Posts on Monday, April 6, 2020
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh (D) announced on Sunday strict new measures for the city to curtail spread of the COVID-19 Chinese coronavirus. The measures include a nightly curfew of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. with exceptions for essential workers, the urging of wearing of masks in public, the closure of city park areas with sporting fields and courts and the discouragement of ‘high risk’ people from walking or even being outside. The measures will be in effect from Monday, April 4 through Monday, May 4.
Walsh’s administration posted a lengthy statement about the orders on Sunday:
STRICTER MEASURES IN PLACE FOR SOCIAL, PHYSICAL DISTANCING TO CURB COVID-19 IMPACT
The whole world is praying for a miracle that will get us all through this China coronavirus crisis. As this Easter weekend approaches, there are signs that another Easter miracle may come this year.
(snip)
The government bodies used by US experts to predict the number of beds, hospital rooms and ventilators cut their numbers by half today.
And they are still way over actual amounts needed this weekend.
The estimates for death in the US have gone down from 2.2 million to 81,766. Hospitals are not seeing the rush of patients predicted – this was from California:
Pastor Landon Spradlin wasn't worried about coronavirus when he went to New Orleans to preach during Mardi Gras. A month later he was dead.
"He loved to laugh. He loved to play guitar. He played guitar even when he wasn't supposed to," says Jesse Spradlin of her father, Landon.
"He was just the best man in the world."
One day when this is all over, the wife and five children of Pastor Landon Spradlin hope to hold a large celebratory memorial for him.
Voters in Wisconsin will face a choice Tuesday of participating in a presidential primary election or heeding warnings from public health officials to stay away from large crowds during the coronavirus pandemic.
Hours after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued an order postponing the election for two months, the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday sided with Republicans who said he didn't have the authority to reschedule the race on his own. Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court quickly followed with a ruling blocking Democratic efforts to extend absentee voting.
The decisions leave Wisconsin as the only state with an election scheduled in April that is proceeding as planned.
Migrant smugglers reportedly posed as border wall construction employees, and one of them shot at a Border Patrol agent following a high-speed chase.
Smugglers on Wednesday entered the U.S. with vehicles, designed to look like pickup trucks involved with border wall construction, carrying numerous illegal aliens, according to a report from the Washington Times. A dangerous encounter took place after Border Patrol agents became suspicious of the pickup trucks and began to follow them.
CARACAS - Venezuelan retirees Carlos Blanco, 81, and Olga Rodriguez, 78, have for more than a year been unable to purchase the diabetes medication they need, as the country's hyperinflation has left their monthly pensions insufficient to buy even a loaf of bread.
Already at high risk in the coronavirus pandemic because of their age, the couple's untreated Type 2 diabetes leaves them at greater risk of any type of infection, as well as complications including blurred vision or diabetic comas.
They are now confined to their home, living off the food they have in storage, after President Nicolas Maduro declared a quarantine.
Three weeks ago Governor Gavin Newsom projected that 56% of California’s population — or 25.5 million people will be infected with the Wuhan Coronavirus over an 8-week period.
Since we are nearly at the halfway point of Newsom’s prediction, we thought we would check in.
As of Monday morning, California has 15,247 confirmed COVID-19 infections and 350 deaths — OUT OF 40 MILLION PEOPLE!
California is one of the largest economies in the world, yet the entire state has been virtually shut down because 0.0004% of the population has confirmed infections and 0.000009% of the population has died from the virus.
On Monday Wisconsin liberal Governor Tony Evers suspended Tuesday’s state election until June. This was a reversal from his stated position just days ago. It could be because the Democrat candidate for the state supreme court was likely running behind the popular conservative Judge Daniel Kelly. Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly creamed his two Democrat opponents in February’s nonpartisan open primary.
Later today the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the last minute call to postpone the elections.
Hillary Clinton Can't Duck Out of
Benghazi Testimony by Citing
Official Privilege, State Dept. Says replies
Benghazi Testimony by Citing
Official Privilege, State Dept. Says replies
In a devastating move, the State Department has joined with Judicial Watch in claiming that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cannot dodge a court-ordered deposition in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking "talking points or updates on the Benghazi attack." This FOIA request uncovered Clinton's insecure private home-brew server in 2015.
On March 2, 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth granted Judicial Watch's request to depose Clinton and her former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, in the search for more Benghazi documents. Specifically, Judicial Watch was given the green light to probe Clinton on whether or not she used a private email server to
President Donald Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro, who the president recently tapped to help implement the Defense Production Act amid the coronavirus crisis, is publicly pushing back against the nation's top infectious disease expert.
