![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdThe Washington Post starts to get it.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, armed ultrarightists showed up again with an absolute assload of guns and shut down the legislature. The legislature will be back on Tuesday; I don't have data on the next armed march.
Remember when I said these were looking like rehearsals? Now they're trial runs. And nobody, so far, is willing to stop them.
Also note how two days ago, the governor asked Vice President Pence to try to get these guys to cool off. He did not. That is significant.
Also also, I've edited to add Donkeyballs saying that testing is why you have cases, as if testing causes the cases. He'll say that's not what he meant, but it's what he said, and it's what he's encouraging, and yeah, it's sabotage.
----- 1 -----
The right-wing media’s assault on Dr. Tony Fauci
Fox News hosts attack Dr. Fauci after his stark warning on reopening, as new polls show most Americans still do not feel safe returning to normal
May 13, 2020
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/watch/the-right-wing-media-s-assault-on-dr-tony-fauci-83422277783
[VIDEO ONLY]
"Fox has not just played with fire, but been singed, with the reckless commentary of people on their air."
----- 2 -----
Michigan anti-lockdown protesters spread COVID-19 to rural areas, Whitmer tells Pence in leaked call
Igor Derysh
May 12, 2020 8:52PM (UTC)
https://www.salon.com/2020/05/12/michigan-anti-lockdown-protesters-spread-covid-19-to-rural-areas-whitmer-tells-pence-in-leaked-call/
Some protesters who descended on the Michigan state capitol to demand the state reopen the economy in spite of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic have spread infections in rural areas where they live, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told Vice President Mike Pence in a recorded phone conversation obtained by ABC News.
Whitmer, a Democrat, asked Pence to discourage the demonstrations after the state's data suggested the protesters brought COVID-19 back to their rural communities.
"We have seen from initial protests here is that we've got COVID-19 spreading in rural parts of our state, from which people traveled," Whitmer reportedly told Pence.
Whitmer added that the alarming trend could derail the state's plans to begin reopening.
"And so, our ability to move on to the next phase and keep re-engaging our economy — I'm just concerned about it," Whitmer said. "We're going to keep watching those numbers and doing the tests."
Whitmer then asked Pence to "reinforce" the need for Americans to take the pandemic "seriously."
"To the extent that you could reinforce kind of those needs to take this seriously, to continue — you know, everyone doing their part," she said. "And if discouraging protests is something you could consider doing, I'd really be grateful."
"We will continue to emphasize to people the safe and responsible practices while we all move toward re-opening," Pence replied, according to the report.
President Donald Trump has taken the opposite approach, repeatedly attacking Whitmer and calling to "liberate" Michigan.
"The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire," Trump tweeted earlier this month. "These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal."
Some of the protests were organized by well-funded groups linked to the Trump administration.
----- 3 -----
Michigan Cancels Legislative Session to Avoid Armed Protesters
By David Welch
May 14, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-14/michigan-cancels-legislative-session-to-avoid-armed-protesters
Michigan closed down its capitol in Lansing on Thursday and canceled its legislative session rather than face the possibility of an armed protest and death threats against Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
The gathering, meant to advocate opening the state for business despite the coronavirus pandemic, followed one April 30 that resulted in pictures of protesters clad in military-style gear and carrying long guns crowding the statehouse. They confronted police and taunted lawmakers.
The shutdown was done with little fanfare at the end of Wednesday’s State Senate session. About 4:30 p.m., lawmakers in the Republican-majority chamber simply adjourned until Tuesday rather than call the next previously scheduled meeting for Thursday morning at 10 a.m. The Michigan State Police are closing the buildings due to the coronavirus, said spokesman Lieutenant Brian Oleksyk.
For the past week, lawmakers have been debating how to safely enable lawmakers to work and vote in session while the state’s laws allow people to bring firearms into the capitol building. The debate grew more tense in recent days as some lawmakers read about threats to the governor’s life on social media, which were published in the Detroit Metro Times.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued an opinion on May 11 saying that the State Capitol Commission -- a body of six lawmakers who oversee the building and its grounds -- could ban firearms. The commission voted to study a ban this week, but took no action.
Thursday’s protest, billed as “Judgment Day,” was organized by the right-wing group Michigan United for Liberty, which is protesting the state’s extended stay-at-home order. Whitmer pushed the order to the end of May while giving automakers, their suppliers and other manufacturers the green light to go back to work. On its Facebook page, the group posted a memo asking that protesters remain peaceful.
