Lite News Sat/Sun

During India’s three-week lockdown, the level of particle pollution considered most harmful to human health fell by nearly 60 percent in New Delhi. Flattening the curve is also flattening the pollution
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-coronavirus-delhi-clean-air-pollution/2020/04/10/ac23dd1e-783e-11ea-a311-adb1344719a9_story.html

- March 10: VP Pence promises total of 5 million tests by end of that week. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article241059031.html
- April 9: Trump boasts that 2 million tests have been completed and ends federal support for testinghttps://www.cnn.com/2020/04/01/politics/testing-backlog-coronavirus-quest-invs/index.html

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is on fire and radiation levels are spiking
https://www.livescience.com/chernobyl-fire-spikes-radiation.html

Reminder: French officials report heart incidents in experimental coronavirus treatments with hydroxychloroquine
https://thehill.com/policy/international/europe/492317-french-officials-report-heart-incidents-in-experimental

Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia faces blowback as he curtails scope of worker relief in unemployment crisis | The criticism ranges from direct actions that the agency has taken to limit the scope of worker assistance programs to concerns that it has not been aggressive enough about protecting workers from health risks or supporting states scrambling to deliver billions in new aid. In recent days, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, who has expressed concerns about unemployment insurance being too generous, has used his department’s authority over new laws enacted by Congress to limit who qualifies for joblessness assistance and to make it easier for small businesses not to pay family leave benefits. The new rules make it more difficult for gig workers such as Uber and Lyft drivers to get benefits, while making it easier for some companies to avoid paying their workers coronavirus-related sick and family leave. “The Labor Department chose the narrowest possible definition of who qualifies for pandemic unemployment assistance,” said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who has spent two decades working on unemployment programs. At the same time, frustrations have built among career staff at the Labor Department that the agency hasn’t ordered employers to follow safeguards, including the wearing of masks, recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect workers. Two draft guidance documents written by officials at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the Labor Department, to strengthen protections for health-care workers have also not been advanced, according to two people with knowledge of the regulations granted anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations. | The department has released only half of $1 billion in administrative support for states that Congress approved almost a month ago.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/10/labor-secretary-eugene-scalia-faces-blowback-he-curtails-scope-worker-relief-unemployment-crisis/

Coronavirus victims are dying alone, a cruel end to a nasty virus: A brutal hallmark of the pandemic is the way it isolates victims in their final moments
https://www.wsj.com/articles/im-sorry-i-cant-kiss-youcoronavirus-victims-are-dying-alone-11586534526

Kentucky to Take Down License Plate Numbers and Quarantine Anyone Who Attends Easter Mass
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kentucky-to-take-down-license-plate-numbers-and-quarantine-anyone-who-attends-easter-mass

Right now a hashtag demanding an end now to social distancing -- something experts have opposed -- is trending nationally on Twitter. The account that apparently originated the hashtag, from last month, is a QAnon account.
https://twitter.com/AlKapDC/status/1249053186196987905

With Postal Service on 'Verge of Collapse' and 630,000 Jobs at Risk, Trump Slammed for Refusing to Act. "We've pleaded with the White House to help. Donald Trump personally directed his staff not to do so."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/11/post-office-bailout-trump/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/11/postal-service-verge-collapse-and-630000-jobs-risk-trump-slammed-refusing-act
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/us/politics/coronavirus-is-threatening-one-of-governments-steadiest-services-the-mail.html

Azar warned Trump of a pandemic during Jan 30 call to Air Force One, his second such attempt. Trump told Azar he was being alarmist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html

In 2000 we were told there was no difference b/w voting for Al Gore and George W. Bush. According to this misguided theory they were both “establishment”. Bush won. Then came Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina incompetence and the Great Recession. How did that work out?
https://twitter.com/hakeem_jeffries/status/1248972606566531072

Trump's new anti-Biden ad is filled with deceptive images and audio clips
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/10/politics/trump-campaign-ad-joe-biden-fact-check/index.html

