Posts on Wednesday, March 25, 2020
The Senate released the text for the $2 trillion coronavirus package Wednesday evening that would provide immediate economic relief to small businesses and Americans.The Senate will likely vote on the $2 trillion coronavirus package on Wednesday night after the chamber votes on an amendment offered by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE). The amendment would bar Americans from getting more from unemployment than they would while they are employed. The measure is supported by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Rick Scott (R-FL) and will require 60 votes to attach the amendment to the bill.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin rebuffed the Republican senators’ concerns over the bill,
Garth Brooks and his wife Trisha Yearwood gifted fans with a free concert from their home over Facebook Live – and it broke the internet! About 3.4 million people tuned in Monday night as the superstar duo took live requests and sang songs like "Shallow," the hit song from the film "A Star Is Born." Facebook's overloaded site crashed repeatedly, but Garth and Trisha pressed on for an uplifting performance. Plus, Inside Edition’s Megan Alexander hosted a live streamed concert from Nashville.
Television personality and wildlife conservationist Bindi Irwin has shared the first official photo from her wedding to longtime partner Chandler Powell on Instagram on Wednesday.The 21-year-old daughter of the late 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin and her professional wakeboarder husband, 23, revealed how they made the difficult decision to have no guests present at the nuptials, held at Australia Zoo, to 'keep everyone safe' amid the coronavirus pandemic.The decision came just hours after Prime Minister Scott Morrison enforced new restrictions on weddings, with only five people allowed to attend; the couple, the celebrant and witnesses totalling a maximum of five people.
Kathy Griffin was hospitalized Wednesday with what she described as “unbearably painful” symptoms, and she blamed President Trump.The washed up ‘comedian’ posted a photo of herself in the hospital wearing a face mask and accused President Trump of lying about the Coronavirus pandemic.“He’s lying. I was sent to the #COVID19 isolation ward room in a major hospital ER from a separate urgent care facility after showing UNBEARABLY PAINFUL symptoms. The hospital couldn’t test me for #coronavirus because of CDC (Pence task force) restrictions,” Kathy Griffin said in a tweet.
During her 12:00 p.m. ET hour show on Wednesday, MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell revealed her greatest fear amid the coronavirus pandemic – Donald Trump’s approval ratings going up. She fretted over likely Democratic nominee Joe Biden “having difficulty” getting his message out during the crisis and support for the President “skyrocketing.”Turning to former Obama administration official Jim Messina, Mitchell anxiously noted: “There is politics involved. We’ve heard very little from, for instance, the more likely, most likely nominee of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden. He’s having difficulty getting – projecting through this crisis as the campaign goes totally on hold.”
President Trump doubled down Wednesday on his assertion that the media wants to keep the country closed in order to prevent his reelection during his daily coronavirus briefing at the White House. After Trump had earlier slammed the "LameStream Media" on Twitter, CBS News correspondent Paula Reid asked the president if his recently announced goal of reopening the economy by Easter was solely a political strategy. "You've tweeted earlier linking the closing of the country to your election success in November. Is this Easter timeline based on your political interests?" Reid asked.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday complained the 'fake news' wants him to keep the economy shut down so he loses re-election this fall. 'The media would like to see me do poorly in an election,' he said at the daily White House coronavirus briefing. President Trump repeatedly refers to news stories he doesn't like or are unflattering to his administration as 'fake news' and he has grown visibly frustrated with stories critical of his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The White House has come under fire for the lack of surgical masks and ventilators needed by health care professionals.
New York City will release more than 1,000 prison inmates due to coronavirus concerns, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.
According to the New York Post, approximately 300 prisoners in the Rikers Island prison complex and other city facilities will be released this week to limit the spread of COVID-19 through NYC’s jail system. De Blasio said inmates chosen are serving less than a year in prison for misdemeanors or non-violent felonies. (Snip) According to the Post, de Blasio is also working to release another 800 inmates, most of whom were jailed on technical parole violations. De Blasio says he’s
New Orleans is on track to become the next coronavirus epicenter in the United States, dimming hopes that less densely populated and warmer-climate cities would escape the worst of the pandemic, and that summer months could see it wane. The plight of New Orleans - with the world's highest growth rate in coronavirus cases - also raises fears that the city may become a powerful catalyst in spreading the virus across the south of the country. Authorities have warned the number of cases in New Orleans could overwhelm its hospitals by April 4. New Orleans is the biggest city in Louisiana, the
President Donald Trump absolutely roasted the media to their faces during his coronavirus press briefing on Wednesday. After being questioned by CBS News’ Paula Reid about his proposed Easter timeline and his tweet about the “lamestream media,” Trump let her have it.“The media would like to see me do poorly in the election,” Trump replied. (Tweet/Video) “Just so you understand — are you ready? — I think there are certain people who would like it to not open so quickly,
Bernie Sanders Threatens to Hold Up
Coronavirus Stimulus Bill Over GOP 'Anti-
Worker Objections' replies
Coronavirus Stimulus Bill Over GOP 'Anti-
Worker Objections' replies
As the Senate moved toward passing a $2 trillion stimulus package on Wednesday, Republican senators held a press conference to warn against passing the bill as written, noting that unemployment benefits would create an incentive for workers to leave their jobs. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) threatened to block the bill unless the Republicans drop these "anti-worker objections."
