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This evening's music features Louisiana blues musician Robert Pete Williams. Enjoy!

“Here we don’t die. We shop. But the difference is less marked than you think.”

-- Don De Lillo

News and Opinion

Our Post-Pandemic Future

Full restoration or fundamental change: As the Covid–19 infection and fatality curves at last begin to flatten, the entire world now asks which of these lies in our post–pandemic future. Will human civilization simply resume its course — its destructive, inequitable course, along which lies too much suffering — or will there be a sobering up, let us call it, a recognition that very far-reaching reforms are needed in too many spheres to count? Another way to pose the question: Is humanity any longer capable of self-correction? Or has the dreadful prevalence of neoliberal thinking denuded us — we in Western, post-democracies, that is — of all will in the face of circumstances that require it, along with a determination to act imaginatively and bravely? ...

America’s domestic response to the Covid–19 onslaught makes Europe’s look like a model case study in some business school curriculum. Bottlenecks are everywhere. The trillions the Federal Reserve and Treasury have committed are stuck in clotted bureaucracies and reluctant-to-lend banks such that small businesses are going under and families are going hungry while private-equity firms are pushing their way into loan programs not remotely intended for them. Talk about free-for-alls. Management expertise used to be part of America’s claim to exceptionalism. ... And now? Who can imagine anyone taking an interest in American management methods? ...

There has been no stirring display of American national solidarity, if you have not noticed. We are all sitting around — more or less in silence, so far as one can make out — while corporate captains and a corrupt administration chart the course forward. Why is this? Do not look for any answer in politics, or in economic advantage or disadvantage. The problem transcends all such considerations. Covid–19 is a health crisis, and very soon it will be an economic crisis few alive today will be able to fathom. But it is above all a psychological crisis. It is essential to understand this.

Americans are no longer the people who sent a Liberty ship a day to sea. “Can do” is now closer to “can’t do,” “rather not,” or “why should I?” The drug of material consumption separates us from that earlier, no-less-critical time. Hula hoops and Mustangs have left us very sadly atomized, a vast “lonely crowd,” somnambulant. And helpless to escape ourselves. Let us not be mistaken: This is the true American crisis Covid–19 bares.

Can You Fight A Virus With An F-35?

When people are struggling to pay the bills and the country is poised on the brink of an unprecedented recession it’s fair to ask some hard questions. Some of these hard questions have actually been asked for decades, but have simply been ignored or repurposed as applause lines about America First.

But a pressing crisis like the current pandemic and economic implosion is causing some of these hard questions to finally be heard, such as: Why should corporate and arms industry profits and business strategies be put above American national interest? And more specific ones, like: Why should Washington ship troops, weapons and missile defense systems abroad to protect Saudi oilfields, when the kingdom’s current oil production policy is devastating oilfields in the United States? ...

Although questions do occasionally come up about the U.S. arms industry selling weapons to regimes that torture children and routinely commit human rights abuses, the general thinking of the Blob is that the arms industry is a staple of the U.S. economy and lifeblood for its foreign influence and leverage. When in doubt, Raytheon can just celebrate transgender people by signing a “GLBTA Ally Wall,” or build a bigger float for the pride parade to keep K Street smiling. ...

Each year American taxpayers are indirectly subsidizing already massively profitable U.S. arms corporations to the tune of billions of dollars. Defense giants have no shame devouring funding from the public trough even as talking heads on the news emphasize that socialized medical care and student loan forgiveness are pie-in-the-sky lunacy reserved for naïve Bernie Bros and enthusiasts of Scandinavian tax systems. To be fair, it’s not only arms industry pressure and leverage that keeps the hamster wheel of death turning: it’s also the eager complicity of legislators. Only days after the White House first announced a state of emergency, Members of Congress were appealing to the House Armed Services Committee to buy more F-35 fighter jets at a price tag of $100 million each. It may warm people’s hearts to know this was a bipartisan appeal.

Do F-35s fight pandemics? Does the $738 billion Pentagon budget for 2020 make the nation more prepared to face this frightening pandemic, in comparison to Health and Human Services’ $94 billion, or the CDC’s $8 billion program funding? There is some irony in the fact that past military warnings that the U.S. would be hit by precisely this sort of crisis were ignored.

Erik Prince Offered Lethal Services to Sanctioned Russian Mercenary Firm Wagner

Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater and a Trump administration adviser, has sought in recent months to provide military services to a sanctioned Russian mercenary firm in at least two African conflicts, according to three people with knowledge of the efforts.

