What happened to Lindsay Graham? He said he was a fiscal conservative, but he’s one of the biggest spenders in congress
Saturday, October 24, 2020
CC News Letter 24 Oct - WHO warns, World at critical juncture as Covid pandemic resurges in Europe
Dear Friend,
The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhahnom Ghebreyesus has warned: The northern hemisphere is at a critical juncture in the Covid pandemic, and some countries are on a dangerous track. “Too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases,” putting hospital capacities at risk, he said. He urged leaders to take quick action to contain the virus’s spread.
Kindly support honest journalism to survive. https://countercurrents.org/subscription/
If you think the contents of this news letter are critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/news-letter/.
In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
Countercurrents.org
WHO warns, World at critical juncture as Covid pandemic resurges in Europe
by Countercurrents Collective
The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhahnom Ghebreyesus has warned: The northern hemisphere is at a critical juncture in the Covid pandemic, and some countries are on a dangerous track. “Too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases,” putting hospital capacities at risk, he said. He urged leaders to take quick action to contain the virus’s spread.
The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhahnom Ghebreyesus has warned: The northern hemisphere is at a critical juncture in the Covid pandemic, and some countries are on a dangerous track.
“Too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in cases,” putting hospital capacities at risk, he said.
He urged leaders to take quick action to contain the virus’s spread.
Europe is again the epicenter of the coronavirus (officially Covid-19) pandemic as hospitalizations increase.
Globally the number of cases has passed 42 million and the number of deaths has exceeded 1.1 million.
Governments around Europe have begun imposing curfews more widely.
Europe is facing dearth of medical staff in test of virus readiness.
The ECB is preparing more aid as spreading virus derails economy.
Sweden’s lax Covid policy is no slam-dunk for industrial sector.
The international and Chinese teams that will study the zoonotic origins of the virus will meet virtually before the end of the month, said Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies program.
Once again, Europe is the epicenter of the pandemic
Daily infections in Europe exceeded 200,000 for the first time on Thursday, surpassing the combined total of those in the U.S., Brazil and India, Reuters reported. Many European countries reported their highest single-day case tallies this week.
Hospitals in Europe are not yet overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients, but they are steadily filling up, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC).
Most European nations are increasing restrictions to tackle a second wave of the COVID-19 disease.
France and many other European countries may be forced to resort to lockdowns again.
Arnaud Fontanet, a senior scientific adviser to the French government, said: “Then there was one cold week in September and all the indicators went the wrong way again, all over Europe. The virus spreads better in the cold because we live more inside.”
France and Italy – along with European countries including Hungary and the Latin American country Bolivia – posted daily records as the continent wrestles with a surge in cases and wider restrictions.
Pharmacies in France and a number of other European countries have been running short of flu vaccines as people followed government advice to get inoculated to reduce the risk of a potentially lethal “twindemic.”
In Spain, the number of infections is likely around 3 million, some three times higher than official data show, the Spanish prime minister said.
Austria, The Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia all reported record numbers of daily coronavirus cases this week.
Leaders in France, Germany and other countries have warned that their health systems are facing an overload.
Faster than the first wave in France
In France, the virus is now spreading faster than the first wave in the spring, a scientific advisor to the government said.
France reported a record 42,032 new cases, the French health agency said, taking the total to 1.041 million. Deaths increased by 298 to 34,508, the most since May, while hospitalizations jumped by almost 1,000 patients, rising above 15,000 for the first time in about five months.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking a day after the government announced an extension of a nightly curfew to a vast part of the country, said authorities will have a clearer view of its impact in the middle of next week, and will have to keep adjusting measures in coming weeks.
“In the current phase, we have no other choice, given the number of daily infections, to reduce our social life to the maximum,” he said, adding it is too early to say if the country will reintroduce local or wider lockdowns.
In France, about 35 per cent of intensive care cases are under 65.