"This drafting error made me pause for a moment," Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said, referring to the provision that unemployed workers should be paid $600 in addition to normal unemployment payments. "We cannot encourage people to make more money in unemployment than they do in employment."
Senator Lindsey Graham led a group of Republican Senators warning that they would oppose a swift passage of the economic rescue package unless changes are made to its unemployment benefits section.
That prompted Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to say he too would hold up the bill over his objections to the aid to U.S. businesses.(Snip)Proponents of the more generous benefits say that in the current situation, where many businesses have been closed by anti-pandemic efforts and workers are being urged to stay home, this objection is meritless. When people are told not to work for the sake of public health, disincentivizing work is not a serious problem.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday made an extraordinary threat — to shut down Chicago parks, Millennium Park, the downtown Riverwalk and the entire lakefront — if residents and visitors continue to thumb their noses at the statewide stay-at-home order aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
Lightfoot instructed Chicago Police officers to shut down large gatherings and threatened to use what she called “every lever at my disposal” to compel compliance.
She was moved to action by the large gatherings she saw along the lakefront, the crowds at Chicago playgrounds and basketball courts and the warm weather luring stir-crazy Chicagoans outside even though they’re supposed to be staying home.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic forced the nightlife industry to go dark throughout the country, strippers and other adult entertainers were among the first professionals to see their bottom lines take a hit as customers dwindled and practiced social distancing from the stage, as well as its performers, out of Covid-19 concerns.
Unsurprisingly, however, strippers and sex workers have also proven particularly resourceful when it comes to reinventing the industry amid a crisis that seems tailor-made to destroy it. Last weekend, Las Vegas strip club Little Darlings began hosting drive-through strip shows and nude hand-sanitizer wrestling. Now, a strip club in Portland, Oregon is putting its dancers to work
The Senate's $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill may be the largest rescue package in U.S. history, but it doesn't provide nearly enough for New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.
The bill, tentatively approved early Wednesday, "would really be terrible for the state of New York," Cuomo said at his daily briefing in Albany. Cuomo's criticism came as White House officials made clear that President Donald Trump plans to sign the massive relief bill into law as soon as Congress sends it to him.
Appearing Tuesday on Philadelphia’s AM 990 The Answer Radio, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he would certainly prescribe Chloroquine to coronavirus-stricken patients in the wake of testimonies stating it could treat the deadly disease.
(Listen from 52:20)
A partial transcript is as follows:
CHRIS STIGALL:If you’re a doctor listening to me right now and a patient with coronavirus feels like they want to try [Chloroquine] and you’re their doctor, you’re not Anthony Fauci the guy running the coronavirus task force,
LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County Sheriff told FOX 11 on Tuesday night that enforcement efforts to close down local gun stores have been suspended after intervention from the county’s legal counsel.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva told FOX 11 reporter Bill Melugin that county counsel Mary Wickham issued an opinion that gun stores can be classified as essential businesses under the Governor’s statewide executive order.
Sheriff Villanueva everything is now in “limbo”, and added he reached out to the Governor’s office to get clarification on how gun stores should be classified, but never got a response.
Four Republican senators are warning that they will oppose the $2 trillion coronavirus response package unless a “massive drafting error” in the legislation, which they say would create an incentive for employers to lay off employees, is fixed. "You want to destroy what's left of the economy? Pass it the way it’s written," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a press conference. "If you want to help people, pay them their wages, but don’t pay them more not to work."
President Donald Trump said during a Fox News town hall on Tuesday that he wanted to get the economy reopened by Easter.
“I’d love to have it open by Easter,” Trump said, setting a date for reopening the country for the first time.
Easter is on April 12.
