Daily Archives: May 7, 2020

2020-05-07: News Headlines

Joe Piette (2020-05-07). Protesters say: 'Shelters = Death, Hotels = Haven'. workers.org Cops stop activists from delivering demands to a city official's home. After the COVID-19 deaths of dozens of seniors at Philadelphia nursing homes and at least one homeless person in a city shelter, community activists converged on a city official's home on May 6 to deliver a message: The city . . . |

The Canary (2020-05-07). Johnson compared to Chamberlain in protest video on White Cliffs of Dover. thecanary.co Boris Johnson's response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis has been compared to Neville Chamberlain's "peace for our time" moment, in a giant projection beamed on to the White Cliffs of Dover.The Kent landmark was lit up with a mock-up of the prime minister holding a scrap of paper saying "Highest death toll in Europe".The stunt was the brainchild of Led By Donkeys, a group of activists famed for their giant billboards of politicians' tweets.The group said the black and white creation is a comment on the government's "profound failure" and compares Johnson's conduct to Chamberlain's appeasement policy in the l…

AFP (2020-05-07). Snubbing Merkel Pleas, German States Further Ease Virus Curbs. anti-empire.com Germany is accelerating its return to normality from a crippling lockdown, with regional leaders pushing back against Chancellor Angela Merkel's pleas for prudence [mindless totalitarianism] in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. | On the eve of a key meeting between Merkel and premiers of Germany's 16 states to debate a new round of easing of stay-at-home measures, the country's biggest state pre-empted talks by saying it would reopen its restaurants and hotels this month. | Under the plan to progressively restart the gastronomy and hospitality sectors, Bavaria said restaurants would first be allowed…

Kathy Durkin (2020-05-07). Palestinian movement scores big legal win for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign in Britain. workers.org Members of Unite the Union, a British and Irish labor union, show support for the Palestinian people. The Palestine Solidarity Committee won a legal victory for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign in Britain when the country's highest court issued a landmark ruling that struck a blow against the Whitehall . . . |

The Moscow Times (2020-05-07). Russian State TV in Media War Against No-Lockdown Belarus. anti-empire.com Editor's note: Recall how in 2014-15 the Russian opposition and western media was trying to prove Russians were fighting and dying en masse in Donbass by supposedly uncovering

Michael Maharrey (2020-05-07). Enjoy Your Future; We're Spending It Now. anti-empire.com Welcome to your future. Your government is spending it right now. And your children's and grandchildren's future to boot. | The US Treasury plans to borrow $2.99 trillion in the second quarter. The Treasury also plans to borrow another $677 billion in the July-September quarter, bringing the total fiscal 2020 debt to $4.48 trillion. | It's a level of borrowing that's difficult to even wrap your head around. | To put it into some perspective, before the pandemic, the CBO projected that the federal deficit would come in at just over $1 trillion in fiscal 2020. The government is set to borrow nearly three times t…

Jason Ditz (2020-05-07). Trump Vetoes 'Very Insulting' Measure Limiting His Powers to Attack Iran. anti-empire.com Passed in the Senate in February and the The resolution was a preemptive War Powers Act challenge to a war with Iran, aiming to note that Congress has not in any way authorized…

Brendan O'Neill (2020-05-07). What Neil Ferguson's Booty Call Tells Us About Modern Politics. anti-empire.com The conspiratorial left, convinced the world is run by secret cabals of bankers and cigar-chomping media moguls, thinks the Neil Ferguson story is a 'dead cat'. In other words, they think the Daily Telegraph — Evil Tory Rag — revealed that Ferguson carried on bonking his mistress in defiance of a lockdown that he himself bears much responsibility for in order to distract attention from Britain overtaking Italy with the highest

Awaken With JP (2020-05-07). What It's Like to Believe Everything the Media Tells You (MUST WATCH). anti-empire.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcUAG6t5aN8

Ramzy Baroud (2020-05-06). 100 Years of Shame: The Annexation of Palestine Began in San Remo. mintpressnews.com One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened in a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera to seal the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I.