Prince, who is the brother of Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, met earlier this year with a top official of Russia’s Wagner Group and offered his mercenary forces to support the firm’s operations in Libya and Mozambique, according to two people familiar with Prince’s offer.

Wagner officials said they are not interested in working with Prince, three people familiar with their decision told The Intercept. ...

The Wagner Group is a semi-private military force that operates in countries or conflicts where the Russian government seeks plausible deniability for its activities. It is often equipped and supported directly by the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to reports and experts who track Wagner’s activities. The U.S. State Department website also lists Wagner as an entity connected to the “Defense Sector of the Government of the Russian Federation.” Any business relationship between Prince and Wagner would, in effect, make the influential Trump administration adviser a subcontractor to the Russian military.

In recent years, the Russian government has deployed Wagner to several African countries, Ukraine, and Syria, where the U.S. military killed dozens of Wagner fighters in 2018 after the Russians and their Syrian allies attacked an oil facility that the United States was defending.

CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling persecuted for exposing discrimination, danger

Iraqi PM-designate meets with officials in push to form ‘government that serves the public’

Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Mustafa al-Kadhimi met April 11 with government leaders in his efforts to quickly form a Cabinet he said would be “a government that serves the public, a government of services.”

Kadhimi, who has been director of Iraq’s National Intelligence Service since 2016, pledged in a televised address April 9 to “work tirelessly to present Iraqis with a program and Cabinet that will work to serve them, protect their rights and take Iraq toward a prosperous future.” ...

Kadhimi, who is not affiliated with any Iraqi political party, is the third candidate for the post since Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi resigned in November 2019 in response to widespread anti-government protests. ...

Kadhimi appears to have widespread backing for his candidacy among Iraq’s key political parties. ...

The United States and Iran both reacted relatively positively to Kadhimi’s appointment last week.

Activist and author Vandana Shiva on the 'destructive' impact of billionaires

Ilhan Omar Joins Global Call for Debt Relief as Coronavirus Threatens to Push Developing Nations 'Over the Edge'

U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Monday joined growing demands for providing debt relief to developing countries that are struggling economically amid the coronavirus pandemic as economists warn the world could be facing the worst recession since the 1930s.

In a pair of tweets, the Minnesota Democrat called for canceling all debts that developing nations owe to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF):

We could be on the precipice of a global financial crisis unlike any seen since the 1930’s.

We need to cancel all debt developing countries owe the World Bank and IMF.

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 13, 2020

Omar's remarks came in response to a Washington Post report Monday that "in the weeks since the novel coronavirus stormed out of China, an unprecedented 90-plus countries have petitioned the IMF for assistance. Emerging and developing countries require at least $2.5 trillion this year to cover their bills, according to the fund."

Kashkari Says U.S. May Face 18 Months of Rolling Shutdowns

Without an effective therapy or a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, the U.S. economy could face 18 months of rolling shutdowns as the outbreak recedes and flares up again, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said.

“We’re looking around the world. As they relax the economic controls, the virus flares back up again,” Kashkari said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Kashkari is a voter in 2020 on the Fed’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

“We could have these waves of flareups, controls, flareups and controls until we actually get a therapy or a vaccine. I think we should all be focusing on an 18-month strategy for our health care system and our economy.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that a partial reopening of the economy could possibly begin in May, but cautioned that the outbreak could flare up again in the fall.

Kashkari warned that “this could be a long hard road that we have ahead of us until we get either to an effective therapy or a vaccine.”

“It’s hard for me to see a V-shaped recovery under that scenario,” he said.

Juan González: My 92-Year-Old Mother's COVID-19 Experience Shows Me How Rotten Our Health System Is

Can You Get Coronavirus Twice? 116 South Koreans Have Tested Positive After Recovering

The South Korean government says that more than a hundred people have tested positive for the coronavirus a second time. And the World Health Organization is investigating to see what’s really happening.

It could indicate that people don’t necessarily build up immunity to the virus after they’ve had it. It’s not totally clear yet that the patients in South Korea that tested positive again have been reinfected; it may be that the virus is instead “reactivating,” and the patients are experiencing something more like a relapse than a second case. The WHO told multiple news outlets that it’s aware of 116 patients in South Korea who seem to have tested positive for the virus after previously testing negative, and is looking into it.

In China, too, people have gotten the virus, recovered, tested negative — and then tested positive again.

