The Globe took a front-row seat for the resurrected briefings:
"He’s back: Trump to re-up virus briefings amid lagging polls" by Zeke Miller and Jonathan Lemire Associated Press, July 20, 2020
WASHINGTON — President Trump is set to once again take center stage in the government’s coronavirus response after a White House debate over how best to deploy its greatest and most volatile asset — him — played out in public as his poll numbers falter.
One week after a campaign shake-up, the plan is for Trump to again become a regular public presence at the podium starting Tuesday as confirmed coronavirus cases spike nationwide.
Trump advisers have stressed the urgency of the president adopting a more disciplined public agenda in an effort to turn around his lagging poll numbers against Democratic rival Joe Biden.
The return to briefings has been championed in the West Wing by senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, who advocated publicly last week that Trump should return to the podium to more clearly highlight steps toward economic recovery but also create a stage to display leadership by addressing Americans’ concerns about COVID-19.
“His approval rating on the pandemic was higher when he was at the podium,” Conway said Friday, in a tacit admission of what is largely unspoken aloud by Trump aides: that he is behind in both public and private surveys. “It was at 51 percent in March, and I think people want to hear from the president of the United States. It doesn’t have to be daily,” she added. “It doesn’t have to be for two hours, but in my view, it has to be.”
He won't be recapturing the magic by doing this. They are desperate, and what is up with the hubby?
In addition to discussing medical developments, Trump also was expected to focus on his advocacy for schools to reopen for in-person education, following his threat to try to withhold federal funds from those that stick to remote education.
Why even bother?
Other Trump aides have for months pushed the president to keep a lower profile on the virus response and instead champion the economic recovery and other issues with a clearer political upside. That camp, led by chief of staff Mark Meadows, has attempted to plot out something close to a traditional messaging strategy for Trump to contrast him with Biden on policy issues.
There hasn't been a recovery, and the $liver of a crack that was allowed is now being $lammed $hut.
In the last week, they’ve organized White House events highlighting Trump’s efforts to support law enforcement, talk tough on China, and roll back regulations, all while sharply criticizing Biden, and Trump himself has teased forthcoming moves on immigration and health care.
War-mongering isn't going to help, either. I'm not a fan of the Chinese; however, our society is becoming exactly like theirs as the globali$t $ickos plow ahead with their New World Order.
Meadows was among the most forceful White House aides in pushing Trump to end the once-daily coronavirus briefings more than two months ago. The daily briefings were scrapped, fulfilling the hope of aides who saw them dragging down the president’s poll numbers, particularly with older voters, but the president himself had not abandoned the idea of reviving them in some form, telling aides he missed the early evening window in which he would dominate cable television ratings. Tellingly, when he announced Monday that the news conferences could return, he did so with an eye toward its time slot.
I see him up there and I turn the channel.
The view in Trump’s circle is that the president needs an alternate means to reach voters with his trademark rallies largely on hold because of the coronavirus. The president voiced frustration in recent days about his inability to hold a rally, blaming Democratic governors in battleground states for not waiving COVID-19 restrictions on large gatherings, but there are few states that don’t have rising COVID-19 cases or stringent restrictions.
Does he not get it?
He's an impotent, powerless figurehead, nothing more.
Even in states where Republican governors may be willing to lift restrictions, campaign advisers worry about surging infection rates that could dissuade supporters from attending. A rally slated for New Hampshire, which has a low COVID-19 rate and a Republican governor, was scrapped in part because of fears of low attendance.
His silent majority will just mail in their ballots, 'eh?
Or maybe he will just declare a national emergency and cancel the election outright.
Does it really even f**king matter anymore?
Instead, the campaign and White House are attempting to create alternate methods of holding events that could drive media coverage. Trump has recently taken to delivering more politically themed speeches from the Rose Garden and, in a recent trip to Florida, held an unofficial event at US Southern Command and a campaign event with Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants. More trips of that nature are planned in the coming weeks.....
Do you know how sick I am of the illusion and imagery of all this?
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Related:
"By the time he canceled the show midseason, even President Trump had grown weary of his televised coronavirus briefings. Angry at the reviews, he declared the briefings “not worth the time & effort,” a conclusion shared by his own advisers and allies who had come to see them as hurting more than helping, but while the freewheeling sessions with their cascades of misinformation and petty outbursts had become self-destructive, nothing else has taken their place as a way for Trump to get his message out given his lack of success reviving his favorite campaign rallies, and so, the president said on Monday that he was bringing back the virus briefings nearly two months after calling them off. The decision to resume the briefings amounts to a tacit acknowledgment that the public health crisis that Trump has sought to put behind him is still ravaging much of the country as he heads toward a fall election season trailing badly in the polls. With new infections, hospitalizations, and now deaths on the rise, especially in the South and West, it has become increasingly difficult for the president to simply shrug off the outbreaks as mere “embers” that can be easily smothered. “Frankly, a lot of the country is doing well — a lot of the people don’t say it, as you understand,” Trump said in his comments Monday, “but we’ve have had this big flare-up in Florida, Texas, a couple of other places, and so I think what we’re going to do is I’ll get involved and we’ll start doing briefings.”
The Globe will be there to cover them:
"Trump resumes coronavirus briefings, concedes things will ‘probably get worse’" by Jess Bidgood and Liz Goodwin Globe Staff, July 21, 2020
WASHINGTON — A somewhat chastened President Trump on Tuesday delivered his first coronavirus briefing in nearly three months, returning to a forum he previously used to dominate the airwaves — and to spread sunny predictions and even misinformation — as he faces a virus that shows little sign of letting up.
The Bo$ton Globe hacks should know all about misinformation.
“It’ll probably get worse before it gets better, something I don’t like saying about things, but that’s the way it is,” Trump said, appearing to read off a sheet of prepared remarks and striking a decidedly more somber tone than during his freewheeling briefings that ended in late April.
He was waving a white flag as he said it.
Moments later, however, Trump seemed to return to the wishful thinking he’s offered repeatedly, when he again claimed the virus will simply “disappear.”
The self-delusion is quite the spectacle for a neutered leader.
The briefing, which Trump vowed to repeat “quite often,” was a belated acknowledgement from the president of the continued severity of the coronavirus outbreak and a faltering response that has caused his poll numbers to crater. With new cases piling up in record numbers and more than 144,000 Americans killed by a pandemic that many other industrialized nations have largely brought to heel, Trump broke from his weeks-long stance of largely ignoring the crisis while continuing to urge states to open their economies.
HMMMMM!
That's not the way my pre$$ reads day after day as nations increase lockdown measures amidst allegedly spiraling cases, and it casts doubt about the veracity of reporting we are seeing.
Could it be possible that the American pre$$ is lying to advance other goals?
It couldn't be, could it?
The president went further than usual Tuesday in acknowledging the reality of the surging virus, urging young people to avoid bars and — crucially — calling on all Americans to wear masks when they cannot socially distance. He even took a folded mask out of his pocket and held it up, although he never put it on at the briefing. That marks a big contrast from the kind of behavior Trump encouraged late last month, when he packed in-person events in Oklahoma and Arizona where masks were not required, as well as sharing a false conspiracy theory on Twitter that doctors are “lying” about the virus to impede his reelection, but the president did not put forward any new plans or initiatives to combat the virus Tuesday, such as a national testing plan clamored for by many public health experts. He carved out moments for self-congratulation and racist tropes, praising the “tremendous moves” he made to stop COVID-19 and frequently calling the disease the “China virus.”
They will go ahead and do it without him, and the fact that he is now parroting their lines after backing down shows you what a puppet he has become.
He also made news on an entirely different topic when he told a reporter, in response to a question about Ghislaine Maxwell, the criminally charged associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Trump said he wishes her well — a friendly greeting to someone accused of enticing minors to engage in illegal sex acts — suggesting he is not so disciplined as to fully avoid venturing back into the territory that made the briefings a liability for him in the first place.
It's a secret signal to her to keep her mouth shut since I suspect she has video of Trump with underaged women.
