FEATURING BRADFORD R. KANE – Even as a large majority of the American public supports the coronavirus-related lockdowns of their states, small but vocal groups of protesters, egged on by some city and state level leaders, and most of all provoked by President Trump are calling on governors to “liberate” them from quarantine. They say their liberty is more important than anything including life itself. 

Now, a long-time government insider has written a book about what he called Pitchfork Populism and attempted to analyze how American democracy has dramatically changed since the fall of 2016.

Bradford R. Kane, has served in the US Congress as Legislative Counsel to Congresswoman Cardiss Collins; as Counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection; and as a member of President Clinton’s Task Force on Health Care Reform. He also worked for the state of California as Deputy Controller, Legislation, and then as a Deputy Secretary of Information Technology. His latest book is called Pitchfork Populism: Ten Political Forces That Shaped an Election and Continue to Change America.

Another 4.4 million Americans have joined the ranks of the unemployed according to new Labor Department figures based on those applying for jobless benefits. It was the fifth straight week of documented job losses in the millions. As of now, 26.5 million Americans have officially lost their jobs between March 15th and April 18th. The real figure is likely even higher. The coronavirus pandemic’s stunning impact on ordinary Americans appears to have little relation to the stock market however as the Dow Jones Industrial average shot up as did the ‘S and P’ index and the Nasdaq. Oil prices also shot up in spite of the fact that demand remains low. Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported that the economic fallout of the pandemic has resulted in the nation’s biggest banks becoming even bigger as major corporations flooded banks like JP Morgan Chase and others with $1 trillion in deposits. On Thursday the House of Representatives will vote on a $484 billion economic stimulus package to supplement the earlier CARES Act and renew the Paycheck Protection Program’s small business loan funding. The House is expected to pass the bill which was delayed by two weeks as Democrats sought but failed to include much needed funding for states and municipalities. 

A new Gallup poll has found that public trust in the federal government including the White House and lawmakers from both parties remains low – between 46-47%. However, nearly 70% trust their state governors to make the right decisions on quarantines and the economy. The Kaiser Family Foundation also released a new poll finding that a slim majority of Americans fear that the worst is yet to come on the coronavirus, and, a huge majority – 80% – “say strict shelter-in-place measures are worth it in order to protect people and limit the spread of coronavirus.” These sentiments are in line with most scientific experts who warn that those states pushing to reopen their economies over the next two weeks are making a grave mistake. One leading epidemiologist told the Washington Post, “The math is unfortunately pretty simple. It’s not a matter of whether infections will increase but by how much.” The Post also surmised that, “with a continued lack of testing, contact tracing and detailed guidance from federal health agencies… every state will conduct its own improvised experiment with thousands of lives in the balance.” Georgia, under Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, is apparently of most concern to scientists who worry about the state’s 830 Covid-19 deaths and less than 1% of the population being tested.

FEATURING CHRISTINE NEUMANN-ORTIZ – President Donald Trump has, throughout his presidency, used any and all excuses to justify hurting immigrants, locking them up, keeping them out, separating children from parents, denying them services, ignoring their contributions, and demonizing them to his racist base. So it should come as no surprise that he used the coronavirus pandemic to once more target immigrants – both undocumented and those attempting to enter with documents. 

Among his attacks on immigrants, Trump stopped all asylum seekers’ application processing and vowed to turn everyone away from the border. His administration signed a bill with a Republican provision to deny stimulus checks to millions of American citizens married to immigrants. And now he has vowed to suspend green card applications.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces De La Frontera.

FEATURING KELSEY FREEMAN – American supporters of President Trump routinely echo his simplistic rhetorical flourishes against immigrants to the US. They scream “build the wall” without bothering to understand what it is that drives migration from Central America and Mexico into the US, or what the human cost of that migration is. 

Now, a new book written by an American who spent time in Mexico and spoke to migrants heading north attempts to humanize the people who dream of a better life in the US. What they have experienced is harrowing and unlike anything most of us would ever experience.

Kelsey Freeman, writer and educator focusing on immigration policy, indigenous rights, social justice, and public policy. She received a Fulbright fellowship to teach English and study migration in Central Mexico and she currently runs a college readiness program for Native American high school students. Her new book is called No Option But North: The Migrant World and the Perilous Path Across the Border.

The US Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a $484 billion economic stimulus package to continue tackling the economic fallout from the Coronavirus pandemic. The majority of funds – $310 billion – will be used to replenish the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for small businesses. After news emerged that many large companies had taken advantage of loopholes in the first version of the PPP, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the second version of the bill would prevent large companies from taking advantage of taxpayer backed loans and forgivable grants. Most of the rest of the funding in the bill will support hospitals struggling with Covid-19 patients and to boost the US’s testing capabilities. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer addressed reporters after the vote and explained his view of the bill with respect to demands for a plan for widespread Covid testing. The House is expected to vote on the bill on Thursday but not everyone supports it wholeheartedly.  New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in an interview said Congress was abdicating its responsibility.

Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz appears to agree with Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. Stiglitz likened the US’s response to the economic impact of the coronavirus as that of a “third world country.” He added, “If you leave it to Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell [the Republican Senate majority leader] we will have a Great Depression. If we had the right policy structure in place we could avoid it easily.” Meanwhile NPR is reporting that big banks that processed the Paycheck Protection Program to lend money to small businesses themselves reaped $10 billion in fees. The outlet explained that, “The banks took in the fees while processing loans that required less vetting than regular bank loans and had little risk for the banks, the records show.” 

