Posts on Monday, March 16, 2020
Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning trade economist and New York Times columnist, celebrated the sharp decline of the stock market due to the coronavirus on the grounds that, in his opinion, it would hurt President Donald Trump.“Economists, myself included, often make a point of saying that the stock market is not the economy, which it isn’t. It *is,” however, pretty much the Trump presidency,” Krugman tweeted. “Take away his magic talisman and there’s nothing left.”Krugman was one of the most prominent economists to predict that markets would collapse following the election of Donald Trump. (Tweet)
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) reflected on lessons learned by residents of New Orleans, LA, during Hurricane Katrina that apply to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, offering his recommendations on Monday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.Scalise said, “The most important thing people can do is just be listening to their local leaders,” adding, “Listen to your local governors and mayors that are coming up with new protocols.”“Everybody’s adjusting and it’s a new world, right now,” remarked Scalise. “Hopefully it doesn’t last long, but it’s going to last a few more weeks.President Donald Trump is “continuing to show his leadership [by] bringing the right kind
The coronavirus is proving healthy for some city businesses.While fears over the epidemic have shut down everything from Big Apple schools to nightclubs amid mass self-quarantining, there are still a few enterprises that have not only survived, but thrived. Online booze-delivery services, car-rental firms and local bodegas are among the lucky ones, workers said Monday. “Friday, March 13, was Drizly’s largest day ever in sales, beating out New Year’s Eve and Halloween, which are usually our most popular days,’’ a rep for the alcohol-delivery service told The Post. At Minibar Delivery, a rep said, “Thursday was 80 percent higher than the previous Thursday,’’
SAN ANTONIO—H-E-B announced Monday it would be giving $3 million to support local organizations working to stop the spread of coronavirus.H-E-B’s partnership with local nonprofits will provide relief to some of our most vulnerable neighbors: seniors, children and low-income families, the company said.
“During these trying times, H-E-B is here for Texas,” said Winell Herron, H-E-B Group Vice President of Public Affairs, Diversity and Environmental Affairs. “Now, more than ever, H-E-B is keeping with our Spirit of Giving and Helping Here philosophies to do everything we can to support our fellow Texans.”From this commitment, H-E-B’s Hunger Relief Program will donate $1.2 million to support 18 food banks
Representatives for the Kentucky Derby announced that the event would be postponed amid fears of the coronavirus. Churchill Downs officials are preparing to postpone the iconic state event from May 2 to Sept. 5 as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to spike in the United States. On Monday, officials said they are "working carefully and diligently with relevant health experts and authorities to ensure we make the most responsible decision." A formal announcement is anticipated on Tuesday morning.The postponement would mark the first time in 75 years the Kentucky Derby has not taken place in its regularly scheduled time in May.
President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club is being closed Monday for a deep cleaning after three people who attended events at the Winter White House tested positive for coronavirus.The resort became ground zero in Trump's world for the disease after the positive tests following a weekend of fundraisers, dinners and parties at the posh beach-side, members-only club.The three known cases are Fabio Wajngarten, the communications secretary for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who attended a dinner last Saturday at Mar-a-Lago; acting Brazil Charge d’Affaires Ambassador Nestor Forster, who sat at Trump's table during the Saturday night dinner;
A woman has been slammed on social media for an alleged “coronavirus challenge” video that has since gone viral. Ava Louise, a twice-Dr. Phil guest and accused “clout-chaser” on social media, has recently gone viral for a bizarre stunt that is getting widely criticized during the global coronavirus pandemic, which is responsible for 68 deaths and at least 3,700 positive cases in the U.S. alone. In the video, which was originally shared to TikTok, the 22-year-old aspiring influencer from Miami is seen licking a toilet seat, allegedly while in a plane bathroom.
Sen. Rick Scott on coronavirus
response: 'The federal government
cannot solve every problem' replies
response: 'The federal government
cannot solve every problem' replies
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Monday the federal government cannot solve every problem presented by the coronavirus pandemic, which has affected people in 49 states and the District of Columbia.