Related:
"The judge presiding over the criminal sex abuse case against Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell refused Thursday to ban prosecutors or lawyers for alleged victims from commenting publicly. US District Judge Alison J. Nathan said that she expects anyone involved in the case to exercise “great care” to comply with rules designed to ensure a fair trial, but the judge said she “will not hesitate to take appropriate action” if circumstances change. Maxwell is in a Brooklyn federal jail, awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to charges that she procured teenage girls, including a 14-year-old, for Epstein to sexually abuse in the 1990s. One of Maxwell’s lawyers, Jeffrey Pagliuca, asked for a gag order this week, saying comments made by a prosecutor, an FBI official, and lawyers for accusers were prejudicial toward the British socialite."
How much you want to bet she either escapes or is found dead?
As the president spoke, he highlighted positive news about vaccine research and the USresponse, and he sought to spin some statistics as favorably as possible. Significantly, Trump was the sole speaker at the briefing. Since Trump’s last briefing, “We are far worse off than we were back then,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins’s school of public health.
Screw him, and if we are FAR WORSE OFF than we were BACK THEN, then the LOCKDOWNS were an ABYSMAL FAILURE?
WTF, JHU $cum?
Trump’s return to the podium may reflect the hostile political environment he faces as much as the worrisome case count, which has been rising for weeks. Since his last briefing, Trump’s average approval rating has dropped from nearly 46 percent to 42 percent, according to Real Clear Politics, while a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found only 38 percent of voters approve of his COVID-19 response, compared to 51 percent in late March. Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who is besting Trump in head-to-head polls, has excoriated Trump’s virus response in campaign ads and in speeches.
“The ratings are down, so what do you do? You do something midseason to get the ratings turned around,” said Michael Steele, the former chair of the Republican National Committee. “He’s coming back out onto the podium not because he has some renewed learning or understanding about the dangers of COVID-19 but because he’s losing to Joe Biden by 12 points.”
Yeah, it's all a FUCKING TV SHOW!
The CAVALIER TALK sure flies in the face of the FEAR PORN of the GLOBE regarding COVID!
Sarah Longwell, of the group Republican Voters Against Trump, has been holding focus groups with people who voted for Trump in 2016. She said even they were eager for a shift in approach on the pandemic.
“People do not trust Donald Trump on the coronavirus, they trust Dr. Fauci,” Longwell said. She added, “They don’t want Donald Trump’s reality show.”
I'm going to now be sick.
This is all offensive, insulting shit that is a complete waste of time.
Trump, a former reality TV star, certainly seemed keenly attuned to the viewership possibilities of a return to the briefings as he spoke with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
“We had a lot of people watching — record numbers watching. In the history of cable television — television, there’s never been anything like it,” he said.
(Blog editor shakes head. God help us all)
His press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, trying to build suspense during Tuesday morning’s press briefing, declined to tell reporters whether public health experts from the coronavirus task force would join Trump at the briefing. “You’ll have to tune in to see,” she said.
SIGH!
Trump had used his frequent briefings in March and April to paint a rosy picture about a nation that he said had “prevailed” over testing shortages and was ready to reopen — as well as to deliver scientifically inaccurate statements like his widely mocked suggestion that injecting disinfectant into humans could stop the virus.
I don't know how much of this crap I will actually be able to re-read, readers. Once was enough.
Trump tweeted in late April that the daily briefings were “not worth the time & effort.” He appeared before the press a few more times, but without the regularity of before, and eventually stopped doing virus briefings altogether.
In recent weeks, Trump has studiously avoided the topic of coronavirus, even as states key to his reelection like Florida, Arizona, and Texas began posting record numbers of infections.
Trump has frequently pushed false theories that the nation’s growing caseloads are due to an increase in testing and not the increased spread of the disease. In fact, a STAT analysis shows cases are surging beyond the increase in testing in 26 states, as daily case counts routinely top 70,000 after temporarily falling to 20,000 per day after the April peak. Deaths are also creeping up, with 5,200 people dying from the virus last week, the second straight week of increased mortality.
I don't give a f**k about numbers quoted by the Globe that fly in the face of logic and reason.
F**k this!
In a widely panned Fox News interview on Sunday, he appeared to downplay the virus again, dismissing many of the new cases as not serious.
“Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day,” he said. “They have the sniffles.”
More than 800 or 900 people were reported to have died of the virus multiple days last week.
Political strategists are unconvinced that returning to the podium will help the president boost his reelection chances.
“I think it’s fair to say that this election will be a referendum on how the president has responded to this pandemic and how he proposes to move forward from it,” said Patti Solis Doyle, a Democratic strategist who worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential run in 2008. “I don’t see room given the current polling out there for the president to turn it around.”
When I read that, I realized that COVID-19 is a BIG F**KING LIE!
--more--"
Time to cancel his goddamn presidency:
"President Trump calls off Florida segment of GOP National Convention as US passes 4 million COVID-19 cases" by Anne Gearan, Marisa Iati and Jacqueline Dupree Washington Post, July 23, 2020
The United States on Thursday passed the distressing milestone of 4 million confirmed coronavirus infections, and President Trump announced he is canceling the public celebration of his nomination for a second term, as schools, Major League Baseball, and businesses wrestled with the consequences of a pandemic still far from under control.
Well, the Globe is really looking forward to the first pitch!
The rapid spread of the virus this summer is striking, taking just 15 days to go from 3 million confirmed cases to 4 million. By comparison, the increase from 1 million cases to 2 million spanned 45 days from April 28 to June 11, and the leap to 3 million then took 27 days.
Just getting worse and worse and worse despite lockdowns, huh?
Yeah, keep doing the same thing that failed over and over.
America, you are SO BEING LIED TO it is BIBLICAL!
Trump’s cancellation of the in-person portion of the Republican National Convention planned for next month in Jacksonville, Fla., represented a remarkable reversal. He had insisted for months on a made-for-television spectacle that would have packed people close together in a state that is now an epicenter of the pandemic.
On Thursday, he conceded that was not going to work. ‘‘The timing for this event is not right,’’ Trump said during the latest of somber, solo White House briefings this week. ‘‘It’s just not right with what’s been happening.’’
Time to step aside and let Pence be president, you piece of shit.
Florida reported 173 deaths on Thursday, its highest single-day count of new deaths, and also reported more than 10,200 new virus cases. Meanwhile, nearly every public health metric suggests the United States is badly losing its fight against the virus.
Positivity rates have reached alarming levels in numerous states, hospitalizations are soaring, and more than 1,100 new virus deaths were reported across the country on Wednesday, marking the first time since May 29 that the daily count exceeded that number, according to Washington Post tracking.
The rolling seven-day average of infections has doubled in less than a month, reaching more than 66,000 new cases per day Wednesday. The US death toll now exceeds 141,000.
Those the numbers from the simulation, you lying f**ks?
People are dying, but not from this mythical f**king pre$$ narrative from COVID, sorry!
Trump’s decision to cancel the Jacksonville convention came weeks after he initially pulled the event from Charlotte, N.C., amid a debate with the state’s governor over social distancing guidelines. He said that he would still keep a much smaller meeting of Republican delegates, scheduled for August in Charlotte, on the calendar.
“It’s a different world, and it will be for a little while,” Trump said, explaining his decision to cancel the event.
Still think he is your savior, Trump turd dipshits?
Trump did announce plans to attend another big event: He said he plans to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 15.
MLB began a pandemic-shortened season on Thursday, playing in empty stadiums amid questions about whether the sport can make it through October without having to abort.
Screw baseball when we already have golf going, and if masks will be required at all NFL games this season, I would rather there be no crowds.
Related:
"NFL players were publicly pleading Sunday with the league to address several health and safety concerns as training camps are set to open. Many prominent players expressed their thoughts in a social media blitz with some using the hashtag #WeWantToPlay. “Getting ready to report this week hoping the [NFL] will come to agreement with the safe and right protocols so we can feel protected playing the sport we love,” Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the 2018 league MVP who led the Chiefs to last season’s Super Bowl title, wrote on Twitter. “We need Football! We need sports! We need hope!” Saints quarterback Drew Brees wrote on Twitter. “The NFL’s unwillingness to follow the recommendations of their own medical experts will prevent that. If the NFL doesn’t do their part to keep players healthy there is no football in 2020. It’s that simple. Get it done @NFL.” Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson said he is concerned because his wife, Ciara, is pregnant. He wrote: “My wife is pregnant. @NFL Training camp is about to start.. And there’s still No Clear Plan on Player Health & Family Safety. ???? We want to play football but we also want to protect our loved ones. #WeWantToPlay.” The concerns the players expressed mirrored those raised by leaders of the NFL Players Association in recent days."
