The Weekly Watch

Under the Cover of COVID-19

Never let a good crisis go to waste. TPTB are using the pandemic to fulfill their dreams of ever more power. Primary among the scams is the union of the Fed and Treasury to buy all the corporate debt and bail out the world's central banks. But so much more is at play. War ships are sailing to Venezuela's coasts, Sabres are rattling in Iraq aimed at Iran. Fracking on public lands is being ramped up, and financed by bail out funds. Wildlife refuges are to be opened to fishing and hunting. Not to mention the staggering number of judicial appointments, and the imprisonment of journalists who tell the truth about US war crimes. It didn't have to be this way. Just think about the relationship of arms trade and the corona virus. (4 min)

Greg Mannarino explains how the market can grow in value as 17 million folks are on unemployment. (Hint: the fed is trying to pump up the popped bubble). Worth the time IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zu51zo19yw (16 min)

Stock Market's Recent Rally Explained By Dylan Ratigan with Jimmy Dore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YUYRHrFODU (27 min)

'Massive Step in Wrong Direction' as Big Banks Move to Buy Up Fracking Industry Assets With Coronavirus Bailout Funds "Taxpayers shouldn't be required to backstop oil and gas companies that were already in trouble prior to the pandemic."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/10/critics-decry-massive-step-...
These wells have not been profitable...even at $80 /barrel. Besides how foolish to promote these polluting fuels. It is just that the banks are underwater loaning these wells into creation. Look for lots of bankruptcies.

Matt Taibbi explains why this financial crisis is worse than 2008.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqcpipS2yvI (11 min)
Two min from Matt and Chris...

The new bread lines of 2020 and massive unemployment doesn't provide a rosy economic future. These gold and metal proponents have been predicting this for a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbCOSrCq1Ww (18 min)

lines.jpg
food banks.jpg

This fellow suggests we will move toward a barter economy. Sadly he documents how farmers are dumping food which was to go to restaurants. Why not give it away?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLRZ8rhH_nw (16 min)

Max and Stacy have been on the case too.

Markets! Finance! Scandal! A no holds barred look at the shocking scandals behind the global financial headlines. From the collusion between Wall Street and Capitol Hill to the latest banking crime wave, from bogus government economic statistics to rigged stock markets, nothing escapes the eye of Max Keiser, a former stockbroker, inventor of the virtual specialist technology and co-founder of the Hollywood Stock Exchange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbVf588WOqs (1st 15 min)

John Pilger - He discusses the fact that the Conservative government was warned about shortages leaving the NHS vulnerable in pandemics 4 years ago, the damage privatisation has done to the National Health Service, budget cuts which have seen bed capacities fall to record lows, his criticisms of the Boris Johnson administration’s response to Coronavirus, the lack of mass-testing in the U.K. which has been seen in other countries such as Germany, South Korea and China, the government blaming China for the Coronavirus crisis, the threat to Julian Assange’s life as he is denied release from prison as Coronavirus claims its first victim in Belmarsh Prison (28 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt58it26jCs
more from John
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/04/09/john-pilger-freedom-from-fear/

Julian has been in the Max Security London prison for a year. Where is the outrage?
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/11/assa-a11.html

Julian Assange’s fiancée (and children) talks to camera for the first time on the one year anniversary of his imprisonment. (12 min)

COVID has taken all the oxygen out of the room and little else is being examined. We do need to keep aware of those dangers. I feel for all the nurses and workers.

Interview with NYC ER nurse...https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/11/bron-a11.html

Our hospital is turning into a COVID only clinic, so the nurses don’t even have a place to rest. Even the break room is now being used for COVID patients.

We lack PPE [personal protective equipment]. Usually nurses have to change PPE after every patient encounter, but because of the global shortage, we keep reusing it. We are getting only one mask and one gown per shift. It easily gets dirty, but it’s like fighting for PPE when you speak to the manager to get a new one.

Wearing all that PPE is exhausting. Usually, a nurse has a 13-hour shift. When you wear an N95 it’s like rebreathing your own air, it’s easy to get dehydrated. We can barely take a break or go to the rest room and we fear taking the N95 off because there’s just one. So if we take it off—what do we do? It’s been so physically exhausting.

They are firing nurses who speak out.