After Navarro reportedly lashed out at Dr. Anthony Fauci over the weekend, he went on CNN Monday morning to tout a drug that Fauci has cautioned is still being studied, while listing his own qualifications as a "social scientist" and arguing the president needs a "second opinion.” (Snip) if we didn't have disagreement or debate in the Trump administration, this administration would not be as strong as it is," Navarro told CNN, appearing to confirm the argument
A Democratic state representative from Detroit credited President Trump for touting a drug she says saved her life from the coronavrius. "It has a lot to do with the president ... bringing it up," State Rep. Karen Whitsett told the Detroit Free Press on Monday. "He is the only person who has the power to make it a priority."
California is sending back an excess of 500 ventilators so other states with more urgent needs can use them, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced on Monday.
“California is stepping up to help our fellow Americans in New York and across the country who are being impacted the hardest right now by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Newsom said in a statement on Monday.
“We still have a long road ahead of us in the Golden State – and we’re aggressively preparing for a surge – but we can’t turn our back on Americans whose lives depend on having a ventilator now,” he continued.
“We’re meeting this moment with compassion.
President Trump held another Coronavirus task force briefing on Monday.As usual, the hack reporters would rather argue with President Trump than ask pertinent questions about the ongoing pandemic.Trump wasn’t having any of it on Monday. President Trump set ABC’s Jon Karl straight after he started an argument over an HHS IG report on the medical supply shortage.Jon Karl tried to leave out the fact that Trump’s HHS inspector general previously served in the Obama Admin.
Prayers for Boris Johnson
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The prayers of millions of Americans, including all of us here at The New York Sun, will be this evening with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been battling the novel coronavirus and, with his condition suddenly worsening, has just been moved into an intensive care unit. Reports say that the premier is conscious and that the move was taken in case he has to go on a respirator. He has, though, deputized the foreign secretary to act for him when needed. The fight for his life appears to be on.
This is a moment to think about the nature of democracy.
WASHINGTON — In the early hours of Monday morning, Joe Biden’s campaign sent an email to state leaders offering to connect them with desperately needed coronavirus resources. But at least two Republican states believe they never got the email, while one governor’s office said the campaign’s efforts to insert themselves in the pandemic was only making their jobs harder. In the email obtained by The Post, Biden’s political chief of staff Stacy Eichner told state officials that the former veep’s presidential campaign had received a “significant number of offers” from organizations and people eager to offer resources.
The Small Business Administration acknowledged to banks Monday in an email obtained by The Washington Times that there are frustrating flaws in its system for handling loan applications for distressed small businesses, even as the White House and lawmakers considered a second round of massive aid for companies. “We know that your efforts have been frustrated with system issues, policy questions and slower than usual responses,” stated an email from SBA regional offices to lenders. Among the problems: the SBA’s electronic system for processing loan applications, called E-Tran, wasn’t coordinated with the $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program that the administration rolled out Friday.
Susan Rice: Trump's lack of coronavirus
leadership 'has cost tens of
thousands of American lives' replies
leadership 'has cost tens of
thousands of American lives' replies
Former national security adviser Susan Rice said President Trump's "incompetence" has cost thousands of lives on account of the coronavirus.“Even I am not prepared to say that, and maybe I should, but it’s just inconceivable to me to have to state a proposition that the president of the United States is willfully trying to kill Americans,” Rice told the Washington Post's Jonothan Capehart during a recent edition of his podcast. "I don’t want to say that. I don’t want to believe that. But I do think he’s playing politics."According to the Obama-era official, Trump has shown a lack of leadership during a time of national crisis.
News that the start of the Democrat National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis., is being delayed from mid-July to mid-August due to the coronavirus pandemic must be an issue of great concern to the rickety presidential campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden. It’s a matter of simple math. The longer Biden must wait to officially become the presidential nominee for the Democrat Party in 2020, the more likely it is that a movement can pick up steam to steal the nomination from him. With each passing day, the narratives that Biden is too gaffe-prone, too scandal-plagued and no longer mentally capable of executing the duties and responsibilities
Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care after his coronavirus condition worsened, Downing Street announced tonight.The Prime Minister was transferred to the ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in London at 7pm this evening - 11 days after testing positive for the deadly disease. He remains conscious and Number 10 sources stressed he had been moved to the critical care unit as a precaution should he require a ventilator.But Mr Johnson has asked foreign secretary Dominic Raab to deputise for him 'where necessary', although it is understood Mr Raab will not formally become a temporary prime minister.
Killing the Yamato
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The air raid sirens were wailing. Ignoring them, Emperor Hirohito seated himself at the conference table in the shelter adjoining the Imperial Library. The sirens had become a fixture of life in Tokyo. Nearly three weeks ago, on the night of March 10, 1945, American B-29s dropped incendiary bombs on the city. Over 100,000 Japanese perished in the fires, which turned 16 square miles of Japan’s capital into charred rubble. The smoke and stench of the blazes still wafted through the Imperial Palace.
