Hillbilly,

I get your point that Wisconsin is an open carry state. I know that.

My point is why bring heavily armed protesters to a peaceful rally??

Was that really necessary other than being a prop for Trump?? If that's the case, I get it. I know Trump was watching with unabated interest. I know he gets off on this stuff.

Things could have gotten out of hand very quickly. I caught some footage of the scene from our local CBS affiliate here in Rockford. When they opened the doors to let some of the protesters in out of the rain, they tried to force themselves on to the house floor and had to be restrained by the Michigan State police and the House Sergeant At Arms. One journalist was hit in the head by the butt of a gun but later said she was fine.

That had the makings of a volatile situation. Fortunately, the police handled the situation well and no one was harmed. I was hoping that Trump would make a statement about keeping the guns at home during these protests. If he did, I didn't hear or see it.

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Hillbilly,

The CDC ain't what it used to be. Once again, the 1.7 million to 2.2 million deaths is meaningless in the context that we are discussing. It was a worst case scenario. It was based on the assumption that government and private companies would not engage in any "control measures". We did engage which means less deaths.

We are already at 65,000 deaths and there will be more to come on this first round. My guess is closer to 75,000-80,000 and I hope I am very wrong.

The toll could run even higher if these protesters don't start wearing masks, social distancing, and stop the touching.

100,000 deaths is not a stretch of the imagination in my opinion. These protester are not helping to relieve the concerns of us that are trying to comply with all the restriction. I'm working from home. I'm playing by the rules. I'm trying to keep others safe. I want others to do the same for me. I want to get this thing over with. But my concerns are for the ones who still think the virus is a hoax and they are making it a dangerous situation for all of us that are trying to do the right thing.

If a second wave hits us this winter, well, I don't even want to think about it.

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I just read an article put out by STAT concerning the CDC under Trump and this administration.

[ I apologize for all the highlighting but every line is important and rings true ]
WE NEED THE REAL CDC BACK AND WE NEED IT NOW

By ASHISH K. JHAAPRIL 29, 2020

As political leaders discuss relaxing social distancing restrictions and opening up the economy again, a majority of Americans are concerned about whether it is safe to do so. They have fundamental questions about how the nation is doing, what will happen after it opens up, whether we will be able to keep people safe, and could we have to shut down again.

As we struggle our way through this, an essential element is missing: strong, effective leadership from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the premier public health agency in the world.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the CDC has been inexplicably absent, and Americans are suffering and dying for it.

The CDC has long been the steady, trusted source for high-quality national data and evidence-based guidance. But not this time, when its voice is needed the most.

While individual states oversee their public health departments, provision of health care, and actually implement policies and programs, the CDC has always provided the intellectual leadership, technical expertise, the expert guidance that states rely on to do their work. This federal agency coordinates efforts across states so they can learn from one another. And the CDC standardizes data and methods so we can get a true national picture of what is happening.

Want to know how many tuberculosis cases there were in the U.S. last year? Ask the CDC. Want to know about health-care-associated infections? Ask the CDC. It knows.

But ask how many Covid-19 tests have been done, and the CDC’s doesn’t have an answer. Want a daily update on how many people are getting hospitalized for Covid-19? The CDC isn’t tracking it. Want to know if social distancing is making a difference? The CDC doesn’t know.

During this pandemic, when accurate, timely, nationwide information is the lifeblood of our response, the CDC has largely disappeared.

The performance of the world’s leading public health agency has been surprising, and by that I mean surprisingly disappointing. When the outbreak began, the CDC decided to forgo using the World Health Organization’s testing kit for Covid-19 and build its own. The test it shipped out to states was faulty, creating problems that stretched for weeks and slowed response as states waited for replacement tests.

During this critical time, early hot spots like Washington state and New York City were unable to test for the virus. During the inexplicable number of weeks it took to figure out what went wrong, we could have easily adopted the WHO test, which was developed in Germany and is being successfully used in 126 countries around the world. This setback in testing — driven by defects in the CDC’s Covid-19 test and other bottlenecks and regulatory hurdles — is a major contributor to our national lockdown and the fact that thousands of Americans have needlessly died of this virus.

Beyond its testing failure, the CDC has been slow and its response inadequate in another area where it has always excelled: evidence-based guidance. Throughout this pandemic, it has been slow in coming, confusing, and not necessarily evidence-based.

The agency was slow to suggest that we should end large gatherings. As masks for health care workers became scarce, it recommended that health care workers wear bandanas and scarves with zero evidence that these would protect workers from the virus. Investigative reporting has uncovered unclear and disorganized communication to state public health agencies. And the CDC’s restrictive early testing guidelines did not necessarily align with what was understood about disease symptoms and risks at the time.

Americans rely on the CDC for evidence-based guidance. We have not received it.

Effective leadership from the CDC starts with immediately collecting standardized data and updating it regularly — including weekends. Yet for four weeks, the CDC took weekends off from reporting any data on the pandemic until overwhelming criticism forced it to change course. Daily CDC briefings would help the American public understand the data: Not only do we need to know the number of infections, tests, hospitalizations, deaths, and ICU cases, we need CDC experts to put these numbers in context, explain trends and outliers, and keep us grounded in science. Daily updates from the CDC would allow all of us to better understand how we are doing, whether we are likely to run out of hospital capacity and when, what the bottlenecks are on testing, and how we get ahead of this outbreak.

It would be easy for the CDC to do this, but it hasn’t.

Most states are already reporting some of this information every day, though often in haphazard and incomplete ways. The CDC’s natural role is working with states to standardize data collection and reporting it in a way that would make timely, important information publicly available.

It should also commit to providing guidance based solely on evidence, not speculation. If we run out of masks, the CDC should state clearly that going without masks is harmful (as the evidence suggests), not that we should wear makeshift bandanas (for which there is no evidence). Committing to evidence-based guidance would be easy, since it is what the CDC has historically done. And it would be immensely helpful at this moment.

During any public health crisis — especially the largest one of our generation — the nation’s top public health agency needs to provide leadership. That’s what the American people expect and deserve. But so far the CDC has been absent from the fray, and its absence is being felt.

This must be a painful time for the many extraordinary career scientists who continue to work at the agency. But it’s a painful moment for the American people, too, and with deadly consequences. Real CDC leadership — clear, science-based guidance, effective coordination of states, and public transparency of data — is absolutely essential for confronting and getting clear of this crisis.

The CDC was once the world’s greatest public health agency. We need that CDC back, and we need it now.

Ashish K. Jha, M.D., is director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and professor of global health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/29/we- ... ed-it-now/

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Reuters:

Exclusive: U.S. Axed CDC Expert Job In China Months Before Virus Outbreak


Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned. The American disease expert, a medical epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency, left her post in July, according to four sources with knowledge of the issue. The first cases of the new coronavirus may have emerged as early as November, and as cases exploded, the Trump administration in February chastised China for censoring information about the outbreak and keeping U.S. experts from entering the country to help. (Taylor, 3/22)

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Claim

The Trump administration fired the U.S. pandemic response team in 2018 to cut costs.

Rating

True

Amid warnings from public health officials that a 2020 outbreak of a new coronavirus could soon become a pandemic involving the U.S., alarmed readers asked Snopes to verify a rumor that U.S. President Donald Trump had “fired the entire pandemic response team two years ago and then didn’t replace them.”

The claim came from a series of tweets posted by Judd Legum, who runs Popular Information, a newsletter he describes as being about “politics and power.” Legum’s commentary was representative of sharp criticism from Democratic legislators (and some Republicans) that the Trump administration had ill-prepared the country for a pandemic even as one was looming on the horizon.