They want to play, but not really, and don't get your hopes up for kickoff because there will be none.
Who cares if there is? F**k $ports now. Put 'em on TV so the billionaires who brought tyranny down on you can distract you and make money at the same time.
They want to play, but not really, and don't get your hopes up for kickoff because there will be none.
Who cares if there is? F**k $ports now. Put 'em on TV so the billionaires who brought tyranny down on you can distract you and make money at the same time.
Elsewhere around the country, many businesses appeared to be pulling back after their attempts to resume more normal operations proved premature, and an additional 1.4 million American workers filed for unemployment benefits last week. It was the first time since March that new claims rose. Another 980,000 new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims — the benefits offered to self-employed and gig workers — were also filed.
About two out of three Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the pandemic, a new poll found. Trump dismissed or played down the risk of the virus for months after it had begun spreading in the United States and has been a self-described cheerleader for rapid reopening of businesses and schools that were shut to help slow its spread.
See:
"Three out of four Americans, including a majority of Republicans, favor requiring people to wear face coverings while outside their homes, a new poll finds, reflecting fresh alarm over spiking coronavirus cases and a growing embrace of government advice intended to safeguard public health. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also finds that about two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how President Trump is handling the outbreak, an unwelcome sign for the White House in an election year shaped by the nation’s battle with the pandemic. More than four months after government stay-at-home orders first swept across the United States, the poll spotlights an America increasingly on edge about the virus. The federal government’s response is seen as falling short, and most Americans favor continued restrictions to stop the virus from spreading, even if they might hamstring the economy. Support for requiring masks is overwhelming among Democrats, at 89 percent but 58 percent of Republicans are in favor as well. The poll was conducted before Trump, who for months was dismissive of masks, said this week that it’s patriotic to wear one."
The District of Columbia is going to probe the Trump hotel’s compliance on masks to see if he is telling the truth.
Trump resisted wearing a mask in public until earlier this month, despite calls to set a good example from the top. He now calls it patriotic to wear a mask, though he still does not wear one consistently and says people should decide for themselves. Trump’s shift may reflect a growing consensus in favor of masks, although it is not clear that opposition to them has ebbed among some of the president’s strongest political supporters.
How many did he lose when he once again backtracked on an issue and donned it?
The president also took a small step back from his insistence that schools should open on time this fall, conceding instead that some might need to delay in-person learning. Many school districts have already announced that decision. Trump has been critical of guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying it made it too tough for schools to reopen.
What did I just type?
The role children play in spreading the virus is still being studied, with experts saying that results are not definitive. A South Korean study found that children over the age of 10 were as likely to transmit the virus as adults, while those under 10 were less likely to spread it.
Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said Wednesday on Fox News that the United States is launching a study of its own, adding that the data ‘‘really needs to be confirmed here.’’
Yeah, just ignore the exhaustive Swedish and Finnish study.
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Related:
"Biden and Obama troll Trump in video that marks a new pandemic campaign tactic" by Annie Linskey Washington Post, July 22, 2020
The unusual video — a teaser for a longer taped conversation between the two men set to be released via social media Thursday — serves both to troll the current president and send a signal that former President Barack Obama will start playing a much more active role in the campaign, but it also marks new tactic for campaigning for the country’s highest office in the midst of a pandemic: Denied an opportunity to appear onstage together before a crowd, they’re instead offering viewers a peek inside their relationship and a taste of their shared sensibilities.
The teaser makes clear that Joe Biden and Obama are following health guidelines about meeting in person — each wears a mask at various points — an implicit contrast to Trump, who has not embraced social distancing guidance and has largely resisted wearing a mask.
Polls show that Biden has opened a significant lead over Trump in recent weeks as voters have soured on the president’s performance in office, particularly his handling of the novel coronavirus. Biden leads Trump 55 percent to 40 percent among registered voters nationwide in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
At least 139,000 Americans have died of the virus this year, according to a Washington Post tally, and new infections are increasing in most states, forcing many school systems to announce their fall schedules will be online and threatening efforts to boost the teetering economy.....
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"Joe Biden announced a sweeping $775 billion investment in caregiving programs on Tuesday, with a series of proposals covering care for small children, older adults, and family members with disabilities. His campaign hopes the plan will particularly resonate during a pandemic that has severely affected the caregiving needs of millions of American families. The proposals, outlined in a speech near his home in Wilmington, Del., were the third of four economic rollouts that Biden, the former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee, is doing before the Democratic National Convention next month. He is seeking to blunt one of the few areas of advantage — the economy — that President Trump maintains even as Trump’s overall standing has dipped. Biden’s plans are intended to appeal to voters who are now more acutely aware of how essential caregivers are, as a health crisis has shuttered schools — a source of child care for many Americans — and limited the options to care for older relatives who are more vulnerable to the coronavirus, but they are also aimed at the caregivers themselves, promising more jobs and higher pay. His campaign estimated that the new spending would create 3 million jobs in the next decade, and even more after accounting for people able to enter the workforce instead of serving as unpaid, at-home caregivers. In a conference call outlining the plan Monday night, the Biden campaign framed the issues as an economic imperative to keep the country competitive and to enable it to recover from the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic."
Time to evict him from the White House:
"The Trump administration said Thursday that it is revoking an Obama-era housing regulation designed to eliminate racial disparities in the suburbs, a move that fair housing advocates have decried as an election year stunt designed to appeal to white voters. The move comes after President Trump characterized the 2015 rule as an existential threat to the suburban way of life that will bring about more crime and lower home prices....."
Biden called him a racist for doing so as the Globe says local leaders must stand up to Trump.
That leads to the age-old question, is voting a right or a duty?
Also see:
House OKs bill to remove statues from US Capitol
The bill was approved 305-113, and they are statues of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate leaders, as well as a bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
Dale Crafts wins Maine GOP primary to face Rep. Jared Golden
Neal challenger Morse releases TV ad highlighting brother’s addiction struggles
"Newton City Councilor Becky Walker Grossman, one of nine Democrats in the Fourth Congressional District primary, is readying a $250,000 advertising campaign starting this week, adding to the battery of television spots now peppering the race. Grossman, 40, will follow at least three other candidates onto the airwaves ahead of the Sept. 1 primary, and will run a 30-second spot primarily out of the Providence market starting Tuesday, according to her campaign. The ad centers on Grossman’s pitch for tighter gun laws, describing a discussion she had with her young son before he started kindergarten about what to do if there’s a “scary man with a gun,” and like other candidates, she is helping back the ad buy with her own funds. Grossman is loaning her campaign $350,000, and is pulling the money from a “personal account,” according to a campaign aide. It adds to the tide of personal wealth in the race, where all nine candidates hail from Newton, Brookline, or Wellesley, three of the state’s wealthiest communities....."
I wonder how well she will be accepted in Congre$$.
Meanwhile, on the Senate side:
Ed Markey launches first TV ad
He also approved this:
"Judy Shelton, an unorthodox economist with close ties to the Trump White House, is now a Senate floor vote away from a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, after her nomination cleared the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. Shelton moved forward along with Christopher Waller, who is research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and a more conventional pick. If they are confirmed by simple majority votes in the Senate, Shelton and Waller will fill the two empty seats on the Fed’s seven-member board in Washington. While no Democrats voted for Shelton, five voted in favor of Waller....."
"A group of 15 Democratic senators, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, is pushing the Trump administration to more thoroughly track how the coronavirus affects pregnant women after new findings suggest they may be particularly vulnerable to the virus. In a letter first shared with the 19th, a media outlet focused on women, Warren and Senator Patty Murray call on the Department of Health and Human Services to collect more information on pregnant women who contract COVID-19, including whether they had preexisting conditions that might exacerbate the virus and the severity of their symptoms. They also argue for “expanding surveillance efforts, improving public health communication, ensuring the proper inclusion of pregnant people in clinical trials for covid-19 therapeutic and vaccine candidates, and addressing racial disparities in health care outcomes related to both covid-19 and maternal health.” Both senators have previously called on the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration to make sure COVID-19 treatments and vaccines are tested for pregnant women. So far, none of the makers of federally backed vaccine candidates have indicated they will test their products in pregnant women. Data published last month by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested pregnant women may be more likely to develop complications from the virus and to require intensive care and intubation. The data — which came after the agency had for months suggested pregnant women were no more vulnerable than the general population — did not find an increased mortality risk, but a CDC Web page cautions “much remains unknown” about how the virus affects pregnant women. The limited data has hampered efforts to understand the risks to pregnant women, medical experts have said."
