04/10/20 04/10/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york city, the epicenter of the pandedemic, ths is democracy now! >> with a freak show in washshington. a totally dysfunctional government which is cauausing enormousus problblems and it ist as if nothing was known.. wast -- the pandemic

expected. his reaction was to cut back preparation for. amy: how did that united states, the richest country in the world, become the world's epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic? today we spend the hour with noam chomsky, the world-renowned political dissident, linguist, and author, discussing this unprecedented moment in history, and its political implications. this, as senator bernie sanders suspends his camampaign for the presidency. thet is c common toto say n now senator's campaign f failed. i think that is a mistake. i think it w was an extraordinay theccess, completely shifted arena ofof debate and discussio, issues thatt weree unthinkable a couple of years ago are now right in the middle of attention. amy: noam chomsky also describes how front line medical workers

worldwide give him hope. tribute to inspiring thee resources of the human spirit, a model l of what can be done along with the popular actionsns, moves to create a progressive international. these are all very positive signs. amy: today noam chomsky for the hour. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. coronavirus caseses are surging across the united states, the epicenter of the pandemic, with one person dying of covid-19 every 47 seconds. nearly 16,700 coronavirus deaths have been recorded in the united states, with the number of confirmed cases s approaching hf a million -- more than italy,, spain, and france combined.

the true rate of infections is far,r, far higher dudue to a critical l lack of tesesting. the e u.s. laboror departmenentd thursday ovever 6.6 millllion americanans filed fofor unemplot benefits ovever the e past weeks the e pace andnd scale of u.s. b losses is set to rival the great depression. officially, 17 million americans -- or more than 10% of the workforce -- are currently out of a job, though that statistic doesn't count immigrant workers or millions more who've tried and failed to file unemployment claims while state labor departments buckle under a tsunami of paperwork. around thehe united states, food pantries are reporting record demand even as donations have fallen precipitously. one pop-up pantry in the van nuys neighborhood of los angeles thursday drew a mile-long line of cars. on capitol hill, senators failed to agree thursday on a new round of coronavirus relief. democrats objected to a

republican effort to increase funding for a small business loan program by a quarter-trillion dollars. they're instead demanding a more expansive stimulus bill, with federal aid for hospitals and more assistance for state and local governments. here in new york, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has topped 160,000, with a record 799 deaths reported in just 24 hours, though that does not people,scores of perhaps hundreds, who died in their homes over the same period. the pace of deaths in new york now exceeds any country in the world except the united states as a whole. on hart island in the bronx, workers in hazmat suits are burying the bodies of dozens of unclaiaimed coronanavirus victin mass graraves each d day. "the new york daily news" reports nurses at at least three new york city hospitals who've tested positive for coronavirus

are being asked to work while sick. at the white house, top coronavirus task force scientist dr. anthony fauci said there are signs the pace of new infections in new york is falling as social distancing measures begin to bear fruitit. >> i i think yesesterday was something like 200 new hospitalizations. it has been as high as 1400 at any given time. so that is going in the right direction. i say that, and i always remind myself when i say that, that means that what we are doing is working. therefore, we need to continue to do it. amy: president trump continued to ignore the urgent pleas of public health officials thursday as he once again called on the u.s. top trump admitted coronavirus testing would not be widely available by then, but insisted his plan wouldn't risk a second wave of coronavirus infections and deaths.

trump was questioned by cnn correspondent jim acosta. >> how can the administration discussed the possibility of reopening the country when the administration does not have an adequate nationwide testing system for this virus? don't you need a nationwide testing system for the virus before you reopen? trumka right now we have the best testing system in the world. amy: over 1 million people across the u.s. have been tested for the coronavirus -- just a fraction of 1% of the population. after national public radio reported the trump administration was preparing to end federal support for coronavirus testing sites around the u.s. today, that's friday, the department of health and human services reversed course and said it will continunue to fund 41 community testing sites around the united states. in riverside, california, first responders evacuated a nursing

