Tracker

OMG. I was there gassing up around 11:00 AM and the line stretched all the way along the fence past the gas pumps.

None of this exonerates Trump's incompetence.

TRUMP ATTACKS ANOTHER DISSENTING VOICE From thedailybeast.com Trump Accuses WHO of Causing Coronavirus Deaths, Says He Ordered Halt to Funding BLAME THEM, NOT ME The president, himself accused of playing down the severity of the pandemic and giving questionable medical advice, blamed the WHO for “severely mismanaging” the crisis. Hunter Woodall A day after turning a coronavirus task force briefing into a tense venting session trumpeting unfounded authority, President Donald Trump on Tuesday used his presidential platform to lambaste the World Health Organization during the health crisis. “Today I'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump said. He went on to accuse the WHO of allowing the new coronavirus to spread by not taking measures swiftly enough, claiming the group ignored “credible” information on human-to-human transmission in December. “So many deaths have been caused by their mistakes,” he said. “It would have been so easy to be truthful.” Trump had repeatedly threatened to pull the plug on WHO funding in recent days—attacking the group as “China-centric” just last week—but his decision to actually announce a halt to funding came after he triggered harsh criticism even among some of his own allies by declaring that he has the “total authority” to decide when individual states loosen coronavirus-related restrictions. The president has no such authority, and was quickly called out both by experts and elected officials. In the same briefing on Monday, when pressed on what many see as his own delayed response to the pandemic, he lashed out at critics in the media, at one point appearing to try and spread the blame by airing an ad that accused reporters of “minimizing” the threat of the virus. Trump himself has shown an uneven handling of the pandemic back home in the United States. A push to re-open the country on an Easter timeline was abandoned, but not before the president compared the deadly coronavirus to the flu as he fretted about the economic impact of COVID-19. In other cases, the president’s pushing of the drug hydroxychloroquine to help with coronavirus patients has also prompted some warnings from medical professionals as the health community struggles to deal with the toll of COVID-19. The WHO advised against travel restrictions to stop the spread of the virus as recently as late February, arguing that such a move would ultimately be ineffective. Trump called that guidance a “disastrous decision” that he said triggered a “20-fold” increase in cases across the globe. Meanwhile, he touted his own decision to impose travel restrictions on China as a measure that “saved thousands and thousands of lives.” After blasting the WHO for defending the Chinese government and “praising its so-called transparency,” Trump was reminded by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that he himself had thanked Chinese leaders for being transparent about the virus back in January.

FYI A Canadian company in Ottawa has invented a very simple, easy to use COVID19 testing device the size of a Keurig machine that produces results in under an hour for about $15.00. They have been besieged by American companies wanting to either buy the company or all of the production on an exclusive basis. The owner has refused to sell the testers outside of Canada until domestic demand has been satisfied.

FINALLY- SOME SANITY IN AMERICAN POLITICS From: Alternet.org Conservative commentators pour salt on the wounds of the GOP’s ‘historically humiliating’ Written by Alex Henderson April 14, 2020 208 Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” isn’t the only Never Trump conservative who has been pouring salt on the GOP’s wounds over Wisconsin’s April 7 election: Charlie Sykes, co-founder of The Bulwark, is doing so as well this week — and, like Scarborough, is arguing that Republicans subjected themselves to a public relations fiasco over a right-wing candidate who didn’t even win: incumbent Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly. In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers and other Democrats — fearing for the safety of voters during the coronavirus pandemic — called for postponing the election and encouraged mail-in ballots as an alternative to in-person voting. But Republicans in the state legislature resisted that idea, and on Tuesday, April 7, the election went ahead. Those who hadn’t already mailed in absentee ballots had to vote in person — and Wisconsin voters, thanks to Republicans, stood in long lines on Election Day. Scarborough has been slamming the Wisconsin GOP for putting voters at a greater risk of being infected with coronavirus. That day, Wisconsin residents voted in the Democratic presidential primary as well as for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. Liberal Jill Karofsky was up against Justice Dan Kelly, who has been enthusiastically endorsed by President Donald Trump. Republicans, Sykes notes, believed that discouraging mail-in voting would give Kelly an advantage, but as it turned out, Karofsky won by “more than 10 percentage points — which translates to more than 120,000 votes.” “It was a blowout in a state that has become notorious for its close elections,” Sykes asserts in his Bulwark article. “Despite their efforts to make voting as difficult as possible, Republicans were overwhelmed by a tsunami of mail-in votes…. The scope and nature of Kelly’s defeat was historically humiliating.” Sykes observes that although Wisconsin Republicans were hoping that Karofsky’s supporters would stay home on April 7, all they succeeded in doing was bringing them out in droves — even with the threat of coronavirus.