Legum outlined a series of cost-cutting decisions made by the Trump administration in preceding years that had gutted the nation’s infectious disease defense infrastructure. The “pandemic response team” firing claim referred to news accounts from Spring 2018 reporting that White House officials tasked with directing a national response to a pandemic had been ousted.

Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer abruptly departed from his post leading the global health security team on the National Security Council in May 2018 amid a reorganization of the council by then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Ziemer’s team was disbanded. Tom Bossert, whom the Washington Post reported “had called for a comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics and biological attacks,” had been fired one month prior.

It’s thus true that the Trump administration axed the executive branch team responsible for coordinating a response to a pandemic and did not replace it, eliminating Ziemer’s position and reassigning others, although Bolton was the executive at the top of the National Security Council chain of command at the time.

Legum stated in a follow-up tweet that “Trump also cut funding for the CDC, forcing the CDC to cancel its efforts to help countries prevent infectious-disease threats from becoming epidemics in 39 of 49 countries in 2018. Among the countries abandoned? China.” That was partly true, according to 2018 news reports stating that funding for the CDC’s global disease outbreak prevention efforts had been reduced by 80%, including funding for the agency’s efforts in China.

But that was the result of the anticipated depletion of previously allotted funding, not a direct cut by the Trump administration. And as the CDC told FactCheck.org, the cuts were ultimately avoided because Congress provided other funding.

On Feb. 24, 2020, the Trump administration requested $2.5 billion to address the coronavirus outbreak, an outlay critics asserted might not have been necessary if the previous program cuts had not taken place. Fortune reported of the issue that:

The cuts could be especially problematic as COVID-19 continues to spread. Health officials are now warning the U.S. is unlikely to be spared, even though cases are minimal here so far.

“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more but a question of when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a press call [on Feb. 25].

The coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China, in the winter of 2019, and cases spread around the globe. The U.S. had 57 confirmed cases as of this writing, while globally, roughly 80,000 patients had been sickened with the virus and 3,000 had died. As of yet, no vaccine or pharmaceutical treatment for the new coronavirus. Data from China suggests the coronavirus has a higher fatality rate than the seasonal flu, although outcomes depend on factors such as the age and underlying health of the patient.

Readers can find the latest coronavirus information from the CDC here.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump ... emic-team/

White House blocks Fauci from testifying next week

By Jim Acosta and Caroline Kelly, CNN

Updated 5:38 PM ET, Sat May 2, 2020

(CNN)The White House is blocking Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the administration's coronavirus task force, from testifying before the Democratic-led House next week, according to a spokesman from a key House committee.


"The Appropriations Committee sought Dr. Anthony Fauci as a witness at next week's Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee hearing on COVID-19 response. We have been informed by an administration official that the White House has blocked Dr. Fauci from testifying," House Appropriations Committee spokesman Evan Hollander said in a statement Friday.

White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere confirmed the decision.

"While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at Congressional hearings," Deere said in a statement. "We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time."

Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany followed up on Deere's comments, explaining in an interview Saturday the reasoning behind the White House's decision.

"When we pressed for details as to why Dr. Fauci in particular was the right person for the testimony and this hearing, those details were never provided," McEnany said in a Fox News interview.

In a gaggle with reporters after her interview on Fox, McEnany said the administration wanted to make sure that the "subject matter of the hearing matched the individual they're requesting" and in this case, "there was never any clarity given forth as to what the actual subject matter of this hearing would be."

Though when asked by CNN's Jeremy Diamond if Fauci or other officials will be allowed to testify in front of other House committees in the future, McEnany said "absolutely."

It appears Fauci is expected to testify in front of a committee of the Republican-led Senate committee during May. He will testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on May 12, per an aide to the panel's chairman, Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican.

"Chairman Alexander looks forward to hearing from Dr. Fauci and other administration officials at the Senate health committee's second hearing back, which will be on Tuesday, May 12," the aide told CNN.

While the move to block House testimony comes after the House abruptly canceled plans on Tuesday to return to the Capitol next week, it prevented a potential meeting between a blunt, high-ranking expert who has dissented from President Donald Trump's account of the federal response and lawmakers gearing up for an oversight battle. Fauci has repeatedly veered from Trump's framing of the federal government's handling of the pandemic, as recently as the past few days.

On Friday, Trump said that he is generally supportive of Georgia's efforts to reopen some businesses, but that he is upset with Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to open spas and tattoo parlors before meeting federal guidelines on such businesses reopening.
"I think it's wonderful. I want to see us open safely. But I didn't like spas and tattoo parlors and I was not thrilled about that, but I said nothing about Georgia other than that," Trump said.

Fauci had struck a different tone during a CNN town hall Thursday night, lamenting that "there are some states, some cities ... kind of leapfrogging over the first checkpoint."

"And, I mean, obviously you could get away with that, but you are making a really significant risk," he added. "I hope they can actually handle any rebound that they see."

Fauci was also critical of the current testing capacity during his testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in March.

"The system does not, is not really geared to what we need right now, to what you are asking for," he told lawmakers at the time.

"It is a failing. Let's admit it," he said, adding that "the idea of anybody getting it easily, the way people in other countries are doing it, we are not set up for that. Do I think we should be? Yes. But we are not."

Testing has proven to be a continued sticking point between Trump and Fauci.

Fauci said during a Time 100 Talks interview last week that he was "not overly confident right now at all, that we have what it takes to" significantly ramp up testing.

Trump pushed back during a press briefing later that day -- from which Fauci was absent -- and said that "I don't agree with him on that, no. I think we're doing a great job on testing."

The decision to keep Fauci from appearing before the House committee comes as House Democrats are preparing for a multi-front investigation into the federal coronavirus response.

The CARES Act coronavirus aid package created a Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, made up of 21 members from offices of inspectors general across the federal government, to help coordinate investigations into various elements of the outbreak response.

Some of the investigations are already underway. The inspectors general from three key agencies updated the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday on four investigations into potential issues with the federal government's coronavirus response, the committee said.

The watchdogs referenced plans for the use of "flash reports" to provide frequent updates on the probes, as well as possible protections for the inspectors general in light of Trump's ouster of several such independent watchdogs, according to a news release from the committee.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/politics ... index.html

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Hillbilly,

I have to apologize for the error I made in responding to your post concerning the dossier.

It was true that I was one of the 77% that believed the “Steele dossier” was accurate.

The part where I said I was proud to be one of the 53% rather than one of the gullible and mis-informed 40% was not fully accurate.

At the time, I was visiting several websites. I was cross-checking "presidential" polls and how people were responding to them. My remarks were never intended for this particular post. Even the percentages differed from the article I was reading. I never double checked myself before posting. I apologize for that.

That said, I found the dossier very confusing to follow because of all the various conflicting reports. I really did not know who/what was right/ wrong or which side to believe/not believe with this report.

My take:

* I still think that Trump colluded with Russia. Mueller's report stated so but he and his team couldn't prove it. Mueller couldn't get the witnesses to come forward. Barr took the report and misinterpreted the Mueller findings and, in essence, exonerated Trump.

* Sorry Hillbilly, but I take with a grain of salt any debunking claims coming from the white house, the president, and Bill Barr. First of all, Barr is a "yes" man in the Trump orbit. Together, Trump and Barr have the State Department and the DOJ exactly where they want them.... by the nads. Loyalty before Quality. Trump fires everyone who begs to differ with his policies. Trump fired Inspector General Michael Atkinson for overtly retaliatory reasons. Presidents don’t just fire inspectors generals for doing their jobs. Atkinson notified Congress, as he was legally bound to do, of a whistle blower complaint that raised a matter of “urgent concern” — the event triggered the Ukraine scandal and the president’s resulting impeachment. So, regarding IG Horowitz’s dossier report and what the FBI thinks is questionable under the current set of circumstances. This is the problem when the president and his team constantly lie and mislead. They are not credible in my opinion. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. Who do you believe?