Arnaud Fontanet said the virus is now spreading faster than during its initial outbreak. “The virus is circulating more quickly,” he warned, adding that the fight against the disease would be “a marathon,”
The government has expanded a 9pm coronavirus curfew to cover more than two-thirds of France’s population.
The current surge in infections is attributed partly to more relaxed behavior during the summer, when numbers fell. Families travelled on holiday, students returned to universities and large gatherings resumed, allowing Covid-19 to spread.
Dr Fontanet said the French authorities had succeeded in bringing the virus under control by the end of June, with the number of hospitalizations remaining low until the end of August, which gave a false sense of security, although cases were increasing.
Jean Castex, the French prime minister, has hinted that another lockdown may be imminent unless the pandemic is brought under control. Acknowledging that the curfew caused hardship, he warned people to observe restrictions on social gatherings, maintain physical distancing and work from home to avert the need for “much harder measures”.
Italy tops record again
Italy reported a 19% increase in daily virus cases Friday to a record of 19,143. The country registered 91 deaths, down from 136 Thursday.
Patients in intensive care units surpassed 1,000, reaching 1,049, compared with an early April peak of more than 4,000.
Milan, the hardest-hit area, started a nighttime curfew Thursday.
Italy’s government may enact a national curfew as early as 9 p.m., possibly within seven days, if current virus trends are unchecked.
Spain’s 3 million cases
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the number of people in Spain who have contracted coronavirus since the start of the pandemic likely exceeds 3 million, some three times higher than official data would suggest.
The higher number is based on serology tests, which measure the antibody response, Sanchez said. “We have to put in place the measures needed with the least economic impact,” Sanchez said. “We must at all cost avoid going back to home confinements as we did in spring. The next few weeks and months, now that we enter the winter, will be difficult, very difficult.”
Britain Belgium Czech Republic
The numbers of coronavirus patients in Britain and Belgium have doubled in the past two weeks.
Belgium’s French-speaking southern region of Wallonia widened the existing national curfew that begins at midnight, ordering residents to stay inside from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. for one month, after Brussels and the five Walloon provinces have 14-day incidence rates that are twice as high as those of the Flemish provinces in the north of the country.
The Czech Republic has the highest number of hospital cases per capita, according to the ECDC, amid alarm over the increasing number of its health workers falling ill.
However, the spread of coronavirus is slowing across England, as Boris Johnson imposes tighter restrictions on parts of the north and Midlands in order to rein it in further.
The rate of growth in the virus, or R rate, is about 1.2 to 1.4 across the U.K. – down from 1.3 to 1.5 a week earlier, according to estimates released on Friday by the government’s scientific advisers, who said the rate of spread has declined across six of England’s seven regions.
The mortality rate rose in England in September for the first time since April, according to data compiled by the Office for National Statistics. Still, the virus was not one of the 10 leading causes of death registered in September in England or Wales. New Covid infections are running at about 35,200 a day in England, the ONS estimated in another report.
Separately, a high-profile rugby match between England’s national men’s team and the Barbarians, scheduled for Sunday, was canceled because several players broke Covid protocols by leaving their hotel bubble without telling anyone.
Poland Bulgaria
Poland and Bulgaria are also badly affected and people across much of Europe are now more likely to be hospitalized than in the U.S.
Poland has turned its largest sports stadium into a temporary 500-bed field hospital.
Poland faces a “deep lockdown” if the coronavirus pandemic continues to spiral out of control, according to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Morawiecki issued the stern warning on Friday as he announced new limits on gatherings, closures of bars and restaurants, mandatory online classes for some elementary school students and movement restrictions. The moves come after Poland registered a record number of Covid-19 cases in four of the last seven days.
It shows that the pandemic is still dangerous despite earlier suggestions that the virus had become less deadly or affected only the elderly.
Germany
Germany, which reported more than 10,000 daily cases for the first time on Thursday, extended travel warnings for Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, most of Austria and Italy, including Rome.