Scott, who said he is self-quarantining after coming in contact with an infected member of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's entourage earlier this month, told "The Story" that state governments and private institutions can and have taken the lead on many aspects of fighting the contagion.
As much of the world goes into various stages of lockdown because of the Wuhan coronavirus, Mexico is in denial. The government’s response thus far has been to downplay the risks and carry on with life as normal. Mexican officialdom has taken almost no steps to contain the virus or prepare for an outbreak, despite a warning last week from the deputy health minister that a widespread outbreak is inevitable and that community transmission could begin there in a matter of weeks.When that happens—not if, when—things are going to deteriorate very quickly in Mexico. The outbreak will almost certainly affect the entire country, cripple the economy,
The first-ever clinical trial in a quest for a coronavirus vaccine began Monday as the first injections were administered at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.
Four volunteer participants were given injections of a vaccine created by Moderna Inc. in collaboration with the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) and the National Institue of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Phase 1 of the study is intended to test the safety of three dose levels of the new vaccine -- mRNA-1273 -- named after the genetic material that makes up the injections and which researchers say can produce a vaccine very quickly.
A Tennessee nurse recently went on an epic Coronavirus rant and it made our day. A woman who goes by the name “Emily Annette” posted a video to her YouTube channel going off about how many stupid people there are in the world. Emily Annette made the video after going to the grocery store and encountering a hysterical woman who was yelling at a grocery store clerk who just happened to touch his own face while he was ringing up groceries
Officials in six San Francisco Bay Area counties issued a sweeping shelter-in-place mandate Monday affecting nearly 7 million people, ordering residents to stay at home and go outside only for food, medicine and outings that are absolutely essential.
The order says residents must stay inside and venture out only for necessities for three weeks starting Tuesday in a desperate attempt by officials to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.(Snip) Mayor London Breed criticized what she called a “terrible response" by federal officials. “We can't sit back and wait for the federal government to do anything. Unfortunately, they have not been as proactive
A Today show staffer has contracted the Chinese coronavirus, leading co-hosts Craig Melvin and Al Roker to temporarily go off-air, co-anchor Savannah Guthrie announced on Monday.“Personal note, for this show: Last night we learned that a colleague of ours on the third hour of ‘Today’ has tested positive for COVID-19, the novel coronavirus,” Guthrie announced: (Tweet/Video) Because of that and out of an “abundance of caution,” co-hosts Melvin and Roker took the morning off so that the network can “trace their contacts, see what’s going on with them,” Guthrie continued, adding that they both “feel good.”
When new, virulent diseases emerge, such SARS and Covid-19, the race begins to find new vaccines and treatments for those affected. As the current crisis unfolds, governments are enforcing quarantine and isolation, and public gatherings are being discouraged. Health officials took the same approach 100 years ago, when influenza was spreading around the world. The results were mixed. But records from the 1918 pandemic suggest one technique for dealing with influenza — little-known today — was effective. Some hard-won experience from the greatest pandemic in recorded history could help us in the weeks and months ahead.(Snip) severely ill flu patients nursed outdoors recovered better than those treated indoors.
The world is changing at a pace not seen in years, and it is no time to become captives of fear despite the real and immediate dangers we face.
The coronavirus and the ensuing panic, at least for a few more weeks, have stagnated the economy and scared global financial markets, accompanied by both collateral, and independent and simultaneous, bad news. Rumor- and panic-mongers predominate; the rational and reasonable are written-off as naïve and out of it. Thousands may die, but millions who will not are terrified into anxieties and sleeplessness that they will.COVID-19 itself has raised fundamental questions about the merits of globalization in general,
The Pew Research Center survey on white evangelicals, President Trump, and Christianity's public role was released Thursday. The data on Christianity's influence in American society is particularly interesting. Over half of all Americans say Christianity's influence is declining (53 percent). A majority or plurality of respondents in all religious groups indicated that Christianity’s influence is declining; those who were the least likely to ascribe to this point of view were Jews, the unaffiliated and non-believers. The reasons posited for why this is happening vary.