I won't defend Biden's handling of the ahem Republican-controlled Anita Hill hearing. But he voted against Thomas--twice (which, see above, was a big deal then).
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/28/us/thomas-nomination-judiciary-panel-deadlocks-7-7-thomas-nomination-court.html

Biden voted No on Alito https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00002

Biden voted No on John Roberts, who easily cleared the Senate by 78-https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00245

Biden is one of the big reasons we had Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court for three decades instead of Robert Bork.
https://www.npr.org/2019/12/21/789323826/for-joe-biden-1987-brought-triumph-in-the-wake-of-political-setback

Biden saying that paying more in taxes won't fundamentally damage rich people's lives (a message very common with Sanders) has been conflated by shitstain Bernie supporters with with the overall idea that no fundamental policies will change. Which takes his quote out of context from a message toward rich people and why they should do more and applies it to a meta idea about politics at large.

A study found that 3 out of 4 U.S. workers ages 50 to 62 didn’t have an employer-provided retirement plan and health insurance — which could have long-term consequences for later income
| The study, published in October and titled “How Do Older Workers Use Nontraditional Jobs?,” found that three-quarters of American workers in that age group had positions that fall into the center’s “nontraditional” category — meaning, those without employer-provided retirement plans and health insurance. Freelancers and consultants of all stripes can fit that definition. So can waiters, artists, yoga instructors and anyone who works part time or whose income is generated by the gig economy (including Lyft or Uber drivers and DoorDash couriers). “I thought everyone had traditional jobs during their 50s,” Dr. Munnell said. “I was super surprised by it.” What may be less surprising is the effect these jobs can have on retirement. Depending on how much time workers spent in a job without benefits from ages 50 to 62, they can expect their retirement income to be as much as 26 percent lower than that of people who spent their 50s and early 60s in positions with full benefit packages, according to the center’s findings. It was the first time the center had looked at nontraditional workers in this age group.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/business/retirement-jobs-no-benefits.html
https://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IB_19-15.pdf
https://crr.bc.edu/briefs/how-do-older-workers-use-nontraditional-jobs-2/

A big thank you to @houstonpolice Sgt. Engelhart who not only helped me after I locked my keys in the car this morning, but also helped these little chicks find their way back to mom — all while making sure that folks know all @HoustonTX parks are closed due to #COVID19.
https://twitter.com/PriscillaWT/status/1249043727022280706

Jeffress has said, among other things, that G/d was behind the 9/11 attacks, Satan created the Catholic Church, and that gay people are likely to be pedophiles: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1249081971604631554

When folks claim the media is cheering for the pandemic to get worse, please recall this: An estimated 28,000 employees of news media companies in the United States have been laid off, furloughed or had their pay reduced since the arrival of the coronavirus.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/business/media/news-media-coronavirus-jobs.html

After Months of Denial, Russia Admits the Virus Is Taking Hold
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/world/europe/coronavirus-russia-moscow-putin.html

