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“How we react to the tragedy of one small person accurately reflects our attitude towards a whole nationality, and increasing the numbers doesn't change much.”

-- Anna Politkovskaya

News and Opinion

There's more at the link.

Today In MSM Faceplants

I really hope I’m never raped by a future US presidential candidate, because apparently if you’ve made blog posts which can be taken as favorable to the Russian government you’re not entitled to seek justice against your rapist.

The New York Times has published a jarringly sociopathic hit piece on Joe Biden’s sexual assault accuser titled “What to Do With Tara Reade’s Allegation Against Joe Biden?” The column serves no purpose other than to help liberal feminists feel good about themselves when dismissing the increasingly credible rape allegations against Biden in cool defiance of the “believe women” narrative they were all promulgating with #MeToo hashtags online during the Supreme Court confirmation process of Brett Kavanaugh.

“Reade seems almost engineered in a lab to inspire skepticism in mainstream Democrats, both because her story keeps changing and because of her bizarre public worship of President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” argues the column’s author Michelle Goldberg. “’President Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness,’ she wrote in a since-deleted 2018 Medium post.”

Goldberg’s claim that Reade’s story “keeps changing” is false. Nathan J Robinson of Current Affairs reports that Reade’s story has been consistent since she first started telling it in 1993, which Goldberg could have learned and addressed with even a scintilla of research.

In fact she says “Reade’s story keeps changing.” This is just a lie. It shouldn’t be in a newspaper. It treats every survivor who opens up about something they have previously told people in private as “changing” their story.

— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) April 14, 2020

More importantly, the way liberal narrative managers keep insinuating that sexual assault allegations are somehow invalidated if the accuser has foreign policy views which disagree with the US State Department is jaw-droppingly depraved. So what if Reade thinks Putin is a good leader? That has literally nothing to do with whether or not she was sexually assaulted, yet spinmeisters like Goldberg and the odious Krassenstein brothers keep framing it as though it does.

There are only two possible claims that these propagandists can be making when they frame this story in this way:

1. They are claiming, based on no evidence whatsoever, that Reade is a Russian agent who is lying about a rape for the benefit of Donald Trump, or
2. They are claiming that it is okay to rape women who support the Russian government.

As both a rape survivor and someone whose Medium posts frequently get me accused of supporting Vladimir Putin, I find it deeply disturbing that a leading US publication believes that either of these things are an acceptable claim to make. But such is the world we are now living in.

Does anyone have an argument for a world where this should happen and it’s ok https://t.co/QEqgrEgONS

— Shuja Haider (@shujaxhaider) April 14, 2020

This is not the only time Reade’s allegations have caused The New York Times to drop its journalistic facade in the last few days. In its recent formal report on this story (co-authored by professional Bernie Sanders smearer Sydney Ember) the line “The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable” was quietly edited to simply “The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden.”

The Times’ executive editor Dean Baquet was asked about this change in a New York Times interview titled “The Times Took 19 Days to Report an Accusation Against Biden. Here’s Why.”

“Even though a lot of us, including me, had looked at it before the story went into the paper, I think that the campaign thought that the phrasing was awkward and made it look like there were other instances in which he had been accused of sexual misconduct,” Baquet answered. “And that’s not what the sentence was intended to say.”

Sorry, who thought the phrasing was awkward??

This admission from the executive editor of one of the most influential news publications on the planet that they made a stealth edit to their report because a presidential campaign voiced a problem with its “phrasing” is as close to an admission as you’ll ever get that the mainstream media is propaganda, not news. Journalists are supposed to make powerful politicians squirm under the bright light of truth and accountability, not take editorial instructions from them.

Rising: AOC calls out 'gaslighting' on Biden #MeToo Accusation

Coronavirus: Israel's spy agency Mossad admits to stealing face masks overseas amid global PPE shortage

Israel's spy agency Mossad has admitted to resorting to theft to obtain face masks and other medical supplies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

A Mossad official made the revelation during an interview with Israeli media.

