May 1, 2020

Not only is white privilege a thing, but republican privilege is also a thing

We all know what would've happened if armed African Americans stormed the Michigan capitol like those white people did today. They would've likely been gunned down.

But what if Obama had his own inept son in law like Jared Kushner and appointed him to solve Middle East peace and the coronavirus pandemic for the United States.

Just imagine the outcry.

Republican privilege is also a thing.

May 1, 2020

Everything that's wrong with our "democracy" in a nutshell:

Lawmakers Vote by Mail to Roll Back Vote by Mail

April 30, 2020 at 3:10 pm EDT
By Taegan Goddard

“An emergency plan for Louisiana’s delayed spring elections was approved by the state Legislature after Republican lawmakers rolled back an expansion of mail-in ballots for people concerned about the coronavirus,” the Baton Rouge Advocate reports.

“Lawmakers voted by mail on the emergency plan.”

https://politicalwire.com/2020/04/30/louisiana-lawmakers-vote-by-mail-to-roll-back-vote-by-mail/

April 28, 2020

Not only do blue states subsidize red states, but blue regions in red states subsidize red regions

https://twitter.com/RealJohnLaurens/status/1254785665557921798

Paul Krugman
✔
@paulkrugman
· 14h
As states exchange insults over who subsidizes who (yes, blue states subsidize red states), some people I've been talking to are suggesting that red states may face a worse fiscal crisis than blue this time around, bc of their different revenue bases 1/

——

John Laurens
@RealJohnLaurens
It is also true that the blue regions within red states subsidize the rest of the states. In Kentucky, Louisville, Lexington, and Northern Kentucky are responsible for much of the revenue from state taxes. Louisville and Lexington consistently vote Democratic.

April 27, 2020

Where Has Jared Kushner Gone in the Fight Against Coronavirus?

Erin Banco National Security Reporter
Asawin Suebsaeng White House Reporter
Updated Apr. 27, 2020 12:56PM ET / Published Apr. 27, 2020 4:41AM ET


In February, as the White House scrambled to handle the growing coronavirus epidemic, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, stepped into what officials described as a crucial role: forging a partnership between the private sector and the federal government so they could together contain the rapidly spreading virus.

<...>

Over the past two weeks, Kushner has been notably removed from coronavirus-related operations, according to four officials working in coordination with his team. One official working in the White House said it was “unclear” exactly what he and his team had actually done over the last two weeks. Another individual familiar with Kushner’s work said they hadn’t received updates from his team in “about a week.”

<...>

“He muddied up a process that was really not needing a fix,” said Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. “What that does is disempower FEMA because if at any moment Jared or one of his henchmen demand assets to be redistributed at their discretion, FEMA’s planning gets disrupted. I’ve never seen operations on something this scale being run out of the White House. Usually it’s policy and communications that they handle… but you would never run logistical operations out of the White House.”

<..>

“[Jared] could be in his office just googling ‘coronavirus,’ show the results to the president, and still get a gold sticker from his dad-in-law. He is solving the coronavirus like he’s bringing peace to the [Middle East].”

The whole article:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/where-has-jared-kushner-gone-in-the-fight-against-coronavirus?ref=home

April 24, 2020

Researchers cut chloroquine study short over safety concerns, citing a 'primary outcome' of death

Source: CNBC

Citing a “primary outcome” of death, researchers cut short a study testing anti-malaria drug chloroquine as a potential treatment for Covid-19 after some patients developed irregular heart rates and nearly two dozen of them died after taking doses of the drug daily.

Scientists say the findings, published Friday in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association, should prompt some degree of skepticism from the public toward enthusiastic claims about and perhaps “serve to curb the exuberant use” of the drug, which has been touted by President Donald Trump as a potential “game-changer” in the fight against the coronavirus.

Chloroquine gained widespread international attention following two small studies, including one with 36 Covid-19 patients published March 17 in France, found that most patients taking the drug cleared the coronavirus from their system a lot faster than the control group. The JAMA report said those trials didn’t meet the publishing society’s standards.

“These weak findings, bolstered by anecdotal reports and media attention, have fostered widespread belief in the efficacy of these agents,” according to a separate warning about prescribing the drugs issued Friday alongside the new JAMA study.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/coronavirus-citing-a-primary-outcome-of-death-researchers-cut-chloroquine-study-short-over-safety-concerns.html

April 24, 2020

Lysol Producer Says Do Not Ingest or Inject to Fight Coronavirus

Source: Mediaite

The British company that makes Lysol, and other disinfectants, released a public statement imploring consumers NOT to administer their disinfectant products in the human body. The remarkable statement comes hours after President Donald Trump curiously suggested some medically questionable remedies to the deadly Covid-19 contagion behind the coronavirus pandemic.