The coronavirus preys on vulnerabilities, and that has made New York City's public housing system and its tenants unfortunate targets. The results have been deadly. As the virus sweeps through the roughly 174,000 apartments overseen by the New York City Housing Authority, it is threatening the economic picture of an agency just starting to find its fiscal footing and exacerbating inequalities that have long plagued low-income communities. Many NYCHA tenants have pre-existing medical conditions. Many are seniors or frontline workers who risk their health while on the job and then come back to apartments cramped with family members sheltering in place. Residents and officials interviewed by POLITICO said tenants are dying in their homes every day. “So many people have died this week,” said Lisa Kenner, resident association president at Van Dyke Houses in Brooklyn. “It’s enough.” Nearby Woodson Houses has lost six seniors. A few blocks away at Glenmore Plaza, the resident association president died in her apartment last Friday morning. She was not taken away until the next day, according to Kenner. She said 10 residents have died in their apartments at Van Dyke. In one case, the bodies of a mother and son were discovered in their unit only after the smell prompted neighbors to call city officials. Eventually, the National Guard came to remove the bodies, and then cleaning crews passed through the home. But the odor of death lingered. | New Yorkers have been dying in their homes at around 10 times the usual rate, according to city statistics. Several officials have posited that the majority of these cases stem from low-income residents who cannot afford access to the traditional health care system or are frightened to seek assistance because of their immigration status. | More than 45 percent of NYCHA families are working. But as unemployment claims reach staggering levels, officials expect public housing tenants to be hit hard. Not only will that strain household finances, but it will further imperil the economic standing of an agency already hollowed out by decades of underinvestment.
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/04/10/coronavirus-wreaks-havoc-on-new-york-citys-public-housing-1274821
https://www.pix11.com/news/coronavirus/city-leaders-call-on-more-wellness-checks-for-nycha-seniors-amid-pandemic
https://gothamist.com/news/surge-number-new-yorkers-dying-home-officials-suspect-undercount-covid-19-related-deaths
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/NYCHA-Fact-Sheet_2019_08-01.pdf

Guardsmen from Niagara Falls have been carrying body after body out of NYC homes and apartment buildings, in some cases winding 200 pounds down the narrow staircases of walk-ups. For more than two weeks, they have been at it, pulling 12-hour shifts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/as-sad-as-it-is-this-job-is-necessary-guardsmen-from-niagara-falls-help-new-york-city-retrieve-its-dead/2020/04/09/43768290-7a81-11ea-8cec-530b4044a458_story.html

Gov. Ralph Northam has signed the Virginia Values Act, which will make Virginia the first Southern state with comprehensive protections for the LGBTQ community
https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/northam-signs-virginia-values-act-giving-protections-to-lgbtq-people/article_ff34cf40-ac74-5341-b556-31eb4a1393ca.html

Another 100 crew members on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Navy announced Saturday, bringing the total number of cases tied to the aircraft carrier to 550
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1249065554922606599

As we bear the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 impact, we need a steady, trusted, and prepared hand leading the way. Biden’s “Make It Work” checklist is just that; his checklist, which specifically outlines best practices to ensure the best implementation of the CARES Act in order to put working people first and hold the Trump administration accountable, offers a clear glimpse into the leadership we need to shepherd our economy through this moment and beyond.
https://joebiden.com/the-biden-make-it-work-checklist/

Alaska Democrats say they received almost double the ballots than in 2016 in vote-by-mail primary
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alaska-primary-results-mail-ballots-2020-04-11/

The US just took the lead on deaths worldwide and these clowns are pushing for everyone to get back to normal. 2,000+ died just yesterday, that means, in the past 36 hours, we lost significantly more than 9/11.

New York Governor Cuomo says state is flattening the curve
https://www.newsweek.com/new-york-governor-cuomo-says-state-flattening-curve-783-new-covid-19-deaths-1497425

Your regular reminder that the Postal Service was running a profit and would be running a profit if the Bush admin and Congress hadn’t required it, in 2006, to permanently fund its retirement 50 years in advance, a requirement no other business has ever met.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-04-04/congress-not-amazon-messed-up-the-u-s-postal-service
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/hr6407
https://www.cnbc.com/id/45018432
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Regulatory_Commission
https://theweek.com/articles/767184/how-george-bush-broke-post-office
https://prospect.org/power/why-everyone-should-care-who-the-new-postmaster-general-is/

This is what the President is tweeting about on a day when almost as many Americans died of COVID-19 as died in the World Trade Center on 9/11: Watching @FoxNews on weekend afternoons is a total waste of time. We now have some great alternatives, like @OANN.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1249093268920467457

Fox News is the guy on your Facebook wall posting Hillary Clinton memes. OANN is the guy on your Facebook claiming Hillary abducted him and put a chip in his head.