A nurse who spoke out and demanded action by Detroit Medical Center (DMC) Sinai-Grace Hospital to address the dangerous and severe shortage of staff treating coronavirus patients was fired on March 27.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/11/detr-a11.html

Labor unions representing millions of nurses and other frontline workers across the U.S. are voicing outrage at new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that allows essential employees who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus to return to work more quickly.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/11/putting-profits-over-people...

If you missed Jimmy's interview last week with a fired Amazon striker, it worth the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssN9wHlAqvA (17 min)

Fast food workers strike! Jimmy explains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKoXPOU5xHc (11 min)

...and a third of US renters didn't pay rent this month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASwpV-nfJu8 (11 min)

Foreign Policy

Sure does seem weird that the US promotes war on countries suffering from severe COVID outbreak as China, Russia, Cuba and even Venezuela are sending aid and doctors.
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/17/italy-uk-help-cuba-china-venezuela-co...

Regime change-hungry HRW is proudly taking credit for crushing new US sanctions on Nicaragua while pushing to escalate Washington’s economic war on Venezuela. The Grayzone presents a deep dive into the “human rights” arm of US empire.
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/04/08/billionaire-human-rights-watch-sancti...

Here is an overview of the impact of COVID so far on the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Libya and Iraq:
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/04/05/what-impact-is-covid-19-h...

Since the assassination of Qassem Suleimani, Shiite militias like the PMU have taken on a new role in Iraq.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/07/pmu-iraq-suleimani-iran/

The Pentagon said Friday it would keep two aircraft carrier task forces in the Gulf region after carrying out strikes in Iraq on five depots for Iran-supplied rockets.
https://www.ibtimes.com/us-keeping-two-carriers-gulf-deter-iran-proxy-at...

circus.jpg

Before we jump into the political circus, how about a trip to a real circus? Cirque du Soleil has been posting an hour special almost every week. There are typically three or four acts/stories. Lots of fun if you enjoy dance, acrobatics, and faint mythical story lines. Here's Friday's show...

and two more recent shows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=allVFq3P-48
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ5eUJNXrMw

political.jpg

They voted Tuesday in Wisconsin. Unbelievable. I mean really. How difficult could mail-in ballots be? (video or text)
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/8/wisconsin_voting_coronavirus

Bernie stopped his campaign and will support Biden. This is very disappointing because this was a moment of opportunity for him to use his candidacy to push M4A, living wage, and so on. I appreciate Bernie bringing these positions into the main stream conversation, but I'm saddened by his capitulation to the corporate dims (again).
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/09/sand-a09.html

Rising looks at the media screw ups of the week. A billionaire tells MSM that the system is broken and Noam on Bernie's campaign
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYSAU2TVOUo (7 min)

Here's Noam's entire interview. (video or text)
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/10/noam_chomsky_trump_us_coronavirus...
This is an occasion where I don't see eye to eye with him.

This interview follows my thoughts...(26 min)

happy spring.jpg

It is Easter today. Happy holiday if you are of the religious persuasion. I do like the idea of re-birth as the forest comes back in a ocean wave of green and flowers bloom creating new seed for the year. Several of you lamented John Prine's death this week. I like to think I help keep his spirit alive every time I sing one of his songs. The first of his songs I learned back in the 70's was... "Paradise"

I still love it. Especially the third verse...

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man

Have a great Sunday, and a good week.

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magiamma's picture

Here is new information on COVID-19 from Bay Area doctors.

A DEADLY COMPLICATION
http://mercurynews.ca.newsmemory.com/?publink=002af7f91

They question the old dogma, instead urging consideration of simpler and less aggressive alternatives, such as breathing masks and lying in a prone position, with the chest down and back up. Ventilation, which forces air into the lungs at a set rate and force, may be essential, they note. But it should be used differently: providing oxygen, not pressure. COVID- 19 more closely resembles symptoms of high-altitude sickness, rather than pneumonia, they say.

If the air sacs of the lungs are so gummy that they can’t absorb oxygen, a ventilator’s high pressure could cause damage, according to an influential letter last week written by Italian and German ARDS experts in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
...
“The way we are treating this right now isn’t working,” said Saunders. “This is either a very virulent and much more terrible disease— or, alternatively, we are treating the wrong disease, so we need to work in a different way. I deeply worry clinicians are incorrectly treating this disease as primarily an ARDS-related process when what we’re seeing suggests it’s not.

