The Evening Blues - 3-27-20



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Canned Heat

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues rock band Canned Heat. Enjoy!

Canned Heat - On The Road Again

“I am signaling you through the flames.

The North Pole is not where it used to be.

Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest.

Civilization self-destructs.

Nemesis is knocking at the door.

What are poets for, in such an age?
What is the use of poetry?

The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.

If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.

You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words. ...”

-- Lawrence Ferlinghetti


News and Opinion

All The Craziest Things About America Are Being Highlighted By This Virus

“Corona is a black light and America is a cum-stained hotel room,” comedian Megan Amram colorfully tweeted a couple of weeks ago. Her observation has only grown more accurate since.

The corporate cronyism of America’s political system has been highlighted with a massive kleptocratic multitrillion-dollar corporate bailout of which actual Americans are only receiving a tiny fraction. Instead of putting that money toward paying people a living wage to stay home during a global pandemic, the overwhelming majority of the money is going to corporations while actual human beings receive a paltry $1,200 (which they won’t even be getting until May at the earliest) at a time of record-smashing unemployment.

America’s capitalism worship has been highlighted with Wall Street Journal headline “Dow Soars More Than 11% In Biggest One-Day Jump Since 1933” running at the exact same time as “Record Rise in Unemployment Claims Halts Historic Run of Job Growth — More than 3 million workers file for jobless benefits as coronavirus hits the economy“. Stocks are booming, Amazon is surging, and mountains of wealth are being transferred to sprawling megacorporations, while actual human beings are terrified of what the future holds.

America’s joke of a healthcare system is being highlighted as uninsured COVID-19 patients are racking up $35,000 medical bills and even insured COVID-19 patients are looking at out-of-pocket expenses in excess of $1,300. Combine this with the millions of Americans getting thrown off of employer-provided health insurance and you’re looking at a huge number of people who will avoid getting tested and avoid treatment as much as possible. Both heads of America’s two-headed one-party system have spent decades forcefully creating this dynamic.

America’s income and wealth inequality is being highlighted in a nation suffering from all of the above problems while most Americans were already unable to afford a mere $1,000 emergency expense. A one-time $1,200 payment to a population already stretched that thin guarantees that millions will be plunged into crushing debt and destitution in a nation with a historically unprecedented billionaire class raking in even more unearned wealth.

The insanity of America’s war machine has been highlighted as awareness grows during a global health emergency that government military spending negatively impacts government healthcare spending and the US has the most bloated military budget on the planet. Now as journalist Max Blumenthal explains this war machine’s escalating hostility toward China is causing Americans to needlessly die of the virus.

America’s fake political system has been highlighted as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee completely vanished for a week and then returned to deliver an embarrassing string of befuddled interviews upon his return, reminding the nation once again that the Democrats are running an actual, literal dementia patient for the most powerful elected office in the world. Biden will of course be running against an incoherent reality TV star who only last week decided that the virus is indeed a real problem which needs to be seriously addressed, and who now already wants to begin rolling back the inadequate measures his administration implemented far too late. The debates between two men who don’t understand what they’re doing and can’t string a sentence together between them will soon be broadcast around the world for all of civilization to behold.

America’s lying mass media are being highlighted with propagandistic lines that would make Kim Jong Un blush, like The New York Times claiming today that “the American medical system is unsurpassed and its public health system has a reputation as one of the finest in the world”. We can safely expect US media to get even more demented as they expand their hysteria-inducing new cold war propaganda campaign against Russia to China as well.

America’s murderous sanctions machine has been highlighted as the US continues ramping up its economic warfare against Iranian civilians, with thousands already dead and potentially millions to follow due to Tehran’s inability to access necessary equipment, medicine and resources during the pandemic. The Trump administration has not eased the sanctions during the outbreak, and has in fact added to them, because killing Iranian civilians has always been the goal. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has gone on record to say that the objective is to make Iranian civilians so miserable and desperate that they overthrow their own government.

So basically everything crazy about America is being amplified to absurd caricatures of its own insanity and highlighted for everyone to see. There’s a lot of ugliness coming out into the light as a result of this virus, which may end up being one of its few perks for everyone. As they say of both viruses and governments, sunlight is the best disinfectant.

'Another Attempted Coup': US Rebuked for 'Absurd' Drug Trafficking Charges Against Venezuela's Maduro

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced charges of international drug trafficking against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a move that was immediately denounced by progressives as a cynical Washington attempt to overthrow the Latin American leader as the coronavirus outbreak spreads around the world.

"This is just another attempted coup against Maduro," tweeted CodePink.


Attorney General William Barr revealed the charges in a press conference, offering $15 million for information leading to Maduro's capture.

"I am old enough to have seen this one before," said veteran media critic Peter Hart, making a likely reference to former Panamanian ruler and CIA asset Manuel Noriega, the last Latin American leader charged with drug trafficking, who the U.S overthrew in 1989.

DOJ is accusing Maduro of trafficking cocaine around the Americas and into the United States.

As Politico reported:

The indictment, returned by a grand jury in New York, accuses Maduro of conspiring with a hard-line faction of the Colombian rebel group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to ship vast quantities of cocaine to the United States.

"Let's be real: the $15 million 'reward' for info leading to President Maduro's capture or conviction is nothing but a bribe and incentive for members of his inner circle to defect & provide affirming info regardless of accuracy," tweeted Grayzone reporter Anya Parampril. "An absurd demonstration of Washington's gangsterism."

Observers noted the timing of the announcement coming as the both countries—and the rest of the Western Hemisphere—brace for the impact of peak coronavirus outbreak.


Give it a rest! Corona-hit US finds time to put $15mn bounty on Maduro

Poll: Only 3% of Venezuelans Say Guaido Is President

The latest poll out of Venezuela, from early March, shows that US-backed Juan Guaido is not considered the nation’s present by hardly anybody in the country. With a 3% margin of error, only 3% identified Guaido as president.

After over a year of the US harping on about him being the legitimate president. 71% of Venezuelans identified President Maduro as the president.