Americans are starting to receive their cash payments via direct deposits, part of the $2T bill passed by Congress to stimulate the economy after the decline caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1249103085982478336
https://twitter.com/IRSnews/status/1249062356077944832

Florida Republican Gov DeSantis, seeking to hide covid19 infections and deaths, pressures Miami Herald law firm to squelch records suit | Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ general counsel called a representative of the Miami Herald’s law firm seeking to quash a public records lawsuit that would force the state to divulge the names of all elder-care facilities that have had a positive test for the coronavirus. The back-door pressure — through an attorney that had no involvement in the case — paid off. The law firm, Holland & Knight, told Sanford Bohrer, a senior partner with decades of representing the Miami Herald, to stand down and abandon the lawsuit. The suit will still be filed, but by another law firm, said Miami Herald publisher and executive editor Aminda Marqués González.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241942211.html

Hannity downplayed the dangers of coronavirus by peddling unproven treatments | Hannity misleadingly compared coronavirus to less deadly diseases and downplayed it by talking about other ways people can die | Hannity defended Trump’s failed coronavirus response | Hannity distracted from Trump’s inept handling of the pandemic by blaming Democrats and journalists | Hannity downplayed the severe shortage of medical equipment and supplies | Hannity misleadingly attacked local government and congressional responses to the pandemic |
https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/how-foxs-sean-hannity-has-downplayed-coronavirus-pandemic-america

Kansas Supreme Court says executive order banning religious service of more than 10 people stands
https://www.kmbc.com/article/kansas-supreme-court-says-executive-order-banning-religious-service-of-more-than-10-people-stands-governor-laura-kelly-covid-19-coronavirus/32114710

Boris Johnson discharged from hospital
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/12/uk/boris-johnson-coronavirus-discharged-from-hospital-intl-gbr/index.html

Largest Arctic ozone hole ever recorded opens up over the North Pole: Ozone hole three times the size of Greenland opens over the North Pole | The ozone hole covers an area roughly three times the size of Greenland, scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement, and could expose people living at far northern latitudes to high levels of ultraviolet radiation if it grows much larger. Fortunately, the hole looks likely to close on its own in the next few weeks, the ESA researchers said. Holes form in the ozone layer — which is a sheet of gas in Earth's atmosphere that absorbs much of the harmful ultraviolet light emitted by the sun — every year over Antarctica due to seasonal changes in cloud cover. Ozone holes over the Arctic, however, are rarer. The last time an Arctic ozone hole opened was in 2011, and it was significantly smaller than the hole seen now, the researchers said. | The Antarctic ozone hole opens every year due to the combination of frigid temperatures and man-made pollution. When temperatures plummet at the start of Antarctica's winter, high-altitude clouds form over the South Pole. Industrial chemical pollutants, including chlorine and bromine, trigger reactions in these clouds that eat away at the surrounding ozone gas.
https://www.livescience.com/largest-ozone-hole-arctic-north-pole.html
http://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-5P/Unusual_ozone_hole_opens_over_the_Arctic
https://www.livescience.com/50326-what-is-ultraviolet-light.html

In 2016, Bernie Sanders won the Alaska primary by 79.6% with 8,447 votes
In 2020, Joe Biden won the Alaska primary by 55.3% with 10,834 votes
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/11/us/elections/results-alaska-president-democrat-primary-election.html
https://www.thegreenpapers.com/P20/AK-D#0411

Also worthwhile to note, this was a caucus that was switched to a primary election (all mail-in). Another loss for Bernie when it's not a caucus....

