Move Along Folks, Nothing to See Here
In the morning paper, the headline is "To Trump, economy determines discourse." Washington Post, Page One, above the fold. The article doesn't really stand out but someday you will look back and wonder if it was really as bad as you remember it. So I'll just copy and paste a few paragraphs for posterity's sake.
President Trump in recent weeks has sought to block or downplay information about the severity of the coronavirus pandemic as he urges a return to normalcy and the rekindling of an economy that has been devastated by public health restrictions aimed at mitigating the outbreak.
His administration has sidelined or replaced officials not seen as loyal, rebuffed congressional requests for testimony, dismissed jarring statistics and models, praised states for reopening without meeting White House guidelines and, briefly, pushed to disband a task force created to combat the virus and communicate about the public health crisis.
Several Republican governors are following Trump’s lead as an effort takes shape to control the narrative about a pandemic that has continued to rage throughout a quickly reopening country. With polls showing most consumers still afraid to venture out of their homes, the Trump administration has intensified its efforts to soothe some of those fears through a messaging campaign that relies on tightly controlling information about a virus that has proven stubbornly difficult to contain.
“If the message were to go out with complete objectivity, it would be disastrous for Trump,” said Max Skidmore, a political science professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the author of a book on presidential responses to pandemics. “So he is doing his best to prevent experts from speaking out or using their expertise, and he’s simply trying to divert attention.”
Trump tightens grip on coronavirus information as he pushes to restart the economy
posted by JimK at 7:21 PM
424 Comments:
Trump's still trying to enact the GOP health care plan:
1. Don't get sick
2. If you do get sick, die quickly
"it's all the more urgent to fix or somehow temper the system of "one state, two votes" regardless of whether the two senators represent 40M or 0.6M Americans."
if both Houses of Congress are elected the same way, why have two?
TTFers feign commitment to the Constitution but only to the extent it reinforces the homosexual agenda
let's tally their problems with our Constitution:
1. electoral college
they want it eliminated
2. Senate
it can stay, in name, but only if it mirrors the House of Reps
3. freedom to peaceably assemble to petition the government for the redress of agreements
not if there's a virus going around, even if you don't have it
4. right to the free exercise of religion
after having the government take over every aspect of life, they want no official to ever use their religious beliefs to inform their views, effectively making religion only acceptable in private homes. sorry, Rev MLK
also, if your religion believes homosexuality is inconsistent with God's plan and you have religious disciplines to ameliorate such desires, they want those religious practices banned
also, if your religion believes homosexuality is inconsistent with God's plan, they want to force you to hire employees that are homosexual and don't support the mission of their employer
also, if your religion believes homosexuality is inconsistent with God's plan, they want to force you to marry homosexual couples and participate in their weddings by providing them with wedding services like catering, baking, florists, entertainment, et al
also, if your religion believes life is sacred, they want the government to make you pay for your employees' abortion and birth control
5. freedom of speech
not if you have too much money, or you have formed a corporation; then, they think your speech should be limited and/or banned
6. right to trial by peers
they believe the government has a right to put you under house arrest during a pandemic, even if you are not contagious
7. right to bear arms
fugeddaboutit
TTF thinks law-abiding citizens can't be trusted to own guns
what if someone like Obama, with dictator-type delusions, tried to abolish democracy? the citizens would have no recourse
8. equal protection under the law
if they decide homosexuals, among others, should be a protected group, they want them to get extra protection
9. states' jurisdiction over their own affairs
they support all kinds of things to intrude, like mail fraud or interstate commerce, giving them a flimsy excuse to bully state governments
10. right against seizure of property
they believe the government should be able to force you to buy health insurance
they also assert that many things are in the Constitution when they aren't:
-right to kill unborn children up to the point of birth
-right to force local governments to marry couples with only one gender between them
-unlimited migration from other countries
this is only a small sample but it's worth noting that TTFers also believe the Declaration of Independence should be banned from public discourse because it asserts inalienable rights bestowed by the Creator
they think the mention of a Creator should be eliminated and don't like those rights the Creator has bestowed
1. life
not if you're unborn and inconvenient
2. liberty
not if the government decides it's in the public interest to confine you to your home
3. pursuit of happiness
not if you run a small business
IS THERE ANY PART OF THE CONSTITUTION OR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE TTF DOES SUPPORT?
Experts now believe the epidemic was seeded in NY and the main incubator was the filthy subway system.
Yet, Andrew Cuomo didn't consider cleaning them daily UNTIL MAY 4TH!
He also forced nursing homes, where the most vulnerable live, to take in contagious COVID-19 patients, CAUSING MORE DEATHS FROM THAT ONE ACT THAN IN THE ENTIRE STATE OF FLORIDA!!!
Andrew Cuomo is having the time of his life. His approval ratings are through the roof and he’s being talked about as a replacement for Joe Biden should Joe wander off somewhere without his Visiting Angel, never to be found again. Hipster merchandise featuring his face is exploding on Etsy and he’s getting a nightly hour with his own brother on CNN to chat about oh, this and that, and whatever is happening in his day at the given moment. It’s quite the arrangement! Andrew doesn’t ask his brother why he broke quarantine, literally endangering lives and the younger Fredo doesn’t ask him about 1,700 previously uncounted COVID related deaths in New York nursing homes, or why he didn’t authorize disinfecting subway cars until early May, a full 90 days after the first cases were reported on March 1.
Governors in Florida, Texas and Georgia bear the brunt of media criticism for their handling of testing, shutdowns and hospitalizations. In each instance, no outbreak or death count in those states has come close to matching New York. National media went to plaid over Jacksonville’s reopened beaches, while glossing over the hordes of impatient hipsters grouping together throughout New York parks, the entire time lavishing praise on the governor of the moment.
There is something deeply unsettling about the way Cuomo’s handling of the epidemic has been lionized by the national media, and treated as a reality show by his brother’s network; especially when it’s viewed in tandem with attempts to delegitimize governors in other states who have competently faced down similar challenges. California’s Gavin Newsom deserves credit for pouncing early, while also crediting the work of the Trump administration. Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington was the first statewide elected executive outside of Donald Trump forced into dealing with the pandemic head on. What looked to be a spiraling disaster was quickly contained. Yet in both cases, the national New York-based media ignored them, choosing to zone in on the dangers of yokel hick states and their GOP governors, catering to a catastrophe that never actually came. Remember spring breakers all amassing on beaches and on patios?
Meanwhile, researchers believe that New York City was the epicenter for the spread throughout most of the country and that the New York subway system — far from a beacon of cleanliness at the best of times — was the largest incubator of the virus, according to the New York Times . As the virus took hold throughout the city, elected officials denounced concerns about its origins as racist and xenophobic, and encouraging their constituents to go about life as usual and attend festivals and movie theaters. As it turns out, the mayor snuffing out a groundhog was just a practice run.
Last week, the bombshell dropped that someone in New York authorized the use of nursing homes for recovering patients of COVID-19, a decision that led to approximately 1,700 casualties. That’s more COVID deaths than the entire state of Florida…but if you watch the news, you’ll only hear about supposed massive failure on the part of Gov. Ron DeSantis. We still don’t know who made that decision in New York, or what Cuomo knows about it…because the toughest questions he’s faced have been from his infected brother. (By the way, how are the plasma donations going, Chris?) The fact subway cars had not been sterilized nightly until May 4 has gone all but unscrutinized as well.
Yet through it all, Daddy Cuomo has enjoyed an 80 percent approval rating from his uber-liberal voting base and adoring media, who believe in pinning every death in New York on the decision-making coming out of the White House. Maybe Cuomo should replace Biden on the Democratic ticket, and beat Donald Trump. Perhaps once he’s in the White House, the press would take more of an interest in the several missteps that have, as of yet, gone under-examined on his watch.
The difference between what religions preach and what they do has never been larger. They say they love lgbt people but they spread lies about us, oppose civil rights for us and work very hard to make our lives miserable. They say truth matters but then vote for a man who lies constantly. When you build your reputation on being ethical but constantly get caught doing the opposite people can see that faith is not a virtue.
Jim said "it's all the more urgent to fix or somehow temper the system of "one state, two votes" regardless of whether the two senators represent 40M or 0.6M Americans."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “if both Houses of Congress are elected the same way, why have two?"
The House and Senate have different roles, making the election of Senators democatic doesn't change that.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "TTFers feign commitment to the Constitution but only to the extent it reinforces the homosexual agenda"
The founding fathers declared all men are created equal. Being true to the constituion demands that gays have the same rights as everyone else.
Wyatt/Regina/ bad anonymous said "let's tally their problems with our Constitution: 1. electoral college they want it eliminated"
The electoral college makes some votes worth more than others - that's anti-democratic, it must go if the United States is to be a democracy (of course Wyatt and Regina Hardiman would rather have a dictatorship).
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “3. freedom to peaceably assemble to petition the government for the redress of agreements not if there's a virus going around, even if you don't have it”.
Its not liberals that want to prevent the ability to petition the government, its evangelical christians who have passed laws that deny lgbt people the right to seek protection from the government
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “4. right to the free exercise of religion ...after having the government take over every aspect of life, they want no official to ever use their religious beliefs to inform their views, effectively making religion only acceptable in private homes. sorry, Rev MLK”
No rights are absolute, rights of individuals have to be balanced. Christians are angry because they demand superiority in the law over all else - that’s just not on in a democracy.
Waytt/Regina/bad anonymous said “also, if your religion believes homosexuality is inconsistent with God's plan and you have religious disciplines to ameliorate such desires, they want those religious practices banned”
There are laws against fraud and selling products that harm rather than help people. Its no different with anti-gay religionists attempts to force gays to pretend to be heterosexual.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “also, if your religion believes homosexuality is inconsistent with God's plan, they want to force you to hire employees that are homosexual and don't support the mission of their employer”
Everyone is forced by law to hire employees who are christian and don’t support the mission of their employer. Either gays should be included in that law or there should be no such law favouring christians. Equality is a bedrock principle of democracy.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “also, if your religion believes homosexuality is inconsistent with God's plan, they want to force you to marry homosexual couples and participate in their weddings by providing them with wedding services like catering, baking, florists, entertainment, et al”
If you believe religion is harmful christians want to force you to marry them, participate in their weddings, provide them catering, baking, et al. Again we see special rights for christians - this is anti-democratic.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “also, if your religion believes life is sacred, they want the government to make you pay for your employees' abortion and birth control”
LOL, “life is sacred” from the hypocrites who regularly advocate for gays to be executed and assaulted.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “5. freedom of speech not if you have too much money, or you have formed a corporation; then, they think your speech should be limited and/or banned”
That’s a lie, responsible politicans seek to prevent the wealthy from having vastly more say in public policy than the average person by flooding the airwaves with propaganda only they can afford to do. One person, one vote. If you really card about freedom of speech you’d be excoriating Trump for blocking everyone in the government from providing constitutionally mandated oversight of the presidential branch.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “right to trial by peers they believe the government has a right to put you under house arrest during a pandemic, even if you are not contagious”
Rights are not absolute, you don’t get to do anything you please without considering the harm to others. Its estimated 2 million would die if the government did nothing about the epidemic compared to 20,000 if everything was done right. The public has a right to ask individuals to stay home in order to save millions of our lives. Its about balance, no right is absolute, you don’t get to harm and kill people just for the fun of it.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “right to bear arms TTF thinks law-abiding citizens can't be trusted to own guns”
Given the mass murder and tens of thousands of lives lost needlessly to gun violence its clear Americans can’t be trusted to own guns. Despite that, no Democratic politician is advocating a ban on all guns.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “what if someone like Obama, with dictator-type delusions, tried to abolish democracy? the citizens would have no recourse”
You making such a statement is the height of hypocrisy given that Obama did no such thing and Trump has shat all over the rule of law, put people loyal to him and not the constitution in places of power and has made one move after another to stop people from voting.
Wyatt/Regina claim they are not trolls, but when they try to claim Obama was a dictator given the dictatorial moves of Trump, its obvious they just post stuff like this to rile honest folks.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “equal protection under the law if they decide homosexuals, among others, should be a protected group, they want them to get extra protection”
Again, a profoundly hypocritical lie. Bigots like Wyatt/Regina call gays getting the same rights as everyone else “special” rights when the truth is the only group that has special rights in the U.S. is christians who have gained the right to ignore anti-discrimination laws they don’t like while everyone else has to follow them.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “right against seizure of property they believe the government should be able to force you to buy health insurance”
Right, just like it forces you to have insurance to drive your car. Of course being the hypocrites you are you don’t mention that.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “they also assert that many things are in the Constitution when they aren't: -right to kill unborn children up to the point of birth -right to force local governments to marry couples with only one gender between them -unlimited migration from other countries”
Its a a lie that anyone is advocating unlimited immigration or abortion up until the point of birth. Forcing women to give birth is sexist and anti-woman. Local governments are forced to marry couples who aren’t christian, its no different with gay marriage. If you want to work for the government you need to leave your bigotry at home.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “TTFers also believe the Declaration of Independence should be banned from public discourse because it asserts inalienable rights bestowed by the Creator”
No one has said such a thing. Again, non-stop lies from Wyatt/Regina. “Creator” in the Declaration of Independence does not refer to the christian god, it is an inclusive term that includes nature as “creator”.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “they think the mention of a Creator should be eliminated and don't like those rights the Creator has bestowed life not if you're unborn and inconvenient”
How hypocritical coming from the two people who advocate executing lgbt people and tell old folks they should be willing to die of coronovirus to help re-elect the dicator Trump. As we again see, the “values” of christians like Wyatt/Regina are easily disposed of depending on whose life is at stake.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “liberty not if the government decides it's in the public interest to confine you to your home”
Rights are not absolute. You don’t have the right to kill gays just because your bible tells you too. As a citizen you not only have rights, you have responsibilities like staying at home to prevent tens of thousands of needless deaths.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “pursuit of happiness not if you run a small business”
You don’t support the pursuit of happiness if a person is lgbt. You’re a hypocrite
In blue states run by Democrats the rate of new infections is dropping because they've been responsible in social distancing and sheltering in place.
In red states run by Republicans the rate of new infections is increasing because Republicans think they can gaslight the coronavirus in the same way they gaslight the public.
Nature will not be fooled. Red states are causing an explosion in coronoavirus.
By failing to take their medicine now, red states are causing an explosion in coronavirus cases that's going to greatly prolong the economic hardship necessary to bring this epidemic under control.
Making the situation even worse, red states are beginning to hide the numbers of people infected and dying. For example in meat packing plants that have been coronavirus hot-spots Republican governors have made it against the law to tell the public how many infections there are in those facilities.
Republicans are trying to hide the death and destruction of coronavirus from the public to help re-elect Trump. It won't work, they won't be able to hide from the public the disruptions to the food supply or their neighbours and family dying.
And then Wyatt and Regina Hardiman try to claim its Democrats who don't care about the sanctity of life.
In 2016 the Obama administration told then President-elect Trump and his advisers of the high likelihood that a pandemic would strike the nation and advised the incoming administration to take appropriate steps to reduce its impact. Obama officials also left their Trump counterparts a step-by-step guide on how to respond to a pandemic. Trump and his inner circle ignored that guidance."
Trump Death Clock
47344
Estimated Portion U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Due To POTUS Inaction
In January 2020, the Trump administration was advised that immediate action was required to stop the spread of COVID-19. According to NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, “there was a lot of pushback” to this advice. President Trump declined to act until March 16th. Epidemiologists now estimate that, had mitigation measures been implemented one week earlier, 60% of American COVID-19 deaths would have been avoided.
Hypocrites Wyatt and Regina Hardiman have repeatedly claimed to be concerned about the sanctity of life while at the same time they oppose the lockdown measures that would have prevented 47,000 needless deaths due to inaction on coronavirus. Wyatt and Regina want tens of thousands more to die needlessly so people like them can get a hair cut and go to McDonald’s.
The U.S. Senate is undemocratic, massively more so (WY:CA 68:1) than in the Founding Fathers' time. People should not be penalized, having their representation count for far less, for living in populous cities and states.
A majority of the Senate is answerable to only 17% of Americans, those living in the half of the states with lowest populations plus half of Louisiana. Similarly, the senators for 84% of Americans do not constitute a majority.
It's urgent to fix or somehow temper the system of "one state, two votes" regardless of whether the two senators represent 40M or 0.6M Americans.
Kentucky Christians Win Fight to Spread COVID-19 via In-Person Church Services
Last night, a federal judge blocked Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear‘s temporary ban on mass gatherings, opening the door for a hell of a lot of in-person church services tomorrow, where COVID-19 will inevitably spread among the Christians who wrongly think they’re victims of a conspiracy.
Their irresponsible actions could then affect all the people they come into contact with.
There were multiple lawsuits making the same basic argument: that the religious freedoms of Christians were under attack. One group of Christians at Maryville Baptist Church became furious when police officers placed warnings on cars outside their church after they held an in-person service in mid-April. They soon turned the persecution dial to 11, saying that their situation was analogous to Japanese-Americans who were placed in internment camps in the 1940s.
Last night, they won the exemption they sought… but only for their church.
A different lawsuit, filed by Tabernacle Baptist Church in Nicholasville, is the one that will now open the door for widespread gatherings in churches. That ruling by U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove said that Beshear didn’t act maliciously, but his restraining order failed to include “a compelling reason” to limit the right of people to gather for church.
Apparently, You might die and/or infect everyone you meet isn’t compelling enough.
The judge also failed to note the differences between places like grocery stores (where people don’t chat, go in and out as quickly as possible, and buy life-sustaining food) and churches that could easily be held online.
… If social distancing is good enough for Home Depot and Kroger, it is good enough for in-person religious services which, unlike the foregoing, benefit from constitutional protection.
The end result is that churches in Kentucky will be allowed to meet in-person, provided they adhere to social distancing and hygiene guidelines… but there’s really no way to verify that’s happening. People who haven’t seen their friends in months will inevitably talk at close distances, hug, and breath communal air. This is a disaster waiting to happen. They could listen to sermons online, but these people aren’t interested in private religion. They need public displays of piety or else it doesn’t count. And if others suffer, too damn bad.
More people will die because these Christians reject science, wrongly think Democrats are out to get them, and value their wants over everyone else’s needs.
"Last night, a federal judge blocked Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear‘s temporary ban on mass gatherings, opening the door for a hell of a lot of in-person church services tomorrow, where COVID-19 will inevitably spread among the Christians who wrongly think they’re victims of a conspiracy."
churches never closed in Florida
They are doing much better than states that closed them
"The U.S. Senate is undemocratic, massively more so (WY:CA 68:1) than in the Founding Fathers' time. People should not be penalized, having their representation count for far less, for living in populous cities and states.
A majority of the Senate is answerable to only 17% of Americans, those living in the half of the states with lowest populations plus half of Louisiana. Similarly, the senators for 84% of Americans do not constitute a majority.
It's urgent to fix or somehow temper the system of "one state, two votes" regardless of whether the two senators represent 40M or 0.6M Americans."
The problem with your thinking is that the Federal government should really only be for the common defense. It's not there to run the whole country.
On the Federal level, constituents are not individuals but states.
At the state level level, is where you have popular votes and that's why the Federal government shouldn't be micromanaging states.
If you had one big popular vote, why have Congressmen and Senators from states at all? Why not just have the whole country vote on all the legislators, and why be bicameral at all?
One of Wyatt/Regina's favourite lies is that gays have special rights. in reality it is christians who have special rights.
Hehmant’s post above perfectly illustrates that. Everyone except christians has to follow the ban on mass gatherings. Gays don’t get to gather en-masse for a support group but christians get to for their church. Again and again we see this throught the United States - its one law after another exempting christians from responsiblities everyone else has and granting them privileges no one else has, like seen above.
And remember, not too long ago Wyatt and Regina were defending christian churches as being mostly responsible in avoiding large gatherings. They were saying that it was only a couple of bad renegade churches that were holding services. They said the real problem was the kids in New Jersey getting together in large groups for bon-fires.
We see this over and over, they assert they have one value one time and then later oppose that value. These people who describe themselves with terms like "values voters" have no values they won't compromise for immediate gain in placing themselves above others.
Folks, did you notice in Wyatt/Regina's posts above how heavy they were on promoting anti-gay policies?
These are people who claim to be rational, logical and working in the best interests of society and yet its clear that by far their highest priority is oppressing harmless lgbt people.
