Reich at Home: Trump Golfing as the US Mourns 100,000 Dead

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich is discussing Trump's criminal negligence, as he takes to the golf course this Memorial Day weekend while Americans mourn 100,000 lives lost to coronavirus. So far his golf trips have cost taxpayers more than $134,000,000 — 335 years of presidential salary. This November 3, we dump Trump. In the meantime, pray for America.

Is Humanity Showing Through Everywhere Except in Trump? | MSNBC

The panel discusses a new Maureen Dowd column on President Trump and his handling of the coronavirus.

Middle-class Americans Queue at Food Banks as US Unemployment Hits 38 million – BBC News

In the United States another 2.4 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the past week.

More than 38 million Americans have lost their jobs since the coronavirus pandemic struck in March.

Previously affluent middle-class Americans are now queuing for handouts at food banks, as America experiences the worst downturn since the 1930s and the Great Depression.

Huw Edwards presents BBC News at Ten reporting from North America Correspondent Nick Bryant in New York.

Bolsonaro's Foul-mouthed Rant to Cabinet over Security Forces

A profanity-laced video emerged on Friday showing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro expressing frustration at his inability to get information from police.

In the video released by the Supreme Court, Bolsonaro vowed to change Cabinet ministers if needed to protect his family.

The two-hour video of a Cabinet meeting, with portions redacted, was released as part of a probe into allegations that the president was trying to illegally interfere in a criminal investigation of his sons, a claim made by former Justice Minister Sérgio Moro when he resigned last month.

The former minister told investigators Bolsonaro openly demanded he make changes in key federal police positions, including the head of the agency as a whole.

Moro resigned after Bolsonaro fired the federal police director-general without consulting him.

FBI Accidentally Leaked Information on Saudi Arabia's Role In 9/11

Via America's Lawyer: FBI documents reveal Saudi embassy official Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah as a conspirator behind the 9/11 attacks. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss.

Mika Responds to Trump Tweet | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Mika Brzezinski responds to new tweets from the president on Wednesday, May 20. Aired on 05/20/2020.

Hungary Votes to End Legal Recognition of Trans People

THE GUARDIAN: Activists say new law will increase discrimination, especially as Hungarians must often display their ID cards

Hungary’s parliament has voted to end legal recognition for trans people, passing a bill that rights activists say pushes the country “back towards the dark ages”.

The new law defines gender as based on chromosomes at birth, meaning previous provisions whereby trans people could alter their gender and name on official documents will no longer be available.

The votes of rightwing prime minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party pushed the legislation through by 134 to 56, with four abstentions. It is likely to be signed into law by the president, János Áder, a close ally of Orbán. » | Shaun Walker in Budapest | Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Comedy Islamic Style! Can Men Wear Earrings and Gold? - Q&A - Sh. Hussain Yee

Brian Stelter Calls Out 'Vicious' Cycle of Trump's Anti-Media Attacks

CNN's Brian Stelter says President Donald Trump's cycle of anti-media attacks present challenges for members of the press.

The Observer View on Trump's Continued Goading of China

THE OBSERVER: The US president has used the pandemic to provoke a wider confrontation but Beijing should not be regarded as an enemy

Donald Trump’s histrionic threat last week to “cut off the whole relationship” with China produced a scornful response from Beijing. “Such lunacy is a clear byproduct of the anxiety the US has suffered since China began its global ascent,” the Global Times, the Chinese government’s mouthpiece, commented. The “Washington elites” were in a panic over the pandemic, it claimed.

While the tone was unfortunate, neither assertion wholly lacked truth. The US and its western allies do have concerns – some legitimate, some exaggerated – about China’s rise to superpower status. And the mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis by Trump, who appears increasingly unbalanced, makes China’s president, Xi Jinping, look undeservedly competent by comparison.

Trump’s threat, as foolish as it is impractical, typified the irrational behaviour of the US leader. His target was no surprise. Trump and his “America first” acolytes have long contended that China is ripping off America by indulging in unfair trade practices, stealing its commercial secrets and destroying manufacturing jobs.

In current jargon, they want to “decouple”, and this process – the Chinese call it “suppression” – is now accelerating. Higher tariffs on Chinese imports, and controls on hi-tech US exports and Chinese inward investment, were extended last week to include new measures targeting the telecoms giant, Huawei. A compromise trade deal agreed earlier this year is in jeopardy. » | Observer editorial | Sunday, May 17, 2020

'It Eats Him Alive Inside': Trump's Latest Attack Shows Endless Obsession with Obama

THE GUARDIAN: The president seems more interested in blaming his predecessor than tackling the coronavirus – so what’s driving Trump’s fixation?

President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump once sat together in the Oval Office. “I was immediately struck by Trump’s body language,” wrote journalist Jon Karl in his memoir Front Row at The Trump Show. “I was seeing a side of him I had never seen. He seemed, believe it or not, humbled.”

It was November 2016 and, just for once, Trump was not in charge of the room, Karl recalls. Obama was still president, directing the action and setting the tone. His successor “seemed a little dazed” and “a little freaked out”. What the two men discussed in their meeting that day, only they know.

But what became clear in the next three and a half years is that Obama remains something of an obsession for Trump; the subject of a political and personal inferiority complex.

Observers point to a mix of anti-intellectualism, racism, vengeance and primitive envy over everything from Obama’s Nobel peace prize to the scale of his inauguration crowd and social media following.

Ben Rhodes, a former Obama national security aide, tweeted this week: “Trump’s fact-free fixation on Obama dating back to birtherism is so absurd and stupid that it would be comic if it wasn’t so tragic.” » | David Smith in Washington | Saturday, May 16, 2020

Saudi Arabia’s Big Dreams and Easy Living Hit a Wall

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The coronavirus pandemic and falling oil prices have yanked the rug out from under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s development plans and curbed government largess.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Saudi Arabia knows about head-spinning change.

