Displaying 511 To 540 Of 1,008 Comments HEADLINE: Heartland hotspots: A sudden rise in coronavirus cases is hitting rural states without stay-at-home orders Who could have seen that coming??? » Posted By TOCB On April 17, 2020 @ 10:58 am And republicans gave him the leeway to be FUBAR. » Posted By TOCB On April 17, 2020 @ 10:56 am “There will be a rethink of how much any country wants to be reliant on any other country,” said Elizabeth Economy, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “I don’t think fundamentally this is the end of globalization. But this does accelerate the type of thinking that has been going on in the Trump administration, that there are critical technologies, critical resources, reserve manufacturing capacity that we want here in the U.S. in case of crisis.” Trump had the right idea, but for the wrong reasons, and he didn’t have a clue about how to execute it. What many are having a come to Jesus moment about related to the global supply chain, is what Ross Perot warned about with that “giant sucking sound”. Covid-19 has exposed the results of that giant sucking sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3LvZAZ-HV4 Can you hear me now???
» Posted By TOCB On April 16, 2020 @ 9:59 am U.S. Constitution – Article 2 Section 3 Article 2 – The Executive Branch He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States. https://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A2Sec3.html I don’t know if whoever advises trump on the Constitution is incompetent, or he just ignores them and goes by his own interpretation of the Constitution. However, a president does not have the power or authority to adjourn Congress in order to allow the president the opportunity to make recess appointments. The Constitution specifically states that, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper… So disagreement between the chambers on the time of adjournment is the ONLY reason a president can adjourn Congress. » Posted By TOCB On April 16, 2020 @ 5:28 am Joe Biden and the DNC should run videos with trump saying he has “total authority” every day from now until November. Notice how Pence ran away from trump when he was trying to explain to the press that he has total authority. Republicans cannot run away from this arsehole. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNbjxTMbOm8 During Monday’s press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic, Trump said, “When somebody’s president of the United States, the authority is total. And that’s the way it’s got to to be. It’s total. It’s total. And the governors know that.” » Posted By TOCB On April 14, 2020 @ 5:34 am “For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government,” tweeted Trump on Monday. “Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect. It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!” The comments echo a statement Trump made at Friday’s White House briefing. “I like to allow governors to make decisions without overruling them, because from a constitutional standpoint, that’s the way it should be done,” said Trump. “If I disagreed, I would overrule a governor, and I have that right to do it. But I’d rather have them — you can call it ‘federalist,’ you can call it ‘the Constitution,’ but I call it ‘the Constitution.’ I would rather have them make their decisions.” These statements sounds like things either a 5 year-old or a senile old man would say. » Posted By TOCB On April 13, 2020 @ 12:22 pm Yes, we disagree on the supposed “superior judgement” question. However, the world community did not protest weapons inspectors going back to Iraq. What they protested was the “rush to war”, as did Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden and every Democrat I know. A majority of people around the world were against it (though a majority in the US, still easily manipulated by fear so soon after 9/11, were eventually convinced to support it) and did not trust Bush’s words. Huge protests were consistently ignored by the MSM but took place in the US and around the world, demonstrating widespread distrust of Bush and a belief that he would use the authorization to go to war…and all those people were right. However, my point was more around the “trust” factor. Americans should be able to trust our president’s judgement, and we should give that GREAT consideration in choosing a president. Bush did not need the 2002 AUMF. He could have used the War Powers Act for that. Democrats in Congress who voted for the AUMF did so to support THEIR president (as opposed to a Republican or Democratic president) in seeking U.N. authorization to put weapons inspectors in Iraq. I don’t hold that against them. In fact, I question the judgement of those who did not support that effort, regardless of their reasoning, although again, I would not hold it against them either, UNLESS they held it against others for voting to support the effort. You and I disagree on that point, but we respect each other’s opinion. » Posted By TOCB On April 9, 2020 @ 2:57 pm If we MUST allow the Federal Reserve to run our economy, a