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Trump VS COVID-19 Threat

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Rep. Tom @Malinowski has been working with insurance execs to confirm that people can fill prescriptions earlier than they usually are allowed to, so they can better stock + prepare: https://t.co/BNtUnGlm9E" / Twitter
noting
Tom Malinowski on Twitter: "Just spoke to several insurance company execs. Confirmed industry is moving to allow early refills & encourage 90-day mail order supplies. Next steps: expand coverage for telemedicine, and action to prevent surprise bills when patients are forced to get treatment out of network. https://t.co/jIxGQbA0b0" / Twitter
noting
Tom Malinowski on Twitter: "The gov't recommends we keep a continuous supply of prescription drugs at home during the epidemic, yet many insurance plans won't allow a refill till we're almost out of medication. I led a letter today asking insurance companies to fix this. https://t.co/dSx6wLWoY3" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Incarcerated people are incredibly vulnerable to outbreak, and many do not have basic soap + sanitation supplies to keep people safe.
@NydiaVelazquez, @RepPressley, @RepRashida & I have launched multiple efforts get plans + efforts together from the FBP.
[url]https://t.co/x0HOUuOSzu https://t.co/rSxepnzZLu" / Twitter[/url]
noting
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Twitter: ".@USFederalPrison—@RepAOC, @RepPressley, @NydiaVelazquez, and I asked for answers about your #coronavirus response plan yesterday. We need to know that incarcerated individuals will be provided with appropriate items and care—and we need to know ASAP. https://t.co/4tKovnQNmQ" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "As a caucus, Dems under @SpeakerPelosi’s leadership are currently trying to pass the #FamiliesFirst Act to set up paid leave, extend emergency unemployment, protect healthcare workers & more.
@RepDebHaaland has the update here ⬇️
[url]https://t.co/43xJp5A4sO https://t.co/17eg1nwiHG" / Twitter[/url]
noting
Rep. Deb Haaland on Twitter: "A quick update as we await the vote on a bill to put #FamiliesFirst including:
🏥Establish FREE coronavirus tests
💵Strengthen unemployment benefits
🏠Provide paid leave
👩🏽*⚕️Protect frontline health care workers https://t.co/VOVsS53erb" / Twitter
 
Student-loan borrowers could get a temporary break on payments during coronavirus pandemic, Mnuchin says - MarketWatch
The Trump administration is weighing whether to let student-loan borrowers temporarily stop making payments on their debts as the U.S. confronts the coronavirus pandemic, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday.

In a CNBC interview on the administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak and the financial fallout, Mnuchin said a possible payment pause, potentially for three months, was “on our list of 50 different items we’re bringing to the president for a decision.”
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Let's see if anything comes of it.

Andrew Keshner on Twitter: "Steve Mnuchin says the Trump administration could consider pauses on student loan payments. People like @AOC say that must happen right now. https://t.co/97pzPlOBp8" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Good.
Many other issues aside, I am thankful that [MENTION=450]steve[/MENTION]nmnuchin1 & the admin are taking pausing student loan payments seriously - it is a decisive move that will help stabilize millions of people.
We should do it now. There is much more to be done, but every step counts. https://t.co/cSyhGneDS5" / Twitter
 
 
Joy Reid on Twitter: "Good for @Yamiche for pushing back on Trump's "take no responsibility" statement by pointing out that Trump disbanded the NSC office that dealt with pandemics. Trump denies he disbanded the office at all. Calls it a "nasty" question and ignores her attempts to restate her Q." / Twitter

Yamiche Alcindor on Twitter: "Video of my question to @realDonaldTrump today on his administration's disbanding of the White House team responsible for coordinating responses to pandemics.
He called my question nasty & said he knew nothing about it.
I call it a relevant, fair, and truth-seeking question. https://t.co/ncYwqZ0Xtp" / Twitter

PBS NewsHour on Twitter: "WATCH: @Yamiche asked the president about a reorganization of the National Security Council that dismantled a key pandemics team in 2018.
President Trump: "I just think it's a nasty question... You say we did that, I don't know anything about it." https://t.co/lWo0YKS1rl" / Twitter
Lots of self-congratulation and assertion of blamelessness from tRump.