The intelligence agency has and will use all means to procure necessary equipment during the pandemic, according to Ilana Dayan, host of Channel 12's "Fact".

Mossad is currently involved in efforts to procure supplies ranging from face masks to the mechanical ventilators required to keep some Covid-19 patients alive.

When asked whether those efforts have included theft, the head of the intelligence agency's technology division, identified by "Fact" only as H., affirmed: "We stole, but only a little."

"The citizens of Israel will have no shortage," he said according to Haaretz. "In the world in general there will be a great shortage. People are dying because of a lack of equipment. In Israel people won't go without."

H. did not elaborate further on what methods the Mossad has used to procure medical equipment.

Shocking. Of course Democrats would never attempt to create legislation to advantage a wealthy constituency. No, no, they are just forced or tricked into it by those wily Republicans.

Analysis Reveals 'Rotten, Un-American Giveaway' GOP Buried in COVID-19 Relief Package to Overwhelmingly Benefit Millionaires

Democratic lawmakers and progressive critics expressed outrage Tuesday after a nonpartisan congressional body found that nearly 82% of benefits from a Republican tax provision in the most recent coronavirus relief package will go to the nation's millionaires and billionaires and cost taxpayers an estimated $90 billion this year alone.

The finding came in a new Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) analysis released by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) detailing the expected impact of the GOP provision, which was part of the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act signed into law by President Donald Trump last month. ...

The tax provision in question "temporarily suspends a limitation on how much owners of businesses formed as 'pass-through' entities can deduct against their nonbusiness income, such as capital gains, to reduce their tax liability," the Washington Post explained. "The limitation was created as part of the 2017 Republican tax law to offset other tax cuts to firms in that legislation."

Less than 3% of people set to benefit from the suspension earn under $100,000 per year, according to the JCT. The controversial provision is part of a set of tax changes in the coronavirus package that is expected to add about $170 billion to the national deficit over the next decade.

As the Post reported, the new JCT analysis also "included the impact of another tax change in the coronavirus relief legislation that allows firms to write off 100% rather than 80% of their losses, reversing another change in the 2017 tax law."

The JCT analysis (pdf) came after Whitehouse and Doggett sent a letter to Trump administration officials requesting information that could help explain the origins of the GOP provisions to the relief package. It also followed reporting that Trump, his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and real estate investors in the president's "inner circle" could benefit from the legislation's tax giveaways.

Doggett tried to put the impact of the tax changes into context Tuesday by pointing out that "for those earning $1 million annually, a tax break buried in the recent coronavirus relief legislation is so generous that its total cost is more than total new funding for all hospitals in America and more than the total provided to all state and local governments."

"Someone wrongly seized on this health emergency to reward ultrarich beneficiaries, likely including the Trump family, with a tax loophole not available to middle class families," the Texas congressman added. "This net operating loss loophole is a loser that should be repealed."

Trump Is Halting Funding to the World Health Organization During the Coronavirus Pandemic

President Trump announced he will halt funding of the World Health Organization while the United States reviews its “role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of coronavirus.”

Trump said the U.S. contributes $400 to $500 million a year to the U.N.’s health body, which has been criticized for slow-walking its response to the spread of the coronavirus from its origins in Wuhan, China. The WHO waited until March 11 to upgrade what it classified as a health emergency to pandemic status.

At his daily Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Tuesday, Trump accused the organization for pushing “China’s misinformation about the virus.”

"Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China's lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death," Trump said.

Trump said his administration would review the WHO over the next 30 to 60 days.

Coronavirus distancing may need to continue until 2022, say experts

Physical distancing measures may need to be in place intermittently until 2022, scientists have warned in an analysis that suggests there could be resurgences of Covid-19 for years to come.

The paper, published in the journal Science, concludes that a one-time lockdown will not be sufficient to bring the pandemic under control and that secondary peaks could be larger than the current one without continued restrictions.

One scenario predicted a resurgence could occur as far in the future as 2025 in the absence of a vaccine or effective treatment.

Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard and co-author of the study, said: “Infections spread when there are two things: infected people and susceptible people. Unless there is some enormously larger amount of herd immunity than we’re aware of … the majority of the population is still susceptible.

“Predicting the end of the pandemic in the summer [of 2020] is not consistent with what we know about the spread of infections.”

CDC: More than 9,000 health workers have tested positive for coronavirus

At least 9,282 health care workers in the U.S. have contracted the coronavirus in a two-month period, leading to 27 deaths, according to a report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report offered the first broad look at how COVID-19 is affecting the health of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who are at greater risk of getting the virus because of their exposure to patients.

However, the CDC said the figures in the report should be considered on the lower end since many cases have likely gone “unidentified or unreported.” ...

More than half of the coronavirus cases among medical professionals included contact with a COVID-19 patient in health care settings, highlighting the risk workers face at hospitals and other facilities.

“The total number of COVID-19 cases among [health workers] is expected to rise as more U.S. communities experience widespread transmission,” the report warned.

Amazon fires two employees who condemned treatment of warehouse workers

Amazon has fired two employees after they publicly denounced the company’s treatment of warehouse workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

The user experience designers Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa said on Tuesday they had been fired after internally circulating a petition about health risks for Amazon warehouse workers during the Covid-19 crisis. Costa had worked at the company for more than 15 years and Cunningham had been an employee for more than five.

“I don’t regret standing up with my co-workers,” Costa said in a statement. “This is about human lives, and the future of humanity. In this crisis, we must stand up for what we believe in, have hope, and demand from our corporations and employers a basic decency that’s been lacking in this crisis.”

An Amazon spokeswoman confirmed the two employees were fired for “repeatedly violating internal policies”, which prohibit employees from commenting publicly on its business without corporate justification and approval from executives. ...

Costa and Cunningham had received repeated warnings for speaking out on the company’s climate record during their time organizing with Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group that made public calls for the company to do more to fight the climate crisis.

Senate Democrats Rip Trump Labor Department for Attempting to Exclude Gig Workers From Unemployment Benefits

A group of more than 30 Senate Democrats on Monday slammed President Donald Trump's Labor Department for issuing guidance that could provide states with a green light to exclude gig workers such as Uber drivers and others classified as "independent contractors" from receiving expanded unemployment benefits under the new coronavirus stimulus law.

In a letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, a former corporate lawyer, the Democratic senators warned that sections of the department's guidance (pdf) "appear narrow or ambiguous, which could make states think they need to exclude workers who Congress clearly intended to receive unemployment compensation through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program."

Gig workers are typically excluded from unemployment insurance benefits, but progressive members of Congress fought for their inclusion in the PUA, which was created by the multi-trillion-dollar coronavirus stimulus legislation Trump signed into law last month. The program expands unemployment benefits by $600 a week on top of state benefits for a period of four months.

The senators raised alarm about several parts of the Labor Department's guidance in their letter Monday, including a section that states gig workers qualify for benefits "if he or she has been forced to suspend operations as a direct result of the COVID-19 public health emergency, such as if an emergency state or municipal order restricting movement makes continued operations unsustainable."

Narrowly interpreted, the senators warned, that language could leave out workers who have been forced to suspend operations "because there is reduced demand for their services" due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"For an independent contractor, losing many or all of their customers overnight is analogous to an employee being laid off by an employer, or, as the department's guidance notes, their 'place of employment' being closed," the senators wrote. "We believe that that the CARES Act definitively covers such workers, and the department should clarify its guidance to reflect this."

Pining for Taxpayer Bailout, For-Profit Health Insurance Industry Threatens Massive Post-Covid Premium Hikes

A lobbyist told The Hill in an interview Tuesday that unless the insurance industry receives a federal bailout, companies intend to raise premiums on Americans due to the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on private employer-based plans—a threat that progressives said only strengthens the case for a single-payer, Medicare for All system.

"Nationalize them," Boston-based activist Jonathan Cohn said of insurance companies.