----- 4 -----
Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down Wisconsin's stay-at-home order that closed businesses to limit spread of coronavirus
Molly Beck and Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 5:04 p.m. CT May 13, 2020 | Updated 7:34 a.m. CT May 14, 2020
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Two Republican judges are lame ducks. But they could still throw this monkeywrench into the works on the way out.]
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/13/wisconsin-supreme-court-strikes-down-tony-evers-coronavirus-orders/5179205002/
MADISON - The Wisconsin Supreme Court has struck down Gov. Tony Evers' order shutting down daily life to limit the spread of coronavirus — marking the first time a statewide order of its kind has been knocked down by a court of last resort.
The state's highest court sided with Republican lawmakers Wednesday in a decision that curbed the power of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' administration to act unilaterally during public health emergencies.
The 4-3 decision was written by four of the court’s conservatives — Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and Justices Rebecca Bradley, Daniel Kelly and Annette Ziegler.
The court’s fifth conservative, Brian Hagedorn, wrote a dissent joined by the court’s two liberals, Ann Walsh Bradley and Rebecca Dallet.
The ruling immediately lifts all restrictions on businesses and gatherings imposed by the administration's order but keeps in place the closure of schools until fall. It comes after Evers had already begun lifting some restrictions because the spread of the virus has slowed for now.
----- 5 -----
GOP split on whether to back Fauci's or Trump's assessment on reopening economy
By Manu Raju and Ted Barrett, CNN
Updated 4:50 PM ET, Tue May 12, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/12/politics/republican-reaction-fauci-testimony/index.html
(CNN)Republican senators are conceding that Dr. Anthony Fauci's testimony warning about moving too quickly to reopen the US economy is inconsistent with President Donald Trump's push to "liberate" various states and quickly get the country back to business.
But the GOP is split about whether Trump should be more cautious with his own public statements or if it's Fauci who is being too much of an alarmist, as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky appears to be asserting.
"Surely the testimony is more nuanced than the President's statements," said Sen. Bill Cassidy, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which hosted Fauci at its hearing Tuesday. Cassidy added the decision to reopen needs to be "data driven."
Asked about Trump's calls to "liberate" states, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, another member of the committee, said: "I think we need to follow the experts here."
Others later pushed back at Fauci. "I think he may not realize that in advocating for extreme closure of things, the punishment that's happening to our country, and we really need to get opening back up," Paul told CNN.
Nevertheless, Fauci's testimony warning of "serious" consequences if states move too quickly put some GOP senators in an awkward spot as they try to defend the President's handling of the crisis while also ensuring their states are not placed at a greater risk by reopening.
----- 6 -----
BETTER TO REIGN IN RANDIAN HELL
May 09, 2020
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2020/05/better-to-reign-in-randian-hell.html
[EDITOR: This just seemed cogent]
Nicholas Kristof compares the pandemic responses of Denmark and America:
Denmark lowered new infections so successfully that last month it reopened elementary schools and day care centers as well as barber shops and physical therapy centers. Malls and shops will be allowed to reopen on Monday, and restaurants and cafes a week later.
Our response to the pandemic has been worse than Sweden's or Denmark's, and one consequence is that our economy will be in the toilet for years to come.
I understand that we're reopening much of America prematurely because our corporate overlords have contempt for their employees and their customers and just want revenue to start flowing again as quickly as possible. But why are they unable to grasp the obvious point that their customers are afraid to come back, and that they'll be even more afraid when, inevitably, the premature reopenings cause a spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths? In other words, why aren't the CEOs who have Donald Trump's ear telling him that, for his benefit and theirs (they really don't care about ours), he should be working harder to bend the curve and increase testing and tracing, because that's what it will take to give Americans the confidence to go out and consume?
And I know that corporate chieftains don't like government spending on anyone except themselves, but we're spending massive amounts of money anyway, so why don't they want it spent in a more Nordic way, a way that would help sustain consumer purchasing power?
In other words, if they support Donald Trump's approach to the pandemic, aren't they supporting the approach that will put less money in their pockets?
I've come to the conclusion that many American capitalists aren't seekers of pure profit. They often prefer control.