Dutch daily tally exceeds 10,000 for the first time
A record 10,007 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the Netherlands, Dutch news agency ANP reported, citing health agency RIVM.
The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units stood at 472, an increase of nine from the day before, according to numbers released by LCPS, a hospital logistics group.
Tighter measures in Switzerland, Denmark, Luxembourg
Denmark will limit public gatherings to 10 people – from 50 – and expand the mandatory use of facemasks after registering its highest ever-daily tally of coronavirus cases.
The new measures, some of which will take effect from Monday, are the toughest since Denmark enforced one of Europe’s swiftest lockdowns back in March. A spike in new cases has spread across the Nordic region, where strategies to fight the pandemic have varied from country to country.
Luxembourg also introduced a curfew to cope with a record rise in infections.
People are expected to stay at home between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. for one month as soon as lawmakers approve the new restrictions.
In Switzerland, Geneva plans to limit public and private gatherings to five people to slow the spread of the virus. The new measures come into effect at midnight Sunday and will be in place until November 30.
Portugal orders masks for busy outdoor areas
Facemasks will have to be worn in crowded outdoor areas across Portugal, parliament decided on Friday, in a scramble to contain the surge in coronavirus cases.
The measure, valid for at least 70 days, orders residents aged 10 or over to wear masks outside whenever physical distancing cannot be guaranteed.
“It should have happened a long time ago, more than six months ago,” taxi driver Antonio Jose, 68, said, wearing a mask as he waited for his next customer. “It’s not too late.”
“It is good to follow in the footsteps of other countries in Europe to try to kill this bug,” said 28-year-old Ulrich, from Belgium but living in Portugal.
Some Lisbon residents were not convinced all people will follow the new rule and said wearing masks inside public spaces and shops was more than enough.
“People want to show their faces, they want to breathe,” said Venezuelan migrant Francisco, 38, who moved to Portugal more than a decade ago.
Rule-breaking citizens risk a fine of between 100 and 500 euros ($592.00).
Portugal, with just over 10 million people, has recorded a comparatively low 109,541 cases and 2,245 deaths.
But on Thursday, it registered 3,270 cases, the highest daily figure since the pandemic started, although testing has also increased. Most of the new cases are concentrated in the northern region and in and around the capital Lisbon.
Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia report biggest one-day rise in cases
Croatia reported its biggest rise in daily new COVID-19 infections on Thursday with 1,563 cases, nearly half of which were in its capital Zagreb, where they more than doubled.
Zagreb recorded a high of 705 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday compared with the previous day’s 337 infections.
So far, Croatia, a country of some four million people, has recorded 29,850 cases with 406 deaths. There are currently 7,380 active cases.
Neighboring Slovenia, with two million people, also reported a record number of daily cases on Thursday, reaching 1,663 infections.
Slovenia’s Prime Minister Janez Jansa said that from Saturday all non-essential activities in the country would be halted for seven days to contain the disease. These include hotels and other businesses that provide food, drinks and accommodation, shopping centers and kindergartens.
Exceptions will be food stores and stores for construction material and for pets.
Croatia’s southeastern neighbor, Bosnia, on Thursday reported a record 999 new infections, bringing the total cases in the country of about 3.3 million to 37,314, with 1,051 deaths.
India
In Asia, India has reported 53,370 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall tally past 7.8 million.
The Indian Health Ministry on Saturday also reported 650 deaths, driving the country’s toll to 117,956. The highest number of new infections is coming from Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka states. They are also reporting the maximum number of daily recoveries.
Last month, India hit a peak of nearly 100,000 cases in a single day, but since then daily infections have fallen by about half and deaths by about a third, even as testing has remained consistent.
India is still adding more than 50,000 cases a day as the country prepares for a festival season when large crowds gather. Health officials have warned about the potential for the virus to spread.