“I would love to have the country opened up and rearing to go by Easter,” he repeated.
“That would be a great American resurrection,” Fox News moderator Bill Hemer replied.
The president has promised to listen to his doctors and advisers on loosening restrictions set by the government to fight the coronavirus pandemic, but has said would ultimately make the final decision.
The government has told city dwellers to not break travel restrictions by going to their second homes, with coastal and rural communities becoming increasingly frustrated at being overrun by wealthy coronavirus refugees.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government laid out that Britons should remain in their “primary residence”, and not travel to their “second homes, camp sites, caravan parks or similar”. The guidance explained: “Not taking these steps puts additional pressure on communities and services that are already at risk.”
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove gave a stern warning to second-home owners on Sky News on Tuesday,
Vice President Mike Pence praised the private sector in the United States at the daily briefing at the White House on Tuesday for stepping up to the plate to help the country beat the coronavirus outbreak, including more support for truckers who are preserving the country’s supply chain during the coronavirus outbreak.
This includes McDonalds, the American fast food icon, which has set up curbside service at its franchises so that truck drivers can get a meal on the go.
“In fact, we see industry stepping up,” Pence said. “The president mentioned Ford Motor Company working to expand production of medical supplies.”
“We heard that McDonalds is now offering curbs delivery to truckers
Yes, Virginia's Governor Has Made It a Crime
for More Than 10 People to Attend
a Church Service replies
for More Than 10 People to Attend
a Church Service replies
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued an executive order on Monday that is aimed at stopping the new coronavirus — and, in the process, makes it a criminal offense to hold a church service attended by more than 10 people. Yes, his order makes it a crime for more than 10 people to gather in a church. There are two passages in the text of the governor's order that are relevant to this.
After coming home from a dinner more than a week ago, Hall of Fame rock star David Bryan, best known as the keyboardist for Bon Jovi, started to feel a bit under the weather. When he got to his home in New Jersey that same evening, he developed nasty, flu-like symptoms – headaches, body aches, shivering – and decided to get some rest. Just a few days later Bryan’s condition worsened, this time affecting his lungs, (Snip) Bryan’s doctor prescribed him with a combination of drugs, including the malaria medication hydroxychloroquine, in order to combat the effects of the virus.
I’m 64 and have a congenital blood disorder. It causes pulmonary emboli – blood clots, especially in my lungs. Twice, it almost killed me. I have what the docs call “an underlying respiratory condition.”
Since I was diagnosed and began treatment with daily blood thinners years ago, this condition is manageable (so long as I avoid skiing into a tree which would likely cause me to bleed to death). In fact, I’ll probably live another 20 years. I’m not asking for sympathy, and I don’t need it.
Save your sympathy for our country and our world, especially for younger people like my daughters.
Democrat presidential front runner Joe Biden postponed an on-camera press briefing late Tuesday after a series of awkward and ultimately disastrous television appearances earlier in the day.
(Snip)
Yahoo News White House Correspondent Hunter Walker wrote on Twitter that Biden had canceled his online press briefing after appearances on CNN and The View.
“His campaign says he will do the briefing again tomorrow,” Walker wrote.
The development came on the heels of three TV appearances.
On Tuesday afternoon, Biden had two awkward moments with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace.
Biden has had plenty of time in his basement to think about what he wants to say
The Bureau of Prisons failed to adequately monitor thousands of communications from more than 500 inmates with ties to terrorism, according to a Justice Department inspector general report released Wednesday. In the nearly 70-page report, Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz wrote that the BOP did not take appropriate steps to review the email, phone calls, postage mail, video sessions and cellblock conversations of domestic and international terrorist inmates. For example, the BOP failed to flag a letter that a high-risk inmate received from his wife detailing her intent to compromise a staff member at his prison. The BOP also missed a threatening letter
The Trump administration has been under siege from the left’s self-professed “legal resistance,” which has accused the president of violating the Foreign Emoluments Clause since part of the earned revenue from his hotels, for example, come from non-Americans who pay to stay there. This past Sunday during a coronavirus briefing President Trump defended himself saying he was not breaking any law and even said that President George Washington “had two desks… a presidential desk and a business desk” -- this was a deja-vu of last year when, after reversing his decision to host world leaders at one of his own properties during next year’s Group of 7,
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has released 1,700 inmates from county facilities and is ordering gun stores in the county closed. Fox 11 reports the gun store closures are part of the coronavirus stay-at-home order while the release of the inmates is an attempt to slow the spread of the virus in county facilities.Villanueva is the Director of Emergency Operations, which means “all FEMA requests go through him, and all National Guard requests go through him.”He said, “When we’re communicating the shelter in place or the safer at home, there’s a lot of anguish, however, the people who have to enforce it are public safety,
Trump is getting high marks from the public for his handling of the Coronavirus crisis, but that is not stopping the left from trying to shift the narrative. Left wing billionaire George Soros is helping to fund an ad campaign which will target key states and attack Trump on this issue. The Washington Free Beacon reports: Soros Bankrolls Coronavirus Attack Ads Against Trump. The Democratic Party’s leading super PAC will begin hitting President Donald Trump over coronavirus in four battleground states, using millions from liberal billionaire George Soros.