Ramzy Baroud (2020-05-06). 100 Years of Shame: Annexation of Palestine Began in San Remo. dissidentvoice.org One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened at San Remo, a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera. Together, they sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I. It was on April 25, 1920, that the San Remo Conference Resolution was …

Al Neal (2020-05-06). May Day Voices: Strikers in Massachusetts. peoplesworld.org Note: To maintain their safety, activists spoken to will only be referenced by initials. Under cover of darkness, not too long before early morning's pale olive light broke across the horizon, activists, workers, renters, and all class-conscious individuals nationwide made their last-minute preparations, and ticked of their checklists; a May Day strike was about to …

Steve Karnowski (2020-05-06). Activists file new challenge to proposed Twin Metals mine. peoplesworld.org MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Opponents of a proposed copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota sued Wednesday to challenge the federal government's renewal of Twin Metals' mineral rights leases, saying the government didn't conduct a full-scale environmental review of the project near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The national and regional groups behind the new challenge lost …

Al Jazeera (2020-05-06). Tanzania President Questions Covid-19 Kits After Goat, Sheep and Pawpaw Samples Test 'Positive'. anti-empire.com Tanzania's President John Magufuli has dismissed imported Magufuli made the remarks during an event in Chato in northwestern The president, whose government has already drawn criticism for being secretive about the coronavirus outbreak and has previously asked Tanzanians t…

Phillip W. Magness (2020-05-06). Imperial College Model Applied to Sweden Predicted 40,000 Deaths by May, 100,000 by June. anti-empire.com The pace of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has created an unusual situation for academic research. Epidemiology models, which were previously developed over several years and used to forecast hypothetical scenarios that seldom panned out, are now being deployed and tested in real-time. | Unfortunately the results are not pretty. | Last week

Cassandra Fairbanks (2020-05-06). Tearful Nurse Blows Whistle on New York Hospitals "Murdering" COVID Patients With "Complete Medical Mismanagement" anti-empire.com "Nobody is listening. They don't care what is happening to these people. They don't. I'm literally coming here every day and watching them kill them"

| A Nevada nurse who travelled to New York to help treat COVID-19 patients has posted a tearful Facebook Live video claiming that patients are not dying from the virus, but are being "murdered" by "gross negligence and complete medical mismanagement." | Nicole Sirotek, a nurse from Elko, Nevada, was assigned to two different hospitals in New York City. | "I am literally telling you that they are murdering these people," Sirotek says in the terrifying vide…

Medea Benjamin (2020-05-06). Trump Must Choose Between a Global Ceasefire and America's Long Lost Wars. progressive.org Despite a U.N. call for ceasefire and his promise to bring troops home, Trump is continuing U.S.'s unwinnable wars.

Fight Back (2020-05-05). Tampa UPS Teamsters organize for hazard pay. fightbacknews.org Tampa, FL – With the ongoing COVID-19 crisis putting workers at risk and UPS making huge profits, many rank-and-file Teamsters are demanding hazard pay. Teamsters in Tampa, Florida are organizing co-workers to fight for it. | Rank-and-file Teamsters activists distributed buttons and stickers to UPSers with the slogan "Hazard pay for UPS workers." | "We want to unite our co-workers around the demand for hazard pay. We're encouraging folks to wear the buttons at work," said Gage LaCharite, a UPS warehouse worker. "This is the first step in a national campaign to win hazard pay. UPS just announced they made $1 billi…

Staff (2020-05-04). "It's Very Scary": COVID Surges in Meat Plants as Activists Demand Worker Safety & Meatless Mondays. democracynow.org At least 20 workers at meat processing plants have died from COVID-19, and around 5,000 have tested positive, but President Trump invoked an executive order to bar local governments from closing meat plants. We hear from meat plant workers and organizers about conditions during the pandemic and speak with Sindy Benavides, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, which is supporting the workers with a virtual town hall on food worker safety with presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and calling for Meatless May Mondays.

Hatewatch Staff (2020-05-04). Facebook Is Go-To Platform For Organizing Protests Against Social Distancing. splcenter.org As COVID-19 continues to pose a lethal threat worldwide, fringe, right-wing activists are using Facebook to mobilize protests of stay-at-home orders in several states.