U.S. Is #1 in Pandemic: Rep. Omar Blasts Trump for “Wrong Kind of American Exceptionalism”

US surpasses China for highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the world

News that America had surpassed virus hotspots China and Italy with 82,404 cases of infection, according to a tracker run by Johns Hopkins University, broke as the president was holding a press conference at the White House. His instinctive response was to question other countries’ statistics. “It’s a tribute to the amount of testing that we’re doing,” Trump told reporters. “We’re doing tremendous testing, and I’m sure you’re not able to tell what China is testing or not testing. I think that’s a little hard.”

While the US has increased its testing capacity in recents days the process has been flawed and incoherent, and the country still lags behind leaders such as South Korea in terms of the number of tests administered per-capita.

On a grim day, the death toll in America surpassed 1,000 and it was revealed that last week 3.3 million people filed for unemployment – the biggest single-week jump in history. The president has been widely condemned for failing to act fast enough, misjudging the public mood and seeking to blame others rather than taking personal responsibility. ...

Even as New York hospitals become overwhelmed, with doctors complaining of nightmarish conditions, and cases spike in cities such as New Orleans, Trump continued to talk down the threat from the virus. “Many people have it. I just spoke to two people that had it. They never went to a doctor, they didn’t report it ... The people that actually die, that percentage is much lower than I actually thought.” He added, “The mortality rate, in my opinion, is way down,” even though experts have warned that this is likely to worsen in the coming weeks.

“Total System Failure”: Congress Pushes $2 Trillion Pandemic Bill. Will Dems Allow “Corporate Coup”?

'$1,200 isn't enough': what a $2tn relief bill means for American workers

Advocates for American workers praised a “historic” increase in unemployment benefits included in an emergency $2tn relief package approved by the US Senate, which will offer special “pandemic unemployment” to gig workers, self-employed workers, and some people forced to leave their jobs because of the coronavirus crisis. But although the unemployment payments will offer months of support to many vulnerable Americans, advocates said that the bill threatens to leave too many people out. Even $2tn in emergency aid, experts said, is probably too little for the size of the crisis. ...

Experts said that allowing self-employed and gig workers to receive unemployment checks was a crucial step forward, since these workers make up growing portion of the national workforce and have not previously been eligible for federal unemployment insurance. But the emergency relief bill still threatens to leave many people out, they said, including domestic workers paid in cash, undocumented workers, homeless Americans, people who do not have bank accounts, and some people who have not filed taxes recently.

Even people who are eligible for unemployment may face delays in actually getting their checks. State unemployment systems have been overwhelmed by an unprecedented number of applicants. New York’s online unemployment application website reportedly crashed multiple times this week. So did Oregon’s.

In addition, people who do not have direct deposit accounts on file, or who have moved since last filing their taxes, may face delays in getting their emergency payments. Some Americans who have not filed taxes recently may be entirely left out. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that about 30 to 40 million American adults, or about 15% of the population, do not file tax returns, Garrett Watson, an analyst at the conservative Tax Foundation, said.

Some experts said there was also a more fundamental problem: even though the senate’s $2tn coronavirus package is being hailed as the largest emergency relief bill in American history, it may still not be enough to match the scale of the problem. Dedicating roughly $350bn to small businesses for a paycheck protection program “sounds like a lot”, but the total cost of payroll alone for American small businesses is $1.5tn every three months, said Ernie Tedeschi, an economist who worked in the treasury department during the Obama administration.

How establishment corporatists took over the bailout

Courtesy of Americans for Tax Fairness, here's a breakdown of who gets the $2.3 trillion from the Senate bill.

I have a quibble with their numbers, since the payout to corporations and small businesses is much higher - the Mnuchin slush fund alone when leveraged through the banks will amount to
$4 trillion. This dramatically changes the balance between what goes to workers and families and what goes to big business.

SUMMARY OF MAJOR TAX PROVISIONS IN THE SENATE AND HOUSE CORONAVIRUS STIMULUS BILLS

The $2.3 trillion is allotted as follows:

  • 54% to corporations and small businesses through loans, grants and tax cuts
  • 26% to workers and families, including 2% to safety net services
  • 8% to hospitals and other health-related spending
  • 7% to state and local governments
  • 1% to education services
  • 4% to other services

Matt Stoller: How Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell RIGGED bailout bill


How essential workers are being treated as disposable

'Foreclosure King' Steve Mnuchin Says Never-Before-Seen Surge in Unemployment 'Not Relevant'

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the former Goldman Sachs banker Congress is about to entrust with overseeing a $4.5 trillion corporate bailout fund, said Thursday that the record-shattering surge in jobless claims last week due to the coronavirus crisis is "not relevant" to the health of the economy and insisted that businesses will soon be able to "hire back those people."

Asked about the news Thursday that 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, Mnuchin said in an appearance on CNBC that President Donald Trump is "protecting those people."

"To be honest with you I just think these numbers right now are not relevant," said Mnuchin, showing what critics denounced as a callous lack of regard for the economic pain of millions of people.

"They're going to give nearly unchecked power to dole out trillions of dollars to a guy who just called over 3 million new unemployment claims 'not relevant,'" tweeted progressive talk show host John Iadarola.

Mnuchin said he hopes "those workers will be rehired" and pointed to temporary protections for the unemployed in the stimulus legislation that passed the Senate Wednesday night.


In response to Mnuchin's remarks, Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) tweeted that the staggering new unemployment figures "are in fact extremely relevant."

"Millions of people lost their livelihoods," said Pocan. "Which also means millions lost their health insurance." ...

As HuffPost's Amanda Terkel and Zach Carter wrote Thursday, Mnuchin's claim that businesses will soon be able to rehire the millions of workers who filed for unemployment last week "is wishful thinking, to put it mildly."

"Despite its big price tag, economists believe the legislation passed by the Senate on Wednesday is far too modest to meet the scope of the coming economic crash," wrote Terkel and Carter. "The $349 billion the legislation sets aside for small businesses will be exhausted quickly, but experts also believe that it will take months for the aid to reach most small firms. During that time, many of them will simply fail, and you can't rehire workers if you don't have a company."

US may be in recession amid Covid-19 crisis, says Fed chair Jerome Powell

The Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, said on Thursday that the US may already be in recession and warned that the time for lifting societal restrictions that have squashed the economy would be dictated by the coronavirus outbreak – in contrast to Donald Trump’s aspiration to return to normal life by Easter.

