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solarbirdI mean, who can be surprised. Anybody?
----- 1 -----
Minutes after pledging to not lie, the new White House press secretary lied a whole bunch
Kayleigh McEnany’s first press briefing got off to a promising start. It lasted all of 15 minutes.
By Aaron Rupar
May 1, 2020
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/1/21244463/kayleigh-mcenany-first-press-briefing-lies
Kayleigh McEnany’s first briefing as White House press secretary started off on a hopeful note — with a promise from her not to lie. That lasted for about all of 15 minutes.
“I will never lie to you. You have my word on that,” McEnany said early during the briefing, in response from a question from the Associated Press’s Jill Colvin.
It’s a standard question White House reporters ask new press secretaries, and one that is rarely, if ever, lived up to fully. But it took all of two questions for Trump’s fourth press secretary to break that promise.
----- 2 -----
While Trump minimizes the toll, government orders 100,000 new body bags
Federal coronavirus response documents obtained by NBC News suggest that the president's optimism about "Opening Up America" is at odds with dire warnings from inside his administration.
April 30, 2020, 6:04 PM PDT
By Jonathan Allen, Phil McCausland and Cyrus Farivar
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/while-trump-minimizes-toll-government-orders-100-000-new-body-n1197316
WASHINGTON — The federal government placed orders for well over 100,000 new body bags to hold victims of COVID-19 in April, according to internal administration documents obtained by NBC News, as well as public records. The biggest set was earmarked for purchase the day after President Donald Trump projected that the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus might not exceed 50,000 or 60,000 people.
That batch is a pending $5.1 million purchase order placed by the Department of Homeland Security on April 21 with E.M. Oil Transport Inc. of Montebello, California, which advertises construction vehicles, building materials and electronics on its website. The "human remains pouches" have not been paid for or shipped to the Federal Emergency Management Agency yet, according to the company's marketing manager, Mike Pryor.
"I hope to God that they don't need my order and that they cancel it," Pryor said in a text message exchange with NBC News.
Body bag contracts bid by Homeland Security and the Veterans Affairs Department are just one illustration of how Trump's sunny confidence about the nation's readiness to reopen is in conflict with the views of officials in his own administration who are quietly preparing for a far worse outcome.
----- 3 -----
Trump says he won’t extend social distancing guidelines
By KEVIN FREKING and JILL COLVIN
30 April 2020
https://apnews.com/2867335427332ca7ed5e804475ba08e4
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday the federal government will not be extending its coronavirus social distancing guidelines once they expire Thursday, and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, predicted that by July the country will be “really rocking again.”
To underscore his confidence, Trump said he plans to resume out-of-state travel after spending more than a month mostly cooped up in the White House, starting with a trip to Arizona next week. And he said he’s hoping to hold mass campaign rallies in the coming months with thousands of supporters, even though medical experts have said there is little hope of having a vaccine by then.
Putting a positive face on the latest grim numbers — the U.S. death toll has now surpassed American lives lost in the Vietnam War — Trump delivered his daily upbeat update and Kushner described the administration’s much-criticized response to the pandemic as “a great success story.”
----- 4 -----
Poll: 67 percent of voters support voting exclusively by mail in 2020
The Hill
4/28/2020
https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/495129-poll-67-percent-of-voters-support-voting-by-mail-only-in-2020
A majority of voters support the use of mail-in ballots in the 2020 general election, a new Hill-HarrisX poll found.
Sixty-seven percent of registered voters in the April 19-20 survey approved of states holding elections exclusively using mail-in voting rather than having people go in-person to the polls, while 33 percent disapproved.
There were, however, partisan differences in responses.
Eighty-one percent of Democratic voters and 67 percent of independent voters said they were in favor of mail-in voting only in November. Republican voters were almost evenly split.
----- 5 -----
Fact check: Trump makes a bunch of false claims after event about protecting seniors
By Daniel Dale, Liz Stark and Maegan Vazquez, CNN
Updated 10:29 PM ET, Thu April 30, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/politics/fact-check-trump-april-30/index.html
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump did not hold an official coronavirus briefing on Thursday. Instead, he took questions from reporters after a White House event about protecting seniors -- and, as he did at the official briefings, made a bunch of false and misleading claims.
Asked about his previous compliments for China's response to the virus, Trump falsely suggested that the compliments had all come before the virus arrived in the US and before he had finalized a trade deal with China. And he dubiously suggested that he had quickly solved coronavirus testing problems, though many public health experts say he was slow to react and that the country is still far from a sufficient number of tests.
Trump repeated some old favorite inaccuracies about his travel restrictions on China and Europe (they weren't full bans), trade with China (it's not true that the US had never previously received any money from China) and the Veterans Choice health care program (President Barack Obama, not Trump, signed it into law).
Trump also made a subjective claim that the US's per capita coronavirus death numbers are "very strong." The US does not have the worst numbers in the world, but it has done far worse than some other countries -- including South Korea, which had its first confirmed case right around the same time in January.
