- WHO suspends trials of hydroxychloroquine as virus treatment; Trump defends decision to play golf as US death toll nears 100,000
- UK PM’s top aide Dominic Cummings defies calls to quit; Spain revises death toll down by nearly 2,000
- Guangdong province science chief says at least one facility will be able to handle the most infectious fatal diseases such as Ebola
- The centres are needed ‘to cut the risks of transporting specimens and to strengthen diagnosis’
....Currently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone wears a mask – as do the governments covering 90% of the world’s population – but, so far, only 12 states in the U.S. require it. In the majority of the remaining states, the CDC recommendation has not been enough: Most people do not currently wear masks. However, things are changing fast. Every week more and more jurisdictions require a mask to use in public. As I write this, there are now 94 countries that have made this move....
- Kudos to China too: China records no new Covid-19 cases for first time
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| Generations after Brown v Board of Education, the US is still separate and unequal
 ‘In the next 66 years, fulfilling the promises of Brown requires we re-imagine and re-think our social structures.’ Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA At least 20,000 black Americans have died from the virus. Their death rate is nearly 2.5 times higher than whites, and it has never been less than twice that of Latinos and Asians, according to recent data compiled by APM Research Lab. Despite comprising 13% of the country, they make up 25% of Covid-19 deaths. The Trump administration has placed much of the responsibility for these disparities on victims.... Malaika Jabali | The Guardian | 20.05.27
UK researchers find link between severe cases of virus and genetic mutation that increases dementia risks. Do our genes decide whether or not we are vulnerable to severe cases of Covid-19? That’s the implication of new research, which found that people with a genetic mutation that increases the risk of dementia are at least twice as likely to suffer severe symptoms if they catch the coronavirus – regardless of whether they have been diagnosed with dementia. UK researchers analysed genetic data from 500,000 people and said the link they uncovered between the virus and the “e4” variant of the ApoE gene was “pretty bulletproof”.... Tim Walker | The Guardian | 20.05.27
GOVERNMENT Joe Biden forced to make his fundraisers fully virtual – bar the price tag [Biden's announced campaign via live Zoom meet-ups could become uncomfortably revealing.] The pandemic has led the presumptive Democratic nominee, like other politicians to take his high-dollar events online  Joe Biden: as seen on TV. Photograph: Brian Cahn/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock The coronavirus pandemic may have driven Joe Biden into his basement and forced his campaign online, but one crucial factor is still the same: his run for the White House still needs to raise giant amounts of money.... Daniel Strauss in Washington | The Guardian | 20.05.27
AMERIKA Trump threatens to move Republican convention if North Carolina won't allow packed arena [Trump unerringly makes the dumb decision. In this case risking public sickness and death for better 'theater' glorifying Trump.] President targets Democratic governor days after state’s highest daily increase in coronavirus cases  Donald Trump participates in a briefing about Hurricane Dorian with North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, last year. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP Donald Trump has threatened to move the Republican party’s national convention from Charlotte, North Carolina, if the state is unable to commit to “full attendance” at the gathering due to Covid-19 restrictions. In a series of tweets on Monday morning. Trump said the state’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, was “still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee” that the party would be able to fill the arena with supporters.... Edward Helmore | The Guardian | 20.05.27
AMERIKA Andrew Cuomo gave immunity to nursing home execs after big campaign donations [Mafia-style government allows politicians the means to raise money for sudden early retirement.] Critics say data proves New York’s liability shield is linked to higher nursing home death rates during the pandemic  ‘Cuomo’s administration said the new immunity provision is necessary.’ Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA As Governor Andrew Cuomo faced a spirited challenge in his bid to win New York’s 2018 Democratic primary, his political apparatus got a last-minute boost: a powerful healthcare industry group suddenly poured more than $1m into a Democratic committee backing his campaign. Less than two years after that flood of cash from the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), Cuomo signed legislation last month quietly shielding hospital and nursing home executives from the threat of lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. The provision, inserted into an annual budget bill by Cuomo’s aides, created one of the nation’s most explicit immunity protections for healthcare industry officials, according to legal experts. David Sirota | The Guardian | 20.05.27
| MAFIA-STYLE MADNESS US lets corporations delay paying environmental fines amid pandemic [Delaying action costs lives and money. And why is packaging that cannot be recycled—including plastic grocery bags—still legal to manufacture? We should be able to sue government to force it to function as intended.] Ten companies that allegedly polluted air and water will not be required to pay penalties they agreed to before 1 June
