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This evening's music features Chicago blues singer Big Daddy Kinsey. Enjoy!

“If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut

News and Opinion

Consumer Beware: Coronavirus Antibody Tests Are Still A Work In Progress

After hearing for months about serious access issues involving tests that diagnose COVID-19 based on swabs from the nose or throat, Americans are being inundated with reports about promising new tests that look for signs of infection in the blood. There are high hopes for these antibody tests, which detect proteins that form in blood as part of the body’s immune response to an invading virus. Communities across the U.S. have been rolling out the results of serological surveys that examine blood samples from people who haven’t been diagnosed with COVID-19 to see if they were, in fact, previously infected. ...

Infectious disease experts are raising pointed questions about the reliability of the early tests and the studies that hinge on their results. And they warn that state and local governments - as well as individuals - should be wary of shaping policy or changing behavior based on any single report.

In the sharpest caution to date, officials with the World Health Organization on Saturday warned against plans for proposed “immunity passports,” which would allow people who have recovered from the coronavirus to resume unrestricted travel and work. “There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection,” the agency wrote in a scientific brief. ...

Scientists still know too little about whether antibodies to COVID-19 convey immunity that could allow people to put away masks and halt social distancing, said Dr. Mary Hayden, director of the division of clinical microbiology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Immunity to a virus is a complicated process that takes place over one to two weeks, the WHO noted. The immune system makes antibodies in response to an infection. But the body also makes T-cells that recognize and eliminate other cells infected with the virus, creating what’s known as cellular immunity. Those two processes together may help a person recover and prevent reinfection. But it is not yet clear whether cellular immunity is required to bolster recovery and prevent subsequent infection with COVID-19.

“We do not know whether or not the antibodies detected are protective,” Hayden told reporters last week on a call organized by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “We recommend that people with antibodies not change their behavior in any way.”

US-Backed Forces Killed Twice as Many Children as Taliban and ISIS Did During 1st Quarter of 2020

New data released Monday from the United Nations finds that U.S.-backed forces in Afghanistan were responsible for killing more than twice as many children as did extremists during the first three months of 2020.

The figures come from the latest quarterly report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

From January 1 - March 31, said UNAMA, there were 1,293 civilian casualties in Afghanistan, including 533 killed and 760 injured. The tally reflects a 29% decrease compared to the same three-month period last year but still underscores that "the conflict in Afghanistan continues to be one of the deadliest in the world for civilians, at a time when the potential impact of COVID-19 poses a threat to all individuals in Afghanistan," said UNAMA.

The report puts the blame for the majority of the casualties—55%—on "anti-government elements," including the Taliban and ISIS. Those groups caused 710 civilian casualties, including 282 killed and 428 injured.

But so called "pro-government forces," which are comprised of Afghan national security forces and international military forces, were responsible 32% of all civilian casualties during the first quarter, causing 412 civilian casualties including 198 killed and 214 injured.

"Of concern," said the report, "pro-government forces were responsible for more child casualties than anti-government elements during the first three months of the year and over twice as many child deaths, mainly due to airstrikes and indirect fire during ground engagements."

Afghan national security forces are to blame for 21% and international military forces for 8% of overall civilian casualties, added the report.

India should be placed on religious freedom blacklist, US panel says

A US government panel has called for India to be put on a religious freedom blacklist over a “drastic” downturn under the prime minister, Narendra Modi, triggering a sharp response from New Delhi. The US commission on international religious freedom recommends but does not set policy, and there is virtually no chance the state department will follow its lead on India, an increasingly close US ally.

In an annual report, the bipartisan panel said that India should join the ranks of “countries of particular concern” that would be subject to sanctions if they do not improve their records.“In 2019, religious freedom conditions in India experienced a drastic turn downward, with religious minorities under increasing assault,” the report said.

It called on the US to impose punitive measures, including visa bans, on Indian officials believed responsible and grant funding to civil society groups that monitor hate speech. The commission said that Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, which won a convincing election victory last year, “allowed violence against minorities and their houses of worship to continue with impunity, and also engaged in and tolerated hate speech and incitement to violence”.

