Posts on Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Has the Lockdown Worked?
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Why are governments the world over rendering hundreds of millions of their citizens jobless, impoverishing at least a billion people, endangering the family life of millions (straining marriages, increasing child and spousal abuse, and further postponing marriage among young people), bankrupting vast numbers of business owners and workers living paycheck to paycheck, and increasing suicides?
The reason given is that we must lock down virtually all human social and economic activity in order to prevent millions of people from dying of the coronavirus and overwhelming hospitals.
But is it true? Was this lockdown necessary?
In order to answer these questions, we need to know how many people would have died from COVID-19
During a portion of an interview set to air on Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” Vice President Mike Pence said he expects the FDA to approve a new coronavirus antibody test in days, and that such approval could create more than 20 million new tests per month.
Pence said, “We expect the FDA to approve a new antibody test in a matter of days. And, if approved, could literally create more than 20 million new tests a month…that’ll be a test that will tell you whether you have had the coronavirus in the past and that — whether you might, in fact, be immune to
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said President Trump’s hold on funding to the World Health Organization should not occur during the global coronavirus pandemic. Trump announced Tuesday at the White House that the United States would pause payments to the WHO while the administration reviews how the international body handled the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Guterres said the decision was bad timing. The UN chief said in a Tuesday statement that it is “not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus.”
Joe Biden got confused by his own teleprompter again. "I will make an educator?” Biden said before correcting himself. “…An education that in fact, Jill, my wife is a professor at a community college.”The look on Bernie’s face is priceless.This is the best the Democrats have. WATCH: (Tweet/Video) After waiting for every candidate to drop out of the 2020 Democrat race, Obama finally endorsed Biden on Tuesday. Obama said that Joe Biden, who can’t even form a sentence and never knows where he is, has what it takes to “guide us through one of our darkest times."
Banning music sounds like something out of a dystopian nightmare, but in a northern California county, singing or playing wind instruments — even a harmonica — during a livestream video event can get citizens fined or thrown in prison. This limitation expressly applies to a worship team's efforts to praise God in a church sanctuary, even if they are spaced out 6 feet apart and even though the order only allows four people in a sanctuary at once.
Mendocino County issued its current health order on April 10. Near the top, the order includes a warning: "Please read this Order carefully.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson argued that Democrats “encourage” making voter fraud easier “because it helps them win elections.”Carlson began the Tuesday night “Tucker Carlson Tonight” monologue by pointing out that those, including Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who consider the current crisis an “opportunity.” After listing several bills Northam signed over Easter weekend and calling them an “entire rundown from an MSNBC weekend show all signed into law,” the Fox News host pointed out one “that ought to worry you, even if you’re lucky enough not to live in Virginia.” “His so-called ‘election reforms,'” Carlson said.
During a press conference on Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, boasted about the lowering rate of novel coronavirus cases in the state while seemingly taking a jab at the faithful.“The number is down because we brought the number down,” he told reporters Monday. “God did not do that. Faith did not do that. Destiny did not do that.”“A lot of pain and suffering did that,” the Democrat continued. “That’s how it works. It’s math. And if you don’t continue to do that, you’re going to see that number go back up. And that will be a tragedy if that number goes back up.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy sent a cease-and-desist letter Tuesday to a Metro Detroit car wash chain they said has kept some locations open during the coronavirus pandemic despite a mandate closing businesses considered nonessential to state infrastructure. Police have issued four tickets to three Fast Splash Car Wash sites in Wayne County for violating Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s "Stay Home, Stay Safe" executive order, but the business has continued to operate, state officials said in a statement.
Put Some Skin in the Game
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I am going to do my level best to aim this column straight down the middle, glancing neither left nor right, in what the politicians in D.C. call a bipartisan fashion.It is an attempt to circumvent personal political preferences, step around the hyperbolic, the rhetorical, and the prejudiced vendettas so firmly ingrained into our minds by media on the left and on the right.I want to ask a question and I am not going to give my opinion, but leave it to everybody who reads this to answer, the only caveat being, that you be honest with yourself, using only your own thoughts, unclouded by the obviously tilted
Critics are blasting Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for staging a “photo op” Tuesday in the US ZIP code hardest hit by the coronavirus.A small group gathered in the virally blighted neighborhood of Corona, Queens, in AOC’s district, to hear a pitch for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to offer funeral assistance.The gathering — convened as officials order ordinary New Yorkers to stay home — gave TV networks an opportunity to shoot footage of the duo, but there was no live feed to allow the event to be covered from afar, let alone a virtual press conference
Always being held up to your more successful brother is tough. It's even tougher when you've got the soul of Fredo.
Which brings us to CNN host Chris "Fredo" Cuomo, who got himself his nickname based on his bad behavior in public.
He caught the coronavirus, and best wishes for his recovery, but in his case it seems to have affected his common sense.
