28 April 20
It is - very - important to get moving on donations, right here right now.
Yes we do need the money. Yes some people have helped. But we have to have a good month, whatever it takes. As of right now it’s not happening.
With urgency.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
Founder, Reader Supported News
If you would prefer to send a check:
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PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611
28 April 20
Robert Reich | Covid-19 Pandemic Shines a Light on a New Kind of Class Divide and Its Inequalities
Robert Reich, Guardian UK
Reich writes: "The Covid-19 pandemic is putting the deepening class divide in America into stark relief. Four new classes are emerging."
Robert Reich, Guardian UK
Reich writes: "The Covid-19 pandemic is putting the deepening class divide in America into stark relief. Four new classes are emerging."
A disproportionate number of Americans fall into the three groups who aren’t getting what they need to survive this crisis
he Covid-19 pandemic is putting the deepening class divide in America into stark relief. Four new classes are emerging.
The Remotes: These are professional, managerial, and technical workers – an estimated 35% of the workforce – who are putting in long hours at their laptops, Zooming into conferences, scanning electronic documents, and collecting about the same pay as before the crisis.
Many are bored or anxious, but they’re well off compared to the three other classes.
The Essentials: They’re about 30% of workers, including nurses, homecare and childcare workers, farm workers, food processors, truck drivers, warehouse and transit workers, drugstore employees, sanitation workers, police officers, firefighters, and the military.
Too many Essentials lack adequate protective gear, paid sick leave, health insurance, and childcare, which is especially important now that schools are shuttered. They also deserve hazard pay.
Their vulnerability is generating a wave of worker activism at businesses such as Instacart, Amazon, Walmart, and Whole Foods. Mass-transit workers are organizing work stoppages.
Trump’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has the legal authority to require private employers provide essential workers with protective gear. Don’t hold your breath.
The Unpaid: They’re an even larger group than the unemployed – whose ranks could soon reach 25%, the same as in the Great Depression. Some of the unpaid are furloughed or have used up their paid leave. So far in this crisis, 43% of adults report they or someone in their household has lost jobs or pay, according to the Pew Research Center.
An estimated 9.2 million have lost their employer-provided health insurance.
Many of these jobs had been in personal services that can’t be done remotely, such as retail, restaurant, and hospitality work. But as consumers rein in spending, layoffs are spreading to news organizations, tech companies, and consumer-goods manufacturers.
The unpaid most need cash to feed their families and pay the rent. Fewer than half say they have enough emergency funds to cover three months of expenses, according to a survey conducted this month by Pew.
So far, government has failed them, too. Checks mailed out by the Treasury last week are a pittance. Extra benefits could help, but unemployment offices are so overwhelmed with claims that they can’t get money out the door. Loans to small businesses have gone largely to big, well-connected businesses, with banks collecting fat fees.
On Wednesday, Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he is opposed to any further federal aid to state and local governments, suggesting states declare bankruptcy instead. Which means even less money for unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and everything else the unpaid need.
The resulting desperation is fueling demands to “reopen the economy” long before it’s safe. If it comes down to a choice between risking one’s health and putting food on the table, many will take the latter.
The Forgotten: This group includes everyone for whom social distancing is nearly impossible because they’re packed tightly into places most Americans don’t see: prisons, jails for undocumented immigrants, camps for migrant farmworkers, Native American reservations, homeless shelters, and nursing homes.
While much of New York City is sheltering at home, for example, more than 17,000 men and women, many already in poor health, are sleeping in roughly 100 shelters for single adults.
All such places are becoming hotspots for the virus. These people need safe spaces with proper medical care, adequate social distancing, testing for the virus and isolation of those who have contracted it. Few are getting any of this.
Not surprisingly, the Essentials, the Unpaid, and the Forgotten are disproportionately poor, black, and Latino and they are disproportionately becoming infected.
An Associated Press breakdown of available state and local data showed close to 33% of those who have died from Covid-19 are African American, despite representing only 14% of the total population in areas surveyed. The Navajo Nation already has lost more people to coronavirus than have 13 states. Four of the 10 largest-known sources of infection in the United States have been correctional facilities.
These three groups aren’t getting what they need to survive this crisis because they don’t have lobbyists and political action committees to do their bidding in Washington or state capitals.
The Remotes among us should be concerned, and not just because of the unfairness of the Covid-19 class divide. If the Essentials aren’t sufficiently protected, the Unpaid are forced back to work earlier than is safe, and if the Forgotten remain forgotten, no one is secure. Covid-19 will continue to spread sickness and death for months, if not years to come.
Sending millions of people back to work without protection or testing would be a death sentence for thousands. (photo: Reuters)
Mike Davis | Reopening the Economy Will Send Us to Hell
Mike Davis, Jacobin
Davis writes: "As we head into the fifth month of the outbreak millions of working families feel like they have been kidnapped and sent to hell."