I submit that there are many, many more beneficial actions society should prioritize above attacking us and yet nothing is more important to Wyatt and Regina.
To have the best society we can our highest priority has to be maximizing the happiness for all in an equal and fair way. Wyatt and Regina put their anti-gay religion ahead of this and that hurts society.
In one CDC survey after another about 10% of the population identifies as "something other than heterosexual". Christians have been trying to eliminate gays from society for thousands of years and yet they're always here, lgbt people always persist.
The reason for that is that lgbt people are a deeply ingrained part of the nature of humanity, trying to eliminate us is like cutting off a body part. I believe lgbt people have a natural tendency to be the peacemakers, that we naturally increase harmony in our tribes. To eliminate us is to make society more violent and destructive.
If we want the best possible world for all of us, that world needs to include lgbt people as equals.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "churches never closed in Florida They are doing much better than states that closed them".
Not true. The rate of infections is rising in Florida and other red states while it declines in blue states. The Florida governor is now blocking the release of information on the numbers of deaths and infections to try and gaslight the public into believing its all over and everything an be wonderful again.
That's going to backfire and prolong and increase the harm to the economy we've been going through to get that under control. Blue states have succeeded in this. Red states tragically think they can gaslight nature.
Wyatt/Regina said “The problem with your thinking is that the Federal government should really only be for the common defense. It's not there to run the whole country.”
So, no fire department, no free grades one to twelve eduction, no control over pollution, no Medicare, no Medicaid, no Social Security.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “On the Federal level, constituents are not individuals but states.”
Utter nonsense. The Bill of Rights applies to individuals, not groups of people.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “If you had one big popular vote, why have Congressmen and Senators from states at all? Why not just have the whole country vote on all the legislators, and why be bicameral at all?”
If the only reason to have a Senate is to give some people’s votes more weight than others then why have a Senate?
The federal government is there to benefit all Americans equally and fairly. Any unique concerns of the states are the concern of the state governments. People want their Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Air traffic control, schools, roads and bridges
Seniors Are Bailing On Trump Over COVID Response
The New York Times reports:
For years, Republicans and Mr. Trump have relied on older Americans, the United States’ largest voting bloc, to offset Democrats’ advantage with younger voters. But seniors are also the most vulnerable to the coronavirus, and the Trump campaign’s internal polls show his support among voters over age 65 softening to a concerning degree, people familiar with the numbers said.
A recent Morning Consult poll found that Mr. Trump’s approval rating on the handling of the coronavirus was lower with seniors than with any other group other than young voters. And Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee, in recent polls held a 10-point advantage among voters who are 65 and older. A poll commissioned by the campaign showed a similar double-digit gap.
Seniors are seeing the hypocrisy of a Republican party that claims to be pro-life asking seniors to die to help the economy,
it's happening the same as always
Randy is flooding the blog with repetitive posts - 15 of 23 or 66%
that's assuming only the "priya lunn" comments are from him
he's doing it for no other reason than a narcissistic desire to crowd out all other comments
within a few days, he will fill up the blog
sad....
"3. freedom to peaceably assemble to petition the government for the redress of agreements
not if there's a virus going around, even if you don't have it"
First of all, no one said freedom of assembly should be removed from the Constitution.
But since you can't win on any reasonable arguments, you wildly distort anything anyone says here into unrecognizable hyperbole to set up a straw man for you to knock down. Apparently you think you are so smart that no one will recognize your persistently childish antics and see them for the ridiculousness they are.
Protesting in large groups in the middle of a pandemic is just plain stupid. It wouldn't be so bad if you were only a danger to yourselves, but blocking hospital access while you're doing it threatens the lives of innocent people. The Constitution doesn't allow that.
Secondly, you're not going to know you're infected until it's too late. Just ask the folks in the White House who recently tested positive - do you really think they would have gone to work if they were symptomatic?
Do you even know what symptomatic means? I have to ask, because you keep saying things that are just plain stupid.
"6. right to trial by peers
they believe the government has a right to put you under house arrest during a pandemic, even if you are not contagious"
No one here ever advocated that. You must be getting REALLY worried about Rump's election chances when you're just making all this $41t up.
I hear there are some meat packing plants looking for more workers - maybe you should send them your resume.
"5. freedom of speech
not if you have too much money, or you have formed a corporation; then, they think your speech should be limited and/or banned"
Our congress no longer votes the way citizens want - we no longer have a majoritarian democracy. Our political system routinely ignores the policy preferences of average citizens in favor of those of the economic elites. That conclusion was reached by professors at Princeton: https://tinyurl.com/y9fwxzg5
Essentially, what we have now is a plutocracy, and the plutocrats at the top have left voting and elections in place to fool the citizens into thinking they still have a democracy. It's way past time to get our democracy back.
"he's doing it for no other reason than a narcissistic desire to crowd out all other comments
within a few days, he will fill up the blog"
Uh-oh, it looks like the troll's handlers are upset he can't keep up with Priya!
How much are they going to dock your pay?
"First of all, no one said freedom of assembly should be removed from the Constitution."
that's true
you are not concerned with it being in the Constitution
you just want to get rid of the Constitution, or just as good, marginalize it so it doesn't apply
"But since you can't win on any reasonable arguments, you wildly distort anything anyone says here into unrecognizable hyperbole to set up a straw man for you to knock down. Apparently you think you are so smart that no one will recognize your persistently childish antics and see them for the ridiculousness they are."
later on, this fellow who unleashed a rant of hyperbole to attack...hyperbole!
will call me stupid
LOL!!
I actually found this paragraph amusing
"Protesting in large groups in the middle of a pandemic is just plain stupid. It wouldn't be so bad if you were only a danger to yourselves, but blocking hospital access while you're doing it threatens the lives of innocent people."
there was one such incident but those people should be arrested
TTF was actually more upset about the protest
there is no one whose life was threatened
"Secondly, you're not going to know you're infected until it's too late. Just ask the folks in the White House who recently tested positive - do you really think they would have gone to work if they were symptomatic?
Do you even know what symptomatic means? I have to ask, because you keep saying things that are just plain stupid."
we can't afford to keep businesses closed in America until a vaccine is discovered
we can figure out ways to be safe and still open up commercial activity
if we had the unlimited funds you seem to think we do, we could build a plastic bubble for everyone in America and put them in with a month's worth of food
what? you don't want to do that?
you murderer!!!!!!1
"you're not going to know you're infected until it's too late"
so, let's lock everyone in their house because we don't know?
geez, we don't know who might secretly be a murderous psychopath or a serial killer or a promiscuous homosexual with AIDS or a person who voted for Hillary
should we lock everyone up forever then?
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “we can't afford to keep businesses closed in America until a vaccine is discovered we can figure out ways to be safe and still open up commercial activity”
No one is advocating keeping businesses closed until a vaccine is discovered - once again you are trying to deceive people. We already know the ways to be safe and open up commercial activity - the Centres For Disease Control has drawn up a set of guidelines as to how and when to open up, basically hinged on dropping infection rates for two weeks. The Trump administration told the CDC its guidelines “would never see the light of day”. The Trump administration wants to open things up even though infections are increasing in Republican states. This is going to result in a wave of new infections that will shutdown the economy even longer. Republicans are going to stretch out the pandemic and cost many more deaths and much more economic hardship.
Good anonymous said “"you're not going to know you're infected until it's too late"
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “so, let's lock everyone in their house because we don't know?”
This is the only way to mitigate this is social distancing and shelter in place. The countries (and states like New York) that have done this have declining infection rates and are in a position to open things up bit by bit. You are demanding that tens of thousands more Americans die needlessly with even greater economic hardship. Your freedom as a citizen is not absolute, you don’t get to kill gays just because your bible says so and you don’t get to kill thousands because you won’t accept any responsibilities.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said “Merrick Garland...LOL”.
Mitch McConnell obstructed Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland for over a year saying “The people should have a say.” When asked if he’d abide by his own rule if an opening came up on the supreme court in this election year he laughed and said “No”.
Its not getting their guy on the supreme court that really thrills Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous, its that Republicans lied and cheated to do so that really thrills them.
Wyatt and Regina Hardiman are thrilled when their Republican politicians behave corruptly, even if they could get what they want behaving legally they would rather violate rule of law to do it. Wyatt and Regina have no moral values they adhere to.
Feds: Vaccine Doctor Was Retaliated Against By Trump
The New York Times reports:
A federal investigative office has found “reasonable grounds to believe” that the Trump administration was retaliating against a whistle-blower, Dr. Rick Bright, when he was ousted from a government research agency combating the coronavirus, and said he should be reinstated for 45 days while it investigates, his lawyers said Friday.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports that the lawyers, Debra S. Katz and Lisa J. Banks, said in a statement that they were notified late Thursday afternoon that the Office of Special Counsel, which protects whistle-blowers, had “made a threshold determination” that HHS “violated the Whistleblower Protection Act by removing Dr. Bright from his position because he made protected disclosures in the best interest of the American public.”
The finding comes just days after the lawyers filed a whistle-blower complaint saying that Dr. Bright’s removal last month as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority was intended as payback.
It was just a few weeks ago that Wyatt and Regina were supporters of shelter-in-place and social distancing such as banning large gatherings (like church).
They chastised churches that remained open, now they demand churches be allowed to open. The situation hasn't changed, infection rates are still going up in red states. Wyatt and Regina have no integrity, they don't stand for anything, and there are no principles they hold dear.
On Jan 22. Texas a Texas manufacturer offered to make millions of N95 masks and Trump told them to go take a hike.
To this day there are chronic shortages of personal protective equipment around the United States
"you are not concerned with it being in the Constitution
you just want to get rid of the Constitution, or just as good, marginalize it so it doesn't apply"
No moron. Pointing out that there are safer ways to protest during pandemic - like writing letters or posting videos is just common sense. It's not an attack on the Constitution. No matter how desperately you want to try and convince people of that.
"we can't afford to keep businesses closed in America until a vaccine is discovered"
No one here ever said we should. You just keep making this sh0t up. Again, you are unable to address the commentary like an adult and just draw things to ridiculous conclusions, and then, surprise! State that your ridiculous conclusion is ridiculous.
I go to the grocery store every week. I've had to go the pharmacy a couple of times as well. I haven't gone to the movie theater though.
"we can figure out ways to be safe and still open up commercial activity"
Funny, I've been doing that all along. What's your problem?
"if we had the unlimited funds you seem to think we do, we could build a plastic bubble for everyone in America and put them in with a month's worth of food"
Trump has been running up the deficit by about a trillion dollars a year to just to keep the plutocrats happy. You'd think some more of that money would be available to help keep all the workers they need fed.
"what? you don't want to do that?
you murderer!!!!!!1"
Amigos, I could drop quotes all night from that article in the NYT :-
"Where is the test and trace program needed to safely reopen the country? Where is the national plan even to consider such an effort? Trump has surrendered. He never looked smaller or more pathetic than when sitting last Sunday on his little chair in front of the Lincoln Memorial."
Georgia, which opened up business to howls from TTFers a couple of weeks ago, has seen hospitalizations drop to the lowest level since April 8
Florida, which never closed churches and was predicted to be a catastrophe when the beaches were open during Spring break, has never had a tenth of the problem states with blue governors have had, even though it is one of the most populous states in the country
NY might have done better if they simply cleaned their subway cars daily. That didn't occur to Andrew "Mr Leader" Cuomo UNTIL MAY 4TH!!!!!
if all the trillions spent in a vain attempt to bail out the economy from an eight-week national lockdown were spent to clean Manhattan's subways and protect vulnerable populations, we'd have no problem now
the lockdowns were never meant to eradicate the virus, they were intended to prevent a surge that hospitals couldn't cope with
many hospitals are now economically threatened by the lockdown
"On Jan 22. Texas a Texas manufacturer offered to make millions of N95 masks and Trump told them to go take a hike.
To this day there are chronic shortages of personal protective equipment around the United States"
Trump hasn't got the authority to forbid this company from making masks. They would have made millions on profits if they had
why didn't they?
why haven't they since?
states would have been beating down their doors
go take a hike, your crap doesn't make sense
"Where is the test and trace program needed to safely reopen the country?"
random testing has shown about twenty percent of the population positive for the virus
tracing all those contacts is as economically feasible as building a plastic bubble for everyone in America and putting them in with a month's worth of food
"Funny, I've been doing that all along. What's your problem?"
my problem is that our economy has been destroyed by catering to alarmists
once again, too much government has cause a calamity
as you say, people can figure out how to be safe without governmental coercion
if people can go to the grocery store and the pharmacy and the hardware store and the liquor store and the gardening store safely, we can find ways to make other businesses safe
"No moron. Pointing out that there are safer ways to protest during pandemic - like writing letters or posting videos is just common sense. It's not an attack on the Constitution."
your opposition to the right of people to peaceably assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances is not the only example I cited of your contempt for the Constitution
truth is, you don't agree with most of it, which is why you want judges that will reinterpret
"No matter how desperately you want to try and convince people of that."
Why would I be desperate? I've already won. This issue is one of the main reasons Donald Trump defeated Hillary and he has kept his promises. We have installed Supreme Court justices that now constitute a majority for Constitutional originalism, for a generation, and are well on the way toward doing the same in courts across the land.
So, the opinions of a handful of slobbering miscreants on a minor lunatic fringe blog don't make me desperate.
LOL!
More than 76 thousand of your fellow American citizens are dead, with more dying every day, and all you can do is laugh about people who are suffering and spew your prejudices against some of God's creations.
You're just about as despicable as the pussy-grabber you idolize.
"my problem is that our economy has been destroyed by catering to alarmists"
The Rumpster never catered to alarmists, and most states are opening already without even meeting the criteria his own CDC put out. He never followed guidelines for masks, and has only recently started paying attention to social distancing. I wonder if it has anything to do with several of the people working in the White House testing positive.
"once again, too much government has cause a calamity"
The Rumpster has always been a calamity, and he dismantled the pandemic response team to make government smaller, just before we needed it the most.
"as you say, people can figure out how to be safe without governmental coercion"
Indeed. That's why all those meat packing plants shut down on their own... their workers were making their locations major hot spots for the virus and starting to die off. The Rumpster ordered them to stay open after more than 20 of them closed.
Sounds like Rump is doing the coercion here. Apparently people don't want to risk their life making hot dogs. Go figure.
"your opposition to the right of people to peaceably assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances is not the only example I cited of your contempt for the Constitution"
I've never had any contempt for the Constitution, yet you keep desperately asserting that I have, and keep twisting what people post here to ridiculous ends.
I don't have to refute what you said about me or my beliefs because anyone that has mastered 5th grade reading can see you're just making a bunch of shit up and accusing TTFers of it.
I also have a job, and there are better things for me to do than argue with a belligerent idiot who just makes up straw men to know down.
"This issue is one of the main reasons Donald Trump defeated Hillary and he has kept his promises."
Trump only won because of 77,774 votes that happened to be spread out among 3 state with enough electoral college points to push the scale in his favor. About 3 million more people voted for Hillary.
Now many of the farmers and blue collar workers you say he appealed to are going bankrupt. They are of course free to vote for the 2nd Republican president in a row to utterly tank the US economy, but I've got a sneaking suspicion some of those voters have learned the hard way that Republicans really don't give a gnat's ass about them.
A company that offered to make life-saving protective masks as the coronavirus began its spread across the U.S. in January was snubbed by government officials.
Michael Bowen, the owner of medical supply company Prestige Ameritech, told the Department of Health and Human Services that he could begin producing 1.7 million N95 masks a week, only to be denied, The Washington Post first reported.
“We still have four like-new N95 manufacturing lines,” Bowen emailed a top HHS official on Jan. 22, the day the first coronavirus case was detected in the country. “Reactivating these machines would be very difficult and very expensive but could be achieved in a dire situation.”
Laura Wolf, director of the agency’s Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection, responded that the government wasn’t “anywhere near answering those questions for you yet” in response to Bowen’s offer.
“We are the last major domestic mask company,” Bowen emailed the next day. “My phones are ringing now, so I don’t ‘need’ government business. I’m just letting you know that I can help you preserve our infrastructure if things ever get really bad. I’m a patriot first, businessman second.”
The new revelation is part of an 89-page whistleblower complaint from former federal vaccine chief Rick Bright, who alleges he was removed from his position as retaliation for his early warnings about the pandemic and his refusal to make “potentially harmful drugs” to combat the virus.
The newly revealed emails also show that Bright attempted to warn agency leaders about mask shortages, citing Bowen’s offer. But the offer fell “on deaf ears,” Bright told Bowen in an email.
“U.S. mask supply is at imminent risk,” Bowen replied. “Rick, I think we’re in deep shit.”
Trump was surprised to win in 2016; then he resolved to do as little work as possible and got everyone else to do it.
He didn't read, didn't prepare and as you can see from every public appearance, he just wings it.
And that is why the preparation and management of the pandemic is a total chaotic disaster in the USA; whereas in Germany/Italy/Spain they have come to grips by imposing strict lock down and strict social distancing.
But hey, Trump, party on dude.
There is a vital lesson we must learn from the effect of this virus:
Ban zero hours contracts and end low pay.
These two things have made a vast layer of society, mostly doing vital if unskilled jobs, vulnerable to every wind that blows.
They are without security, without health care, without savings, without prospects of any employment.
In the USA the Govt. will not guarantee their pay cheques, as all countries in Europe have done. $1200 is paltry.
Trump's turn to reopen the economy when all advisers and indicators say 'keep the lock down' until the Guidelines are met, is not for the benefit of these low pad workers; Trump's turn is for his electoral advantage.
Trump % Republicans need to see the economy bounce back but it will be on the slave labour of the zero-hours contractees and the extremely low paid unskilled.
They are expendable, that is the message. They may die but at least there won't be a shortage of meat products !
Now is the point in time for us to regroup the priorities of our social and capital system: we need these vital workers, let's give them a fair shot at better employment conditions..
end low pay and zero hours contracts; they are the new slavery.
A good example of a zero hour contract is where an employee is given ten hours work this week, four hours next week, and not given any hours the following week.
But he has to remain available or they'll drop him from their books altogether and he'll get nothing.
It is an indentured exploitation.
Should states ease pandemic restrictions or extend lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders into the summer? That question confronts leaders across the United States. President Trump says that “we have to get our country open.” And many governors are moving quickly in that direction.
Critics are dismayed. Citing forecasts that COVID-19 deaths could rise to 3,000 per day in June, they say that reopening without better defenses against infections is reckless. That assessment may well be correct. Many insist it is immoral, too. The columnist Amy Z. Quinn says the Trump administration is “choosing money over lives.” In a CNN news analysis, Daniel Burke offers this characterization of America’s choice: “Should we reopen the economy to help the majority or protect the lives of the vulnerable?”
Denunciations of that sort cast the lockdown debate as a straightforward battle between a pro-human and a pro-economy camp. But the actual trade-offs are not straightforward. Set aside “flattening the curve,” which will continue to make sense. Are ongoing, onerous shutdowns warranted beyond what is necessary to avoid overwhelming ambulances, hospitals, and morgues?
The answer depends in part on an unknown: how close the country is to containing the virus.
The U.S. may have no treatment, no vaccine, and no ability to scale up testing and quarantining, due to technical hurdles or Trump administration incompetence or a lack of public buy-in.
If we knew that a broadly effective COVID-19 treatment was imminent, or that a working vaccine was months away, minimizing infections through social distancing until that moment would be the right course. At the other extreme, if we will never have an effective treatment or vaccine and most everyone will get infected eventually, then the costs of social distancing are untenable. We don’t know where we sit on that spectrum. So we cannot know what the best way forward is even if we place the highest possible value on preserving life and protecting the vulnerable.
That uncertainty means, at the very least, that Americans should carefully consider the potential costs of prolonged shutdowns lest they cause more deaths or harm to the vulnerable than they spare.
Ongoing closures and supply-chain interruptions in wealthier countries could have catastrophic ripple effects, Michael T. Klare warns in The Nation, highlighting the possibility that global starvation could soar. “Even where supply chains remain intact, many poor countries lack the funds to pay for imported food,” he explained. “This has long been a problem for the least-developed countries, which often depend on international food aid … It is becoming even more severe as the number of people without jobs multiplies and donor countries balk at higher aid expenditures.” His article wasn’t a brief for reopening the economy, but it implied a need to guard against shutdowns that cause more deaths via starvation than are saved by slowing infections.