President Donald Trump urged Americans on Monday to keep their social gatherings under ten people as the country continues to face the coronavirus epidemic.The president took the podium on Monday to announce the new government guidelines, including a requirement for young Americans to school at home and to avoid discretionary travel and eating and drinking in public and in restaurants. “If everyone makes these critical changes and sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation and we will defeat the virus,” Trump said. “And we’ll have a big celebration altogether.” The president did not say how long the advisories or the threat from the virus would stay in place
Washington—White House economist Larry Kudlow confirmed Monday that authorities are looking closely at a bailout of the airline industry—though Kudlow said he prefers the term “liquidity fix.” Kudlow said that Trump administration officials are in touch with House and Senate leaders about options as the coronavirus outbreak tanks demand for flights. The administration does not believe airlines will fail, Kudlow said. But he added they are critical “channels” that cannot be allowed to close. “It’s not so much a bailout. Airlines are key channels in the economy, you’ve got to have them,” Kudlow said on the White House driveway. “This is more in our view liquidity help,
Washington—An urgent bipartisan coronavirus relief package is being held up in the House by a single Republican congressman who threatens to delay it for another week. The billion-dollar package, which includes sick leave and free testing for affected Americans, was due to move to the Senate as soon as Monday night, but has since been met with objection from GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas. The House passed the bill in the early hours of Saturday morning before it took a one week break amid the escalating pandemic, but it later emerged the legislation had technical issues which needed to be corrected.
CNN Business calls it “a pandemic unprecedented in modern times.” That would probably include the so-called “Spanish Flu” pandemic of 1918-19 that killed more than 500,000 Americans, and perhaps 20 million to 50 million worldwide. Coronavirus so far has killed fewer than 75 Americans, fewer than 7,000 people worldwide, and its growth internationally already is clearly slowing. But economic growth is another matter: We’re now in a bear market, with worldwide recession a serious possibility. For hysteria has now become the “conventional wisdom.”
Invoking the “Black Death,” which probably wiped out a third of Europe, both CNN and the Washington Post have reported that Iran is digging
Canada is shutting its borders to all travelers who are not citizens or permanent residents to help stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday.
Exceptions will be made for flight crews, diplomats and immediate family members of Canadians—as well as, “at this time,” American citizens, Trudeau said outside his residence, where he is self-isolating after his wife, Sophie, tested positive for the virus. “All Canadians as much as possible should stay home,” Trudeau added.
Anyone displaying coronavirus symptoms will be not permitted to board a flight to Canada—and airlines will be required to complete a basic health
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered the closing of all nonessential stores in the state effective at midnight due to the coronavirus pandemic...Restaurants and bars, except for take-out service, were also ordered to close for the next two weeks.
Wolf made the announcement at a Monday afternoon news conference. The closures will be in effect for two weeks.
Restaurants and bars, except for take-out service, were also ordered to close for the next two weeks.
Facilities that can remain open include:
Grocery stores
Hospitals
Medical facilities
Coronavirus vaccine trials will begin Monday, with at least one subject receiving a first-ever experimental dose of the potential inoculation, a government official said.
Throughout the trial — funded by the National Institutes of Health — 45 young, healthy volunteers will receive different doses of shots co-developed by the NIH and the Massachusetts-based biotech firm Moderna Inc.Plans to test the first participant have not been publicly announced, but the official disclosed the information to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.Participants are not at risk of being infected
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney proposed Monday giving a $1,000 handout to every American adult in an attempt to help the U.S. economy weather the coronavirus which is devastating markets. The money is intended to “help fill the gaps” for Americans who are starting to have issues with their paychecks and bills. The senator sees it as an additional step to the House-passed coronavirus bill that includes free testing, paid sick leave and solidifies unemployment benefits. “We also urgently need to build on this legislation with additional action to help families and small businesses meet their short-term financial obligations, ease the financial burden on
Vice President Mike Pence’s Press Secretary called out CNN’s Jim Sciutto Monday morning for spreading an anonymous claim that the Trump administration is considering imposing a curfew across the country.“New: There are active discussions within the Trump administration to encourage a possible ‘curfew’ across the nation in which non-essential businesses would have to close by a certain time each night,” Sciutto wrote on social media, citing “CNN reporting.” (Tweet) Katie Miller, Pence’s Press Secretary, responded directly to the post, which had quickly gone viral. “This is not correct,” Miller said.