Fight Back (2020-05-04). Boyle Heights celebrates May Day for the 6th consecutive year. fightbacknews.org Los Angeles, CA – On Friday, May 1, a car protest of over 40 vehicles driven by workers, teachers and activists took to the streets for the sixth consecutive year to celebrate International Workers Day, May Day, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood. Organized by Centro CSO, this year's May Day protest focused on Trump's attacks on immigrants and called for free healthcare for COVID-19 patients, support for public education, jailing killer cops and community control over the police. | "The coronavirus pandemic has affected oppressed nationalities like African Americans, Chicanos and American Indians the most. Unsafe…

Fight Back (2020-05-02). Philippines: CPP denounces arrest of 76 activists, volunteers on Labor Day. fightbacknews.org Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines. | The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounces the arrest of 76 activists and relief volunteers by police elements in Metro Manila and Iloilo on Labor Day. | "The Duterte regime marked Labor Day with mass arrests to stifle dissent and muffle criticism in its desperation to cover up its ineptness and failure to address the hunger and plight of the working class amid the Covid-19 pandemic," said CPP Chief Information Officer Marco L. Valbuena. | "Using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse, Duterte is…

Staff (2020-05-01). Caravan for Life: Protesters in Puerto Rico Demand More Tests & Resources to Combat the Coronavirus. democracynow.org On Thursday in Puerto Rico, activists in dozens of cars held a "Caravan Por La Vida," or "Caravan for Life," through San Juan to demand the government provide more COVID-19 tests and sufficient resources for people to stay at home during the pandemic. At least 92 people have died from COVID-19 in Puerto Rico, and last week the island was reporting a testing rate lower than any U.S. state, at an abysmal average of 15 tests a day for every 100,000 people. No one in Puerto Rico has received $1,200 checks from the government, according to San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. Police stopped the caravan and said their sou…

Medea Benjamin (2020-04-04). Saudi's Brave Women Pull Back the Curtain on Crown Prince MBS. zcomm.org The bogus trial against Loujain al-Hathloul should compel governments around the world to put more pressure on the Saudis and demand al-Hathloul's immediate and unconditional release…

Venezuela Analysis (2020-02-06). Embassy Protection Collective: "We Are Not the Ones Who Violated the Law" theantimedia.com In this exclusive interview, VA talks to the activists who defended the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington DC ahead of their trial.

2020-05-07: Social Media Postees

Please be social by posting these 'POSTEES' on social media! (Copy the text of the postee below, then paste it on social media and the story images will also appear.)

Palestinian movement scores big legal win for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign in Britain
Kathy Durkin | workers.org | 2020-05-07
Members of Unite the Union, a British and Irish labor union, show support for the Palestinian people. The Palestine Solidarity Committee won a legal victory for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign in Britain when the country's highest court issued a landmark ruling that struck a blow against the Whitehall . . . | Continue reading Palestinian movement scores big legal win for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign in Britain at Workers.org
workers.org/2020/05/48312/?utm_source=rs…

Russian State TV in Media War Against No-Lockdown Belarus
The Moscow Times | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-07
Editor's note: Recall how in 2014-15 the Russian opposition and western media was trying to prove Russians were fighting and dying en masse in Donbass by supposedly uncovering "secret burials" all over Russia? Well the Russian state media has now adopted the same tactics to be deployed against brotherly Belarus. Why? While Russians have been forced into Sobyanin's cybergulag (now expanded nationally) Belarus has met the virus with the scorn it deserves, has allowed its people to remain free, and will p…
anti-empire.com/russian-state-tv-in-medi…

Trump Vetoes 'Very Insulting' Measure Limiting His Powers to Attack Iran
Jason Ditz | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-07
Passed in the Senate in February and the House in March, the Iran War Powers Resolution appears to have come to an end on Wednesday when it was vetoed by President Trump, who insisted it was " very insulting" and dangerous to limit his ability to attack Iran. | The resolution was a preemptive War Powers Act challenge to a war with Iran, aiming to note that Congress has not in any way authorized…
anti-empire.com/trump-vetoes-very-insult…

Johnson compared to Chamberlain in protest video on White Cliffs of Dover
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-05-07
Boris Johnson's response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis has been compared to Neville Chamberlain's "peace for our time" moment, in a giant projection beamed on to the White Cliffs of Dover.The Kent landmark was lit up with a mock-up of the prime minister holding a scrap of paper saying "Highest death toll in Europe".The stunt was the brainchild of Led By Donkeys, a group of activists famed for their giant billboards of politicians' tweets.The group said the black and white creation is a comment on the government's "profound failure" and compares Johnson's conduct to Chamberlain's appeasement policy in the l…
thecanary.co/uk/news/2020/05/07/johnson-compared-to-chamberlain-in-protest-video-on-white-cliffs-of-dover/

