The Evening Blues - 4-9-20



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Laura Lee

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features soul singer Laura Lee. Enjoy!

Laura Lee - Crumbs Off The Table

“Nowhere do “politicians” form a more separate and powerful section of the nation than precisely in North America. There, each of the two major parties which alternatively succeed each other in power is itself in turn controlled by people who make a business of politics, who speculate on seats in the legislative assemblies of the Union as well as of the separate states, or who make a living by carrying on agitation for their party and on its victory are rewarded with positions. It is well known how the Americans have been trying for thirty years to shake off this yoke, which has become intolerable, and how in spite of it all they continue to sink ever deeper in this swamp of corruption. It is precisely in America that we see best how there takes place this process of the state power making itself independent in relation to society, whose mere instrument it was originally intended to be. Here there exists no dynasty, no nobility, no standing army, beyond the few men keeping watch on the Indians, no bureaucracy with permanent posts or the right to pensions. And nevertheless we find here two great gangs of political speculators, who alternately take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends – and the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians, who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality dominate and plunder it.”

-- Frederick Engels


News and Opinion

Op-Ed: Refusing To Vote For Truden Is The Same As Voting For Bimp

Bernie Sanders has suspended his presidential primary run, leaving the 2020 race a simple contest between former Vice President Doe Truden and President Jonald Bimp. The time is now for Sanders supporters to lay aside the many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many many differences they have with Truden to avoid the re-election of someone with whom they have many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many many differences.

It’s time to tell it like it is, Bernie Bros: if you refuse to vote for Truden just because he’s a demented right-wing racist authoritarian warmongering corporate whore who has been credibly accused of rape and with whom you share no common ideological ground, that’s the same as voting for the other demented right-wing racist authoritarian warmongering corporate whore who has been credibly accused of rape and with whom you share no common ideological ground. Now do you really want that on your conscience?

I hear some Berners arguing that they see it as the exact opposite: that a vote for Truden is the same as a vote for Bimp, because the ideological distance between a leftist and Truden is orders of magnitude greater than the ideological difference between Truden and Bimp. But nothing could be further from the truth! For example, both Truden and Bimp have completely different names, with completely different letters in them. Don’t believe me? Look at their names for yourself. They’re not even spelled the same.

I hear others arguing that if refusing to vote for Truden is the same as voting for Bimp, then isn’t refusing to vote for Bimp the same as voting for Truden? And the answer to that is hush. You shut your filthy mouth.

If Bernie Bros decide to stay home, or vote third party, or vote down-ballot only, or assemble a political movement that stands a chance at actually changing things, or donning yellow vests and taking to the streets, or getting the word out to the public that they’re all living a lie and the mass media is actually a highly sophisticated propaganda operation designed to lull them into supporting the status quo in fake election after fake election where the game is rigged and the plutocrats own both parties, that’s the same as voting for Jonald Bimp, and why would you want that when you could have a president from a completely different party, who has a completely different name?

Time to grow up and get realistic, Bernie Bros. Now sit down and clap for our puppet show.

Four Reasons the Ruling Elite Love This Crisis

Americans have hardly faced a crisis as formidable as right now. Someone dies in New York City every two minutes from coronavirus, the Federal Reserve now estimates job losses could total 47 million, the unemployment rate may hit 32 percent and the National Air Guitar Championships have been postponed.

Which means it’s prime time for the oligarchs to exploit the bottom 90 percent of us. The largest way they’ve used this catastrophe so far is to pass their $2 trillion giveaway to corporate America with little-to-no oversight. David Dayen at American Prospect calls it a robbery in progress, and they plan to viscerally excrete more soon. Hardly a moment of discussion about this (central) bank robbery on our corporate airwaves stabs through the wall-to-wall virus coverage. Even members of Congress hardly dig into it — after quickly signing off on the bailout bill, they had to run home to take care of their mistresses’ blind perfumed labradoodles (or whatever it is the elite do when they aren’t destroying average people’s lives via toxic giveaways to corporate monstrosities).

  • The Environmental Protection Agency has indefinitely suspended environmental rules. Indeed, the already weak-sauce EPA just all but disbanded itself. This shouldn’t surprise anyone seeing as EPA head Andrew Wheeler counts “former coal lobbyist” as his crowning career achievement.
  • The Department of Justice wants to suspend certain Constitutional rights. Rolling Stone reports, “The DOJ has requested Congress allow any chief judge of a district court to pause court proceedings ‘whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation’…”
  • The Trump administration has moved to steal the ancestral lands of a Native American tribe. The Trump regime (why are only governments in other countries called “regimes”?) said the Mashpee tribe in Rhode Island will be disestablished, 75 percent to help out Trump’s casino friends and 25 percent because Donald wants to end the primo champagne treatment America’s indigenous have received for hundreds of years. (Sarcasm.)
  • And there will likely be an attempt at privatizing some public schools. With schools out of session for months, the forces of greed will try to turn some into charter schools, just like after Hurricane Katrina. Transforming public schools – open to all of our children – into private for-profit institutions (generally far more accessible to the rich and the parasitic) is immoral and vile.

These are just four examples of obvious Shock Doctrine spoils. ... But shocks to the system can be used for positive change as well. For example, workers have been uniting in a way not seen in decades, and the possibility of a general strike hovers just over the horizon. Suddenly average workers – people stocking shelves, delivering packages, driving food cross country, caring for the elderly – have been told they are “essential” to the beating heart of American life. ...