Mike Davis, Jacobin
Davis writes: "As we head into the fifth month of the outbreak millions of working families feel like they have been kidnapped and sent to hell."
EXCERPTS:
People desperately need to go back to work and save what they can of their lives. But heeding the siren call of the MAGA demonstrators, puppets on strings manipulated by hedge funds and billionaire casino owners, to “reopen the economy” would only result in tragedy. Consider these points:
- Sending millions of people back to work without protection or testing would be a death sentence for thousands. Thirty-four million workers are over fifty-five; ten million of them over sixty-five. Millions more suffer from diabetes, chronic respiratory problems, and so on. Straight from home to work to ICU to morgue.
- Millions of our “essential workers” face intolerable hazards because of the shortage of protective equipment. It will be weeks, at best, before there will be an adequate supply for medical workers. Workers in warehouses, markets, and fast food have no guarantee of ever receiving masks, unless legislation compels it. If this is a war, Trump’s refusal to use existing laws to federalize the manufacture of masks and ventilators is a war crime.
- The proposal to test people’s blood and then issue back-to-work certificates if they have the right antibodies is mere fantasy at the moment. Washington has allowed more than a hundred different firms to sell serological kits without human trials or FDA certification. The results they give are all over the map, just a mess. It may be weeks or longer before public health workers have reliable diagnostics to use. Even then it would take months to test the workforce and it’s doubtful that enough people would have the antibodies to safely staff all the closed businesses.
- The most heroic assumption is that a vaccine could be available by spring 2021, although no one knows how long its conferred immunity would last. Meanwhile, hundreds of research teams and smaller biotech firms are working on medicines that will reduce the risk of respiratory failure and serious heart or kidney damage. But this sprawling scientific experiment lacks coordination and funding from Washington.
Indefinite Lockout
In a sense, we are living in an indefinite lockout, facing an administration that sets a higher priority on destroying the US Postal Service than it does on organizing a crash program to produce the tests, safety equipment, and antivirals that will allow the United States to return to work.
Trump’s accomplices are monsters like Amazon, which in two weeks made Jeff Bezos $25 billion richer, and UnitedHealth Group, the world’s largest health insurance company, whose profits increased by $4.1 billion in the first three months of the pandemic. Medical insurers have experienced a windfall, since most of their enrollees are now unable to book operations or obtain vital treatments.
A volcanic rage is rapidly rising to the surface in this country and we need to harness it to defend and build unions, ensure Medicare for all, and knock the bastards off their gilded thrones.
Hands typing on a computer keyboard. (photo: hamburg_berlin/Shutterstock)
Amazon and Other Platforms Allowing Payments to Far-Right Groups
Jason Wilson, Guardian UK
Wilson writes: "Dozens of hate groups and racist media outlets are receiving income via mainstream payment processors such as Amazon, Stripe and DonorBox, according to a new report by the Center for Media and Democracy."
Jason Wilson, Guardian UK
Wilson writes: "Dozens of hate groups and racist media outlets are receiving income via mainstream payment processors such as Amazon, Stripe and DonorBox, according to a new report by the Center for Media and Democracy."
EXCERPT:
The groups still receiving donations and sales via such platforms include promoters of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that motivated the Christchurch shooter, an organization cited as an inspiration by mass shooter Dylan Roof, and several groups that participated in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville that ended in the killing of a protester.
The CMD report – called Funding Hate – finds that despite previous, widely publicized crackdowns, and explicit policies forbidding racist far-right groups from their services, companies are still allowing income to flow to white nationalist, neo-Confederate, and neo-Nazi hate groups.
The report found three such groups were still using DonorBox, including the American Freedom party, which advocates the deportation of non-white people and the creation of a white ethnostate.
DonorBox banned the Council of Conservative Citizens, which Roof named as the source of his beliefs about “black-on-white crime”, after being contacted by CMD.
According to the report, some of these groups have found ways to circumvent previous DonorBox bans by using false names and emails.
Meanwhile, nine groups use Stripe, whose policies leave the door open to racist groups that do not explicitly advocate violence, according to CMD.
Their services are used by several groups including the neo-Confederate group the League of the South, who were prominent participants in Unite the Right; white nationalist media outfits like Red Ice and the Right Stuff; and anti-immigrant nonprofits and groups like the VDARE Foundation and the HL Mencken Club.
On Amazon, self-published books by white supremacist authors and the entire catalogue of white nationalist publishers – including audiobooks – are easily available.
Amazon’s offerings include books by the Vandal brothers, who advocate race war, and the antisemitic Arkansan militia leader Billy Roper.