“A prolonged depression will stunt lives as surely as any viral epidemic, and its toll will not be confined to the elderly,” Heather Mac Donald argues at Spectator USA. “The shuttering of auto manufacturing plants led to an 85 percent increase in opioid overdose deaths in the surrounding counties over seven years, according to a recent study.” Deficit spending may be necessary to keep people afloat, she continued, but the wealth that permits it could quickly evaporate. “The enormously complex web of trade, once killed, cannot be brought back to life by government stimulus. And who is going to pay for all that deficit spending as businesses close and tax revenues disappear?”
At Arc Digital, Esther O’Reilly asks, “Why should we assume that a crashing economy would leave the healthcare system standing?” Fleshing out the matter, she writes, “You can’t keep the hospital lights on without keeping on the lights of the economic sectors undergirding it. Yes, our doctors and nurses are running out of masks and gloves, which is a serious problem. It would also be a serious problem if we lost the means and the manpower to make more, or if the hospitals ran out of cash on hand to buy more beds, ventilators, etc. And there’s the rub. We are being told we can’t fight the virus without pausing the economy, yet we can’t fight the virus without the economy.”
School closures may do long-term damage, as well. A recent study in The Lancet concluded that “the evidence for the effectiveness of school closures and other school social distancing measures comes almost entirely from influenza outbreaks,” and that the effectiveness of school measures in a coronavirus outbreak is uncertain. Another article in The Lancet noted that “education is one of the strongest predictors of the health and the wealth of a country’s future workers, and the impact of long-term school closure on educational outcomes, future earnings, the health of young people, and future national productivity has not been quantified.” A given closure could add months to the lives of some and subtract from the lives of others.
The general point is that minimizing the number of COVID-19 deaths today or a month from now or six months from now may or may not minimize the human costs of the pandemic when the full spectrum of human consequences is considered. The last global depression created conditions for a catastrophic world war that killed roughly 75 to 80 million people. Is that a possibility? The downside risks and costs of every approach are real, frightening, and depressing, no matter how little one thinks of reopening now.
These facts may not be evident from the least thoughtful proponents of reopening, many of whom advance arguments that are uninformed, dismissive of experts, or callous. But the warnings of thoughtful shutdown skeptics warrant careful study, not stigma rooted in the false pretense that they don’t have any plausible concerns or value human life
We are witnessing Donald Trump break the law in real-time to cover-up his conspiracy and treason with Russia. We are witnessing the Republican party AID and ABET in the cover-up. We are witnessing 35% of the "American" people DEFEND and blindly support a TRAITOR.
WE ARE WITNESSING THE BIGGEST SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
"We are witnessing Donald Trump break the law in real-time to cover-up his conspiracy and treason with Russia."
how many times must we quote the Mueller report? There's no evidence any US citizen did this.
"We are witnessing the Republican party AID and ABET in the cover-up."
far from a cover-up, the facts are slowly coming to light
but it's been clear for a while that Hillary, Obama, and intelligence cronies conspired to create the Russian hoax
some folks belong in jail, and will get there
"We are witnessing 35% of the "American" people DEFEND and blindly support a TRAITOR."
is that what Obama's followers are down to
"WE ARE WITNESSING THE BIGGEST SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY.'
yes, we are
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday said he would welcome Michael Flynn's return to the Trump administration after the U.S. Justice Department last week moved to drop criminal charges against the president's former national security adviser.
Pence's statement will pave the way for Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general and 2016 Trump campaign adviser, to return to the president's orbit when the courts grant the department's request.
Some of Trump’s advisers described the president as glum and shell-shocked by his declining popularity. In private conversations, he has struggled to process how his fortunes suddenly changed from believing he was on a glide path to reelection to realizing that he is losing to the likely Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, in virtually every poll, including his own campaign’s internal surveys, advisers said. He also has been fretting about the possibility that a bad outbreak of the virus this fall could damage his standing in the November election, said the advisers, who along with other aides and allies requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
U.S. daily deaths have hovered close to 2,000 most days for several weeks now, and climbing higher some days last week. Many experts also believe coronavirus deaths are actually being undercounted, with mortality data showing that U.S. deaths soared in the early weeks of pandemic, far beyond the number attributed to covid-19.
White House officials declined to provide any specifics as to what the long-term strategy is, what the different plans will look like, and who is leading the various efforts.
The task force had already begun to curtail briefings, following a disastrous performance last month when Trump suggested the idea of injecting disinfectants, such as bleach, to treat the virus.
Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller asked about the coronavirus cases that had infiltrated the White House, which for weeks has implemented temperature checks and virus testing for those close to the president.
“Why should the average American, whose workplace doesn’t have access to these rapid tests, feel comfortable going to work if the White House isn’t even safe?” Miller asked.
A pandemically safe way to lodge your protests against the government:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeT6Aeof4Ok
Enjoy.
big surprise
Adam Schiff lied
https://nypost.com/2020/05/08/adam-schiff-lied-about-the-trump-probe-and-the-media-let-him/
Trump is Slowly Losing White Evangelical Support in Battleground States
If Donald Trump wants to win re-election and GOP voter suppression doesn’t succeed as a tactic, then he’s going to need to win the same battleground states as he did in 2016.
That isn’t looking great for him right now in large part because his strongest constituency — white evangelicals — are slowly walking away from his side in the states where he’ll need them the most.
According to a recent survey from polling group PRRI, support for Trump from white Christians in battleground states dropped considerably over the past month, presumably because of his disastrous handling of the coronavirus crisis.
The Christian Post explains more:
"The survey found that since March, the percentage of white Christians in presidential battleground states who say they hold a mostly or very favorable view of the president has dropped from 75% to 48%."
Those numbers are promising if you want to see Trump lose, but they’re also extremely high when compared to other groups. Trump infamously said he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters. By trivializing the severity of COVID-19, as many white Christians still seem to be doing, you could argue we’re at that point.
To recap: They didn’t care when Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists.” They didn’t care about the rape allegation against him or the multiple allegations of sexual abuse. They didn’t care about the refugee children stolen from their parents, who later died or were “lost” by the authorities charged with their care.
If Trump doesn’t have white Christinas overwhelming support, there’s not much of a legal path to victory. Which means he’ll continue pandering to his Christian base to reassure them the sky will fall unless they let go of their supposed values and keep supporting him.
On Jan 22. Texas a Texas manufacturer offered to make millions of N95 masks and Trump told them to go take a hike.
To this day there are chronic shortages of personal protective equipment around the United States
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Georgia has seen hospitalizations drop to the lowest level since April 8"
And infections are up in Alabama, Missippi, Minesota, Arkasas, North Dakota and various other red states. This is getting worse as they open up prematurely
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Florida, , has never had a tenth of the problem states with blue governors have had, even though it is one of the most populous states in the country"
Rates of infection are increasing in Florida, they are dropping in blue states. Most cases were originally in a couple of blue states because they are travel hubs. Things are so bad in Florida the governor has started blocking the release of Coronavirus statistics.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "NY might have done better if they simply cleaned their subway cars daily. That didn't occur to Andrew "Mr Leader" Cuomo UNTIL MAY 4TH!!!!!"
They're still not doing this in red states or any other protective measures.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "the lockdowns were never meant to eradicate the virus, they were intended to prevent a surge that hospitals couldn't cope with"
No one said lockdowns were meant to eradicate Covid. The lockdowns weren't just to prevent demand on hospitals, they are to lower the overall death rate - something you and Republicans don't give a damn about.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "many hospitals are now economically threatened by the lockdown"
That's a lie, hospitals are busier than ever.
Good anonymous said "On Jan 22. Texas a Texas manufacturer offered to make millions of N95 masks and Trump told them to go take a hike. To this day there are chronic shortages of personal protective equipment around the United States"
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Trump hasn't got the authority to forbid this company from making masks. They would have made millions on profits if they had why didn't they? why haven't they since?"
That company had more profitable business activities than making masks. Trump told them his administration had it covered so it made no business sense to manufacture masks Trump stupidly said weren't needed.
Good anonymous said "Where is the test and trace program needed to safely reopen the country?"
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "random testing has shown about twenty percent of the population positive for the virus tracing all those contacts is as economically feasible as building a plastic bubble for everyone in America and putting them in with a month's worth of food."
Nonsense. The countries that have brought Covid under control did this with test and trace programs. The United States can better afford to do this than these countries and has done nothing due to Trump's failure to lead.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "my problem is that our economy has been destroyed by catering to alarmists"
The economic cost is going to be much worse due to red state and federal government inaction.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "once again, too much government has cause a calamity"
The exact opposite is true. Inaction by the federal government has resulted in tens of thousands of needless deaths:
48,349 deaths would have been prevented if Trump had acted even two weeks earlier.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "people can figure out how to be safe without governmental coercion"
Obviously not - red states have increasing rates of infection because they didn't require the public to shelter in place.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "if people can go to the grocery store and the pharmacy safely, we can find ways to make other businesses safe"
People have to go to the store and pharmacy and this still results in infections. People don't have any need to go to church or the beach, or the movies. Opening everything is backfiring and resulting in needless deaths and prolonging the economic hardship.
Good anonymous said "No moron. Pointing out that there are safer ways to protest during pandemic - like writing letters or posting videos is just common sense. It's not an attack on the Constitution."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "your opposition to the right of people to peaceably assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances is not the only example I cited of your contempt for the Constitution"
No rights are without limits. Its perfectly reasonable for government to restrict movement to prevent needless deaths. Your desire to get your hair cut does not outweigh people's right to life.
"I've already won. This issue is one of the main reasons Donald Trump defeated Hillary and he has kept his promises."
LOL, Trump's never been above a 50% approval rating and Wyatt/Regina think they've "won". Now his support continues to drop amongst white evangelicals in battle ground states and seniors. Trump certainly didn't keep his promises, like universal health care coverage, a border wall, the deficit eliminated (its exploding) and the unemployment rate is around 30%.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "We have installed Supreme Court justices that now constitute a majority for Constitutional originalism, for a generation, and are well on the way toward doing the same in courts across the land."
Virtually all those judges have been rated dangerously unqualified. Conservative justices are NOT Constitutional originalists, liberal judges are:
"[Professor Geoffrey] Stone concludes that the moderately liberal justices apply an approach in line with “the original concerns of the Framers of the Constitution and in their distinctive understanding of the special responsibility of courts in our constitutional system,” while the Court’s conservatives’ “votes cannot be explained by any consistent theory of constitutional interpretation” but are instead driven by their own policy preferences."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "h*exuality never produces life, two of 'em ain't ever a marriage"
The exponential growth of the human population is destroying the planet and us with it. There is no justification for banning gay marriage.
Good anonymous sai d"We are witnessing Donald Trump break the law in real-time to cover-up his conspiracy and treason with Russia."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "how many times must we quote the Mueller report? There's no evidence any US citizen did this."
Another lie. Mueller wrote a 12 count criminal indictment for obstruction of justice by Trump. Over 1500 former prosecutors signed an open letter saying if any other American had done what Trump did they'd be in jail.
Doug105 said "We are witnessing the Republican party AID and ABET in the cover-up."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "far from a cover-up, the facts are slowly coming to light"
Trump blocked the witnesses from testifying and blocked congress from seeing any of the documents related to his crime - it absolutely was, and is, a COVER-UP.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "but it's been clear for a while that Hillary, Obama, and intelligence cronies conspired to create the Russian hoax"
That's a lie. The Inspector General said the Russia investigation was all properly carried out. Trump colluded with Russia to thwart the will of the majority of the public that voted for Hillary.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "h*sexuality is inherently sado-masochistic"
Nonsense. But even it it were, consenting adults have a right to do whatever they want.
Wyatt and Regina Hardiman hate freedom.
If they get their way the government will have cameras in the bedrooms of the nation to control how people have sex.
While Trump tells Americans the Covid virus is nothing to worry about the White House is performing daily tests on everyone, Trump is demanding everyone near him wear masks and forcing others to self-quarantine for fear they are infected.
Its typical Republicanism - say one thing and do another. Trump and White House staff are freaking out over Covid-19 while they demand the public ignore it and go back to dangerous working environments.
Trump tweeted and retweeted 126 times yesterday.
He doesn't do any actual work as president - no wonder things are going to hell.
The president must have snorted a bit too much Adderall.
Republicans are becoming alarmed at their chances in November. The Post reports: “Democrats have benefited from two key developments, said Jessica Taylor, Senate editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report: the emergence of Biden, not Bernie Sanders, as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and emerging evidence that the public does not believe Trump is managing the pandemic effectively.” They might discover a third: Republicans blindly follow President Trump even when he makes no political or policy sense.
Republicans continue to repeat the error that contributed more to their 2018 losses than any other. “Democrats also plan to attack GOP senators for their opposition to the increasingly popular Affordable Care Act, with 2020 marking the first Senate elections where Democrats can target a large swath of Republicans for votes early in the Trump presidency to repeal the health law.” Hey, why not stop cheering for its repeal in the middle of the pandemic? That would be smart policy at a time people are losing employment (and health coverage) and face a national health emergency. Really, this is not rocket science.
Republicans might try dropping their opposition to additional funding for state and local governments, without which thousands of firefighters, police officers, EMTs, teachers, public hospital workers and other state and local employees will face layoffs. Breaking with Trump to keep all those people working would be very popular, evidence that they can “react to the crisis.”
Likewise, voting by mail is overwhelmingly popular. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is pummeling Republicans on the issue (as well as Trump’s threat to defund the Post Office). Appearing on Sunday with Greta Van Susteren of Gray TV’s “Full Court Press,” Pelosi explained: “So, to those who make that charge about [state and local funding], ‘Oh, they had problems before,’ it has nothing to do with that. This is strictly, what are your outlays for the coronavirus? What is your revenue loss for the coronavirus? That’s why it has the support of Democratic and Republican governors across the country. It is strictly about this, and it’s about nothing else.”
On voting, Pelosi added, “And we will in our bill, also, have funding for vote by mail, which we think is essential and supported by Republicans across the country. They like voting by mail. They have more of a habit of voting by mail.” She reminded the audience that Wisconsin Republicans opposed extending the time to mail in ballots that were late to arrive due to heavy demand. “In the state of Wisconsin, they had a number of COVID cases that were immediately traced to people having to stand in line for a long time to vote,” Pelosi recounted. “So, this is not only the health of our democracy, it’s the health of our people.”
Republicans have been frittering away their reelection chances ever since Trump tied them to his unpopular policies. They still won’t break with some of his worst ideas. Now, facing an election wipeout, they fret that he is pulling them under. Well, what did they expect?
""I've already won. This issue is one of the main reasons Donald Trump defeated Hillary and he has kept his promises.""
Mexico hasn't paid a dime for me, but the Pentagon sure has.
https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2020/02/13/pentagon-seeks-to-cut-f-35s-other-equipment-to-pay-for-trumps-border-wall/
McConnell Moves To Give DOJ New Surveillance Powers
Days after the Justice Department controversially dropped charges against Mike Flynn, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is set to expand a highly political Justice Department’s surveillance authorities during a vote this week to renew the 2001 PATRIOT Act.
Under cover of redressing what President Trump and his allies call the FBI’s “witch hunt” over collusion with the Kremlin, McConnell, via an amendment to the PATRIOT Act, will expressly permit the FBI to warrantlessly collect records on Americans’ web browsing and search histories.
Earlier Wyatt and Regina Hardiman insincerely warned that we shouldn't give the government too much power because we won't be able to get it back. You can bet your bottom dollar they fully support this move towards a police state.
Over 1900 former DOJ and FBI officials are calling on corrupt Attorney General Bill Barr to resign.
Under Trump's orders Bill Barr has turned the Justice Department into a tool to benefit Trump and harm those who oppose him.
Remember a while back when Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous was posting all about how gays and other people who oppose trump would be investigated and Kavanaugh would get revenge on us?
Well, that's exactly what Trump's doing with Republican support, using the Justice Department to attack those who are trying to uphold the rule of law and this constitutional democracy.
Randy's made at least 11 posts in a 24 hours
probably more
It's a little difficult to find anything he's written that's not a lie
complete psycho
The U.S. is continuing its gradual reopening this week, with more than a dozen states easing strict lockdown measures that shuttered businesses and brought the daily lives of millions of Americans to a halt for more than a month as part of a critical tradeoff to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
States across the country believe they have “flattened the curve” of infections enough to phase in their economies under new health guidelines and restrictions to protect citizens from the COVID-19 virus.
The U.S. on Sunday recorded 731 virus-related fatalities -- its lowest daily number of deaths since March 29 and the first time under 1,000 deaths were reported in 42 days.
Several states who have not given timelines for reopening have faced growing unrest.
The following states are either lifting measures for the first time or continuing their phased roadmap to reopening.
Alabama
Restaurants, bars, and breweries, barbershops, hair salons, and other close-contact service providers, gyms and fitness centers
Retail stores began reopening April 30
A ban on gatherings over 10 people was lifted
Beaches reopened with no ban on gatherings
Arizona
Last week, retail businesses began reopening, and barbershops and cosmetologists resumed appointments
Arkansas
Restaurants may reopen for dine-in services
On Friday, state parks are expected to reopen cabins, lodges and RV rentals
Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis allowed barbershops, hair salons, and nail salons to reopen
Indiana
restaurants could reopen Monday
Hair salons, barbershops, and tattoo parlors resumed services.
Kentucky
manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain businesses will begin opening Monday.
Office-based businesses could reopen
Construction vehicle or vessel dealerships can resume operations. Pet care, grooming and boarding, and photography businesses could also resume services.
Horse racing is allowed
Maine
fitness and exercise gyms reopen statewide on Monday
Retail stores could also reopen
Michigan
Michigan’s manufacturing workers are allowed to return to work Monday.
Minnesota
Elective surgeries could resume Monday.
Mississippi
Hair salons, barbershops and gyms may begin reopening Monday
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves began reopening the state late last month, with most retailers allowed to operate
Montana
Fitness studios, gyms, and gym pools can reopen Friday. Museums and theaters can also reopen.
New Hampshire
Retail stores, drive-in movie theaters, golf courses, barbershops, and hair salons reopened Monday
New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that three regions -- Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, and Mohawk Valley -- can begin reopening plan Friday when a stay-at-home order expires.
The regions can resume their construction and manufacturing industries. Retail stores will be able to open, as well as the agriculture, forestry, and fishing businesses.
Meanwhile, landscaping and gardening businesses and drive-in movie theaters will be allowed to reopen across the state. Outdoor, “low-risk recreational activities” like tennis will be permitted as well.
No clear end date was announced for New York City, where businesses remained closed.
Ohio
Retail stores may reopen Tuesday.
On Friday, hair salons, barbershops, days spas, and nail salons are expected to reopen.
Restaurants are also expected to reopen Friday for outside dining, and on May 21 for indoor dining.
Oklahoma
Funerals and weddings can resume Friday
Organized sports and bars can also resume operations
Oregon
Retail stores that were previously closed, like furniture stores, art galleries, jewelry shops, and boutiques, can resume operations Friday
Childcare, summer school, camps, and youth programs can also reopen
South Carolina
Restaurants reopened Monday
West Virginia
Among the next wave of businesses to reopen in the state, Gov. Jim Justice allowed gyms and fitness centers, along with drive-in movie theaters, to resume services Monday.
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/newly-declassified-evidence-undercuts-former-dni-james
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/clinton-campaign-knew-about-fusion-gps-plan-to-have-christopher-steele-brief-reporters-about-dossier
https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/11/why-did-obama-tell-the-fbi-to-hide-its-activities-from-the-trump-administration/
https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/11/cnns-brian-stelter-melts-down-over-conservative-media-exposing-russiagate-conspiracies/
https://nypost.com/2020/05/10/michael-flynn-fiasco-will-reveal-obamas-truth-devine/
Two days after President Donald Trump visited a mask factory in Arizona last week, Joe Biden talked to voters from another crucial election state, Florida.
Except, unlike Trump, the former vice president wasn't there physically.
Like all his campaign events since mid-March – endorsements from Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, virtual town halls, fundraisers and more – Biden was at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, afraid to leave home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
For his two Florida calls, he spoke from a back patio, a departure from his basement, which has been transformed into a studio for the presumptive Democratic nominee to conduct most of his campaign Zoom meetings and interviews.