Israel may ask for double its usual $3.8 billion from the U.S this year

Breaking Defense, a digital magazine that covers military issues, reports that Israel may ask for its U.S. aid early, possibly in a lump sum that could be as high as $7.6 billion.

This would work out to almost $21 million per day from American taxpayers, even though the U.S. is approaching a $4 trillion deficit (the largest in the world), and Israel typically has a lower unemployment rate than the United states.

The report is by Breaking Defense Israel correspondent Arie Egozi, an Israeli citizen who served in the Israeli military and is close to the Israeli security establishment. ...

In addition to receiving the aid earlier than usual, a “senior source” quoted by Egozi suggests that Israel may request that the aid expected for 2024 also be disbursed this year. If that happens, it would work out to nearly $21 million per day, or $14,460 per minute to Israel from American taxpayers suffering from a devastating hit to the U.S. economy. Moreover, it is highly likely that when 2024 comes around, the advance would be forgiven, as have numerous U.S. “loans” to Israel, and Israel would get the aid again.

'Lining Up at the Trough': Federal Reserve to Offer Corporations $500 Billion No-Strings-Attached Bailout Loophole

A Federal Reserve program approved by Congress and aimed at providing emergency relief to large companies contains a "catch" which will permit the corporations to lay off employees and spend the money on executive pay, according to a Washington Post report.

Through the Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility, the Fed will provide $500 billion to companies by buying bonds. The corporations will be required to pay the Fed back with interest.

But after a change was made to the program by the Federal Reserve weeks after it was approved, the companies will not be required to abide by rules and restrictions set under the CARES Act.

As the Post reports:

Unlike other portions of the relief for American businesses, however, this aid [from the Fed] will be exempt from rules passed by Congress requiring recipients to limit dividends, executive compensation and stock buybacks and does not direct the companies to maintain certain employment levels.

Critics say the program could allow large companies that take the federal help to reward shareholders and executives without saving any jobs. The program was set up jointly by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was passed as an aid package meant for small businesses, came with the stipulation that companies certify that the funds are used to "retain workers and maintain payroll or make mortgage payments, lease payments, and utility payments."

Bharat Ramamurti, a member of the Congressional Oversight Commission, told the Post that offering funds to corporations without restrictions will result in the companies neglecting their employees' needs.

"Big corporations have shown time and again that they will put their shareholders and executives ahead of their workers if given the choice," Ramamurti told the Post. "That's why I'm so concerned that the Treasury and the Fed have chosen to direct hundreds of billions of dollars to big companies with no strings attached."

According to the Post, "The first version of the Fed program to buy bonds from large companies...probably would have compelled recipients of the aid to limit executive pay and dividends. That version of the program, described in a March 23 term sheet issued by the Fed, offered direct loans and bond purchases to companies."

"But on April 9," wrote Jeffrey Stein and Peter Whoriskey, "the Fed altered the design of the program to exclude direct corporate lending. The Fed program will still essentially lend money to large companies—by buying their bonds—but the Fed will not be compelled by the Cares Act to ensure that companies abide by the divided and CEO pay rules."

Historian James Gleick wrote that with no restrictions on how they spend the money, corporations will "line up at the trough."

Lining up at the trough: the Fed and the Treasury Department are circumventing Congress to give hundreds of billions to the largest corporations with no restrictions. https://t.co/tfrEDsxUt6

— James Gleick (@JamesGleick) April 28, 2020

Fed’s Corporate Bond Buying Program Is Illegal; Fed Says Program Isn’t Operational

When the Fed published its weekly H.4.1 data last Thursday, there was no mention of its two, highly controversial, corporate bond buying programs: the Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility (PMCCF) and the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF). We sent an email to the New York Fed to find out if the two programs are operational and if they will be consolidated on the Fed’s balance sheet. A spokesman for the New York Fed replied that “the PMCCF and SMCCF are not yet operational. And, as we note on the websites for each, additional information will be published before the facilities are launched.”

That strikes us as strange. Last fall, the Fed launched a highly questionable repo loan program in as little as 24 hours and flooded Wall Street with hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few weeks. The two corporate bond buying programs were announced more than a month ago. What’s holding up their rollout? Is the Fed getting pushback that it’s not allowed to make direct purchases of corporate bonds, including those with junk ratings?