Nationalize them. https://t.co/H5YbgP9XZe

— Jonathan "Boo and Vote" Cohn (@JonathanCohn) April 14, 2020

American Benefits Council senior vice president for health policy Ilyse Schuman said that employer-based healthcare plans were unlikely to handle the stress of an increase in benefit claims from the disease without hiking prices for consumers.

"They'll be left with no option but to pass costs along to employees in the form of higher premiums next year," said Schuman. "That's really why we're asking Congress to step in and protect employer-sponsored coverage."

According to The Hill, insurers are already asking for federal relief from the burden of paying out claims:

America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the leading trade group for insurance companies, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association urged congressional leaders in a letter last week to provide temporary "federal risk mitigation programs to support the financial stability of plans that incur extraordinary, unplanned costs in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19."

The industry's need for a bailout in order to meet obligations built into its business model struck a number of progressive observers as indicative of the need for fundamental change in the way Americans access care.

"One more reason for Medicare for All," tweeted the Rittenberg Report blog.

What a bunch of cartoon villains! Pelosi and her posse are ready to ride to the rescue of the insurance industry which needs a little help looting the treasury.

Nothing But a Taxpayer 'Subsidy to Insurers': Democrats Float Plan to Backstop For-Profit Healthcare Industry During Covid-19 Pandemic

House Democratic leadership came under fire Tuesday after it was reported a proposal is now under consideration to backstop for-profit healthcare insurance companies with taxpayer dollars instead of simply opening public programs like Medicare and Medicaid to those laid off or uninsured amidst the coronavirus outbreak ravaging the country.

Under the proposal, first viewed and reported on by Vox, the costs of COBRA—an existing program which allows laid-off and furloughed workers to continue to buy into their employer-provided insurance plan by shouldering all or a large portion of the premiums—would be assumed by the federal government.

According to Vox:

The Worker Health Coverage Protection Act would expand that to 100 percent coverage, both for laid-off workers and furloughed ones. In the case of laid-off employees, these new COBRA subsidies would cover both the employee and employer portions of the premium costs. In the case of furloughed workers, the bill would just cover the cost of the employee’s premiums because the employer would continue to pay in as well.

The bill's friendliness to the insurance industry was noted as a selling point by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation senior policy advisor Katherine Hempstead.

"This proposal should be favored by providers, since it will increase their likelihood of receiving higher commercial rates from these workers," Hempstead told Vox. "Also, this is advantageous for insurers that are in the employer market but not the marketplace."

While the proposed legislation would provide a stopgap for the subsequent loss of insurance for some of the newly unemployed during the economic downturn that's come in the wake of the disease, it won't cover everyone.

Even with generous subsidies, it's important to note the bill won't cover everyone; while 49 percent of Americans get their health insurance through their employer, many people who have been laid off work in restaurants or retail—and smaller businesses don’t necessarily provide insurance to their employees. People who got their insurance through the ACA marketplace, for instance, could be in a tough spot.

Progressives panned the proposal as too little too late and as an unnecessarily complicated giveaway to the private health insurance industry.

"If you're really concerned about low reimbursement rates for providers, just insure everyone through Medicare and offer a rate multiplier for enrollees under 65," tweeted healthcare advocate Timothy Faust. "All COBRA expansion does is hand out a subsidy to insurers."

David Sirota,  journalist and former top aide to the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), suggested Democrats could also use Medicaid as an avenue for expanding healthcare access for jobless Americans—if they wanted to.

"The Democrats could push to simply expand Medicaid," said Sirota, "but instead they are pushing new subsidies for private health insurance companies."

It's important to bail out this industry quickly because, um, nobody needs them right now. Enjoy reading about how effective government is at forking over billions to its wealthy friends while you jump through hoops and wait interminably for whatever pittance government might give you.

US government agrees on $25bn bailout for airlines as pandemic halts travel

The US government agreed a $25bn bailout for the beleaguered airline industry on Tuesday as the coronavirus pandemic brings travel to a virtual standstill.