“This is allnew,” he said. “There may be something different about the disease, and we’re trying to understand what it is.”

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

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Lookout's picture

@magiamma

...after infection.

https://blogs.webmd.com/webmd-doctors/20200408/are-you-immune-to-covid19...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEubPR36pzk&t=17m12s

I like Chris' description of this virus as the honey badger virus because a honey badger will escape from any cage. https://www.honeybadger.com/

Hope you're doing fine. Take care and be well!

Edit to add: thanks for the link.

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9 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

magiamma's picture

@Lookout
I’ve read a couple of articles that say they are having problems actually finding antibodies. No references but if I think I saved them and will try to find And post them.

You too, be safe, be well.

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9 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Lookout's picture

@magiamma

John talks about immunity and the antibody test from has Friday update...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EUZEtJHQhE

What I dislike is using people's panic to essentially steal the economy.

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11 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

magiamma's picture

@Lookout

We need a working people’s party. The Dore video is excellent.

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12 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

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Azazello's picture

Here's a little 11 min. documentary:
The Neoliberal Implosion ft. Mark Blyth
Blyth was on Jimmy D's livestream yesterday, he was pretty good. Look for them to drop that segment soon.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_m28pNiMYs width:500 height:300]
The Useful Idiots did a useful interview with Matt Stoller. It's the last hour of this clip so you might want to skip ahead to the 36 min. mark.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzYSSLXY6e4&t=2403s width:500 height:300]

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10 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Lookout's picture

@Azazello

Caught the Blyth interview yesterday, and enjoyed it.

The economic scam is pretty incredible, and people are so concerned about their health they have not clued in. This doesn't look pretty to me as we proceed.

Hope you and yours are doing well and weathering the challenge.

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10 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Azazello's picture

@Lookout
I think we're gaining weight from all the cooking. We cooked an 8 lb. ham yesterday. It's just the two of us so we'll be chomping on that for a week or so.
Weathering the challenge ? We had some rain yesterday but the forecast calls for clear skies and mid-80s for the next few days so that part is good. Jimmy and Stef said they'd be at it again this afternoon. I hope they have some good content or a guest and it's not just the two of them killing time and reading "superchats". This one cracked me up:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbKZp6tUjhE width:500 height:300]

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8 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Lookout's picture

@Azazello

The last one they did Jimmy couldn't keep it together from laughing so hard during the live take. The edit was good and it made a good clip after all. I'll watch this one right now. Thanks.

Our weather is (surprise) wet. The heavy rain is just north of us, but we're supposed to get a dose tonight. Night temps are in the 40's again so I'm holding off on putting out the tomatoes and peppers till later. Lettuce and greens are loving it.

So have a good one!

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7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

CS in AZ's picture

@Azazello

I don’t watch JD much anymore, didn’t realize he was still doing any comedy. But that bit really made me laugh, which I needed this morning. Do you know who that is playing Dr Fauci? He’s excellent.

Thank you for sharing the clip! Still chuckling... can’t wait to play it for my husband when he gets back from walking the dogs.

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4 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

@CS in AZ
He does all the phone call stuff. He does good Bernie impression too.

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4 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Lookout's picture

Tim Conova is pushing for hand counted paper ballot. He talks with Jimmy about it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm6dnCe2JyA (13 min)

Chris Hedges talks to Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, about the death of our US Constitution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNO18dRip-U (27 min)

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10 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout I can't think of a single hard-core Republican pal who is in favor of voting machines or counters.
They all want paper ballots and manual counts.

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8 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

Here's a link to the petition
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/we-american-people-demand-pape...
and Tim's site describing the aim.
https://progressforall.org/2020/03/29/petition-trump-for-paper-ballots-now/

Nader also hollers about the common goals of left and right working folks coalition.

It is going to be interesting to see how we come out of this pandemic...meek or swinging or probably something in between.

Hope you're having a nice day. Green and wet here.

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7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout I haven't checked the forecast, but the sky is grey, full of misty clouds. I had a plan to grill some pork chops on the patio, but I will have to move on to Plan B.
My lantanas are so huge, I will soon have to cut them back to get off my front porch!
As soon as a left can explain to a rightie that Social Security and the VA hospital systems are socialist programs that DO NOT BRING US COMMUNISM, the quicker we can come together. I admit to attempting this explanation on many occasions to no avail.
Nor do my rightie pals have any particular outrage at the gift of our current and future wealth to a bunch of greedy bastards that they still believe will trickle it down to us.
For that matter, why would these damn gun and Bible totin', flag wavin' righties accept a trickle? You would think these fightin' types would demand a generous pour.
All is well here on the home front. I am hearing from many friends each day that just check on me to make sure I do not need anything. It is so sweet, so reassuring.
I realize what I thought were sort of casual friends are much more than that. They make my life possible.