During Sunday night’s Democratic debate, Joe Biden did his best to convince voters he’d take the necessary steps to deal with climate change. He outlined the elements of his climate plan, promising to spend $1.7 trillion making the U.S. economy less destructive to the climate, ban new permits for oil and gas development on public lands and rally the world’s nations in an effort to protect the Amazon rainforest.
“All well and good,” replied Bernie Sanders. “But nowhere near enough.”
That describes the feelings of many climate activists these days towards Biden. If polls are correct that Biden will win Tuesday's primaries in a landslide, the former vice president
HENDERSON, Nev. — Leon Spinks has trouble swallowing these days, so his wife, Brenda, crushes the seven pills he takes every morning, dissolves them in water and loads them into a syringe. She injects the contents into the retired boxer’s feeding tube. In June, Spinks, 66, was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He underwent three rounds of chemotherapy but the cancer spread to his bones. In November, Brenda said, one of the doctors treating Spinks said he had a about two weeks to live.
A Kentucky coronavirus patient has been placed under police guard after refusing to stay under quarantine, the state’s governor has revealed.
The unidentified 53-year-old man from Nelson County recently tested positive at the University of Louisville, but left against medical advice — and also refused to self-isolate at home, Gov. Andy Beshear said at a press conference.
A local judge declared a state of emergency in order to invoke a little-known statute that allows him to force a “self-isolation or quarantine,” the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
She has made the rounds at some of Chicago’s historic churches, asking congregants for their votes. She’s hosted nearly a dozen campaign rallies in Cook County, attended conversations with families directly affected by gun violence and tapped her allies to both endorse and publicly advocate for her — moves that would be considered typical for someone seeking reelection.
Nevertheless, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s bid for a second term as the county’s top prosecutor has been atypical.
While officeholders seeking reelection usually enjoy the advantages of incumbency —
Hunter Biden’s overseas travel has cost taxpayers more than the Secret Service details for all of President Donald Trump’s children combined. According to a report from the Washington Free Beacon, taxpayers paid $193,696 for Hunter Biden’s Secret Service entourage — which is nearly four times the recorded security bill of the four adult Trump children—combined.“While his father Joe Biden was vice president, Hunter Biden traveled with a Secret Service entourage to at least 10 different countries, including China, Qatar, and South Africa,
U.S. Attorney John Durham is expected to wrap up his investigation into the origins of the Russia probe by the end of the summer, sources confirmed to Fox News.One source suggested the investigation could end as soon as July, while another said it could be closer to September, based on Durham's progress, which could be hindered by the coronavirus pandemic rocking the nation and the globe. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, relayed the same timeline during a House Rules Committee meeting focused on reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act last week.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden committed on Sunday night to naming a woman as his vice presidential running mate if he becomes his party’s nominee, and his rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, said he “in all likelihood” would do so, too – in his case, “a progressive woman.”The announcement came as both candidates responded to a question during the CNN/Univision debate about policies relating to women.The former vice president also reaffirmed that, if as president he gets to appoint a Supreme Court justice, he will appoint the first black woman. And he confirmed that he no longer opposes the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion except
The Supreme Court announced it is postponing oral arguments for the first time in more than a century because of the coronavirus outbreak.The highest court in the country was scheduled to hear cases March 23-25 and March 30-April 1 but will now "examine the options for rescheduling those cases in due course in light of the developing circumstances," read a statement released Monday."The Court will hold its regularly scheduled Conference on Friday, March 20. Some Justices may participate remotely by telephone. The Court will issue its regularly scheduled Order List on Monday, March 23 at 9:30 a.m," the statement added.
While the media continues parroting Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda in the face of the Wuhan virus, the Trump administration is firing back.
In response to the outrageous charge from a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson that the U.S. Army might have been behind the transmission of the Chinese coronavirus to Wuhan, the State Department Friday summoned the Chinese ambassador to the United States.