During Thursday night’s regular White House briefing from the coronavirus task force, President Trump suggested that household bleaching agents in most surface disinfectants to a possible internal treatment for humans, which would be toxic and possibly fatal.

“Then I see the disinfectant, one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside, or almost a cleaning,” Trump noted. “Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it’d be interesting to check that so that you’ll have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds interesting to me. So we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, where it goes in one minute. That’s pretty powerful.”

Reckitt Benckiser Group is a British multinational consumer goods company that produces Lysol among many other disinfecting household goods, directly responded to Trump’s comments, writing “we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).”

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/trump/lysol-producer-releases-statement-after-trump-briefing-do-not-ingest-disinfectants/

April 24, 2020

He's Baaaack: Rudy mocks contact tracing for COVID-19, then says we need contact tracing for obesity

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle on Thursday night, and, along with its host, mocked New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ambitious plan to identify and isolate possible Covid-19 infections in an attempt to slowly reopen the state’s economy.

<...>

....he then brusquely dismissed the plan announced by Cuomo in partnership with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to hire 10,000 contact tracers for coronavirus containment before any widespread restart of the state’s businesses.

<...>

....he suggested massive contact tracing for several other health issues...

“We should trace a provider for cancer and heart disease and obesity and — I mean, a lot of things kill you more than Covid-19,” Giuliani said. “So we should be traced for all those things. Because life is a certain degree of risk and we have to be willing to live with it.”

https://www.mediaite.com/news/rudy-giuliani-mocks-totally-ridiculous-ny-contact-tracing-plan-then-calls-for-tracking-of-non-contagious-health-issues-like-cancer-obesity/

April 23, 2020

Study: Elderly Trump voters dying of coronavirus could cost him in November

Source: Politico

An academic journal projects that deaths of 65-and-over Republican voters in several swing states will far exceed those of Democrats.

Mass casualties from the coronavirus could upend the political landscape in battleground states and shift contests away from President Donald Trump, according to a new analysis.

Academic researchers writing in a little-noticed public administration journal -- Administrative Theory & Praxis -- conclude that when considering nothing other than the tens of thousands of deaths projected from the virus, demographic shifts alone could be enough to swing crucial states to Joe Biden in the fall.

"The pandemic is going to take a greater toll on the conservative electorate leading into this election -- and that's simply just a calculation of age," Andrew Johnson, the lead author and a professor of management at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said in an interview. "The virus is killing more older voters, and in many states that's the key to a GOP victory."

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/23/how-coronavirus-could-upend-2020-battlegrounds-204708

April 23, 2020

New Polling: Biden leading in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina

Here are some new Public Policy Polling surveys in four key battleground states:

Pennsylvania: Biden 51%, Trump 44%
Michigan: Biden 51%, Trump 44%
Wisconsin: Biden 50%, Trump 45%
North Carolina: Biden 49%, Trump 46%

https://politicalwire.com/2020/04/23/biden-leads-in-four-swing-states/

April 23, 2020

Trump and Fox News Are Suddenly Silent on Their "Miracle" Drug Hydroxychloroquine

Their reckless promotion flew in the face of expert warnings.

After aggressively promoting an anti-malaria drug as a “miracle” in the fight against COVID-19—a push that flew in the face of repeated warnings from experts—President Donald Trump and Fox News personalities suddenly appear to be cooling on hydroxychloroquine just as a new study reports the drug could lead to a higher death rate.

“The fact of the matter is we don’t know,” Dr. Mehmet Oz told the hosts of Fox & Friends on Wednesday. “Thankfully these medications are prescriptions only… We are better off waiting for the randomized trials Dr. Fauci has been asking for.”

The segment was a head-spinning reversal for Oz, who less than a week ago encouraged Americans to participate in an at-home hydroxychloroquine clinical trial. “They mail you the pills, you start the protocol, tell them what happened… Be part of the solution,” he told Fox News viewers in a segment on April 16, the latest in Oz’s ongoing promotion of hydroxychloroquine on the conservative news network.

The attempt to strike a more cautious approach this week comes on the heels of new studies that showed hydroxychloroquine yielded no benefit in helping patients infected with the virus; one study on US veterans reported more deaths among those treated with the drug than those who received normal care.

When asked about the veterans’ study on Tuesday, Trump, perhaps the biggest hydroxychloroquine cheerleader of all, dodged.

Read more:

https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/04/trump-and-fox-news-are-suddenly-silent-on-their-miracle-drug-hydroxychloroquine/