----- 6 -----
The Memo: The surprising popularity of the Great Lockdown
By Niall Stanage - 04/30/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/the-memo/495573-the-memo-the-surprising-popularity-of-the-great-lockdown
There is at least one political surprise amid the coronavirus crisis — the Great Lockdown is popular among Americans.
People are, of course, hardly thrilled by stay-at-home orders, closed schools and the myriad other uncertainties of the current situation.
But there is a resilient consensus around the need for such measures — even as President Trump promises a swift return to normal, many states ease restrictions, and the economic effects of the battle against COVID-19 bite deeper and deeper.
“I think the public has a sense that this is one of the most dangerous things we have ever faced as a country in any of their lifetimes,” said Larry Gostin, a Georgetown Law School professor who specializes in public health. “They are fearful. They see people dying, they see people suffering, and they don’t want to be one of them and they don’t want their family to be one of them.”
Several recent polls bear out that view.
----- 7 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
30 April 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1256017826621652993
Today the President said he’s seen intel that gives him a high degree of confidence the virus outbreak originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Tonight twitter.com/StateDept sent out a transcript of a twitter.com/SecPompeo interview in which he says the opposite. H/T twitter.com/margbrennan:
[EMBEDDED IMAGE]
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NRA board member encouraged people to attend protest against social distancing: “They can’t arrest all of us”
Cydney Hargis
Published 04/30/20
https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/nra-board-member-encouraged-people-attend-protest-against-social-distancing
In a series of Facebook Live videos, National Rifle Association board member Anthony Colandro called the novel coronavirus pandemic “bullshit” and encouraged his followers to join him at an anti-social distancing protest in New Jersey.
In a April 27 Facebook video, Colandro announced he “may get arrested in Trenton tomorrow at the rally for our right to open New Jersey,” which he elaborated would take place the following day between noon and 3 p.m. at the Trenton War Memorial to show Gov. Phil Murphy “how upset we are.” Colandro went on to encourage his Facebook followers to come to the protests, which he noted violate New Jersey’s stay-at-home order, and insisted the state police “can’t arrest all of us.”
The following day, Colandro posted another video while driving down to the rally, reassuring viewers that he had a copy of the Constitution in case the police asked “where are your papers,” which he appeared to say in a German accent. He went on to call the pandemic -- which he calls the “plandemic” -- “a bunch of bullshit. Now they want microchipping and cell phone apps and they want to quarantine us in camps and stuff.”
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Michigan House OKs lawsuit to limit Whitmer's powers
Craig Mauger, The Detroit News Published 2:28 p.m. ET April 30, 2020
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Michigan is majority Democratic and has voted that way the last three elections, but the gerrymandering is so bad that Republicans have kept control of both the House and Senate by large majorities each time. See also: https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2018/11/07/once-again-michigan-dems-get-more-state-senate-and-house-votes-but-gop-keeps-power ]
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/04/30/house-adopts-resolution-allow-suit-over-govs-emergency-powers/3056678001/
Lansing — The Michigan House approved a resolution Thursday that authorizes Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, to file a legal challenge against unilateral efforts Gov. Gretchen Whtimer has taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
House members adopted the resolution in a voice vote as a feud continues in Lansing over Whitmer's emergency powers. The vote also happened as dozens of protesters, some of them armed, gathered outside the House chamber.
The Senate has a similar resolution before it but hadn't voted as of 3 p.m. Thursday.
----- 10 -----
Armed protesters demonstrate inside Michigan state capitol
By Tal Axelrod - 04/30/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/495556-armed-protesters-demonstrate-inside-michigan-state-capitol
Hundreds were seen protesting at the Michigan state capitol in Lansing, with some armed demonstrators pushing inside as the legislature discussed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic.
Protesters brandished firearms, signs and American flags inside the statehouse, chanting “Let us in!” The protest marked just the latest action against Whitmer’s policies intended to blunt the coronavirus’s spread.
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On aid to states, Trump seems to have an extortion plan in mind
Trump is open to extending a lifeline to states, but he'd like Democrats and governors to do him a favor, though.
April 29, 2020, 6:24 AM PDT
By Steve Benen
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/aid-states-trump-seems-have-extortion-plan-mind-n1195191
Last summer, Donald Trump had a phone meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was eager to discuss U.S. military support for his country. But when Zelensky brought up the possibility of purchasing military equipment, his American counterpart quickly tried to change the subject to an unrelated priority.
"I would like you to do us a favor, though," Trump said, connecting military support to the Republican's expectations that Ukraine would help with Trump's political interests. The illegal extortion scheme led to the American president's impeachment and bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate for his removal from office.
Trump, of course, nevertheless remains in the White House, where he's still looking for favors from those who need his approval for necessary assistance. Politico reported yesterday:
----- 12 -----
Mitch McConnell's new coronavirus plan: Make sure you can't sue a company that gets you sick
But providing businesses with broad legal immunity reduces any incentive for them to provide protective equipment to employees or safe spaces to customers.