Here's the Daily Caller, which caught him after the New York Post, spouting off on Sirius XM radio: “[Having COVID-19] made me think hard about who I am and how I live and what matters to me and what I value, and I haven’t come
After receiving emails from the Chinese consulate asking him to pass a resolution praising China for its fight against the coronavirus, which originated in China, Wisconsin Senate President Roger Roth (R-Appleton) wrote a resolution slamming China for lying about the coronavirus. “When [Roth] received the first one dated Feb. 26, he saw it was from a hotmail account and disregarded it as a prank,” the Wisconsin Examiner reported.
Want some rules for life? Read the Ten Commandments. Interested in learning about our fundamental freedoms? Study the Bill of Rights. Looking to comply with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s ever-growing collection of coronavirus-related executive orders? Consult her list of 454 “frequently asked questions” on the state of Michigan website. Answers are certainly long overdue. In the few weeks since the governor first put Michigan on lockdown, her administration has issued an ever-growing list of orders to instruct citizens on how to safely live their lives amid the ongoing pandemic. The orders are ever-evolving, and at times contradictory. Boating was allowed, but
Unfortunately, with President Trump effectively communicating the latest information on the federal efforts to mitigate COVID-19, more corporate U.S. resistance media have decided not to carry the live broadcasts from the White House task force briefings.
Today at 5:00pm ET the White House will hold a briefing for the public and media on the latest mitigation efforts against the coronavirus. [Livestream Links Below]
As governors across the U.S. consider when exactly to reopen state economies amid the coronavirus outbreak, a former White House health official warns that large gatherings likely could not safely resume until at least the fall of 2021. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who served as special advisor for health policy to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration, told on a recent New York Times panel that “restarting the economy has to be done in stages... Larger gatherings — conferences, concerts, sporting events — ... I think those things will be the last
Raleigh, North Carolina police suspended the First Amendment Tuesday, dispersing a protest against the COVID-19 Chinese coronavirus lockdown and arresting one protester for failing to disperse. The police issued a statement declaring “Protesting is a non-essential activity” that was in violation of an executive order by Governor Roy Cooper (D) prohibiting mass gatherings. [Tweets]
Some protesters gathered in their cars, honking theor horns in unison at 15 minute intervals. [Tweets, Video]
Police cited sections 1 and 3 of the executive order.
Section 1 3.iii allows outdoor activity for exercise activities within restrictions of Section 3.
Section 3 defines mass gatherings indoors or outdoors as ten or more people with limited exceptions
After inflicting the coronavirus on the world, China thinks it's got a public relations problem, to say the least. Now it's trying to spiff up its image.
Which isn't working. Something this big isn't a job for the ad-men.
According to the Washington Post:
President Xi Jinping held a flurry of phone calls with world leaders to promise aid. More than 170 Chinese medical experts were dispatched to Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa. State media outlets flooded the Internet with photos of Chinese masks arriving in 100 countries and stories questioning the epidemic’s origins. Ambassadors inundated international newspapers with op-eds hailing the sacrifices Beijing
A Democratic state lawmaker from Detroit, who credits a drug touted by President Trump with saving her life after she fell ill with the coronavirus, traveled to the White House to thank him personally.
"I just can't say how wonderful it is to see your face, and thank you for everything that you have done," said state Rep. Karen Whitsett. "I did not know that saying thank you had a political line. I did not know that. I thought just saying thank you meant thank you."
Whitsett announced last month she tested positive for COVID-19 and started taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, after she began showing symptoms.
A Democratic state lawmaker from Georgia endorsed President Trump's reelection bid but does not plan to change political parties.
State Rep. Vernon Jones, 59, announced his support for the president on Tuesday, citing Trump's record on helping black people, military veterans, and farmers with his policies.
“It’s very simple to me. President Trump’s handling of the economy, his support for historically black colleges, and his criminal justice initiatives drew me to endorse his campaign,” Jones told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“This is not about switching parties. There are a lot of African Americans who clearly see and appreciate he’s doing something that’s never been done before,” he added.
Justin Amash signaled that he is considering a 2020 presidential bid.
The ideologically libertarian, ex-Republican congressman criticized a claim President Trump made in a press briefing on Monday.
“When somebody’s president of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s gotta be," Trump said.
"Americans who believe in limited government deserve another option," Amash responded in a tweet.
A fan of the congressman replied, "Please be you."
"Thanks. I’m looking at it closely this week," he replied. [Tweets]
Amash did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner's clarifying questions. He weighed in last week on former Vice President Joe Biden becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee,
President Trump announced at the White House coronavirus press briefing on Tuesday that the United States will immediately halt all funding for the World Health Organization (WHO), saying it had put "political correctness over lifesaving measures."
Also at the briefing, the president said plans to ease the national economic shutdown were being finalized, and that he would be "authorizing governors to reopen their states to reopen as they see fit."