Yesterday, in a CNBC interview, DoubleLine CEO and bond guru Jeffrey Gundlach said that “the Fed is blatantly violating the Federal Reserve Act” with its corporate bond purchases. Gundlach was doubling down on his statement of two weeks earlier. On April 14, Gundlach excoriated the Fed, stating: “The Federal Reserve is presently acting in blatant non-compliance with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. An institution violating the rules of its own charter is de facto admitting that said institution has failed and is fundamentally broken.”

Gundlach is now squarely in the camp of Wall Street On Parade, except that we will go one step further. The Federal Reserve Act is more than a charter, it has been codified into law. And there is nothing in that law that indicates that the Fed is allowed to do more than make loans against collateral that is worthy enough to avoid losses to the American taxpayer. There is nothing in the law to suggest that the Fed is allowed to make purchases of anything, let alone junk bonds and junk bond ETFs.

Top Unions Accuse Trump of Exploiting Loopholes in Covid-19 Stimulus to 'Enrich Corporate Executives'

Leaders of some of the largest labor unions in the United States are warning that the Trump administration is brushing aside the interests of workers in its distribution of trillions of dollars in coronavirus bailout funds and instead using the taxpayer money to further enrich wealthy corporate executives.

As funds authorized by the multi-trillion-dollar CARES Act begin to fly out the door, the unions wrote in letters (pdf) to Democratic leaders Monday that they "are troubled that important worker protections are not being required of recipients."

"Specifically, we are alarmed that the Federal Reserve's lending facility for large businesses does not require those companies to maintain workers on payroll, while the program for mid-sized businesses fails to include anti-outsourcing provisions or any provisions protecting workers' right to organize," the unions wrote. "This means that, rather than protect good, family-supporting jobs as you intended, the funds can be used to enrich corporate executives and shareholders without regard for workers." ...

The CARES Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last month, contains some restrictions on corporate recipients of federal bailout funds—including limits on layoffs, stock buybacks, and executive compensation—but the law also empowers Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to waive those restrictions, effectively rendering them meaningless.

"We were happy to see that one of the provisions of the CARES Act required that most employers receiving taxpayer funds would be required to keep 90% of their employees on payroll," the unions wrote Monday. "Unfortunately the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve effectively waived any requirement to maintain workforces at companies receiving aid."

"The Treasury Department, meanwhile, has failed to follow guidance under the CARES Act protections for airline payrolls, potentially risking good jobs in those sectors, as well," the unions said.

Mehdi Hasan and Rev. Dr. William Barber II on Bailing Out People, Not Corporations

As Amazon, Walmart, and Others Profit Amid Coronavirus Crisis, Their Essential Workers Plan Unprecedented Strike

An unprecedented coalition of workers from some of America’s largest companies will strike on Friday. Workers from Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, and FedEx are slated to walk out on work, citing what they say is their employers’ record profits at the expense of workers’ health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic. The employees will call out sick or walk off the job during their lunch break, according to a press release set to be published by organizers on Wednesday. In some locations, rank-and-file union members will join workers outside their warehouses and storefronts to support the demonstrations. ...

The labor action comes as workers and organizers say Amazon, in particular, has not been forthcoming about the number of Covid-19 cases at its more than 175 fulfillment centers globally.

Jana Jumpp, an Indiana Amazon employee, along with her small team of fellow Amazon workers, has over the last month tallied Covid-19 cases at Amazon warehouses in the U.S. According to Jumpp, there have been at least 500 coronavirus cases in at least 125 Amazon facilities. Jumpp suspects that the number is much higher, but says this is what she and her team have been able to directly confirm through their sourcing, which includes screenshots of internal company texts and voicemails to employees when cases have arisen, in addition to messages received from Amazon workers on private Facebook groups. The numbers, which have not been previously reported, are the most comprehensive to this point. ...

The May 1 strike is the latest in a wave of actions led by union and nonunion front-line workers. Last month, Amazon workers in New York City and more than 10,000 Instacart workers across the country staged a walkout. Whole Foods employees led a national sickout on March 31, while upwards of 800 workers skipped their shifts at a Colorado meatpacking plant as coronavirus cases were confirmed among employees. Sanitation workers in Pittsburgh and bus drivers in Detroit both staged wildcat strikes. ...