CBS News reports that Ambassador Cui Tiankai met with Deputy Secretary for East Asia David Stillwell, wherein Stillwell corrected the record with what CBS’s sources described as “a very stern representation of the facts.” (Snip) State Department officials said the purpose of the diplomatic dressing down
Italy is second only to Red China in corona virus deaths, despite Rome being 5,382 miles from Wuhan. Follow the money. The virus did.
One year ago, BBC reported, "Italy joins China's New Silk Road project."
The project was Red China bailing out Italy financially when the European Union would not. German bankers could not. Red China with a billion-dollar-a-day trade surplus from the USA could.
Uganda and Tanzania are among the other nations that have become clients of Red China.(Snip)"At the heart of concerns is that the BRI is seen as a way for China to spread its geopolitical influence — an acute concern for a Europe increasingly uncertain of its place
Francis Caiazza does not have that warm, fuzzy feeling for Joe Biden, and he is not so sure he's going to ever find it.
Caiazza has voted for whomever his party’s nominee has been since Lyndon B. Johnson, a streak he continued all the way up to and including both of Barack Obama’s elections.
The only thing Hillary Clinton inspired Caiazza to do four years later was not vote at all.
Caiazza is no Democrat in name only. He has not only been a Democrat all of his life, but he ran successfully as one in his native New Castle in 1981,
Befitting their absurd deference to China's lies about the coronavirus (yes, they are lies), too many in the media are lapping up the Democratic Party talking point that the Trump administration gutted the National Security Council counter-pandemics effort.
It did not.
While the Trump administration has rightly reorganized the NSC away from the bureaucratic behemoth it became under the Obama administration, NSC bio-defense efforts have continued. And as pointed out by the former NSC lead on the issue, Tim Morrison, these efforts were wide-ranging.
The key here is that the NSC's bureaucratic reorganization is being presented as a gutting of the nation's bio-defenses. And that's plainly unfair.
Former Florida candidate for governor Andrew Gillum disclosed Sunday that he is entering a rehabilitation facility, saying he had fallen into a depression and alcohol abuse after losing his bid for the state's highest post. The Democrat's statement came days after Gillum was named in a South Florida police report Friday that said he was 'inebriated' and initially unresponsive in a hotel room along with two male companions, Travis Dyson, 30, and Aldo Mejias, 56, where authorities found baggies of suspected crystal methamphetamine.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will order all bars and restaurants in the state of Michigan to shut down their dine-in services in response to the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. A spokesperson confirmed the information Monday after Whitmer spoke with a TV station about it. Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II tweeted the temporary shut-down would go into effect starting at 3 p.m. The governor previously ordered all K-12 schools closed and banned gatherings of over 250 to limit community spread of the infectious respiratory disease.
What could be more reassuring in the midst of the coronavirus-fuelled loo-roll shortage than to visit a toilet tissue mill on the outskirts of Manchester and marvel at the mountains of soft white toilet paper on display?(Snip)Essity is the UK’s biggest loo-roll manufacturer, producing Cushelle, Velvet and own-brand toilet tissue for most major retailers. Indeed, it supplies more than 30 per cent of all our loo paper requirements. Every day, including Christmas, Easter and bank holidays, its six mills churn out approximately 4.7million rolls. Another 84million are sitting nearby in giant warehouses, ready to be shipped and, right now, just like Andrex, they are supplying more than ever before.
Anxious consumers across the country are raiding stores, emptying entire shelves of paper products, pain killers, soap, hand sanitizers, and frozen food. In response, some states are invoking anti-price gouging laws. Others will follow. All will make matters worse.
Attorney General Mark Herring from Virginia, where Gov. Ralph Northam has declared a state of emergency, is asking “all Virginians to pay attention to any prices that seem too high, and contact my office as soon as possible if you think someone may be illegally overcharging for necessary goods.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James told National Public Radio Friday
The Centers for Disease Control has a $6.6 billion budget and one job which it messes up every time.