Passenger airline companies are receiving direct aid as part of the $2.2tn Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (Cares Act) economic relief package passed last month in order to allow them to continue paying salaries and benefits to employees in the coming months.

Details of the aid package are expected later on Tuesday.

With the coronavirus now spread across more than 100 countries and every continent except for Antarctica, air travel has all but ground to a halt.

Obama Gaslights Non-Stop In Endorsement Video For Biden

He's still got his silver tongue.

Obama, Endorsing Biden, Says Obama Policies Aren’t Good Enough Now

“You know, I could not be prouder of the incredible progress that we made together during my presidency,” Obama said in a video released Tuesday morning, in which he endorsed Joe Biden. “But if I were running today, I wouldn’t run the same race or have the same platform as I did in 2008.”

He added that now is not the time to simply “tinker around the edges with tax credits or underfunded programs.” While it’s important to “protect the gains we made with the Affordable Care Act,” he said, “it’s also time to go further. We should make plans affordable for everyone, provide everyone with a public option, expand Medicare, and finish the job so that health care isn’t just a right, but a reality for everybody.” ...

If Obama was emphasizing in his video that it’s not enough to return to the policies of the Obama administration, it’s because the video was more than just an endorsement of Joe Biden. It was his first pitch-in to the cause of party unification. Obama did not scrimp on the praise of Bernie Sanders in the endorsement. He described Sanders as “an American original” who has “devoted his life to giving voice to working people’s hopes, dreams, and frustrations.”

“We both know that nothing is more powerful than millions of voices calling for change,” Obama said. “And the ideas he’s championed, the energy and enthusiasm he inspired, especially in young people, will be critical in moving America in a direction of progress and hope. Because for the second time in 12 years, we’ll have the incredible task of rebuilding our economy. And to meet the moment, the Democratic Party will have to be bold.”

System Update with Glenn Greenwald - Benjamin Dixon and Briahna Joy Gray

Krystal and Saagar join Kyle Kulinski in calling out Bernie for SHAMING his own supporters

Joe Biden needs to do a lot more if he wants to win over Sanders voters

Joe Biden has a problem: the young people who fueled Bernie Sanders’ second-place campaign are not very interested in Joe Biden. Biden has a well-known enthusiasm gap and even though he has dominated recent primary states, younger voters tended to prefer Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. Progressive student groups around the country are declining to endorse Biden. A group of leftwing youth organizations sent an open letter to Biden demanding better policies if he wants their support. ...

Why is Biden struggling with young progressives? Well, one reason is that he has spent a lifetime opposing key progressive goals, and used to be proud of his reputation as one of the Senate’s “most conservative” Democrats. He was anti-abortion, pro-Iraq war and in the pocket of big banks. Even today, Biden says he has “no empathy” for young people who complain about indebtedness and precarity. He has told millennials who raise concerns about his environmental policies that they should “go vote for someone else”. Plenty have been willing to do just that. So while some commentators, such as Vox’s Matthew Yglesias, have suggested that activists and left media are responsible for Biden’s “unity problem”, the more blameworthy culprit is Biden himself.

In fact, it doesn’t seem as if Biden has much interest in solving his “unity problem”. In an ostensible effort to reach out to the left, Biden recently debuted new policies on healthcare and education. Did he adopt the policies recommended in the activists’ letter, namely Medicare for All and canceling all outstanding student debt? No, he did not. ... It’s not nothing, but it’s about as close to nothing as a policy can get without literally being nothing, and it shows that Biden isn’t serious about courting the left. ...

Remember, too, that we’re only talking about the platform. This is where negotiations start. By the time a proposal has gone through the political process, it inevitably gets watered down. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll get the Medicare age dropped from 65 to 63 by the year 2030 or something. And even that prospect assumes that Biden is serious about fighting for his platform. At election time, politicians have an unfortunate habit of promising voters whatever they think voters want to hear. Needless to say, they don’t always follow through, and you’re often better off looking at their record than their rhetoric. From Biden’s record, it’s more plausible that he’ll follow through on his reported plan to put Michael Bloomberg and JPMorgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, in his cabinet than that he’ll overhaul the healthcare system. ...

