FEATURING LEAH SIMON-WEISBERG – In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration ordered the Department of Housing and Urban Development to suspend all foreclosures and evictions until April for those homeowners whose mortgages are backed by the federal government. The suspension only affects a small number of people however. 

In California, where a massive housing crisis has evolved over years, fears that the coronavirus will make the situation even worse has prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign an executive order on the issue. But Newsom’s order simply frees local governments to take steps to enact their own eviction bans. In Los Angeles, there are a dozen documented cases of people taking over empty housing citing fears over Covid-19.

Leah Simon-Weisberg, Legal Director for Anti-Displacement and Land Use Programs with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.

FEATURING DAVID DALEY – The health of American democracy has always been in question but more so in recent years with multiple assaults on voting rights and gerrymandering. Now, the author of an acclaimed book that exposed the secretive dirty dealings behind partisan gerrymandering, has a new book showcasing the activists that are fighting back. 

David Daley, journalist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Slate, the Washington Post, and New York magazine. He is a senior fellow at FairVote, the former editor of Salon, and lives in Massachusetts. His earlier book was Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind The Secret Plan To Steal America’s Democracy. His new book is called Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy.

President Donald Trump once more held his now-daily coronavirus task force press briefing at the White House and continued to refer to Covid-19 as “the Chinese virus,” despite calls by the World Health Organization for him to refrain from using racist language. In a meandering set of comments that showed an unprepared leader, Trump continued to deflect blame for the slow response of the federal government on the need for testing and medical equipment. A reporter asking why the US was not prepared. Another reporter challenged Trump about claims he has made about widespread availability of testing. The President finally lashed out at the gathered reporters saying he wanted just a handful of those journalists that he liked to attend the briefings.

California Congressman Ted Lieu wrote a scathing op-ed in the Washington Post on Thursday criticizing Trump’s repeated label of “the Chinese virus” to describe Covid-19. Lieu explained that the term, “is more than just xenophobic; it causes harm both to Asian Americans and to the White House’s response to this life-threatening pandemic.” Some Republicans have been echoing Trump’s racism including Senator John Cornyn who told a reporter that the term “Chinese virus” was justified, “because the culture where people eat bats and snakes and dogs and things like that, these viruses are transmitted from the animal to the people and that’s why China has been the source of a lot of these viruses like SARS, like MERS, the swine flu and now the coronavirus.” Incidentally MERS was first reported in Saudi Arabia and the swine flu originated in the US. 

Two members of Congress have now tested positive for the coronavirus: Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican and Ben McAdams, a Democrat from Utah. Amid reports that testing across the US is in chaos and those who need tests are not able to get them, there is anecdotal evidence that wealthy Americans and celebrities have no problem of access to virus testing. A New York Times article concluded that, “some prominent personalities have obtained tests without exhibiting symptoms or having known contact with someone who has the virus, as required by some testing guidelines. Others have refused to specify how they were tested.” Additionally, “In the eyes of some doctors, prominent figures appeared to be moving to the front of the line.” Meanwhile the federal government has given approval to Abbott Laboratories to sell a new coronavirus test. According to Reuters, “Abbott said it plans to immediately distribute around 150,000 tests to customers in the United States and will continue to ramp up production to hit a goal of providing up to 1 million tests per week.” 

FEATURING SANDRA FULTON – The Republican dominated Senate on Monday voted to extend a number of federal surveillance programs for 77 days – programs that had expired on Sunday. Rather than vote on a bill that would alter the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and extend the 2015 USA Freedom Act, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell chose a blanket 77-day extension of existing programs. 

Nearly 20 years ago in the wake of the September 11th 2001 attacks, Congress overwhelmingly passed the USA Patriot Act, enacting broad surveillance powers over Americans. Now, with the Covid-19 pandemic spreading around the world, will lawmakers once more push through sweeping surveillance powers while we remain distracted by the slow-moving disaster?

Sandra Fulton, Government Relations Director with the Free Press Action Fund.

FEATURING JAIME COURT – President Donald Trump’s administration is struggling to find its footing in the new reality of the coronavirus pandemic. Just as it seemed as though the past 6-12 months of impeachment proceedings and the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe were a closed chapter in American politics, Trump amidst the virus panic, announced he was considering a pardon for his former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Flynn was convicted of lying to the FBI and was one of the earliest Trump cabinet members to be disgraced. 

Now, the organization Consumer Watchdog has created a handy way to ensure Americans don’t forget about Trump’s dirty deeds – a deck of original playing cards.

Jamie Court, President of Consumer Watchdog, author of The Progressive’s Guide To Raising Hell: How To Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws And Get The Change You Voted For. 

President Donald Trump and his coronavirus task force gave another White House Press briefing about the government’s response to the spread of Covid-19. Trump opened his speech invoking the “Defense Production Act” and also reiterated his practice of calling the coronavirus “the Chinese virus.” The New York Times explained that the Defense Production Act of 1950 gives, “the administration expanded powers to direct factories to produce face masks, gowns, gloves and other medical supplies needed to fight the virus.” A reporter confronted Trump about his new practice of using the term “The Chinese Virus” and whether it was racist. Trump was also asked about the availability of ventilators in the US but had no real answer.