How much longer the reign of Hirohito—or the Empire of Japan—might last was very much on the emperor’s mind. In the past few months
On Monday the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) model cited by the White House Coronavirus Task Force lowered its projections of coronavirus deaths in the United States by August 4 to 81,776, down more than ten percent from the 93,765 projected on April 1, as Breitbart News reported on Wednesday.
Notably, the model also lowered projections of the number of states that will not have enough regular or ICU hospital beds to admit all identified coronavirus patients at the peak in their states from 37 in the April 1 projection to 20 in Monday’s projections. (Snip) IHME model projections have consistently overstated the number of hospital beds required
More signs that the crisis may be easing in Europe emerged. Italy, France, Germany and Spain reported lower numbers of new cases. Austria took the first steps toward restarting its economy.
U.K. deaths slowed for a second day, even as they passed the grim milestone of 5,000. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was hospitalized Sunday after 10 days in isolation, was moved to an intensive-care unit.
On Saturday, reporters queried President Trump about his Friday firing of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. Trump’s response seemingly confirmed the left-leaning press and Democrats’ narrative that the firing was retaliation for the IG informing the House Intelligence Committee of a whistleblower’s complaint. That complaint concerned Trump’s conversation with the Ukrainian president that set in motion Trump’s impeachment.
But what the media and Trump’s political opponents won’t tell you is that Trump is right. Atkinson bestowed on the still-unnamed intelligence officer a “whistleblower status he doesn’t deserve.” “He is a fake whistleblower,” Trump said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit Monday afternoon, his condition described as “worsened” since he was admitted to hospital Sunday evening after diagnosis with coronavirus.
Boris Johnson had been admitted to St Thomas’s hospital London, which is directly opposite Britain’s parliament across the River Thames, Sunday evening, ten days after he was initially diagnosed with coronavirus. His admission was described at the time as not an emergency and on the advice of his personal physician that he should be tested in a hospital facility.
It later emerged that Mr Johnson was administered an oxygen treatment Sunday night after his admission.
In the summer of 2005, President George W. Bush was on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he began flipping through an advance reading copy of a new book about the 1918 flu pandemic. He couldn't put it down.
When he returned to Washington, he called his top homeland security adviser into the Oval Office and gave her the galley of historian John M. Barry's "The Great Influenza," which told the chilling tale of the mysterious plague that "would kill more people than the outbreak of any other disease in human history."
Lansing, MI - A Democratic state representative from Detroit is crediting hydroxychloroquine — and Republican President Donald Trump who touted the drug — for saving her in her battle with the coronavirus.State Rep. Karen Whitsett, who learned Monday she has tested positive for COVID-19, said she started taking hydroxychloroquine on March 31, prescribed by her doctor, after both she and her husband sought treatment for a range of symptoms on March 18.
Trump COVID-19 panic
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Pres. Trump: “This will be, probably, the toughest week, between this week and next week. And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately.” https://t.co/HM0x69nTOJ pic.twitter.com/xKOsxuZ0fy
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 4, 2020
Many readers believe President Donald John Trump is being bamboozled by Dr. Fauci and others. They argue that COVID-19 is not serious enough to warrant the wall-to-wall panic in this country.
. (Snip)President Trump finds he must act nuts but remain sober. He switched from a very sane policy of taking COVID-19 seriously but not letting the fear run our lives. That failed because in America too many people suffer TDS.
America’s major medical society specializing in the treatment of respiratory diseases has endorsed using hydroxychloroquine for seriously ill hospitalized coronavirus patients. The American Thoracic Society issued guidelines Monday that suggest COVID-19 patients with pneumonia get doses of the anti-malaria drug.
Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Monday the real unemployment level could be far higher than officially recorded as she warned of a depression. Yellen told CNBC second-quarter GDP could decline by 30 per cent and unemployment is already at 12 per cent and 13 per cent amid the coronavirus outbreak. She warned the downturn is 'absolutely shocking', adding: 'If we had a timely unemployment statistic, the unemployment rate probably would be up to 12 or 13% at this point and moving higher.'(Snip) Yellen said: 'This is a huge, unprecedented, devastating hit, and my hope is that we will get back to business
China forces Italy to buy same
coronavirus supplies it had donated
to Beijing a few weeks ago replies
coronavirus supplies it had donated
to Beijing a few weeks ago replies
China's efforts to rebrand itself as a global leader focused on humanitarian relief amid the coronavirus outbreak has hit a major snag and perhaps revealed Beijing's true intentions behind their public relations blitz.
After telling the world that it would donate masks, face guards and testing equipment to Italy, China quietly backtracked and sold the Mediterranean country desperately-needed medical equipment, according to a report.
What's worse is that the personal protective equipment (PPE) China forced Italy to buy was actually the same PPE Italy donated to China before coronavirus rushed its own shores and killed nearly 16,000 people.