good move on their part would be to suspend mortgage and rent payments for a few months until the economy reopens. Yes, financial indicators would blow completely up. But that should be okay, as this is a very unique time and the economic derailment is not the result of the Fed’s mismanagement of the economy, for once. In fact, they could also suspend payments for student loans and automobiles for people with incomes under $500K/year. I would even throw credit card payments in the pile, except there is too much room for abuse there. And when the payments resume, don’t tact any interest on the suspended period. This would have a great impact on the biggest financial worries American families have to deal with each month during this pandemic. Who would be harmed if something like this were done? Banks? The same banks who are allowed to create money out of thin air? THOSE banks??? Of course, not only short selling in the stock markets would have to suspended, but ALL stock market trading would have to be suspended in order to protect bank stocks. » Posted By TOCB On April 9, 2020 @ 2:41 pm I imagine that if, for example, he announced Warren as his VP and Harris as his AG, there would be a lot of excitement for his presidency, if not for him in particular. And also find an important place in his cabinet for Julian Castro and Andrew Yang, among others who ran in the presidential primaries. The most diverse Democratic primary in history COULD morph into the most diverse cabinet in history, as opposed to a bunch of wealthy old white men. THAT could bring some excitement into the campaign if the selections were announce early. Yes, it would be unprecedented to announce cabinet positions before the election, but a lot of things are unprecedented these days. » Posted By TOCB On April 9, 2020 @ 2:22 pm Looking ahead, Cenk addresses his comments to the leaders of the Democratic Party who pushed Joe Biden on us and have now successfully, it appears, wrestled him across the primary season finish line. Cenk didn’t support Biden, and says he was possibly the weakest candidate in the entire Democratic field, but wants to know what the party has in store now that Biden’s the nominee. The plan is for EVERYONE who believes that trump and republicans are the WORST thing for the USA and the world, to vote for Biden and Democrats. Besides that, if you want a “progressive DEMOCRAT” to win the Democratic nomination, you might consider getting behind a DEMOCRAT. I was not a Biden or a Sanders supporter. However, I am a supporter of whatever DEMOCRAT who can beat trump. FYI, Sanders did not invent “progressivism” and he is not the only person affiliated with the Democratic Party post-1964 to CONSISTENTLY promote progressive ideals. Had “progressives” supported Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton in past general elections the USA would not be where we are today. Were any of these candidates perfect? Is Sanders perfect? Biden? NO!!! Democracy is about participating in small “d” democracy. It is also about compromising, integrity and growth. The USA is NOT a perfect Union, but we MUST endeavor to CONSTANTLY move toward a more perfect union, TOGETHER (including republicans, as difficult as that is).
» Posted By TOCB On April 9, 2020 @ 7:47 am At least everyone is this encounter acted in civil manner. The officers clearly did not understand the law, and the suspect seemed to have a clearer understanding of the law than the officers did. I don’t know if the officers were just bored, or that they thought they were actually preventing the spread of the coronavirus pursuant to their interpretations of the order. Imagine if this had happened in the USA. Imagine further if the suspect had been black. How do you think such an encounter may have been different, OR do you think it would have been different? » Posted By TOCB On April 9, 2020 @ 7:01 am ALL essential workers should be tested frequently. What “frequently” is should be established by the medical community. » Posted By TOCB On April 9, 2020 @ 6:33 am I DO NOT believe President Obama had superior judgement to Hillary Clinton because she voted to give the President of The United States, who at the time was George W Bush, the authority to use military force against Iraq, as a last resort IF diplomatic efforts failed, to force Saddam Hussein to give an accounting of the WMD he had. In point of fact, I believe as did George W Bush and Obama believed, that the War Powers Act of 1973 gives a president the authority to use military force IF a threat is imminent. That law also gives a president the discretion to determine WHEN and IF a threat is imminent. I believe Americans should ALWAYS endeavor to elect someone they can trust to use the powers and authorities given to the president in a manner that is prudent and wise. WHENEVER you hear ANYONE say they are the best, the brightest, a stable genius or ANYTHING like that, one thing is certain. That person is NOT the best or the brightest or a stable genius. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSUeotBPaLc How trump responded.