In the meantime, Trump declared that the United States would undertake a review into why the WHO had caused "so much death" by "severely mismanaging and covering up" the coronavirus' spread.
States are canceling plans for extra hospitals as the coronavirus pandemic, though deadly, falls short of doomsday predictions that the U.S. healthcare system couldn’t handle the onslaught of patients. New York—the state suffering from the most COVID-19 cases and deaths—postponed plans for make-shift hospital sites, as has Michigan, which recently emerged as one of the next hot spots. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, whose state suffered the first COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. in January, is packing up a field hospital that the feds built at the Century Link Field Event Center. He said the state doesn’t need it even if
Back on March 27, two weeks into San Francisco's shelter-in-place order, we reported on an uptick in sightings of coyotes on the newly barren streets of the city. Some readers were happy to see the wild dogs reclaim the streets, while others were rightly worried — (snip) Only a week later a coyote bit a 5-year-old girl in the East Bay. As the streets remain quiet, the animals have only gotten more audacious in recent days. This incredible video from last week shows two coyotes on the intersection of Greenwich and Powell streets in North Beach howling into the night, with the sounds of other animals calling back to them.
RUSH: Holy smokes. Did you see the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing yesterday? Holy smokes. That was a throwback to the campaign of 2016. That is exactly why Donald Trump got elected. Donald Trump and the White House comms shop put together a video montage popularized by this program.(Snip)The White House did their own, chronicling the media lying, chronicling the media distorting by name, by video, by face, by picture, and they had a meltdown. CNN bugged out of the coverage, claiming that Trump was turning the briefing into a propaganda session, that Trump was turning it into a meltdown.
CBS News reporter Paula Reid had to be told four times by a White House staffer to leave the room at the end of a meeting between President Trump, Vice President Pence and COVID-19 Chinese coronavirus survivors. Reid’s latest stunt comes a day after she argued like a petulant teenager with Trump at Monday’s White House coronavirus task force meeting.(Photo) Reid was positioned directly across the conference table from Trump with the press pool and started to pepper him with questions after he ended the event by telling the press pool
The health of the economy was President Trump's best argument for reelection just a month ago, but now, in the chaos generated by the coronavirus pandemic, Democrats see it as a weakness to be exploited.
With unemployment soaring and businesses shuttered, Democrats have a new opportunity to attack Trump for what was once his greatest strength. Even if Trump is able to convince voters in the months ahead that he's handled the public health response to the pandemic properly, he faces the risk that Democrats could successfully blame him for the ensuing economic misery.
A slim majority, 52%, still approve of Trump’s handling of the economy thus far,
Former first lady Michelle Obama is back in play big time as a favorite to be Joe Biden’s running mate.
As Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday made a surprise endorsement of Biden in a warm and humorous video chat, the focus turned to Biden’s pick for vice president and gambling markets charted by Oddschecker.com saw a surge of support for Obama.
“Michelle Obama has been the most backed person in the market, accounting for almost 32% of all bets,” the firm said.
Spokesman Pete Watt told us, “Following Biden’s announcement that his VP would be female, plenty of names are being thrown into the ring,
This past weekend, amid the broad coronavirus shutdown, you nevertheless could buy your Mad Dog 20/20 at your liquor store. You could pick up your shiplap and wood stain at Home Depot. Dozens of people could congregate under one roof, as long as it was a Big Box store.
But you couldn’t go to church for Easter services.
This is irrational and un-American. It needs to change. Starting today, Easter Monday, government officials and religious leaders need to start crafting plans so that people can be back in the pews as soon as this weekend.
This will take innovation by religious leaders and accommodation by political leaders.
The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday received an article submitted by Sydney’s Chinese consulate. In keeping with China’s own media traditions of censorship and concealment, the article was subject to official pre-publication review.
We’ve done to the Chinese communist dictatorship what China's communist dictatorship does to its own citizens:
President Trump on Tuesday met with eight people who have recovered after being diagnosed with the coronavirus, including a Michigan state lawmaker who says her condition improved after taking an anti-malaria drug the president has touted as a potential cure.The eight attendees came to the White House from California, Michigan and Arkansas, and the White House arranged their travel to Washington, D.C., according to an administration official. Federal social distancing guidelines urge Americans to avoid discretionary travel. Among the guests was Karen Whitsett, a Democratic state representative
A growing chorus of Ohio’s Republican lawmakers want Gov. Mike DeWine to set a date for the first phases of re-opening businesses, schools and public places. “We need to get the economy open, even if that means social distancing of some sort for months to come,” Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, wrote in a Facebook post. “We can’t stay like this much longer, and the hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who’ve lost their jobs or the thousands of small business owners can’t keep doing this either, or their lives will be irreparably destroyed.”
A Chinese laboratory at the center of new theories about how the coronavirus pandemic started was the subject of multiple urgent warnings inside the U.S. State Department two years ago, according to a new report.