The current strikes and worker solidarity are due to the fact that the shock of the outbreak has woken a lot of people up. Citizens who have slept through these matters for years suddenly see the big picture. In fact, a new poll shows nearly 60 percent in of the U.S. believe the political system is designed solely to serve the rich and powerful. Sixty percent of Americans now understand the problem. We must use this shock to the system to benefit the people rather than the rich and powerful leeches getting plump off the blood of minimum wage workers.

Neoliberalism is a disease, coronavirus is an opportunistic infection exploiting the damage that neoliberalism has done.

John Pilger - What Govts Aren't Telling You About the COVID-19 Pandemic

As US Consigns Iranians to Death, Corporate Media Look the Other Way

Covid-19 has hammered few countries as hard as it has hit Iran, which reports (as of April 8) 64,586 cases and 3,993 deaths. US sanctions are a major reason that Iranians are getting infected with and dying from the coronavirus in such large numbers: The US’s economic warfare softened Iran up for the pandemic well before its outbreak.

Human Rights Watch documented last year (10/29/19) that sanctions had “drastically constrained the ability of [Iran] to finance humanitarian imports, including medicines, causing serious hardships for ordinary Iranians and threatening their right to health.” US sanctions are specifically designed to immiserate Iran, and driving the country into poverty has left it ill-equipped to deal with the coronavirus emergency: Before the pandemic, sanctions had already cost Iran about $200 billion in revenue, primarily from decimated oil sales, and devalued the currency by half in the past two years (New York Times, 4/1/20).

As the scholar Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi (Jadaliyya, 12/3/19) noted in December, the sanctions constitute “the collective punishment of over 81 million Iranians through and by means of one of the most comprehensive and unrelenting sanctions regimes in modern history.” They are

an effective economic blockade dragooning the energy sector, banking and finance (including its central bank), foreign investment and foreign exchange reserves and targeting basic foodstuffs, lifesaving medicines and much else besides. The war is near total and unremitting, and it has already taken many lives.

America’s economic blitzkrieg extends to trying to dictate whether and how other countries engage with Iran. Last June, US special representative for Iran Brian Hook told European companies that they “have a choice: Do business with the United States or do business with Iran” (Washington Post, 6/28/19). In January, days before Europeans warned Iran of nuclear deal violations and instituted a dispute resolution mechanism established in the 2015 nuclear deal, President Trump secretly threatened to impose 25% tariff on European autos if Europe start the dispute resolution process; the US views this mechanism as a critical part of sanctioning Iran (Washington Post, 1/15/20).

Since Covid-19 has been tearing through Iran, the US state has not eased up its assault, “leaving Iran racing to curb the rapid, deadly spread of the new coronavirus, but these efforts are complicated by tight economic restrictions imposed by the United States” (Newsweek, 2/24/20). In fact, the US has escalated its aggression during the pandemic by adding further sanctions, “keeping up its economic pressure campaign” (Reuters, 3/17/20) against a country where people are dying by the thousands—one every ten minutes, according to the Iranian health ministry—in significant measure because of that pressure campaign.

The Trump administration claims that sanctions exempt the sale of medicine and medical devices, allowing Iran to access humanitarian aid, but as the New York Times (4/1/20) has acknowledged, “American secondary sanctions on financial institutions and companies that do business with Iran have made it nearly impossible for Iran to buy items like ventilators to treat coronavirus patients.” Human Rights Watch (10/29/19) has noted that the sanctions scare companies and banks out of doing business with Iran, and that

as a result, Iranians’ access to essential medicine and their right to health is being negatively impacted, and may well worsen if the situation remains unchanged, thereby threatening the health of millions of Iranians.

...

Because the US government is directly responsible for Iranian deaths, Washington’s role should be a central concern to US media. Yet that’s not the case, according to my examination of stories published between the emergence of Covid-19 in late December and April 2. The Washington Post published 386 articles that address Iran and coronavirus during that period, and 55 contained the word “sanctions.” In other words, 85% of the paper’s Iran-related Covid-19 coverage neglected to note that the government based in the city with which the publication shares its name has played an important part in the disease’s destruction in Iran.

The New York Times ran 439 stories that mentioned Iran and the coronavirus, and 40 of them, a mere 9%, referred to the sanctions. One of these was an editorial (3/25/20) calling for the blockade on Iran to be lifted, but this article accepted and amplified the premises that are used to try to justify the sanctions:

Ideally, [lifting the US sanctions] could lead to a lowering of tensions, a reduction of attacks on American targets in Iraq by Iranian allies, and even, down the line, serious discussions on freezing Iran’s nuclear escalation.

That’s a lot of maybes, given a regime that has shown no inclination to back down before the United States. But if Iran refused American help or continued in its ways despite it, the sanctions would go back into place and the Islamist leaders would be hard put to convince their people that the United States was blocking humanitarian aid.

What the paper called “Iran’s nuclear escalation” is a reference to Iran saying that it was no longer bound by a 2015 agreement that effectively ceased to exist when Trump scrapped it almost two years ago. Iran says that its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes, and diplomats (AFP, 3/9/20) have reportedly said

that none of [Iran’s] current stockpile is enriched beyond 4.5%, with much of it at a lower level than that. It would need to be enriched to roughly 90% for use in a bomb, not to mention all the other work required to produce a weapon.