The last time the CDC had a serious workout was six years ago during the Ebola crisis. Back then CDC guidelines allowed medical personnel infected with Ebola to avoid a quarantine and interact with Americans until they showed undeniable symptoms of the disease. There were no protocols in place for treating the potentially infected resulting in the further spread of the disease inside the United States.
At the height of the crisis, confidence in the CDC fell to 37%.
With the abundance of rival streaming services on the market these days, it can be easy to forget that one of the cheapest ways to watch movies is through good old-fashioned terrestrial television.
As ever, this week brings a great selection of flicks, and with fears over coronavirus continuing to mount watching films in the comfort of your own home might be more common than ever.
Take a look at our top picks of what to look out for over the coming days.
Ralph Charette, 71, said he bought a rifle and ammunition on Saturday to protect himself and his family as a wave of coronavirus panic sweeps across the country. Charette, a military veteran, spent $1,500 at a gun shop in Germantown, Wisconsin, after encountering aggressive shoppers and empty shelves at local grocery stores. Now, if looters come knocking, he'll be ready, he said.
"There's so much uncertainty and paranoia but you've got to protect your own," Charette said. Charette is among a growing wave of Americans who are going to retailers, pawnshops and online to purchase guns and ammunition in the wake of COVID-19,
Democrats’ Impeachment Lawyer Tests
Positive For Coronavirus, Blames Trump
For ‘Gaslighting’ America replies
Positive For Coronavirus, Blames Trump
For ‘Gaslighting’ America replies
Democratic impeachment lawyer Daniel Goldman announced Sunday that he’s tested positive for coronavirus — and immediately blamed President Donald Trump for “gaslighting” America.Goldman explained his situation through a series of tweets, explaining the difficulty that he had experienced even getting access to a test and suggesting that the Trump administration was at fault for too slow a response in providing tests and spreading false information. (Tweet) Goldman immediately pivoted from sharing his news to criticizing the administration’s lack of preparation with regard to testing —
The frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Joe Biden, insists that President Trump has mismanaged the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak. Yet the former vice president’s hastily assembled “Public Health Advisory Committee” is made up of scary ideologues whose opinions on public health will comfort few voters during a pandemic. They include a “medical ethicist” who advocates health care rationing to seniors, a “disaster preparedness expert” who shamelessly whitewashed erstwhile president Obama’s bumbling response to the H1N1 pandemic, an Obama administration retread with no health care credentials at all, and a “global health expert” who makes wild projections without reliable statistical data.
That didn’t take long. It only took seven minutes into the CNN Democrat debate for Joe Biden to trip over his own tongue. Joe Biden was talking about the H1N1 virus during the Obama admininstration. Joe Biden. we should already be sitting down and planning where we’re going to put these temporary hospitals. And we can do that. We did this before with the coronavirus. I mean, excuse me, we’ve been through this before with, uh, dealing with the viruses that, the N1H1, as well as what happened in Africa.
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders both explained how they were protecting themselves against coronavirus during Sunday night's Democratic debate - as they coughed and sniffed through the back-and-forth. 'I wash my hands God knows how many times a day. I carry with me, in my bag outside here, hand sanitizer. I don't know how many times a day I use that. I make sure I don't touch my face and so on,' said Biden, who at 77 is at higher risk than most Americans. At 78-years-old, Sanders is in the same category.
Then-vice president Joe Biden spared no words when he extolled the virtues of his second son, Hunter Biden, in a 2013 address to South Korean students at the elite Yonsei University.
"And as I speak, my son has just boarded—my grown son has just boarded a plane, an aircraft—he’s heading to the Philippines," Biden said. "His name is Hunter Biden. He’s chairman of the World Food Program USA, and he's going there out in the field, like so many of you did. I'm so incredibly proud of him and the tens of thousands of young people around the world who either went or wanted to."
There’s nothing like a hideous pandemic to reaffirm what we always knew…
Communists are terrible.
Our establishment is terrible.
Our media is terrible.
Democrats are terrible.
Never Trumpers are terrible.