Gorillas and orangutans on lockdown to avoid getting coronavirus from humans: Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have all temporarily suspended gorilla tourism and severely restricted access to the parks
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/coronavirus-gorillas-orangutans-lockdown-africa-indonesia-covid-19-a9459076.html

Canada Passes Historic Wage Bill to Stem Wave of Job Losses
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-11/canada-passes-historic-wage-bill-to-stem-wave-of-job-losses?srnd=premium

In 2016 the great Elijah Cummings (R.I.P.) had an amazing, deeply personal, and emotional speech at the DNC. He was booed and heckled by Bernie Bros. He will never have that chance again. Let us never forget this, and make sure it never happens again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f3HFMAow1g

Commander of Feuerkrieg far-right terror group unmasked by police as Estonian boy 13yrs old
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/far-right-terror-group-commander-teenage-boy-fire-war-division-estonia-a9460526.html

This story in the New York Post is corroborated by African sources too. https://www.africanews.com/2020/04/11/coronavirus-updates-across-africa-africanews-hub/ … It inspires me to answer the challenge raised by @billmaher on Friday night: why *not* refer to coronavirus as "Wuhan virus" or (as Fox News still often prefers) "Chinese virus"?
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249329175250550784

The question is best answered with another question:
"Why do so many people seem so badly to WANT to apply this name?"
To ask that question is to see the answer: by using the phrase "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese virus" they gain identifiable human beings to blame. 2/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249331764717387782

When Chinese bars harass Nigerian customers as COVID-carriers, we instantly recognize the problem:
Nigerian individuals didn't do anything wrong. They are not even a higher-risk population group! An in-group is angry, so it penalizes an out-group. Stupid, as well as wrong. 3/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249334460379734016

Fox News and the Trump administration (until President Trump himself changed his tune after a chiding from President Xi) want to incite Americans against Chinese as the Chinese bartenders have been incited against Africans. 4/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249334947166539777

In both cases, the purpose is to deflect public anger from the truly responsible persons - the authorities first in China, then the US who covered up COVID for their own crass reasons - onto much bigger groups, marked out by racial or ethnic difference. 5/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249335476839944192

When scientists isolated Zika virus in the forests of Uganda back in the 1940s, they used the forest name for ease of speech. They weren't trying to rev up anger against hardwoods. More important: they didn't need the cooperation of those hardwoods to contain the virus. 6/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249336439441104898

The Chinese authorities told lies and punished truth-tellers at the first outbreak of the virus. China's authoritarianism creates global health risks that demand creative response. I wrote about that imperative here. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/dont-abandon-globalizationmake-it-better/608872/ … 7/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249338342421991424

But the lies that did most harm to Americans were not told in Chinese. They were told in English, by President Trump, his administration, and the cable network that spreads their message to its victimized viewers. 8/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249338848825442305

A month ago, I tried to satirize our way out of this dead end. My intended audience didn't get it. They reacted with outrage: why are you blaming *our* people for a disease- and then they resumed blaming *other* people for a disease. 9/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249339920872812544

The only workable answer to the risk of global pandemic is intensified international cooperation, including with China.  That doesn't mean being nicey-nice. We may have to constrain China. But to constrain a power as strong as China, even the US needs allies and partners. 10/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249341284470398983

Government-by-insult-dog is no way to build partnerships, especially when it's obvious to everybody except the insult-dog's fan base that the whole purpose of the insults is to cover up for the insult dog's own lethal failures. 11/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249341654072537088

Meanwhile, the insult-dog's media amplifiers are only too delighted to encourage confusion between the Chinese state and Americans of Chinese ancestry. The villain of Trump's latest ad? A former governor of Washington State. 12/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249342344832397319

Worse - much worse - the habit of attributing diseases to "them" exposes "us" to deadly risks. EG:
US intell became aware of COVID perhaps as early as November, certainly by mid-December. COVID reached the POTUS Daily Brief on Jan. 3, 2020. Trump ignored it. It was "them." 13/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249344801100750849

As the threat gathered through January, Trump continued to ignore it. Still "them." By the end of January, the disease was unignorable. So what did the us/them president do? He restricted travel between the US and China. Order issued Jan. 31, went into effect Feb. 2. 14/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249345380493320195