The United States, meanwhile, has just under 6,200 nuclear warheads, an arsenal that the New York Times evidently does not regard as dangerous.

Note also that demands are only made of Iran: The Iraqi forces allied with Iran have to stop their attacks on American troops that are in the country against the wishes of Iraq’s parliament, but the US doesn’t have to cease its attacks on them, let alone leave the country. Evidently, US forces in Iraq against the country’s democratic will should face no consequences for their violence, but Iran should be subject to economic throttling when its allies in the Iraqi military try to drive the US out.

In uncritically parroting the extremely dubious rationale for sanctions, the Times adopts a peculiar method of arguing against them.

US to block Iran's request for $5bn IMF loan to fight coronavirus

The United States plans to block Iran's request for a $5bn emergency IMF loan to respond effectively to the country's coronavirus outbreak, claiming that the funds would be used to support its "adventurism abroad, not to buy medicine for Iranians".

The US, which effectively holds a veto at the IMF, said if it were to allow Iran to tap IMF coffers, Tehran would divert the money to help its economy, which has been weakened by years of sanctions. ...

The Islamic Republic is battling one of the world's deadliest coronavirus outbreaks, which it says has killed more than 3,800 people and infected more than 62,500. There has been speculation abroad that the real number of deaths and infections may be far higher. ...

In a tweet on Sunday, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, accused Washington of "crimes against humanity", after reports emerged that Washington was planning to block the loan request.

Devastated Saudi Royal Family Seeks to End Yemen War

As the coronavirus continues its assault on members of the Saudi royal family, the rulers of the Kingdom on Wednesday called off its assault on Yemen.

The unilateral ceasefire will begin at noon on Thursday, Saudi time, and is to last at least two weeks.

Senior members of the royal family, including 84-year old King Salman, and the effective ruler, Muhammad bin Salman, have retreated to an island off the coast of Jeddah in the Red Sea. Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the powerful governor of Riyadh who is a nephew to the king, is stricken with the disease and is in intensive care, The New York Times reported, citing two doctors “with ties” to King Faisal Hospital and two others sources near to the royal family.

In all, 150 members of the ruling family are reported to have been infected. The Saudi government officially said it is ending the war because of its fear that the virus could spread in Yemen, where there are still no reported cases. Joining in the ceasefire would be the nations of the Saudi-led coalition as well as the Yemeni government in exile in the Saudi capital, the Times reported. ...

There has been as yet no reaction from Washington. The United States has backed the Saudi war with logistical and material support.

Did Trump give Israel 1 million face masks despite coronavirus equipment shortages in the US?

An Israeli press report claiming the US Department of Defense had shipped one million face masks to Israel to help protect Israeli soldiers has angered Americans, causing some to question the Trump administration's priorities amid the coronavirus pandemic amid reports of shortages of protective equipment for US health workers.

The Pentagon's alleged shipment was initially reported by the Jerusalem Post, however mention of American involvement was later scrubbed, raising suspicions that US public anger may have forced Israeli military censors to act. ...

The original article said: "A plane carrying over a million surgical masks for the IDF landed in Ben-Gurion airport Tuesday night, in an operation run by the US Department of Defense’s Delegation of Procurement".

Curiously, the headline was later revised to: "Israel brings 1 million masks from China for IDF soldiers" but traces of the old headline can be seen in the article's URL.

The initial headline mentioning US involvement in the shipment sparked fury on social media, where users highlighted America's own struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak.


Covid-19 fears grow for indigenous South Americans as Yanomami teen tests positive

Fears over the devastating impact coronavirus could have on South America’s indigenous communities have grown after a teenager from Brazil’s Yanomami people tested positive for the illness in the Amazon. The 15-year-old is reportedly being treated in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima, the northern Brazilian state where much of the Yanomami reserve is located.

The teenager was admitted last Friday complaining of chest pains, breathing difficulties and a sore throat and tested positive for the illness on Tuesday. Authorities say the boy – who is reported to have travelled back into the Yanomami reserve last month after classes at his school were suspended – is one of seven indigenous Brazilians to test positive for the coronavirus in three Amazon states: Pará, Amazonas and Roraima.

Public health specialists have warned coronavirus could wreak havoc on indigenous groups in countries such as Brazil, Peru and Venezuela. Highly infectious diseases such as measles, smallpox and flu viruses have a long and horrific track record of decimating such communities.

Coronavirus could push half a billion people into poverty, Oxfam warns

More than half a billion more people could be pushed into poverty unless urgent action is taken to bail out poor countries affected by the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, Oxfam has warned.

Ahead of three key international meetings next week, the charity said the impact of shutting down economies to prevent the virus spreading risked setting back the fight against poverty by a decade globally – and by 30 years in the hardest-pressed countries of sub-Saharan Africa, north Africa and the Middle East.

An Oxfam report published before virtual meetings of finance ministers of the G20 group of leading developed and developing nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, said by the time the pandemic was over half of the world’s population of 7.8 billion people could be living in poverty.

The research – conducted by King’s College London and the Australian National University – said that a 20% drop in income as a result of a recession caused by Covid-19 would push an additional 548 million people below $5.50 a day – one of the World Bank’s definitions of poverty.