U.S. Embassy officials warned in January 2018 about inadequate safety at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab and passed on information about scientists conducting risky research on coronavirus from bats, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Those cables have renewed speculation inside the U.S. government about whether Wuhan-based labs were the source of the novel coronavirus, although no firm connection has been established. The theory, however, has gained traction in recent days.
Many states and the federal government are spending millions in taxpayer dollars on illegal aliens while veterans across the country still face a slew of issues like homelessness and long waits for primary care, a newly-released study found.
While the federal government will spend roughly $217 billion on the Department of Veterans Affairs this fiscal year, the net financial burden of illegal aliens on taxpayers annually is nearly $132 billion, according to an analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The study was exclusively provided first to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The War on Terrorism has resulted in more veterans who have experienced overseas combat deployments
Donald Trump absolutely lit up his own Coronavirus Task Force press briefing with a more than six-minute, tour-de-force media takedown that had CNN and MSNBC sputtering and reaching for the plug.
Trump said hello and turned the media briefing over to the NIH's Dr. Anthony Fauci to clarify his words uttered on CNN on shutting down the country earlier to prevent more deaths.
Then, Trump took over and it was ON. He listed the timeline of his response to the coronavirus and presented a video of incorrect statements by the press on COVID-19.It was more than the Trumpiest of Trump updates, it was a Trump-de-Force:
Democrats are introducing legislation that, if signed into law, would mandate the release of illegal aliens in detention and stop enforcement measures against a large number of aliens living unlawfully in the United States.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal introduced the Federal Immigrant Release for Safety and Security Together (FIRST) Act on Monday. While many Democratic members of Congress have urged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for a rollback of enforcement measures amid the coronavirus pandemic, this bill marks one of the first instances where they are turning such concerns into legislative action.
“Detention centers are like a ticking time bomb —
It would appear that conservative political commentator Candace Owens has driven another liver over the edge.
Actress Jackee Harry lost it responding to a tweet from Owens about ever-shrinking projections involving the Chinese virus, COVID-19.
Best known for her roles as Sandra Clark in the 80s sitcom 227, and as Lisa Landry in the 90s sitcom Sister, Sister, Harry fired off a profanity-laced response Owens handled with the grace and class the actress could only with she had.
“Happy Easter to you too, @JackeeHarry,” Owens replied. “Loved you as Lisa Landry, in Sister, Sister.
Kingmaker AOC says Biden campaign hasn’t
reached out to her, and he needs to feel
‘uncomfortable’ replies
reached out to her, and he needs to feel
‘uncomfortable’ replies
Accustomed to Sen. Bernie Sanders sucking up to her for her newfound fame as a fellow socialist, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is complaining that Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, has not reached out to her.
Sanders suspended his presidential bid last week and Ocasio-Cortez told the New York Times during an interview published Monday she plans to support the party’s nominee.
In a not so subtle effort, the bartender-turned-lawmaker let it be known that gaining her stamp of approval comes with a price.
“I’ve always said that I will support the Democratic nominee,” AOC said. “But unity is a process,
It's hard to believe only one month has elapsed since the worst Friday the 13th ever. In the space of the past four weeks, daily life has changed completely and we don't know when (or if) we'll ever return to something resembling normalcy. It's a very confusing, disorienting time, and we've all had to make sacrifices. We've all had to give up something we hold dear. In one way or another, COVID-19 the Chinese virus has hurt us all.
But at a certain point, we have to say enough is enough. As our liberties are encroached and our most valued beliefs are trampled upon, we need to make a stand and
Fifty years ago, when Paul McCartney announced he had left the Beatles, the news dashed the hopes of millions of fans, while fueling false reunion rumors that persisted well into the new decade.
In a press release, on April 10, 1970, for his first solo album, “McCartney,” he leaked his intention to leave. In doing so, he shocked his three bandmates.
The Beatles had symbolized the great communal spirit of the era. How could they possibly come apart?
Few at the time were aware of the underlying fissures. The power struggles in the group had been mounting at least since their manager, Brian Epstein, died in August of 1967.
‘Paul Quits the Beatles’
Former President Barack Obama will endorse Joe Biden on Tuesday, a source familiar with the plans tells CNN.Obama will make the endorsement of his former vice president in a video message, offering why he believes Biden is the candidate needed at this moment of crisis in America, a person close to the former president says.The endorsement reunites the former running mates and positions Obama, whose endorsement of Biden was seen as a forgone conclusion once Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race last week,
Want to send a fan letter to Dr. Deborah Birx? Slide into the DMs of the “Deborah Birx Scarves” Instagram account. Though the tribute account isn’t officially affiliated with the now-famous physician, it hasn’t stopped thousands of admirers from sending gushing messages of gratitude to the scarf-wearing member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, whose signature accessory has provided a bright daily distraction and foil to the gravity of our national emergency.“I’m getting a lot of people who are messaging me knowing it’s a fan account, simply to say they love her,” Victoria Strout, the Fort Worth, Texas-based music marketing executive behind the account,
President Trump and Joe Biden begin the general election campaign locked in a highly competitive contest that remains fought along the lines of the 2016 presidential election, according to national and battleground state polls.