Sri Lanka closes harbors after 609 test positive
Authorities in Sri Lanka on Saturday closed at least two fishery harbors and many stalls after a surge of 609 cases linked to the country’s main fish market.
The government also widened the curfew in parts of Colombo. At least 11 villages were isolated in the densely populated Western province, which includes the capital.
Authorities say the outbreak is related to a cluster in a garment factory early this month, which has grown to 3,426 cases, almost half the country’s total of 6,287. It broke a two-month lull in infections.
Several thousand people have been asked to quarantine at home. Schools and key public offices are closed, gatherings banned and restrictions imposed on public transport.
Sri Lanka has had 14 deaths since March.
Australia
All staff and students from two schools in northeast Melbourne have been told to immediately get tested for COVID-19 after the emergence of seven new cases on Saturday. There were no deaths. Both schools will be closed for the next two weeks. Already about 800 residents in Melbourne’s northern suburbs have been isolating because of the school outbreak. Warnings have been issued to workers, including taxi drivers, who might have visited the area.
The state’s death toll remained at 817 on Saturday and the national figure at 905, with only one death in the past week.
The updated figures Saturday followed the city’s most significant anti-lockdown protest on Friday. A “Freedom Day” rally began mid-afternoon and continued for several hours, erupting at times in violent scuffles between police and demonstrators, many of whom did not wear masks. Police arrested 16 people and handed out dozens of fines. Three police officers were injured and one was taken to a hospital.
South Korea
South Korea has reported 77 new cases of the coronavirus, mostly from the greater capital area where officials are scrambling to stem transmissions at hospitals and nursing homes.
Figures released by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Saturday brought the country’s caseload to 25,775, including 457 deaths. Among the 1,484 active cases, 60 are in serious condition. Fifty-nine of the new cases were reported from densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, which has emerged as the epicenter of the outbreak since summer.
Hundreds of cases have been linked to a handful of hospitals and nursing homes. Officials are testing thousands of medical workers to stem infections. Eleven of the new cases were tied to international arrivals, including passengers from the United States, the Philippines and India.
Argentina extends virus measures
Argentina extended its virus prevention measures for 14 days, President Alberto Fernandez said, without giving dates. The country’s cases may plateau at 15,000 per day, he added.
Coronavirus Pandemic: With new wave of infections, U.S. cases reach record high
by Countercurrents Collective
The U.S. Coronavirus (officially, Covid-19) cases have hit a record daily high as more than 83,000 new cases were reported in the U.S. on Friday.
At the same time, scientists have warned that the U.S. approach to fight the Coronavirus pandemic and the inconsistent use of masks to prevent virus spread could lead to the cumulative loss of more than half a million lives by the end of February.
US cases reach record high
The U.S. coronavirus cases have hit a record daily high as states grapple with a renewed wave of infections.
Citing data from local state health authorities, the U.S. Covid Tracking Project (CTP) reported 83,010 new cases on Friday.
The U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams has warned that hospital admission numbers are growing, but mortality rates are falling due to better patient care.
According to the CTP, nearly 8.5 million coronavirus cases have been reported in the U.S. since the pandemic began.
The daily increase on Friday surpassed by more than 6,000 cases the tracking project’s previous record of 76,842 on July 17.
Over the last week, the U.S. has tallied 441,541 new infections – its largest seven-day increase since the end of July.
The number of people who have died after contracting coronavirus has also steadily increased during the last six days, but is still significantly below the peak of over 2,000 daily deaths reported in April.
Hospital admission numbers are rising, too. As of Friday, 41,485 people were being treated in hospital, according to the CTP data. This was the highest figure since the end of August, but it was also lower than figures reported in April and July.
Data for Friday has not yet been released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). But on Thursday, the CDC reported 74,380 new cases, its third-highest number on record.
Utah Governor Gary Herbert warned that the virus’s impact had seriously impacted local hospital capacity.
“Up until now, our hospitals have been able to provide good care to all Covid and non-Covid patients who need it. But today we stand on the brink,” said Herbert.
