Category Archives: Viva!

Covid-19 Saturday Thoughts

It is the weekend and the virus is still killing Americans…..Thursday we got new orders from the mayor’s office…..

Covid-19 Saturday Thoughts

Trump Threatens To Block Aid For US Post Office If It Does Not Raise Prices

Enough of your ego, President Trump! Cost boost would hurt us not Amazon! Dumb is as dumb does! Get smart, please.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to block federal aid for the U.S. Postal Service unless it raises shipping rates for online companies like Amazon.com, prompting criticism that the move would hurt consumers relying more than usual on packages during the coronavirus outbreak.

The president has long accused the post office of charging too little for packages, saying that deliveries for Amazon and others cost the service money. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post newspaper, which Trump has accused of unfair coverage of his administration. “The Postal Service is a joke. Because they’re handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies, and every time they bring a package, they lose money on it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “The Post Office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times.” The president also accused post office officials of being “very cozy” with big online merchants. With the U.S. Postal Service slated to run out of money this summer, the U.S. Congress authorized the Treasury Department to lend it up to $10 billion as part of an earlier $2.3 trillion coronavirus stimulus package. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his team was meeting with post office officials “and actually, we are going to put certain criteria for a postal reform program as part of the loan.”

Trump told Mnuchin at the event he would not support aid unless the postal service raised its rates. “If they don’t do it, I’m not signing anything and … I’m not authorizing you to do anything,” Trump said. Later on Friday, Trump said: “I will never let our Post Office fail. It has been mismanaged for years, especially since the advent of the internet and modern-day technology. The people that work there are great, and we’re going to keep them happy, healthy, and well!”

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Read more of this story at Slashdot.

To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to allow States to provide coverage under the Medicaid program for vaccines and treatment for COVID-19 for uninsured individuals without the imposition of cost sharing requirements, and for other purposes. (H.R. 6616) – GovTrack.us

H.R. 6616. In GovTrack.us, a database of bills in the U.S. Congress.
— Read on www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr6616

Coronavirus: Few companies in India have re-started, despite government’s green light for resumption, South Asia News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

NEW DELHI – It is difficult to spot a vehicle or a human being at Manesar Industrial Model Township, an industrial area with around 2,000 factories.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
— Read on www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/coronavirus-few-companies-in-india-have-re-started-despite-governments-green-light

Coronavirus update: WHO warns against using ‘immunity passports’, Sri Lanka goes back into lockdown, Australia reports two more COVID-19 deaths – ABC News

The World Health Organization says there is “no evidence” that people who have recovered from COVID-19 are protected from a second infection, Sri Lanka reinstates a nationwide curfew after recording its highest daily increase in cases, and two deaths in Australia bring the national toll to 81.
— Read on mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-25/coronavirus-update-australia-covid19-donald-trump-sri-lanka/12183558

‘We did it to ourselves’: scientist says intrusion into nature led to pandemic

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Leading US biologist Thomas Lovejoy says to stop future outbreaks we need more respect for natural world

The vast illegal wildlife trade and humanity’s excessive intrusion into nature is to blame for the coronavirus pandemic, according to a leading US scientist who says “this is not nature’s revenge, we did it to ourselves”.

Scientists are discovering two to four new viruses are created every year as a result of human infringement on the natural world, and any one of those could turn into a pandemic, according to Thomas Lovejoy, who coined the term “biological diversity” in 1980 and is often referred to as the godfather of biodiversity.

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