In a rare live television interview for a Fed chair, the morning after the US Senate passed a $2.2tn disaster funding package, Powell said that America’s central bank would not “run out of ammo” in its efforts to support the economy through this “unique” crisis, but gave no assurances on how long the US will be partially shut down. ...

Asked if the economy could handle a months-long shutdown if that’s what the US public health emergency requires, Powell spoke of the unique situation. “People are being asked to close their businesses and stay home, at a certain point we will get the virus under control and at that point confidence will return,” he said, adding that the rebound at that point could be “vigorous”.

Powell said the public health crisis must be dealt with first “then let the economy bounce back”, not “rush in to opening the economy”.

“The first order of business is to get the spread of the virus under control and then resume economic activity,” he said.

Asked if an economic recession was inevitable or, indeed, already under way, he said: “We may well be in a recession,” while emphasizing that the downturn came on the back of an exceptionally, fundamentally strong economy.

House Democrats Urged to Remove 'Insidious Attack' on Social Security Hidden Within Senate Coronavirus Bill

Progressives are demanding that the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives prioritize removing a little-noticed provision in the massive Senate-passed coronavirus stimulus bill that would allow employers to stop paying into Social Security for at least the rest of the year—potentially threatening the program's long-term financial health.

Section 2302 of the nearly 900-page legislation would let companies defer until next year their payment of the employer payroll tax, one of the primary funding mechanisms for Social Security. The bill would require that companies pay 50% of their owed 2020 payroll taxes by December 31, 2021.

While the section has thus far received little media attention, advocacy group Social Security Works said the language authorizes an "insidious attack" on the New Deal-era program and must be stripped out before final passage.

The House is expected to vote on the bill as early as Friday.

"The Democrats are walking right into the trap," Michael Phelan, deputy director of Social Security Works, warned in an email Wednesday night ahead of the Senate vote. "If Trump and Republicans retain power after November's elections, they will make sure that corporations never repay Social Security. Then, Republicans will use the reduced trust fund as an excuse to destroy our Social Security system."

"The only way to escape this trap is to avoid stepping into it in the first place," said Phelan. "That's why the House must remove the cut to Social Security's dedicated funding before this bill passes."

California Banks Suspend Mortgages For Three Months

Because Working People 'Deserve a Rent Holiday as Much as the Cheesecake Factory,' Demand for Relief Grows

Social media users Thursday ironically praised restaurant chain The Cheesecake Factory for potentially taking the first step toward a nationwide rent strike after the corporation told its landlords it would not pay rent at nearly 300 properties on April 1 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Observers more seriously demanded to know why working Americans should still be expected to pay their landlords considering millions of people lost jobs this month due to the outbreak.

According to a letter obtained by Eater, the Cheesecake Factory cited "severely decreased" cash flow and a "tremendous financial blow" as a reason to not pay rent after temporarily closing 27 of its locations and transitioning to a take-out and delivery model at others.

"Due to these extraordinary events, I am asking for your patience and, frankly, your help," CEO David Overton wrote to the company's landlords.

The news sparked a surprised reaction from observers including Solomon Rajput, a progressive congressional candidate in Michigan.


As other large retail and hospitality chains—including H&M, Subway, and Mattress Firm—indicated that they would not pay rent in April to help cope with financial losses, many critics called for a moratorium on rent for Americans with far fewer resources than the companies. ...

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the U.S. this month and as business establishments and schools close their doors to prevent the spread of the respiratory disease, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is among the progressives calling for a moratorium on rent payments.

The average American renter has a net worth of about $5,400, while the Cheesecake Factory's total assets in 2019 were $2.84 billion.

As the New York Times reported earlier this month, the company, which employs about 45,000 people, is one of many chains which do not provide its workers with paid sick leave.

"Cheesecake Factory is simultaneously doing a rent strike and refusing to give its workers paid sick leave," tweeted blogger David Hines, while radio personality Gregg "Opie" Hughes wrote that the money the Cheesecake Factory saves on April 1 should go directly to its workers.

The news of large corporations planning to skip rent payments came as California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state had commitments from several large banks to allow a 90-day grace period on mortgage payments due April 1.

"This is going in the right direction but why is the protection only for mortgage payments? What about rent?" asked Shahid Buttar, an attorney and human rights advocate who is challenging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) this year. "We must add a 90-day grace period for those impacted by COVID-19 for rent payments before April 1."

Saagar Enjeti: THIS Is How The Next Political Revolution Will Begin

NYC Is Releasing Hundreds of Inmates to Stop the Spread of Coronavirus

After weeks of warnings from legal aid and civil rights groups, New York City has released about 200 detainees from its jails — and plans to release another 175 to reduce population density and stop the spread of the coronavirus. Mayor Bill de Blasio touted this as a huge accomplishment in a press conference Thursday afternoon, calling it a “major, major milestone” and noting the last time New York City’s jail system had fewer than 5,000 inmates was in 1949. The jail population as of Thursday was 4,906.

For weeks, prison rights groups have been calling on the mayor to release the jails’ vulnerable detainees, such as those who are elderly or have underlying medical conditions. They warned that the virus would spread very quickly once it inevitably made its way into the city’s jails, including the notorious Rikers Island, which has a reputation for neglect and abuse of detainees.

And they were right: In the last week, a single confirmed COVID-19 case in a Rikers corrections officer ballooned to over 80 confirmed cases among other staff and inmates. Meanwhile, the caseload in New York City spiraled out of control, overwhelming hospitals and cementing New York as the epicenter of the U.S. epidemic. As of Thursday morning, there were close to 22,000 confirmed cases citywide and over 281 deaths. According to analysis by one legal aid group, the rate of infection at Rikers was seven times higher that in New York City.

US gun industry groups urge lawmakers to keep gun shops open

US gun industry groups are engaged in an intense attempt to persuade state and federal lawmakers that gun shops should be considered “essential” businesses during the coronavirus crisis, and therefore allowed to stay open. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), one of the largest US pro-gun ownership groups, told its members this week it had been in contact with the White House, Capitol Hill and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to advocate for “national critical infrastructure industry” status.