In immigration news, a day after President Trump tweeted that he would ban all immigration temporarily because of the coronavirus, he announced a 60-day moratorium on green card applicants being allowed to move to the US. During a White House Press briefing on Tuesday he said, “I will be issuing a temporary suspension of immigration into the United States. By pausing, we’ll help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs. It would be wrong to be replacing them with new immigrant labor flown in from abroad.” But then contradicting his desire to protect American jobs he carved out exceptions to the rules that included seasonal farm workers. The Washington Post explained that, “the president had once more announced a sweeping policy that was not yet ready for implementation, and his administration was trying to piece together an executive order for him to sign that would catch up to his whim.” 

In other immigration news, the ACLU has launched a lawsuit demanding the federal government immediately take “drastic action” to release immigrant detainees in detention facilities near the border.

FEATURING ANTONIA JUHASZ – On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig off the US’s Gulf Coast killed 11 crewmembers and caused the largest marine oil spill in history. The rig was leased by the transnational oil company BP and the explosion was linked to a combination of corporate negligence and lax federal government oversight. After spending tens of billions of dollars in clean up around the Louisiana coastline has the industry and government learned the right lessons? 

The Deepwater Horizon anniversary also comes at a historic moment for the oil and gas sector as the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic led to fossil fuel prices plummeting to negative values this week. 

Antonia Juhasz, leading energy analyst, author, and investigative journalist. She is an award-winning writer who has contributed to Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, CNN.com, The Nation, Ms., The Advocate, and more. She is the author of three books: Black Tide (2011), The Tyranny of Oil (2008), and The Bush Agenda (2006).

FEATURING CHAD SEALES – America is obsessed with celebrity pop culture and look to pop stars, actors, and others to abide by and even set our moral standards. Perhaps no one has exemplified the celebrity do-gooder more prominently than the front man of the Irish rock band U2. Known only as Bono, the legendary lead singer for decades has been the face of charitable giving especially in African nations. He has launched organizations, led benefit concerts and been lauded by Time Magazine as their “Person of the Year.” 

Now a new book examines the underbelly of Bono’s celebrity and what it represents. Spurred by his Christian beliefs Bono’s evangelical morality is actually quite consistent with neoliberal capitalism according to Religious Studies professor Chad Seales. 

Chad Seales, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His earlier book was The Secular Spectacle: Performing Religion in a Southern Town. His latest book is Religion Around Bono: Evangelical Enchantment and Neoliberal Capitalism.

President Donald Trump announced on Twitter late on Monday evening that he would be moving to suspend all immigration to the US. Specifically he wrote, “In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” According to the Washington Post, “Two White House officials said an executive order is being drafted and that Trump could sign it as soon as Tuesday. The order, which was discussed among senior staff members Monday, would suspend nearly all immigration under the rationale of preventing the spread of infection by foreigners arriving from abroad.” While it is not yet clear which aspects of immigration policy would be impacted, those who apply for green cards to the US are primarily family members of US citizens. The move is ironic given that in March the US State Department moved to process visa applications for seasonal guest workers who are primarily in the agricultural industry. Additionally, Trump has been pushing to reopen the economy domestically claiming that the virus is waning but did not apply that same standard to the nation’s borders. 

 Meanwhile Trump’s approval rating continues to drop. A new poll by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland found that a majority of Americans disapprove of his handling of the Covid-19 crisis. In contrast 72% approved of how their state’s governor has dealt with it. The poll also found that most Americans did not expect the economy to return to normal until the end of June or later. Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee in an interview this week said, “America, in some respects, has been abused by this president. He doesn’t give a damn about how you feel.”

Congress and the White House have said they are close to a deal on a new economic stimulus bill that would renew a loan fund for small businesses and increase funding for testing and hospitals. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said on Tuesday in an interview on CNN, “We have a deal and I believe we’ll pass it today.” But one Senate aide to a Republican Senator cautioned that GOP leaders have yet to sign off. News continues to emerge about how corporations that should not qualify as “small businesses” have been sucking up funds from the Paycheck Protection Program in the CARES Act that passed some weeks ago. A construction company called Continental Materials, which made $100 million in sales in 2019 received a $5.5 million loan. The company has ties to the Trump Administration. Associated Press found that, “at least 75 companies that received the aid were publicly traded, the AP found, and some had market values well over $100 million.” Those companies were, “recipients of a combined $300 million in low-interest, taxpayer-backed loans.” Now, a number of

FEATURING DAVID DAYEN – President Donald Trump has decided that the thousands of people disobeying Stay-at-Home orders around the country in the midst of a dangerous pandemic are, “great people.” From Annapolis, Maryland to San Diego, California, pro-Trump protesters are demanding “Give me Liberty or Give Me Death,” labeling quarantine orders as “tyranny.” 

Meanwhile there is little critique about the failure of the government to help ordinary Americans as millions lose employment and healthcare, cannot pay rent or mortgage and suffer from food insecurity.

David Dayen is the executive editor of The American Prospect. His work has appeared in The Intercept, The New Republic, HuffPost, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and more. His first book, Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud, winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize, was released by The New Press in 2016.

FEATURING STEPHANIE ABRAHAM – As large segments of the American population remains under quarantine orders to beat the scourge of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a predictable surge in the consumption of film and television. Today we’ll take a break from the current political situation and flash back to the politics of nearly 50 years ago through the lens of a new series on Hulu called Mrs. America. 

The show features the political battle over women’s rights through the activism of rightwing figures like Phyllis Schlafly as well as more well-known left wing figures like Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, and, the nation’s first African American female Presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm. Chisholm’s challenge to George McGovern at a time when President Richard Nixon was the incumbent mirrors so many of the political battles that played out just now between Senator Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden as Trump runs for reelection.

Stephanie Abraham is the Pop Culture Correspondent and Film Critic for Rising Up With Sonali. She is a writer and media critic, she helped found the feminist magazine make/shift and was the founding editor of the feminist magazine LOUDmouth. Her works have been published in McSweeney’s, Al Jazeera, Mizna and Bitch Magazine.