If anyone holds the early edge, it is Mr. Biden. He leads by an average of six points in national live-interview polls of registered voters. But the election will be decided by voters in the battleground states, not registered voters nationwide, and there the story is not nearly so clear or rosy for Mr. Biden.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has been one of the undoubted media stars of the pandemic, so much so that even President Trump has opined the nation’s infectious disease chief should consider running for political office.
So when Fauci professed on Sunday that more lives could have been saved if aggressive social distancing had been enacted earlier in February, many in the media took it as a poke at the president and governors overseeing the pandemic, even suggesting Fauci may have been overruled in private.
“If you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives," Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper
As countries across the globe approach and pass the peaks of their first waves of coronavirus infections, officials and experts are racing to figure out how to protect people long-term. Individuals could gain immunity to the new coronavirus if they develop antibodies; that can happen through vaccination, or after they get infected and recover. If enough people become immune, that can confer "herd immunity" to an entire population. This protects even people who aren't immune, because so many others are immune that they prevent the virus from spreading within a community. Herd immunity would effectively end the coronavirus pandemic. That
Why Joe Biden is weak on China
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Playing on a possibly apocryphal quote from the Roman statesman Cato the Elder, it can be said that Americans often care more about the pebble in their shoe than they do about foreign policy. But devastation from the coronavirus has given us pause to reassess this notion. Given the scrutiny of the role China played in the pandemic and a fraying of diplomatic ties, the Communist Party dictatorship could be a critical issue in our election this fall. For all of the flaws of Joe Biden as a candidate, his appeasement to Beijing could prove to be his ultimate downfall in this race.
China lied to the world from the start
A British woman in a long-term relationship with a 92-year-old German chandelier has been told that her attraction to historic light fittings is not considered to be a protected sexual orientation. The press regulator, Ipso, made the ruling after Amanda Liberty, a woman from Leeds in her mid thirties, complained. (snip) She objected to being included in an end-of-year article by Sun columnist Jane Moore, which nominated her for a “Dagenham Award (Two Stops Past Barking)” prize, simply because of her sexual attraction to Lumiere. She pointed out she was in a relationship with the chandelier but not yet married to it.
Rio’s ‘Christ the Redeemer’ Statue Outfitted
with Doctor’s Coat in Tribute to Healthcare
Workers replies
with Doctor’s Coat in Tribute to Healthcare
Workers replies
Tributes for healthcare workers are pouring in from around the world, and Brazil’s “Christ the Redeemer” statue in Rio de Janeiro also plays a role.
The latest tribute from Rio came on Easter Sunday when a doctor’s coat and stethoscope were projected onto the iconic “Christ the Redeemer” statue in Rio. The words “thank you” and “hope” also appeared on the statue in 31 different languages.
The flags of several countries affected by the coronavirus pandemic also appeared on the monument, which towers over the city.
The city’s archbishop, Dom Orani Tempesta, said Mass at the base of the statue during the light show and
It is clear that the time is approaching that will be absolutely decisive for this presidency and for the country’s near-term future. The president will have to decide on an economic relaunch plan, and this will make or break him and his opponents.
The vast amount of posturing and accusatory liberties that already surpass what is normal in even the most contentious of election years will be of no account, depending on the outcome of the president’s decision of when and how to conduct the United States back to normal life. The Democrats have advocated a lengthy shutdown, leaving plenty of room to impute to them political as well as public
When it comes to the coronavirus, age and weight are more than just numbers.
In two new studies, NYU researchers found certain risk factors like age, obesity and chronic illness can lead to an increased risk of hospitalization for COVID-19 patients.(Snip)Researchers found that patients under 60 who were considered obese by BMI standards were almost two times as likely to be admitted to the hospital for acute and critical care.
“This has important and practical implications, where nearly 40 percent of adults in the US are obese,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Unfortunately, obesity in people [under 60] is a newly identified epidemiologic risk factor, which may contribute to increased morbidity
As stakeholders continue to discuss how to resume construction activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, builders across the state say criminals are taking advantage of empty construction sites and near-completed residential homes – and the effects are destructive and costly. (snip)
In addition to myriad financial consequences construction businesses and employees are bearing due to the inactivity, builders say there’s been a sharp increase in vandalism, thefts and squatters on construction sites, in some cases despite enhanced security measures. Additionally, people are using the sites as dumping grounds for all manner of things from old appliances to electronics
The resistance appears to be coming together. In a stunning and historic change of protocol the United States Supreme Court will hold teleconference hearings and will actually live-stream broadcast the oral arguments and questions. Two elements are remarkable.First, that the Supreme Court would permit a livestream broadcast of any hearing is historic. The purposeful controls of the Court, never allowing video, cameras or live audio broadcasting for their hearings, was always justified around the court never wanting to allow politics and media(Snip)
during this live-stream session, the Supreme Court is going to be hearing legal arguments after they consolidated a series of cases targeting the financial and business
•Phase One was retail. •Phase two was distribution. •Phase three was the space between processing/manufacturing and distribution. •Phase four was raw material supply to manufacturing. •Phase five is consumer packaging capacity, and bulk storage inventories. Most Americans were not aware food consumption in the U.S. was a 60/40 proposition. Approximately 60% of all food was consumed “outside the home” (or food away from home), and 40% of all food consumed was food “inside the home” (grocery shoppers).