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6 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

I tried using schools and roads as an example of socialism, but people have been well programed. Trying to get them to understand the 1% or even the 0.01% is nigh to impossible too. Dumb looks and "you can't take away people's hard earned money". What a joke the 1% never did a hard days work in their life, or if they did it was by choice. W. (Bush) clearing brush comes to mind.

There's some yokel running next door in GA with a "We must fight socialism" on her campaign signs. You can't make this shit up.

If chop grilling gets washed away, consider using an insta-pot (if you have one). Boy, is it ever my go-to anything cooker these days.

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6 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout I will look into them.
The sun has broken through, so I will thaw out the chops and hope for the best.
As for the concept of social(ist) programs, even vets have some notion that they themselves earned the VA program and that the military is funding it, as though they do not understand that every damn paycheck they ever got, and every drs.' visit they ever got, was paid by everybody.
And I know what you mean about how the fight should be up and down, not side to side, but righties believe in free markets, that work and innovation made all those rich and powerful people both rich, and powerful, as the merit and due.
They will walk away from a discussion of inheritance, of legacy families.
Inheritance should not be taxed! The Bush family deserves to remain generationally in power! ( Not the Roosevelt or Kennedy families, just sayin'.)
It is for those reasons I do not see a realistic way of joining the working class from both sides to promote much of anything.
It is liable to fall completely apart with topics such as unions, crosses, and UBI.
I hope I am wrong, but I just do not see it as a possibility to hook up with them to form a new party. This paper ballot and people tally is one of very few policies upon which we can agree.

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6 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

CS in AZ's picture

@Lookout

The issues around lack of access to a polling place within a reasonable distance, standing in very long lines for hours to vote, and other barriers are not addressed simply by changing to paper ballots. What is needed are paper ballots that are received by mail and can be filled out at home and either mailed in or dropped of at collection points on election day.

We have that in AZ, although you have to sign up fo it. I signed up on the permanent list get my ballots in the mail for every election, so you only have to do that one time. When I see the stories of people waiting for hours to vote I just shake my head. There is absolutely no need for or reason for that to happen. Everyone should have access to vote *easily* and without barriers like long lines and limited hours during which you can vote.

I have always advocated vote by mail. Now with the addition of the coronavirus pandemic and real dangers of crowds gathering for any reason, access to voting by mail for everyone should not even be a question, IMO.

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3 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@CS in AZ

Vote by mail. I think they want to have more control. Of course mail in could be rigged too, but seems like having it on paper makes it more difficult. Vote by mail also allows folks to research all those arcane propositions, amendments and so on.

We can hope. Thanks for the input. Be well.

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5 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout destroy the Post Office, and push for mail in votes, will put the responsibilities of ballot delivery into the hands of UPS and FEDEX, let them make money, and be responsible for deliveries.
A really good coup is always a corporate coup!
Imagine how effectively this would suppress voters who can't pay for the deliveries, or live 35 miles away from one of their offices. That is how far their offices are from my community. 70 mile round trip, then pay for the delivery at the desk. Yeah, I would do that...

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2 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

Why is it we make easy things so difficult (probably on purpose)?

That's rhetorical.

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3 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout but it certainly did.

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1 user has voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

@Lookout

If Congress allows him to do this the coup will be complete.

Trump threatened to veto the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or Cares Act, if the legislation contained any money directed to bail out the postal agency, according to a senior Trump administration official and a congressional official who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The crux of the Post report is a quote from an (again) anonymous "senior" official who says the administration told Congress "very clearly that the president was not going to sign the bill" if money was included for the U.S. Postal Service. Senators were able to wedge a $10 billion Treasury Department loan into the bill, after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told them they "can have a loan, or you can have nothing at all," but adding $10 billion of debt to an essential government agency while Mnuchin demands an unfettered ability to dole out government dollars to private industry however he sees fit is, to put it mildly, a curious stance.

