begging for vital supplies and protesting their conditions.
People are literally prevented from social distancing. Premal Dharia, founder and director of the Defender Impact Initiative, describes the situation in carceral facilities across the U.S. and why she is warning of a humanitarian disaster if action is not taken immediately.
Bad press.
Reuters reports that the death toll in Iran from Covid-19 has risen to 1,284, and infections to 18,407. The country’s ministry of health spokesman, Kianush Jahanpur, is quoted as saying that another person dies there every 10 minutes now and every hour sees 50 people infected.
Researchers at Sharif University of Technology have modeled likely deaths and say Iran could be stricken with as many as 3.5 million dead.
Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo just announced that the US would actually tighten its economic and financial blockade on Iran. Iranians are already saying that US Treasury Department restrictions on bank transfers have made it impossible for them to buy needed medicines, tests and medical supplies. The US does not prevent medicine from going to Iran, it just makes it impossible for Iranians to afford them or for the international banking system to handle the money exchanges necessary to buy them.
via Trump Spared Iran from Bombing, but his Sanctions Fed Pandemic in which 1 dies every 10 Minutes
