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"Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too."

-- Marcus Aurelius

News and Opinion

The Ongoing Travesty — and Dangers — of the Prosecution and Attempted Extradition of Julian Assange

U.S. Airstrikes Hit All-Time High as Coronavirus Spreads in Somalia

In the first four months of this year, U.S. Africa Command has conducted more airstrikes in Somalia than it did during all of Barack Obama’s eight years in office.

The massive escalation of America’s undeclared war in Somalia comes as U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly appealed for a global ceasefire amid the Covid-19 pandemic. “There should be only one fight in our world today, our shared battle against Covid-19,” he reiterated on April 3. “We must mobilize every ounce of energy to defeat it.”

That same day, AFRICOM conducted an “airstrike targeting al-Shabaab terrorists in the vicinity of Bush Madina, Somalia,” according to a command press release. The U.S. claimed five members of al-Shabab were killed in the strike.

Since the beginning of the year, AFRICOM has announced 39 airstrikes in Somalia. The command announced a total of 36 such attacks from 2009 to 2017, under Obama, peaking in 2016 with 19 declared airstrikes. Last year, under President Donald Trump, the U.S. conducted 63 air attacks in Somalia, the most ever in a single year.

The spike in U.S. airstrikes comes as the number of Covid-19 cases in Somalia is similarly rising. On April 8, there were 21 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Somalia. As of Wednesday, there were 286. Most of those infected have no history of travel abroad, indicating local transmission of the disease and worrying prospects for the future — especially among the many internally displaced persons, or IDPs, who have lost their homes to the ongoing conflict between al-Shabab and the Federal Government of Somalia, which is backed by the United States.

Iran reportedly launches first military satellite

Iran has claimed it has put its first military satellite into orbit, further raising tensions with the US at a time the two countries are already facing off in the Persian Gulf. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said the satellite “Noor” (Light) was in a 425km (264 miles) high orbit, after a successful launch. Iran launched its first civilian satellite in 2009. ...

The Noor satellite was launched by a three-stage rocket which the IRGC said was powered by a combination of solid and liquid fuels.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said the launch violated a 2015 UN security council resolution. “I think every nation has an obligation to go to the United Nations and evaluate whether this missile launch was consistent with that security council resolution,” Pompeo told reporters. “I don’t think it remotely is, and I think Iran needs to be held accountable for what they have done.”

Although there is technological overlap between space launches and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), Iran denies that the aim of its space programme is to pursue ICBM technology.

Amid Covid-19 Failures, Trump Threatens War With Order to 'Shoot Down' Iranian Boats

President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that he has instructed the U.S. Navy to "shoot down and destroy" any Iranian vessels that "harass" American warships in the Persian Gulf.

Critics slammed the threat as an effort to distract from the president's abysmal response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic, which has now infected more than 800,000 people and killed at least 40,000 in the United States.

"If the xenophobia isn't doing the trick and providing a good enough distraction, there's always the classic authoritarian move: gin up a war," said Matt Duss, foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Trump's tweet came a week after the U.S. Navy accused Iranian gunboats of making "dangerous and harassing approaches" to American warships in the Persian Gulf.

"I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea," Trump wrote.

‘Instead of Coronavirus, the Hunger Will Kill Us.’ A Global Food Crisis Looms.

In the largest slum in Kenya’s capital, people desperate to eat set off a stampede during a recent giveaway of flour and cooking oil, leaving scores injured and two people dead.

In India, thousands of workers are lining up twice a day for bread and fried vegetables to keep hunger at bay.

And across Colombia, poor households are hanging red clothing and flags from their windows and balconies as a sign that they are hungry.

“We don’t have any money, and now we need to survive,” said Pauline Karushi, who lost her job at a jewelry business in Nairobi, and lives in two rooms with her child and four other relatives. “That means not eating much.”

The coronavirus pandemic has brought hunger to millions of people around the world. National lockdowns and social distancing measures are drying up work and incomes, and are likely to disrupt agricultural production and supply routes — leaving millions to worry how they will get enough to eat.

