Light News Tues

https://www.earthday.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day

He’s offered more sympathy to Kim Jong Un than to the 45,000 dead and people in hospitals

Trump said during a press briefing Monday evening that his administration is aiming to shield corporations from legal responsibility for workers who contract the novel coronavirus on the job, a move that the Chamber of Commerce and right-wing advocacy groups are aggressively lobbying for as the White House pushes to reopen the U.S. economy against the warnings of public health experts. It's illegal and bad economics and bad policy. It's a move that the Chamber of Commerce and right-wing advocacy groups are aggressively lobbying for as the White House pushes to reopen the U.S. economy against the warnings of public health experts. | The Chamber of Commerce "argues the sheer number of lawsuits could overwhelm businesses," Roll Call reported. "Businesses say they keep their workplaces safe," Roll Call noted, "but the memo indicates that major corporations privately acknowledge that many so-called essential employees will get sick or die." | As Common Dreams reported last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been flooded with thousands of complaints from workers in recent weeks accusing employers of violating federal coronavirus guidelines and failing to provide adequate protective equipment.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/21/trump-says-hes-aiming-shield-corporations-legal-liability-workers-who-contract-covid
https://www.rollcall.com/2020/04/17/as-workers-face-virus-risks-employers-seek-liability-limits/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/16/osha-flooded-thousands-worker-complaints-accusing-employers-violating-covid-19

Trump claims it's safe for you to go back to work, but just in case, sign this waiver that means you might actually still get sick and die from a virus that he continues to dismiss as a hoax.

Do you think Trump cares a single bit about you? This is a man who cut off medical funds to his own nephew's sick baby because he was 'angry.'
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/donald-trumps-cruel-streak/501554/

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Tuesday's bipartisan report, from a panel chaired by North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, undercuts Trump's years of efforts to portray allegations of Kremlin assistance to his campaign as a "hoax," driven by Democrats and a “deep state” embedded within the government bureaucracy.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/21/senate-intel-report-confirms-russia-aimed-to-help-trump-in-2016-198171
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume4.pdf

7 Wisconsin virus cases linked to in-person voting
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/7-wisconsin-virus-cases-linked-person-voting-n1188606

Megachurch pastor Tony Spell in Louisiana who has defied stay-at-home orders intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus by holding large worship services is facing criminal charges for driving a church bus backward toward a protester outside the church, authorities said Monday. | Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran said police have a warrant for Spell’s arrest. He is wanted on a charge of aggravated assault related to the bus incident, which took place Sunday. According to Corcoran, Spell was driving a bus and backed it up on the shoulder of the road, stopping the vehicle within a few feet of a protester. A parishioner is also facing charges for swerving his car toward a protester. No one was hurt in either incident. “He was trying to intimidate the protester,” Corcoran said. He said police reviewed video of the incident, which local television outlets aired. | Corcoran said the lawyer representing Spell has been hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms, and a member of his congregation has died of complications from the virus. Spell’s legal team also includes former Alabama chief justice Roy Moore.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/04/21/pastor-tony-spell-arrest-church-bus/

Florida releases unemployment data: 1.5 million claims filed but just 40,193 paid
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article242136651.html

In recent weeks, rare leatherback turtles have been found nesting in numbers not seen for decades on beaches in Florida and Thailand. And experts say the resurgence of the vulnerable leatherback is likely closely linked to the desertion of beaches across the world due to the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/coronavirus-turtles-beaches-leatherback-tourists-nests-florida-thailand-a9474371.html

Germany’s solar panels produced record amounts of electricity, exacerbating market forces that were already hammering profitability of country’s remaining coal plants. Gin-clear skies helped photovoltaic plants produce 32,227 megawatts on Monday, beating previous record.
https://time.com/5824644/germany-coronavirus-solar/

Publicly traded firms received $300M in small-business loans. At least 75 companies that received the aid were publicly traded and some had market values well over $100 million. And 25% of the companies had warned investors months ago — while the economy was humming — about their ability to remain viable.
https://apnews.com/6c5942eec36cc43b25ad5df5afebcfbd

It’s not really been remarked on enough that governors are regularly recording their calls with the president and other admin officials because they know Trump is going to lie about them and they need proof. This is not a normal thing: Audio exposes Trump misrepresented Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s comments on COVID-19 testing
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/listen-audio-shows-trump-misrepresented-md-governors-comments-70251562

Donald Trump are Repupublicans and all their supporters are responsible for the deaths of fourteen times as many Americans as Osama Bin Laden.

Ice-free Arctic Summers now very likely
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/21/ice-free-arctic-summers-now-very-likely-even-with-climate-action

Scientists Say Coronavirus Has Mutated Into More Than 30 Strains
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-has-mutated-into-more-than-30-strains-say-scientists-in-china-11976380

More deaths, no benefit from malaria drug At Veterans Hospitals
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-treatment-study
https://apnews.com/a5077c7227b8eb8b0dc23423c0bbe2b2

Republican Texas Lt. Governor on reopening state: "There are more important things than living"
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/493879-texas-lt-governor-on-reopening-state-there-are-more-important-things
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/texas-dan-patrick-more-important-things-than-living-death-coronavirus-economy

Illegally Appointed Criminal Barr Says DOJ May Illegally Act Against Governors With Strict Virus Limits
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-21/barr-says-doj-may-act-against-governors-with-strict-virus-limits

The DOJ has absolutely no authority or jurisdiction to do so and barr knows this better than anyone.