Illinois has barred all activities at state parks, fish and wildlife areas, recreational areas and historic sites in another move to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Colleen Callahan, director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said in a statement that hunters and anglers aren't allowed to receive refunds on state-issued permits or permit transfers due to administrative guidelines under the state wildlife code. (Snip) Spring wild turkey season will start on Monday in the state’s south zone and April 13 in the north zone.
The state's spring trout-fishing season begins on Saturday. Illinois sites will be stocked, but remain closed.
This is quite stunning.The government models used to predict the extent of the coronavirus pandemic are off by huge margins in the latest coronavirus tracking numbers.The government predictions reported by the IMHE Covid Tracking (https://covidtracking.com/data/ ) for Apr 5th were as follows:– All beds needed: 179,267
– ICU beds needed: 33,176 – Invasive ventilators: 26,544
A Democratic state representative in Ohio said she "can't take it anymore" and vowed to refer President Trump to the International Criminal Court for "crimes against humanity" over Trump's promotion of a drug that has not been conclusively proven to fight the coronavirus. State Rep. Tavia Galonski tweeted Sunday after President Trump spoke about hydroxychloroquine at his daily press briefing.(Snip)"I can’t take it anymore. I’ve been to The Hague. I’m making a referral for crimes against humanity tomorrow," Galonski said. "Today’s press conference was the last straw. I know the need for a prosecution referral when I see one."
Poor Boris
replies
He keeps insisting he's O.K., but U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's hospitalization for "persistent" COVID-19 symptoms is worrisome.
According to Sky News:
Boris Johnson is in "good spirits" after spending a "comfortable" night in hospital and remains there under observation, Downing Street has said.
The prime minister's official spokesman said he continues to lead the government and has been working on official papers from his hospital bed.
Mr Johnson was admitted to hospital on Sunday night for tests after continuing to display symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Brzezinski on Trump Pushing
Hydroxychloroquine: ‘There’s Got to Be
Some Sort of Financial Tie’ replies
Hydroxychloroquine: ‘There’s Got to Be
Some Sort of Financial Tie’ replies
Monday, MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Mike Brzezinski reacted to President Donald Trump’s Sunday press conference with the White House coronavirus task force discussing the coronavirus pandemic.Host Joe Scarborough noted Trump is “pushing an unproven drug” in hydroxychloroquine to help combat the virus. Brzezinski then speculated Trump continues pushing the drug because “there’s got to be some sort of financial tie to someone somewhere.”“Dr. Fauci wasn’t allowed to talk about what he feels is important to say about this drug that the president keeps pushing,” Brzezinski stated.
Acting Navy secretary blasts ousted
aircraft carrier captain as 'stupid' in
address to ship's crew replies
aircraft carrier captain as 'stupid' in
address to ship's crew replies
The Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly blasted the now ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as "stupid" in an address to the ship's crew Monday morning, in remarks obtained by CNN.
Modly told the crew that their former commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, was either "too naive or too stupid" to be in command or that he intentionally leaked to the media a memo in which he warned about coronavirus spreading aboard the aircraft carrier and urged action to save his sailors.
Joe Biden’s purported weakness with younger voters isn’t borne out by March trial heat poll data, as I showed in my previous RealClearPolitics column. But Biden still may have a generation problem -- not with Generation Y or Z, but with Generation X.
In most recent polls, Biden bests Donald Trump with voters under 40 as well as those 65 and over, but not in between. For example, in the March ABC/Washington Post poll, Biden wins with seniors by 15 percentage points, but loses 40-somethings by 17 points. Monmouth University tracks voter preference for those 55 and over, and between 35 and 54;
Pandemics have a way of changing, well, just about everything.
In the wake of this one, sports seasons are being eliminated, Olympics are being delayed and leisure travel has been all but canceled. It is a moment when Americans have already begun thinking down-range, to prepare for what could be a very different future.Will this deadly pandemic give renewed life to those wanting to fully transform America’s delivery of health care? Will we opt to travel less and commute less? Will face-to-face communication, both at work and at home, be replaced more and more by Skype and Zoom and Facetime and Google Duo? Will we gather and commune differently?
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) claimed President Donald Trump was saying the coronavirus “was a hoax” while “we were acting to save the lives of our citizens.”
Inslee said, “The evidence that Dr. Birx has pointed to repeatedly does demonstrate we have had some success flattening the curve. That has taken place because we acted relatively early. We had a staged way of moving forward. (snip) While the president was saying that this was not a problem, I mean, it was a hoax.
CNN’s latest Trump-bashing narrative is something to the tune of: Everyone knew the coronavirus was a serious problem in January, and everyone was taking it immensely seriously except for President Trump and his incompetent administration. Yet a Media Research Center analysis finds CNN’s own coverage of the virus in January and early February was incredibly deficient, as the liberal cable network was reluctant to devote much time to anything unrelated to Trump’s impeachment.