Food ‘outside the home’ included: restaurants, fast-food locales, schools, corporate cafeterias, university lunchrooms, manufacturing cafeterias, hotels, food trucks, park and amusement food sellers and many more. Many of those venues are not thought
Michigan citizens have been flooding a petition at Change.org calling for the removal of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, accusing her of gross negligence and failures in handling the coronavirus pandemic.
The “Recall Governor Whitmer” petition alleges the governor’s measures, such as “closing and banning various non essential business’s [sic] and activities while leaving others open,” are actually “causing more Michiganders to get sick.”
Launched three weeks ago by John Powell, the petition has picked up steam in past days following the governor’s extension of a stay-at-home order and raising penalties for non-compliance to a $1,000 fine and/or six months in jail.
In just the 24-hour period between Monday and Tuesday,
There are some truly terrible people in Congress; there always have been some throughout American history. But as the country navigates the course of this mis-modeled and over-hyped COVID-19 pandemic, Nancy Pelosi stands out as a genuine enemy of America. She loathes the president so much she has relinquished any semblance of ethics and her own personal character. Every word she utters is a lie.
She knows damn well that the president was on top of this virus crisis while she and her fellow anti-Americans were gleefully and despicably embroiled in their attempt to remove the president from office.
Donald Trump knows that the media covering his daily briefings on the Coronavirus need a story to obsess over and hurl insults at him. No matter what he and his team say, it is certain that media coverage will find something outrageous to fulminate about. (snip) He has gotten a number of very liberal governors to announce that they believe in federalism. That has never been the message of the Democrat party.
It will come in handy as November approaches
Behold Trump’s latest magic trick
Every day you’re hearing an updated tally of the number of Americans who’ve “died” of COVID-19.
But if you want to understand a Chinese virus, you better start listening to a Chinese philosopher: As Confucius said, “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper names.”
And, it’s time everyone wised up about those daily COVID-19 fatality reports. They don’t represent the number of people it's killed. They represent the number of death certificates listing it as a cause. And those two things are most definitely NOT the same.
We know with absolute certainty that CDC guidelines for filling them out
The COVID-19 pandemic will be shaping how we live, work and learn about the world long after the last lockdown ends and toilet paper hoarding is done, accelerating shifts that were already underway including the dispersion of population out of the nation’s densest urban areas and the long-standing trend away from mass transit and office concentration towards flatter and often home-based employment.
Amid 20 years of fanfare about how big, dense cities are the future, the country had kept spreading out with nearly all population growth since 2010 occurring in the urban periphery and smaller cities.
Late Friday, President Donald Trump exclaimed “We have to open our country again.” On Monday, he followed up by suggesting a decision “will be made shortly.” Trump’s right: We need to open our country again, and soon. With trillions of dollars in lost economic output and the government’s own fatality estimates for the COVID-19 virus plunging, continuing the shutdown makes no sense.
We’ve heard the arguments and questions, of course. What if the virus comes roaring back? Won’t Americans lose their coronavirus discipline, and stop social distancing?
We won’t impugn those who ask such questions, since we assume they mostly
It’s Good to Be a Democrat
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That famous line in the old movie, “Love Story” – the one Al Gore lied and said was about him and his ex-wife Tipper – that goes, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” was stupid at the time and remains stupid to this day. But if you tweak it ever so slightly, you end up with a truism that everyone needs to remember: being a Democrat means never having to say you’re sorry.
It’s true, being a Democrat in good standing means you can get away with damn near anything. Ted Kennedy killed a woman, sexually assaulted a waitress with a fellow
Bernie Sanders pulled off an impressive failure in his doomed, five-year quixotic quest to become the presidential nominee of the party he’s refused to join. [Snip] Who’d have thought the party of declared diversity would examine a field of 29 women, African Americans, billionaires, a gay mayor, a Latino and a spiritual healer and reject them all. Then, overwhelmingly opt for two rich white males, lifelong pols in their late 70s? As a stark contrast to, say, the incumbent rich white guy also with several homes in his
I’ve long wondered why so many family and friends fall into this category. We grew up in the same homes, went to the same grade schools as kids, had the same parents, attended (as kids) the same churches. To engage in the hate that they do, Progressives must often run counter to the values held by their parents -- and they know it. It takes a lot to abandon the values of one’s parents and one’s culture. Why do it?