The workers coalition will unveil a set of demands. Among them are: compensation for all unpaid time off used since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis in March; hazard pay or paid sick leave to be provided for the duration of the pandemic; protective equipment and all cleaning supplies to be provided at all times by the company; and a demand for full corporate transparency on the number of cases in facilities.

Amazon May Have Violated New York Whistleblower Laws by Firing a Protest Organizer

The office of New York Attorney General Tish James sent a letter to Amazon last week alleging that the retail giant provided “inadequate” safety measures for workers at its Staten Island warehouse, according to NPR. The letter also reportedly suggests that Amazon broke New York whistleblower laws by firing protest organizer Christian Smalls.

"While we continue to investigate, the information so far available to us raises concerns that Amazon's health and safety measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are so inadequate that they may violate several provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act,” James’ office wrote in a letter to Amazon dated April 22, according to NPR. (James’ office declined to provide a copy of the letter but confirmed its existence in an email to VICE News.) ...

Last month, the company fired Staten Island warehouse worker Christian Smalls, alleging that he put his fellow workers at risk by breaking a company-imposed quarantine. But Smalls says he was fired in retaliation for organizing protests calling for increased transparency and better safety measures from Amazon, and according to leaked notes from an April 1 meeting of senior executives including Jeff Bezos, Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky suggested focusing the company’s PR efforts on Smalls and making him “the face of the entire union/organizing movement.”

The letter from James’ office cites “serious concern that Amazon may have discharged [Smalls] in order to silence his complaints and send a threatening message to other employees that they should also keep quiet about any health and safety concerns,” according to NPR. The letter also reportedly discloses that James’ office is investigating multiple “other potential cases of illegal retaliation.”

This Is Why the Devastating Unemployment Figures Are Actually Way Worse Than We Thought

An estimated 7 million to 12 million out-of-work Americans are struggling to get access to the unemployment benefits they may be owed, according to a new survey from the Economic Policy Institute.

That means there’s likely a vast undercount of how many people are unemployed in the U.S. — a difficult concept to grasp, since current statistics show a dizzying 26.5 million people have successfully filed for benefits. It also means that scores of suffering Americans, by no fault of their own, are losing out on the cash they need to make rent, buy food, and care for their children during a global coronavirus pandemic.

Researchers at the left-leaning institute say there are an estimated 7.8 million to 12.2 million people who either tried to get access to unemployment benefits and weren’t able to, or were unable to apply at all because it was too difficult.

It’s likely that they’re the ones facing jammed phone lines and crashing government websites. Or they may live in states that can’t yet accept the applications of gig workers — even though self-employed people now qualify for benefits — because their state-run unemployment system can’t handle the load. Their pain is reflected in reports of people suffering mental health crises over the lack of pay or becoming so angry with officials that they’re sending illegal death threats.

Trump Attacks Post Office While Carriers & Clerks Die from COVID-19

Trump offers rosy predictions for coronavirus testing as US passes 1m cases

Donald Trump has predicted a “great” economic rebound in the fall and claimed the country would soon be performing 5m coronavirus diagnostic tests a day, as the number of confirmed cases in the US surpassed a million.

Some health experts have suggested that the US would have to carry out 5m tests a day by June to reopen its economy safely. Others have suggested as many as 20m tests a day would ultimately be needed. The US daily rate is currently 200,000.

Addressing a news conference on aid to small businesses on Tuesday, Trump appeared unaware of the current figures, suggesting “it could be that we’re getting very close” to 5m daily tests.

“We’re going to be there very soon,” he said.

Dossier Author Christopher Steele Had Previously Undisclosed Meetings With Lawyers For DNC, Clinton Campaign

A lawyer representing the DNC and Clinton campaign provided Christopher Steele with information in 2016 regarding an alleged secret communications channel between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank, the former spy told a British court last month.

That now-debunked tip, from Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann, set off a chain of events that led to Steele publishing a Sept. 14, 2016 memo accusing the founders of the bank, Alfa Bank, of having “illicit” ties to Vladimir Putin, according to a court transcript obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A week after Steele wrote that memo, he had another meeting with Sussmann’s colleague, Marc Elias, according to the transcript.

