Pandemic
There is a new blog post entitled, “We may die at home or we may die alone but we are surely dying.”
Helena Bottemiller Evich, “USDA let millions of pounds of food rot while food-bank demand soared,” Politico, April 26, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/26/food-banks-coronavirus-agriculture-usda-207215
Emma Brown et al., “U.S. deaths soared in early weeks of pandemic, far exceeding number attributed to covid-19,” Washington Post, April 27, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2020/04/27/covid-19-death-toll-undercounted/
Dawson White and Chacour Koop, “Confirmed coronavirus cases top 1 million in US. ‘We have to have a breakthrough,’” Sacramento Bee, April 28, 2020, https://www.sacbee.com/site-services/newsletters/breaking-news-alerts/article242302716.html
Recession
As 22M Americans file for unemployment and scramble to put food on the table, America’s billionaires got $282 billion richer in less than a month.
This socialism for the rich, harsh capitalism for the rest is despicable in normal times—in times of crisis, it’s morally repugnant.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) April 27, 2020
I'm not sure I'm really seeing a difference between 'despicable' and 'morally repugnant.' But okay. https://t.co/FDbJweRI3z
— David Benfell, Ph.D. (@n4rky) April 28, 2020
It appears Mitch McConnell’s idea to let states declare bankruptcy[1] is dead. Not that it was ever really alive.[2] That said, Donald Trump is still more straightforwardly transactional, wanting to leverage aid to force states to reopen sooner rather than later.[3]
Jennifer Rubin, “Mitch McConnell cries ‘Uncle!’” Washington Post, April 28, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/28/mcconnell-cries-uncle/
- [1]David Frum, “Why Mitch McConnell Wants States to Go Bankrupt,” Atlantic, April 25, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/why-mitch-mcconnell-wants-states-go-bankrupt/610714/; Robert McCartney, “McConnell’s rejection of federal aid for states risks causing a depression, analysts say,” Washington Post, April 27, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/mcconnells-rejection-of-federal-aid-for-states-risks-causing-a-depression-analysts-say/2020/04/26/1fd4731c-8632-11ea-a3eb-e9fc93160703_story.html↩
- [2]Jennifer Rubin, “Mitch McConnell cries ‘Uncle!’” Washington Post, April 28, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/28/mcconnell-cries-uncle/↩
- [3]Jonathan Chait, “Trump Wants to Starve the States Into Opening Before It’s Safe,” New York, April 20, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/trump-coronavirus-open-state-governors-protests.html↩