By that time, of course, the disease was already present inside US. (The first US case was confirmed Jan. 20.) By Feb 2, there were 8 cases, spread from Washington State to Massachusetts. 15/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249346493582106629

More to the point: many (most?) of the travelers between US and China are Americans. They can't be barred! They have to be tested and if need be quarantined. But Trump thought of travel restrictions as an *alternative* to testing - the virus was carried by "them" not "us." 16/x
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249347047184125953

Once the disease bit, wise response demanded maximum international cooperation, on issues from equipment to research. Trump's chauvinism has again & again thwarted cooperation. Against a contagion, the relevant "us" is humanity: Chinese, Nigerians, Americans-we all get sick. END
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1249348211271229442

Yes China tried to downplay and cover up this virus for as long as possible - but so did tRump. Two things can be true at the same time. But he has got Fox “news” as his propaganda arm to make sure his cult following doesn’t understand this.
https://twitter.com/Cu1pepper/status/1249347318375219201

Foxconn’s buildings in Wisconsin are still empty, one year later
https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/12/21217060/foxconn-wisconsin-innovation-centers-empty-buildings

Joe Biden: My Plan to Safely Reopen America | The plan has to start with responding effectively to the immediate medical crisis and ultimately lead to the widespread availability and administration of a vaccine. But we can’t stay home and just wait for the vaccine to arrive. As others have noted, we need to build a bridge from here to there. Here’s what our national strategy should look like. First, we have to get the number of new cases of the disease down significantly. That means social distancing has to continue and the people on the front lines have to get the supplies and equipment they need. President Trump needs to use his full powers under the Defense Production Act to fight the disease with every tool at our disposal. He needs to get the federal response organized and stop making excuses. For more Americans to go back to their jobs, the president needs to do better at his job. Second, there needs to be widespread, easily available and prompt testing — and a contact tracing strategy that protects privacy. A recent report from Mr. Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services made clear that we are far from achieving this goal. We should be running multiple times the number of diagnostic tests we’re performing right now. And we should be ready to scale up a second form of testing: rapid serology tests to tell who has already been infected with the coronavirus and has antibodies. This isn’t rocket science; it’s about investment and execution. We are now several months into this crisis, and still this administration has not squarely faced up to the “original sin” in its failed response — the failure to test. Third, we have to make sure that our hospitals and health care system are ready for flare-ups of the disease that may occur when economic activity expands again. Reopening the right way will still not be completely safe. Public health officials will need to conduct effective disease surveillance. Hospitals need to have the staff and equipment necessary to handle any local outbreaks, and we need an improved federal system to get help to these places as needed. | Once we have taken these steps, we can begin to reopen more businesses and put more people back to work. Things will not go back to “normal” right away. As public health experts have said, we should expect activity to return gradually, with sites like offices and stores reopening before arenas and theaters. | If I were president, I would convene top experts from the private sector, industry by industry, to come up with new ideas on how to operate more safely. Perhaps offices and factories will need to space out workers and pursue other solutions to lessen risk of spread of the virus on the job. Restaurants may need new layouts, with diners farther apart. From my talks with some industry leaders, I know that many are already at work on these questions. Mr. Trump needs to accelerate this thinking and make sure it is available to all businesses — including small businesses, not just the largest companies. Likewise, I would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, working with organized labor and employee groups, to figure out what protections workers need on the job during this period. Getting protective gear to our health care workers and emergency medical workers is the top priority — and one where we are still lagging. But once that need is met, I’d ask the experts to figure out what delivery workers, waiters, clerks and so many other professionals need to be safe. And I would focus like a laser on the racial disparities in Covid-19 cases. Safe and effective treatment can help manage the risk of the coronavirus. But of course, the only complete solution is finding a vaccine to extinguish the threat it poses. Scientists are making great strides on this, but discovering and testing a vaccine is only the first step: Manufacturing sufficient doses and distributing it to reach everyone is a huge challenge. The Trump administration should already be reporting to the American people on its efforts. As we prepare to reopen America, we have to remember what this crisis has taught us: The administration’s failure to plan, to prepare, to honestly assess and communicate the threat to the nation led to catastrophic results. We cannot repeat those mistakes. We know what we have to do. We have the tools, expertise and, now, hard-won experience. The American people have already paid too high a price in illness, death and economic loss. This time, the White House has to get it right.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/opinion/joe-biden-coronavirus-reopen-america.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bill-gates-heres-how-to-make-up-for-lost-time-on-covid-19/2020/03/31/ab5c3cf2-738c-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/opinion/coronavirus-congress-warren.html