* Regarding the FISA warrants: some of the information from Steele was included in the FISA application and has been partially corroborated according to the Mueller report and Congressional testimony. The investigators used more than just the dossier to get the FISA warrant. They used Page's past ties to known Russian spies in New York, and other materials that are still redacted. Some of the details in the dossier were wrong. But Steele was right that Page attended high-level meetings with Russians during his trip, even though Page was denying it at the time. IG Horowitz’s report found that the F.B.I. had an adequate legal basis to open the Russia investigation but uncovered numerous errors and omissions with one piece of that inquiry: an application for a wiretap targeting Carter Page. Investigators went back to the courts repeatedly, with new information, and demonstrated that they were collecting valuable information. Federal judges granted all four FISA applications that were requested. The judges who approved Carter Page FISA Warrants were all nominated by GOP Presidents.

* Newly-declassified footnotes from the report show that the FBI also knew that the Steele Dossier relied on disinformation from Russian sources — meaning the FBI itself may have helped Russia interfere in the election." Maybe! The FBI cost Hillary the presidency.

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The fact you think the Trump campaign did interfere with Russia only proves my point. You are getting your information from totally bogus sources.

The Mueller Investigation lasted 22 months.
Was led by 19 lawyers, democrats who hated Trump, and 40 FBI agents.
They handed out thousands of subpoenas.
Handed out hundreds of warrants.
Interviewed hundreds of witnesses. - And BTW, Trump himself was the only person they wanted to interview in a manner in which they couldn't. (Trump offered to give written answers to written questions. Probably due to the fact he witnessed the way the FBI railroaded Michael Flynn into a lie, which is hopefully being corrected now).
And they released a very thorough 448 page report.
And that report clearly stated that Russia interfered in our election, but they found no evidence that any body from the Trump campaign colluded with them.

Period.

And by the way, Hillary cost Hillary the election. She was the least liked presidential candidate that I remember in my lifetime. Even my liberal friends thought she was a bitch. They voted for her any way, but you're not going to win middle America with people like her.

You're also not going to win them over with a candidate that can't keep his eyes open and string together two coherent sentences. So what is your excuse going to be in 5 months instead of just admitting the dude has no business being president and everyone can see it?

Well, let's not go there Hillbilly.

Hillary did win the popular vote by 3 million.

Let's not forget gerrymandering!

Key wins in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, all masterfully gerrymandered by the republicans were huge wins for Trump.

What about voter ID laws?

22 states had new voter ID laws, 21 states controlled by republican legislatures. Most effected were black voters.

Still! Against all those odds, Clinton still won the popular vote.

Nothing like kicking the golf ball from the ruff for a nice lie in the fairway while your opponent is out of site

How about the hidden ball trick? When you're out of bounds, drop a new ball from that hole in the pocket

I read multiple articles about Trump's cheating on the golf course. Looks like it didn't stop at the golf course

The only popularity contest Trump will win is from his base.

'This is weird': The Senate returns amid the pandemic

Like the rest of the public, anxious senators are trying to adjust to a new normal.

[ WASHINGTON DC IS A CURRENT HOTSPOT ]

The Capitol is stirring to life after being hobbled for weeks by the coronavirus pandemic. But the halls are mostly empty, and the anxiety pulsing through the United States is reflected in the altered rhythms of Congress. Everyone is adjusting to a new normal.

On Monday evening, the Senate held its first roll call vote since March 25. Thirteen senators didn’t even show up in an institution where roughly half the members are 65 or older and are at heightened risk of the virus.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the second oldest member of the Senate at 86, said through a navy mask that he'll feel safe "as long as we follow [the doctor’s orders]." He drove in from Iowa for the week’s proceedings.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), 75, said he contemplated not coming and then weighed whether to drive. After speaking to the Capitol’s physician, he decided to fly: The doctor said that was safer than a two-day drive from Illinois.

Still, Durbin is frustrated that one of the marquee events of Senate business this week is a nomination hearing for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) judicial protege Justin Walker. Action on the next coronavirus relief measure is uncertain.

“I don’t think we should have come back. If we had something serious to do, COVID-19 4 or whatever, I’m here, that’s what I was elected to do,” Durbin said. “Coming back for Mitch McConnell’s former intern to be promoted to the second-highest court in the land doesn’t fit the description of a national emergency.”

After speaking to a trio of reporters wearing masks and practicing social distancing, Durbin said what everyone was thinking: “This is weird, isn’t it?”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/0 ... urn-235311

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Trump nominee, once a Supreme Court clerk, still unhappy at how Obamacare ruling played out

By Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer

Updated 12:00 PM ET, Sun May 3, 2020

Washington (CNN)Judge Justin Walker, now nominated to a powerful federal court dubbed "the second highest" in the nation, remains bitter that the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act eight years ago.

Walker was serving as a law clerk at the time of the 2012 blockbuster ruling and was infuriated at its resolution. He has continued to reveal disdain for the decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts and offer details about his inside dealings with Justice Anthony Kennedy, one of the dissenters.

At a March event in Louisville, joined by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Walker took aim at the law commonly known as Obamacare.

Front-row seat to the court's Obamacare drama

Signed by President Barack Obama, who later embraced the "Obamacare" name, the Affordable Care Act required all Americans to obtain coverage and created a marketplace for purchasing insurance. It also expanded Medicaid for poor people and protected diabetics, cancer patients and other individuals with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage...

Republicans opposed the legislation from the start, saying it infringed on individuals and businesses as it aimed to insure millions more Americans and control spiraling medical costs. Texas and other GOP states, which joined the National Federation of Independent Business in the first Obamacare suit known as NFIB v. Sebelius, have continued to challenge provisions of the law...

Trump ran against it as a presidential candidate and his administration is still seeking to void the law, which after a decade has affected nearly every corner of the health care system.

Walker has called Roberts' 2012 opinion "indefensible." In his recent remarks at the March investiture, he further revealed an us-versus-them mindset. After thanking McConnell, Kavanaugh and other supporters, he referred to his "nomination's opponents," including, he said, the American Bar Association.

Endorsing Kavanaugh opinion as a 'roadmap'

Eight years ago, during the Supreme Court's heated deliberations over the constitutionality of the ACA, the five conservative justices, including Roberts and Kennedy, believed that the individual insurance mandate exceeded Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce. But Roberts thought the invalid provision could be separated from much of the sweeping law.

Kennedy, however, joined by fellow conservative Justices Antonin Scalia, Thomas and Samuel Alito, believed the individual mandate was interconnected to other provisions of the new law and would entirely sink it. Law clerks at the time portrayed Walker as vigorously arguing the mandate central to provisions such as those guaranteeing coverage for pre-existing conditions and expanding Medicaid coverage to needy people...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/03/politics ... index.html

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Trump's spy chief pick faces questions about his resume and ties to the President

By Jeremy Herb, Zachary Cohen and Kaitlan Collins, CNN

Updated 5:30 PM ET, Mon May 4, 2020

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the intelligence community, Rep. John Ratcliffe, was once considered unqualified for the job by even some Republican lawmakers, but on Tuesday he'll go before the Senate in a confirmation hearing where he's expected to be pressed on whether he can operate independently of a President who demands loyalty and has pushed unsubstantiated claims about a "deep state" of career officials working against his goals.