A German politician who accused the US of diverting a shipment of 200,000 face masks for the police force in the country's capital has backtracked on the claims. Berlin's Senator for the Interior Andreas Geisel had claimed the masks, allegedly ordered from a 3M factory in China, had been taken by American officials when they arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, last week. But he has now U-turned on the allegations, saying the US did not take the masks and that they weren't ordered from American company 3M.(Snip) The left-wing politician, who represents Germany's Social Democratic Party, had described the shipment's disappearance
The new coronavirus is not an equal opportunity killer. We know COVID-19 is more deadly the older you get. It's also more dangerous for those who have chronic lung disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, weakened immune systems and other underlying health issues. And yet our news feeds are full of stories about seemingly healthy young people who are quickly struck down, like 32-year-old Jéssica Beatriz Cortez or a 25-year-old pharmacy tech from La Quinta. These tragic deaths seem all the more confounding when you consider a flurry of new scientific studies that suggest as many as 20% of people who
The two biggest uncertainties about the post-COVID-19 world are whether any privacy will survive and whether China or the United States will dominate. With regards to the first, the Guardian rhetorically asks whether you would trade the total loss of your privacy for safety from the coronavirus, even if it meant entering a "cybergulag." That's what Russia is planning to do and China already did. As the City Journal put it, perhaps the only way out of the lockdowns is to voluntarily submit to 24x7 electronic tracking. "The responses adopted by governments around the world seem to fall into two main categories. Those countries
A solution to the COVID-19 epidemic is in sight. It is the combo used by South Korea, where people are back at work, to successfully stem its COVID-19 outbreak. It has three parts: (1) greatly expanded testing of those who could be infected and (2) effective treatment of the virus with a hydroxychloroquine-zinc cocktail, combined with (3) the product of American ingenuity: rapid development of vaccines.
While these solutions might be thwarted by bureaucracy, progress is happening rapidly, and there are reasons why our collective Groundhog Day of staying at home every day while the economy falters and body counts grow could soon be over.
The media are not only rude and confrontational at press briefings, but they’re also re-writing history about how and when information on the virus came to light.
Facts don’t matter. There is only one goal: Get Trump.
Toward that end, manipulating timelines has become quite popular as evidenced most recently in this AP report:
As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months
The social distancing among the White House press corps isn’t working. They’ve all been infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome. Ever since the president said he was hopeful about the early evidence indicating that hydroxychloroquine may be an effective treatment against the Wuhan coronavirus, the media is obsessed with making the president look like an idiot for even mentioning the drug. As the president has said endlessly, hydroxychloroquine is an old drug, known to be safe, so coronavirus patients can only stand to benefit from taking it. "Maybe it'll work; maybe it won’t," the president is erroring on the side of hope.
ALBANY — The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted heavy financial stress and feelings of job insecurity on New Yorkers, a new poll shows.Siena College found that 77 percent of eligible voters are at least somewhat concerned about the virus and serious financial fallout from it, according to a survey released Monday.Paying monthly bills was a concern for 51 percent of respondents, compared to 45 percent who weren’t worried. Younger folks felt the pinch more, with 61 percent of people ages 18 to 34, and 65 percent of the 35-39 set, saying they’re seriously concerned
Bill Gates is spending billions of dollars building factories to develop a vaccine against coronavirus. The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropic billionaire said seven vaccine makers had secured funding but admitted that mountains of cash may be lost before a cure is found. He revealed the mammoth investment on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah after answering questions about the virus that has paralyzed the globe.
Marco Rubio finds his next act
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Marco Rubio’s political fortunes have gyrated frequently during his 10 years in national politics. But the coronavirus outbreak may have brought the Florida GOP senator to his most critical moment yet.
As chairman of the usually sleepy Small Business Committee, Rubio has a key position in the country’s response and recovery from the pandemic. His panel’s $377 billion lifeline for small businesses is a linchpin of Congress’ $2 trillion economic rescue package, and Rubio’s efforts are winning praise from Republicans and Democrats alike even as implementation of the program remains deeply uncertain.
In their continual effort to smear President Donald Trump, Democrats and party operatives in the media have suggested he would use the pandemic to cancel the 2020 election so he could stay in office. Don’t be surprised, though, as it becomes more difficult for their presumptive nominee to campaign, and his catastrophic flaws become ever more visible, if they soon pivot and insist that the election be delayed.
Last month, as life began to change under COVID-19 lockdowns, Chris Cillizza wrote on CNN that “whispers have begun that maybe, just maybe, President Donald Trump will use the pandemic to cancel
Elizabeth II: ‘We Will Succeed’
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Queen Elizabeth’s address to her subjects in respect of the corona virus stirs our republican spirits. It’s not that she unloaded a lot of information that Britons, or Americans, were heretofore lacking. It’s hard to reckon that she had much more of a briefing than a newspaper editor could get. Nor was it her eloquence, though her remarks were well-enough crafted.