PBS NewsHour on Twitter: "@Yamiche More: As the U.S. grapples with the novel coronavirus pandemic, President Trump said that he didn’t know “anything about” a reorganization of the National Security Council that dismantled a key pandemics office nearly two years ago. (via @ericarhendry) https://t.co/guicolYA36" / Twitter
noting
WATCH: ‘I didn’t do it,’ Trump says of disbanding pandemics office | PBS NewsHour

Barb McQuade on Twitter: "@Yamiche @realDonaldTrump It is not the question but the answer that is nasty. Trump immediately blames others. In a government of, by, and for the people, we have a right to know, so that we can make good decisions in the future. We count on our free press to ask questions for the people. Go, @Yamiche" / Twitter
 
So I'm confused, you guys wouldn't have enacted a travel ban like Trump is doing?

He even banned travel from Italy! Oh no! He's racist against whites now! He's a self-hating white!! :rotfl:
 
ZiprHead said:
Reply to add: The swine flu originated in North America. A travel ban would not have done anything at all to stop the spread.
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Yes, it would have. People from other countries come here and would get it, thus making more worldwide cases.

Obama wasn't even smart enough to enact a simple travel ban. Trump took the bull by the horns within 3 weeks declared an emergency and quarantined military bases. First time in DECADES military bases were quarantined.

Face it, you guys just don't like the fact that Trump's a leader, unlike Barry.

Hannity was just showing media clips of Obama's presidency during rhe Swine Flu. Obama declared a state of emergency and the media praised him for it. Trump does the same thing AND MORE, and the media criticizes him for it. "Just shows how sick the media has gotten," Hannity said. "They tried to get him on Russia Russia Ukraine Ukraine impeach impeach and now it's corona corona!," added Hannity.
 
It must take some pretty potent cognitive dissonance to think Trump's response to the epidemic is perfect, yet everything is Obama's fault. Meanwhile, this is what true leadership looks like.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3djhMs8DjU[/youtube]
 
Half-Life said:
So I'm confused, you guys wouldn't have enacted a travel ban like Trump is doing?

He even banned travel from Italy! Oh no! He's racist against whites now! He's a self-hating white!! :rotfl:
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You do recall the when the Klan started, they did not consider Italians to be white, don't you?
 
Half-Life said:
ZiprHead said:
Reply to add: The swine flu originated in North America. A travel ban would not have done anything at all to stop the spread.
Click to expand...

Yes, it would have. People from other countries come here and would get it, thus making more worldwide cases.

Obama wasn't even smart enough to enact a simple travel ban. Trump took the bull by the horns within 3 weeks declared an emergency and quarantined military bases. First time in DECADES military bases were quarantined.

Face it, you guys just don't like the fact that Trump's a leader, unlike Barry.
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You mean Barry, the guy that created the United States Pandemic Response system that Bonespurs disbanded in 2018?

Or the leadership of Bonespurs when he was warned about this three month ago and did nothing for two months? Or Mango Unchained who refused to accept WHO COVID-19 test kits and letting the disease spread unfettered for months, denying it was a problem and even claiming it was a hoax? Or the Golfer-in-Chief who enacted a travel ban, except for countries that have Trump golf resorts? The guy that insisted the experts were wrong and he was right. How about the guy that said three weeks ago “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA,” ? Was he lying then or is he lying now?

Not to mention military bases are basically quarantined areas by their very nature. Access is always extremely limited. Relatively there were very few cases of swine flu amongst the military in 2009. Only three members of the military died from H1N1, H3N2. This virus however is far more contagious and deadly than the swine flu and quarantining bases is appropriate.


Half-Life said:
Hannity was just showing media clips of Obama's presidency during rhe Swine Flu. Obama declared a state of emergency and the media praised him for it. Trump does the same thing AND MORE, and the media criticizes him for it. "Just shows how sick the media has gotten," Hannity said. "They tried to get him on Russia Russia Ukraine Ukraine impeach impeach and now it's corona corona!," added Hannity.
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Trump just declared the state of emergency today. Can you point to a media outlet critical of him for doing so?
 
Half-Life said:
Trump took the bull by the horns within 3 weeks declared an emergency and quarantined military bases.
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Did Hannity mention that the travel ban does not include any country where Cheato owns property?
Odd that the nation's best interest coincidentally match Bonnespurs' business interests....
This, of course, is WHY competent politicians divest themselves of compromising ties...
 