Steele disclosed the previously unreported meetings with Sussmann and Elias during testimony in a defamation lawsuit filed against him by the Alfa Bank founders, the transcript shows.

Steele’s testimony about Sussmann and Elias provides insight into how deeply involved the two lawyers were in the Trump investigation, and suggests they helped shape Steele’s investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. ...

Elias, who served as general counsel for the Clinton campaign, hired Fusion GPS in April 2016 to investigate Donald Trump.

Private Hospitals, Now Demanding Bailouts, Lobbied to Defeat Cost-Saving Health Reform as Coronavirus Crisis Grew

Private hospital megachains have maneuvered in recent months to defeat the expansion of low-cost health insurance coverage, while demanding unprecedented bailouts over the coronavirus crisis. The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future Action is a private hospital, insurance, and drug industry-led campaign group to defeat state-based public option plans and diminish support for single-payer health insurance. The group spent nearly $3 million through last month on advocacy and television advertisements as the Covid-19 crisis took shape.

The group, launched two years ago with a focus on battling Medicare for All during the Democratic presidential primary, has since shifted to blocking state-based reform efforts. PAHCF is funded by the largest voices in for-profit health care, from drug companies to medical device makers. The coalition is led by a lobbyist who represents the largest for-profit hospital chains in the country.

The spending spree went toward attacks on a Colorado plan that would have provided a “public option” for those without employer-based coverage. The option would be offered as a low-cost insurance alternative that could be used at any major health care provider for quality care. The program was estimated to save an average of 20 percent on premiums, below the costs of equivalent private insurance plans available on health insurance exchanges. ...

The outbreak of the coronavirus did little to temper the industry-backed lobbying spree against the Colorado plan. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis declared a state of emergency over the spread of Covid-19 on March 10. PAHCF continued spending on lobbying and public advocacy against the public option plan through at least March 17. The disclosures for April have not yet been released. ...

PAHCF, which did not respond to a request for comment, appeared to change its messaging in April. The group now touts the role of the private sector in solving the Covid-19 crisis in advertisements that have run in recent weeks. The interests behind PAHCF, during the same period, have spent big money wrangling a series of taxpayer-funded bailouts from Congress. The chairman of PAHCF, Chip Kahn, the chief lobbyist for the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents investor-owned hospitals, disclosed that his team worked to secure emergency funding for hospitals as part of the nearly $3 trillion in recent federal spending.

Bernie Has Become A Cartoon Of A Leader

Lots more at the link.

How New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Is Using the Pandemic to Consolidate Power

New York election officials’ decision on Monday to cancel the June Democratic presidential primary was just the latest in a series of moves by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration to consolidate power and shut out progressives in the state.

The state based its decision to cancel the presidential primary on public health grounds, since former Vice President Joe Biden is the presumptive nominee after Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out on April 8. But New York will be moving forward with congressional and state-level primaries on June 23. The cancellation of the presidential primary is likely to depress turnout among Sanders supporters, and lower progressive turnout will likely have a ripple effect for a handful of left-wing insurgents who are mounting credible challenges to longtime incumbents.

In recent weeks, Cuomo has been lavished with national praise for holding nightly briefings about the pandemic, seemingly filling a leadership vacuum left by the federal government. But not only did Cuomo fumble his state’s response, minimizing the risks of the virus in early March, but he has also used this political moment to cement his authority and that of his political allies. Over the past month, Cuomo has canceled six special elections and used the state’s annual budget process, over which he wielded great influence, to enact some of the most strict ballot access laws in the nation and expand his budgetary power. Progressives say the combination of moves amount to a power grab, given cover by the ongoing pandemic.

“He’s high on his new popularity and using it to become even more authoritarian,” said Monica Klein, a progressive strategist in New York City and co-founder of Seneca Strategies.

Democrats not confident 2020 US election will be fair, survey finds

As America hurtles towards the critical 2020 presidential election during the Covid-19 pandemic, less than half of Democrats are confident it will be fair and accurate, according to a new national survey from the Pew Research Center.

Just 46% of Democrats are confident in the fairness and accuracy of the November election, the survey found. Even fewer are confident all citizens will be able to vote if they want to.