The intelligence community's independence is top of mind for lawmakers in both parties in the lead up to Tuesday's hearing. In recent days, Trump has touted intelligence claims related to the origin of coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Earlier this year he installed a fierce loyalist, US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, as acting director of national intelligence after firing then-acting director Joseph Maguire. And Trump has still been unwilling to acknowledge Russia' interference in the 2016 election, which the intelligence community concluded was an effort to help his candidacy...

Ratcliffe likely to be pressed on his qualifications

Trump tapped Ratcliffe to be director of national intelligence for a second time earlier this year after he withdrew from consideration before he was officially nominated last summer amid concerns he exaggerated his national security resume and had on overly partisan record.

Ratcliffe does not have an intelligence background, though he's served on the House Intelligence Committee since 2019, and there were questions raised when he was nominated last year about his claims about prosecuting terrorists while he was US attorney in the Eastern District of Texas from 2004 to 2008. The discrepancies in his resume sparked uneasiness in the Senate GOP that preempted his withdrawal...

Russian interference a key question

King said one of the questions he has for Ratcliffe is his views on the 2017 intelligence community assessment of Russian election interference, which concluded Russia was trying to help Trump win.

It's a conclusion Trump has refused to accept, and a finding that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee disputed in their 2018 report. The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a report last month backing up the intelligence community, contradicting their House counterparts. A briefing on Russia's intentions in 2020 helped lead to Maguire's ouster earlier this year...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/04/politics ... index.html

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Key coronavirus model will revise projections to nearly 135,000 US deaths

From CNN's Arman Azad

An influential coronavirus model often cited by the White House said in a press release that it plans to revise its projections to nearly 135,000 Covid-19 deaths in the United States, an increase that one of its researchers tied to relaxed social distancing and increased mobility.

The model, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, previously predicted 72,433 deaths as of Monday morning. A press release from IHME said the full set of new projections will be released later this afternoon.

Ali Mokdad, a professor of Health Metrics Sciences at IHME, referenced the updated projections on CNN earlier today, but said he couldn’t provide the specific number.

“We are seeing, of course, a rise in projected deaths for several reasons,” he told CNN’s John King on Inside Politics. “One of them is increased mobility before the relaxation, premature relaxation of social distancing, we’re adding more presumptive deaths as well, and we’re seeing a lot of outbreaks in the Midwest, for example.”

He said multiple variables impact infections – like heat, testing capacity and population density – but “the most important one is mobility.”

Right now, he said, “we’re seeing an increase in mobility that’s leading to an increase in mortality unfortunately in the United States.”

The IHME director, Dr. Christopher Murray, will be holding a press briefing at 4 p.m. ET today with additional details.

[ 29,763 New Cases Today 5/4/20; 1,719 New Deaths Today 5/4/20 ]

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/us-cor ... 08aaf3c55b

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Michigan police searching for man who wiped nose on store clerk who said he needed face mask

BY JOHN BOWDEN - 05/04/20 09:27 PM EDT

Police in Holly, Mich., are investigating after a man reportedly wiped his nose on the sleeve of a woman who asked him to wear a mask while in a store.

The woman, an employee of the Dollar Tree at which the incident occurred on Saturday, told police that the unidentified man refused to wear a mask and was disruptive in the store before leaving in a white van, according to the Detroit News.

"Here, I will just use this as a mask," he reportedly said as he wiped his face on the employee's sleeve.

Police have not identified a suspect in the investigation.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... k-who-said

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GOP Ohio state lawmaker refuses to wear face mask because faces are the 'likeness of God'

BY ARIS FOLLEY - 05/04/20 09:52 PM EDT

A Republican Ohio state representative cited his religious beliefs to explain why he would not wear a mask as recommended by Gov. Mike DeWine (R) to help limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“This is not the entire world,” state Rep. Nino Vitale wrote in a lengthy Facebook post on Monday morning. “This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles.”

“One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask,” he continued...

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... es-are-the

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[/b]

Wow! If Trump can get away with it, I don't think Biden would have a problem.

Whenever Trump speaks without a script, he relies heavily on words such as “very, very, very”, “great,” , “we” and “I”, which is his favorite word. He has problems reading a teleprompter. He sounds bored. His monotone style of delivery can put me to sleep. His boring delivery style projects an image of not wanting to be there. Many times, I get the impression that he really doesn't understand what he's reading.

Trump definitely is not a Barack Obama when it comes time to delivering messages and speeches.

From Politico:

If you were to market Donald Trump’s vocabulary as a toy, it would resemble a small box of Lincoln Logs. Trump resists multi-syllabic words and complex, writerly, sentence constructions when speaking extemporaneously in a debate, at a news conference or in an interview. He prefers to link short, blocky words into other short, blocky words to create short, blocky sentences that he then stacks into short, blocky paragraphs...

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Trump lashes out at attack ad by George Conway’s Lincoln Project: ‘Disgrace to Honest Abe’

Brooke Singman | Fox News

President Trump lashed out overnight after a group led by Kellyanne Conway’s husband released an ad criticizing his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The grim ad, titled “Mourning in America,” was a riff on former President Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America,” and accused the president of ignoring the crisis early on. It was released by The Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump Republicans.

“A group of RINO Republicans who failed badly 12 years ago, then again 8 years ago, and then got BADLY beaten by me, a political first timer, 4 years ago, have copied (no imagination) the concept of an ad from Ronald Reagan, 'Morning in America’, doing everything possible to get even for all of their many failures,” Trump tweeted early Tuesday morning.

“You see, these loser types don’t care about 252 new Federal Judges, 2 great Supreme Court Justices, a rebuilt military, a protected 2nd Amendment, biggest EVER Tax & Regulation cuts, and much more,” Trump continued. “I didn’t use any of them because they don’t know how to win, and their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe.”

The president went on to rail against Kellyanne Conway’s husband, George Conway, who is a top adviser for the organization and a frequent critic of Trump.

“I don’t know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser of a husband, Moonface, but it must have been really bad,” Trump tweeted.

He then went on to list, and criticize, other top advisers for the outfit, including Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, John Weaver, Reed Galen, Jennifer Horn.

The ad itself cited the death toll from coronavirus in taking swipes at the president's leadership.

“There’s mourning in America,” the ad says. “Today more than 60,000 Americans have died from a deadly virus Donald Trump ignored. With the economy in shambles, more than 26 million Americans are out of work, the worst economy in decades.”

The ad continues by saying the country is “weaker and sicker and poorer” under Trump’s administration.

“And now Americans are asking, ‘If we have another year like this, will there even be an America?’” the ad says.

The Trump campaign released its own ad over the weekend, touting the president and his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

As of Tuesday morning, the U.S. reported more than 1.18 million positives cases in the U.S. and more than 68,900 deaths.

The president, during a Fox News town hall on Sunday, estimated that the U.S. could lose up to 100,000 lives.

[ MORE ADS BEING PLANNED - PREZ IS PI$$ED - TOUGH WHEN HE'S ON THE RECEIVING END ]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump- ... honest-abe

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Trump Tours Mask Factory, Opts for Safety Glasses Instead

DO AS I SAY...

Blake Montgomery Reporter Updated May. 05, 2020 10:23PM ET /

President Donald Trump declined to wear a protective face mask during a Tuesday tour of an Arizona mask manufacturing plant, donning safety goggles instead. Signs in the Honeywell factory producing N95 masks warned that masks were required, and employees shown in photos with the president were wearing them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised everyone to wear a mask to slow the spread of COVID-19 since early April. White House officials said the president and his entourage were not required to wear protective gear. Trump’s decision echoes the controversial choice by Vice President Mike Pence to forgo a mask on a visit to the Mayo Clinic, where masks were also required of all visitors.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-tou ... d?ref=home

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Coronavirus: White House plans to disband virus task force

US President Donald Trump has confirmed the White House coronavirus task force will be winding down, with Vice-President Mike Pence suggesting it could be disbanded within weeks.