----- 7 -----
Sarah Reese Jones
twitter.com/PoliticusSarah
14 May 2020
https://twitter.com/PoliticusSarah/status/1260966150801932288
Dr. Bright's testimony is devastating for Trump. Bright points out that his urgings and warnings were ignored, and he was removed from meetings because he caused a commotion within the West Wing.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 8 -----
Whistleblower: US still lacks virus plan, Americans at risk
May 13, 2020
By RICHARD LARDNER and RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
The Associated Press
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/us-immunologist-warns-of-darkest-winter-if-virus-rebounds/
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite White House claims, the U.S. still lacks a comprehensive battle plan against the coronavirus in critical areas including masks, testing, treatments and vaccines, whistleblower Rick Bright warned Thursday in testimony before a House committee. “Our window of opportunity is closing,” he declared.
The nation could face “the darkest winter in modern history” if the virus rebounds, the government vaccine scientist told lawmakers. Bright’s appearance came after his ouster last month as head of a Health and Human Services biodefense agency, an action he alleges was retaliation by the Trump administration.
“We need still a comprehensive plan, and everyone across the government and everyone in America needs to know what that plan is, and what role they play,” he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “There are critical steps that we need to do to prepare … we do not still have enough personal protective equipment to manage our health care workers … we still do not have the supply chains ramped up for the drugs and vaccines, and we still don’t have plans in place for how we distribute those drugs and vaccines. We still do not have a comprehensive testing strategy.”
----- 9 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
14 May 2020
[THREAD]
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1260905215387217932
"We're gonna lose over 100,000 perhaps" -- Trump just moved the goalposts *again* about the projected US coronavirus death toll
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 10 -----
Why Trump needs the pandemic to be polarized
By
Paul Waldman
Opinion writer
May 13, 2020 at 9:45 a.m. PDT
Partisan polarization, most people agree, is both everywhere in our public life and deeply detrimental to our civic health. But there are moments when Americans can agree on some things, and it appears that our current public health and economic crisis is one of them.
There may be loud and angry protesters waving their guns around at state capitols, but most Americans are on board with stay-at-home orders and social distancing until the coronavirus pandemic is under control.
That broad agreement, however, is a threat to President Trump. He’s trying to undo it, and he might be starting to succeed. Throughout his presidency, he has worked to solidify and exacerbate partisan enmity on the theory that he could be reelected if he maintained the loyalty of Republicans. With that reelection never in more peril than it is right now, he’s looking to polarization to save him.
The most notable feature of recent polling is how (relatively) unified the public has been. Governors have seen their approval ratings skyrocket, particularly those who have been aggressive in ordering shutdowns. In polls, the public has expressed a wariness about resuming normal activity too soon, and unhappiness with Trump’s failure to make that safer.
As my colleague Greg Sargent wrote, “Large majorities grasp that he’s putting people in danger by urging a reopening on his timetable … and large majorities understand this is precisely because he failed to do enough to ensure it can be done safely.”
But that might not be true forever. Some polls are showing a shift among Republicans in Trump’s direction. For instance, according to a Morning Consult poll:
And in Pew Research Center polls, the number of Republicans saying the novel coronavirus is a major threat to the health of the U.S. population as a whole dropped from 52 percent in April to 43 percent in May.
Even more striking: In a CNN poll, by 71 percent to 26 percent, Republicans said the worst of the pandemic is behind us, while Democrats said the worst is yet to come by 74 percent to 23 percent.
----- 11 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
14 May 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1261017121078861826
TRUMP: "When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn't do any testing we would have very few cases."
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
Meanwhile, in Michigan, armed ultrarightists showed up again with an absolute assload of guns and shut down the legislature. The legislature will be back on Tuesday; I don't have data on the next armed march.
Remember when I said these were looking like rehearsals? Now they're trial runs. And nobody, so far, is willing to stop them.
Also note how two days ago, the governor asked Vice President Pence to try to get these guys to cool off. He did not. That is significant.
Also also, I've edited to add Donkeyballs saying that testing is why you have cases, as if testing causes the cases. He'll say that's not what he meant, but it's what he said, and it's what he's encouraging, and yeah, it's sabotage.
- The right-wing media’s assault on Dr. Tony Fauci
- Michigan anti-lockdown protesters spread COVID-19 to rural areas, Whitmer tells Pence in leaked call [MAY 12th]
- Michigan Cancels Legislative Session to Avoid Armed Protesters [MAY 14th]
- Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down
- Wisconsin's stay-at-home order that closed businesses to limit spread of coronavirus
- GOP split on whether to back Fauci's or Trump's assessment on reopening economy
- BETTER TO REIGN IN RANDIAN HELL
- Dr. Bright's testimony is devastating for Trump.
