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riversedge's JournalHouse Democrats urged to remove 'insidious attack' on Social Security hidden within senate coronavir
Source: raw story
House Democrats urged to remove ‘insidious attack’ on Social Security hidden within senate coronavirus bill
Published 9 hours ago on March 26, 2020
“The only way to escape this trap is to avoid stepping into it in the first place. That’s why the House must remove the cut to Social Security’s dedicated funding before this bill passes.”
Progressives are demanding that the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives prioritize removing a little-noticed provision in the massive Senate-passed coronavirus stimulus bill that would allow employers to stop paying into Social Security for at least the rest of the year—potentially threatening the program’s long-term financial health.
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Section 2302 of the nearly 900-page legislation would let companies defer until next year their payment of the employer payroll tax, one of the primary funding mechanisms for Social Security. The bill would require that companies pay 50% of their owed 2020 payroll taxes by December 31, 2021.
While the section has thus far received little media attention, advocacy group Social Security Works said the language authorizes an “insidious attack” on the New Deal-era program and must be stripped out before final passage.
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“The Democrats are walking right into the trap,” Michael Phelan, deputy director of Social Security Works, warned in an email Wednesday night ahead of the Senate vote. “If Trump and Republicans retain power after November’s elections, they will make sure that corporations never repay Social Security. Then, Republicans will use the reduced trust fund as an excuse to destroy our Social Security system.”
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Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/house-democrats-urged-to-remove-insidious-attack-on-social-security-hidden-within-senate-coronavirus-bill/
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is now in charge of the effort to manufacture ventilators: report
I am speechless. I can't deal with this right now.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is now in charge of the effort to manufacture ventilators: report
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/trump-son-in-law-jared-kushner-is-now-in-charge-of-the-effort-to-manufacture-ventilators-report/
Published 1 min ago on March 26, 2020
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law has taken it upon himself to lead the federal government’s efforts to manufacture new ventilators after months of inaction, The New York Times reported Thursday.
“The shortage of ventilators has emerged as one of the major criticism of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus. The need to quickly equip hospitals across the country with tens of thousands more of the devices to treat those most seriously ill with the virus was not anticipated despite the Trump administration’s own projection in a simulation last year that millions of people could be hospitalized,” the newspaper reported. “And even now, the effort to produce them has been confused and disorganized.”
The newspaper noted that the White House had been preparing to announce on Wednesday a joint venture between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems to manufacture up to 80,000 ventilators. The Federal Emergency Management Agency canceled the announcement..........................................
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1243330672300822531?s=20
Democrats ask Trump for evidence that medical supplies are available
Source: the hill.
By Mike Lillis - 03/26/20 03:09 PM EDT
House Democrats, highly skeptical of President Trump's claim that medical equipment needed to treat patients with coronavirus is in ready supply, are asking the administration for evidence to back it up.
Behind Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.), dozens of lawmakers are pressing the administration to provide proof that hospitals, nursing homes and other medical providers have ample access to equipment like respirators, ventilators, gloves and goggles, as the president and members of his administration have recently asserted.
In a letter to Trump delivered Thursday, 45 Democrats cite numerous cases of hospitals lacking not only test kits, but also the most basic personal protective equipment, or PPE, like medical masks and gowns. Those reports run counter to Trump's claims that the administration is keeping up with the providers' supply needs, and getting "tremendous reviews" in the process.
"Your Administration claims to be resolving shortages of critical medical supplies, yet we have not seen evidence to corroborate those claims," the Democrats wrote in their letter, obtained by The Hill. "In contrast, first responders on the front lines of this crisis are urgently warning that their needs for these medical supplies are rapidly outstripping available supply."
The Democrats are asking administration officials to disclose any information they've gathered about the availability of critical medical supplies; the specific equipment needs conveyed by providers; and the regions of the country where those supplies are most lacking. They also asked whether the administration has shared that data with the private manufacturers that might be equipped to help meet the demand.
They're seeking a response within 48 hours.
"We need a national strategy to combat this virus — one based on an understanding of how many supplies we need, how many we can get, and who needs them," the lawmakers wrote.
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Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/489704-dems-ask-trump-for-evidence-that-medical-supplies-are-available#.Xn0ws42ldr4.twitter
good to see.
But from what I have read. lots of chat and deals or whatever between WH and companies--private companies are being made. Bet we get little answers.
https://twitter.com/Hope012015/status/1243308314123030532?s=20
Coronavirus live updates: US now leads world with over 82,000 cases
It is getting real real bad.