Half a million deaths by the end of February, say experts
The U.S. approach to fight the pandemic and the inconsistent use of masks to prevent virus spread could lead to the cumulative loss of more than half a million lives by the end of February, scientists say.
Researchers from the University of Washington’s School of Medicine predicted that current state strategies surrounding social distancing, phased reopenings and mask mandates could lead to 511,373 deaths by February 28, 2021, according to a study published Friday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Medicine.
130,000 lives could be saved
Scientists also predicted nearly 130,000 lives could be saved from the end of September through the end of February if at least 95% of the population wore masks in public. If only 85% wore masks, still nearly 96,000 deaths could be prevented.
“We are heading into a very substantial fall-winter surge,” said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine. “We expect that surge to steadily grow throughout different states, and at the national level continue to increase as we head towards quite high levels of daily death in late December and January.”
The report comes as the U.S. reported record rise in the coronavirus cases with more than 71,000 new cases on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data, marking it as one of the worst days since the height of the summer surge in July.
Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine and infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, said it’s unfortunate that in the U.S. wearing a face mask has become a political or emotional issue rather than a scientific principle.
Change of mind
Minds are not likely to be changed by modeling data forecasts, she said, but they can be a useful tool until enough virologic, epidemiological and ecological evidence is amassed to finally elevate masking is finally elevated to a definitive intervention.
“Short of taking humans, putting a mask on them and then spraying them with SARS-CoV-2, which would be absolutely unfeasible and unethical, this study is very thorough and nicely done,” Gandhi said.
Bob Bednarczyk, assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, said Americans may be getting lax as the pandemic drags on.
“Pandemic fatigue is a real thing,” he said. “(This model) is a good reminder of what can happen if we let our guard down and how this can really come back at us really quickly and really forcefully and lead to a lot of death and suffering.”
While model predictions are never perfect, the study’s findings are on track with other recently published data.
A study by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond found the pandemic caused an excess of 225,000 deaths from March to July, suggesting deaths could reach as high as 400,000 by the end of the year as the University of Washington had previously predicted.
Though they may shock the public, Bednarczyk says the projection models should serve as a wake-up call to reinforce the value of masks so death tolls fall short of these numbers.
“People need to start taking this seriously again,” he said. “We want to understand how bad it can possibly get if nothing is done and then we can use that to hopefully work our way back a little bit.”
There is solid data showing that wearing a facemask protects the person wearing it from getting COVID-19 and protects those around them from getting the disease if the wearer is infected.
Public health officials have been calling for Americans to wear masks for months. In July, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said, doing so could bring the pandemic to heel in less than two months.
“If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think over the next 4-6-8 weeks, I really think we can bring this under control,” he said during an interview with the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Wearing a cloth face covering is estimated to screen out between 65% and 85% of viral particles, said Dr. Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The fewer viral particles that enter the body, the greater chance the body has to fight them off.
While cloth face coverings are not 100% effective, “wearing those means you’re exposed to less virus. Less is coming in from other people and you’re inhaling less,” said Dr. John Brooks, a medical epidemiologist and the CDC’s chief medical officer for the agency’s COVID-19 response.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent global health research center at the University of Washington, researchers analyzed how the virus spread across states from the first recorded case in the U.S. to Sept. 21. They then used those data to project how adherence to mask use and other variables, such as seasonal pneumonia and testing rates, would impact virus spread from Sept. 22, 2020, to Feb. 28, 2021.
Universal masking—which they defined as 95% of the population wearing masks in public—could save an additional 129,574 lives in that time. If mask compliance dropped to 85%, it would save an 95,814 lives. Without universal masking, more than a half a million lives could be lost due to Covid-19, IHME projected.
Only 49% Americans say they always wear a mask in public.
The IHME researchers said 95% mask use rate in the U.S. is aspirational, but noted that neighborhoods in New York have reached that threshold, while states like Virginia, Florida, and California have achieved 60% adoption of a mask use policy.