The WHO also indicated that this could just all be the upshot of a testing screw-up. “It is important to make sure that when samples are collected for testing on suspected patients, procedures are followed properly,” the WHO said in a statement to The Hill.

Two Weeks as a New York City ICU Nurse in the Pandemic

Grocery Workers Keep Dying From Coronavirus: ‘We Don't Have a Choice’

Dozens of grocery workers nationwide have died from coronavirus, and more than 3,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union are currently out of work due to illness or exposure to COVID-19, the union said in a press call on Monday.

UFCW president Marc Perrone said that 30 members of the UFCW, which represents more than 900,000 grocery workers as part of its membership of 1.3 million, had died due to complications from coronavirus. But according to a Washington Post analysis published Sunday, at least 41 grocery workers nationwide have died due to complications from the coronavirus and more than 1,500 UFCW members have tested positive for coronavirus.

“I work in one of the hardest hit areas, and while I maintain my composure at work, the fear we feel is absolutely real,” said Gregg Finch, a UFCW member and Stop and Shop worker in New York, the global epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.. “We don’t have a choice, we have to work. We also know that we are needed. The shop is essential for New Yorkers going through the struggle.”

A recent survey conducted by the UFCW found that 96% of 5,000 members who responded are concerned about being exposed to coronavirus, Perrone said on the call Monday. In recent weeks, workers at companies such as Amazon, Shipt, and Instacart have staged walkouts in order to demand management to implement stronger safety measures and paid leave for sick employees.

Because of the overwhelming concern from members, the UFCW is rolling out a “Shop Smart” ad campaign in an attempt to persuade social distancing compliance from customers. The union will soon roll out print and video ads on a “nationwide basis,” Perrone said, “to get customers to think about [safe shopping] in a more positive way.”

Coronavirus IV: Things need to change and not go back to normal - John Oliver

Next Coronavirus Relief Package Must Include Moratorium on Utility Shutoffs, 830+ Justice Groups Say

With more than a quarter of Americans reporting lost income as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, over 830 national justice groups are demanding Congress center working people's needs in the next coronavirus relief package by ensuring support for people across the country struggling to pay their utility bills.

Groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, 350.org, and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign signed a letter to congressional leaders, calling on lawmakers to implement a nationwide moratorium on utility shutoffs. Access to water, broadband, electricity, and other essential utilities in homes must be maintained during the coronavirus pandemic to support public health, the groups said.

"While we thank Congress for the CARES Act's inclusion of important paycheck and eviction protection measures, the act unfortunately failed to include any moratorium on shut-offs of the basic utility services that families need to survive and protect themselves during this health pandemic," the letter reads. "Utility services must be retained to ensure basic family survival and to fight the health pandemic at ground zero."

Tell Congress to stop utilities from cutting off water, electricity and broadband to families during this crucial time for fighting the novel coronavirus. https://t.co/Yr4bGqIbFJ

— Center for Bio Div (@CenterForBioDiv) April 10, 2020

The groups sent the letter after the passage of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which included $500 billion for large corporations but failed to include a moratorium on utility shutoffs, making low-income families vulnerable to losing water access and other necessities.

US's digital divide 'is going to kill people' as Covid-19 exposes inequalities

The Covid-19 crisis is exposing how the cracks in the US’s creaking digital infrastructure are potentially putting lives at risk, exclusive research shows. With most of the country on lockdown and millions relying on the internet for work, healthcare, education and shopping, research by M-Lab, an open source project which monitors global internet performance, showed that internet service slowed across the country after the lockdowns.

“This is going to kill people,” said Sascha Meinrath, co-founder of M-Lab.

In late March, most people in 62% of counties across the US did not have the government’s minimum download speed for broadband internet, according to M-Lab. Between February and mid March, when the pandemic was only just beginning to hit the US, there was a 10% increase in how many counties saw download speeds fall below the government standard, representing about one in 10 US counties, M-Lab found. “Now that people’s livelihoods, schools and lives, are literally on the line, we can’t survive,” Meinrath said. “These communities that are underserved are not going to be able to transition to an online workplace or school environment.”

ISPs are failing to meet the US government’s standard for download speed, which impacts uses such as video streaming, for most of their customers, according to M-Lab. In 29.4% of counties, most customers are not getting the government-required upload speed. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says 21 million Americans lack high-speed internet access but other studies have estimated the number at close to 42 million.