These past few weeks have been far too filled with various attempts at crisis-induced power grabs by politicians, which isn't historically unusual. A pandemic is the kind of thing that calls for extraordinary measures but politicians almost (I'm being generous there) always try to get a little too extraordinary with their responses. It is almost as if they are genetically coded to try and take a mile every time a frightened public offers them an inch.
This is a truly bipartisan problem. The September 11th attacks did prompt a Republican president to create the Dept. of Homeland Security after all, a fact that still makes conservatives cringe to this day.
Researchers say supercomputer identified
77 drugs that could potentially combat
the coronavirus replies
77 drugs that could potentially combat
the coronavirus replies
A supercomputer used by scientists to determine ways to combat the coronavirus outbreak has reportedly identified 77 drugs that could potentially help stop the spread.
Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory published results this week from a project that enlisted the help of an IBM supercomputer named Summit, which helped identify the most effective existing drugs that could potentially combat the coronavirus.
The research focuses on the method the coronavirus uses to cling to cells via a spike protein. Summit used an algorithm to determine which drugs could bind to the protein and prevent the virus from doing what it wants.
“Summit was needed to rapidly get the simulation results we needed.
For many people, the most devastating side effect of coronavirus has been the stock market’s decline. In a matter of weeks, the coronavirus panic wiped out all of the gains we’ve seen since Trump became president. Even though that only set the clock back three years, for many people, it still felt like a catastrophic loss – and, indeed, it was such a loss for those whose current day-to-day wellbeing is tied to the stock market.
What made the situation worse was the fact that America’s shut-down seemed to be open-ended. Depending on which expert or media figure was talking,
Some of our leaders have acquitted themselves well during the coronavirus pandemic, like Gov. Charlie Baker, who issued a stay-at-home advisory this week in Massachusetts to curtail the disease’s spread.
And then there are the Democrats on Capitol Hill, who took an opportunity to help those economically sideswiped by the outbreak and turned it into a partisan free-for-all.
According to The Hill, more than 200 House Democratic lawmakers held a conference call last week and “laid out a sweeping wish list of provisions” they wanted in the stimulus package, including highway spending and Social Security expansion.
Republicans claimed Democrats in the House were holding up the bill over such items as: collective bargaining
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti threatened “non-essential” businesses Tuesday that if they do not obey the city’s “stay at home” order to close during the pandemic crises, he will cut off their water and their electricity.Speaking at his daily briefing, the mayor described his new enforcement initiative (via KTLA 5): The mayor went on to announce the “business ambassadors program” — an effort to get nonessential businesses to close. “This behavior is irresponsible and selfish,” he said of those that remain open. He said the Department of Water and Power will shut off services for the businesses that don’t comply with the “safer at home” ordinance.
The Chinese communists are afraid. You might not guess it from the invertebrate and borderline anti-national corporate media parroting Chinese state propaganda, but they are. Beijing is shaken. Their dream of dominating the globe eventually, with the slow overstretch and collapse of the Pax Americana, was considered a matter of destiny.
Then suddenly, it all was shaken. A combination of incompetence, criminal negligence, and totalitarian suppression of a new devastating virus originating from the raw meat and wet markets of interior China let it rage through the globe.The world’s first postmodern global pandemic, preventable but not prevented, has so far already caused the deaths of more than 13,000 people,
“How are you doing, love?” I call to my husband from the living-room floor, where I now sleep each night on a roll-up foam sleeping pad that my daughter has used on camping trips, topped with a couple of thin blankets. (Snip)My husband, a tall, robust 56-year-old who regularly goes — who regularly went — on five-hour bike rides from our Brooklyn neighborhood to Jamaica Bay in Queens and back, has been lying on his back, staring at the ceiling, or curled on his side, wearing the same pajama bottoms for days because it is too hard to change out of them, too hard to stay that long
The nearly $2 trillion emergency relief package for the novel coronavirus pandemic reportedly includes a payroll tax cut for employers only, not employees, CNBC reported Wednesday.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said early Wednesday morning that a bipartisan deal on the bill had been reached after multiple days of it being stalled in the Senate. The legislation is expected to pass later Wednesday when the senators vote at noon, according to McConnell. President Donald Trump was one of the people pushing for this payroll tax cut, but wanted it for all Americans.