April 28, 2020, 9:44 AM PDT
By Scott Lemieux
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/mitch-mcconnell-s-new-coronavirus-plan-make-sure-you-can-ncna1194226
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Monday that he is willing to work with Democrats to pass another COVID-19 relief bill when his institution finally returns from an inexcusably long recess in May. But seasoned liberal observers would know that such announcements from him should offer as much apprehension as hope — and McConnell did not go against type.
His top priority isn’t addressing the myriad economic hardships facing most Americans, who have seen jobs evaporate, salaries cut, small businesses suffer, retirement accounts dwindle and may yet still take ill or die of the disease the government seemingly has no comprehensive plan to fight, but rather addressing what he called the “the lawsuit pandemic” by providing legal immunity to companies for lawsuits related to their actions during the pandemic.
Denying people — or their immediate loved ones — their day in court for pandemic-related deaths caused by negligence or other misconduct is a terrible idea. And it indicates that the differences between Republican and Democratic priorities couldn’t be more stark. Congressional Democrats are fighting for aid that will preserve essential services to ordinary people and reduce the economic misery inflicted by necessary stay-at-home orders, while Republicans are laser-focused on preventing powerful actors from being held accountable.
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'A phantom plague': America's Bible Belt played down the pandemic and even cashed in. Now dozens of pastors are dead
Right to worship emerges as battleground in looming culture war as many congregations hit hard by coronavirus
Alex Woodward
Friday 24 April 2020
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bible-belt-us-coronavirus-pandemic-pastors-church-a9481226.html
Dozens of pastors across the Bible Belt have succumbed to coronavirus after churches and televangelists played down the pandemic and actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines.
As many as 30 church leaders from the nation's largest African American Pentecostal denomination have now been confirmed to have died in the outbreak, as members defied public health warnings to avoid large gatherings to prevent transmitting the virus.
Deaths across the US in areas where the Church of God in Christ has a presence have reportedly stemmed from funerals and other meetings among clergy and other church staff held during the pandemic.
The tragedy among one of the largest black Pentecostal groups follows a message of defiance from many American churches, particularly conservative Christian groups, to ignore state and local government mandates against group gatherings, with police increasingly called in to enforce the bans and hold preachers accountable.
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Acyn Torabi
twitter.com/Acyn
29 April 2020
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1255682222440374273
Laura Ingraham suggests masks aren’t essential and seems to say masks are a part of a media conspiracy to keep people scared
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
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Kathryn Watson
twitter.com/kathrynw5
30 April 2020
https://twitter.com/kathrynw5/status/1255922620832329729
Hogan says he made sure the plane with tests landed at BWI instead of Dulles, with a large presence of Maryland National Guard and Maryland State police, bc the tests were valuable and Massachusetts Gov. Baker said his plane load of masks was basically confiscated by the feds
[EMBEDDED TWEET]
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Trump forcing West Point graduates to risk coronavirus for his ego disrespects their work
These students have pledged to sacrifice their lives to protect their country and uphold the Constitution. Commanding them to take this risk is shameful.
April 29, 2020, 2:47 PM PDT
By Charlotte Clymer
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-forcing-west-point-graduates-risk-coronavirus-his-ego-disrespects-ncna1195576
President Donald Trump announced two weeks ago that the annual commencement ceremonies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point would proceed as normal and that he would speak in-person to this year’s 1,000 graduating class — much to the surprise of academy officials, who had been carefully planning how to restructure the milestone for cadets without putting anyone at risk for COVID-19. So now, instead of delaying the iconic ceremony or conducting it virtually, the commander in chief is putting 1,000 cadets, an untold number of military personnel and civilians, and perhaps the cadets’ families at risk in order to give a speech.
Though dangerous and irresponsible, it certainly tracks with Trump’s lack of discipline and general disrespect for our military. It’s also an especially narcissistic response to the hard work of these soon-to-be officers, who have spent the past four years in the most grueling undergraduate program in the country. I would know: After my time as an enlisted soldier (and before I was medically retired due to health complications), I spent two years as a cadet at the academy.
----- 17 -----
U.S. officials craft retaliatory actions against China
By Carol D. Leonnig, GERRY SHIH, Josh Dawsey and Jeff Stein
30 April 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/u-s-officials-craft-retaliatory-actions-against-china/
WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. officials are beginning to explore proposals for punishing or demanding financial compensation from China for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to four senior administration officials with knowledge of internal planning.
The move could splinter already strained relations between the two superpowers at a perilous moment for the global economy.
Senior officials across government agencies are expected to meet Thursday to consider retaliatory measures against China, two people with knowledge of the meeting said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose the planning. Officials in U.S. intelligence agencies are also involved in the effort.
President Donald Trump has fumed to aides and others in recent days about China, blaming that country for withholding information about the virus, and has discussed enacting dramatic measures that would likely lead to retaliation by Beijing, these people said.