The coronavirus has sometimes been called an equalizer because it has sickened both rich and poor, but when it comes to food, the commonality ends. It is poor people, including large segments of poorer nations, who are now going hungry and facing the prospect of starving. ...

Already, 135 million people had been facing acute food shortages, but now with the pandemic, 130 million more could go hungry in 2020, said Arif Husain, chief economist at the World Food Program, a United Nations agency. Altogether, an estimated 265 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation by year’s end. ...

There is no shortage of food globally, or mass starvation from the pandemic — yet. But logistical problems in planting, harvesting and transporting food will leave poor countries exposed in the coming months, especially those reliant on imports, said Johan Swinnen, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington.

Keiser Report | The Everything Bubble Turns (Almost) Everything Bailout

Stiglitz : US coronavirus response is like 'third world' country

Donald Trump’s botched handling of the Covid-19 crisis has left the US looking like a “third world” country and on course for a second Great Depression, one of the world’s leading economists has warned. In a withering attack on the president, Joseph Stiglitz said millions of people were turning to food banks, turning up for work due to a lack of sick pay and dying because of health inequalities.

The Nobel prize-winning economist said: “The numbers turning to food banks are just enormous and beyond the capacity of them to supply. It is like a third world country. The public social safety net is not working.”

Stiglitz, a long-term critic of Trump, said 14% of the population was dependent on food stamps and predicted the social infrastructure could not cope with an unemployment rate that could hit 30% in the coming months. ...

During an interview with the Guardian to mark the paperback publication of his book People, Power, and Profits, Stiglitz was asked whether the US might be heading for a second Great Depression. “Yes is the answer in short,” he said. “If you leave it to Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell [the Republican Senate majority leader] we will have a Great Depression. If we had the right policy structure in place we could avoid it easily.”

Saagar Enjeti: 26 MILLION UNEMPLOYED, Corporate Elites CHOSE To Make You Suffer

“The Virus Is Still Out There”: Infectious Disease Expert Warns Against Reopening States Too Soon

Progressive Groups Are Outraged With ‘Pathetic’ Coronavirus Deal. Congressional Democrats Are Doing Little to Improve It.

Progressive groups are outraged with the nearly $500 billion interim coronavirus rescue package the Senate passed on Tuesday, urging House Democrats to oppose the “pathetic” deal they say doesn’t come close to providing the relief vulnerable people need while giving away all Democratic leverage for future legislation.

The “Phase 3.5” bill, which is expected to sail through the House this week, left out almost everything Democratic leaders were advocating for. There’s no additional funding for state and local governments, no expanded food stamp benefits, no hazard pay for front-line workers, nor money for the U.S. Postal Service, which had all been basic Democratic priorities. The lack of progressive opposition in Congress has been especially noteworthy, after members of the progressive caucus promised to help make future legislation more comprehensive following the hastily passed Phase 3 bill.

While some progressive advocates argue that Democrats didn’t have much leverage on the package to begin with, others note that Democrats control the House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could have led the party to pass its own bill.

“Just as importantly as the inadequate policy provisions, this bill gives away all Democratic leverage,” Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible, said in an emailed statement. “We fought so hard to win back the House in 2018 — to make sure that we had a voice in negotiations like this. So far we’ve heard silence from the House. This bill may be our last chance to get the things we need. [Republican Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell has already said he doesn’t want to push through another bill, and if he does, it won’t be for weeks.”

Progressive groups the Center for Popular Democracy, Social Security Works, Sunrise, Demand Progress, and People’s Action have also come out against the interim package. Some of the organizations, to varying degrees, are asking House Democrats to vote against it. With discussions for a potential Phase 4 package heating up now, the advocacy groups are planning a public pressure campaign to get members and Pelosi on board with policy priorities that address the scope of the crisis.

Insert something about foxes and henhouses here.

