"Trump Wanted a Radio Show, but Deferred to Rush Limbaugh" by Elaina Plott New York Times, April 15, 2020
I'm already having to adjust the damn dial!
On a Saturday in early March, President Trump, clad in a baseball cap, strode into the Situation Room for a meeting with the coronavirus task force. He didn’t stop by the group’s daily meetings often, but he had an idea he was eager to share: He wanted to start a White House talk radio show.
I saw that somewhere else, and realized it's bulls**t.
At the time, the virus was rapidly spreading across the country, and Trump would soon announce a ban on European travel. A talk radio show, Trump excitedly explained, would allow him to quell Americans’ fears and answer their questions about the pandemic directly, according to three White House officials who heard the pitch. There would be no screening, he said, just an open line for people to call and engage one-on-one with the president, but that Saturday, almost as suddenly as he proposed it, the president outlined one reason he would not be moving forward with it: He did not want to compete with Rush Limbaugh.
Jimmy Carter did that!
Looks like Post Office was having problems even back then.
No one in the room was sure how to respond, two of the officials said. Someone suggested hosting the show in the mornings or on weekends, to steer clear of the conservative radio host’s schedule, but Trump shook his head, saying he envisioned his show as two hours a day, every day, and were it not for Limbaugh, and the risk of encroaching on his territory, he reiterated, he would do it.
One of the officials involved directly in the effort said it wasn’t the first time Trump had discussed hosting a radio show from the White House, but if some in the room that day were unsure whether the president’s proposal was a joke, they knew his deference to Limbaugh was anything but.
When it comes to the president’s favored media figures, most observers tend to fixate on the Fox News lineup of Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, and Sean Hannity, but several people close to Trump say that in the midst of a pandemic, he has come to keenly appreciate the extent of Limbaugh’s reach, and the fact that his show, perhaps more than any other source, offers a real-time metric of how the president’s decisions are playing with his supporters.
I was a supporter, but how do you like me now?
Now, as many voices vie for the president’s ear on the appropriate timeline for America’s path to normalcy, Limbaugh is amplifying Trump’s instinct for swiftness, and for this president, as well as much of his party, Limbaugh’s affirmation remains a powerful motivator.
“Talk radio is still a powerhouse when it comes to Republican voters,” said Jason Miller, cohost of the War Room podcast and a former Trump communications adviser, and the president, Miller said, “realizes how big a powerhouse Rush is.”
The White House declined to comment on Trump’s desire for a radio show. The president ultimately opted for daily televised press briefings instead, which have in effect served as a stand-in for campaign rallies and regularly span two hours....
After that it is all an attack on Limbaugh.
--more--"
That's why I turned the NYT radio off.
Future guests:
Executives paint push to reopen nation as haphazard
These are the CEOs Trump is turning to for ideas:
"President Trump said he’s tapping the country’s most prominent business executives, including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Tim Cook of Apple, and Doug McMillon of Walmart to help revive the economy as the coronavirus pandemic shows signs of easing in some parts of the country. Trump’s list also includes a slate of executives from Wall Street: Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group Inc.; Brian Moynihan of Bank of America Corp.; David Solomon of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.; James Gorman of Morgan Stanley; Michael Corbat of Citigroup Inc.; and Charles Scharf of Wells Fargo & Co.; Darren Woods of Exxon Mobil Corp.; Satya Nadella of Microsoft Corp.; John Malone of Liberty Media Corp.; Fred Smith of FedEx Corp.; Oscar Munoz of United Airlines Inc.; Juan Luciano of Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.; David MacLennan of Cargill Inc.; Marillyn Hewson of Lockheed Martin Corp.; Kathy Warden of Northrop Grumman Corp,. and James Quincey of Coca-Cola Co. He also named allies, including Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands Corp., but also Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com Inc., who has been a repeated target of the president’s vitriol."
He will be talking to labor leader Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, by telephone -- a far cry from his prized $ports panel.
The people he has "tapped" to "revive" the economy are the people who helped kill it.