home wednesday after most staff members failed to show up for two consecutive days. more than a third of the facility's 90 residents tested positive for covid-19. in a hopeful sign, california governor gavin newsom said thursday the number of coronavirus patients requiring intensive care fell for the first time in california since the start of the pandemic. in kansas, democratic governor laura kelly is suing republican lawmakers to stop them from overturning her executive order limiting the size of church gatherings ahead of easter sunday services. in minnesota, attorney general keith ellison is pressing charges against a landlord who violated a state order barring evictions during the pandemic. in florida, billions of dollars worth of tomatoes, squash and other crops are rotting in fields as supply chains that normally provide the food service industry with fresh produce e have broken down. on thursday, florida governor ron desantis claimed the

coronavirus doesn't seem to threaten children and falsely stated that nobody under the age of 25 has died of covid-19 in the united states. in chicago, a second prisoner at the cook county jail has died of covid-19. nearly 300 pririsoners and more than 10000 staff a at the jail e tested posositive. on thursday, prisoners posted signs in the windows of their cells reading, "help, no supply" and "we're dying." in manhattan, the cathedral of st. john the divine has canceled plans to become a temporary field hospital for covid-19 patients. leaders of the church's progressive congregation had a partnership with the field hospital's operator, the christian fundamentalist group samaritan's purse. in a statement, church leaders wrote -- "the beliefs and ideologies of samaritan's purse and the cathedral are not the same, and while we were willing to welcome them into our home and our community, the cathedral would

not waver on our outspoken support for the rights of all, including our lgbtq family." the cathedral statement read. according to a cathedral source, samaritan's purse objected to a a pride flight on the front of the cathedral, which was unacccceptable t to samamaritan's purse. earlrlier this w week, new y yoy activistst reverand d billy wass tackckled and arrested by y pole after he p planted a r rainbow g near the samaritan purse field hospital tents in central park outside mount sinai hospital. at the vatican, pope francis is set to deliver good friday easter services by video stream from a nearly-empty st. peter's basilica. holy thursday services did not include a ritual washing of the feet in order to prevent community spread of the coronavirus. more thahan 18,000 itatalians he dieded of covid-19 i in less thn

two months, though italian mayorsrs say the true toll is likely f far higher, with many f the dead still uncounted. in france, authorities have ordered nursing homes to report deaths of confirmed or suspected coronavirus patients. officially, more than 12,000 have died of covid-19 across franance, but that number is expected to jump by over 40% once deaths outside of hospitals are counted. in the united kingngdom, primeme minister boris johnson has reportedly been moved out of intensive care but remains hospitalized with h covid-19. nearly britons have died from 808000 coronavirusus. in spain, lawmakers voting remotely have extended a national state of emergency to april 26. prime minister pedro sanchez told a nearly-empty parliament he's convinced social distancing measures will need to be extended even further into the month of may. in portugal, european union

finance ministers agreed thursday to a rescue package worth over a half trillion euros billion u.s. $590 in kazakhstan, a nasa astronaut and twtwo russian cosmonauts blasasted off on a soyuz rocket after an extended quarantine to thursday prevent the coronavirus from spreading to the international space station. chinese authorities hahave orded a lockdown of an eastern border city home to a hundreded thousad people after discovering a cluster of covid-19 cases they blame on travelers recently returned from russia. the lockdown comes as strict social distancing measures have been lifted in other parts of china, including wuhan, where the first coronavirus cases were detected late last year. in mexico city, sex workers are being forced to live o on the streets as many of the hotels where they work have closed and clients are staying away over coronavirus fears. this is one of sex workers in 7000 mexico city left without

income and without government assistance. >> the government is making us die of hunger because they have left us without work. they have left us without help because we are sex workers.. ththere are no benefitsts that p us and we have families to maintain. amy: back in the united states, frontline health care workers held a national day of action thursday to demand personal protective equipment, or ppe, for health-care workers, including employees of nursing homes and long-term care centers. in chicago, over 100 workers from stroger hospital and the cermak cook county jail hospital joined an seiu local 73 protest demanding universal testing of frontline health care workers, increased health care funding, and anan extension of paid sick leave and other benefits. this is chicago union leader and activist tyrone de'andre hawthorne. >> we are the essential workers that you hear about on the news every day. and since we can't go home and work from home like those who