Is it a logically and carefully considered and weighed repudiation of the values long honored by their parents and ancestors?
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly went off on President Donald Trump during a call Monday, calling his handling of the coronavirus pandemic “almost sinful.”The speaker made this statement while talking on the phone with other Democratic House members, Politico reports.“The more misrepresentations he puts out there, the more it obscures the truth,” she also reportedly said on the call.“We have to insist upon the truth — what they’re saying is not knowledge, is not facts, is not real.”
While sitting at home with my bottle of hand sanitizer, I received an email from the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) asking me which topics from a list of pressing concerns I would like to receive emails about. The UFT has 200,000 members in New York City alone and is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, which has 1.6 million members nationwide. Following is a list of some of the sixteen topics being advocated by the UFT: Environmentalism/Sustainability, Immigrant Rights, LGBTQ Rights and Issues; Literacy; Political Activism; Racial Justice; Restorative Justice; Student Debt Relief; Women's Rights and Issues. In case anyone tells you the teaching profession
Former President Barack Obama is set to reenter the political fray with a long-awaited endorsement of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, but his magic touch has failed to rub off on others in the past, and it is unclear how much of a boost he can provide his ex-vice president.
Some Democrats fear he could even overshadow Biden.
“Biden definitely needs this endorsement,” said a Democratic strategist who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “But you don’t want people drawing comparisons between Obama and Biden on the stump.”
Democrats are seeking to present a united front, with Bernie Sanders endorsing Biden on Monday. Obama would add another feather
George Zimmerman's lawsuit saga is unfolding though the Florida court system in the form of depositions and a powerful but little known tool called "Requests for Admissions."
Under Florida Law, a plaintiff can submit a list of up to 30 questions, each beginning, "Admit that you...." Under penalty of perjury, the defendant must either admit or deny each statement. If the defendant doesn’t bother to answer any of the questions, the court assumes that they are admitted as true. (snip) Zimmerman is charging that Trayvon Martin’s support team, including Martin’s parents and their attorney Benjamin Crump, knowingly substituted an imposter witness for the real “phone witness”
Dairy farmers have faced a crash in milk prices amid the coronavirus pandemic in the last month when restaurants, workplaces and schools shuttered across the country. Many dairy operations have even dumped their cows’ milk as the initial splash of at-home consumption has tapered off and the restaurant industry has nearly disappeared. “You can't shut down cows. You can't turn them off like a faucet,” Zoey Nelson, 27, a sixth-generation dairy farmer in Waupaca, Wisconsin, told NBC News. “Just to see it literally going down the drain — it's devastating.”
President Donald Trump is appointing a new “Opening Our Country” task force today to jumpstart the economy by early May. But the White House cannot succeed unless it persuades governors to cooperate. By dividing power, the Constitution creates resiliency in emergencies, but also demands cooperation between the federal and state government.
Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have rendered the trade-offs inherent in public policy only more acute. Even though the coronavirus has killed more than 23,000 Americans and sickened a half-million more, strict lockdowns have held deaths significantly below worst-case projections. On the cost side of the ledger, however, just one month of shelter-in-place policies has thrown more
The great Zach Goldberg, the youngish Ph.D student who has been quantifying the explosion of “wokeness” in the news media and elsewhere over the last decade, has been looking through the raw data in the Pew Research Center’s latest American Trends Panel Survey, and unearthed some interesting findings, which you can see here. Top line: liberals are more than twice as likely as conservatives to be found to have a mental health condition.
NY Times Editor Admits Editing
Article on Biden Sexual Assault
Allegation After Campaign Complained replies
Article on Biden Sexual Assault
Allegation After Campaign Complained replies
The New York Times edited a controversial passage in an article about a sexual assault allegation against former vice president Joe Biden after his campaign complained, the paper's executive editor said Monday.
Dean Baquet, in an interview with Times media columnist Ben Smith, explained why edits were made to the following sentence, which appeared as follows in the print edition of the paper, on page A20: "The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable."
The World Health Organization is hopeful President Trump will not defund them over their recent questionable activities.On Monday, the WHO chief touted his strong ties with the president and pointed out that the U.S. remains one of the agency’s biggest donors.“The United States is actually the largest contributor to the WHO and I have met President Trump a number of times before, starting from 2017. Recently, we had a call conversation two weeks ago, and what I know is that he’s supportive. I hope the funding to WHO will continue. The relationship we have is very good and we hope that this will continue.”– Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director
On CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, Dr. Fauci made comments that were wildly distorted by the media. “You could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives," he said. “Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those kinds of decisions is complicated. But you’re right. Obviously, if we had, right from the very beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down.”