"We are bringing our country back," Mr Trump said during a visit to a mask-manufacturing factory in Arizona.

New confirmed infections per day in the US currently top 20,000, and daily deaths exceed 1,000.

US health officials warn the virus may spread as businesses begin to reopen.

The US currently has 1.2 million confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 70,000 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, which is tracking the pandemic.

What did President Trump say?

During a visit to the plant in Phoenix after weeks holed up at the White House, Mr Trump told journalists: "Mike Pence and the task force have done a great job, but we're now looking at a little bit of a different form, and that form is safety and opening. And we'll have a different group probably set up for that."

The president - who wore safety goggles but no face mask during his tour of the facility - was asked if it was "mission accomplished", and he said: "No, not at all. The mission accomplished is when it's over."

Critics have accused the president of sacrificing Americans' public health in his eagerness to reopen the US economy ahead of his re-election battle in November.

Acknowledging a human cost to the plans, Mr Trump told reporters: "I'm not saying anything is perfect, and yes, will some people be affected? Yes.

"Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon."

The president was also asked if White House task force experts Dr Deborah Birx and Dr Anthony Fauci would still be involved in efforts to address the coronavirus.

"They will be and so will other doctors and so will other experts in the field," the president answered.

The once daily task force briefings have become increasingly scarce since Mr Trump was widely condemned by the medical community last month after he pondered at the podium whether injecting bleach into people might kill the virus.

What did the vice-president say?

Mr Pence earlier on Tuesday told reporters in a briefing that the task force could soon be disbanded.

He said the Trump administration was "starting to look at the Memorial Day [late May] window, early June window as a time when we could begin to transition back to having our agencies begin to manage, begin to manage our national response in a more traditional manner" [ DIDN'T DO TOO WELL WITH A NON-TRADITIONAL APPROACH ].

He said it was "a reflection of the tremendous progress we've made as a country".

Mr Pence has led the task force, which reports to the president and co-ordinates with medical institutes, political staff and state governors. The group also consulted medical experts to formulate national guidelines on social distancing.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany later tweeted that the president "will continue his data-driven approach towards safely re-opening".

Lives and livelihoods

The White House's shift in focus from the public health aspect of the coronavirus pandemic to its economic impact continues.

For more than a month, the task force had been the public face of the administration's response to the crisis, even though President Trump sometimes veered far from the topic at hand during its press briefings.

When the president wasn't talking, however, government public health officials led the conversation.

Now, it appears, the officials setting the agenda will be ones more concerned with jobs, businesses and the fiscal health of the nation - even though the number of cases of the virus throughout the US continues to increase.

There is growing frustration among the president's core supporters, however, with government shelter-in-place orders. Several states, encouraged by the president, have already begun to ease restrictions, even though they have not met White House guidelines [ 14 DAYS WITH DECLINING VIRUS CASES ] for when to do so.

Those recommendations were set by the current coronavirus task force, of course. And the "different group" in a "different form" that replaces it, as the president describes, may have other ideas.

Does the US have the pandemic under control?

Not yet. Besides New York, which is still the US epicentre despite an ongoing drop in new cases, the level of infection continues to climb across much of the country.

Many states that have allowed some business to resume - including Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee, Kansas, Nebraska and Indiana - are seeing more new cases reported daily.

While some cities such as New York, New Orleans and Detroit have shown improvement, others like Los Angeles, Washington DC and Chicago are seeing the caseload rise every day.

According to a report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), more than 3,000 people may be killed by the virus each day by next month.

The White House has dismissed the report as inaccurate, with Mr Trump saying it describes a scenario in which Americans make no effort to mitigate the spread of the infection.

On Sunday, the president increased his forecast for the number of US pandemic deaths to 100,000, after saying two weeks earlier that it would be fewer than 60,000.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, a public forecast model that has been frequently cited by the White House, now estimates that Covid-19 will account for 135,000 American deaths by 4 August. This more than doubles its 17 April forecast.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52553829

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I love the way that liberals are constantly talking about what a liar Donald Trump is, and then turn around and nominate the biggest bullshitter D.C. has ever seen.

Shortly after being elected Joe Biden’s family was, tragically, involved in a traffic accident. His wife and daughter died, sons both injured. And this just before Christmas. His wife ran a stop sign, and was t-boned by a truck driver. Since that accident Joe Biden has lied numerous times, claiming that his family was killed by a drunk driver. The family of this driver said he was crushed by this accident, even though it wasn’t his fault. Every year at Christmas he would get quiet, and not want to celebrate. Now imagine being that family, having to hear Joe Biden lie on a national stage and claim your father was a drunk who killed his family.

What kind of lowlife does that, just to try to get some sympathy and male some political hay?

https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaug ... -daughter/

Let’s also remember Biden had to drop out of a presidential race once because he plagiarized speeches from another politician. Apparently the media don’t want to talk about that anymore.

https://time.com/5636715/biden-1988-pre ... -campaign/

Oh, and there was that time that Newsweek busted Biden lying to a group of voters about his education. Acting like he was some kind of a genius when he was actually 76th out of 85 in his Syracuse law class. And let’s face it, he cheated to get that high. Fun video of Sam Donaldson reporting on this circulating social media now.

https://twitter.com/donaldjtrumpjr/stat ... 9554234373

Biden claims he worked hard to desegregate restaurants and theaters in Delaware. Total lie, he did nothing.

Biden claims he was arrested in South Africa for attempting to visit Nelson Mandela, and was later sent a thank you note by Mandela. None of that was true, the visit, the arrest, the thank you, nothing. All made up.

Biden voted for the Iraq war and claimed publicly that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. But now he claims he never believed Saddam had those weapons and the Iraq war was wrong. He also claims he criticized W Bush to his face in lengthy 1 on 1 Oval Office meetings. Turns out he was never in the oval during Bush’s term, or had 1 on 1 meetings with Bush like he claimed.

Biden said he called a Serbian leader a “damn war criminal” to his face. Nope, never happened. He also claimed he was shot at 7 times in Iraq. And said once he had his helicopter forced down near Bin Laden’s lair. Total nonsense, once again. He always love to try to act like a tough guy. Just once I wish someone would take him up on his offer to go outside. I’d love to see his reaction. I bet the broken down old fool would piss in his depends.

He’s also claimed that he was a coal miner, and that he came from a family of coal miners. Both lies.

All of this is ridiculous enough, but my all time favorite is what he told Katie Couric in an interview in 2008. He said, “When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed.”.

Well, that sounded just fine, but a couple little problems. First of all, when the market crashed in 1929 FDR wasn’t President, Hoover was. And the television wasn’t introduced to the public until the New York’s World Fair 10 years later in 1939.

But to me, this perfectly sums up Joe Biden. He will say whatever bullshit pops in his head at the moment to make himself look good or for political expediency. Your typical slick ass lying politician. But he’s far worse than most. So if you’re gonna support propping up this lame brain as a legitimate Presidential candidate, forget the fact checking attacks on President Trump. You’ve lost that high ground.

More truth, this time about how the liberal news was reporting on the virus in the early days.

https://twitter.com/erictrump/status/12 ... 5788423175

WORLD NEWSMAY 6, 2020 / 6:49 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

U.S. Supreme Court's Ginsburg discharged from hospital

Andrew Chung, Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at 87 the U.S. Supreme Court’s oldest member, was discharged on Wednesday from hospital where she was treated for a benign gall bladder condition and took part remotely in arguments in two cases.