- Whistleblower: US still lacks virus plan, Americans at risk
- Why Trump needs the pandemic to be polarized
- Trump: we have so many COVID-19 cases because of testing
----- 1 -----
The right-wing media’s assault on Dr. Tony Fauci
Fox News hosts attack Dr. Fauci after his stark warning on reopening, as new polls show most Americans still do not feel safe returning to normal
May 13, 2020
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/watch/the-right-wing-media-s-assault-on-dr-tony-fauci-83422277783
[VIDEO ONLY]
"Fox has not just played with fire, but been singed, with the reckless commentary of people on their air."
----- 2 -----
Michigan anti-lockdown protesters spread COVID-19 to rural areas, Whitmer tells Pence in leaked call
Igor Derysh
May 12, 2020 8:52PM (UTC)
https://www.salon.com/2020/05/12/michigan-anti-lockdown-protesters-spread-covid-19-to-rural-areas-whitmer-tells-pence-in-leaked-call/
Some protesters who descended on the Michigan state capitol to demand the state reopen the economy in spite of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic have spread infections in rural areas where they live, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told Vice President Mike Pence in a recorded phone conversation obtained by ABC News.
Whitmer, a Democrat, asked Pence to discourage the demonstrations after the state's data suggested the protesters brought COVID-19 back to their rural communities.
"We have seen from initial protests here is that we've got COVID-19 spreading in rural parts of our state, from which people traveled," Whitmer reportedly told Pence.
Whitmer added that the alarming trend could derail the state's plans to begin reopening.
"And so, our ability to move on to the next phase and keep re-engaging our economy — I'm just concerned about it," Whitmer said. "We're going to keep watching those numbers and doing the tests."
Whitmer then asked Pence to "reinforce" the need for Americans to take the pandemic "seriously."
"To the extent that you could reinforce kind of those needs to take this seriously, to continue — you know, everyone doing their part," she said. "And if discouraging protests is something you could consider doing, I'd really be grateful."
"We will continue to emphasize to people the safe and responsible practices while we all move toward re-opening," Pence replied, according to the report.
President Donald Trump has taken the opposite approach, repeatedly attacking Whitmer and calling to "liberate" Michigan.
"The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire," Trump tweeted earlier this month. "These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal."
Some of the protests were organized by well-funded groups linked to the Trump administration.
----- 3 -----
Michigan Cancels Legislative Session to Avoid Armed Protesters
By David Welch
May 14, 2020
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-14/michigan-cancels-legislative-session-to-avoid-armed-protesters
Michigan closed down its capitol in Lansing on Thursday and canceled its legislative session rather than face the possibility of an armed protest and death threats against Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
The gathering, meant to advocate opening the state for business despite the coronavirus pandemic, followed one April 30 that resulted in pictures of protesters clad in military-style gear and carrying long guns crowding the statehouse. They confronted police and taunted lawmakers.
The shutdown was done with little fanfare at the end of Wednesday’s State Senate session. About 4:30 p.m., lawmakers in the Republican-majority chamber simply adjourned until Tuesday rather than call the next previously scheduled meeting for Thursday morning at 10 a.m. The Michigan State Police are closing the buildings due to the coronavirus, said spokesman Lieutenant Brian Oleksyk.
For the past week, lawmakers have been debating how to safely enable lawmakers to work and vote in session while the state’s laws allow people to bring firearms into the capitol building. The debate grew more tense in recent days as some lawmakers read about threats to the governor’s life on social media, which were published in the Detroit Metro Times.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued an opinion on May 11 saying that the State Capitol Commission -- a body of six lawmakers who oversee the building and its grounds -- could ban firearms. The commission voted to study a ban this week, but took no action.
Thursday’s protest, billed as “Judgment Day,” was organized by the right-wing group Michigan United for Liberty, which is protesting the state’s extended stay-at-home order. Whitmer pushed the order to the end of May while giving automakers, their suppliers and other manufacturers the green light to go back to work. On its Facebook page, the group posted a memo asking that protesters remain peaceful.
----- 4 -----
Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down Wisconsin's stay-at-home order that closed businesses to limit spread of coronavirus
Molly Beck and Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 5:04 p.m. CT May 13, 2020 | Updated 7:34 a.m. CT May 14, 2020
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Two Republican judges are lame ducks. But they could still throw this monkeywrench into the works on the way out.]