are making six-figure salararie, then give us have to pay. amy: in campaign n news, formemr vice presisident joe b biden has unveiled p plans to o lower thee of medicare eligibility from 655 to and to forgive student loan debts for certain lower-income people. senator bernie sanders' former campaign secretary briahna joyoy great responded on twitter -- "that he's willing to shift on these issues after telling us they were 'pie-in-the-sky' indicates that we can go further. lower the age to 55 year one, 45 year 2, 35 year three, and cover everyone in year 4. that's medicare for all. tax wall street and cancel all student debt," briahna joy gray wrote. in immigration news, some 10,000 migrants have been sent back to mexico since march 21 after being apprehended by u.s. authorities without the chance to apply for asylum. the trump administration shut down the asylum system for the first time in decades, using an obscure public health rule that allows u.s.-mexico border officials to deny migrants due process citing coronavirus prevention measures. meanwhile, a federal judge in

san francisco has ordered the release of four men whose ages and medical conditions make them especially vulnerable to the coronavirus. this comes as immigrant rights advocates continue to fight for the release of all immigrant prisoners detained in crowded and unsanitary facilities. the trump family has lost a massive legal fight in federal court that sought to keep details of a racketeering and conspiracy to racketeer lawsuit against them a secret. trump and hisinst adult children will now likely be litigated publicly. the class action suit was originally filed in october 2018, alleging the trump family and their family-owned business promoted and endorsed a multi-level marketing, or pyramid scheme, called acn opportunity, llc. plaintiffs describe the failed enterprise as a get-rich-quick scheme that forced victims to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars s under the false e proe of success. and the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons has blamed the syrian government for carrying out three attacks involving chemical agents in march 2017 in northern syria.

the opcw has previously concluded that chemical weapons were used in the war but did not have the mandate to name perpetrators. syria and its military backer russia have repeatedly denied using chemical weapons and have accused rebel groups of staging attacks to implicate syrian forces. hundreds of thousands have been killed and over 10 million displaced since the war began in 2011. the vast majority of civilian deaths have been from syrian and russian airstrikes. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. we are broadcasting from new york city, the epicenter of the coronanavirus pandemic. the u.s. itself is now the worldwide epicenter of the pandemic, with one person dying of covid-19 every 47 seconds. nearly coronavirus deaths have 16,700 been recorded in the united states, with the number of confirmed cases approaching half a million -- more than italy, spain, and france

combined. the true rate of infections is far, far higigher due toto a crititical lack k of testingng. thisis comes as s the laborr depapartment saiaid thursdayay r 6.6 mimillion americans s filedr unememployment b benefits over e past w week as t the pace anande of u u.s. job lolosses is set to ririval the grgreat depresessio. for more on political implications of this i'm president a moment, we turn today to noam chomsky for the hour. the world-renowned political dissident, linguist, and author. laureate professor in the department of linguistics at the university of arizona and professor emeritus at massachusetts institute of technology where he taught for more than 50 years. his recent books include "global discontents: conversations on the rising threats to democracy," "who rules the world," and "requiem for the american dream: the 10 principles of concentration of wealth & power." noam chomsky joined us for a conversation wednesday from his home in tucson, arizona, where he is sheltering in place with

his wife, valeria. this was just before senator bernie sanders announced he is suspending before ththe democrac presidenential nominination, mag formerer vice prpresident joe bn ththe presumptive nominee to fae donald trump in the november election. i asked by -- i began by asking professor chomsky about what's happening g right nonow in thehe context of the 2020 elections and what you see possibly happening in november. reelected, it is indescribable disaster. itit means that the policies of the past four yeaears, which hae been extremely destructive to the american population, to the andd, will be continued probablyly accelerated. what this is going to mean for health is bad enough. i just mentioned the lancet figures.