See:
"The world’s richest person is getting richer, even in a pandemic, and perhaps because of it. With consumers stuck at home, they’re relying on Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.com Inc. more than ever. The retailer’s stock climbed 5.3 percent to a record Tuesday, lifting the founder’s net worth to $138.5 billion."
Why the brief failed to mention his ownership of the Washington Compost or the CIA data collection contracts or his unloading of $3.4 billion in stock just before the crash (as if he knew it was coming or got a warning like those Congre$$hitters that have been forgotten)?
Limited probe finds no interference in Microsoft’s $10b Pentagon win
In either case, the Dark Side won!
Thus, as our freedoms and liberties are taken from us, the Globe editorial board is worried about protecting the November election and without political will and sufficient funding for a nationwide mail-in voting effort, the 2020 election could deliver a blow to democracy.
Meanwhile, Larry Summers is of the opinion that are electronic signatures are needed to protect our democracy.
Yeah, that would be the $ame Larry Summers who is one of the architects of all the economic destruction, who has had a hand in it through the years as he has worked his way through the revolving door before he became a tax reformer and health and labor nut.
As for Liz Warren's endorsement of Joe Biden for president, that article was placed all the way back on page B5. I guess the Globe was too embarrassed by it to place it anywhere else.
"Just days after OPEC and its allies announced their big deal to rescue the global oil industry, it’s becoming brutally clear that all they’ve done is limit the worst of the damage. The largest coordinated production cut in history is already withering in the face of a demand collapse unlike anything the world has ever seen. After a brief rally, crude has already fallen back to an 18-year low in New York and everyone from the leaders of petro-states to the bosses of major oil companies is facing more financial pain from the coronavirus pandemic. The dire state of the market was laid out in detail on Wednesday by the International Energy Agency. Oil demand is heading for the biggest annual collapse in history....."
That sure is a far cry from what was reported three days ago, when the deal was hailed as a great victory for Trump.
$ort of like what the economy u$ed to be:
"American industry collapsed in March as the pandemic wreaked havoc on the US economy. Manufacturing and overall industrial production posted the biggest declines since the United States demobilized after World War II. The Federal Reserve reported Wednesday that manufacturing output dropped 6.3 percent last month, led by plunging production at auto factories that have entirely shut down. Overall, industrial production, which includes factories, utilities, and mines, plummeted 5.4 percent. The declines were the biggest since 1946 and far worse than what economists had expected."
Yeah, but the better parallel may be with what came after the end of the war in 1945, specifically with post-war Germany, and at least they could still go to the movies:
"The United States may start going back to the movies in July, though the experience will probably look different, according to Cinemark Holdings Inc., the country’s third-largest theater chain. Cinemark, which closed all of its theaters in March to stem the spread of coronavirus, might start limited showings of older films in late June, executives said Wednesday on a call with investors. The company could widely reopen on July 1, with some restrictions for about three months, including empty seats between guests and limited hours."
Who wants to go out to watch reruns?
You can stay home and eat a banana instead, except:
"Get your potassium while you can. The coronavirus pandemic may limit supplies of bananas in Asia. Growers in the Philippines, the world’s second-biggest exporter, said overseas shipments may drop by nearly 40 percent this year as lockdowns and social distancing measures curb output and transport. The country’s exports of the fruit are expected to plunge to about 2.5 million tons this year from 4 million last year, said Stephen Antig, executive director of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association."
Yes, they have no bananas . . . ha-ha.... ha.
Food supply is already breaking down and we have at least another six weeks of lockdown, probably more. In fact, given the trends, it is looking like we will all be sealed up in our homes soon with the National Guard dropping off your weekly box of gruel.
Deep newspaper job cuts prompt rare plea for federal funding to news media
It's more whining, from the Washington Compost this time, and why not? It's a state media anyway.
