Tuesday, April 21st, 2020
David Edwards, - Raw Story
Stephan: Trumper dimwit Kristi Nichols organized a Trumper rally in Missouri. I picked this article because I want you to listen to her words. Okay, I agree she's not very bright; but that isn't the point. What this woman represents is the result of Trumper media, Limbaugh, FOX, Infowars, etc. retailing gross and medically dangerous disinformation. These people live on Earth 2, and their behavior endangers all of us on Earth 1.
Trumper dimwit Kristi Nichols in Missouri
The activist who organized a rally against government stay-at-home orders in Missouri argued on Monday that COVID-19 is “just like the flu” — even though scientists believe that it is ten times more deadly.
Kansas City Star reporter shared video of activist Kristi Nichols explaining why she had organized the Monday rally.
“We are a group of patriots and grassroots efforts to open up Missouri,” she said. “I want all the states to be opened up. We have to end this tyranny. Our constitutional rights have been violated and we need Missouri to open up.”
“The information that has gone out with the virus — it’s no worse than the flu,” Nichols continued. “We didn’t lock down cities, states and nations because people had the flu.”
According to Nichols, the American dream is being lost “because of false information” about the novel coronavirus.
“It’s time to open up the United States now,” she insisted. “We are not a communist […]
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Hamilton Nolan, - truthout
Stephan: The Founders were very clear about the need for a government established, operated, and funded Post Office. In the Constitution, they created a Navy, but not a standing Army, and a Postal system: Section 8:Clause 7: "To establish Post Offices and post Roads..."
The Republicans hate the post office as it is currently structured, and they hate the unions that the postal workers belong to. They have been trying for years to privatize the USPS, so it can be turned from a public service into a corporate profit machine. It is a disastrous idea, but under Trump they are very close to pulling it off, using the coronavirus pandemic as cover.
Postal trucks are parked at a United States Postal Service (USPS) post office location in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2020.
Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty
Among the most prominent victims of the coronavirus financial crisis is the United States Postal Service, which could quite literally run out of money to operate if the federal government does not approve a rescue package for it soon. The Trump administration—which, like much of the GOP, has long advocated for cutbacks and privatization of the postal service—actively prevented the USPS from being bailed out in the CARES Act, even as Donald Trump has made a show of publicly thanking Fedex and UPS for their work. Not very subtle.
Fifty years ago last month, U.S. postal workers staged an unprecedented and historic eight-day strike, backing down the Nixon administration and winning the right to collective bargaining. A half century later, Mark Dimondstein, the leader of the 200,000-strong American Postal Workers Union, says that the Trump administration is using today’s crisis as an opportunity to destroy the postal service as a public entity […]
2 Comments
Naveena Sadasivam, - Grist
Stephan: It has begun to dawn on the carbon extraction industries that their days are numbered, and thank God for that. But, as the poet Dylan Thomas wrote, they are not prepared to "go gentle into that good night." They are going to pollute the earth as long as they can, supported in this effort by Trump and his "ethics-free" familiars.
Extraction oil rig
Credit: zhengzaishuru / Getty
Texas just did something that only recently might have been unthinkable. The state whose name is synonymous with American oil took the unusual step of formally considering statewide cuts in oil production — a step that hasn’t been taken since the 1970s.
At an online public hearing the state hosted on Tuesday, oil and gas company representatives painted a picture of devastation — bankrupt companies and tens of thousands of jobs lost — if Texas and other states and countries didn’t deliberately scale back production to counteract a free fall in oil prices.
“If the Texas Railroad Commission does not regulate long term, we will disappear as an industry, like the coal industry,” said Scott Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, referring to the state agency that oversees oil and gas production. “The Commission really does not have any wiggle room to do nothing in the unprecedented, disastrous circumstances of today.”
More than 20,000 interested viewers from across the world tuned in to the hearing, which had not even cycled […]
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Jon Henley and Elisabeth Ulven , - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: In the U.S. we have a president and an administration that is doing everything they can to keep the polluting carbon extraction industries alive and prosperous, climate change and poisoning the environment be damned. Other nations led by smarter leaders with greater integrity and, frankly, populations that recognize the importance of social wellbeing, are moving in exactly the opposite direction. Here is a report on how that is working out in Norway one of the world leaders in this movement.
Norwegian street charging stations
Credit: Bloomberg
In 1995, the lead singer of the 1980s band A-ha and the head of the Norwegian environmental group Bellona climbed improbably into a converted electric Fiat Panda they had imported from Switzerland and set off on a road trip.
They drove around Oslo refusing to pay the city’s sky-high road tolls, parking illegally wherever they could, and ignoring every penalty notice they were given. Eventually, the authorities impounded their car and auctioned it off to cover the fines.
But the stunt attracted massive media attention, and the point was made. Soon after, electric vehicles were exempted from road tolls, one of a large raft of incentives that have, over the years, helped make Norway the country with the world’s highest per capita electric vehicle ownership.
Last month, in an economy hit by the coronavirus crisis, fully electric cars accounted for just under 60% of Norway’s new car market, and plug-in hybrids just over 15% – meaning three in four of all new cars sold were either wholly or […]
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KEITH A. SPENCER, Senior Editor - Salon
Stephan: Robert Reich and I often agree, and like me, he sees that this pandemic is being used by the uber-rich as a Christmas bag of goodies. It amazes me that so little is being said about this.
Robert Reich | Registered nurses and health care workers protest a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) available for frontline workers amid the coronavirus pandemic Credit: Win McNamee/Mario Tama/Getty
Robert Reich is probably the most outspoken former secretary of labor. I mean, have any others become a household name, with an outsize presence on progressive news and social media sites to match? (Okay, maybe Frances Perkins.) This is all to say that the career trajectory of Mr. Reich, who was Clinton’s labor secretary from 1993 to 1997, is more unusual than the average elder statesman. Rather than settle into a comfortable retirement, Reich has spent the past 23 years as an engaged activist, writing and speaking publicly about income inequality in the United States. That issue, Reich argues forcefully, is the singular thread that devolves all other aspects of our democracy; nearly every ill, from police violence to the rise of the far-right to the ascension of Trump, stem from the starkly unequal economic situation we find ourselves trapped in.
Yet for someone who covers bleak subject matter, Robert Reich is hopeful in interview. I asked him if […]
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