SO THE FUCK UP WHAT? DON'T VOTE FOR THE CRAP BILL SINCE .... OR NEVER MIND WE KNOW WHY THEY VOTED FOR IT. THE PO GOES THEN THE CORPORATE COUP IS COMPLETE.

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5 users have voted.

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

TheOtherMaven's picture

@snoopydawg

Te Constitution gives Congress the power "To establish Post Offices and post Roads", but says nothing else about how they shall be organized and maintained, or who shall be responsible for maintaining them. The entire elaborate structure of the US Postal Service that we currently have was hashed out behind the scenes and evolved over time.

Congress having previously abdicated much of its financial responsibility to the misnamed Federal Reserve System (a NON-government body that is nominally under Congressional oversight), there's an argument - not a good one, but that never stopped idiots - for doing the same thing to the postal service.

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4 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

snoopydawg's picture

@TheOtherMaven

Thanks. How can one person decide on whether it lives or breathes? Or is congress just hiding behind Trump as they approve of his asset stripping? Probably since I haven't seen many people speaking out against the horrible things he has been doing.

With Postal Service on 'Verge of Collapse' and 630,000 Jobs at Risk, Trump Slammed for Refusing to Ac

"We are at a critical juncture in the life of the Postal Service. At a time when America needs the Postal Service more than ever, the reason we are so needed is having a devastating effect on our business," said Brennan, referring to the coronavirus outbreak, which has led to a sharp decline in mail volume.

If this was important to congress and especially democrats since for some reason we are still expecting them to f'cking stand against the republicans then they would have said Absolutely No Funds until the post office is entirely funded including rolling back their having to provide retirement funding decades in the future.

On top of the 630,000 jobs lost this will crash what's left of the economy. The PO offers much better rates than UPS or FedEx does and it serves the back waters of the country that they don't.

Jesus just how much more corruption are we supposed to tolerate? Is there anything we can do besides general strikes and boycotts? Gee I wonder how many rural people will die because they can't get their medications because UPS and FE doesn't deliver to them? I think even Trump voters will call this the Red Line. Many of them live in rural areas.

Of course Bernie is talking about it from the senate and the house passed a bill rolling back the pre funding.

Sanders Says Congress Must Stop Trump From Exploiting Covid-19 Crisis to 'Bankrupt and Privatize the Postal Service'

In February, the House of Representatives passed legislation authored by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) that would repeal the prefunding mandate. The bill stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.

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4 users have voted.

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

travelerxxx's picture

@snoopydawg

Re, the gutting of the USPS (my bold):

Gee I wonder how many rural people will die because they can't get their medications because UPS and FE doesn't deliver to them? I think even Trump voters will call this the Red Line. Many of them live in rural areas.

I'll take that bet ...and I'll win. You've underestimated the power of freedumb. Right-wing propagandists can have the Trump supporters equating our Post Office with communism within a week. No problem. Hell, they've probably already printed the bumper stickers and have the memes already drawn up. I'm sure the Fox script writers are on it right now.

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3 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@travelerxxx

and especially effective with the poorly educated.

The media machine turned in another way could also make the PO heroes.

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5 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

travelerxxx's picture

@Lookout

The media machine turned in another way could also make the PO heroes.

Exactly correct. Propaganda-war time, eh? Red vs Blue.

Thing is, Big Money controls the Executive completely, most of the Legislative, and the mostly the Courts. The press wants to sell Buicks.

We need the 99% in the fight, but I'm not sure how. If there's a way to unite the divisions – maybe the same way both left and right want paper balloting – there might be a shot at winning.

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1 user has voted.
Lookout's picture

@travelerxxx

I don't see any sort of viable 3rd party without some decent media. The MSM will do to a people's movement what they've done twice the the Sander's campaign...ignore and vilify.

I was just trying to say the power of propaganda can swing in opposite directions.

All the best!

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3 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

@TheOtherMaven

Mainly passing these absurd laws about pension funding.

Then there is the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA), which some have taken to calling “the most insane law” ever passed by Congress. The law requires the Postal Service, which receives no taxpayer subsidies, to prefund its retirees’ health benefits up to the year 2056. This is a $5 billion per year cost; it is a requirement that no other entity, private or public, has to make. If that doesn’t meet the definition of insanity, I don’t know what does. Without this obligation, the Post Office actually turns a profit. Some have called this a “manufactured crisis.” It’s also significant that lots of companies benefit from a burden that makes the USPS less competitive; these same companies might also would benefit from full USPS privatization, a goal that has been pushed by several conservative think tanks for years.

https://www.truthorfiction.com/is-usps-losing-money-because-of-a-2006-pe...