it will get worse. what this means for the environment or the threat of nuclear war, which no one is talking about but is extremely serious, is indescribable. suppose biden is elected. i would anticipate it would be essentially a continuation of obama -- nothing very great, but at least not totally destructive -- and opportunities for an organized public to change what is being done, to impose pressures. it's common to say now that the sanders campaign failed. i think that's a mistake. i think it was an extraordinary success, completely shifted the arena of debate and discussion. issues that were unthinkable a

couple years ago are now right in the middle of attention. the worst crime he committed, in the eyes of the establishment, is not the policies he's proposing. it is the fact that he was able to inspire popular movements, which had already been developing -- occupy, black lives matter, many others -- and turn them into an activist movement, which doesn't just show up every couple years to push a leader and then go home, but applies constant pressure, constant actctivism, a and so o. that couldld affect a biden administration. alslso commit even n if it is just a holding action, it means there is time to deal with the major crises. or thedicare for all other major plank in the

senator's program -- freeee collegege education. becacause called the w whole mainstream spectrurum -- acrcros the whole maiainstream spspectr, this is condemned as too radical for americans. just think what that means. thatat i is an attack on americn culture and societyty, which you would e expect from s some hoste enemy. what it is s saying is it is too raradical to sayay that we shohd rise t to the levelel of comompe cocountries. they all havave some form of nationonal healthcare. most of f them have freeee highr education in the best-performing countries nationally like .inland,d, germany mexico, poor country,

high-quality, higher education, free. so to o say we should rise to te level of the rest of the wororld is considered to radical for americans. astonishing comment, asas i say, this is a crititique of americaa aat you wouould expecect from super hostile enemy. ththat is the leftft of thee spm . it tells you that we have really deep problems. it is not just trump. he has madade it much worse, but the e problelems go much deeper. just like say the ventilator .atastrophe just paste dish based on good logic with the extra hammer blow up making the government ineffectual to deal with things. this is much deeper than trump. the fact -- some

do. i'm sure you have reported. i'm surere you prorobably repord that setting of the dodoomsday clock in january. amy: yes. >> notice what happened. all through trumump's term, the minute hand of the doomsday clock, the best general assessment we have of the state of the world, moved closer to midnight termination. reachehed t the highehest point. it exceeded it.incn it moved to seconds. 100 seconds to mididnight thanks toto donald trump.. and republican pararty, which is just monstrorous, no longeger qualifies as a political p part. sheeeepishly echoeoes everythine master says. zero integrity. it is amazing to watch. he has surrounded himself by a

collection of sycophants who just repeat worshipfpfully everythingng he says. democracy attack on asas alongside the attack on the survival of humanity, to quote j.p. morgan chase again, the nuclear war raising the shred of nuclear war, dismantling the arms control system which is, to some extent,t, protected us from totatal disaster. it is astonishing to watch. the same memo that i quoted how the policies we are following is risking the survival of humanity and by arguing the banks should cut , in its fossil fuel support papart because o of the reputatl consequences. their reputation isis being

haharmed. what does ththat mean? are means that actctivists putting pressure on them andd they have to maintain some kind of reputation. now that is a good lesson and it works. we have seen some very striking examples. take that green new deal. a couple of years ago, that was an object of ridicule if it was mentioned at all. some form of green new deal is essential and for the survival of humanity. now it is part of the general agenda. why? engagement, especially people movement, young acacting signinificantly u up te point of sititting in congressssional offifices. ththey receiveved s support from alexexandria ocasio-cocortez and other young legisislators whohoe

into office as p part of the senators inspired popular wave, another great success. ed markey from massachusetts joined in. now it is art of the legislative agenda. the next step is to force it through and some viable form under very good ideas. well, that i is the waway thingn change. wiwith a biden presidency, there would be, if not a strongly sympathetic administration, at least onone that cacan be reach, can be pressured. and that is very importatant. if you look over the very good whohohistorian eric loomis has studied the efforts by working people to institute

,hanges in the socieiety sometimes for themselves, sometimes for the s society generally. and he has made anan interesting point.t. these efforts succeeded when there was a tolerant or sympathetic administratioion, nt when there wasn't. that is a big onone of many, enorormous differences betweenen trump the sosociopath and biden a pretty empty --- you can n push in one way or the another. this is s the momost crucial election in human history, literally. another four y years of trump ad we are in dedeep trouble. amy: back with professor noam chomsky in 30 seconds. ♪ [music break]

amy: "ave maria" performed today today is good friday, and the shell of the notre dame cathedral in paris. it was livestreamed. this is democracy now!, the quarantine report. as we my interview with noam chomsky, i i asked himim how the united statess has become ththe epicicenter of the pandemic. >> united states -- countries have reacted t to this in mamany ways. some very successfully, some more or less successssfully. one is at the bottom of the barrel, that is us.