An economic free fall in the local news industry began long before the coronavirus started wreaking havoc on the national economy. Since shutdowns to combat the virus began, things have gotten much worse, as advertisers halted spending and publishers slashed more journalists’ jobs and hours despite the public’s need for information on the pandemic. Cuts to the industry have accelerated so greatly that groups representing journalists have taken a maybe unprecedented step and asked the government to help, by keeping the industry afloat financially during the pandemic and seeding its resurgence once the economy begins to recover. ‘‘We have to treat this as an emergency,’’ said Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild labor union. ‘‘There is a real interest in public health to keep people informed in this crisis.’’
Then the government organs and mouthpieces will be unable to hide behind the term "free pre$$," except it's going to be taxpayer loot that is going to keep the propaganda houses operating.
How galling!
Related: The Bo$ton Globe is Destroying Itself
The Globe admits that the Iraq lies killed it and that the decline was a decade in the making, but they applauded a rapist when he was robbing them so they will find no sympathy here.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
NEXT DAY BROADCASTS:
"As Trump lays out reopening plan, governors fear a second coronavirus disaster" by Liz Goodwin Globe Staff, April 16, 2020
WASHINGTON — President Trump has been eager for weeks to reopen the country’s economy, once predicting packed churches by Easter Sunday and arguing that recessions cause death, too.
On Thursday, with the coronavirus spread appearing to finally level off in hot spots after weeks of lockdowns, the president took his first major step to achieve that goal, releasing a road map for governors to gradually send people back to work and school in many parts of the country.
“Experts say the curve has flattened,” Trump said in unveiling new guidelines. “Our team of experts agree we can begin the next front in our war. We’re opening up our country," but to many health experts, governors, and lawmakers, Trump’s approach looks like a slow-motion repeat of his administration’s initial failure to prepare for the deadly virus last winter as he careens into a second, potentially chaotic phase of his response, they say he risks reigniting the spread by ignoring calls for a stronger federal role in testing and in contact tracing to control the disease.
“The federal government has to be the force behind getting testing up fast,” said Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University who led a team of researchers modeling the outbreak’s spread. “Having the federal resources behind it consistently in a coherent fashion with a competent leader leading it is desperately needed,” but Trump appears not to have learned a lesson.
Oooh!
He has been warned!
As for testing, “it's up to the governors,” he said. “We’re not going to be running a parking lot in Arkansas,” the president added Wednesday, referring to drive-through testing sites.
I will say this for the President of the United States: He is at least trying. He is doing all he can. It's too late and as I pointed out yesterday, his administration and panels are all billionaires, but he's trying to turn away from tyranny (who would have thunk it?).
Trump’s message this week spooked governors coast to coast. Trump has been reluctant to use his powers under the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to obtain ventilators and protective equipment, and does not appear poised to deploy it for testing supplies, either.
“This is a huge frustration for all of us,” Washington Governor Jay Inslee said Wednesday of the lack of testing kits from the federal government. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was even more blunt. “I want to make sure we’re clear: I can’t do it,” he said on CNN, explaining that the international supply chain involved in obtaining testing equipment creates a byzantine challenge for governors.
It's his state that has been spewing forth the crap models.
About 140,000 people per day are being tested in the United States — far below the millions of daily tests that experts think are necessary to get a handle on the disease once social distancing protocols are eased. Public health specialists including former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden have also recommended the government hire an army of 300,000 contact tracers around the country, who would use test results to ensure ill people and those who came into contact with them stayed in quarantine for two weeks.
I will wave to them from the window.
Adequate testing is even more crucial as preliminary studies suggest many people without any symptoms can carry and spread the virus. Trump’s rosy assessment goes against the opinion of the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Trump is no longer playing ball from what I read (the Gates/Fauci models have been tossed), and Fauci, a personal holder of vaccine-related patents raising conflict of interest questions, has been involved for many years with Bill Gates and his money.
Even some of Trump’s staunchest allies have warned that dramatically more tests are needed to get people back to work.
Senator Lindsey Graham appeared on ABC’s “The View.”
The nation’s decentralized system of government means states inherently have more power and responsibility to direct their own response to the virus compared to local entities in other countries facing the same challenge, but states are experiencing crushing revenue losses from the economic shutdown just as they’re expected to put in place complex testing and contact tracing systems and purchase personal protective equipment and devices. A lack of significant financial support from the federal government could lead to a patchwork response that allows the virus to reignite and spread.