It's up to the states to create/conduct testing, and up to Trump and Barr to decide what public health measures they're allowed to take.

A federal judge on Monday ordered immigration authorities to begin considering for release all detained immigrants at higher risk of complications from covid-19, admonishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in stark terms for a slow, insufficient response to the pandemic which he said has put lives in jeopardy. U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal, based in Los Angeles, granted an emergency preliminary injunction at the request of immigrants with serious medical conditions or disabilities who said ICE had failed to take meaningful steps to protect them from the virus over the past month. Bernal, in siding with the immigrants, said they were likely to succeed in their arguments that ICE has shown “medical indifference” and has put them at “substantial risk of harm” because of a month-long delay in developing a systemwide plan to combat the pandemic in the close quarters of detention buildings.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/21/ice-coronavirus-detention-ruling/
https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/fraihat_pi_grant.pdf

New NIH guidelines released on clinical management of covid19 today. They recommend against the use of Hydroxychloroquine & Azithromycin unless in the context of a clinical trial because of potential toxicities.
https://covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/

In a first, Missouri sues the Chinese government, saying its response to the coronavirus outbreak led to devastating economic losses in the state https://reut.rs/2zkti7W
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-lawsuit/in-a-first-missouri-sues-china-over-coronavirus-economic-losses-idUSKCN2232US

Reminder: these same Republicans were eddling the UKRAINE INTERFERED NOT RUSSIA bullsh!t during the impeachment hearings. "This report also provides additional evidence against Donald Trump s false assertions regarding Ukraine."
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/21/senate-intel-report-confirms-russia-aimed-to-help-trump-in-2016-198171
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume4.pdf

Rob Gronkowski is set to reunite with Tom Brady in Tampa Bay after a deal with New England cleared the way for his return to football
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/sports/football/rob-gronkowski-tom-brady-buccaneers-patriots.html

The problem with this "oversight" is the money is gone and you're never going to get it back: Companies with thousands of employees, past penalties from government investigations and risks of financial failure even before the coronavirus walloped the economy were among those receiving millions of dollars from a relief fund that Congress created to help small businesses through the crisis, an Associated Press investigation found. The Paycheck Protection Program was supposed to infuse small businesses, which typically have less access to quick cash and credit, with $349 billion in emergency loans that could help keep workers on the job and bills paid on time. But at least 75 companies that received the aid were publicly traded, the AP found, and some had market values well over $100 million. And 25% of the companies had warned investors months ago — while the economy was humming along — that their ability to remain viable was in question. By combing through thousands of regulatory filings, the AP identified the 75 companies as recipients of a combined $300 million in low-interest, taxpayer-backed loans.
https://apnews.com/6c5942eec36cc43b25ad5df5afebcfbd

Nearly two dozen attorneys general and New York City warned Agriculture Secretary George Perdue on Tuesday that the government is set to leave 3.1 million people in the U.S. hungry during a pandemic. “It would be deeply irresponsible to impose this rule change during a global pandemic and deepening economic crisis,” New York City­­­­ Corporation Counsel James Johnson said in a statement this afternoon, announcing the move. “Hundreds of thousands of people are ill; tens of thousands have died; and more than 20 million have lost jobs. This rule will force our most vulnerable residents to make the harshest of choices: choose food or choose other critical human needs, including housing and medicine.” Johnson, whose city represents the nation’s epicenter of Covid-19 infections, brought the letter along with attorneys general from his state, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.
https://www.courthousenews.com/food-stamps-shakeup-couldnt-be-timed-worse-ags-warn/
https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SNAP-Cat-El.pdf

Wisconsin Lockdown Protests driven by Trump Mega-Donor in order to Boost her Personal Business | “The Media is Overblowing COVID-19,” she said in a March 13 email to dozens of lawmakers in Illinois, where the company has major operations. “At what point do we go back to our normal lives? This has been a huge disruption.” | Over the past decade, Liz Uihlein and her husband, Richard, Uline’s chairman, have given about $95 million to Republican candidates and causes, more than anyone else except casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2016, Trump named Liz Uihlein to an advisory council designed to “get the American economy back on track.” In October, Vice President Mike Pence visited Uline’s warehouse in Wisconsin, one of the stops he made at businesses during a tour promoting the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-21/trump-mega-donor-a-shipping-magnate-pushes-to-end-a-shutdown
https://capitolfax.com/2020/03/13/uihlein-asks-when-we-can-go-back-to-our-normal-lives/

Wisconsin DHS: 19 People Who Voted In, Worked Election Have Since Tested Positive For COVID
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/wisconsin-health-coronavirus-election-19

Preparations for the 2020 general election debates are underway despite the pandemic. The first of the three debates is set for Sept. 29 at the University of Notre Dame.
https://apnews.com/0a68bcc4ce778c1224960a1d4050b00c

No other nation has seen his many COVID19 deaths in a single day. Not even close.
https://twitter.com/JProskowGlobal/status/1252764211224215552

A Trump campaign adviser described the decision to temporarily suspend immigration as a “great fundraiser,” calling it “red meat” for Trump supporters.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-order-would-temporarily-bar-family-members-of-u-s-citizens-foreign-workers-from-immigrating-11587504410

23 people confirmed dead in N.S. mass shooting
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/portapique-shooting-memorials-april-21-1.5539894