"I'm going to need you if we win," Biden told a group of 50 black leaders gathered in Jacksonville. Later that evening, after a live DJ session, several introductions and even more glitches (at one point, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Florida, disappeared from the screen but could still be heard), Biden addressed supporters in Tampa, Florida.
"Have you introduced me? Am I on?" he said, still wearing his sunglasses. He then took them off, settled in and thanked his loyalists. "There's nothing we cannot accomplish if we work together, and come this November, we're going to prove it."
The campaign-via-basement strategy will be tested if Trump continues to take presidential visits outside Washington amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Some DVerizon
SPONSORED BY VERIZON
How to keep yemocrats are panicking and getting antsy for Biden to move beyond the standard online speeches and policy announcements that have defined his campaign in the coronavirus era.
With Trump now starting to travel and the election less than six months away, the Biden campaign faces an added risk: the competing images of a president in action, conversing with voters as he pushes to reopen the economy, and a challenger talking into a camera in an empty room.
Former top Barack Obama campaign advisers David Axelrod and David Plouffe, in a recent New York Times op-ed, called on the Biden campaign to "up the tempo" of his campaign.
They said he's "mired in his basement, speaking to us remotely, like an astronaut beaming back to earth from the International Space Station."
They continued: "Mr. Biden finds himself on the outside looking in" on the only story that matters, the coronavirus pandemic. "Online speeches from his basement won’t cut it."
all over America, life resumes while Sleepy Joe Biden cowers in the basement
today, just north of LA, California's Dem allegiance begins to crack
a new GOP Congressman will be elected
it's a SPECIAL election
the former Dem had to resign because she was sleeping with an intern
what kind of a creep would do something like that?
another blow to Dems, after their fervent hope that 1.6 million Americans would die of COVID-19 never came to pass
alas, America is opening and Sleepy Joe Biden is zooming in the basement
who knows if the bumbling codger is even wearing pants!
You can’t make this stuff up. After years of screeching about FISA abuse and “The Deep State” look what they’re up to now:
"Days after the Justice Department controversially dropped charges against Mike Flynn, Senate GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is set to expand a highly politicized Justice Department’s surveillance authority during a vote this week to renew the 2001 PATRIOT Act.
Under cover of redressing what President Donald Trump and his allies call the FBI’s “witch hunt” over collusion with the Kremlin, McConnell, via an amendment to the PATRIOT Act, will expressly permit the FBI to warrantlessly collect records on Americans’ web browsing and search histories. In a different amendment, McConnell also proposes giving the attorney general visibility into the “accuracy and completeness” of FBI surveillance submissions to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court. Versions of the amendments circulating Monday were shared with The Daily Beast.
Taken together, privacy advocates consider McConnell’s moves an alarming expansion of Attorney General Bill Barr’s powers under FISA, a four-decade-old process that already places the attorney general at the center of national-security surveillance. It also doesn’t escape their notice that McConnell is increasing Barr’s oversight of surveillance on political candidates while expanding surveillance authorities on every other American. One privacy activist called McConnell’s efforts “two of the most cynical attempts to undermine surveillance reform I’ve ever seen.”"
I think it’s pretty clear by now that the only rights Barr and the rest of the right wing henchmen care about are the rights of powerful GOP politicians.
I’m sure this will come a big surprise to all those who’ve been defending Trump against the intrusion of an overzealous law enforcement, right? It can’t be that they were so naive as to believe that the authoritarian right was operating out of some sort of principle.
"if Biden is innocent why not have Tara over for tea with Jill said..."
Funny you should ask.
You never asked Rump to have tea with his 25 sexual harassment accusers with Melania, Marla, and Ivanka, all of whom he committed repeated adultery during his marriage to them, did ya?
And you never asked Rump to show us his income tax returns or thanked Joe Biden for releasing his (https://joebiden.com/financial-disclosure/)
Sad!
Even sadder:
We have over 80,000 dead Americans today yet Rump and some red governors want more.
Many governors win bipartisan support for handling of pandemic, but some Republicans face blowback over reopening efforts
"Governors collectively have been winning widespread praise from the public for their handling of the coronavirus outbreak, often with the kind of bipartisan approval that has eluded President Trump. But a large-scale Washington Post-Ipsos poll finds that some Republican governors who have embraced reopening their states are struggling to achieve that consensus.
The survey of more than 8,000 adults reveals a wide range in the assessments of Republican governors, but not for their Democratic counterparts. The disparities appear to be linked not solely to partisanship, but also to the differing paths the governors have adopted as they seek to balance efforts to contain the spread of the virus while trying to limit the damage to their economies.
The contrast is widest in two states won by Trump in 2016. In Ohio, 86 percent of adults say they approve of the way Gov. Mike DeWine (R), who moved aggressively to close down his state and has been cautious about lifting the restrictions, has dealt with the crisis. In Georgia, 39 percent of adults approve of the performance of Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who moved less swiftly than some other governors to mitigate the spread and has been in the forefront of reopening the economy there...."
Yesterday at Trump's briefing he had two banners with the lie “America Leads The World In Testing” for COVID-19.
The truth is the United States is 40th in per capita testing,
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "if Biden is innocent why not have Tara over for tea with Jill"
If Trump is innocent of rape, why not provide his DNA to the court?
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "States across the country believe they have “flattened the curve” of infections enough to phase in their economies under new health guidelines and restrictions to protect citizens from the COVID-19 virus."
But they haven't flattened the curve - most states reopening still have rising infection and death rates. The overwhelming consensus of the medical community is that you must have infections dropping for two weeks before you open up. Only a few blue states have met that criteria.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Its a little difficult to find anything Priya's posted that isn't a lie".
How would you make that judgment when you're ignoring all my posts?
The truth is Wyatt and Regina haven't demonstrated that I've not been completely truthful,
AP-NORC poll: Majority disapprove of coronavirus protests, Vast Majority Support Stay-at-home Orders
The new survey from the University of Chicago Divinity School and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 55% of Americans disapprove of the protests that have popped up in some states as some Americans begin chafing at public health measures that have decimated the global economy. Thirty-one percent approve of the demonstrations.
As some states have begun to slowly ease restrictions on businesses and individuals, the poll finds that 71% of Americans favor requiring people to stay in their homes except for essential errands.
Similarly, 67% of Americans now say they favor requiring bars and restaurants to close. 75%support limiting gatherings to 10 people or fewer .
Again we see a minority of Americans holding the majority of Americans hostage with their violent threats to the public and politicians trying to protect the public. Trump has supported these protests by a fringe group of Americans to try and con the public into believing there is widespread support for opening prematurely.
Senate Map Shifts Towards Democrats Amid Pandemic
Correction:
I found out last night that earlier in the thread I did post something that wasn't true. I said the unemployment rate was 30% and its actually at 15%.
I apologize for this mistake.
Alabama Senate leader suggested to the governor that they use 200 million they got for dealing with Covid-19 to build a new State House.
They're not the only Republican state to get funds to fight Covid only to plan on using it for other things.
Meanwhile New York has a much greater need based on population and the Trump administration has given the state nothing.
Trump is using funds meant to fight the pandemic to enrich Republican states and to starve Democratic states.
"You never asked Rump to have tea with his 25 sexual harassment accusers with Melania, Marla, and Ivanka, all of whom he committed repeated adultery during his marriage to them, did ya?"
he committed adultery and doesn't deny it
what Biden did was sheer violence!
"And you never asked Rump to show us his income tax returns or thanked Joe Biden for releasing his (https://joebiden.com/financial-disclosure/)"
for all we know, Biden's returns are fradulent
Trump filed several financial information forms with the FEC that will tell us all we need to know
tax returns are just filings with the government, they are proof of nothing
And for all we know Rump, AKA John Barron, could *cough* have filed fraudulent forms with the FEC and the IRS like his Foundation did with eight charities.
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2019/donald-j-trump-pays-court-ordered-2-million-illegally-using-trump-foundation
After all, lying through his teeth is what rump calls" the art of the deal."
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/04/20/trump-pretended-to-be-john-barron-to-lie-about-his-wealth-says-ex-forbes-writer.html
It's all lies just like Mexico, not the Pentagon will pay for his wall and his "miracle" COVID-19 mis-leadership has led us to over 80,000 dead Americans and counting.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/cumulative-cases
"tax returns are just filings with the government, they are proof of nothing"
not only that
the government is bound by privacy rules and can't disclose anyone personal tax return, so we have no idea if the return Biden released is his actual return
he's not exactly known for honesty
no exactly
remember when he was running for President and used to give speeches that were plagiarized verbatim from some Irish politician?
"Donnie wants burgers so meatpackers are being sent back to work with no daily testing like employees get at the White House"
most of them already tested positive
they are immune
"And for all we know Rump, AKA John Barron, could *cough* have filed fraudulent forms with the FEC and the IRS like his Foundation did with eight charities."
exactly my point
thanks for humbly agreeing
it takes a big creep to admit he was wrong, very wrong!
releasing tax returns is meaningless
So, Obama went to church, was honest, was married to one woman, had no affairs, adored his children, and liked dogs.
And 49% Of White Protestants thought he was the antichrist.
49% Of White Protestants: Trump Was Annointed By God
And this same group adores Trump, a man who is not a church goer, who is criminally dishonest, who is on his third marriage, with a history of affairs, who has no idea what it is to love a child (even his own), and who doesn't like animals.
"He's Anointed By God!"
That's one f*ked-up God they worship.
Politico: Trump Getting “Trounced” Among Biden Haters
President Donald Trump is losing a critical constituency: voters who see two choices on the ballot — and hate them both. Unlike in 2016, when a large group of voters who disliked both Trump and Hillary Clinton broke sharply for Trump, the opposite is happening now, according to public polling and private surveys conducted by Republicans and Democrats alike.
It’s a significant and often underappreciated group of voters. Of the nearly 20 percent of voters who disliked both Clinton and Trump in 2016, Trump outperformed Clinton by about 17 percentage points, according to exit polls.
Four years later, that same group — including a mix of Bernie Sanders supporters, other Democrats, disaffected Republicans and independents — strongly prefers Biden, the polling shows. The former vice president leads Trump by more than 40 percentage points among that group.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "if Biden is innocent why not have Tara over for tea with Jill"
If Trump is innocent of rape why not give his DNA to the court?
The truth is Biden has one accuser whose story has change multiple times, who effusively praised Biden after the alleged incident and who has falsely accused multiple people of assault.
Trump has over two dozen accusers with corroborating evidence and witnesses.
The accusation against Biden isn't credible.
Trump's claim of innocence is totally unbelievable. He even admitted to sexually assaulting women on the Access Hollywood Tape
In this thread at April 09, 2020 5:06 AM Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "give 'em hydroxychloroquine and avoid using ventilators and things will get better".
This kind of malicious dishonesty is typical of Wyatt and Regina Hardiman.
Unreleased WH Data Shows Cases Spiking In Heartland
NBC News reports:
Coronavirus infection rates are spiking to new highs in several metropolitan areas and smaller communities across the country, according to undisclosed data the White House’s pandemic task force is using to track rates of infection, which was obtained by NBC News.
The 10 top areas recorded surges of 72.4 percent or greater over a seven-day period compared to the previous week, according to a set of tables produced for the task force by its data and analytics unit. They include Nashville, Tennessee; Des Moines, Iowa; Amarillo, Texas; and — atop the list, with a 650 percent increase — Central City, Kentucky.
On a separate list of “locations to watch,” which didn’t meet the precise criteria for the first set: Charlotte, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; Minneapolis; Montgomery, Alabama; Columbus, Ohio; and Phoenix.
Trump? Running for President was the dumbest thing he has ever done, in an entire life filled with dumb stunts. He has been exposed as a complete idiot, a thug, a crook,a narcissist, and fatally incompetent in the biggest medical crisis in a century. His brand will be completely trashed, just like his reputation, by the time it's over, and he has a fair chance of ending up in prison. He could have gone on for the rest of his life being a byword for trashy, golden glitz and egomania, but he let that egomania get the better of him. He never actually thought he'd win, and I'm certain that he's sorry that running for president ever crossed his (deteriorating) mind.
They found six new cases in Wuhan so they're planning to test eleven million people over the next ten days.
The United States hasn't even performed 10 million tests.
Joe Biden is actually our last, best hope for American democracy. Recognizing that doesn't require liking Joe Biden, it only requires understanding that Biden's running against a wannabe fascist and if given another 4 years will appoint many more wannabe fascists to our courts
I just keep thinking about how the whole country stopped because all these Republicans made a big show of making sure Terry Schiavo didn't die and now they're like, "Who cares if your grandma dies as long as the stock market doesn't fall."
They don't care if people with whole functioning brains die, eh? But one person whose brain was half shrunk and looked like oatmeal who was being kept alive on a machine...
We're not reopening based on science, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're reopening based on politics, ideology and public pressure. And I think it's going to end badly."
National Reuters/Ipsos Poll
Biden 46%
Trump 38%
A couple of days ago Wyatt/Regina said the 2020 presidential race was over and Trump had won.
Pssst - (I think they might have been a bit premature)
Trump's job approval rating sits at 41% and he's never been above 50%.
Yepp, he's got this election locked up all right :)
Today, in SCOTUS, Jay Sekulow argued that it would be too burdensome for Trump to answer subpoenas, despite the fact that (as Rachel reported) Trump spent many hours today tweeting about his perceived enemies.
But, in addition to that, Sekulow actually argued (and I’m paraphrasing) that, because there were so many cases pending, it would be especially burdensome to deal with the sheer volume of charges against Trump. In essence, he was arguing that the reason for not responding to subpoenas was that he was being investigated for and charged with so many crimes that even he and his legal team(s) couldn’t keep up.
If SCOTUS rules in favor of Trump on this one, we no longer have a functioning justice system.
hey, teeveedub
I assume you're from a foreign country, probably Russia.
that's cool
we have free speech here and it applies to all
The way it works in America is both sides in a case make the best case for their side and the judges determine the reasonable course
it's called a functioning justice system
In 2016, the Dems' blue wall in the rust belt collapsed.
In 2020, in may be California.
Republican Mike Garcia, a former Naval aviator, maintained a lead Wednesday over Democrat Christy Smith in a SPECIAL congressional election in the Los Angeles suburbs.
Garcia took 56 percent to Smith's 44 percent when counting concluded Wednesday morning.
Garcia was bullish in a call with supporters — held in lieu of an in-person election night event.
“I won’t give a victory speech tonight,” Garcia said Tuesday evening. “We’ll save that for tomorrow night.”
Garcia and Smith faced off in a highly watched race, one of two held Tuesday that will provide the first indicators of the electorate’s mood since the coronavirus gripped the nation. Earlier Tuesday, Republicans easily held onto a rural district in northwestern Wisconsin vacated by former GOP Rep. Sean Duffy.
The more telling battle is in California 25th District, where Democrats are at risk of losing a seat they won handily two years ago. The winner will succeed former Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.), who resigned late last year after admitting to a disgusting and typically Democrat sexual relationship with a campaign intern.
In a statement Tuesday night, Smith, a state assemblywoman, said the race was too close to call and that she was not yet conceding.
Sounds like another Hillary.
Yeah, 12 points - too close to call.
The Dems' fraud mail-in ballots aren't in yet!
A study last week found that about 5% of votes done by mail are done by someone other than the voter!
There's been no surer way to end up on the national media's blacklist amid the coronavirus pandemic than to say the words "reopen" and "economy."
Naturally, that's where Govs. Brian Kemp of Georgia and Ron DeSantis, both Republicans, found themselves the second either of them began loosening up statewide restrictions on normal business operations in recent weeks. For that, the entire media began casting them as reckless science-doubters who were effectively inviting new outbreaks and mass deaths within their states.
But neither state has experienced an outbreak. In fact, both Florida and Georgia are doing well, with COVID death rates well below the national average of 25 per 100,000 people. In Georgia, it's 13. In Florida, just 8.
So how are the media's COVID-19 governor heroes doing?
Daily press briefings by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, are run top to bottom live on cable news outlets, and his performances are cherished by the press. The New York Times last month called Cuomo's delivery “articulate, consistent and often tinged with empathy." The paper also likened the briefings to a "tender embrace."
That soft hug, however, is currently accompanied by the shockingly high death rate of 139 per 100,000 people, a number that was boosted in part by Cuomo's appalling decision to force nursing homes to accept any elderly person who had been infected with the virus. This directly exposed many high-risk people to the coronavirus and has probably resulted in many deaths.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is a Republican, but he gets a lot of love from the press because he's always ready to attack President Trump. His state isn't doing so hot, either, with a rate of 28 deaths per 100,000. That means Maryland has a death rate more than twice that of Georgia.
There are probably infinitely many reasons for the state-by-state discrepancies in outbreaks, all of which will have to be studied.
But, at least for now, the governors heralded by the media are not necessarily the ones people should be looking to for guidance.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Biden and his band of dull Dems aren't impressing America during the pandemic"
LOL, right, that's why Biden is up by 8 percentage points over trump and has consistently held such a lead since he announced his candidacy.
Wyatt and Regina live in a fantasy world.
A U.S. scientist has told CBS' "60 Minutes" his group's grant for a years long collaborative project with the Wuhan Institute of Virology has stopped soon after President Trump complained that the Obama admin had funded it, vowing to "quickly" end the grant.
Why else do you think Trump is obsessed with having the Affordable Care Act overturned by SCOTUS, even though right now it's political insanity to do this? (And would be in an election year even w/out covid-19.)
Because Obama passed and signed it into law, and Republicans promptly named it Obamacare as if that would cause people to hate it.
Donald wants to erase the entirety of the Obama presidency because he's a racist, bigoted motherfucker who cannot stand the fact Obama is and always will be far, far more popular, respected, and admired than he is.
It eats at him that an African American man stands above him, in every way.
So whatever it is, if Obama did it, Donald will undo it. Even when hurts his own position to do so.
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WASHINGTON - Justin Trudeau says it’s still too early for Canada to confront the challenges that will come with reopening the shared border with the United States.
The prime minister says with the ban still in effect for another week, he’s not ready to announce an extension just yet.
A source familiar with the ongoing discussions between the two countries tells The Canadian Press that Canada has requested another 30-day extension to the current ban on non-essential travel.
The source, who isn’t authorized to share details of the talks publicly, says it will likely be several days before the U.S. formally agrees to the request to extend the arrangement to June 21.
Trudeau has said that with regions on both sides of the border slowly returning to life, Canada will need to deploy additional resources to deal with a likely increase in arrivals from the U.S., regardless of the status of the travel ban.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, says Canada will need to proceed with “extreme caution” when the time comes to ease the restrictions, given the severity of the outbreak south of the border.
Infection rates were climbing at Nebraska meatpacking plants. Then health officials stopped reporting the numbers
Greatest Increases In Covid Deaths Projected In Republican States
The University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) coronavirus death toll model, states with Republican governors are projected to have greater death increases than those with Democratic governors.
The analysis found that Republicans govern roughly 70% of the states in the country with the highest increases in death projections.
Of the top 10 states with the greatest death toll increases, 8 are states with Republican governors. All states in the top 10 are projected to have death tolls that rise well over 150% from their current figures, according to the University of Washington model.
How Trump Gutted Obama’s Pandemic-Preparedness Systems
Former officials: Trump’s reshuffling of positions and departments, focus on business solutions, downgrading of science, left the country dangerously unprepared for an unprecedented pandemic.
When the first reported cases of Ebola in Guinea came to light in March 2014, it set off a mad scramble inside the Obama White House to track and contain the spread of the virus, which killed around 50% of the people it infected. Though not nearly as contagious as the current coronavirus, an epidemic, or even a pandemic, seemed possible if the disease weren’t confined to its West African redoubts. The Obama White House had clear protocols and chains of command for these kinds of threats. “The way to stop the forest fire is to isolate the embers,” Beth Cameron, a former civil servant who ran the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, told me. Cameron and her colleagues quickly drew up a memo to Susan Rice, the national-security adviser, and Lisa Monaco, the homeland-security adviser, outlining what was known about the outbreak, setting off a chain of action that went up through the Oval Office, then spread through the government.
In the summer of 2018, on John Bolton’s watch, the team Cameron once ran was one of three directorates merged into one amid an overhaul and streamlining of Donald Trump’s National Security Council. And the position Monaco previously held, homeland-security adviser, was downgraded, stripped of its authority to convene the cabinet.