Watchdogs Sound Alarm as Trump Puts For-Profit Insurer in Charge of Covid-19 Hospital Funds

Watchdog groups and healthcare advocates are raising serious concerns about conflicts of interest and corporate profiteering after the Trump White House tapped UnitedHealth Group—the largest private health insurer in the U.S.—to help distribute billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to hospitals struggling to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Trump administration earlier this month awarded UnitedHealth with a contract to "expedite" hospital relief money authorized under the CARES Act, a massive stimulus package President Donald Trump signed into law last month.

Politico reported over the weekend that the White House's choice to empower UnitedHealth to oversee the large sum of taxpayer funds "surprised many in healthcare, including employees at the Department of Health and Human Services who had assumed that HHS would administer the program itself."

One HHS official told Politico that "UnitedHealth was picked because it was better positioned and more cost-effective to get the money out the door more quickly than other options that we considered."

Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group, said Tuesday that the Trump administration's deal with UnitedHealth "raises serious red flags."

"In a rush to respond to the pandemic, we can't let ethics issues go unaddressed while taxpayer dollars go out the door."

Stephen Parente, a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, is one of the officials tasked with managing the hospital relief funds. As Politico noted, Parente has financial ties to UnitedHealth.

"As a Minnesota-based health economist before joining the Trump administration, Parente served as a consultant to companies including UnitedHealth, which has also backed some of his non-profit activities," Politico reported. "Five months after President Donald Trump nominated Parente to an HHS post overseeing health insurers in 2017, UnitedHealth donated a $1.2 million multi-year grant to a small research center that Parente directed and helped found at the University of Minnesota."

"After the White House withdrew Parente's nomination in the face of congressional concerns about his relationships with the healthcare industry—and UnitedHealth in particular—and omissions about finances that Parente had made on his financial disclosure form, the president appointed him to his current post, which does not require confirmation," Politico added.

Insert something about foxes and henhouses here.

After Revelations of Improper Stock Sales by Rep. Shalala, Groups Demand Pelosi's Pick for Bailout Oversight Step Down

Progressive groups on Wednesday demanded House Democratic leadership pressure Rep. Donna Shalala to step down from a committee on oversight of the appropriation of billions of dollars in coronavirus stimulus funds after it was revealed Saturday by journalist David Dayen that the Florida Democrat failed to follow the law on disclosing stock transactions in 2019.

"Not understanding disclosure is a pretty bad look for the member of Congress chosen to force disclosure out of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve on its lending programs," Dayen wrote of Shalala at the American Prospect Wednesday.

So Donna Shalala's office, after insisting to me yesterday that she definitely, totally disclosed all stock sales she made in 2019, admitted to her hometown paper that she, well, didn't. https://t.co/Q8MEXoE1J6

— David Dayen (@ddayen) April 22, 2020

Dayen on Tuesday reported that Shalala had sold a number of stocks in 2019, but had failed to disclose those sales as required under the law. Shalala spokesman Carlos Condarco told the Miami Herald later Tuesday that the congresswoman "had a misunderstanding about the periodic transaction report process and her need to report the sale of these stocks."

"The entire point that Shalala's wealthy backers used to pump her up as the 'sensible' choice vs. the many progressives in her primary race was that Shalala knew how Washington laws worked and that she wouldn't do stuff like this," tweeted The Appeal's Jerry Ianelli.

According to Dayen:

The oversight panel has nothing to do with public health or the pandemic. It's supposed to examine Federal Reserve lending programs and whether they are assisting the public in economic stabilization and job recovery. These are deliberately complex programs that require for oversight someone with a passing familiarity with the financial system and corporate America. The only expertise Shalala has in all that comes from all the stocks she owns.

Demand Progress and the Center for Economic and Policy Research's Revolving Door Project on Wendesday issued an open letter (pdf) to Pelosi, House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and Democratic Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) urging them to encourage Shalala to step down from the Congressional Oversight Commission to which she was appointed on Friday.

"Recent news reports concerning Rep. Shalala's potential conflicts of interest and possibly illegal or unethical activities raise significant concerns about her ability to discharge her duties, her judgment, and her ability to be viewed as conducting her oversight duties impartially and without distraction," the groups wrote. "The nature of the complaints do not lend themselves to immediate resolution, and we do not want her to be distracted by those complaints or to distract the Commission from its essential work on behalf of the American people."