Keiser Report | Hoot-n-Holler

Facing 'Extinction-Level Event,' Small Businesses Urge Congress to Replace Disastrous Loan Program With Direct Payroll Grants

With millions of small businesses on the brink of collapse and struggling to obtain coronavirus relief after the Trump administration's disastrous rollout of a $350 billion rescue fund, progressives are calling on Congress to authorize direct payroll grants to companies in need instead of dumping hundreds of billions more into a deeply flawed program.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)—authorized by the massive coronavirus stimulus package President Donald Trump signed into law last month—had a chaotic launch last Friday amid mass confusion among small businesses and banks tasked with distributing relief loans backed by taxpayer money.

Amanda Ballantyne, executive director of Main Street Alliance (MSA), a progressive coalition that includes 30,000 small-business owners, told the Washington Post on Tuesday that the program's rollout was a "train wreck" that will not be remedied by simply pouring more money into its coffers.

On Twitter, MSA said the loan program "suffers from design flaws—money should be distributed by the Treasury Department, perhaps in partnership with local or state governments, instead of banks."

"Small business should be given #GrantsNotLoans," the group tweeted.

MSA is calling on Congress to pass legislation that includes "direct federal subsidies to employers impacted by COVID-19 to cover payroll, health insurance premiums, and rent" as well as "5-10 year no interest loans with streamlined application process to cover other fixed expenses."

"Focusing on direct payroll and healthcare subsidies for small employers is an approach that will mitigate potentially severe impacts for employers and workers," MSA said on its website. "This is an extinction-level event for small businesses in the U.S. Without a substantial, immediate response that addresses the magnitude of this problem, our small business sector will be devastated." ...

With PPP rapidly running out of money even as many small businesses say they have not received any funds, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Tuesday asked Congress to authorize an additional $250 billion to replenish the program, which is open to businesses and non-profits with fewer than 500 employees.

In a joint statement Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) signaled that they would approve the additional small business funding if the legislation also includes more money for hospitals, state and local governments, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Trump said Tuesday that the SBA has processed more than $70 billion in loans from more than 225,000 business that have applied for relief. But as Bloomberg reported, "that amount hasn't been given to firms yet, but rather is the value of loans SBA has registered and guaranteed for lenders to complete the process and disburse funds."


“Exposing U.S. Racism in a Stark New Way”: COVID-19 Kills Disproportionate Number of Black Americans

Trump Call for Permanent Payroll Tax Cut Is "Code for Gutting Social Security's Dedicated Funding," Say Critics

President Donald Trump on Tuesday once again voiced his support for slashing the payroll tax—the primary funding mechanism for Social Security and Medicare—and said he would be calling for such a cut even if the U.S. were not currently in the midst of a nationwide public health and economic emergency.

"I would love to see a payroll tax cut," Trump, who has repeatedly vowed to "save" Social Security, said at the end of the Coronavirus Task Force briefing Tuesday evening. "I think on behalf of the people it would be quick... There are many people who would like to see it as a permanent tax cut."

Trump himself has also backed the idea of permanently cutting the payroll tax in talks with Republican lawmakers.

"The payroll tax cut would be a great thing for this country," Trump added after claiming that congressional Democrats are standing in the way. "I would like to have it regardless of [the coronavirus crisis]."

Progressive advocacy group Social Security Works raised alarm about Trump's remarks on Twitter, warning that the president's "so-called 'payroll tax holiday' has nothing to do with helping workers and everything to do with undermining Social Security."

"Trump wants to permanently cut payroll contributions—code for gutting Social Security's dedicated funding as an pretext to demand benefit cuts," the group said.

BREAKING: Unemployment claims exceed economists worst warnings

A Whole Lot of You Didn't Pay Your Rent This Month

The number of Americans able to make their April rent dropped way off from March, according to data released Wednesday from the National Multifamily Housing Council, a landlord trade organization.

With widespread layoffs, business closures, and “shelter-in-place” orders hitting renters across the country in response to the coronavirus pandemic, only 69% of tenants had the cash to pay even a portion of their rent during the first week of April. ... The data, which will be updated regularly, doesn’t include single-family homes, which make up more than half of the nation’s housing stock, and housing that’s subsidized by the government. Already, it outlines a housing crisis for many that’s quietly unfurling in the center of a public health disaster.

While most of those Americans were protected from evictions during the month of April — there are widespread moratoriums and legal orders blocking the process necessary to kick someone out — that missed rent will have to be paid eventually, unless legal action is taken to protect tenants or more cash is provided by the government to keep people afloat. For that reason, some tenants are engaging in rent strikes because they want to see rent entirely canceled, rather than postponed, recognizing that their economic fallout is likely to extend long after the pandemic.



the horse race



Trump Tells Truth About Bernie Dropping That Democrats Won’t

Noam Chomsky parrots the party line:

Noam Chomsky: Bernie Sanders Campaign Didn’t Fail. It Energized Millions & Shifted U.S. Politics

Coronavirus crisis: Who gains the most, Joe Biden or Donald Trump?

'Return to Normalcy' Not Going to Be Enough to Win Our Support, Young Progressives Tell Joe Biden

A group of progressive, youth-led organizations on Wednesday released an open letter to former Vice President Joe Biden urging the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to "champion the bold ideas" that have energized younger voters. ...