Prince Charles has tested positive for coronavirus and is self-isolating at his home on the Balmoral estate, it was revealed today.
The Prince of Wales, 71, has a 'mild' form of the illness and is with his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who has tested negative and is without any symptoms of the virus, which has killed 435 and infected 8,200 more in the UK so far.
A royal source said Charles' doctor's most conservative estimate was that the prince was contagious on March 13 - 24 hours after 'briefly' meeting his 93-year-old mother the Queen.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman has said: 'Her Majesty remains in good health.
Smart Move – Texas Governor Greg Abbott
Signs Waiver Allowing Restaurants to Sell
Food Retail… replies
Signs Waiver Allowing Restaurants to Sell
Food Retail… replies
Thank you Greg Abbott. This is the first smart move by a state leader recognizing the realities of the system at hand. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed a waiver allowing restaurants to sell their bulk food directly to retail customers.Amid all of the reactionary decisions by elected officials, this is a smart, and temporary move that can take pressure off the retail supply chain. Hopefully others will follow. (Copy of Waiver) Leadership is often about recognizing the unique landscape and taking ‘outside the box’ action in response to current conditions. Greg Abbott recognizes there are two distinctly different supply-chains,
Currently, there is no known specific medicine to treat the novel coronavirus, but researchers in Italy suggest that the COVID-19 disease is slow to mutate, based on its genetic material.
This finding could aid in helping large swaths of people over an extended period of time once a specific cure is found.
The study, which was produced by two independent teams in the country, used "a new next-generation sequencing (NGS) research assay" from Thermo Fisher Scientific on Italian COVID-19 patients. The experts then compared them to a sample from the original outbreak to come up with their findings.
The struggle I faced as the COVID-19 recommendations became school closings, "stay-at-home" orders, store closings, and zero social interactions was: how will I make it through the day?I have critical work responsibilities, a large team of now remote workers to lead, my wife is working from home, we need to home school three boys, get to the grocery store, and more as my mind quickly spun across the entire list of changes.When I was a Special Forces soldier in training, my team and I developed a way to break stress into 5-minute blocks and then just do the best we could
For as long as he can remember, Jaceon Cornado has dreamed of having a flat chest. When he turned 18 in the spring of 2017, the transgender teen eagerly started planning his surgical transition. ”This surgery is something I need to continue to get up in the mornings every day,” Cornado told NBC News. Just six months after his 18th birthday — and a year after the Obama administration lifted the transgender military ban (which would later be reversed by the Trump administration) — Cornado joined the U.S. Army in a combat role. He decided to surgically transition while in
For someone who has never considered a career in ceramics, I think about mugs a lot. The shapes. The colors. The handles. The slope of the walls. The finish! (Matte?! Glossy?!?) There’s so much to consider! So much to admire! And after devoting a considerable amount of my time—read: every single morning and early afternoon—to such a multi-faceted category, I’ve arrived at one conclusion: Novelty mugs are the only mugs I want to drink from. And the competition isn’t even close.
(Snip) They’re found in every gift shop, roadside rest stop, and airport from Albuquerque to JFK, plus places you find awesome second-hand vintage stuff, like antique stores and eBay, too.
As Western consumers hole themselves up at home and stores are shuttered, retailers are suspending and canceling clothing orders, threatening millions of factory jobs in Asia just as China shows signs of recovering from the worst of the coronavirus outbreak.
Among the first to be hit by the consumer shutdown in the West are suppliers to the world’s “fast-fashion” giants, like H&M owner Hennes & Mauritz AB. Their business models depend on being able to get orders from factory floors to retail outlets in a matter of weeks. (Snip) Retail experts say the slowdown looks to be significantly worse than the financial crisis of 2008
The political aspect of the coronavirus crisis is developing in a familiar way. The president’s enemies in the press have led the propagation of panic in the country, and have been given enough encouragement to do that from the scientific community, some of whose members are enjoying their 15 minutes of world fame a little more than is seemly. President Trump’s opponents are thus able to swaddle themselves in the legitimacy of science as they hurl their brickbats at the president.