She really needed to check the hormone test before playing Hardball (so much for the #MeToo movement, 'eh, Globe?).
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"New rifts emerge between Trump, Senate Republicans on pandemic aid package" by Lisa Mascaro Associated Press, July 20, 2020
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers were returning to a Capitol still off-limits to tourists, another sign of the nation’s difficulty containing the coronavirus. Rather than easing, the pandemic’s devastating cycle is rising again, leaving Congress little choice but to engineer another costly rescue. Businesses are shutting down again, many schools will not fully reopen, and jobs are disappearing as federal aid expires.
The political stakes are high for both parties before the November election; the nation has registered more coronavirus infections and a higher death count of 140,500 than any other country.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy huddled with President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and acting chief of staff Mark Meadows. Mnuchin vowed passage by month’s end, as earlier benefits expire, and said he expected the fresh $1 trillion jolt of business tax breaks and other aid would have a “big impact” on the struggling economy.
Mnuchin said he’s preparing to start talks with Democrats.
The package from McConnell had been quietly crafted behind closed doors for weeks and was expected to include $75 billion to help schools reopen, reduced unemployment benefits, and a fresh round of direct $1,200 cash payments to Americans, and a sweeping five-year liability shield against coronavirus lawsuits, but the administration was panning some $25 billion in proposed new funds for testing and tracing, said one Republican familiar with the discussions. Trump was also reviving his push for a payroll tax break, which was being seriously considered, said another Republican. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.
McConnell also faces divisions from some in his ranks who oppose more spending, and he is straining to keep the package at $1 trillion. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned Monday that his side will block any effort from McConnell that falls short.
The New York Democrat is reviving his strategy from the last virus aid bill that forced Republicans to the negotiating table after McConnell’s original bill was opposed by Democrats. This time, the House has already approved House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s sweeping $3 trillion effort, giving Democrats momentum heading into negotiations. “We have to end this virus,” Pelosi, a Democrat, said Monday on MSNBC.
Trump raised alarms when he suggested last month at a rally in Oklahoma that he wanted to slow virus testing. Some of Trump’s allies wanted new money to help test and track the virus. Senate Democrats were investigating why the Trump administration had not yet spent some of $25 billion previously allocated.
F**k you and your medical fa$ci$m and surveillance tyranny.
The payroll tax break Trump wanted also divided his party because it historically has been used to fund Social Security and Medicare. Cutting it only adds to the nation’s rising debt load at a time when conservatives are wary of any new spending. Some Republicans also see it as an insufficient response to millions of out-of-work Americans.
This would be the fifth virus aid package.
Pelosi’s bill, approved in May, includes $75 billion for testing and tracing to try to get a handle on the virus spread, funnels $100 billion to schools to safely reopen, and calls for $1 trillion to be sent to cash-strapped states to pay essential workers and prevent layoffs. The measure would give cash stipends to Americans, and bolster rental and mortgage and other safety net protections.....
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"White House, lawmakers hope for an agreement by next week on more stimulus" by Erica Werner, Jeff Stein and Seung Min Kim Washington Post, July 21, 2020
WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials on Tuesday appeared to be backing off from attempts to block billions for testing and tracing, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other priorities for Republican senators in an emerging coronavirus spending bill.
Then I wasted time reading the previous article, and how anyone could accept what this piece of excrement known as a president says at face value is beyond me.
After meeting behind closed doors for over an hour with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, several GOP senators reported they were making progress on the provisions, including $25 billion for states for testing and tracing that the administration had initially opposed.
‘‘We’re moving on the right direction on all fronts . . . We are making good progress,’’ said Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, a senior Appropriations Committee member, when asked about the disagreement over money for testing. Blunt said negotiators are ‘‘deciding that there’s logic to a lot of the places we thought we ought to have on the appropriations side.’’
Privately, officials involved in the negotiations said it appears likely GOP senators would prevail in having their priorities on testing and other matters partially if not fully funded at the original levels they sought. Going into the talks, the White House had opposed the $25 billion for testing and tracing for states, while also seeking to block $10 billion for the CDC and $15 billion for the National Institutes of Health.
The administration also had opposed billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to counter the pandemic at home and abroad and help fund industrial production and other needs.
You still think Trump is in charge of anything?
Participants cautioned that the talks were ongoing, and nothing had been finalized.
A senior administration official, granted anonymity to describe the White House’s internal thinking, said the requests for more testing money were unnecessary, because nearly $13 billion of the $25 billion already approved by lawmakers had not been spent. The official also said that states, localities, and tribes have spent only about $100 million of the $10 billion the administration has turned over for testing. The administration similarly believes more funding for the CDC is unnecessary, because of how much money already approved by Congress has not been spent.
Some experts said lawmakers should both approve more money and have the administration send it out more quickly.
‘‘States have been using some of this money, but the problem is that it’s not enough and easy for the states to draw down,’’ said Sam Hammond, a policy expert at the Niskanen Center, a think tank that has been working with Senate Republicans on bolstering testing. ‘‘The scale of the problem will require a lot more money than they have so far.’’
Like pouring money down a rathole, and who thinks Republicans are your saviors?
These programs are just one part of what the administration and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, envision as a $1 trillion package that will be the last major coronavirus relief bill before the election.
White House officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that their goal is to reach an agreement on a new coronavirus stimulus plan by the end of next week, a deadline that leaves them little margin for error with expanded unemployment benefits set to expire. They must still bridge numerous differences.
‘‘We will begin our conversations today. It is my hope that we can resolve our differences and have a bill by the end of next week,’’ Pelosi told fellow Democrats on a conference call Tuesday morning, according to a person on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal conversations.
Enhanced unemployment benefits expire for millions of Americans at the end of next week, and the two parties are divided over what to do about it. Mnuchin told reporters as he entered his first meeting. ‘‘I’ll be here for the next two weeks until we get this done.’’
Looking like this?
--more--"
Or like this?
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (Erin Scott/Pool via The New York Times)
"Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday called on Congress to work with the Trump administration to pass additional stimulus legislation by the end of the month as the resurgent coronavirus pandemic left the trajectory of the economic recovery uncertain. The request comes as millions of Americans are about to see their expanded unemployment insurance benefits expire and as lawmakers embark on an intense week of negotiations over what would be the fourth significant bailout package since the virus shuttered large swaths of the US economy earlier this year. In testimony before the House Committee on Small Business, Mnuchin said that the next round of money to support the economy should be targeted to help industries that have been hardest hit by the pandemic as well as smaller businesses and low- to middle-income families. Mnuchin also said that the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides forgivable small-business loans, should be extended but with a focus on helping the restaurant, hotel, travel, and hospitality sectors. Lawmakers will return to Washington on Monday to begin negotiations over the next virus relief package, which they hope to finalize by the end of the month, but significant disagreements remain over how and where to direct aid. One big sticking point is whether to send additional money to state and local governments, as Democrats have insisted. White House officials have been debating how to structure another round of economic impact payments that would be sent directly to American taxpayers. They are also weighing whether to continue to provide an extra $600 per week to those without jobs, an enhanced unemployment benefit payment that many Republicans say is preventing people from going back to work....."
Even if they wanted to work, states are shutting down again.
"White House, GOP kill payroll tax cut but flounder over broader coronavirus bill" by Erica Werner, Seung Min Kim and Jeff Stein Washington Post, July 23, 2020
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans killed President Trump’s payroll tax cut proposal on Thursday and did not reach agreement with the White House on a broader coronavirus relief bill, setting off a frantic scramble with competing paths forward as administration officials floated a piecemeal approach but encountered pushback from both major political parties, and the entire effort appeared to teeter on the brink of failure.
The rest of us are going to get $tiffed.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had planned to roll out a $1 trillion GOP bill Thursday morning, but that announcement was canceled in a head-spinning series of events.