Then, there is the wide swath of the country which has no internet at all. The FCC said more than 21.3 million people don’t have any internet access, though many experts think this is an undercount because the FCC’s reporting system is flawed.

The internet is key to accessing information about the coronavirus. ... People seeking medical care are being told to avoid hospitals and doctors’ offices in favor of video or phone calls with their doctors. And while a delayed connection might be irritating in an office video conference, in a healthcare setting, it can lead to worse quality care. In May 2017, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) urged the US government to recognize broadband access as a social determinant to health.

Conservative Operatives Float Plan to Place Retired Military, Police Officers as GOP Poll Watchers on Election Day

On Election Day in November, some polling places could be patrolled by off-duty police officers and veterans, according to a plan hatched by Republican operatives. The idea is a reprisal of once-illegal Election Day “ballot security” intimidation tactics, intended to challenge voter registration and remove voters from the rolls. At a strategy session in February attended by conservative donors and activists, several people expressed a specific need for Republican poll watchers in “inner city” and predominantly Native American precincts, according to audio recordings of the event obtained by The Intercept and Documented. [Click the article link for audio clip. - js]

“You get some [Navy] Seals in those polls and they’re going to say, ‘No, no, this is what it says. This is how we’re going to play this show,’” said Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote, a group that lobbies for voting restrictions and organizes volunteers to go into precincts and aggressively challenge voters who they believe are improperly registered. “That’s what we need. We need people who are unafraid to call it like they see it.” ...

Using former soldiers and law enforcement as poll watchers was banned in 1981 by a judicial consent decree imposed on the Republican Party, but that ban was lifted in 2018 when a New Jersey judge declined to renew it. The ban came explicitly in response to an effort by the Republican National Committee to intimidate voters in African American communities by creating a so-called Ballot Security Task Force, threatening arrest and a $1,000 fine for improper voting.

Top Staffers Blame Bernie For Losing Campaign

Bernie Just Endorsed Biden — 3 Months Earlier Than He Backed Hillary in 2016

Bernie Sanders just endorsed Joe Biden for president, a sharp departure from his reluctant approach to supporting Hillary Clinton four years ago.

Sanders joined Biden for a chummy-seeming campaign livestream on Monday, where the two longtime lawmakers played up their friendship, praised one another’s integrity and thanked each other for the campaigns they’d run.

Sanders and Biden said their staffs had been working together for weeks to find areas of common agreement. And they’ll formalize that arrangement wit six working groups to develop common and novel ideas on economy, education, criminal justice, immigration and climate change.

Biden Exhibits Cognitive Decline During Endorsement Appearance w/Bernie

If The Democrats Were A Beach Volleyball Team

Team D: Hey! Hey you over there! Come here and play with us!

Random stranger: Me? No thanks. I’m busy picking up garbage, this beach is filthy.

Team D: Come on, our team is one short. You have to play.

Random stranger: Not my problem, lady. I don’t even like volleyball. Your game doesn’t represent my interests at all.

Team D: What are you talking about?? We both want the exact same thing: for Team R to lose!

Random stranger: No, what I want is a garbage-free beach. I don’t have any interest in your game or who wins it. It’s got nothing to do with me or the things I care about. If you guys would have decided to do a beach cleanup instead of play volleyball, we would have some common ground to work with, but you’ve chosen to do a completely different thing than the thing I’m interested in, and no matter who wins your game I know you’re going to leave a big mess behind for the rest of us. Good luck though.

Team D: Well it’s your fault if the other team wins then!

Random stranger: What?? No it’s not! Look around you, this whole beach is full of people, many of whom are doing nothing at all. Ask them to join your team; literally anyone you pick will have more in common with your interests than I do.

Team D: No. No, it needs to be you. You need to play on our team, or our loss will rest solely on your shoulders.

Random stranger: No. Find someone else.

Team D: Refusing to play for us is the same as playing for Team R! You have to play for the lesser of two evils. If you don’t play for us we’ll spend the next four years shrieking about how you made us lose!

Random stranger: I didn’t though. You’re over there playing volleyball, and I’m over here picking up trash. We’ve got nothing whatsoever to do with each other. You’re picking on the one person on this beach who has less in common with you than anyone else you could possibly pick.

Team D: If Team R wins, this beach is going to be a lot messier than if we win. We’re just planning on leaving a moderate amount of garbage behind, while they’re complete pigs! Other people want to enjoy this beach too you know. You should check your privilege.