AOC recently mentioned rumors that this was going on: Republicans Tried to Sneak Abortion Restrictions into the Coronavirus Bill - VICE
As lawmakers neared a deal on a coronavirus rescue package that would include paid sick leave and free virus testing, a few roadblocks emerged. Among them: Republican attempts to wedge anti-choice restrictions into the House's relief bill, turning—if momentarily—a public health crisis into an abortion debate.

...
According to conservative media, some top Republicans believed a stipulation in the House bill requiring the government to reimburse private laboratories doing coronavirus testing could effectively overturn the Hyde Amendment by establishing a government funding stream not subject to the restrictions. In response, anti-choice lawmakers insisted on including language in the legislation that would reaffirm the principles of the amendment.

When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Thursday that negotiations over the coronavirus response bill would go into next week, he accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of turning the legislation into an “ideological wish list.”

“Instead of focusing on immediate relief to affected individuals, families and businesses, the House Democrats chose to wander into various areas of policy that are barely related if at all to the issue before us,” McConnell said.
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Which is what some Republicans were doing here. What Mitch McConnell said seems like projection to me.
 
Rep. Andy Levin on Twitter: "#Coronavirus requires a WWII-scale effort to produce supplies, like protective equipment for health care workers, on a massive scale. 56 colleagues and I called on the President to invoke the Defense Production Act to produce what we need to protect Americans now. We can't wait. https://t.co/kTVC6yJ2Qt" / Twitter

Saikat Chakrabarti on Twitter: "I wish more companies and people in powerful positions would just clearly say, 'The President is lying. Here's the truth:' when he lies about something.
It's not politicizing an issue or morally questionable to tell the truth. https://t.co/cxha2MtOC5" / Twitter

Saikat Chakrabarti on Twitter: "This is so spot on. https://t.co/Wi1nWxs9c3" / Twitter
noting
Patrick Wyman on Twitter: "I spent the better part of a decade thinking about the end of the Roman Empire ..." / Twitter
I spent the better part of a decade thinking about the end of the Roman Empire and what it felt like to live through that, in all its various manifestations - the collapse of political authority, spreading pandemics, economic crises - and now it all makes a lot more sense.

Processes of breakdown happen very slowly and imperceptibly. They're mostly aggregates small things: taxes not getting collected here, bridges not getting repaired there, things like that. Then, in a moment of crisis, the sheer level of decay becomes clear. You see the aggregate.

A key administrative official was replaced by a feckless political appointee. That official didn't push to collect tax revenues. When a drought struck and famine ensued, they didn't have the funds to import grain. And so on.

Nobody requisitions funds to repair a road. An aqueduct breaks and nobody fixes it. A port silts up and nobody builds new docks. Nobody updates the tax registers. All of the sudden, your capacity to deal with any sort of major problem - your resilience - is gone.

Every state and society faces problems and challenges, both natural and man-made. The key thing is the capacity for dealing with them. We don’t have that capacity right now.
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Saikat Chakrabarti on Twitter: "We need to stop treating testing like some sort of luxury for individuals and start treating it as a tool for public health officials to diagnose the scope and scale of the outbreak in America. It should be 'Free testing for as many people as we can test as fast as possible.' https://t.co/I1aCZEYNEl" / Twitter
noting
Sahil Kapur on Twitter: "House Dem coronavirus bill ..." / Twitter
House Dem coronavirus bill, per new Pelosi letter tonight to Dems 👇

• Free testing for those who need it
• Emergency leave + 14 pair sick days
• Expanded unemployment insurance
• Food to kids/seniors/food banks
• More Medicaid $ for crisis

(No cost estimate yet from CBO.)

Pelosi writes to House Democrats: “This evening, after much deliberation, we are near to a bipartisan agreement subject to an exchange of final legislative text to pass the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.”

Then outlines the provisions above.

How Pelosi described it earlier today:

“We're having some discussion about that with the Administration of maybe some people want to pay. But, by and large, free [coronavirus] testing so that everyone will be testing and no one will say, ‘I can't afford it, so I can't.’”
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Following AOC's Instagram about the voting on it -- getting late at night.
 