» Posted By TOCB On April 9, 2020 @ 6:14 am Whoda thunk it? The cheat says people who do what he does, are cheaters. “Now, mail ballots, they cheat, OK? People cheat. Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country,” said the president, who requested an absentee mail-in-ballot last month for Florida’s primary. » Posted By TOCB On April 8, 2020 @ 4:35 am We all know trump is a pathological liar, AND he is incompetent. We don’t know if the misleading claim that the USA has done more testing than any other nation is because of trump’s lying, or because of his incompetence. Yes, by now there have been more testing in the USA than any other nation, AND that is what trump said. However, on a per capita basis, we still lag other nations, and we were very late to test, and tests are STILL not widely available. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnxfhRIV4r0 During his Thursday night briefing with the coronavirus task force, President Trump repeated a claim that the United States has done more testing for the contagion on a per capita basis than any other country. During Wednesday’s briefing, Vice President Pence said more than 1.2 million tests have been performed on Americans. Given the population of the U.S. (about 327 million), that’s roughly 1 in every 273 people, as of April 2. South Korea, with its population of 51.5 million, has done 431,743 tests, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s approximately 1 in every 119 people. » Posted By TOCB On April 7, 2020 @ 6:33 am In 2016, Hillary Clinton put forth more policy positions than anyone in either party. Yet, the press insisted that they didn’t know why she was running for president. In 2020, Elizabeth Warren put forth more policy positions than anyone is either party. Yet, she received less than 15% of the vote in almost every primary contest. What is the primary thing these two candidates have in common? It is too late for a female president in 2020. However, along with all of the other changes that will result from COVID-19, the advantages of having a female president MIGHT become more obvious. What are the advantages? There are many, but the most glaring one is that a female president would bring more compassion, caring and harmony to the federal government and the world. Imagine, if you will, what could be achieved in the world IF the most powerful man in the world, was a wo’man. » Posted By TOCB On April 7, 2020 @ 6:10 am I think forces are at work to reveal to the world that we are all connected, and in order for humans to reach a higher level of consciousness, we have to practice LOVE. Be safe and be well. » Posted By TOCB On April 7, 2020 @ 6:00 am but come Nov., GOTV (by absentee and mail would still be best) and invest time and energy in supporting Biden against Trump. Republicans across the spectrum are doing everything they can to prevent as many people from voting as they can. Rather than postponing the Wisconsin primaries, the republican controlled legislature in that state is requiring them to go on today in spite of the social distancing order by all levels of the government, and conservatives on the Supreme Court refused to expand the time to allow voting by mail. For decades, republicans have attempted to allow as few people to vote as possible, in order to improve republicans chances of winning elections.
» Posted By TOCB On April 7, 2020 @ 5:56 am Of course trump has a rubber arm, and he uses it every day to pat himself on the back for acting so swiftly to ban travel to the USA from China. And no one can remain in trump’s orbit unless they too praise him for that every day. At this point it is more important what we do now and going forward, than what trump did or did not do early-on. However, here are the FACTS: The US intelligence community was warning President Donald Trump about an impending pandemic as early as January, The Washington Post reported. https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-intelligence-warned-trump-of-pandemic-in-january-2020-3 Travel data of passengers arriving in the United States from China during the critical period in December, January and February, when the disease took hold in that country, shows a stunning 759,493 people entered the U.S. President Donald Trump restricted travel from China effective Feb. 2, which likely saved lives. But by the time the president acted, much of the damage had already been unleashed, and some 18,000 Americans returned home from China in February and March, after the restrictions were in place. It’s unclear how intensive, if at all, the screening was for the Americans coming home at that point. The data, gleaned from Commerce Department records and additional information compiled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the request of ABC News, represents the most detailed accounting yet of travelers coming into the U.S. from China and other countries where the virus quickly spread. Combined with those from China, that’s more than 3.4 million people from just four countries — nearly half, about 1.5 million, Americans returning home. Travel from Italy and Spain wasn’t shut down until March 13, with U.K. arrivals restricted a few days later. We also have to fact-check the fact checkers. Factcheck.org recently reported that it is false that the trump administration cut the funding for pandemic monitoring. As the COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus has spread around the world, a number of politicians, news organizations and public figures have made the false claim that the Trump administration cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s anti-pandemic work in over 40 countries to just 10. The CDC told us that’s not true. https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/false-claim-about-cdcs-global-anti-pandemic-work/ However, it appears that factcheck.org is factually incorrect. Here is why. The truth? Right here: https://timpanogos.blog/2012/12/23/factcheck-org-comes-clean-on-political-affiliations/ In spite of the factcheck.org claim that the trump administration did not cut funding to PREDICT, they IN FACT DID. Again, here are the facts: United States Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) today requesting information regarding the agency’s recent decision to shutter PREDICT, a program established to identify and combat viruses that may generate global public health emergencies, such as the recent coronavirus. » Posted By TOCB On April 6, 2020 @ 9:56 am Do we REALLY expect someone who is in an office as a public servant, to serve the public if they don’t care about the public?