In a statement released on Wednesday evening, court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Ginsburg is “doing well and glad to be home” after being discharged from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore...

Ginsburg has had several health scares in recent years. In November 2018, she broke three ribs in a fall. Subsequent medical tests led to treatment for lung cancer that caused her to miss arguments in January 2019. She returned to the bench, but in August 2019 received radiation therapy to treat pancreatic cancer.

She was hospitalized last November for two nights suffering from a fever and chills but returned to work at the court the day after being released.

Her health is closely watched because a Supreme Court vacancy would give Republican President Donald Trump the opportunity to appoint a third justice to the nine-member court and move it further to the right. The court currently has a 5-4 conservative majority including two justices appointed by Trump.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-c ... KKBN22I3EF

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Trump backs off plans to wind down task force after backlash

BY BRETT SAMUELS - 05/06/20 01:53 PM EDT

President Trump on Wednesday said he backed off plans to dissolve the White House coronavirus task force after public outcry, saying he didn't realize how "popular" the group of medical experts and government leaders was. ( I believe the outcry was to keep you check Mr President )

"I thought we could wind it down sooner," Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event recognizing National Nurses Day. "But I had no idea how popular the task force is until actually yesterday when I started talking about winding down. ... It is appreciated by the public."

Trump said he received calls from "very respected people" who urged him to keep the task force intact.

The president said he might add a few more members to the group, though he didn't mention any names, in a sign that the White House may still pivot the task force to focus on guiding the reopening of the economy.

The task force will eventually cease to exist, Trump said, but he signaled that it would not be until the pandemic has subsided...

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... r-backlash

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Supreme Court declines to lift Pennsylvania COVID-19 health order

BY JOHN KRUZEL - 05/06/20 03:45 PM EDT

The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a request to halt an order Pennsylvania's governor entered in March to close businesses in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The petitioners, a conservative political action committee and several businesses, told the justices that Gov. Tom Wolf's (D) executive order "has and is continuing to cause irreparable harm."

The court’s denial of the request, issued without comment, means fewer than five of the nine justices supported the petition...

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... alth-order

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Fauci's absence from hearing draws bipartisan rebuke from House lawmakers

BY JESSIE HELLMANN - 05/06/20 12:47 PM EDT

A key House panel held a hearing Wednesday on the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic but had to do so without testimony from any members of the Trump administration.

The absences of key figures in the battle against COVID-19 — including Anthony Fauci, the administration's top infectious diseases expert — prompted frustration from members of both parties.

“I want the record to show I joined the chairman urging that Dr. Fauci be allowed to testify here,” Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), the top Republican on the House Appropriations labor and health subcommittee, said during the hearing.

“I think it would have been good testimony, useful to this committee and useful to this country. Frankly, I think going forward, this subcommittee, more than any other, is going to need administration input, expert input, as we make the important decisions in front of us.”

President Trump blocked Fauci, a leading member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, from testifying, telling reporters Tuesday the “House is a bunch of Trump haters."...

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4 ... -lawmakers

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George Conway group has biggest fundraising day after Trump attack

BY ZACK BUDRYK - 05/06/20 04:02 PM EDT

The Lincoln Project, a Republican super PAC critical of President Trump, says it saw its biggest single-day fundraising haul yet after the president repeatedly blasted the group on Twitter earlier this week.

Reed Galen, a member of the Lincoln Project’s advisory committee told CNBC the group raised $1 million in a day after Trump’s tweets, which took aim at the group over its anti-Trump ad titled “Mourning in America.”

“A group of RINO [Republicans In Name Only] Republicans who failed badly 12 years ago, then again 8 years ago, and then got BADLY beaten by me, a political first timer, 4 years ago, have copied (no imagination) the concept of an ad from Ronald Reagan, ‘Morning in America,'” Trump tweeted early Tuesday.

In a follow-up tweet he blasted several individual operatives affiliated with the super PAC, including Republican strategists Rick Wilson and Steve Schmidt, as well as George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and a frequent critic of the president.

Galen told CNBC the ad in question has continued airing on cable markets in the Washington, D.C., region since Tuesday and that it will begin airing in swing states next week. The group has also aired an ad in support of former Vice President Joe Biden in Wisconsin and Michigan in recent weeks, according to the network.

The group also announced Wednesday that it will run ads against some of Trump’s top allies in the Senate.

"Thanks to Trump, we'll keep 'Mourning in America' running longer, then get back to our regular programming, which will include more assaults on Trump's record and going after some of his most ardent enablers in the Senate,” John Weaver, another co-founder of the group, told Newsweek. He did not specify which senator or senators the ads would target.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... ump-attack

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11 hours ago - Health / 5/6/20

Cuomo: Coronavirus surging nationally even as New York has "turned the corner"

Fadel Allassan

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a press briefing Wednesday that his state appears to have "turned the corner" when it comes to managing its coronavirus outbreak, but warned that cases are still increasing for the rest of the country.

Why it matters:

* Like some other initial outbreak sites, New York has seen decreases in its daily hospitalization rate, death count and number of new cases. But positive signs in those places have offset the increasing infection numbers around the country as hotspots begin to emerge in smaller communities nationwide.

* "For every indication of improvement in controlling the virus, new outbreaks have emerged elsewhere, leaving the nation stuck in a steady, unrelenting march of deaths and infections," the New York Times writes.
A number of states have begun to lift stay-at-home orders they implemented to combat the spread of the virus.

What he's saying:

"You look at what's happening in New York. Yes, our line is going down. Our number of cases is going down. We have turned the corner, and we're on the decline. You take New York out of the national numbers, the numbers for the rest of the nation are going up.

To me, that vindicates what we're doing here in New York, which says follow the science, follow the data. Put the politics aside and the emotion aside. What we're doing here shows results."

— Andrew Cuomo at a press briefing Wednesday

https://www.axios.com/cuomo-new-york-tu ... 14738.html

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WHITE HOUSE

Trump will urge Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare

Attorney General Bill Barr had urged the White House to soften its attack on the law during the pandemic.

By SUSANNAH LUTHI

05/06/2020 02:18 PM EDT / Updated: 05/06/2020 06:25 PM EDT

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration will urge the Supreme Court to overturn Obamacare, maintaining its all-out legal assault on the health care law amid a pandemic that will drive millions of more Americans to depend on its coverage.

The administration appears to be doubling down on its legal strategy, even after Attorney General William Barr this week warned top Trump officials about the political ramifications of undermining the health care safety net during the coronavirus emergency.

Democrats two years ago took back the House of Representatives and statehouses across the country by promising to defend Obamacare, in particular its insurance protections that prevent sick people from being denied coverage or charged more because of a health condition. The issue may prove to be even more salient in November amid the Covid-19 outbreak that health experts believe will persist through the fall.

The Justice Department had a Wednesday deadline to change its position in a case brought by Republican-led states, but Trump told reporters Wednesday afternoon his administration would stand firm. DOJ declined to comment...

[ Looks Like Trump Will Be Appealing All Of His Grievances to the Supreme Court ]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/0 ... are-240366

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POLITICS

Trump calls Americans ‘warriors’ in fight to open the economy

By CHRIS MEGERIANSTAFF WRITER

MAY 6, 202012:19 PM UPDATED 2:24 PM

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has described himself as a “wartime president” during the coronavirus crisis, and now he seems to have found his army as he pushes the country to reopen despite the risks.

In recent days, he’s begun describing citizens as “warriors” in the battle against the pandemic and suggested some of those fighters might have to die if that will help boost the economy.

“Will some people be affected? Yes,” he said on a trip to Arizona this week, his first outside of the Washington area in nearly two months. “Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open, and we have to get it open soon.”...