In a statement, Demand Progress executive director David Segal said that the developing scandal would make it nearly impossible for Shalala to effectively do her job. ...

Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), whose pointed questioning of administration officials on economic issues has made her a star and who served in 2012 as California's independent monitor of banks for compliance with a $25 billion mortgage settlement, lobbied for the sole committee position for House Democrats.

Pelosi instead chose Shalala, a former Health and Human Services secretary under the Clinton administration whose lack of experience in financial oversight was reportedly matched by her disinterest in serving on the committee.

Author Gerald Posner: How Republicans, Democrats ensured Pharma profits from coronavirus

'We Are Abdicating Our Responsibility': Ocasio-Cortez Rips Senate Passage of Inadequate Covid-19 Interim Measure

Following the Senate's passage Tuesday of an "interim" $480 billion coronavirus stimulus bill that excludes nearly every progressive priority—from hazard pay for frontline workers to recurring stimulus checks—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ripped Congress for continuing to push off desperately needed relief as the U.S. death toll from Covid-19 continues to mount.

"We are abdicating our responsibility," Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, said in an interview on MSNBC late Tuesday. "Thousands of people are dying every day... and every time we pass one of these bills we're hearing that the real solution is coming in the next bill, and then the next bill, and the next bill, and at some point we have to raise our hands and say, 'When is the solution coming?'"

"Congress is abdicating responsibility...and thousands of people are dying every day. Every time we pass one of these bills we're hearing that the real solution is coming in the next bill, and at some point we have to raise our hands and say, when is the solution coming?" -@AOC pic.twitter.com/BxM3REYjop

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) April 22, 2020

Ocasio-Cortez was the only congressional Democrat to oppose the multi-trillion-dollar CARES Act that Congress passed last month, condemning the package as "one of the largest corporate bailouts, with as few strings as possible, in American history."

As Common Dreams reported Monday, Ocasio-Cortez said during a press call that she is leaning toward voting against the interim bill when the House considers the package on Thursday. The legislation includes over $300 billion in additional funding for a flawed small business loan program, $75 billion for hospitals, and $25 billion for Covid-19 testing.

"If we are going to bring back every member... to pass a small incremental bill with the knowledge that we are not coming back until next month again, that's two rent checks," said Ocasio-Cortez.

Harvard to reject $8.7m in federal aid after Trump cites school’s $40bn endowment

Harvard University announced Wednesday it will turn down $8.7m in federal coronavirus relief, a day after Donald Trump excoriated the wealthy Ivy League school over taxpayer money it stood to receive. It followed similar actions at Stanford and Princeton universities, which said they, too, will reject millions of dollars in federal funding amid growing scrutiny of wealthy colleges. ...

Congress is offering $14bn to the nation’s colleges and universities as part of a $2.2tn rescue package. Schools were allotted varying sums based on their size and the number of students they teach from poorer backgrounds.

But Trump said Tuesday that Harvard “shouldn’t be taking” its share because it has such deep financial reserves. It echoed concerns from other critics, including some alumni, who said Harvard doesn’t need the money and can rely on its nearly $40bn endowment.

Harvard University had earlier rejected calls to return the stimulus funding, saying it planned “to direct 100% of the funds to financial assistance to students, and will not be using any of the funds to cover institutional costs”.

Ticked Off Vic: A Message to the Government

New Report Shows Social Security Is Strong, But Advocates Warn GOP Must Be Stopped From Using Covid-19 to Launch 'Stealth Attack'

The 2020 Social Security Trustees report out Wednesday found that the New Deal-era program is currently in strong financial health and well-positioned to remain so in the future.

But advocacy groups are warning that Social Security's long-term finances could be in trouble if President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are not stopped from exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to make deep cuts to the program's dedicated funding.