Let’s start with the bat soup-slurpin’ version of Bernie Sanders’s favorite ideology, the Red Chinese. Their bizarre fetish for gobbling up pangolins and other appalling foods led to this outbreak, as if eating weird stuff was ever going to lead to anything good.
Attempts to rein in the government’s ability to spy on Americans fell flat after Rep. Adam B. Schiff intervened to protect the types of powers that the FBI used to go after the Trump campaign in 2016.
Mr. Schiff, California Democrat and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, ran roughshod over House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, whose panel had control over the battle to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, said advocates on both sides of the aisle.
The power struggle created an awkward moment in which Mr. Nadler canceled the markup of his own bill just minutes before it was scheduled.
Pence's presidential moment
replies
Vice President Mike Pence, often caricatured as the White House Yes Man, is doing many of the things critics wish President Trump would do.
The big picture: He's a daily, consistent presence on the airwaves. He provides useful info rather than random digressions. He leans on health and medical experts — both at public events and behind the scenes when he's chairing the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Pence, 60, a likely contender for the Republican nomination in 2024, has become one of the most praised administration officials during the virus crisis:
"I actually think he’s done a reasonably good job," popular tech author
Although the racist-sounding “Wuhan virus” is now labeled as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, in America the real pandemic, more accurately described as pandemonium, is at the local supermarkets where store shelves resemble those in Venezuela. America is in the grips of a panic the likes of which we haven’t seen before. What exactly is a pandemic, other than a scary sounding word from science fiction movies? According to WHO, “Pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.”
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden made extreme remarks during CNN’s presidential debate on Sunday night, suggesting that he would end the oil industry’s ability to drill, would ban new fracking projects, and would take millions of cars off the road.
“No more subsidies for fossil fuel industry, no more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling including offshore, no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill,” Biden said. “Period. Ends.”(Snip for tweet) “No new fracking and, by the way, on the Recovery Act, I was able to make sure we invested $90 billion in making sure we brought down the price of solar
Fact Check: Biden Claims Trump Tax Cuts
Left U.S. Unable to Afford Coronavirus
Economic Rescue replies
Left U.S. Unable to Afford Coronavirus
Economic Rescue replies
Claim: Joe Biden said Sunday night that the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and Fed rate cuts of 2019 have left the U.S. unable to afford measures needed to stabilize the American economy during the coronavirus crisis.
“The problem is the policies of this administration. Economically have we eaten a lot of our seed corn here,” Biden said during the Democrat presidential debate. “The ability of us to use leverages that were available before have been used up by this god-awful tax cut of $1.9 trillion and the fact that we have used, the fed will be of little consequence now. They’ve already used what leverage they have.”
Verdict: False.
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders debated tonight on CNN. The opening topic was, of course, the Wuhan coronavirus.
Biden began by presenting a list of ideas for dealing with the pandemic. Sanders agreed with Biden’s ideas, but insisted that we need to address underlying problems in our health care system and economy that contribute to our vulnerability. In other words, though Sanders didn’t utter them, we need socialism.
Biden countered that people are looking for results, not revolution. With that line, the essence of which has fueled his surge to the lead in delegates, I think he clinched the Democratic nomination.
House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) told Axios on HBO Sunday, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, that President Donald Trump is a racist who could make the U.S. “go the way of Germany in the 1930s.” [video]
Axios published a preview of the interview Sunday, and reported (original emphasis):
Rep. James Clyburn, the top-ranking African American in American politics, told “Axios on HBO” that President Trump is a racist who hired white supremacists, warning America “could very well go the way of Germany in the 1930s.”
Why it matters: Clyburn is a force in Democratic politics widely credited for resurrecting Joe Biden’s campaign
Have you ever had an experience alone that you wished you could share with someone? For example, that happened to me on the coldest day ever in Cincinnati during the Great Blizzard of 1994. I was clerking that year for the most brilliant and gifted judge in the United States federal courts, the Hon. Danny J. Boggs of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and it was my turn to be in Cincinnati for the week’s appellate panels.
Part One — Some Rambling (So Skip to Part Two If It Bores You)
Judge Boggs’s chambers are based in Louisville, Kentucky.