“One day there was nothing, the next day there was everything,” a business student, Noura Khalid, 23, said in Riyadh in December, describing how it felt to watch her once-staid country welcome international rap stars and wrestling champions, cars steered by women. movie theaters, gender-mixed cafes and other previously unimaginable innovations in just the last few years. “There’s no break! It’s happening so quickly.”

Now the kingdom faces yet more whiplash.

Not only is the coronavirus redefining daily life for Saudis, but plummeting oil prices are robbing the kingdom of the enormous wealth that was underwriting the new Saudi Arabia. The twin blows threaten to sink Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s sweeping social and economic agenda, and have already curtailed the vast welfare state that has given most Saudis a comfortably subsidized life. » | Vivian Yee | Saturday, May 16, 2020

Covid-19 : le confinement royal et estival d'Elizabeth II

LE POINT: La reine d'Angleterre restera dans son château de Windsor au moins jusqu'en septembre. Elle va donc manquer ses habituelles vacances à Balmoral, en Écosse.

Voilà la reine d'Angleterre bloquée à Windsor jusqu'à nouvel ordre. Plusieurs médias britanniques, dont le Times, annoncent que la souveraine, âgée de 94 ans, devrait y rester pendant plusieurs mois, au moins jusqu'en septembre prochain. Pas question de rejoindre le palais de Buckingham, qui restera fermé au public pendant tout l'été et où plusieurs événements officiels sont d'ores et déjà annulés, comme les garden-parties ou la fameuse parade Trooping the Colour, célébrée habituellement en juin. Elizabeth II devrait également manquer cet été ses traditionnelles vacances en Écosse, dans son château de Balmoral qu'elle affectionne tant. » | Par Marc Fourny | vendredi 15 mai 2020

Trump Puts US in Worst Disaster in Modern History, Says Professor | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Drs. Leana Wen, Dave Campbell and Jeffrey Sachs discuss the latest details in the spread of the coronavirus, the Trump administration's handling of the virus and where research on treatment stands now. Aired on 5/15/2020.

Smoke Fags, Save Lives

SP!KED: Scientists believe nicotine might protect against coronavirus.

There’s not much to laugh about these days, but the news that smokers might be protected from Covid-19 is certainly one of them. With study after study showing that smokers are under-represented in coronavirus wards, the renowned French neuroscientist, Jean-Pierre Changeux, is working on a randomised control trial to test the effect of nicotine patches on Covid-19 patients.

This is far from being a crackpot theory. Changeux has explained his hypothesis at length here. In simple terms, he says that nicotinic acetylcholine receptors play a key role in the development of the disease and that nicotine can put a brake on it. If he is right – and the banter heuristic says he is – it would not only save thousands of lives but would also be one in the eye for the ‘public health’ groups who have been claiming that smoking and vaping are risk factors for Covid-19. » | Christopher Snowden | Thursday, April 23, 2020

Noam Chomsky: Trump Is Culpable in Deaths of Americans

Donald Trump is culpable in the deaths of thousands of Americans by using the coronavirus pandemic to boost his electoral prospects and line the pockets of big business, Prof Noam Chomsky has said.

In an interview with the Guardian's economic correspondent, Richard Partington, the radical intellectual argued the US president was stabbing average Americans in the back while pretending to be the country’s saviour during the worst health crisis in at least a century

'You Should Ask China': Trump Terminates Press Conference after Clash with Reporters

Donald Trump's press conference on coronavirus testing ended abruptly after a terse exchange with two female reporters. Asked by CBS's Weijia Jiang about his focus on international comparisons rather than US deaths, Trump snapped: 'Don’t ask me, ask China that question'. After being asked by Jiang, who is Asian-American, why he had directed the remark at her, Trump cut off the CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins as she asked a question and walked away from the podium

Has there ever been a ruder, more disagreeable president than Trump? – Mark

Why Is the US Removing Military Assets from Saudi Arabia? | Inside Story

The United States is removing its Patriot anti-air missiles, and other weapons systems from Saudi Arabia. Donald Trump says it is part of an effort to scale back on a military presence that he says doesn't benefit the US

American weapons and fighter jets were sent to the Kingdom last year after Saudi-Aramco oil facilities were attacked. They were also intended as a deterrent, as tensions rose between Tehran and Washington.

But the reduction in the U.S. military presence is believed by some to be based on assessments Iran no longer poses an immediate threat to U.S. strategic interests. So, what's exactly changed? And is oil politics at play?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie | Guests: Joel Rubin, President of the Washington Strategy Group; Mahjoob Zweiri, Director of Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University; Mohammad Marandi, Head of the American Studies Department at Tehran University

Coronavirus: Death Awaits Many Americans

… ... One disaster management specialist has said the reopening of several states, devoid of the mass public testing required to safely do so, will hand a “death sentence” to many more Americans. »

Hundreds Queue for Food Parcels in Wealthy Geneva

THE GUARDIAN: Over 1,000 poorer working people and undocumented migrants waited for hours for basics

More than 1,000 people queued on Saturday to get free food parcels in Geneva, underscoring the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the working poor and undocumented immigrants even in wealthy Switzerland.

The line of people stretched for more than 1km outside an ice rink where volunteers were handing out about 1,500 parcels to people who started queuing as early as 5am.

“At the end of the month, my pockets are empty. We have to pay the bills, the insurance, everything,” said Ingrid Berala, a Geneva resident from Nicaragua who works part-time. “This is great, because there is food for a week, a week of relief … I don’t know for next week.” » | Reuters in Geneva | Saturday, May 9, 2020