Rather, the power of royal remarks like the ones Her Majesty just made comes from the unique nature of her constitutional role and the extraordinary span in which she has been sovereign.
A Mitigation Disaster
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The most prominent physicians on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Drs. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, have generally managed to outmaneuver members of the media who have attempted to inveigle them into undercutting the President by endorsing a nationwide lockdown. Birx insists that Trump trusts the American people to follow current mitigation strategies, and Fauci has maintained a similarly diplomatic position. The latter, however, was finally duped into saying something stupid last Thursday during a Today Show interview when asked if he agreed with Surgeon General Jerome Adams that recently released White House coronavirus guidelines should be interpreted as a national stay-at-home order:
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) has vetoed legislation that would mandate state voters to show a photo ID before they vote in the 2020 presidential election, and every election after. Last week, Beshear announced his veto of mandatory voter ID legislation that ensures all registered voters must prove their identity before they cast a ballot, starting in November.According to Beshear, requiring voter ID creates “an obstacle” that results “in fewer people voting,” though research and data show otherwise. In Alabama, which has a mandatory voter ID law, black American voters came out in droves in 2018 to help elect Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate.
Corona Meltdowns
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As the coronavirus outbreak begins to reach its zenith, it remains unclear whether the measures taken to stem its tide will prove sufficient, insufficient, or an overreaction. What is certain, however, is that a number of individuals and entities have behaved shamefully and demonstrated no capacity for leadership or usefulness in this moment.
Nancy Pelosi: Gone are the mythologies that Nancy Pelosi was a pragmatic liberal voice of reason among the otherwise polarizing American Left, honed after years of paying her dues to the Democratic Party, as the mother of five dutifully ascended the party’s cursus honorum.
It should not be this easy for Chinese Communist Party propaganda to make its way into major American newsrooms.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, which Chinese lies ensured would become a pandemic, American news media have promoted a number of Beijing-approved talking points, including the one that alleges it is racist to refer to the virus by its country and city of origin. American news media have also accepted at face value a series of dubious claims pushed by Chinese Communist apparatchiks, including the absurd boast that China's new case numbers have remained essentially flat since late February.
The problem with people referring to this bizarre pandemic life limbo as “the new normal” is that there are people out there, both in and out of positions of responsibility, who are digging this opportunity to boss us around. And it is troubling to see that there are a number of prominent folks who are in no hurry to curtail their ability to boss us around. We need to note carefully who these people are and ensure that they never get a chance to control anything again.
You are starting to see more of that as this drags out. You have got Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom and others
Live free or die!” So cries a noble people in the face of danger. Our forefathers, who prevailed in the War of Independence, were such men. They faced danger with courage and resolute firmness.
Our modern leaders do not.
Instead, they cower. Out of fear, state governors across America dictated draconian shutdowns in response to the spread of the Chinese coronavirus. These acts are contrary to our way of life; we must repeal them.
The preservation of life must include the preservation of liberty. The cure must not inflict more damage than the disease.
I do not deny that the coronavirus poses a serious public health threat. Many thousands have died,
Laughable and Political – Former ICIG Michael
Atkinson Releases Ridiculous Political “Statement”…. replies
Atkinson Releases Ridiculous Political “Statement”…. replies
Everything anyone needed to know about the motives and intents of fired Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Michael Atkinson is evidenced by his releasing a political statement tonight protesting his termination.Atkinson doesn’t write a “letter”, his diatribe is not addressed to anyone, it is just a political “statement” designed to be exploited by the same people, for the same intents, as his prior ICIG work product. This transparently political effort is ridiculous. (Copy of Statement) Just as pathetic and political as Atkinson’s statement, is the statement expressed by current DOJ IG Michael Horowitz on behalf of Atkinson:
A Border Patrol agent was involved in a shooting last week with a smuggler who was posing as part of the construction crews working on President Trump’s border wall in Arizona, The Washington Times has learned.
Nobody was reported injured. Although one driver was caught, another smuggler who was part of the shootout managed to escape back into Mexico. Nearly 20 illegal immigrants were discovered in the two trucks they were driving.
It was the latest incident of smuggling cartels using the tumult of wall construction to try to sneak people or drugs into the U.S.
Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly, in an extensive interview about the firing of the commander of a disease-threatened aircraft carrier, said he acted because he believed the captain was “panicking” under pressure — and wanted to make the move himself, before President Trump ordered the captain’s dismissal.