the united states is the only major country that cannot even provide data to the world health organization because it is so dysfunctional. there's the background -- part of the background is the scandalous health care system, which simply is not ready for .nything out of the normal it doesn't work. by the exacerbated strange collection of g gangstes in washington -- it is s almosts if they systematically took every possible step p to make it .s bad ass possiblee through trump's term the last four years, he has simple and memedically - -- systematicallyn cutting back on the health

related aspectcts of the government. the wall goes up.p. but anything -- actually, anything that might benefit the general public goes down, particularly health. some of it is almost surreal. example, very exquisite timing, he canceled project inu.s. aid third world countries come also in china, to try to detect new viruses that migight turn into e antiticipated pandemic. in fact, it was anticipated at least since e the sars epidemicn 2003. so we have a kind of combination of factors. some of them specific to the united states.

if we want to ensure -- or at least hopope to avoid new pandemics, whihich are very liky to come, more serioious than ths 1 -- and part because of enormous risising threat of glol atming -- we have to look the sources of this one. it is very important to think them through. so just roughlhly to goo back, pandemics have been predicted by scientisists for years. the sars epidemic was quite serious. vaccicinesained, but -- it wawas the beginning of and thennent of vaccines proceeded to the testing phase. it was clear at that time that something more was going to -- and severalal epidemics did. it is not enough to know that. somebody has to pick up the bull

and run with it. you can do it? companies are the obvious place. but they have no interest in it. capitalist good logic. you look at market signals and there is no profit to be made. no profit to be made in preparing for predicted catastrophe, so they were not interested. at that point, another possibility is the government could step in. old enough to remember the terror of polio that was ended by a government-initiated funded vaccine,hat led to the which was free. no intellectual property rights. jonas salk said you should be as free as the sun. the ended the polio terror, measles tear, and others. of the government could not step

in because there is another particular aspect of the modern era, the neoliberal. 'su remember ronald reagan sunny smile and his little maxim about how government is the problem, not the solution. so the government can't enter. there were some efforts, nevertheless, to try to prepare for this. right now in new york and other places, the doctors and nurses agonizinged to make decisions about who to kill. not a nice decision to make. because they simply don't have equipment, and the main lack is to leaders. a huge shortage of ventilators. the obama administration did make an effort to try to prepare for this and this kind of dramatically reveals the kind of

factors that are leading the cataststrophe. theyy contracted with a a small company that was producing -- i call i it a low-costst fit to later -- ventilator. the compmpany was boughtht out a larger one, , which makes fancy, expensive ventilators. project.y shelved the presumably, they did not want compmpetition with their own costly ones. shortly aftfter that, they turnd to the government t and said thy wanted the contract ended. the rereason was it was not profitable enough. therefore, no ventilators. we have the same thing in hospspitals. the hospititals are under the neoliberal programs. they are supposed to be efficient, meaning no spare

capacity. just enough beds to get by. people, me included, can testify that even the best hospitals caused great pain and suffering to patients even before this broke out because of this just on time efficiency theept that was guiding privatized, for-profit health system. when anything hits out of the normal, it is just tough luck. anand this runs across the syst. so we have a combination of capitalist logicic, which is lethal but could be controlled but it canan't be c controloller the neoliliberal programs -- whh also said the government can't bull whento pick up the the private sector doesn't. on top of that -- this bebecomes

spspecificic to the ununited st- we h have a freak showow in washington. a totally dysfunctional gogovernment whichch is causing enormous problems. and d it is nonot that nothihins known. a pandemic was antnticipated all through trump's term, even beforere his reaction was to cut baback preparation foror it. astonishingly, this continued even after the pandemic hit. so on february 10 when itit was alreadady serious, trump releasd .is budget for the coming year take a look at it. the budget continues defunding of the center for disease control and other government institutions responsible for health. continues to defund.