That’s a sharp break from Republicans: 75% of them believe the election will be fair and accurate, and 87% were confident all eligible citizens will be eligible to vote, the survey found.

Krystal and Saagar: Biden CRUMBLES when reporter presses him on Hunter Biden Chinese business deals

Demand Grows for Biden to Address Tara Reade Allegations as Democrats Wrestle With #MeToo Hypocrisy

Former Vice President Joe Biden is facing a growing demand to address the credible sexual assault allegation made by former Senate staffer Tara Reade as the Democratic Party itself faces accusations of hypocrisy in terms of the #MeToo movement.

"We have reached a point where it is journalistic malpractice for anyone interviewing Biden to refuse to ask him about Tara Reade's allegations, the mounting supporting evidence in her case and the numerous other allegations of his misconduct toward women," author and The Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill tweeted on Tuesday.

The increased pressure on Biden and his party comes as new reporting this week and last further corroborated Reade's account of the alleged 1993 attack, which Reade first detailed in full on journalist Katie Halper's podcast last month.

While Biden's presidential campaign has said the accusations are false, the deeper scrutiny into the case has made the silence of the candidate himself and many of his supporters all the more problematic for those in Democratic Party circles who in recent years have championed the #MeToo movement, which has as one of its central tenets the responsibility to take seriously such accusations by women against powerful men. ...

With Biden now the presumptive nominee, the accusations have exposed a major obstacle for Democrats eager to defeat President Donald Trump—himself accused by dozens of women of sexual harassment and assault. ...

In his Monday column for The Week, Ryan Cooper argued that the whole debacle has exposed serious hypocrisy among Democratic supporters who championed #MeToo, many of them now ignoring or explaining away allegations against their candidate after raising uproar when it was Trump or Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh facing similar charges.

"Now Democrats are set to blow a hole in the movement with their probable nomination of former Vice President Joe Biden for president," wrote Cooper.

The progress gained by the feminist movement will "be grossly undermined if Democrats choose to look past Biden's allegations for political reasons," Cooper argued. "Republicans already basically dismiss sexual assault allegations against their co-partisans out of hand; if Democrats do the same for the leader of their party it will do a great deal to move us back to the pre-#MeToo past, when far too many people looked the other way at abuses committed by powerful politicians. One cannot create a broad political norm against sexual misconduct if the issue becomes a partisan football for both parties."

Climate experts call for 'dangerous' Michael Moore film to be taken down

A new Michael Moore-produced documentary that takes aim at the supposed hypocrisy of the green movement is “dangerous, misleading and destructive” and should be removed from public viewing, according to an assortment of climate scientists and environmental campaigners.

The film, Planet of the Humans, was released on the eve of Earth Day last week by its producer, Michael Moore, the baseball cap-wearing documentarian known for Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine. Describing itself as a “full-frontal assault on our sacred cows”, the film argues that electric cars and solar energy are unreliable and rely upon fossil fuels to function. It also attacks figures including Al Gore for bolstering corporations that push flawed technologies over real solutions to the climate crisis. Planet of the Humans has provoked a furious reaction from scientists and campaigners, however, who have called for it be taken down. ... A free version on YouTube has been viewed more than 3m times.

A letter written by Josh Fox, who made the documentary Gasland, and signed by various scientists and activists, has urged the removal of “shockingly misleading and absurd” film for making false claims about renewable energy. Planet of the Humans “trades in debunked fossil fuel industry talking points” that question the affordability and reliability of solar and wind energy, the letter states, pointing out that these alternatives are now cheaper to run than fossil fuels such as coal.

Michael Mann, a climate scientist and signatory to Fox’s letter, said the film includes “various distortions, half-truths and lies” and that the filmmakers “have done a grave disservice to us and the planet by promoting climate change inactivist tropes and talking points.” The film’s makers did not respond to questions over whether it will be pulled down. ...

Jeff Gibbs, who wrote and directed the film, has suggested that unrestrained economic and population growth should be the target of environmentalists’ efforts rather than technological fixes.

Krystal Ball: Will workers strike back after Trump bows to corporate masters?