Coronavirus live updates: US now leads world with over 82,000 cases
Coronavirus has now killed more than 23,700 people around the world.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/coronavirus-live-updates-cuomo-calls-stimulus-bill-reckless/story?id=69806200&cid=clicksource_4380645_2_takeover_2_headlines_hed
March 26, 2020, 5:17 PM
Cuomo says stimulus bill is ‘irresponsible’ and ‘reckless’Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave an update on the latest developments in New York state amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 23,600 people around the world, including at least 1,178 people in the United States.
Worldwide, there are more than 526,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, spanning every continent except Antarctica, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. At least 122,000 people around the world have recovered.
With more than 82,000 diagnosed cases, the U.S has the highest national total, ahead of Italy and China................................................
Christian pastor who thought COVID-19 is just 'mass hysteria' is among the first in Virginia to die
Source: raw story
Christian pastor who thought COVID-19 is just ‘mass hysteria’ is among the first in Virginia to die from virus
Published 50 mins ago on March 26, 2020
One of the first deaths in Virginia from coronavirus was a 66-year-old Christian “musical evangelist” who fell ill while on a trip to New Orleans with his wife. As the Friendly Atheist’s Hemant Mehta points out, Landon Spradlin had previously shared opinions that the pandemic was the result of “mass hysteria” from the media.
On March 13, Spradlin shared a misleading meme that compared coronavirus deaths to swine flu deaths and suggested the media is using the pandemic to hurt Trump. In the comments, Spradlin acknowledged that the outbreak is a “real issue,” but added that he believes “the media is pumping out fear and doing more harm than good”
“It will come and it will go,” he wrote.
Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
That same say, he shared a post from another pastor that told the story of a missionary in South Africa who “protected” himself from the bubonic plague with the “Spirit of God.”.......................
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/christian-pastor-who-thought-covid-19-is-just-mass-hysteria-is-among-the-first-in-virginia-to-die-from-virus/
I think this is a great response..............
https://twitter.com/FilmsJapan/status/1243265820370898946?s=20
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1243265481601093637?s=20
George Conway: What did Trump and Congress know about the #coronavirus, and when did they know it?
What did Trump and Congress know about the coronavirus, and when did they know it?
By George T. Conway III and Carrie Cordero
March 25, 2020 at 1:11 p.m. CDT
George T. Conway III is a lawyer and an adviser to the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump super PAC. Carrie Cordero is the Robert M. Gates senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Both are co-founders of Checks & Balances, a network of lawyers advocating for the rule of law.
What did the president know about the coronavirus, and when did he know it? What did members of Congress know, and when did they know it?
According to a Post report, quite possibly a lot, and for quite a while: Intelligence agencies “were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat.”
These intelligence assessments about the global danger posed by the virus made the rounds in the executive and legislative branches, sources told The Post, but the American people weren’t told about them. Now Americans should know precisely what their government knew about an impending crisis that would jeopardize their livelihoods and lives.
These reports should be declassified, to the maximum extent feasible, and released as soon as possible, along with the identities of senior administration officials and members of Congress who learned of it. That’s especially true given how Trump repeatedly told the public that the impact of the virus on the United States would be minimal.
A small sampling.
Jan. 22: “We have it totally under control.”
Feb. 2: “Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
Feb. 10: “By April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”
Feb. 24: “The Coronavirus very much under control in the USA. … Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Feb. 26: “The risk to the American people remains very low.” At the same time, The Post reported, “Trump’s advisers struggled to get him to take the virus seriously,” despite telling him that “the virus was likely to dominate life in the United States for many months.”
The Post also reported that U.S. intelligence agencies “warned that Chinese officials appeared to be minimizing the severity of the outbreak,” with Trump being “told … that Beijing was not providing accurate numbers of people who were infected or who had died.” Yet Trump repeatedly praised China, and he even tweeted praise for its “transparency” on Jan. 24: “China has been working very hard … In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!
The intelligence reports raise questions about Congress as well. Every January or February for more than a decade, the House and Senate intelligence committees have held an unclassified public hearing on worldwide threats. The chiefs of the major intelligence agencies and the director of national intelligence appear under oath, and it’s one of the only opportunities for the public to hear from them directly. Accompanying that hearing comes a comprehensive, unclassified report on the most pressing national security threats facing the nation.
T................
No doubt Trump will claim the reports and briefings are classified. But it’s quite likely that much of the intelligence regarding coronavirus relied heavily on open-source information, which of course doesn’t need to be kept under wraps. .............................
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Declassification of the coronavirus reports and briefings could occur quickly, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t. Congressional intelligence committees can make immediate requests for the assessments and reports, and they can seek declassification for public release directly from the agencies that produced the information. While decisions regarding classification can, when difficult, percolate up to the director of national intelligence, or even the president, they don’t have to; agency heads have sufficient discretion of their own.