“There’s a total vacuum of leadership in the federal government right now,” said Representative Seth Moulton of Salem, who self-quarantined last month after experiencing coronavirus symptoms but did not qualify for a test. “There’s a sense in which we should be grateful that governors are stepping up to try to fill that void, but the virus doesn’t know state lines, so unless all the governors are on the same page and it happens to be the right page, this has the potential to go wildly off the rails.”
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, unveiled a $30 billion plan this week to ramp up testing and contact tracing, though it’s unclear if any Republicans support the measure, but the president said Thursday that he believes widespread testing is not necessary to reopen much of the country.
I said it before, I'll say it again, I give him credit for trying.
--more--"
Related:
5.25 million more Americans seek unemployment aid
Critics say state needs to repeatedly test all nursing home staff and residents
The National Guard was deployed to Quincy to assist with COVID-19 testing at a nursing home on April 9. (Stan Grossfeld/ Globe Staff).
I think they are "mercy killing" our beloved elderly to get rid of the financial obligation and cleanse the world of useless eaters so they can add them to the COVID-19 death rolls. We are dealing with pure, malignant evil here and I'm not liking the front page photo at all.
What are they celebrating?
Thousands of OSHA complaints filed against companies for virus workplace safety concerns
Swedish Medical Center health care workers cheered as first responders gathered outside the hospital in support of them in their work against the coronavirus outbreak on Thursday in Seattle. (Associated Press/Elaine Thompson/Associated Press)
Yup, got their phones out(!) and waving!
All the nurses are dancing and singing and clapping amidst alleged scenes of horrific death during their triple shifts?
It's like the string-pullers want to makes us mad, and the people who have "e$$ential" jobs will do as they are told for fear of losing them. The charity fund $hakedowns are ways of buying off recalcitrants so they won't talk, and yet plenty are.
Get your loan yet?
What do you mean the WINDOW is CLO$ED?
"White House says new small business loan program is out of money, leaving many firms grasping for lifelines" by Erica Werner and Aaron Gregg Washington Post, April 16, 2020
WASHINGTON — A new lending program for small businesses maxed out Thursday morning and stopped accepting claims, but a bitterly divided Congress looked unlikely to address that growing problem as the nation plunged into unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression.
The Small Business Administration said on its website that the agency ‘‘is unable to accept new applications . . . based on available appropriations funding.’’
Republicans and Democrats say more action is needed to build on the massive $2 trillion economic rescue law passed just three weeks ago, but they can’t agree on what to do. The economy continues to weaken but lawmakers are scattered all over the country advancing conflicting proposals and bickering.
It is nice to see that some things never change. So the banks and big bidne$$ got all their trillions, no problem, and yet the average citizen finds himself once again the victim of parti$an squabbling by the one-party war $tate.
The f***ers have to go!
The impasse has become so heated that President Trump lashed out at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday morning, just one day after he threatened to adjourn Congress because he complained nothing was getting done.
Aaaah, good!
The $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program was a central piece of the coronavirus rescue law. Overwhelmed by demand from the moment it launched April 3, the program has now essentially run dry as small businesses around the nation beg for relief.
The government has not released data showing how much of that cash has been actually disbursed and given to the small businesses, however, anecdotal reports from lenders and small business owners suggest only a small portion of it has been released so far, with many banks overwhelmed with applications, and it’s also unclear how many firms have secured new loans, though it appears to be just a fraction of the 30 million small businesses in the United States.
Meaning the BIG BANKS are HOLDING ON TO IT, and now the fund is DRY!!
Pay no mind to that; he works there and it's ju$t their way of $aying they love you.
Last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asked Congress to agree to $250 billion more for the program, but a GOP attempt to approve that increase failed in the Senate as Democrats demanded more money for hospitals, cities and states, and food stamp recipients.
There has been scant progress since. Talks finally started Wednesday, but they seemed unlikely to yield results in time for action at a Senate ‘‘pro forma’’ session scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Governors of both parties have been begging Congress to approve $500 billion more in stabilization funds to help them weather the economic catastrophe.