Complicating matters, the White House renewed its push for language related to the location of the Federal Bureau of Investigation building in downtown Washington, which is kitty-corner from Trump International Hotel. Trump has expressed interest in the location of the FBI’s headquarters for some time, according to two people with knowledge of the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The details were unclear, but the Trump administration previously scrapped a plan to move the FBI headquarters to the suburbs, instead seeking to rebuild a new FBI building in the current location. It was unclear what this had to do with the coronavirus. A White House spokesman declined to comment.
A Senate GOP leadership aide said Senate Republicans opposed the White House’s new piecemeal approach, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately shot it down. ‘‘No, no, no,’’ Pelosi said. ‘‘This is a package. We cannot piecemeal this.’’
GOP leaders had aimed for a unified proposal that would include a new round of stimulus checks, aid for schools, money for testing, changes to unemployment assistance rules, and more money for small businesses, but Senate Republicans did not agree on how to structure these changes, prompting the White House to try a new strategy Thursday morning.
Liability refers to a key White House and Republican demand to set up legal protections that would make it difficult for workers to win lawsuits against their employers if employees become sick at work. Democrats have rejected this idea as a nonstarter.
One of the few things agreed upon was to jettison any payroll tax cut from the final deal. Trump had insisted that such a measure be included, but Senate Republicans refused and the White House acknowledged defeat Thursday. Trump attempted to blame Democrats, but it was Republicans who shot the idea down.
Enjoy your last few months in office, Chump.
The retreat on the payroll tax idea marked a big setback for the White House. In recent days, Trump had insisted that he might not sign an eventual bill if it did not include the payroll tax cut, but the plan was extremely unpopular with Republicans. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the White House still liked the idea and could pursue it in potential future legislation — though McConnell has repeatedly indicated that the legislation taking shape now will be Congress’s last major coronavirus relief bill.
‘‘The president is very focused on getting money quickly to workers right now, and the payroll tax takes time, so we’ll come back and look at that later,’’ Mnuchin told reporters at the Capitol.
He said leaders instead will focus on sending another round of stimulus checks to Americans because that approach would put money in people’s pockets more quickly.
Stephen Moore, a conservative economist who advised Trump’s 2016 campaign, said he was very discouraged that the GOP package would leave out the payroll tax cut but include the $1,200 stimulus payments, arguing that the president risked alienating his conservative base over the move.
‘‘We’ve gone in less than 10 days from Trump saying that he won’t sign a bill without a payroll tax cut to the bill they’re drafting not having a payroll tax cut,’’ Moore said. ‘‘There is no benefit from dumping money from helicopters into people’s laps.’’
It's okay for Wall Street and corporations, though.
Democrats and Republicans had already supported sending another round of stimulus checks, and now that idea appears to be one of a few areas where there is bipartisan support. White House officials and Democrats had hoped to have a deal before the enhanced unemployment benefits expired.....
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting if I were you.
--more--"
Also see:
"Executives from four companies in the race to produce a coronavirus vaccine — AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna Therapeutics, and Pfizer — told lawmakers on Tuesday that they are optimistic their products could be ready by the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021. All four companies are testing vaccines in human clinical trials. Three of the firms — AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna — are getting federal funds for their vaccine development efforts. AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson pledged to the lawmakers that they would produce hundreds of millions of doses of their vaccines at no profit to themselves. Cambridge-based Moderna, however, which has been granted $483 million from the government to develop its product, made no such promise. “We will not sell it at cost,” said Dr. Stephen Hoge, the president of Moderna. Many Democratic lawmakers have argued that federal funding for vaccine development should include provisions to guarantee affordability and guard against profiteering. At the congressional hearing Tuesday, some House members raised concerns about Pfizer’s decision to reject federal funds, suggesting it could lead to price-gouging and a lack of transparency. “We didn’t accept the federal government funding solely for the reason that we wanted to be able to move as quickly as possible with our vaccine candidate into the clinic,” said John Young, Pfizer’s chief business officer. “We’ll price our potential vaccine consistent with the urgent global health emergency that we’re facing,” Young said, adding that “a vaccine is meaningless if people are unable to afford it.” Representative Raul Ruiz, Democrat of California, also questioned whether failing to address the financial stakes of vaccine development early on could keep these products out of “the hands of the people that need this most.” “I don’t want to look back, and then have health equity be an afterthought,” said Ruiz, who is a physician. “It has to be prioritized.”
You are going to get $tuck in more ways than one, Americans.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Outside the Beltway, most states are failing to report data that’s key to controlling the pandemic says Obama's former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden.
One thing the lockdowns did was DENY US HERD IMMUNITY:
"Most people in US still susceptible to coronavirus, CDC study finds" by Laurie McGinley Washington Post, July 21, 2020
A small proportion of people in many parts of the United States had antibodies to the coronavirus as of this spring, indicating that most of the population remains highly susceptible to the pathogen, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
PFFFFFFFFT!
The agency also reported that the number of actual coronavirus infections probably is higher — by 2 to 13 times — than the reported cases. The higher estimate is based on the study on antibodies, which indicates who has had the virus. The number of reported cases in the United States now stands at 3.8 million.
PROBABLY?
If so, then we DO HAVE HERD IMMUNITY and the DEATH RATE must be PLUMMETING!
You liars can NOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!
The new data appeared Tuesday in the JAMA Internal Medicine publication and on the CDC website. The information about antibodies was derived from blood samples drawn from 10 areas, including New York, Utah, Washington state, and South Florida. The samples were collected in discrete periods in two rounds — one in early spring and the other several weeks later, ending in early June. For two sites, only the earlier results were available.
More like fresh propaganda.
The blood samples were collected during routine screenings such as cholesterol tests. Such serological surveys are being conducted throughout the country as public health experts, government officials, and academics try to determine the virus’s course, how many people have been infected, and how many have produced antibodies in response.
Oh, they SURREPTITIOUSLY TOOK YOUR BLOOD to TEST for COVID, huh?
I'm so glad I cancelled all my doctor's appointments!
In New York City, almost 24 percent of the population had antibodies as of early May — the highest proportion by far of any of the locations but still far below the 60 percent to 70 percent threshold for herd immunity, the point at which enough people are immune to the virus, either through exposure or because they have been vaccinated. Herd immunity makes it far less likely that the virus will be transmitted from person to person.
Should have let us out instead if locking us down!
Also means masks and social distancing should be scrapped!
In the other areas, the percentages of people with antibodies were in the single digits in late May and early June. That included Missouri, at 2.8 percent; Philadelphia, at 3.6 percent; and Connecticut, at 5.2 percent.
The new data emerged as the nation struggles with a pathogen that can produce no symptoms at all, or sicken and kill — 138,000 people in the United States have died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Large swaths of the nation are in turmoil as many communities debate how to reopen schools this fall, wrestle with rising virus-related hospitalizations, and, in some cases, roll back restrictions to restart a flailing economy.
F**k you and your lying goddamn narrative!
Florida recorded another 134 deaths Tuesday, bringing its daily average for the past week to 115, Associated Press statistics show. A month ago, Florida was averaging 33 coronavirus deaths a day.
Overall, 5,317 people have died in Florida from COVID-19 since March 1 and nearly 370,000 have tested positive for the virus.
Texas on Tuesday reported more than 9,300 confirmed new cases and 131 deaths, the state’s second deadliest day of the pandemic. Missouri on Tuesday reported more than 1,100 new cases, once again breaking its own record for the largest single-day increase.
‘‘Most of us are likely still very vulnerable to this virus and we have a long way to go to control it,’’ said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. ‘‘This study should put to bed any further argument that we should allow this virus to rip through our communities in order to achieve herd immunity.’’
Why not?
The death rate is minimal, and those at risk can be isolated and protected.
That bitch is fucking evil, sorry!
With vaccines still months or years off, some people have suggested allowing large numbers of people to become infected to speed the process of herd immunity. Many call that idea dangerous.
Except LARGE NUMBERS are BEING INFECTED ANYWAY, according to their own damn reporting, and the truth is they WANT TO KEEP THIS GOING until they HAVE the VACCINE ready to roll!
EVIL!