Trump needs to lose, but Biden is already a weak candidate, and he will be even weaker if he can’t turn out the progressive base.

Justice Democrats Executive Director rules out Joe Biden endorsement

AOC’s Hypocrisy Over Biden Support Laid Bare

Republicans tried to suppress the vote in Wisconsin. It backfired

In the end, it wasn’t even close. Less than a week after forcing Wisconsin voters to risk their health and go to the polls, Wisconsin Republicans suffered a stunning defeat on Monday night.

Daniel Kelly, a conservative justice on the state supreme court, lost his seat to Jill Karofsky, a liberal challenger, by more than 163,000 votes. Such a wide margin is remarkable in Wisconsin, where a race for a different state supreme court seat was decided last year by just 6,000 votes. ...

Republicans in the state refused a last-minute request to delay the election. That decision was widely seen as a cold political calculation – fewer people would turn out to vote in person, which would benefit Kelly.

Ultimately, that calculation was wrong. Turnout was just over 34%, the highest for a spring election in the state since 2016, when both parties had competitive presidential primaries. It was only the second time in over half a century that a challenger defeated an incumbent for a seat on the state supreme court, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Karofsky’s victory means the conservative majority on the supreme court will narrow from 5-2 to 4-3. ...

“It is indisputable that thousands upon thousands of voters were disenfranchised,” said Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic party. “Voter suppression might not be as clever as Republicans think it is. It can backfire by pissing voters off.”

Sanders former Press Secretary responds to Joy Reid, establishment meltdown

Trump administration declines to stiffen US clean air standards

The Trump administration has said it will not tighten rules for soot pollution, despite research showing that doing so could save thousands of lives each year.

The fine particles, which come from the burning of coal, oil and wood, penetrate the respiratory system and are linked with heart and lung diseases, higher rates of asthma, bronchitis and cancer.

Under the current standard, which was set in 2012, polluters can emit enough soot to measure 12 micrograms per cubic meter. Strengthening the standards to 11 micrograms could save about 12,000 lives per year, according to one Harvard study of US seniors.

Other research, noted in the government’s own analysis, found that maintaining the soot standard at its current level could allow as many as 52,000 deaths a year in just 47 urban areas.

The Environmental Protection Agency is now proposing to to freeze the standards. The move comes as experts warn the coronavirus pandemic is unequally devastating communities of color that have been disproportionately burdened by pollution. It also follows the announcement of laxer fuel-efficiency rules for cars and other efforts by Trump to advance his political agenda before the November election.

Post-crisis, could state aid encourage companies to tackle climate change?

10 Years After BP's Deepwater Horizon Offshore Catastrophe—Worst Spill in History—and Nothing Learned, Says New Report

Nearly 10 years after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe began in the Gulf of Mexico, a leading ocean conservation group warned Tuesday that the threat of another similar disaster looms large and that the fossil fuel industry and U.S. government have learned practically nothing from the world's worst ever such disaster.

Oceana's new publication—titled "Hindsight 2020: Lessons We Cannot Ignore from the BP Disaster"—provides a broad look at what led up to the "preventable tragedy," the ongoing ecological and economic consequences of the disaster, and how the spill failed to act as a wake-up call on the inherent dangers of offshore drilling.

"Offshore drilling is still as dirty and dangerous as it was 10 years ago," said Diane Hoskins, Oceana campaign director. "If anything, another disaster is more likely today as the oil industry drills deeper and farther offshore. Instead of learning lessons from the BP disaster, President Trump is proposing to radically expand offshore drilling, while dismantling the few protections put in place as a result of the catastrophic blowout."

By pulling together information from a number of sources—including government documents, scientific studies, and interviews with Gulf Coast residents and policy experts—the report conveys a chilling reality: It's not a question of another offshore oil spill happening, but simply when.