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/13/wisconsin-supreme-court-strikes-down-tony-evers-coronavirus-orders/5179205002/
MADISON - The Wisconsin Supreme Court has struck down Gov. Tony Evers' order shutting down daily life to limit the spread of coronavirus — marking the first time a statewide order of its kind has been knocked down by a court of last resort.
The state's highest court sided with Republican lawmakers Wednesday in a decision that curbed the power of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' administration to act unilaterally during public health emergencies.
The 4-3 decision was written by four of the court’s conservatives — Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and Justices Rebecca Bradley, Daniel Kelly and Annette Ziegler.
The court’s fifth conservative, Brian Hagedorn, wrote a dissent joined by the court’s two liberals, Ann Walsh Bradley and Rebecca Dallet.
The ruling immediately lifts all restrictions on businesses and gatherings imposed by the administration's order but keeps in place the closure of schools until fall. It comes after Evers had already begun lifting some restrictions because the spread of the virus has slowed for now.
----- 5 -----
GOP split on whether to back Fauci's or Trump's assessment on reopening economy
By Manu Raju and Ted Barrett, CNN
Updated 4:50 PM ET, Tue May 12, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/12/politics/republican-reaction-fauci-testimony/index.html
(CNN)Republican senators are conceding that Dr. Anthony Fauci's testimony warning about moving too quickly to reopen the US economy is inconsistent with President Donald Trump's push to "liberate" various states and quickly get the country back to business.
But the GOP is split about whether Trump should be more cautious with his own public statements or if it's Fauci who is being too much of an alarmist, as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky appears to be asserting.
"Surely the testimony is more nuanced than the President's statements," said Sen. Bill Cassidy, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which hosted Fauci at its hearing Tuesday. Cassidy added the decision to reopen needs to be "data driven."
Asked about Trump's calls to "liberate" states, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, another member of the committee, said: "I think we need to follow the experts here."
Others later pushed back at Fauci. "I think he may not realize that in advocating for extreme closure of things, the punishment that's happening to our country, and we really need to get opening back up," Paul told CNN.
Nevertheless, Fauci's testimony warning of "serious" consequences if states move too quickly put some GOP senators in an awkward spot as they try to defend the President's handling of the crisis while also ensuring their states are not placed at a greater risk by reopening.
----- 6 -----
BETTER TO REIGN IN RANDIAN HELL
May 09, 2020
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2020/05/better-to-reign-in-randian-hell.html
[EDITOR: This just seemed cogent]
Nicholas Kristof compares the pandemic responses of Denmark and America:
Denmark lowered new infections so successfully that last month it reopened elementary schools and day care centers as well as barber shops and physical therapy centers. Malls and shops will be allowed to reopen on Monday, and restaurants and cafes a week later.
Moreover, Danes kept their jobs. The trauma of massive numbers of people losing jobs and health insurance, of long lines at food banks — that is the American experience, but it’s not what’s happening in Denmark. America’s unemployment rate last month was 14.7 percent, but Denmark’s is hovering in the range of 4 percent to 5 percent.
Moreover, Danes kept their jobs. The trauma of massive numbers of people losing jobs and health insurance, of long lines at food banks — that is the American experience, but it’s not what’s happening in Denmark. America’s unemployment rate last month was 14.7 percent, but Denmark’s is hovering in the range of 4 percent to 5 percent.
Our response to the pandemic has been worse than Sweden's or Denmark's, and one consequence is that our economy will be in the toilet for years to come.
I understand that we're reopening much of America prematurely because our corporate overlords have contempt for their employees and their customers and just want revenue to start flowing again as quickly as possible. But why are they unable to grasp the obvious point that their customers are afraid to come back, and that they'll be even more afraid when, inevitably, the premature reopenings cause a spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths? In other words, why aren't the CEOs who have Donald Trump's ear telling him that, for his benefit and theirs (they really don't care about ours), he should be working harder to bend the curve and increase testing and tracing, because that's what it will take to give Americans the confidence to go out and consume?
And I know that corporate chieftains don't like government spending on anyone except themselves, but we're spending massive amounts of money anyway, so why don't they want it spent in a more Nordic way, a way that would help sustain consumer purchasing power?
In other words, if they support Donald Trump's approach to the pandemic, aren't they supporting the approach that will put less money in their pockets?