“We want you to know the [NSSF] is hard at work for you during this challenging time as the nation faces the Covid-19 pandemic,” the group said in a statement.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice-president for government and public affairs, said in a letter to the DHS the “critical infrastructure” designation should be extended to the whole gun industry, including dealers and shooting ranges.

“Food, water, shelter and adequate medical care are paramount for survival, but so too is the ability for an individual to defend his or herself, their family, as well as their home, business and property,” Keane reportedly wrote.

According to the NSSF, gun dealers have reported an unprecedented surge in firearm sales, with lines forming outside gun stores and background checks up 300% on 16 March compared with the same day last year.

Charles Koch Network Pushed $1 Billion Cut to CDC, Now Attacks Shelter-in-Place Policies for Harming Business

Americans for Prosperity, the pro-corporate pressure group founded and funded by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, wants employees to return to work despite desperate pleas from public health officials that people should stay home as much as possible to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. As states began to order nonessential businesses to shut down last week, AFP released a statement calling for all businesses to remain open.

“Rather than blanket shutdowns, the government should allow businesses to continue to adapt and innovate to produce the goods and services Americans need, while continuing to do everything they can to protect the public health,” said Emily Seidel, chief executive of AFP, in a press release.

Some of the group’s state chapters have taken a similar tone. AFP Pennsylvania’s state director, as well as a regional director with the group, have taken to Twitter to lambast shelter-in-place policies. The Michigan chapter of AFP on Monday slammed Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order, which closed down fitness centers, nail salons, amusement parks, casinos, and other businesses deemed nonessential, calling it the “wrong approach for our state.” Whitmer’s order, variations of which are being implemented by state and local governments nationwide, contains exceptions for critical industries such as grocery stores, pharmacies, health care providers, financial services, transportation, child care, hazardous materials, and energy. ...

AFP’s position, which directly contradicts the advice of medical experts who say that social isolation is essential to curbing the spread of the coronavirus, comes after the group lobbied the Trump administration in 2018 to rescind $1 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ...

The Koch network, while pushing for businesses to stay open, is taking the opposite approach for its lobbying apparatus. AFP and its affiliates, including LIBRE Initiative and Concerned Veterans for America, are now working from home. “Out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the health and safety of our activists, staff, and voters, our staff are working from home and are utilizing digital organizing as one way to continue their grassroots engagement,” a spokesperson from AFP told CNBC.



the horse race



Ken Klippenstein: Where was Warren during bailout fight?



the evening greens


Coronavirus measures could cause global food shortage, UN warns

Protectionist measures by national governments during the coronavirus crisis could provoke food shortages around the world, the UN’s food body has warned.

Harvests have been good and the outlook for staple crops is promising, but a shortage of field workers brought on by the virus crisis and a move towards protectionism – tariffs and export bans – mean problems could quickly appear in the coming weeks, Maximo Torero, chief economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, told the Guardian.

“The worst that can happen is that governments restrict the flow of food,” he said. “All measures against free trade will be counterproductive. Now is not the time for restrictions or putting in place trade barriers. Now is the time to protect the flow of food around the world.”

Governments must resist calls from some quarters to protect their own food supply by restricting exports, he said, as some have begun to do.

Kazakhstan, for instance, according to a report from Bloomberg, has banned exports of wheat flour, of which it is one of the world’s biggest sources, as well as restrictions on buckwheat and vegetables including onions, carrots and potatoes. Vietnam, the world’s third biggest rice exporter, has temporarily suspended rice export contracts. Russia, the world’s biggest wheat exporter, may also threaten to restrict exports, as it has done before, and the position of the US is in doubt given Donald Trump’s eagerness for a trade war in other commodities.

While the supply of food is functioning well in most countries at present, problems could start to be seen within weeks and intensify over the following two months as key fruit and vegetables come into season. These types of produce often have short ripening times and are highly perishable, and need skilled pickers to work quickly at the right time.

Climate Crisis the 'Single Greatest Challenge' to Great Barrier Reef as Marine Treasure Suffers New Mass Bleaching Event

Heat stress is causing the Great Barrier Reef to endure its third mass bleaching event in five years, scientists said Thursday, another sign underscoring the urgent need to tackle the climate crisis.

The grim—but expected—assessment of the health of the world's largest coral system, based on aerial surveys, was released by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The Australian agency detected "very widespread bleaching," referring to the phenomenon when stressors cause coral to expel algae, its main food source, and turn white, putting them at risk of death.

"The reef had only just begun recovering from impacts in 2016 and 2017 and now we have a third event," the marine park's chief scientist, David Wachenfeld, told the BBC.

Terry Hughes, director of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Australia, decribed the coral damage he viewed as "heartbreaking." Hughes drew attention to the coral damage he saw in a brief but emotional account on Twitter Thursday:


Among the findings listed in the authority's new statement were that the surveys "mostly confirm[ed] the worst bleaching is on reefs that suffered the highest heat stress this summer, which extended across large areas of the reef."

Researchers also detected "a wide variety of bleaching severity—ranging from no bleaching to the most severe category. Some southern areas of the reef that had little or no bleaching in 2016 and 2017 have now experienced moderate or severe bleaching."

The main culprit for the damage was clear. "Climate change remains the single greatest challenge to the reef," said the agency.

Yet the Australian government continues to back fossli fuels—and is trying to exploit the coronavirus crisis to further push coal development.


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Deconstructed podcast: Is the Trump Cult a Death Cult?

'I won't survive': Iranian scientist in US detention says Ice will let Covid-19 kill many

US private health insurance companies clog system amid Covid-19 pandemic

The Pandemic Could Overwhelm the Insurance Industry. We Must Expand Tricare for Everybody Who Needs It

Trump’s Deadly Mistake in Comparing Coronavirus to Flu

Anger over Prince Charles's Covid-19 test is a warning sign of divisions to come

Top CDC Official: Staggering Spike in New York 'Just a Preview' of What's Coming Elsewhere

'Tip of the Iceberg': Economists Warn Record 3.28 Million Jobless Claims Could Signal Coming Depression

COVID-19: What the Different Reaction to the Great Depression and the 2008 Recession Can Tell Us Today

Stimulus Bill Allows Federal Reserve to Conduct Meetings in Secret; Gives Fed $454 Billion Slush Fund for Wall Street Bailouts

COVID-19 has taken an entire aircraft carrier out of commission

Britain’s PM Johnson, health minister both test positive for coronavirus

More Bits On The Corona Crisis

Will Trump’s Fumbling of Covid-19 Lead to His Exit in Weeks?