Katie Porter on Twitter: "“Porter ... has in her very first term managed to do in these hearings what lawmakers have been pretending to do in them for decades: speak truth to power, generate actual results, and enact change.”
I ran to get things done, and I’m going to keep at it. https://t.co/NpIT83emPT" / Twitter

Katie Porter Grilling the CDC Chief Is the Leadership We Desperately Need | GQ - "The freshman congresswoman got Dr. Robert Redfield to agree to free coronavirus testing for all Americans."
Katie Porter, a freshman Democrat in Congress, couldn’t have known when she wore a batgirl Halloween costume to Donald Trump’s impeachment vote in October that she would soon have the chance to help rescue millions of Americans during a global pandemic. But as Trump’s administration badly mishandles the deadly coronavirus outbreak, Porter has unexpectedly emerged as a true hero in a spiraling crisis.
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She noticed how far behind the US was when compared to other countries, like South Korea.
Porter had done her homework. She’d calculated the cost of the full battery of coronavirus tests to be $1,331—which is out of reach for many low-income patients. She’d also found an obscure federal statute that gives the CDC chief the authority to immediately waive the cost of that test for everyone. After laying all that information out on a whiteboard at the coronavirus hearing, she asked Redfield pointedly: “Will you commit to the CDC, right now, using that existing authority to pay for diagnostic testing, free to every American, regardless of insurance?"

Redfield tried to squirm out of answering the question several times, saying he would “review it in detail” with the CDC and “work with HHS to see how to best operationalize it.” But Porter kept reclaiming her time and interjecting—“Not good enough” and “Yes or no?”—until the CDC chief eventually relented. "I think you're an excellent questioner, so my answer is yes," Redfield said.
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A lot of people inside the Beltway considered it a great performance. Much like her vs. a former Wells Fargo CEO a year ago. Also Ben Carson's ignorance about foreclosure properties and his mixing up REO's (real-estate owned properties) with Oreo cookies.
The thing about congressional hearings, as anyone who’s covered them knows, is that they are generally pointless exercises in which nothing really happens. Lawmakers occasionally “grill” witnesses in hopes of getting a few good soundbytes, but these events are mostly just kabuki theater; the law writing and the votes happen elsewhere. Porter, though, has in her very first term managed to do in these hearings what lawmakers have been pretending to do in them for decades: speak truth to power, generate actual results, and enact change. She has arguably become one of the most effective members of the entire House of Representatives.
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Much like AOC.

It’s a stark contrast to the response of Republican members of Congress like Texas senator Ted Cruz and Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, who have been more concerned with protecting Trump’s reputation throughout the crisis and helping the president downplay it, even as they themselves have to go into quarantine, than considering how they might use their power to help stop the epidemic from spreading. Gaetz mockingly wore a gas mask on the House floor to make fun of the media for overhyping the crisis. Cruz posted a video of himself defending Trump from his home isolation and lamented having to miss an Eagles concert.
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AOC joked about Rep. Gaetz's gas mask that it matched his shoes. She also asked if he washes his hands.
 
Coronavirus: COVID-19 Is Now Officially A Pandemic, WHO Says : Goats and Soda : NPR
The COVID-19 viral disease that has swept into at least 114 countries and killed more than 4,000 people is now officially a pandemic, the World Health Organization announced Wednesday.

"This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing in Geneva.

It's the first time the WHO has called an outbreak a pandemic since the H1N1 "swine flu" in 2009.
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Andrew Yang, AOC: free UBI cash can help during coronavirus pandemic
“Too many Americans are leaving home every day to earn wages and tips to survive, even as businesses dry up and schools are shutting down due to the coronavirus,” former presidential candidate Andrew Yang tells CNBC Make It on Friday. Since dropping out of the Democratic race, Yang has started non-profit Humanity Forward to further ideas he popularized with his campaign, including his $1000-per-month UBI payment for all American citizens over 18, which he called the “Freedom Dividend.”

“People who may even have symptoms [of COVID-19] are going to work in public places because they don’t feel they have a choice,” Yang tells CNBC Make It. “A Universal Basic Income would enable these waitresses and parking attendants and [ride-share] drivers to stay home and make the best choice for themselves, their families and their communities.”
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Congress’s coronavirus stimulus package needs to include cash - Vox
Congress needs to authorize cash payments to every adult and child in the United States, and it needs to do so right now.