In private, Trump and aides have discussed stripping China of its “sovereign immunity,” aiming to enable the U.S. government or victims to sue China for damages. George Sorial, who served as a top executive at the Trump Organization and is now involved in a class-action lawsuit against China, told The Washington Post that he and senior White House officials have discussed limiting China’s sovereign immunity. Legal experts say an attempt to limit China’s sovereign immunity would be extremely difficult to accomplish and may require congressional legislation.
Some administration officials have discussed canceling part of the U.S. debt obligations to China, two people with knowledge of internal conversations said. It was not known whether the president has backed this idea.
Administration officials strongly cautioned that the discussions are preliminary and that little formal work has begun on turning these initial ideas into reality. Other administration officials are warning Trump against the push to punish China, saying the country is sending supplies to help the American response.
“Now is just not the right time,” one senior administration official involved in the talks said. “There will be a time to do it.”
But in recent days, some believe the battle between the administration’s cautious economic approach to China and its national security push to retaliate against Beijing has begun to tilt toward the national security position.
“Punishing China is definitely where the president’s head is at right now,” said one senior adviser.
----- 18 -----
Fact check: Hilton CEO shatters Trump's testing conspiracy theory while sitting beside him
Analysis by Daniel Dale
Updated 3:43 PM ET, Thu April 30, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/politics/fact-check-trump-testing-conspiracy-hilton-nassetta/index.html
Washington (CNN)At a White House meeting with corporate executives on Wednesday, President Donald Trump repeated his conspiratorial suggestion that the media is talking about a lack of coronavirus testing to try to damage him politically.
And then, 31 minutes later, the CEO sitting beside Trump made clear that his claim was nonsense.
Christopher Nassetta, president and CEO of the Hilton hotel company, did not confront Trump explicitly. But Nassetta communicated that more testing is essential to his company's future -- thus shattering the President's absurd assertion that critical questions about the pace of testing are a mere "media trap."
----- 19 -----
Eyman pays Washington $278,137.93 for long-running contempt citations
By Joel Connelly, SeattlePI
Updated 11:53 am PDT, Thursday, April 30, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/eyman-pays-fine-state-washington-15237656.php
Initiative promoter Tim Eyman has paid $278,137.93, under orders of a U.S. bankruptcy court judge, to settle contempt citations he has piled up for not producing financial records in a campaign kickbacks case brought by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
"We will send to the state general fund," Ferguson's office said in a tweet. "Eyman has now paid a total of more than 330k for his contempt of court. He remains in contempt."
The ruling, by Chief Judge Marc Barcerra of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Western Washington, requires significant additional monthly payments until all court penalties have been paid.
The Attorney General's office sued Eyman in March of 2017, a suit stemming from a 76-page report by the state Public Disclosure Commission into Eyman's initiative business. The AG's suit, due for trial later this year, alleges that Eyman took $300,000 in donations for personal use, and concealed more than $490,000 in contributions. Money meant for one of Eyman's initiatives was diverted into another.
The orders to pay stem from decisions by Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon, that Eyman has continuously "willfully and deliberately" defied court orders directing that he produce documents related to the financing of his initiative campaigns.
Eyman has been held in contempt since Feb. 18, 2018, when the Thurston County judge ordered $250 a day in sanctions when Eyman did not deliver required financial information to the AG's investigators. The fine was later doubled to $500 a day.
Eyman is now running for Governor as a Republican, and has switched his verbal fire from Ferguson to Gov. Jay Inslee.
He agreed to pay the contempt citations, Eyman said earlier this month, out of fear of what the Attorney General would do to him.
"This payment plan was agreed to for one reason: As long as I raise enough money to pay this huge up-front payment and make these massive monthly payments, the State won't take our house and freeze all our bank accounts and take all our money," he said in a statement. "Mr. Ferguson has targeted me, Karen and the kids. He's gone after friends and family who helped us."
AG Ferguson put it a little differently. "This order reflects the significance of the contempt Tim Eyman has shown the court and public: Washington taxpayers will now get what they are owed for Tim Eyman's illegal obstruction."
The fine paid Wednesday should not be confused with a $193 fine that Eyman paid the city of Lacey last year, for theft of a chair from a local Home Depot. Eyman described taking the chair as "an honest mistake" and "a misunderstanding."
- Minutes after pledging to not lie, the new White House press secretary lied a whole bunch
- While Trump minimizes the toll, government orders 100,000 new body bags
- Trump says he won’t extend social distancing guidelines
- Poll: 67 percent of voters support voting exclusively by mail in 2020
- Fact check: Trump makes a bunch of false claims after event about protecting seniors
- The Memo: The surprising popularity of the Great Lockdown
- Trump said he’s seen intel that the virus outbreak originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. State Department disagrees.