 The oil and gas company BP said it paid the $8m penalty it agreed to for alleged air pollution problems at an oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana, on the shore of Lake Michigan. Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters Ten corporations that agreed to a total of $56m in civil penalties for allegedly breaking environmental laws are not being required to make payments under a pause granted by the US government during the Covid-19 pandemic. The companies polluted air and water, including in communities already vulnerable to toxic pollution like East Chicago, Indiana, according to legal proceedings. They signed settlements with the government agreeing to pay fines without admitting liability but the justice department last month advised most of the companies of extensions in letters which were obtained by the government watchdog group Accountable.US via public records requests.... Emily Holden in Washington | The Guardian | 20.05.27
MAFIA-STYLE MADNESS Tory privatisation is at the heart of the UK's disastrous coronavirus response From PPE failures to care home tragedies, this crisis has exposed the pernicious role of corporate power in public policy  ‘Private monopolies have either failed to meet their contracts, or have provided defective gear to the entire NHS, like the planeload of useless surgical gowns that had to be recalled.’ PPE from Turkey arrives in an RAF plane at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA Part of the answer is that the government knowingly and deliberately stood down crucial parts of its emergency response system. Another part is that, when it did at last seek to mobilise the system, crucial bits of the machine immediately fell off. There is a consistent reason for the multiple, systemic failures the pandemic has exposed: the intrusion of corporate power into public policy. Privatisation, commercialisation, outsourcing and offshoring have severely compromised the UK’s ability to respond to a crisis. Take, for example, the lethal failures to provide protective clothing, masks and other equipment (PPE) to health workers. A report by the campaigning group We Own It seeks to explain why so many doctors, nurses and other hospital workers have died unnecessarily of Covid-19. It describes a system built around the needs not of health workers or patients, but of corporations and commercial contracts: a system that could scarcely be better designed for failure. Four layers of commercial contractors, each rich with opportunities for profit-making, stand between doctors and nurses and the equipment they need. These layers are then fragmented into 11 tottering, uncoordinated supply chains, creating an almost perfect formula for chaos. Among the many weak links in these chains are consultancy companies like Deloitte, whose farcical attempts to procure emergency supplies of PPE have been fiercely criticised by both manufacturers and health workers.... George Monbiot | The Guardian | 20.05.27
Exclusively compiled data from the Hadley Centre’s supercomputer shows alarming climate trajectory ....“The climate now is completely different from what we had 30 years ago. It is completely outside the bounds of possibility in natural variation,” said Peter Stott, a professor and expert on climate attribution science at the centre. In the Hadley Centre’s early projections, he said, scientists forecast 0.5C of warming in the UK between 1990 and 2020 as a result of emissions from oil, gas and coal: “We got it spot on.” With new heat records being broken with increasing frequency, he said global temperatures were now above any level in the Met Office measurements since 1850, or indirectly calculated through tree rings going back thousands of years. Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are also higher than anything seen in million-year-old ice cores. “We are seeing an unprecedented climate,” Stott said. “The human fingerprint is everywhere.”... Jonathan Watts | The Guardian | 20.05.27
President rails against decision after his tweets on mail-in voting are marked with message: ‘Get the facts’ Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco and Sam Levine in New York | The Guardian | 20.05.27
Savannah Behrmann | USA Today | 20.05.27
SENILITY? Trump urges end to lockdowns as US COVID-19 deaths near 100,000 [Is anyone minding the Baby?] SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES | AL JAZEERA | 20.05.27
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AMERIKA V. AMERICA Democrats are fueling a corporate counter-revolution against progressives [Already controlling the Republican Party and corporate media, mafia-style capitalists have now bought the Democratic Party!] Democrats in Washington are not just passively failing to mount an opposition to Trump. They are actively helping Republicans David Sirota | The Guardian | 20.05.26
AMERIKA V. AMERICA Extra $600 in jobless pay offers many a lifeline – but will it be renewed? [2:24 video; $Billions for Billionaires like Kushner, yet pennies are too much for the desperate poor] Republicans, including the president, have opposed the additional funds. But their expiration could bring ‘incredible suffering’ Amanda Holpuch in New York | The Guardian | 20.05.25
TRUTH BEGETS SATIRE: Fauci Urges Trump to Remain on Golf Course Until Pandemic Is Over By Andy Borowitz | The New Yorker | 20.05.25
Al Franken Channel | YouTube | 20.05.25
AMERIKA: GOP 'Plot to Gut Social Security Behind Closed Doors' Gains Steam in Senate Covid-19 Talks [TAX BILLIONAIRES FAIRLY INSTEAD! Only the more heinous wealthy would conceive of harming distressed retirees more. It might be good for gun sales though. Remember the crime wave during the Great Depression with 'heros' like John Dillinger using Thompson machine guns? We could have that again. Want it?] "With seniors most at risk from Covid-19, we need to be increasing Social Security's modest benefits, not creating secret commissions to cut them." Jake Johnson, staff writer | Common Dreams | 20.05.23