The latest data showed the Covid-19 pandemic is nearing its previous high-water mark this summer as a new surge that started in the upper Midwest drifts east to more populous areas. New York’s hospitalizations hit their highest since June.
New York, the early epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, reported more than 1,600 new cases on Oct. 22, and 11 additional deaths.
California reported 6,141 new cases Friday, the biggest single-day jump in two months, according to the data from the state health department. The rate of positive tests climbed to 2.8% from 2.6%.
Fauci raises concerns about U.S. surge
Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, raised his concerns about the latest surge in U.S. cases. He called it “a precarious place to be” in an interview with MSNBC, saying the cases would lead to an increase in hospitalizations and eventually deaths as the colder weather keeps people indoors.
“We don’t want to shut down the country,” he said. “We’re talking about doubling down on some of the fundamental public health measures,” pointing to universal mask-wearing, social-distancing and avoiding crowds, especially indoors.
He also said the White House task force meetings have slowed to about once a week, and it’s been months since President Trump attended them. A vaccine would likely be available at the end of the year or early 2021, but a more widespread distribution will only be possible months into next year, he said.
Masks for school re-openings
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it is on track to distribute the masks to support school re-openings. “These masks support students, teachers, and staff in public and private schools, with an emphasis on low-income or other high-needs students and schools providing in-person instruction,” the department said.
CDC expands its definition of a COVID-19 ‘close contact’
The U.S. CDC in a new guidance has expanded its definition of a COVID-19 close contact.
The CDC’s latest guidance defines having a close contact with someone infected with COVID-19 as being within six feet of the individual for 15 or more cumulative minutes during a 24 hour period, The Washington Post reports. The CDC previously defined a close contact as being within six feet of an infected person for 15 consecutive minutes.
The new definition, The Associated Press writes, takes into account “briefer but repeated encounters” with an infected person. It specifies the 15 minutes of exposure within six feet is “added together over a 24-hour period,” and so as an example, this could be “three 5-minute exposures for a total of 15 minutes).”
CDC Director Robert Redfield in a statement said “as we get more data and understand this COVID we’re going to continue to incorporate that in our recommendations.” With this change, the Post noted the CDC was “greatly” expanding the group of people considered at risk of contracting COVID-19.
It is easy to accumulate 15 minutes in small increments when you spend all day together — a few minutes at the water cooler, a few minutes in the elevator, and so on,” Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers told The Washington Post. “I expect this will result in many more people being identified as close contacts. This change underscores the importance of vigilant social distancing — even multiple brief interactions can pose a risk.
The U.S. Coronavirus (officially, Covid-19) cases have hit a record daily high as more than 83,000 new cases were reported in the U.S. on Friday. At the same time, scientists have warned that the U.S. approach to fight the Coronavirus pandemic and the inconsistent use of masks to
prevent virus spread could lead to the cumulative loss of more than half a million lives by the end of February.
” The Same Hypocrisy”
by Philip A Farruggio
If we are fortunate, and enough citizens out there vote this terrible and criminal administration out of office ( without too much Repugnantan suppression), then we on the ‘ Real Left’ have our work cut out for us. It may take one full year for many who still hold the illusion that the Democrats can be reformed to ‘ wake up’. If enough of us walk away from them while challenging their leadership on KEY ISSUES, perhaps….
In Francis Ford Coppola’s second Godfather film we see Michael Corleone, head of the most powerful Mafia family in the country, having a ‘ tete de tete’ with Nevada Senator Pat Geary. The Senator, as crooked as the Corleones, is attempting to shake down Don Corleone over a Las Vegas casino license. When Don Corleone balks, Senator Geary gives him the old ‘ I’ll do business with you but I despise what you stand for’ speech. Michael Corleone then sums it all up for the audience: ” Senator, we’re both part of the same hypocrisy”.