- NRA board member encouraged people to attend protest against social distancing: “They can’t arrest all of us”
- Michigan House OKs lawsuit to limit Whitmer's powers
- Armed protesters demonstrate inside Michigan state capitol
- On aid to states, Trump seems to have an extortion plan in mind
- Mitch McConnell's new coronavirus plan: Make sure you can't sue a company that gets you sick
- 'A phantom plague': America's Bible Belt played down the pandemic and even cashed in. Now dozens of pastors are dead
- Laura Ingraham suggests masks aren’t essential and seems to say masks are a part of a media conspiracy to keep people scared
- Maryland guarding PPE with national guard, secrecy, to keep it from Federal seizure
- Trump forcing West Point graduates to risk coronavirus for his ego disrespects their work
- U.S. officials craft retaliatory actions against China
- Fact check: Hilton CEO shatters Trump's testing conspiracy theory while sitting beside him
- Eyman pays Washington $278,137.93 for long-running contempt citations
----- 1 -----
Minutes after pledging to not lie, the new White House press secretary lied a whole bunch
Kayleigh McEnany’s first press briefing got off to a promising start. It lasted all of 15 minutes.
By Aaron Rupar
May 1, 2020
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/1/21244463/kayleigh-mcenany-first-press-briefing-lies
Kayleigh McEnany’s first briefing as White House press secretary started off on a hopeful note — with a promise from her not to lie. That lasted for about all of 15 minutes.
“I will never lie to you. You have my word on that,” McEnany said early during the briefing, in response from a question from the Associated Press’s Jill Colvin.
It’s a standard question White House reporters ask new press secretaries, and one that is rarely, if ever, lived up to fully. But it took all of two questions for Trump’s fourth press secretary to break that promise.
----- 2 -----
While Trump minimizes the toll, government orders 100,000 new body bags
Federal coronavirus response documents obtained by NBC News suggest that the president's optimism about "Opening Up America" is at odds with dire warnings from inside his administration.
April 30, 2020, 6:04 PM PDT
By Jonathan Allen, Phil McCausland and Cyrus Farivar
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/while-trump-minimizes-toll-government-orders-100-000-new-body-n1197316
WASHINGTON — The federal government placed orders for well over 100,000 new body bags to hold victims of COVID-19 in April, according to internal administration documents obtained by NBC News, as well as public records. The biggest set was earmarked for purchase the day after President Donald Trump projected that the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus might not exceed 50,000 or 60,000 people.
That batch is a pending $5.1 million purchase order placed by the Department of Homeland Security on April 21 with E.M. Oil Transport Inc. of Montebello, California, which advertises construction vehicles, building materials and electronics on its website. The "human remains pouches" have not been paid for or shipped to the Federal Emergency Management Agency yet, according to the company's marketing manager, Mike Pryor.
"I hope to God that they don't need my order and that they cancel it," Pryor said in a text message exchange with NBC News.
Body bag contracts bid by Homeland Security and the Veterans Affairs Department are just one illustration of how Trump's sunny confidence about the nation's readiness to reopen is in conflict with the views of officials in his own administration who are quietly preparing for a far worse outcome.
----- 3 -----
Trump says he won’t extend social distancing guidelines
By KEVIN FREKING and JILL COLVIN
30 April 2020
https://apnews.com/2867335427332ca7ed5e804475ba08e4
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday the federal government will not be extending its coronavirus social distancing guidelines once they expire Thursday, and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, predicted that by July the country will be “really rocking again.”
To underscore his confidence, Trump said he plans to resume out-of-state travel after spending more than a month mostly cooped up in the White House, starting with a trip to Arizona next week. And he said he’s hoping to hold mass campaign rallies in the coming months with thousands of supporters, even though medical experts have said there is little hope of having a vaccine by then.
Putting a positive face on the latest grim numbers — the U.S. death toll has now surpassed American lives lost in the Vietnam War — Trump delivered his daily upbeat update and Kushner described the administration’s much-criticized response to the pandemic as “a great success story.”
----- 4 -----
Poll: 67 percent of voters support voting exclusively by mail in 2020
The Hill
4/28/2020
https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/495129-poll-67-percent-of-voters-support-voting-by-mail-only-in-2020
A majority of voters support the use of mail-in ballots in the 2020 general election, a new Hill-HarrisX poll found.
Sixty-seven percent of registered voters in the April 19-20 survey approved of states holding elections exclusively using mail-in voting rather than having people go in-person to the polls, while 33 percent disapproved.
There were, however, partisan differences in responses.
Eighty-one percent of Democratic voters and 67 percent of independent voters said they were in favor of mail-in voting only in November. Republican voters were almost evenly split.
----- 5 -----
Fact check: Trump makes a bunch of false claims after event about protecting seniors
By Daniel Dale, Liz Stark and Maegan Vazquez, CNN
Updated 10:29 PM ET, Thu April 30, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/politics/fact-check-trump-april-30/index.html
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump did not hold an official coronavirus briefing on Thursday. Instead, he took questions from reporters after a White House event about protecting seniors -- and, as he did at the official briefings, made a bunch of false and misleading claims.
Asked about his previous compliments for China's response to the virus, Trump falsely suggested that the compliments had all come before the virus arrived in the US and before he had finalized a trade deal with China. And he dubiously suggested that he had quickly solved coronavirus testing problems, though many public health experts say he was slow to react and that the country is still far from a sufficient number of tests.