» Posted By TOCB On April 5, 2020 @ 9:54 am What is the argument for NOT suspending short-selling during a financial crisis? Personally, I am against short-selling at ANY time, because all it does is to provide a tool for large fund traders to legally transfer wealth from little investors/traders to themselves. What is the biggest driver of market selling,ALWAYS? FEAR AND PANIC! When large blocks of equities or quite frankly ANYTHING are sold, first of all it triggers automatic program-selling of particular equities as well as the entire market. And depending on the timing of trades, which are controlled by market makers, it allows those who have the power to control trading, to manipulate trades to their advantage. The highest-ranking regulator on Wall Street said that he doesn’t think the US should do away with short selling, or betting against the stock market, even amid recent volatility brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. At this point it is probably too late to ban short-selling because a lot of damage has already been done. There is already a mechanism to automatically suspend ALL trading, when the broader market drops by certain percentages between sessions. What is the logic for NOT also suspending short-selling as a mechanism for triggering a market shut-down??? » Posted By TOCB On April 5, 2020 @ 8:09 am Trump fires the intelligence IG because the IG said the Ukraine whistleblower’s complaint was credible and urgent and that it should be investigated by Congress, as the law requires. Who is surprised by this? And why shouldn’t trump do this, when he has been shown that he can do whatever he wants to d? Who is going to stop him? What I am waiting to witness is an Al Pacino moment from someone in the press or in Congress, when trump says someone is a disgrace, to say “YOU ARE A DISGRACE!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9pEqEy80RA Or at least a Joe Wilson moment where he tell Obama, ” You LIE!”
» Posted By TOCB On April 4, 2020 @ 3:01 pm Thank you Kalima. And you and yours as well. I am one of those stupid people who believe we are all connected and are co-creators of our realities, so I have to love EVEN trump. I don’t have to like what he says and does, but I have to love him as a human. He too is a projection of the source of consciousness, but he operates at a very low frequency. Other than his very declining base, I don’t think anyone else gives any credence to what he says. » Posted By TOCB On April 4, 2020 @ 8:12 am This is not a time for saying I told you so; or is it? The unique American health insurance model is to pay premiums to the private health insurance industry when we are young and healthy, and when we get old and need healthcare more, we depend on the government to take care of our health. There may be a more inefficient way of providing healthcare for a society, but I can’t for the life of me think of one. So now the question for Joe Biden and so-called moderate Democrats, as well as so-called small government conservatives is how do you like your employer-based health insurance now? OR, is “socialism” sounding a little better to you now? The tragic effects of our battle with the novel coronavirus are seemingly endless. But arguably the most mind-blowing is this: the very pandemic that threatens to infect and kill millions is simultaneously causing many to also lose their health coverage at their gravest time of need. I still think that Joe Biden is a better candidate than Sanders to run against trump, but he needs to drop that protecting the ACA bullshit (which btw, the trump administration is currently trying to have it declared unconstitutional, while at the same time telling Americans to sign up for it). The worsening coronavirus outbreak may be stretching the limits of the U.S. health care system and overwhelming state governments, but that isn’t deterring a group of 18 state attorneys general from plowing ahead with a lawsuit that could overturn the Affordable Care Act within a year—a move that could disrupt the health care system at a time of deep crisis. Most Democrats have always wanted universal single payer. They just didn’t think they could get it if republicans controlled ANY part of the federal government. However, I thought I heard the secretary of HHS say yesterday that the federal government will cover the cost of ANY COVID-19 related healthcare cost. Although I don’t know how the executive branch of the government can simply decree that, I support it and it sounds a lot like universal single payer, except specifically for COVID-19. I wonder how those 160 million people with employer-based healthcare insurance like it now? Or at least the 6 million of them who lost their jobs in the last couple of weeks? » Posted By TOCB On April 4, 2020 @ 7:52 am Whatever the outcome of this pandemic is, trump’s future is severely jeopardized IF he is not re-elected, and ALL of his statements and decisions are based on that reality, and THAT reality is something the rest of us have to contend with, whether we like it or not. Our challenge is to find effective ways to contend with it. » Posted By TOCB On April 3, 2020 @ 6:05 am Remember when you were VP and lived through H1N1 and Ebola?” Crenshaw wrote Thursday. “You could have added more PPE [personal protective equipment] to national stockpiles right? But you didn’t?” Politics has a great effect on our lives, including how our government is managed. Although it is probably not wise to allow politics to influence governmental decisions, we