For one thing, the letter to Biden stated, "it is clear that you were unable to win the votes of the vast majority of voters under 45 years old during the primary"—a cohort "poised to play a critical role deciding the next president." The groups grounded their demands in recent history as they called on Biden to recognize why much bolder policies are necessary:

[W]e grew up with endless war, skyrocketing inequality, crushing student loan debt, mass deportations, police murders of black Americans and mass incarceration, schools which have become killing fields, and knowing that the political leaders of today are choking the planet we will live on long after they are gone. We've spent our whole lives witnessing our political leaders prioritize the voices of wealthy lobbyists and big corporations over our needs. From this hardship, we've powered a resurgence of social movements demanding fundamental change. Why would we want a return to normalcy? We need a vision for the future, not a return to the past.

To help reach that vision, the letter outlines specific policy recommendations for Biden that include: embracing the Green New Deal legislation and making commitment to a just transition to 100% clean energy by 2030; comprehensively working towards gun violence prevention; expanding DACA and closing "the vast and cruel web of detention camps"; supporting Medicare for All; ending the failed War on Drugs; supporting free tuition at public colleges and vocational schools; and repealing the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs that have resulted in nearly two decades of constant overseas war.

The letter also demands that Biden adhere to personnel guidelines that would show he understands that the corporate grip on the Democratic Party must be loosened.

Ryan Grim: Can Biden do anything to win Bernie supporters?



the evening greens


African swine fever outbreak reported in western Poland

An outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed on Monday on a farm near the village of Wieckowice near Poznan in western Poland, less than 150km (93 miles) from the border with Germany.

African swine fever is a highly contagious virus which is fatal to pigs. It is transmitted directly between animals or through infected meat or animal feed and has also been seen as having the potential to transmit to humans. There is an ongoing outbreak in China that has already already wiped out 40% of pigs in the country. The outbreak is Poland’s second in 2020 and the first in the Poznan region, an important centre of pig farming.

The source of the infection were ASF-positive piglets that the farm owner, Smithfield Foods’ subsidiary Agri Plus, purchased in mid-March. The farm in Wieckowice specialises in fattening piglets up to 30kg. There are just over 10,000 piglets on the farm that will have to be culled, local authorities said, but the eradication of the outbreak might be slowed by safety and social distancing measures imposed in Poland in order to stop the spread of Covid-19.

The spread of ASF on pig farms and in wild boars in western Poland is a concern for Germany, Europe’s top pork producer with approximately 26 million pigs. Germany is also the EU’s second largest pork exporter to non-EU markets, after Spain. Most German exports go to China, South Korea and Japan. Should any of those markets – China in particular – classify Germany as an ASF country, it could herald a major crisis for the German pork industry.

COVID-19 | Why are US farmers dumping products amid a coronavirus food crisis?

Scientists create mutant enzyme that recycles plastic bottles in hours

A mutant bacterial enzyme that breaks down plastic bottles for recycling in hours has been created by scientists.

The enzyme, originally discovered in a compost heap of leaves, reduced the bottles to chemical building blocks that were then used to make high-quality new bottles. Existing recycling technologies usually produce plastic only good enough for clothing and carpets.

The company behind the breakthrough, Carbios, said it was aiming for industrial-scale recycling within five years. It has partnered with major companies including Pepsi and L’Oréal to accelerate development. Independent experts called the new enzyme a major advance.

Billions of tonnes of plastic waste have polluted the planet, from the Arctic to the deepest ocean trench, and pose a particular risk to sea life. Campaigners say reducing the use of plastic is key, but the company said the strong, lightweight material was very useful and that true recycling was part of the solution.

The new enzyme was revealed in research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. The work began with the screening of 100,000 micro-organisms for promising candidates, including the leaf compost bug, which was first discovered in 2012.


Also of Interest

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

Intercepted podcast - Pandemic Racism: The Wisconsin Primary, Disenfranchisement, and the Cost of Life

PEPE ESCOBAR: Who Profits from the Pandemic?

Angela Merkel Urged To Put European Solidarity Over German Interests and Back Coronabonds

Texas Blames Abortion for Spreading the Virus, but It’s the State That Has Put Millions at Risk

Amsterdam to embrace 'doughnut' model to mend post-coronavirus economy

Corporations Don’t Even Need Bailouts! Says Clinton Advisor, WTF?

Krystal and Saagar: Did Obama pressure Sanders to drop out?

Krystal Ball: The lies the media is telling about Bernie's campaign

Saagar Enjeti: Biden's Greatest Weakness Against Trump Revealed

Sanders former advisor Chuck Rocha: What went wrong and right for Bernie

Cenk Uygur: How we will beat the media next time

Krystal and Saagar: CNN IMMEDIATELY trashes Bernie for not being nice enough to Biden in concession

Joe Rogan shouts out Rising, explains why he can't vote for Joe Biden

Krystal and Saagar: Hillary staffers CAUGHT celebrating Bernie drop out

Linda Tripp, key figure in Bill Clinton's impeachment, dies


A Little Night Music

Laura Lee - Dirty Man

Laura Lee - Sure As Sin

Laura Lee - It's Mighty Hard

Laura Lee - I Need It Just As Bad As You

Laura Lee - Uptight, Good Man

Laura Lee - What a Man

Laura Lee - Hang It Up

Laura Lee - Rip Off

Laura Lee - Wanted Lover, No Experience Necessary


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19 users have voted.