Freedom Rider: Revolutionary Change and COVID-19

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti: Billionaires profit off economic crisis

Jimmy Dore: Joe Biden Accused Of Sexual Assault By Former Staffer

Fossil of 67m-year-old raptor dinosaur found in New Mexico


A Little Night Music

Canned Heat - Let's Work Together

Canned Heat - Rollin' and Tumblin'

Canned Heat - Time Was

Canned Heat - My Mistake

Canned Heat - Stranger

Canned Heat - Dust My Broom

Canned Heat - Spoonful

Canned Heat - Let's Make It

Canned Heat - Move On Down The Road

Kermit the Frog sings Canned Heat's Going Up The Country


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21 users have voted.

Comments

Lily O Lady's picture

After screwing around for days after Bernie recommended it, he finally did it. SMH

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13 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

CB's picture

@Lily O Lady
within the next 100 days.

United States (last 16 hrs): confirmed cases 102,605, new cases 15,077, deaths 1,549

"We've done a really great job in New York."

New York (last 16 hrs): confirmed cases 44,810, new cases 5,833, deaths 519

China has already sent Italy 1000 lung ventilators, 2 million face masks, 20,000 protective suits and 50,000 test kits on Mar 10, 2020.

What a fucking Bullshitter-in-Chief. This braggart is going to destroy America.

Meanwhile China is getting back to work. This must have burned Trump's ass when he talked to Xi Jinping.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOMOUSoX-0I]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9fFvH46MQQ]

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15 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Lily O Lady

yep, i ran across this after i put the eb to bed:

Trump uses Defense Production Act to require GM to make ventilators

President Trump on Friday used the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to produce ventilators to combat the coronavirus after days of hesitating to use the powers in the law.

The president in a statement said the federal government had abandoned negotiations with the automaker on ventilator production, complaining that the automaker was "wasting time."

"Our negotiations with GM regarding its ability to supply ventilators have been productive, but our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course," Trump said.

"GM was wasting time," the president asserted. "Today’s action will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives."

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9 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

Matt Stoller is all over the place. Here he is with Jimmy Dore, from last night's livestream :
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsPjPmDzN8w width:500 height:300]
I can't get anything to load at commondreams.org.

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13 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Lily O Lady's picture

@Azazello

still on Facebook.

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9 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

snoopydawg's picture

@Lily O Lady

It's been down since noonish. I read a few articles and then no luck. I wanted to read what AOC said and see if she voted for the coup bill.

Hey remember when Warren tweeted those 8 points on what the corporations couldn't do if they took the money? Yeah none of them made it into the bill. Surprise I know huh?

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11 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

stoller is making the rounds today. i was glad to see him on democracy now, though i thought that the interview that he gave krystal ball was perhaps a little better.

i haven't been able to load commondreams today, either. firefox says that the site is improperly configured.

thanks for the vid, have a great weekend!

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7 users have voted.

@Azazello It’s really hard to argue with that clip, though I’m sure some will try. It’s long and honestly, it made me sick to my stomach, but he’s speaking truth. Glad Stoller is getting around. More people need to hear this and see what’s going on.

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7 users have voted.

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

@Azazello Bernie has made M4A, free colleget tuition, higher min. wage, etc mainstream. Obviously as a politican he is lacking in tactics and strategy. Even after he went out of his way to campaign for Hillary, to this day Clinton and others are still smearing him.

Also, on Stoller. I first read him in 2012 when he urged leftists not to vote for Obama. He got Obama's number early on.

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9 users have voted.
Lily O Lady's picture

latest load of BS that I plunged right in above.

In more news, it looks like Cuomo is going to be the DNC’s presidential candidate. Which would be OK if he wasn’t the same guy who cut funding for hospitals for years according to Democracy Now.

Cuomo is doing press conferences complaining about Trump while leaving unmentioned his own bad decisions.

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16 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

snoopydawg's picture

@Lily O Lady

not to listen to Trump anymore and start listening to Cuomo. Gee I like how subtle she is being about how the democrats are going to ditch ByeDone and go with him instead. You know the guy who no one has voted for while Bernie is still in the race. Hmm I wonder if Bernie will get behind him because of Trump is so bad. After this week I'm not holding my breath.

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14 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@Lily O Lady

cuomo is a corporate turd who prefers working with republicans who are blissfully free of any progressive urges.

i hope that the pitchforks come out if the dnc tries to foist cuomo on us.

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13 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

during the epidemic. I'm sure that will get democrats excited to vote for him if he gets the nod from the DNC. But how asinine is this?

This is what happens if you write about ByeDone being accused of sexual assault.

Regarding this attack on Biden, I smell the scent of horse manure in the air.
Vladimir must love road apples.

Another website has picked up the story. MSN.com but it's just a Bernie supporter trying to dish on Joe. Hmm maybe they are waiting for Rachel to say something?

Autocorrect wants Cuomo to be cup. ??

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9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Lily O Lady's picture

@snoopydawg

Putin? I knew it was evil. /snark

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8 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Lily O Lady Hidin Biden is looking terrible, when he’s even visible. As the presumptive nominee, he should be out in front of all this and the Dems should be point to him for leadership. Neither is happening. And this sexual assault allegation is just sickening.

So yeah, looks like Cuomo is it.

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10 users have voted.

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

snoopydawg's picture

and he sounded pretty coherent which leads me to believe that it was taped earlier today and he was given the questions ahead of time.

One person asked him how she can afford to pay her health insurance premiums that cost $2,000/month if she doesn't have any money. He told her that congress just passed a bailout for people so she should be getting it soon. However if she still runs out of money then how does she pay for it or food or rent? This is what Biden doesn't get. No one should have to pay $24,000/year for health insurance in the richest country in the world that is giving banks $1 trillion a month and corporations up to $16 trillion.