Trump repeated some old favorite inaccuracies about his travel restrictions on China and Europe (they weren't full bans), trade with China (it's not true that the US had never previously received any money from China) and the Veterans Choice health care program (President Barack Obama, not Trump, signed it into law).
Trump also made a subjective claim that the US's per capita coronavirus death numbers are "very strong." The US does not have the worst numbers in the world, but it has done far worse than some other countries -- including South Korea, which had its first confirmed case right around the same time in January.
----- 6 -----
The Memo: The surprising popularity of the Great Lockdown
By Niall Stanage - 04/30/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/the-memo/495573-the-memo-the-surprising-popularity-of-the-great-lockdown
There is at least one political surprise amid the coronavirus crisis — the Great Lockdown is popular among Americans.
People are, of course, hardly thrilled by stay-at-home orders, closed schools and the myriad other uncertainties of the current situation.
But there is a resilient consensus around the need for such measures — even as President Trump promises a swift return to normal, many states ease restrictions, and the economic effects of the battle against COVID-19 bite deeper and deeper.
“I think the public has a sense that this is one of the most dangerous things we have ever faced as a country in any of their lifetimes,” said Larry Gostin, a Georgetown Law School professor who specializes in public health. “They are fearful. They see people dying, they see people suffering, and they don’t want to be one of them and they don’t want their family to be one of them.”
Several recent polls bear out that view.
----- 7 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
30 April 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1256017826621652993
Today the President said he’s seen intel that gives him a high degree of confidence the virus outbreak originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Tonight twitter.com/StateDept sent out a transcript of a twitter.com/SecPompeo interview in which he says the opposite. H/T twitter.com/margbrennan:
[EMBEDDED IMAGE]
----- 8 -----
NRA board member encouraged people to attend protest against social distancing: “They can’t arrest all of us”
Cydney Hargis
Published 04/30/20
https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/nra-board-member-encouraged-people-attend-protest-against-social-distancing
In a series of Facebook Live videos, National Rifle Association board member Anthony Colandro called the novel coronavirus pandemic “bullshit” and encouraged his followers to join him at an anti-social distancing protest in New Jersey.
In a April 27 Facebook video, Colandro announced he “may get arrested in Trenton tomorrow at the rally for our right to open New Jersey,” which he elaborated would take place the following day between noon and 3 p.m. at the Trenton War Memorial to show Gov. Phil Murphy “how upset we are.” Colandro went on to encourage his Facebook followers to come to the protests, which he noted violate New Jersey’s stay-at-home order, and insisted the state police “can’t arrest all of us.”
The following day, Colandro posted another video while driving down to the rally, reassuring viewers that he had a copy of the Constitution in case the police asked “where are your papers,” which he appeared to say in a German accent. He went on to call the pandemic -- which he calls the “plandemic” -- “a bunch of bullshit. Now they want microchipping and cell phone apps and they want to quarantine us in camps and stuff.”
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Michigan House OKs lawsuit to limit Whitmer's powers
Craig Mauger, The Detroit News Published 2:28 p.m. ET April 30, 2020
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Michigan is majority Democratic and has voted that way the last three elections, but the gerrymandering is so bad that Republicans have kept control of both the House and Senate by large majorities each time. See also: https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2018/11/07/once-again-michigan-dems-get-more-state-senate-and-house-votes-but-gop-keeps-power ]
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/04/30/house-adopts-resolution-allow-suit-over-govs-emergency-powers/3056678001/
Lansing — The Michigan House approved a resolution Thursday that authorizes Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, to file a legal challenge against unilateral efforts Gov. Gretchen Whtimer has taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
House members adopted the resolution in a voice vote as a feud continues in Lansing over Whitmer's emergency powers. The vote also happened as dozens of protesters, some of them armed, gathered outside the House chamber.
The Senate has a similar resolution before it but hadn't voted as of 3 p.m. Thursday.
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Armed protesters demonstrate inside Michigan state capitol
By Tal Axelrod - 04/30/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/495556-armed-protesters-demonstrate-inside-michigan-state-capitol
Hundreds were seen protesting at the Michigan state capitol in Lansing, with some armed demonstrators pushing inside as the legislature discussed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic.
Protesters brandished firearms, signs and American flags inside the statehouse, chanting “Let us in!” The protest marked just the latest action against Whitmer’s policies intended to blunt the coronavirus’s spread.
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On aid to states, Trump seems to have an extortion plan in mind
Trump is open to extending a lifeline to states, but he'd like Democrats and governors to do him a favor, though.
April 29, 2020, 6:24 AM PDT
By Steve Benen
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/aid-states-trump-seems-have-extortion-plan-mind-n1195191
Last summer, Donald Trump had a phone meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was eager to discuss U.S. military support for his country. But when Zelensky brought up the possibility of purchasing military equipment, his American counterpart quickly tried to change the subject to an unrelated priority.
"I would like you to do us a favor, though," Trump said, connecting military support to the Republican's expectations that Ukraine would help with Trump's political interests. The illegal extortion scheme led to the American president's impeachment and bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate for his removal from office.