Amazon also sells books published by Washington Summit Publishers, run by white nationalist Richard Spencer, including an issue of Radix journal entitled “The Great Erasure”.
The website also carries books and ebooks published by Arktos Media, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an “alt-right publishing syndicate”, which has translated and promoted racist books and which, according to the report, “is closely tied to Richard Spencer, Red Ice, and the white nationalist terrorist group the American Identity Movement”.
Arktos titles are also available as audiobooks on Amazon’s Audible platform.
In addition, the Guardian found that many of Arktos’s titles are available at no cost for users with a “Kindle Unlimited” subscription, including foundational texts of the so-called Identitarian movement by Markus Willinger and Guillaume Faye. Christchurch shooter Brenton Tarrant had extensive contact with leading members of the same Identitarian movement, which promotes fears of demographic replacement, in the lead-up to the shootings.
Other services which the report found were allowing far-right groups to receive income include GoDaddy, Patreon, SquareSpace and some Donor-Advised Funds.
The report’s author, investigative journalist Alex Kotch, said in an email that companies should do more to keep hate from their platforms.
“There is absolutely no excuse for a company to service, and make money from, any group identified by SPLC as a hate group,” Kotch said.
He added: “Many people don’t understand that speech on corporate platforms is not subject to the first amendment. As long as a company has a formal policy, that company can remove any users who violate the policy.”
An Amazon spokesperson said in an email: “As a bookseller, we believe that providing access to the written word is important. That includes books that some may find objectionable, though we have policies governing which books can be listed for sale.
“We invest significant time and resources to ensure our guidelines are followed, and remove products that do not adhere to our guidelines.
“We also promptly investigate any book when a concern is raised.”
A store closed due to the COVID-19 crisis. (photo: Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
Why the Government Makes It Hard for Americans to Get Unemployment Benefits
Sean Illing, Vox
Illing writes: "Although unemployment programs are run by the states, which means the quality varies from place to place, across the country, the broader social welfare system in the United States is generally hard to access."
Sean Illing, Vox
Illing writes: "Although unemployment programs are run by the states, which means the quality varies from place to place, across the country, the broader social welfare system in the United States is generally hard to access."
EXCERPT:
In Florida, for example, the previous Republican governor, Rick Scott, created a congested unemployment system that was nearly impossible to use so that the unemployment numbers would remain artificially low. Other states try to run an efficient system but simply lack the capacity to do so.
Pamela Herd is a public policy professor at Georgetown University and the co-author of Administrative Burdens: Policymaking by Other Means. That book, like much of her research, examines how policy interacts with and reinforces inequality. In a recent op-ed for the New York Times, she argues that the “gap between the promise of public programs and the reality of their design” has been uniquely exposed by this pandemic.
I spoke to Herd by phone about how the system we have is the result of deliberate political choices and why she thinks we need to completely rethink “how we administer the safety net in the United States.”
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
Pro-choice activists rally in support of Planned Parenthood. (photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
"Unconscionable": Planned Parenthood President Condemns States Using Pandemic to Limit Abortion Access
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "States, including Alabama, Iowa, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and more, have all attempted to restrict access to abortion as part of their response to the pandemic."
READ MORE
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "States, including Alabama, Iowa, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and more, have all attempted to restrict access to abortion as part of their response to the pandemic."
READ MORE
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. (photo: Cliff Owen/AP)
Saudi Arabia: The MBS Paradox Is on Full Display
The Washington Post Editorial Board
Excerpt: "The Current Saudi regime, controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has the strange distinction of being both the most repressive in recent Saudi history - and also, in some respects, the most reformist."
The Washington Post Editorial Board
Excerpt: "The Current Saudi regime, controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has the strange distinction of being both the most repressive in recent Saudi history - and also, in some respects, the most reformist."
EXCERPT:
Abdullah al-Hamid, 69, died of a stroke that was the direct result of his mistreatment by the regime, which sentenced him to 11 years in prison in 2013 for advocating a peaceful transition to democracy. It is another black mark for Mohammed bin Salman, who since rising to power has become notorious for overseeing the mass arrest of leading businessmen, the torture and imprisonment of women’s rights activists, and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
That is not how MBS, as he is known internationally, wants to be perceived; he styles himself as a modernizer who is revamping Saudi society and the economy for the 21st century. To do that, he desperately needs to attract foreign investment. So perhaps it is not a coincidence that, days after Mr. Hamid’s death, authorities announced that flogging — a crude punishment often ordered by judges for minor offenses — had been outlawed, along with the execution of people convicted of crimes committed when they were under the age of 18.
Even with the global economy at a near-standstill, the best analysis suggests that the world is still on track to release 95 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in a typical year. (photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
The World Is on Lockdown. So Where Are All the Carbon Emissions Coming From?