know it happens. Speaking the truth SHOULD NOT be confused or conflated with “politics”. “Donald Trump’s Acting Navy Secretary shot the messenger – a commanding officer who was faithful to both his national security mission and his duty to care for his sailors, and who rightly focused attention on a broader concern about how to maintain military readiness during this pandemic,” Biden said in a statement to Reuters. Although Biden’s comment COULD BE taken as a political statement, it is also a true statement, and I suppose Congressman Crenshaw’s statement(s) could be “his” truth, even though they are also political. It is definitely hypocritical to chastise someone for being political, while being political yourself. » Posted By TOCB On April 3, 2020 @ 5:58 am EXACTLY! From my perspective the GOP has been exposed since the Reagan administration for being bigots who promote that giving unnecessary advantages to the wealthy, the wealthy will in turn take care of the masses. MAYBE some of them actually believe this myth, but even the working people who vote for republicans do not benefit from this myth. However, they do get to experience the bigotry the GOP uses to persuade them to support the GOP. The tea party republicans realized that the GOP was not helping them economically or being as bigoted as they prefer, so they voted “establishment” GOPers out of office, and put in more bigots who don’t know or care about the GOP’s so-called small-government conservative agenda. MAYBE how republicans have mishandled COVID-19 will make them aware that bigotry and hatred have a tendency of eventually backfiring on those who practice it. » Posted By TOCB On April 1, 2020 @ 8:58 am Please forgive me for getting the abbreviation for the great state of Connecticut wrong. It is CT, and not CN. » Posted By TOCB On April 1, 2020 @ 8:45 am Despite having committed to transferring 2,000 ventilators in military stocks to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services to fight the coronavirus outbreak, the Pentagon has not shipped any of them because the agencies have not asked for them or provided a shipping location, the Pentagon’s top logistics official said Tuesday. Trump is lying when he says the federal government is providing equipment to the states to combat COVID-19. His excuse for lying is that the governors of the states don’t know what they need, and that trump knows best. It is all about trump, and because of that the USA has far more cases of the virus than any other nation, and there is STILL no coordinated effort on the part of the federal government to mitigate the spread of the disease. EVERYTHING that has been done, has been done by mayors, county judges and governors. So when Pence and others stand at the podium every day and praise trump for his “leadership”, they are praising a false god who is a lying sack of shit. » Posted By TOCB On April 1, 2020 @ 8:39 am Ironically, trump is “threatening” to federally quarantine NY, NJ and CN. I say threatening, because there is no reason for the federal government to inject itself in quarantining states that are already doing that, and contrary to what I have heard some “experts” say, there is no federal statute that allows the federal government to restrict travel between states. If trump was taking such a step to protect the people of these states or the rest of the nation, he MIGHT have authority to do this under Martial Law. However, if he did this he would naturally consult with the governors of those states and more appropriately let the states handle such quarantines. Just as trump does not have the authority to “re-open” the country to force people to go back to jobs where business owners have closed, he also does not have the power to restrict travel between states, and he is just blowing smoke out of his arse. » Posted By TOCB On March 28, 2020 @ 1:09 pmComments Posted By TOCB
Section 3 – State of the Union, Convening Congress
“They will agree to it,” Trump said of the governors. “But the authority of the president of the United States, having to do with the subject we’re talking about, is total.”
“They said ‘He’s awesome and he’s the most electable,'” Cenk says. “Great, now that’s on you. Go get him elected. I hate Donald Trump, I can’t stand him, he’s an incompetent buffoon, so I want Donald Trump to lose with every fiber of my being. Biden wasn’t my candidate, Biden was the candidate of the establishment, so I hope you’ve got a good plan. Because right now what I’m seeing on social media is they’re already setting up excuses, blaming Bernie and his supporters and saying to Bernie, ‘It’s your job to get them excited to vote for Biden.’ No no no no, it’s about personal responsibility, remember. Bernie losing the primary was on us. Biden’s your candidate, you’re his supporters. If you’re on that side, on that team, it’s YOUR job to win. So I hope you’ve got a plan.”
“We’re now conducting well over 100,000 coronavirus tests per day,” Trump said. “It’s over 100,000 tests a day. And these are accurate tests, and they’re moving rapidly, which is more than any other country in the world, both in terms of the raw number and also on a per capita basis, the most.”
While the United States has improved its testing numbers significantly, it still lags behind Germany and South Korea, for example, in terms of per capita testing.
That’s a better testing per capita rate than the United Kingdom, which has tested about 1 in every 404 people. (The U.K.’s population is about 66 million, and it’s tested 163,194 people.)