Protesters say: 'Shelters = Death, Hotels = Haven'
Joe Piette | workers.org | 2020-05-07
Cops stop activists from delivering demands to a city official's home. After the COVID-19 deaths of dozens of seniors at Philadelphia nursing homes and at least one homeless person in a city shelter, community activists converged on a city official's home on May 6 to deliver a message: The city . . . | Continue reading Protesters say: 'Shelters = Death, Hotels = Haven' at Workers.org
workers.org/2020/05/48309/?utm_source=rs…

Enjoy Your Future; We're Spending It Now
Michael Maharrey | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-07
Welcome to your future. Your government is spending it right now. And your children's and grandchildren's future to boot. | The US Treasury plans to borrow $2.99 trillion in the second quarter. The Treasury also plans to borrow another $677 billion in the July-September quarter, bringing the total fiscal 2020 debt to $4.48 trillion. | It's a level of borrowing that's difficult to even wrap your head around. | To put it into some perspective, before the pandemic, the CBO projected that the federal deficit would come in at just over $1 trillion in fiscal 2020. The government is set to borrow nearly three times t…
anti-empire.com/enjoy-your-future-were-s…

What Neil Ferguson's Booty Call Tells Us About Modern Politics
Brendan O'Neill | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-07
The conspiratorial left, convinced the world is run by secret cabals of bankers and cigar-chomping media moguls, thinks the Neil Ferguson story is a 'dead cat'. In other words, they think the Daily Telegraph

Snubbing Merkel Pleas, German States Further Ease Virus Curbs
AFP | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-07
Germany is accelerating its return to normality from a crippling lockdown, with regional leaders pushing back against Chancellor Angela Merkel's pleas for prudence [mindless totalitarianism] in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. | On the eve of a key meeting between Merkel and premiers of Germany's 16 states to debate a new round of easing of stay-at-home measures, the country's biggest state pre-empted talks by saying it would reopen its restaurants and hotels this month. | Under the plan to progressively restart the gastronomy and hospitality sectors, Bavaria said restaurants would first be allowed…
anti-empire.com/snubbing-merkel-pleas-ge…

What It's Like to Believe Everything the Media Tells You (MUST WATCH)
Awaken With JP | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-07
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcUAG6t5aN8

www.anti-empire.com/what-its-like-to-bel…

100 Years of Shame: The Annexation of Palestine Began in San Remo
Ramzy Baroud | mintpressnews.com | 2020-05-06
One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened in a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera to seal the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I.
mintpressnews.com/100-years-annexation-p…

100 Years of Shame: Annexation of Palestine Began in San Remo
Ramzy Baroud | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-05-06
One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened at San Remo, a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera. Together, they sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I. It was on April 25, 1920, that the San Remo Conference Resolution was …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/05/100-years-of-…

Trump Must Choose Between a Global Ceasefire and America's Long Lost Wars
Medea Benjamin | progressive.org | 2020-05-06
Despite a U.N. call for ceasefire and his promise to bring troops home, Trump is continuing U.S.'s unwinnable wars.
progressive.org/dispatches/trump-choose-…

May Day Voices: Strikers in Massachusetts
Al Neal | peoplesworld.org | 2020-05-06
Note: To maintain their safety, activists spoken to will only be referenced by initials. Under cover of darkness, not too long before early morning's pale olive light broke across the horizon, activists, workers, renters, and all class-conscious individuals nationwide made their last-minute preparations, and ticked of their checklists; a May Day strike was about to …
peoplesworld.org/article/may-day-voices-…

Activists file new challenge to proposed Twin Metals mine
Steve Karnowski | peoplesworld.org | 2020-05-06
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)

Tanzania President Questions Covid-19 Kits After Goat, Sheep and Pawpaw Samples Test 'Positive'
Al Jazeera | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-06
Tanzania's President John Magufuli has dismissed imported coronavirus testing kits as faulty, saying they returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw. | Magufuli made the remarks during an event in Chato in northwestern Tanzania on Sunday. He said there were "technical errors" with the tests. | The president, whose government has already drawn criticism for being secretive about the coronavirus outbreak and has previously asked Tanzanians t…
anti-empire.com/tanzania-president-quest…

Imperial College Model Applied to Sweden Predicted 40,000 Deaths by May, 100,000 by June
Phillip W. Magness | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-06
The pace of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has created an unusual situation for academic research. Epidemiology models, which were previously developed over several years and used to forecast hypothetical scenarios that seldom panned out, are now being deployed and tested in real-time. | Unfortunately the results are not pretty. | Last week I examined some of the problems afflicting the most prominent epidemiology models for COVID-19, particularly the Imperial College-London (ICL) model that popularized a projected death toll of 2.
anti-empire.com/imperial-college-model-a…