AMERIKA: MIT Study: ‘Chaotic And Uncoordinated’ Reopening Of States Takes ‘Devastating Toll’ | All In | MSNBC [7:28 video; The MIT Study Report]
AMERIKA: ‘How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?’ [Did Trump demand distorted statistics to re-open the country sooner than safely?] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conflating the results of two different types of coronavirus tests, distorting several important metrics and providing the country with an inaccurate picture of the state of the pandemic. We’ve learned that the CDC is making, at best, a debilitating mistake: combining test results that diagnose current coronavirus infections with test results that measure whether someone has ever had the virus. The upshot is that the government’s disease-fighting agency is overstating the country’s ability to test people who are sick with COVID-19. The agency confirmed to The Atlantic on Wednesday that it is mixing the results of viral and antibody tests, even though the two tests reveal different information and are used for different reasons. ALEXIS C. MADRIGAL and ROBINSON MEYER | The Atlantic | 20.05.22
| GOVERNANCE BREAKDOWN Brazil: blow to Bolsonaro as judge orders release of expletive-ridden video [Do leaders become extreme and bizarre from a growing inability to function? Could we coax them back-to(?) sanity by somehow surrounding them with brilliant-and-good people?] Two-hour video of cabinet meeting released as part of inquiry into claims Bolsonaro tried to meddle in investigation into his son Jonathan Watts | The Guardian | 20.05.23
GOVERNMENT US investors weigh Beijing’s power play in Hong Kong: ‘If they’re not careful, they will kill the financial golden goose’ [2:41 video]
Mark Magnier in United States, Jodi Xu Klein in New York and Robert Delaney | South China Morning Post | 20.05.22
AMERIKA: Mike Pompeo attacks China and says 'we stand with Australia' – video [1:17 video is red-baiting with gossip against China to distract Trump's voter-base from righteous anger that his gross incompetence made America the sickest country from Covid-19—with the world's highest death rate. Rather than attacking the largest country modernizing at the fastest rate from its behavior 50+ years ago, we should focus on making strong friends for a better future!] Guardian News Channel | YouTube | 20.05.21
Opinion: GOVERNMENT US-China strategic competition has worsened the impact of the coronavirus, harming the people of both nations. It needs to stop The US should recognise that its designation of China as a strategic competitor creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. Would Beijing be more or less willing to listen to a partner or strategic competitor on issues such as Hong Kong? Stephen Orlins | South China Morning Post | 20.05.21
GOVERNMENT HELPS HEALTH Why are Africa's coronavirus successes being overlooked? [AFRICAN NATIONS GREATLY OUTPERFORM TRUMP'S AMERICA!] Examples of innovation aren’t getting the fanfare they would do if they emerged from Europe or the US Afua Hirsch | The Guardian | 20.05.21
GOVERNMENT HURTS HEALTH 'It's a disaster': Egypt's doctors plead for more PPE and testing Medics increasingly at odds with government that is urging citizens to ‘coexist’ with Covid-19 Ruth Michaelson | The Guardian | 20.05.21
| INHUMANITY: America’s corporate elite must place the health of their workers before profit [Do CEOs own actions define them as a sociopaths, or do their actions merely follow business media and/or business school guidance? Does Amerika have more sociopaths than Europe?] It’s up to CEOs to rise above their arrogance and stop treating coronavirus as an obstacle to revenues Robert Reich | The Guardian | 20.05.19
AMERIKA: Jared Kushner & Co. Just Got a $160 Billion Tax Windfall | Robert Reich [27:47 video; Looks like the butcher's thumb was on the scale here....CORRUPTION!] Robert Reich Channel | YouTube | 20.05.22
AMERIKA: Supreme court temporarily blocks release of testimony from Mueller investigation [Action indicates very strong Trump impeachment evidence was wrongfully suppressed by his personal lawyer, Attorney General William Barr...] Solicitor general’s request blocks an appeals court order, arguing it would cause ‘irreparable harm’ to the federal government Joan E Greve in Washington and agencies | The Guardian | 20.05.21
Idea updated 03/10/20: Those who think nation-states are not increasingly corrupt will not understand why change (below) is needed. [Ref.: The world is waking up to this!] Virtual Nations [An editorial promoting an anti-despot/fascist ideal] Instead of Plutocratic/Corporate-Politicians owning and controlling people (and their children ad infinitum) in "their" Nation State, wouldn't it be better if adults world-wide could selectively contract with UN-certified—and annually rated for performance— professional agencies to perform nation-level fiduciary functions Such nationalesque fiduciary agencies could manage escrow for Social Security and Medicare, plus smart funding for your priority governance and your priority charities. If this were possible and replaced Nations States, then it would end wars and immigration crises because citizens of every Virtual Nation would be scattered worldwide, as before Nation States. And a world-wide common language might naturally coalesce. Local city, county and state governments can continue unchanged. But at the Virtual Nation level, governance would be by professional-only and not political. Your only annual(?) vote for Virtual Nation agency would be to renew with the same Virtual-Nation agency or change to a better agency based on UN scoring (which transfers escrows) and/or change priorities for governance and charities. Marc Cherbonnier | The Baltimore Chronicle | Ref.
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