During the Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Monday, Dr. Fauci sought to clarify those comments,
Corn Squeezing
replies
Most of America hasn’t been working for going on a month now because of the coronavirus pandemic — and the “locking down” of most of the country. It might be months before they are allowed by the government to work again.
The very last thing the government ought to be doing is forcing them to pay more than the market rate for anything.
Especially an essential thing — like fuel.
But that’s exactly what it is doing. Every time Americans fuel up their vehicles, they’re unwillingly lining the pockets of the politically powerful agribusiness cartels — as well as foreign ethanol cartels — to the tune of billions
It is becoming increasingly clear that the Russia investigation launched and conducted by James Comey’s Federal Bureau of Investigation deserves to rank as one of the agency’s great blunders — at best.
President Trump famously calls the probe a hoax, a label he uses liberally, but in this instance, it may literally be true.
We’ve spent years obsessing about Russian meddling in our politics, and now it turns out that the original FBI investigation into the Trump campaign that morphed into the Mueller probe may have been instigated, in part, by Russian disinformation.
Today Dr. Peter Hotez was interviewed during America’s Newsroom on FNC and said that the state of Texas is not expected to hit the peak of the coronavirus outbreak until May 1. Also today, Governor Greg Abbott announced new guidance on financial assistance for small businesses in Texas. Abbott is shifting his focus to “protecting lives while restoring livelihoods.” He is issuing an executive order to provide businesses a list of guidelines on how to re-open safely later this week. The announcement from the second largest state will likely sharpen debate over how long Americans should endure crippling economic restrictions to contain
Sanders campaign reps revolt
after Sanders endorses Biden,
openly attack former vice president replies
after Sanders endorses Biden,
openly attack former vice president replies
Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden for president on Monday, but any illusions that the move would bring an end to long-simmering tensions between the Democratic Party's liberal and moderate wings quickly evaporated in a matter of minutes.
Briahna Joy Gray, who served as Sanders' national press secretary, and prominent Sanders surrogate Shaun King immediately took aim at Biden -- and they made it clear just how much the former vice president's platform differed from Sanders' longstanding policy goals.
"With the utmost respect for Bernie Sanders, who is an incredible human being & a genuine inspiration, I don't endorse Joe Biden," Gray wrote. "I supported Bernie Sanders
As the coronavirus pandemic continues its assault across the world, red flags have been raised over the role played by the World Health Organization (WHO) in initially downplaying the virus to appease China and just how effectively its money – funded overwhelmingly by U.S. taxpayers – is spent by the U.N. agency.
President Trump last week threatened to withhold funding from the WHO, insisting that his administration would be "looking into" its operations – igniting a blistering response from its controversial chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who warned that "politicizing" the virus would only result in "more body bags."
Experts weighed in on the possibility of the U.S. abruptly pulling its majority funding
A New Low for the White House Press Corps!How Horrible! CBS News Hack Paula Reid interrupted President Trump at his daily White House presser! She was out of Control! Reid attacked President Trump, repeatedly interrupted him. She was a Total Disgrace! President Trump rightfully called her out, “You know you’re a fake. Your whole network… The people are wise to you!”
Biden got confused again.Joe Biden on Monday said he if he were to win the White House, his administration would “finally achieve comprehensive immigration reform.”
Because after nearly 50 years in government, including 8 years as US Vice President, Biden just hasn’t had enough to achieve anything.“We’re finally gonna achieve comprehensive immigration reform as well, putting millions of citizens on a pathway to citizenship,” said Biden.
A 93-year-old Pennsylvania woman received 150 beers from Molson Coors on Monday in response to her viral plea for more beer during the state’s lockdown, a report said.
Reps from the beverage giant delivered 10 15-packs of Coors Light to Olive Veronesi’s Seminole home, news station KDKA reported.The senior cracked open a can of the suds with the workers still there. “That tastes pretty good,” Veronesi told the network.Veronesi said she was down to her last 12 beers when a family member snapped a hilarious photo of her holding a Coors Light can
Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus-induced fever may have subsided but the CNN anchor was red hot on Monday. The longtime cable host, 49, had a mini-existential crisis on his SiriusXM show, lashing out at his lucrative primetime gig and blasting President Trump as being “full of sh-t.” “I don’t want to spend my time doing things that I don’t think are valuable enough to me personally,” Cuomo said. “I don’t value indulging irrationality, hyper-partisanship.”Cuomo said his battle with COVID-19 has made him rethink his values and question his position as a public figure.“I don’t like what I do professionally,” he said. “I don’t think it’s worth my time.”
A string of recent Facebook posts and comments by Auburn Mayor Bill Kirby criticizing the White House’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and other subjects came to a head Thursday night. The posts included profanities and heated exchanges with members of the community.
Kirby angered community members when his recent public Facebook post suggested supporters of President Donald Trump were akin to members of the Ku Klux Klan.