I've come to the conclusion that many American capitalists aren't seekers of pure profit. They often prefer control.
----- 7 -----
Sarah Reese Jones
twitter.com/PoliticusSarah
14 May 2020
https://twitter.com/PoliticusSarah/status/1260966150801932288
Dr. Bright's testimony is devastating for Trump. Bright points out that his urgings and warnings were ignored, and he was removed from meetings because he caused a commotion within the West Wing.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 8 -----
Whistleblower: US still lacks virus plan, Americans at risk
May 13, 2020
By RICHARD LARDNER and RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
The Associated Press
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/us-immunologist-warns-of-darkest-winter-if-virus-rebounds/
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite White House claims, the U.S. still lacks a comprehensive battle plan against the coronavirus in critical areas including masks, testing, treatments and vaccines, whistleblower Rick Bright warned Thursday in testimony before a House committee. “Our window of opportunity is closing,” he declared.
The nation could face “the darkest winter in modern history” if the virus rebounds, the government vaccine scientist told lawmakers. Bright’s appearance came after his ouster last month as head of a Health and Human Services biodefense agency, an action he alleges was retaliation by the Trump administration.
“We need still a comprehensive plan, and everyone across the government and everyone in America needs to know what that plan is, and what role they play,” he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “There are critical steps that we need to do to prepare … we do not still have enough personal protective equipment to manage our health care workers … we still do not have the supply chains ramped up for the drugs and vaccines, and we still don’t have plans in place for how we distribute those drugs and vaccines. We still do not have a comprehensive testing strategy.”
----- 9 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
14 May 2020
[THREAD]
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1260905215387217932
"We're gonna lose over 100,000 perhaps" -- Trump just moved the goalposts *again* about the projected US coronavirus death toll
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 10 -----
Why Trump needs the pandemic to be polarized
By
Paul Waldman
Opinion writer
May 13, 2020 at 9:45 a.m. PDT
Partisan polarization, most people agree, is both everywhere in our public life and deeply detrimental to our civic health. But there are moments when Americans can agree on some things, and it appears that our current public health and economic crisis is one of them.
There may be loud and angry protesters waving their guns around at state capitols, but most Americans are on board with stay-at-home orders and social distancing until the coronavirus pandemic is under control.
That broad agreement, however, is a threat to President Trump. He’s trying to undo it, and he might be starting to succeed. Throughout his presidency, he has worked to solidify and exacerbate partisan enmity on the theory that he could be reelected if he maintained the loyalty of Republicans. With that reelection never in more peril than it is right now, he’s looking to polarization to save him.
The most notable feature of recent polling is how (relatively) unified the public has been. Governors have seen their approval ratings skyrocket, particularly those who have been aggressive in ordering shutdowns. In polls, the public has expressed a wariness about resuming normal activity too soon, and unhappiness with Trump’s failure to make that safer.
As my colleague Greg Sargent wrote, “Large majorities grasp that he’s putting people in danger by urging a reopening on his timetable … and large majorities understand this is precisely because he failed to do enough to ensure it can be done safely.”
But that might not be true forever. Some polls are showing a shift among Republicans in Trump’s direction. For instance, according to a Morning Consult poll:
A month ago, half of GOP voters said they were more worried about public health than the economy. Now, fewer than 2 in 5 say their concerns about the physical dangers of the virus outweigh their fears of a free-falling economy — a 13 percent drop.
And in Pew Research Center polls, the number of Republicans saying the novel coronavirus is a major threat to the health of the U.S. population as a whole dropped from 52 percent in April to 43 percent in May.
Even more striking: In a CNN poll, by 71 percent to 26 percent, Republicans said the worst of the pandemic is behind us, while Democrats said the worst is yet to come by 74 percent to 23 percent.
----- 11 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
14 May 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1261017121078861826
TRUMP: "When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn't do any testing we would have very few cases."
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
no subject
Date: 2020-05-15 05:35 am (UTC)so I get how, due to NRA silliness, they might not having an explicit law against being armed in the vicinity of the state legislature, but it seems like once they start threatening people, aren't there some fairly general-purpose laws that come into play (e.g., last I checked, Assault With A Deadly Weapon is a felony in most locales)?
no subject
Date: 2020-05-15 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-15 05:46 am (UTC)To a degree, this makes a good show for the Republicans. They like it. A lot of them support it. And they know they won't be the targets when these people open fire with live ammo.