‘‘The study rebukes the idea that current population-wide levels of acquired immunity (so-called herd immunity) will pose any substantial impediment to the continued propagation’’ of the virus, at least for now, wrote Tyler Brown and Rochelle Walensky, infectious-disease specialists at Massachusetts General Hospital, in an accompanying opinion article. ‘‘These data should also quickly dispel myths that dangerous practices like ‘COVID parties’ are either a sound or safe way to promote herd immunity.’’
This f**king crap is making me sick!
‘‘COVID parties’’ refer to events in which people get together in an attempt to infect themselves and develop immunity to the virus. A 30-year-old man who believed the coronavirus was a hoax and attended such a party died recently after being infected with the virus, according to the chief medical officer at a Texas hospital, The New York Times reported, but the account, it said, has not been independently corroborated.
That's because the account was so ridiculous that it defied belief!
The undercount of infections was discussed late last month by CDC director Robert Redfield, who said the actual number of infections was about 10 times the confirmed cases.
Then we HAVE HERD IMMUNITY!
The new study gave details on the undercount: In Missouri, the estimated number of actual infections was 13 times greater than the confirmed cases. In Utah, it was at least twice as high.
You CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS, liars!!!!
‘‘The findings may reflect the number of persons who had mild or no illness, or who did not seek medical care or undergo testing but who still may have contributed to ongoing virus transmission in the population,’’ the study’s authors wrote. Researchers say more than 40 percent of people who are infected do not have symptoms.
BUT MAY, and you don't even know you are sick (because you are not)?
Who thought up this BULLSHIT?
Because people often do not know they are infected, the public should continue to take steps to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus, including wearing face coverings outside the home, remaining 6 feet from other people, washing hands frequently, and staying home when sick.
I'm become immune to this garbage!
Separately, in a report in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a study by Indiana University and the Indiana State Department of Health found that 2.8 percent of state residents had been infected as of late April. It was the first randomized study to determine the prevalence of the coronavirus infection in the state. It also included members of minority communities who were not randomly selected. The study used nasal-swab tests to detect active infections and blood tests to find antibodies that indicated a past infection.
The 2.8 percent represented about 187,000 people, or 10 times more than the number of confirmed cases identified through conventional testing. About 44 percent of the infected people were asymptomatic, according to Nir Menachemi, the lead scientist on the study and a professor of public health at Indiana University. The number fell to a little over 2 percent in a second round of testing in early June, but in a change, more people had antibodies, indicating past infections, while fewer had active infections.
In a second report in MMWR, CDC researchers surveyed residents of two Georgia counties, DeKalb and Fulton, in late April and early May and found that 2.5 percent had antibodies to the coronavirus.
--more--"
Also see:
"New Mexico authorities are investigating a deadly shooting at an auto shop after a man who refused to wear a mask allegedly tried to run over the shop owner’s son and crashed into a vehicle before driving off. An incident report written by Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputies say as they were searching for the man, they received a call from the shop owner saying the man had returned and that his son had shot someone. Deputies found two men on the ground. One didn’t have a pulse. The initial incident report indicated the man had stopped at the auto shop for air for his tire, the Albuquerque Journal reported. The owner said he told the man that he could help him but that he needed to have a mask on and the man became “extremely irate.” The state’s mandate that everyone must wear face coverings in public has been in effect since May 16. Operators of essential businesses must require customers to wear masks."
Then boycott them!
"A judge plans to hear arguments on an emergency request by Georgia’s governor to stop Atlanta from enforcing a mandate to wear a mask in public and other restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic while a lawsuit on the issue is pending. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kelly Ellerbe has scheduled a hearing for 11 a.m. Tuesday on Governor Brian Kemp’s motion. Because of “the current public health crisis,” the hearing will be held by videoconference, Ellerbe’s order says. Georgia has tallied 145,575 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 3,176 deaths, with 3,183 people currently hospitalized as of Monday afternoon. In a lawsuit filed Thursday against Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the members of the City Council, Kemp argues that local leaders don’t have the legal authority to change or ignore his executive orders."
"Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Tuesday reiterated a recommendation that residents “commit to wearing a mask,” even as he sues Atlanta officials for mandating them. “Today, I am encouraging all Georgians — from every corner of our great state — to do four things for four weeks to stop the spread of COVID-19,” Kemp said in a news release. “If Georgians commit to wearing a mask, socially distancing, washing their hands regularly, and following the guidance in our Executive Order and from public health officials, we can make incredible progress in the fight against COVID-19.” A staunch conservative who ran on shredding regulations, the governor has set himself apart even from other Republicans in his campaign against mask mandates. More than half of all states, including conservative-led Alabama and Arkansas, have adopted them. Kemp’s lawsuit against Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and city council members, filed July 16 in Fulton County Superior Court, seeks to undo the city’s mask ordinance and other coronavirus measures that go beyond his executive orders. Kemp’s suit bewildered public health officials and some business leaders, who see masks as crucial to keeping the virus under control and restoring consumer confidence."
The confidence has been shattered because of this jerk-job hoax and endless lockdown, and look who came to dinner:
"New York’s Democratic governor flew to Georgia, pledging to help the city of Savannah fight COVID-19, in a barely concealed rebuke to Georgia’s Republican leadership as virus cases continued to rise in the southern state. Governor Andrew Cuomo declined to directly criticize Governor Brian Kemp, but warmly praised Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, a native New Yorker who has been a scorching critic of Kemp in recent days. Cuomo said New York has to be interested in what’s happening in other parts of the country because infected people from other states are likely to spread virus cases in New York. Johnson was the pacesetter in a revolt by local Georgia officials against Kemp’s refusal to allow local governments to order people to wear masks."
Had to fly down there to stick it to Kemp, did the mass-murdering governor of New York?
So how many nursing home seniors did Kemp kill?
I hope Cuomo quarantined himself when he arrived:
"Residents from 31 states must now quarantine for 14 days when arriving in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, as dozens of states experience rising positive COVID-19 rates. Governor Andrew Cuomo acknowledged Tuesday that the quarantine is “imperfect,” but said could help protect against the risk of increased spread. The list of states no longer includes Minnesota, but now includes Alaska, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Virginia, and Washington. ‘‘The infection rate across the country is getting worse, not better,” Cuomo said in a conference call with reporters. Cuomo has tried to get more travelers to comply with the order by instituting a $2,000 fine for impacted individuals who leave the airport without filling out a form that state officials plan to use to randomly track travelers and ensure they’re following quarantine restrictions. Airport travelers who fail to fill out the form face a hearing and an order requiring mandatory quarantine. Cuomo, who’s voiced concern about young people congregating in bars, said New York’s liquor authority has suspended the licenses of four bars and restaurants in Queens and Suffolk County, and since March, the state’s suspended 27 licenses and brought 410 charges against establishments, who must follow social distancing and face covering rules on top of Cuomo’s requirement — announced last Thursday — to only serve alcohol to people who order and eat food. Cuomo said his administration will close restaurants and bars with three violations, while “egregious” violations can result in the immediate loss of a liquor license or closure. “That is a very serious situation, that means they can’t operate,’’ Cuomo said. “I’m sorry it’s come to this, but it’s a dangerous situation.” Cuomo claimed Tuesday that New York never “opened outside drinking.” Still, the state’s previous guidance allowed consumption of “food and/or beverage” on a licensee’s premises in outdoors, open-air areas while seated at tables 6 feet apart."
What a f**king tyrannical a$$hole, and $tay the f**k out of that $tate.
Stay out of California as well.
"Maryland Governor Larry Hogan on Monday defended his decision to hold a traditional election in November, despite growing concerns from voting rights advocates and election officials about the impact of his choice amid the pandemic. Hogan, a Republican, said he opted for a ‘‘normal’’ election instead of a ‘‘vote by mail only’’ because of the chaos that occurred during the June 2 primary, when the state mailed ballots to every voter and opened only a few polling sites in each jurisdiction. Far more voters than expected opted to cast their ballots in person, leading to huge lines and hours-long waits in many places. ‘‘I’m encouraging everyone to vote by mail instead of vote by mail only, which is what some of our Democratic colleagues are pushing for,’’ Hogan said during an appearance on the television show ‘‘The View,’’ where he explained his decision to open all polling sites in the state and mail absentee-ballot applications to every voter, rather than the ballots themselves. Voting rights advocates have increasingly criticized Hogan’s decision not to limit polling sites or mail ballots to every voter, calling it misguided. Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, has urged Hogan to reverse his order."