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And there’s no legitimate reason to keep that a secret.
Trump sends cease, desist letter on ad featuring one giant sound bite of his mad coronavirus musings
Source: daily kos
Wednesday March 25, 2020 · 9:03 PM CDT
Donald Trump is angry. The Democratic Super PAC Priorities USA assembled an ad that features the sound bites of Trump and Trump only, and guess what? Turns out he’s an unhinged maniacal liar who’s gotten everything about the coronavirus wrong. That may not be news to you, but it is apparently news to Trump. And his dangerously factless musings on the coronavirus over the past several weeks have not worn well.
So on Wednesday, a Trump campaign attorney released a cease and desist letter demanding that TV stations across the nation pull the ad immediately. “On behalf of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., President Trump’s principal campaign committee, this letter notifies you that your station is airing a patently false, misleading, and deceptive advertisement,” wrote Alex Cannon, special counsel to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. “Because [the] ad’s central point is deliberately false and misleading, your station has an obligation to cease and desist from airing it immediately to comply with FCC licensing requirements, to serve the public interest, and to avoid costly and time-consuming litigation.” .........
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Read more: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/25/1931337/-Trump-sends-cease-desist-letter-on-ad-featuring-one-giant-sound-bite-of-his-mad-coronavirus-musings
circulate. circulate circulate
?1576864909
193 Comments 193 New
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 01: U.S. President Donald Trump calls journalists 'loco,' which is Spanish for crazy, during a press conference to discuss a revised U.S. trade agreement with Mexico and Canada in the Rose Garden of the White House on October 1, 2018 in Washington, DC. U.S. and Canadian officials announced late Sunday night that a new deal, named the 'U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement,' or USMCA, had been reached to replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
https://twitter.com/prioritiesUSA/status/1242193904553865216?s=20
Closeness to Trump has determined which lawmakers can get tested for coronavirus more quickly: repor
Source: raw story
Closeness to Trump has determined which lawmakers can get tested for coronavirus more quickly: report
Published 4 hours ago on March 25, 2020
Despite weeks of crisis, it remains difficult for many people around the country to receive testing for the novel coronavirus. But some people have found it much easier to get testing than others.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post documented how some lawmakers and officials have gotten quick testing due to their proximity to President Donald Trump.
“Mulvaney is one of three President Trump confidants to get a coronavirus test while exhibiting no symptoms of the disease,” wrote Juliet Eilperin, Michael Scherer, Josh Dawsey, and Seung Min Kim. “And on Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced he tested positive despite being asymptomatic, refusing to disclose how he was able to get tested in Washington on March 16.”
“The easy access Paul and other high-ranking politicians have gotten to coronavirus tests highlights the extent to which members of America’s elite continue to have greater access to medical care during the pandemic, even as federal officials emphasize that testing should be reserved for health care providers and people who are seriously ill,” they wrote. “............................
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“In the cases of Mulvaney, Trump’s incoming chief of staff Mark Meadows and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), White House medical staffers arranged for their tests on the grounds that they risked infecting the president,” continued the report. “Both Meadows and Gaetz came into contact with someone at last month’s CPAC gathering who then learned he had contracted covid-19.”........................................
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New York University clinical professor Robyn Gershon described this arrangement as a “horrible flouting of our public health recommendations.”
You.......
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/closeness-to-trump-has-determined-which-lawmakers-can-get-tested-for-coronavirus-more-quickly-report/
We knew this was happening.
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1243007225897066496?s=20
I don't think Trump's gonna make it [#trumpPressConference]
I missed the very begging of Trump walking out but I did see him lumber off stage today.
I actually noticed it before I read this short article. Yes, I know Palmer does go off many times but I agree, Trump was bad news today--. physically and mentally.
Palmer is spot on this time. He has a tendency for going over the top many times, but not this time!
I don’t think Trump’s gonna make it https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/i-dont-think-trumps-gonna-make-it/26948 via @PalmerReport
I don’t think Trump’s gonna make it
Bill Palmer | 7:50 pm EDT March 25, 2020
Palmer Report » Analysis
Donald Trump lumbered onto the stage this evening, seemed short of breath from the start, got lost in a number of incoherent stories, yelled “fake news” at multiple reporters in the room, and then abruptly decided to lumber off the stage, telling Mike Pence to take over the rest of the press conference.
This came after Trump spent the day posting increasingly belligerent, bizarre, and braindead tweets attacking just about everyone he could think of. Trump’s day wasn’t productive. It wasn’t coherent. It wasn’t anything, beyond deeply concerning. It’s not just that Trump didn’t sound like his presidency is going to make it. It’s that he didn’t sound like a guy who’s going to make it, period.