"What we found was disturbing," says the report. ...

#BREAKING: New Oceana report examines BP #DeepwaterHorizon disaster’s cause and impacts 10 years later. 200+ million gallons of oil spilled, killing 11 people and tens of thousands of birds, sea turtles, dolphins & fish. Learn more: https://t.co/rEb4kaIjG9 #ProtectOurCoast pic.twitter.com/v3f9TjKVYa

— Oceana (@oceana) April 14, 2020

Contributing to the threat of another Deepwater Horizon-like spill is that the fossil fuel industry has pushed for riskier drilling—further out and in deeper waters. Yet safety measures matching hose riskier moves have not been rolled out.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has done nothing to dampen the industry's appetite for more drilling.

Instead of strengthening safety regulations, the industry and the Trump administration are dismantling the few protections put in place after the BP catastrophe. Without effective oversight and a more robust safety culture, another disaster at the level of Deepwater Horizon may be just as likely today as it was 10 years ago.

COVID-19 & Indian Country: Pandemic Exposes Navajo Nation’s Water Access Crisis & Health Disparities

Environmental activist killed in Mexico – the third this year

A prominent environmental activist has been killed in Mexico, the third such death in the country this year. The UN office of the high commissioner for human rights said Adán Vez Lira was shot on 8 April while he rode his motorcycle in the township of Actopan, in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

Vez Lira was a longtime supporter and organiser at the La Manchaecological reserve on the sparsely populated stretch of coast north of the state capital. He was a recognised environmental activist who had played a notable role in several environmental defence causes in Actopan, the office said.

Mourners who posted messages on the reserve’s Facebook page said he also was active in opposing mines and preserving wetlands. The area is noted for its tropical forest and coastal lagoons.

Also of Interest

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

Coronavirus Has Given the Left a Historic Opportunity. Can They Seize It?

The Duty And Responsibility of Left Wing Leaders

Cuba Under Media Attack for Sending Doctors, Not Bombs, to Help Covid-19 Victims

Is Putin Laying a Petroleum Trap for Trump?

Bloomberg News Killed Investigation, Fired Reporter, Then Sought To Silence His Wife

'Beyond Predatory': Trump Treasury Department Gives Banks Green Light to Seize $1,200 Stimulus Checks to Pay Off Debts

What Richard Vague Says that Matt Taibbi, Our Acrophobic Champion for the Duration of the COVD-19 Crisis, Needs to Learn about Stratospheric Levels of Public Debt

Three of the Biggest Banks on Wall Street Have $7.4 Trillion In Off-Balance Sheet Exposures

Is the Coronavirus ‘Peak’ a Mirage?

We need to talk about Biden’s sexual assault accusations, not celebrities feuding

Here’s How to Get Your $1,200 Coronavirus Stimulus Check Faster

Means TV: inside the leftist, worker-owned streaming service

Saagar Enjeti: Obama's Endorsement Shows Biden Is An Empty Husk

Krystal Ball: Why the left can't just roll over for Joe Biden, even if Bernie asks us to

Krystal and Saagar debate former Hillary advisor on Joe Biden electability

Former MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan: Why UBI is a ventilator for the U.S. economy in time of crisis

Krystal and Saagar: Did GOP Senator get caught again? Matt Gaetz calls for his removal

Krystal and Saagar: Stacey Abrams SHOCKING pitch for Biden VP

Woman's attraction to chandeliers not a sexual orientation, ruling says

A Little Night Music

School Boy Cleve - Here I Go Again

Schoolboy Cleve - My Baby Done Gone

Schoolboy Cleve - If Its Love You Want Come To Me

Schoolboy Cleve - I'm Him

Schoolboy Cleve - Leaving You Baby

Lightnin' Slim Feat. Schoolboy Cleve - West Texas

Schoolboy Cleve - Beautiful Beautiful Love

Lightnin' Slim Feat. Schoolboy Cleve - Sugar Plum

Lightnin' Slim Feat. Schoolboy Cleve - Wonderin' And Goin'