Comments

Thanks Joe as usual for all the news you can pack in for us on a daily basis. Of course, C99 is my trusted news source these days. Watching the governor of Texas is very disheartening to say nothing of the lies being spouted by the media.

Really enjoyed listening to the John Pilger talk as well as many of the Hill discussions.

Am going to be the person going to the grocery store this week to see what is available. Fortunately we are in an area with several different grocery stores and should be able to get most of everything we need. My brother in law is learning about different ways of cooking and new veggies. Fixed a steamed kale dish that was a big hit.

Have a good evening all.

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14 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

enhydra lutris's picture

@jakkalbessie

but never eat it raw. Julienne it, and then chop that, and throw it in or on everythings, especially red sauces and chili.

be well and have a good one.

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9 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 We used to eat it raw as salad but steaming is better and easier.

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5 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

@jakkalbessie

yep, john pilger has been one of my favorite journos for a long time. he really explained quite well how greedy jerks hollowed out the nhs and made it incapable of fulfilling the mission that it is supposed to. i couldn't help but think while listening to him, that it is a cautionary tale for all of us who would like to see medicare for all here. anything that you build with the best intentions can be hollowed out by greedy neoliberal jackasses, so i guess eternal vigilance is the price of a society that works for all of its citizens.

have a good outing to get supplies, take care!

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11 users have voted.
Lily O Lady's picture

in Atlanta, where medically fragile veterans have been removed from the Eagles Nest VA care facility to make room for overflow Covid19 patients. Days earlier one of the patients was exposed to Covid19 when an official entered the facility to evaluate it for conversion to hospital beds for Covid19 patients. Now all these patients are being dispersed to facilities around the state so that their home can be repurposed. The risk of exposure is real as they come into contact with people outside their facility.

This is how our government treats its veterans. There appears, at least to me, that the intent is to expose and kill these veterans.

If any kind soul could Google this and post a link, I’d appreciate it. I can’t do links on my tablet.

Have a good evening, and don’t forget to change your PJs.

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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"

snoopydawg's picture

@Lily O Lady

People from nursing homes are telling paramedics to take them back to it because they don't want to go to hospitals because they might get infected. Homes are sending them their for slight fevers when they don't need to. A video is also in it that is a good watch. Moving people out of safe environments and possibly being exposed to COVID is beyond asinine. This just adds to the theory that it's being used to cull the herd.

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10 users have voted.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Lily O Lady

it's sad to see what happens when government officials scramble to paper over the mess that they have made by failing to fund adequate healthcare infrastructure in order to give tax breaks and other assorted giveaways to rich people.

sorry to hear about what they are doing to aging veterans in your area.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Lily O Lady

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-va-e...

Found a few others

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/04/07/us/ap-us-virus-outbreak-vete...

Now, 78-year-old Ralph McCall has been moved to a facility two hours away, and she’s fuming.

“It’s like my husband is property, or a piece of meat, and we don’t have a say,” said Linda McCall, a Roswell resident. “Whoever made this decision in Washington, they don’t care about my husband at all.”

McCall and other veterans' families said the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs gave them insufficient notice of the decision to move dozens of residents from the Atlanta nursing home and worry they won't receive adequate care in their new facilities.

The transfers were interrupted when one of the nursing home residents tested positive for COVID-19

“I’m really afraid my husband is not going to survive this,” she said.

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

Unabashed Liberal's picture

to Pilger video when we get back from ATM. He's always been one of my fav writers.

It's been almost laughable listening to talking heads and so-called journalists with their armchair speculation regarding 'how' Bernie's supporters will vote in the general election (if there is one). They are mostly delusional. Anyhoo, will be interested in listening to what Ryan Grim has to say. (Caught the tail end of him talking on Cable teevee yesterday, so, not really certain what his take is/was.)

Hope to start Tweeting about the OAP, to showcase what a truly excellent healthcare system is all about. Then, will 'try' to make a comparison of that program, with the 'managed care' schemes that will likely be proposed by Biden's corporatist/centrist cronies, if he's elected. Of course, his proposal will be branded as a 'public option.'

Biden has already started talking about lowering age to enroll in Medicare. Heh, just found a piece about this (heard about it on Cable teevee, earlier today)--"Biden proposes lowering Medicare eligibility age to 60 and more student debt forgiveness as job losses soar."

Oh, there's this:

"He said the plan would be financed "out of general revenues to protect the Medicare Trust Fund."

One of my biggest objections to the two UMFA/MFA proposals was the financing model, which would greatly 'cost shift' to some seniors. Of course, low income seniors would be spared--even in our current system, low income seniors are eligible to have their premiums paid on their behalf. (Which is as it should be, IMO.) Having said that, it would stand to adversely impact many other seniors, cost-wise.

There is one model that I could possibly support (if I were to support a public option, period). Will post a link, later.

It's a model that allows currently enrolled (Original Medicare) seniors to choose between two models of financing--since, as I'm constantly harping on, for many, their cost will skyrocket under the "household tax" model, as opposed to the current heavily subsidized "individual premium" model for Traditional/Original Medicare.