In Ron Perlstein’s blockbuster book Reaganland he relates a little anecdote about that ‘ Great Statesman’ the book title refers to. Perlstein mentions how in 1948 then ‘ Liberal’ Ronald Reagan campaigned for Harry Truman. He actually stated that ” The profits of the corporations have doubled while workers’ wages have increased by only one quarter. In other words, profits have gone up FOUR TIMES as much as wages… High prices have NOT been caused by high wages, but by bigger and bigger Profits!” Of course, once he got himself on the campaign trail for the presidency, Reagan continued, as he had done as California governor, to push for more and more aid to the Super Rich at the expense of the 99+ % of us. Cutting the top bracket from 70% down to 28% after he took office in 1981 was in direct contradiction to what Reagan alleged in 1948. Michael Corleone could have easily said to him ” Mr. President, we are BOTH part of the same hypocrisy”.
Listen, I have NO choice, due to living in the key ‘ Swing State ‘ of Florida, but to cast my votes for ALL Democrats on the ballot. Why? As stated in previous columns, and in agreement with wise thinkers like Prof. Cornell West, this threat of the rising Fascist and even Neo Nazi culture in my dear country is as real as the pandemic. It is downright scary! It is more than just White Supremacy. That is the ‘ tip of the iceberg melting on our doorstep’. This far right wing movement, financed by the Super Rich, wants to use millions of dupes, especially those ‘ Trump thumpers’, to then control everyone who is part of the 99+ %. They cleverly use millionaire or near millionaire media and elected officials to ram through this agenda: No strong unions or none at all; eliminating a woman’s right to choose’ and gay marriage; corporations to continue to strangle and then eliminate more and more Mom and Pop small businesses; the privatization of more and more government run services, all ‘ For Profit’; Big Pharma, Big Insurance and Big Tech increasing their hold on our pocketbooks ( especially in health care ); obscene amounts of taxpayer money going down the rabbit hole of military spending; allowing private absentee landlords to run roughshod over the tens of millions who have to pay rent… with NO accountability; and as we should all see in this latest ‘ Two Party/One Party election con job’, the co opting or outright exile of third party movements.
If we are fortunate, and enough citizens out there vote this terrible and criminal administration out of office ( without too much Repugnantan suppression), then we on the ‘ Real Left’ have our work cut out for us. It may take one full year for many who still hold the illusion that the Democrats can be reformed to ‘ wake up’. If enough of us walk away from them while challenging their leadership on KEY ISSUES, perhaps….
Philip A Farruggio is a contributing editor for The Greanville Post. He is also frequently posted on Global Research, Nation of Change, Countercurrents.org, and Off Guardian sites. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 400 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ‘ It’s the Empire… Stupid ‘ radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.
“Cinema is a Sycophant to literature” – Part – I
by Joshy Joseph
The Symphony No 5 was inside Beethovan’s brain, when he first conceived it. A group of musicians invoke that experience, aurally, from the atmosphere every time they meet to
perform. And a sound, non-existent before, suddenly acquires tones of flesh and blood. The cinema, like music, is an art of time, film makers have said. Rabindranath Tagore called it an experience similar to music. But the films as we experience now is a sort of storytelling which has blah as its alpha and omega. Tagore laid bare this trait of cinema when he referred to it as “Chattubrithi kore sahither” (a sycophant to literature).
Health literacy for promotion of self- management to tackle Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) during a pandemic
Co-Written by Parul Malik, Arathi P Rao, Urvashi Priyadarshini & Sudhamshi Beeram
Self-management therefore comes to the rescue as a tool for effectively tackling non-communicable diseases. To aid this, enhancing health literacy levels of the population in the “pandemic-free” periods can lead
to better health outcomes, if and when any such a biological disaster were to strike again. Also, the period “during a pandemic”, though chaotic, is also a time when people tend to be more receptive to health-related messages due to the anxiety to go to a hospital for maintaining their health. Health literacy oriented self-management interventions and practices, tailor made across the age groups, ought to be devised and implemented, at all times, to ensure continuum of care and thereby reduce NCD related morbidity and disability, as well as to reduce the mounting pressures on the healthcare systems in place in any country, particularly during a pandemic.
