Monday’s news links – April 20, 2020

Venezuela

Venezuela Blasts Trump After Central Bank Assets Quietly Transferred to Guaido’s Fed Account Sputnik

NYT Blames Maduro for Healthcare Horror, Downplays US Role FAIR

China

Trump’s Anti-Chinese Racist Campaign Strategy Mobilizes Right-Wing Extremists Common Dreams

MSM China Hysteria Gets Way Crazier And Dumber Caitlin Johnstone

The New Anti-China Campaign Is Built On Lies Moon of Alabama

The intensity of the current anti-China campaign reminds one of the run up to the war on Iraq. The people who now claim that ‘China lied, people died’ are the very same who ran the Iraq WMD campaign. But all the reports claiming Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were just fantasy. The reports of Chinese culpability are similar nonsense.

How Ecuador Descended Into Corona Chaos Counterpunch

Class war

Employees Say Smithfield Plant in Wisconsin Concealed Covid-19 Infections, Pressured Them to Work Elbow-to-Elbow Without Protection Intercept

United Airlines CEO Hints At Layoffs After Company Agrees To Billions In Bailout Funds Labor411

‘Land of the free!’: Healthcare workers are heckled by anti-lockdown protesters as they stand in front of their cars in Colorado and more demonstrations erupt across the US Daily Mail

Prisons

What Happens When More Than 300,000 Prisoners Are Locked Down? Marshall Project

Usual Cruelty it’s simpler than it looksUserFriendly

Capitalist crisis

A new Senate plan would guarantee paychecks for workers who are furloughed or laid off Vox

Rep. Ilhan Omar Unveils ‘The Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act’ To Help Those Devastated By The Pandemic Blavity

The euro’s corona crisis Michael Roberts

Neiman Marcus to file for bankruptcy as soon as this week Reuters

Ford Closes Some Plants “Indefinitely”

Shake Shack received, then returned, $10 million in coronavirus stimulus funding after being criticized for taking money meant for struggling small businesses Business Insider

Oil plunges 21% to a 2-decade low Business Insider

The price of oil dropped as low as just $14.30 per barrel on Monday to reach its lowest level in 21-years

Big Agribusiness

We Need to Rethink Our Food System to Prevent the Next Pandemic Time

Another disaster is ready to catch the US unprepared: Drought Ars Technica

Covid-19 coronavirus

Racial toll of virus grows even starker as more data emerges AP

No, You Did Not Get COVID-19 in the Fall of 2019 Slate

Was That Cold I Had in November or December Coronavirus? Daily Beast

Fisher Island, the richest ZIP code in America with an average income of $2.2 million, has obtained coronavirus antibody tests for all 800 families and staff who live there because it’s ‘what residents wanted’ Business Insider

Whistleblower nurse who spoke out about Littleton nursing home dies of COVID-19 WCVB

COVID-19: How Big Pharma and Big Philanthropy Consume the World Counterpunch

Poverty, pollution and neglect: How the Bronx became a coronavirus ‘formula for disaster’ ABC News

While the borough of Queens leads the overall death toll in New York City with over 1,600 killed by the virus so far, the Bronx — which has a smaller population and lower case total — is seeing dramatically more deaths per case, with 1,185 killed as of April 10, according to New York City Health Department data. The Bronx, home to more than 60% of New York City’s very low-income residents, also leads in hospitalizations.

A New York City Hospital Loses a Beloved Surgeon Medium

Lenin’s 150th

Russia: activists launch flash mob dedicated to Lenin’s 150th birthday

Donetsk: ‘Red Carnation for Lenin’ action on April 22

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