Trump Is Using the Defense Production Act to Make Meat-Processing Workers Go Back to the Plants

President Trump’s plan to keep the nation’s meat processing facilities open has worker advocates worried it won’t address the root cause of the recent plant closures roiling the industry: the lack of proper safety equipment to protect workers from coronavirus.

Trump announced Tuesday that he would use the powers of the Defense Production Act to compel key meat and poultry operations to continue running, as “essential” parts of the country’s infrastructure, after several plants closed due to coronavirus outbreaks and lockdowns.

Industry advocates and analysts warn the number of plants that have closed or reduced operations could result in widespread shortages of meat products in a matter of weeks.

Some 20 meat-packing and processing facilities are currently closed, according to a tally by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, with more closing every day. FERN estimates that 4,330 workers have gotten sick from the virus -- 800 in one South Dakota pork processing facility alone-- and 19 or more have died. ...

A study released Tuesday by a group of agricultural economists at Kansas State University estimated that there were only about 10 days worth of meat products left in the supply chain — at a time when the pork industry, in particular, had already seen a 30% decline in output.

Toxic PFAS Fallout Found Near Incinerator in Upstate New York

ndustrial chemicals known as PFAS have contaminated soil and water near an incinerator in upstate New York that has been burning firefighting foam. The facility is run by Norlite, whose parent company Tradebe contracted with the Department of Defense to burn the foam known as AFFF, as The Intercept reported in January 2019.

The analysis of three soil and four water samples collected near the Norlite incinerator in Cohoes, New York, which appears to be the first environmental testing done near an AFFF incineration site, revealed the presence of 10 PFAS compounds that have been associated with the foam. The levels of the chemicals in soil and water declined with distance from the plant, and measurements of PFOS, a compound that has been widely used in firefighting foam, were twice as high downwind from the facility than upwind of it, according to David Bond, a professor of environmental studies at Bennington College, who conducted the testing with some of his students.

“All of this provides a strong indication of airborne deposition of PFAS from ineffective incineration of AFFF at the Norlite facility,” said Bond.

Despite evidence that burning the firefighting foam posed health risks, the military has turned to incineration of as a way of disposing of millions of gallons of AFFF in recent years. The foam, which has been used for decades to put out jet fuel fires, long contained both PFOA and PFOS, as The Intercept reported in 2015. Widespread use of the foam that contained these extremely persistent chemicals, which are associated with kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and many other health problems, resulted in contamination of drinking water across the country. In 2016, the Department of Defense decided to stop using PFOS and PFOA in AFFF, but continued using a newer formulation of the foam that contains closely related compounds in the same class.

States, localities, and fire departments, which have used AFFF made to military specifications for decades, have also begun to send their excess foam to incinerators. At a press conference yesterday, Cohoes Mayor William Keeler said that 25 states have been sending AFFF to the Norlite facility. The hope is that the foam could be safely incinerated at extremely high temperatures. But the testing done near the Norlite incinerator, which is less than 200 meters from a public housing complex that is home to more than 70 families, suggests otherwise.

Also of Interest

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

Global Coronavirus Ceasefire Is Gaining Ground

The FBI Investigated Robert Parry

OPCW insiders slam ‘compromised’ new Syria chemical weapons probe

Turkey's Economic Troubles Give Putin Another Chance To Squeeze Erdogan

Pelosi Spanks Jake Tapper: "Calm Down!" & He Does

Rising: Trump campaign calls out Kavanaugh double standard on Tara Reade allegations

Saagar Enjeti calls out fake feminist icons Kirsten Gillibrand, Stacey Abrams on hypocrisy

Zach Carter: Why are Biden, Trump both listening to failed corporate-friendly economists

A Little Night Music

The Big Daddy Kinsey - Tippin' On In

Big Daddy Kinsey - Baby Don't Say That No More

Big Daddy Kinsey - Can't Let Go

Big Daddy Kinsey - The Queen Without A King

Big Daddy Kinsey - Ramblin' Man

Big Daddy Kinsey - Good Mornin' Mississippi

Big Daddy Kinsey & Sons - Going to New York

Big Daddy Kinsey & The Kinsey Report - Slow Down

Big Daddy Kinsey - I Am The Blues

Big Daddy Kinsey - Walking Thru The Park