Educational Status of Muslims in India: An Overview/Scope for improvement
by Abdullah
There is an urgent need for Muslims intellectuals and philanthropists to form an organization so that people are made aware of
all beneficial educational schemes, policies and programmes run by the government of India. It is also need that the Waqf Board of India should open modern educational institutions on its vacant or useless lands so that Muslims can be educated and they can improve in the field of education. State Governments and Government of India, need to pay special attention towards the education of Indian Muslims.
RSN: Paul Krugman | How Many Americans Will Ayn Rand Kill?
24 October 20
Urgent and Immediate Appeal for Donations
We are at a dead stop on donations right now and for the month well behind where we need to be to cover expenses. Raising enough to cover RSN’s basic operating costs is an uphill battle.
Dead in the water right now.
Help-out.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611
24 October 20
It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News
Paul Krugman | How Many Americans Will Ayn Rand Kill?
Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Krugman writes; "A long time ago, in an America far, far away - actually just last spring - many conservatives dismissed Covid-19 as a New York problem."
READ MORE
Robocalls, Rumors and Emails: Last-Minute Election Disinformation Floods Voters
Pam Fessler, NPR
Fessler writes: "Dirty tricks and disinformation have been used to intimidate and mislead voters for as long as there have been elections. But they have been especially pervasive this year as millions of Americans cast ballots in a chaotic and contentious election."
READ MORE
Heavily Armed Man Arrested in North Carolina Had Plan to Kill Joe Biden, Feds Say
Josh Campbell, CNN
Campbell writes: "A heavily armed man arrested in North Carolina in May and indicted by a grand jury in September for possession of child pornography researched and traveled near the residence of former Vice President Joe Biden, according to information disclosed in a federal court filing."
READ MORE
US Records Highest Number of Coronavirus Cases in 1 Day Since Pandemic Began
William Wan and Jacqueline Dupree, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "America on Friday hit its highest daily number of coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, recording at least 82,600 new infections and surpassing the previous record set during the summertime surge of cases across the Sun Belt."
READ MORE
ICE Moves to Quickly Deport More Immigrants Without Court Hearings
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News
Montoya-Galvez writes: "The Trump administration said Wednesday it is making more undocumented immigrants eligible to be quickly deported without a court hearing, instructing federal immigration agents to oversee the nationwide expansion of a policy that had long been limited to border areas."
READ MORE
Chileans Finally Have a Chance to Scrap Pinochet's Constitution
Miriam Pensack and Fernando Atria, Jacobin
Excerpt: "Three decades after the transition to democracy, Chileans now have an opportunity to break with the legacy of violence and dispossession that the constitution has upheld."
READ MORE
This Year's Arctic Sea Ice Is Failing to Form, Raising a Huge 'Red Flag'
Dharna Noor, Earther
Noor writes: "Arctic ice is seasonal. It melts down in the summer sun and relative warmth, then freezes back up when fall's chill comes. Or at least, it should be that way."
READ MORE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
The GOP just tried to kick hundreds of students off the voter rolls
This year, MAGA GOP activists in Georgia attempted to disenfranchise hundreds of students by trying to kick them off the voter rolls. De...
-
22 April 21 Urgent and Immediate Appeal for Donations It is — very — important to get moving on donations, right here right now. Yes we ...
-
25 November 22 Live on the homepage now! Reader Supported News WE CANNOT FAIL ON FUNDING — There is too much to lose by failing, and too m...
-
05 June 23 Live on the homepage now! Reader Supported News ANOTHER FAILED MONTH OF FUNDRAISING ISN’T GOING TO WORK — We haven’t covered ou...