From propublica.com ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. In recent weeks, residents outside Boston have died at home much more often than usual. In Detroit, authorities are responding to nearly four times the number of reports of dead bodies. And in New York, city officials are recording more than 200 home deaths per day — a nearly sixfold increase from recent years. As of Tuesday afternoon, the United States had logged more than 592,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 24,000 deaths, the most in the world, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. But the official COVID-19 death count may, at least for now, be missing fatalities that are occurring outside of hospitals, data and interviews show. Cities are increasingly showing signs of Americans succumbing to the coronavirus in their own beds. ProPublica requested death data from several major metropolitan areas. Its review provides an early look at the pandemic’s hidden toll. Experts say it’s possible that some of the jump in at-home death stems from people infected by the virus who either didn’t seek treatment or did but were instructed to shelter in place, and that the undercount is exacerbated by lack of comprehensive testing. It’s also possible that the increase in at-home deaths reflects people dying from other ailments like heart attacks because they couldn’t get to a hospital or refused to go, fearful they’d contract COVID-19. Mark Hayward, a sociology professor at the University of Texas-Austin who’s an expert on mortality statistics, said all of those deaths are part of the “overall burden of the pandemic.” He said an uptick in deaths, specifically in ProPublica’s findings for Massachusetts and Detroit, indicates an undercount is occurring. You should think about the official coronavirus death counts, he said, “as just the tip of the iceberg.” The quality of the deaths data will improve as testing expands and fewer people die without getting tested, he added.

Good luck, Marc in collecting that. Nice round number, though.

I disagree. Within the past 48 hours Trump has stated that Article 2 allows him to act unilaterally without the approval of Congress and/or the Senate and/or the Judiciary and/or the states. He has surrounded himself with sycophants who will execute his dictates even if illegal, and have done so already. The American public for the most part and especially the GOP-controlled senate have conceded their responsibility and authority to Trump.

Trump and the GOP have demonstrated repeatedly that they care nothing for either the law or the constitution and have simply ignored any legal restriction they find inconvenient. Trump has hinted broadly that his supporters might use violence if he is unseated and he has already stated that there were many millions of illegal voters, even though his own inquiry found nothing. He has maintained that even afterwards.

And Sophie and the kids were out there prior to the suggested travel restrictions.

Trudeau's wife and children had been at the cottage for three weeks prior to the Easter weekend and he chose to join them by automobile- a different scenario than suggested here.

To re-iterate: there is literally nothing that Trump can do that will cause his slavering followers in the GOP and electorate that will cause them to abandon him. Similarly, there is no depth to which he will sink to defend his record or improve his chances of re-election. Around 1880, the GOP candidate lost the popular vote and the electoral college vote but refused to leave office, claiming voter fraud. His supporters threatened another civil war if he was ousted and the spineless Democrats caved in and let him serve another term, so the precedent has been set. Given Trump's record in business as well as his display as president, it is no stretch to assume that he would threaten the same and exhort his followers to resort to violence. It worked for Hitler, so why not, and Trump's father was a fascist sympathizer and was arrested at a Nazi rally.

I think it would be a lot more interesting to see two "swishy" gay guys drive from Milk River to Peace River in a Volvo with Quebec plates and bumper stickers that say. "We're gay, we voted for Trudeau and we're coming to take your guns away."

Sad to say, Trump's approval has slipped only marginally, according to a CNN poll today- from 42 to 40%. His supporters will follow him right into the abyss- ethnic cleansing, jailing of opposing voices- the whole nine yards.

Ah. Vince has been to the Donald Trump School Of Business. Whoever was dumb enough to invest in the league or hold debts deserve what they got.

His problem was his inconsistency and then Medlock became available.

Trump Spends Easter Asking Confidants: ‘What Do You Think of Fauci?’ WORKING THE PHONES The president called various friends and allies over the weekend to ask for their opinion on the doctor he says he made a “star”—and even retweeted a call for his firing. Asawin Suebsaeng White House Reporter Updated Apr. 13, 2020 4:10AM ET / President Donald Trump spent much of this Easter weekend, his first Easter sequestered at the White House in the midst of a global pandemic and crashing economy, in a rather predictable fashion: working the phones and rage-tweeting at The New York Times and Mike Wallace’s son. At one point, the president even promoted a Twitter post calling for the firing of his top infectious-disease expert in the middle of a deadly pandemic—because he’d said something construed as rude to Trump. Over the weekend, the president picked up the phone and began dialing various close advisers and associates to ask them their opinion on how soon he should “open” the U.S. economy and call for Americans to start resuming business as usual, according to three people familiar with the conversations. The subject of when to ease restrictions and guidelines, as the death toll has risen in the tens of thousands and governors and the federal government have struggled to combat the coronavirus, has been a major point of debate within the upper ranks of the Trump administration. While the president has often advocated highly optimistic and at times even negligent positions on the crisis, certain key members of his coronavirus task force—including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—have urged a more cautious, patient approach, particularly on “reopening” the United States for business. And so the doctor appeared to weigh on Trump’s mind this Easter weekend. “What do you think of Fauci?” the president repeatedly worked into his phone conversations over the past few days, the three sources said, as he pulsed his broader network of informal advisers, industry allies, and current staff on their opinions on the news of the day. At one point this weekend, Trump remarked that he’s made Fauci a “star” and that barely anybody would have known who the doctor was were it not for the president putting him front and center in the administration’s coronavirus response, televised press briefings, and media strateg

