Wed. 5/20: COVID-19 Daily Update
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
US beaches begin reopening, with restrictions varying from state to state – ABC News
This national news story features Wendy Perez, who works at the front desk at Waikiki Beach Marriott.
COVID-19-related U.S. travel job losses double national unemployment at the height of the Great Depression – Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
This article includes quotes from Miles Quartero, a bellman at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Trump threatens funds for states offering absentee, mail-in voting amid coronavirus pandemic – Associated Press.
Trump’s threats are a straight-up attempt to crush democracy by making it harder for people to vote. His claims about election fraud are simply not true, as was clearly documented here right after the last election. But Trump is not alone in wanting to stop people from voting: for many years now, the right has been carrying out several strategies to suppress the votes of anyone they think will not vote for their favorite candidates:
One piece of that is gerrymandering – there is a good investigative report about that which looks at over 70,000 documents, maps and emails of one of the masterminds of the plan (which his daughter made public after he recently passed away).
Another big piece is removing voters from the voter registry, as documented here and here.
Another piece involves taking away certain people’s right to vote, such as people who were once convicted of felonies (and because the criminal justice system has racial biases built into it, that group of people is disproportionately non-white). More about that here.
One piece is about dismantling the Postal Service, which would make mail-in elections impossible – as described here.
Some of it involves simply throwing ballots away without looking at them, such as in this case.
‘The Corruption Is on Full Display: Trump Executive Order Directs All Agencies to Gut Business Regulations Amid Covid-19 – Common Dreams.
The Trump administration is not only putting itself above the law, it is trying to get rid of regulations that ensure the health, safety, sanitation, clean environment, etc. for working people. Why would they do that? Because having to follow regulations costs corporations money, and getting rid of them would give corporations bigger profits, even if it means working people will suffer and die as a result.
World: Cases: 5.0M (+100k). Deaths: 328k (+6k).
USA: Cases: 1.55M (+30k). Deaths: 93.4k (+1.6). Total Tested: 12.6M (+400k).
Hawaii: Cases: 643 (+2). Deaths: 17 (+0). Hospitalized: 82 (+0). Recovered: 578 (+0).