Obama’s team never faced a crisis as serious as the novel coronavirus, a truly unprecedented challenge. But officials who worked on past crises and experts on pandemic response believe that Trump’s dismissal—and in some aspects, wholesale discarding—of the Obama administration’s preparedness structures and principles, and the current administration’s ideas about government—that states could and should take take responsibility, that business could be more effective than government at solving problems at this scale—have left them dangerously unprepared.
Gun-toting Groups To Again Protest At Michigan’s Capitol
Republicans can't win at the ballot box so they threaten violence to try to force their will on the majority of Americans who favour social distancing and stay-at-home orders.
Its the same thing Wyatt/Regina has been doing here, making veiled threats about how Kavanaugh and the U.S. Supreme court are going to get revenge on gays for wanting equal rights.
Trump Pressures CDC To Revise Death Tally Downwards
President Donald Trump and members of his coronavirus task force are pushing officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change how the agency works with states to count coronavirus-related deaths. And they’re pushing for revisions that could lead to far fewer deaths being counted than originally reported, according to five administration officials working on the government’s response to the pandemic.
Again Trump is trying to cover up his incompetence with lies. 16000+ lies since he's been in office, folks.
now that states are opening up, as of Friday even Maryland, it's on to the next big story
this week, the dripping has become a flood and it is clear that the Obama administration abused their power for political purposes to attack the Trump campaign
it may be the biggest scandal in history and, yes, Biden was involved
A list of Obama administration officials who sought to unmask intercepted communications involving former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was declassified and released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on Wednesday. The list of officials who asked the National Security Agency to unmask Flynn’s name from certain intercepted communications included former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Brennan, former DNI James Clapper, former White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, and former Vice President Joe Biden.
meanwhile, Trump's doing as well as ever in the polls:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html
Biden is ahead 4 points
bad news for Dems
Dems are always ahead at this point
Hillary was up by 6
but it always seems to turn around about a week before the election
they need double digits to win because of that plus:
1. their supporters tend not to vote
2. their support is not widespread but limited to avid support in a few concentrated areas and the Constitution prevents victory without widespread support
3. Americans resent the over-the-top support Dems get from the elites, celebrities, and the media
4. they have many far-out positions that voters reject in their final choice even when they dislike the GOP candidate
wonder what Merrick Garland does with his free time?
he's pretending to be a real judge in a mock trial at the Shakespeare theater
https://www.shakespearetheatre.org/events/virtual-mock-trial/?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ENews5%2F13%2F20(genpop)&utm_content=version_A&sourceNumber=
charging fifty a ticket, but I'm sure you get it cheaper on stubhub
who would want to go see such a pitiful sight!
how low he's sunk
he probably thinks every day, "if only I hadn't backed the gay agenda, I might be on the Supreme Court now!"
remember when he was making the rounds of Senators' offices, just to say hi, I've been appointed to the Supreme Court?
that was just sad...
even if Biden wins, Garland will never be on the Supreme Court
Biden will just give it to someone who will give hunter a job doing absolutely nothing, and workin' overtime, for about a million a year
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "A list of Obama administration officials who sought to unmask intercepted communications involving former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was declassified and released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on Wednesday. The list of officials who asked the National Security Agency to unmask Flynn’s name from certain intercepted communications included former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Brennan, former DNI James Clapper, former White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, and former Vice President Joe Biden."
All perfectly normal and acceptable actions by these Justice Department Officials. Prior to the unmasking of Flynn none of the dozen or so officials had any knowledge that it would be Flynn who was unmasked. This just shows the widespread concern there was throughout the government over the actions taken by someone they did not yet know was Flynn. The idea that they were somehow out to get Flynn obviously couldn't be true.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Biden is ahead 4 points bad news for Dems"
Only a person living in a fantasy world could type that. Biden has been leading Trump in the polls since he announced and Trump has never been above a 50% approval rating - there is nothing in the future that's going to change the trajectory of the last 3 & 1/2 years.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Hillary was up by 6 but it always seems to turn around about a week before the election"
Because Comey reopened the nothing-burger investigation into Hillary and made it public against Justice Department policy. Your assertion that this is sure to happen again is pretty stupid.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "if Biden is innocent why not have Tara over for tea with Jill".
If Trump is innocent of rape why doesn't he provide his DNA to the court?
Biden has one accuser Trump has over two dozen. Pretty hypocritical to rant about Biden and not Trump.
The Republican controlled Senate just voted to let the government keep surveilling your online life without a warrant.
Republicans and Trump are turning the United States into a police state.
How the Flynn unmasking went down:
1. Kislyak: "Mr. Putin, staff from the Trump campaign want to use our facilities to set up a back channel for communicating directly with you.
2. U.S. officials: "What?! Who made that request?"
The case of Michael Flynn, President Trump’s short-lived first national security adviser, appeared to have finally resolved itself legally with the dismissal by the justice department of charges that he lied to the FBI during the bogus “Russian collusion” investigation. Realizing that a coerced confession (Flynn pleaded guilty after the feds threatened to go after his son as well) could not hold up in court, and provided with fresh evidence that Flynn had been illicitly targeted by rogue elements in the Bureau as a political act, Attorney General Bill Barr threw the case out.
And then federal district court judge Emmet Sullivan dropped the other shoe.
Since Flynn had pleaded guilty and was awaiting sentencing, law requires that the presiding judge must grant the “leave of the court” to accept Justice’s decision to drop the case and thus end Flynn’s nightmare. But Sullivan, a Clinton appointee to the federal bench, has chosen to prolong the process by signaling that he will allow amicus briefs from interested parties (read: Democrats) “at the appropriate time.”
Normally, the judge grants his leave as a pro forma step—after all, the dispute is between government prosecutors and the defendant; judges are supposed to be impartial. But the Flynn case has once again laid bare the fault lines in the American political system, with the Left clamoring (as usual) for judicial intervention into all aspects of our lives.
From the moment Trump won election the “resistance” of Democrats, turncoat Republicans, and the overwhelming majority of journalists has fought a house-to-house battle against him on every front, the political equivalent of Stalingrad or Berlin. In the teeth of the panic of the CCP virus, the president needed a moral victory, and he got one.
But the Flynn case is not just another skirmish in the never-ending war for the soul of America. It is, in fact, the “fons et origo” of the attempted coup by elements of the Obama administration (likely including the former president himself), senior Democrat office holders, the FBI and the intelligence community, especially the Central Intelligence Agency.
As more details are unearthed and revealed thanks to acting director of national intelligence, Ric Grenell, the outlines of the plot have become ever clearer—as has the realization that we are witnessing a scandal infinitely worse than Watergate: an attack on our electoral system, the peaceful transfer of power, and on the Constitution itself.
Coups are nothing new to Democrats, the original sore losers. What was the Civil War but the rejection by Southern Democrats of the first Republican president in the election of 1860? Four years later, the “peace Democrats” ran one of Lincoln’s sacked generals, George McClellan, against Honest Abe. A month after his second inauguration, Lincoln was murdered by a Maryland Democrat, which led to the installation of Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, as the nation’s chief executive—and delayed Reconstruction for four long years.
Democrat chicanery in 1960 was the margin of victory for John F. Kennedy, thanks to his corrupt father’s cozy relationship with the gangsters and machine pols of Mayor Daley’s Chicago. Nixon’s 49-1 state landslide victory in 1972 was erased two years later when he was forced to resign during the media-driven hullabaloo over the Watergate burglary. With Nixon’s combative (but crooked) veep Spiro Agnew already gone, the man the Democrats had dubbed “Tricky Dick” was replaced by the bumbling Gerald Ford, a Michigan congressman who had never stood in a national election, and who lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976.
More recently, the Al Gore Democrats refused to concede the tight 2000 election, and fought a rear-guard “recount” action for months until the Supreme Court put a stop to it, cementing George W. Bush’s narrow but certified victory. Following in Gore’s dog-in-the-manger footsteps, Hillary Clinton similarly refused to concede after her shocking loss to Trump in 2016; just as the Democrats and their media buddies are now pressuring Judge Sullivan to refuse Barr’s request to drop the case, four years ago they leaned on the members of the Electoral College to try and throw the election to Hillary.
The coup against Trump, however, is in a league of its own. The War Between the States began as a question of states’ rights and ended as the battle to finish off chattel slavery once and for all. The current Cold Civil War (as I termed it back in 2011) originates over something even more elemental: whether the U.S. will continue as the country was founded, or morph into some combination of a neo-Marxist “social democracy” and a Spanish caudillo system, with the peasants controlled by a nomenklatura of elite political families and the techno-rich insulated by power and wealth from the consequences of their philosophy. Their frantic antagonism toward Trump tells you they’re seeing their “fundamental transformation” fantasy slipping away.
The last president to win as close to a unanimous election as is possible was Ronald Reagan, who destroyed Walter Mondale in 1984 with another 49-1 GOP win. Since 1990, though, we’ve witnessed a series of see-saw elections featuring the same handful of candidates: Bush, Clinton, Bush II, Obama; 2016 was shaping up to be another Bush (Jeb) vs. Clinton (Hillary) Hobson’s choice when Trump tossed a spanner in the works, thus earning the undying enmity of the political/journalistic class, including large segments of an Intelligence Community that hasn’t gotten a single geopolitical development right since the founding of the CIA in 1947.
And this is where Flynn comes back in. As Obama’s choice to head the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012, Flynn was a burr under Barry’s saddle, refusing to understate the Islamic threat as Team Obama worked on the Iran nuclear giveaway “deal.” Flynn was fired in 2014, having earned Obama’s undying hostility, so much so that the former president specifically counseled his successor not to hire Flynn just two days after the November election.
But Trump hired Flynn anyway, thus putting the former Army lieutenant general squarely in the crosshairs of the outgoing administration and its allies in the spy agencies. Remember when Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in Obama’s waning days: “Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community—they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.” Now we know what he meant.
To date, most of the focus has been on the activities of the erratic James Comey and his nasty henchmen at the FBI. Flynn, however, posed no danger to them. His real enemies were CIA director John Brennan and director of national intelligence James Clapper (one of Flynn’s predecessors at DIA). What transpired among them we may never know, but we do know this:
Between 2009 and 2013, the CIA saw whole networks of spies rolled up around the world when its secret international communications system was penetrated, first in or by Iran (with whom the Obamanauts were starting to parlay) and then in China, forcing the Agency to scramble to contain the damage. During that period, there were no less than five CIA directors, either confirmed or acting, starting with Leon Panetta, passing through David Petraeus, and ending with Brennan. And the media calls the Trump administration “chaotic.”
If you’re wondering why our crack spooks from Langley never got wind of the Chinese Communist Party virus, the answer may lie here. In pursuit of his Muslim-friendly policies and his general anti-American inclinations, Obama systematically destroyed the nation’s intelligence capabilities (with the exception of the National Security Agency, which largely deals with electronic intelligence, or SIGINT).
Then again, it was an easy lift, since the CIA has mishandled or outright missed everything from the Bay of Pigs to the toppling of the Shah to the fall of the Berlin Wall to the collapse of the Soviet Union. So why should we have expected it could keep tabs on China as well?
Flynn no doubt was sounding the alarm on the dysfunctional nature of our IC when he was canned by Obama. Comey, Clapper, Brennan et al. couldn’t countenance his return as the White House’s eyes and ears in the “wilderness of mirrors.” So he had to go.
Whether and in which capacity Trump brings him back into the fold remains to be seen. The current national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, is highly regarded in Washington, while the jury is still out on CIA director Gina Haspel, an Agency lifer. Firing swamp creature Christopher Wray at the FBI and replacing him with Flynn would be poetic justice. The Bureau needs a cop, not a lawyer, but a decorated Army general with a strong intelligence background might be even better.
The country needs to know that “our democracy” (as the Democrats like to say, even though we are a republic) is safe from shenanigans like this. The sanctimonious scoundrels who launched this mess—not just “Russian collusion” but the ridiculous Ukrainian impeachment hoax, need to be identified, publicly shamed, stripped of rank and retirement, and sent to prison. Only then can we be assured that not only do elections mean something, they have consequences too.
For Judge Sullivan to follow protocol and close out the Flynn case without further delay would be a good start.
The mainstream media, as Barack Obama once said, is all wee-weed up for Andrew Cuomo, New York’s Democratic governor.
“Andrew Cuomo may be the single most popular politician in America right now,” CNN wrote earlier this month. “Andrew Cuomo Is the Control Freak We Need Right Now,” The New York Times wrote. “Cuomo Could Be The Leader The Democratic Party And Nation Desperately Need,” The Washington Post wrote.
But let’s take a look at Mr. Cuomo’s actions as governor to see if all the breathless praise is warranted.
New York state has the most coronavirus cases in the United States. There have been 27,169 COVID-19 deaths in the state, the fourth most populous in the U.S., with more than 19 million people. But California, the most populous state at nearly 40 million residents, has had just 2,789 deaths. Texas, second-most populous at about 29 million, has had only 1,121 deaths. And Florida, No. 3 on the list at 21 million and home to many elderly residents, comes in between the two, at 1,779 COVID-19 deaths.
In fact, New York has more deaths than the next five hardest-hit states combined, according to Johns Hopkins Center for System Science and Engineering.
And for that Mr. Cuomo wins daily praise from the MSM?
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in its latest filing on May 6, put the “provisional death count” at 44,016 (about half what Hopkins says). The age of death breaks down like this:
0-54 — 7.8%
55-64 — 12.3%
65-74 — 21.2%
75+ — 58.6%
That means nearly eight in 10 of all the people the CDC has provisionally ruled died of COVID-19 were 65 and older. So protecting the elderly is, clearly, the key. And how has Mr. Cuomo done?
New York state has seen more nursing home deaths from the coronavirus than any other state.
Why?
Mr. Cuomo enacted a state directive that required nursing homes to take in any and all coronavirus patients, which then swept through the most vulnerable population.
“New York has seen over 5,300 coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes, which is about one-fifth of the nation’s total of nursing home deaths (about 26,000). The Associated Press reports an average of 20 to 25 nursing home deaths per day in the state of New York,” the AP wrote Monday.
How did Mr. Cuomo respond to the news?
He said at a recent briefing that providing masks and protective wear to nursing homes is “not our job” because the homes are privately owned. Mr. Compassion speaks.
The governor also badly missed his projections of the number of ventilators and hospital beds his state would need. Early on in the pandemic, Mr. Cuomo demanded the federal government supply him with as many as 40,000 ventilators (a number based on, apparently, nothing).
The state had 12,000 ventilators at the time — and ended up not even needing that many. By mid-April, after haranguing President Trump endlessly, he announced he’d start sending hundreds of ventilators to states that needed them more.
Then there were the hospital beds. Mr. Cuomo demanded that Mr. Trump dispatch a Navy ship (that was, at the time, in port being overhauled) to New York City ASAP. Mr. Trump ordered the USNS Comfort, outfitted with 500 beds to handle the overflow from packed hospitals, up to New York City.
How’d that work out? “Nearly 90% of the US Navy hospital ship in New York is empty amid coronavirus fight,” CNBC wrote in mid-April. “As of Friday [April 17], 71 of the USNS Comfort’s 500 beds were occupied.” The ship was sent home after Mr. Cuomo said, “we don’t need it any more.”
The same thing happened with the Javitz Center, which Mr. Cuomo demanded the feds turn into a hospital, outfitted with expensive medical equipment and 2,500 beds.
How’d that go? “As of April 7, the convention center had admitted only 66 patients,” Business Insider reported. By April 20, Javitz had treated just 1,000 patients.
As the governor ramped up for what he said would be biblical destruction in his state, he pleaded with health care workers across the country for help. They arrived in droves.
And how did Mr. Cuomo thank them? He announced last week that he’ll be sending an income tax bill to every out-of-state health care workers who came to New York City to help treat coronavirus patients. Under state law, anyone who works in New York for more than 14 days has to pay state income taxes — and Mr. Cuomo made clear he wouldn’t waive that provision.
Mr. Cuomo — who, for some reason, has begun to call COVID-19 the “European Virus” — has done an abysmal job handling the virus in New York. But hey, the Democrats say, let’s make him president.
That sounds about right.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has struck down Gov. Tony Evers' order shutting down daily life to limit the spread of coronavirus.
The state's highest court sided with Republican lawmakers Wednesday in a decision that curbed the power of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' administration to act unilaterally during public health emergencies.
The ruling immediately lifts all unconstitutional restrictions on businesses and gatherings imposed by the administration's.
Joe Biden has been running for President since the nineties. The American people have never shown much interest. Now, revelations of rape and his hands all over multiple women coupled with his role in the Russian Hoaxgate scandal mean Dems need to scramble to find someone to run in the fall.
The presumptive Democratic candidate for President Joe Biden heads a list of more than a dozen Obama officials who spied on Donald Trump’s ex-national security advisor Michael Flynn.
Others senior officials include Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and UN ambassador Samantha Power.
A list declassified Tuesday by Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grennel shows that Biden and others asked to have Flynn’s name “unmasked” in transcripts of US intelligence intercepts of foreign officials. The names of US persons or entities incidentally collected by such intercepts are minimized to protect the privacy rights of Americans. Unmasking identities is not in itself not illegal, nor even necessarily improper. Occasionally US policymakers will ask to unmask a US person to better understand the nature of the intelligence before them. Obama officials, however, gorged themselves like children at a candy store.
In an almost two-month period starting election day November 8, 2016, senior US officials made 49 requests to unmask the retired three-star general.
Flynn’s December 29, 2016 call to a Russian diplomat in which they were alleged to have discussed sanctions on Russia was leaked by a senior US official to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius. His subsequent column ignited the Russia collusion scandal, which in time became the special counsel investigation. Flynn pled guilty to making false statements to the FBI regarding the call, and finally last week the Department of Justice withdrew its deeply compromised case.
And yet for all the political and personal damage ensuing from the leak of Flynn’s call, it is worth noting that the bulk of unmasking requests precede it. Obama officials were less interested in that particular call than in the broad sweep of Flynn’s conversations.
The sheer number of requests to unmask his identity is evidence of a widespread surveillance campaign targeting the man who was, outside of Trump’s family, his most trusted adviser. Knowing what Flynn was telling foreign officials would give them insight into Trump’s thinking — which is to say, President Obama’s team was spying on his successor in order to preserve his foreign policy initiatives.
Interviews of former Obama officials released last week show that the previous White House promoted a culture of espionage. Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy told UN ambassador Samantha Power that she is the “largest unmasker of US persons in our history.” Pressed to explain why she unmasked more than 300 US citizens in less than a year, she could not muster an answer.
Nearly three years ago, then chair of the House Intelligence Committee Rep Devin Nunes held a brief press conference to announce that he’d found evidence of wide-scale unmasking of Trump officials, some of which is what DNI apparently declassified Tuesday. Nunes explained that “none of this surveillance was related to Russia, or the investigation of Russian activities.”
His statement now comes into clearer focus — this was about Obama’s massive surveillance of his political opponents. The list published Tuesday is evidence that the heir to that legacy is Joe Biden.
"It was just two days ago that ABC News’ election forecaster FiveThirtyEight suggested “Two Special Elections On Tuesday Could Hint At Another Blue Wave In 2020.”
The case made by Geoffrey Skelley and Nathaniel Rakich was simple: Supposedly Americans strongly prefer Biden and Democrats over Trump and Republicans, and they are particularly upset with Trump and other Republicans’ attempts to reopen the country as the global Coronavirus pandemic rages.
“On Tuesday, we’ll get a taste of whether Democrats’ electoral advantage on paper will hold up in practice, as California and Wisconsin hold special elections for two vacant congressional seats. The main event is in the California 25th Congressional District, a bellwether seat in the north Los Angeles suburbs, where both parties see a chance to add to their ranks in the House. But if Democrats are also competitive in the quickly reddening, rural Wisconsin 7th Congressional District, it could signal another blue wave in the fall,” they argued."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like there will be no blue wave..
When will the media start their stories about the coming red wave?
Americans strongly prefer Trump and Republicans over Biden and Democrats, and they are particularly upset with Biden's opposition to reopening the country as the global Coronavirus pandemic subsides.
Senate Republicans are ramping up investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden, announcing Wednesday two significant developments in their probes, efforts that will a shadow over the apparent Democratic presidential nominee.
As the Senate returns to Washington amid the pandemic, Senate Republicans are vowing to aggressively pursue at least two separate investigations involving Biden during his time as vice president, assuring that he doesn't get away with it.