it increases funding for some things like fossil fuel production. gives new subsidies to the fossil fuel industries. i mean, it is that the country theaybe not as if -- country simply run by sociopataths. and the r results -- so we cut back on the efforts to deal with the pandemic that is takining shape and we increrease the efforts to destroy thehe enenvironment in which -- - the efforts s in which the uninited states underer trump is in the lead in racing to the abyss. i don't have t to tell you, that is a far more serious threat than the corononavirus. this is bad stuff serious. particularly in the united states. we w will recover somehow.

r recover fromg to the melting of the polarizer sheets, which is leading to feedback which are known to increase as they melt. less reflective surface, more s,sorption in the dark sea the warming that is melting increases. that is just one of the factors that is leading to destruction unless we do something about it. and it is not a secret. just recently, for example, a couple of weeks ago there was an interesting league, a memo from j.p. morgan chase, america's biggest bank, which warned, in their words, the survival of humanity is at risk if we continue on our present course. which included the e funding o f

fossil fuel industries by the bank itself. said we are endanangering the survival of huhumanity. openone who has gotot eyes in the trumpet a administratatis very well aware of thihis. it i is difficult toto find wors for this. other countries -- first of all, it is not a secret. it has become conveninient. donald trump is desperately seeking some scapegoatat that he can blame for his astonishing ..ilures and incompetence the most recent one is the world healalth organization, the china bashing -- someone e else is responsible. but the facts are very clear. informed theickly world health organization last finding that they were

patients with pneumonia-like symptoms with unknown ideology. did not know what it was. about a week later, january 7, they made public the fact the world health organization, the general scientific community in the world, the chinese scientists have found what the source was, the coronavirus .esembling sars virus they identified the genome. they were providing the information to the world. the u.s. intelligence was well aware of it. they spent january and february trying to get someone in the white house to pay attention to the fact that there is major pandemic. i guess nobody could listen. trump was off playing golf or

maybe listening -- checking his tv ratings. yesterday, we lelearned one very highgh level official close to e administration, peter navarro, in late january had sent a very strong message to the white house saying, this is a real danger. but even he could not break through. amy: numb, you mention peter navarro, the trade representative sending a memo that just came out in "ththe new york times" in the january warning of the coronavirus saying i think something like up to a million people could die. settingp took from that a travel ban on china. but not doing a corollary, which was ensuring that the united states had the proper tests and also had the ppe, the protective

personal equipment, that doctors and nurses, that the custodial staff at hospitals needed to stay alive to treat patients to help them stay alive. and the intelligence agencies came out at this time, even before navarro, they were all warning trump. if you could go back to even two years ago when he disbanded his pandemic unit within the national security council, said that when he is at the table in china talking about spending money on bombs or awol, they're not saying, "sir, you also have to look at what is happening here." and that unit, pandemic unit, not only is about how we deal in the united states, but also ensuring as the cdc does and other agencies of the u.s. government that scientists are sent out to other coununtries le china to investigate and to help other countries because when it

comes to a pandemic, we are all in this together. so if you could talk about these early warnings and why testing and this personal protective quit -- personal is so important. remember, you continued even after the pandemic was alrlready enforced. the budget propoposal is astonishing. this is february 10, well into furtheremic, trump cuts the health-related components of thegovovernment, continuing run to the axe justt as they wee throughout his term. actually, the clips you played before a are part of a very cler strarategy, whether this is consciously planned or just

intuitive, i don't know. simply makingn of one statement today, contradicting it tomorrow, cocoming out with something else the next day is really brilliant. it means he is going to o be vindicated. whatever happens, he will have set it. you shoot arrows at random, some of them are going to hit the target. in his technique with the fox echo chamberer and the worshipfl limbo,mply tuned to fox etc., they're just going to pick whatever hapappens to be right d say, look, o our wonderful presidident, the grereatest presidident we've ever had, our savior, knew it all along. and here was a statement.

