Author: Keith Preston
Bernie Flames Republicans For Shafting Poor People Reply
Not just Republicans, Bernie. The entire ruling class/political class/power elite.
CORPORATE COUP: Crumbs For You, $4.5 TRILLION For The Oligarchs Reply
It’s 2008 on steroids.
Fran Drescher and Britney Spears Call for a General Strike, and Twitter Loves It Reply
Sometimes leadership can come from strange places.
By Chelsey Sanchez
Harpers’ Bazaar
A pandemic, it seems, has a funny way of exposing the world’s true colors. College students are stripped down to their selfish cores as they prioritize frolicking across Miami beaches over the health of literally everybody else. Certain employers still encourage their employees to show up to work, personal health and viral outbreaks be damned. And Donald Trump—wait, no, Trump is pretty much exactly who we thought he was.
A pleasant surprise, at least, has been the proletariat heroes-in-the-making manifested in Britney Spears and Fran Drescher. Via their respective social media accounts, both celebrities recently amplified calls for a general strike and a redistribution of wealth, demands popularly seen in Marxist trends of thought.
Spears posted a quote from writer Mimi Zhu, which partially read, “We [will] feed each other, re-distribute wealth, strike. We will understand our own importance from the places we must stay. Communion moves beyond walls. We can still be together.”
When Disease Comes, Rulers Grab More Power Reply
The state is grabbing more power, the ruling class has gone looting, and the sheeple are going along with it, as usual.
By Anne Applebaum
The Atlantic
On March 13—Friday the 13th, as it happened—my husband was driving down a Polish highway when he turned on the news and learned that the country’s borders would shut down in 24 hours. He pulled over and called me. I bought a ticket from London to Warsaw minutes later. I don’t live there all of the time, but my husband is Polish, the only house I own is in rural Poland, and I wanted to be in it. The next morning, Heathrow Airport was spookily empty except for the Warsaw flight, which was packed with people trying to get one of the last commercial trips back into their country. During check-in, agents were refusing to board passengers without a Polish passport (I have one) or residency documents. Then someone realized that the new rules went into effect only at midnight, and so I witnessed a conversation between one of the stewards and two non-Polish passengers: “You realize that you might not be able to fly out again. You realize that you may be in Warsaw for a very long time …”
The U.S. Now Leads the World in Confirmed Coronavirus Cases Reply
USA! USA! We’re Number One!
By Donald G. McNeil Jr.
New York Times
Scientists warned that the United States someday would become the country hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. That moment arrived on Thursday.
In the United States, at least 81,321 people are known to have been infected with the coronavirus, including more than 1,000 deaths — more cases than China, Italy or any other country has seen, according to data gathered by The New York Times.
The Times is engaged in a comprehensive effort to track the details of every confirmed case in the United States, collecting information from federal, state and local officials.
With 330 million residents, the United States is the world’s third most populous nation, meaning it provides a vast pool of people who can potentially get Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Perspective Reply
“Here are some recent figures from the Italian National Health Institute (ISS), dealing with the type of people in Italy who have died as a result of the virus. Firstly, the average age of those who have tested positive and subsequently died currently stands at around 81 years of age. Note that 10% of the deceased are over 90, whilst 90% are over 70. Secondly, it should be noted that 80% of the deceased had already been suffering from two or more chronic diseases and that 50% had suffered from three or more chronic diseases. These include cardiovascular problems, diabetes, respiratory problems and various forms of cancer. Thirdly, less than 1% of the deceased were healthy, i.e. persons without pre-existing chronic diseases. The report also states that Italian hospitals are struggling due to the number of people in intensive care, rather than the number of patients being accepted into the normal wards. It has also been suggested that the high number of deaths is due to the fact that Italy has the worst air quality in Europe and that this was itself the cause of existing respiratory problems. I’m sure you’ll agree that there is nothing like a bit of perspective, however grim the subject matter.
When you consider that 4,000 people have died in Spain and the country has a population of 46 million, it works out in the region of 0.008695652 %. Again, whilst I do not wish to trivialise the suffering of those who are most at risk this figure hardly justifies the apocalyptic hysteria we are getting from the mass media.” – Troy Southgate
Stimulus Bill: “An Abomination Beyond Comprehension” – “Bernie Folded” Reply
Tucker: How local leaders failed their cities Reply
It’s funny how Democrats and Republicans are pointing the finger at each other for being too slow to respond to coronavirus.
As Coronavirus Spreads, Private Sector Offers Hope—And Treatments Reply
By Sally Pipes
Forbes
Optimism is in short supply as the coronavirus pandemic grows deadlier by the day. COVID-19 has taken thousands of lives around the world and upended nearly every aspect of daily life.