Time to get out to the Midwest:
Three Midwestern states announce mask mandates
Three-fourths of US registered voters support the implementation and enforcement of a mask mandate in their states, according to a Morning Consult-Politico poll published Wednesday that was carried out this weekend.
The damn fools are going to drag us down with them.
"President Trump says he’ll send agents to Chicago and elsewhere" by Charlie Savage New York Times, July 22, 2020
WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Wednesday that the Justice Department will send hundreds of additional federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque to confront a rise in shootings and other crime, escalating his dark rhetoric about urban crime and bashing local elected officials who have been wary of intervention by his administration.
Trump, who has sought to make “law and order” a campaign theme and denounced “Democrat-run cities” as he seeks reelection, recounted anecdotes and statistics about a recent spate of gun violence, while blaming local politicians and liberals for crime and criticizing the progressive “defund the police” slogan. “What cities are doing is absolute insanity,” the president said.
On that one, he is right. Bad places to be these days.
The announcement comes amid heightened scrutiny on interventions by federal law enforcement officials in urban areas amid protests prompted by the police killing in May of George Floyd in Minneapolis — including the deployment of Department of Homeland Security agents in unmarked uniforms to confront protesters in Portland, Ore., in the name of protecting federal buildings from vandalism.
Attorney General William Barr sought to distinguish the Justice Department additions to existing task forces from the novel issues raised by confrontations with protesters, stressing that the agents would be performing the sort of “standard anti-criminal activities” targeting violent gangs that law enforcement officers have for decades.
“This is different than the operations and tactical teams we use to defend against riots and mob violence,” he said, “and we’re going to continue to confront mob violence, but, the operations we are discussing today are very different — they are classic crime fighting.”
Still, Barr joined Trump in blaming politics for a recent rise in crime rates, although those rates still remain far lower than they were a generation ago, and while there is nothing unusual about federal agents teaming up with local police on task forces to investigate gang violence or drug trafficking networks, the Trump administration’s recent efforts — pegged to Trump trying to make political hay of bashing Democratic elected officials, and coming against the backdrop of the intervention around the federal courthouse in Portland — have strained federal and local relations.
The exact opposite is the truth. Democrats like Rosenblum have initiated the crises to do just that and hurt him!
The mayor of Kansas City, Quinton Lucas, a Democrat, has said he was caught by surprise when Washington announced Operation Legend for his city, saying that he learned about it on Twitter. He said he supports receiving help in solving crimes but is worried that the federal agents may end up being used for more political purposes.
You mean like what Obama did?
“I have grave discomfort with the pain of my people in Kansas City being exploited for political purposes,” he said. “We all recognize the tragedies that are going on in our streets. A mayor like me, you live with this every day. I find it disgraceful the narrative that the president and others use to try to score political points.”
UNREAL!
Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said she doubts the federal officers will be used only to help solve crimes and reduced violence.
“Certainly we want these unsolved crimes addressed, we want safe communities, we just disagree on pathway to get there. Who doesn’t want safe, livable communities?’’ she said.
The mayor of Chicago?
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, said at a later news conference that the speech was a ‘‘political stunt. The president is trying to divert attention from his failed leadership on COVID-19,’’ she said.
She is a disgusting excuse for a human being.
In Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker on Wednesday indirectly criticized Trump over the continued push to dispatch federal agents to US cities, with Baker saying he believes officials should “only play if we get asked.”
“One of the things the lieutenant governor and I have said many times around our available law enforcement resources is we go where we’re invited,” Baker said when asked about the role of federal agents in Portland.
Most cities have experienced a drop in crime during the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, a sharp rise in shootings in major cities like Chicago and New York has captured most of the attention.
Not in the Globe, and domestic violence cases are soaring as the pre$$ minimizes it.
The pattern has been repeated in many cities, including those run by Republican mayors — a point that Trump administration officials usually do not mention. Jacksonville, Fla., the site of the Republican National Convention next month, is experiencing one of its most lethal years in decades, with more than 100 homicides as of last Monday, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department.
Convention cancelled, you win!
So that is why Trump cancelled. Not COVID!
While some of the largest US cities are on track to hit higher numbers this year than they have in decades, criminologists also say that murder rates and other violent crimes are significantly lower now than they were in the early 1990s.
Legal analysts say the administration unquestionably has the right to deploy federal officers to cities to enforce federal laws, but their power is not unlimited, and without the blessing of state or local authorities, they could not enforce state or local laws, legal analysts said.....
--more--"
Related:
"Police in riot gear moved in early Wednesday to clear a monthlong encampment of protesters and homeless people from a park near New York’s City Hall. A line of officers with helmets and shields entered City Hall Park shortly before 4 a.m. and forced out about 50 people, many of them homeless, who remained at the encampment. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the clearing of the encampment, which had about 100 people still there, was unrelated to President Trump’s threats to send federal law enforcers to New York to take on protesters as the president has done in Portland, Ore. The decision to clear what Blasio called the increasingly unruly camp was made at about 10 p.m. Tuesday. “We do always respect the right to protest, but we have to think about health and safety first, and the health and safety issues were growing,” de Blasio said. “So it was time to take action.” Speaking later in Albany, Governor Andrew Cuomo said he’d spoken to the president by phone, and Trump had told him he wouldn’t be deploying extra federal law enforcement forces to New York for now, and that the two leaders would speak first before any such action happened."
de Blasio is such a liar as the NPD faces new calls for justice for DJ Henry.
The kid offered someone a doughnut and he was bombarded with racial slurs, according to the body cameras worn by the proper authorities.
"Baker, Pence to meet on Nantucket this weekend, but governor won't attend Trump fund-raiser on island, aides say" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, July 22, 2020
Governor Charlie Baker is expected to meet with Vice President Mike Pence this weekend on Nantucket, where Pence is traveling to attend a fund-raiser for President Trump’s reelection campaign, according to the governor’s aides.
Baker, who said he didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 and wouldn’t in 2020, is not attending the 30-person lunch fund-raiser on Saturday, according to Baker’s office, but the Swampscott Republican is planning to huddle privately with Pence on the island “to discuss the pandemic and how the federal government can support Massachusetts’ response efforts,” a Baker spokeswoman said.
Baker has enjoyed lofty approval ratings for his handling of the novel coronarivus pandemic among Massachusetts residents, who have been deeply critical of Trump’s handling of the crisis. The president, sliding in public polling against the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, has repeatedly downplayed the virus’s threat, claiming as recently as Tuesday that it will simply “disappear.”
I don't know who the Globe talks to, or did they just make up the approval numbers?
A Republican National Committee official told the Globe that the Saturday fund-raiser is expected to raise about $1 million. Tickets for the lunch are $25,000, Politico reported.
Nice to $ee $ome things are $till normal around here during this life-altering $camdemic!
Long diplomatic in his critiques of Trump, Baker has in recent months sharply criticized the president’s handling of the multiple crises buffeting the country.
Baker, however, has had a seemingly warmer connection with Pence, a former Indiana governor whose time in Indianapolis overlapped with Baker’s first term in office.
The two had a joking exchange during a National Governors Association meeting last year, and Baker in August greeted Pence at the airport on Nantucket, when the vice president attended a similar fund-raiser for the Republican National Committee and Trump’s campaign.
Mr. President, Get a f**king clue! The coup is all around you and you can't, don't, or won't see it!
Baker did not attend last year’s fund-raiser, either, the governor’s aides said at the time, but the two met to discuss the stalled Vineyard Wind project and the trade deal the Trump administration had negotiated with Mexico and Canada.....
--more--"
Related:
"A Canadian court on Wednesday threw out a longstanding deal that has allowed the country to send asylum seekers back to the United States, saying it violates their rights by exposing them to likely detention on the US side. Under the Safe Third Country Agreement, which went into effect in 2004, Canada may turn back asylum seekers attempting to enter from the United States at official border crossings — and vice versa — because both countries recognize each other as safe places. Justice Ann Marie McDonald wrote in her decision that ‘‘it is not the role of the Court to pass judgment on the U.S. asylum system,’’ but she said the applicants had provided ‘‘significant evidence of the risks and challenges’’ faced by asylum seekers who are returned to the United States. The ruling could add a wrinkle to US-Canada ties and deals a blow to Ottawa, which has long defended the pact as lawful."