Trump, of course, nevertheless remains in the White House, where he's still looking for favors from those who need his approval for necessary assistance. Politico reported yesterday:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that state and local bailout money from the federal government could hinge on whether the immigration policies of the individual governments seeking relief align with Trump administration priorities.
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Mitch McConnell's new coronavirus plan: Make sure you can't sue a company that gets you sick
But providing businesses with broad legal immunity reduces any incentive for them to provide protective equipment to employees or safe spaces to customers.
April 28, 2020, 9:44 AM PDT
By Scott Lemieux
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/mitch-mcconnell-s-new-coronavirus-plan-make-sure-you-can-ncna1194226
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Monday that he is willing to work with Democrats to pass another COVID-19 relief bill when his institution finally returns from an inexcusably long recess in May. But seasoned liberal observers would know that such announcements from him should offer as much apprehension as hope — and McConnell did not go against type.
His top priority isn’t addressing the myriad economic hardships facing most Americans, who have seen jobs evaporate, salaries cut, small businesses suffer, retirement accounts dwindle and may yet still take ill or die of the disease the government seemingly has no comprehensive plan to fight, but rather addressing what he called the “the lawsuit pandemic” by providing legal immunity to companies for lawsuits related to their actions during the pandemic.
Denying people — or their immediate loved ones — their day in court for pandemic-related deaths caused by negligence or other misconduct is a terrible idea. And it indicates that the differences between Republican and Democratic priorities couldn’t be more stark. Congressional Democrats are fighting for aid that will preserve essential services to ordinary people and reduce the economic misery inflicted by necessary stay-at-home orders, while Republicans are laser-focused on preventing powerful actors from being held accountable.
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'A phantom plague': America's Bible Belt played down the pandemic and even cashed in. Now dozens of pastors are dead
Right to worship emerges as battleground in looming culture war as many congregations hit hard by coronavirus
Alex Woodward
Friday 24 April 2020
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bible-belt-us-coronavirus-pandemic-pastors-church-a9481226.html
Dozens of pastors across the Bible Belt have succumbed to coronavirus after churches and televangelists played down the pandemic and actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines.
As many as 30 church leaders from the nation's largest African American Pentecostal denomination have now been confirmed to have died in the outbreak, as members defied public health warnings to avoid large gatherings to prevent transmitting the virus.
Deaths across the US in areas where the Church of God in Christ has a presence have reportedly stemmed from funerals and other meetings among clergy and other church staff held during the pandemic.
The tragedy among one of the largest black Pentecostal groups follows a message of defiance from many American churches, particularly conservative Christian groups, to ignore state and local government mandates against group gatherings, with police increasingly called in to enforce the bans and hold preachers accountable.
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Acyn Torabi
twitter.com/Acyn
29 April 2020
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1255682222440374273
Laura Ingraham suggests masks aren’t essential and seems to say masks are a part of a media conspiracy to keep people scared
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
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Kathryn Watson
twitter.com/kathrynw5
30 April 2020
https://twitter.com/kathrynw5/status/1255922620832329729
Hogan says he made sure the plane with tests landed at BWI instead of Dulles, with a large presence of Maryland National Guard and Maryland State police, bc the tests were valuable and Massachusetts Gov. Baker said his plane load of masks was basically confiscated by the feds
[EMBEDDED TWEET]
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Trump forcing West Point graduates to risk coronavirus for his ego disrespects their work
These students have pledged to sacrifice their lives to protect their country and uphold the Constitution. Commanding them to take this risk is shameful.
April 29, 2020, 2:47 PM PDT
By Charlotte Clymer
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-forcing-west-point-graduates-risk-coronavirus-his-ego-disrespects-ncna1195576
President Donald Trump announced two weeks ago that the annual commencement ceremonies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point would proceed as normal and that he would speak in-person to this year’s 1,000 graduating class — much to the surprise of academy officials, who had been carefully planning how to restructure the milestone for cadets without putting anyone at risk for COVID-19. So now, instead of delaying the iconic ceremony or conducting it virtually, the commander in chief is putting 1,000 cadets, an untold number of military personnel and civilians, and perhaps the cadets’ families at risk in order to give a speech.
Though dangerous and irresponsible, it certainly tracks with Trump’s lack of discipline and general disrespect for our military. It’s also an especially narcissistic response to the hard work of these soon-to-be officers, who have spent the past four years in the most grueling undergraduate program in the country. I would know: After my time as an enlisted soldier (and before I was medically retired due to health complications), I spent two years as a cadet at the academy.
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U.S. officials craft retaliatory actions against China
By Carol D. Leonnig, GERRY SHIH, Josh Dawsey and Jeff Stein
30 April 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/u-s-officials-craft-retaliatory-actions-against-china/
WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. officials are beginning to explore proposals for punishing or demanding financial compensation from China for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to four senior administration officials with knowledge of internal planning.
The move could splinter already strained relations between the two superpowers at a perilous moment for the global economy.