“I didn’t want to get into a decision where the president would feel that he had to intervene because the Navy couldn’t be decisive,” Modly told me in a telephone call from Hawaii at about 1 a.m. Sunday, Washington time. He continued: “If I were president, and I saw a commanding officer of a ship exercising such poor judgment, I would be asking
The Courage to Disrupt
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When we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, America must seize this historic opportunity to transform its economy and the world through disruptive innovation.
Throughout history, pandemics have spawned periods of significant human advancement. The Black Plague ravaged the populations of Europe and Asia in just under five years, laying the groundwork for the Renaissance and unrivaled creativity. After the Spanish Influenza pandemic, America experienced a 25 percent increase in women’s workforce participation.
More recently, the financial crisis of 2008—an economic pandemic—ushered in cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and the gig economy—launching over 30 “unicorns” like Uber, Grubhub, and Airbnb.
Why do such crises trigger mass creativity?
Biden Must Go
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As the Trump administration has been working feverishly (if at times misguidedly, in my opinion) to deal with the Wuhan virus, Joe Biden has been a pathetic bystander, putting out videos from his house and appearing occasionally on television. In both venues he has repeatedly lied about what the Trump administration is doing. Or, to be fair, he may be so out of it that he just doesn’t have a clue. Democratic Party fact-checkers have racked up one Biden Pinocchio after another, as his claims have been impossible to defend.
But the real point is that Biden lacks the mental capacity of an average human being,
What started as a catastrophe for China is shaping up to be a moment of strategic opportunity, a rare turning point in the flow of history. Suddenly, the protests in Hong Kong, carrying a mortal threat to political stability in the mainland, became a physical impossibility. More important, the pandemic set in motion a global competition, to contain the virus, for which China and the Chinese Communist Party seem uniquely prepared.
As the virus spread to the whole world, it became apparent that Western societies — Beijing’s true rivals — did not have the ability to quickly organize every citizen around a single goal.
As people throughout the world continue to fight the coronavirus, some in Congress have used the occasion of the pandemic to . . . attack President Trump. At the forefront of the attacks is a presidential aspirant himself: Joe Biden. His efforts have essentially gone unnoticed, however, as he has become less relevant and seemingly forgotten during this difficult time.
Unfortunately, and to dismay of many, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has not retreated from national attention.
Obviously, personal attacks on this president are nothing new. But Pelosi’s recent comments took things to a new low and exceeded all bounds of human decency.
Almost before the ink is dry on Trump's signature on the $2 trillion stimulus bill, Democrats are agitating for another one.
Indeed, another infusion of cash in the economy and more checks to Americans may become necessary. But Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans want to wait and see some of the effects of the first stimulus bill before entertaining another.
The Hill:
The two leaders, whose public relationship has been tense in recent weeks, are taking different tactics on follow-up legislation and sparring through the media on next steps to address the devastating economic and health effects of the pandemic.
How do we reopen after the coronavirus goes away? The mere question, in the middle of the pandemic, is fraught.Anyone entertaining the idea that businesses should move toward reopening is shamed as caring more about the stock market than people dying. Any discussion of how to get people working again is met with people smugly screaming “stay home!” at each other.I am staying home, along with my whole family. We’re collectively taking COVID-19 very seriously. We’ve been in self-quarantine since March 13 —
Team Trump just finalized a rule that will make safer cars more accessible to Americans — and, in the midst of an unprecedented economic slowdown, the limousine left is assailing the administration for it.
The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule rolls back an Obama-era regulation that made US Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards some of the strictest in the world, beating even carbon-obsessed Europe. The change means that automakers’ fleets will have to average around 40 miles per gallon by 2025, not the 54 mpg set by the last administration in 2012.
That rule pretended that automakers could raise CAFE by 5 percent a year, every year, for decades.
Returning to our continuing series on the limits of executive authority during times of declared emergencies, there is yet another potentially disturbing story coming to us from the state of Kentucky. A Circuit Court judge there by the name of Angela Bisig has begun issuing orders for ankle monitors to be attached to persons who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus and subsequently refused to observe self-quarantine measures. One person, in particular, a man only being referred to by the initials D.L. lives with an individual who has tested positive for the virus and another who is presumed to be positive. But despite that fact, D.L. has reportedly
Fear sweeps the land. Many businesses collapse. Some huge fortunes are made. Panicked consumers stockpile paper, food, and weapons. The government’s reaction is inconsistent and ineffectual. Ordinary commerce grinds to a halt; investors can find no safe assets. Political factionalism grows more intense. Everything falls apart.
This was all as true of revolutionary France in 1789 and 1790 as it is of the United States today. Are we at the beginning of a revolution that has yet to be named? Do we want to be? That we are on the verge of a major transformation seems obvious.
Police in Rumson, NJ broke up a Pink Floyd cover band’s impromptu concert Saturday night attended by about 30 amid the coronavirus pandemic, a report said Sunday.