can't miss. it was very much like you technique of producing constant lies. i don't even have toto go throuh it. the fact checkers, talk them up i thihink maybe 20,000 byby now. he is laughing all the way. this is perfect. you tell conststant lies, what happens is the concept of truth just disappears. amy: professor noam chomsky world-renowned political dissident. political back with him in 30 seconds. ♪ [music break]

amy: "here comes the sun" by the beatles. every time a patieient coded, te staff decided to counter it by playing "here comes the sign" on the pa system every time a patient was released. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we returned to my interview with professor, linguist, world-renowned political dissident noam chomsky. so this is a clip of the daily show with trevor noahh called "saluting the heroes of the coronavirus pandumbic." members of the right-wing media like sean hannity, rush limbaugh, and others as well as republican members of congress and the trump adminisistration dowownplg

or mocking the coronavirusus endemic stop it starts on february 24 and ends with donald trump claiming march 17 and hannity saying march h 18 thehed alwaways taken the pandemic seriously. this is saluting the heroes of the coronavirus pandumbic. >> tonight i can report the sky is falling. we're all doomed. the end is near. the pop is imminent anand you'e going to all die or at least that is what the media i would like you to think. >> the coronavirus is the common cold. it is as pandemic as the andromomeda strain as,, my god,f you get a come your debt. >> the more i learned about it, the less concern i am because a lot of hyperbole. >> n national left-wing media plplaying up fears of the coronavirus. >> the skyky is falling becausee have a few dozen cases off

coronanavirus ununder cruise sh? i am far more concerned with stepping on a used heroin needle than i am of getting the coronavivirus, but mayaybe thahs just me. itit is a virus like the flu. all the talk about coronavirus being so much more deaeadly doesesn't reflect reality. >> this irish should be compared to t the flu because a at worst worst case scenario it could be the flu.u. looks morere deadly and lethal threat right now is not the coronavirus, it is the ordinary old flu. clubs nobody has died yet in the united states as far as we know frfrom this disease. >> and the facts are actually pretty r reassuring.g. clububs you nenever know wawatcg all this stuff. close you want to know how i really feel about the coronavirus? if i get it, i w will beat it. >> i am not afraid of the coronavirus and no one should be that afraid, either. >> is very difficult to contract this virus. >> it is milder than we thought. >> when you hear the context, it is not quite as scary.

>> everyone i know is flying right now. terminals are pretty much dead. remember back in the day we had a seat next to possibly empty? you could stretch out a littlee more? it is like that on every flight. >> if you're healthy, it is a great time to go out and go to a local restaurant. likely you can get in eaeasily. >> matt gaetz mocked concerns about the spread of the virus by wearing a gas mask on capitol hill. >> reported in the capital asked senator inhofe of oklahoma however cautious he was taking echoho he extended his hanand. >> i expect the president will continue to do that. i will do it. >> we have contained this. we have conontained this. a airtighght. it iss pretty y close to airtig. >> it is contained. >> zero people in the united states of america have died from the coronavirus. zero. >> this is like the flu.

it will disapappear one d day. like a miracacle, it will disappear. i thouought it was a a pandemimg before i called it a pandemic. close this amy: sean hannity and donald trump on march 17 and march 18 saying we have always taken the coronavirus pandemic seriously. that is from "the daily show" with trevor noah, who is now doing his show each night from home to protect community spread. roll noam chomsky, world-renowned political dissident, linguist, and author, as you listen to fox news - -- these are the people that presidedent trump channels. these are perhaps his senior advisers as they contitinually played this down. do you hold president trump responsible? would youu say he has s blood on

his hands? >> therere's no question. trump makes some crazy statement , then amplified by the fox news echo chamber. the next day, he says the opposite. chambmber, a good amplifies that. notice the tone of the reporting is interesting. it is s all with perfect confidence, not what any sanane, .ational person would say "we really don''t know," "this s the way things look today." nonothing like that. absolute confidence, no matter leader sasays we amplify it. it is an i interesting dialogue. they amplify whahat he says. sean hannity can sayay this is e greaeatest movove that was evere

in the history of the world and then the next morning trump tunes in to fox and friends and listens to whatever is said. that becomes his thought for the day. trump moving literally to try to destroy the country and destroy the world. because in the background should never get is a far greater threat that is coming closer and closer while trump is leading the way to destruction. .e has some assistance on the southern part of the hemisphere is anotother madman, jair bolsonaro.. with trumping to vie to see who can be the worst criminal on the plplanet. ,e is telling the brazilians