But there is at least one bright spot in this global public health emergency. That’s the astounding speed with which private firms have begun tackling the problem. While federal regulators have exacerbated the crisis at seemingly every turn, private firms have rolled out promising new therapies and technologies that could help mitigate the pandemic—and save lives.
The stats are grim. In less than three months, the virus has surged from Wuhan, China, to infect more than 430,000 people across 168 countries worldwide, according to official counts as of the morning of March 25. Many more people may have the virus and not know it. More than 18,000 people have died.
Here in the United States, the first coronavirus case appeared north of Seattle on January 21. Just over two months later, more than 53,000 cases—and 728 deaths—have been reported.
The federal government’s efforts to combat the pandemic have been—less than stellar. Early test kits from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were flawed and unusable. Federal regulators initially refused to use tests from the World Health Organization and other foreign countries. And the Food and Drug Administration has been slow—slow to review and approve new tests developed by private labs, slow to relax regulations on the production of new ventilators, and downright hostile to potential at-home tests for COVID-19.
Private firms, by contrast, have provided a rare source of hope in the midst of the pandemic.
A Matter of Perception? 2
Portland mayor calls on landlords to suspend evictions during crisis Reply
From what I have seen so far, the responses of the states and localities to the current crisis have been reasonably competent, from conservatives like Mike DeWine to liberals like Kate Snyder. Not what I would like, of course, but it is what it is given the political realities. The performance of the Trump administration has been mediocre. I, for one, do not trust Anthony Fauci because I remember him pushing the HIV/AIDS hysteria in the 1980s. And the performance of Congress has been worse than terrible. More evidence of why we need decentralization.
By Dennis Hoey
Portland Press Herald
The mayor of Maine’s largest city is calling on landlords to halt evictions and suspend rent increases for at least 90 days while the state and nation try to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Mayor Kate Snyder said Monday she was offering “guidance” to landlords in hopes they will comply and make efforts to keep financially strapped tenants, who could be facing job loss or reduced incomes, in their homes during the outbreak.
Snyder suggests landlords follow recommendations from the National Multifamily Housing Council, which has asked congressional leaders to provide financial relief to the millions of people who rent apartments in the United States, as well as to their landlords.
Those recommendations include halting evictions for 90 days for those who can show they have been financially affected by the outbreak, as well as suspending rent increases for 90 days to help residents weather the crisis.
We Must Bail Out Workers, Not Just Corporations Reply
It’s time to start squatting and homesteading corporations that profit from the stimulus/bailout/robbery of the working class.
Bernie Holds Roundtable with AOC, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib Reply
Some of the social democrats in Congress have performed reasonably well on this thing, along with a few people from the “far-right,” but for the most part, the entire political class has once again shown why it sucks.
Democrats Just Obstructed The Emergency Relief AGAIN?! Pelosi Flounders While Trump Approval Jumps Reply
Bernie Sanders unloads sarcasm on GOP senators: “Oh my God! The universe is collapsing.” Reply
It’s Time for a Nationwide Debt Strike Reply
The proper solution to the exacerbation of class conflict that has been generated by the present public health crisis, and the opportunistic actions by the state and ruling class that have resulted, in a nationwide debt strike.
In the 1960s, draft resisters adopted the slogan, “Hell no, we won’t go.” The new slogan should be “Hell, no. We won’t pay.” Millions upon millions of Americans should stop paying rent, stop paying mortgages, stop paying credit card debts, stop paying student loans, stop paying medical bills, stop paying utility bills, stop making car payments, and stop making any other payments that are owed to any financial, corporate, or state institution. The latest “stimulus,” like the bailouts of 2008, is just a massive ripoff of the general public for the sake of propping up the ruling class. A mere student loan debt strike is not good enough. We need a total debt strike.
UK Govt Paying 80% Of Workers Wages & Housing The Homeless Reply
For many years, I have said that the US is a Third World banana republic with First World technology. Sometimes it sucks to be right.
Joe Biden accuser Tara Reade speaks out Reply
Former staffer for Joe Biden Tara Reade recounts her experience from the 1980s with then Senator Joe Biden including inappropriate touching, and her denial of legal resources from the #MeToo organization Time’s Up.
“Please Don’t Die” the Atlantic Begs Joe Biden 1
US Govt Using Crisis To Lock People Up Indefinitely Reply
The system wants to suspend habeas corpus.
BREAKING: Unemployment claims hit 3.3 million Reply
Great Depression Two, here we come.