Former GOP strategist blasts Trump: ‘We’ve never seen a president more visibly failing hour by hour’ Yes, he foisted Sarah Palin on our national politics, which was a little like bringing an uncooked moose to a dinner party instead of a nice insouciant, oaky cabernet. But Steve Schmidt, the veteran Republican campaign strategist who guided John McCain’s 2008 presidential run, now speaks the truth. And he’s not pulling punches when it comes to the ocher abomination. Yesterday, during a panel discussion on MSNBC, Schmidt said what the majority of Republicans still can’t acknowledge. Donald Trump sucks. Hard. So hard, in fact, that he will go down as the worst president in the history of our country. SCHMIDT: “When we look back at history, what we would have seen from Barack Obama back through Harry Truman is an American president calling for an international convention on pandemics, about how we bring the world together, how American leadership can drive toward a solution. Instead, we have the American delegation saying no to a communique because they won’t use the word ‘Wuhan flu.’ So it’s theater of the absurd that tops off every evening at the 6 o’clock follies where the American people are lied to nonstop, where he sows confusion, where he sows division, where he attacks the people who need help the most. We’ve never seen a dereliction of duty, we’ve never seen a level of unfitness for command, we have never seen a president more visibly failing hour by hour to meet the moment, to meet the test of history than we’re seeing with Donald John Trump, the 45th president of the United States. And I think by the time we get to the end of it, someone who will be universally regarded by historians, along with [James] Buchanan, the 15th president, who prefaced the Civil War, as the worst commander in chief in American history.”

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. In the wake of President Trump’s move to push aside the official who was supposed to lead the coronavirus bailout watchdog group, four other members are just as vulnerable. Trump was able to remove the panel’s chosen head, Glenn Fine, by naming a new Defense Department inspector general and bumping Fine to the No. 2 job at the Pentagon watchdog office. No longer an acting inspector general, Fine was disqualified from serving on the panel he was supposed to lead. Fine’s removal sounded an alarm among Democrats in Congress, who had demanded that spending safeguards be built into the $2 trillion recovery package. House Democrats rushed out a proposed tweak that would stop further removals like Fine’s by opening up eligibility to senior officials in IG offices, not just IGs themselves. “We must not allow President Trump to openly flout the oversight measures that Congress put in place,” Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, along with Reps. Gerald Connolly and Stephen Lynch, said in a statement on Wednesday. “There are literally trillions of taxpayer dollars at stake, and Americans across the political spectrum want those funds to be spent without waste, fraud, abuse, or profiteering.” The four other members of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee who serve in an acting capacity are Mitchell Behm at the Department of Transportation, Sandra Bruce at Education, Richard Delmar at Treasury and Christi Grimm at Health and Human Services. That means they could also be removed by being replaced, just as Fine was.

According to a report from the Daily Beast, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar may soon be exiting the White House for refusing to sugarcoat information about the coronavirus pandemic when speaking with Donald Trump. Azar, who attempted to alert the president about the looming COVID-19 pandemic threat in January, has rarely been invited to the president’s daily coronavirus press briefings which could be a sign that his days are numbered As longtime political observer Eleanor Clift writes, after describing Azar as one possible “hero” in the White House: “Speaking truth to power has its price in the Trump administration. The former Eli Lilly executive was shouted down by White House aides as ‘alarmist’ and sidelined by Jared Kushner, Mike Pence and others willing to give the president a more rosy view. And on Sunday night, Trump lashed out at Azar by name for the first time, following a New York Times report that Azar had ‘directly warned Mr. Trump of the possibility of a pandemic during a call on Jan. 30, the second warning he delivered to the president about the virus in two weeks.’” According to Clift, “After complaining about ‘mayhem’ at the White House, Azar’s future is uncertain but his attempts to get top officials and President Trump to pay attention to the coming pandemic should not be lost in the fog of war as Trump recasts history in his favor.”

For all those who predicted that Trump would kill the messenger, here it is: President Trump delivered his first public rebuke of the nation’s top infectious disease expert and a member of his coronavirus task force on Sunday evening by resharing a tweet that said “Time to #FireFauci.” DeAnna Lorraine, a Trump supporter and former congressional candidate for California, tweeted: “Fauci is now saying that had Trump listened to the medical experts earlier he could’ve saved more lives. Fauci was telling people on February 29th that there was nothing to worry about and it posed no threat to the US public at large.” Trump retweeted Lorraine and commented of her claims, “Sorry Fake News, it’s all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up.”

You know, it sucks. Here we were poised to steamroll over the rest of the league and challenge for the Cup again, and the whole freaking world shuts down. Not fair, I tell you. Not fair at all.