Senior officials across government agencies are expected to meet Thursday to consider retaliatory measures against China, two people with knowledge of the meeting said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose the planning. Officials in U.S. intelligence agencies are also involved in the effort.
President Donald Trump has fumed to aides and others in recent days about China, blaming that country for withholding information about the virus, and has discussed enacting dramatic measures that would likely lead to retaliation by Beijing, these people said.
In private, Trump and aides have discussed stripping China of its “sovereign immunity,” aiming to enable the U.S. government or victims to sue China for damages. George Sorial, who served as a top executive at the Trump Organization and is now involved in a class-action lawsuit against China, told The Washington Post that he and senior White House officials have discussed limiting China’s sovereign immunity. Legal experts say an attempt to limit China’s sovereign immunity would be extremely difficult to accomplish and may require congressional legislation.
Some administration officials have discussed canceling part of the U.S. debt obligations to China, two people with knowledge of internal conversations said. It was not known whether the president has backed this idea.
Administration officials strongly cautioned that the discussions are preliminary and that little formal work has begun on turning these initial ideas into reality. Other administration officials are warning Trump against the push to punish China, saying the country is sending supplies to help the American response.
“Now is just not the right time,” one senior administration official involved in the talks said. “There will be a time to do it.”
But in recent days, some believe the battle between the administration’s cautious economic approach to China and its national security push to retaliate against Beijing has begun to tilt toward the national security position.
“Punishing China is definitely where the president’s head is at right now,” said one senior adviser.
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Fact check: Hilton CEO shatters Trump's testing conspiracy theory while sitting beside him
Analysis by Daniel Dale
Updated 3:43 PM ET, Thu April 30, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/politics/fact-check-trump-testing-conspiracy-hilton-nassetta/index.html
Washington (CNN)At a White House meeting with corporate executives on Wednesday, President Donald Trump repeated his conspiratorial suggestion that the media is talking about a lack of coronavirus testing to try to damage him politically.
And then, 31 minutes later, the CEO sitting beside Trump made clear that his claim was nonsense.
Christopher Nassetta, president and CEO of the Hilton hotel company, did not confront Trump explicitly. But Nassetta communicated that more testing is essential to his company's future -- thus shattering the President's absurd assertion that critical questions about the pace of testing are a mere "media trap."
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Eyman pays Washington $278,137.93 for long-running contempt citations
By Joel Connelly, SeattlePI
Updated 11:53 am PDT, Thursday, April 30, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/eyman-pays-fine-state-washington-15237656.php
Initiative promoter Tim Eyman has paid $278,137.93, under orders of a U.S. bankruptcy court judge, to settle contempt citations he has piled up for not producing financial records in a campaign kickbacks case brought by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
"We will send to the state general fund," Ferguson's office said in a tweet. "Eyman has now paid a total of more than 330k for his contempt of court. He remains in contempt."
The ruling, by Chief Judge Marc Barcerra of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Western Washington, requires significant additional monthly payments until all court penalties have been paid.
The Attorney General's office sued Eyman in March of 2017, a suit stemming from a 76-page report by the state Public Disclosure Commission into Eyman's initiative business. The AG's suit, due for trial later this year, alleges that Eyman took $300,000 in donations for personal use, and concealed more than $490,000 in contributions. Money meant for one of Eyman's initiatives was diverted into another.
The orders to pay stem from decisions by Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon, that Eyman has continuously "willfully and deliberately" defied court orders directing that he produce documents related to the financing of his initiative campaigns.
Eyman has been held in contempt since Feb. 18, 2018, when the Thurston County judge ordered $250 a day in sanctions when Eyman did not deliver required financial information to the AG's investigators. The fine was later doubled to $500 a day.
Eyman is now running for Governor as a Republican, and has switched his verbal fire from Ferguson to Gov. Jay Inslee.
He agreed to pay the contempt citations, Eyman said earlier this month, out of fear of what the Attorney General would do to him.
"This payment plan was agreed to for one reason: As long as I raise enough money to pay this huge up-front payment and make these massive monthly payments, the State won't take our house and freeze all our bank accounts and take all our money," he said in a statement. "Mr. Ferguson has targeted me, Karen and the kids. He's gone after friends and family who helped us."
AG Ferguson put it a little differently. "This order reflects the significance of the contempt Tim Eyman has shown the court and public: Washington taxpayers will now get what they are owed for Tim Eyman's illegal obstruction."
The fine paid Wednesday should not be confused with a $193 fine that Eyman paid the city of Lacey last year, for theft of a chair from a local Home Depot. Eyman described taking the chair as "an honest mistake" and "a misunderstanding."
no subject
Date: 2020-05-02 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-02 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-02 05:36 pm (UTC)How on earth is that supposed to work? You'd think only an entity on a higher level than both the US and China could do that. Wouldn't China just ignore the hell out of any such suits? (How can you even bring suit across what are presumably wildly differing legal systems, anyway? Practically speaking?)
no subject
Date: 2020-05-02 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-03 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-11 12:53 am (UTC)