it's nothing. it is just a cold. the brazilians don't get viruses. we are immune to them. his healthth minister and d othr inicialals are trying to butt and say, look, t this is really serious. many of the governorors are ignoring w what he says.s. but brazilil is facing a terribe crisis. it hasas actually y got to the t where in the favellas, these miserable slums in rio where the government does nothing for the people, othersrs have intervened to t try to impose sensible restrictions insofar as it is possible under those miserable conditions. who? gangs.me the crime gangs that torch the population have moved in to try to impose health standards.

the indigenous population is facing our virtual genocide, which will not bother bolsonaro. he doesn't think there should be there anyway. meanwhile, while all of this is going on, scientific papers are i in 15ut warning that yeyears, the amazon is going to carbonrom being a net sink to a net carbon co2 emitter. ththat is devevastating for bra. in fact, for thehe whole worldl. soso we h have the colossus of e north, a as it is called, in the hands of sociopaths who are doing whatever they can to harm , andountry a and the world the cololossus of the south, ast is b being called, is, in its on way, doing the same thing. i am able to follow this pretty

closelely because mymy wife e va is r resilient andnd keeps me up-to-date with the newews thats coming o out in brazil. it is simply shocking to s see. meanwhile,e, othther countries e reacting sensibly. so as s soon as thee news startd coming out from china -- andnd there was plenty o of news right the countries on the chinese periphery began to react stop taiwan, south korea, singapore. quite effectively. some of them basically have it under control. new zealand has apparently quashed the coronavirus. nav almost complpletely -- maybe almost in easily. with a complete lockdown for a couple of weeks. have come close to ending it. , most ofinto europe

europe just gathered but some countries, the better organized countries, did act right away. .t is very striking with angela merkel's sober, speaking to the german people, describing exactly what is happening and what has to be done. amy: we only have a minute but i wanted to ask you, as we speak to you at your home in tucson, arizona, where you are sheltering at home, where you are staying at home because we are in the midst of this endemic , to prevent community spread and to protect you and your family, what gives you hope? that i amuld say

following a strict regimen because my wife valeria is taking charge and i follow her orders. valeria a and i are in isolatio. but whatat gives me hope is the actions the popular groups are taking all over the world. many of them. some off them -- there are some things happening that are truly inspiring. take the doctors and the nurses who are working overtime under exextremely dangerous condition, lacking -- especially in the united states -- lacking even minimal support, being compelled to make these agonizing decisions about who t to kill tomorrow.. but they are doing it. tribute to the

resources of the human spirit, a model of what can be done along with the p popular actions. the moves to create a progressive international. these are all very positive signs. you can look back in recent history, there have been times where things looked really hopeless and dedesperate. i can go back to my early childhood, the late 1930's or late 1 1940's. it looked as though the rise of was next herbal. victory after victory. it looked like you could not stop it. it was the most horrible development in human history. well, turns out i did not know that at the time that u.s. planers were expecting that the post world war -- postwar world would be divided between u.s. germanled world and

controlled war including all of eurasia. there have been other -- the civil rights movement. the freedom writers going out into alabamama to try to encoure black farmers to go to vote despite the threaeat -- serious threat of f being murdered and being murdered themselves. what humansamples of can do and have done. and we see many signs of it today and that is the basis for hope. amy: noam chomsky, the world-renowned political dissident, linguist, and author. speaking to us from tucson where he is sheltering at home. professor, talk for more

than half a century. amid the pandemic we still want to wish a very happy birthday to david prude, anna ozbek, and maria taracena. democracy now! is working with as few people onsite as possible. the majority of our amazing team is working from home.

[woman singing in russian] sami yaffa: a city of 12 millionon souls, moscow is the stewpot of history. the original recipe comes frfrom the czarsrs, but or the yeaears, the dish has been mixed with despotism,m, marinatd in bolshevism, and seasoned with h the salt of f the cold wr and the pepper of propaganda. but what's cooking here these days? [woman continues singing] i'm sami