On Wednesday, the Democratic governors of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania wrote to Trump calling on him to work with Congress and telling him, ‘‘Without this leadership, the damage to our state economies will be exacerbated by the cuts we know we will be forced to make.’’
Maybe they should look in the mirror and assess their own actions first!
--more--"
Related:
"Even in this new stay-at-home, increasingly jobless economy, some businesses are making out as clear winners, and gains for Amazon, health care companies, and stocks in other pockets of the market helped prop up Wall Street Thursday. Amazon, Dollar General, and Walmart all closed at record highs. Netflix also reached an all-time high, while the losers in the coronavirus pandemic took yet more hits. Financial stocks weighed heaviest on the market, with banks continuing their weeklong slide. Energy companies and owners of shopping malls were also hard hit as people stay at home. Analysts see the separation of winners and losers as an encouraging sign for the market. “This is a consumer-led economy,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. “The question is: At what point does the consumer feel comfortable enough to begin even a quasi-normal life outside their homes?”
I'm so glad the market is encouraged as they look to pick your pocket some more?
What $ick f***ing p$ychopaths.
"Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos said the online retail giant is developing COVID-19 testing capabilities as a first step toward a system of regular checks on its employees globally. In an annual letter to shareholders, the billionaire founder outlined other steps the e-commerce giant has taken to curb the coronavirus, from shutting down non-essential services like Amazon Books to overhauling processes at Whole Foods. The next step was regular testing for all staff — including those who showed no symptoms, he said. On Thursday, Bezos said his company had assembled a team comprising scientists, managers, and software engineers to build internal testing capacity, and hoped to build its first testing lab soon."
He just fired a bunch of people, and he is another face of evil!
"The European Union said it will scrutinize Google and Apple Inc.’s proposed contact-tracing technology to ensure it meets the bloc’s new standards governing the deployment of Covid-19 apps. Officials from member states and the EU’s executive arm will “seek clarifications on the solution proposed by Google and Apple,” the European Commission said on Thursday as it issued guidelines aimed at making the various virus-tracking apps interoperable. Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple late last week announced they would add technology to their platforms to alert users if they have come into contact with a person with the coronavirus. While the system is voluntary, it has the potential to monitor about a third of the world’s population."
What about the people who will not volunteer for the $ervice?
Better take this next story with a grain of $alt:
What users see when the IRS "Get My Payment" website is unable to check on the status of their $1,200-plus relief payment. (Heather Long/Washington Post)
"Glitches prevent $1,200 stimulus checks from reaching millions of Americans" by Heather Long and Michelle Singletary Washington Post, April 16, 2020
Many Americans woke up Wednesday expecting to find a payment of $1,200 or more from the US government in their bank account, but instead they realized nothing had arrived yet — or the wrong amount was deposited. Parents of young children complained they did not receive the promised $500 check for their dependent children.
(Speechless blog editor just shakes head back and forth, back and forth)
Several million people who filed their taxes via H&R Block, TurboTax, and other popular services were unable to get their payments because the IRS did not have their direct deposit information on file, according to the Treasury, companies, and experts.
Are you $ick of the goddamn excuses for the "incompetence?"
It happens so often it is starting to look like a calculated effort and plan!
The big banks get billions deposited overnight and no problem!
The IRS launched a ‘‘Get My Payment’’ tool Wednesday for people to track the status of their payment and enter direct deposit information, but many who used it said they received a message saying ‘‘Payment Status Not Available,’’ a frustration that left them without answers.
Really into "tracking" things, huh?
Some parents told The Washington Post that they received a $1,200 payment for a single head of household or a $2,400 check for a married couple but that the IRS left out the $500-per-child-under-17 payments. IRS and Treasury officials acknowledged they are aware of these issues and are working to fix them.
Has the money arrived yet?
Low-income Americans who do not normally file a tax return, including the homeless, are also eligible to receive the $1,200 check, but only if they enter their information in a new non-filers tool on IRS.gov.