Random stranger: You’re both going to be making a mess regardless of who wins. Anyway why are you planning on making any mess at all?? If you actually cared about having a clean beach you’d be over here helping me instead of choosing to play a stupid, irrelevant game that doesn’t ultimately make this place any nicer!

Team D: The official beach cleanup is over anyway! You have to play volleyball now.

Random stranger: I don’t just pick up garbage during the city’s official beach cleanup day; I do it year-round. That’s what I choose to do with my life, volleyball is not. That remains the case whether there’s a city-sponsored beach cleanup or not.

Team D: Well I’ve just spoken with Bernie, the chief beach cleanup organizer, and guess what? He just endorsed our game. You hear that? Your leader says you have to play volleyball now!

Random stranger: Seriously? Did you seriously just try to call the manager on me, Karen?

Team D: Do as your leader commands!

Random stranger: Bernie isn’t my leader, he’s just an event organizer who got a lot of people interested in beach cleanup. No matter what he says, my interest will be in beach cleanup, not volleyball. If you guys want to win you should play as well as you can, and see about getting one of those undecided sunbathers to join your team or something. You’ve got a much better shot at convincing them than you do me.

Team D: Okay, you all hear that? It’s that random stranger’s fault if we lose, okay? Not the fact that none of us have been training, or the fact that our team is made up of deflated boomers with no enthusiasm, or the fact that none of us are particularly interested in winning. Let the record show that it’s the fault of that random stranger who has nothing to do with us at all!

Random stranger: Well, have fun losing I guess. I’m gonna get back to work.

Krystal Ball: Bernie supporters won't fall in line for Biden no matter who tells them to

Ocasio-Cortez Warns Biden That Just Throwing Progressives a 'Couple of Bones' Will Not Be Enough

In an interview with the New York Times published Monday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argues that presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has much work to do when it comes to motivating those within the progressive movement inspired and led by Sen. Bernie Sanders over the past five years.

"I don't think this conversation about changes that need to be made is one about throwing the progressive wing of the party a couple of bones—I think this is about how we can win," Ocasio-Cortez told the Times.

NEW: I interview @AOC abt Joe Biden and Democratic unity. What concessions she wants (plenty), if they've ever talked (no), whether we'll see a Biden-AOC unity rally (depends), and what she's thought abt his early health care outreach ("almost insulting")https://t.co/PytaBB0nk1

— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) April 13, 2020

In the Times interview, Ocasio-Cortez made clear she intends to support Biden if he is the nominee but said that thus far the former vice president's overtures to the Democratic Party's progressive wing leave much to be desired. ...

"I think people understand that there are limits to what Biden will do and that's understandable—he didn't run as a progressive candidate," Ocasio-Cortez said. "But, at the bare minimum, we should aspire to be better than what we have been before."

At the same time, she said elsewhere in the interview, "people need to feel hope" when it comes to looking towards the next Democratic administration.

As Common Dreams reported last Thursday, a new policy proposal from Biden to lower the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60 was met with disappointment from the left—and Ocasio-Cortez agreed.

"They floated this olive branch to the progressive left of lowering the Medicare age to 60. And it's almost insulting," she said. "I think Hillary was looking at policies that lowered it to 50. So we're talking about a 'progressive concession' that is 10 years worse than what the nominee had in 2016."

Most Democrats are just going to pretend Biden is fine. AOC is going to tell the truth, which is that Biden's campaign is totally inadequate and insulting. If he loses, this will be why, and he's being given plenty of notice. pic.twitter.com/0G0XcuHMfD

— David Klion (@DavidKlion) April 13, 2020

Ocasio-Cortez added that the exit polling from the primaries made clear that the majority of Democratic voters are on board with progressive policies, a sign that Biden's victories are not necessarily an endorsement of all of the former vice president's political positions.

Biden wins in Wisconsin as a liberal supreme court challenger stages upset

As former vice-president Joe Biden scored a widely expected win in the Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary, a liberal challenger for a state supreme court seat declared victory in an upset hailed by Democrats as boding well for the presidential election in November.

The state supreme court is expected to rule in numerous voting rights cases in the lead-up to the presidential election, including a case in which 200,000 voters could be purged from voter rolls. Wisconsin is a swing state that narrowly voted for Donald Trump in 2016.