There are two reasons for this. One is the severe economic threat posed by the coronavirus, which is already putting Americans out of work. Prominent economists are saying the crisis is faster-moving and more alarming than the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the crisis it sparked in 2008. That crisis needed an immediate stimulus, and even the roughly $1 trillion total appropriated in 2008-2009 was not enough.

Direct cash payments are a better policy than other suggestions for stimulus, like payroll tax cuts or additional quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve. ...

The second reason is humanitarian. ...

But we also need the millions of people employed in in-person service jobs, and the millions of unemployed people (including those unemployed due to layoffs in this crisis), to have the food, shelter, and medical care they need to survive and stay healthy amidst the crisis. They need money, and the easiest way to get it to them is to send checks.
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lpetrich said:
Coronavirus: COVID-19 Is Now Officially A Pandemic, WHO Says : Goats and Soda : NPR


Andrew Yang, AOC: free UBI cash can help during coronavirus pandemic


Congress’s coronavirus stimulus package needs to include cash - Vox
Congress needs to authorize cash payments to every adult and child in the United States, and it needs to do so right now.

There are two reasons for this. One is the severe economic threat posed by the coronavirus, which is already putting Americans out of work. Prominent economists are saying the crisis is faster-moving and more alarming than the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the crisis it sparked in 2008. That crisis needed an immediate stimulus, and even the roughly $1 trillion total appropriated in 2008-2009 was not enough.

Direct cash payments are a better policy than other suggestions for stimulus, like payroll tax cuts or additional quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve. ...

The second reason is humanitarian. ...

But we also need the millions of people employed in in-person service jobs, and the millions of unemployed people (including those unemployed due to layoffs in this crisis), to have the food, shelter, and medical care they need to survive and stay healthy amidst the crisis. They need money, and the easiest way to get it to them is to send checks.
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I think any additional cash handouts should be targeted to those who lose their jobs or lose days/hours from work during the pandemic. Giving cash to hundreds of millions of employed people who live paycheck to paycheck (and this happens all up and down the pay scale) just incentivizes them to go out and spend. Notice I used the word "out" there.
Additional money should be in the form of a temporary and substantial immediate increase in unemployment benefits and any requirement to look for work should be held in abeyance. Lost earnings due to low customer traffic and the like can be verified after the fact and accounted for when filing taxes. Lost earnings during to the pandemic would have to be reflected in their pay history or the money could be recouped from any tax return or treated like any other debt to the government.
 
TV and credit cards said:
lpetrich said:
Coronavirus: COVID-19 Is Now Officially A Pandemic, WHO Says : Goats and Soda : NPR


Andrew Yang, AOC: free UBI cash can help during coronavirus pandemic


Congress’s coronavirus stimulus package needs to include cash - Vox
Congress needs to authorize cash payments to every adult and child in the United States, and it needs to do so right now.

There are two reasons for this. One is the severe economic threat posed by the coronavirus, which is already putting Americans out of work. Prominent economists are saying the crisis is faster-moving and more alarming than the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the crisis it sparked in 2008. That crisis needed an immediate stimulus, and even the roughly $1 trillion total appropriated in 2008-2009 was not enough.

Direct cash payments are a better policy than other suggestions for stimulus, like payroll tax cuts or additional quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve. ...

The second reason is humanitarian. ...

But we also need the millions of people employed in in-person service jobs, and the millions of unemployed people (including those unemployed due to layoffs in this crisis), to have the food, shelter, and medical care they need to survive and stay healthy amidst the crisis. They need money, and the easiest way to get it to them is to send checks.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I think any additional cash handouts should be targeted to those who lose their jobs or lose days/hours from work during the pandemic. Giving cash to hundreds of millions of employed people who live paycheck to paycheck (and this happens all up and down the pay scale) just incentivizes them to go out and spend. Notice I used the word "out" there.
Additional money should be in the form of a temporary and substantial immediate increase in unemployment benefits and any requirement to look for work should be held in abeyance. Lost earnings due to low customer traffic and the like can be verified after the fact and accounted for when filing taxes. Lost earnings during to the pandemic would have to be reflected in their pay history or the money could be recouped from any tax return or treated like any other debt to the government.
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"just"???

The whole fucking POINT is to get people to go out and spend.

WTF do you imagine an economic stimulus IS, if not encouraging people to go out and spend?
 
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