Biden gets 11 delegates and Sanders gets 4. Sanders would have won more delegates but after ending his bid for the nomination last week, Sanders is no longer eligible to win delegates based on the statewide vote in primaries and caucuses, according to Democratic National Committee rules. Sanders is, however, still eligible to win delegates based on vote totals in individual congressional districts, which is why the AP allocated four delegate to Sanders in Alaska.

Five years ago today, Hillary Clinton announced she was running for President. Which means five years ago today, most of people had never even heard of Bernie Sanders. Those were the days...

This is a link to a petition to remove Ssoyoung from youtube for animal cruelty and torture. It costs nothing to sign it and if it get's to 100,000 signatures in 30 days it will receive federal attention. The Mukbang Youtuber ssoyoung is torturing animals before eating them alive. While she's pouring soy sauce over live squids whose hoods have been cut off, she's getting tens of millions of views. If you don't believe me, go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4PpFUrfT2Pou7OwpVF0MUQ and watch any of her videos. This is clearly animal abuse, and you don't have to be a vegan to see that.
https://www.change.org/p/youtube-ban-ssoyoung-from-youtube

Biden Is Courting Bernie Voters With a New Plan to Forgive College Debt — He's also leaning toward Bernie with a plan to expand Medicare to younger Americans.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7qy5b/biden-is-courting-bernie-voters-with-a-new-plan-to-forgive-college-debt

USPS is now awaiting approval on a $10B loan from Treasury, but a $13B direct grant was blocked from getting into the $2 trillion stimulus bill by the administration. Without either the service is projected to become “financially illiquid” by September 30.
https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/1249442807451922433

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne_Chatelain
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056119/

Virginia governor makes Election Day a holiday and expands early voting
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/12/politics/virginia-election-day-holiday-early-voting/index.html

Russian-funded propagandist Tara Reade ramps up pursuit on Biden by filing official criminal report of alleged sexual assault with the District of Columbia Police Department. The one thing missing from her report? Any mention of Biden. She refused to officially record Joe Biden as the person who sexually assaulted her. As noted in today's NYT article, “filing a false police report may be punishable by a fine and imprisonment”. That is why she refused to name Biden in the report; sounds like someone is trying to avoid committing a felony.

The same week Trump told the public that voting by mail is “corrupt” and “ripe for fraud,” his own party was sending a very different message to Republican voters in Pennsylvania. “Voting by mail is an easy, convenient and secure way to cast your ballot,” read a mail piece the Republican National Committee distributed across the Keystone State. “Return the attached official Republican Party mail-in ballot application to avoid lines and protect yourself from large crowds on Election Day.” Despite the president’s rhetoric, state party leaders across the country are aggressively urging their voters to cast ballots by mail, Republican officials confirm. In addition, Republican officeholders in at least 16 states that do not have all-mail elections are encouraging people to vote absentee during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a tally by The Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-pushes-voting-by-mail--with-restrictions--as-trump-attacks-it-as-corrupt/2020/04/12/526057a4-7bf8-11ea-a130-df573469f094_story.html

Trump is calling a statement from Fauci fake news
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1249470237726081030

Trump just quote-tweeted a tweet that ends with the words "Time to #FireFauci"
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1249470237726081030