BTW Trump just did a signing statement saying that Mnuchin doesn't have to explain to congress what he's doing with the money. The article I posted down thread explains how the fed just married the treasury department. Great job congress you sure came through for your owner's!

I have one more but it won't embed

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13 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

dystopian's picture

Thanks for the great tunes JS! Hope you and yers are safe and sound...

I loved Canned Heat as a teen, had 45's of the hits... cause the radio didn't play them often enough. And L.A. played the shat out of them. They were real deal blues players to the bone. Then they added a dash of drug-induced psychedelia, and it was awesomeness. Some of the sooo overblown distortion on the slide, and the rhythm guitar is amazing. The harmonica! The vocals too. All aces. Now 50 years later I have a ton more appreciation for how true to the blues they were, while still being so creative with it. Zen masters.

Luckily for y'all I am at a loss of words for the shitshow and collapse of a former empire that we are watching... and unfortunately part of.

Wasn't it supposed to get better?

Hope all is well for all the bluesters... play it safe, and be well.

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14 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

heh...

Wasn't it supposed to get better?

what do you mean? the deal keeps getting better and better for the 1%!

seriously though, the u.s. has the resources to make this better, the fact that it is collapsing is a matter of choice by the people who run the show.

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13 users have voted.

for their service. They didn't go halfway around the world to blow stuff up, or get shot at. They were wearing scrubs.

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16 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Snode

we certainly owe medical people and all of the other folks from drug store clerks to delivery people - the people who are really essential to keeping us alive and well - a debt of gratitude.

have a great weekend!

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13 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

I think it's American Airlines that is saying that the bailout isn't enough and they will be laying off workers after the whole 3 month time period where they can't lay anyone off. This was before congress voted for the bill or Trump signed it.

From the article

The teen’s father has tested positive for covid-19 as well. The teen’s death has been removed from the official U.S. death toll, according to Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer, who gave a press conference on March 25.

Countries with authoritarian leaders like China, Iran, and Russia have adopted a strategy of denying that some people have actually died from covid-19, even after they test positive for the disease. In Russia, for example a 79-year-old woman in Moscow recently died of the new coronavirus, but the Russian government said that while she may have tested positive, she actually died of pneumonia. Moscow saw a 37 percent surge of “pneumonia” cases in January over the previous year, according to ABC News.

Well then I have no idea why they put that in the article unless they think it makes the Great USA look better? Let's see both China and Russia are paying their citizens while Iran is seeing more sanctions every day, but sure they are worse than us because our citizens might get a whopping check one day and only once for $1,200. Unless you're poor like me and who won't see even one thin wafer coming my way. Swell.

Unfuckingbelievable.

Howard Dean is poo pooing Tara's account of Biden's assault because it was the Intercept that broke the story and we all know how Greenwald helped Putin interfere with the election. Any blue check Twit that writes about it are not buying it and the one brave soul on DK who did got bojo'd for it. They think it's just Bernie surrogates who are lying about it.

For my grand finale ByeDone said Trump should be more like Reagan was during the epidemic he faced.

So remember folks believe women who have been sexually assaulted unless it's by someone from the D party. Oh yeah. ByeDone's campaign is saying Tara went on Dr. Phil and claimed that she was Vlad's lover.

PS...ByeDone's campaign manager used to work with Weinstein. Nope I'm not making this shit up.

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17 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

The name of the urgent care clinic that refused to treat the teen has not been released.

they should be named and shamed. it could lead to a teachable moment for corporate america.

howard dean has something to say? too bad he had a corporate lobotomy and now only spews inanity.

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10 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

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12 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

who sadly for us, died so young, was the first to get a Masters in Blues. Or so was the word when he was alive, way back then.

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12 users have voted.

Orwell: Where's the omelette?

joe shikspack's picture

@jim p

heh, whether or not he got a masters in the blues, he certainly got to know and perform with quite a lot of masters of the blues in the 60's.

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9 users have voted.

the Dem’s candidate for President as Biden becomes less viable with every public unscripted performance.

You heard it first from me.

I don't think they'll be able to pull off Reagan's lockdown on spontaneous comments.

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9 users have voted.

Orwell: Where's the omelette?

joe shikspack's picture

@jim p

well there's certainly a lot of elite media chatter about andrew cuomo running for president.

i wouldn't put it past the corporate bastards to give it a try.

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12 users have voted.

@joe shikspack Sorry. (Embarrassed emoji here). Darn memory! Or maybe I'm just falling into dementia enough to be a legitimate Dem candidate myself?

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9 users have voted.

Orwell: Where's the omelette?

joe shikspack's picture

@jim p

i knew who you meant.

i was thinking though, if the dems think that running a candidate who is clearly unqualified by virtue of his mental decline is a great strategy, how much better would it be to run a candidate that is actually dead? brilliant! Smile

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10 users have voted.

@joe shikspack Senator Wellstone. He won't get much accomplished, but he won't screw up things like every other political "leader" we have.

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6 users have voted.

Orwell: Where's the omelette?

CB's picture

I believe he took notes during his one hour phone call from Xi Jinping. There may yet be a glimmer of hope for the country.

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10 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@CB

well, perhaps trump might take the word of an authoritarian where he wouldn't take the word of, say, a medical expert like anthony fauci.

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9 users have voted.
CB's picture

@joe shikspack

I would suggest that Xi Jinping was listening to Chinese medical experts who had first hand expertise during the SARS outbreak in 2002. He has always relied on the experts to assist in decision making. I would suggest that he is much less an authoritarian than Trump.

Do you think China's "authoritarian" response will be much different than the American government's response will be when confirmed cases in the US reach a quarter million in a week?

A better view of a country's leadership should come from the citizens of that country, not from others who have little knowledge of their day-to-day life there.

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@CB

well, one thing is for certain, xi jinping is smarter than our stable genius.

Do you think China's "authoritarian" response will be much different than the American government's response will be when confirmed cases in the US reach a quarter million in a week?

well, thus far there are two models of reasonably successful response to the outbreak, china's and s. korea's. i would argue that s. korea's regimen of aggressive testing and quarantine where required is a response that one would hope for in an alleged democracy.

i suspect that due to the dithering of trump's government that the opportunity to employ the s. korean model is fading if not gone, leaving the chinese model as the only possible effective response.