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/ ... en-economy

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Despite Trump executive order, meat-processing plants struggle to stay open

By Sarah Westwood

Updated 7:17 PM ET, Fri May 1, 2020

(CNN)Days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at keeping meat-processing facilities open amid the coronavirus pandemic, plants across the country are scrambling to balance worker safety with pressure from the federal government to remain operational.

But the order, which gives Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue the power to invoke the Defense Production Act and force companies to keep their plants humming, has not yet forced any shuttered facilities to come back online. Some had already begun to reopen with stricter social distancing measures in place, while others remain offline after the virus swept through employees at more than a dozen major facilities across the country.

"I don't see it having much effect," said Stephen Meyer, an economist at Kerns & Associates working with the pork industry. "You can tell anybody to open up a plant, but if the workers don't show up, it doesn't work."

"It's nice of the President to think we're important and everything, but I don't think it's going to cause very many plants to open," he added.

High rates of absenteeism, whether from sickened workers or fearful employees staying home to avoid infection, have for weeks plagued the meat-packing industry, where workers often labor in close quarters. A Center for Disease Control and Prevention study released on Friday showed more than 4,900 workers in meat and poultry processing facilities have tested positive for Covid-19, and at least 20 have died As Of Friday 5/1/20...

Trump signed the executive order on Tuesday and claimed it would solve the "liability problems" facing meat companies, some of which were worried about getting hit with lawsuits from employees who may feel forced to work in dangerous conditions...

Top Department of Labor officials said in a statement about the order that "good faith attempts" to comply with the new guidance would weigh in a company's favor in case of an investigation or lawsuit.

"They've given voluntary guidelines that aren't going to be enforceable," said Mark Lauritsen, director of the food processing, packing and manufacturing division at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/politics ... index.html

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Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is urging meatpacking plants to keep running during the coronavirus pandemic. Department of Agriculture/Flickr

PANDEMIC

White House doubles down on meat industry order

Marc Heller, E&E News reporter Greenwire: Wednesday, May 6, 2020

TODAY: 5/7/20 NEW POSITIVE CASES 17,859; NEW DEATHS 1,491

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Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue put new pressure on meatpacking plants to keep running during the COVID-19 pandemic, telling companies in a letter last night that the Trump administration is considering further action to enforce its recent stay-open order.

In the letter, Perdue reminded major meatpacking companies of President Trump's executive order declaring the plants critical infrastructure under the Defense Production Act. He nudged them further to follow federal health guidelines to protect workers from the novel coronavirus.

"Plants should resume operations as soon as they are able after implementing the CDC/OSHA guidance for the protection of workers," Perdue said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"Again, I exhort you to do this; further action under the Executive Order and the Defense Production Act is under consideration and will be taken if necessary," he said.

Perdue didn't elaborate on the what those actions might be; the department didn't immediately return a message from E&E News this morning seeking additional comment.

"Meat processing facilities are critical infrastructure and are essential to the national security of our nation," Perdue said in a news release. "Keeping these facilities operational is critical to the food supply chain and we expect our partners across the country to work with us on this issue."

The secretary's letter, and a similar one he sent to governors last night, comes as the meat industry continues to grapple with coronavirus outbreaks among workers in some plants. Hog processing facilities have been hit especially hard, leading consumer groups and labor unions to call for mandatory protective equipment and other precautions in plants that reopen or remain open. Nearly two dozen meatpacking plants around the country have closed at some point during the pandemic.

So far, the federal government hasn't required the plants to take the worker protection measures. But Perdue emphasized the issue in his letter and said idled plants that resume operations or are contemplating slowdowns should submit to USDA their health and safety protocols in accordance with the CDC and OSHA.

In Waterloo, Iowa, Tyson Foods said it would reopen its pork processing plant tomorrow. That facility closed April 22, and health officials have said more than 444 of the 2,800 employees there tested positive for the coronavirus.

More than half of the workers at another Tyson plant in Perry, Iowa, tested positive, the state health department said.

Tyson, in an open letter to employees last week, said it's working with a mobile health clinic provider to give workers access to COVID-19 testing.

"The health and well being of our team members and their loved ones is, and remains, our priority," the company said. "As we've shown in recent days, we will not hesitate to idle any plant for deep cleaning when the need arises."

The North American Meat Institute, an industry group, encourages its members to share worker-protection tips with each other and has offered guidance itself, said spokeswoman Sarah Little.
"Our members' first priority is the safety of the men and women who work in their facilities," she told E&E News in a statement. "Member companies have and will continue to follow CDC/OSHA guidance and will attempt to run at full capacity as long as worker safety is ensured."

Even with the administration's executive order, meat processing won't quickly approach past levels, people close to the industry say. The need for workers in a normally close setting to now be spaced at least 6 feet apart will mean less production.

Pork processing in Iowa is at around 50% of capacity, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters in a conference call yesterday. The senator said the pandemic's fallout has created "quite a backup on the farms" and praised Trump's executive order to keep plants open as long as they can do so safely.

"He's not going to put workers in jeopardy. He's telling companies to make an environment to give people certainty that it's safe," Grassley said.
Others repeated calls for mandatory safety measures, and enforcement, in meatpacking plants.

"Although some employers have taken steps to protect workers, these safety protections are not mandatory and are not subject to enforcement," said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group. "Simply exhorting employers to keep workers safe, or requiring them submit records to the USDA, is not the same as setting and enforcing emergency standards."

https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063065507

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AP Exclusive: US shelves detailed guide to reopening country

By JASON DEAREN and MIKE STOBBE / 12 minutes ago

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The Trump administration has shelved a document created by the nation’s top disease investigators with step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the still-raging coronavirus outbreak.

The 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen.

It was supposed to be published last Friday, but agency scientists were told the guidance “would never see the light of day,” according to a CDC official. The official was not authorized to talk to reporters and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

The AP obtained a copy from a second federal official who was not authorized to release it. The guidance was described in AP stories last week, prior to the White House decision to shelve it.

AP STORY:

https://apnews.com/2a1cf36c0ad1ae31938351f6f74abe28

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https://apnews.com/7a00d5fba3249e573d2ead4bd323a4d4

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Trump ignores Barr, asks Supreme Court to destroy the entire ACA

May 7, 2020, 7:00 AM CDT

By Steve Benen

As the deadly pandemic continues to take its toll, the Affordable Care Act is providing an important lifeline to millions of Americans. The future of the health care reform law, however, remains very much in doubt.

A Republican lawsuit is pending at the U.S. Supreme Court, and with the White House's blessing, the litigants are asking the justices to destroy "Obamacare" in its entirety. In defiance of common sense and basic human decency, the fact that the case is unfolding during the coronavirus crisis has not deterred its GOP proponents. In fact, Donald Trump said as recently as late March that the pandemic has not affected his support for the lawsuit.

It was against this backdrop that Attorney General Bill Barr reportedly met with top Team Trump officials on Monday, arguing that the administration was making a mistake asking the high court to uproot the entire American health care system during a public-health crisis. The Republican lawyer said there was still time to amend the White House's position.

The president has apparently decided to ignore Barr's advice. Politico reported yesterday:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration will urge the Supreme Court to overturn Obamacare, maintaining its all-out legal assault on the health care law amid a pandemic that will drive millions of more Americans to depend on its coverage.

When Barr made his case on Monday, he reportedly told top White House officials that they had the option of asking the justices to rule against elements of the ACA, while leaving key benefits to families in place. Trump, however, appears determined to do catastrophic damage to his own country's health care system.

"What we want to do is terminate [the ACA] and give great health care," the president said. "And we'll have great health care." (We've been waiting for five years to see Trump's plan for "great health care." It still does not exist.)