Even when you set aside conversations about how much worse Donald Trump will screw this up before November, there’s the question of whether this is even sustainable for him. The stress of finally having to do a little bit of work in his otherwise lazy life, at a time when he’s clearly in poor health to begin with, just makes you wonder.
We’re already at the point where a struggling Donald Trump is walking out on his own press conferences. How many more days in a row can his own people put him out there without killing him? ................................................................
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https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/status/1242946864745312257?s=20
https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/status/1242946864745312257?s=20
Randy Ferrell
Peach
Squared sos
#VetsResistSquadron
@rpdandy
·
4h
Replying to
@AynRandPaulRyan
and
@suzyq228
What an immature, ignorant, thin skinned little punk he is.
Colleen Hands
@veracruisin
·
4h
#DangerToOthers #25A #25AmendmentNow
audrey
Water wave
@ovenbirdwalks
·
5h
Replying to @AynRandPaulRyan
Terrible. We're swirling down the drain.
https://twitter.com/MizzzezOh/status/1242948679729905668?s=20
https://twitter.com/Patta47cake/status/1242949972724789249?s=20
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Trump team failed to follow NSC's pandemic playbook
Source: POLITICO
Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook
The 69-page document, finished in 2016, provided a step by step list of priorities – which were then ignored by the administration.
President Trump
President Donald Trump's administration was briefed on the playbook’s existence in 2017, said four former officials. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
By DAN DIAMOND and NAHAL TOOSI
03/25/2020 08:00 PM EDT
The Trump administration, state officials and even individual hospital workers are now racing against each other to get the necessary masks, gloves and other safety equipment to fight coronavirus — a scramble that hospitals and doctors say has come too late and left them at risk. But according to a previously unrevealed White House playbook, the government should’ve begun a federal-wide effort to procure that personal protective equipment at least two months ago.
“Is there sufficient personal protective equipment for healthcare workers who are providing medical care?” the playbook instructs its readers, as one early decision that officials should address when facing a potential pandemic. “If YES: What are the triggers to signal exhaustion of supplies? Are additional supplies available? If NO: Should the Strategic National Stockpile release PPE to states?”
The strategies are among hundreds of tactics and key policy decisions laid out in a 69-page National Security Council playbook on fighting pandemics, which POLITICO is detailing for the first time. Other recommendations include that the government move swiftly to fully detect potential outbreaks, secure supplemental funding and consider invoking the Defense Production Act — all steps in which the Trump administration lagged behind the timeline laid out in the playbook.
“Each section of this playbook includes specific questions that should be asked and decisions that should be made at multiple levels” within the national security apparatus, the playbook urges, repeatedly advising officials to question the numbers on viral spread, ensure appropriate diagnostic capacity and check on the U.S. stockpile of emergency resources.
Pandemic playbook
The playbook also stresses the significant responsibility facing the White House to contain risks of potential pandemics, a stark contrast with the Trump administration’s delays in deploying an all-of-government response and President Donald Trump's recent signals that he might roll back public health recommendations.
“The U.S. government will use all powers at its disposal to prevent, slow or mitigate the spread of an emerging infectious disease threat,” according to the playbook’s built-in “assumptions” about fighting future threats. “The American public will look to the U.S. government for action when multi-state or other significant events occur.”
The guide further calls for a “unified message” on the federal response, in order to best manage the American public's questions and concerns. “Early coordination of risk communications through a single federal spokesperson is critical,” the playbook urges. However, the U.S. response to coronavirus has featured a rotating cast of spokespeople and conflicting messages; Trump already is discussing loosening government recommendations on coronavirus in order to “open” the economy by Easter, despite the objections of public health advisers.
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Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/25/trump-coronavirus-national-security-council-149285
lazy farts--and now folks are dying
President Donald Trump's administration was briefed on the playbook’s existence in 2017, said four former officials. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The NSC devised the guide — officially called the Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents, but known colloquially as “the pandemic playbook” — across 2016. The project was driven by career civil servants as well as political appointees, aware that global leaders had initially fumbled their response to the 2014-2015 spread of Ebola and wanting to be sure that the next response to an epidemic was better handled.
The Trump administration was briefed on the playbook’s existence in 2017, said four former officials, but two cautioned that it never went through a full, National Security Council-led interagency process to be approved as Trump administration strategy. Tom Bossert, who was then Trump’s homeland security adviser, expressed enthusiasm about its potential as part of the administration’s broader strategy to fight pandemics, two former officials said. .....
https://twitter.com/CheriJacobus/status/1242984518128205828?s=20
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