In a statement, progressive advocacy group Social Security Works said the annual Trustees report "projects that, even if Congress took no action whatsoever, Social Security not only can pay all benefits and associated administrative costs until 2035, it is 91% funded for the next quarter century, 85% for the next half century, and 82% for the next three quarters of a century."

"Though the exact impact of today's pandemic and economic conditions will not be clear until next year's report, Social Security's strength will shine through next year, as well," said Social Security Works president Nancy Altman. "Social Security is built to withstand today's events."

The Trustees report came after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)—a proponent of Social Security cuts—claimed Tuesday night he was concerned about the rising national debt following the Senate's passage of a $480 billion coronavirus stimulus package.

"Let's weigh this very carefully, because the future of our country in terms of the amount of debt that we're adding up is a matter of genuine concern," said McConnell.

McConnell's rediscovered deficit hawkery—absent when the senator was pushing legislation through the Senate aimed at helping the superrich and large corporations—combined with the Trump administration's continued push for a payroll tax cut fueled fears that Republicans could be gearing up for another concerted effort to slash Social Security.

"Republicans, led by Donald Trump, are trying to use the pandemic as an excuse to slash payroll contributions, Social Security's dedicated funding," said Altman. As Common Dreams reported, Republicans already succeeded in slipping into the CARES Act a provision that allows employers to delay payment of the payroll tax.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Tuesday proposed reducing the employee payroll tax—one of Social Security's primary funding mechanisms—as part of the next Covid-19 stimulus package. Earlier this month, Trump expressed his support for permanently slashing the employee payroll tax.

"Social Security is strong," Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said in a statement. "But its long-term fiscal health cannot be guaranteed if the White House and Congress continue to use the program's financing structure for economic stimulus during the Covid-19 crisis."

"Those who would like to dismantle Social Security are using the pandemic to launch a stealth attack," said Richtman. "During this time of crisis, Americans are turning to Social Security and Medicare now more than ever. Let's work to strengthen these programs that have been the bedrock of America's middle and working classes, and resist proposals by those determined to tear them down."

In an op-ed for Forbes on Wednesday, Altman urged Congress "do its job and enact one of the many Democratic proposals to expand Social Security's modest benefits while ensuring that the wealthy pay their fair share," pointing to Rep. John Larson's (D-Conn.) Social Security 2100 Act as one possible solution.

"Think how much better our national response to today's crisis would be if those benefits were already there for all of us," wrote Altman. "Fortunately, the just-released Social Security Trustees Report shows that the nation can afford to create those benefits. The pandemic shows we can't afford not to do so."

Arkansas can enforce surgical abortion ban amid pandemic, federal court rules

A federal appeals court has allowed Arkansas to enforce a ban on most surgical abortions, as part of a state directive aimed at postponing medical procedures not deemed urgent during the coronavirus outbreak.

The ruling from the eighth US circuit court of appeals in St Louis, Missouri, lifted a federal judge’s order which had allowed abortions to continue. The new ruling does not affect abortion induced through medication in the early stages of pregnancy, which is still allowed.

The ruling comes two days after another federal appeals court, the fifth circuit, allowed Texas to enforce curbs on abortions via medication, as part of its response to the pandemic.

“For the health and safety of all Arkansans, state officials need to focus on protecting people from the pandemic, not using the virus as an excuse to advance their own extremist political agendas,” said Holly Dickson, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, in a statement.

The decisions are part of an effort by eight states in the south and midwest to restrict abortion, arguing it is an elective procedure and should be delayed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mainstream doctors’ groups have opposed such restrictions, describing them as exploitative and a “government intrusion into medical care”.

Coronavirus was killing Americans weeks earlier than originally thought

The coronavirus was killing Americans in the US weeks before health officials, doctors or the government realized, it emerged early on Wednesday. Health officials now say two people died from Covid-19 in California in early February before the first reported death from the disease in the United States.

Santa Clara county officials, in northern California, said they now know a 57-year-old woman died in her home on 6 February and and a 69-year-old man died in his home on 17 February. The first official recorded death in the nation from the virus was reported on 29 February in Kirkland, in the state of Washington.