Shannon Osaka, Grist
Osaka writes: "Pedestrians have taken over city streets, people have almost entirely stopped flying, skies are blue (even in Los Angeles!) for the first time in decades, and global CO2 emissions are on-track to drop by ... about 5.5 percent."
Shannon Osaka, Grist
Osaka writes: "Pedestrians have taken over city streets, people have almost entirely stopped flying, skies are blue (even in Los Angeles!) for the first time in decades, and global CO2 emissions are on-track to drop by ... about 5.5 percent."
EXCERPTS:
edestrians have taken over city streets, people have almost entirely stopped flying, skies are blue (even in Los Angeles!) for the first time in decades, and global CO2 emissions are on-track to drop by … about 5.5 percent.
Wait, what? Even with the global economy at a near-standstill, the best analysis suggests that the world is still on track to release 95 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in a typical year, continuing to heat up the planet and driving climate change even as we’re stuck at home.
A 5.5-percent drop in carbon dioxide emissions would still be the largest yearly change on record, beating out the financial crisis of 2008 and World War II. But it’s worth wondering: Where do all of those emissions come from? And if stopping most travel and transport isn’t enough to slow down climate change, what will be?
“I think the main issue is that people focus way, way too much on people’s personal footprints, and whether they fly or not, without really dealing with the structural things that really cause carbon dioxide levels to go up,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City.
Transportation makes up a little over 20 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. (In the United States, it makes up around 28 percent.) That’s a significant chunk, but it also means that even if all travel were completely carbon-free (imagine a renewable-powered, electrified train system, combined with personal EVs and battery-powered airplanes), there’d still be another 80 percent of fossil fuel emissions billowing into the skies.
So where are all those emissions coming from? For one thing, utilities are still generating roughly the same amount of electricity — even if more of it’s going to houses instead of workplaces. Electricity and heating combined account for over 40 percent of global emissions. Many people around the world rely on wood, coal, and natural gas to keep their homes warm and cook their food — and in most places, electricity isn’t so green either.
Even with a bigger proportion of the world working from home, people still need the grid to keep the lights on and connect to the internet. “There’s a shift from offices to homes, but the power hasn’t been turned off, and that power is still being generated largely by fossil fuels,” Schmidt said. In the United States, 60 percent of electricity generation still comes from coal, oil, and natural gas. (There is evidence, however, that the lockdown is shifting when people use electricity, which has some consequences for renewables.)
Manufacturing, construction, and other types of industry account for approximately 20 percent of CO2 emissions. Certain industrial processes like steel production and aluminum smelting use huge amounts of fossil fuels — and so far, Schmidt says, that type of production has mostly continued despite the pandemic.
The reality is that emissions need to be cut by 7.6 percent every year to keep global warming from surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — the threshold associated with the most dangerous climate threats — according to an analysis by the United Nations Environment Program. Even if the global lockdown and economic slump reduce emissions by 7.6 percent this year, emissions would have to fall even more the year after that. And the year after that. And so on.
In the middle of the pandemic, it’s become common to point to clear skies in Los Angeles and the cleaner waters of Venice as evidence that people can make a difference on climate change. “The newly iconic photos of a crystal-clear Los Angeles skyline without its usual shroud of smog are unwanted but compelling evidence of what can happen when individuals stop driving vehicles that pollute the air,” wrote Michael Grunwald in POLITICO magazine.
But these arguments conflate air and water pollution — crucial environmental issues in their own right! — with CO2 emissions. Carbon dioxide is invisible, and power plants and oil refineries are still pumping it into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, natural gas companies and livestock farming (think cow burps) keep releasing methane.
“I think people should bike instead of driving, and they should take the train instead of flying,” said Schmidt. “But those are small, compared to the really big structural things that haven’t changed.”
It’s worth remembering that a dip in carbon emissions won’t lead to any changes in the Earth’s warming trend. Some scientists compare carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to water flowing into a leaky bathtub. The lockdown has turned the tap down, not off. Until we cut emissions to net-zero — so that emissions flowing into the atmosphere are equivalent to those flowing out — the Earth will continue warming.
That helps explain why 2020 is already on track to be the warmest ever recorded, beating out 2016. In a sad irony, the decrease in air pollution may make it even hotter. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California, San Diego, explained that many polluting particles have a “masking” effect on global warming, reflecting the sun’s rays, canceling out some of the warming from greenhouse gas emissions. With that shield of pollution gone, Ramanathan said, “We could see an increase in warming.”
Appreciate the bluer skies and fresher air, while you can. But the emissions drop from the pandemic should be a warning, not a cause for celebration: a sign of how much further there is to go.
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