Gotta run Rambo out. Severe thunderstorms through early morning hours--didn't get to sleep until almost 4:00 a.m. Nice day, today, though. Smile

Thank you for tonight's EB, Joe.

Everyone have a nice evening. Stay safe, and well.

Bye Pleasantry

Mollie

THANK YOU America's Physicians & Nurses, All Medical Personnel, First Responders, To Include Medical (EMT/Paramedics/Ambulance), Pharmacy Personnel, Fire Depts, Police Depts, Retailers/Grocers--Especially, To Marginally-Paid Frontline Retail Cashiers & Clerks.

Last, but not least,

THANKS to America's Truckers/Delivery Persons, Especially, To Over-The-Road/Long Haul Truckers Who Obviously Have The Capacity To Shut Down The Entire Country, If They Were To Choose To Sit Out The Current Public Health Crisis, In Order To Protect Their Own.

You are all truly heroes.

Godspeed. Give rose

FYI

From the website Concierge Medicine Today,

Concierge Care for Congress: Attending Physician of the United States Congress

July 15, 2014

OAP provides members of Congress with physicals and routine examinations, on-site X-rays and lab work, physical therapy and referrals to medical specialists from military hospitals and private medical practices. When specialists are needed, they are brought to the Capitol, often at no charge to members of Congress.[4]

Members of Congress do not pay for the individual services they receive at the OAP, nor do they submit claims through their federal employee health insurance policies. Instead, as of 2009, members pay a flat, annual fee of $503 for all the care they receive. The rest of the cost of their care is paid for by federal funding, from the U.S. Navy budget. The annual fee has not changed significantly since 1992.[4]

and,

Yearly Fee

One aspect of the office’s operations which remains unclear is just how the annual $503 fee is determined.

Until 1992, OAP services were free to members of Congress. But after former Sen. Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania angered members by introducing a bill to make Congress members pay market rate prices for using the OAP, a compromise was reached.

Instead of charging for each service, Wofford said, members of the House and Senate agreed to hire independent consultants to determine the average value of the services offered and to use that amount to determine an annual fee.
“We thought of the pricing much like an HMO,” Wofford said of the compromise pricing model. “The attending physician at the time told me he had no interest in handling insurance or billing for each service available.”

But Wofford said the House and Senate committees tasked with determining the fee each insisted on hiring their own consultants, leading to a split pricing system. According to press accounts from 1992, the Senate set the fee at $520; the House fee was set at $263 for the same care. At some point, sources say, the separate rates were scrapped and replaced with the single fee, now set at $503.

The Office of the Attending Physician refused to comment on the fee or why it has not changed significantly in 17 years, despite rampant inflation in all other areas of health care costs.

Anderson refused repeated requests for the Committee on House Administration to provide details of how the rate is determined or who determines it.

“Members pay an annual fee determined by an independent actuary for use of the OAP services,” Anderson responded each time he was asked about the pricing model.

Gotta put an end to this Congressional Perk, if we hope to ever have a decent healthcare program.

IOW, our lawmakers' current excellent OAP healthcare program allows them to be exempt from any austerity/managed care tools that they seek to impose on the masses, as evidenced by several Dem Party MFA/public option proposals.

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7 users have voted.

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

enhydra lutris's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

be well and take care

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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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

It's been almost laughable listening to talking heads and so-called journalists with their armchair speculation regarding 'how' Bernie's supporters will vote in the general election

heh, that's just a prelude to the shrill tones of the voter scolds who feel that they own our votes, that will start up shortly. i have a feeling that it's going to get really loud and obnoxious this time.

heh, biden's really reaching out - lowering the medicare age to 60, eh? oooOOOooohh!

keep at it joe. keep putting the dem in dementia.

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10 users have voted.
mimi's picture

Dear God and dear Joe Shikspack (not the other one)

  • please send the leader(s) to mars and make them stay there
  • please make the US so great again that even I would return
  • please make the Germans less greedy and send them Americans a Marshall Plan to help them out in order to say a belated Thank You for them saving us back in the days.
  • please change the time zones so that I can read the EB during daytime hours.

I am too tired, sorry. Have a good night.

PS I took a photo in 2013 (sorry I didn't manage to resize it.) How come we knew that back then and they didn't?
No Jobs on a Dead Planet

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10 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

wow, prayers with bullet points! you are organized. Smile

have a great evening - sleep well and happy reading tomorrow!

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6 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Complaint dept. first, this headline:

Scientists create mutant enzyme that recycles plastic bottles in hours

, which I have seen several places, btw, is misleading. The mutant bacteria's enzyme breaks down plastics to a point where they are ready to be recycled. That is a huge step, but they still must be recycled afterward.

Very much loved that quotation by Engels, whom I obviously read too long ago at too yound an age, because I always considered him to be the weak partner. The Simpsons clip is a beautiful and brilliant follow up too.

It is good to see a break for Yemen resulting from this virus. I will leave it at that in order to avoid too much schadenfreude and outright glee at the tribulations of the Saudi Royal Family.

Speaking of Globalism;

African swine fever outbreak reported in western Poland

It's a long way from Africa to Poland. More importantly, it's a long way from Poland to Costco --

The source of the infection were ASF-positive piglets that the farm owner, Smithfield Foods’ subsidiary Agri Plus, purchased in mid-March.