Tearful Nurse Blows Whistle on New York Hospitals "Murdering" COVID Patients With "Complete Medical Mismanagement"
Cassandra Fairbanks | anti-empire.com | 2020-05-06
"Nobody is listening. They don't care what is happening to these people. They don't. I'm literally coming here every day and watching them kill them"

| A Nevada nurse who travelled to New York to help treat COVID-19 patients has posted a tearful Facebook Live video claiming that patients are not dying from the virus, but are being "murdered" by "gross negligence and complete medical mismanagement." | Nicole Sirotek, a nurse from Elko, Nevada, was assigned to two different hospitals in New York City. | "I am literally telling you that they are murdering these people," Sirotek says in the terrifying vide…
anti-empire.com/tearful-nurse-blows-whis…

Tampa UPS Teamsters organize for hazard pay
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-05-05
Tampa, FL – With the ongoing COVID-19 crisis putting workers at risk and UPS making huge profits, many rank-and-file Teamsters are demanding hazard pay. Teamsters in Tampa, Florida are organizing co-workers to fight for it. | Rank-and-file Teamsters activists distributed buttons and stickers to UPSers with the slogan "Hazard pay for UPS workers." | "We want to unite our co-workers around the demand for hazard pay. We're encouraging folks to wear the buttons at work," said Gage LaCharite, a UPS warehouse worker. "This is the first step in a national campaign to win hazard pay. UPS just announced they made $1 billi…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/5/4/tampa-ups…

"It's Very Scary": COVID Surges in Meat Plants as Activists Demand Worker Safety & Meatless Mondays
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-05-04
At least 20 workers at meat processing plants have died from COVID-19, and around 5,000 have tested positive, but President Trump invoked an executive order to bar local governments from closing meat plants. We hear from meat plant workers and organizers about conditions during the pandemic and speak with Sindy Benavides, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, which is supporting the workers with a virtual town hall on food worker safety with presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and calling for Meatless May Mondays.
www.democracynow.org/2020/5/4/covid_19_m…

Facebook Is Go-To Platform For Organizing Protests Against Social Distancing
Hatewatch Staff | splcenter.org | 2020-05-04
As COVID-19 continues to pose a lethal threat worldwide, fringe, right-wing activists are using Facebook to mobilize protests of stay-at-home orders in several states.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/05/05/faceb…

Boyle Heights celebrates May Day for the 6th consecutive year
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-05-04
Los Angeles, CA – On Friday, May 1, a car protest of over 40 vehicles driven by workers, teachers and activists took to the streets for the sixth consecutive year to celebrate International Workers Day, May Day, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood. Organized by Centro CSO, this year's May Day protest focused on Trump's attacks on immigrants and called for free healthcare for COVID-19 patients, support for public education, jailing killer cops and community control over the police. | "The coronavirus pandemic has affected oppressed nationalities like African Americans, Chicanos and American Indians the most. Unsafe…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/5/4/boyle-hei…

Philippines: CPP denounces arrest of 76 activists, volunteers on Labor Day
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-05-02
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines. | The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounces the arrest of 76 activists and relief volunteers by police elements in Metro Manila and Iloilo on Labor Day. | "The Duterte regime marked Labor Day with mass arrests to stifle dissent and muffle criticism in its desperation to cover up its ineptness and failure to address the hunger and plight of the working class amid the Covid-19 pandemic," said CPP Chief Information Officer Marco L. Valbuena. | "Using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse, Duterte is…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/5/2/philippin…

Caravan for Life: Protesters in Puerto Rico Demand More Tests & Resources to Combat the Coronavirus
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-05-01
On Thursday in Puerto Rico, activists in dozens of cars held a "Caravan Por La Vida," or "Caravan for Life," through San Juan to demand the government provide more COVID-19 tests and sufficient resources for people to stay at home during the pandemic. At least 92 people have died from COVID-19 in Puerto Rico, and last week the island was reporting a testing rate lower than any U.S. state, at an abysmal average of 15 tests a day for every 100,000 people. No one in Puerto Rico has received $1,200 checks from the government, according to San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. Police stopped the caravan and said their sou…
www.democracynow.org/2020/5/1/puerto_ric…