"President Trump signed a memorandum Tuesday that seeks to bar people in the United States illegally from being counted in congressional reapportionment, a move that drew immediate criticism and promises of court challenges. Trump said that “respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base, to the extent feasible and to the maximum extent of the President’s discretion under the law.’’ Reapportionment is the redistribution of seats in the US House of Representatives based on changes in population found in each decennial census. The Supreme Court blocked the administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census form, with a majority saying the administration’s rationale for the question — to help enforce voting rights — appeared to be contrived. Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said the order would be found unconstitutional by the courts. “The Constitution requires that everyone in the US be counted in the census,” Ho said. “President Trump can’t pick and choose. He tried to add a citizenship question to the census and lost in the Supreme Court . . . We will see him in court, and win, again.”
Then he will just have to move it to another court before deporting them:
"Employees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and the Transportation Security Administration are among the latest federal employees suing the Trump administration for hazard pay they claim they’re entitled to for being exposed to the novel coronavirus on the job. Lawyers representing the individual employees on Wednesday amended the class-action lawsuit to add new plaintiffs from at least nine federal agencies, including parts of the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department. The lawsuit, first filed in federal claims court in March, was initially brought by federal employees in roles such as a Bureau of Prisons supervisor, a commodity grader with the Agriculture Department, and a radiographer with Department of Veterans Affairs. The employees claim that under a federal labor statute, they’re entitled to hazard pay equal to at least 25 percent of their wages as they were exposed to “hazardous working conditions through the performance of their assigned duties and that the hazardous duty had not been taken into account in the classification of their position.”
The southern border is wide open:
"Mexican officials say the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths has passed 35,000, making it the country with the fourth-highest total. A count by Johns Hopkins University has only the United States, Brazil, and Britain with more confirmed deaths from the coronavirus. Sunday’s rise to 35,006 deaths moved Mexico, a country with 130 million inhabitants, past Italy. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador insisted the development of the pandemic in Mexico “is positive, it is good” because of the country’s 32 states only nine had increases in infections. Deputy Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell said the number of confirmed cases rose to 299,750 on Sunday."
"Of all the companies around the world affected by COVID-19, none has disclosed a worse death toll than Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil producer. Petroleos Mexicanos, as it’s also known, said late Tuesday that 202 employees and five contractors have died of the disease so far. No other company has reported fatalities that come anywhere near that number, according to data reviewed by Bloomberg. The closest comparison may be New York’s Metropolitan Transport Authority, which has lost at least 131 workers. Pemex’s toll also exceeds the 132 recorded by the entire US meat and poultry industry as of July 14, which has four times the workforce and has suffered deadly outbreaks at processing plants. It’s not clear why Pemex’s tally is so high, but social distancing is difficult on offshore oil platforms, and the company may initially have been slow to enact protective measures such as sending workers home, according to Silvia Ramos Luna, the general secretary of the National Union of Petroleum Technicians and Professionals."
Here is why the oil sector is being shut down in Mexico:
"Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday downplayed the importance of wearing face masks during the pandemic, calling his treasury secretary’s assertion that using them would be a factor in reactivating the economy ‘‘disproportionate.” López Obrador had never been seen publicly wearing a mask until he flew to Washington earlier this month to meet with President Trump. The World Health Organization recommends the wearing of masks among other measures to slow the spread of COVID-19....."
All the more reason not to.
Meanwhile, the state case and death reports are now being placed way back in the B-section or not being printed at all as the state reports zero new probable-case deaths.
"The novel coronavirus has infected a seasonal resident on Cuttyhunk Island, a tiny outpost located 12 miles south of New Bedford with a population that hovers around 10 during the year but swells during the summer months, officials said. Authorities confirmed the positive COVID-19 test in a statement posted Thursday to the website for the town of Gosnold, the smallest municipality in Massachusetts that includes Cuttyhunk and eight other Elizabeth Islands. Gail Blout, who sits on the Gosnold Board of Selectmen, told the Cape Cod Times that the woman who tested positive is a seasonal resident. “The individuals that were directly exposed have been notified and are in quarantine,” the statement said. “The primary contacts will be tested, follow medical guidelines, and with the Health Agents. Any individual showing symptoms ... should isolate immediately, contact their health provider for testing, and inform and local Board of Health.”
Better keep your guard up if you go to Vermont.
Time to end the war:
"Attorney says Soldiers’ Home superintendent should be applauded for his handling of outbreak that killed 76" by Hanna Krueger Globe Staff, July 23, 2020
It has been 113 days since Governor Baker placed Bennett Walsh on paid administrative leave from his position as superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, where one of the deadliest coronavirus outbreaks in the state took place. At least 76 residents of the facility would succumb to the virus, prompting nursing staff and family members to speak out about dire conditions that many likened to a war zone’s, but in the lobby of a Springfield hotel Thursday, Walsh’s lawyer maintained that his client handled a complex situation appropriately and attacked the governor for creating a “toxic atmosphere” that, he said, led to an undue focus on the state-run home.
“I suggest to you they did a great job, under great pressure, with honor and dignity,” said William Bennett, Walsh’s uncle and attorney. “They should be applauded for the way they handled it.”
Walsh, who is fighting his termination, has not appeared before the press since April but has adamantly defended his management of the crisis through his lawyer.But an independent investigation by Mark W. Pearlstein, a former federal prosecutor appointed by Baker, concluded the home’s leaders made “utterly baffling” mistakes in responding to a devastating outbreak. The scathing findings were released in late June.
The most egregious mistake cited in the 174-page report — reported in April by the Globe — involved combining two dementia units that had both uninfected and infected residents. The decision meant 40 veterans were crowded into a space designed to hold 25, providing what the report called the “opposite of infection control.” A recreational therapist who was instructed to help with the move said she felt like she was “walking [the veterans] to their death,” the report said.
Bennett argued Thursday that the merger was “the best decision” that could have been made at the time and did not help spread the virus. He also took aim at Baker, who said he didn’t learn about the crisis until multiple veterans had died in late March and has been highly critical of Walsh since.
“It’s always Holyoke, Holyoke, Holyoke,” Bennett said, nodding to the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home, which reported 31 coronavirus-related deaths. “There is an unusual focus on Holyoke and on Mr. Walsh, and I think it gets back to that poison that was spread by the Baker administration against him.”
Bennett also criticized the Baker administration for denying his Walsh’s request for National Guard assistance and then three days later arriving with 160 people, placing Walsh on leave and installing a clinical response team to stabilize the facility.
In an effort to refute initial claims by the state that Walsh had failed to communicate in the first week of the outbreak in late March, his lawyer provided 34 pages of e-mails and text messages that show he was in regular communication with the Baker administration, particularly his supervisor and the secretary of veterans’ services, Fransico Urena, but employees and family members present at the facility during that time have told the Globe those updates contained inaccuracies and did not convey the gravity of the situation at the home, where veterans were gasping for air and a refrigerated truck sat outside to accommodate the overflow of bodies.
“Bennett Walsh has been terminated and the independent report by former federal prosecutor Mark Pearlstein speaks for itself,” Health and Human Services spokeswoman Brooke Karanovich said in a statement on Bennett’s remarks.
Bennett said he disputed Walsh’s firing by the governor and the HHS secretary, Marylou Sudders, arguing the decision should have been left to the home’s Board of Trustees. Bennett has filed legal action seeking to prevent the board from meeting to discuss Walsh’s termination. A court hearing on the latter matter was scheduled for April 30, then rescheduled to July 30.
Walsh, who collected an annual salary of $123,752, remains one of the only administrators who oversaw the home during the crisis not to step down. Urena resigned, as did Dr. David Clinton, the home’s medical director; Vanessa Lauziere, its nursing director; and Celeste Surreira, its assistant nursing director.
Last week, the family of a late Korean War veteran filed a federal lawsuit against the five administrators, the first legal action by a family of a veteran who died during the Holyoke outbreak. Drawing heavily from the state-ordered investigation of the home, the complaint seeks $176 million and certification as a class-action civil rights lawsuit.
--more--"
Also see:
Baker Has Blood on His Hands
The Globe washed it all away.