Biden is one of nearly three dozen Obama administration officials who requested the name of an American under surveillance, also known as “unmasking,” during the Trump transition after the 2016 election. The individual “unmasked” was on the Trump transition.
That information was classified until Wednesday, when Trump’s acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and Barr declassified the information, giving it to Senate Republicans.
“The officials listed should confirm whether they reviewed this information, why they asked for it and what they did with it, and answer many other questions that have been raised by recent revelations,” GOP Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa said in a statement.
Trump on Wednesday called the significance of the “unmasking” list “massive” and said that “even bigger stories” will come out.
Biden spokesman Andrew Bates denied the attempt to spy on the forthcoming administration.
“These documents simply indicate the breadth and depth of concern across the American government – including among career officials – over intelligence reports of Michael Flynn’s attempts to undermine ongoing American national security policy through discussions with Russian officials or other foreign representatives,” Bates said.
In other words, Biden didn't care about national security. He wanted to stop the Trump administration from changing policies, as Trump had promised he would when they voted for him.
Biden was attempting to undermine the democratic will of the people.
He's a disgrace.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he will open probes.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., directly accused Biden of spying on the incoming Trump administration And he vowed that the issue will not go away, pledging to investigate Biden in his Homeland Security subcommittee.
“This is incredibly troubling and shocking that the previous administration under President Obama under Vice President Biden's specific instruction was eavesdropping on an American, and an American adviser to the next President,” Paul said at a news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
Separately, Johnson, chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, is advancing a second investigation that stems from the impeachment of Trump.
Johnson will move to subpoena Blue Star Strategies, a Democratic consulting firm that represented Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, on whose board Biden’s son Hunter Biden served.
“The American people deserve to know the extent to which the U.S.-based, Democrat-led consulting company leveraged its connections within the Obama administration to try to gain access and potentially influence U.S. government agencies on behalf of its corrupt client, Burisma,” Johnson’s spokesman, Austin Altenburg, said in a statement.
"When will the media start their stories about the coming red wave?"
Rump's botched COVID-19 response is the coming red wave of death.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous sure are desperate - 9 long tedious cut & pastes in a row.
Republicans are hoping they can do to Biden what they did to Hillary but the American public won't be fooled by Republican gas lighting like that again.
Several years, millions and millions of dollars and several dozen committees and hearings into Benghazi and Hillary and they found NOTHING.
They won't find anything on Biden either as he's squeaky clean like Hillary.
This unmasking that over a dozen government officials asked for were all perfectly normal and acceptable actions by these Justice Department Officials. Prior to the unmasking of Flynn none of the dozen or so officials had any knowledge that it would be Flynn who was unmasked. This just shows the widespread concern there was throughout the government over the actions taken by someone they did not yet know was Flynn. The idea that they were somehow out to get Flynn obviously couldn't be true.
That's all there is to it folks.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem"
When Republicans say this what they really mean is that they want to take away your social security, Medicare and Medicaid. That quote W&R posted is from Ronald Reagan speaking in opposition to those very programs.
Wyatt and Regina admitted they want to get rid of those programs and to force the public to hire their own tearchers, fire department, and police force - they said the only valid role for government is the common defence of the national borders.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "for millennia, society has known that two genders are necessary to make a marriage".
Nonsense. For millennia same sex couples have been getting married informally, by the Catholic church, and secular society just like everyone else.
Greatest increases of COVID deaths projected in Republican states
An analysis by the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) coronavirus death toll model, states with Republican governors are projected to have greater death increases than those with Democratic governors.
Republicans govern roughly 70% of the states in the country with the highest increases in death projections.
Of the top 10 states with the greatest death toll increases, 8 are states with Republican governors. All states in the top 10 are projected to have death tolls that rise well over 150% from their current figures, according to the University of Washington model.
Ousted Vaccine Researcher To Tell Congress That US Faces “Darkest Winter In History” Without New Steps
CNN reports:
Dr. Rick Bright, the ousted director of a key federal office charged with developing medical countermeasures, will testify before Congress on Thursday that the Trump administration was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic and warn that the the US will face “unprecedented illness and fatalities” without additional preparations.
“Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to develop a national coordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities,” Bright is expected to say Thursday, according to his prepared testimony obtained by CNN.
“Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history.”
Trump’s COVID Response Approval Hits New Low
Views of President Trump’s handling of the outbreak continue to drop from March and are now the lowest he has received. Today, 43% say he’s doing a good job, 5 points lower than three weeks ago and 10 points lower than in March. This decline has most recently been driven by political independents, among whom a four-in-10 plurality now say Trump is doing a “very” bad job, as compared to a “somewhat” bad job, and that description has increased from a few weeks ago.
CBS News Poll: Americans continue to think the U.S. effort to contain the outbreak is going badly; fewer think it is going well now than did last month.
Moreover, more people now feel it will take longer for things to return to normal.
Trump and Republicans allege a vast conspiracy amongst hundreds of Justice Department officials Trump fired and the people who asked for the unmasking of someone they didn't know was Flynn. What of them?
The vast majority of them were Republicans held over from previous Republican governments as it has been the habit of even Democrats to put Republicans in positions of power in the Justice Department and Intelligence community.
The idea that hundreds of senior level Department of Justice and intelligence community officials who've been faithful Republicans and widely praised by Republicans have en masse turned their backs on the rule of law to persecute an innocent Trump is preposterous on the face of it.
Trump IS guilty of widespread corruption and Russia did break American law to help Trump win in 2016 as all the American intelligence community said.
move along folks, nothing to see here
just a senile old foreign troll who hates America and constantly attacks our Constitution
don't even bother to read the ramblings of this malicious kook!
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "just a senile old foreign troll who hates America and constantly attacks our Constitution"
I'm protecting your constitution by opposing a president who argues in court he can do anything he wants by asserting its in the country's best interest, placing himself above the law.
Under the American Constitution no one is above the law.
It is you and Republicans supporting the unchecked power of a megalomaniac that is attacking your constitution and destroying your democracy.
Just recently Trump's lawyers argued in court he could shoot someone on fifth avenue and the Justice Department couldn't investigate the crime, arrest Trump, or prevent him from continuing to shoot people.
If that doesn't scare you then you want to end American democracy.
Michael Flynn May Face Perjury Charge In New Twist
The New York Times reports:
The federal judge overseeing the case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn appointed a hard-charging former prosecutor and judge late on Wednesday to oppose the Justice Department’s effort to drop the case and to explore a perjury charge against Mr. Flynn.
Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty twice to lying to investigators as part of a larger inquiry into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Trump lacky Attorney General Bill Barr made the move to drop the case against Flynn. This was the final straw that lead 2000 former FBI and Justice Department officials to sign an open letter demanding Barr's resignation over this kind of corrupt behavior.
move along folks, nothing to see here
just a senile old foreign troll who hates America and constantly attacks our Constitution
don't even bother to read the ramblings of this malicious kook!
Donald Trump's short-lived coronavirus poll bump reveals his fundamental vulnerability
President Donald Trump’s approval ratings have dropped again after a brief uptick that prompted widespread claims of a “rally round the flag” effect in late March.
The basic electoral dynamics have not changed since the Republican’s heavy losses in the 2018 midterm elections, and actually not much since Trump’s marginal victory in the 2016 presidential race.
The uptick in approval ratings in late March was neither unprecedented for Trump, nor was it large or long lasting: 49%, up from 44% in early March, and back down to 43% in early May. Trump’s approval went up to 49% in January and February when he was being tried in the Senate. However, since Trump’s inauguration his approval has consistently bumped along in the low 40% range.
Trump’s uptick in approval came in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak in the US. It was really very small in historical perspective – especially when compared with rallies round the flag during previous international and national crises. Just before 9/11, for example, George W Bush was on 51.5% approval but then soared to 88.4% after.
The basic dynamics of the election remain the same as they have been for the past year or so: Trump might win re-election in November but it’s still more likely that Joe Biden, the former vice-president and expected Democratic party nominee, will become the next president.
The combination of Trump’s marginal 2016 victory, losing the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections, and his unimpressive approval ratings as president in comparison with all his predecessors since Harry Truman have always made Trump electorally vulnerable to any negative developments.
Several factors could have changed the 2020 electoral landscape: disunity in the Democratic Party, a good economy, and an impressive response to the COVID-19 crisis. Either they have not, or are unlikely to change it now.
Rather, each of these factors has now changed in Biden’s favour, at the same time that Trump’s electoral vulnerabilities remain or have increased.
An Ipsos poll taken in mid-April showed registered voters in those three states favouring Biden over Trump, 45% to 39%. This was at a time when Biden was sidelined in the COVID-19 crisis while Trump dominated public attention. The poll found that 48% of people living in those states said the coronavirus was the most important problem facing their community, way ahead of other issues. A Fox News poll of voters in the battleground states of Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania showed similar results.
National polling data show that Trump has failed to extend his 2016 electoral coalition of white evangelicals, rural voters, conservatives, self-identified Republicans, and white men who didn’t go to college. They also show that college-educated white people (especially women) and older voters are shifting to the Democrats, as they did in the 2018 midterm elections.
While Trump’s electoral vulnerability has increased, Biden’s has decreased. After his opponent Bernie Sanders withdrew from the Democratic primary, he announced his support for Biden, adding to the endorsement of other former Democratic candidates. The widespread fear that the Democrats would be divided in a nasty primary fight disappeared surprisingly quickly – and without Biden being pulled too much to the left of the political centre.
For sure, the booming US economy on which Trump relied for his re-election has evaporated. The projected economic effects of the escalating COVID-19 crisis already look horrendous and unprecedented. As much as a third of the economy remains shut down and the possibility of a bounce back by November looks remote.
Given Trump’s prominence and the much greater media attention he receives as president, his numerous missteps and his general handling of the crisis will likely make the November election a referendum on his performance in responding to the coronavirus and its effects on the US economy.
In this context, a sustained “rally round the flag” effect is unlikely to emerge before November. Second-quarter economic growth is always important in an election year in shaping US voters’ opinions of the economy come November, as is an incumbent president’s approval ratings. Given this, Trump appears unlikely to win re-election later this year.
I just saw Trump’s tweet attacking the parade of hedge fund managers over the past 24 hours saying this is the most overvalued market they’ve ever seen in their careers.
One thing money managers won’t be considering when they put their trades in tomorrow is what Trump tweets. They don’t give a flying fuck. You can’t bully the market.
Right now, the stock market riding "high" (at a level still 20% down from where it was in January) on all the stimulus money that was shoveled at them, but it's not going to last.
Eventually the GDP crash, the Great Depression level unemployment numbers, the absence of consumer confidence, and the lack of basic economic activity (i.e., people buying stuff and having MONEY to buy stuff), and rapidly increasing costs for essential supplies and food is all going to cause more shocks and more market losses.
In short, the American economy took bullets to the kneecaps and it'll be years before we recover. Certainly not before the Republicans are driven out of power, esp. the White House.
Seniors Flock To Biden As Trump Support Drops By 22 Points
Trump won seniors with 52% of the vote in 2016, but Joe Biden now gets 57% of the support of voters over the age of 65.
Ryan Struyk pointed to the shift in the new CNN poll:
Seniors are vulnerable both economically and medically due to Trump’s failed response to the coronavirus. Seniors are facing increased economic pressure and added expense while living on a fixed income due to Trump’s virus response. A person on a fixed income can’t easily afford the additional expense of paying for grocery or prescription delivery.
Elder Americans are also medically vulnerable to the virus itself, so not only are they being squeezed financially, but their lives are in jeopardy due to Trump.
Trump’s victory in 2016 was potentially driven just as much by voters who voted against Hillary Clinton as it was by intense support for Donald Trump.
Trump has made life worse for Americans across age and demographic spectrums, but older voters are the backbone of presidential elections. They show up like no other bloc of voters in the country.
If seniors flip to Joe Biden, Donald Trump will be a one-term president.
2 Americans died of Ebola: They said Obama should resign.
4 Americans died in Benghazi: They had HIllary testify for 11 hours, held 33 hearings and launched a multiyear probe.
Trump *might* come in at less than 200,000 Americans dead: They cheer.
That's how cults work.
The United States has less than 5% of the world's population but more than 28% of the world's coronavirus deaths.
"The basic electoral dynamics have not changed since the Republican’s heavy losses in the 2018 midterm elections,"
well, they have
but, regardless, midterms are always different than presidential election years and the first is always bas for a new President
"and actually not much since Trump’s marginal victory in the 2016 presidential race."
Trump had a widespread victory, sweeping across the heartland
that's not marginal
"The uptick in approval ratings in late March was neither unprecedented for Trump, nor was it large or long lasting: 49%, up from 44% in early March, and back down to 43% in early May."
it's actually 47 this week
"Trump’s approval went up to 49% in January and February when he was being tried in the Senate. However, since Trump’s inauguration his approval has consistently bumped along in the low 40% range."
not true
"If seniors flip to Joe Biden, Donald Trump will be a one-term president."
well, yeah, but probably won't happen
in the final analysis will not support the extreme leftist positions Biden had to adopt to win the nomination
"2 Americans died of Ebola: They said Obama should resign."
who is they?
the faces that come out of the rain when you're tripping?
I don't remember anyone saying Obama should resign because four Americans died of Ebola
maybe you could provide some documentation
"4 Americans died in Benghazi: They had HIllary testify for 11 hours, held 33 hearings and launched a multiyear probe."
actually countless people worldwide died in the riots caused by Hillary's lies concerning Benghazi
she should have resigned
"Trump *might* come in at less than 200,000 Americans dead"
Trump did fine, Cuomo is seriously culpable is a large share of those deaths
"The United States has less than 5% of the world's population but more than 28% of the world's coronavirus deaths."
talk to Andrew Cuomo
his incompetence is largely responsible for spreading this disease across America, and for most of the deaths
scientists have determined this
you guys always hang on to every twist and turn in the polls but the polls are notoriously unreliable
Hillary was ahead a couple of days before the last election
a couple of days ago, pollsters were predicting the beginning of a blue wave with the special elections on Tuesday
turned out to be a GOP sweep
as this all winds down, it's now clear the blue states did much worse than the red states
Georgia opened their economy last week to howls from Dems
no disaster has befallen
scientists have determined that most case in America were seeded from Cuomo's NYC
the incubator was the subway
yet, Cuomo didn't start cleaning the subways until 10 days ago
other places are just as crowded as midtown Manhattan on a Monday morning
the Vegas strip on Saturday night, the Magic Kingdom Saturday afternoons
they did fine
the working class, who's lives will be devastated for years, and the elderly, those that survive, will remember what Andrew Cuomo did to them....and America
Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Biden, and Obama are trying to say that their spying on the Trump campaign and transition team was perfectly routine. They are saying that any change in foreign policy from Obama to Trump was treasonous, by definition, because Obama embodied the country. Hence, they had to investigate Trump's team. Never mind that Trump made his views known during his campaign and was elected based in them. The Obama-Biden view is unconstitutional, and probably criminal.
John Kerry has been in talks with Iran, in opposition to Trump's foreign policy, and Kerry is on Biden's campaign team. Let's imagine Trump were to use their rationale:
According to the standards now set by Obama-administration defenders, it would be no big deal if Donald Trump’s Department of Justice opened criminal investigations into high-profile Democrats such as John Kerry (now a member of Joe Biden’s campaign) who met with Iranians officials over the past four years in an effort to undermine the foreign-policy goals of the duly elected government of the United States. These are potential Logan Act violations, after all.
It would be no big deal, either, if Trump’s DOJ opened up investigations into Democrats who have ever taken any money from foreign powers, because these are potential FARA violations. Sure, only six such convictions have been pursued by the DOJ since 1966, but no one says your pretext has to be solid.
It would also fine if, three weeks before Election Day, the DOJ filled out surveillance warrant applications — applications that excluded vital exculpatory evidence — to spy on the Democratic Party’s presidential campaign.
If Joe Biden were to win the presidency, it would be no big deal if Trump’s DOJ snooped on the incoming national-security adviser John Kerry, taped his completely legal calls with foreign dignitaries, simply because Trump suspected that Kerry would disagree with his administration’s stance on Iran, a nation that threatens the sanctity of our democracy and murders hundreds of soldiers.
Then, once Kerry was spied on by the NSA, and unmasked by dozens of high-ranking partisan Trump officials — one of them a future presidential candidate — it would be no big deal if any of them illegally leaked Kerry’s name to the press. They would do this in an effort to smear Kerry and railroad him into a plea — not over any risible FARA or Logan Act abuses, but over an innocuous lie about a lawful call told during an ostensibly friendly conversation — so that the Trump administration could fortify a waning investigation into the Democratic Party.
It would be no big deal if that waning investigation itself was predominately based on a fictitious document paid for by the Republican National Committee. It would be no big deal we if we found out that Trump allies within multiple law-enforcement agencies had referred to the investigation — an investigation based on fictitious evidence paid for by the RNC — as an “insurance policy” against the incoming president. It would be a no-big-deal investigation if the entire thing was propelled by fabricated evidence in FISA warrant applications — and if nearly all FISA warrant applications contained serious errors.
For four years, Trump allies within the Biden administration would illegally leak misleading bits and pieces of their investigation to a compliant media, which then would dutifully smear Kerry and the Democratic Party as seditious operatives, fueling a massive faux scandal and creating enough pressure for an independent investigation that would paralyze the Biden presidency and convince half the nation that the election was stolen.
And when all the skullduggery is finally exposed, and prosecutors have not found enough evidence to indict a single person in the Biden campaign for any wrongdoing that’s related to the stated reason for the investigation, Republicans can demand that everyone just move on. No big deal.
Moderate Democrats in Congress are expressing outright opposition to the wasteful $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill that party leaders are bringing to the House floor for a Friday vote.
The pushback underscores how House Democratic leaders are out of touch with all sides over the legislation — congressional Republicans, who note that the legislation as a liberal wish list, as well as their own ranks of both progressives and moderates.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, is calling members one-by-one to beg them to vote for the recovery plan. Her most vulnerable members in frontline districts are nervous about getting behind the ridiculous package, according to a Democratic source involved in the whip effort.
Despite the criticism from both progressives and moderates, House Democrats leaders are desperately hoping that the package will pass the House on Friday and prevent Pelosi from looking foolish. It will not even be taken up by the Senate, however, so the effort is a waste of time.
Progressives have expressed frustration that the bill does not go far enough to redistribute wealth to Americans dealing with economic fallout, while moderates are voicing alarm over the massive price tag of the plan and the fact that it does not have bipartisan support.
just think of sleepy creepy Joe Biden, sitting in a moldy basement in Delaware, staring at the floor and wondering why he could never save himself from himself
why did he plagiarize that speech when he was running for President?
why did he attack that a girl in the Senate closet?
why didn't he tell his drunkard, no-account son that he wouldn't help corrupt Ukrainians get away with it for a million?
why didn't he tell Obama, "no, I won't use the FBI to spy on the Republicans!"
good post
it's a lot of fun at the Why-him-see-aaay!!!!!
ACLU Sues DeVos Over New Sexual Assault Guidelines
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ revised federal guidelines on how sexual assault allegations should be handled on college and K-12 campuses is the target of a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, claiming the changes would “inflict significant harm” on victims and “dramatically undermine” their civil rights.
The suit, filed on behalf of four advocacy groups for sexual assault survivors, including Know Your IX and Girls for Gender Equity, is the first that attempts to block the Department of Education’s new provisions before they go into effect on Aug. 14.
“This new federal effort to weaken Title IX makes it more difficult for victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault to continue their educations and needlessly comes amid a global pandemic,” according to the suit.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "homosexuality never produces life, two of 'em ain't ever a marriage"
If marriage is about children then gays must have the right to marry as many have children.
Good anonymous said "The basic electoral dynamics have not changed since the Republican’s heavy losses in the 2018 midterm elections, and actually not much since Trump’s marginal victory in the 2016 presidential race."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "well, they have".
No they haven't. Trump has been underwater on his approval ratings since he got elected - that hasn't changed.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Trump had a widespread victory, sweeping across the heartland that's not marginal"
Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million and barely eked out an electoral college "win" based on 77,000 votes in three states. His win could not have been more marginal.
Good anonymous said "The uptick in approval ratings in late March was neither unprecedented for Trump, nor was it large or long lasting: 49%, up from 44% in early March, and back down to 43% in early May."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "it's actually 47 this week"
Big deal. His average has been around 45% or less throughout his term. Small fluctuations don't change that, he's still a loser.