Police said the concert took place on a front lawn and one of the concert organizers will face charges related to breaking a state ban on social gatherings.
John Maldjian, 54, was charged Sunday night with disorderly persons offenses of reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and charges related to violating the emergency orders, according to the state Attorney General’s Office. NJ.com reported.
Queen Elizabeth II just gave a pre-recorded address to Britain, which of course was broadcast around the world.
As you would expect, the Queen displayed that famous English stiff upper lip and sense of understatement, much as she did during World War II. It was only her fourth such speech since assuming the throne on February 6, 1952.
I found this rather ‘dry’ speech to be quite emotional, at least for me. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it was the sense of history from having this Queen deliver it. Perhaps it’s because, being just one generation removed from WWII, her wartime role still stirs something deep within me. [Video]
African leaders are warning of an economic collapse if financial assistance isn’t provided to the millions of people out of work because of the novel coronavirus.
More than half of Africa's 54 countries have imposed lockdowns, curfews, travel bans or other measures in a bid to prevent local transmission of the virus. "The African labor market is driven by imports and exports and with the lockdown everywhere in the world, it means basically that the economy is frozen in place,” Ahunna Eziakonwa, the United Nations Development Program regional director for Africa, told The Associated Press. "And with that, of course, all the jobs are gone."
Reporters at the White House press briefing on Sunday repeatedly asked President Donald Trump why he chose not to wear a medical mask. One reporter, who was not wearing a mask, noted the former Vice President Joe Biden said he would start wearing a mask outdoors, and he asked President Trump if he and the White House task force would start wearing masks.“Are we getting to the point where we might see the members of the coronavirus task force also wear face coverings?” the reporter asked. Trump said the advisory was voluntary and that he would have no problem with anyone wearing a mask.
We have long covered the substantial and generational shift in the federal judiciary since Trump took office, particularly at the Court of Appeals level.
Filling all Court of Appeals vacancies is a top priority, and while the Wuhan coronavirus crisis has stopped much of the economy, it has not stopped the normal functioning of the nomination process, or the activism of Democrats and liberal groups in opposing nominations.
This past week, Trump unveiled to new nominees, Cory Wilson for the 5th Circuit, and Justin Walker for the D.C. Circuit.
Carrie Severino has the background on Wilson:
Judge Cory Wilson is President Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
President Trump has acknowledged that the federal stockpile of personal protective equipment is nearly depleted, and there are reports the Obama administration failed to replenish the federal stockpile of N95 masks after the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009.USA Today fact-checked that claim and it didn’t turn out too well for Barack Obama — or Joe Biden. Both the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg News reported that the inventory of N95 masks, which filter out airborne particles, was depleted in 2009.Bloomberg News reported that the 2009 outbreak
In an era when the government is using cell phone data to track our movements, drones to enforce compliance of lockdown orders, thermal imaging to monitor social distancing, pastors are getting arrested for hosting church, and ankle bracelets to ensure people stay quarantined, a Federal Reserve official proposed today yet another surveillance plan; daily coronavirus testing for every citizen, and we publicly display badges showing if we tested negative or positive.
James Bullard, CEO of the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve, was recently on CBS’s Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan to talk about the state of the economy
Tyranny on Display - DC Police Shut Down
The Wharf's Fish Market After Pics of Crowds
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The Wharf's Fish Market After Pics of Crowds
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The DC police shut down The Wharf’s Fish Market on Sunday after photos of crowds there went viral.
Washington, D.C., recently issued a very strict shelter-in-place order in response to the Coronavirus panic.
Residents may only leave their homes to go to the grocery store or to seek medical aid.
All non-essential businesses were closed as well.
On Sunday morning, DC police shut down The Wharf’s Fish Market after pictures of a crowds from yesterday went viral online.
Apparently food is no longer essential in DC?
Despite the China coronavirus nightmare and worldwide crisis, President Trump’s economy is still much better than what he inherited and way better than Obama’s economy at his respective time in office.
The numbers are astounding.
With all the despair, shock and Mainstream media (MSM) frenzy surrounding the China coronavirus crisis, the average American would think that the US is in a depression and we’re all going to die!
The news has been abhorrent as businesses shutter their doors while America and the world attempt to survive the China coronavirus pandemic. But the actual results may surprise you
A New Mexico man is facing charges after police say he became enraged he didn’t qualify for a COVID-19-related stimulus check and tried to set his wife on fire.
The Albuquerque Journal reports Joe Macias was arrested Wednesday shortly following an argument with his disabled wife, where he allegedly doused her with gasoline.
The wife told police Macias had come home around 5 p.m. with a four-pack of beer and “upset because he did not qualify for the stimulus check.”
According to police, the 63-year-old Macias threw gas on his wife and their mobile home.
The wife told officers Macias then pulled out a cigarette and attempted to light it several times,