In rallying for the nation’s second-largest school district to transition to online instruction in the face of a pandemic, the head of Los Angeles’ public schools said this on Monday:
“We face the largest adaptive challenge for large urban public education systems in a generation. Pick your metaphor: This is the moon shot, the Manhattan Project, the Normandy landing, and the Marshall Plan, and the clock is ticking.”
So Los Angeles announced an “unprecedented commitment” of $100 million in emergency funding to get all students who need them both devices and internet access (snip) Compare to what school leaders have been saying here.
Seattle Public Schools “won’t transition to online learning
Joe Biden Gaffe Alert: Stuns ‘The View’
By Claiming Coronavirus Cure Will
MakeThe Problem Worse replies
By Claiming Coronavirus Cure Will
MakeThe Problem Worse replies
Democratic presidential candidate and former VP Joe Biden has been accused of being out of the limelight as the coronavirus pandemic shuts down the country.
So his handlers said set ’em up, Joe, and scheduled a whirlwind of video appearances. So far, they’ve spotlighted his famous knack for stumbling into word salad.
Fresh off an online appearance in which he waved off his first point about the pandemic as his teleprompter allegedly malfunctioned, Biden came to The View seeking redemption. He appeared via satellite to reveal how he would handle the current coronavirus crisis.
He did offer one gem in response to Sara Haines’s question on whether businesses should reopen very soon.
The FBI is helping gym rats looking to stay in shape during the coronavirus lockdown by promoting a fitness app — but it requires users to provide their GPS coordinates. The law enforcement agency urged people in a Monday tweet to “download the FBI’s Physical Fitness Test app to learn proper form for exercises you can do at home like pushups and situps.” The catch is that the FBI FitTest created in 2018 uses the “phone’s GPS and accelerometer,” which the FBI claims provides the user a “more realistic PFT experience.”
The coronavirus death toll in Spain has climbed to 3,434, surpassing China in overall number of deaths.
Spain recorded 738 deaths in the past 24 hours, its deadliest toll in a single day. It is now the second country in the world with the highest number of deaths from Covid-19, behind Italy.
China says it recorded 3,287 deaths, while Italy's death toll stands at more than 6,800. (Snip) The outbreak has hit Spain hard, putting its fragile healthcare system under immense strain, especially in the central region around Madrid, with one third of the positive cases and roughly half of the casualties.
On Sunday, the news was that Democrats in the Senate, having worked to draft a bipartisan bill to help Americans through the coronavirus crisis, received orders from Rep. Nancy Pelosi to reject it. On Monday, the Democrats doubled down on that rejection. (snip) What might have tipped Nancy Pelosi off to the fact that her proposed legislation wasn’t a winner was the pushback she got from Dana Bash on CNN. Bash sits there stone-faced as Pelosi explains that everything in her proposed bill will only address issues associated with coronavirus. When Bash politely expressed some mild concerns, Pelosi got so flustered
Washington DC - A Washington-based lawyer Larry Klayman has filed a USD 20 trillion lawsuit against China for the “creation and the release of the novel coronavirus” that has infected more than 334,000 people globally. Klayman and his advocacy group ‘Freedom Watch and Buzz Photos’, a Texas-based company, has filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleging that the novel coronavirus was "designed by China to be a biological weapon of war", and that whether or not the country intended to release it, China violated "US law, international laws, treaties, and norms."
Our eyes have become accustomed to the visual clichés of the media. (snip) Then, along comes the coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Deborah L. Birx. At 63 years-of-age, Dr. Birx has earned significant credentials and she carries herself as a woman of distinction and expertise. She exudes gravitas – effortlessly, simply as part and parcel of what her years of diligence and hard work have shaped her to be.
Dr. Birx is a public health physician who formerly served as an ambassador and the director of the global HIV/AIDS program at the Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Birx is also Col. Birx
President Trump taunted Mitt Romney on Wednesday after the Utah senator tested negative for coronavirus, ostensibly cheering the news before going on to slam his record as a presidential candidate and member of Congress.
“This is really great news! I am so happy I can barely speak. He may have been a terrible presidential candidate and an even worse U.S. Senator, but he is a RINO, and I like him a lot!” Trump tweeted early Wednesday. (Tweet) A “RINO,” as Trump called Romney, stands for “Republican In Name Only.”
Romney, R-Utah, went into self-quarantine after learning on Sunday that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., with whom he had spent time over the weekend
Since I've been more or less quarantined since last September due to health problems, life hasn't changed that much for me in this coronavirus era except for one sad thing.