Trump’s approval went up to 49% in January and February when he was being tried in the Senate. However, since Trump’s inauguration his approval has consistently bumped along in the low 40% range.
Good anonymous said "2 Americans died of Ebola: They said Obama should resign."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "who is they? I don't remember anyone saying Obama should resign because four Americans died of Ebola maybe you could provide some documentation"
Riiight, because if you don't "remember" something it didn't happen. Let's start with Trump calling for Obama to resign over 2 ebola deaths.
Based on Obama's response to Ebola and Trump's response to Covid, he's a hypocrite if he doesn't resign.
Good anonymous said "4 Americans died in Benghazi: They had HIllary testify for 11 hours, held 33 hearings and launched a multiyear probe."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "actually countless people worldwide died in the riots caused by Hillary's lies concerning Benghazi she should have resigned"
Nonsense. Republicans held "33 hearings and multiple Committees found no evidence she did anything wrong.
Good anonymous said "Trump *might* come in at less than 200,000 Americans dead"
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Trump did fine, Cuomo is seriously culpable is[sic] a large share of those deaths".
Trump allowing 52, 275 needless deaths most certainly isn't doing "fine".
Rates of infections and deaths in Cuomo's state are declining, they're rising in Republican states.
Good anonymous said "The United States has less than 5% of the world's population but more than 28% of the world's coronavirus deaths."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "talk to Andrew Cuomo his incompetence is largely responsible for spreading this disease across America, and for most of the deaths"
That's a lie. There have been 18,000 coronavirus deaths in New York (and declining numbers dying) while there have been 67,000 deaths in the rest of the United states (and rising rates of death).
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "you guys always hang on to every twist and turn in the polls"
LOL, that's YOUR thing. Throughout the 2008 and 2012 elections you picked the occaisional poll that showed McCain or Romney not losing as badly and loudly proclaimed "Obama's poll numbers are in free fall! McCain/Romney have got it locked up!" We all remember how that turned out.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "but the polls are notoriously unreliable Hillary was ahead a couple of days before the last election"
Only a moron would thing this election is certain to play out the same way the last election did. Hillary got 3 million more votes than Trump, it was only because Comey broke justice Department policy to talk about opening a nothing burger investigation into Hillary but kept silent about the Russia investigation into Trump. That's not happinging again.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "a couple of days ago, pollsters were predicting the beginning of a blue wave with the special elections on Tuesday turned out to be a GOP sweep".
Wrong on both counts.
Georgia opened their economy last week to howls from Dems no disaster has befallen".
Wrong. It has been a disaster:
Greatest increases of COVID deaths projected in Republican states
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "by the end of Pence's second term, every judge in America will be an originalist"
Right, just like "President Huckabee is going to do this" and "President Huckabee is going to do that", not to mention how much you were going to "enjoy the 16 years of the Romney and Ryan presidencies".
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Not to mention that Republican justices are NOT originalists, Democrats are.
"the Court’s conservatives’ “votes cannot be explained by any consistent theory of constitutional interpretation” but are instead driven by their own policy preferences."
If Trump is innocent why doesn't he provide his DNA to the court in his rape case?
The overwhelming consensus amongst epidemiological authorities is that the premature opening up of red states will lead to a second wave of coronovirus infections and deaths that will devastate the economy far more than would be the case if they had stuck with mitigation measures until CDC guidelines say it is safe to start reopening.
The United States has 6.75 times the global average of coronavirus deaths per capita.
The world 1 death per 27,000 people
The United States seven times as bad at 1 death per 4000 people.
Remember, the experts say Trump could have prevented the deaths of over 50,000 Americans if he had acted just two weeks sooner.
Trump was warned over a dozen times between November 2019 and the end of January 2020 that Covid was a serious threat and he needed to act right away. But he didn't because he thought it would hurt his reelection chances to admit the truth, he tried to hide it like he does with all his actions.
"Remember, the experts say Trump could have prevented the deaths of over 50,000 Americans if he had acted just two weeks sooner."
this information is dated
Experts now are confident that most cases in America were seeded from NYC where the incompetent Andrew Cuomo let it spread out of control
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Experts now are confident that most cases in America were seeded from NYC where the incompetent Andrew Cuomo let it spread out of control"
Cuomo could have acted sooner if Trump hadn't hidden his knowledge that there was a serious threat from coronovirus. Even though Trump hamstrung Cuomo and caused the NYC outbreak Cuomo now has gotten it under control while the epidemic rages out of control in red states.
Even if the epidemics in the rest of the country started in New York, they wouldn't have become a problem if governors (mostly in Republican states) had acted on the knowledge they had at the time. Instead like Trump they pretended everything was fine foolishly thinking they can gas light coronavirus like they have the public. Now death rates are exploding in mostly Republican states
Meanwhile in Michigan a Republican Supreme Court struck down the state stay-at-home order leaving no mitigation measures whatsoever in place - total chaos. Michigan has the highest fatality rate in the country and its Democratic governor has been valiantly trying to bring the epidemic under control only to have the Republican Supreme Court block her from doing anything to prevent this catastrophe.
The vast majority of Michigan's people support the governor's mitigation measures but a radical Republican minority of the population went to the legislature with guns and pounded on the doors demanding to be let in. It doesn't get any more anti-democratic than a minority pointing guns at politicians and demanding the government do it their way
The claim of Republicans to be pro-life is a farce. This small group of unelected conservative extremists are in effect murdering their fellow citizens.
52,351 (and counting) have died needlessly from Trump's inaction on Cororavirus
Estimated U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Due To POTUS Inaction
In January 2020, the Trump administration was advised that immediate action was required to stop the spread of COVID-19. According to NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, “there was a lot of pushback” to this advice. President Trump declined to act until March 16th. Epidemiologists now estimate that, had mitigation measures been implemented one week earlier, 60% of American COVID-19 deaths would have been avoided.
Back in the middle of February Republican Senators got a briefing on the seriousness of the Coronavirus epidemic which they and Trump not only kept to themselves but they also reasured the public there was nothing to worry about. Several of those Republican Senators then made massive sales of their stock holdings which is the crime of insider trading.
But in yet another questionable action Attorney General William Barr charged Richard Burr with a crime but not any of the other Republican Senators.
Why charge Burr and not any of the several other Republicans who dumped their stock while telling the public everything was fine?
Because Burr is chairman of the Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee which has concluded Russia "interfered extensively" in the 2016 election". That committee is due to release its report soon so AG Barr, in an action he otherwise wouldn't have taken with a Republican senator, charged Richard Burr with a crime to disrupt the release of what surely would have been a damning Senate Intelligence Comittee report on Trump's collusion with Russia
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Corrupt Attorney General Bill Barr is using the Justice Department as a tool to benefit Trump personally.
Over 2000 former FBI and Justice Department officials have signed an open letter demanding Barr's resignation over his trampling of the rule of law.
WH Shelved CDC Warning On Second COVID Wave
The Associated Press reports:
The White House shelved a warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that coronavirus cases will likely resurge after states reopen, according to a document seen by the Associated Press.
Poll: Majority Say Feds Responsible For COVID Testing
From Pew Research:
As a growing number of states ease stay-at-home restrictions imposed in response to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, a majority of Americans (61%) say it is primarily the federal government’s responsibility to make sure there are enough COVID-19 tests in order to safely lift the restrictions. Fewer (37%) say it is mainly the responsibility of state governments to ensure there is an adequate supply of tests.
There are chronic shortages of testing equipment from reagents to swabs across the nation.
Why hasn't Trump invoked the Defence Production Act to fix this??
Trump instructed nursing homes to test all staff and residents but didn't provide any supplies for them to do so.
This is typical of Trump, claiming he's doing things when he's doing nothing at all besides watching cable TV and mindlessly rage tweeting.
The experts say widespread testing needs to be done to open up the country without causing a worse second wave and greater economic damage. This requires several times more testing than is being currently done.
In the midst of the largest death toll from illness in 100 years, Trump is pushing to end health care coverage for millions and limit it for tens of millions more.
If Trump and Republicans succeed they will destroy Obamacare and the right to health insurance for 100 million Americans with preexisting conditions.
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Watch me handle a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF)
Nearly a quarter of likely Republican voters think party should nominate someone other than Trump
Trump is in trouble in November, Republican voter enthusiasm is obviously very low in contrast to Democratic voters who are very enthusiastic about Biden being president.
Most Trump voters will tell you they're embarrassed by him and wish he'd stop tweeting and saying outrageous things.
Even Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said they understand why people don't like Trump as he has no principles. The thing is, they show they have no principles themselves when they vote for a man like this.
While Republican voters are lukewarm on Trump even though they intend to vote for him, Democratic voters have never been more enthusiastic about voting. Democratic voters are rightfully scared of the threat Trump presents to democracy and will almost certainly turn out in the the same large numbers (if not larger) as they did in the 2018 blue wave.
Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million in 2016. He's not going to win on a technicality again.
In the first post in this thread Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said
"Your ignorance is willful, Jim. Give it a little thought and you'll know exactly what conservative principles are...Of course, I can understand some confusion. Donald Trump doesn't really have any principles. But his concern about making America great is sincere, just in a vague kind of way. "
Trump is obviously not concerned in the slightest about America unless it benefits him personally. And Wyatt and Regina, who support a man they admit has no principles, obviously have no principles themselves or they wouldn't be lying non-stop to help him.
For Americans hoping Senate Republicans might finally engage the Russia collusion hoax seriously, last night’s interview of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by “Special Report’s” Bret Baier was a tremendous disappointment. McConnell better figure out quickly that if he doesn’t hold the Resistance accountable for the Russia hoax that harmed his party and the entire country for many years, he won’t have a majority in the next term. If it helps to motivate him, he should remember that not having the majority in the next term means he won’t get to confirm judges, an issue he hopes will be his defining legacy.
For three years, a false and dangerous narrative of treasonous collusion with Russia to steal the 2016 election was woven throughout the media and government. This conspiracy theory harmed international relations, domestic governance, and the lives of many individuals. It ended when a special counsel probe was finally forced to admit in 2019 that there was no evidence that any American had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election, much less anyone close to President Donald Trump.
Debunking this false narrative was for many years left to a very small band of reporters and congressional investigators. Most of the attention-getting congressional work was done on the House side, including the revelation that Hillary Clinton’s campaign had secretly paid for the false narrative and that there was serious abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in how the government secured wiretaps to spy on Trump campaign affiliates.
Despite being controlled by Republicans throughout the ordeal, the Senate was largely absent from the fight with the exception of just a few senators — Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin being the primary investigators whose oversight work and document demands paid off. And their work should not be underplayed.
It is due to them that the detailed texts got out about the anti-Trump machinations of FBI investigator Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. They sounded the alarm about Christopher Steele, author of the Clinton research, whom the media and government had falsely claimed was trustworthy. They detailed FISA abuse. They were concerned about the Flynn case from the very beginning, and fought with the FBI for information about it. They were also responsible for seeking information about the unmaskings that recently made the news. It all should have been much bigger news.
After the Russia collusion hoax helped Democrats win the House of Representatives in the 2018 election, the Senate needed to step up the fight. Yet McConnell didn’t prioritize the issue in any way. He never noticeably supported the senators or committees who were doing actual work. He instead deferred to Richard Burr of North Carolina, the ostensible head of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which for years has in effect been run by Democrat Mark Warner.
Burr was a Russia hoaxer, threatening legislation to protect Robert Mueller, the Republican who was presented as heading the probe. When Mueller appeared before Congress to defend the special counsel report, he had very little knowledge of it and appeared extremely befuddled. Read more about the failures of the Senate Intelligence committee with regard to the Russia hoax.
Only yesterday, after Burr’s cell phone was seized by the FBI as part of its investigation into alleged insider trading, did he finally step down from chairing the committee. That committee’s major addition to the Russia collusion storyline was the arrest of a staff member for lying about leaks to the reporter(s) with whom he was having extramarital relations.
McConnell didn’t just whiff on the Russia collusion hoax investigation in general, he failed to investigate after the implosion of the Mueller probe, and he failed to investigate after the inspector general report showing the problems with how the Trump campaign was spied on. He appears ready to fail once again in the aftermath of the Mike Flynn case being withdrawn.
I'm sharing the beginning of Heather Cox Richardson's letter from tonight before reading the letter in its entirety, because what she writes is so worrying:
As predicted, today North Carolina Senator Richard Burr resigned his chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee after being served a warrant by the FBI. Burr is being investigated for what appeared to be insider trading in stocks after receiving a classified briefing on the dangers of the novel coronavirus.
But Burr was also the chair of a bipartisan committee that had endorsed the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, concluding that Russians did, in fact, attack America in 2016. The committee went beyond Mueller’s conclusions to suggest that members of the Trump campaign had welcomed that intervention. The committee is due to issue its final report soon. Now, with Burr out of the chairmanship, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will appoint a successor. It seems likely that the new chair will change the forthcoming report to support Trump’s new narrative that the Russian investigation was illegitimate rather than to accept the findings of the intelligence community and Robert Mueller’s team.
https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fheathercoxrichardson.substack.com%2Fp%2Fmay-14-2020%3AGEJzwJEpMcRvCpUknMhp-h3DpwE&cuid=1478235
In last night’s interview, McConnell appeared not just uninterested but uninformed on the scandal of Democrats weaponizing the intelligence community for partisan gain. Baier asked McConnell to comment on the case of Flynn, Trump’s first national security advisor who was a major victim of the Russia collusion hoax. Here’s McConnell’s limp response:
Well, If there were in fact misbehavior surrounding the Flynn case, the American public needs to know. And clearly that was the view of the attorney general. I gather it’s now in a rather unusual procedure of being reviewed by the district judge before whom the case was. I think we’re just anxious to get the facts. what actually happened. The American public needs to know; all of us would like to know. And one thing about Washington: you guys are so good at your job, truth always comes out, sometimes it takes a little longer than other times, but we’ll find out what in fact did happen.
Oh dear, where to begin. Let’s leave aside the blasé attitude McConnell has toward Flynn and those who went after him — the criminal leaks, the destruction of evidence, the failure to supply mandated exculpatory evidence, the campaign to undermine, and the game-playing with plea deals. Let’s focus instead on McConnell’s view that the media — yes, the media — are good at their job of uncovering the truth and that it’s their job to do that and not Senate investigators who are actually charged with oversight of federal agencies.
McConnell is shockingly wrong on both counts. The media are complicit in the hoax, as anyone with even the most modest knowledge must know, and the Senate is desperately needed in this fight. The Senate can subpoena records and compel testimony — holding hearings if necessary — to get to the bottom of the effort from inside the U.S. government to use a false and dangerous conspiracy theory that threatened the health and safety of the republic.
If that’s not the Senate’s business, what in the world is? And if the Senate majority leader won’t care even about how this scandal uniquely harmed Republican voters, then who will?
At the end of the interview, Baier asked McConnell if he agrees with President Trump that former President Obama should be called into a Senate hearing and whether he agreed with President Trump calling the scandal Obamagate. Obama’s personal role in the scandal was confirmed in additional documents released as part of the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss charges against Flynn. Here’s McConnell’s response:
Look, that will be up to [Judiciary Committee] Chairman [Lindsey] Graham to make those kind of decisions — I think he may have addressed it already. I’m not certain… Look, that would be up to Chairman Graham to determine how to handle this. I have a lot of confidence in him and he knows what he is doing and I’m going to follow his lead.
Graham took over the Judiciary Committee last year and is known for going on television to claim that he will investigate the Russia collusion hoax. His track record with actually investigating the Russia collusion hoax is extremely spotty. While Graham is good with funny aphorisms, his work ethic and focus are noticeably lacking. For a scandal as complicated as the Russia collusion hoax, both are desperately needed.
If McConnell Wants a Majority and Judges, Get To Work
McConnell is praised throughout the Republican Party for his focus on confirming originalist judges to federal courts. It’s easily his greatest legacy, and one I wrote about at length in “Justice On Trial,” my book with Carrie Severino. But he should remember that he can’t confirm good judges if Republicans are not in the majority and if a stalwart person isn’t president to nominate them. Both of those key factors are threatened by his long-time lack of interest in holding Russia hoaxers accountable for what they did.
If McConnell and Graham want to confirm judges after November, they need to understand how viscerally outraged many Americans are by the spying and leaking scandal. They need to know that refusal to do anything about it will hurt Republicans, not Democrats, at the ballot box.
They should remember how once they got aggressive in pushing back on the campaign to destroy Brett Kavanaugh’s life and reputation, it redounded to their benefit. Even in an election year where Democrats swept into the House majority, they picked up Senate seats by fighting for Kavanaugh and against the dirty tricks deployed against him and the voters who elected Republicans to the Senate and presidency. Channeling Republican anger in those hearings, at least by the very end, helped them.
They should remember that. They should know that the Republican base is every bit as angry about the Russia hoax as they were about Kavanaugh. And they should know that Americans who care about corrupt government are not seeing nearly enough effort coming from the Senate.
If McConnell doesn’t start demanding more be done to hold the Resistance responsible for its damaging and dangerous Russia collusion hoax, his party will lose, and he won’t confirm another judge in his lifetime
Texas Sees Highest Single-Day Rise In Cases, Deaths
State health officials reported 58 new deaths related to the coronavirus and 1,448 new cases Thursday, the highest single-day increase for both numbers.
The record number of fatalities brings the statewide death toll from the coronavirus to 1,216, according to the latest data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The previous high was 50 new deaths on April 30.
Republicans think because they are able to gas light the public they can gas light the coronavirus into not existing
Republican governors are allowing their people to die in the vain hope they can get the economy to come back without the virus under control. They're just going to prolong and worsen the economic carnage.
Trump's only hope for 2020 was to get the coronovirus under control with stay-at home orders in place across the nation at least until the end of May or June to allow the economy to hopefully return to Obama Presidency levels.
They've blown it now by opening prematurely which is bringing a second wave of infections that will either require more shutdowns or further devastate the economy by raging through people on the job as has been happening at meatpacking plants.
‘There have been as many plagues in history as there have been wars,’ wrote Albert Camus in The Plague, ‘yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.’ So it was this time. The arrival of a new coronavirus blindsided governments of most advanced nations as they reached for a tool that few had ever really considered before: lockdown. It all happened too fast for a proper discussion about the implications. The biggest question — the extent to which lockdown will claim lives as well as save them — is one you can ask at a global level.
We know the national costs. In the United States, there is joblessness on a scale not seen since the Great Depression, with more than 33 million unemployed. The Bank of England forecasts the UK economy will fall by 14 percent this year — the steepest decline since 1706. Similar trends can be found across the industrial world. The global economy is veering toward an economic depression not seen for generations.
Yet this argument, to many, seems crass. How consequential is an economic loss in balance when lives at risk from COVID-19 are at stake? Understandably, few find such calculations compelling — and tend to side with those who advocate for prolonged lockdowns lasting for months or more. If this were about lives vs money, it would be easy to understand. But look deeper, and this is about lives vs lives — on a scale that has not, so far, been very much discussed. Lockdown will, on a global level, hit the poorest hardest.
We have the health impacts in the rich world. To keep hospitals available for the COVID-19 patients who never showed up, patients delayed non-urgent but essential healthcare, including vaccinations, cancer screening, and even chemotherapy. The death toll from this will manifest over the coming years as old infectious diseases find new life and cancer mortality rises. In the UK, cancer deaths have been predicted to rise by about 18,000 due to the disruption in treatment.
Harder to predict will be the lives claimed by the new epidemic of unemployment. We saw in the effect of the 2007/08 crash huge numbers of people who died from opioid overdose and depression. The dearth of opportunities and increased feeling of lack of purpose in life will hasten these deaths of despair. But the harm to people in poorer countries from the lockdowns in rich countries will be many times worse. We’ve seen, in the past 25 years, a collapse in global poverty due to world capitalism. We’re about to see this thrust into reverse.
The United Nations forecasts that even if the world economy rebounds in the second half of the year, the economic downturn would increase the numbers in extreme poverty up by anything from 84 million to 132 million. The recession would reverse years of progress in the fight against child mortality in the developing world. The UN’s World Food Program predicts that by the end of the year, the numbers facing acute hunger will double to 265 million. These are staggering figures. If this were to be the result of a natural disaster, it would be worldwide news. Now, it’s just seen as a footnote in the side-effects of lockdown.