Customers who use popular tax preparation services such as H&R Block, TurboTax, and Jackson Hewitt complained on Twitter and to the Post that they didn’t get their stimulus payment on Wednesday. The IRS is aware of the problem, a spokesman said, but so far, many are still waiting.
You will be waiting a lot longer, too.
Matt Sielen of Chino, Calif., who recently lost his job, was shocked to discover that he would not be receiving the payment on his H&R Block Emerald Card, the debit card on which he received his tax refund. Sielen and his wife, a nurse who cares for homebound people, have two young children and were counting on the $3,400 payment to pay rent and other bills. The couple had H&R Block take their tax preparation fee out of their refund earlier this year, which means the IRS didn’t have their bank details.
‘‘I’m not happy with H&R Block. I probably won’t be doing business with them ever again,’’ Sielen said.
After he was unable to get through to anyone on H&R Block’s phone line, Sielen went on the IRS website and was told to enter the couple’s bank information.....
He isn't the only one.
--more--"
If they had read the fine print they would have known the wait for unemployment benefits drags on as the system deals with a deluge, and don't look behind you while standing in line:
"The online vehicle-shopping service CarGurus said Thursday that it is cutting 13 percent of its staff, in the latest reversal for a Massachusetts tech company amid the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cambridge software company did not give a specific number of job cuts, nor did it say how many were local. It had 921 full-time employees at the end of last year, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. CarGurus President Sam Zales announced the reduction in a letter to employees, which said the company’s executives and board members will take a 50 percent pay cut over the next three months. “However, with little visibility into how long this crisis will last, these measures were not enough to ensure financial strength through recovery and importantly, into 2021,” the letter said. CarGurus was founded in 2006 by TripAdvisor cofounder Langley Steinert. The company raised about $150 million in an initial public offering in 2017."
Related:
"The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston offered a contrasting view to the significant manufacturing output decline reported for the United States in March. Of 11 manufacturing companies that Boston Fed researchers contacted for its latest Beige Book report on local economic conditions, 10 reported higher sales in March despite or, in many cases, because of the coronavirus pandemic. The sole exception was an unspecified furniture manufacturer that shut down all retail and manufacturing work because of COVID-19. (The Fed does not identify its contacts in the Beige Book reports.) Others saw rising sales for a variety of reasons. A frozen fish supplier and a cardboard box company attributed strong results to brisk sales at grocery stores, with the fish company saying the demand increase left it with no inventories. A toy manufacturer said sales were strong because people are spending more time at home with their kids, and a medical goods manufacturer had a 10-fold increase in orders for portable ventilators. The outlook among the manufacturers was generally positive; even the furniture maker was hopeful that workers could return soon."
They must be feeling ill to say such a thing, even with record low rates, given that home building was down sharply in March.
"Starbucks Corp. is planning to ‘‘gradually expand’’ operations at some stores in the United States, citing progress in the fight to contain COVID-19. The company is taking a store-by-store approach to resuming activities, which will remain limited to services like drive-through, delivery, and takeout via mobile orders and contactless pickup. The company did not set a specific target date or timeline for the increased operations, instead adopting a ‘‘monitor and adapt’’ approach. In recent weeks, Starbucks has been testing formats such as contactless service, entryway pickup, and curbside and at-home delivery in 300 of its US stores. The company closed many of its North American stores on March 20, and limited operations at the rest."
I have not been going out for coffee and thus did not purchase a Globe today.
United warns employees of tough times ahead, despite government bailout
They already flew the loot to a tax haven off$hore while staying at the Hilton!
Shell to stay on track with cleaner energy
They are following in the following in the footsteps of BP, and if that doesn't convince you of the fraud of ¢limate ¢hange, nothing will.
Time to take some more calls:
"Opponents of Stay-at-Home Orders Organize Protests at State Capitols" by Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, April 16, 2020
In Michigan, thousands of demonstrators in cars jammed the streets around the state Capitol in Lansing in protest of restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. In Frankfort, Ky., dozens of people shouted through a Capitol building window, nearly drowning out Governor Andy Beshear as he provided a virus update at a news conference, and in Raleigh, N.C., at least one person was arrested during a protest that drew more than 100 people in opposition to a stay-at-home rule, The News & Observer reported.