Germany has done even better. It has tested about 1 in 90 people — 918,460, with a population of 82.8 million. Germany also happens to have one of the lowest fatality rates from COVID-19.
With 581,232 tests conducted, according to the Italian health ministry, and a population of roughly 60.5 million, Italy’s testing per capita is on par with South Korea — about 1 in every 104.
Officials were giving Trump classified briefings on the matter at the same time the president was publicly downplaying the risk of the novel coronavirus and insisting the US was well prepared to handle the outbreak.
“The system was blinking red,” a US official told The Post. “Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were — they just couldn’t get him to do anything about it.”
“This is an astonishing number in a short period of time, illustrating how globalized our world has become. Just as people can hop continents with amazing ease, the infections they carry can too,” said Dr. Vinayak Kumar, an internal medicine resident at the Mayo Clinic and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
Those travelers from China included more than 228,000 Americans returning home and hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals arriving for business, academics, tourism or to visit family.
ABC News examined data from December, January and February on travelers entering the U.S. from eight of the hardest-hit countries: 343,402 arrived from Italy, 418,848 from Spain and about 1.9 million more came from Britain.
The data shows how a highly communicable disease can quickly move throughout an interconnected global community, spreading across the globe in a matter of hours. The novel coronavirus was off to the races before the international community knew what had hit it.
The claim appears to have been based solely on outdated news reports from early 2018 that said the CDC was preparing to dramatically reduce its work helping to prevent infectious-disease epidemics. Those reports said much of that work on the Global Health Security Agenda, a pact between over 60 nations that began in 2014, had been funded by a five-year, nearly $600 million supplemental package that was dwindling. That one-time funding, which Congress originally appropriated in response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014, ran out at the end of September 2019.
President Reagan, in 1981, spent all or part of 42 days away from the White House “on vacation” at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif, according to Knoller. President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, also spent three or four days around New Year’s Day each year in Palm Springs, Calif., at the home of philanthropist Walter Annenberg. (In 1993 the late Mr. Annenberg founded the nonpartisan Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, which is FactCheck.org’s parent organization.)
So there you have it, in FactCheck’s own words — they’re connected to Ronald Reagan through Walter Annenberg.
The joint letter follows-up on a November request from Senator King, who asked for information on USAID’s decision to end PREDICT. In response to Senator King’s initial letter, USAID indicated that it intends to initiate a successor project – but just two months away from the project’s March 2020 closure, no additional details regarding this replacement have been released.
“Addressing and preventing the spread of coronavirus and potential pandemic disease outbreaks is a serious matter that requires adequate resources for and cooperation between experts throughout the federal government,” the lawmakers wrote in part. “That is why we write today to request information about the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) recent decision to shutter PREDICT, a program established to identify and combat viruses with the capacity to generate global pandemics.”
The USAID PREDICT program – launched in 2009 after the 2005 H5N1 bird flu sparked global fears of an epidemic – was designed to help identify and combat emerging pandemic threats like coronavirus. From 2009 to 2019, the PREDICT program identified nearly 1,000 new viruses, including a new strain of Ebola; trained roughly 5,000 people around the world to identify new diseases; and improved or developed 60 research laboratories. Despite its success, and just months before the emergence of 2019-nCoV, USAID announced that it would cease funding the PREDICT program. USAID has indicated that it intends to initiate a successor to PREDICT, but with no new details, Senators King and Warren are concerned that critical momentum will be lost.
“We shouldn’t be banning short selling,” Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said in a Monday interview with CNBC. “You need to be able to be on the short side of the market in order to facilitate ordinary market trading.”
Markets have been roiled in recent weeks as the coronavirus pandemic spooks investors. In light of the increased volatility, a number of other countries including the UK, Spain, Italy, and South Korea have recently imposed rules that limit short selling amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s how: the virus has caused a public health crisis so severe that people have been forced to stay home, causing businesses to shutter and lay off workers. And with roughly half of Americans getting their health insurance from their employer, these layoffs mean not only losing their income but also their medical coverage. In other words, just as our need for medical care skyrockets in the face of a global pandemic, fewer will have health insurance or be able to afford it. According to one recent report, the cost of treatment for Covid-19 can run around $35,000. As the patient in the report exclaimed: “I was pretty sticker-shocked. I personally don’t know anybody who has that kind of money.”
This fall, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is slated to argue in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 17 Republican attorneys general—and against 21 Democratic attorneys general—that Obamacare is unconstitutional and must be struck down immediately.
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