Patrick's Notebook

by Matt Stoller, MattStoller.substack.com

Welcome to BIG, a newsletter about the politics of monopoly. This is a special edition. I need you to take this newsletter and repost it, forward it, and contact anyone you know in politics. Here’s why.

Congressional leaders are likely to put a very ugly deal in front of the American people, and if it passes, America may be unrecognizable after this pandemic. But there is a way to stop it, if people on the populist left and people on the populist right work together.

Here’s the situation. Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and the Trump administration is negotiating a bailout package to address the coronavirus crisis. There’s been a lot of chatter about the need to support workers as the economy goes into a freeze. This is happening around the world; the British government, for instance, is willing to pay 80% of worker wages during this downturn for those affected by the crisis.

But in the U.S., our leaders seem to be falling prey to what can only be called a corporate frenzy of favor-seeking. “Any time there is a crisis and Washington is in the middle of it is an opportunity for guys like me,” said one lobbyist.

Now first I should say that I don’t know exactly what is going to be in the final bill, because the whole process is opaque and being negotiated right now by some untrustworthy political leaders. We will only find out the details at the last minute. So all I have to go off is rumor and reporting. But if we wait until we know the full contours, it will likely be too late to act. I hope I’m wrong, but the list of what lobbyists are asking for is long, and ugly, and often the requests for money or legislative favors are done to cover up mistakes made before the coronavirus hit. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper

On Thursday night, Governor Gavin Newsome took unprecedented action and locked down the entire state of California. The following day, Governor Andrew Cuomo locked down the state of New York and Gov. J.B. Pritzker locked down the state of Illinois.

Today, as of the time of publication, 70 million Americans are in mandatory isolation at home in the hopes of stopping – or at least slowing down – the Covid-19 virus that is beginning to spread exponentially across the country.

Borders between the US, Canada, and Mexico have also been closed by mutual consent between the three governments.

While this may be necessary to curb the virus so as not to overwhelm the medical system, many Americans are feeling distinctly uneasy about their movements being restricted. Especially worrisome is the idea of the National Guard being brought in to enforce the lockdowns, as has been discussed. Somewhere, there’s a fine line between maintaining our constitutional rights and the need to stop a global pandemic. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Vladimir Odintsov, New Eastern Outlook
Ahead of the inevitable financial crisis, which many media outlets (including US ones) are already openly writing about, and which could overshadow the Great Depression (1929-1946), the hysteria surrounding the Coronavirus and its consequences is particularly worrying.

The widespread panic about the epidemic, created by Western media sources who are actively trying to shift the public’s focus from the real culprits behind the looming financial crisis, continues to have a very negative impact on the global economy, tourism and large sporting events. Important international conferences, forums, exhibitions, sports and other types of events could be cancelled. According to WHO (the World Health Organization) data, the percentage of people infected with COVID-19 who died was 3.4% at the time this article was written.

It is worth noting that the ongoing misinformation campaign about the “impending global crisis” did not start spontaneously. The first steps meant to influence public opinion were made at the beginning of 2000s with the help of filmmakers. At the time, a number of fairly poor quality films were released: The Infection, I Am Legend, Outbreak, Contagion and others, starring one or two top actors. They were mainly aimed at shaping public opinion about the effectiveness of quarantine measures. In addition, these U.S. films, made in the 21st century, focus on the nature of diseases, which no longer originate on other planets but “among us”. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Michael Snyder, TheMostImportantNews.com

Are you prepared for the nationwide shutdown that is happening now to last for the next 18 months?  You may not believe that such a thing will happen, but the federal government apparently does.  A 100 page government plan marked “For Official Use Only // Not For Public Distribution or Release” was obtained by the New York Times, and it paints a very bleak picture of what is coming.

If the projections in this document are anywhere close to accurate, large numbers of Americans will die, the U.S. economy will completely implode, and we will see widespread civil unrest.  So let us pray that the assessments in this government plan turn out to be dead wrong.

According to the document, this coronavirus pandemic “will last 18 months or longer”…

A federal government plan to combat the coronavirus warned policymakers last week that a pandemic “will last 18 months or longer” and could include “multiple waves,” resulting in widespread shortages that would strain consumers and the nation’s health care system.

The 100-page plan, dated Friday, the same day President Trump declared a national emergency, laid out a grim prognosis for the spread of the virus and outlined a response that would activate agencies across the government and potentially employ special presidential powers to mobilize the private sector.

I can’t even imagine what our country would look like if current conditions stretched into the middle of 2021. » Read the rest of this entry «

Mainland China has had no new local coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours – the first time since the outbreak began in December. Beijing is still struggling to contain imported cases of the disease.

Notably, the purported epicenter of the epidemic – Wuhan, in Hubei province – recorded no new locally-transmitted infections. The same was true across China, according to reports, citing the Chinese government.

Health authorities reported 34 new cases on Thursday, but said that all involved people who had come to China from abroad. Twenty-one of the imported infections were in Beijing, marking a daily record for the Chinese capital.

In total, confirmed cases in mainland China have reached 80,928, according to the latest data, with 3,245 deaths as of the end of Wednesday.

The number of deaths in Europe from the virus surpassed those in Asia on Wednesday, raising concerns that Covid-19 could lead to a long-term health crisis for the West.

By Isabel Van Brugen, TheEpochTimes.com

The Senate on March 16 agreed to a 77-day extension of a set of FBI surveillance tools under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that had expired Sunday night, to allow lawmakers time for further negotiations on necessary reforms to the powerful domestic eavesdropping program that saw wiretapping of individuals in the Trump campaign.

The measure, which extends and updates domestic surveillance rules under FISA, is retroactive to Saturday. It must still pass the Senate and requires the signature of President Donald Trump before it can become law.

The Senate had been scheduled to hold an initial procedural vote on Monday evening on a bill passed in the House of Representatives last week that would have reauthorized and reformed some of the program.

Instead, senators, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), unanimously agreed on the temporary extension to allow further consideration for amendments to the House bill. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge.com

Over the weekend we noted with alarm that the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now tapping counter-terror forces and technology to fight the “invisible enemy” of the coronavorus – as Netanyahu put it in a Saturday address.

“We will very soon begin using technology… digital means that we have been using in order to fight terrorism,” Netanyahu had said. Among these new “emergency measures” include broader domestic phone tapping powers as part of the counter-terror technology initiative, as AP reports:

Netanyahu’s Cabinet on Sunday authorized the Shin Bet security agency to use its phone-snooping tactics on coronavirus patients, an official confirmed, despite concerns from civil-liberties advocates that the practice would raise serious privacy issues. The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement.

Ironically enough the outbreak scare has emboldened Netanyahu to admit that much of his plan will “entail a certain degree of violation of privacy.” This extreme overstep action comes as Israel has reached over 200 confirmed Covid-19 cases and has thousands in mandated quarantine. » Read the rest of this entry «