It is the weekend and I bet you have had very little info on the pandemic since the protests began…..Am I right?
IST wants to help keep you up-to-date….
Confirmed cases–1.9 million
Deaths–110,000
Protests Deaths–at least 12 (names included here…https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/06/03/at-least-12-have-died-in-nationwide-protests-heres-who-they-were/#74cc181b9b32)
And let us not forget the 44,000+ that have been arrested and the treatment they may encounter.
Now the pandemic news we all have been waiting on…..
The globe is suffering with this virus and the responses that have been muted…..
The globe continues to see daily cases of COVID-19 exceed 100,000 per day, with close to 6.4 million cumulative cases. Total deaths are approaching 380,000 as the pandemic is settling in the Americas for the present moment. In response to a question as to whether the virulence of the virus seems to be waning, both Drs. Michael Ryan and Maria Van Kerkhove rejected such claims. The genetic studies do not support such a mutational shift. Instead, they attribute the change in the numbers to public health measures that have thus far been employed.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/06/02/coro-j02.html
The only people making out like bandits without guns are the corporations and billionaires….plus the workers are losing ground every day thanx to the capitalists…..
Another 2.1 million workers in the United States filed for unemployment benefits last week, according to the US Labor Department. This brings the total number of workers filing for jobless benefits to 40.8 million in the ten weeks since the pandemic led to the closure of much of the country’s economic activity in mid-March.
This number, which substantially understates the real scale of joblessness, is still a shocking 24.7 percent of the country’s labor force of 164.5 million people. Economists expect that May’s official unemployment rate, which will be released next Friday, will hit 20 percent, up from 14.7 percent in April.
Estimates of the real jobless rate exceed the historic record of 24.9 percent set in 1933 during the depths of the Great Depression. Millions of jobless workers are not counted in the official toll because they are undocumented immigrants, self-employed or so-called gig workers. Others not counted include those working part-time jobs and those who have given up looking for non-existent jobs. In addition, millions are not counted as unemployed because overwhelmed state agencies have not processed their claims, depriving them of any jobless benefits.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/29/pers-m29.html
Chicken CEOs got caught with their wallets showing……
One of America’s top chicken industry CEOs could be caged for up to 10 years as part of a federal antitrust investigation. Pilgrim’s Pride CEO Jayson Penn was indicted Wednesday along with former company vice president Roger Austin for alleged price-fixing, the Wall Street Journal reports. Mikell Fries, president of Claxton Poultry Farms, and vice president Scott Brady were also indicted. Prosecutors say the men, part of a “network of suppliers and co-conspirators,” conspired to fix prices and rig bids on the “broiler chickens” that were sold to grocery stores and restaurants between 2012 and 2017, reports CNN. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
“Particularly in times of global crisis, the division remains committed to prosecuting crimes intended to raise the prices Americans pay for food,” Makan Delrahim, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, said in a statement. “Executives who cheat American consumers, restaurateurs, and grocers, and compromise the integrity of our food supply will be held responsible for their actions.” Shares in Pilgrim’s Pride fell 16% after the indictment and other chicken producers, including Tyson, also saw major drops. Penn is the highest-profile exec to be indicted by the antitrust division since former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon, who died in a car crash the day after he was indicted in 2016, Bloomberg reports.
Thanx to all the lay-offs and unemployment….consumer spending is way down…..
US consumer spending plunged by a record 13.6% in April as job cuts from virus paralyzed economy.
And yet with all the horrible economic news Trump is still leading Biden…and Biden is losing his grip…..
U.S. President Donald Trump is trusted more than Democratic nominee Joe Biden to handle the economy, polls show, even with more than 40 million Americans filing jobless claims and growth stalled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Some Biden supporters fear that vulnerability could intensify if Trump becomes the face of an economic recovery as the country re-opens after shutdowns, giving the Republican president’s re-election prospects a boost when he needs it most.
Biden is expected to release a large-scale recovery plan in the coming weeks. Democrats are watching closely to see if his message matches the moment, saying the party’s presumptive nominee needs to ramp up criticism of Trump’s response to the pandemic and show leadership for moving forward.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-biden-idUSKBN2351AC
Two thoughts…..what could Joe put in his “Recovery Plan”? And second….why would Trump still be favored with the economy after he has crapped on everything that made it a great one?
Then there are the wealthy that are making billions during the pandemic……
The American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Michael Strain wrote an op-ed in the New York Times recently explaining how “The American Dream Is Alive and Well,” and that in his opinion this nation has, “bigger issues than inequality.” Strain’s piece is part of the paper’s new pandemic-era series called “The America We Need” and engages in a set of impressive mental gymnastics to conclude that it ought to be of no concern that the rich are getting richer and that it would be better to focus instead on, “the relatively slow rate of productivity growth,” or “the long-term decline in male employment.”
Michael Strain is incredulous over our fixation on the concentration of wealth at the top, asking, “Do Americans really care as much about inequality as the attention by media and liberal politicians suggest?” He adds, “Given that income inequality has been stagnant or declining over the most recent decade, the timing… is odd” for a conversation “about whether inequality suggests that capitalism itself is broken.” However, inequality continues to steadily rise—a fact it seems the pro-free-market American Enterprise Institute is hoping we ignore.
For America’s Wealthiest, the Pandemic is a Time to Profit
Thanx to the virus lock down our sewers are paying the price…..
Mayor Jim Kenney kicked off a recent briefing on Philadelphia’s coronavirus response with an unusual request for residents: Be careful what you flush. Between mid-March, when the city’s stay-at-home order was issued, and the end of April, most of the 19 sewer and storm water pumping stations in Philadelphia experienced clogs from face masks, gloves, and wipes residents had pitched into the potty, Kenney said. “Please do not flush any of these items down the toilet,” the mayor said. Officials in other US cities and rural communities—and the Environmental Protection Agency—have issued similar pleas as wastewater plant operators report a surge of stopped-up pipes and damage to equipment, the AP reports.
The problem has sharpened the longstanding clash over whether wipes are suitable for flushing. While drain clogs aren’t new, most of the more than 15 cities contacted by the AP said they’ve become a more costly and time consuming headache during the pandemic. “When everyone rushed out to get toilet paper and there was none … people were using whatever they could,” said Pamela Mooring, spokeswoman for DC Water, the system in the nation’s capital. In Houston, officials say sanitary sewer overflows jumped 33% between February and March in Houston because of clogs from rags, tissues, paper towels, and wipes.
A Tip….the 3Ps….put only puke, poop and pee in the toilet and you will have no problems.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”