The medical examiner-coroner of Santa Clara county, received confirmation on Tuesday that tissue samples obtained during autopsies and sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested positive for the virus, officials said.

A third such death – a 70-year-old man – had occurred on 6 March. Santa Clara county is south of San Francisco and includes San Jose.

“What these deaths tell us is that we had community transmission, probably to a significant degree, far earlier than we had known and that indicates that the virus was probably introduced and circulating in our community far earlier than we had known,” said Dr Sara Cody, health director in Santa Clara county.

Krystal Ball: For the left to win, we must be willing to be HATED

Calls for Vote-by-Mail Intensify After At Least 19 Cases of Coronavirus Are Linked to Wisconsin Primary Election

Voting rights advocates demanded state and federal lawmakers expand voting-by-mail immediately on Wednesday as Wisconsin health officials announced that nearly 20 new cases of the coronavirus were linked to the in-person voting that took place in the state on April 7.

Two weeks after Sen. Bernie Sanders warned that moving ahead with in-person voting for the state elections could "prove deadly" and dozens of civil rights groups and public health experts urged the election be postponed, 19 people who voted in person or worked at polling locations have since tested positive for the virus.

Critics of the decision to go ahead with the vote were unsurprised by the new cases, and said they offered more proof that other state, local, and federal elections this year must be completed with widespread vote-by-mail systems in place. ...

As The Intercept reported, some local officials in cities around the country are pushing vote-by-mail proposals—even as Republican-led state legislatures refuse to cancel in-person voting. 

In Milwaukee, where 19,000 voters had to report to just five polling places on April 7 to cast ballots, as more than 100 locations were closed due to low staffing, alderman Marina Dimitrijevic introduced legislation Tuesday evening to allow the city's registered voters to vote with absentee ballots and to send them pre-paid postage envelopes.

"This will protect the lives of the 300,000 registered voters in Milwaukee and undercuts the Republican assault on Wisconsin's democracy," Dimitrijevic told The Intercept.

Officials in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and Broward County, Florida are pushing similar proposals.

At the national level, advocates for safe elections said voters must pressure lawmakers to pass vote-by-mail legislation in time for the November general election.

"Call your member of Congress and demand national Vote-By-Mail," tweeted philanthropist Minh Ngo. "Our lives and our democracy depend on it." 

David Sirota, Former Bernie 2020 Senior Advisor, Discusses What Happened

Record rain triggered 2018 Kilauea volcano eruptions, says study

The spectacular eruptions of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii in 2018 were triggered by extreme rainfall in the preceding months, research suggests. Scientists say the finding raises the possibility that climate breakdown, which is causing more extreme weather, could lead to an increase in eruptions around the world.

The 2018 Kilauea eruptions were one of the most extraordinary sequences in at least 200 years, according to the scientists, with rifts opening, summit explosions and collapses, and a magnitude 6.9 earthquake. But the trigger was not known. However, several months of unusually high rainfall preceded the eruption, with one 24-hour period setting a record for the entire US. This flood of water would have percolated down into fissures and pores in the rocks of the volcano, as far as 1.8 miles (2.9km) below the surface.

The scientists calculated this pushed up the pore pressure inside the rocks to the highest level in almost 50 years, weakening them and allowing magma to push up from below. The scientists also looked at eruptions of Kilauea since 1790 and found that these historical events were twice as likely to happen in the rainy season. Such a link has long been thought possible – JD Dana, one of the first geologists to visit Hawaii in the late 1800s, suggested the idea.

It's time to let the fossil fuel industry die

This Monday, two days before Earth Day’s 50th anniversary, oil futures went negative for the first time in history. Buyers were so eager to offload oil commitments that they were willing to give their crude away at cost. This crash only emphasizes the inherent instability of the carbon economy and the need to create a more stable future. We need to disentangle our society from fossil fuels and let the industry die. ...