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9 users have voted.
CB's picture

@joe shikspack
they can follow the Chinese model. China would have been an unmitigated disaster if they had dithered like the Trumpeter and allowed the virus to metastasize and spread throughout the country to the extent at which it has done in the US.

China had completely closed down all auto, bus, rail and air travel from Wuhan by Jan 23. The city and province of 60 million were now effectively quarantined from the rest of China. At this point there were 571 confirmed cases with 17 deaths. (At this point S. Korea also went immediately into high gear testing and quarantining.)

Over 97% of the coronavirus cases were confined to this one province. This allowed the rest of China to come to the aid of those localized at the epicenter.

There are now 105,012 cases (increasing at a daily rate of 22%) with 1,708 deaths in the US. There will also be a dozen different epicenters to deal with - not just one as in China.

To be honest, I fear the US is now rapidly heading towards herd immunity with all the death and suffering that entails.

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10 users have voted.

@CB and I suspect that Chinese medical/government authorities were looking at much more dire numbers from hotspots within Wuhan when they locked down the Hubei province.

South Korea and the rest of China had the advantage of knowing what to look for and that the cases were being imported which also made it easier to quarantine individuals and test their contacts.

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5 users have voted.
CB's picture

@Marie
The rest of the province was locked down as a preventative. The government of China literally went to war against the coronavirus.

British Researchers Say Wuhan Lockdown Bought Hospitals Vital Time, Warn Against Lifting Restrictions Early

The lockdown in the Chinese outbreak city of Wuhan brought the Covid-19 epidemic crashing to a halt, giving health systems crucial breathing room to deal with serious cases, new research showed Thursday.

Chinese authorities ordered schools, universities and businesses shut following a cluster of Covid-19 cases in the transport hub in January, confining millions of people to their homes in a bid to contain the outbreak.

The measures sent the numbers of new cases tumbling, and parts of Hubei province, where Wuhan is situated, have slowly started returning to normal.

With roughly three billion people currently advised to stay at home amid the pandemic, a study published in The Lancet Public Health examined what the rest of the world can learn from Wuhan.

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9 users have voted.

but A+ on sucking up to an idiot boss.

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13 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Marie

i guess in order to keep a job in the trump administration being a suck-up is a requirement. i notice that birx is still appearing on the podium with him and theoretically may be able to whisper in his ear, while fauci appears to have been banished for disagreeing with trump.

i don't know anything about birx, whether she is competent or not, odds favor incompetence given that she hasn't been banished, but then again i suppose that it is possible that she's competent, has trump's number and is playing along.

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8 users have voted.

@joe shikspack in their meetings -- and completely inconsistent with every other report from those who have been in meetings with Trump on any issue -- to consider cutting Brix any professional slack.

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6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Marie

fair enough. Smile

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8 users have voted.

Canned Heat
Let's Work Together

Spike me spirit matey

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

glad you're digging it.

this is the first canned heat album that i got when i was a teenager, it's still my favorite:

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8 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
I never had that record, don't remember even hearing it.
I think I told you, some years back, that my first exposure to the Blues was from Canned Heat, that first album in '67, not a bad primer, so many classic tunes.
But I don't remember Hooker 'N Heat. I'll give it a listen.

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8 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

snoopydawg's picture

.

A response like this is attached to every tweet team ByeDone sends out.

Yesterday Yahoo! put the article on their homepage, but today they moved it to their sports page and now the original link doesn't work. Hey at least they covered it.

Need a pick me up? Enjoy

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13 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i saw that tectonix video somewhere earlier today, that is kinda scary, especially considering the data came from just one beach gathering.

heh, i hope that twitterers badger the crap out of blue checks to cover the tara reade story. that would be excellent.

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8 users have voted.
Lily O Lady's picture

@snoopydawg

for Shelties! They need to have something to do.

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7 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

snoopydawg's picture

@Lily O Lady

Lots of energy for sure and they need lots of exercise or they get bored. The one dawg I had to give up just had too much energy to listen to me so she went to live with lots of cows. Before she did though she tore up my yard and my house. She hated the carpet for some reason...

Oh yeah she was a border collie Sheltie mix.Lots of energy.

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9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

enhydra lutris's picture

insurance:

Mayor: First U.S. teenager to die of Coronavirus was denied treatment because he didn't have health insurance ...
Matt Novak reports that the first teenager to die in the U.S. from Covid-19 coronavirus infection was uninsured and denied treatment at the urgent care clinic he tried to check into. They told him to go to another hospital; he went into cardiac arrest on the way.

The publichospital he was on his way to was able to revive him for a while, but he died within hours.

Full article with a video at Boing-Boing: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/27/first-u-s-teenager-to-die-of.html

have a good one

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13 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

that story really pisses me off. that urgent care center should be named and shamed along with its parent corporation. supporters of obamacare and/or the status quo should have their noses rubbed in that story.

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11 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack
wide the info will spread is an open question. The town of Lancaster is at the base of the eastern slope of the Tehachipis/Sierras, a bit south of the thriving metropolis of Mojave. It can't have that many of the damn places.

have a good one.

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7 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Azazello's picture

@enhydra lutris
a little north of Palmdale. Nearer the San Gabriels, due south, than the Tehachapis. My hometown.
Mojave is a ways north in Kern County.

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6 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

enhydra lutris's picture

@Azazello
Palmdale, think I've only been through it once so I just don't think of it. Mojave used to be a gas stop on the way to Red Rock Cyn or on the way home from anywhere so it's one of those internal way points, Mojave, Kramer Jn, Barstow, Baker, Needles, Lucerne Valley, Yucca Valley, Indio, Blythe, Bishop, Lone Pine etc. Once we're over the crest, we try not to go back into the mountains 'til we're heading home except for side trips to poppy preserve and Julian. Never tried to cut off through Palmdale on the way north because we run up to Castaic Jn. and then through Fillmore to the coast.