BEEP-BEEP, BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
He can't hear you, speak up!
In several states, protesters have taken to the streets to urge governors to reopen businesses and relax strict rules that health officials have said are necessary to save lives.
Future protests of stay-at-home limits have been announced in other states, including Texas and Oregon, as the economic and health effects of the coronavirus mount in the United States.
“You have to disobey,” Wayne Hoffman, president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates smaller government, said after that state’s governor announced he would extend a stay-at-home order until the end of April. Idaho has recently seen growing discord over government mandates.
Just be sure it is in a non-violent, non-cooperative, and non-consensual way; don't need to be giving the police state what it is looking for to crack down further. Anyone who strays from such a policy is likely government plant (remember COINTELPRO?) or agent provocateur.
“You have to do what’s best for your business,” added Hoffman, who said a rally would take place at the state Capitol on Friday. “You have to do what’s best for your employees and your customers. You have to do what’s best for your livelihood, for your families,” and in Austin, Texas, a host of Infowars, a website that frequently shares conspiracy theories, announced an event on Saturday at the state Capitol that he has called the “You Can’t Close America Rally.”
Tyler Miller, 39, an engineering technician in Bremerton, Wash., has organized a rally at the state Capitol in Olympia this weekend after growing frustrated with limitations on gatherings and travel. Miller said in an interview that he believed that Americans should take the virus seriously, noting that even as he wrote to Governor Jay Inslee to complain about the restrictions, he had self-quarantined at home after experiencing coronavirus-like symptoms.
“I want the governor to say that these are strongly encouraged practices, but that people have the right to gather,” Miller said. If the state-mandated rules were to be revised, he said, he would call off the rally. “I want people to be as safe as possible, but I also want their liberties to be respected in the process.”
Yes, those are INALIENABLE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS that preclude viruses.
Miller said he had not spoken to organizers of protests in other states.
At the rally in Michigan on Wednesday, which drew the largest crowd of any protest so far, demonstrators accused Governor Gretchen Whitmer of going too far with her restrictions on everyday activities. Whitmer’s orders are among the strictest in the nation, barring residents from crossing the street to visit neighbors or driving to see friends.
At the state Capitol, the sound of car horns filled the air and signs and banners proclaimed “Live Free or Die,” “Make Michigan Work Again,” and “We Deem Our Governor Non-Essential.”
She a Democrat or Republican?
Denny Bradley, 33, told The Detroit News that he was the sole breadwinner for his family and that his employer, an auto supplier, had been shut down for three weeks. He carried a sign that read “I want to work.”
We all do; however, some of us are unfortunately out of work permanently now. many businesses won't be coming back. Dreams have been destroyed so some criminal p$ychopaths oozing greed could gorge themselves some more.
For miles, thousands of drivers clogged the streets demanding Whitmer ease restrictions and allow them back to work. They filled downtown Lansing, Mich., with an cacophony of honking. They blared patriotic songs from car radios, waving all sorts of flags from the windows — President Trump flags, American flags, and the occasional Confederate flag.
Yeah, tar them with that last one.
Whitmer responded to the demonstration during her Wednesday news conference, saying she was disappointed in the mostly mask-less protesters outside. She added that the protesters might have just made the situation worse in a state with more than 28,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, the third-worst in the nation. The protest, she said, ‘‘endangered people’s lives.’’
HONK-HONK!
--more--"
Also see:
--source--"
Oh, how disappointing is $he?
Time to wrap things up:
Trump threatens to adjourn Congress to get his nominees but faces obstacles in Senate
White House offers guidance to the states on getting back to normal
Tracking Trump’s Promises on Responding to the Virus
That's the New York Times that is tracking him, and I'm sorry, that's all the time we have for today.
That's the New York Times that is tracking him, and I'm sorry, that's all the time we have for today.