Take the number of infants and small children dying in developing countries: five million in 2017 (when the last count was taken). A tragic figure, but it would have been 10.6 million had it not been for the improvements made in the past two decades. Progress made each year against diseases and malnutrition means that 300,000 fewer children will die compared with the previous year. When these numbers are compounded, the progress made in a given year saves an additional three million young lives each decade. When that stops, as it now has, the cost can be counted in lives. If lockdown is to cost us two years’ growth, as some have argued, it would end up taking nearly six million young lives in the coming decade.
Combine this with a return to levels of childhood mortality of just five years ago, and this would lead to a loss of more than 20 million young lives over the next ten years. These projections are horrifying — but given the UN’s calculations for the case that the world economy will recover this year, they are also terrifyingly realistic if the downturn lasts longer. The World Bank has calculated which countries will be hit hardest, and how many more are about to end up in poverty. In Congo, two million. In Nigeria, five million. In India, 12 million.
Policies that depress the global economy — no matter how well-intentioned — put millions of the world’s most vulnerable young people at risk. The decision to lift our lockdowns thus involves weighing lives to lives rather than lives to money.
Lockdowns, of course, are not all that prevents the global economy from thriving now. People the world over have also changed their behavior out of fear of the virus, with less trade and — therefore — less wealth spread. But mandatory lockdowns worsen the economic downturn. That they are not the only source of economic pain is not a reason to ignore their impact.
As any health economist will tell you, age is also a factor. Those in our countries most at risk from the virus are predominantly elderly, whereas the people most at risk from a global economic depression will include many children. Ending lockdown does not mean abandoning the elderly. Low-cost interventions are available: protecting nursing homes from epidemic spread would pose little or no economic harm and much benefit.
Unfortunately, the public debate to date has left little room for our political leaders to consider how our response to the virus impacts lives elsewhere. Each government assesses its success or failure by its own number of coronavirus-related deaths. The scoreboard charts that we see, judging countries on COVID-19 deaths alone, tend not to factor in those killed by the reaction to the virus — at home or abroad.
We are moral people. We have grown good at thinking about the effects of our decisions on the lives of the world’s poorest, from climate change to trade policy. The shock of a pandemic can narrow the focus, at least at first. But now we’re over the shock, we can perhaps look at the predicted surge in world poverty, and deaths, and consider these as a factor when deciding the future of lockdown. A lot of lives are on the line.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "h*sexual marriage is an inherently sado-masochistic arrangement that should be discouraged by any civilized society.
If you're talking about anal sex, the vast majority of it happens in heterosexual couples.
If sadomasochistic heterosexuals can marry so can gays.
Remember when Trump was pushing Hydroxchloroquine as a cure for Coronavirus?
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous also said "give 'em hydroxychloroquine and avoid using ventilators and things will get better".
Trump and some of his key supporters owned parts of a company that produces the drugs but research has since shown that more people with Covid die when given Hydroxychloroquine.
Trump killed people in hopes of making money. Then he suggested people inject bleach to cure coronavirus. Trump flails wildly about grasping at straws because B.S.ing his way out of the immediate news cycle is all he knows.
During this time when a national strategy is necessary to fight the epidemic Trump remains absent without leave, leaving states to fight amongst themselves for testing supplies and protective gear and to come up with 50 different incompatible ways of doing tracking and testing.
The United States has 7 times as many Covid deaths per capita as the global average. The country needs a national leader to coordinate and supervise testing and tracking. The country needs a national leader to plan for and distribute personal protective equipment.
Trump fails to lead and people die for no reason.
Politico Exhumes Biden Accuser Tara Reade’s “Manipulative” Past
Over the past decade, Tara Reade has left a trail of aggrieved acquaintances in California’s Central Coast region, who say they remember two things about her — she spoke favorably about her time working for Biden, and she left them feeling duped.
As part of an investigation into Reade’s allegations against Biden — charges that are already shaping the contours of his campaign against a president who has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by multiple women — POLITICO interviewed more than a dozen people, many of whom interacted with Reade through her involvement in the animal rescue community.
A number of those in close contact with Reade over the past 12 years, a period in which she went by the names Tara Reade, Tara McCabe or Alexandra McCabe, laid out a familiar pattern: Reade ingratiated herself, explained she was down on her luck and needed help, and eventually took advantage of their goodwill to extract money, skip rent payments or walk out on other bills.
Biden has one accuser with little credibility, Trump has over two dozen credible accusers with witnesses and corroborating evidence.
One of them is in court right now saying Trump raped her. She's seeking Trump's DNA - if Trump is innocent why doesn't he provide it?
Don't forget that Trump admitted he sexually assaults women - "When you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything, grab 'em by the pussy".
The Lancet Medical Journal Faults Trump’s Coronavirus Response, Politicizing of Public Health
In a rare move for a medical journal, The Lancet waded into politics Friday, urging the election of a new president “who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.”
The editorial, attributed to no author but “The Lancet,” is simply titled “Reviving the US CDC” and focuses on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC, according to the piece, “has seen its role minimised and become an ineffective and nominal adviser in the response to contain the spread of the virus” and has a “strained relationship” with the federal government.
The journal outlines how the Trump administration, in its estimation, hollowed out the agency “that was the first point of contact for many national health authorities facing a public health threat”.
You know things are bad when an esteemed medical Journal breaks with its entire past history and advocates for a new president to clean up Trump's failings.
When it comes to misinformation, disinformation and the now-disproven Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theory, it would not have been possible without a strong dose of media support.
Here is a timeline that breaks out some important reports by — and leaks to — the news media.:
https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/making-myth-timeline-media-role-selling-trump-russia-collusion-narrative
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
The above has been called the most famous in the English language.
We began this thread examining the myriad fundamental ways is which TTF rejects the Constitution.
Before TTF's foreign troll fills up the 200 post limit with dozens of nonsense, let's look at TTF's position on this sentence, so vital to our American philosophy.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident,"
right away, TTF had a problem
they have a materialistic view that all truth is based on empirical observation, and must be verified by science
no truth, to them, is self-evident and they reject any metaphysical realm where values and morality constitute truth
"that all men are created equal,"
another big problem for TTF
they don't believe man was created at all
further, they embrace mob rule where people who live in Wyoming, for example, have less rights than people who live in Queens, just because more liberals have jammed together in Queens - to them, all rights are gained by sheer popularity, regardless of the welfare of people in lower density areas
"that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,"
mentioning the Creator, whom TTF says government should not even acknowledge, is right here in a document that founded our government
this phrase has led misguided humanist educators in liberal areas to ban the Declaration from public classrooms
"that among these are"
the Creator has endowed more inalienable rights than just the following three
"Life,"
TTF thinks this doesn't apply if you are unborn
they think your mother and her doctors can kill you if you are inconvenient, or for any other reason they want
beginning with Hillary Clinton, the Dems, who TTFers slobberingly adore, have all held this extends to the moment of birth
in one despicable example, a state governor, much admired by TTFers, said the mother has a certain time after birth to terminate a child's life
"Liberty"
not if the government decides it's in the public interest to confine you to your house or if you want to leave your hard-eared money to your kids or you want to drive without a seat belt or you want to run a political ad on TV
there are many ways TTF thinks the government can curtail your freedom and they just blurt out "no rights are unlimited, wink-wink"
"and the pursuit of Happiness."
don't get me started
as we see, not only does TTF reject the Constitution, they also deeply oppose the Declaration of Independence as well
President Trump late Thursday night inquired about the fate of the FBI’s “302” report on the Michael Flynn case that officials say vanished after the president’s first national security adviser met with federal agents in January 2017.
“Where is the 302? It is missing. Was it stolen or destroyed? General Flynn is being persecuted!” Trump tweeted.
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, says that the original 302 document — which typically summarizes witness interviews with agents — was missing.
Federal agents summarize their interviews with subjects on forms known as 302s.
Nunes laid out what he knows about the original report. He said it was written and transcribed and recalled FBI sources saying, “Look, there’s nothing to see here, Flynn wasn’t lying.”
“So we knew this at the beginning of 2017, so you can imagine my astonishment when it began to leak out in the press that General Flynn was being busted for lying to the FBI,” he said. “And that, that’s what the Mueller team — the dirty Mueller team — that’s what they were going to bust him on.”
Nunes said the original report that was used to initially brief Congress vanished. “It’s gone. Poof. It’s out of — we can’t find it.”
“And I told people at the highest levels of the FBI and the DOJ, I said, what are you doing here? Like, we have, on the record, from the highest-level people that he didn't lie to the FBI,” he said.
Late last year, Flynn’s attorney sought “every document” pertaining to the interview with agents after allegations that FBI officials manipulated the original 302 report. His attorney asserted that separate handwritten notes from the interview drafted by since-fired FBI agent Peter Strzok and another agent are plainly inconsistent with one another, as well as the final FBI 302 that underpinned Flynn's guilty plea for one count of making false statements to investigators.
Although the government has insisted that the FBI's after-the-fact edits to the 302 report were "largely grammatical and stylistic," Flynn's lawyer argued that they were in fact highly substantive and improper alterations that inaccurately made it appear that Flynn had issued blanket denials to agents' questions.
Trump has noted a string of developments he says bolstered his claim that the Russian collusion investigation conducted was nothing more than a political witch hunt.
Trump took the remarkable step earlier Thursday to ask Sen. Lindsey Graham, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to call former President Barack Obama to testify in front of the committee. Obama, who can be called because he is no longer President, simply tweeted, “Vote.”
Last week, Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department dismissed the case against Flynn, who was seen as the key prosecution witness from Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign.
Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, wrote that one of the reasons Flynn would not have been convicted is because federal agents “went out of their way to deceive Flynn about the purpose of the interview, at which they hoped to trip him up.”
Two inspector Generals have investigated the investigation into Trump collusion with Russia and found there was nothing untoward or unethical about it, it all followed proper procedures and was fully justified.
Could COVID Insider Trading Scandals Cost Republicans the Senate?
Georgia’s Kelly Loeffler handed over documents to the feds pertaining to her stock trades just before the coronavirus market crash, and Senator Richard Burr relinquished his committee role over similar questions.
On Thursday, Senator Kelly Loeffler provided information to federal law enforcement about controversial stock trades she made just before the coronavirus-induced market crash. As Politico reported, the Georgia Republican turned over documents to the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Senate Ethics Committee.
Despite the Daily Beast’s reporting in March that Loeffler sold millions in stocks after she was briefed on coronavirus, the senator has denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that third parties handled the trades. “The documents and information demonstrated her and her husband’s lack of involvement in their managed accounts, as well as the details of those accounts,” her spokesperson said.
Loeffler’s decision to turn over documents came as another of her Republican Senate colleagues faces similar questions. On Thursday, North Carolina Senator Richard Burr announced he would step down from his position as Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman. Burr is being investigated for up to $1.72 million in stock sales he conducted just before coronavirus caused the market to plunge in February.
As the Burr and Loeffler probes escalate, the Senate is facing fundamental questions around whether some of the most powerful lawmakers in the country should buy and sell stock at all. As my colleague Abigail Tracy reported last month, “the perception that anyone in Congress profited off of the coronavirus crisis is a blow to the institution.” In recent weeks, a bill that would prohibit members of Congress from owning individual stocks has gained traction, though Tracy notes that passing such a ban at the moment is unlikely.
The twin controversies have also inspired concern from senior Republicans about their ability to retain control of the Senate. The Washington Examiner’s David Drucker reported on Friday that the GOP is worried about its prospects, fearing that the investigation into Burr’s financial transactions could prompt his resignation before September 4. In that case, Drucker says, “a November special election would be triggered to fill the remainder of his term, multiplying the challenges Republicans face as they scramble to protect their 53-seat majority.” According to a Republican insider, “people still don’t know exactly what transpired, which is why the current review is important. But North Carolina already features what will be a very expensive Senate race, and another one would be quite challenging for Republicans.”
"We began this thread examining the myriad fundamental ways is which TTF rejects the Constitution."
No; you sidetracked off of Jim's post by accusing TTFers of things they didn't actually say or promote -- twisting liberal positions to the most obscene lengths to paint them as unpatriotic and malicious as possible.
"no truth, to them, is self-evident and they reject any metaphysical realm where values and morality constitute truth"
The problem with the metaphysical realm is that anyone can make up a "truth" and get lots of people to believe it whether there is any actual evidence for it or not. That holds true for energy crystals, horoscopes, the resurrection of dead people and the zombie apocalypse. Just because some groups of people hold these beliefs to be "THE TRUTH" doesn't mean the rest of society should be forced to follow laws they make up.
"the Creator has endowed more inalienable rights than just the following three
"Life,"
TTF thinks this doesn't apply if you are unborn
they think your mother and her doctors can kill you if you are inconvenient, or for any other reason they want"
Frankly, I don't recall Jim bringing up the abortion issue up at all, or saying much about it. And for the LGBT people here, abortion is not an issue they have to worry about. Heterosexuals have been murdering their offspring for millenia. And yet even if they have murdered a dozen fetuses, they're still allowed to get married. Meanwhile, the same religious fanatics think gay people should be allowed the same right to marry the adult they love, and that the government should enforce their religious views on people who don't believe in them.
You'd think the anti-abortion religious people would have a bit more respectful of gay people, since you never see them going into an abortion clinic to get rid of an "unwanted" child. In fact, many gay couples have fostered and adopted children from thoughtless breeders.
"not if the government decides it's in the public interest to confine you to your house"
We're in the middle of a world-wide pandemic. It took most of us staying home for two months to keep the deaths down to 89,000 so far - and that is one of the worst records on the planet compared to other countries. It was done to keep even more people from dying. You'd think someone who just got done ranting about how important life is and complaining about "materialism" would understand that in order to save lives from a highly contagious respiratory illness, we have to take lots of precautions. It's not just us - the rest of the world is doing it, and most of them are doing it more effectively than us.
No one WANTS to be stuck at home all day hiding from something you can't even see, but that pesky science thing has discovered a deadly microscopic virus passing around and between people and killing lots of them off. Scientists are also working hard on multiple vaccines, and better and faster ways to get blood plasma with coronavirus antibodies. But that will take some time.
Maybe you think "thoughts and prayers" are a better way to make the virus disappear. Then I urge you to connect with as many of them as you can, and spend many hours together praying and singing to the "Creator" in close quarters until it goes away and you've "saved" everyone.
Or it could be that the Creator is pissed off at who is in the White House and has done this pandemic to teach us a lesson. Perhaps that is a metaphysical truth.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "homosexual marriage is an inherently sado-masochistic arrangement that should be discouraged by any civilized society"
Consenting adults have a right to any kind of sex they want as long as they're not hurting others.
right away, TTF had a problem
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "no truth, to them, is self-evident and they reject any metaphysical realm where values and morality constitute truth"
The most basic truth is that punishment should fit the crime. The christian god tortures people eternally for finite and trivial crimes - there is clearly no morality coming from christianity.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "that all men are created equal," another big problem for TTF they don't believe man was created at all"
That's psychological projection. Its Wyatt/Regina who don't believe all men are created equal - they oppose equal rights for gays and non-christians demanding christians have superiority over all others in the law.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "further, they embrace mob rule where people who live in Wyoming, for example, have less rights than people who live in Queens, just because more liberals have jammed together in Queens - to them, all rights are gained by sheer popularity, regardless of the welfare of people in lower density areas"
Nonsense. It is you demands people in populous areas have votes that count for less than people in rural areas.
the Creator has endowed more inalienable rights than just the following three
"Life," TTF thinks this doesn't apply if you are unborn they think your mother and her doctors can kill you if you are inconvenient, or for any other reason they want".
You've advocated for letting old people die of Covid to help re-elect Trump - you don't value life unless it is useful in taking away bodily autonomy from women.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "beginning with Hillary Clinton, the Dems, who TTFers slobberingly adore, have all held this extends to the moment of birth"
An absolute lie. No Democratic politician has said any such thing.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "in one despicable example, a state governor, much admired by TTFers, said the mother has a certain time after birth to terminate a child's life"
Another lie - that's why they didn't include the quote or name of the person and a link to it.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "not if the government decides it's in the public interest to confine you to your house or if you want to leave your hard-eared money to your kids or you want to drive without a seat belt or you want to run a political ad on TV"
No one is preventing you from leaving money to your kids or runnining political ads (Zuckerberg banned a Democratic add on Trump but allows any lies in ads from Trump). Wyatt/Regina think their rights are absolute and they can kill gays because their bible tells them to.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "[ttf readers oppose ]and the pursuit of Happiness."
This from the couple that says "Gays should be forced to live in society's shadows.".
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "there are many ways TTF thinks the government can curtail your freedom and they just blurt out "no rights are unlimited, wink-wink"
Individual rights must be balanced. You don't have the right to kill gays just because your bible tells you to.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous selfishly complaining about stay-at-home orders because they are afraid they'll prevent Trump from getting reelected.
They don't care how many tens of thousands of Americans die needlessly as long as their dictator gets reelected.
Trump Death Clock
53,251
Estimated U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Due To POTUS Inaction
In January 2020, the Trump administration was advised that immediate action was required to stop the spread of COVID-19. According to NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, “there was a lot of pushback” to this advice. President Trump declined to act until March 16th. Epidemiologists now estimate that, had mitigation measures been implemented one week earlier, 60% of American COVID-19 deaths would have been avoided.
Wyatt and Regina hypocritically complain about "mob rule" when the majority of the population wants to do something they don't like.
But when harmless lgbt people say we need some protection from abuse by the majority Wyatt and Regina then oppose any consideration of minority viewpoints.
Their "values" can flip 180 degrees depending on who is on the short end of the stick. They admit they understand many people don't like Trump because has no principles, but Wyatt and Regina Hardiman have no principles either.
-------------------
Wyatt and Regina as a minority opposing actions desired by a majority should not be allowed to place their freedom above the majority of the population's (and theirs) lives.
Lgbt people as a minority whose freedom hurts no one should have protections from a majority that wants to harm us even though our sacrifice in no way benefits them.
If you don't know how to see the comments beyond the end of the blue page(comments above #200):
Go to the bottom of the blue page and click on the red "Post a comment" link.
This takes you to a white page where you can see comments above #200 (the end of the blue page).
Trump Fires IG Who Was Investigating Mike Pompeo
The White House fired the State Department Inspector General late Friday, according to a State Department spokesperson and a senior congressional aide — the latest senior U.S. official involved in the impeachment probe into President Donald Trump to be forced out by his administration.
The inspector general, who acts as an independent watchdog responsible for investigating the agency, was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-NY.
Pompeo recommended to Trump that inspector general Steve Linick be fired and supported the president’s decision, a senior State Department official told ABC News. Appointed to the role in 2013 by President Barack Obama, Linick is a career government lawyer who served as a senior Justice Department official under President George W. Bush.
The late-night, weekend firing of State Department IG Steve Linick is an acceleration of the President’s dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people.
Trump has fired hundreds of non-partisan top level government officials and replaced them with servile abettors. This is straight out of the dictator's handbook. Trump and Republicans are destroying American democracy.
"This takes you to a white page where you can see comments above #200 (the end of the blue page."
don't bother
it's more trouble than it's because of the puerile antics of a lying foreign troll
he fills up the blog with repetitive short posts, that could easily be combined, and said once, because he narcissistic-ally want to crowd out all other comments
just stop posting when it reaches that level
btw, what all ignoramuses don't get is that there are other ways to slow the spread of the virus than completely lock everything down
here in Montgomery County, 70% of deaths are in nursing homes
we'd have had better results if we had just poured all the dollars spent and foregone extending extraordinary measures to vulnerable populations
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "she fills up the blog with repetitive short posts, that could easily be combined, and said once, because she narcissistic-ally want to crowd out all other comments"
I never said any such thing.
If you can't keep up, get out of the fast lane.
By the way, that was me who posted how to get past comment #200
Trump said 2 nights ago "When you test, you have a case. When you test you find something is wrong with people. If we didn't do any testing we would have very few cases. It could be that testing, frankly, is overrated."
Trump thinks testing is the problem, that it shouldn't be done because it reveals the number of people infected. Typical of the argumentation of conservatives, he thinks if we don't know about infections they don't exist.
This is the level of stupidity we are dealing with.
A national testing and tracing program with 3 or 4 times as many tests as are currently being done is necessary to allow the economy to open safely - WHY HASN'T TRUMP DONE THIS???
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