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3 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

@Azazello
and explanation from me - I suck at mountain ranges. It doesn't help that CA has at least 100 or so, but I grew up in San Diego, tunaville, then ocean beach, and thus came to "know" the Lagunas, because Mt. Laguna, and the Cuyamacas, both obstacles on various routes to the desert, which is where, for reasons, we went to play. Came north at 18, and eventually (wine) learned the Santa Cruz, Mayacamas, and Sonomas plus, eventually, Santa Lucia. Got up to Klamath a few times, so, the Klamaths. All that shit along the ocean, all 40 or 50 ranges is "the coast range" except on a good day when I actually recall the King Range.

To the east is the Sierras, except down between Bakersfield and Mojave which is the Tehachipis, then all hell breaks loose. Mt. San Jacinto is down west of palm desert, so those are the San Jacintos. Somewhere between Tehachipi and Mt Laguna, off to the right as I head south, are the San Gabriels, San Bernadinos, Little San Bernadinos, and maybe several more, none of them have ever stuck, not my part of town I guess, or maybe no significant experience therein or nearby.

Wierdly enough, I know the Whites, Panamints, Providence, Sawtooth and Chocolates and then other stuff like "that big ass mesa that Darwin sits atop", or "All those ranges surrounding J. Tree". aka "J. Tree".

I shall try to recall the San Gabriels (north of Pomona, west of Lucerne Valley, Johnson Valley, Bagdad and Amboy and why or how the hell do those manage to line up like that anyway, that is not as per my mind's eye.

have a good one.

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3 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Azazello's picture

@enhydra lutris
we always oriented ourselves to the south, towards the San Fernando Valley and the L.A. basin which we called "down below". The route we took to go down below was Sierra Hwy, now the 14 freeway, through Acton, Agua Dulce, and then Santa Clarita into "the Valley". Alternatively, there's a road that goes from Palmdale to Pasadena over the San Gabriels and through the Angeles National Forest. To the north, Rosamond, Mojave and Kern County was considered "the boonies".

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2 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

enhydra lutris's picture

@Azazello
metropolitan. I've heard, perhaps as of the 2008 real estate crash that Lancaster was becoming something of a remote detached suburb of L.A., folks working in tech.aerospace/etc.

Must've been a kind of far out place to grow up, would've definitely put a premium on acquiring a car or bike of some sort. Coastal SoCal was bad enough, but I got by sponging rides off of friends, borrowing the parents' car taking buses and stuff until my Junior year of college.

For us, no "down below"; "down south" was Chula Vista, San Ysidro and Imperial Beach and then TJ was TJ.

have a good one

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3 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris and deny that the boy was turned away for lack of health insurance. Easy out is that the boy's medical needs far exceeded what the facility is licensed to perform.

An important question for me is do these Urgent Care clinics seem to be proliferating? Found a decent review - The Urgent Care Surge; so, it wasn't my imagination that they've been increasingly popping up. And not surprisingly, it's because there's money to be made with them.

...
Health insurers also are getting into urgent care. One reason UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division acquired DaVita Medical Group two years ago was to gain access to its 35 urgent care centers. In 2015, Optum purchased MedExpress Urgent Care, which runs 250 centers in 20 states.

According to UCA, private-equity investors are getting involved, an indication that urgent care is a potentially lucrative business. In an article last year in Forbes, Bain & Company reported that private equity was making its way into retail health centers, which it defined as urgent care, dental centers, and physical therapy outlets.
...

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11 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

which was loaded with corporate debt.

Welcome to Sweatshop AmeriKa

Whitney's hubby Mike.

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11 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Howard Dean on the Tara Reade story:

... and good ol' Carl Nyberg with a great take:

Always liked Carl when he was over at Dkos. Nice to see he's still blogging.

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16 users have voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

joe shikspack's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

heh, it's pretty funny that howard dean seemed to like the story that the intercept broke about christine blasey ford and had no problem accepting that brett kavanaugh was a serial abuser of women.

interestingly, the blasey ford story and the tara reade story were broken by the same reporter, too. (ryan grim)

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13 users have voted.
Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack

Tara Reade gave a first person video interview detailing the charges, so whether the Intercept is working for the Russians in reporting that she made the allegations has no bearing on whether Reade is actually telling the truth.

I have my own issues with the Intercept, which has a nasty habit of intercepting whistle blowers on behalf of the intelligence services, but its general journalistic reputation notwithstanding, Grim's report that Reade made the allegations was later verified by her own personal videos which repeated the allegations.

Howard may also have some personal reasons for hating on the Intercept:

Dean’s call for extending the exclusivity period for biologics — a move that would boost prices for life-saving drugs — shocked patient and consumer advocates. Dean did not initially disclose that he was working for BIO in his column, although The Hill later updated his byline to note that Dean’s law firm represented biotech companies.

After Obama, Howard Dean is IMO probably the biggest Fauxgressive disappointment of the last fifteen years.

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13 users have voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

@Not Henry Kissinger @Not Henry Kissinger I’m sure they’ll circle the wagons like they did for Bill and Harvey. Shameless.

Edit: though at my most cynical I would say the Dems will use this as an opportunity to give Biden the boot drop the real candidate (Cuomo, HER, ???) in his place. Not like Sanders is gonna say boo about it, except to tell everyone they should vote for them.

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11 users have voted.

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

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7 users have voted.

I almost have forgotten that TOP exists. So have not looked in a while. Believe it or not, not one mention of Russia nor Putin during last two visits. I guess when faced with a real existential crisis, even people at TOP abandon propaganda. There was one diary that blamed the gop for not caring about the virus. But of course democrats got the same info at the same time but were more obsessed with impeachment. Of course democrats have short memories about deBlaio and Cuomo doing jack shit also. God we have thee most incompetent politicans on earth.

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11 users have voted.
Lily O Lady's picture

@MrWebster

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9 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@MrWebster while they wait for the new talking points from the DNC.

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

The accusation from Tara is a Putin plot and they are still talking a lot about how Vlad is getting Trump to ruin the country. Or 'take it down from the inside.'

And it's this site that is spreading the false rumors of ByeDone's mental issues. It's just a stutter not dementia. We're still getting lots of peeks and ridicules.

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5 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.