My children and grandchildren are staying far away fearing they'll somehow make me ill because I am very high risk.
Thank goodness for Skype. Now the whole world has joined me in its own self-quarantined bubble and I wonder if everyone is getting as much out of it as I am.
Nancy Pelosi has long been a thorn in the side of not just conservatives but the House itself. (snip) The Speaker, after all, is a relative of sorts with California's Gov. Gavin Newsom as well as the two other oligarchic ruling families of California besides House Newsom - the Jerry Brown clan and the Gordon Getty family. She's benefited enormously from legislativee favors around the tuna industry on the federal side. Remember her tuna scandal? Bottom line? The Pelosi family are like the Gambino crime family. They get their way, they get rich, they care about nothing else.
England is in danger of experiencing droughts within 20 years unless action is taken to combat the impact of the climate crisis on water availability, the public spending watchdog says. The National Audit Office (NAO), in a report published on Wednesday, says some parts of England, especially the south-east, are at risk of running out of water owing to decreased rainfall and a need to cut the amount taken from natural waterways.
There are no benefits to the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s get that out of the way now. But it has shown many what a few of us already knew: The political left is filled with the worst people in the world.
Crises, we’ve been told, bring out the best in us. And often that’s true. We’ve seen this in our current situation. Some companies are donating protective masks and ventilators. Neighbors are offering help to each other. Major league sports professionals are providing financial support to workers who don’t have jobs to go to because games have been canceled. At least
MyPillow, the Minnesota manufacturer of specialty pillows, linens, and other household products, said that it is answering the call for more face masks as the country continues to deal with the global coronavirus pandemic.
The company announced Tuesday on Twitter that it is making face masks for hospitals across the country. MyPillow joins a growing list of private companies pitching in to address the shortage of face masks that U.S. healthcare professionals are facing as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb.
Only in the fevered brain of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could things like forcing the airlines to be carbon neutral, making sure Planned Parenthood qualifies for small business assistance, cancelling the Postal Service’s debt, and requiring nationwide same-day voting be seen as a proper and valid response to the Wuhan Virus crisis that is crushing our economy and killing our people.
American companies that produce essential goods in China should plan to shift their operations back to the United States or other Western countries, according to a senior Republican lawmaker.“We're staring into a significant, significant crisis of supply chain,” Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner told the Washington Examiner. “Cheap labor or cheap manufacturing be damned if you are reliant on them for your life and livelihood.”Gardner’s warning was spurred by the shortage of hospital masks in the United States, a dearth driven by Beijing’s refusal to allow American companies that make the products in China to ship them out of the country
'Glorification of violence': Twitter pulls tweet
from Nancy Pelosi's daughter about Rand Paul replies
from Nancy Pelosi's daughter about Rand Paul replies
Twitter confirmed the company locked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's daughter out of her account for a short period of time due to a tweet she sent about Republican Sen. Rand Paul that it said amounted to an endorsement of violence.
"The account owner was temporarily locked out for violating the Twitter rules against glorification of violence," a Twitter spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
Christine Pelosi tweeted Sunday that the man who allegedly attacked the Kentucky senator in 2018 was "right" for doing so.
Stock futures were positive in early Wednesday morning trading, following Tuesday’s historic rally, as the White House and Senate reached a deal on a coronavirus stimulus bill. As of around 2:43 a.m. ET, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 239 points, pointing to a gain of about 262 points at the Wednesday open.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures also pointed to gains for the indexes at the open on Wednesday,
Democrats are publicly talking about “contingency options” for their July convention in Milwaukee in case the coronavirus persists in being a public-health threat. But privately, some are also talking about needing a Plan B if Joe Biden, their nominee apparent, continues to flounder.
Some Democrats are openly talking up New York governor Andrew Cuomo, whose profile has soared during the crisis, as a Biden stand-in. Yesterday, a Draft Cuomo 2020 account on Twitter announced that “Times have changed & we need Gov. Cuomo to be the nominee. Our next POTUS must be one w/an ability to lead thru this crisis.”
Charles Pierce, the politics blogger for Esquire magazine, wrote a piece headlined
Schumer Cries 'Uncle': Deal
Reached on $2 Trillion Package to
Pay for Our 'Strange New Reality' replies
Reached on $2 Trillion Package to
Pay for Our 'Strange New Reality' replies
Senate and White House negotiators reached an agreement early Wednesday morning on a $2 trillion stimulus package to help businesses and families affected by the coronavirus epidemic and to bolster the economy. The agreement clears the way for the package to sail through both houses of Congress on its way to President Trump. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told reporters that Trump will sign the bill as soon as it reaches his desk.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are done. We have a deal,” Eric Ueland, the White House legislative affairs director, announced at around 1 a.m., after five days of tense negotiations between leaders of the two parties and the White House.