In other words, as COVID-19 kills tens of thousands of Americans, Donald Trump believes the smartest course of action is to ask Supreme Court conservatives to strip tens of millions of families of their health security -- without the existence of a suitable replacement.

The deadline for the administration to change its position was yesterday. If the president's comments accurately reflected the White House's position, Barr's plea to Team Trump failed.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the fall. Watch this space.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-sho ... a-n1201881

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Nurse exposes Trump to key information he didn't want to hear

The president of American Association of Nurse Practitioners said access to supplies during the pandemic has been "sporadic." Trump was not pleased.

May 7, 2020, 10:19 AM CDT

By Steve Benen

About a year ago, Donald Trump said he'd "never heard" a farmer criticize the White House's trade agenda. Soon after, a reporter told the president about a conversation with a soybean farmer who said the administration's tariffs had created a "crisis" for his business.

"Well," Trump replied, "you interviewed the wrong farmer."

It was an interesting peek into a strange perspective. The president had convinced himself that farmers were unanimous in their enthusiastic support for his trade agenda, and when confronted with evidence of an unhappy farmer, Trump was immediately thrown off-balance.

This came to mind yesterday during an Oval Office event in which Trump signed a symbolic proclamation in honor of National Nurses Day. Among the attendees was Sophia Thomas, the president of American Association of Nurse Practitioners, who was asked whether she believes the availability of medical supplies "are what they need to be."

Thomas replied, "I think it's sporadic. As I talk to my colleagues around the country, certainly there are pockets of areas where [the availability of personal protective equipment] is not ideal.... I've been reusing my N95 mask for a few weeks now."

The president seated nearby, arms crossed, made clear that he was not pleased with her assessment -- not because he was disappointed by the availability of limited supplies, but because the president of American Association of Nurse Practitioners was contradicting the assumptions Trump wanted to believe.

A nurse found out Wednesday what happens when you contradict President Donald Trump on how well coronavirus response efforts are going while standing near him in the Oval Office.

Trump clapped back at that nurse... Trump upon hearing a less-than-glowing description of the front lines, quickly shot back, "Sporadic for you, but not sporadic for a lot of other people."

The president added that he's "heard" -- from whom, he did not say -- that medical facilities are now "loaded up."

And really, who's Trump going to believe, the president of American Association of Nurse Practitioners or unnamed people who've assured him his administration has done great work, all evidence to the contrary.

The president then proceeded to whine about Barack Obama for a while.

I almost felt bad for the White House staffers who forgot to tell the participants, "Whatever you do, don't say anything around Trump that conflicts with what he wants to believe."

At the same event, a New Jersey nurse said she hadn't personally seen a shortage of supplies, leading the president to declare, "You know why? Because they're fake news. That's why. It's true."

Trump then described himself as having had the most successful presidency in American history over his first three years, "from any way you want to look at it."

Happy National Nurses Day, one and all.

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CORONAVIRUS

05/07/2020 05:45 am ET

Bolsonaro Marches Brazil Toward A Political Crisis As Pandemic Explodes

Amid calls for impeachment and allegations of corruption, Jair Bolsonaro is banking on his most radical supporters to save his presidency.

Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro says coronavirus crisis is a media trick

[ Sound Familiar ]



On April 16, far-right Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro sent his health minister packing, firing Luiz Henrique Mandetta because he had dared contradict the boss by taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously. But that was just a warmup for the big show.

Eight days later, national justice minister Sergio Moro, one of the most popular and polarizing figures in Brazilian politics, abruptly resigned. He accused Bolsonaro of improper interference in the affairs of the Federal Police, Brazil’s equivalent of the FBI. Moro later accused Bolsonaro of meddling in the Federal Police force in Rio de Janeiro, where two of Bolsonaro’s sons are facing legal scrutiny from state police investigators.

The firings pushed Brazil to the brink of a political meltdown at the worst possible time. The country’s novel coronavirus outbreak has exploded: Brazil, where Bolsonaro repeated many of the United States’ worst mistakes in the early stages of the pandemic, has more than 125,000 confirmed cases and 8,500 deaths. State health systems are collapsing and Brazil’s already languid economy has cratered. Brazil added 10,500 new cases on Wednesday alone, but studies suggest its total number could be double the officially reported figures.

Bolsonaro is imploding, marching his country toward a political crisis of his own making.

“So what?” he told reporters last week, about the mounting death toll. Nightly protests, during which Brazilians bang pots and pans from their rooftops and balconies, have intensified. Bolsonaro’s approval ratings have remained at their lowest levels of his presidency. Governors who rode his coattails to election have abandoned him…

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bolsonar ... 4a7139302b

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Coronavirus Cases at Iowa Meat Plant Double to 1,000+ on Same Day It Reopens

LAMBS TO THE SLAUGHTER

Jamie Ross / Updated May. 08, 2020 7:18AM ET /

The number of workers who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at an Iowa meat plant doubled on the same day that the facility reopened following a two-week closure, the Des Moines Register reports. More than 1,000 employees at the Tyson Foods plant in Waterloo have now tested positive for the disease, public officials confirmed Thursday, a day after Gov. Kim Reynolds said there had been just under 500 cases. “It’s high. It’s really high. It’s surprising to hear those numbers on the same day they're reopening the plant,” said Chris Schwartz, a Black Hawk County supervisor. Schwartz added that Tyson officials should have acted sooner to protect its employees, calling the slow action of company bosses “incredibly shameful.” Tyson reportedly said it’s now requiring all returning workers to be tested for COVID-19, and those who haven’t been tested won’t be allowed to return to work.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/coronavir ... it-reopens

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Mike Pence Aide Tests Positive for Coronavirus

HITTING THE INNER CIRCLE

Pilar Melendez / Updated May. 08, 2020 12:34PM ET /

An aide to Vice President Mike Pence has tested positive for the coronavirus, administration officials said Friday. The news of the unnamed staffer’s diagnosis comes a day after news broke that one of President Donald Trump’s personal valets also tested positive for COVID-19. Trump and Pence, who largely refuse to wear face masks in public, have repeatedly tested negative for the virus. Pence was scheduled to go to Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, but his flight was delayed for an hour after news of his staffer’s diagnosis, CNBC reported. The VP was heavily criticized last month for not wearing a mask during a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, despite the hospital saying they’d asked him to. Pence later said he didn’t think it was necessary because he is so frequently tested for the coronavirus.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vice-pres ... oronavirus

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Mike Pence’s Spokesperson Tests Positive for Coronavirus

HITTING THE INNER CIRCLE

Pilar Melendez / Updated May. 08, 2020 3:04PM ET /

Katie Miller, Vice President Mike Pence’s spokesperson, has tested positive for the coronavirus, Politico reported Friday. The news of her diagnosis comes a day after news broke that one of President Donald Trump’s personal valets also tested positive for COVID-19. Trump and Pence, who largely refuse to wear face masks in public, have repeatedly tested negative for the virus. Pence was scheduled to go to Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, but his flight was delayed for an hour after news of his staffer’s diagnosis. Miller is married to White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, who works closely with Trump. “She’s a wonderful young woman, Katie, she tested very good for a long period of time,” the president said Friday. “And then all of the sudden today she tested positive. (NO SHEET - DONALD, THIS IS THE WAY THE VIRUS WORKS - GET A CLUE !!) She hasn’t come into contact with me. She’s spent some time with the vice president.”

The VP was heavily criticized last month for not wearing a mask during a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, despite the hospital saying they’d asked him to. Pence later said he didn’t think it was necessary because he is so frequently tested for the coronavirus. [THESE GUYS ARE SOOO ARAGANT ]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vice-pres ... s?ref=home

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