Joe Biden walked out of Sunday night’s debate in a commanding position in the Democratic presidential primary after Bernie Sanders failed to land needed punches to slow the former vice president’s momentum, said The Post’s debate expert Eric Phillips.
“Bernie Sanders had to change the trajectory of this race and he did not do it,” commented Phillips, who previously served as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s press secretary. “I think we’re talking about a matter of days before Sanders has to give it up.”
Phillips said that not only did the sometimes gaffe-prone Biden manage to avoid major stumbles, he also managed to project the needed strength
After years of urging its terrorists to attack major European cities, ISIS is now advising them to steer clear due to the coronavirus, according to reports.
ISIS’ al-Naba newsletter contains “sharia directives” urging its healthy members not to enter “the land of the epidemic” to avoid becoming infected, the New York Post reported Sunday. But any sick jihadists already in Europe should stay there — presumably, to sicken infidels, the paper reported. The Sunday Times of London first reported on the newsletter, according to the paper.
The “healthy should not enter the land of the epidemic and the afflicted should not exit from it,” the ISIS newsletter advises, according to the Post.
Fed slashes interest rates close
to zero, boosts assets by $700B
to fight coronavirus pandemic replies
to zero, boosts assets by $700B
to fight coronavirus pandemic replies
The Federal Reserve on Sunday slashed interest rates by a full percentage point to near zero and said it would buy $700 billion in Treasury securities, an aggressive step to insulate the U.S. economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
“The coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries, including the United States,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement. “The Federal Reserve is prepared to use its full range of tools to support the flow of credit to households and businesses.”
The benchmark federal fund rate is now at a range of 0 to 0.25 percent, down from a range of 1 to 1.25 percent.
Sanders says the first thing we
need to do to curb coronavirus
'is shut this president up right now' replies
need to do to curb coronavirus
'is shut this president up right now' replies
When asked what he would do to save American lives from the novel coronavirus, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had an immediate answer for the CNN debate moderators on Sunday night: "The first thing we've got to do, whether or not I'm president, is shut this president up right now."
Sanders further alleged that "Trump is undermining the doctors and scientists who are trying to help the American people. It is unacceptable for him to be blabbering un-factual information, which is confusing the public."
Is CNN ready to call Mexico 'racist' for
thinking of shutting its borders to halt
coronavirus? replies
thinking of shutting its borders to halt
coronavirus? replies
For reasons still a little unclear, Mexico has avoided the disasters of the coronavirus. It barely exists in the country. Mexico has 26 cases, concentrated near the capital, meaning very likely that it came from exposure abroad. At the borderlands, there is nothing.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:
TIJUANA — Relatively unscathed to date, Mexico is stepping up measures against the coronavirus pandemic as authorities brace for what they call the inevitable large-scale spread of the virus throughout the region.With zero confirmed cases of coronavirus in Baja California thus far, and its northern neighboring state of California nearing 300,
The coronavirus is only partly about a killer illness that's taking down too many people.
It's also about the disruption of life - from the missing toilet paper on store shelves to the painful ending of church masses and services, to the cancellations of weddings and travel, to the fears for the economy. Most of all, it's about the isolation, the forced 'social distancing' that's exactly the opposite of our human desire to gather and be together in times of crisis. It's the right thing to do to protect each other (since none of us knows if we are carriers) and the aim is right, too -
Gov. Newsom asks California bars to close,
tells older residents to isolate due to
coronavirus replies
tells older residents to isolate due to
coronavirus replies
Faced with mounting coronavirus infections, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday issued sweeping new restrictions in California, calling for home isolation of everyone in the state over age 65 and people with chronic disease, both high-risk populations.
He also asked for closure of bars, wineries, night clubs and brew pubs, and called for restaurants to reduce their occupancy by half. He called that “deep social distancing” and a “pragmatic response to the moment.”
The dramatic announcement, designed to keep people away from each other, stopped short of closing restaurants. Instead, the governor said they can also operate at reduced capacity and with curbside food service and at-home food deliveries.