For decades, fossil fuel companies have been burning through carbon reserves at the expense of everyday consumers. Propped up by profit-centric public officials and greedy Wall Street financiers, they have thrived even as their primary product is an unparalleled moral and financial hazard. Now, as Covid-19 shocks the world into realizing the depth of its addiction to oil, we are seeing just how destabilizing this reliance on fossil fuels is.

Take Harvard University, which despite boasting a pre-pandemic endowment of more than $40bn, has turned in recent weeks to playing austerity politics: enacting hiring freezes, declining to meet the broader community’s requests for aid and refusing to guarantee pay for some workers. Harvard’s excuse for this behavior? That market losses have significantly shrunk its holdings, creating, in Harvard president Larry Bacow’s words, “less capacity to support our existing operations”. This pressure is in no small part due to its unsustainable investments: rough calculations suggest that Harvard may have lost $700m through its fossil fuel holdings alone. This is merely a symptom of broader institutional ties, including a trustee who also serves as Exxon’s top lawyer.

For years, economists have warned of how the carbon bubble’s rupture might take much of the economy along with it. What we’re seeing now is a preview of what that will look like. Broad societal entanglements with the fossil fuel industry make crashes like this all the more dangerous, and if even the richest and most powerful institutions are paying the price, imagine what the consequences are for those without a multibillion-dollar endowment to fall back on.

It’s clear that we need to end the fossil fuel economy, and replace it with one that is built with environmental sustainability and social equity as foundational principles.

Trump considers block on crude oil imports to prop up US market

Saudi oil tankers holding almost 40m barrels of oil could be left stranded off the US coast as Donald Trump considers a block on crude imports to help prop up the US oil market.

A flotilla of 19 supergiant Saudi oil tankers – each capable of holding 2m barrels of oil – is reportedly en route to the US where storage facilities are overwhelmed by a flood of unwanted crude.

The tankers are laden with seven times more Saudi oil than the kingdom usually ships to the US Gulf coast, raising concern that the ‘oil dumping’ may add to the US oversupply which triggered the first negative oil prices in history this week.

US officials are reportedly considering steep import tariffs on oil imports, or a block on incoming tankers, to help ease the glut of oil. The measures may be put in place alongside Trump’s plan to use government funds to buy domestic crude to help keep the industry afloat.

Shipping experts told the Reuters news agency that Saudi Arabia may try to reroute the tankers to markets in Europe and Asia which may have space in their oil storage facilities for extra crude.

California Farmers Destroying Crops During Crisis

Also of Interest

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

U.S. Response to COVID-19 Equals Genocide for Blacks, but “Progressive” Leaders Offer Nothing But Words

New York Times Revives its Role in Chinagate

An Anti-China Message Didn’t Work for Democrats in 2018 — and It Won’t Work for Biden Now

Coronavirus Crisis Makes Clear Pentagon Should Get No More Money This Year for Its 'Wasteful War Machine': 60+ Groups

State governments face financial abyss with coronavirus

The Worst Is Yet To Come for Oil Prices

On The Causes And Consequences Of The Oil Price Crash

Krystal and Saagar: Cuomo tells unemployed to risk their lives for scraps

Coronavirus Is Devastating Homeless Shelters Across the Country

How the anti-vax movement could undermine coronavirus vaccination efforts

Krystal and Saagar: Trump gains among non-white voters shows EPIC failure of Democratic party

Nina Turner busts the narrative: Why black voters backed white candidates in 2020

Krystal and Saagar: Al Gore's PRICELESS face as Biden loses train of thought

Marianne Faithfull discharged from hospital after 22 days fighting Covid-19

A Little Night Music

Sly & The Family Stone - Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)

Sly & The Family Stone - Dance To The Music

Sly and The Family Stone - In Time

Sly and The Family Stone - I Want To Take You Higher

Sly & The Family Stone – Stand

Sly & The Family Stone - St. James Infirmary

Sly & The Family Stone - Man Does Not Live (Demo)

Sly & The Family Stone - The Same Thing

Sly & The Family Stone – Chicken

Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday People/Dance to the Music/Higher/Music Lover

Sly & the Family Stone - Live on VPRO Radio Holland 1970 full concert