I think we should expand the Postal service to include banking services.

Hope you're doing well and feeling good. Always nice to "see" you.

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5 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

wendy davis's picture

@Lookout

i'd hoped not to need to look up how many yeas in advance congress ha required them to pay for employee pensions. step one in privatizing the P.O. and remember: it's unionized.

here's a link to the fed 'saving' global banks for 'liquidity'; all 'temporary, they promise!'

and this is just disgusting: April 10, 2020Wall Street’s Banks Could Profit by Millions on Coronavirus Deaths of Employees’ by Pam Martens - Russ Martens

Wall Street banks own a form of life insurance called BOLI, short for Bank-Owned Life Insurance. The death benefit pays to the corporate owner of the policy, in this case the banks, not the employee or their family. Because it’s a life insurance policy, it has a lot of nice perks for the banks’ bottom line. The cash benefit of the policy builds up tax free while the policy is in force and the paid death benefit is free of federal income taxes. The bank is supposed to get the employee’s permission before taking out the policy but there is little evidence that employees know what they’re signing when a huge stack of papers is pushed in front of them on their hire date.

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Lookout's picture

@wendy davis

Makes the bank bail out of '08 peanuts. All to prop up oil and the petrodollar...the very thing that needs to die... and would if there was a "free" market.

Thought of you when I posted this link of many above...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/10/trump-advances-climate-doom...
SW CO, ain't that you?

Anyway wishing you the best as wonders never cease.

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wendy davis's picture

@Lookout

and around here we call it the Bureau of Livestock and Mining. i did read your link.

The Bears Ears which we can see to the west on a clear day are also on the chopping block. in fact, when our chirren were young, i'd put one in a backpack and one in a side sling and walk out to the county road and imagine..i could fly to the bears ears. (never mind)

but then so is part of chaco canyon. don't have a link, but i'd posted about it earlier.

obomba, of course, 'protected' a few areas on his way out the door...

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Lookout's picture

@wendy davis

What fools! Not to mention all the uranium mines and pollution nearby. Greed is a great evil.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

Just as was argued last week Bernie, Warren, or Merkley any of them could have put a hold on the bill. It ain't like the $1200 is going to save anyone except perhaps for a month. And now we have a complete corporate government merger. It is hard to believe how badly this was managed.

Good to "see" you this Sunday. Take care and be well!

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wendy davis's picture

@Lookout

martens discovered on a closer reading of 'the package' was that the fed could leverage the $1.7? $454 million bailout slush fund into $4.5 trillion”. and all with complete opacity, no FOIAs allowed, no oversight save some committee in Congress?

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Lookout's picture

@wendy davis

with a signing veto
https://news.yahoo.com/column-trump-blocks-coronavirus-bailout-163113509...

"My administration," Trump wrote in a signing statement issued after he ceremonially signed the bill, "will not treat ... this provision as permitting the SIGPR to issue reports to the Congress" without presidential approval.

Trump's statement thus signals that he'll feel free to order executive branch departments not to cooperate with the inspector general.

Many are suggesting it is going to be a 17 Trillion with a T dollar creation before it is over. All given to the big boys to buy out mom and pop as they go under. Quite a deal.

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wendy davis's picture

@Lookout

he's playing by Wall Street Rules.

mr. wd told me that he'd read that john prine delivered mail on foot for several years, and the spaces allowed him to imagine and compose. his humor and pathos were epic, and simple, as were his songs to play, even for me.

but as the US refuses to acknowledge that it's a multipolar world, makes war and threatens war (including killing sanctions: war by other means) wherever it's able and is increasingly making utter precarity on The People, this seems quite fitting:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRCLHBhZPQ4]

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Lookout's picture

@wendy davis

and one I still sometimes sing. I've been slowly playing through all his songs I know. Having to resurrect some of them.