---

and thanks, of course, for Laura Lee

be well and have a good one

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11 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

good point about the plastic-processing enzyme, which also, to quibble with the wording was not created so much as it was discovered, filed away, forgotten about and then rediscovered later.

i'm glad to hear that yemen may actually be rescued from the saudi coalition's brutal campaign. the saudi's have been looking for a way to extricate themselves from the expensive, embarrassing mess that they made for quite a while now, but hopefully, this time they are serious about it and will follow through. i suppose trump and bojo will miss the revenue from the weapons sales, though.

sadly, both poland and china are a lot closer to costco, walmart and other american markets than one might think. a surprising amount of the meat supply chain runs through china.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Of course it's not just congress that rotates power. It's them along other government insiders who join corporations because of their knowledge of how things work and then they hire lobbyists for the same reasons. This article talks about how one drug company is going to profit off COVID vaccines because of their long and sordid history of doing just that. It's long and you will feel like you need a shower after reading it. Whitney Webb and I think Taibi wrote it.

https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/top-news/killer-enterprise-how-b...

The CEO of Facebook was on Tucker last night and when asked what would happen if hedge funds weren't bailed out he sad they could sink and how is that a bad thing? This is a great point. What essential service do they provide to anyone but the rich?

Just imagine if we were sanctioning Israel like we are Iran. The outrage would be epic. Either way it's Genocide.

Farmers in Utah and Idaho are dumping millions of gallons of milk because everyone has run out of storage. This is happening in many other states too. Anyone think that if they ran out of places to store oil they would dump in the middle of a field? Cows have to be milked every day. Can oil be left in the ground? Tarsands probably could.

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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

@snoopydawg

thanks for the article, i'll check it out this weekend.

if they allow hedge funds to sink, it means that they will have to reconfigure the whole market - which could be a good thing, depending on who does it.

i hope that farmers figure out ways to connect more directly with small markets, food coops and individual consumers as a reaction to the failure of the middleman market. it would do a lot of good in the long term as both farmers and consumers are ripped off by the multiple layers of middlemen.

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8 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack
empty warehouse to fill the bottles to be delivered by, who else, but the re-invented neighborhood milkman.

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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 --

snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/let-them-fail-facebook-investor-explai...

He explains it much better than I did...but he should be put in charge of the bailouts. If only huh?

There has to be a way to end this.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/we-cant-give-our-product-away-far...

Lots of people are unemployed and could help pick food somehow. Yes social distancing has to stay in effect, but can't the government help some way

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

Dawn's Meta's picture

@snoopydawg
http://www.patients4nhs.org.uk/how-is-the-nhs-being-privatised/

Revolving door culture

There is also ‘revolving door culture‘ in the civil service, with a continual exchange of staff between the Department of Health or NHSE and private health companies and consultancy firms, like McKinsey or BUPA, so blurring the boundary between public and private sectors, public and private interests.

New generation of trade deals

Finally, once NHS services are outsourced to private companies it may be difficult to reverse the process. This is particularly of concern with the current generation of trade deals that focus on services as well as goods. Under the investment protection measures that many trade deals now include, if a transnational corporation wins an NHS contract it will be able to sue the UK government for huge compensation if new government or local authority policies – even those introduced for public health or safety reasons – undermine the corporation’s future profits. The threat of such action will be a powerful deterrent to any government considering the reversal of privatisation. (See our pages on Trade deals and the NHS.)

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2 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

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smiley7's picture

A very short story of Elmer and the bandit broker

Elmer bought some chewing gum at the company store today, paid a premium price for the double-flavor, learned on his way home that the government paid the middle-man for the gum, and expressed delivered it with the military from afar; a grant, no strings attached, using tax money to make the purchase, and the middleman, while passing it on, upped the price as he sold it to the merchant, who in return, inflated the price to poor Elmer.

"Damn. double flavor costs a lot," he thought, "Sure great the government bought it for me."

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joe shikspack's picture

@smiley7

heh, and on elmer's way home, his republican neighbor lectured him about the virtues of our free market.

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9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

and is either keeping them on health insurance or giving them $1,000 a month for COBRA. Biden is *going to lower Medicare age to 60. Hillary's plan was 55. He is also going to *forgive student loans for the lower and middle class. I'm not sure what the asterisk means. Trump is canceling student loans for 6 months. No more details.

If your not voting for ByeDone means that you are voting for Trump, then not voting for Trump means you are voting for ByeDone. Right?

Hey remember when Chuck Todd said that Bernie supporters were Nazis? Lots of other talking heads called his supporters lots of names and especially nasty Bernie bros and the lady said that Bernie gave her the creeps. Yeah all of them now are saying Bernie must tell his supporters to vote for ByeDone. Briahna says that if people want ByeDone to win then he should hire people to knock on doors, phone bank and do the other stuff he didn't do in the states he won on Super Tuesday. lol...

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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.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

you mean to tell me that the chattering class is soliciting the votes of misogynists, people who are in some way that only the chattering class can perceive like the coronavirus and nazis?

have they asked david duke for his vote yet?

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

and lots. Good one. I'm getting whiplashed from the media. They are still bitching about things Bernie is doing or not doing, but then they tell his supporters to vote for ByeDone who is partly responsible for Trump beating Hillary. Go figure.

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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.