Pelosi Caves
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Nancy Pelosi has thrown in the towel on her attempt to misuse the Wuhan virus epidemic to sneak partisan legislation that has never been able to make it through Congress into law.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that she will attempt to pass the Senate’s coronavirus economic stimulus package – putting aside the alternative, projected $2.5 trillion measure that she proposed.
The California Democrat said she’ll try to pass the Senate’s projected $1.8 trillion measure by unanimous consent, meaning House members can say yes without having to come to Capitol Hill to vote.
Americans are growing more concerned over the state of the American economy than that of their personal health, a Harris Poll released this week revealed.The survey, fielded March 21-22 among 2,023 U.S. adults, found that a majority of Americans, 61 percent, now consider the amount of fear in society as “sensible given how serious the [coronavirus] pandemic has become.” That reflects a 15-point jump from the 46 percent of Americans who viewed the fear as warranted last week.The survey also reviewed the issues people are “increasingly concerned about” and found that concerns over the economy surpass all other worries,
Way back on January 10, the official Twitter account of the World Health Organization declared that ‘WHO does not recommend any specific health measures for travelers to and from Wuhan, #China.’ The tweet went on to say that ‘It is generally considered that entry screening offers little benefit, while requiring considerable resources.’ A follow-up tweet described how ‘WHO advises against the application of any travel or trade restrictions on #China based on the information currently available.’
What we’ve learned since is that China was by then already engaged in a massive cover-up of the release and spread of the virus.
Greta Thunberg said Tuesday it’s “extremely likely” that she became infected with COVID-19 on a recent jaunt to Europe — but has “basically recovered.”The 17-year-old Swedish climate activist said both she and her father, who accompanied her on the Brussels leg of her journey, have experienced symptoms associated with coronavirus.“I was feeling tired, had shivers, a sore throat and coughed. My dad experienced the same symptoms, but much more intense and with a fever,” she wrote on Instagram.
Breaking Overnight: Senate Reaches Deal
for Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security Act… replies
for Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security Act… replies
With caution applied, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced around 2:00am ET a deal had been reached for the nearly $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) bill. (Tweet) The final language for “HR.748” (stripped and newly assembled) will take place today. Looks like the senate is using an old bill, previously passed by the House, so the House can deem and pass, without formally reconvening. There are ten republican amendments. Speaking from the floor, both McConnell and Schumer made remarks describing the bill.
Monday was, in many ways, a defining moment for the country as a federal stimulus bill failed to pass a procedural vote that would allow the Senate to vote on the bill itself. The bill, negotiated in bipartisan fashion over the weekend, allotted $500 billion in loans to distressed companies and $75 billion for hospitals. But it did not — according to Democratic Party leaders — have enough in it about environmental regulations or other items on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “wish list.” At the 11th hour, Pelosi and her counterpart in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, squashed the bill their own caucus
With the Democratic primary largely on hold at the moment and no big public rallies being staged (because of you-know-what), it’s probably easy to lose track of the fact that Joe Biden is still trying to secure his place as the official nominee for the presidency. He’s finding other ways to try to generate some headlines, however. As John pointed out yesterday, Uncle Joe plans to appear presidential by giving his own series of pandemic updates to the nation in a sort of “shadow administration” function. He launched one of the first ones yesterday and it was… not good.
The United States was ranked the best-prepared country in the world to handle a pandemic in late 2019 by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHCHS) -- an assessment seemingly at odds with claims by Democrats that the Trump administration left the country vulnerable to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
The Global Health Security Index was was "developed with guidance from an international panel of experts from 13 countries, with research by the Economist Intelligence Unit" from 2018 to 2019, The Washington Post reported last year. "More than 100 researchers spent a year collecting and validating publicly available data.”
White House and Senate leaders reached a historic deal shortly after midnight Wednesday on a massive $2 trillion coronavirus relief package for workers and businesses, although support in the House of Representatives remained uncertain as one member openly criticized the plan.
The bipartisan breakthrough in the Senate capped days of heated negotiations that had nearly been derailed by last-minute demands from House Democrats.
“Ladies and gentleman, we are done," White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland announced as he left the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., near midnight. "We have a deal."