Used to do this one in my youth...need to find it again.
John Prine - Rocky Mountain Time
Walked in the restaurant, for somethin to do, the waitress yelled at me, and so did the food, and the water tastes funny, when you're far from your home, but it's only the thirsty, that hunger to roam...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2Cnbhhf_YY

another for me to find again
The Great Compromise...about America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2okOuZ8T_o
"Well ya know, I coulda beat up that feller. But it was HER that hopped into HIS car, and many times I fought to protect her, but this time she was going too far."

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enhydra lutris's picture

of viewing and reading up there; talk about overload. Ah well, I can listen to some on my phone while I go about my chores and such and may have caught a couple already anyway. Thanks tons.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

It is meant as a menu rather than a meal.

Hope all is well out on the left coast. Take care and be well.

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4 users have voted.

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enhydra lutris's picture

Greg Mannarino explains how the market can grow in value as 17 million folks are on unemployment. (Hint: the fed is trying to pump up the popped bubble). Worth the time IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zu51zo19yw

And found it well organized and thought out, and an excellent description of what is going on based on the facts today. Long before he got around to going there (National Socialism) I went on a different variant:

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
~~FDR

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power."
~~ attributed to Mussolini

We can quibble over corporatism versus corporativism, and acknowledge that Mussolini's "corporates" were not today's corporations, but nonetheless, as noted by FDR, the blatant meger and identity of corporate and government interests is Fascism; there is no other word for it. Whether it is true ownership, or mere capture of the apparatus of government, it is Fascism, so let us call it what it is.

be well and have a good one

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6 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

He's no socialist, but he's played the market well and is a gold and metals guy.

Last week he said Bernie made a lot more sense than the bail out.

I led with him in hopes people would listen.

Thanks for the comment.

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snoopydawg's picture

Why? TO protect the insurance agencies of course. Mainly worker's compensation insurance who is going to be losing buckets of money if Trump allows them not to pay payroll taxes.

"So all you infected bus drivers, grocery store clerks, poultry processors—you didn't get it at work," Barab tweeted.

When a Twitter user speculated that the move could be designed to "let worker's compensation insurance carriers off the hook, so that the suffering worker bears more of the expense for treatment," Barab responded, "And, of course, employers who pay workers comp premiums."
...

Because COVID-19 is officially classified as a recordable illness, employers would typically be required to notify OSHA of coronavirus cases among their workers.

OSHA's updated rules come as the Trump Labor Department, headed by former corporate lawyer Eugene Scalia, is facing growing backlash over its business-friendly handling of the new coronavirus stimulus law. In recent guidances, Scalia has scaled back paid leave provisions and limited who can qualify for expanded unemployment benefits as the coronavirus outbreak continues to cause unprecedented mass layoffs across the nation.

From that article"

"Because of COVID-19, more than 16 million Americans have submitted unemployment claims in the past three weeks, but Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia is using his authority to limit who qualifies for assistance," Cohen wrote. "This is despicable. We are in the midst of a pandemic!"

"Unemployment is not the preferred outcome when government stay-at-home orders force temporary business shutdowns," Scalia wrote earlier this week in a Fox Business op-ed with Jovita Carranza, the head of the Small Business Administration. "We want workers to have work, not to become dependent on the unemployment system."

Of course that doesn't apply to the banks that have been bailed out since 2008 and the corporations that should have to sale the stocks that they used their tax cuts to buy at the expense of their workers. Of course it doesn't.

That revolution Bernie spoke of might indeed turn into a violent one after all.

Hey why didn't MyBoss the greatest president ever fix that post office loophole thingy? Hmm?

I am going for a walk. Might junk the computer before I go.

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

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

Enjoy your walk. I'm listening to some of John's silly songs while I putter around in the kitchen. We've had another inch of rain today. Too wet to mess around in the garden. Puts us well over a foot more than average for this time in the year.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk4nXqf82kM]

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Pluto's Republic's picture

They always are.

Didn't get to see all the Youtubes. Google started blocking my access for some reason. But that first one at the top was really reassuring. Although the humane solutions of the Authentic Left sound shocking and alien in mass market channels in the US — it's nice to realize they are familiar in Europe and other nations where political parties from the Left are common.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Lookout's picture

@Pluto's Republic

I appreciate your insights and info in comments around the site. Glad you like the WW content. Lately I find it difficult not to rant. I noticed Jimmy is toning it down this week too. A rant is good for release but not for persuasion.

I've been trying to see how we unwind from this and it sure isn't clear to me, but I'm keeping on keeping on. Thanks for the visit!

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