Some people within the Trump administration, including US President Donald Trump himself, are hoping to reopen the country on May 1, but the actual decisions about resuming operations at schools, businesses and other establishments will be up to the people who shuttered them over COVID-19 in the first place: mayors and governors. Meanwhile, former US Vice President Joe Biden, who has all but locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, says he has a plan to reopen the country. But when is a plan not a plan? When it’s a list of ideas.
"The first batch of stimulus payments promised to American taxpayers amid the coronavirus pandemic were direct deposited on Saturday, the Internal Revenue Service said," CBS News reported Monday. What will this do to pull the economy out of the recession, if not depression?
"We Can’t Let Tech Companies Use This Crisis to Expand Their Power," reads a Friday headline in Jacobin. We touched on this last week, but this is such a well-written article and such an important issue that I thought it deserved deeper exploration. The article says, "Whether in China or the United States, tech companies are teaming up with governments to boost surveillance amid the coronavirus pandemic. It's a slippery slope that threatens to bring more civil liberties violations and more power for profit-hungry tech companies."
"Domestic Violence Is on the Rise With Coronavirus Lockdown. The Responses Are Missing the Point," reads the headline of a Monday article by Natasha Lennard in The Intercept. She writes, "To say that we have seen a spike in domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic would be an understatement. In the weeks since populations worldwide have been directed to 'stay home' to prevent the virus’s spread, cases of domestic violence have surged — and that’s reported cases."
GUESTS:
Ray Baker — Political analyst and host of the podcast Public Agenda.
Dr. Yolandra Hancock — Board-certified pediatrician and obesity medicine specialist who combines her hands-on clinical experience and public health expertise with her passion for building vibrant families and communities by providing patient-empowering, best-in-class health and wellness care to children and adolescents who are fighting obesity.
Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics and politics at St. Mary’s College in California and the author of the new book "The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump."
Amina McWhirter — Founder of the nonprofit Love By the Handles, domestic violence survivor and victims' advocate and author of "Shh… No More: Be Free & Live Life."
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