With most precincts in the state reporting, Judge Jill Karofsky held what looked like an insurmountable lead over conservative state supreme court justice Daniel Kelly. In a victory statement, Karofsky thanked supporters and blasted the Republican-led legislature for forcing voters to the polls a week earlier amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Ukraine: wildfires draw dangerously close to Chernobyl site

Wildfires in Ukraine have spread to just over a mile from the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant and a disposal site for radioactive waste, according to activists, as more than 300 firefighters work to contain the blaze.

A video posted by a Chernobyl tour operator showed flames and a cloud of smoke rising within sight of the protective shelter over the carcass of Chernobyl’s Unit 4 nuclear reactor, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.

The tour operator, Yaroslav Yemelianenko, wrote that the fire had reached the abandoned city of Pripyat and was just 2km (1.24 miles) away from the nuclear power plant and the Pidlisny radioactive waste disposal site.

“The situation is critical. The zone is burning,” he wrote in a Facebook post accompanied by a video of the blaze. Yemelianenko, a member of a public advisory board to Ukraine’s emergency service, also accused the government of covering up the severity of the fires. ...

Fires have been burning since 4 April in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone, the 30-kilometre (18.6-mile) area around the former nuclear reactor where authorities have barred people from living.

“Terrified to Go to Work”: Hundreds of Workers in Meat & Poultry Plants Test Positive for COVID-19

South Dakota pork plant closes after over 200 workers contract Covid-19

A major pork manufacturing plant in South Dakota has indefinitely shut down after more than 200 of its employees contracted Covid-19. According to Smithfield, who runs the plant, the facility’s output represents up to 5% of US pork production, supplying 130m servings of food a week and employing 3,700 people. Over 550 independent farmers supplied the plant.

The company that runs the plant, Smithfield Foods, announced the closure of its plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Sunday, a day after the state’s governor, Kristi Noem, asked the company to suspend the plant’s operation for at least 14 days. The number of employees who worked at the plant and contracted the virus makes up over half of the state’s positive cases. About 240 employees from the plant have contracted the virus. ...

Other meat manufacturers similarly shut down plant operations after multiple employees contracted Covid-19. Tysons Food Inc halted a pork processing plant in Iowa after two dozen employees got the virus, while JBS USA closed a beef plant in Pennsylvania for two weeks after multiple plant managers reported flu-like symptoms. ...

Experts say US consumers should not necessarily be worried about food shortages in the near future. Storage levels of staples including chicken, beef and soybeans were high before the virus hit the US full-force, and food suppliers are starting to reroute their inventories that would typically go to restaurants to supermarkets.

Also of Interest

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

American Workers Get a 4-Month Safety Net; Wall Street Gets a 4 to 5-Year Bailout

Why Airlines Absolutely Don't Need Gov Bailout. w/Mark Blyth

Keiser Report | Junk: Didn’t Think They’d Go There

This Absolute Bullshit Would Not Be Possible Without Propaganda

Somebody Needs to Tell Chuck Schumer that the Entire Working Class Is “Heroic,” Not Just “Essential Workers”

Yves Smith: Some Comments on the Sanders Campaign

Covid-19 made 'unthinkable' reforms a reality in the US – now make them stick

Donald Trump is wrong, the economic hit of the coronavirus will last for years

Trump claims 'total authority' and attacks media in chaotic coronavirus briefing

Krystal and Saagar: NYT blatantly ADMITS cover-up at Biden campaign request

Saagar Enjeti: Why Biden will probably crumple against Trump

RNC Spokesperson: Trump raises massive war chest, will he win over any Bernie supporters?

Ryan Grim reacts: Biden says he will be the most progressive president since FDR

Rising: Reporter who investigated Weinstein says Biden's accuser deserves to be heard

Krystal and Saagar: Kyle Kulinski rules out voting for Joe, establishment Dems LOSE their minds

Amazon REACTS to Rising segment with fired organizer

Krystal and Saagar: CNN absolutely LOSES it during Trump briefing

Krystal & Saagar: Biden weaker in polls than media says, loses train of thought in his own podcast

A Little Night Music

Robert Pete Williams - Grown So Ugly

Robert Pete Williams - Pardon Denied Again

Robert Pete Williams - On My Way From Texas

Robert Pete Williams - Sweep My Floor

Robert Pete Williams - Almost Dead Blues

Robert Pete Williams - Midnight Boogie

Robert Pete Williams - Matchbox Blues

Robert Pete Williams - Old Girl At My Door

Robert Pete Williams - High As I Want To Be