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PBC News & Comment: Autocrats Cuomo, McConnell Spar Over Aid to States

As Mitch McConnell spikes hopes for “blue state bailouts”, Gov. Cuomo fights back against partisanship and Mitch’s loopy bankruptcy idea…First up: new Rolling Stones song and video, Living in a Ghost Town watch it here:

–both combatants have authoritarian streaks and partisan backers, but Cuomo is right on this one—watch his comments here

–David Sirota adds context in great newsletter post

–NYU education Pro. Diane Ravitch warns of effort to use Covid to dismantle public schools, courtesy of listener Faith Peeples

–in Florida, only 4% of unemployment claims have been paid, resident Rush Limbaugh feigns compassion for broke workers, and blames Dems

–Georgia’s dumb Gov. Briam Kemp tried to please Trump by lifting restrictions, and gets surprise brushback from Conman Don!

–Dumb & Dumber: Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman wants to reopen casinos and see what happens

more exposure of the right wing oligarchs who are orchestrating the “Liberate” protests

NY Times runs excellent opinion piece by Lisa Graves, an expert on Koch networks, but news columns are much weaker

–as self-styled “Boogaloo Boy” is arrested after seeking to kill a cop, we learn about Facebook’s complicity

NY Times big-picture guy Peter Baker looks at the cold calculations ahead: save the economy, or save lives?

–China reports new Covid hotspot in Harbin

–from Trump to Cuomo to Newsom, why didn’t they consider testing needs sooner?

–our daily Covid-19 update, edited by Linda Lewis

SF Chronicle report sells smartphone contact tracing, downplays privacy invasion

–at The Grayzone, an excellent investigative report on the Team Trump “Chinese lab” theory, which seems to be total speculation

–at ConsortiumNews, Joe Lauria exposes the source of “Chinese agents” spreading threat of martial law in US, it came from the Washington Examiner

–as poor Detroiters get brief reprieve from water shut-offs, Coke and Pepsi bottle municipal water, and never get cutoff when their bills are way past due

–SCOTUS rejects Trump’s attempt to water down Clean Water Act in Maui case

–SCOTUS watcher Linda Greenhouse reviews the bizarre breakdown of the justices in this week’s Ramos v. Louisiana decision

–Iran launches satellite, and draws silly threat from Trump over Gulf speedboats

–LOL reporting at Buzzfeed, claiming that Iran is dividing Californians on almost nonexistent movement to secede from US