Meanwhile Congress and the White House are readying a whopping $1 trillion economic plan to try to stabilize an economy that is teetering from the virus. According to AP, “In a memorandum, Treasury proposed two $250 billion cash infusions to individuals: A first set of checks issued starting April 6, with a second wave in mid-May. The amounts would depend on income and family size.” Trump has also asked lawmakers for an additional $46 billion emergency funding request to, “help the government fight the coronavirus and to reverse cuts proposed just last month to the Centers for Disease Control.” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin this week estimated that the nation could face a whopping 20% unemployment rate if the stimulus package was not passed. But a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll has found that already nearly “1 in 5 households experiencing a layoff or a reduction in work hours.” 

Meanwhile in the earlier coronavirus relief bill that the House and White House negotiated last week, there are now reports that the already watered down paid sick leave provisions were further eroded. The original bill only guaranteed 12 weeks of paid leave for those workers employed by companies with fewer than 500 employees. This left out about 80% of workers. Now, after Republicans made their changes, the paid sick leave provision only applies to those whose children are at home because of school closures.  

Primary elections in three states were held on Tuesday: Florida, Illinois, and Arizona, and in all three former Vice President Joe Biden swept up a majority of votes, expanding his delegate lead over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Exit polls in Arizona, where Sanders had been projected to do well, reveal that older, more conservative Democrats showed up in large numbers to vote for Biden. Senator Sanders

FEATURING VIJAY PRASHAD – Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus could rise into the millions, warned government officials this week as a massive jump in fatalities was observed. The hardest hit nation in the Arab and Muslim world, Iran has so far lost nearly 1,000 lives and documented more than 16,000 confirmed cases of infection from Covid-19. But, in addition to contending with an unknown and terrifyingly infectious disease, Iranian authorities are struggling to marshal the necessary medical resources in the face of draconian US and European sanctions.  Across the world in Venezuela, a similar situation with sanctions is transpiring. 

Vijay Prashad, Director of Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, Writing Fellow and Chief Correspondent for Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is also a professor of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and the author of 18 books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South; and The Death of a Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution.

FEATURING ALAN HIRSCH – President Donald Trump has joked multiple times about running for a 3rd or 4th term. The coronavirus pandemic has sparked some Republicans to call for a postponement of the 2020 general election. And some primary races have already been postponed due to the virus. In a good year the US suffers from numerous barriers to voting, problems with voting machines, voter ID laws, and even foreign interference. The strength of our democracy relies on the trust of its citizens that elections are properly conducted. Now, a new history book explores the many chapters of Presidential election crises in the US with some solutions for our current era. 

Alan Hirsch, Instructor in the Humanities and Chair of the Justice and Law Studies program at Williams College, is the author of numerous works of legal scholarship and many books including Impeaching the President: Past, Present, and Future and For the People: What the Constitution Really Says About Your Rights. His latest book is A Short History of Presidential Election Crises (and how to prevent the next one).

President Donald Trump on Tuesday gathered his coronavirus response team for a White House press briefing, striking a far different tone than he had been. Concerned with the continued impact on the stock market Trump claimed it there was a “simple solution” to tackle the pandemic that has required whole cities to encourage semi-quarantines and even lockdowns. He also praised the federal government’s response and claimed despite evidence to the contrary that it was working well with state governments. When asked why he had come around to taking the virus seriously after downplaying it for weeks, Trump tried to rewrite history. The Washington Post compiled several instances when Trump downplayed the virus in contradiction to his current claim that he had been taking it seriously. Trump was also asked at Tuesday’s press briefing to respond to accusations of racism for repeatedly referring to the Covid-19 virus as the “Chinese Virus.”

Media outlets are reporting that Trump may have changed his tune on the seriousness of the virus after being shown a recent scientific paper by researchers in London who estimated that without drastic actions in the US to curb the spread of the disease, millions could die. According to the report, “in an unmitigated epidemic, we would predict approximately 510,000 deaths in [Great Britain] and 2.2 million in the US.” The White House on Monday recommended that people avoid traveling or gathering in public spaces. Additionally Trump said on Monday that  people restrict gatherings to no more than 10 at a time, going further that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which had recommended no gatherings of 50 or more people. Trump said that in consultation with public health officials, the crisis could continue until July or August. A new poll found that a majority of Americans trust federal agencies like the CDC more than they trust the President. 

The White House is also seeking a massive economic stimulus package to the tune of $850 billion that could put money directly into people’s hands. This represents a change compared to Trump’s initial idea of a payroll tax cut. According to the Washington Post, “The White House’s new $850 billion plan looks to effectively flood the economy with cash, officials said, and roughly $50 billion of it would go towards helping the airline industry, which is reeling from cancellations.” The package comes as the initial coronavirus relief bill passed by the House now heads to the Senate. Under that bill companies with fewer than 500 employees would be required to offer paid sick leave – but the vast majority of American workers would not be served by it. Meanwhile

FEATURING DOUG HENWOOD – Sunday night’s Presidential debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders was seen as a critical chance for Sanders to make his case as he lags more than a hundred delegates behind the former Vice President in a race that has now been upended by the coronavirus. It was the first time the two candidates faced off against only one another. The debate came 2 days before the next set of primary races. 

Doug Henwood, political economist, editor of Left Business Observer, author of After the New Economy, and My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets The Presidency. He is also the host of a weekly radio show on Pacifica called Behind the News.